The Cascade Vol. 24 No. 28

NOVEMBER 9 TO NOVEMBER 15, 2016

VOLUME 24 ISSUE 28

Still a free country since 1993

REMEMBER TO REMEMBER pg. 10-11

how to sus pg. 3

u of t prof & gender pronouns pg. 6

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA

DOCTOR STRANGE pg. 18

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

EDITORIAL With great power comes great legal obligation Social media allows for loopholes in law and slacktivist participation in #noDAPL MITCH HUTTEMA THE CASCADE

By now, most have heard of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and the protest at Standing Rock Sioux native reserve in North Dakota. Likely, the way they have heard of the protest is likely via asking their friends why their current location on Facebook shows them at Standing Rock, North Dakota. Mainstream media by and large has spent most of it’s resources covering the American election for the past 18 months, and attention for the protest at Standing Rock has largely been held by activists and Indigenous peoples’ advocates through social media. At this point in its development, social media has become as significant, if not more significant than actual real world dialogue.

Dakota Access LLC (DAL), a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners is attempting to build a pipeline across the unceded territory and sacred burial grounds of the Sioux First Nations peoples. Celebrities, citizens, and activists alike have travelled to the pipeline’s path to occupy the construction zones and halt development through peaceful demonstration, prayer, and protest camps. DAL responded to the protestors with private security guards armed with rubber bullets, tear gas, and attack dogs.

In response to the violent reaction of DAL and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), people around the globe have taken to social media to stand in solidarity with the protesters at Standing Rock. Morton County Sheriff ’s Department is rumoured to have attempted to identify protestors by scouring through Facebook check-ins at Standing Rock to determine the names of activists on site. In retaliation, a viral social media post called on people around the world to “check-in” via

Facebook at Standing Rock in order to confuse the Sheriff ’s Department, offer a cloak of anonymity to the on-site protesters and show solidarity with the #noDAPL movement.

Since the call went out, over a million people have checked in at Standing Rock via Facebook. The effectiveness of the checkins has been called into question as the Morton County Sheriff ’s Department denies ever using social media to identify protesters.

However, the number of participants is shocking.

Whether or not the check-ins are effective at obstructing officers from detaining activists, their original intent is the issue.

Over a million people voluntarily attempted to confuse law enforcement and stop them from carrying out their duties. If those people made the same kind of attempts outside of the internet and physically blocked officers or refused to cooperate, they would likely face criminal charges. What the internet and social media have allowed for is intentional civil disobedience and obstruction of justice that does not face nearly the same penalties as real world protest.

In Canada, we are familiar with the Anti Terrorism Act (Bill C-51 might ring a bell) which was — and still is — famously controversial for allowing the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) to obtain secret warrants, surveil, and prosecute terrorists that operate online. The controversy around it was not unwarranted, as its language is sweeping and could potentially include any act that CSIS chooses to argue as “un-Canadian” in a private closed door warrant hearing before a judge. The act of deliberately attempting to confuse law enforcement officers could be portrayed as an act of cyber-terrorism under C-51.

According to Section 129 of the Criminal Code of Canada, specifically applicable to this instance, obstruction of a peace of-

News

Opinion

Culture

Arts

Q&A with Yves Engles

Movember

Syrian refugees in Abby

Jack Reacher

On Canada’s government: how they sell war and exploitation

Anal play isn’t gay

Never go back, or also just never go there to begin with

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7

The story of 180 immigrants that have settled in Abbotsford

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STAFF

17

CONTRIBUTORS

Editor-in-Chief Vanessa Broadbent vanessa@ufvcascade.ca

Culture & Events Editor Jeff Mijo jeff@ufvcascade.ca

Multimedia Editor Martin Ranninger martin.r@ufvcascade.ca

Managing Editor Mitch Huttema mitch@ufvcascade.ca

Arts in Review Editor Martin Castro martin@ufvcascade.ca

Advertising Rep Kayla Schuurmans kayla@ufvcascade.ca

Business Manager Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts jennifer@ufvcascade.ca

Production Manager Brittany Cardinal brittany@ufvcascade.ca

Distributor Quintin Stamler quintin@ufvcascade.ca

Copy Editor Kat Marusiak kat@ufvcascade.ca

Online Editor Tanya Vanpraseuth tanya@ufvcascade.ca

Researcher Trevor Johnson trevor@ufvcascade.ca

News Editor Joel Robertson-Taylor joel@ufvcascade.ca

Features Editor Bradley Peters brad@ufvcascade.ca

Staff Writers Emma Groeneveld emma@ufvcascade.ca

Opinion Editor Panku Sharma panku@ufvcascade.ca

Illustrator Amara Gelaude amara@ufvcascade.ca

Michael Chutskoff mike@ufvcascade.ca

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ficer is a defined as “Every one who resists or wilfully obstructs a public officer or peace officer in the execution of his duty.” In an escalated situation similar to the check-ins at Standing Rock where a check-in would be effective in confusing law enforcement, the language of Section 129 is vague enough that it could be argued to include online actions. The penalty for disobeying is up to two years in prison.

In a culture where going outside and doing things is a chore, social media clicktivism is an incredibly simple way to participate in causes you support but won’t necessarily stand in a picket line for. This doesn’t mean it is a good thing, it is simply something to add to the reality of how social communication is changing.

The difference between the effort it takes to sign a petition and attending a demonstration or occupation is huge, but in the future there is potential — especially with Trump in power — for this kind of action to see similar prosecution.

As it stands in Canada, we don’t yet have to fear legal action and there has been no precedent as of yet. However, social media is a powerful tool of protest and dissent with real-world consequences. Online activism must be treated with caution and gravity and used in a manner representative of the action you feel comfortable portraying outside of the web. It’s easy to share a video you agree with, to autofill a petition on Change.org, and to check in at Standing Rock — however, recall that whatever you stand up for you must be educated about, as the possibility that you will be asked to make your case could be likely, and sitting down in the face of conflict is as good as never having ever stood up.

Klara Chmelarova Harvin Bhathal WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA Rebekah Brackett @UFVCASCADE FACEBOOK.COM/UFVCASCADE Josh De Silva INSTAGRAM.COM/THE.CASCADE Fraser Forbes

Volume 24 · Issue 28 Room S2111 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529 Front Cover Photo: Vanessa Broadbent

The Cascade is UFV’s autonomous student newspaper. It originated under its current name in 1993, and achieved autonomy from the university and the Student Union Society in 2002. This means that The Cascade is a forum for UFV students to have their journalism published in an entirely student-run setting. It also acts as an alternative press for the Fraser Valley. The Cascade is funded with UFV student funds, and is overseen by the Cascade Journalism Society Board, a body run by a student majority.

The Cascade is published every Wednesday with a print circulation of 1,250 and is distributed at Abbotsford, Chilliwack (CEP), Clearbrook, and Mission UFV campuses and throughout the surrounding communities.

The Cascade is open to written, photo, and design work from all students; these can come in the form of a pitch to an editor, or an assignment from an editor. Writers meetings are held each Monday at 2:00 p.m. in The Cascade’s office on the Abbotsford campus.

In order to be published in the newspaper, all work must first be approved by The Cascade’s editor-in-chief, copy editor, and corresponding section editor. 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. Letters to the editor, while held to the same standard, are unedited, and should be under 400 words. As The Cascade is an autonomous student publication, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of UFV, The Cascade’s staff and collective, or associated members.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

NEWS

NEWS BRIEFS Gas line burst as CEP A gas line was ruptured at the CEP campus in Chilliwack when a contractor hit the line, located by the south east corner of the parking lot, near the dog park.

Fire department and Fortis B.C. crews responded quickly and determined that a campus evacuation was not necessary.

However, as a precautionary measure, UFV closed HVAC air intakes for A, V, and W buildings.

Fortis B.C. shut off gas lines to several buildings but had the leak isolated and repaired within a couple of hours.

Paying student loans As of November 1, students no longer have to pay back their Canadian Student Loan until they are making at least $25,000 a year. The federal government has also promised to increase the maximum Canada Student Grant for low-income students to $3,000 per year for full-time students, and to $1,800 per year for part-time students.

SFU gets sustainable tech and engineering building Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus will soon have a $126-million sustainable technology and engineering building.

The federal and provincial governments will invest $90 million, as announced

by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this week which will combine with $36 million of funding and land donations from the university itself and donors. The first two levels of the five story building are scheduled to be completed by mid-2018.

What is SUS? JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR

2015-16 Student Fees Breakdown

Management

and

THE CASCADE

$27.23

Campus Connector

Finance

Clubs

$4.98

FixIT

Officers

The Student Union Society (SUS) is a student-led, nonprofit organization made up of elected student executives, faculty representatives, hired student staff, and permanent staff members. The purposes of the SUS are many: they are to represent its members (over 9,000 UFV students) and advocate for post-secondary education on their behalf, organize clubs and associations, and connect them with students, and to provide engagement opportunities for students.

The idea of a union is to give an organized voice to the body it represents, whether it be making asks of the local government, advocating student needs to the university, or communicating student opinions to other groups.

The president and official spokesperson for SUS is Sukhi Brar. She explained in an e-mail what SUS does for its members.

“SUS’ motto, ‘By students for students,’ is at the heart of everything we do — our job is to help UFV students make the most out of their university experience,” said Brar. “We ensure that the student voice is represented in discussions that affect our student body, provide opportunities for students to get involved on campus, and work to make post-secondary education more accessible for UFV students.”

All members of SUS (students) can involve themselves with SUS activities. They can join committees, attend EGMs, AGMs, and board of directors meetings; they can run for a position on the board of directors, or apply for an officer position.

“A lot of SUS’ initiatives and services have arisen from student input and feedback,” said Brar. “So we encourage communication of student issues and concerns to be directed to our existing committees, executives, and officers.”

As a student you should be aware — and engaged — in what your union is doing.

$35.00

SUB Building Fee

and

supervision and

$43.13

U-Pass Program

Other SUS board members:

$215.59

Health and Dental Plan

Board

$30.00

General operations

of

governors

of

the

Associations

Rep

—

Robert

Pedersen Cascade Journalism Society (CJS) Rep

Who is SUS?

(non-voting) — Kodie Cherrille

Sukhi Brar — President

Ex-Officio (non-voting) — Joshua Wilkie

Is the official spokesperson and contact

Faculty of Health Sciences Rep — Rooiana

person for the Society

Alizada

Provides

strategic

direction

and

leadership for the advancement of the

Faculty of Sciences Rep — Sahil Chawla

Society

Faculty of Professional Studies Rep —

Supervises the executive to ensure roles

Tanya Vanpraseuth

are being carried out honourably

Aboriginal Rep — Cody Dumas

Represents the interests of students at all

Senate Rep — Ekanki Chawla

times

UFV

Campus

and

Community

Radio

Society (CIVL) Rep (non-voting) — Panku Sharma

Vice President External — Than Ma Develops engagement and interaction with membership

What has SUS done in the past term?

Develops and coordinates SUS advocacy

July 2016

efforts

for pride centre and women’s centre

Oversees the operation of the SUS food

July 2016

bank

display in SUB Atrium

Responsible

for

management

and

SUS designates space Installs International flag

August 2016

Removes International

supervision of the Advocacy, Equalities,

flag display (with the intention to put

and Engagement Officers

back up) September 2016

Health Centre set to

Vice President Internal — Ashmeet Saran

open — has not opened yet

Oversees

September 2016

SUS

board

meetings

and

SUS creates working

general meetings (EGMs / AGMs)

groups to draft mandates for pride centre

Ensures

and women’s centre

the

long-term

financial

sustainability of the Society; oversight of all financial processes Provides support and resources to SUS clubs and associations, as well as general oversight

What is the SUS EGM? MARTIN CASTRO THE CASCADE

You have questions. You have grievances. You have ideas and opinions which can’t wait until SUS’ Annual General Meeting on March 30.

What do you do? You attend SUS’ Extraordinary General Meeting, or EGM. An EGM is held when SUS wishes to present the student body with pertinent information, ask for input, or touch base on important updates or changes to policy.

The reason SUS is holding an EGM on Wednesday is to present the results of an audit for the 2015-2016 fiscal year for students’ approval.

According to SUS president Sukhi Brar, “SUS has an external financial audit conducted every year in accordance to The Society Act and the results of this financial audit are presented to our membership at our fall EGM.” The audit will go over SUS’ expenses and financial dealings for the past year, and give students an invaluable insight into how the Student

Union has managed its — and since they are funded by students, our — funds over the past year.

“A representative from MNP (the chartered accountancy firm that conducted the audit) will be present at the EGM to go over the audit and answer any questions that membership may have about the audit,” said Brar.

All UFV students, as current members of the Student Union Society, will have the opportunity to raise questions about the results of the audit, as well as voice other grievances they may have that pertain to the Student Union Society. According to Brar, “current members of the Student Union Society [membership is extended to all currently-enrolled students at UFV] have speaking and voting rights at the Extraordinary General Meeting.”

“It’s important for students to attend the EGM to gain an understanding of SUS’ financial position as [of ] March 31, 2016,” Brar said.

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

NEWS

Yves Engler on Canadian foreign policy The role of poppies, citizens, and corporations in Canadian society JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR THE CASCADE/PHOTO

Yves Engler is a Canadian writer and political activist. He came to UFV to talk about his latest book A Propaganda System: How Canada’s Government, Corporations, Media and Academia Sell War and Exploitation. Engler’s book focuses on the common belief that Canada is an international force for good and operates as a benevolent peacekeeper despite their support for empire, racism, and exploitation.

Engler has written extensively for alternative press and various mainstream magazines.

What is the book about?

It’s about information dissemination and suppression in Canadian foreign policy; answering the question of why the majority of Canadians think this country is a force for good in the world despite a long history of Canada supporting the British Empire, American empire, and Canadian corporations abroad, so trying to explain why we’re so confused about our government’s role in world.

What does that problematize?

I think by shining a light on how information is controlled, you’re putting those institutions a bit more on the defensive. A common question I get at talks is people saying, “What you’ve described is so terrible, how is that possible, that doesn’t align with what I’ve heard elsewhere.” But when you show that the reason it doesn’t align with what they’ve heard elsewhere, it’s not because it’s not true but because it goes counter to all these powerful institutions that are trying to convince us of something else.

It helps to make the case that Canadian foreign policy is about serving imperial interests and corporate interests, and also puts those institutions a little bit under the gun. And it points the way to what’s needed, which is to build up other institutions that are willing to challenge power and foreign policy.

You said something in your talk about Remembrance Day poppies. What are your thoughts about wearing poppies?

I would counsel people not to do it, because I think that most people view it as something that’s about commemorating veterans. It’s also part of an ideological battle to convince us that our cause is righteous and that our military is righteous, and in fact if you look at history that is not the case.

There’s only one war that Canada has been part of that was morally justifiable and that was WW2.

And I think more specifically the organization, the Canadian Legion that’s behind the poppy, is also an organization that I don’t think most people would be that enthused by their political leanings, ie. their pro-military spending, racist sentiments in the past.

What got you interested in the study of foreign policy, specifically Canadian foreign policy?

I got interested in studying Canadian foreign policy basically when Canada overthrew Haiti’s elected government in 2004. I had taken a history of Haiti course a couple of years earlier, and I saw before the coup a certain destabilization that was

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picking up after the elected government. I saw that this was happening, and secondly, that Canada had some hands in it. And I saw more and more Canadian involvement in the coup and post-coup process and basically, I engaged with the Haiti solidarity activism for a couple of years, quite aggressively and intensely. Going into the coup in Haiti I had this general sense, one that most Canadians have, which is that Canada is sort of a benevolent force internationally. So I believed the mythology. What happened in Haiti very much challenged that and made me question my assumptions about Canada’s role in the world. So after engaging in Haiti solidarity and activism for a couple years I co-authored a book about the coup. I basically said, well, if Canada did this in Haiti, what has it done elsewhere?

Whose problem is it, Canadian foreign policy?

At some level it’s the victim’s problem, most of those victims are probably still not living in Canada. From a moral standpoint it should be those who the policies are being pursued under their name or with their tax dollars or with their support. So I think that you can make a political case that Canadians have a self-in-

terest in not allowing their government to just advance the interests of corporations.

Should over $20 billion a year be put into military, or should it be put into social spending?

Cut the military budget in half and put 10 bill into building light rail in abbotsford and 50 other communities across the country or with 1.5 billion you could have free education for every university student in the country. That’s a sliver of the military’s budget.

What do you see as some of the biggest issues that are facing us now as Canadian citizens?

I think the biggest issues we are facing are climate questions. Canada is, per capita an incredibly high emitter of carbon emissions.

Canada has one of the worst sources of dirty oil in the tar sands.

Since so much of this doesn’t affect citizens personally or elicit direct consequences, how do you fight apathy?

How we do it at an individual level is just by doing it. We can’t control other people but we can influence them through our own choices.

It’s just by getting active; part of what apathy is, is believing other people won’t do it. So by doing it we are undermining apathy.

Would you say you are doing that personally?

For sure, I try to get involved at all kinds of different levels. Part of what writing a book and what writing articles is for is to challenge Canadian foreign policy that will anger people and educate people to get active. During the “Ugly Canadian Stephen Harper Foreign Policy” book tour, one of the things we did is print a couple hundred thousand stickers saying “Stop Harper’s crimes,” and I personally put up tens of thousands of those stickers, and the objective of those stickers is to put out a message. Part of putting up a poster for an event is about breaking apathy, part of handing out a leaflet at a demonstration is trying to engage and mobilize people which undercuts apathy.

A lot of what you’ve written doesn’t get published by mainstream media, why is that?

Because it challenges power would be the simple explanation. Because the corporate media only allows for a very narrow range of debate on foreign policy issues, and a lot of what I write is viewed as outside of bounds in that range of debate.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

NEWS Candle light vigil honours victim of recent stabbing VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE/PHOTOS

In light of the recent stabbings at Abbotsford Senior Secondary on Nov. 1, UFV’s Faculty and Staff Association and Student Union Society hosted a candle light vigil on Friday.

Student Union Society president Sukhi Brar shared with those in attendance her experienczes working with victim Letisha Reimer.

“Letisha was such a joy to know,” she said.

“She had this personality that would light up the room. I can’t express what a huge loss this is and how devastating this is for people.”

“Over the past few days I’ve heard from countless people on our campus about the many ways in which they’re connected in someway to Tuesday’s tragedy, and I want to acknowledge and highlight how important it is for us to take the time to grieve and support one another during this horrific time,” Brar continued. “Please, even if you didn’t know Letisha Reimer or her friend, make every effort to be there for your fellow students, staff, faculty during this difficult time.”

Joel Feenstra, electrical instructor with UFV’s faculty of applied and technical studies, who personally knew Reimer also spoke at the vigil, as well as UFV president Dr. Mark Evered.

“Let’s all continue to do whatever we can to help the families, to help the community heal,” Evered said.

Stories worth paying attention to Rethinking tent cities as a help in housing crisis, not a nuisance Independent, online news magazine, The Tyee, just launched a new series this week on homelessness in British Columbia. The first edition of the series looks at the “controversial role of tent cities in the housing crisis.”

For this series, The Tyee has partnered with Megaphone,a monthly magazine sold by homeless and low-income vendors on the streets of Vancouver and Victoria.

The series will be a six month, in-depth investigative collaboration reported by Stefania Seccia of Megaphone, and edited by Tyee Solutions’ Chris Wood.

On Monday, The Tyee reported that the series will “look at what could be done to make real progress on homelessness, from prevention to innovative housing solutions.”

Geologist hired to study sediment calls Flora Bank LNG approval ‘science fraud’ The Canadian Press reports that a B.C. based geologist is calling environmental research ruling in favor of the pipeline scientific fraud.

Patrick McLaren, has extensively studied the ocean sediment in the Prince George area where a LNG pipeline is planned to end.

He claims that the data used by the project has been altered, manipulated, or ignores important facts and will adversely affect a crucial habitat that could never be reestablished.

Bella Bella oil spill called ‘an environmental disaster’ A tugboat was carrying 200,000 litres of fuel when it ran aground and sank about 28 kilometres from Bella Bella.

The Heiltsuk First Nation claims it has severely harmed its economy because of closure of bivalve shellfish fisheries.

If authorities can’t clean up an oil spill like this, what should be expected when pipelines create regular oil tanker traffic on the B.C. coast?

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www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

OPINION Poking holes in free stuff JOSHUA DE SILVA CONTRIBUTOR

I am sure you have heard by now that a student was seen tampering with condoms in one of the washrooms of our beloved Student Union Building on the Abbotsford campus. Since they were available for almost two months, I am envisioning a sudden surge in pregnancy tests and checkups for STDs over the next week.

While I am also upset at the blatant vandalism, I can’t say I’m surprised. There are jerks in the world who have wet dreams about causing plenty of misfortune through a little mischief, and this person seems to be one of them. Welcome to the real world, where the one bad apple ruins the bunch, and there is always at least one in every institution.

In the alert email sent out to students, UFV states that it will not be replacing the condoms, which I fully support.* For one, if crazy people are going to nullify the condoms to nothing more

than fancy latex finger-gloves, then UFV is wasting its funds.

Beyond that, I have no interest in subsidizing a single penny to anyone else’s sexual activities. For me, this applies to any sort of good or service, but this one especially boggles me. If you can’t afford condoms, I suggest you stop having sex. If — I would argue when — contraception fails you that one time, I wonder how you’re going to afford to raise that child, or afford the medication to subdue the side effects of syphilis.

No one has any responsibility to those who can’t afford contraception or a child. By all means, if you’re struggling, ask for help, and someone just may assist. I just have no desire to have any portion of my tuition go towards subsidizing irresponsible sexual encounters without my explicit permission, nor do I think it’s moral to take potential funding to provide “free” stuff. Even if my tuition is “technically” not going towards it, some form of UFV’s funding is, and I firmly believe that could be well spent elsewhere.

And no, neither the university nor the government have a responsibility to subsidize your decisions. As Milton Friedman

said in 1978 at Stanford University: “The government doesn’t have responsibility, people have responsibility. This [university] building doesn’t have responsibility, you and I have responsibility; people have responsibility.” The university’s first and only job is to provide an education that prepares us for the field we study in to find a suitable job as soon as possible. Considering employment is going down again, I must question whether or not it is succeeding. It is not the university’s job to pay for your sex life, or provide transit from home to school and back.

So please, I suggest paying for your own condoms. If not for my financial or moral sake, do it for the sake of your health.

Seriously, you’re just going to grab a condom that was sitting there for how long? I can’t imagine what else the community latex bin was exposed to beyond dirty thoughts and unwashed hands. *Since this article was originally written, UFV has confirmed that they will be replacing the condoms, but will be using dispensers.

Movember, Mo’problems Opening up to prostate exams PANKU SHARMA THE CASCADE

In the age of Netflix documentaries, Twitter journalism, and Philosophy 100 being a bachelor of arts requirement, I like to believe that our generation is truly discerning of the practices and traditions we encounter, and can examine them critically. We are fully aware that things that might look good and make us feel helpful aren’t always doing the work and making the difference we think they are. The “pinkification” of breast cancer, the failures of highly-regarded charities such as the American Red Cross and their work in Haiti, or the UN Human Rights Council and the politics it puts before its mandate — these have all opened our eyes to how good intentions might not always be good enough.

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In that vein of thought, I think it is about time we look at the effects of “NoShaveNovember” and mustache activism.

Now, it’s going to be really easy to write some of this off as a hypercritical curmudgeon looking to hit a word count, but I urge you to keep an open mind. A sentiment of “I’ve done my part” has always been in every movement, it just might be more apparent now that we can broadcast our actions and words online so selectively. I’m not unrealistic, I understand the importance of raising awareness and getting conversations started; I just also have a firm belief that at a certain point you reach a plateau and must translate your energy to real action. Meme-y campaigns that have people talking about things not widely well understood (like suicide rates in the military through a push-up challenge) or raise actual money (the ALS ice bucket challenge had

this early on) are things that do this right.

Yet you have to admit, that at this point there are diminishing returns in trying to get people aware that breast and prostate cancer are things we should be looking out for and concerned about. And patting ourselves on the back for not shaving isn’t really helping anyone. The next step in the campaign should be compelling people to actually get tested, but we’ll come back to this in a moment.

There is something to be said about the act of growing a mustache instilling a sense of solidarity with people who are at risk or suffer from prostate cancer. There might be merit to this, but the way we display that solidarity isn’t perfect. First off is the understandable fact, given the nature of prostate cancer, that it is rooted in secondary male sexual characteristics that perpetuate antiquated and potentially damaging definitions of

Illustrations: Rebekah Brackett

masculinity and what being a man is. Secondly, it’s too damn easy for some of us, and I think any sort of solidarity or display of care should have a bit more weight to it.

Look, let’s just try and think outside of the box and see how we can best help this issue. All traditions should be routinely examined once in awhile, nothing necessarily has to change if it’s still working right, but things can always be done better and with more effect. If we were to assume (and I think this is most definitely the case) that most young men are aware they are at risk of cancer, then let’s work on how we get them to take it seriously and actually get tested.

One obstacle to overcome is the perception that if you find out you do have it and opt to get a surgery done, that the effects may leave you impotent. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know if the rates of this have gone down, but it’s still worth challenging that worry that places more value on sex than actually living longer. Perhaps a more immediate hurdle, however, is the test itself, which requires a physical examination of the rectum.

This can often be a hurdle as we live in a culture with such warped and ugly views on manhood and sexuality. Men who should be getting tested might be squeamish or have inner thoughts that cloud the operation in homophobia, as compared to women, men don’t have as many checkups that are internal. Perhaps a solution would be a campaign, maybe in November, that normalizes the procedure and lets at-risk people proceed without shame. Let’s start to normalize things being around people’s butts. Foursquare checkins and selfies of the procedure in the doctor’s office, a latex glove Snapchat filter, or catchy slogans like “Anal Play isn’t Gay, and even if it was that is A-Okay.”

Let’s get to the bottom of this, and move one step closer to the Star Trek utopia free of -isms, poverty, and disease that humanity might deserve.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

OPINION Ego-centric meaning on an eco-centric planet MARTIN RANNINGER THE CASCADE

The notion that “we (humans) are the sole meaning” on Earth was brought up by a colleague of mine and it left me speechless. For the past few years (probably since I moved out from my small town in the north of Bohemia to Prague and started university) I began to appreciate, well, life, all the little and big things, colours and shapes, flavours and smells.

The past three years I have been able to visit places in Europe, South America, and Asia. I have met beautiful people with radiant souls and inspiring stories. Sure, I can agree with that statement to some extent. It doesn’t matter, at least for me, what buildings, technologies, or clothes are around. More and more I realize that it’s always been the people, moments spent with them, and memories, both the good and bad ones, I carry on with me.

But to think that we are the centre and most important part of this world seems to be rather egocentric. Sure, in our short lives we are the centre, but only to the extent that you yourself are

able to experience — that’s it. When you exhale for the last time, not much is gonna happen or change. Sure, maybe someone will shed a few tears on the occasion of your passing, but as far as the importance of and for everyone else on this planet — your fellow humans, nonhuman animals, and plants — life goes on. Presuming that we are special is just short-sighted.

To touch upon a few things that the last three years have shown me, I can say I became more open-minded. Not just towards other people of different creed, colours, or beliefs, but inwardly as well.

Terms such as collective consciousness, extraterrestrial life, or believing in something more meaningful than just “get a degree, 9-5 workday, occasional vacation, don’t forget to consume more, it’s on sale” existence, and life with purpose, do not strike me as some hippie talk. I am not saying that I have discovered purpose in my life nor its meaning, but I am actively on the journey to. Currently, I am enjoying all the wonderful possibilities life will present you with, as long as you are open to them.

I’m doubtful that you would argue that collectively we have done some nasty things as a human race, and we keep doing them. Just look at the environment: the ancient Amazon rainforest disappearing under our watch, the Great Barrier Reef on the brink of death. Is that our meaning? Think of the 70 billion animals slaughtered annually to get our blood pressure high so we can medicate ourselves with drugs and get an occasional heart attack. Is that our importance? Consider the modern slaves in sweatshops working for a fraction of our minimum wage. What a meaning we give to this Earth.

Maybe I sound pessimistic here, but I am not. I am optimistic about this life, and if there is a doomsday of some kind approaching, I can do close to nothing to change that. But that doesn’t mean that along the way I will leave no stones unturned. We have meaning, sure, but without all that surrounds us, there is nothing to it. That meaning is interlinked to other phenomena, never to just your personal experience. It is how it has always been, and will be, in our current grasp of the human experience.

University of Toronto prof scoffs EMMA GROENEVELD THE CASCADE

Jordan Peterson, a University of Toronto professor, is taking on fire from both his campus and the internet as he has dubbed himself as “politically incorrect.” Peterson has refused to accept the idea of different genders, other than the historical male and female. The professor posted a video on YouTube explaining why he can be politically incorrect, and was disdained that people would dare call him unfair to the LGBTQ+ community. In the video, Peterson says, “The laws scare me; the doctrines of the law scare me [...] the people behind the doctrines also scare me. They are resentful and uninformed.” This man, who was insulted that he was stereotyped into the “angry white male” group, begins his long speech by stereotyping a group of people he has never gotten to know or even met.

The new ideas behind gender and gender identity are, to some, frightening. Many are tired of the fight for the “new” genders that have arisen, and do not care enough to take a stand and change the way we as humans view gender. These people are the ones that are not uncomfortable in their assigned role as male or female, and cannot see the impact it has on a life. To walk a mile in someone else’s shoes is the message many non-gendered, non-binary, transgendered, etc. people are trying to convey. You can’t imagine what it is like to feel like an alien in your own body. People like Jordan Peterson do not think about the feelings of others, only how it affects themselves. Which in these terms makes hardly any sense. Just because he is a scared man, as he points out many times in his speech, does not make him right. To fear a gender change is quite frankly, spineless. No, what the professor fears is the idea of change. Set in the mind of old, this man, and many others like him, are being selfish in a way they can’t even see. What harm will come of you to be politically correct? Many people who preach that hate speech should stay legal do not have the empathy and sympathy required to think about others.

Peterson rants about all the laws that do not say it is illegal to misgender someone. The law he took certain offence to was Bill C-16, an amendment of the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code that would add gender identity and gender expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination. His idea is that freedom of speech should be just as — if not more — important than Bill C-16. However, there is a difference between freedom of speech and hate speech. Purposefully ignoring a gender and pushing the idea that there are only two genders is not freedom of speech, it is discriminating against a group of people that just want to be acknowledged and free to be whatever gender they truly identify with. We don’t have laws compelling us to be kind to each other and practice decency, neither should we need them. This is kindness. This is respect. You do not need laws to determine how kind we should be to other members of humanity. A member of the staff at U of T, physics professor A.W. Peet, was upset by Peterson’s lack of understanding of gender identity, and voiced his concerns to the university. The physics professor identifies himself as non-binary, which is any gender that is not exclusively male or female. As reported by the National Post, Peet commented saying, “If someone is going to claim that non-binary people don’t exist, I take issue with that, [...] ‘Hello, yes, I am a real person.”

The movement to accept that non-binary genders exist is only getting stronger, and people stuck in the past are only going to be swept aside to allow freedom. The University of Toronto has now issued two warning letters to Peterson, one a slight warning to reconsider how he runs the classroom, and the second a full warning that “the impact of your (Peterson’s) behaviour runs the risk of undermining your ability to conduct essential components of your job.” Bill C-16, and the rules of conduct for the U of T are forcing the professor to keep his opinions “silenced” as he likes to claim. However, there is a difference from freedom of speech and straight out discrimination against a large group of people. There should be freedom to be who you are and feel who you were born to be. No one is born knowing of hate speech and naivety.

CARE GIVER WANTED! Must be available Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday

4-5 hours a day PAY: $20.00/hour Details: Mother has Dementia, we need a caregiver immediately No requirements necessary, first aid and experience preferred.

If interested please email Neil at: neiljfehr17@gmail.com

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

OPINION

SNAPSH

TS

Curtailed commentary on current conditions

Theatre ads are gettin’ weird Mitch Huttema

Bye, October Harvin Bhathal

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I anticipated Dr. Strange to be strange of course, but not as strange as the commercials before it started. I watched a minute or so of an ad before I realized that the name of the brand had not yet been revealed. It was a Jeep ad I found out, but for most of the advertisement, there were no Jeep vehicles showcased. A University of Victoria ad followed it; 10 seconds of the word “UVIC” sliding from the top to the bottom of a black screen. Six months ago, when I last saw an ad in theatres, there were the average car, phone, and cell provider ads that showcase the product overtly, but these two-minute-long ads that don’t specify the product till the end of the spot seem to be a way to break the traditional formula, and instead of attempting to make you want the product, they pique your interest and leave you wanting to know what they’re selling. I challenge you to pay attention to the advertising that crosses your path, to realize how most of our economy is run by advertising, and to give notice to how covertly it can enter your life and affect your lifestyle without you realizing it.

If months were things, October would be a freight train — a freight train heading in your direction while you are tied to the tracks unable to protect yourself from the impending doom. Each year, October passes through and for the 31 days of the month, the lives of university students are made a living hell. With its arsenal of midterms, essays, reports, and projects, October comes fully loaded, with the safety off and no regard to the well-being of students. Each semester, the figurative warmth and caress of September and its relatively calm schedule comfort students, but the next month comes and like wild animals abandoned by their mothers not long after birth, we are left to fend for ourselves while the hungry October approaches. It’s like Alien vs. Predator, except with no aliens and students in their place.

Student vs. Predator. Though October has been conquered, students cannot be at rest for long as November and December, like October, are the ugly sisters of Cinderella and shall continue to make our lives hell.

Superstitions Joel Robertson-Taylor

Basic concert rules Tanya Vanpraseuth

Is it the sound of the frothy gurgle of being drowned in one’s own blood that appeases the gods? Or do you think it’s the panicked wailing of a blemishless lamb that they find favour upon?

I personally think it must be the uncomfortable facial expression of the man slitting the goat’s throat that they enjoy so much.

Don’t we just love a good sacrificial offering?

Seriously. Maybe not the ritualistic slaying of animals, but we find ways to keep the tradition alive.

Getting beyond the “I just don’t believe in God” or the opposing, “I’m spiritual but not religious” rhetoric, I see it everywhere, in everyone of any ethico-religious predilection.

Whether it’s our unabashed faith in a methodology or our methodical portrayal of faith; people live their lives religiously.

Religiosity is so easy — it places assurance (or maybe insurance) onto an external act, object, or book. It replaces the need to be personally involved or invested with magic words and rituals.

As the 20th-century philosopher Stevie Wonder said, “Superstition ain’t the way, no, no, no.” What are your superstitions or assumptions?

I love live music. Concerts are a place where I expect to have a blast and I have high expectations because let’s face it — concerts are not cheap. That is why it’s important that everyone has a mutual respect for one another at events like these. You don’t know how much a concert has cost someone, how far they had to drive to get to the venue, or how long they have been waiting to see their favourite artists.

Simple ways of being a respectful concertgoer and to not be that one person in the audience that everyone despises is to start by simply having common courtesy. You would be surprised at how many people I see yelling at one another or attempting to take someone else’s seat. I have seen people shove or grab others to get to the front of the stage. This contradicts a simple rule we learned in elementary school: keep your hands to yourself. It is important that people respect other people’s spaces. It is never okay to try to push someone to the side, grab another person, or continuously wave your hands in the air, which can block someone else’s view.

Mistakes can always happen, especially in a crowded venue. However, we should try to make the extra effort of being aware of our surroundings so that the concert is an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Illustrations: Amara Gelaude

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

OPINION STUDY BREAK Crossword Across 1: Artist known for his “blue period” 6: A mistake or miscalculation, much like thinking crosswords are easy to design 7: Elaborate poultry hodgepodge 9: Essential item for baths or beaches (or intergalactic hitchhiking) 10: To rejuvenate, or pushing F5 in your web browser

Down 2: Imaginary instrument (two words) 3: U.S.S. Enterprise’s original first mate 4: Most popular Liverpudlian (and also global) band 5: Oaty organic breakfast food 8: A scoundrel or renegade. Also a X-(wo)Man

Made by Jeff Mijo

Horoscopes

Astrological mysteries interpreted by Master Moji

Aries — Mar 21 to Apr 19 Stave off a cold with apple cores or albacore - but never both.

Taurus — Apr 20 to May 20 Judging by the hole in the satellite picture, the media men beg to differ.

Gemini — May 21 to Jun 20 If somebody comes at you with ill intentions, rip out their larynx and worry about the repercussions later.

Leo — Jul 23 to Aug 22 Did you know the human body is primarily water or something like that? I’m not a scientist, I can’t remember the numbers. But don’t let that portion drop too low - be sure to drink lots of water!

SCORES Men’s basketball Nov 4 UFV Cascades vs. UofS Huskies W 59-50 Nov 5 UFV Cascades vs. UofS Huskies L 78-62 Women’s basketball Nov 4 UFV Cascades vs. UofS Huskies L 53-44 Nov 5 UFV Cascades vs. UofS Huskies W 59-48 Men’s volleyball Nov 4 UFV Cascades vs. Camusun Chargers W 3-1 Nov 5 UFV Cascades vs. Camosum Chargers W 3-1 Women’s volleyball Nov 4 UFV Cascades vs. Camosun Chargers L 3-1 Nov 5 UFV Cascades vs. Camosun Chargers W 3-1

UPCOMING GAMES

Virgo —Aug 23 to Sep 22 When you hear the Dellydangles dingle on Dellydangus Day, you know without a dingle doubt that old Saltsman is on his way!

Men’s basketball Friday, Nov 11 8:00 pm UFV Cascades vs. TWU Spartans (home) Saturday, Nov 12 6:00 pm UFV Cascades vs. TWU Spartans (away)

Libra — Sep 23 to Oct 22 If you’re set on committing a crime this week, prepare by pulling out all of your teeth so the police can’t identify you.

Women’s basketball Friday, Nov 11 6:00 pm UFV Cascades vs. TWU Spartans (home) Saturday, Nov 12 4:00 pm UFV Cascades vs. TWU Spartans (away)

Cancer —Jun 21 to Jul 22 Impress a first date by picking them up in full pirate regalia and screaming “ARR you ready to go?”

Scorpio — Oct 23 to Nov 21 Halloween’s over, you can take off your mask now.

Sagittarius — Nov 22 to Dec 21 Rotting gourds on your doorstep?

Mix the goo with a little cumin and you’ve got the newest fad drink!

Pisces — Feb 19 to Mar 20 I know you’re planning to go bike with Mike, but be prepared for a hike when you run over a pike on the turnpike. However, you’ll end up at a bowling alley where Mike will laugh in your face after he gets the winning strike. How unsportsmanlike!

Capricorn — Dec 22 to Jan 19 Health tip: post-election coverage is just as harmful as dousing your eyeballs in bleach.

SPORTS

Men’s volleyball Friday, Nov 11 8:00 pm UFV Cascades vs. Douglas Royals (home) Saturday, Nov 12 7:00 pm UFV Cascades vs. Douglas Royals (home) Women’s volleyball Friday, Nov 11 6:00 pm UFV Cascades vs. Douglas Royals (home) Saturday, Nov 12 5:00 pm UFV Cascades vs. Douglas Royals (home)

Aquarius — Jan 20 to Feb 18 Nothing can prepare you for what the future has in store for you. But on the plus side, that means no need to stress about studying!

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From class to combat What it ’s like being a student while in the army WRITTEN BY: VANESSA BROADBENT DESIGN BY: BRITTANY CARDINAL While most students were still fumbling their way through midterms, Hans Mulder, a criminology and history student at UFV, was on his way to Yellowknife.

Mulder joined the Canadian Forces seven years ago, but never thought it would take him all the way to the Northwest Territories, especially not during the winter. It was only October 17, but more than 2,000 km north of his home in Abbotsford, it didn’t feel like only the beginning of autumn.

Hans is one of few UFV students that also work with the Canadian Armed Forces, and is one of four members of his local regiment that was chosen to participate in the Vigilant Shield 2017 Field Training Exercise, an annual exercise sponsored by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), led by Alaskan NORAD Region, Canadian NORAD Region, and Continental NORAD Region.

The exercise is designed to provide training opportunities that just don’t exist in the Fraser Valley, and with the extreme conditions of the Northwest Territories it did just that.

“It’s a joint Canadian / U.S. venture that was brought about in the Cold War days to protect the polar north from Soviet incursion,” Mulder explained. “It’s still happening, but the focus is a little different.”

Along with his colleagues, Mulder worked to provide security for the U.S. air force, who were on their own training mission as well.

“They were out there to test their capability to operate up north if we needed their assistance or if they were deployed there as some part of a NORAD activity,” Mulder explained. “Anytime you have aircraft on the ground, like in the hangers or at the airport, there needs to be security, so the army provides security for the air force.”

“I was up there as part of a force protection platoon and we were there to secure the facility, conduct presence patrols, and just maintain the outer perimeter because there’s always more than one layer of security for these types of activities.”

As a member of the army reserves infantry, Mulder regularly participates in training and courses, most of which are far from easy. Between days without sleep and long treks through the wilderness, infantry training is stressful at its best.

This mission, however, was quite different from the standard training that Mulder usually has to participate in.

“Some of the staff that I’ve had on courses in the past usually say that deployment is generally less stressful than some of the courses,” he explained. “The idea behind that is that you want people to learn how to handle worst-case scenario stress on their training and that way during their deployment they’re able to cope and deal

with that.”

Mulder knew what he was getting into when he joined the Canadian Forces in 2009, but for him, it was worth it. From guaranteed work to various training opportunities, the pros that come with joining the Armed Forces outweighed the cons.

“You’re guaranteed summer employment because there’s always stuff going on in the summer, training courses,” he said. “Next year I’ll do 13 weeks in Gagetown at the infantry school. That’s an advantage as well — you’ve got some employment lined up.”

Another perk included getting part of his tuition paid for, an incentive that the Canadian Forces offers to its officers.

“There’s a requirement in the forces for a degreed of-

“WE LIKE TO JOKE IN THE ARMY, ESPECIALLY IN THE INFANTRY, THAT WE’RE SUCKERS FOR PUNISHMENT, BUT I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THIS, TO DO THE ARMY, THE PRIMARY RESERVE, AND THERE’S A LOT OF CHALLENGE THERE” ficer core and in order to make that happen, if you join and you don’t have a degree you enter as reserve entry scheme officer,” Mulder explained. “The reserve entry scheme officer means that the Canadian Forces will reimburse you up to $8,000 towards a degree, so a maximum of $2,000 a year for four years.”

However, it isn’t easy, especially being a student. Balancing papers, exams, and projects is already tough enough, but throw training in the mix and it becomes almost unbearable. However, for Hans, it hasn’t been that hard, especially with help from his professors.

“I’m taking four courses this semester but I’m mostly able to balance the two. It’s not always easy but it works,” he said. “I’m really impressed at the way the university or particular profs have been accommodating of this sort

Photos: Facebook/142nd Fighter Wing

of thing. It’s actually really great being able to do both and have the university to some degree make that possible.”

That being said, university is still difficult, regardless of whether you’re in the army or not. However, Mulder explained that the training is transferable.

“The army teaches you excellent time management,” he said. “You learn to work with stress and deadlines.”

Aside from his studies, Mulder also noted that the skills learned are transferable into the workforce — and vice versa.

“Any job that exists in the civilian world exists in some way in the army,” he said. “There’s really an awful lot of different opportunities. Depending on where your interests

lie, there are so many opportunities available.”

There’s no denying that being in the army includes a lot of stress, but Mulder has found that it’s actually improved his studies.

“You’re going to learn a stress that anybody can learn in a classroom, but under stress, people get tunnel vision, they get selective hearing, there’s all sorts of things that happen,” he explained. “In training we’re not exactly trying to replicate it, but we’re learning and teaching people how to deal with the stress so they can still perform that skill in a stressful situation. Not everybody can do it, but as long as you don’t quit, it can be done.”

In the end, after the chaos of the semester finally comes

to an end, it’s worth it. All of the early mornings spent on training exercises and the late nights spent catching up on homework mean that Hans is one step closer to finishing university and working with the army full-time.

“I do expect to stay involved in the army for quite some time to come,” he said. “I’d be very interested in doing a deployment in the next couple of years, maybe as part of the disaster assistance response team or in some other capacity with stabilization operations somewhere.”

“We like to joke in the army, especially in the infantry, that we’re just suckers for punishment,” Mulder continued.

“But I always wanted to do this, to do the army, the primary reserve, and there’s a lot of challenge there.”

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

CULTURE & EVENTS UFV professor harnesses Instagram for new art exhibit VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE

Christopher Friesen, associate professor with UFV’s visual arts department, has just completed his latest exhibit, Silvery Tones. Inspired by the work of Camille Corot, Friesen’s work explores counterfeit art and uses a new medium — Instagram— to connect with his audience and show them his process from start to finish.

How did the exhibit come together?

I used to live in Abbotsford, and moved to Langley and downsized, so I needed to make a space for me to work, so I had to build a studio. Through this process, there was a number of different things that came together: I had a new studio, I had a new material, I had opportunity to really do research and it brought me to re-examine the work of Jean Baptiste Camille Corot.

Through my sabbatical process, I literally had a year to really focus on what I wanted to do with the material and patent a number of different projects. One of the things was that I wanted to start using Instagram for something other than selfies or shots of my food and pets. I wanted to make it about my process.

How did Corot influence Silvery Tones?

I found out that he’s one of the most counterfeited painters on the planet because he was in that right place, right time where you had a newly minted wealthy class in America that wanted to buy European art and you couldn’t satisfy them in that sense. So it was this situation where Corot was independently wealthy and he didn’t have to go through the traditional gallery system, which this is, and he just painted. As a result, he helped students, he’d paint on students’ canvases, he’d sign his work, he’d lend out his work that could be copied, he’d do multiple versions of the same subject that led confusion about any original, and it made its way to North America. The quote goes that he painted 3,000 works in his life, 10,000 of which are in the United States. My project was also to change up how I worked with Corot, so I’m kind of counterfeiting Corot, but I’m using a contemporary way to paint, so that way if you did a comparison, you’d see there’s something operating differently, there’s a bit of a history of painting that exists. I keep the title though so that if you do a Google search of the image you’ll get one of my paintings alongside one of Corot’s paintings. It plays into this whole notion of counterfeit and what we value as knowledge. It asks the viewer to ask these questions, and like anything, you form your own opinions on these things and at the end of the day they’re paintings.

It’s a physical thing in a physical world that you need to experience.

What was it about Instagram?

It’s a visual sharing platform. I actually took my website down as a result of Instagram because websites are a very professional space where all completed works are on there, and it’s almost like a professional document.

Instagram, and I think the way that the world is operating right now, is they want personal access.

They want to see the tricks of the trade. They want to see something that people can be invested in. They want to track the progress. They don’t want a finished result all the time. That’s what I find compelling about Instagram. It’s a very vulnerable place because you can post something that doesn’t work out and then it’ll always be that painting that didn’t work out that’s on Instagram, but you live with it. You take chances with the work. I think it puts a little bit more accountability on you. It becomes about a personal process. Instagram is an interesting place where the process is laid bare, and as a teacher of painting I can send my students to look at how I approach a painting, so instead of always being

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on hand it becomes a little bit of an off-site resource that people can access. They can see how I stretch a canvas, how I prime a canvas, how I get my image on there, how I block it out — it’s all out there. It’s the whole process. What it does is it builds a portfolio that students can go back to. I put my Instagram account on my syllabus as a supplement. Instagram is one of those connecting platforms for visual arts. I give students permission to stalk my account and find the good stuff because a lot of artists that I recommend students I will try and find on Instagram and follow them and there’s at least some connection.

Why do you want your audience to be able to see the steps along the way?

I’m here educating and it just makes sense. You go to most artists’ websites and it’s a finished piece, it’s the nuts and the bolts; here’s the size, here’s the dimensions, here’s when the work was made, here’s what the work is made out of — but they don’t show you how the work was made, and that to me is the one advantage that Instagram has. You can edit it to a certain degree, but if you’re faithful to just posting every once in awhile, you never know where it goes. You never know who shares what and how and it’s been nice surprises. You get comments. It’s kind of like a neat connection that way. With this show I had a very good turnout and I think it had a lot to do with that I was a little more aggressive and tracking down situations within my realm, the university here.

Do you find that it makes your work more personable?

Yes, this show that just went up in Vancouver, Silvery Tones, I found there was a lot more response to it through Instagram. For instance, I was covered in The Province. Through Instagram, I’ve had a lot of coverage. I just had an interview this past Wednesday with the Langley Times and they came to my studio and took pictures.

Do you think it ever takes away from the physical work?

You can use it for publicity purposes, but there’s not a substitute. I don’t think Instagram, for painting, is ever a substitute. What it does do is cultivate your audience to where they want to go see the physical thing. It’s something that they can actually engage with, rather than just be passive with.

While I was hanging the show there was this person that came in with a selfie stick and she started taking selfies in front of all my paintings. Besides the whole culture around selfies, whatever the case may be, you can tell that the purpose of that exercise was to post it somewhere. Back in the day it used to be completely forbidden to take pictures of the art work, now it’s the exact opposite. We know that the picture of the thing is not the thing. In fact, what it does do is it actually heightens the value of the thing so the more pictures there are of a painting, the more of an aura, the more value we place in the original. When you take a picture it now becomes digital, it becomes flat, and you don’t get a sense of what it is, but hopefully it drives curiosity, and then when people come to the exhibition hopefully they’re blown away because painting does something that digital photography doesn’t and it connects to people. A photo drives you to go there. Why do we put it into a book? Why do we put it on the invitation? Why do we put it out into the world? It tries to get people’s attention and elicit enough of a response that they want to make the physical commitment to go see it.

Silvery Tones is showing at the Elissa Cristall Gallery in Vancouver until November 26. You can also follow Chris on Instagram @christopher.r.friesen.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

www.ufvcascade.ca

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

CULTURE & EVENTS

Art of the Month

Fear and Anxiety: Effects on the Human Body

The Game:

Gently

By Ryan Liddiard Acrylic on canvas - 30” x 40”

By Laura Tansley Acrylic on canvas - 18” x 24”

By Sharon Clark Acrylic on canvas - 22” x 28”

Two facets of art that have always intrigued me are portrait and colour. It is no surprise, then, that they are central to my pieces.

The human face, and the many ways we wear it, provides boundless inspiration. By throwing amplified and exaggerated colours into the mix, I am able to produce some great expressions and facial features. For my current series, I have drawn my subjects from the world of hip-hop, a genre of music I have always enjoyed, and one whose inherent braggadocio, flamboyance, and gaudiness serves as a great complement to my own artistic style. The result is an exuberant series of pieces, which was not only was great fun to paint, but also allowed me to pay homage to a form of music that has been integral to my life.

This painting is about feelings of fear and anxiety and their effect on the body. For myself, anxiety and fear may cause a tight and sometimes painful feeling in my chest.

The painting was part of a series that dealt with the physical manifestations of fear. I personified the concept of fear and anxiety as a shadow creature that squeezes the figure’s heart with a vice grip. The figure is also frozen in place by the grip of fear. I chose a shadow creature to represent these emotions as they are something that all humans feel, and like a shadow that follows people around, these feelings can often loom over us. My hope with this work was to show a side of our human emotions that have the power to stop us in our tracks and negatively affect us physically.

I am interested in the concept of reduction.

How much information does the viewer need in order to connect with a piece of art? What story can be woven in the mind of the beholder from the placement of brush strokes of colour on paper? By applying the paint with a palette knife horizontally I have initiated the narrative. The juxtaposition of the colours adds another clue as does the title. The viewer mentally adds the details and the artwork is now complete.

About Ryan: My name is Ryan Liddiard. I’m 25-yearsold from Pitt Meadows, British Columbia.

I graduated from UFV in June 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, after playing five seasons for the UFV Cascades Men’s Soccer Team. Since then, I have decided to pick up the paintbrush and pursue my other passion: artwork.

About Laura: My name is Laura Tansley. I am a BA student with a double extended minor in both biology and visual arts. I’m in my last year at UFV and will be graduating in the spring. My favourite visual arts practices are drawing and painting. I like to use many different mediums to create art.

ART MONTH OF THE

Submissions are due Friday, November 25th Limit of three submissions per person, per month Submissions must have been created with in the last year

About Sharon I began painting in 1989 and am now working towards my Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at the University of the Fraser Valley while volunteering with Mission Arts Council and the Fraser Valley Chapter of the Federation of Canadian Artists. Acrylics, collage, photography, and print are my favorite mediums.

Doubt

By Katherine Strand Clay, metal, fabric, paint, wood, plastic - 17” x 1’ x 4” Am I coming up with things that are so out of the box that I am setting myself up for failure? I need to be reassured that my ideas are beautiful. I need to hear that I am good at what I do. I need to feel proud. But I don’t know how. It’s a constant circle I can’t break. My materials are wrong, but somehow they work? Ribbon, plastic, metal, flowers, buttons, clay. Everything is so different. I am good at working with clay—it is a passion of mine—but I doubt that my skills are strong enough. And what is my purpose? To show my personal flaws, to expose myself. No. To allow others to find that feeling of doubt in themselves. To take them to that level. To realize that making art is a processes and not every idea is a good one but with lots of expanding and meditating on that idea it can become a great one.

About Katherine: My art making process is intuitive. I become passionate about creating art related to things I experience. I try to reveal something personal about myself in every project. My motivation to create is that it is important to express emotions that are difficult to expose.

Accepted mediums: painting, drawing, print, photography, digital art, sculpture, 3d work Include a 50 word bio, 150 word artist statement, and image list with titles, mediums, sizes, and dates of creation

Submissions & questions can be sent to jeff@ufvcascade.ca

All images must be in CMYK format, 300+ DPI,in Zip file, less than 5 MB total. All files must be in PDF format.

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

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CULTURE & EVENTS v HEALTH & LIFESTYLE

Keeping it simple with minimalism KLARA CHMELAROVA CONTRIBUTOR

Have you ever wondered if you need everything you own? Do the clothes and cars your life is composed of hold any meaning? More so let me ask you this: have you ever felt lost in that clutter?

If the answer is yes, can you get rid of it, or does your brain pull out the “what if ” argument? What if all the shoe stores go bankrupt? Then it’s sensible to have 20 pairs at your disposal! Or what if the coat industry collapses? You’ll need those five coats you inherited. Or what if every person from your community decides to drop by for dinner unannounced? Then the dining set for 18 people occupying your cupboards will make total sense. Such scenarios may seem silly when written here, but in our minds, justifications like these keep us from throwing out some of our otherwise useless possessions.

There’s a new movement known as minimalism which tries to make you realize that the excuses above really are an illusion, nothing more. Especially in our student years, it can be challenging to transition between states where you still don’t own that much, but you are entering the state of self-sufficiency. All of us have probably had to figure out what’s necessary and what’s not, but being an international student makes that twice as difficult. Not only do you have to find out what is necessary for your well-being, but you have to do so on the move, in totally alien culture.

I will never forget the panic I felt standing in a Dutch furniture store when I moved to the Netherlands, my mind running at 200 per cent, trying to figure out which bed wouldn’t destroy my back. How much cutlery did I need? Are there special rules to picking linens? Should you own more than two? The anxiety was doubled by knowing that I was taking this time away from being at university and connecting with its community. Ultimately, you end up with some sort of household, but the question arises if it is worth losing the opportunity to get to know people? For students, especially those of us who are far from home, minimalism can provide relief from this dilemma.

So what is this minimalism thing, you might ask. It’s quite simple: minimalism is about cutting down the excess. Nevertheless, focusing on needing less is only part of the story. In fact, the main goal of minimalism is to create room.

Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, authors of bestselling books Everything That Remains and Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life, explain that means “making room for more: more time, more passion, more experiences, more growth, more contribution, more contentment.”

Being a minimalist doesn’t mean you have to get rid of everything. If you love your book collection, you don’t have to stuff them into a shredder. If you’re emotionally attached to something, keep it. However, as you start to go through your belongings, you’ll discover that for every item you really adore,

there are 30 more that are just kind of there. Minimalism says to get rid of those 30 and hold onto the important one.

When you start decluttering your life, suddenly what is really valuable comes forward. Instead of washing your car or polishing your 45th pair of shoes, maybe you find time to call a friend you haven’t seen in three years. And that’s the whole point of becoming a minimalist — so we can re-learn to “use things and love people.”

There is no pressure, either. You can start small — no need to get a garbage truck and stuff everything except the bed into it.

The first step might be simply going through your wardrobe. To illustrate, I came here with three bags of luggage. And for the last two and a half months, I’ve been using contents of just one. It’s unfortunate that only now I realize most of the clothes were “just in case” hoodies, shirts, and dresses. As a result, I don’t stand in my closet, deciding what to wear, and I’m ready to jump into my boots within 10 minutes of being asked to go somewhere.

Decluttering provides you with readiness and flexibility, since you don’t have to plan according to what you own, but rather according to what you want. It’s a very liberating feeling that helped me aim my energy towards my interests. If I’ve spiked your interest and you’re thinking about trying the “live more by possessing less” philosophy, the recently released documentary Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things is a great place to start.

Multicultural performances bring life to SUB KLARA CHMELAROVA CONTRIBUTOR

On Monday, November 7, the Student Union Building’s atrium became a stage for international students to share their culture as the kick-off of International Education Week. The event welcomed students with tables of free foods from various cultures, including Japanese sushi, Turkish falafel, and Indian samosas, to name just a few of them.

With plates full of these foreign goodies, students enjoyed the second aspect of the event: performances prepared by UFV students. The performances were as diverse as their performers, ranging from a robot dancer, who launched the fun while promoting the hip-hop club, to a group of Japanese students dressed in traditional attire, giving the audience a bit of insight into Japanese ways of life. One of the most standout parts of that performance was the demonstration of sadō, or the “way of tea,” where they prepared green tea in accordance with a traditional ceremony.

The event gave students far away from home opportunities to share part of their homeland with the university community, and the local students to maybe fuel their wanderlust a bit.

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Photo: Facebook/UFV International

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

CULTURE & EVENTS v CREATIVE WRITING

The story of Syrian Helpless refugees in Abbotsford

in Love HARVIN BHATHAL

CONTRIBUTOR

The control of my thoughts slips away as the grasp I have over myself loosens, spending days and night in denial, hating myself for my dark desire, hoping it will disappear.

But I am helpless.

Before that one fateful day, my life was a hopeless trek through a barren desert, but when I laid my eyes upon you, you were no longer a mirage.

When we walk side by side, we are in our personal oasis away from the desert we call life When we walk side by side, the wind takes reign of your voluminous hair sculpting it like sand dunes in the desert, mesmerizing in their purest form.

When we walk side by side, your green eyes, honest and eager, give me warmth like the energy of sunlight except I see no mirage; I see you.

When we walk side by side, your cheeky smile gives life to those around you, radiating like the sun; Without it, there is no surviving but without you, there is no living.

The mere thought of being near such an effortless beauty encompasses my mind but the true beauty shines within; an absurd sense of humour never failing to make my day, a confidence as stunning as it is comforting, an inspirational drive from which you thrive, an awkwardness so lovely that which you embrace, and most of all, a kindness from a heart so wild and exhilarating.

After that one fateful day, I sunk into the quicksand of your love and the more I denied, the quicker I sank.

However, this is a quicksand by which I have accepted my fate.

But I am helpless.

Held with an open hand, sand is blown away by the wind, and if held tight, it drifts away.

If I hold with an open hand, you may blow it away but if I hold tight, it will slowly yet surely drift away until all that remains is regret.

BRADLEY PETERS

THE CASCADE / PHOTOS

Eight months ago, Abbotsford embraced 160 Syrian refugees into the community.

On Wednesday, November 1, UFV held an event in their honour, titled PresentDay Newcomers Fleeing War Torn Regions: Receptivity and Integration.

The event offered a chance for Abbotsford to reflect on the process of integrating newcomers into our community, an ongoing process even today.

UFV peace and conflict studies teaching chair Steven Schroeder opened the event in the filled auditorium.

“The refugee crisis can feel at times like an existential problem. It’s important to see the faces behind the crisis,” said Schroeder, acknowledging the nearly 20 Syrian teenagers sitting at the front of the room.

“When facing a decision to help people suffering around the world, we need to ask ourselves, what kind of world do I want to live in? What kind of Canada do I want to live in? What kind of a person do I want to be?”

The new Syrian-Canadians occupied the first two rows of the auditorium. Teenagers and young adults, they switched between rapt attention for the speaker and restless shifting. The young men and women whispered between each other and tittered excitedly.

“They are very excited to be in the university,” said Palwinder Kelay, supervisor of Abbotsford community services’ Moving Ahead program. “They have learned English very quickly, and several of them are ready to attend UFV in the new year.”

Palwinder was one of three speakers who took to the podium to describe their experiences working to integrate the refugees. She described the trials of helping the 44 adults and 116 children integrate into Abbotsford with only 42 hours of notice.

“We were completely underprepared.”

The Syrians arrived at the Sandman Hotel in Abbotsford on February 22, which would end up being their home for the next five weeks. Families filed off of buses into the hotel lobby while Palwinder rushed to organize the fleet. One of the buses had mistakenly brought a group of refugees that was supposed to remain in Vancouver. A young boy had caught a virus and he and his father had remained in the Vancouver hospital. Within hours the upper floor of the hotel was bustling with the new families cooking, and sleeping, the children running through the halls and playing in the stairwell.

“The children loved pulling the fire alarm,” said Palwinder, amidst embarrassed laughter from the Syrian attendees. Palwinder told stories of massive soccer matches behind the building, children making themselves sick from elevator rides, and the entirety of the parking lot being covered with elaborate chalk drawings. Palwinder’s voice swelled with emotion as she recounted their experiences, “It was like we had created a new refugee camp in the Sandman Hotel.”

Palwinder and her team spent those five weeks securing permanent housing for the families. This proved to be impossibly difficult within a booming housing market, but in some instances local homeowners put their hearts before their wallets. “We went to a rental house listed at $1,600,” Palwinder recalled. “The place was packed, and by the

end of the day the price had risen to $2,200.

I walked up to the owner and told him what we were doing; I said, ‘I need this home and I only have $1,400 dollars.’ The next day he called and said the house was ours.”

Jennifer Mpunbu, program coordinator for the refugee assistance program at MCC, and Jake Stelpstra, a spokesman for the local private refugee sponsorship team also spoke at the event.

Jake and his co-sponsors helped relocate five refugee men from Eritrea, Africa, and worked to find them housing in Abbotsford.

He expressed how “overwhelmed” the young refugee men felt by how “kind, polite, and helpful Canadians are.”

Jennifer related her expertise regarding efficient and helpful refugee integration within the local communities. She continually stressed what she called “the most important obstacle facing newly arriving refugees,” which is the language barrier. “Language is the most important thing,” she said.

Jennifer lamented the lack of services available for non-English speaking refugees arriving in Canada: mental health services, language classes, and assistance for cultural adjustment to name a few.

Between presentations, Vancouver author and poet Connie Braun read poems rooted in themes of her own Mennonite ancestor’s struggles as refugees fleeing to Canada.

Connie’s poem Izmir spoke of her tour through Turkey. “We soon discovered the story our cameras didn’t tell … babies handed through barbed wire, whole families swallowed by a sea that had seemed so brilliant.”

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

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CULTURE & EVENTS

Banff Mountain Film Festival comes to Mission

VANESSA BROADBENT THE CASCADE

From climbing the highest peaks in Canada — and across the world — to skiing down the most treacherous of slopes, the Banff Mountain Film Festival has it all and it’s coming to the Fraser Valley this month.

The Banff Mountain Film Festival, an annual event that takes place each fall in Banff, Alberta, features various mountain and wilderness films.

After the festival, chosen films go on a world tour, showing in cities all across the globe.

This year, 41 years after its start, the festival is once again coming to the Clarke Theatre in Mission, hosted by kinesiology professor Roger Friesen in partnership with UFV. “It’s a long-time film festival that grew from humble beginnings,” Friesen explained. “A few people got together and spent time in the wilderness and started filming each other doing stuff. They got together, had some beers, and watched each other’s films, and in those years

it slowly has grown into a global phenomenon.”

Now the festival is an annual event and has gained international attention over its four decades in existence.

Friesen initially started hosting the festival in partnership with UFV’s adventure tourism program, which he was the coordinator of at the time.

“It was through that piece of the puzzle that I got involved with the film festival,” Friesen explained. “Somebody else from UFV had been hosting it prior to me, but they weren’t that interested in it and it was a natural fit for the tourism program, so I took it on gladly and got my students involved.”

Although the adventure tourism program no longer exists at UFV, Friesen still hosts the event annually with volunteer help from students of the kinesiology student association.

Over the nearly 20 years that Friesen has hosted the festival, he’s seen an increase in interest.

“People who come for the first time will come

every year for the rest of their lives,” he said.

“The film festival has developed a cult following all around the world.”

With names like Red Bull, National Geographic, and Discovery Channel showing films in the festival, the lineup has grown, as well as topics included in films.

“In the old days it revolved primarily around mountain sport but over the years it has grown to wilderness sport, to environmental issues, to mountain culture,” Friesen said. “Some films are serious by nature; there are documentary style, some are fun, some are crazy. It’s a huge selection of genres that are represented in that festival.”

However, although the festival is hosted in partnership with UFV, Friesen noted that there has not been a high attendance from students in previous years.

“I wish more students would come because this film festival is geared to this demographic,” he said. “I think in our area here there’s a growing population of people who are pursuing wilderness-based recreation so I think it

is growing, but also the whole industry is developing as well.”

While climbing the Canadian Rockies or backpacking northern British Columbia’s wilderness may not seem like a possibility for everybody, Friesen noted that something from the festival will appeal to any audience member, regardless of skill level.

“It’s very inspiring; it gets people going and gets people to recognize possibilities,” he said.

“You may watch a film of an expedition that is world class and crazy difficult, something that most people may never even dream of doing, but even watching something that is beyond the reach of most people inspires them, even if it’s on a smaller scale.”

The Banff Film Festival is coming to the Clarke Theatre in Mission on Nov. 29 and 30. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at Wentings Cycling and Mountain Shop, Valhalla Pure, Western Canoeing and Kayaking, Lifecycles, and Mt Waddington’s Outdoors.

v SCIENCE COLUMN

When too much of a hill kills the thrills

What does it take for a roller coaster to knock you out?` FRASER FORBES

CONTRIBUTOR

Every thrill seeker gets their first taste of adrenaline from a roller coaster. I’ve never met someone who loves adrenaline but not roller coasters. And we’ve all seen the videos on Facebook of people freaking out on rides and passing out. But how fast does a roller coaster really need to go to make you pass out? Not a lot of people realize that it’s not actually about the speed, but rather the acceleration, and therefore the force exerted on your body.

Think about airplanes. They fly at a smooth 900 km/h at cruising altitude, and planes aren’t full of unconscious people — that would be dangerous. They start accelerating slowly, gaining more and more speed, until they reach their ideal velocity. So technically, if you had an excessively long roller coaster track, and a ridiculous amount of energy to power it, you could travel at almost the speed of light while remaining conscious.

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Anyway, we still want to know when we are going to pass out.

Obviously roller coaster designers have also done this math, or else their creations would be crazy health hazards. The way we’re going to calculate this is with “g”s. A g is acceleration resulting from gravity on Earth. If you drop any amount of weight from basically any height, it will have an acceleration downwards of about 10 m/ s2, which is equal to one g. Most people can withstand five g’s of force. For reference, five g’s of force is enough to accelerate you up to highway speeds in just under a second.

On a roller coaster, the place you are going to feel the most force pushing on your body is at the bottom of a drop. Now of course, we can’t have our roller coaster turn at 90 degrees, or crash into the ground. That would cause other “problems” in addition to passing out. What I’m getting at is that if the roller coaster starts with a vertical drop but ends with a large sloping curve, you’ll feel less force than a roller coaster that ends in a sharp curve up. Let’s say the track goes from a vertical drop to horizontal in five metres of

track. Throwing in some air resistance, we really only need the coaster to reach speeds of 60 km/h to hit that five g number. It turns out with just 60 feet of vertical track we can cause some people to pass out.

Remember, you can build roller coasters much taller than this, but to keep people happy and conscious, roller coaster designers don’t make the bottoms of the big drops nearly as sharp as we did here.

With all this said and done, if you really want to watch a friend pass out on a roller coaster, make sure they eat lots, drink little, and keep a low heart rate. Then, track down a roller coaster that is both tall and has the sharpest turn you can find. You just baked yourself a great viral video! This last part is a joke. Please do not attempt to make yourself — or other people — unconscious, because it is pretty bad for your health.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

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vvv

ARTS IN REVIEW MOVIE REVIEW

Shuffle AARON LEVY STATION MANAGER

See below. Nuff said. Feminism FTW. Make America A State Again.

Wyclef Jean “If I Was President” Wyclef, a Hatian native who once actually ran for president of that often beleaguered island nation, originally came up with Lauryn Hill, Pras Michel, and The Fugees, short for ref-ugees, recently updated this popular coffee house track for the 21st century. Within the context of this nuts-o week, violence threatens.

Presidents of the United States of America “Peaches” It's not only the United States who find themselves in the throes of appointing / electing a new figurehead for their community; UFV is currently in the process of selecting its own president to replace the outgoing and beloved Dr. Evered after two terms, welcoming a new pres to the country.

Team America: World Police “America” “America, Expletive Yeah! Coming again to save the mother fornicating day! Freedom is the only way! Terrorists your game is through cause now you have to answer to. It's the dream that we all share! It's the hope for tomorrow!” How was this not utilized for Trump's campaign more thoroughly?!

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut “Blame Canada” Among the complaints that 2016's Republican nominee continues to levee unto partners, enemies, and neighbours of the most powerful administrative body the globe over, ironically, he's stopped short of utilizing the title phrase of this second shuffle entry from the creators of Cannibal the Musical and The Book of Mormon.

CHARTS 1

Preoccupations Preoccupations

2

A Tribe Called Red We Are the Halluci Nation

3 4 5

Sad13 Slugger Majid Jordan Majid Jordan Blessed Blessed

6

Kishi Bashi Sonderlust

7

Jay Arner Jay II

8

Against Me! Shape Shift With Me

9

La Sera Music For Listening To Music To

10

Hot Panda Bad Pop

11

Eleanore Eleanore

12

Cheap High Picture Disk

13 14

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back doesn’t reach too high

Phantogram Three Red Velvert Russian Roulette

15

FT Island Where's The Truth

16

Elephant Stone Little Ship Of Fools

17

Harpdog Brown Travelin' With The Blues

18

Sunday Wilde Blueberries and Grits

19

Al Lerman Slow Burn

20

Ghost Popestar

MARTIN CASTRO THE CASCADE

The second movie in the budding Jack Reacher film franchise, (because you just know it’s going to turn into a franchise), is an exercise in testing the patience of its audience.

What do we look for in action movies? Is it thrilling close calls with bad guys? Fist fights in alleys? People falling off buildings while fist fighting bad guys in alleys?

If an engaging plot which strives to make you question the nature of violence or corruption of authority or the intricacies of military police protocol is what you’ve bought tickets to the latest Jack Reacher film looking to find, I’ve got some bad news for you — keep reaching.

Jack Reacher is, (his description would have you believe), a sleuth. A former military-policeman turned private investigator, Reacher must go incognito after being framed for murder, simultaneously avoiding sundry agencies after him and chasing down the bad guys.

You’d think the best way to do this would be to keep quiet and attempt to draw the least amount of attention to yourself as possible, (Reacher seems to think this too, or, at least he

says so numerous times throughout the film). His actions, however, are entirely the opposite.

The main problem with this movie is not just that it’s formulaic (and it’s painfully formulaic. First Reacher is double-crossed, then he injures and kills his way through what is essentially a private army, and then also the real army, before realizing that what really matters is family.) It’s that it’s so selfserving that the plot is ludicrously bare.

So I asked myself, what exactly is the purpose of a movie like this one? Am I supposed to get anything out of it? Am I supposed to question our nature as humans or the nature of our relationships to one another? What about familial relationships?

I’m apparently not supposed to do any of that. All I’m really supposed to do is watch Tom Cruise dryly drone his lines in between pummeling government employees or mercenaries.

And, I suppose, if we accept this to be the operative definition of action movies nowadays, (“hey, wanna go watch a guy seriously injure a bunch of other guys?”), then Jack Reacher hits the nail on the head – and then shoots it for good measure.

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

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ARTS IN REVIEW MOVIE REVIEW

Doctor Strange is no stranger to the strange

MITCH HUTTEMA THE CASCADE

If you’ve seen the trailers for Doctor Strange and the thought hadn’t already crossed your mind, Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) makes clear after his first mind-bending trip into the other dimensions of the multiverse, that this film would look extra cool on any kind of hallucinogenic. You won't need LSD to make this film trippy or visually pleasing, though; imagine Interstellar and Inception got together and made a movie, but Marvel funded it. The city folding effects from Inception and the interdimensional time bending of Interstellar feature prominently in Doctor Strange, though the pervasive, marketable, and rather dull story structure of most Marvel films makes its way into the mix as well.

You've seen much of this film before, its plot resolution and many of its elements are a hybrid of films past. A gifted prodigy turns to the dark side through their thirst for knowledge, a new prodigy that follows the same pattern but for some unexplained reason develops a sudden case of morals decides to confront the evil prodigy (*ahem* Star Wars). The climax of the story is essentially Groundhog Day divided by sci-fi minus Bill Murray.

Despite these tropes, the film is clever. Dr. Strange’s wit plays a strong role in the comedy of the film. The “Cloak of Levitation,” a semi-sentient relic cape offers humour as well with mute mannerisms that match the magic carpet from Aladdin. The 3D, too-smooth, computer-generated imagery brings a comic book feel to the film. But, the easily anticipated and smoothly choreographed fight scenes that produce no fear of defeat and the trademark digestible storyline are what really sell the Marvel vibe.

The mind-bending time-remapping and the genius with how this film handles time travel is a pure visual treat. Time whips back and forth as characters battle outside of it, and the complexity of it is not so much that it loses the viewer like Inception might have. The film makes an attempt to dwell in reality by joking about the wifi password at “Kamar-Taj” (the secret training village in the Himalayan mountains that Dr. Strange stays at) but it has weak effect. Rather than attempt to relate to viewers by appealing to their sense of reality, the film

should dive deeper into its comic book roots and take on the fantasy and sci-fi that gave birth to it.

Marvel knew they would face a tough time with the making of this film, the amount of racially sensitive content in the Doctor Strange originals is hard to get around. The “Ancient One,” a role usually portrayed in the comic books as an Asian character, is filled by Tilda Swinton. Her demeanour and appearance are highly reminiscent of her role as the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (that is to say, excellent), but it was a daring and racially-charged step for the studio to take. According to The Hollywood Reporter there was never any right way to go with this character anyways; due to the strained relationship between China and Tibet, if Marvel had made the Ancient One Tibetan — as is the traditional origin — they would have been running the risk of losing the rights to show the film in China, an event which would have cost them millions in theatre revenue. Should the amount of profit have any effect on a film's ability to avoid racial insensitivities and whitewashing? Marvel's answer is yes, and most studios would likely follow the same suit.

With Doctor Strange comes the first time that Marvel allows the possibility of powers that sit in the spiritual realm to take centre stage, as opposed to the science-based anomalies and mutation-centric powers of the X-Men and Avengers. As could be expected, despite the fact that they have included spirituality and religiously based philosophies it is still delivered in the same marketable format. Ancient Eastern philosophies are delivered by white people clad in Asian garb whilst in the middle of New York. A slice of white light, no larger than several microns wide, is the largest sliver of spirituality Marvel will ever let the door to religion open up.

At the end, the classic post-credit scenes hosted the usual promises of future films. Dr. Strange and Thor may team up to rescue Odin, and a forlorn servant will revolt against all sorcerers in the next Doctor Strange installation. I usually sigh when a bonus scene promises some great film (I’m still damaged from Mr. Incredible’s sequel promises when I was a child), but this time I stiffened with anticipation. This film delivered a successful superhero tale, with exactly the packaging that Millennials are bound to love.

MUSIC

The Chilliwack Arts & Cultural Centre Society presents

The Centre

R

! s ock

VI

Electrifying local talent rocks the Rotary Hall Studio Theatre!

ing Excitalent T Local cert Con s!

Serie

Dion Weisbrod with...

Johnny Esau

Cabaret Style Setting!

Nicki Meier Quinn Patterson Sophia Rooke Dion Weisbrod and The Unbranded

7:00pm

NOVEMBER 604

391.SHOW

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Tickets

All seats: $10

CHILLIWACK

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CULTURAL CENTRE

9201 Corbould St., Chilliwack • www.chilliwackculturalcentre.ca

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016

www.ufvcascade.ca

ARTS IN REVIEW

S undBites

Jubilee

Dante Decaro

After Hours

I don’t understand this album. I’m sure it displays some kind of artistry through the craft of beeps and boops but I’m not hearing any of it.

At first, I thought the songs were just really long. I kept waiting for this buildup of tension to release into a crescendo of musicality. When it finally happened, I realized I had come to the end of the album and that was it, there was no more; YouTube autoplayed me another bland electronic song. Each track of After Hours is

Mini album reviews

Kill Your Boyfriend

an unsophisticated, meandering transition into the next.

In terms of genre, I have absolutely no frame of reference from which to place the style of this music. It’s not techno, it’s not dubstep, it might be something in between. If you took all the sound effect tracks on a cheap keyboard and looped them you would get After Hours.

The music doesn’t go anywhere, and if it does, via its funky robot sounds, it certainly doesn’t take you with it. Don’t listen to it.

Former Hot Hot Heat guitarist and current Wolf Parade member Dante Decaro’s solo debut is ultimately reminiscent of the kind of slow and meditative indie folk used in movies about teen angst and first love and first loss and any number of cliches about young adulthood.

But those cliches are exclusive to the films music like this might appear in. Kill Your Boyfriend’s opening track, “Love Like Thieves” is a bittersweet groovy number that, although subject to the overuse of “the millennial whoop,” still manages to etch out

Joel Robertson-Taylor

a catchy, danceable cut that’s infectious and effective as an opener.

The rest of the record follows the glitzy example set by its opening track: all strummed guitars and shiny, oversaturated production over which Decaro breathlessly drags out lines with ease. The inclusion of heavily distorted guitars and bells adds to the aesthetic while, surprisingly, not making a joke out of the sad, emancipatory arch the record puts forward.

Twenty-somethings suffering from fallinduced melancholy, eat your heart out.

Martin Castro

Nominate a teacher who has made a difference in your education.

Those eligible for nomination include all UFV faculty and lab instructors and sessional instructors who have completed two years of instruction.

Selection criteria include mentorship, attention to student learning, respect for students, integration of scholarship, and professional activity.

Deadline for nominations is January 9, 2017 at 4 pm Download a nomination package from ufv.ca/TEA or pick one up from Ruby in room G104 on the Abbotsford campus.

For more information, contact Ruby Ord at 604-504-7441, ext 4382 or email ruby.ord@ufv.ca

CORRECTION In Issue 26 the article “A Trepid Toast to Politicoast” incorrectly referenced the hosts as Ian and Terry. It’s actually Ian and Scott.

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UPCOMING EVENTS NOV. 10

Dodgeball Tournament @ Abbotsford Campus - gym 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Aftermath of the Election @ Abbotsford Campus - Great Hall 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Film screening: Trick or Treaty @ Abbotsford Campus - SUB 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

NOV. 22

Strengthening our Commitments to Reconciliation @ Abbotsford Campus - B101 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM You and Your Money: Financial Advice for Young Adults @ Clearbrook Library 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

NOV. 23

Celtic Thunder @ Abbotsford Centre 7:30 PM - 12:00 AM

Let’s Talk Credit @ Sardis Library 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

NOV. 11

Remembrance Day - UFV closed

NOV. 12

Lennon: Through a Glass Onion @ Clarke Theatre (Mission) 7:00 PM Jimmy D Lane & the LazerKatz @ Eagles Hall (Abbotsford) 7:00 PM - 11:30 PM

NOV. 16

Kin Day @ Chilliwack Campus 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Documentary screening: The Iron Wall @ Abbotsford Campus - B121 3:00 PM The Great Canadian Tire Money Caper @ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:30 PM

NOV. 17

Carl Peters Considers What is Creative Writing? @ Abbotsford Campus - library 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

NOV. 24

UFV Health and Wellness Fair @ UFV Five Corners 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

UFV Theatre: 7 Stories (opening night) @ UFV Performance Theatre 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

NOV. 25

Christmas Tree Lighting @ Historic Downtown Abbotsford 3:00 PM - 9:00 PM UFV Theatre: 7 Stories @ UFV Performance Theatre 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM Play: A Full House @ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:30 PM

NOV. 26

Country Christmas Market @ Maan Farms (Abbotsford) 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Coffee House Concert Series: Michael Averill @ Clarke Theatre (Mission) 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Scholarly Sharing: Food, Farmland and Seasonal Workers in Agriburbia @ Abbotsford Campus - U-House 1:15 PM - 2:45 PM

UFV Theatre: 7 Stories @ UFV Performance Theatre 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

The Great Canadian Tire Money Caper @ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:30 PM

Play: A Full House @ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:30 PM

NOV. 18

NOV. 27

Child’s Play Fundraiser marathon @ Abbotsford Campus - SUB 9:00 AM - Nov 19 10:00 AM

Country Christmas Market @ Maan Farms (Abbotsford) 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant @ Abbotsford Centre 7:00 PM - 12:00 AM

UFV Theatre: 7 Stories @ UFV Performance Theatre 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Chilliwack Christmas Craft Market @ Chilliwack Community Arts Council All weekend West Coast Christmas Show @ Tradex (Abbotsford) All weekend

DEC. 1

Winter Solstice Lunch @ Abbotsford Campus - Indigenous Student Centre 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM Daniels v. Canada: What’s Next for Canada’s Metis @ Abbotsford Campus - B121 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Career and Life Planning Workshop @ Chilliwack Campus - A1318 4:30 PM – 7:00 PM UFV Theatre: 7 Stories @ UFV Performance Theatre 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

DEC. 2

Pop Up Artisan Market @ Highstreet Shopping Centre 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM UFV Theatre: 7 Stories @ UFV Performance Theatre 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

Candlelight Parade @ Mission - From 1st Ave to Park St. 7:30 PM

DEC. 3

UN International Day for Persons with a Disability @ Mission Library 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pop Up Artisan Market @ Highstreet Shopping Centre 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM Rotary Christmas Parade @ Downtown Chilliwack 5:30 PM UFV Theatre: 7 Stories @ UFV Performance Theatre 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

DEC. 4

Pop Up Artisan Market @ Highstreet Shopping Centre 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

UFV Theatre: 7 Stories (final showing) @ UFV Performance Theatre 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Food Bank Skate @ Twin Rinks 3:15 PM – 4:45 PM

DEC. 5

DEC. 6

NOV. 29

Christmas at Clearbrook Library @ Clearbrook Library 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

NOV. 30

Speaker: Kim Gemmell @ Abbotsford Campus- A225 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Abbotsford Education and Career Fair @ Tradex (Abbotsford) 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

November Walking Program @ The Abbotsford Centre 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM

Winter Solstice Lunch @ Chilliwack Campus - A1454 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM

20

NOVEMBER & DECEMBER

DEC. 7

Food Bank Skate @ Twin Rinks 3:15 PM – 4:45 PM