Vol. 23 Issue 12
March 25, 2015 to March 31, 2015
Neither confirming nor denying since 1993
The voices of varsit y #thingsSUSdoes Get up to speed on the most recent board meeting and SUS’s AGM
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p. 10 -11
Resisting fear Panel at UFV cautions against proposed barbaric cultural practices act
Be h in d U F V ’s spor t s com m e ntar y
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Cricket club represents in the US UFV’s cricket club travelled to Fort Lauderdale, FL for the American Collegiate National Cricket Championships
p.19 ufvcascade.ca
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Briefs Free access to research TORONTO — Minister of Science and Technology Ed Holder announced the new Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications a few weeks ago. If the publications are funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), or the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), students will be able to access that data and research online within 12 months of its submission to the aforementioned groups. - science.gc.ca
U of T students to earn arbitrary grades due to strike TORONTO — Because of the ongoing faculty and staff strike at the University of Toronto, administration will assign grades. According to an email sent out to all students, they may be assigned standard letter grades (A, B, C, and so on), or a pass/fail, depending on the amount of work already marked and the absences of professors. The academic year will not be extended to accommodate coursework. - thevarsity.ca
Abortion group provokes controversy at UFV ABBOTSFORD — Last Wednesday, a pro-life event titled “You’ll never regret loving this much” had UFV student volunteers handing out pamphlets and plastic fetuses outside of the library building. The group’s presence has sparked controversy on campus, with numerous students sending written complaints to university administration. Complainants are arguing that the group was invasive in nature and violated basic human rights. The Cascade will continue to cover this story in the following weeks.
Have a news tip? Let us know! news@ufvcascade.ca @CascadeNews
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Second AGM attempt succeeds
News
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Opinion
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More than entertainment
Culture
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Math in the real world
Arts in Review
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To Pimp a Butterfly
Sports & Health
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The voices of UFV Athletics
News
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015
The SUS Annual General Meeting (AGM) met quorum on Monday — and then changed it. Jessica Johnson calls for a more careful look at how women are portrayed in popular media.
The math club hosted a lecture with SFU instructor Petra Berenbrink on randomized algorithms. Miranda Louwerse has the story.
In a three-way dialogue review, music buffs Martin Castro, Alex Rake and Kodie Cherrille discuss Kendrik Lamar’s new album.
What does it take to be a great commentator? Nathan Hutton sits down with UFV’s sports announcers to find out.
Small reflections on how not to hyperventilate as graduation approaches KATIE STOBBART
ing to chew you up and spit you out and it sticks with me.
I finally filled out my graduation request form. For the past few weeks — months — I’ve oscillated between relief and terror. There’s a light at the end of this, but it might not be the sun. Instead of feeling excited by all the amazing opportunities I may encounter or create when I leave with my crisp parchment, I question things like validity and authenticity and proper use of time — sullenly, because I know this wasn’t a waste of time. Maybe a major in creative writing was not the most lucrative idea, in light of my accrued debt, underestimated interest, and looming expenses. Maybe I should not have dismissed the idea of personal branding (fancy marketing lingo for “reputation”). This week, I’ve heard two people use the word “rapport” instead of “reputation” and I thought a lot about that accident of meaning.
The half-empty glass has something in it The receptionist at the dentist office asks me what I’m doing in school. I tell her I’m almost finished a degree in creative writing. Her daughter writes, she says, but doesn’t want to show it to anyone. I don’t know how to reply. You need a thick skin, I say lamely. She tells me how much my root canal will “only” cost. “Well, at least you’ll be able to write about it,” she concludes. whelmed I was instructed to lay my head down on my desk and focus on the feel of the cool, solid surface. Think about nothing. Then make a list of what has to get done just tomorrow. Then again the next day. And the next. I imagine this might come in handy after this is over.
Coping mechanisms Occasionally instead of hacking away at the thicket of work on my desk, I say fuckit and go to Yellow Deli with friends. Sometimes you really just need company and a good sandwich. The last time I got over-
The never-ending to-do list My to-do list includes, but is definitely not limited to: Get my passport photo taken, then apply for my passport. File this year’s taxes and last year’s taxes and ... Apply for jobs. Google, Craig-
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Volume 23 · Issue 12 Room C1027 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 Editor-in-Chief katie@ufvcascade.ca Katie Stobbart Managing Editor valerie@ufvcascade.ca Valerie Franklin Director of Business Development joe@ufvcascade.ca Joe Johnson Production and Design Editor anthony@ufvcascade.ca Anthony Biondi Copy Editor kodie@ufvcascade.ca Kodie Cherrille
Image: En Barudoman / Flickr
slist. Where am I supposed to look for jobs, again? Spend four hours redesigning my resume until it looks the same as it did when I started. Spend more time with my cats. Spend more time with my family. Spend less on everything. Clean my entire apartment, wishing I was allowed to paint even one wall without asking. Don’t lose touch. I probably shouldn’t hate marketing so much, since it means being picky about jobs and I’m not sure I’m in a position to be picky. Am I? Someone says this world is go-
Another real conversation that happened: What are you going to do after? After graduation? Yeah. Probably live under a bridge and write poetry on the concrete. I don’t think you’ll live under a bridge. No? It’ll be a chorus, for sure. The closer graduation is, the less ready I feel. Is this how it feels to look out and be blinded by the future? I’d like to think that light might be the sun.
News Editors megan@ufvcascade.ca Megan Lambert
News Writer vanessa@ufvcascade.ca Vanessa Broadbent
Printed By International Web exPress
michael@ufvcascade.ca Michael Scoular
Varsity Writer nathan@ufvcascade.ca Nathan Hutton
The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It provides a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds. The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a circulation of 1500 and is distributed at UFV campuses and throughout Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission. The Cascade is a member of the Canadian University Press, a national cooperative of over 50 university and college newspapers from Victoria to St. John’s. The Cascade follows the CUP ethical policy concerning material of a prejudicial or oppressive nature. Submissions are preferred in electronic format through e-mail. Please send submissions in “.txt” or “.doc” format only. Articles and letters to the editor must be typed. The Cascade reserves the right to edit submissions for clarity and length. The Cascade will not print any articles that contain racist, sexist, homophobic or libellous content. The writer’s name and student number must be submitted with each submission. Letters to the editor must be under 250 words if intended for print. Only one letter to the editor per writer in any given edition. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, Cascade staff and collective, or associated members.
Opinion Editor alex@ufvcascade.ca Alex Rake Culture Editor nadine@ufvcascade.ca Nadine Moedt
Production Assistants shyanne@ufvcascade.ca Shyanne Schedel eugene@ufvcascade.ca Eugene Kulaga
Arts in Review Editor sasha@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt
Advertising Representative jennifer@ufvcascade.ca Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts
Interim Sports Editor sasha@ufvcascade.ca Sasha Moedt
Contributors Martin Castro, Remington Fioraso, Jessica Johnson, and Arzoo Sandhu.
Video Editor mitch@ufvcascade.ca Mitch Huttema Webmaster ashley@ufvcascade.ca Ashley Mussbacher
Cover image: Anthony Biondi
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Abbotsford MP and UFV philosophy professor weigh in on pros and cons of proposed Anti-terrorism Act KODIE CHERRILLE THE CASCADE
Bill C-51, the proposed Anti-terrorism Act, has been criticized by its opponents as unconstitutional since it was first introduced and read at the House of Commons on January 30. The Conservative Party of Canada calls the bill an extension of existing legislation like the Combatting Terrorism Act and the Nuclear Terrorism Act, and is a step towards better countering terrorist threats. However, the bill is criticized for its use of the phrase “terrorism in general,” which opponents argue is too vague, therefore allowing for a possibly unfair interpretation of what is deemed terrorist activity. In the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ magazine the Monitor, Clayton Ruby and Nader R. Hazan argue that the bill threatens Canadians’ rights to freedom of speech. “The new standard for arrest and detention — reason to suspect that they may commit an act — is so low that an officer may be inclined to arrest and detain them in order to investigate further,” they state. Opponents also argue that Bill C-51 extends the powers of the Canadian Surveillance Intelligence Service (CSIS) at the expense of Canadian rights, and with a lack of accountability. In a letter to the Globe and Mail, Privacy Commissioner of Canada Daniel Therrien claims that the bill is a fundamental breach of
Image: Jeremy Board/ flickr
privacy and that the safeguards placed on it are not strict enough to keep it from being unconstitutional. “Bill C-51 opens the door to collecting, analyzing, and potentially keeping forever the personal information of all Canadians,” Therrien writes. “The privacy safeguards proposed are seriously deficient.” Others speaking out against the bill include leader of the opposition Thomas Mulcair, Amnesty International Canada, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and former prime ministers Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien. According to polls from the Angus Reid Institute and Forum Research, initial support for the bill is declining, and Canadians from across the country protested the
bill on March 13 in a “Day of Action.” Despite this mounting criticism, the Conservatives maintain that the bill is necessary for the security of Canadians. Abbotsford MP and interim Foreign Affairs Minister Ed Fast strongly supports for the bill. He says that the current model of oversight by Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) acts as an unbiased source to keep CSIS accountable. “There are rigorous, judicial reviews and traditional judicial authorization mechanisms that are put in place to ensure that key investigative powers are actually exercised,” Fast says. Other politicians such as Justin Trudeau support the bill but have proposed changes to the
oversight model. Fast says that MPs opposing the bill have suggested forming a political oversight committee, to include input from other parties. He says that this would disrupt the impartiality of SIRC. In an opinion article, CBC senior correspondent Terry Milewski expresses concern for the current state of SIRC. “Canada’s allies all make their spy agencies accountable to powerful parliamentary or congressional committees,” he says, “not to small, understaffed appointed bodies whose expertise has often been in doubt.” When asked whether this bill infringes on privacy, Fast said that the current threat by jihadists is increasingly becoming a threat to Canadians, with recent attacks
like the Parliament Hill shooting in Ottawa and the shooting of two members of the Armed Forces in Quebec. Fast says the bill is meant to focus on terrorists, not law-abiding Canadians. “[Bill C-51] reflects the appropriate balance: one that protects privacy rights, but at the same time provides our security agencies with the critical tools they need to actually protect Canadians and intercept terrorist threats,” he says. UFV philosophy professor Paul Herman compared the current political attitude towards anti-terrorism to the tense atmosphere of teaching when the War Measures Act was read in October 1970. “A student wanted to talk about [Marx, Lenin, and the FLQ]. It was illegal to express any kind of support of the FLQ. What does that mean? Does it mean expressing support for their aims or what they’re doing? Or saying, ‘While I don’t condone it, I understand it?’” As for what this means for students, both Fast and Herman are skeptical that the bill would affect student life and current teaching material. Fast says that activities like protests, advocacy or dissent, or artistic expression would not be affected. But Herman put it differently. “I don’t think someone, even like Harper, would [go] to a university and say, ‘They’re teaching to make students sympathetic to the cause of the terrorists.’ I don’t know. I don’t think they’d be clever enough.”
March board meeting sees SUS close out current term MICHAEL SCOULAR THE CASCADE
On a dark, stormy spring equinox night, the Student Union Society held the last board meeting of its current term. Over three-and-a-half hours, SUS executives presented annual reports, checked against the goals outlined when each took to their roles a year ago, before moving onto decision items that confirmed the ongoing difficulties the student governance faces. “At least anecdotally, from students, from faculty, from staff at UFV, they’ve noticed a broader presence, and a more consistent presence from SUS throughout the campus,” said outgoing VP external Dylan Thiessen in his presentation. “So that was pretty good to hear.” SUS’s reputation was a running theme throughout its survey of the past year: goals were met, and the tone was optimistic, but, as Thiessen — whose role is concerned with how SUS reaches out
to the UFV community — admitted, this is something that is “difficult to gauge.” With university administration, Thomas Davies, who will be moving from VP internal to the president’s role, said he noticed a shift: the university now comes to SUS to consult or present matters it thinks are important, instead of SUS needing to be the one to first approach. But clear markers of student engagement with SUS were more difficult to come by. An app, which replaced paper agendas and was designed to bring events, class schedules, and student discussions together, was downloaded only 423 times since the beginning of the fall 2014 semester. A great deal of stock is being put in the opening of the Student Union Building in Abbotsford next fall as a way of improving SUS’s presence on campus. —Continued on page 4
Image: Michael Scoular
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Shuttle fee inflation, student loan advocacy, and cricket club funding discussed at SUS board meeting —Continued from page 3 Cricket club funding appeal divides board vote SUS’s primary contact with many students is through events organized by student associations and groups, which SUS oversees and funds by request. A presentation by the cricket club at the board meeting was a unique example of the way SUS plays a part in facilitating student activities. Earlier this month, the cricket club participated in the American College Cricket National tournament, which took place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for the first time. UFV was one of only three Canadian universities (the others being Ryerson and McGill) to compete. But Radwinder Sharma and Abdul Rahman’s presentation was not about the team’s performance; as the cricket club does not hold varsity status and is not funded by UFV’s Athletics division, it was responsible for the entire cost of the trip. A funding request to SUS before the tournament was approved for a fraction of the proposed amount, but, as it was over $1,000, it first needed to pass the approval of the executive team. They denied the proposal. At the SUS meeting, Sharma and Rahman now appealed for funding to cover some of the trip, which they estimated at $9,000, and has left at least three of their teammates with financial strain. VP external-elect Sukhi Brar said that this likely resulted because the cricket club members “didn’t know of all the processes in place.” “If you’re having students invest that kind of money, maybe hold off going to an event until you know you’re getting funding,” she said. Outgoing president Ryan Petersen was part of the final decision, and said it was made on the basis of the time of the proposal (a week before the team left) and the amount requested. As well, four of the 11 players on the team were not current UFV students. “It does not set the healthiest of precedents in terms of groups coming forward with large requests,” he said. “We weren’t really satisfied with the organization itself.” Former VP internal Greg Stickland put forward a motion to grant the club $4,500, before changing the amount to the previously recommended amount of $1,987. Davies explained that the amount was calculated to cover the tournament registration fees, uniforms, and kits. “These are not really events I enjoy giving money to,” Stickland added. “One argument for why we have such a large clubs
be administered by the district, and we’ve seen that if a person were to take it in a university setting, even if it’s the exact the same type of course, they’re 15 to 20 per cent more likely to go on to post-secondary education.” With this point and the proposed legislation that would allow ICBC to refuse licenses to people in debt due to student loans, Thiessen said they have yet to see progress, but that they have a plan to return to discussion while these items are still current.
Image: UFV Flickr
The cricket club took their team from UFV to the University of Florida for a tournament, which led to a large funding request before the SUS board. and associations [budget] line compared to other schools is that it generates campus culture. So I’m very supportive of having cricket clubs, I enjoy having them play on campus, but this is something that is so far beyond campus, it’s not even the same country, so it’s arguably not contributing much to campus culture.” Sharma and Rahman said the team’s participation at a high-level tournament was good for UFV as a university, and that the club contributes to campus culture beyond its games on the Abbotsford Green. While recommending fundraising and talking to Financial Aid as routes to take, the board narrowly approved the $1,987 funding amount, with five in favour, four opposed, and one abstention. Report from Victoria sets advocacy standards for next year Petersen and Thiessen recently took a trip to Victoria to talk to MLAs as part of the Association of British Columbia Students, an advocacy group that combines members from nine BC post-secondary institutions. Discussions involved topics many students are likely aware of from recent headlines, if not their own experience. Petersen said the gap between what students and politicians know about something as standard as student loans is one thing advocates have to work with. “After you graduate, you will have a sixmonth grace period until you have to start paying back your student loans to the government; however, as soon as you gradu-
ate, you will immediately start accruing interest,” he said. “Many of the MLAs we met with were just like, ‘Huh, I didn’t know that, that’s a bit strange.’ Even the Minister of Finance [Abbotsford MLA Michael de Jong] was a bit taken aback, even Darryl Plecas, so [someone] who is very familiar with the post-secondary environment.” Petersen said this is a reason SUS’s lobbying is important: this is one point where they could possibly make a difference. “We’re hoping if we continue pushing them on this particular point, we’ll actually see some change down the road,” Petersen said, implying this is work that now falls to the newly elected board members. The charging of tuition for ABE courses was also discussed during the same period, with less promise. “One of the major pushbacks that we got is that the [provincial government] is hoping for a higher level of accountability within the university, stating that there were a high level of dropouts within this program because [students] didn’t have to pay anything,” Petersen said. “Talking with UFV, that doesn’t quite match up with what they have.” Thiessen added that there are other discrepancies with the ABE decision. “A lot of stuff we heard from MLAs is that the ABE is still free for adults who didn’t graduate from high school so long as they take it in a high school,” he said. “The issue that we have with that though is that there is a stigma attached to going back to a school where the course would
Campus Connector fee raised to match rate of inflation With the two most recent referenda posed to students, SUS has built in a connection to the CPI rate of inflation. One, the IT service in the SUB, has yet to open, but the campus connector, Petersen said, “[is] running a very tight margin.” “It would be very wise and prudent to increase it with inflation, which is set at two per cent this year, just so that we don’t need to see any reductions in service to our membership in the future.” The board voted unanimously in favour of this motion; at two per cent, or $0.53, the fee will rise from $26.70 to $27.23 per semester. Two other service notes came up during the meeting as well. AfterMath is closed for the rest of the semester as of March 14, despite there being three weeks of classes remaining. Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts, the representative for professional studies students, asked whether this could have been better communicated. Petersen explained that this was necessary due to the transition to the SUB; the current location must be completely vacant before the move happens. “We do have notices around the restaurant stating the closing date and why it’s happening,” he said. There are no updates to the AfterMath website, Twitter account, or the SUS Facebook page about this closure as of press time. SUS also posted forms online for “space allocation” dedicated to clubs and associations in the SUB. At an open discussion earlier in the semester, some student group members voiced questions about how these spaces, eight in total, will be fairly awarded. Currently the plan describes a committee set to receive and decide on the submissions. “There was nothing at the info night that warranted material change,” Davies said, citing a lack of consensus. Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts is an employee of The Cascade.
Image: The Cascade file photo
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
Urban planning course invites students to contribute their ideas to U-District design KATIE STOBBART THE CASCADE
As the internal character of UFV changes, its physical landscape and borders also shift. Increasingly, students are being invited to guide this change. This is part of the impetus behind GEOG 464, a studio course in urban planning to be taught this May and June by Cherie Enns. It focuses on planning the U-District, the community surrounding UFV’s Abbotsford campus. While the idea for a U-District has been around for several years, the course aims for a more detailed, practical approach. It will include three weeks of lecture and class time, followed by a month of project work culminating in a presentation to Abbotsford City Council. A unique feature of the course is its accessibility to students from multiple disciplines. The course will looks at food systems, indigenous culture, technology, social issues, and other aspects of community planning as they pertain to students’ interests. Enns says the idea is for students to bring their expertise, based on their varied experiences, to the table. “Come with your disciplinary lens,” she says, “but be prepared to think spatially. It’s that spatial element that differentiates geography [and] urban planning from the history or philosophy of education in the university.” A multidisciplinary class can bring students with a variety of strengths and prespectives from both arts and sciences together, which works well within the broad field of urban planning. Enns notes that opening up the
course to multiple disciplines is a way to ensure it gets filled, especially during the summer semester when enrollment is low. “I want those perspectives,” she says, “but the other good side effect is it increases the numbers, which gives us a lot more synergy.” Where hands-on urban planning opportunities at other institutions are usually reserved for graduate students, UFV doesn’t have a graduate program and therefore offers that kind of experience to undergrads more often. Enns suggests the fact that it’s available to more than just geography students may be part of UFV’s developing character as an institution. “What’s intriguing is because of the way UFV is changing (...) our courses no longer always make sense within a [single] discipline,” Enns says. “I think maybe UFV is just going to be on the edge of more interdisciplinary offerings of courses.” The U-District studio course follows a similar interdisciplinary offering of GEOG 464 last year, which focused on homelessness in the city; this loosely coincided with the creation of a homelessness taskforce in Abbotsford, of which Enns was a member. Enns hopes such courses will shape the way UFV approaches education in the future — she says the traditional classroom format is not really designed for this kind of interactive engagement. “The course speaks to the future of education: what does the interactive studio or lab space look like, or what could it look like?” she asks. “That’s what we’ll explore.”
Image: Rick Collins , University of the Fraser Valley / Flickr
Cherie Enns works with students to practically apply their course learning; in 2014, GEOG 360 worked on plans for the former site of Minter Gardens, resulting in a presentation to the FVRD.
CORRECTION: On March 18, 2015 The Cascade printed in the Tax basics feature that the T3 form is titled ‘Employment income’ and the T4 form is titled ‘Trust income (if applicable)’. This is incorrect — the T3 form should be titled ‘Trust income (if applicable)’ and the T4 is titled ‘Employment income’.
Health centre opens new opportunities for social work students VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE
Six students from UFV’s bachelor of social work program are doing their practicum at the brand new Chilliwack Youth Health Centre, which opened in January. The centre is open for youth between the ages of 12 and 26, and is easily accessible, as appointments and referrals are not needed. Youth are placed with one of six UFV students, where they have a counselling session lasting
anywhere from half an hour to a full hour. The centre helps youth with various issues including anxiety, depression, and stress — but one of the students, Tatiana Carrizo, explains they help with many other issues as well. “It could be anything that’s on their mind. It could be a relationship problem or something more extreme,” she says. This practicum is giving students the opportunity to actually work as counsellors. Carrizo explained that practicums like
this aren’t that easy to come by. “When I hear other people’s practicum stories, I realize this is cool because I’m actually doing one-on-one [work] with youth and really being put out of my comfort zone,” she says. Sophia Bilan, another student counsellor, has found herself learning a lot through the experience as well. “We’re able to practice all the skills that we’ve learned in our schooling, and learn new skills,” she says. While the students are working
one-on-one with youth, Carrizo says they’re also working together as a team by debriefing at the end of the day and brainstorming ways to improve. “During our debriefs, we often think of what we can improve, [and] how we can change things,” she says. Bilan also finds this “team dynamic” very important to the centre. “We may be counselling students individually, but we’re working as a team and every team is going to work different-
ly,” she says. “What I think has made this successful is that we’re working together; we’re supporting each other as students and sharing knowledge and skills.” Carrizo is happy with the centre’s success so far. “I didn’t expect all of this, but it’s [unfolding] into something great ... it’s something to be proud of,” she says. The students will be working at the centre until May, when a new batch of practicum students begin their term.
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
Church rents Chilliwack North campus space As UFV struggles to sell the property, portions of it are leased to offset maintenance costs VALERIE FRANKLIN THE CASCADE
If you visited the Chilliwack North campus for theatre department’s recent production of Julius Caesar, you may have noticed that the sign on Yale Road is now shared with Keystone Church. The university has been actively but unsuccessfully trying to sell the Chilliwack North campus for the last six years, which was mostly vacated after the opening of the campus at Canada Education Park. Because the campus is no longer used for academic purposes except for the theatre program, UFV rents space on the campus to external organizations such as Keystone in order to recoup some of the costs. “While we’re trying to sell the overall campus, we’re trying to rent it to try and offset the operating costs,” says Craig Toews, the executive director of campus planning and resource development, noting that even basic maintenance costs, such as cutting the lawns and keeping the power on, add up to an expensive bill for the university. Although the university is unable to disclose the terms of its rental agreements, Toews says it draws a significant amount of revenue from leasing out space. He adds that Keystone Church also helps out the university with operational expenses because UFV doesn’t have facilities maintenance staff on site. “They’re helping us with the lawn and landscaping and trying to keep the place updated,” he says. “It’s a real help. And again,
Image: Jefferson Molinelli
UFV is sharing sign space with a local church at Chilliwack North, which was vacated in 2012. it reduces the amount of resource drain … so it’s all around a benefit to the university.” According to Toews, the university has had 20 to 30 inquiries over the years from interested parties wanting to rent space for commercial or residential purposes. While Keystone Church is currently renting approximately 5,000 square feet of the campus on a year-to-year basis, they’re not the campus’ only tenant. “We’re renting space to IRAP [Industrial Research Assistance Program], the cafeteria is being rented out to Stó:lō for a culinary
program they have funding for, and we’ve also had Community Futures renting space there in building E,” says Toews. There are no policies restricting who can rent space from UFV, although Toews notes that the university would be careful not to rent to unscrupulous businesses or tenants. In regards to the university’s sign sharing space with Keystone Church’s sign, Toews says that if other significant anchor tenants moved in on a long-term basis, the university would create signage for them as well, “like a
business park.” Keystone Church rents building F, a former campus daycare. The other buildings for rent, D and E, constitute approximately 55,000 square feet of space. In comparison, the new Student Union Building on the Abbotsford campus is about 50,000 square feet. The tenancy agreement is subject to the sale of the land, so the tenants of Chilliwack North will be given notice to vacate the campus when it is finally sold. However, trying to sell such a large piece of property has not
been easy for the university. At the recent meeting for the university’s 2015-16 budget plan, UFV president Mark Evered said that although he hopes the sale of the Chilliwack North campus will happen within the next year, negotiations have delayed the process. “Although technically we own the land fee simple, we can’t do anything without government approval, and government approval includes addressing some First Nations issues,” he said. According to the University Act, any land acquisition or disposition requires approval from the Ministry of Education, a subset of which includes following a First Nations consultation protocol. “That’s what we’re doing,” explains Toews. “We’re talking with local Stó:lō about the land and what the opportunities would be there.” In the meantime, the Chilliwack North campus still hosts theatre students and provides a venue for their productions. Many of the theatre courses are now taught at the 100 square metre theatre studio at the CEP campus, but the courses surrounding theatre productions, costume design, and set construction still take place at the Chilliwack North campus. “They’re kind of straddling the two sites,” said Toews. “The long-term plan is for the theatre to have a performance space in the Digital HUB project, which is the number-one capital priority for the university, and that’s most likely here in Abbotsford.”
SUS talks budget and bylaw changes at AGM VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE
After a failed first attempt, Student Union Society (SUS) successfully hosted their Annual General Meeting on Monday, March 23. The executives kicked off the meeting by presenting their endof-term reports and recapping everything SUS has done over the year. President Ryan Petersen touched on the referenda that SUS has held, including the new IT tech support service that will be opening in September, as well as the shuttle bus service’s Langley addition.
The new 2015-16 operational budget was also passed with a unanimous vote. VP internal Thomas Davies stated that there has been an increase of $35,000 in SUS’ budget due to a higher enrollment, as well as “student fees, contract revenue, and investment.” Davies also announced that SUS will be starting a new student leadership awards program. “[The goal is] to help recognize a variety of different leaders, innovators, and community builders that we have here on campus through different clubs and associations and other people on
campus who contribute so much to our campus life,” Davies said. Worth $2,500 in total, three to five students each year will be presented with a cash award. Also new to the budget this year, SUS is setting aside $1,250 for volunteer recognition and appreciation, although it wasn’t specified exactly how the money will be spent. “We’re going to be creating a more structured recognition program to thank [our volunteers] for their time [and] contributing to the Student Union,” Davies said. Other changes included a
$2,000 increase to emergency student grants, an increase in wages due to the increase in minimum wage, funding for a new student advocacy officer position, a decrease in student organization funding of $9,500, and a contribution to SUS’ capital investment, which Davies describes as their “rainy day fund.” Petersen proposed an amendment to bylaw 16, regarding quorum for general meetings. The change would raise quorum for a second attempt of an AGM with a special resolution on the agenda from 15 to 45 members in attendance. For AGMs without a spe-
cial resolution, quorum would be lowered from 90 to 68, and raised for second attempt quorum from 15 to 34. Petersen used this year’s failed first attempt at an AGM as an example of how the change would improve the process. “We had 75 people in this room [a week ago] and today we don’t,” he said. “Seventy-five people could have participated as opposed to the 30-odd we have here today.” The amendment to the bylaw passed unanimously.
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NEWS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
Meet your senate election candidates by Megan Lambert and Michael Scoular
Joel Goshulak Second-year, biology What knowledge do you have of Senate? On the UFV website there’s a thing I downloaded and it explained all of the Senate rules and responsibilities. We have to meet at the scheduled times and to keep myself up on the issues that I’m representing and that we have to vote on. Importantly, I bring the perspective of students, but I don’t actually directly vote. I’m supposed to vote in the best interest of the university. Have you looked over the minutes from meetings during the past year? I actually haven’t. I was thinking more about current issues. I actually haven’t looked at them. I didn’t know they were available. What students do you feel you’ll be representative of on Senate? Probably the best people I’d represent is probably fellow bachelor of science stu-
Sarabjit Kaur First-year, social work What knowledge do you have of Senate? I haven’t [attended any Senate meetings]. It’s about the academic policies, for example if we are talking about a critical approach, they always discuss “should we add the credits into it?” That’s what my knowledge is. What students do you feel you’ll be representative of on Senate? I’m an international student, and I know the problems like the credit transfers and other stuff, so I want to put that diversity in.
Sunny Kim Third-year, criminology What knowledge do you have of Senate? I haven’t worked directly with Senate, that’s why I wanted to pursue this originally, so I can get more involved in the academic side of decision-making on campus. I’ve read some of the minutes to get an idea of how it’s run. What students do you feel you’ll be representative of on Senate? I have worked with different departments at UFV. I’ve worked with International, but in my position at Student Life I’ve worked with different groups on campus. I’m also looking into our ESL programs:
UFV’s Senate is a key part of the decision-making process at UFV. Each year, one student representative is voted on by students to represent their point of view at meetings. Voting continues through Thursday, March 26, on MyUFV. Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
dents. How then do you plan to communicate with students? Well, my thought is to try to find a way to communicate to everybody that I’m quite open to suggestions. If there’s a major concern that you have that you’d like UFV’s government to look over, just email it to me and I’ll bring it up. I’d like to have a suggestion box or something like that, so if anyone has a certain thing they can send it to me. Just so that everybody knows that the leaders of UFV are listening to their concerns. And for a suggestion box, would you set that up online? I could put posters everywhere saying if you have a concern, email. What current issues are you particularly interested in? I’m supportive of the “Save the Writing Centre” movement. I think changing the Writing Centre is a detriment to UFV. How do you plan to communicate with students? I’m the president of the UFV India club, and I’m always around the campus volunteering. I always hear students’ problems. That will be my approach through social media. What is your opinion of consulting students about decisions in the Senate? I think it’s always good to listen to ideas. That’s probably what I’ll do before making a big decision. I’ll probably ask people to share their ideas.
are they designed so that they can help students who have not much exposure to the language? Is it preparing them to the best of their abilities for the transition to academic programs? Are there any other particular topics that would come before Senate that you’re interested in? One of the things that I’m interested in is that they’re looking into how to partner up with K-12 programs. How do you partner up with high schools? So, helping them transition from a high school into university. They’re looking into bridging those gaps and encouraging more participation from high schools to university.
Nicole Dixon Second-year, business What knowledge do you have of Senate? I’ve read a few minutes of [the Senate meetings] now. I haven’t attended any but I plan to read through a few more of them during this week here. What students do you feel you’ll be representative of on Senate? I’m actually working a little bit with local politics right now. So my focus is actually to connect with younger people around our age group and try to bring that perspective to the city, so I think my exposure to that would help me in the Senate. How do you plan to communicate with students? I do have my own personal Facebook account and for the election I started a
Tyson Pannu Third-year, business What knowledge do you have of Senate? To be honest, I don’t have extensive knowledge on how the Senate operates, just because I don’t think many students do. They don’t act as a student, they try to act on the interests of the university, right? So that’s something that interests me as a business student, is looking at something from the whole picture instead of just how it can benefit you in your role as a student. What students do you feel you’ll be representative of on Senate? Well, for the Senate I would be looking to represent the whole student body, not just specific programs, because that’s what the
nomination account called “Vote Nicole Dixon,” so I’ve been able to communicate a little through that, as well as some of my classmates throughout some of this as well. Aside from that, I have a Twitter account, [and] I have a Linkedin profile under Nicole Dixon that can be looked at as well. What is your opinion of consulting students about decisions in the Senate? [I’ll share] whatever I’m permitted to share. I’ve got a very open-book policy; I like to keep people involved because that’s the best way to have all kinds of different perspectives, and we’re there to represent the students in the Senate before candidates.
senate is for. How do you plan to communicate with students? As a marketing person, I would communicate with them in any way I can — whether that’s email, or through events, even just posting things on the boards around the school or getting in touch with organizations. I would probably use social media, that’s a great outlet. What is your opinion of consulting students about decisions in the Senate? I can’t comment too extensively on that, just because I don’t know the in and outs. I think at the end of the day we all have a common goal.
The following students were unavailable for interviews: Akshat Bajaj
Bajaj is a third-year business student. In his reason-for-running statement, Bajaj writes, “We can achieve a lot more with support of each single one of you,” saying that he will bring to the position a “willingness to commit to the duties, and work around the clock in order to strengthen the bridge between students and administration.”
David Lisle
Lisle lists his previous experience “as chairperson of motion picture industry trade advisory committee for 22 apprenticeship programs” as a qualification for the position.
Jared De Bruin
De Bruin is a third-year student whose ideas are aligned with the strategic planning goals of UFV administration. “I believe it is the Senate’s responsibility to implement changes that are aligned with the priorities of the Ministry of Advanced Education, [and] also to further the university’s ties to local industries and communities,” he writes in his statement, adding that he sees potential in the addition of graduate programs and additional online learning.
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OPINION
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
More than entertainment: discrimination against women in media JESSICA JOHNSON CONTRIBUTOR
Violence and discrimination against women in real life is a pervasive, even pandemic, problem. Many women who suffer as a result of violence are shamed, blamed, and treated as secondclass citizens, and many more are made to feel uncomfortable even talking about it. When we illustrate this kind of violence in media for shock value, we are treating a very real nightmare as being no more than everyday entertainment. Media relies heavily on the idea that there’s such a thing as a “good” victim and “bad” perpetrator. This “good” victim usually represents a narrow demographic, someone who is visually deemed trustworthy. Usually white and a native English speaker, this victim dresses conservatively and is sexualized as little as possible in order to maintain credibility in the eyes of the audience. On the flipside, the “bad” perpetrator is typically older, arrogant, and someone most people would instinctively dislike upon meeting. Creating the idea that the crime of sexual assault is only a crime
Image: pixabay.com
“If we truly want life to imitate art in the most positive way possible, we must present fairly balanced power dynamics to the audience.” when it fits into a certain box, and that the victim is only as credible as their appearance, has an acute effect on how people regard violence against women. Already, many people believe that women who are raped, abused, or assaulted while dressed provocatively deserved it. Psychologists have already shown many times over
that this is not the case — that rapists and abusers are opportunists and that race, sexuality, and manner of dress matter very little indeed, so long as the target is seemingly easily overpowered. Conversely, depicting women in antagonistic roles that would typically be filled by men — especially in abusive or violent situ-
ations — does nothing to negate the fact that the male-dominated power dynamic still exists. And these are not well-written characters with full backstories. Sometimes they are even, God forbid, women who are evil just for the hell of it. Often these women, few and far between, are characterised as “man haters” or victims of a crime that made them the way they are. In one version of the story, it’s so unrealistic for them to be a powerful, career-driven female that they obviously must be a man hater. In another, there’s a tragic explanation for their actions that makes them out to be, yet again, the victim. The latter archetypal character isn’t exactly harmful, no matter the gender. But it does condone (to an extent) the idea that you can get away with a violent action if your backstory gets you enough “awwwws” from the audience. Taken from a patriarchal perspective, it’s an extreme version of “boys will be boys.” Even up until recently, this kind of thinking — that if you are somehow a victim your destructive actions are justified — has brought about tragic results. This mentality is prominent in men who think that murder or abuse is justified if they didn’t receive
what they thought was owed them by women. While this isn’t exactly breaking news, one does note a steady increase in the school shootings brought on by boys who felt victimized by girls who didn’t want to go to prom with them. To say that society hasn’t advanced in terms of the rights and treatment of women would be to disregard the hard work of feminist movements. From Angelina Grimke and the abolitionist movement to the modern third-wave feminism of “riot grrrls” and the challenging of heteronormativity, massive progress has been made — and much of this headway owes to the inspiration that men and women alike find in strong, female characters. If we truly want life to imitate art in the most positive way possible, we must present fairly balanced power dynamics to the audience viewing our media. We have an obligation to future generations to create a society where violence against women is no longer used for shock value to boost viewer rates — rather, one where these issues are discussed openly and without discrimination across every gender, to ensure that all are treated equally and made to feel safe.
Social networking or social isolation? ARZOO SANDHU CONTRIBUTOR
If we go back a couple of years and observe the number of changes that have taken place, we would be pretty astonished in the way distance between individuals has increased. Few people had cell phones, and internet facilities were rare and their use was not widespread. Now, we have laptops, tablets, and iPhones, and the rest of the world is a click away. However, the fact that we are flooded with these devices and social networking sites has led them to dominate many aspects of our lives, indicating that somehow, somewhere, we have gone drastically wrong. I believe that in a world fast shrinking, this technology is increasing the distance between individuals. Globalization, increased communication networks, and better information systems have surely led to better connectivity. People are interacting, sharing,
Image: staticflickr.com
The widespread popularity of social media and technology has led to a deterioration of human relations. and exploring new opportunities every day because of social networking’s accessibility and easy use. But on a deeper level, social networking sites are leading to something completely different from connectivity. These
tools have provided us with the means to communicate, but we are beginning to lose the skills to interact; Facebook has replaced the concept of face-to-face interaction, MySpace completely eroded the concept of “our space,” and
people are tweeting and snapchatting every nonsensical and miniscule detail of their day. All this has led to deterioration in human relations. Often, people live in the same house and do not even bother to interact with each other. Nowadays people cherish their prized moments and romantic ideas not in a personal, one-toone way, but by making online declarations as to how their relationship status is now “complicated.” It used to be that only your near and dear ones knew how your day went, but we live in a time where people consider it their moral obligation to inform all about every detail of their mundane existence. The smart phones in the hands of the notso-smart have completely taken over the reins of their lives, and “BBM me,” “Whatsapp me,” and “Facebook me” have replaced the more modest but infinitely more powerful “talk to me.” The truth is that as these technological tools have increased our ability to talk to each other, they have also gradually taken
away the meaning of interaction from our lives. The act of congratulating and wishing someone “happy birthday” used to be a special moment for people in the past where they went out of their way to greet people in person and express themselves, often with a nice gesture like a handwritten note or card. Leave aside writing notes or greeting someone in person, now people do not even take the trouble of writing “happy birthday” — it’s been shortened to a much cooler “HBD.” Social networking has enslaved us to an extent where we have let it take precedence over our emotions, morals, and beliefs. We may be “connected” to people online, but in reality we all are disconnected. The warmth, sincerity, and comfort that relationships in the past had are becoming rare. Therefore, before this “networking” does irreparable damage to us, let us all take a moment to unplug and think where we are headed!
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OPINION
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
SNAPSHOTS
Image: Anthony Biondi
Forgive me, I’m a facial hair farce
Curtailed commentary on current conditions
Image: Anthony Biondi
Just keep scrolling
Image: Anthony Biondi
Image: Anthony Biondi
Minus AfterMath
Tea desire
Kodie Cherrille
Remington Fioraso
Joe Johnson
Anthony Biondi
It’s that time of semester where I neglect the fact that my face is a living thing that disposes of dead cells in the form of facial hair, and while some people can grow that weird mass into a stylish hair-cloud of beard or mustache, I am unfortunate to have only half of that ability down pat. If you want facial hair, too bad — here’s an inexplicable bald patch that refuses to have its sovereign boundaries trespassed; if you want no facial hair, too bad, too. This is an unfortunate thing, and everyone loses because of it. I realize that the current state of my face is quite unsightly, but when it’s the last few weeks of semester, I have no wits or fucks to give about the way I look, and for those of you given the momentous task of looking at me, I sincerely apologize.
When scrolling through pictures of food, kittens, and selfies on Instagram, I seldom see a sponsored post. Yet each time one appears, countless comments are posted on it complaining about having to see the advertisement. More and more, complaints are about the fact that they are not targeted posts — why should they have to see them if they do not want them? If you like the application but do not like the ads, why take the time to complain? It is your content and eyes being sold to the advertiser that allow the application to continue being free. Just scroll down the screen to start liking and commenting on posts that you actually care more about — even if it is someone’s lunch. Yes, it really is that easy to ignore sponsored posts.
Coffee, I have forsaken you. Our once-blissful romance is now just an afterthought. It wasn’t all that long ago that we would spend every morning together, and I would drink your sweet, sugary, nectar. I looked forward to waking up every morning just to be with you. I would have you multiple times a day. But those days are gone. I may occasionally return on the rare occasion that you’re prepared and ready to go, but mostly you are now just too painful to revisit. Coffee, you just make me feel bad. I have a new love and the name is tea. Tea is so much better in every conceivable way. I’m going to go so far as to say everybody should take his or her turn with tea. Where coffee can only give you so much, tea is adventurous and just waiting to be explored. Tea is a drinker’s drink.
So what happened to AfterMath? Well, apparently those guys just decided to close up shop and disappear without so much as a goodbye. It was around the time of the Big Bang event that patrons of the favourite campus lounge found locked doors and dark windows. Now, at the end of semester, when an establishment with decent seating, food, and a comfortable atmosphere is needed most! This is the end of semester, SUS boys! Why did you choose now to turn tail and flee? Without warning, no less. I find it unnerving that SUS has left the student body to fend for itself on campus in mid March. Our only options now are the cafeteria, Tim Hortons, or the Press Café. Finnegan’s is always an option; however, they generally take a lot longer to prepare food, which doesn’t work well with a student schedule. I understand that AfterMath had to move into the new SUB, but why not wait until the end of semester? It’s not as if they are going to open in the summer. They could have waited the three weeks until finals.
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FEATURE
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
UFV broadcasting team shares their trade secrets By Nathan Hutton Aaron Levy, CIVL station manager, and Jaslyen Singh (Jazz), a former UFV women’s basketball player: these are the two voices of the UFV broadcasting team. They had the call on every single UFV men’s and women’s basketball home game this season. For Levy, this is old hat; he has been calling UFV basketball games for the past five seasons and has seen the careers of influential players like Sarah Wierks and Jasper Moedt from start to finish. For Jazz, this was an entirely new experience, unlike anything that she had done before. I got the chance to sit down with both Aaron and Jazz to see if I could get a little insight into some of the secrets behind their craft.
NH: For you, Jazz, how did this opportunity present itself? After just finishing a three-year career last season? JS: I got a message from Aaron out of the blue on Facebook and he asked me if I would be interested in broadcasting the games. At first I thought it was a joke, but then I got pretty excited. NH: Now that the season is over, can you reflect on what your first year of broadcasting was like? JS: Overall it’s been a crazy experience. It’s been a lot of fun working with Aaron — I learned a lot. It’s really nice to take a step back from playing and just watch everybody play. I feel like I was kind of bad sometimes on certain plays. AL: You’re saying as a player you can see your mistakes from a different angle now? JS: Yeah. AL: Wow, interesting. NH: Jazz, you played for a couple years on this UFV team. How did your success at the CIS level contribute to you
as a broadcaster? JS: I think I came in knowing a lot of the players and a lot of the teams and their history — that really helped. I still have my old playbook from playing with Al [Tuchscherer, head coach of the women’s basketball team], so I had a pretty good idea about what they were running. It came a lot more naturally than I expected. NH: Jazz, is this something that you are looking to do next year as well? JS: I would love to do it next year. Other than that I think I have to work on my skills if I want to take it up to the next level. For now, I am enjoying my time with Aaron and learning a lot from him. AL: I don’t know if you have to take yourself up to the next level — you just have to give up on all your hopes and dreams. JS: I would have to learn how to grow more as a commentator. I would have to listen to more NBA people and have a lot more energy — maybe even some catchphrases. That would be pretty cool.
AL: She has, too, “become a nerd.” JS: Like you, Aaron; you spit out stats twenty-four seven.
Age, when there were dinosaurs. She’s got a work ethic; it really shows the Mouat — and Coach Al — pedigree.
NH: Can you both talk about the preparation that you would need in order to do a weekend’s slate of games? JS: I would spend like an hour Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday looking at both teams, their rosters, and the games they’ve played so far this year, stats, and any other articles I could find. When Aaron came in he would show me a lot of different websites. We would usually meet up on the Friday and prepare together for at least an hour. I found I didn’t have to prepare as much for the girls because I knew most of them, but for the men, it was a complete shock. I really struggled with the pronunciation of their names — that was probably the toughest part. AL: Jazz prepared as much and as effectively as her 60-something-year-old predecessor [Dave Piotrowski], who has master’s degrees and was a Carleton Raven in the Stone
NH: Aaron, is watching film ever a part of your preparation? AL: I watch every game after I broadcast it. I watch every away game. I watch generally if it’s a team I’ve never seen before; I will watch their broadcasts from other games what other schools have done. I watch and re-watch good and bad calls that we’ve done or I’ve done in the past. I do actually like watching the other broadcasts to see what I like about other broadcasts, what I don’t like about other broadcasts, what I see in my broadcasts that are similar — good or bad. [I look for] what I can tell my partner. It’s not like I gave Dave too many tips. That was more because I wasn’t planning. I knew this year that I kind of had to direct the bus. With me and Dave it was fluid, it kind of just flew. I think it does with me and Jazz now, but I think it took work to make her comfortable, and let
her know that it can just flow … it does take work to make sure that you know where you want to go and where your partner is ready to go. JS: I think it really started to come together in the last three weeks. I think that’s when I was really comfortable with Aaron and that’s when we had a huge change in our broadcasts with the flow. It was just a lot nicer to listen to. AL: Yeah, it took me a while to read how she reacts to certain things. The Regina coach, Dave Taylor, he loved her ripping on me for how old I am and bringing out all these old sports references — people from before she was born. Or like Ty Cobb, who was before my grandparents were born. She goes for the things that you don’t want people to know about you; she pulls those out of me like in the broadcast. Remember when I turned beet red? JS: Yeah! And I rip on you when you cry. He is so emotional I can’t even handle it. AL: It was a crying season. JS: You with your Facebook rants. It was so much fun to
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FEATURE
work with you. You really are a big brother — a super emotional big brother, but a good big brother. NH: Aaron, you’ve been watching and broadcasting basketball games for years. Can you talk a bit about the evolution of the teams as far as the style of play goes? AL: They are physically dominating. They are more skilled than a UFV team has been for a while. Sure, we had Joel Friesen and Sam Freeman who were three-point specialists — and it’s not like Sam never went inside, and Joel definitely did — but I feel like with Kadeem and Nate, even with the addition of Dom this year, the team is more athletically capable in comparison to other teams over the years. They wouldn’t have been able to back down 6’10” [Victoria standout] Chris McLaughlin five years ago, even in his first year; I think it would have been a different story. NH: What’s your proudest moment as broadcasters? JS: Probably when I could
keep up with him and when he brings out the old comments from like the ’80s and the ’90s. I’m like, “Yeah, I remember that” after reading a little in my history books. Other than that, no, the whole season was exciting, so I don’t have a specific time. AL: My best basketball moment is Joel Friesen’s [threepointer]. I can’t say anything else. Look it up: Friesen buzzer beater on YouTube. JS: I wonder how many views it has by now? AL: Only about 7,000. JS: 1,000 are your own, just listening to yourself. AL: Yeah, probably. And all the people I have shown it to in Ontario. NH: What’s been your most embarrassing moment? AL: The Calgary weekend when she told me I was yelling at her and I got beet red. JS: I think for him I’m going to call him out on his worst moment. It was when he started crying in the last home game. AL: No, that was a great moment.
JS: I wouldn’t call it a great moment. AL: That should be your worst moment for not crying. JS: I’m not as emotional as him for someone in his 30s. AL: I’m not in my 30s yet! JS: I think my worst moment was when I actually listened to my own voice, and I was like, “That’s not great.” I laugh a lot and my parents told me not to laugh as much. That was like the first month and a half of broadcasting. I think that was my worst. NH: I notice a few unique and funny catchphrases when listening to broadcasters, like “fluffy bunny” for a soft, easy lay-up. What are some of your favourites? Do you want to coin any yourself? AL: So I’ve been developing the “Envision bank” kind of thing this year. JS: Developing? You said it every game this year. AL: Yeah, but I’m trying to make it better — that’s how I’m developing it. What I was really pleased with was when we beat the Dinos … and I said,
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
“And that’s the way she wrote it.” That’s what I want to work on this year. See, history, his story or her story. “That’s all she wrote”; “She wrote it like that”; “That’s her story.” I want to work on that at the end of the game when someone has a record-breaking day or they get an important win: “And that’s the way she wrote it, her story.” JS: My dad wants me to add in a little brown flavour, like “shakalaka.” For my catchphrase next year maybe I’ll get more enthusiastic, like, “Ayeeh,” or something like that. NH: What does it take to be an effective broadcaster? AL: You’ve got to know your shit. JS: Which Aaron told me I didn’t at the beginning of the season. AL: No, I told her, “You do know your shit.” Dave Petrowski — legendary broadcaster and coach, my Abbotsford / Carleton father — quits, he retires, and the thing I said to Rocky and Alicia and everybody involved at UFV at the time was, “You find me someone who
knows basketball and I don’t care about the rest; I will turn them into a good broadcaster.” I think that Jazz has become a good broadcaster; she is a good broadcaster. But that’s what you need: to know your shit. If you know your shit and you are confident — that’s probably the biggest thing we worked on this season, is Jazz being confident when I talk so much. I talk over her. She could be like, “Oh, I’ll just let the guy talk,” but she needs to be poised and ready to talk, and I think she is now. JS: A good commentator is someone like Aaron, who you want to listen to. One of the reasons my parents were so gungho about this is because they had listened to Aaron for the three years I had been on the team. Him and Dave together made the games exciting. My parents wouldn’t come to the gym to watch me play because they would rather listen. It is also about making it fun, easy, and exciting for the viewers.
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CULTURE
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 traces the troubled journey of the civil rights movement VALERIE FRANKLIN THE CASCADE
Students and faculty filled B121 on March 19 to view The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, a documentary following the rise of the black power movement in response to segregation, police brutality, poverty, and other social ills. The film was shown as the final installment of the Slavery, Race, and Civil Rights in the Americas film series presented by the history department, hosted by professors Ian RocksboroughSmith and Geoffrey Spurling. Presented in nine chapters, The Black Power Mixtape is a collage of footage shot by Swedish journalists in the US between 1967 and 1975. The recordings were forgotten in the basement of Swedish Television until they were found 30 years later, and modern filmmakers stitched the footage into a documentary. Directed by Göran Olsson, the film overlays black and white footage from the 1970s with commentary from modernday civil rights activists such as rapper Talib Kweli, singer Harry Belafonte, and professor Angela Davis, who appears in both the 40-year-old footage and the present-day audio commentary. “The story of black power in America is one that often ends tragically through the mid-to-late ‘60s,” notes Rocksborough-Smith.
The documentary surveys some of the most powerful events of those nine years, including the Vietnam War, Davis’ unjust incarceration and murder trial, the Attica Prison revolt, and the deliberate introduction of heroin to African-American communities as a method of controlling the rebellious population. Above all, the targeted assassinations of high-profile leaders who had expressed support for civil rights, particularly Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and the Kennedy brothers, sparked a furious revolution in the black communities of America. The formation of the Black Panther Party (BPP), originally called the Black Panther Party for SelfDefense, provided a radical and violent counterpoint to Martin Luther King’s pacifist approach to civil disobedience. Stokely Carmichael, a formerly nonviolent activist who took up a more militant philosophy and became the “prime minister” of the BPP, features largely in the film. “In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent must have a conscience,” Carmichael says bluntly. “The United States has none.” Angela Davis, a young professor, socialist, and civil rights activist in the 1970s, was arrested and almost sentenced to death after her gun was used in the armed takeover of a courtroom, even
Image: wikimedia.org
Black Power Mixtape uses newly discovered footage from the 1970s. though she was not involved in the crime. She describes living under perpetual scrutiny and prejudice as a black woman, including being frequently stopped by police for no apparent reason. Although she doesn’t condone violence, she acknowledges that the violent philosophy of the BPP was a frustrated response to this culture of abuse — a means to an end. “When you talk about a revolution, most people think ‘violence’ without realizing that the real content of any kind of revolutionary thrust lies in the principles and the goals that you’re striving for, not in the ways you reach
them,” she says. But African-American professor Robin Kelley, a modern-day civil rights activist, notes that the black power movement wasn’t just about racial violence; it built a foundation for the modern incarnation of the civil rights movement. “I always think of [the black power movement] as three different movements, three different legacies,” he says: building black institutions and supporting black business, but not necessarily in a revolutionary capacity; cultural nationalism, which can be seen in black communities’ enthusiastic responses to films like Malcolm
X; and the black radical tradition, which exists in some forms of hiphop and modern counter-cultural organizations. The film’s Swedish point of view offers an unexpectedly intimate perspective of the American racial conflict, presenting the story from the eyes of outsiders. “For me to have lived through and seen this through my young eyes in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, but then to see it all through the eyes of a Swedish crew, it’s even more fascinating,” says Kelley in the film. “There’s a sense of innocence that I think is evident, but yet it’s not really an innocence as much as it is also a global perspective.” Rocksborough-Smith points out that although modern America may have a black president, conditions are in many ways no better today than they were 40 years ago, including the startling overrepresentation of people of colour in the prison system. As racial tensions continue to rise today in response to police brutality in Ferguson and elsewhere in the United States, it becomes more important than ever to continue to document inequality so it can be faced and challenged. “We have to write and document our history right now,” says modern-day musician Erykah Badu in a voice over. “It’s really not about black and white — it’s about the story.”
Math Talk reveals how information spreads MIRANDA LOUWERSE CONTRIBUTOR
The math club continued its Math Talk series on Thursday, March 19 by inviting Petra Berenbrink, an associate professor of computing science at SFU, to give a talk about her research interest to faculty and students from the math and CIS departments. Berenbrink’s research is in the field of randomized algorithms — that is, algorithms that use randomness as part of their logic. She says she is interested in randomized algorithms because they are easy and elegant, and give reliable output. One of the applications of these algorithms Berenbrink gave during her lecture is in speeding up random walks. A random walk is a process of covering a graph in an undirected, arbitrary way. The graph is made up of points (nodes) and lines connecting them (edges).
Image: graphstream-project.org
Studying how information moves from node to node can shed light on how opinions spread, among other applications. The standard random walk is the Markov process. In this process, when you are at a node,
which node you go to next depends only on where you are, not on where you have been. In this
way, the steps are totally random. However, it is also easy to imagine that the walk could randomly take you back and forth from one node to another multiple times. This is not the most effective way to cover the graph. Berenbrink views the problem in a different way. She set up a system so that, beginning at one node, the next step goes to a random neighbouring node that has not previously been visited. This would certainly be a more effective way to cover the graph. In her proof, she showed that unvisited nodes are on cycles, so that if you find one unvisited node there will be a cycle of unused edges to follow next. The idea of speeding up random walks has many applications in computing, which then translate into applications in things like robotics and exploring graphs. Voter processes is another application that Berenbrink gave of the usefulness of randomized al-
gorithms. In this situation, each node is a person and there are a number of opinions that person could have on something. This randomized algorithm looks at how the neighbouring nodes (or people) influence us. There are different ways to model the process, but one such method Berenbrink described is a pull method. In this model, a node (person) takes on the opinion of one of their randomly selected neighbours. The idea is to see what opinion prevails and how long it takes to reach a majority. Using these algorithms, the way information spreads and how long it takes for a system to reach a majority can be modelled in a simple way. Berenbrink’s talk demonstrated again to faculty and students the incredible power of math and computing in modelling real-world situations.
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“Don’t give into the fear”
Panel offers critical response to the proposed Barbaric Cultural Practices Act NADINE MOEDT THE CASCADE / PHOTOS
It was out of tragedy that the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was born. On March 21, 1966, police officers under South Africa’s Apartheid rule opened fire on an unarmed group of protesters, killing 69 men, women, and children, and injuring 180 more. The Sharpeville massacre serves as a reminder of the effects of polarized and racialized communities — a climate that has many critics of a new piece of proposed legislation in Canada concerned. In commemoration of the day, the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies hosted a panel on the proposed Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act (Bill S-7), which discussed the political, social, and racial implications of the legislation. The act includes amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Civil Marriage Act, and Criminal Code. Institutional barriers Kamaljit Lehal, a Vancouverbased lawyer with a specialization in immigration law, spoke first on why the proposed act and included amendments in Bill S-7 do more harm than good for the people it is meant to support. While the purpose of the laws is to protect girls and women, Lehal argued that criminalization will further compromise women’s safety. The proposed changes would allow anyone involved in a forced marriage to be criminally charged. Lehal discussed how this might create barriers for young girls seeking help. “For example, if a young girl is feeling coerced into marrying someone [and her] parents can be subject to criminal charges, is she likely to risk them being charged criminally?” Lehal spoke from her experience with the law, noting that the proposed act is entirely unneces-
Lawyer Kamaljit Lahal argued that Bill S-7 will create further barriers for women seeking help.
sary. “When we look at the existing laws, we have at least 20 provisions of the Criminal Code that can be and have been used to deal effectively with these issues.” Laws against polygamy, genital mutilation, forced marriage, and honour killings are already in place and have been for years. Lehal says that judiciaries are well aware of the issues and that cultural beliefs can’t be, and have not been used to justify crime in court. So if the laws aren’t necessary, why are changes being made? According to Lehal, it comes down to a matter of politics. In her experience with the law, Lehal says she has seen a gradual erosion of rights and liberty. “The laws have become more and more strict and there is this us-and-them attitude that has been underlying it, a divide be-
tween who are the real Canadians versus those who are immigrants.”
The marketability of racism Hamish Telford, department head of political science, spoke about the scare tactics that are ruling the unofficial beginnings of Harper’s federal campaign. Drawing on examples of Conservative propaganda, Telford explained that bills like Bill S-7 are determined by marketability. As Lehal said earlier in the day: “There is a political agenda to cultivate racial intolerance in a climate that appears to have an appetite for it.” “Playing on emotions, repeating a catchy phrase will seal an idea in the mind of the unknowing and uncaring public,” Telford said, warning of the negative effects on the general public of such a subtly racist, “us versus them”
bill. Its purpose is simply to scare the voter into submission, he said. “Part of what’s going on here is not just shopping for votes, but shopping for campaign contributions.” Telford’s advice? “Don’t give in to the fear … in Canada, you’re way more likely to be killed by a moose than a terrorist. I actually checked the data here, and it’s true.” A divisive bill Criminology instructor Tamara O’Doherty spoke about the effects of criminalization on marginalized populations. O’Doherty said the reason the bill may pass without much fanfare is that on a surface level, people agree with it. “We do have to acknowledge that part of the reason we hear the silence, why people aren’t react-
ing to this, is because they’re now in a position and going, ‘Hey, I actually agree that child marriage under 16 is not okay.’” Apart from its superficiality, as Lehal pointed out, everything outlined in the bill is already a criminal offense. O’Doherty spoke to our “overreliance” on the justice system, suggesting criminalization is not the best tool for long-term social change. O’Doherty gave an impassioned speech on Canada’s hypocrisy, and the ineffectuality of criminalization. “1983 is the year then that women receive the right, under criminal law, to say no to sex with their husbands. 1983. Has that somehow gotten rid of sexual violence? Domestic violence within a relationship? Has that actually affected real social change?” She reminded the audience of the 1200 missing and murdered indigenous women ignored by the federal government; about the fact that we actually have to use the term “rape culture”; about the university students chanting about underage sex and creating Facebook pages for the purposes of discussing rape and sexual violence against their female peers. “The idea that Canada has zero tolerance for violence against women … makes me roll my eyes. It’s fabulously ironic in an academic sense, and incredibly sad and frustrating in an activism sense.” UFV instructor Adrienne Chan, who moderated the event, spoke to the importance of our involvement in these issues. “The context of the act is very important for us to consider,” Chan said. “Since the middle ages, Western society has been attempting to civilize and assimilate groups of people based on different cultures.” The Sharpeville massacre stands as a representation of this mindset of cultural superiority. “Who decides what is right and what is wrong?” she asks.
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Reach exhibitions blend philosophy and art MARTIN CASTRO CONTRIBUTOR / PHOTO
The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford has been adding exhibitions since January, and now features five separate exhibitions. One of the more vibrant exhibits is Lorena Krause’s Fauna Crowned, a series of 10 mixedmedia paintings on display in the grotto viewing area. The paintings, done in a a simple yet strikingly vivid colour palette, are all portraits of different women painted in a style that focuses particularly on the eyes, nose and forehead. Surrealistic tendencies dominate the exhibit, as different animals and plant life inhabit the hair of each woman in Krause’s paintings. One painting, for example, shows a woman dressed in an ancient Egyptian style with several birds protruding from her elaborate headpiece. In each painting the hairstyle of the subject completely dwarfs the woman herself, drawing the eye not to the face, but to the intricately patterned designs that rest atop the subject’s head. Buy One, Get None is an exhibit
which focuses on consumerism, and considers “the complexity of living in a capitalist society founded on excessive material acquisition, extravagant waste, and the exploitation of others,” as David Seymour, the curator of the exhibit, writes. Candice Okada’s “Water: Volume 1, 2012,” is a series of stark black-and-white photographs of bottles of water, all different shapes and sizes. The collection of 24 photographs, each of which portrays two bottles side by side, stands out on the white backdrop against which they are placed. Taking up most of a wall, the photographs first catch the eye — why are there 20 bottles of water being photographed? — then urge the gallery patron to consider their usage of water bottles. The exhibit’s philosophical implications are as intriguing as its aesthetics. “Buy This #1-3,” three photographs by Kendra Schellenberg, depict “women sequestered in their homes.” The photographs show an unflinchingly vivid image of societal oppression, which, aided by the consumerism of the 1950s, made up the “American dream.” A smaller exhibit than the others that surround it, “Buy
Events March 26
Deforestation and medicinal plants lecture
Fiona Howarth’s silver gelatin photographs depict geothermal mining stations in a sobering light. This” is nonetheless as powerful and thought-provoking as its counterparts: three women are depicted alongside an array of products and furniture, shown as being more a part of their environment than anything else. Although the type of oppression depicted is characteristic of a bygone era, “Buy This” asks whether or not we are far-removed from the type of behaviours and values which led to such oppression in the first place. Fiona Howarth’s silver gela-
tin photographs of a geothermal mining station show the drastic way in which the drive for natural fuel has been the cause for the alteration and, in some cases, irreparable damage of nature. Each photograph, framed in black, is as sobering as the next, and each photograph asks patrons the same question: is it worth it? The exhibits will be on display until April 19. The Reach offers free general admission.
Holy Moly Matrimony
Are wedding shows worth it? SASHA MOEDT THE CASCADE
Every year there are several bridal wedding shows in the Fraser Valley, but I never paid attention to them until a wedding was actually looming in my life. I went the Fraser Valley Wedding Show for three reasons: free swag, contests, and the chance to explore options. Having yet to decide on the little things (like cosmetics, hair stylists and accessories) I thought it would be nice to try out some options. Also, the bride usually gets in for free. I went with my fiancé and my unofficial maid of honour (I’m not having a wedding party). As soon as we arrived, I was given the promised free entry and swag bag. The contents of that bag should have been a warning sign — it was just a bunch of pamphlets and magazines, and two measly make-up products. Even before I entered the hall, I wondered, are wedding shows just a glorified advertising event? Cue the loud music, crowds, and colourful booths. There was a stage with wedding singers.
Models in wedding dresses swept around, giving brides-to-be business cards. A chocolate fondue fountain surrounded by platters of fresh fruit and marshmallows drew attendees like moths. The booths were selling everything from perfume to overseas honeymoons. I felt a bit like I was wandering through the internet after Google searching “wedding.” Dresses! Cakes! Makeovers! Wine tours! Entertainment! Photography! Instead of pop-up advertisements, vendors circled, trying to catch my eye and ask me about my “big day.” The thing I disliked the most was the vendors. They worked so hard to get you in a conversation, but it was clear they weren’t looking for a person like me. How many people in your wedding party? None. Who’s your caterer? I’m doing my own. Well, what about your cake? My opa’s on it. Have you booked your honeymoon? Yep, two nights at Harrison Hot Springs. Not only were they not looking for someone like me, but I wasn’t interested in what they had to offer. Most of their products were for a conventional $15,000 wed-
Upcoming
ding, marketed with phrases like “pamper yourself” and “the most special day of your life.” I’m a romantic person, but I’m also a critical consumer, so when I hear that language it raises red flags. Can the day still be special without your $5,000 photography package? Probably. I am a sucker for contests, so I spent a lot of time putting my info into the contest draw. Unfortunately, a week later I’m receiving way too much spam, and I still haven’t won a flight to the Bahamas. Wedding shows aren’t completely useless; I did get to talk to local vendors, try on perfume, try some nice wines, and get information on suits for my fiancé. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re considering wedding shows. Do it early on My wedding is in May, so a lot of details are hammered down already. It would have been useful to attend a show earlier on to get some ideas about what’s out there. I tried an amazing red velvet cupcake that I probably would have considered for my
wedding had I not already made decisions on the dessert front. It’s a bit depressing to see décor ideas, and then regret not planning that for your own wedding. Bring your friends! Bring your entourage. I was with my fiancé (who, by the way, vendors mostly ignored; apparently the bride is in charge of weddings) and maid of honour, and it was a blast. We could make fun of overpriced wedding packages, gorge ourselves shamelessly by the fondue fountain, and save each other from pushy vendors. It’s all part of the getting-married experience. Be critical Some vendors try to convince you that they’re giving you a show-exclusive deal, or get you to “spin the wheel” and claim an amazing prize. It’s usually not a great deal, so be prepared to say “no thanks” if they’re trying to get your name and number so you can claim your “prize.” Take everything with a grain of salt, and just have fun!
The Greenspeak series continues with a lecture by geography instructor Garry Fehr, who will discuss medicinal plant conservation in terms of economic development. Fehr will focus on data collected from central India, where conflicting economic, biological and social challenges create conflicting goals. The lecture starts at 1p.m. in room A413.
March 27 Tel i’tsel Kwe’lo (I am from here) exhibit The opening night of a collective exhibition by graduating students from the Lens of Empowerment Project will celebrate identity, land, place, and citizenship through women’s stories and lived experiences. The Lens of Empowerment program — offered by the visual arts department, indigenous affairs and indigenous studies at UFV — explores histories, suppressed voices, and representations of indigenous people in film, art and media. The opening reception will take place at 3 p.m. in the S’eliyemetaxwtexw art gallery, room B 136.
March 28 Art battle, take two Two rounds, six artists and 20 minutes to paint. The Fraser Valley’s art battle comes to Chilliwack for take two of ART BATTLE, where painters compete in front of a live audience for the chance to move on to the regionals. Audience members are given the opportunity to both vote and bid on their favourite piece of artwork. This round will take place at the Vineyard Community Centre in Chilliwack at 6:30 p.m. For more information and for tickets check out Artbattle.ca.
March 30
Louden Singletree launch UFV’s literary magazine is celebrating the launch of their seventh-annual collection of prose, visual arts, and poetry! Join the Louden board for readings, refreshments, and door prizes at 6 p.m. in the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies.
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Book
Stone Mattress sheds new light on the familiar, casting shadows KATIE STOBBART THE CASCADE
CHARTS 1
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly
Verch 2 April The New Part
3 MALK Prehistoric Rebel Spell 4 The Last Run Cong 5 Viet Continental Self
6
B.A. Johnston Shit Sucks
7 Lights Little Machines Ring 8 Purity Another Eternity Mangan + Black9 Dan smith
10 11
Club Meds Drake If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late Alvvays Alvvays
Campbelljohn 12 John Chin Up Gonzalez 13 Jose Vestiges & Claws King 14 Moon Secret Life single “Ross-
15
well” Sur Une Plage Legerdemain
16
Weaves Weaves Remixed EP
17 AC/DC Rock or Bust The Kid 18 Billy Horseshoes and Handgrenades
Shuffle
AARON LEVY
CIVL MANAGER/ SUIT MODEL
Station Manager Aaron Levy is stoked to help represent UFV Athletics on the cover of this edition of The Cascade! In honour of this momentous occasion, here are some cover tunes!
Limp Bizkit “Faith” Certainly would not be a fan of George “Wham!” Michael’s original if I hadn’t been treated to this Family Values Tour staple first. Some of Fred Durst’s best, if purposively strained and slightly offkey, vocals; touch ya body. ;) Iron and Wine “Such Great Heights” Originally a Ben Gibbard (Death Cab) and Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel) collab on the Postal Service’s Give Up, Sam Beam really takes this song to the previous level, and forces us to thank him for stripping down the elegant production, written as a love letter to Cat Power, or Chan Marshall. Johnny Cash “Hurt” The greatest song 1995 ever brought us? It still took Rick Rubin and the Man in Black to bring it back to the forefront on the American Recordings in 2002. I was never a fan of this version, specifically because of Cash’s family-friendly need to re-write “shit” as “thorns.” Jaguar Love “Piece of My Heart” A Blood Brothers aftermath sideproject, the record responsible for this, what I’ll call a “gem,” was much maligned as a placebo for the post-... Burn Piano Island Burn deflation of BB Nation, but I’ve got to say, I freaking LOVE this cover. Janis Joplin never sounded so right. My only man.
“It’s astonishing how folks can get so worked up over something that doesn’t exist,” muses Constance, the author of an imaginary world, “Alphinland.” The first three stories in Margaret Atwood’s Stone Mattress are linked to Constance and the world she writes into a successful, if notably non-literary, fantasy series. Alphinland is not a real place. That is not exactly a true statement. Despite its status as imaginary, Alphinland is real in its threat to a poet’s ideas of what real literature is; insofar as it sculpts the research focus of a young scholar; and in the myriad ways it affects or is affected by “real” characters (within the larger context of Atwood’s made-up story). Such play with the layering of realities continues throughout the book. With three linked stories out of the starting gate, one might expect the following six to carry forward a short story cycle. However, neither Alphinland nor the characters from the first third of Stone Mattress reappear in later tales. Any budding expectations of how the stories might cohere are interrupted by “Lusus Naturae” (“freak of nature”). Though the story’s first-person narrative purports a kind of realism, the fact that it is told by a quasi-mythic heroine-ormonster calls its likelihood into question. Its authenticity, though, depends less on an argument of whether or not such events could happen and more on the way Atwood shifts the lens. I’m reminded of “Half-
Image: tribune.com
hanged Mary” and “Owl Burning” in morning in the burned house. The maligned character — the witch, the monster transformed beyond popular recognition of humanity — is no less human, having faced the darkness, looking back with mirror eyes. By this point in the collection a unifying element begins to show itself: our love of scapegoats, of using human figures as figureheads when blame is to be laid. “When demons are required someone will always be found to supply the part, and whether you step forward or are pushed is all the same in the end,” Atwood writes in the freak of nature’s voice. The stories that follow darken gradually, and are eerily plausible. Maybe at first you are astonished when a group
of radicals blockades and burns down retirement homes, but it becomes believable and unnerving when you realize you’ve heard this narrative before somewhere: in the news, maybe. It’s a strange, hard bed to lie in. In many ways, Stone Mattress is unsettling in its portrayal of the modern world, using the same, perhaps more honest, way a long history of folk tales have depicted, somewhat askew, their respective contexts. Maybe in another light (here, that of tales) the looking glass is clearer. It’s also worth noting that despite their darknesses, most of these stories end with a strange sort of optimism: with love, with liberating calm, and dancing in the firelight.
Janet Jackson ft. Q-tip “Got til It’s Gone” “Joni Mitchell never lie,” said Tribe Called Quest’s Q-Tip when Jackson whispered the Canadian chanteuse’s timeless chorus over hip-hop beats and a snazzy 1990s music video that was clearly heavily drawn on for JJ and Busta Rhymes’ later “What’s it Gonna Be?” Jan was downhill from here. Image: staticflickr.com
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Three-man jury finds To Pimp a Butterfly guilty of being rather dope By Martin Castro, Kodie Cherrille, and Alex Rake Kendrick Lamar’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed good kid, m.A.A.d city was dropped online March 16, a week before schedule. Having a few days to digest the new album, Martin Castro, Kodie Cherrille, and Alex Rake got together to discuss their initial thoughts of To Pimp a Butterfly. KC: I think To Pimp a Butterfly is messier than good kid, m.A.A.d. city. AR: Messier? In what sense is it a mess? KC: Messier in the production style; it’s not as sleek as good kid, m.A.A.d. city, and it’s messier in the actual quality of the songs. I’m going to pick on the song “u,” which made me wince listening to it, because it was like … MC: I know what you mean, because it sounds like he’s drunk. However, I hope he actually was drunk while he recorded it. It’s actually become one of my favourite songs. KC: Really? MC: I don’t know why, but the image of Kendrick Lamar in the studio, drunk out of his mind, recording this, to me seems great. I think it plays into the aesthetic of the album. I think the story perhaps isn’t as strongly stated as it was in GKMC. AR: Well, it’s not really a story. What I thought was that it’s in direct contradiction of the mess being a bad thing. When I listen to it in comparison to GKMC, which was beats and then rapping over it, these weren’t like regular hip-hop songs. They were compositions. What came to my mind is “progressive hiphop.” There are swells within a song, which you don’t usually get in hip-hop. MC: There’s a straight spoken poetry piece, which I loved. There’s like one proper hip-hop song and that’s “The Blacker the Berry.” That’s like the one banger. I think the point he wanted to make with this album was that hip-hop should be held to a higher standard, or a different standard than just an artist putting out bangers that can be played in the club, which I respect him for. AR: What came to my mind the whole time was Killer Mike’s R.A.P. Music. It has the exact same message, and the songs also progress similarly. I wonder if that might have been an influence. KC: Let me clarify that I do think this is an amazing album, I just think that GKMC is better in the sense that it maintains a very high plateau longer than To Pimp a Butterfly. MC: Well, GKMC is a longer album. AR: The final song on TPAB is three songs, which is where I get the progressive hip-hop thing. It actually transitions so smoothly, you don’t notice that he’s starting an interview. That ending! MC: And he’s talking to Tupac. KC: It’s a sample from an older interview. Kendrick is just asking the questions.
Images: Anthony Biondi
Alex Rake in da house. That’s something that I’ll give this album credit for: its ending feels way more authentic to me. We talk about these albums like they’re films, right. They’re “short films by Kendrick Lamar.” This is a lot more all over the place, and if it were a film, it’d be much more conceptual; not as concrete, not as easy to track, like GKMC. AR: It’s not a night on the town, like GKMC. KC: The resolution on this one is was better … “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” just ends because they believe in God all of a sudden. And then this one he deconstructs a word. It’s all about the word “nigger” and he changes it into something positive. MC: The thing I liked about it was instead of, “Oh, I believe in God”— which is fine, it’s good— the ending on TPAB is ... I don’t want to say a love letter to Kendrick from Kendrick, but it sort of is, because he’s putting faith in himself. But then you also have to take into account that it’s an art piece, how it works together, how the songs work together. So do you think that the message being as self-affirming as it was works in conjunction with how the songs work [aesthetically]? AR: Yeah. I mean, “i” is a lot better in context. MC: When I first heard it, I thought, why is he being so poppy all of a sudden? Is he just trying to appeal to the Grammy crowd? It seemed out of place. KC: And it seemed really flat in the
sense that he had a lot of similar tracks at the time. Whereas when “The Blacker the Berry” came out, it suddenly snapped that song right back into focus. Just the song ordering itself makes “i,” which we thought was [worse], work way more. MC: Yeah, and the live version on the album works a lot better. Because you can feel, you know, it’s not as clean. Which is another comment that I’m hearing; that perhaps we don’t like how the album is not as clean? KC: Not in that sense. I mean, the ending of the album is brilliant. The last stretch of songs from “Complexion” on is unstoppable. But after “Institutionalized” it just bogs down, I think. “These Walls,” for example … AR: I love “These Walls.” MC: Even though I really like that song I sort of understand what you’re talking about, because it’s slightly forgettable within the context of the album. However, it’s actually one of my favourite songs. The ordering of the tracks works really well, because you don’t stagnate, but the story is vaguer than it was on GKMC. AR: It’s not narrated. It paints a picture without saying, “This happened and then this happened.” MC: Exactly. Because of that he can get away with having less concrete pieces. KC: What do you think of the poem that bridges the entire album together? MC: I thought that was really interesting. When I first started listening to the album I thought, “What is this?” Be-
cause you get like one line at the end of one song, and then two songs later you get a bit more. By the end you’ve pieced it together, and I thought that was really interesting. AR: I’m glad he uses poetry too, because it’s really an audio medium. I don’t know. I have a vested interest in the publishing of audio poetry, so I’m glad he did it. KC: He does that a lot more in the middle, and then he kind of pulls off on it once he hits the ground running with “Complexion.” He doesn’t bring that poem up until the last song. But before that, he repeats it almost song after song for like four or five songs, and I didn’t like that. MC: When I first heard it, I was like, “what?” Because I thought it was the same thing, but then I realized that he kept adding a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, and you don’t really notice it because it’s at the end of every song, but when you get to the end of the album, you recognize it and you understand its deeper meaning. AR: It’s progressive! KC: I’ll give him credit for knowing when to stop the poem to give it context for the next song, like when he’s talking about shouting in hotel rooms, then hearing “AHH!” and then “u” begins. MC: Is “u” the one where he sounds drunk? I still maintain that’s one of the best songs on the album. I love it. When I first heard it, I thought either Kendrick Lamar was a genius or a fucking idiot. After having listening to it, I’m of the mind that he definitely knows what he’s doing. KC: Why did he start the album with “Wesley’s Theory” and not something as hooky as “King Kunta”? AR: It prepares you for the sound of the album, more than anything. MC: And also, “King Kunta” is kinda like ... [snaps his fingers, nods his head] Right? You don’t wanna give someone the hook and then take it away. KC: But he does that anyway, because the rest of the album isn’t as hooky. MC: Yeah, but “King Kunta,” “The Blacker the Berry,” and “i” work together well, because they’re the hookier songs. I think the way the songs are spaced out works, because then you don’t fall into a lull where you don’t have enough of a hook or enough of a line to tie things together, but it’s not overwhelming. The album demands you to pay attention to it, whereas GKMC — even though it was an album, and you wanted to do the whole thing — you could take one song, and have it play on its own. AR: People play “Swimming Pools (Drank)” at parties. MC: Which is completely the opposite of what it’s supposed to be. It’s not a drinking song. KC: And that was a club single! But
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
ARTS IN REVIEW
Martin Castro rockin’ out. you feel like shit when you’re listening to it on the album, because it’s like, “Fuck, so much wrong is about to happen.” MC: And you hear it at parties, and you’re like, “What’s going on?” And with “The Blacker the Berry,” the message in that song is just as subversive as “Swimming Pools.” Obviously, it’s not about drinking — it’s about pride. And it’s definitely his hungriest song on TPAB. KC: That’s the best song on the album. The song reflects what is going on with the whole album, because he’s making a lot of social commentary, but he’s also developing himself. It’s almost like he’s a microcosm of society. He says he’s the hypocrite — who else is the hypocrite? Black America, because they’re killing themselves, they’re killing each other in gangs, and then they get mad when someone gets shot by a cop. It’s interesting. MC: Kendrick Lamar could be perceived as a progenitor of violence, because he’s a figure in hip-hop, a scene that can easily be construed as a genre that perpetuates warfare and drug use. KC: Which makes the “I love myself” message at the end of the album a lot more powerful. AR: I think that’s important. People need to take these things in context. Out of context, it looks like it perpetuates violence and misogyny, but in its context, everything — even Big L, in context — seems not to perpetuate violence. He’s talking about it, but he’s portraying it honestly, all at once. MC: I’m not saying that I believe hiphop propagates violence, but it’s widely seen as one. KC: Because people tend to forget that it’s also storytelling. It’s not necessarily autobiographical. If you’re going to hold hip-hop to that standard, then hold Hollywood to it, too. “Then I got in a mothafuckin’ Voltron and shot a nuclear weapon at Compton.” Like whatever, Michael Bay. MC: Yeah, that’s the thing. At the end of the day, it’s self-expression, and
not outright factual. That’s why I think this album works well. It isn’t made for someone else; it’s for Kendrick Lamar. AR: I think it’s for more than just Kendrick. KC: I think he’s taking on a big role. I think the last few songs are him saying, “I’m going to be a black person for America, I’m going to speak on behalf of people in the same way Nelson Mandela, Michael Jackson, and Tupac did.” MC: He’s one of the most easily recognizable black people in America. Oprah, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar. He’s got — I wouldn’t say responsibility — but there’s always an eye. KC: That prophetic stance he takes, though, makes it sound like he knows we’re on the brink of war or something. He says, “When shit hits the fan, is you still a fan?” That’s a question you ask of people who believe in you. If people appear to have done a shitty thing, will you still love them in spite of that? MC: That’s an interesting point of view. KC: He says, “Would you still believe in me if the government set me up and put coke in my car?” and stuff like that. MC: I kinda see where you’re coming from. KC: You need to believe in something even if at the time it doesn’t seem morally justifiable. Like, you know, there is a lot of possibility that the people you believe in were set up, as opposed to them having actually done something bad, and he says you just need to keep believing in those people. MC: Yup. I kind of see where you’re coming from. I think at that point it’s particularly because he is seen as this man at the forefront of hip-hop, the forefront of the black community, and the forefront of all that is, “Oh, we need the black voice on this. Let’s get Kendrick Lamar ’s black voice on this because he is the ubiquitous black voice.” Part of the point I think he’s trying to make with that song is that he’s not infallible. Right? And so, will he fall from that high standard if the his shortcomings come to light? He’s probably talking to him-
self, because you can tell throughout the whole album that he’s dealing with a lot of — I don’t want to call it self-hatred, but self-doubt, which later turns with things like “i” and “King Kunta” into self-acceptance and self-love. AR: But the album’s not for himself. MC: No, it’s not. AR: By presenting this, he’s presenting it, right? You don’t present for yourself, you present for the sake of presenting. Not necessarily for others, but for its own sake. MC: There’s always going to be a difference between how somebody sees something and what somebody meant when they wrote it, when they made it. So that’s another thing you have to take into account. When I listen to it, I listen for aesthetics, the story, and how it affects me. But I don’t see the album as a channel of communication directly between Kendrick Lamar and Martin Castro. It’s a body of work that is a selfexpression from Kendrick Lamar which people can then take and interpret in whichever way they see fit, because it’s art. KC: First and foremost, it is an object that he has made. Is it worth listening to? Did he put enough work in? Is he the best mainstream rapper right now? I think so. MC: I think Kendrick Lamar definitely is one of the most widely accepted rappers by everyone. Almost every demographic is of the mind that Kendrick Lamar is a good musician and a good rapper. KC: But not in the sense that he’s pandering to the mainstream. It’s just that the talents that he has tend to be more relatable than something like being able to yell really loudly, something like MC Ride. MC: Yeah, he doesn’t try to be inoffensive, which is good. He’s not, you know, ridiculously offensive. He can be in certain songs, but he’s not generally, even though he does use a lot of profanity — but whatever, so does most hip-hop. His music is moving from a set aesthetic to a wider aesthetic, with all these different blues, jazz, spoken word, and beat poetry influences, which I think is good because you don’t find that anymore. You look at the more prominent hip-hop albums and they’re all the same. Beat after beat after beat. They’re all repetitive. KC: Well, I do think that there are some rappers that have responded to a successful album in the same way. Aquemini by Outkast was followed by Stankonia, and Aquemini was very sleek and very stately almost in the good kid, m.A.A.d. city sense; and then Stankonia is just like, “Let’s do everything, and we’re just so good at what we do that we somehow manage to keep it together.” I think that’s
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where Kendrick’s at right now. He has a lot more opportunity to do whatever the fuck he wants. MC: Yup! That’s it, right? AR: Beatles syndrome. MC: That’s part of why I think the album is as experimental as it is. Perhaps it didn’t have to be, but he had the freedom to do it. AR: Do you think that’ll turn people off? KC: Totally. MC: One hundred per cent sure it already has. AR: I don’t mean like just the sound itself, but the very variety of sounds. MC: Yeah, definitely. Even though good kid, m.A.A.d. city was a bit influenced by like jazz and blues, it wasn’t overly so. I mean, you still had pretty solid hip-hop backing to kind of every track. KC: It was more of its time; it had that cloud rap going on, and it had the — well, there was Dr. Dre in it. You could tell that there was a lot of Dre. MC: And the features. You know, you had the Dre. But it still seemed relevant in terms of the sound. This album doesn’t, apart from like two songs, which is good I think because, in my opinion, hip-hop likes to be injected with different sounds, different opinions, and different views. Was it better than good kid, m.A.A.d. city? No. Was it worse? Also no. Because it was different. I think this is the problem. It’s not good kid, m.A.A.d. city Part Two; it’s a completely different body of work that aims to do a different thing. AR: Revolver versus The White Album. MC: Exactly. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Kodie Cherrille all suave ‘n’ shit.
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ARTS IN REVIEW
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
Film
Kingsman: The Secret Service is deliciously irreverent to the spy genre MITCH HUTTEMA THE CASCADE
A classic Bond film meets Austin Powers and Spy Kids, Kingsman: The Secret Service is an unapologetically self-aware spy thriller. There is every mark of the spy classic: a beautiful woman, the evil mastermind, world domination, a visit to the weapon and science lab, and an overwhelming amount of fighting. Colin Firth, Michael Caine, and Taron Egerton star in a classic spy-thriller-turned-parody, facing-off against billionaire creator of the internet Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) as he turns the world over into chaos. Kingsman follows “Eggsy” (Taron Egerton) as he competes to join the Kingsman, an independent spy firm. Eggsy is a poor suburban genius-turned street-punk because of his abusive stepfather. He is picked up by the Kingsman as a favour to his long-dead dad who was killed in action competing for the same position Eggsy eventually strives for. The spy force faces off with Valentine, an ec-
Image: google.ca
Kingsman masterfully slaps old clichés around. centric billionaire with no stomach for violence, as he plans to take over the world through his free cell phone networks. There’s a story that’s been told a hundred times: the villain catches the hero, gives away the whole secret plan, the hero gets away, saves the day and gets the girl — but that’s not this film.
When Valentine has one of the Kingsman in his clutches they talk about how both of them love the classics, but Valentine says, “This isn’t that kind of movie.” Throughout the film, references to cliché structures come again and again, but each time the clichés are confronted and literally denied by each of
the actors. Where this film departs from the genre norm is in its action sequences. Normally action sequences are overacted and cheesy, but in Kingsman they are incredibly gruesome, raw, and extensive. The extravagant blood and gore is strangely reminiscent of Quentin Taran-
tino’s style of violence. Nearly every action film attempts to disguise its stunts and killing through shaky camerawork, quick cuts, blurred motion, and explosions; not so with Kingsman. Through every fight scene, the camera follows the fist of the attacker as it connects with the opponent, then slides around and flows along with a kick to the chest, a pool cue through the head, and so on — all combined in one clear shot. Though the action is drawn out, the audience sits stunned as they try to determine if what they are seeing is actually real or computer-animated. Never before has action been interpreted like this. Though the plot is entirely contrived, absolutely absurd, and completely inexplicable, this parody is a home-run of the classic blow-shit-up mindless action films that America so loves. Kingsman’s uncompromising smack at formulaic spy thrillers is executed nearly perfectly, though it may not be for anyone who takes themselves too seriously to enjoy some good old-fashioned satire.
Food
Fine coffees are old hat for Oldhand SASHA MOEDT THE CASCADE
When I first poked my head into Oldhand, it was later in the afternoon, and I was craving some lunch. Their pastry selection was very slim, and I needed something that involved vegetables, so I didn’t stay. The fellow behind the counter explained that most of their baked good are gone by three. As someone who frequents Duft and Co. in Downtown Abbotsford, I know that’s a very good sign for a bakery. When I returned, I was in the mood for a coffee and a croissant. The same young fellow was behind the counter — apparently he and his wife run the place. While they’ve been open for just under a month, the place was bustling with a diverse crowd. There was a group of mothers, a couple of grizzled construction workers, and lone students hunched over their Macs. Oldhand has the friendly and homey atmosphere of Duft and
I dare you to have a croissant and an Americano at Oldhand and not have your mind blown. Co. with a distinctly hipsterInstagram vibe. The walls are whitewashed, vintage photos and teaspoons are on the wall, and the benches are pews and school-chairs. Their pastries looked deli-
cious — brown butter coconut cake, different types of cookies (including huge baked Oreos), and chocolate banana and millet muffins. Their coffee list had all the fixings. I ordered an Americano and
Image: munchado.com
a croissant. The pastry came on a vintage floral plate. It was a really nice touch — thoughtful and creative, like every detail at Oldhand. The croissant was flaky and rich and melted into sweet
butter in my mouth. Washing it down with the strong, dark taste of Americano was my kind of heaven. Oldhand knows their coffee and pastry, that’s for sure. The prices aren’t amazing; the croissant was about $3.25. But for a young, locally owned bakery, I’m definitely willing to pay. Hopefully they’ll come up with a student deal! When I brought my plate up to the counter, I asked about what was to come for Oldhand; apparently they’ll be making loaves of bread — notably sourdough — and light lunches will also be on the future menu. Oldhand has made a place in my heart, right beside Duft and Co. and Afterthoughts. What I liked about Duft and Co. and Afterthoughts’ locations is that they’re on other ends of town. Now Oldhand is unfortunately competing with my love of Afterthoughts. It’s a good problem to have. I like where Abbotsford’s coffee shop scene is going!
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
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SPORTS & HEALTH
Cricket team represents UFV in American championships NATHAN HUTTON THE CASCADE
The UFV Cricket club travelled to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to represent Canadian participation in the American Collegiate National Cricket Championships last week. “It was a great spectacle,” said UFV captain Yadwinder Sharma. “There were 32 teams [that] participated from all over Canada and the states. As a team new to this championship, it was a great experience for us. The UFV squad has been a member of this prestigious group of schools since 2012, but hadn’t had the opportunity to make it to the championships until this season. While they didn’t qualify for the next pool, Yadwinder said their failure to win the national title didn’t deter the team, but instead inspired them to work harder than ever and bring the title back to Canada.
Image: American College Cricket
The UFV cricket club travelled to Florida to compete. “We have already started our practice for next year to bring the trophy to UFV. Now we have some experience to com-
pete against the other universities,” he said. Cricket isn’t one of the big four in North America — soc-
cer, basketball, football, and of course hockey — but globally, this is not the case. Cricket has exposure on an international
level. It is one of the most complicated, diverse, and intricate games the world has ever seen. One of the dominant world powers on the cricket scene is India — it is their national summer sport. Cricket is so popular in India that in 2008, American sports agent J.B Bernstein went to India to try to convert cricket players into baseball pitchers. It shouldn’t be a surprise that a school like UFV, with such a high Indo-Canadian population, features one of the top cricket clubs in Canada. UFV was one of three Canadian schools who participated. The timing of this event couldn’t have been better as the top teams in the world prepare for the quarterfinals of the International Cricket Confederation world championships. While it may not be the most notable of the sports teams at UFV the cricket team is sure to turn a few heads in the future and maybe even bring a trophy or two to Abbotsford.
Mount Thom: gorgeous views, burning calves VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE / PHOTO
The first thing you see when you approach the Mount Thom trail on Promontory Mountain in Chilliwack is stairs. While the stairs may look welcoming and not too intimidating, don’t be fooled; your legs will be burning by the time you reach the top — and that’s only the beginning. At the top of the stairs, the gravel trail begins and winds up the mountain in a series of inclining twists and turns. The first part of the hike is the hardest. The constant incline will make you second-guess your fitness level, as well as your decision to come hiking. But after a while, the trail changes from a steady incline to a series of ups and downs that are actually rather fun — especially if you run, which many do. There are a couple of forks in the trail as you get closer to the end, but it doesn’t matter too much which you take as they all lead to the summit in relatively the same amount of time. And by the time you reach the top, the view of Chilliwack and the Fraser Valley will make you forget the hell that you endured to get there. There is a bit of a clearing with a bench, mak-
ing it the perfect place to have lunch, as well as take gorgeous pictures of the view that will not only stun all your social media followers, but remind them of how physically active you are. While nothing can beat the view at the end of the Mount Thom trail, it isn’t the only beautiful part of the hike. The entire trail is surrounded by moss-covered trees that umbrella the trail, making it a bearable hike in the rain. The abundance of stunning nature will serve as a reminder: this is the rainforest landscape that Chilliwack is known for. The first time I hiked the Mount Thom trail, there were more sets of stairs than just the first flight at the bottom. Recently, they have been removed and covered with gravel. While this change does make the hike a little easier on the knees, the stairs provided some variety that the trail is now lacking. The hike is about 30 minutes from UFV’s Abbotsford campus and can take over two hours (round trip), so be sure to bring lots of water and use a restroom before you leave home as there isn’t one anywhere nearby. And feel free to bring your dog, as it is a pet-friendly trail.
The stairs will make you feel the burn, but getting to the top is worth it.
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SPORTS & HEALTH
Upcoming
Events
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 www.ufvcascade.ca
Diet review: Dr. Oz’s three-day detox cleanse SASHA MOEDT THE CASCADE
March 25 Mental Health Wellness Information and Self-Tests Hosted by UFV Counselling, all faculty, staff and students can attend. Take a self test or learn more about mental health. The event runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the CEP campus by Tim Hortons and in the Trades building by the cafeteria.
March 27 UFV SOLAR jumps! Catch air this Friday night! UFV’s Student Outdoor Life and Recreation group is going to Extreme Air Park, an indoor trampoline park. $25 covers one hour of jumping and a ride there. To reserve your spot email ufvsolar@ gmail.com to make arrangements to pay the $25.
There is something very comforting about someone telling you exactly what and when to eat to be healthy. They appear to have all the answers, and it’s so tempting to believe them — and Dr. Oz, who promotes rapid weight loss and miracle cures like some kind of snakeoil salesman, has tapped into that part of human nature. His three-day detox cleanse is structured to a tee. You basically have four smoothies per day — for breakfast, lunch, snack (which is just a repeat of your favourite smoothie), and dinner — peppered with multivitamins and green tea. While I am not a fan of Dr. Oz, I wanted to try this detox for a couple of reasons. First, the smoothie ingredients looked legit. I wouldn’t do a weird swamp-water diet with unnatural ingredients, or starve myself in any way, shape, or form. These smoothies were loaded with fruits, veggies, almond milk, coconut water, flaxseed, almond butter, and coconut oil. Power smoothies give you such a great kick to your day. So what’s wrong with a three-day power smoothie binge? Secondly, at the end of every day, you get to take a detox bath — complete with Epsom salt and lavender oil. On top of it all, the website claims it’s only $16 a day for those ingredients. Not having a lot to lose, I gave it a try. Shopping and expecting to
Image: pixabay.com
Celery smoothies. Yeah, that’s a thing. only spend $48 was my first mistake. Lucky for me, my parents had the probiotics, omega3s and multivitamins, or I’d already be spending way more than $16 a day. Even still, what market is Dr. Oz shopping at? Fresh mangos and pineapples, almond butter, coconut water, and lavender oil, under $16 per day? Nuh-uh. On the upside, spending so much made me really want to stick to the diet. Commence three days of smoothies! Each smoothie was a different colour: the breakfast was pink, the lunch green, and the dinner a dark purple-blue. I was pleased at how palatable they all were, especially the breakfast smoothie (raspberry,
banana, spinach, lemon, almond butter, and water). The blender I was using wasn’t the best, so the lunch smoothie had a weird texture — there were four stalks of celery in that thing! The dinner had a bit of a kick, because cayenne pepper was an ingredient. I expected the usual symptoms of caffeine withdrawal, and they appeared in the afternoon of day one. Sugar withdrawal came soon after and I nursed a headache. Because all the smoothies were loaded with nutrition, I didn’t expect to be so hungry. But even after drinking a full smoothie, the hunger didn’t leave. By day two, I was dying to chew something.
I eventually just ate the ingredients of my lunch smoothie, just to be able to chew! I never felt a rush of energy, just the slow, dull desire for coffee to sharpen the world around me. And, after my eighth smoothie in two days, I was heartily sick of smoothies. There was no weight loss, nor any feeling of refreshment. It was disappointing, even though I didn’t go in with high expectations. At the end of three days, I didn’t feel any different, besides hungry for a big plate of pasta. At least that filled me up!