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FIRST PEEK

May 11, 2015 · Volume 150, Issue 1

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FIRST PEEK

I used to believe I was extroverted; I was a loud, ‘in your face’ kind of kid. I enjoyed spending time with friends, and I drew my strength and confidence from them. Then I hit the middle school years and things changed a little. I was no longer drawing strength from those I spent time with; rather, I frequently found it exhausting.

I craved time for myself to engage in hobbies and activities that only I really enjoyed and understood. The down-time was safe and soothing. I’d go for runs, read books, shoot hoops, play music, watch strange movies. Introversion began to dominate my personality. I didn’t want to engage with people as much as I once did.

Then I’d find myself sinking into anxiety and depression when I was away from my friends for too long. Was there something wrong with me? Or was I just a normal moody teenager?

At first, it worried me to discover my introverted self; I’d always associated introverts with being feeble, weak, bereft of social confidence needed to succeed.

Outgoing people were strong and overtly confident, self-assured

May 11, 2015

and courageous. After 15 years of having everyone label me as an ‘extrovert,’ I felt I was letting people down and that they would think there was something wrong with me.

Now in my early 20’s, having lived a few years of life without teen angst, I’ve come to learn the reality of my situation: I’m an ambivert, equally displaying traits of both ends of the personality scale.

You see, there is no black and white, left or right, up or down. Ev-

erything in life is fluidly changing, evolving, grabbing at a spectrum of traits from an infinite number of sources. The same concepts apply to one’s personality type. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung once said that “there is no such thing as a pure extrovert or a pure introvert.

Such a [person] would be in the lunatic asylum.”

I tend to be a neutral, middleground hippie. While I energize from those around me, I crave to spend a day on my own, and vice versa. I love the rush of adrenaline, loud noises, an excitable environment, but when those drain me, I turn to quiet early mornings, solitary walks, and simply contemplating life for a while.

But what about those who literally always keep to

themselves, or who always seem to socialize? People may have predominantly introverted or extroverted traits, but we all grab a little from another place in the personality line. In that respect, you could say we’re all ambiverts to some extent.

Unfortunately, this concept seems difficult for people. Some say I’m loud, while others say I’m more quiet, and when these people meet it can create all-out confusion. Is there something wrong with him? Maybe he’s manic.

I simply enjoy a flexibility that allows me to adapt as outgoing or reserved in social situations. I interact well with others, but in a targeted, purposeful way.

Why do we have these dumb, left-right labels that we throw all personalities into? It’s because society wants simplicity. Categories and labels are a way for people to understand how the world works. And in a society where the complex realities of life are written off as ‘too hard,’ people act mindless, throwing everything into false categories because it’s what everyone else does.

Yes, I love to socialize, but I also don’t. Go ahead and be confused; life can be immeasurably confusing. Maybe we should first wrap our heads around this fact before we ask why the same guy who was keen to go out today just wants to sit and read a book tomorrow.

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NEWS

May 11, 2015

news editor email

Melissa Roach associate news editor news@the-peak.ca

Samaah Jaffer

Here are a few key pieces of information SFU students need to know about the transition:

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Starting May 19, all U-Pass kiosks located on any of the three campuses will stop dispensing paper passes and instead dispense compass cards. The kiosks will be in place until September, after the incoming class has a chance to receive their card.

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On June 1, the launch goes live and Compass Cards can be used to tapin and tap-out.

All Compass Cards distributed through the U-Pass kiosks have waived the $6 deposit required for purchasing the card. However, after September, students will have to go to fare dealers such as Safeway and London Drugs where they will have to pay a deposit.

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While students no longer need to visit the kiosk monthly, they must log on to the U-Pass TransLink portal to load a monthly UPass on to their card.

“The Compass Card is your new way of travel,” Colleen Brennan, TransLink’s VP of Communications, told The Peak. This June, all SFU students will replace their monthly paper U-Passes with Compass Cards, before the general public has adopted the system.

Brennan explained the reasoning behind a gradual rollout: “It’s a very complicated undertaking to roll out a program like [this] under a very complex system like ours.” Taking into

account already existing models from across North America, TransLink has decided that it is best to introduce transit users to the Compass Card in a “staged manner.”

The environmental impact of the transition could be significant, explained Danielle Finney, TransLink’s Senior Communications Advisor for the Compass Project. Said Finney, “That would be 130,000 paper passes that are no longer being shipped by truck to the 10 campuses every month. So it’s not only about a reduction in paper and wood products, but also in greenhouse gas emissions.”

Brennan added that, as opposed to users flashing their passes, the Compass Card’s ability to track card usage could lead to improved transit service. She explained, “One of the beauties

of this card and one of the reasons why transit organizations moved to this system is that it does allow us to plan better.

“So, when we are planning our routes [and] planning our system out, we are able to see what the travel patterns are for people. It allows us to optimize our service with respect to that.”

Rella Ng, SFU’s Associate Registrar for Information, Records and Registration Services, noted that, “Right now with flash pass, there is no data on what routes students (or anyone) is

taking. Data is the tool to help us with functionality.”

Brennan spoke to the choice of rolling out the Compass Card to students before other groups, noting that students form a quarter of TransLink’s entire customer base.

“Students are a really important customer group for us,” said Brennan. “They tend to be more heavy users of transit, they’re more likely to adopt early when it comes to new technology, and they are also are quite happy to give [us] feedback.”

Finney concluded, “We’ve worked really closely with all of the schools to make sure that students get the information they need to make this as seamless as possible.”

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The process of applying for a U-Pass exemption will be the same as before. However, those applying for an exemption due to receiving a U-Pass from another institution no longer need to provide a copy of their U-Pass. They must instead provide SFU with their card’s serial number.

NEWS

An interdisciplinary team of SFU students has won the Sustainability Trophy in nwHacks, an engineering competition or “hackathon,” for their sustainable paper towel dispenser they have dubbed “PullMeNot.” The invention dispenses paper towels while displaying the impact of consumption to the user and collecting data to help businesses and organizations make more sustainable choices.

Siv Padhy, a fourth year communications student, said that the dispenser “does two things.

On the front end, it shows [the] immediate impact of waste in using paper to the user. On the back end, it tracks data on usage for businesses and organizations to use for their own needs.”

The dispenser tells the user via a screen how many paper towels they have used in real time, the monetary cost to the organization, as well as the total carbon dioxide emissions that would be released if everyone used the same amount.

It uses Wi-Fi modules to communicate this information to a server. Padhy explained the strength of this feature in comparison to the water bottle filling stations which, in part, inspired their idea: “The

May 11, 2015

problem with those is that they are not networked, meaning [that] they don’t send data anywhere.”

Hacks is the largest hackathon in Western Canada. This year the theme was “sustainability” and there were judges from Google, Facebook, and Apple. The hackathon occurred over three days, non-stop with little time for sleep.

Padhy remarked, “It’s kind of like finals but even harder.”

Padhy said that the team, which included arts, computing science, and business students, used their diverse backgrounds to their advantage.

“We said ‘let’s build something cool, but let’s have some impact tied to it,’” Padhy continued, “Something that quite clearly, even if you weren’t an engineer, you could see some value in it. So that’s what kind of set us apart.”

The PullMeNot team plans to further develop their project “horizontally” and “vertically.” Essentially, they want to improve the design of their dispenser to make it better suited to a customer’s needs. They also want to expand into other products.

Richard Arthurs, a first year mechatronic systems engineering student, explained, “One of the important takeaways is that this doesn’t stop at paper towel. It’s just kind of the beginning. We have to make sure our modules — the stuff that deals with the Wi-Fi — can connect to any sort of sensor for something we want to measure. [. . .] If we have a modular system, half the work is already done when we want to monitor something else.”

On the business end, they are currently in talks to pilot the project at SFU’s Surrey campus. Arthurs explained that they are looking

into optimizing the dispenser for manufacturability, power use, and ease of installation. Team member Steven Huang is developing a

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web-based dashboard which will illustrate data to the customer by using graphs and tables.

Padhy commented, “It’s one thing to be able to track anything and everything but if it’s not useful it’s just noise. From a social point of view, we want to make sure we’re equipping people with the type of info they need to reduce consumption both on a consumer scale and a larger scale.”

He continued, “On the front end — consumption — we can immediately show people their impact on a larger scale beyond just their action. The analogy I like to use is: if 7 billion people threw one penny into a pot, that’s a lot money.”

The problem is, as Padhy laid out, “No one sees the penny or the pot.”

NOTICE OF STUDENT ELECTION SUMMER 2015 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES Students have an opportunity to become involved in the governance of SFU by submitting a nomination form for positions on Senate.

COMMITTEE

POSITIONS

TERM OF OFFICE

INFORMATION

Senate

TWO STUDENTS, elected by and from the student body, with at least one student elected from the Faculty of Education and one from the Faculty of Health Sciences.

June 1, 2015 Senate meets once a to month and is responMay 31, 2016 sible for the academic governance (all matters that bear on teaching and research) of the University. www.sfu.ca/senate. html

Nomination Deadline: Monday, May 25, 2015 @ 4:00 pm Campaign Period: May 26, 2015 to June 5, 2015 Online Voting: June 3, 2015 to June 5, 2015 Nomination Forms and Candidate Info: http://students.sfu.ca/elections/students.html Questions may be directed to the Electoral Officer, Senate & Academic Services at 778-782-3168 or senate@sfu.ca.

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May 11, 2015

The photo installation project is a continuation of cࡑ ԥVQD‫ݦ‬ԥP,; the city before the city, a larger multi-institution partnership by the Musqueam Indian Band, the Museum of Vancouver (MOV), and the Museum Of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia. cࡑ ԥVQD‫ݦ‬ԥP is a 4,000 year-old traditional Musqueam

village, sometimes called the Great Fraser Midden.

Muntean’s work was initially created for another project, ‫ݦ‬HOԥZࡑkࡑ ‫ –އ‬Belongings. The collaboration between SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology and the MOA resulted in a showcase for this interactive tangible tabletop project.

The museum exhibit is meant to show the continuity of culture and knowledge in the Musqueam community over thousands of years.

The photography by Muntean and her co-curator Jordan Wilson captures the everyday salmon processing practices of community members at the Fraser River in Vancouver.

“For ‫ݦ‬HOԥZࡑkࡑ ‫ –އ‬Belongings, we focused on fishing technologies to show the continuity of Musqueam culture,” Muntean explained.

“The photographs at Waterfront Station document the contemporary preservation practices.”

The series of photographs shows the tools and technologies used in the processing and preserving of salmon, such as axes, hoses, containers, knives, sharpeners, and the smokehouse.

The interactive tangible tabletop installed in the MOV, which is available until the end of the year, features replicas of six ancient Musqueam belongings excavated from cࡑ ԥVQD‫ݦ‬ԥP and six contemporary day-to-day items.

“Drawing on contemporary community voices and Musqueam’s ancestral language, KԥQࡑ qࡑ ԥPLQࡑ ԥPࡑ , you learn about

how the past connects to the present by connecting something ancient to something contemporary,” said Muntean.

The idea for a photo installation occurred when Kate Hennessy, Muntean’s graduate supervisor at SFU SIAT, was asked to curate a selection of photographs to be placed in Waterfront Station for Vancouver’s Capture Photography Festival.

The whole Canada Line exhibit is focused on presenting Musqueam and cࡑ ԥVQD‫ݦ‬ԥP traditions.

“Kate [Hennessy] is very familiar with the images that I had taken for ‫ݦ‬HOԥZࡑkࡑ ‫ –އ‬Belongings and wanted to present them here,” added Muntean.

For Muntean, the use of the SkyTrain as a base for exhibiting public photography speaks to finding creative ways of showcasing different installations and tapping into different audiences to make art more inclusive and accessible.

Although the art installation projects were initially created thinking they would be on a tabletop in a museum setting, Muntean commented that “having these [photos] on display at Waterfront SkyTrain [Station] really opened up these images to a wider audience.”

She continued, “Now, our audience is anyone who is going through the Waterfront Station.

I think it is really wonderful to have all of the Canada Line for photography relating to cࡑ ԥVQD‫ݦ‬ԥP and Musqueam.”

SFU’s Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) commenced job action after serving a 72-hour strike notice to university administration on April 16.

The TSSU is made up of over 1,500 members and represents teaching assistants, tutor markers, sessionals, and the English Language and Culture/Interpretation and Translation Program (ELC/ITP) instructors. The

union has been bargaining for over a year now, since its collective agreement with the university expired on April 30, 2014.

TSSU members voted in March with 92 per cent in favour of strike action. The strike mandate allows the union to initiate job action and put pressure on SFU without withdrawing all services.

ELC/ITP instructors are now implementing an overtime ban that will continue indefinitely.

The TSSU has communicated the intention to perform further job action as necessary.

As per a request by SFU, an Essential Services Order was put into place on April 21 in order to obligate all SFU staff to maintain operation of the powerhouse and animal care facilities during job action.

The university has confirmed three additional days of bargaining over May 13–15.

TSSU chief steward Reagan Belan shared her hopes for these negotiations, stating that the union has been “very vocal about wanting more dates.

“What would be great is if we had meaningful exchanges and actual questions or criticisms about our proposals,” she said.

SFU administration responded in an online update with their own wishes for the upcoming bargaining talks: “We hope those meetings will be productive in advancing proposals and moving toward a mutually agreed Collective Agreement that supports a strong student-focussed [sic] and sustainable learning and research environment across all SFU campuses.”

Belan commented that there has been little direct response from the university regarding their particular requests. “We haven’t really heard any sort of criticism or complaints when we ask for questions or problems that could result from the implementation of that language,” she said.

“Then we can start to amend our proposals to take into account those types of operational realities.”

Some of the TSSU members’ key issues that Belan emphasized were seniority for longtime staff who currently have to reapply each semester, benefits for ELC/ITP members equal to other staff, as well as an improved hiring system.

The university has recognized some of the union’s concerns in

The art of SFU design student Reese Muntean was selected to hang in the hallway leading to the Canada Line at Waterfront Station for public viewing.

Her collection, VQԥZࡑH\ԥܾ (teachings), is one of many Canada Line exhibits, documenting different fishing technologies in the Musqueam First Nations community through a series of photographs.

SFU Woodward’s hosted a film screening and panel discussion on May 7, entitled “Sister: An Intimate Portrait of a Global Health Crisis.” The film told the stories of Ethiopian, Cambodian, and Haitian health workers, their experiences, encounters with human rights violations, and maternal and newborn deaths.

Their stories highlight the state of maternal health in these different countries and how a lack of resources affects the women who live there.

“Your Home: expectations, needs and what’s real” was the topic of the latest City Conversations presentation on May 7 at Harbour Centre.

The discussion delved into the issues surrounding the seemingly never-ending inflation of housing prices.

Twitter campaigner Eveline Xia, software developer Adrian Crook, and economic planner Yazmin Hernandez spoke on the causes of inflation and how to make do with Vancouver’s housing options.

their published statements and have expressed the intention of “setting the record straight” in regards to employee benefits, timely remuneration, and safety training for staff.

Administration also added, “We would strongly prefer to avoid any disruption to our students’ academic pursuits or our broader SFU community.”

In a press release, TSSU spokesperson George Temple noted that, “Over the last decade we’ve seen class sizes and workloads increase while funding hasn’t kept pace.

“As SFU approaches its 50th anniversary, our members demand that Senior Administration recommit itself to SFU’s stated mission: to provide quality education and research.”

NEWS

Recent research from SFU archaeologists suggests that back pain is linked to walking upright on two legs.

The findings show that some people with vertebrae more similar in shape to the ancestral chimp are less adapted to bipedalism, and more likely to experience back pain.

SFU archaeology’s Kimberly Plomp and Mark Collard coauthored a paper titled, “The ancestral shape hypothesis: An evolutionary explanation for the occurrence of intervertebral disc herniation in humans,” along

with colleagues Una Strand Viðarsdóttir, Darlene Weston, and Keith Dobney. It notes that humans are more susceptible to back pain than non-human primates due to their two-legged way of walking.

Plomp captured the vertebrae shape of 71 humans, 36 chimpanzees, and 15 orangutans. She

May 11, 2015

found that human vertebrae with a pathological lesion called the Schmorl’s node are closer in shape to chimpanzee vertebrae than human vertebrae without the lesion.

“What I was capturing was the shape of the vertebral bodies and the pedicles,” Plomp noted. “One of their biomechanical functions is to withstand compression. [With] bipedal locomotion we put a lot of pressure on our spines, especially if we lift something heavy,” she said.

Walking on two legs “increases the compression happening on our vertebra, and these particular shapes that we’ve identified as being closer

Ryerson collects over $125,000 on student phone fees Students living in residence at Ryerson University are required to pay $156 a year for an indorm phone line — a service that has become increasingly under-utilized.

Many students feel that this additional fee is an unnecessary financial burden, especially since most use their cell phones exclusively, rendering the landline service obsolete. The university collected $127,452 this year for providing these phone lines, which according to The Eyeopener are rarely used.

The director of student community life, Ian Crookshank, explained that any left over funds are used on other forms communication.

to chimpanzees may not be the right shape to properly withstand the amount of stress placed on a spine due to bipedalism,” she explained.

Chimpanzees are the closest out of the apes to human beings, sharing about 98 per cent of our DNA. Humans share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, from which they are believed to have split from eight to nine million years ago.

“Every modern human is fully evolved. We think that this shape represents an ancestral shape,” she said. “Since we both seem to share this shape — humans who have this condition and chimpanzees — we hypothesize that this shape is probably from that shared common ancestor. [. . .]

They were likely quadrupedal.”

The paper conclusively links the shape of human vertebrae

with that of chimpanzees, but Plomp mentioned that they are considering other possibilities.

“The vertebral shapes associated with Schmorl’s nodes may be a consequence of intervertebral disc herniation [a tearing and consequent bulging along the spine] rather than its cause,” the paper stated. “However, we do not consider intervertebral disc herniation causing changes in vertebral shape to be a good explanation for our results.”

Plomp noted that the research is still in its early stages, but that there may be clinical benefits.

She hopes for the development of “methods [that] might be able to be used in clinical research to identify people — especially high risk individuals like athletes — [who] might be more prone to back problems.”

The newly elected board of directors moved last Thursday, May 7 to remove the timesheet system by which they account for director’s hours of work.

The proposed change was put forward on the grounds that the completion of timesheets confuse the role of board members, which, as VP Student Services Darwin Binesh put it, “is not to work, it’s to govern and direct.” He cited past board discussions that favoured defining the board as a “governing board,” not a “working board.”

Board members discussed how this removal could be seen as decreasing transparency and Binesh emphasized a need for further investigation into how best to measure directors’ work.

VP Finance Barbara Szymczyk expressed doubts as to how the system of remuneration would operate without timesheets. “The concerns are very valid,” she said. “However, the mechanism that is going to be in place following an elimination of the timesheets does seem lacking.”

She pointed to past cases where faculty reps and at-large members did not bill their maximum hours and therefore, without a timesheet, there’s the risk that they would be compensated for work not completed.

The motion carried with Szymczyk’s opposition noted in the minutes.

TRU accidentally sends out over 400 acceptance letters

University of Winnipeg introduces a Fall semester reading week

Over 400 letters of acceptance to Thompson Rivers University (TRU) were sent out in error on April 16. Only 103 of the 504 applicants who received acceptance letters to TRU’s nursing program for the Fall 2015 semester were legitimately accepted into the school.

TRU school of nursing dean Donna Murnaghan said, “We understand how awkward this situation is and how disappointed prospective students and their families may be. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this mistake may have caused.”

Students at U of W will be given some extra time off as the university introduces a second reading week to allow students more study time and to lower their stress levels.

The break will coincide with the Thanksgiving long weekend in October and will begin in Fall 2016. The university will ensure no academic days are lost, by starting classes a day early and shortening the break between the end of classes and exams.

The president of the university’s student association, Peyton Veitch, explained that the additional reading week will give students an opportunity to “recharge and decompress during a hectic time of year” and promoted a “holistic approach to mental health and wellness on campus.”

With files from The Omega

With files from CBC News With files from The Eyeopener

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OPINIONS

May 11, 2015

opinions editor email

Adam Van der Zwan opinions@the-peak.ca

Vancouverites, along with the rest of the province, continue to sit with their thumbs up their butts. It’s not that we aren’t aware, we just don’t care. And I mean we really don’t care.

Not one person I know living in the Lower Mainland is prepared for a possible disaster similar to, or even worse than the terror that struck Nepal.

“Yeah right, it’ll happen in like 5,000 years,” my nonchalant roommate scoffed in our kitchen the other night. “Scientists never seem to know what they’re talking about.” A blatant air of doubt has clearly helped to foster our widespread apathy towards the issue, an apathy also rooted in our subconscious denial.

I’ll admit, I haven’t yet taken the time or $20 to make my own earthquake survival kit. It’s a simple thing to do, really. Nothing a sheer half hour spree at Canadian Tire couldn’t accomplish: flashlight, first aid kit, radio, bottled water.

So why haven’t I yet? I’ve been aware of the possibility of a massive-scale earthquake for ages — even before I rolled into this city. Come to think of it, hundreds of earthquakes greater than magnitude 1.5 hit the West Coast last year alone. BC’s Pacific Coast, according to Natural Resources Canada, has the highest potential to be struck by an earthquake, more than any other place in the country.

The recent disaster in Nepal has sent BC media reeling with

fresh warnings of our continent’s impending doom; the big one, the lurking monster that bubbles menacingly beneath the ocean surface, and potentially only for another 50 years. The question clearly isn’t ‘if’ an enormous earthquake and its offspring tsunami will come roaring over the coast, it’s ‘when.’

Yet amidst the constant Internet babble, the newspaper warnings, the editorials, flyers, and radio announcements,

I got to work. I go to school.

I go for runs. I sleep. My life occurs in a city that’s solid and secure every single day. It rains, it shines, then it rains a lot more.

This is normalcy, nothing will change. How could it? Life is perfect here. Our uncertainty toward our current predicament has led us to be inactive; we’re sure that something terrible could never happen to us, and in turn we become falsely optimistic. Ho hum!

Well sorry to bombard you all with pessimism but here are

a few factual projections. According to CBC, if a 7.3-magnitude earthquake were to hit the District of North Vancouver alone, hundreds would die, 2,000 would need emergency attention, and another 1,300 would be homeless for over a year. If this study included the entire city, there would be thousands more casualties.

A south coast tsunami would cause $75 billion in damages to infrastructure according to Insurance Bureau of Canada, and could destroy hundreds of businesses and interrupt essential services. Vancouver Island would be pretty much ‘SOL,’ and our North American economy could be set back for a decade.

That’s quite a hefty sum to be apathetic towards, wouldn’t you say? How about you, provincial government? Your Emergency Management BC team has been criticized on multiple occasions for its lack of adequate earthquake response plans, procedures, and public awareness programs.

Politics aside, let’s do away with our doubt, denial, and laziness, and do ourselves a personal favour. Preparing physically and financially for this kind of disaster will only require a miniscule amount of our time and could possibly save our lives.

Have you ever heard of earthquake insurance? It exists.

Google it.

OPINIONS

“We’ll be heading out for drinks after. Where do you want to go?”

“Oh, anywhere. . . I’m up for whatever.”

This is the social dialogue that many of us use with our friends when we go out. We wish to seem ambivalent, easy going, easy to please, and ready to have a good time.

Bud Light drew on this attitude for their recent advertising campaign titled, #UpforWhatever, in which their main tagline read, “The perfect beer from removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.” However, the wording of this slogan is worrisome; it perpetuates rape culture and the acceptance of sexual harassment through its

May 11, 2015

dismissal of a person’s right to consent to any activity.

This is not the first time that rape culture has been perpetuated within media. In fact, the culture surrounds us, hidden in catchy song lyrics like those in Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and in the erotic fan fiction Fifty Shades of Grey. The message given is that sex can be taken at any point, even if one person involved says ‘no.’

I understand the concept behind the ad — people associate alcohol with having a good time, having a fun night out with friends, letting go of their inhibitions, and, well, being up for whatever. This campaign is supposed to be fun, one that people should not take too seriously. After all, the easiest way for rape culture to be accepted in society is when it can go down easy, disguised as having a good time, am I right?

However, we must consider that survivors of sexual assault did not find sex a pleasurable experience. According to Sexual Assault and Rape Statistics Canada, one in four women in North America will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime. Furthermore, it says 57 per cent of Aboriginal women and 83

per cent of disabled women will experience sexual assault. Men and children are also victims of these crimes.

Given these statistics, sexual assault is far more common than we would like to believe.

These incidents are also vastly underreported to authorities, meaning that the numbers are actually greater than what statistics have gathered.

In regards to the Bud Light campaign, removing “no” from one’s vocabulary does not mean

that somebody is “up for whatever.” Consent for an activity is given with an enthusiastic, affirmative, “yes,” and can be retracted at any time. Silence does not equal consent, and most importantly, it cannot be given when someone is drunk. Having enough alcohol in one’s system until they become agreeable to anything is a worrisome and dangerous attitude to promote, as what happens after that night could lead to a lifetime of regret and pain.

The Bud Light slogan wishes to remove “no” from a person’s vocabulary for the night, but the removal of that word also implies the removal of a person’s right to consent to sexual activity, and diminishes the experiences of sexual assault survivors in the process.

Being able to say no is just as important as being able to say yes. If Bud Light prioritized the concept of consent in their ads, then everybody would be having a good time.

2015 METRO VANCOUVER

TRANSPORTATION AND TRANSIT PLEBISCITE

Elections BC is administering the vote-by-mail plebiscite.

You can vote if you are:

■ A Canadian citizen ■ 18 years of age or older, on or before May 29, 2015 ■ A resident of B.C. for at least six months, on or before May 29, 2015 ■ Registered to vote in B.C. ■ Living in Metro Vancouver If you have not received a voting package, call Elections BC at 1-800-661-8683 before midnight May 15 to ask for one.

Elections BC must receive your completed ballot package before 8 p.m. on Friday, May 29, 2015.

Visit elections.bc.ca or call 1-800-661-8683 for more information.

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OPINIONS

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May 11, 2015

CONFORMITY REPORT

Facebook wants to rob us of our democratic news

GENDER JUNCTURES

Say “cheese” and embrace your femininity Nude photo shoots can empower all kinds of women

Facebook is a news platform, not a news reporter.

Another attempt to control all of our media exposure Willie Kamawe Peak Associate Realizing how dependent the masses have become on Facebook for daily news updates, the social media giant now aims to partner with news companies to host news material.

Personally, I can’t help but be highly skeptical of big corporations coming together for sensitive causes like informing the masses. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but something about Facebook proactively consolidating and controlling what news counts as worthy of our attention seems a tad Nineteen Eighty-Four.

With the uprise in independent media outlets, major news publications have been under increasing public scrutiny. It’s no secret that on numerous occasions, narratives pushed through large media outlets tend to be biased. Now that Facebook plans to forcibly upload pieces of these same news articles onto our newsfeeds, they stand to sway public opinion to a large extent — yet another attempt the network has made to control our entire media experience.

Today, social media offer consumers the ability to create and share content that is important to them. This has

fostered a more democratic media environment, one with values that major publications do not oftentimes reflect. Facebook could therefore abandon a fundamental source of attraction users had to it in the first place.

My issue with the proposed partnerships is the fact that as a profitable corporation, Facebook will more than likely be influenced by corporate interest in posting news, leading to dollar-driven stories permeating user feeds. Historically,

Phoebe Lim / The Peak

to see what news they think is important to me.

The network also seems to be working on the assumption that users visit the site for news because they trust the site itself. What the company fails to realize is that the site is trusted because its content is largely user-curated or created. Facebook inherently suggests that their algorithms and codes trump the work done by users to create an experience. This falsity defies the whole concept of media that is social.

You could argue that one Facebook inherently says could simply that their algorithms trump turn to other sources and igthe work done by users. nore Facebook news. However, commercialized information by virtue of Facebook’s other has frequently been exposed as services that command so much misleading — a potential risk attention, users will inevitably in trusting a company as large find news stories while scrollas Facebook to curate news- ing through their feeds, making worthy material. the issue unavoidable even for Secondly, Facebook implies people who have other news that they know exactly what source options. interests users, using that inUndoubtedly, the social netformation to ‘suggest’ posts work has discovered what may be on our newsfeeds. In my ex- a lucrative business opportunity perience, many of those sug- by capturing even more marketgestions prove bothersome ing dollars through millions of and fail to actually appeal to clicks. In hosting an array of other my interests. With the news publications, Facebook stands partnerships, the site would to become an even larger media now have the power to ‘sug- monster than it currently is. But gest’ what is news-worthy and in terms of news content, I feel as what isn’t. Judging from the though the website should aim to track record Facebook has in maintain its position as simply a taking my interests into con- news platform rather than an acsideration, I’m not too excited tual news reporter.

the woman — her choices and beliefs — out of the conversation completely.

On the other hand, many women, such as Laverne Cox, believe that by modelling in these types of shoots, they Micaela Evans are reclaiming their femininColumnist ity within their own terms.

Rather than being told how to Orange is the New Black ac- dress and perform their own tress Laverne Cox has re- gender, they take the lead cently been under both praise and behave how they chose. and scrutiny from the media In baring their bodies, they and feminist communities reclaim them — an act of emdue to her recent nude photo powerment, and a display of shoot for Allure magazine. radical self-love.

Though many women Laverne Cox illustrates undergo public scrutiny for that she is confident in the similar photo shoots, hers is body she has and the gender targeted largely due to the she is, and she doesn’t feel fact that she is a transgender that she needs to be ashamed woman in the public sphere. of what makes her who she is, Members of the public hold no matter what society tells different stances on the mat- her. In making this choice, ter — some supportive or in- she and other women take different, others judgmental back their own power within and discriminatory. public spaces.

When critiqued about In baring their bodies, her stereotypically feminine women reclaim them — a during an display of radical self-love. looks interview with renowned femiNude photo shoots are a nist activist bell hooks [sic], Cox widely disputed topic in gen- defended how she chooses to eral. Some believe that women perform her gender. “This is are pressured into these types where I feel empowered [. . .] of shoots in order to conform and comfortable. I think it’s imto misogynistic views of what portant to note that not all trans a ‘beautiful’ or ‘magazine- women are embracing this [reworthy’ woman should look ferring to blonde wigs and high like. In doing so, they believe heels], but this trans woman women conform to patri- does. And this trans woman archal norms in which they feels empowered by this.” must be feminine and slender When did the conversation in order to appear beautiful change to what makes a sociacross the glossy spreads. ety, rather than an individual, But in approaching it this feel comfortable and empowway, we negate the wom- ered? While a conversation an’s power within the situa- regarding society’s influence tion. Instead of a viewing the on gender is valuable to have, woman pictured as a con- it isn’t the only narrative we scious actor making her own should pay attention to. decisions, she is negated to a At the end of the day, ceplayer within a game she has lebrities and trans women no control over. She is del- are still people like you or egated a role in which soci- me. They are individuals who ety controls her every action have the power to choose based upon its sexist system. how they portray themselves, While this may in part be whether that be on an avertrue, it doesn’t explain the age day, or within the pages whole situation, and takes of a fashion magazine.

Email opinions@the-peak.ca.

Right now.

he spring semester may have ended, but there was no such break in the world of SFU sports. Here are the highlights of what happened between when exams began and the first day of classes:

SFU Athletics announced on April 15 that Clan alumnus Virgil Hill will be the men’s basketball team’s seventh head coach.

Hill, who played forward for the Clan from the 1989–90 to 1992–93 seasons — nicknamed “Air Virgil” in a 1989 issue of The Peak — and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology, replaces former head coach James Blake who resigned after going 38–90 over five seasons.

Hill is the first SFU alumnus to take the job in 20 years, since former Toronto Raptors head coach and current Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach Jay Triano coached the team from 1989 to 1995. It was under Triano that Hill started his coaching career as an assistant coach, a position he held for six years.

The Sarnia, ON native was previously the head coach of Laurentian University, a Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) school, from 2000 to 2007, and most recently served as the head coach at Collingwood School, a private high school where he taught math as well as strength and conditioning.

“What I want to bring to the team is a sense of togetherness and community. When I [played] there, that was the overarching message from the coaches [that] we were part of a bigger family,” he told The Peak. “The first part of that is having an eye on local recruiting.

“When you have kids from the area — or close to the area — that gets people supporting you, because people want to support the local kids.”

Hill indicated that he will not bring back the full throttle offence that Blake had adopted for

the team last season. The style gave the Clan an exciting game, with the team leading the NCAA Division II in scoring offence with 104.2 points per game and a record of never shooting below 75 points (the previous season’s lowest scoring game resulted in only 49 points for the Clan). But it only resulted in three more Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) wins than the season before, and a 6–12 record in the conference.

“I’m just not sure that was the right way to go,” Hill said. “That type of offence just puts too much pressure on your offence because you’re forced to score a lot of points, and it’s tough to score 100 points a game. So I think that playing a little bit slower, a little bit more deliberate [. . .] makes more sense.”

SFU Athletics announced the hiring of Jaime Hill on April 10 as the new defensive coordinator of the Clan.

Hill previously spent two seasons as the defensive coordinator at Portland State University, an NCAA Division I team. He was also the defensive coordinator at Brigham Young University (2006–2010), another Division I team, Humboldt State University (2002–2003), and the University of Chicago.

He also coached alongside current Clan offensive coordinator Joe Paopao in a stint with the XFL’s San Francisco Demons, and as a co-defensive

coordinator with the Ottawa Renegades in the CFL, where Paopao was head coach.

Hill is replacing Abe Elimimian, who was brought on by former Clan head coach Jacques Chapdelaine as defensive coordinator, but left after a year for a job with the University of Hawaii.

“Jaime [Hill] understands how to create defensive schemes that enable players to excel and succeed,” head coach Kelly Bates told SFU Athletics. “His knowledge and experience is going to be extremely beneficial for us.”

SFU Athletics also announced the hirings of Tom Kudaba and Dennis Kelly as defensive line coach and associate offensive coordinator, respectively. Kudaba and Kelly are both Clan alumni and were long time high school football coaches.

From the 2014 coaching staff, Travis Hayes, defensive backs coach and equipment manager; Bryan Wyllie, linebackers coach and recruiting co-coordinator; Michael Lionello, director of football operations and recruiting co-coordinator,; and Jon Klyne, receivers coach, will all be returning.

Keenan North, a senior defensive lineman for the 2014 season, was also named a graduate assistant.

After going undrafted in the 2015 NFL Draft, former Clan wide receiver Lemar Durant accepted an invitation to the New York Giants mini camp on May 8 and 9, where he competed to make an impression on the team, and vied for a spot at the main camp.

“Getting drafted would have been nice, but I didn’t think about it too much,” Durant told Monarch of the Clan. “The main goal is to make an active roster spot and invite to the main camp. I’m really just going there to have some fun and not put too much pressure on myself.”

Durant led the 2014 Clan in receiving yards with 685 yards in eight games played.

While he tries to find a job in the NFL, Durant is also a hot name in the CFL — he was ranked eighth in the CFL Scouting Bureau’s final prospect ranking released on April 24. The 2015 CFL Draft will be held on Tuesday, May 12.

Despite a promising start to last season, with the SFU softball team winning four of its first six games, it missed the GNAC playoffs for the second year in a row. The team ended the season with four straight losses and only one win in the last 13 games. Three out of those four losses to cap the season were shutouts.

However, the team did improve from their 2014 campaign in which they had only four wins in the entire season, achieving a 17–29 overall record.

“Looking back, we made significant strides over last year but still have a ways to go to return to the standard our program has been known for,” head coach Mike Renney told SFU Athletics.

The team particularly struggled against their GNAC rivals, only posting five wins in the conference.

One bright spot for the Clan was their 2–1 series victory over the UBC Thunderbirds. SFU notched the season series after 9–2 rout of the

Thunderbirds in the Clan’s last home game on April 19. The Clan lost the first game of the series 9–4, but won the second game 6–3.

In the previous season, SFU lost its only game to UBC 4–0, while in 2013, SFU lost the season series 2–1.

Three seniors — shortstop Danielle Raison, pitcher Kelsie Hawkins, and catcher Kaitlyn Cameron — played their last game for the Clan this season. Junior Rachel Proctor held the team’s best batting average at .354, while freshman Taylor Lundrigan led the team in hits and runs with 48 and 28, respectively. Proctor was named to the GNAC all-conference first team, while Raison and Hawkins made the second team, and Lundrigan was an honourable mention.

The SFU men’s golf team have made the cut for the NCAA Division II National Championship for the second year year in a row — their secondever appearance. The Clan tied for third at the NCAA Division II West/South Central Regional at Hiddenbrooke Golf Club in Vallejo, CA, held from May 4 to 6 with the top five teams earning a spot at the national championship.

Coming into the tournament, the team was ranked ninth in NCAA Division II competition. The Clan played their best golf on the first day, shooting a combined 296, good enough for second place — only six strokes behind the lead. On days two and three, SFU shot 309 and 303, respectively. Sophomore Alan Tolusso missed the second game due to illness, and although only four of the five golfer’s

scores count towards the final score, having one golfer missing meant that the team had to use everyone’s scores — not just the four best.

“It is not unusual to shoot a higher team score after a decent opening round,” head coach John Buchanan told SFU Athletics after the second round. “With Alan [Tolusso] out, I think having to play with just four counters [. . .] spooked them. It is like having no safety net to cover you if you shoot a bad round, and you start thinking about it.”

Freshman Chris Crisologo led the Clan with a +4 performance, and ended the tournament tied in sixth place individually.

Leading into regionals, SFU also won the GNAC Championship — their first-ever NCAA conference title — held in Coeur d’Alene, ID on April 20 and 21. SFU broke the tournament records for lowest score and widest margin of victory — shooting a total of 837 (-15) over three rounds and beat second place by 37 strokes. The Clan were also the only team to shoot under par.

The Clan also had the top four golfers of the tournament: Brett Thompson (205 strokes, -8), Crisologo (206, -7), John Mlikotic (212, -1), and Kevin Vigna (214, +1). Thompson and Crisologo soundly beat the previous record for the lowest score at the tournament — 212 strokes — which Mlikotic tied.

The Clan will travel to Conover, NC to compete in the NCAA Division II National Championship from Monday, May 18 to Friday, May 22.

With files from SFU Athletics and Monarch of the Clan

14 OPINIONS

Dear editor, RE: “Illegal drug users should remain behind bars” Anthony Bianco argued April 7 that illicit drugs should remain prohibited because he does not believe that we should “make these substances readily available.”

Bianco assumes that criminal prohibition reduces drug availability, but there is little evidence to support this popular misconception. Young people consistently report that cannabis is easier to obtain than alcohol, and about 40 per cent of American youth try cannabis before they graduate from high school. Gasoline and solvents are readily available, yet “huffing” remains unpopular.

Few consumers abstain from drugs because they are unable to obtain them and few partake merely because they can.

I also think Bianco failed to consider what consumers do when they can not obtain their drug of choice. While it is true that some consume two or more drugs at a time, illicit drugs are more often than not economic substitutes with cross-price elasticities.

When a drug of choice becomes scarce, consumers tend to make do with whatever drugs remain available, especially alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals. For example, when cannabis use goes up, drinking goes down, along with the considerable social costs associated with alcohol. Consumers who mix cannabis with alcohol or opiates require and consume

Ahh, mothers. They can drive us crazy sometimes. However, when push comes to shove, your mom is always in your corner. While she may not understand the things you do or the music you listen to, she’ll always be the first to lend a hand in your success.

Your mom is the one who always gets you up in the morning after your alarm has failed (yet again). She’s the one who packs your lunches even

less of each. Thus, forcing consumers to find alternatives can have negative public health outcomes.

Law enforcement competes for funding and interferes with the other three “pillars” of drug control; prevention, treatment, and harm reduction. Currently education is limited to just saying “no,” research is hampered, and consumers are stigmatized and deterred from seeking help when they want and need it.

Incarceration is not a cost-effective public health intervention. Consumers usually return to their communities with lower tolerances, new addictions, infectious diseases, worsened psychological pain to selfmedicate, and grimmer realities to escape from.

Under prohibition, we have abdicated a very lucrative market to criminals who sell myriad drugs of unknown provenance, potency and purity, on commission, tax free, to anyone of any age, anytime, anywhere, no questions asked. We have more control over cat food than we do the so-called “controlled drugs and substances.”

Sincerely,

May 11, 2015

Nick Bondi Peak Associate As we near the end of both of Europe’s continental soccer competitions, the Champions League and the Europa League, soccer fans have been blessed with four fantastic semi-finals. Here are my thoughts and predictions on each.

Bayern Munich vs. Barcelona Perhaps the most exciting matchup out of the four, this one sees two extremely strong teams with a flair for attacking go at it over two legs. Barcelona have been in absolutely terrific form, their last defeat coming against Malaga on February 21.

Bayern have been their dominant selves in Germany and in Europe, overcoming a 3–1 loss against Porto by winning 6–1 at home and have recently secured their third straight Bundesliga title with four games to go. This means that they will be able to rest key players leading up to the game, unlike Barcelona, who hold a precarious five point lead in La Liga.

Despite this, it would be hard to bet against Barcelona, who may currently have the world’s best three attackers: Messi, Suarez, and Neymar.

Matthew Elord, Drug Sense

Juventus vs. Real Madrid Another great matchup that sees the defending champions, Real Madrid taking on the very strong Juventus side that has dominated

after you tell her to stop. And who else is going to remind you about the chores you definitely didn’t forget to do?

So raise a glass to the woman in your life who will brag endlessly about your exploits, big or small, who will continue to show embarrassing pictures of you to friends and family, and who will never stop loving you even if you don’t call her as much as you should.

It’s Mother’s Day, and I know for a fact that you forgot about it!

Blame the Moon and the Easter Bunny all you want for the sporadic date changes, but you knew it was fast approaching. Good luck sifting through what’s left of the Mother’s Day cards at the supermarket; you and I both know the good ones are long gone.

Pick one that is sentimental; a joke card is not going to cut it this year. And don’t you dare make

domestically the last four seasons.

Juventus have a 14 point lead in Serie A, are on pace to win their fourth straight title, and are in the Coppa Italia final.

Real Madrid are in their fifth straight semi-final and are looking to become the first team, since the tournament was formatted to its current setup in 1992, to defend the title. Similar to Bayern Munich, Juventus have the luxury to rest key players in their upcoming league matches, but that likely won’t matter against a very strong Madrid side.

It will be a very tight series, and closer than most people seem to think, but I believe Real Madrid will squeak through.

sits second in the Ukrainian Premier League, six points behind Dynamo Kyiv, who Fiorentina beat in the quarter finals.

Napoli are the clear favourites here, with star striker Gonzalo Higuain and manager Rafael Benitez. ‘Rafa’ has had success in cup tournaments before, winning the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005 and the Europa League with Chelsea in 2013 as the intern manager.

Fiorentina vs. Sevilla Fiorentina sit fifth in Serie A, and it looks like the only way that they will be able to secure a champions league spot next season will be to win the Europa league. Sevilla are the defending champions, and are currently fifth in La Liga, two points back of a Champions League spot.

Domestically, Fiorentina’s form is troubling, but in Europe they’ve been impressive, especially against Dynamo Kyiv. However, Sevilla are the defending champs, so I have to give the advantage to them, although I believe it will be a tightly contested two legs.

Dnipro vs. Napoli Napoli are near the top of Serie A, being two points back of third-placed Roma for the last Champions League spot. In Dnipro, they face a team that

her a spaghetti necklace because you spent the last of your paycheck on an overpriced exclusive drink cup at the Avengers: Age of Ultron premiere. This woman raised you — buy her a day at the spa or at least a bottle of wine so she can forget about how bad you’ve screwed this up.

Fun fact for you: Mother’s day was originally called Mothering Sunday. You’re about to find out why.

May 11, 2015

COMMUNITY PHOTOS May 11, 2015

photo editor email

Phoebe Lim photos@the-peak.ca

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16

ARTS

Dr. Anthony Shelton wants to change Canada’s sense of Europe. “We talk about things being Eurocentric,” Shelton said, “but it’s deceptive to treat Europe as the same. Each part has its own history, and intellectual and folkloric traditions.”

Shelton is the curator of the upcoming North American

arts editor email

May 11, 2015

premiere of Heaven, Hell & Somewhere In Between: Portuguese Popular Art at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology. The exhibit offers a rare and theatrical mix of huge projections, urban graffiti, mural paintings, and rural folk art that includes ceramics, puppets, figurines, and carved metallic and wood carnival masques.

With regard to the masques, Shelton said, “When I talk about masquerade — people don’t think that Portugal has masquerade. It’s associated with the primitive, and Europe is seen as a colonizing power and quite modern. Well, no society is primitive, I say. It’s mixed in with regional identities and they are as complicated as everywhere else.”

Tessa Perkins arts@the-peak.ca

As Director of the MOA, Shelton develops critical discourses around museology to break free of “the same thing over and over again,” and enable different genres

of exhibits. In 2005, after Vancouver’s Portuguese community approached him about an exhibit on folk art, he began to pursue the topic and found that galleries did not collect it, nor did it fall easily into art history, archaeology, or ethnography. “The problem with folk art,” said Shelton, “is that when people see these polychromatic, bright creations, they develop certain prejudices.”

Shelton spent 2010 in Portugal conducting research among a generation of folk artists — roughly 50 families of craftspeople, illustrators, and painters — whose individualistic work engages with community, nation, and religion, and erupts with passionate emotion. Most of the artists are in their 70s and 80s and have never been widely acknowledged, so Shelton decided to embark on this major project to bring them international profile. “I wanted to pay homage to the artists I met directly and spoke with,” he said.

Both MOA’s curatorial and design departments worked closely together “in a long puzzling haul” to create something rough-hewn, and closer to an art installation than an exhibit. They wanted to bring “academic coherence,” as Shelton said, to the multi-dimensional, dramatic, playful, and often subversive art.

The group searched unsuccessfully for backdrops able to knit together a fantasia of colours until someone suggested the colour of Portuguese earth, which is brownish-red. As luck would have it, the planning room was hung with photos of Portugal’s cod fishing fleet docked in Halifax harbour in the 1980s, and the ships’ hulls were rusting.

“We got excited as a group,” said Shelton, “tested it out, and it worked.” They placed 20 sheets of iron outside to rust, and then used them to form the dividing

walls between the exhibit’s three sections (Heaven, Hell, and InBetween), along with plinths and stanchions supporting the art.

The exhibit as a whole has been softened with swathes of undyed natural linen.

“It’s haunted,” Shelton said about the exhibit. “For hell, we asked what is hell? We didn’t want to be corny and have flames, so we have carnival masques and masquerades, costumes, raining down in inverse.” Portugal was hit fiercely by recession, along with Spain and Greece, and in the villages where Shelton stayed, people still struggle to eat by growing vegetables and raising chickens.

“We’re working on a huge projection of the Portuguese stock exchange in 2009, when all the share prices fell. It will be a whole wall, with masked devils floating out in front of it,” explained Shelton.

“We didn’t want to avoid that. We wanted to bring that sense of history. It tells the story of the impoverishment of the people.”

With 300 pieces on display, plus works from artists who have been never shown in public, Heaven, Hell & Somewhere InBetween: Portuguese Popular Art is the largest exhibit of its kind in North America. It also includes an opportunity to meet the artists during a cultural tour of Portugal.

Shelton’s book, which accompanies the exhibit, will be available in July. It includes 80 photographs of art, medieval frescoes, roadside icons, and graffiti, along with images of carnival performers and artisans at work in their studios.

ARTS

Many SFU students are strong, caring people who support each other’s success, so I wasn’t surprised to find plenty of folk from the School for Contemporary Arts on hand to celebrate the screening of Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora’s documentary short E&N at the DOXA Film Festival.

E&N is a slow, haunting rumination on the invisible history beneath the E&N rail line that runs along southeastern Vancouver Island.

Not many people know of “the great land grab” of the 1870s, where this railway comes from, when the British Columbia and federal governments granted a railway belt of two million acres of land to the E&N Railway Company in exchange for the construction and operation of the rail line. About one third of that land

May 11, 2015

belonged to the Hul’qumi’num.

Much of the power of Johnson and Ermacora’s film comes from their experiments in rhythmic sound, the rain, the rail and the ferry, which, as Johnson said, “connect landscape without context and images that don’t necessarily connect visually. We wanted to put people in the moment.”

The duo decided to submit to DOXA after Ermacora, who volunteers with the Cinemathéque, received a suggestion from an industry friend that they should show their films to the public.

E&N opened for DOXA’s premiere of Canadian filmmaker Cliff Caines’ first feature, A Rock and a Hard Place . Like Johnson and Ermacora, Caines displays a deep fascination with rhythm and sound. An eerie industrial-organic soundscape runs through his voyage 7,000 feet down into the Goldcorp mine at Red Lake Ontario, one of the richest gold mines in the world. Almost imperceptibly, it forces an intuition of the vast pressure sitting upon the rock at such depth, and the fragility of the people there.

In long takes of the machinery and people working in the mine, Caines traces the path of

gold, from the rock pulled out of the wall to the production of gold brick, and exposes the audience to an otherworldly experience that few people get to see. Offcamera, miners and townspeople relate stories of disasters, deaths, strikes, the people and town, and uncertainties about their future.

Caines, speaking of what it was like to film in the mine, said, “They cracked jokes with me about man being the softest thing down there.”

Both E&N and A Rock and a Hard Place use slow, observing shots of repetitive movement, and of stillness, to open up thoughtful, meditative relationships with their subjects. Their imagery breathes. Simple and soothing, and at times tinged with the cold unease that is a part of Canada’s hard country, both films are refreshingly different from the conventional documentary narrative built around dramatic conflict.

Each film has its own distinct tone and subject matter, but when placed side by side, a dialogue over the aesthetic qualities of sound and imagery in film emerged between the two. I think these new, experimental Canadian filmmakers are on to something, and I look forward to seeing more of their work — Johnson and Ermacora’s especially. Not only because they represent SFU, but because the world they present is so fascinating.

wonderful atmosphere, the festival will run from May 20 to 31.

This year is unique for the festival, as Martin states there is a broader range of artists. “I think last year the artists were in the earlier stages of their careers,” he says; “this year there are some that are a bit more established.”

The shows range from shadow puppetry by Caws and Effect company to the “cowboy opera musical,” Hell of a Girl. As Mott explains, one very unique show called The Stranger is “a show for one audience member.

It tours through the city of Vancouver on a walking trip while the artists lead each individual.

“There’s a great drag opera piece,” he added, called Cocktails with Maria, “based on verbatim sex stories from the queer communities across BC.” One show featuring many local artists is Double Recessive — “a very funny show with serious themes” about the oppression of redheads, said Mott. The festival will also feature “a new experimental storytelling and physical movement performance by an SFU artist,” he continued. “It’s a really intriguing and interesting observation into the world of memory and storytelling.”

On top of these unique performances, the festival adds two new elements into the mix. A

cabaret space will be set up in the Cultch’s Founders Lounge, where a storytelling event will occur. Also, the festival will feature the West Coast premier of the Demo Stage, a place where artists can “crowdsource solutions to their creative problems,” said Martin. In this free event, says Mott, “you come, you sit, and have a beer and have a chat with some artists.”

The Revolver Festival promises to once again bring entertaining and thought provoking theatrical works to Vancouver. With a diversity of performances, and many determined, talented artists to be featured, Mott promises that audiences will have a great time, and “see some excellent work that pushes the boundaries.”

Presenting a variety of performances by emerging and experienced artists, this festival promises to entertain

Produced by Upintheair Theatre, The Revolver Theatre Festival returns this May, and features “newly created works by emerging artists from recent university grads to people emerging on the national stage,” said managing artistic producer Daniel Martin.

Building on the successes of both the Walking Fish Festival and Neanderthal Festival, Martin explained the Revolver Festival brings together “people who are doing interesting, innovative work.” As Martin’s co-artistic producer Dave Mott stated, the festival is known for showing high quality

art — the audiences that come out enjoy themselves. This year’s festival includes a mix of premiere shows, productions that are in progress, and one show, The Progressive Polygamists, that will be closing.

Hosted at The Cultch, a gorgeous playhouse in Vancouver with multiple theatres and a

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18 ARTS

Too often, you will hear the term ‘popcorn movie’ thrown around in a negative context. Sometimes you will hear ‘blockbuster’ uttered as if it’s poison, as if the mere idea of a big budget movie with lots of explosions is harmful to the masses when they could be watching some independent film about people with severe emotional problems instead.

Well, the truth is, blockbuster movies can be a lot of fun — and that’s what Avengers: Age of Ultron is. There’s a good chance you could forget what happened in the movie the day after you watch it, but you will be entertained by this fun ride for the over two hour runtime.

The film jumps right into the action with the Avengers

Your favourite Game of Thrones characters battle it out for their place on the Throne of Games in this improvised show

It seems like I’m one of the few who is not watching Game of Thrones, but for everyone who is a fan of the hugely popular show, Theatresports has created an improvised parody show that puts its characters into some hilarious scenarios, all with the help of audience suggestions. Cleverly titled Throne and Games, the show features three families battling for what they feel is their rightful place on the Throne of Games.

May 11, 2015

fighting some HYDRA base located in Sokovia — the obligatory fake Eastern European nation. Things are going pretty well for the Avengers — nameless henchmen just don’t stand a chance — until two new superpowered bad guys show up: Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen).

Quicksilver can run really fast, but it’s Scarlet Witch who is more

of an inconvenience as she has telekinesis and hypnosis abilities, and the power to cause people to hallucinate their worst fears. (Did I mention they both have hilarious Eastern European accents that slip in and out throughout the movie and sound like Bela Lugosi’s Dracula voice?)

Naturally, the Avengers get their prize — Loki’s scepter from the first Avengers — but not before Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is blasted

with seeing his fear of not doing enough to save the world, and sets out to build a robot, Ultron, to protect it. Unfortunately, Ultron (James Spader) turns out evil and that’s the plot, more or less.

To be fair, while I called this a ‘popcorn movie,’ Avengers: Age of Ultron has remarkably good characters and the relationships between them are certainly more interesting than in the average blockbuster. A good portion of

Hosted by Petyr Baelish (Graeme Duffy), bloody battles were fought as the families took turns striving for glory. The Targaryens’ rivalry with the Lannisters came to a head as Daenerys Targaryen (Denise Jones) and Cersei Lannister (Lauren McGibbon) went one-on-one with the help of an audience member who was controlling their movements.

The characters were put through many creative scenarios that tested their ability to think quickly, and the audience rewarded them with cheers when they managed to also incorporate clever references to the show. Jon Snow (Michael Teigen) is hilarious as a blunt taxi driver, and Cersei and her father Tywin (Pearce Visser) are forced to speak as one voice while subtly guiding each other as they go. Some of the scenes dragged on a bit too long, but apart from a few minor breaks in their straight faces, the players all kept

in character very well throughout their challenges.

Daenerys and Drogo (Taz Vanrassel) were all over each other, and the audience loved Drogo’s monotone, blank-faced, caveman-like demeanour. Jon Snow’s vocabulary was not much sharper, as he answered “I am Jon Snow” to almost every question.

Jon’s sidekick Samwell Tarly (Nathan Clark) was perfectly dimwitted and naïve, and the two made a charming pair. Snow was a hit with the audience during a segment where they were encouraged to shout “You know nothing, Jon Snow!” to interrupt the scene and then ask Jon any question they liked. Some that the audience came up with included, “Why is the sky blue?” to which he replied, “Because if it were green, you wouldn’t know when to stop mowing,” and “How do you cook a turkey?” which he answered by suggesting they simply go to KFC.

The Throne of Games, apparently made from forty thousand swords (more like forty, as Baelish pointed out), sits empty, and only one family can claim it. With shocking betrayals and alliances, savage death, and unlikely contexts, Throne and Games is a wonderfully creative improvised parody that will

that is probably due to director Joss Whedon (for those of you who aren’t already huge fans) cutting his teeth making TV shows with a foundation of strong characterization, and, of course, witty dialogue.

That wit is certainly in effect here. It does feel a bit more restrained in this than the first Avengers, though I think this works in the film’s favour. The wit certainly hasn’t disappeared, but it isn’t overdone this time around either.

The characterization work because of the actors. There are no weak performances in the film (even Olsen’s and Taylor-Johnson’s laughable accents didn’t really hinder their performances). Mark Ruffalo was probably the best of the bunch, with James Spader’s performance as Ultron as another highlight.

If there was one overt problem, it’s that the ‘wow’ factor from the first Avengers is gone — it’s no longer surprising to see all of these characters at once. But I guess that’s what happens when there’s a new comic book movie coming out every couple of months.

Overall, it’s not the best Marvel film, but it’s an entertaining movie, and that’s all that really matters.

have you laughing even if you have no idea who ‘Khaleesi’ is.

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Trevorrow can pull off this mammoth project after his endearing yet hyper-indie sci-fi dramedy, Safety Not Guaranteed.

Everyone lets themselves go in the summer. School is over, the sunshine is out, ice cream becomes a regular part of your daily diet. Maybe you don’t get as much work done, maybe you don’t use your time so efficiently, or maybe you go on vacation and gain a few pounds. Summer movies are no different — they’re big, fat, and lazy, but really good fun. For Hollywood, like university students, summer actually starts at the end of April; so although some of these films are not being released during mid-June to mid-September, they are still summer movies.

Medical doctor turned cult filmmaker George Miller returns to his post-apocalyptic world with Tom Hardy replacing the iconic Mel Gibson in the title role. Although many details of the production and plotline have been kept secret, the promotional trailer for Mad Max: Fury Road looks excitingly old school yet totally fresh. While Hollywood studios have been giving us blockbusters with trite visual canvases, Mad Max’s trailer bursts with more exciting imagery than anything from the Marvel cinematic universe.

Brad Bird, the mastermind behind some of Pixar’s greatest, like Ratatouille and The Incredibles, continues his transition into liveaction filmmaking (after 2011’s pulse-pounding Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol) with another potentially thrilling film, Tomorrowland.

George Clooney and Britt Robertson act opposite each other in a story about a teen girl and a former child prodigy who try to understand the whereabouts of a futuristic place that exists in their collective memory.

After the mishap twenty years earlier in the original Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar now features the theme park that John Hammond had dreamed of. Things go sideways when a corporate mandate tries to respark attendance by genetically modifying dinosaur genes to make a beast that is no longer Jurassic but a new variation on the species. Will our heroes be able to fend off the monster? Perhaps a bigger question is if director Colin

After the success of small indies, like Boyhood which was released during the summer and not awards season, Fox Searchlight tries its hand at releasing award hopeful and Sundance smash-hit, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (a film chronicling the times of a high school senior that befriends a girl when she is diagnosed with cancer), earlier in the year to offer some endearing counter programming to the usual soulless summer fare. With rave reviews like Peter Debruge from Variety prophesying it to “endure as a touchstone for its generation,” Me and Earl and the Dying Girl looks edgier and funnier than last year’s angsty cry-fest The Fault In Our Stars.

Before Terminator Salvation’s release in 2009, my friends and I watched every film in the franchise to gear up for the film. I won’t be doing that for Genisys. Unlike Salvation, which featured a CGI Schwarzenegger, Genisys has the governator in the flesh, but it will hardly matter if Thor: The Dark World director Alan Taylor can’t infuse the film with the heart and fun of James Cameron’s originals. When I was younger I cried at the end of T2 when the terminator kills himself to save John Connor and his mother while giving them the iconic thumbs up. Let’s just hope this can come up with anything remotely poignant and hokey.

A couple of weeks ago Joss Whedon called Edgar Wright’s (Hot Fuzz, World’s End, Shaun of the Dead) script for Ant-Man “The best Marvel ever had.” Unfortunately, after developing the project for close to ten years, Wright dropped out just before production citing “creative differences” as the issue.

Wright has been given a writer’s credit on the project, but it is hard to know how much of the innovative director’s vision will make it on the screen this summer.

My most anticipated film by far is Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which seems to be a nice break from the explosions of Avengers: Age Of Ultron and the triteness of Jurassic World and Terminator Genysis. But if you feel like letting yourself go, there’s still lots of fun trash to go with the other indulgences associated with this time of year.

At the centre of Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is not a mythical hero or a deplorable villain but a man and a young boy crying out for normality only to find more dysfunction. As a toddler, the frontman of one of the most influential rock bands of all time, Nirvana, was happily playing his toy guitar. Years later, after his parent’s divorce, numerous failed suicide attempts, and the birth of a daughter whom he loved, 27-year-old Kurt Cobain took his own life.

The masterstroke of Brett Morgen’s inventive documentary is how he takes the emotion of Cobain’s already existing home videos, audio recordings, diaries, drawings, and music, and curates them into a montage of this artist’s broken soul. Certainly this is among the most artistic and rousing uses of documentary form in recent memory.

While most docs are simply driven by talking heads intercut with animation, visual motifs, and some re-enactments to break up the monotony, Montage of Heck’ s prodigious intertextuality gives the film an excitement and authenticity that would have been missing from a more conventional doc.

At first glance, the film is such an explosive expression that its radical inventiveness seems unimportant, but if you’re able to sit back and examine how the film subverts the ground rules of direct cinema and cinema verité, Montage of Heck becomes a film as inventive as Cobain himself — drawing from existing influences to craft

something wholly unique and unifying.

Near the beginning of the film, Kurt’s parents describe the increasing difficulty of his rebellious teenage years. His anger and embarrassment of his parent’s divorce led him to start using drugs and hanging around a rougher crowd, primarily for the access they provided to dope and booze.

This is pretty standard stuff, cutting between different interviews and even laying over a thematically relevant Nirvana track like “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” but this approach remains purely objective, telling us what Kurt felt without expressing his emotion for him.

Cobain narrates his own story (from an old audiojournal) describing this time in graphic detail: his escape to drugs and the events leading up to a failed suicide attempt — all with nihilistic poetry. We have exited the realm of objective documentary and entered into the mind of a tortured teenager as the world on the screen changes to hand-drawn animation with dark colours and murky images that visualize his battered memory.

In the background is a remix of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” done not with the angry, screechy vocals or blaring guitars but with

gentle, melodious violins.

Not only is Morgen intervening in Cobain’s world by showing the viewer where the pain in that song originates, but he also reconstructs Cobain’s world through animation. However, the authenticity really comes through the stripped down pain in Cobain’s diction amidst the images and sounds.

Morgen has melded together the abstract and the concrete, the objective and subjective, the facts and the emotion, all by uniting elements typically used in fiction (narration, animation, and non-diegetic sound of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”) with the authenticity and verisimilitude that comes with documentary conventions.

In interviews, Morgen has said Cobain had essentially made this film through his artwork, journals, and home videos, but one can see the director’s light hand in every moment,meticulously editing everything into this single vision.

Every poetic outcry Cobain wrote has a hint of depression — each scream a cry, every slow whimper a hurtful memory. It’s the subjective re-interpretation of guitars to violins that gives the film its power, but it’s the truth of the artefacts that Cobain left behind that gives the film its bracing truths.

20 DIVERSIONS / ETC

May 11, 2015

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humour editor email

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Jacey Gibb humour@the-peak.ca

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22 HUMOUR

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HUMOUR

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24 LAST WORD

!

ewly elected President of the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) Enoch Weng stepped into The Peak’s offices to talk about his impending term, a cheerful yellow balloon trailing behind him.

Weng spoke about some of his hopes and plans for the year to come, including increasing transparency and opening lines of communication between the society and its members. His people-focused approach to student politics, eagerness to take in feedback, and fondness for the magic of Disney bodes well for the new SFSS board of directors.

What do you think the best part about being president will be?

Oh wow, trickiest question! The best part of being the president [will be] having my own office! *laughs* [Actually,] the biggest part of being the president is the responsibilities associated with it, things like represent[ing the students], [and being] the spokesperson of the SFSS. I want to be that guy who does his job, can be seen in his office, but at the same time can be [a]

Editor-in-chief email

Max Hill eic@the-peak.ca

visible person who you can interact with. I guess what most excites me is [. . .] I’m just honored by the students [and] their choice to elect me to really represent them.

As the only Presidential candidate without a slate, how do you feel your individual candidacy affected your campaign?

There were times where being the only independent candidate you [didn’t] have that sense of connectedness to a team. I didn’t run [on a slate even though] I really do believe in the idea of a slate; the problem is that often times there are members who don’t have the same ideals but are there by association, or were just placed there. I didn’t feel comfortable being on a team where I wasn’t able to have worked with [the members] before to have a good understanding of how they work.

What do you see as the biggest challenge you will face?

I have a quote for that!

“Sometimes the right path is not the easiest one,” [said] Grandmother Willow [in] Pocahontas.

What I mean by that [is] when you’re in the role where you have to represent all of your

constituency groups, in this case the entire [student] membership, you’re bound to face big decisions, differing points of views and creative tension with different groups.

I think the biggest thing I [realized] is you can’t please everybody, and that’s something that kept me up at night because I want to make sure everyone is happy. I want to make sure it’s ohana, [where] everybody gets a voice.

How do you plan on managing and ensuring cooperation among board members?

When you’re working in a team that was elected democratically, people are going to have different ideologies and different feelings.

It’s about recognizing that we’re all from different walks of life and skill sets. It’s about how we celebrate and recognize that each person is different, and at the same time standing strong as a board together.

I’m really excited to be working with this board, because even though everyone [has] different thoughts [and] points of view, I feel that we can really work well together.

At the end of the day we’[ll] still [be] able to just hit the pub, have a beer, watch some Disney movies, and we’ll get along fine.

In your platform you indicated communications regarding Build SFU is one of your priorities.

May 11, 2015

How do you plan to improve outreach and engage students in the conversation?

Right now, a fact of the matter is there’s a lot of information out there, but how are you able to tell what’s true and what’s not? Where are the sources coming from and what are the major points of contention?

There was a survey that was sent out recently, so we’ll be following up on that, just to kinda see, what’s the general flow of the students.

It’s about listening to people’s opinions, but also responding.

“Sometimes the quietest voice has the most reason,” and there are a lot of students that are very quiet.

That doesn’t mean that they’re not involved. We’re looking towards how we [can] engage with them, but also how we can let them voice their opinions.

You also indicated a desire to change the structure of the board. What steps do you plan to take to implement such structural transitions?

A lot of the [SFSS’s] policies and governance in general is quite outdated. It was written at a time where SFU and the student society was much [smaller] and very politically active, so the structure was set for that time period.

When I mentioned governance reform, it’s things like our committee structure, our executive roles, and our FARM reps.

How do we [ensure] role clar-

ity? And also, how can we really look into steps and say if there are really any bases that are not covered? [We should look] at the organization as a whole and [identify] the inefficiencies.

Where are the redundancies, the overlaps and how [can we] really work together?

What are your plans for after you complete your undergraduate degree?

Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t have an end goal. I mean, it would be nice if I did something with music, maybe even pursue business, and for me it’s how do I pursue all these different aspects of my life?

As long as I’ll be around people, I’m happy. My years at SFU have been so amazing. My direction in life [will be] where God takes me, as long as I’ll be surrounded by people, and to be able to learn, but also to be able to give back — that’s my happy place.

Which Disney song do you hope will be the anthem of your presidency?

My heart is so torn — its like trying to decide which child to pass on your legacy. I think I’m going to go with “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan! Close contenders [are] “You’ll be in my Heart” from Tarzan and “Your Heart Will Lead You Home” from The Tigger Movie.

Can you sing it for me now?

“Be a man / We must be swift as a coursing river / Be a man / With all the force of a great typhoon!”