Whatever it takes to win

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FIRST PEEK

September 16, 2013 · Volume 145, Issue 3

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CANADIAN COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARD 2013

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FIRST PEEK

September 16, 2013

years at SFU that celebrates excellence. For once, there is no shame in receiving high grades or wanting to be involved as a leader in the academic community.

As a student who strives for excellence, I have continually struggled with the shame and ridicule that comes from succeeding at university. Whether it was feeling the need to hide my scholarship offer, keeping quiet while fellow students rant about how a “TA is such a hard marker,” or getting harassed for deciding to take a night to study rather than always going out, I have been met with opposition by my peers every time I strive to succeed.

I recognize the university tries to create a safe, encouraging space for students who excel.

However, I can’t help but notice that student support and networking groups almost exclusively offer resources to those in need of academic help, or those whose passions lie outside academia.

SFU Golden Key is the only group I have found in my four

I can openly talk of the struggles I have with my school and work-life balance, shamelessly express fear over losing scholarships by failing to attain a high CGPA, and find friends to study with during exams who don’t encourage me to cast aside my goals in exchange for a hangover. This is precisely why I wanted to write in response to the article published on Sept. 9 regarding supposed skepticism and the Golden Key society.

Even as I write this letter, I worry over the judgment I may receive in response. But I ask you: why is it that students can laugh and bond over the fact that they “completely bombed

that exam,” while I have to hide a paper from my peers that deservedly got an excellent grade after hours of hard work? Call it anti-social or elitist if you’d like, but I believe I should be able to take pride in my hard work and academic success rather than sneaking it in at the bottom of my LinkedIn profile.

So please don’t use Reddit quotes and vague, uninformed statements in place of the facts you were given by informed people to tear down an organization concretely and internationally proven to help students succeed, find friends, get financial support, study and network abroad, and give back to their communities. “Student skepticism” arises from a lack of factual and objective information, not from the organization being shady, illegitimate or exclusive.

It’s an honour to be part of SFU Golden Key, and becoming a member should feel and be celebrated as such. Membership fees are not a scam — they are used to support events, travel opportunities, and scholarships of the Golden Key International Honour Society’s thousands of members worldwide.

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NEWS

Last Monday, SFU launched it’s 50th-anniversary fundraising campaign amid a colourful crowd of energetic spectators.

The university is hoping to raise $250 million by its 50th birthday in September, 2015.

Dubbed The Power of Engagement, this campaign marks the largest fundraiser initiative ever undertaken by SFU. Currently, the university raises five per cent of its annual $500-million-plus budget every year, but SFU President Andrew Petter hopes that this campaign will represent “a down payment on another half century of excellence.”

SFU is looking to use this campaign to raise money to support everything from student scholarships to building greater community engagement. In a letter to the Vancouver Sun that was published on Sept. 6, Petter outlined how the $250 million target would be spent, should it be achieved.

Cathy Daminato, SFU’s VP Advancement and Alumni Engagement, spearheaded the campaign, and has been planning for the launch for the past two years. Daminato said she saw the anniversary as an opportunity to celebrate the university, and to set the institutions up financially for the years to come.

“When you think that 48 years ago we had 2,500 students, today we’ve got over 30,000 students,” said Daminato, “We’ve got 120,000 alumni in 130 countries around the world . . . It just seemed like a great opportunity to celebrate and a great opportunity to build a campaign around something that was very meaningful.”

The campaign will involve asking SFU alumni, community partners, individuals, organizations, corporations, friends of the university, and even those who don’t have associations with the university to donate to the SFU cause. Daminato points out that some substantial gifts to the university in the past have come from individuals with no previous association with SFU, such as the $12

September 16, 2013

million given by Marilyn and Stewart Blusson towards the building named after the philanthropic couple.

“I’ll be knocking on quite a few doors,” Daminato said with a laugh. “Meeting as many people as we can, telling the SFU story.”

Over the next two years, Daminato and a team of approximately 50 people will be working on building those relationships with donors and convincing them to put money towards various projects and causes.

news editor email / phone

Another key part of Daminato’s job in fundraising is matching prospective donors to SFU projects that interest them. “They usually have pretty specific goals,” Daminato said.

“They have their own philanthropic objectives, so what we look to do is try to find a match between what they would like to accomplish with their funding and what the university needs.”

The $250 million goal was a result of an analysis done by the administration of what SFU currently is able to raise per year, and then stretched a bit beyond that. “But also the number 50,” Daminato laughed. “I cannot tell a lie, it did factor into this. Because it’s the 50th anniversary campaign, we’re thinking in multiples of 50.”

Of the fundraising goal, $100 million will be dedicated to engaging students; this means funding scholarships,

Alison Roach associate news editor news@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

bursaries, and awards, and supporting programs such as SFU’s Semester in Dialogue “that go beyond the everyday commitment to provide knowledge,” according to President Petter.

Daminato also mentioned plans for projects to improve the Bennett Library, a $10 million cultural program investment for the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, and building a stadium, if that does not end up being part of the BuildSFU project.

Another $100 million will be put towards engaging research, teaching, and professorships, and the final $50 million will

Leah Bjornson

support SFU’s community engagement initiatives.

The launch party in Convocation Mall last Monday included speeches from President Petter and notable alumni such as Angus Reid and Ryan Beedie, as well as a dancing flash-mob made up of a sea of SFU community members in red shirts, meant to drum up excitement in the SFU and the larger community for the anniversary.

As Petter wrote in his op-ed for the Vancouver Sun, he sees the campaign revolving around engaging students both oncampus and off.

“What we mean by (an engaged university) is that is a university that not only provides students with an education in the classroom,” wrote Petter. “It also gives them the opportunity, through co-op and experiential learning, to engage in communities.”

NEWS

September 16, 2013

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COMMUNITY NEWS

Surrey campus welcomes new executive director Stephen Dooley comes with 20 years of experience at Kwantlen

Alison Roach News Editor A fresh face will be steering the helm of SFU’s Surrey campus starting in November, as Stephen Dooley, the current director of community engagement at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, will be stepping into the shoes of Joanne Curry as Executive Director. The Peak was unable to reach Curry for comment.

Dooley, who is originally from Ontario, has been heavily involved in the Surrey community through his work at Kwantlen, where he has taught in the Department of Sociology and Criminology and done community engagement work for the past 20 years. In his time at Kwantlen, Dooley also developed and acted as the director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Community Learning and Engagement, or CIR:CLE. 6818-wgst-10x7-us.pdf

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The goal of CIR:CLE is to provide a space for Kwantlen faculty and students to create meaningful and productive partnerships with members of the community and to facilitate community-based research, an approach that Dooley will be using heavily in his new position at SFU. Dooley sees his new role as a chance to continue to establish SFU Surrey as a valuable community partner within Surrey’s city centre.

“With the city of Surrey, there’s a lot of plans for what’s going on in the city centre,” said Dooley, “and I think SFU can be a partner in that process, in terms of contributing to the economy and the diversity of what’s going on in Surrey.”

Dooley plans to accomplish this using the same community engagement tools he built at Kwantlen. “When I think of community engagement . . . for me it’s mostly about process,” said Dooley. “Community engagement is mostly about working as a team with any number of community partners to make sure that SFU Surrey really feels like it’s part of the community, and that we are all working together to address whatever the needs are.”

05/09/2013

Dooley will be filling the position of current SFU Surrey Executive Director Joanne Curry, who has overseen the campus’ rapid expansion over the past decade. Curry has taken the position at SFU as Associate Vice-President of External Relations, and will continue to be involved with the growth of Surrey’s campus.

Dooley is the first to admit that Curry does not leave small shoes to fill. “I’m not even going to try,” Dooley said with a laugh. “I recognize a lot of the great work that’s already been done. Part of it for me is getting a chance to work with Joanne . . . to further the work that’s already been done.”

Dooley also envisions the SFU Surrey campus itself acting as a community gathering place, where members can come and have conversations about the things going on in the area.

When asked why he chose to move on from Kwantlen after 20 years, Dooley pointed to the “vibe” of SFU Surrey. “I really like that SFU is trying to be a leading community engaged university,” said Dooley. “[Both] Kwantlen and SFU Surrey are trying to support

Dooley has worked extensively with the Surrey community through his work at Kwantlen. the needs of learners south of the Fraser River. We’re both in the area.

I just think it’s a really neat thing that’s going on at SFU Surrey, and I like the potential for contribution

to what’s going on in the city centre of Surrey.”

“That whole area is becoming very vibrant. It just feels like a really cool place to be.”

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6 NEWS

The decline of the physical state of the SFU Burnaby campus was widely publicized in local media last week, and there is one cause of the problem that both students of the SFU Graduate Student Society (GSS) and SFU administration agree on: reduced funding from the provincial government.

The GSS has been attempting to raise awareness about the maintenance problems on the Burnaby campus through their “I [heart] SFU” Tumblr campaign, a blog that encourages students to post pictures of the decay. The GSS also recently released a report detailing the damages and repair costs of the building.

The blog and the issue of the deferred maintenance caught media attention last week, with stories being run by The Tyee, Vancouver Sun, and Global News. The pictures posted on the blog feature exposed pipes, mouldy walls, and garbage cans used to catch leaks, all found in the halls of the buildings on Burnaby campus. The tagline of the website reads, “Premier Clark: Show Our Crumbling Campus Some Love!”

“What happens when we don’t have enough money to do the routine maintenance that

September 16, 2013

we need is that we defer that maintenance and problems compound . . . and the buildings are in a state of crisis or emergency,” said Julia Lane, Coordinating and External Relations Officer at the GSS, who spearheaded the campaign.

Lane stated that the report shows the main problem is the reduced funding that the university is receiving from the government annually. “The

The caption originally published for this photo on Sept. 9 was incorrect. The location pictured is called “Crossroads,” and is located between the MBC and the AQ. The highest scoring location in a previous analysis was “Mainstreet,” located on the site of the existing Transportation Centre.

capital plans estimate that $20 million would be needed yearly . . . to maintain the buildings and do necessary upgrades,” she explained. This number falls below the government’s funding guidelines for buildings of a yearly maintenance allowance of between 1.5 and 3 per cent of the university’s replacement value, $1.8 billion.

The university currently receives much less than that amount, namely $2.2 million annually, a number that was raised from about half a million dollars in the preceding two fiscal years. This lack of funding forces the university administration to seek other sources of funding to do this maintenance, including the operating budget and tuition fees, said Lane.

“I really want to emphasize that at this point I don’t think the responsibility relies most heavily with SFU administration,” Lane said.

Pat Hibbitts, Vice President of Finance and Administration at SFU, said that the primary areas of concern are the infrastructure that ensures that the buildings “continue to be safe and reliable.” Hibbitts did concede that “improvements to roofs, building envelops, electrical and mechanical systems, elevators and seismic improvements are needed in various locations of the Burnaby campus.”

Approximately $33.5 million has been allocated by the university to maintenance needs. Currently, the campus has “fairly immediate deferred maintenance needs of approximately $160 million,” according to Hibbitts.

Hibbitts calls it “very unlikely” that SFU would be able to provide its own funding to restore all the Burnaby buildings to the GSS report’s suggestion, “‘good’ condition or better.” But the university, she says, has been “actively working with AVED [the Ministry of Advanced

Education] for the past several years to make them aware of the need for Provincial funding,” and that “a plan is in place to increase [the Annual Capital Allowance fund] by $1M each year over the next 10 years.”

According to Chardaye Bueckert, the External Relations Officer at the SFSS, she wants to see “big calls to action with, obviously, a large cash-injection” to address the maintenance issues, as well as an inclusion of “maintenance funding whenever building a new building.”

“If you can’t fix a leak, then the leak . . . goes into the wall, then the wall has mould, then the whole wall has to be taken out, and then the insulation needs to be replaced,” Bueckert said. “The problems compound . . . that’s the major consequence of this deferred maintenance.”

NEWS

Matthew Go, a 20-year-old undergraduate student at SFU, was part of a group of researchers that discovered the remains of a Moche priestess chamber tomb while excavating in Peru this summer.

The fourth-year archaeology student was the only Canadian taking part in the field school, which was composed of students accepted to the San Jose De Moro Archaeological Project and students from Harvard University. Go, an archaeology major and biology minor with credits for a certificate in forensic studies, acted as the teaching assistant for those interested in biological archaeology.

After making the discovery towards the end of the regularly-scheduled field season, he and a team of eight other archaeologists stayed beyond the scheduled time to excavate the site. They found the remains of a Moche priestess whom they currently believe to be “the highest social, religious, and political leader at the time,” according to Go. The team found seven other bodies alongside her as well as a myriad of pottery, jewelry, and marine-related items.

The chamber represents much that is unknown about the civilization, Go suggests. The

September 16, 2013

conditions in which the priestess was buried, alongside the several other bodies and surrounded by valuables, “can tell us more about the political nature of the people at that time,” said Go. “At the end of the Moche regime, where we suddenly see their disappearance from the archaeological record.”

“This discovery,” he continued, “will really help us understand more how, why, or when the Moche disappeared.” Additionally, the great amount of marinerelated articles found in the tomb could help archaeologists understand the people, specifically their relationship with their demise, Go suggests. These articles include seashells, ceramics in the shapes of prawns, and copper plates which, when joined together, create geometric waves.

“One of the key factors that archaeologists think led to the demise of the Moche was a mega El Niño event,” he says, which gave them “torrential rain. It cut off the ecosystem supply of food, etcetera.” The objects could be related, he says, finding this tomb can really help us answer . . . what those people thought, and how they dealt with this phenomenon.”

All of the artifacts that have been recovered from the chamber have been relocated to their lab in Lima, Peru, to be catalogued and interpreted. Unfortunately for Go, the skeletal remains were left in the tomb as they were especially degraded and trapped in the concrete-like ground of the tomb and too much time would be needed to extract the remains properly.

“I assessed as much information as I could from the skeletons while they were in the ground,” he says. “We will try and retrieve them next year, or sometime between this year and next year.”

Of the skeletons accompanying the princess, there were seven other individuals who accompanied her, ranging from newborns, to infants, to teenagers, and adults. Go says that while there is no evidence that these people were sacrificed for the tomb, such a thing has been found at other Moche sites on the north coast, and they did find evidence showing that “the other individuals were deceased quite some time before being buried.”

Go has been invited to return to the site again next year, but is unsure if he will. He has also been invited by a professor in the department of archaeology to work with him in China, and if these conflict, he might favor the second trip in the hopes of “being more well-rounded” in his field.

After Go is done with his undergraduate degree, he plans to apply to PhD programs in America, and grad programs in Canada to pursue his three interests, “teaching, practicing bio-archaeology, and . . . consulting with forensic anthropology.”

Stefanie Rezansoff is looking to change the public view of the link between mental illness and criminal activity, arguing that we should be blaming the creation of criminal offenders on other factors.

A Dean’s Convocation Medal recipient and current PhD student, Rezansoff became interested in the topic of crime and mental health during an internship at the Regional Psychiatric in Saskatoon, which is a maximum security penitentiary for inmates with mental illnesses. When she returned to school some years later to pursue her Master’s in Public Health, Rezansoff decided to pursue that interest.

In her thesis research, Rezansoff sampled a population of 31,000 provincial offenders — all of whom were serving a sentence of two years or less — in an attempt to analyse the links between substance use, mental illness, and involvement in the criminal justice system.

What Rezansoff found was that despite the prevailing literature that argues that people with mental illness tend to be at higher risk of committing crimes, other factors such as substance abuse, poverty, and social marginalization were more likely causing these

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people to become involved with the criminal justice system.

“In fact (as a group) offenders diagnosed with a mental disorder — without a co-occurring substance use disorder — were less likely to recidivate compared to offenders with no mental disorder,” said Rezansoff in an interview with The Peak. “But the presence of a substance use disorder significantly increased the risk of reoffending — and particularly so among offenders with an existing mental disorder.

And unfortunately . . . the two often co-occur.”

Rezansoff explained that because a lot of mental illness coincides with substance use disorders, there is a perception that mentally ill people are very dangerous. In reality, it’s their substance use — not their mental illness — that leads to their involvement in the criminal justice system.

“Notably, nearly 50 per cent of repeat offenders in British Columbia had a physician-diagnosed substance use disorder in the five years prior to their index offense,” said Rezansoff.

For Rezansoff, changing the perspective on mental illness is only the beginning. Real change will only be made possible through understanding and treatment for both mental illness and substance abuse disorders.

“If we can somehow target that need for treatment, then I think we might be able to see a decrease in recidivism and very importantly — keep people with co-occurring mental disorders out of the criminal justice system and engaged with community services that promote their well-being,” said Rezansoff.

8 NEWS

According to a new study by SFU Health Sciences professor Michel Joffres, thousands of deaths in Canada, the U.S. and England could be avoided with greater awareness of the risks of hypertension.

Hypertension is the leading risk factor for premature death, stroke, and heart disease, however research shows that the condition is largely preventable. Notwithstanding, in 2000, the world was estimated to have close to one billion people with hypertension, with the number predicted to rise to 1.56 billion by 2025.

The study, published in the BMJ Open, analysed data from the three countries and found

September 16, 2013

that although blood pressure levels in all of them are still high, those in Canada and the USA have shown great improvements over the past years.

The mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) levels were overall higher in England in all agegender groups, with 66 per cent of adults aged 20 to 79 being classified as having “abnormal” blood pressure.

In his study, Joffres lists several factors as contributing to England’s higher SBP rates: high-sodium diet, physical inactivity, and a lower level of awareness, treatment and control of individuals with high-blood pressure.

In an interview with Public Affairs and Media Relations at SFU,

Joffres attributed Canada’s success in lowering hypertension rates to greater awareness.

Since 2000, Canada has launched annual hypertension recommendations programmes (Canadian Hypertension

Education Programme (CHEP)) that work to inform the public about hypertension and the health risks and opportunities to reduce dietary salt.

“The remarkable improvement we have seen in Canada since the

1990s is probably due in great part to the awareness we created with our last study,” said Joffres. “and [with] an excellent program in Canada that followed and has created greater awareness in the physicians’ community.”

NEWS

Burnaby campus’ Highland Pub has cancelled its signature Toonie Tuesday offer, a deal that allowed students to indulge in jalapeno poppers, burgers, fries, edamame beans, spring rolls, or queso sticks on Tuesday nights in return for their pocket change.

The cancellation of Toonie Tuesday was not announced; rather, students who came in for the deal last Tuesday were disappointed to hear that the offer no longer exists. The Highland’s online page, hosted on the SFSS website, is still advertising Toonie Tuesday.

John Flipse, the SFSS Food and Beverage Services manager, stated that the decision to cancel Toonie Tuesday was based primarily on health, not on cost.

“To me it’s a health concern.

One in three kids in Canada are overweight. I think we should make a bit of a change. I know they are probably gonna buy it anyway, but we don’t have to do that, we have better options for it. I know we can provide those at a good price range.”

When asked whether healthier menu alternatives have been put in place in response to these concerns, Flipse replied that they have not, but that he will be looking at implementing changes to the menu in the coming months. “We have to restructure our menu after September,” Flipse said. “Menu prices haven’t changed for a number of years, but the food costs have gone up considerably. But we would try to keep the changes to a minimum.”

The Highland Pub, which is a branch of the SFSS Food and Beverage Services, had been consistently losing money for years before Flipse came into

September 16, 2013

the manager position in the winter of 2012. Flipse joined SFSS Food and Beverage Services as a non-unionized, contract manager with 10 years of managing catering operations at UBC.

“The pub hasn’t been financially viable for many years and students are paying for that,” Flipse said on the subject of these losses. “I don’t feel like the students are paying too much on this. So we are looking

towards reducing our loss probably to $150,000 a year.”

Flipse’s strategy for reducing the Highland Pub’s financial losses is focused around restructuring the pub’s hours of operation, based on an analysis of sales during different times of day over the previous few years.

“We were running certain services at certain times with very little sales and it cost us more to operate it,” Flipse said.

“We would lose some sales in reducing such hours but our margin would go slightly higher.”

Flipse stated that through this method of reducing hours, the Highland was able to lose $70,000 less during the most recent summer semester than the previous year. “I’m hoping we can continue down throughout the year,” Flipse continued, “We

can still provide some services at reduced hours.”

The Highland’s other big week-day draw, their 25-cent wing special on Wednesday nights, will most likely be kept even though it’s a “no-match, money-losing deal” according to Flipse. Just last year, Wednesday wing night was amended to require patrons to buy a drink along with their discounted wings.

If there is a special on Tuesday, Flipse says that it will no longer be at the two dollar price point since it doesn’t align with the pub’s sustainable strategy.

“In five years the equipment is going to be replaced. If we break even on the sales, we still need to look at the need for replacing the equipment, so we need to look at it in a longer term”, said Flipse, “I’m thinking

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about how to rhyme three with Tuesday.”

When asked about why the The Highland’s UBC counterpart, The Pit, is able to provide more deals for their students, Flipse answered, “It is a more expensive school. As such the average income per client there is higher. Additionally, the wage they pay their staff is substantially lower. The average rates plus benefits for the employee here is about $20 per hour. The labour cost accounts for 60 percent of the overall cost.”

Flipse concluded: “I don’t want to make all our money from the students. That’s not the whole reason [for this change]. But we need to find the balance between providing service and being sustainable, and hopefully we can do it.”

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

10 NEWS

In recognition and support of the upcoming Reconciliation Week in Vancouver, SFU held its own Day of Reconciliation at the SFU Theatre on Thursday, September 12.

Reconciliation Week, held by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada from September 16 to 22, represents the on-going efforts to acknowledge and rectify the injustices committed against hundreds of thousands of First Nations children and families for over a hundred years by forcibly taking them to residential schools. The Commission aims to compile information and testimonies from residential school survivors.

September 16, 2013

The event’s organizer, SFSS At-Large Representative Clay J. Gray, commented, “It is an important educational piece but . . . there’s a larger piece that we are raising awareness of . . . almost every university is taking action.” Around BC, universities including UBC, Emily Carr, University of Fraser Valley and TRU are cancelling classes to allow students to attend TRC events.

SFU Senate also passed a motion to allow SFU students to attend Reconciliation events during this week without academic consequences.

The event itself was opened

by Margaret George, Elder at

SFU, who gave a short speech and a prayer. She was followed

by Klahanie Rorick, administrative assistant in the Office for Aboriginal Peoples, who sang a traditional song, and SFU President Andrew Petter, who spoke to the assembly.

“We are proud to support the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” said Petter.

“We need to honour Aboriginal culture.” Petter was also named captain of SFU’s Walk for Reconciliation team.

The keynote speaker was Karen Joseph, Director of Reconciliation Canada and daughter of Chief Dr. Robert Joseph.

Joseph’s speech frequently drew on personal experiences and anecdotes as she gave a brief history of residential schools and their practices. Joseph emphasized the importance of a reconciliatory attitude and the need to “be mindful of the gifts you bring . . . We need all of them to build the future.”

Fielding questions from the audience, Joseph thanked the crowd, praising its interest and diversity as the seeds of reconciliation and healing. She also made a surprise announcement that Dr. Bernice King, daughter of civil rights legend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., will be the keynote speaker at the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Walk for Reconciliation.

Once Joseph left the stage, a video titled Language of Reconciliation was shown before five panelists took to the stage to share their experiences as direct and indirect victims of

residential schools. The panelists included Cindy Tom-Lindley, Executive Director of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, Vera Jones, a member of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, Michelle Quock, an SFU student and William G. Lindsay, Director of the SFU Office for Aboriginal Peoples.

The final presentation was the documentary, We Were Children, a re-telling of the stories of Glen Anaquod and Lyna Hart, two victims of the residential school system. Although heart wrenching for many of the spectators, the film and the event as a whole were meant to be informative and bring to light the pain and suffering caused by this system. The support shown was greatly appreciated, as noted by Kyle Irving, producer of the documentary.

“To me the sequel to this film is the dialogue that we’ve created by having shared this with you,” said Irving.

OPINIONS

I have a confession to make.

Like Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, I have smoked marijuana. If you have not, it’s very likely that you’ve came across the sweet and skunky smell while walking down Hastings, up Granville around Gastown, or through Kitsilano.

You have smelt the “Mary Jane” so much that you might find it hard to believe it’s actually illegal in British Columbia. Sensible BC aims to change this, and if you are like me and have dabbled in the occasional

September 16, 2013

dube, it’s a campaign worthy of your support.

A 2012 Angus Reid survey found that 60 per cent of people in BC wanted marijuana to be legalized, and it’s likely that those people will come out to the polls and support its decriminalization. According to Sensible BC, our province recorded over 19,000 marijuana possession incidents in 2010 alone.

In a National Post article from August 20 of this year, Chief Constable Jim Chu of the Vancouver Police Department said, “when

confronted with simple possession of cannabis, [a police officer’s choice] is either to turn a blind eye or lay charges.’’

He is well aware that a ‘’simple’’ possession charge will result in a criminal record, and that future travel, employment, and citizenship opportunities for those individuals involved will be met with barriers. In order to address the issue, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police met last month and decided the best way to handle these simple incidents is to fine marijuana users.

Instead of wasting time, money, and resources on charges the police already want to do away with, the campaign has suggested writing a new law called the Sensible Policing Act. Under the new law, possession of cannabis would become decriminalized in our province. What this means is

opinions editor email / phone

Tara Nykyforiak opinions@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

that our police can invest more time putting real criminals behind bars, making our province a safer place as a result.

Recently, our friendly Washington neighbours decided to legalize the whacky tabbacy, put their police to better use, and cash in on the dispensaries that will be sure to generate economic opportunities.

It’s hard to say, but I think the Americans got this one right, and it’s due time for BC to take a small step in a similar direction — which is exactly what

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the new campaign by Sensible BC is doing.

What does it take for something like this to happen? It is no easy task, I can assure you. The Sensible BC Campaign started last week. In a 90 day period, it needs to collect signatures from 10 per cent of the registered voters in every single one of BC’s 85 electoral districts. That’s about 400,000 signatures. If you compare this campaign to the anti-HST campaign, it’s easy to see how challenging a motion like this truly is.

If you are interested and want to help with the campaign, you can visit www.sensiblebc.ca to find a canvaser in your elector district to register your support. If you are really enthusiastic you can even sign up to be a canvasser yourself. Because at the end of the day, putting our province’s resources where they are needed the most is a change I think we would all like to see.

12 OPINIONS

likely to meet a different person each time, all of my varied selves will share a warmth and fondness towards the grammatical and the syntactic. My room is littered with old journals and scraps of paper.

Should a fire ever start in there, I don’t stand a chance.

In the seventh grade, I argued with a teacher for 20 minutes over the correct definition of “irony.” In kindergarten, I prided myself on my ability to differentiate “they’re,” “there” and “their.” I distinctly remember losing a friend at a birthday party over an argument concerning the pronunciation of the video game Super Smash Brothers Melee. (It’s may-lay, not muh-lee.)

My love affair with words has eclipsed all of my former, present and future passions: build a time machine and find me at any period in my life, and though you’re

Don’t get me wrong, because I realize English is among the most difficult languages to learn. I don’t envy ESL students who contend with subtle ordering, irregular verb conjugation, and diverse etymological origins. I take for granted my subconscious understanding of

The image of the burning towers was the first thing on television when I woke up on September 11, 2001. Being nine years old at the time, I didn’t fully understand the significance of the event; I knew it was an attack on a famous building, and I knew that it was bad, but I also knew that a lot of bad things happened on the news.

What made this event so special?

It seemed to my naive nine year old self that all the adults around me were overreacting.

I remember my parents telling me that people would still be talking about the September 11 attacks for years to come. I was skeptical, but of course they turned out to be right, to the point where people often say we are living in the “post 9/11 world” — a world of increased government surveillance and fear of terrorism.

I’m 21 now, so I’ve been living in this “world” for more than half my life. As such, I’ve never known any other kind of world, at least not from an adult perspective.

What media pundits have called the “post 9/11 world,” everyone roughly my age and younger has had to accept as just “the world.”

Less than a decade from now, people who weren’t old enough to remember the 9/11 attacks will be old enough to vote. These are people whose beliefs and values have been shaped by the fear prevalent in Western culture over the last 12 years.

Young people are taking for granted levels of surveillance that would have been considered shocking not long ago. There was a time when, upon hearing reports of government agencies spying on private phone data, the typical response would have been

September 16, 2013

English’s myriad synonyms and esoteric turns of phrase.

But at the same time, I cringe every time the Oxford Dictionary allows a term like “food baby” or “selfie” to creep into its ranks. I’m protective of the vocabulary I so often take advantage of, and the ascension of a term like “derp” from silly South Park jokes to bonafide real word status irks me to no end; I’m not against neologisms, but come on.

Still, I can’t help but love the way that the English language — delicate yet cacophonous, simple yet idiosyncratic — helps me to form and better express my ideas. An introvert to the core, I’ve never been particularly good at conveying my thoughts and feelings through subtle gestures or body language.

Though, to be fair, I often exaggerate my words with dramatic hand motions, if only to increase the impact of my most important phrases.

Language has helped me to define who I am, and it does to this day. I’m rarely to be found without a pen and pad on my person, in case a situation should arise that I feel would be better understood when written down. I salute my calloused middle finger which so often balances my pens, and the ink stains on so many of my cardigans.

Punctuation, in particular, may be my favourite facet of language.

It gives the written word a leg up over the spoken. After all, an implied ellipsis is never as good as the real thing. The period, the comma, the semicolon and even the oftmaligned em dash — each of these

tools are like old friends, always there for me when I need them, and rarely asking anything in return.

My Copy Editor will laugh when she reads this, because she’s all too familiar with my syntactic preoccupation. It’s likely the final version of this article you’re reading has significantly fewer punctuation marks than my first draft — believe me, she’s done you a favour. I’ve read countless arguments for simple, clean prose, and I’m inclined to agree. But I just can’t help myself; there are too many wonderful words out there, and I’ve never been very good at keeping things short and to the point.

They say the first step is admitting you have a problem. My addiction is the written word — the best and worst tool you’ll ever have, capable of breaking hearts and mending wounds in equal measure. Ask me again in 10 years, and I suspect the answer will be the same.

to dismiss it as ridiculous and as a conspiracy theory.

What interests me about the idea of the post 9/11 world, is that it places the repercussions of the attacks at a higher level of historical importance than the attacks themselves. As time goes on, people are treating 9/11, not as a tragic event, but as a cultural fixture of the era in which we live.

I don’t have an objective view of the situation, and it’s possible that I never will, given that I have spent more than half my life in this post 9/11 world. For this reason, we need to give appropriate

time to reflect on 9/11’s full implications.

There’s a (mis)quote from Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai who, when asked about the implications of the French Revolution, said “it’s too soon to say” (he was actually talking about the 1968 civil unrest in France, not the 1789 revolution).

Misquote or not, if you were to ask me what the implications of 9/11 were, my answer would have to be the same, the naivete of my 9-year-old self notwithstanding: it’s still too soon to say.

People are treating 9/11 as a cultural fixture.

Nowadays, the response is considerably more blasé; people recognize they are being spied on, and respond, “so?” My purpose here is not to collapse into an anti-NSA diatribe, but merely to point out the change that has occurred in our behaviour.

OPINIONS

OTTAWA (CUP) — The Canadian government has made changes to the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program that will make it much more costly for Canadian music promoters and smallvenue owners to book international performers.

Previously, international bands would be required to pay a one-time fee of $150 per band member, maxing out at $450, for the right to enter and work in Canada. New regulations will now charge each employer, the band promoter or venue owner, an additional $275 per musician and crew member — with no cap set on the total cost.

The new fees exempt international performers playing at larger venues, like the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, on the grounds that these venues are exclusively concert venues and do not require bands to obtain work permits. The fees will only affect the owners of local restaurants, pubs, and bars whose primary source of business are not music.

September 16, 2013

Jason Kenney, Canada’s Minister of Employment, Social Development and Multiculturalism, recently justified the fees on his Twitter account as “part of our effort to ensure [Canadians] get 1st crack at jobs.� Kenney also defended the decision on the basis that, in the past, Canadian taxpayers were responsible for paying the costs of these foreign performers, but now it will fall solely on the business owners who temporarily employ them.

The argument that these new fees will ensure Canadians receive more opportunities for employment completely ignores the impact the fees will have on venue owners. Smaller bars and clubs will no longer be able to afford the best talent, jeopardizing their owners’ ability to attract people to their venues, and in turn stay operational.

By instigating fees that punish only small venue owners, the government is also making a statement that the large corporations involved with booking arenas and stadiums across Canada are not equally responsible for the promotion of Canadian

musicians. These new fees appear to punish only those involved at the grassroots level of music in this country, while the big companies get off scot-free.

From an economic perspective, the fees are another example of the Conservative government impeding the cultivation of the arts in Canada. Mr. Kenney claims the new fees will shift the financial burden for international musicians away from the Canadian public, and instead to the business owners of the venues hiring them. However, basic microeconomic theory suggests that these higher production costs will be translated into a higher cost for the consumer, i.e. the portion of the Canadian population that enjoys live music.

Higher production costs for bars and clubs matched with fewer consumers willing to pay higher prices might lead to venues closing down, which will not only mean fewer job opportunities for the employees of these venues, but also for the international and Canadian bands who will have lost potential venues for their performances.

The new fees will transfer some of the cost for the promotion of Canadian music from all taxpayers to only those involved in the process — the venue operators, audiences, and musicians.

Essentially, public funding of music is being privatized to those who are actually doing something to support it.

These new fees will not help Canadian bands gain a competitive edge on job opportunities within Canada. They will hurt the entire Canadian music

13

industry because they will shrink the market for grassroots music in the country. The people who will suffer from these new fees are the very same people keeping the Canadian music scene alive — an endeavour our politicians should be supporting, not punishing.

WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE IN THE WORLD?

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14 OPINIONS

English majors are often at the heart of jokes culminating in the word “barista” and accompanied by smug laughter.

Though I acknowledge the job market may be harder to navigate with a degree not funneling straight into a high paying profession, I will never give in to the belief that a degree in English is not worthwhile.

While I might get some respect for my ability to write or edit with more ease than my peers in more “practical” fields, I did not pick my major for these skills. I declared a major in English because I really love — and see the value of — reading.

Sometimes I tell people I study English because I am an academic nomad. When you study something with a more concrete set of rules and figures (such as Chemistry or Statistics), there are fewer opportunities to truly interact with the curriculum. Literature allows one the freedom to walk among sights that have been seen and studied for hundreds of years while possessing an opinion that matters. I savour the ability to be able to move between eras, authors, and

genres with only the weight of my own experiences to bear upon my adventure.

Along the way, there are many relics left in the form of critiques and responses from those who have previously explored each piece. Literature is a conversation that spans many years and is host to a variety of different voices from all walks of life.

With that said, reading texts from any era is not simply about engaging with a story and forming an opinion on it. The stories comprising fictional literature are only a small part of what an English major studies; books are vessels carrying information from different fields that beg analysis on many levels.

Literature is written by people, for people, and is most often about people. Stepping away from the conventions of mere plot, there are many layers of economic, linguistic, historical, psychological, scientific, and social depth that are conveyed in a text. In order to provide a strong analysis of a literary work, one must consider all the contextual factors

September 16, 2013

stemming from the time period and the author’s life.

Reading literature is reading society and learning through the observation of the many interacting factors affecting human life.

Literature is relevant, regardless of the era in which it was written, because written expressions of fact and fiction are records. They detail everything from social movements to political and religious reformations, and therefore provide information about the world as it was at different periods of time.

The roots of all our modern academic fields can be found within the pages of literature.

The way we do things is a product of our history, something documented through writings that describe the mundane activities along with the societal fears and dreams of a culture.

Though a plot itself may not appear to serve anything other than enjoyment, it is actually riddled with facts and lessons.

A degree in English is a thing for the curious, and for those who love learning. It is because I want to study everything that I study literature.

While I respect the work my peers do in the more employable fields, I stand by my choice to do an English major.

Though I have learned to write and edit in the process, the real gain is in my knowledge of the world and the people who inhabit it.

If you’re anything like me, you can never have enough buttery goodness. Slathering a spoonful on a cob of corn or ordering popcorn at the movie theatre are both glorious times highlighted by butter’s presence.

And with many options — melted butter, regular butter, garlic butter — one is never a pound away from comfort food galore. Moving away from food topping, butter serves multiple

practical purposes. For one, butter can be used in baking to add moisture and cohesion to a cake. On the other hand, it can also take the place of cooking spray to coat the sides of your cake pan. Growing up with Ukrainian grandparents, I was pretty much raised to salivate upon the sound of butter packages opening, and it’s little wonder why — butter is the bomb, yo.

Diacetyl (aka DA) is an ingredient used to produce the flavour for artificial butters in theatre popcorn, candy, and many baked goods. While yummy, there are scary new observations being made regarding the ingredient. Research shows that DA has a structure similar to a substance that makes beta-amyloid proteins. Say what? When too many of these proteins clump together, plaque is formed, and

that’s not good. Plaques are a marker of Alzheimer’s disease.

Their research shows that DA does indeed cause an increase in beta-amyloid clumping, meaning the ingredient could potentially be linked as a cause of Alzheimer’s. While no outright conclusive cause and effects have been determined thus far, it might be safe to take it easy on the butter flavouring for a while.

September 16, 2013

COMMUNITY PHOTOS September 16, 2013

photo editor email / phone

Mark Burnham photos@the-peak.ca

15

The thirtieth overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft, tight end Dustin Keller, had a solid and somewhat productive career with the New York Jets before finding a limited market for his services after hitting free agency this offseason. It’s a known reality of life in the NFL, in which veterans who don’t happen to play quarterback often find the open market to be tough and resistant to doling out big money contracts.

Keller opted to sign with the division rival Miami Dolphins on a lucrative one-year contract, the classic “prove it” variety demanding he deliver a big season before any further investment be made.

During a preseason game on August 17 versus the Houston Texans, Keller made a catch going towards the sidelines with his back turned towards oncoming rookie safety D.J. Swearinger, who drove low for the tackle. The hit dropped Keller to the turf, screaming all the way down, and brought the game to one of those gruesome and depressingly familiar standstills where a hushed crowd watches in pained silence as a player is carted off the field, heads bowed and fingers crossed.

For all the good vibes sent his way, Keller’s worst fears were realized: his knee was dislocated, his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), medial collateral ligament (MCL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) all torn to shreds. The hit ended his season as the Dolphins placed him on Injured Reserve three days later.

More depressingly for the young man, the violent collision could conceivably jeopardize his career.

the game. “Unnecessary roughness” penalties are often enforced when defensive players are deemed to have targeted the head of an offensive player when making a tackle. Fines and short suspensions generally follow, with escalators attached for repeat offenders.

The NCAA also enacted a new rule this season with a zero-tolerance policy that expels “targeting” offenders from a game with a subsequent short-term ban.

The bounty scandal, zealously pursued by the NFL last season against the New Orleans Saints, was in part driven by the hysterical desire of the league to ensure its continued popularity by aggressively maintaining its illusion of safety and its willingness to aggressively crack down on presumed violators.

The issue with all of this? Football, like most contact sports, isn’t safe — nor will it ever be. And, oddly enough, that’s part of its appeal.

The lure of the NFL, unlike most other mainstream team sports (discounting promotions such as boxing, MMA and wrestling), has always been its barelycontained and simmering violence that threatens to froth over at every snap. The big, bone-rattling hit has been elevated to mythical proportions. Dick “Night Train” Lane, a Hall of Fame defensive back who played from 1952-1965, was a legendary practitioner of hits that today would be considered excessively violent and extremely dirty, yet he is feted as one of the greatest players at his position in the history of football.

The off-field fracas that played out in the media over the weeks following has been fascinating and, when framed in a larger context, perfectly describes the macabre conundrum players face every time they strap on their helmets and step onto the field of play — the very real physical cost of doing business.

Swearinger was contrite and apologetic given the devastating extent of Keller’s injuries in an interview with ESPN. com, but proclaimed innocence. “ . . . I had like three helmet-to-helmet [penalties in his senior year of college]” he said.

“I knew I had to change my style of play and start targeting low.

Over the last few years there has been a renewed and intense scrutiny on hits to the head in all sports. But football in particular, in part due to its lofty status, has borne the brunt of a concerned public.

The major American leagues have therefore moved swiftly to address some of these fears, including those voiced by the President himself.

A rule passed this offseason in the NFL outlawing offensive and defensive players from using the crown of their helmet to deliver a blow in the open field to either tackle or “finish a run,” in the parlance of

Dan Daly, a sports correspondent for The Washington Post, epitomized this disregard and obsession with violence with an almost incredulous justification. “You have to understand that most of those hits were not illegal when he [Lane] played the game,” Daly reasoned in Top 10 Most Feared Tacklers, a documentary for NFL Films. It was this violence that kept the NFL from fully displacing the far more gentlemanly game of baseball as America’s pastime until more recent years, and it is this obsession with the same violence that has seen the league’s popularity explode into the stratosphere over the last few decades.

NFL Films has been one of the more instrumental tools in building the league’s brand, and a big part of its draw has been to illustrate the barbarism and savagery of the NFL today — and all its yesterdays — with a visually lyrical brush. Players became hewn as largerthan-life figures chiseled from granite and marble.

Violent and dangerous hitters and hits have been canonized. Coaches are generals, stadiums are warzones and players are warriors locked in a struggle

that symbolizes life, death and perseverance against all odds. It’s a hell of a marketing tool, and it is the way the league has sold its history that set the stage for Keller’s knee to be blown out.

Legislation has been introduced and enforced with the desire to make the game safer for all, but has nevertheless drawn much derision from players former and current. Many feel that the very fabric of the game has been altered, to its detriment.

Emmitt Smith, the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, blasted the crown of the helmet rule as “absurd.” Smith, whose career was one of those rare instances of a player managing to avoid a significant injury throughout, bemoaned that we would “start to see players run out of bounds,” as though that were the worst thing in the world.

You see, in the hyper-masculine coliseum that is the NFL, only “wimps” and “sissies” shy from physical contact. In this league, you either hit or are hit. This is why the blowback on Swearinger’s justification for his hit on Keller is startling. To be fair, it is an unwritten code of moral conduct in football between players to avoid tackling one another in the knees for fear of causing injury. But the speed of the game demands split-second decisions while providing such little margin for error that a targeted hip can turn into a knee or head within a heartbeat as the ball carrier pivots or ducks his shoulder to absorb the blow.

This ‘low versus high’ debate has no satisfactory way of being concluded, as defensive players are more focused on making sure the tackle is made; otherwise, they run the very real risk of being out of a job the following week. But this didn’t limit the vitriol Swearinger was bombarded with.

Tony Gonzales, a hugely respected tight end for the Atlanta Falcons who is destined for the Hall of Fame, was particularly caustic in an interview for USA Today. “That [hit] was ridiculous . . . it should be a finable offense,” he fumed, continuing, “any player who does that . . . I have no respect for that.”

The most jaw dropping part of Gonzales’ rant, however, was this gem: “ . . . hitting a defenseless player in the knee . . . that’s my nightmare. Hit me in my head.”

The biggest impetus driving the NFL’s sudden obsession with shots to the head stems from the recently settled class action lawsuit launched by hundreds of former players suffering from degenerative cognitive issues; conditions the players allege stem from repeated traumatic head injuries incurred while playing in the NFL. Over the last few years, Dave Duerson (a safety for the Chicago Bears in the 1980s) and Junior Seau (a linebacker for the Chargers and Patriots who had a 20-plus year career and a likely Hall of Fame inductee) were among a number of former players who committed suicide. Their families and friends reported significant changes in them prior to their suicides — depression, mood swings and increasingly erratic behaviour — this escalated concern.

A few months prior to his death, Seau made nationwide headlines when he drove off a cliff. He survived with minor injuries, and explained away the incident publicly and privately by claiming to have fallen asleep at the wheel. Whisperings and rumours that it was a suicide attempt remained unsubstantiated until Seau put a single bullet through his own heart.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Seau’s close friend and former teammate Aaron Taylor gave the public a chilling glimpse into Seau’s tortured psyche: “He was a beaten-down man. His confidence was gone. He seemed worn-out. It was hard for him to articulate coherent thoughts. There was a degradation of the dude that I remember playing with.”

Seau’s family joined the class action lawsuit after the post-mortem examination revealed that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative condition that is rooted in sustaining repetitive blows to the head and concussive forces.

A joint-study performed by the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, Veteran Affairs Boston Healthcare System and Sports Legacy Institute identified CTE in the brains and spinal cords of 68 deceased athletes and military veterans donated by their families. Thirty-four had played at the NFL level.

Chris Carter, a Hall of Fame wide receiver, argued on Swearinger’s behalf on ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown, insisting that low hits would be an unfortunate part of what he termed “the new NFL” before he was interrupted by Mike Ditka, who echoed Gonzales’ assertion. “I understand nobody wants concussions,” Ditka said almost sheepishly on air, “but I’d rather get hit in the head. Sorry, guys.”

This is even more mind-boggling when you consider that Ditka was Dave Duerson’s coach when the Bears won the Super Bowl in 1985.

This gladiator instinct and mindset of alpha-dog supremacism runs rampant across all sports, and is not singular to the NFL. Rick Rypien’s suicide was as startling as it was tragic. The death of Derek Boogaard, another young man lost before his time, was highly publicized. Both men embraced the roles of ‘enforcers’ or ‘bangers;’ the type of guys on the bottom of the roster who were tasked almost exclusively with energetically physical play and protecting the health of their star teammates. Both deaths are considered to be at least in part related to the post-traumatic effects of hits to the head.

This is not to say that authority figures such as the NFL, NHL and NCAA are completely innocent or divorced of responsibility when it comes to diagnosing and treating concussions.

The case of Preston Plevretes, whose family was awarded $7.5 million in a settlement from the NCAA, springs to mind.

Then 18 year-old Plevretes enrolled at La Salle in 2005, and had his future vanish in a blur of violence. Plevretes suffered a concussion in practice and, despite repeated headaches and impaired vision, was cleared to play in a game a scant two weeks later. He suffered a second, sickening blow that ended his career — and almost his life. A third of his skull was removed by emergency room doctors to remove the pressure induced by subdural swelling. His right frontal lobe was disconnected from the rest of his brain four years later to halt repeated seizures that he suffered.

He can barely speak now, and requires roundthe-clock assistance.

There’s nothing to say that Plevretes was strong-armed into returning to the field of

Given this information, Gonzales’ willingness to sustain shots to the head as opposed to his knees, to the casual viewer, borders on the ridiculous. Such a mindset flies directly in the face of this class action lawsuit, in which the former players allege the NFL did not adequately alert them to the dangers of concussions and sub-concussive hits to the head nor provide sufficient medical treatment. We live in a golden age of medical research, and it is indubitable that Gonzales knows those risks. However he, like a number of his peers, chooses freely to embrace them.

course; ultimately, the decision to play was his own. But in a sport where sacrifice for the team is considered mandatory and evident of manhood, the players themselves are wary of making unpopular decisions protecting their own interests for the fear of being labeled ‘selfish’ by their teammates and fans alike.

Football coaches are partially deified as the ultimate authority figures; therefore, they and the team’s medical staffs are responsible for preserving the lives and futures of the

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18 FEATURES

September 16, 2013

young men entrusted to their care.

Shockingly in this case, there were no efforts whatsoever to evaluate Plevretes’ mental status prior to clearing him to return to contact. In a deposition provided by La Salle’s trainer, he stated that he gave Plevretes no recall questions, memory tests or cognitive evaluations at all. Why? Because the guidelines in place (at the time) stated that he didn’t have to.

The Plevretes family now lives on a farm, which allows Preston to drive a small utility vehicle — the singular joy

he has left in his life other than football (which he still watches religiously). Preston Plevretes’ broken body was chewed up and spit out by a sport that he still loves even as it marches on, leaving him behind with innumerable athletes who are forced to piece their lives together once the cameras stop flashing.

It makes running out of bounds, which Emmitt Smith sneered at, seem like a brilliant plan. Indeed, it is the only logical plan to avoid injuries from piling up as former athletes are squeezed through the meat grinder. The same athletes who have launched legal challenges at the NFL (one would have to assume

the NHL will face a similar epidemic of its own soon) need to, essentially, be protected from themselves, and need a strong team with the wherewithal to tell them “no,” even when such a move is unpopular. But first, they need that team to have the same wherewithal to prioritize their health and safety ahead of winning.

However, we cannot completely lift responsibility from the players. The raging debate over whether fighting should be outlawed in today’s NHL is a prime example of the ‘history’ and ‘character of the game’ being prioritized at the expense of the players by the players themselves. Here’s a thought: if hockey players

didn’t want to suffer from the ill effects of potential brain trauma associated with fighting, why don’t they stop fighting?

Given what we know today about the severity and significance of concussions, it doesn’t seem like a stretch that the players would unilaterally and informally reject fighting. But it is so tightly enjoined within the story of the game that the players of today, brought up in a much more lax time with respect to physical violence, consider it a vital element despite its independence from the sport’s specific skill sets and goals (such as, you know, to score goals).

How do we as fans, knowing what we know now, continue to enjoy the game of football? For that matter, why hockey? Why do we excitedly discuss watching an athlete’s eyes roll back into his head after a perfectly placed kick in a UFC octagon knocks him out cold? As much as the athletes themselves embrace the role of gladiators, we as fans are equally responsible for goading them on to commit increasingly spectacular feats of violence.

On the opening night of this college football season, a wide receiver from Vanderbilt was hit so hard that he wobbled through one more play be-

Sports are not safe and they never will be safe, regardless of the repeated and creative attempts of their governing bodies to make them so. In an article for PolicyMic, George Thomas insisted that we as fans were not obligated to draw a line in the sand when it came to violence in football. Instead, our comfort levels could be defined by where we draw the line.

This is pure fantasy. As a consumer, you can either choose to watch a sport where up to 10 per cent of the athletes may suffer a concussion in a given season or, in good conscience, elect to change the channel.

fore vomiting on the field. Instead of looking on in horror, the shot caused a social media eruption, especially after the same receiver came back into the game on the same series and caught a 45-yard catch and run that set up a go-ahead touchdown. Those stories, which should be of incredibly misplaced priorities, are instead rebranded as incredible acts of heroism, and reaffirm our love affair with human bodies being pulverized.

Consider Lawrence Taylor, the fabled New York Giants linebacker and one of the most feared men in the league who delighted in boasting that, “In football, you can always maim a person if you [want] to.”

In settling the aforementioned class action lawsuit to the tune of 765 million dollars (a number that appears staggering but is a drop in the bucket for a hilariously profitable league), the NFL has attempted to continue their re-branding process. As much as NFL Films sells the game as a nobly violent sport, the league is also trying to appear safer, and convince parents at home that they will be doing everything they conceivably can to make sure their kids will be okay.

To reassure fans at home that their favourite players (infallible heroes all) will still be available for their fantasy team next week. As the ‘Back to Football’ slogan goes, the NFL hopes that

we as fans ignore the nasty stuff, that we swallow and ignore our own culpability in the degradation of the bodies of athletes, and continue to buy merchandise.

I question why I watch football as much as I do (and I do somewhat obsessively). Casual fans and those unfamiliar to the game often remark that the game looks like a display of chickens racing around with their heads cut off and running into one another for two minutes before a five-minute block of commercials is plunked into the broadcast.

That’s a fair criticism (though its validity, for me, is questionable), but the game’s appeal to me is hinged in dual parts on its tactical complexity and the sheer degree of athletic skill that enacts voluminous game plans.

It’s an inherently violent game but I can’t help but love it, and if my child one day asked to join their atom league, I would let them. I’d probably end up watching with gritted teeth and clenched fists, but I can’t imagine myself discouraging their enthusiasm for it or any other sport. On the flip side, there are many professional football players — current and former — who insist that they wouldn’t allow their kids to play the game. That’s their prerogative.

My relationship with the game and league is one of love and frustration, because as much as it bothers me that Washington’s team name is considered a racial slur, and that HBO’s Hard Knocks takes us inside medical treatment rooms as no-name free agents and low end draft picks suffer catastrophic injuries only to be provided a pittance of an injury settlement, the spin of a perfectly-thrown football down the seam to a leaping receiver in the end zone is unbelievably seductive.

Ed Reed, a hard-hitting safety who made his name and career in Baltimore, was especially contemplative

as he faced media scrums before the Super Bowl last year. Of course, the subject of concussions came up, and Reed was particularly frank in this exchange with a reporter (reprinted from Grantland): “I feel effects from it. Some days, I wake up and I’m like, ‘Where did my memory go?’ But I signed up for it.”

“Did Junior Seau sign up for it?”

“Yeah, he signed up for it. Junior gave everything he has to football. I’m sure he’s looking down now and has no regrets.”

It is this waffling in players themselves, an inability to make a concrete decision on what is best for their health right now, the desire to play tough, to be tough, that inspires them to take risks that they do. Football rosters are most often dominated by incredibly athletic kids from small towns and rural areas who are inspired by a dream they see on TV, a chance at a better life. To obtain a college education they may never otherwise have an opportunity to receive. To drag themselves, and their families, out of poverty.

Quite simply, our almost existential struggle with the game is irrelevant. Whether legislation within the game encourages low or high hits is also irrelevant. The long-term impact of concussions and mounting injuries is simply part of the Faustian pact they willingly make.

Aldon Smith, a third-year pro bowl linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers, was succinct in the way he summarized the risks players willingly take to play in front of a global audience for ESPN.com. “It’s not like we signed up and thought we were going to play tennis. It’s a physical game . . . and guys get hit sometimes. That’s what we all know coming into the game. We all signed up for it.

“We came out to play football.”

...continued from page 17

FEATURES

he CJSF offices seem out of time. Amid shag carpeting, countless stickers and posters, and a couple of well lived-in couches, one has to imagine that the space hasn’t changed much since the radio station was first established. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought that I had stumbled straight into the late 1970s.

The secluded room in which I’m interviewing David Swanson, the station’s Program Coordinator, doubles as a recording studio, and boasts a large, upholstered single couch, as well as a mess of stray wires and spare CDs. I’m instantly at home. “In a commuter campus, there’s a lot of people that just come up, do their classes, and leave,” David tells me. “[CJSF] is a reason to stay, to make friends.”

But certainly making friends isn’t the only reason to stay — what about their storage room, which features tens of thousands of CDs, cassettes and vinyl records? This room, which is under lock and key at all times, functions as a time capsule as much as it does a music library. The records are in good condition, if a little worn from repeat plays, and the station takes advantage of their diverse collection.

“Regarding music, we have everything from death metal to classical music to EDM to local indie rock,” says David.

“It’s all different, all the time.”

The CJSF doesn’t just play music, either. They also feature talk shows and multimedia segments that combine spoken word with musical

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interludes. “Where commercial radio is music or talk, we’re music and talk,” says David. “We get very diverse.

Anywhere from environmental rights issues, to LGBTQ rights issues, critical urban discussion, and lots of arts interviews with local artists, Canadian artists and international artists as well.”

Beginning as a music club in SFU’s early days before setting their sights on radio, the station’s first DJs would broadcast unlicensed shows via speakers covertly placed around campus. Eventually they earned a spot on cable FM, and their signal began to attract listeners from across the Lower Mainland. However, despite repeated pleas to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, they didn’t

the radio, and then people listen.

They’re calling you up, and you’re getting feedback.” Magnus, who has been the CJSF’s head honcho since 2000, says the move to FM was a necessity. “You’ve got to be easy to access. If people have to do a lot of special stuff to listen, they

receive an FM frequency until 2002. Even then, the staff of the CJSF could never have prepared for the radical switch from cable to wireless.

“All of a sudden, it got a lot more real,” says Magnus Thyvold, the CJSF Station Manager. “If you’re only available in a limited and somewhat difficult to access way, that’s going to affect your listenership. But once you’re on FM, you can just tell your friends to tune in to CJSF on

often won’t take the trouble to find the station.”

The station stands apart from the corporate stations they share a frequency with, as well as several of their on-campus competitors: They don’t run advertisements, and therefore have more control over the material they broadcast. “[Businesses] can dictate programming based on advertising dollars,” David says. “That doesn’t happen here.”

This freedom of expression gives SFU students a better chance

to get involved in the CJSF than they might have at other university stations. “That’s the whole thing with media, is to be able to provide people with the opportunity to express their views on issues, share their interest in art — whatever,” Magnus says. David tells me about the station’s Jambalaya slot, which offers students a chance to test the waters of FM radio with only a week’s worth of experience. “It’s an open format new music show,” he says. “So, someone can figure out if they actually enjoy making radio very quickly.”

Despite controversies in the past, the CJSF is looking forward to a brighter future. “The future for radio — for us and anyone else — is about integrating things like the Internet and social media,” Magnus says. “Now that so much music is available on the web, you can’t just play songs and expect that it’s going to be enough. You’ve got to have more information, more things that create a unique experience.” The station is planning to revamp their web presence in order to foster interconnectivity between listeners and staff.

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In honour of a decade on the dial, the CJSF is hosting a party to celebrate their achievement. It’ll be at the Astoria on Hastings Street on September 21. The price of admission? $10 bucks. “There’ll be seven musical acts, some pretty big names — Jay Arner, Bestie — two spoken word poets, and a live art creation project that we’re going to auction off at the end of the night.

All the money from that will go to the Safe Amplification Society.”

The SAS is a local non-profit dedicated to providing Vancouverites with an all-ages venue for performers, both local and international.

The CJSF’s first official broadcast on the FM is marked on their site as February 13, 2003, which makes their 10 year anniversary party a little late. David puts this in perspective for me. “It’s 10 years on FM, but we’ve been on campus for, like, 46 years,” he laughs. “So there’s a longer history than that.”

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ARTS

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September 16, 2013

This one-man show about the power of music as a universal language has writer Chase Padgett portraying six different characters, all playing a different style of guitar and very different personalities.

First, we meet the 87 yearold blues guitarist who explains to us that blues is about real life and that there are really only four themes: I’ve got problems, look at my car, that girl’s hot, and let’s get messed up. He explains how hiphop music is no different. He also has a great sense of humour, explaining that he originally named himself Syphilis Mango Taft, following his hero Blind Lemon Jefferson’s naming formula of affliction, fruit, president.

Another one of my favourite characters was the jazz player who was full of pretentious comments, like, “Jazz music. I could tell you so much, but would you ever really understand it?” The folkie, Peter, is sugary sweet and talks about his first performance with his uncle’s guitar, when he sang “You Are My Sunshine” at his funeral.

With a band named Satan’s Orthodontist, the next rock guitarist

is a young metal head who talks about conflict within his band and his love of “music that chews your face off.” The country musician, with his wide legged stance and southern drawl, sings about pick-up trucks, women, and beer, reinforcing the bluesman’s theory about themes.

And of course next comes the classical guitarist with what is supposed to be a Spanish accent, which wasn’t as strong as it could have been. He spoke in metaphors and about “feeling the music,” but he felt like the weakest of all the characters.

What Padgett has accomplished with this show is truly

remarkable; he expertly portrayed six very different characters, smoothly transitioning between them by changing something as simple as the way he sits or his facial expression. It also helps that Padgett is a talented guitarist, captivating the audience as he plays everything from soft jazz, to heartfelt blues, to head-banging rock.

By the end of the show, after making a case for each of their respective guitar styles, the musicians all talk about their respect for other styles and the way that music, no matter what genre, is a great equalizer that brings people together and helps them express their deepest emotions.

When a show begins with a “strapless Riverdance” where clothing keeps falling down during the performance, it’s not hard to grab an audience’s attention. The five girls of this sketch comedy troupe aren’t afraid to show off their assets, but they can also write some pretty hilarious sketches.

A few stand out, including “5 Card Stud,” a girls’ poker game where they bet ex-boyfriends instead of money: “I’ll see your jobless loser and raise you two commitment-phobes.” I really enjoyed “Carl and Jan Go to the Bank”, which had a Saturday Night Live feel to it as the aged Carl holds up the bank because they won’t take his pennies.

“Break Up Movers” was also hilarious, as they advertise their services to move you out in the middle of the night without your partner even knowing. If you want to avoid the awkward moving out conversation, just call the break up movers.

I think my favourite sketch was the final one, “Indie Rock Crush,” written by Jackie Blackmore. It

was about a woman who has a crush on one of the boys in her son’s band. She breaks into song, dancing around the stage with her broom singing things like “I wish I was your guitar so you could strum me; I wish I was your bus ticket so you could validate me.”

One of the sketches that I could relate to was called “Sign It.” One girl was sitting at a table as two others, dressed in matching track suits, told her that if she wanted to get in shape she better sign up for their gym’s membership, and if she didn’t sign in the next ten seconds, the special offer would expire. If

you’ve ever signed a gym contract, you’ll know that their sketch wasn’t too much of an exaggeration.

There were a few sketches that, unfortunately, fell flat: “Nemesis” had a boyfriend telling his girlfriend that the best way to deal with her nemesis is to fight her. A few of the sketches just didn’t seem to have strong enough endings, but there were definitely a lot of laughs.

With lots of confidence, no fear, and plenty of comedy writing talent, Strapless Comedy has a lot of potential and I think their material has just enough of a risky edge that it will resonate with people.

I don’t even know how to describe this show. I’ve seen a lot of theatre, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Full of blunt satire and content most people would rather avoid, You Killed Hamlet had very little connection to the Danish prince other than the theme of mortality.

The show involves two bouffon clowns with dangly nuts and other parts, wearing fat-suits, and looking pretty ugly talking about everything from colostomy bags to suicide. They sauntered into the venue as if they were audience members, weaving through the tables saying things like “we made it . . . oh gosh, so great to see you.”

There were a lot of references to the show itself as they voiced potential thoughts of audience members like, “What kind of show is this” and “This has nothing to do with Hamlet!”

Their catchy song “Who plays Hamlet in this show” was quite funny and I did enjoy some of the humour, but I found most of this show unpleasant and bordering on offensive — to the

Daryn Wright arts@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

senses, that is, not politically offensive.

One scene that I found fairly clever involved the clowns taking turns acting out a series of negative effects of growing older or getting sick, adding a new one to the sequence each time. The other clown would stand in the audience and guess what the first was portraying, and once they guessed correctly the clown on stage yelled, “Don’t want to think about it!”

Another scene had them pretending to be Fringe-goers who just saw their show and they wandered around the audience saying “Oh my god we just saw the show.

It was a . . . well it was . . . a decent show . . . decent. But you know what you could do?” Then they would answer “production value,” or “circus acts.”

The show suggested that we live in a society that represses negative things and is uncomfortable talking about realities like death and illness.

While some of their material was humorous, and they were talented entertainers, this just wasn’t an enjoyable show.

ARTS

September 16, 2013

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...continued from page 20

To all my fellow SFU classmates that feel homesick for powder covered slopes, who sometimes wish they had been a ski bum rather than an academic, who get giddy when the weather turns cold and snow bases start to form: I have found a restaurant for you. Nestled along Kingsway in Mount Pleasant is the Black Lodge, a “Twin Peaks” themed restaurant that hits all the right nostalgic notes.

Upon entry I was transported to the mountains, and despite the large window revealing the busy traffic of Kingsway, it’s amazing how well this tiny room of a restaurant was able to make me feel worlds away.

With low-key background music and casual mannered staff, I felt a very mellow vibe throughout my whole experience. The tables were made of tree trunk cutouts and the settings were reminiscent of

camping gear, creating a cohesive ambiance.

I ordered “Suzie’s Starry Night Chili” and a B.A.L.T (“Tree Hugger”) sandwich, while my friend ordered the small poutine and a grilled cheese sandwich — all of which remained true to the menu’s promise of being able to make almost all meals vegan or gluten free. Our food arrived in a good amount of time and was plated homestyle, like something my mom would have handed to me.

The grilled cheese was made on sourdough bread that tasted extremely fresh. It was something I could make at home, which, in a way, was comforting yet a little disappointing.

The poutine was extremely well done with a vegetarian gravy — but not tasting vegetarian in the least — and the curds were perfect sizes and a great consistency. The fries were fresh and obviously oven-baked.

My “Tree Hugger” sandwich was decent, but since it was a little heavy on the Dijon mustard I ended up skipping the bread covered with it. The sandwich ingredients were well thought out though, with a garlic aioli, sprouts, and faux coconut bacon doing a great pork impersonation; it was a BLT with a creative twist.

Last and oh so definitely not least was the chili (oh sweet taste bud gods, that chili). With perfectly cooked and seasoned vegetables, the perfect amount of beans, the entire top coated with impeccably melted cheese, and a generous dollop of sour cream and green onion garnish, this chili was everything I could ever want. I wanted to take that chili out for a nice dinner and most definitely call it back.

My meal — which I was hardly able to finish — came out to be around $15 dollars, including tip and tax (everything on the menu is listed as tax included prices). I give my experience two thumbs up and would definitely go back, if not just to satisfy my chili cravings.

If you are a ski bum at heart and looking for a fun, cheap and filling restaurant, look no further than the Black Lodge.

Fringe festivals are full of oneman shows, but I doubt most are as impressive as Paul Cosentino portraying nine New Yorkers in this play written by Michael Levesque. With only a chair sharing the stage with him and no costume changes, Cosentino transitions through these characters, including an old Italian shopkeeper, a Jewish housewife, a pregnant black woman, and a gay yoga instructor, with ease.

As he unravels the puzzle of how these characters’ lives intersect, he draws the audience into a world that he has created, quite literally, out of thin air; there are no props, only one plain brown outfit, and pure storytelling.

Sri Sri, an Indian guru, began the show by explaining that we should all take a deep breath and take a moment to stop, look, and listen in our hectic lives.

We all took a collective breath and settled in for a great piece of theatre.

This theme ran throughout the play, and Sri Sri returned a few times to provide his wisdom. The plot involves a cast of characters all with their own problems, some of them struggling to figure out if they have made the right choices in their lives.

Italian Joey Marino runs his grandpa’s store by himself while his grandpa, Joseph Marino, is in the hospital telling him he doesn’t want to live anymore.

Mr. Marino is being treated by Dr. Alex Redding who has his own problems — he’s married to Jewish housewife Debra Steiner while having an affair with her yoga instructor, Tommy. Debra got married for the wrong reasons and complains about her mother, who thinks her husband should be Jewish (although she says that being a doctor almost negates that requirement).

Joey Marino’s pregnant girlfriend, Dwandra, worries that Joey doesn’t want to marry her, and Joey worries that his grandpa disapproves of their relationship. Their son J.J. also makes a couple of small appearances, but I thought he was the weakest character portrayed and it probably wasn’t necessary for him to be seen on stage.

While I thought the acting in this show was superb, I found some of the coincidences between the characters to be a bit forced. Sri Sri does say that there is no such thing as a coincidence, so I guess he would disagree.

22 ARTS

It shouldn’t work. Elvis Costello, the angry young man turned cantankerous cynic behind some of the best cerebral rock ever written (see My Aim is True, This Year’s Model and Imperial Bedroom), has been in studio over the course of a year with The Roots, the legendary hip-hop outfit who proved that the genre could do live instrumentation as well as any other. You’re probably thinking what everyone else was when the artistic partnership was announced: what?

But somehow, Costello’s acidic sneer, Mark Kelley’s funkadelic bass and ?uestlove’s jazz-inspired drums combine organically to make Wise Up Ghost

Brian Eno is a hard figure to pin down.

Beginning as the keyboardist for the glam rock group Roxy Music, he eventually left the group to focus on his solo career. He experimented with art

September 16, 2013

one of The Roots’ strongest efforts, and Costello’s best album since his split with The Attractions nearly two decades ago.

Costello’s hip-hop inspired verbal spitfire on tracks like “Refuse to Be Saved” and “Stick Out Your Tongue” is no far cry from his conversational vocals on his early masterpieces, and The Roots — who have proven their aptitude as a backing band during their stint on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon — lend Costello’s songwriting an energy and liveness his most recent albums have been sorely lacking.

The album’s diverse instrumentation, most notably the sousaphone accompaniment of Tuba Gooding Jr., gives the songs a smooth jazz feel that soften the blow of Costello’s often accusatory, sardonic lyrics. Though some tracks, such as the R&B groove of “Wake Me Up,” flirt with easy-listening tropes, Costello’s wordplay and The Roots’ soulful accompaniment give Wise Up Ghost enough bite to avoid being described as — heaven forbid — adult contemporary.

Considering his reputation during his early years as indie rock’s Johnny Rotten, it’s ironic how often Costello endures accusations of softness and acquiescence. It’s refreshing to see that, with the release of Wise Up Ghost, an artist with so many albums under his belt still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

pop, rock and roll and electronica. He collaborated with David Byrne, Robert Fripp and Harold Budd, and produced musical milestones such as Talking Heads’ Remain in Light and U2’s Achtung Baby.

Despite his remarkable discography, Eno seems most comfortable in the background: he’s rarely pictured on his album covers, and he comfortably shares his spotlight with artists who command more attention than himself. It seems natural, then, that Eno’s musical peak is an album whose greatest success is its subtlety: as the first champion — and arguably one of the inventors — of ambient music, Eno is no stranger to the “less is more” approach to electronic music.

Music for Airports, the first of his fourpart series of ambient LPs, is as much about silence as it is about music. Divided into four untitled suites, the album is built around looping piano riffs, synthesized atmosphere and sparse vocal samples. Its tone is calm and ethereal, and seems to inspire an increase in concentration rather than distraction.

It feels cheap to call the album’s minimalist ambience “beautiful,” but

Man, can she sing. Neko Case’s powerful vocals often play the lead role in her not-quite-country discography, and on The Worse Things Get, her impressive range and dramatic delivery have improved. From the first moments album opener “Wild Creatures” storms out of the gate, you know you’re in for a bumpy ride.

The LP, Case’s best and most personal record yet, was recorded in the wake of a rough period in the songstress’ life: she lost her grandmother and both of her parents, and

the word is fitting: the skeletal piano of the album’s first side and the synthesized delicacy of its second are nothing short of awe inspiring. The shift in instrumentation is subliminal, but meaningful: Eno charts his own musical evolution by having his LP transition from traditional piano harmonies to electronic mood pieces.

subsequently sunk into depression.

The tracks on The Worse Things Get are emotionally bare and subtly twisted, as are Case’s lyrics: on standout “Night Still Comes,” she coos, “If I puked up some sonnets / Would you call me a miracle?”

Each song seems to find a new subject in Case’s cross hairs. She laments the socialization of gender on “Man,” while M. Ward’s lead guitar crunches; she punishes bad parenting on the heartbreaking a capella “Nearly Midnight, Honolulu;” she even tries her hand at a murder ballad on the hornled “Bracing For Sunday.”

Her ear for catchy melodies has steadily improved, and tracks like “Calling Cards” and “City Swans” blow the blissful country pop of Middle Cyclone out of the water. The Worse Things Get is also Case’s most musically diverse offering yet, but her creative instrumentation is overshadowed by her quotable lyricism and passionate vocals.

Case’s tightrope act between vulnerability and severity calls to mind Fiona Apple’s 2012 masterpiece The Idler Wheel… Like that record, The Worse Things Get makes the rest of Case’s career seem like a dress rehearsal. She’s always been talented at setting a scene, but as her latest LP proves, her real talents seem to lie in the realm of autobiography.

Those of you who cringe at the idea of ambient music — or refuse to accept it as music at all — probably won’t find that Music for Airports changes your mind. But for the patient and introspective, this album is arguably the genre’s first masterpiece, and a template that has seldom been equaled and never improved.

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ARTS

September 16, 2013

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When someone close tells me they’re a terrible liar, I can’t help but wonder if they’re a really good liar and if I would trust-fall into their arms on a supporting girder under the Lion’s Gate bridge. if I would let them choose my day’s clothes from my closet while I stand by, eyes closed. or if I would ever close off the world, my head resting on their shoulder (…or if that would be mutually weird.) if I could expose my mind to let it be the most naked, if I could describe, say, the phantom pounds of guilt that dog-pile on my back, sometimes to invite them to the way I hear, smell, remember and forget the world…

Not that she’s asking.

But something about this surrender of her own, Not just those words, but her eyes flashing up into mine cheeks rising chin tilting down head slowly shaking to a settle and I want to surrender, too.

The Irish Heather is hosting a special whiskey supper on Sept. 18. Beginning at 7:00 p.m., the evening will commence with a Whyte & MacKay cocktail, followed by a whiskey flight, paired with roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, gravy, Lyonnaise potatoes, honey roasted root vegetables, sticky toffee pudding, and a surprise whiskey to top it all off. Sound amazing? Tickets are only $40, which is pretty darn good considering what you’re getting.

Check out irishheather.com for details.

This week, The Cultch is hosting Jazzing Up Carnegie, a fundraiser to help upgrade the Carnegie Centre Theatre on Sept.

18. The evening will feature several local jazz musicians, including Hugh Fraser, Paul Plimley, and Dalannah Gail Bowen, as well as the 17-piece Carnegie Jazz Band and Jazz Combo led by trombonist Brad Muirhead. Tickets are a bit pricy at $65, but if you’ve got a little extra dough in your wallet this week and are a big jazz fan, consider checking out this worthy cause.

Do you like Bill Murray? Want to celebrate his birthday?

Why not check out the Rio Theatre’s I Heart Bill Murray Birthday Murray-Thon on Sept. 21. Teaming with Glory Days, the theatre is showing some Bill Murray favourites, including Stripes, Groundhog Day, and of course, Lost in Translation. Triple bill tickets are $12 in advance, or $15 at the door, and ticket holders receive free entry to the Biltmore Cabaret’s Bill Murray Birthday Party After Party, running form 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.

The Chinatown Experiment is gathering the community for their next pop-up project, going down Sept.

17–22. The Neighbourhood Collective is an assembly of 19 local businesses from all around Vancouver, including fashion, food, and art. Open daily from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., come hang out and get to know some of the small businesses sprouting up around Vancouver. Participating groups include Citizen Grace, Nice Pops, Macarons by Edible Mark, art by Janice Wu, and much more.

The Eastside Flea is a once monthly gathering of vendors selling vintage clothing, furniture, handmade goods, arts, crafts, and more. The community-oriented event encourages vendors of all kinds to join in, meaning a huge variety and a little something for everyone. Taking place in the Wisehall on Adanac St. on Sept. 21, the huge flea market is a perfect opportunity to find some fall goods for the new season. Need a new chunky wool sweater? Looking for some throw pillows for your new apartment? Why not support the local community and head over to the hall for an afternoon of scavenging.

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SPORTS

September 16, 2013

out 66–20. That was 2010. Now, in 2013, head coach Dave Johnson and his team returned home victors over the team projected to finish first in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) — by comparison, SFU was projected to rank second-last in the conference’s six-team field.

On September 7, in the opening game of the 2013 season, the SFU football team defeated the Humboldt State University Lumberjacks 41-27, on the road. It was only one game, and the team still has a long way to go this season, but oh how far the Clan has come.

During the Clan’s winless inaugural season in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), not too long ago, the team journeyed to HSU’s California campus only to be blown

It’s not quite a David-andGoliath-type upset, despite the ranking disparity. “There’s so much parity in the GNAC,” said Johnson. “Every week you’ve got to go out and play well, and it’s going to be a dogfight. I think that’s a good thing, our guys prefer it that way.”

He pointed to other NCAA conferences where games end

up with 80+ point differentials.

“Neither team gets anything out of that,” he says. “Week in, week out, it’s a high level of football [in the GNAC] and anybody can beat anybody.”

Still, no matter how small the upset, there are plenty of reasons for optimism up on Terry Fox Field. The Clan, who lost its starting quarterback, running back, and its offensive coordinator over the summer, had questions going into their week one showdown — and for the most part, they were answered.

Johnson said new starting quarterback Ryan Stanford won the job just before the team’s first game, but hit it out of the park in the first game, “The QB spot, I know we had the GNAC QB of the Year last year, but we really felt we needed an upgrade at that position.” He continued, “And not just in terms of arm strength or athletic ability, but leadership; someone who is a team guy. That has certainly

sports editor email / phone

Adam Ovenell-Carter sports@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

happened with Ryan. And he also happened to throw for 300-something yards.”

Four-hundred and forty-six, actually.

“To see what this offense is capable of . . . It was a good way for us to get started,” smiled Johnson. “But the run game,” he admitted, “was a little bit behind [compared to the passing game].

But we’re becoming more balanced than we’ve ever been.”

But perhaps the biggest question was on defense, where there was plenty of room for improvement from a year ago. “Last year we sucked on defense,” confessed Johnson. So surely there’s nowhere to go but up?

“We have a lot of work to do, but I was encouraged. Did you know [HSU] only had the ball for nine minutes in the entire second half?” he asked, proudly. He admitted part of that was due to a soaring offense that scored 27 second-half points (aided by a 164-yard, three-touchdown performance by receiver Lemar Durant, who is looking more and more like a legitimate NFL prospect). But the progress he’s seen is promising.

“We’re far from where we can be, but it’s nice to start with a win.” One game in and he’s seen plenty of improvements in areas he believes really needed them. Now, Johnson gets a bye week before his team faces Central Washington on the road, a team ranked right behind HSU in the GNAC, on Sept. 21.

“We spent a lot of training camp prepping for Humboldt,” he said. “Now, we get a chance to rest, heal, prepare and plan for another big test. I love it.”

SPORTS

After seven months of uncertainty, the wrestling community around the world finally has closure, after a member vote by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Sept. 8 re-instated the sport for the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

In February of this year, IOC confirmed the elimination of wrestling from the core-sports of the Olympic Games, and removed it from the 2020 Olympics onward. Other sports such as baseball and softball were also affected. For both Clan athletes and wrestlers across the globe, the past seven months — since the IOC released the shocking statement that threatened to change the face of their sport — have been difficult and unprecedented.

Wrestlers were undeterred however, as the decision led to a six month-long campaign from the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) to create a bid for possible reinstatement, and to save the future of one of the world’s oldest sports.

FILA’s campaign included changes to their structure, and featured the adding of several additional women’s events, as well as increasing the point scoring to make it more exciting for viewers.

Clan men’s wrestling coach Justin Abdou, a former Canadian Olympian in the 2000 Games in Sydney, says that the decision to save wrestling was the best possible outcome for the sport.

“This is huge news, not just for high performance and collegiate athletes, but for any and every person involved in the sport,” he said. “The Olympics are our flagship event, and not being associated with the Games would be devastating.”

Abdou explained that the Clan has a rich history in the Olympic Games, with over 40 SFU alumni Olympic appearances and a combined six podium performances, including two gold medal efforts. Those

September 16, 2013

two gold medalists and two of the Clan’s most prominent wrestling alumni, Carol Huynh and Daniel Igali, had pivotal roles in the reversal of the elimination, acting as two of five panelists from around the world that made up the sport’s delegation at the Sept. 8 vote.

The panelists shared personal and emotional speeches

about the importance of the sport in their lives and the importance it will have for young athletes growing up worldwide.

Abdou agrees on the impact of the sport on the world, and explained that without the Olympic dream, numerous young athletes would be training without the goal of qualifying for one of the world’s more premier events. “Watching those athletes on the Olympic stage is extremely inspiring for any young athletes, and it is so important for those possibilities to exist,” he said.

Clan athletes compete at a high collegiate level, with the men competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association,

while the women compete in the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association. SFU has historically had great success in their collegiate competitions, including an NCAA All-American in Skylor Davis, and a WCWA championship and numerous individual titles all in 2013.

Looking forward now, the athletes can continue to focus on improving, and striving to

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earn those coveted Olympic appearances. Following the decision, wrestlers across the world will once again have the opportunity to represent their countries in the Olympic Games, at least through 2024. The six months of resilience and uncertainty have come to a successful end.

“Wrestling is about the Olympics,” said Clan wrestler Ryan Yewchin. “Everyone who has ever stepped on a mat has envisioned themselves winning an Olympic gold medal, and that vision is secure for three more Olympic Games.”

26 SPORTS

It has become an enduring image: Ray Lewis, two-time Super Bowl Champion, legendary middle linebacker and motivator extraordinaire, driving his troops in a variety of colourful (and family friendly) ways with eyes popped, veins bulging and sweat glistening under lights. His love affair with the public eye has become a crutch for NFL Films.

After his Baltimore Ravens flipped the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game last year, Lewis wobbled out like a man suffering from heatstroke before collapsing to the turf at Gillette Stadium and kissing the grass as he was besieged by a phalanx of cameras. Away from the field, a far softer spoken Lewis took center stage in an endless series of interviews, robotically repeating vague and inconsistent platitudes about family, football and faith.

It’s a serious about-face for Lewis who, in 2000, was charged with murdering two men after a Super Bowl Party. The charges were not substantiated, and Lewis’ agreement to testify against the co-accused helped him escape legal blowback and NFL discipline. Irrespective of how you feel about the case’s outcome, it would be crass to hold the charges against Lewis for the rest of his life. But the rush to lionize him as an ambassador of the game given an over-the-top public persona that became increasingly (and obnoxiously) manufactured over time is bizarre.

Football has become an essential piece of Americana. In a piece for Slate, Jack Hamilton described the game as America’s “secular religion,” where a celebrity-crazy populace elevates its superstars to messianic proportions. Robert Griffin III, the second year quarterback of the Washington Redskins, has been hailed as a franchise savior after a single (albeit electric) season; so much so that fans located his wedding registry and showered the young

September 16, 2013

multi-millionaire with gifts.

The fascination with celebrity is omnipresent, as is the perverse and counter obsession with deconstruction of celebrities when they fall. This zero-sum approach, ignoring all-too-human inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies, breeds a very specific type of character.

Those who thrive learn to sling the kind of vanilla that we love to lap up.

Thus Lewis has always fascinated me. He designed a cult of personality that transcended his actual day job even as he

declined. Lewis was one of the Ravens’ weakest defenders last year, commanding a starting slot on reputation and an erstwhile lack of options on the inside. Trumpeted as the team’s spiritual and emotional leader by his coaches and the media (universally seduced by his exaggerated modesty and ingame antics), he finally began to grate heavily as the Ravens thundered through the playoffs last season.

Lewis then made the widely expected jump to the media, and immediately flew out of the gate with wild conspiracies about the now infamous blackout that changed the tenor of the Super Bowl. Most former players would be scoffed at by caustic and jaded sportscasters.

But Lewis still has us eating out of his hands.

We maintain an odd relationship with team sports.

“Greatness” (an entirely loaded and subjective term) is driven by individuals sacrificing for the team, yet we hyper-focus

on individuals at the expense of the team (see: Tim Tebow’s Broncos). This antiquated deference to personality cults filters sports-viewing through polarized lenses, confusing shallow narcissism with gravitas and dismissing individuality

as distracting egotism (see: Chris Kluwe’s final year in Minnesota).

Saddling young athletes with immense social obligations is unfair. Leaving our expectations of character at the door sheds baggage; why not allow the players to be themselves, instead of automatons coached in delivering the company line?

A love of sports should be measured by the pure joy of athletic skill and intellectual strategy, instead of transient deference. While Lewis has indubitably earned a bust in the NFL Hall of Fame, it is the TV personality that he adopted — sobbing uncontrollably during national anthems, for one — that will define his legacy.

That’s a shame, because it detracts from the fact that he was a damn good football player.

SPORTS

Despite being one of the professional sporting world’s most profitable and oldest endeavours, boxing has always faced a number of organizational flaws, the most prominent of these being its almost complete lack of organization.

In place of a single major governing body to lead it — like what the UFC is to Mixed Martial Arts — boxing employs a confusing combination of state athletic commissions, sanctioning bodies, promoters, managers, and television networks. This leads to dramatic build-ups and a cast of characters not seen in any other major sport, but also breeds corruption and inefficiency which result in an inferior product.

There is a popular expression that goes, “I was at a fight and a hockey game broke out.” This is a casual observer’s idea of hockey, and underscores one of the most controversial issues in the National Hockey League: fighting.

The NHL is the only professional North American sports league (with the exception of mixed martial arts’ Ultimate Fighting Championship) where fighting is legal and sometimes even encouraged. Traditionalists swear by its spot in the game, but this once-popular opinion is dwindling because of the injuries, namely

September 16, 2013

Unless something drastic happens between this article being written and it being printed, on Sept. 14 in Las Vegas, Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather Jr. and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez stepped into the ring for 12 rounds and stepped out significantly richer men.

Obscene amounts of money flowed into the pockets of everyone involved with the payper-view broadcast, from the fighters to the promoters to the proprietors of the venue, the MGM Grand.

But overshadowing the financial and competitive success of the event is the inescapable fact that the sheer number of champions in boxing is far too high. Before the fight, both Mayweather and Alvarez were recognized as the World Boxing Association’s Super Welterweight champion.

Even more ridiculous is that, on the very same card, two other fighters will also fight for a version of the Super Welterweight championship, one presented by another

concussions, fighting often brings. But despite its drawbacks, fighting must remain in the National Hockey League (NHL) in order for the league to prosper, and ironically, for the protection of its players.

In order for the league to grow, and as Canadian hockey fans would hate to admit, the NHL needs the American teams to prosper financially, and fighting brings interest to the sport in non-traditional markets because of its entertainment value.

Whenever a fight breaks out, fans rush to their feet, caught up in the unbridled spectacle of adrenaline and testosterone that only hockey provides.

Fights are the most watched

sanctioning body — the International Boxing Federation.

In fact, with four major sanctioning bodies and 17 weight classes, anywhere up to 68 fighters can be recognized as a world champion.

There is not one weight class in prizefighting where the four major sanctioning bodies agree on who is the best. The once-distinguished prize of being “the man who beat the man” is now split up amongst more unaccomplished fighters with great management and connections.

The lack of importance of title belts was underscored when Alvarez first became a champion and denied more challenging fights with the excuse of needing “more time to develop.” This is roughly the equivalent of the Baltimore Ravens deciding that instead

highlights, as one hockey fight video on YouTube has 400,000 views while Evgeni Malkin’s goal-of-the-year has 200,000.

Fighting drums up excitement and interest the NHL needs, especially if it is to compete with other sports in America.

Even beyond its entertainment value, fighting has an almost paradoxical importance: it is integral to the safety of the players because it quells dirty hits. For example, when Wayne Gretzky played for the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s, his linemates were skilled forward Jari Kurri and enforcer Esa Tikkanen — Tikkanen’s job was to protect Gretzky and Kurri by way of his fists.

Opposing players wouldn’t dare take a run at either Gretzky or Kurri because they would have to answer to Tikkanen, who is recognized as one of the game’s best agitators. Protection is not just for superstars either, it is for the entire team; Tikkanen

of facing San Francisco in the Super Bowl, they would rather go up against an easier team and allow the 49ers to share the championship with them.

Another major problem highlighted by the lead-up to the Mayweather-Alvarez tilt was how surprised even the most seasoned sports writers were that the fight was made, at all. The idea that the two best fighters in a division would square off was so foreign that, until all the papers were signed, the notion that this fight would happen was written off as a ludicrous rumour. And who could blame the writers for thinking that?

Throughout the past five years or so, when Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao were not only considered the two best fighters around the Welterweight division, but the best fighters pound-forpound, a bout between the two superstars could not be made. Not even the promise of tens of millions of dollars each and a temporary outdoor stadium on the Vegas strip could

would fight any opponent who dared go after a teammate.

The role of the “goon” still exists in today’s NHL, though it is diminishing. It is not a coincidence that with fewer fighters being employed, the number of dirty, blindside hits has risen. There is no Esa Tikkanen to stop perennial rat Matt Cooke from elbowing the head of an unsuspecting opponent. Hockey needs fighters to keep players like Cooke in check, because the oft-inconsistent discipline of Brendan Shanahan (the NHL’s Director of Player Safety) is not doing its job.

The case against fighting is that it is dirty and has a high probability of injury, and

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convince them to step in the ring together. Since 2007, the men have shared five opponents but refused to prove who deserved the title of champion by fighting each other.

Really, what could improve boxing’s standing as an organized professional sport is any organization to speak of. A singular, overarching governing organization for the sport would replace or reduce the importance of the myriad of managers, shady promoters, and corrupt sanctioning bodies; such changes would create less confusion over who the champion of a division is and help mandate more competitive fights.

That, however, is much easier said than done. This is a sport that was born in corruption, a sport that once made boxing promoter — and convicted murderer — Don King a very rich man before completely decimating his business. It’s a sport that celebrates the best and worst of free-market capitalism, and, perhaps, a sport beyond saving.

therefore should be removed from the game; however fighting is not hockey’s dirtiest or most dangerous play. The most dangerous play in hockey is the blindside hit, where one player throws his body at an unsuspecting victim, who has little chance of defending himself — and is almost always seriously hurt.

Fighting, however, has two willing combatants, both with ample opportunity at self-defense and, often, respect for his opponent: one will often see the two fighters removing their helmets to constitute a level playing field. There is no respect in the blindside hit.

Fighting has its place in hockey: to entertain and defend.

Without fighting, the NHL could see less interest in American markets and a rise in blindside hits to the head, either of which could be a bigger blow to the game than any punch thrown.

Therefore, fighting is not leaving hockey anytime soon.

28 SPORTS

By any stretch of the imagination, it was a successful opening week for the Simon Fraser University men’s soccer team. The Clan opened their National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II schedule last week with two non-conference games, and two victories, in California.

September 16, 2013

Forward Lucas Ferritto was named Red Lion offensive player of the week in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) after netting a goal in each game.

And the Clan, which entered the season ranked third in NCAA Div. II by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), moved up to the second spot after the pair of victories.

It was a successful start for the men’s soccer team, unless, of course, you’re the team’s head coach. “Our mentality was lacking,� said head coach Alan Koch after the team’s second victory of the week, a 4–3 triumph over the Holy Names University Hawks.

“We went up by two in the first half but we let them back in it. In the second half we had our best five minutes of the game and scored a couple goals but we let them back in it again.� Koch has been a man to demand perfection since he took the helm in 2008.

Over the years, he’s come pretty close. But falling in the semi-finals of last year’s NCAA Div. II tournament makes a

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perfect record to start the season not good enough for him. “It’s never easy to go on the road so it’s good to get two wins,� he said. “We still have work to do and we’ll get at it this week as we prepare for Hawaii Pacific.�

The Clan returned home to Terry Fox Field for that match on Thursday, a 2-1 victory, reinforcing their position near the top of the ranking. Though there is undoubtedly work to do, there are plenty of positives for the Clan to build on in those three early season wins.

One is the play of aforementioned Ferritto, a senior out of Hamilton who missed time last year with nagging injuries. The diminutive forward’s two goals already match his output from all of last season, in which he played 12 games. The Clan was faced with a lot of turnover this summer — some graduating, others failing to meet what Koch calls “the SFU standard� — so production, and leadership, from senior players will go a long way in helping the Clan make it past the semi-finals this year.

But if you believe one poll, the Clan aren’t far off as it is. The NSCAA, an organization representing coaches at every level of the game in the United States, bumped the Clan up to second place in the NCAA Div. II, up from third. Coach Koch will tell you rankings mean nothing if you can’t match it on the pitch, but the improved ranking is nice to see after the team entered 2013 with a number of questions after all the turnover.

Those questions aren’t yet fully answered, but they’re getting there. A few more wins will go a long way in that regard. But for now, the team must build on its early season success, not revel in it; the only thing that’s good enough for Koch is a championship.

DIVERSIONS / ETC

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September 16, 2013

CLASSIFIEDS@ THE-PEAK.CA CLASSIFIEDS@ THE-PEAK.CA CLASSIFIEDS@ THE-PEAK.CA CLASSIFIEDS@ THE-PEAK.CA CLASSIFIEDS@ THE-PEAK.CA CLASSIFIEDS@ THE-PEAK.CA CLASSIFIEDS@ THE-PEAK.CA

Across 1- Attic 5- Temporary paper currency 10- Cease 14- Peter Fonda role 15- Overused internet joke: “said ____ ever” 16- Top-notch 17- Southern “isn’t” 18- External 19- Worry 20- Freshman 23- Dubai’s location 24- Egyptian/Syrian union 25- Star groups 33- Namely 34- Helps 35- Science guy 36- Earthen pot 37- Strike accord 39- Root of delete 40- Filled pastry crust 41- Take down ___ 42- Singer John 43- Reading or understanding 47- Consumed 48- Military meeting time

49- Almost supernatural 56- Trotsky, to his friends 58- Hipbone 59- Wise one, or bad accounting software 60- Drug-yielding plant 61- Ornamental coronet 62- Poet Pound 63- Yellow metallic element 64- Ruhr city 65- Cut the crop

8- Supermodel Sastre 9- Convince 10- Adventurous expedition 11- Ripped 12- Half and half 13- Favorite 21- Corrosion 22- Floor coverings 25- General Powell 26- Young hooter 27- Actress Peeples 28- Big 29- Fail to tell the truth Down 30- ___ a customer 1- Hawaiian outdoor 31- Parachute material feast 32- Spotted 2- Actor Ken 33- Pith helmet 3- Ward (off ) 37- Desire for food 4- Head of France 38- Netherlands neigh5- Winter vehicle bor 6- Small valley 39- Half of MCII 7- Roster used to assign 41- Commedia dell’___ duties 42- Coup d’___

44- Merited 45- Term of holding 46- Cossack chief 49- Swimming spot 50- Belongs to Eli 51- Narrow inlets 52- Computer operator 53- Destroy utterly, as a city 54- Mogul capital until 1658 55- Jump 56- Fall back 57- “Xanadu” band

Rest in peace Printy

The printing awareness printer 199x - 2013

Hope to see you there!

30

HUMOUR

September 16, 2013

humour editor email / phone

Brad McLeod humour@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

Questionable Information:

BURNABY — Peter Smith, a young, fresh faced student who has only been at SFU for two weeks is reportedly already settling into wanting to get out of here as soon as he possibly can.

Although he struggled in his first two weeks, Smith has, according to sources, already managed to stop being excited about his new environment and the possibility of making friends. At press time, these sources had indicated that the freshman had really turned things around and he now dreads every coming day of “all this bullshit.”

YOUR REGION — A local news article is being criticized for reportedly just being an ad for Mulligan’s vitamins, a company that manufactures 100 per cent natural vitamins that are said, and confirmed, to have incredible healing powers.

The article reportedly has no real content other than to talk about Mulligan’s and how great they are and includes zero citations or real quotes to back up their claims that they have “incredible healing power” but apparently it should still be completely trusted and you should go buy some right now at mulligansvitamins.biz.

DAMASCUS — Despite the ongoing conflict/war/ uprising taking in place in their country, Syria has still managed to keep a firm grip on their social media presence, an accomplishment that is being credited to the Syrian government’s social media expert, Nazih Mukhtar El-Hashem.

El-Hashem, who was hired in March 2011 to help keep the country relevant has according to the country’s president, Bashar Al-Assad, done an amazing job and Assaad can’t believe how popular he’s been able to make their little country throughout these challenging times.

HUMOUR

BURNABY — With the recent shocking revelations that university frosh activities include idiotic and mindless mob mentality making headlines across the country, SFU’s business school is extremely frustrated and regretful that none of their stupidity has been picked up by any major news publications.

“I was absolutely shocked when I saw the SMU and UBC frosh ‘rape-chant’ stories” explained one upset Beedie froshleader. “I just thought it was

September 16, 2013

terrible . . . how does such an idiotic chant make every major newspaper in Canada and no one even says a word about any of the disgraceful activities that went on at our frosh?”

According to organizers of the Beedie Frosh, there were plenty of things being said during their events that could be considered quite derogatory and behavior that was just plain reckless but once again UBC got all the attention.

“We acted like fucking idiots at our frosh, I swear to god” reasoned Bill Paxton, a first-year Beedie commerce student. “I heard a lot of racist, sexist and just moronic banter all over the place but do we get any media attention? No. Meanwhile UBC copies one rape-y chant and gets on front pages everywhere . . . that’s not fair!”

Believing the old adage that there’s no such thing as bad

Listen up, this isn’t playtime anymore okay? You’ve got to start being responsible for your own education and buckle down.

Now, I haven’t been to a high school in a long time and my memory may be a little fuzzy but I can tell you that it is completely different than university.

As a university professor, I’m not going to hold your hand. You’re going to

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publicity, Beedie is appalled by the media’s lack of interest in their students’ disgraceful frosh activities.

“Just because we aren’t so obvious about our lack of morals and common decency at SFU doesn’t mean we’re better people who don’t deserve at least some local news time.” Paxton continued, distraught about the declining interest in ‘subtlety’ of offensive college behavior, “UBC’s rape chant was just so uninspired . . . it’s nowhere near as creative as our Pipe Band’s orientation rape chanters.”

Although Beedie has stated that the lack of anger towards their students is “in no way consistent with what the students are like as people,” the school has decided to move forward and leave the lack-of drama behind and instead focus on continuing to develop the students as “the assholes of the future.”

have to do your own work. We’re not just going to spoon-feed you answers, or let \RX KDQG LQ DQ DVVLJQPHQW ÀYH PRQWKV late without any consequences and we are certainly not going to pay you $100 every time you bring an apple to class! Do you understand?

Professors here are not going to be your friends like teachers were in high school! Here, you don’t go bowling with your instructors on weekends and call them cap’m, and university classrooms aren’t DOZD\V JRLQJ WR EH ÀOOHG ZLWK EDOORRQV DQG pudding! Okay? This isn’t high school, you need to grow up and face reality!

Sorry, so this isn’t Burnaby Mountain Secondary? Dammit, I’m in the wrong place.

Thanks for helping me out.

Oh god, it’s been two weeks, I’m going to be so behind! How could I not have realized this wasn’t a high school earlier.

No wonder everything you were trying to teach seemed like it was about two to three years too advanced for me. I’m sorry

for complaining to you about not being clear enough on due dates or reading assignments.

You know, now that I think about it, I thought it was kind of weird when I didn’t see any pudding or balloons anywhere . . . and then that look you gave me when I called you ‘cap’m’ and asked if you wanted to go bowling, it makes sense now.

Sorry, for wasting your time.

32 LAST WORD

features editor email / phone

After hearing the chant used by the students of the Sauder School of Business at the UBC FROSH week, my first reaction was, naturally, of disgust and horror. However, I decided to look into the matter and see why something like this would happen in the first place.

Let me just start by saying that many online articles reported the fact that this chant has been used by students throughout the past 20 years. Seriously, UBC? It speaks volumes about the first impressions that are being given to students that something as atrocious as this chant has been going on for such a long time, propagating rape culture and promoting the worst sort of misogyny.

It takes a specific kind of a mindset and a certain kind of an environment to give birth to something as hateful as this. I took the liberty of going through many online comments and several commenters said they couldn’t be bothered about something as “small” as this. Hey, it was just the “energy” there. It was just a bunch of students saying something silly at night — why take it seriously?

Max Hill features@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

I’ll tell you why. It may be a chant today, but it could be something as serious as a sexual assault tomorrow that you’ll be asking me to just “get over.” We need to put a stop to this poisonous way of thinking before it results in real world consequences.

“Wild” and “out of control” students need to realize that they can be held accountable for their behaviour. This kind of speech is intolerable in a healthy and developing environment.

According to the Vancouver Sun, Lucia Lorenzi, a PhD student at UBC, was immensely upset about the lyrics of the chants. As someone who had gone through the painful and unimaginable experience of being sexually assaulted in her teenage years, what made her even angrier was the fact that the students who used this chant were instructed to keep it a secret. This kind of behaviour indicates that the students and the leaders both were aware of the fact that this kind of behaviour was wrong and could hurt someone, yet they chose to go ahead with it regardless.

The fact that there are people who have to beg others to take this matter seriously saddens me to the core. Rape is a terrible thing. The fact that there could be students out there on that campus who had gone through this kind of an experience scares me, because it is hard to imagine what they have gone through.

Yes, you could say that this is about your freedom of speech, but it is a very dangerous statement that threatens “young girls” on campus — something not to be taken lightly.

Robert Helsley, the Dean of the Sauder School of Business released a much-awaited statement condemning the actions of the individuals involved, stating, “What is reported to have happened at FROSH this year is deeply upsetting and is completely inconsistent with the values of the school and UBC.” Also, two student leaders are said to have resigned after the offensive chant was shouted by the students.

Kudos to The Ubyssey (UBC’s student newspaper) for bringing light to this story and to the students who signed the petition against this chant. However, there were some who had the audacity to defend their school despite the offensive nature of the FROSH chant. Humanity has no bounds, and neither does compassion, which is why it doesn’t matter what school we go to, as long as we hold on to simple, basic human values.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time such behaviour from students has been revealed to the public.

Yale University’s Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity several years ago chanted the pro-rape slogan, “No means yes! Yes means anal!” on campus and were banned from carrying out any activities on campus for the next five years.

Something similar and equally disturbing happened at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, where students at FROSH came up with a chant that endorsed forced sexual encounters.

Jared Perry, President of the Saint Mary’s University Students’ Association, told CBC News, “These are great leaders. This was simply a moment with a lack

September 16, 2013

of judgment.” Mr. Perry, firstly, I do not think I will ever be able to refer to someone like that as a leader. Yes, I agree that everyone makes mistakes, but it takes a special kind of cruelty and stupidity to say words like “no consent” or “underage” and not realize the kind of impact your words may have.

There’s a reason why stuff like this keeps happening again and again, and we need to look into it. Okay, so you might not be in favour of stronger punishments, but there are so many other options on the table that can be explored.

For example, all these FROSH events can be monitored so that something as foolish and embarrassing as this doesn’t happen, something that could give the entire university a bad name.

Rape sensitivity training is another solution, where students could be taught about the awful nature of rape culture and the horrible things that it promotes.

There are solutions; we just need students who are willing to take this problem seriously enough to find the best ones.