The cascade Vol. 25 Issue 14

MAY 3 TO MAY 9, 2017

VOLUME 25 ISSUE 14

‘Wells’ that’s all folks since 1993

Boardwalk UFV geography class relocating to Abbotsford’s Boardwalk Cafe for the summer semester.

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Fast Relationships Igniting the flame with Tinder.

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Blessed ii It’s a really great album.

Kinder Morgan pg. 9-12

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WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

EDITORIAL

Editorial //

STAFF Editor-in-Chief Joel Robertson-Taylor joel@ufvcascade.ca Managing Editor (interim) Joel Robertson-Taylor joel@ufvcascade.ca Business Manager Quintin Stamler quintin@ufvcascade.ca Production Manager Brittany Cardinal brittany@ufvcascade.ca Illustrator Amara Gelaude amara@ufvcascade.ca Photographer Alexandrah Pahl Alexandrah@ufvcascade.ca Distributor Griffy Vigneron distributor@ufvcascade.ca

Copy Editor Kat Marusiak kat@ufvcascade.ca

JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR

News Editor Joel Robertson-Taylor joel@ufvcascade.ca

Last week, Gary Mason, the Globe and Mail columnist, wrote about the 2017 election debate saying it really didn’t have “that one memorable moment that left the public laughing, confused or more certain than ever about their vote.” He said that even though people want to know who clearly won these things, there wasn’t a clear winner.

This debate, the only televised debate of the 2017 election, was symbolic of B.C.’s political climate conundrum — there isn’t exactly a clear choice. Of course, it’ll depend on who’s running in each riding. A great party might have a terrible MLA. I think a lot of voters are asking the same question: who’s not Christy Clark but still sits in the safe zone? And for most, that answer to that question will appear on their ballot, regardless of policies.

In this edition of the Cascade, the article “Did we just dodge our Trump?” compares Canada’s own Kevin O’Leary to U.S. president Donald Trump. It says that even though O’Leary dropped out of the Conservative Leadership race, Canada may still need to wash its hands of whatever allowed a reality TV star, business mogul to get as far as he did in the Conservative leadership race.

The thing is, personalities like O’Leary’s get attention. They’re actors, it makes them good politicians. Even Trudeau, the drama teacher, put on a great performance leading up the the 2015 election, (and for the first year after his win, some say). When Trudeau came out onstage, makeup done, hair did, Canadians found their champion — the anti-Harper hero.

And as a result, our last Federal elections showed a glimpse of what young people are thinking. The participation of voters ages 18-24 rose 18.3 per cent from the previous election in 2011. It’s not yet a trend, however, just a nice thought. These stats don’t necessarily mean young people want to vote, as is often said, it means there was

Jr. News Editor Jesse Boyes jesse@ufvcascade.ca Opinion Editor Panku Sharma panku@ufvcascade.ca Culture & Events Editor Jeff Mijo jeff@ufvcascade.ca Arts in Review Editor Martin Castro martin@ufvcascade.ca Ad Representative Kayla Normandeau-Cowan Kayla@ufvcascade.ca

THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS Karen White Priya Sharma Mitch Huttema

The vote that counts

Alec Zinman Jennifer Trithardt-Tufts

Cover: Joel Robertson-Taylor Back Cover: Brittany Cardinal

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

someone to vote for. This time, in B.C., for better or for worse, we don’t have a clear front runner, as Mason notes.

Which is probably a good thing, if first time voters are really increasing in percentage. Young voters can be easily swayed; they haven’t experienced pre-ICBC, pre-Fast Ferries paradise. With that said, seasoned voters who’ve experienced economic fiascos like these tend to avoid giving new parties a chance.

Currently the polls’ seat projections put the NDP in the lead. Perhaps they’re the best bet.

The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs is launching an “Anyone But Christy” (ABC) campaign encouraging people to vote for either NDP or Green Party candidates.

While they don’t endorse either, they spoke about how Clark has been out of touch with British Columbians.

Some with this mindset however, are afraid that Green might split the vote which would hand leadership back to the Liberals; what those types forget is we function in a multi-party system, every candidate splits votes. It’s far from being news that someone is encouraging “ABC” voters to err on the side of safety and vote NDP — strategic voting, they call it.

I often say vote for what will benefit the community, not just yourself. It’s a personal adage that resonates with strategic voting, but I can’t say I support the idea. In this election, it looks like we finally have an opportunity to vote for who we want. This might be the first year where voting for a non-dominant party might actually not be considered “throwing away your vote.”

Until this year, we were in a two party system. What will define this election is whether British Columbians will vote for the best opposition, or who they believe in. A vote for value, whether it’s a vote to win or not, is the best vote of all.

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The Cascade is hiring a @UFVCASCADE FACEBOOK.COM/UFVCASCADE INSTAGRAM.COM/THE.CASCADE Volume 25 · Issue 14 Room S2111 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 604.854.4529

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 12:00 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.

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E R U T L U C R O T I ED Like going to events and then telling people all about what they missed out on? You may be our next Culture Editor!

For more information or to apply, visit ufvcascade.ca/ employment or email kat@ufvcascade.ca.

great at graphic design?

The Cascade is looking for creatives to join our production team! Must like designing things, preferably late at night and with lots of coffee.

For more information or to apply, visit ufvcascade.ca/ employment or email kat@ufvcascade.ca.

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

NEWS BRIEFS Evered Hall In honour of UFV president and vice-chancellor Dr. Mark Evered’s retirement this summer, the Student Union Society announced that the Great Hall in the Student Union Building will now be called the Evered Hall. A thankyou reception was held for Evered on April 18, where a new plaque for the space was unveiled. The event was complete with a video of students sharing the many ways Evered and his wife Maureen supported them throughout their time at UFV.

SUSpectations //

‘Expect good energy and positive vibes’ Gurvir Gill looks ahead on his year as SUS president

- UFV Today Charity Pro-Am The UFV Cascades golf program announced that it will be launching the inaugural Nick Taylor Charity Pro-Am. The initiative will be a partnership between the Cascades and PGA Tour golfer Nick Taylor, Algra Brothers Developments, and the Vancouver Golf Tour. The tournament is scheduled to take place on Sept. 27 on Taylor’s home course at Ledgeview Golf Club.

- UFV Cascades Honorary Degrees UFV has announced its list of honorary doctorate recipients for this year’s convocation ceremonies. The recipients include aviation professional Kirsten Brazier, Canada’s first female Indigenous surgeon Dr. Nadine Caron, founder and publisher of the Patrika Andy Sidhu, and CTV news anchor Tamara Taggart. The doctorate will be awarded at UFV’s convocation ceremonies on June 6 and 7 at the Abbotsford Events Centre.

- UFV Today

Photo: Vanessa Broadbent

JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

In March, Gurvir Gill was elected to student union presidency with 58.5 per cent of the vote. “G,” as he’s known around campus, had gained popularity as a work study for student engagement and a student ambassador for UFV. Through those roles, he’s developed a passion for the university’s community.

When G first came to UFV, like most new students, he didn’t know much about the campus or campus life. But through volunteering with UFV International, Athletics, and working as a dorm resident assistant, G became embedded in the UFV culture.

Now as president, G plans to work towards building further into campus culture, creating more programming, and focusing on the student experience.

He’s a fourth-year student in the business program — this year he’s making students his business.

How do you feel about presidency?

I feel pretty good about it, now that I’m here. The transition stuff is always interesting, that includes learning everything new which happens every day. I’m excited — that’s the coolest feeling. People are constantly asking me, “Hey, you feeling stressed yet?” No, I’m feeling excited.

This is an opportunity to grow my personal skills as well as to do something really good.

People generally have been supportive so far?

Yup, everyone has been supportive, everyone’s excited. And I think, again, there’s a big changeover with the university; departments are changing up, new people are coming in. This is that transition period for a bunch of places. Everyone I talk to is excited to see what 2017/18 is going to hold for us.

In this term, is there anything major that you want to work on?

A couple major things — but my one biggest thing starting out is the [student union] building itself. It may not be a massive change but I want to make sure that everything is up and running. So that would include our services are up and our centres are operating. I’m kind of just wanting to tick off the building so we can look at bigger projects and things like that throughout the campus. Sometimes there are empty spaces or there’s a space that maybe we can utilize in a different way to better impact students. So my biggest thing that I’m hoping to finish by the end of 2017 at least would be getting the building checked off.

But long-term I’d love to implement more programming with the student community.

So you’ll be listening to students; will you hear what they want?

Yeah, at the end of the day I feel like it’s really important to get the students’ voice and opinions. Because I’m elected in, myself and my team, we’re elected in to represent the thousands of students we have.

Sometimes we’ve got to make decisions based on how we impact the greater good and the many. As an example, my biggest thing when I’m doing a task is asking, “How can I cater to everyone’s needs?” I want to see smiles across the board. That’s the best way and the way I want to approach every situation, asking myself, “Hey, what can I do to benefit the majority of students?”

Do you have two or three or five other major goals or set things you want to do?

I guess for major goals, definitely one big thing in my platform was getting more of a culture going. So one thing we’re looking at once we get up and running for next year is orientation. We’re planning on doing a revamp with welcome weeks and doing something with the orientation itself.

We’ll definitely see if we can partner with a different department on campus or do our own thing for orientation. I think it’s important because it’s really our kickoff for the year and for new students. So that’s really important.

Another thing would be doing a leadership program or conference. I think those soft skills are really important to learn and develop; because it’s long-term, right? Students are here in the classroom for a couple of years, so it’s like, how can we give them a few things that they can use day to day or at their workplaces, whether off-campus or on-campus. How can we really develop students more personally?

CONTINUED ON PG. 4

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NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017 CONTINUED FROM PG. 3

Science fair //

UFV science students going to London

pressures that when applied to the bacteria would increase its efficiency of oil metabolism.”

Webb looks forward to the chance to hear from the voice of experience.

“I’m really excited about the keynote speakers and listening to what they’ve been working on because on such a large scale it’s nice to be able to hear ideas and get feedback on what you’re doing as well.”

Perrin Waldock, who will also be presenting at the forum, joked that the event will consist of “largely a lack of sleep,” but he continued earnestly to say, “It’s basically two weeks of science. They bring in a bunch of top scientists from around the world; engineers as well. I don’t know if engineers like being called scientists — or vice versa — but they talk about the interesting things that they’re doing. Last year or the year before, there was a guy who talked a lot about the physics related to bubbles.”

Waldock’s presentation involves the development of robotics.

“I talked about a quadcopter that I’m building and looking at how to add obstacle avoidance systems to.

Basically we’re looking at cheap ways of influencing obstacle avoidance. It’s a project we started in January and have been doing ongoing related research. It’s not a whole lot of cutting-edge stuff, but it’s an interesting sort of side project.”

Waldock has a couple of reasons why he thought the panel chose him out of the applicants.

“I have a fair amount of energy and a good sense of humour so I can represent UFV well at the event. I’m also doing some research that I think UFV really wants to show off. I think those are the two main reasons.

There were a number of really good candidates available, so I’m honoured that they chose me.”

Webb thinks the opportunity to go to the forum would not have been possible without the dedication she put into her research.

“I’m very passionate. I really enjoy the research that I’ve done,” she said. “Looking back, it was worth all the hours put in and all the struggles. The supervisors here at UFV are absolutely phenomenal and they all want you to succeed. As somebody who was kind of unsure about research, having done it now, I think it was completely worth all the time and effort that I put in.”

JESSE BOYES JR. NEWS EDITOR

An opportunity for students to represent UFV at the London International Youth Science Forum (LIYSF) was announced in January. The event benefits many kinds of research by bringing scientifically-minded students together with each other and experts in a way that they can demonstrate the progress they’ve made at their respective universities and help each other develop their ideas.

For the first time in UFV history, they are sending not one but two students to talk about their research with professionals in their fields and students from around the world.

UFV’s own Tessa Webb, a promising scientist in the field of biology, and engineering physics roboticist Perrin Waldock will be going to Imperial College London for two weeks from July 26 to August 9. There are 500 students selected from over 75 countries to coalesce in this gathering and associate with leading scientists.

Tessa Webb explained the steps she took to apply to attend the forum.

“You could create a presentation or write an essay about where you think science is going, or a possible direction to take science in,” she said. “I wrote a paper about CRISPR, which is a DNA editing technology. It’s a way to edit DNA and turn genes on or off and target certain sequences.”

Three candidate students were shortlisted and then had to build presentations showcasing the utility they see for their focus areas of research. A panel assessed their work and decided which two students would get to go to the forum. Webb’s presentation was on the potential for bioremediation with certain adaptations of bacteria that have resulted in the improved metabolism of environmental toxins.

“Bioremediation is use of biological organisms to help heal the environment or remove toxins that are present which could be from a man-made or an environmental source,” she said. “I was looking at a gene that’s responsible for oil metabolism and I wanted to clone it so that we could figure out how to increase the expression and efficiency of that gene. I was developing a protocol of ways that we can determine the selective

UFV Senate//

Student senate VANESSA BROADBENT A new batch of student senators-elect has joined UFV’s Senate for the upcoming academic year.

At Senate’s April 7 meeting, the four student representatives were announced: Ekanki Chawla, Dildar Singh Virdi, Ashmeet Kaur Saran, and Sahil Chawla.

Appointment to Senate follows a democratic process, but Senate only received applications from the four students who as a result were declared elected.

Ekanki Chawla will be a senator-elect on the Senate awards and honours committee. Chawla is a biology student and this is her second year on Senate as last term she was a senator on the student appeals committee. Chawla was also the senate representative on the Student Union Society (SUS) board of directors, and is this year’s faculty of science representative. She is also the vice-president of the UFV Circle K club.

Dildar Singh Virdi will serve as a senator on the un-

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dergraduate election committee.

Ashmeet Kaur Saran will serve as a senator on the Senate committee for student appeals. Saran is a finance and accounting and economics student and is SUS’ outgoing vice-president internal (VPI). Before taking on her role as VPI, Saran volunteered as a SUS finance assistant and was a member of SUS’ finance, budget, and clubs and associations committees.

Sahil Chawla will serve as a senator on the Senate governance committee. As a biology and chemistry student, Chawla spent the past academic year as the faculty of sciences representative on the SUS board of directors.

Chawla is the president of the UFV Circle K club, and has volunteered with the UFV pre-med student association, the biology and chemistry student association, and SUS’ events and clubs and associations committees.

The student senators will serve for a one-year term from August 1, 2017 to July 31, 2018.

So those would really be my two big things to focus on in order to create a culture. Breaking it down into a leadership aspect as well as an orientation aspect.

Things will be come up but again, it’s still early, when I have my first executive meeting with the VPs, it’s going to be focused on, “How do we entice all of our goals together to see if we can do our best to meet all of our individual objectives?”

How will you think about student involvement?

Student involvement, I think is a huge, important thing — it’s a really big thing on campus. Because if students aren’t involved, I feel like they may not be getting the max experience. For some students they may just not be able to if they’re commuters and coming from a long ways or if they’re crazy busy with classes — we totally get it. But through our programming process, it’s about how we can get more students involved, or just engaged. Whether it be that they’re volunteering with us, that’s awesome; if they’re not, if they’re attending events that’s cool too. Everyone’s then at least gaining the experience that we can offer.

But involvement is huge, I encourage more and more students to get involved, either with SUS or any other organizations we have here on campus.

I think it would be fair to say that SUS has been seen negatively by some students in the past, what are you going to do to change that?

I think the one big thing I want to focus on is just being out there and outgoing for students, and being open to students. I know everyone has their own personal opinions. When I was a first-year student I didn’t really know a lot about SUS, so now that I’ve slowly been working my way through campus and being involved, it’s kind of just building positive relationships with students, again tailoring to student needs. That’s the best thing we want to do. I feel like if we can give them awesome programming and awesome events and give them a great year, that will really shape their decision on whether they like us or not.

You know, some students just may not be into politics, that’s totally cool for them, I never thought I would be. I mean, you can’t change everyone’s mindset but hey, if they’re still able to come out to an event and have a good time, they don’t have to like us but I hope they’re still able to get their student experience. That’s what it is at the end of the day for me.

What should students expect from you?

Students should expect good vibes and positive energy. That’s a big thing I want to bring to the table. I’m tailoring my classes to be more available on campus, so for the summer I’m taking evening classes so I’ll be free all day and here on campus. One big thing I’m pushing to do is having set office hours, and cycling them. So I’ll do my best to have office hours say, on Friday for a month. Then changing that up so other students will have opportunities on Tuesdays for a month or a couple of weeks. I really think it’s important for students to come on in and voice their opinions. I want them to know SUS has open doors. We’re here to help you, we’re here to represent you.

As well, being a commuter campus, I want to create that home away from home feeling. Especially for me, I’m a student that’s not from the area, I came here and it was totally a new environment for me, so I needed to find my home away from home and I did that with the university. I want students to be able to feel that too. So one big thing I want to let students know is I’m going to be here for them, in all ways I’ll do whatever’s possible.

Whether it be walking around campus, or open doors in the office, or letting students know, “Hey G’s here, let’s grab a coffee,” or we’ll sit and talk. If you want me to wait in line with you, call me over, I’ll do it. I feel like that’s the other part of the job — I’m here to represent students and in order to represent them I need to know my students. A big thing is getting to know more of them.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

NEWS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Classroom //

Education on the Boardwalk UFV Geography class relocates to downtown Abbotsford JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

This summer, you won’t find the Geography 464 class at UFV. What’s unique about the course, beyond creating a city planning vision for Abbotsford, is where the class meets. Geography 464 (community planning and development) lectures will be held in one of downtown Abbotsford’s new hotspots, Boardwalk Café.

Geography 464 is taught by both Cherie Enns, associate professor in geography and the environment, and Nova Hopkins, instructor in graphic and digital design.

The class is an urban planning studio. This semester they’re taking on historic Abbotsford laneways as their project. Their homebase is Boardwalk Café.

“We’ll have a lecture, then spend time organizing projects in the downtown area,” said Enns. “It’s summertime so I think it makes it way more appealing that you get to be out and working on your project and talking to people.”

City lanes and alleys are often seen as wasted, unusable space. Some consider them unsafe areas. But Cherie Enns believes they can be turned into vibrant and animate places, even if they’re not at this point.

Students in the class will create planned vision concepts for the downtown area of Abbotsford, focusing on connecting and using these laneways.

“We’re hoping for long-term change. I want to see students’ vision and ideas, and inspire businesses and communities to be part of transforming those spaces also.”

Enns approached Darin Graham, co-founder with his wife of Boardwalk Café, at a meetup of local entrepreneurs and young business people in Abbotsford. That’s when the idea saw fruition.

The class takes place Monday evenings, and Boardwalk isn’t open Mondays, so the arrangement worked out well for both parties.

“We were really attracted to the idea. If you look out our window at the back, it’s not super nice,” said Graham.

“There’s this ally back here which runs between the liquor store and this building and goes around the corner.

It’s not really that nice of a space but something like what she’s proposing could work in there.”

Boardwalk has also looked at getting involved in multiple ways with UFV and the Abbotsford community and is open to hosting other kinds of activities.

“We want to be a part of a cultural shift in Abbotsford that sees Abbotsford as a destination,” Graham said.

The class focuses on real-world neighbourhood planning. Students will define a problem, collect data, and analyze the issue; then they’ll create their vision.

Enns said that planning courses are often problembased. In this course, the problem is the laneways and the students will be given the skills and organized into groups to interact with professionals and local businesses to solve their problem.

“What makes it unique is it’s interdisciplinary. You don’t have to be a geography or graphic design student, you just have to be interested in the operation and having an impact in a historic area,” she said.

The technique to be used in the laneway project is called “tactical urbanism.” It describes the creation of low-cost developments to create a welcoming and inspirational environment in typically less welcoming neighbourhoods. Back alleys are a prime example of where tactical urbanism thrives. A huge benefit of the tactical urbanism approach is students get to see real changes happen quickly. Long-term plans often get delayed and can take years to complete.

In 2009, New York’s Times Square became colonized by a “pedestrian plaza” where vehicle traffic was blocked off and hundreds of low-cost lawn chairs were placed throughout the space. Although it gained both criticism and praise (for taking place in such an iconic locale) the

idea was loved by most pedestrians. Geography 464 will think along these lines.

“It’s being part of the change. Tactical urbanism as a concept is short-term change, low-cost change, to demonstrate the possibility or potential for greater transformation in place,” said Enns. “An example would be taking an empty lot or rundown area and try to modify the space with activities and furniture or whatever. It demonstrates the possibility of that space, and in so doing you begin to initiate change.”

Cities like Vancouver and Toronto have adopted tactical urbanism in some parts. Non-profits like Livable Laneways in Vancouver organize and clean up laneways to transform them into pedestrian-friendly spaces.

Abbotsford’s downtown is already going through a community planning and visioning process. Abbotsfordward, the city’s official community plan, includes a downtown core with plenty of public space and an emphasis on walkways and bicycle lanes.

“The stuff that Cherie was talking about doing in her class, even the projects that they wanted to do with taking what they’re learning about and actually doing it on one of the streets here, I think that’s huge and something that Abbotsford hasn’t necessarily had previously. It’s something we’ll be able to benefit from,” Graham said.

“She’s got a lot of practical emphasis in what she wants to do. It’s not just teaching head knowledge, her students get their hands dirty and I really appreciate that, it’s something I value.”

On June 10, at the same time as the Abbotsford farmers’ market, the class will put on one of these pop-up demonstrations. The class will decide exactly where and how they want to set up their display.

“Learning should and can happen not just in the classroom. For this class, historic downtown Abbotsford is our classroom, we just happen to be meeting at Boardwalk,” said Enns.

Stories worth paying attention to

#RenewedInterest

Two-thirds of Canada’s energy is renewable The source of Canada’s energy is now twothirds renewable, announced the National Energy Board on May 2. Over the past decade, Canada has increased renewable source usage by 17 per cent. A large portion of this comes from hydro with Canada being the second highest producers of energy via hydro, rivaled only by China.

Canada sits in fourth place for overall renewable energy production, behind China, USA, and Brazil. Other sources of Canadian energy include wind power, biomass, solar power, nuclear power, coal, and natural gas.

Within the last decade, wind power saw the biggest uptick in usage, producing almost 20 times more that it did in 2005. With electricity generation producing 80 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, the main points acting as barriers in completing renewability include the price increase for consumers and the reliability of energy production.

- Toronto Star

#TheFireBurnedDeep

The city’s physical damage is obvious, but a deeper trauma also exists With the Fort McMurray wildfire news fading into the past, for some, the damage still lingers, affecting evacuees almost a year later.

Barbara Weber has endured the physical and mental harm of the fire, both short- and longterm, according to the Globe and Mail. Symptoms such as laboured breathing and anxiousness remain in Weber’s life as she moves past the devastating event.

The effects can be seen when looking at the claim data from Alberta’s WCB, which reports almost double the “physiological injuries” starting in May 2016. The total number of claims triple from the same month, when comparing it to the year prior.

Fort McMurray is facing the struggle of trying to move forward since the fire, though for many employers, vacant positions are in abundance as many residents did not return to the Alberta town.

- The Globe and Mail

#EasyAsABC

Vote ABC, Indigenous Leaders say With the British Columbia election coming near, campaigns are heating up, as are discussions regarding the validity of the candidates. For the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, the Liberal party leader, Christy Clark, is a strict “NO.” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip claims the Clark government “virtually neglected the people of British Columbia in her obsessive pursuit of large scale resource development projects,” according to the Tyee. This is the reason the Union has launched the “Anyone but Christy” (ABC) campaign.

As a representative of Indigenous communities, Phillip argued Clark has divorced herself from the Indigenous community and become beholden to “Big Oil.” Philip also commented that when faced with a questionnaire, the Green party showed a lack of understanding of Indigenous interests, though displayed a willingness to learn; the NDP offered a more knowledgeable and understanding stance on Indigenous affairs.

- The Tyee

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Politics //

Did we just dodge our Trump?

O’Leary is gone but the problem lives on JEFF MIJO CULTURE EDITOR

On April 26, Kevin O’Leary dropped out of Canada’s Conservative leadership race. The ex-Dragons Den, now Shark Tank star’s business background, brash personality, and name recognition drew an avalanche of inevitable comparisons to a certain president who’s made a bit of a splash in the news recently. And while Donald Trump’s ascendency had a running undercurrent of “No, it’ll never happen here,” in the end, it happened. November 8 was a bitter wake-up call to everyone who thought that nobody so offensive and outlandish could ever win an election. And once it happened there, the idea that a similar leader could win in Canada suddenly felt a lot more real.

I’m not going to get into O’Leary’s policies here. I’m not a political pundit, I haven’t followed the race closely, and I’m not saying he was the worst choice in the running.

But in regards to perception, even in the months leading up to O’Leary throwing his hat in the ring last January, every discussion of him included a comparison to Trump. Now, O’Leary is not Trump — but he does come across as a watered-down Canadian knockoff, an Amazing Race Canada season 1 that never left the country to the Americans’ globe-spanning adventure, a Target Canada that can’t stay afloat, a $0.27 below par Canadian dollar. Not that I’m complaining our candidate said less horrible things, mind you.

But now our lousy remake diverges from the plot of the original. The loud TV star quits before the voting begins

because he doesn’t think he can beat Justin Trudeau in Quebec, and claims that his dropping out is what’s best for the Conservative party. So now we as left-leaning Canadians can celebrate the fall of our own discountdemagogue and once again hold our heads high, proud of our progressive superiority to our southern neighbours, right?

I don’t think it’s that simple.

While we can absolutely breathe a sigh of relief that this populist candidate didn’t get any farther, we still showed we’re susceptible to the same kind of tactics that won Trump the presidency. O’Leary was polling a close second in the leadership race, and according to CBC, he “cited his failure to gain traction in Quebec and his poor French-language skills as reasons for dropping out of the leadership race.”

O’Leary said he had an “extremely high likelihood of winning the leadership race,” though, and whether or not that’s just bloated bluster, the numbers show he absolutely had a shot.

So thank you, Quebec, because apparently the rest of Canada was showing enough support to give certainty to the man whose business mistakes may have lead to the death of the beloved Reader Rabbit franchise, much to the dismay of 8-year-old me (seriously, look it up). And maybe future politicians will take the lesson from his failure that those tactics don’t work here, that they need to campaign based on positivity and a platform, not fame and controversy. Or, maybe they’ll realize that the differences between Trump and O’Leary are that Trump made more headlines, upset more people, and incited more an-

ger against more groups of people. Did O’Leary falling short prove that it can never happen here, or did it just teach our next generation of aspiring leaders that they need to be even more outrageous?

When dealing with a candidate who relies on these attention-grabbing tactics, I think there needs to be a conscious effort made to decide how we talk about them.

I try to make it a point not to feed the fires that bring support for this kind of figure. As much fun as it can be to make fun of them, to tweet about how Trump should be called Drumpf or to call him a human Cheeto, all that does is spread his name around, bringing him forefront in people’s minds. I think it’s important to share at least as many thoughts (both supportive and critical) on the politicians you support as you do the ones you oppose, and when you do talk about the other side, criticize their policies and promises, criticize their language and its implications, but don’t get distracted by only making jokes.

Reality show credentials and a big business background were never the scary part.

So while we can absolutely consider O’Leary’s bowing out as a sign that Canadians are not ready to accept a Trump, and we can maybe use it to reinforce a bit of that national pride that our politics can be positive and progressive, don’t let that pride turn into a sense of superiority. We still have a lot of problems in Canada, a lot of injustices that need addressing, and a lot of politicians looking to capitalize on Trump’s fear-mongering and the many pre-existing inequalities in our culture. So be happy, but don’t be smug. We aren’t perfect either.

Dating //

Getting thrown into the dating world with nothing to hold onto KAREN WHITE CONTRIBUTOR

Just a few months ago, I got out of a long-term relationship. It was an amiable break-up — we grew apart and wanted different things. Before then, I hadn’t really been single for more than a month. So after having been single for a few months, I sat, twiddling my thumbs thinking of how to enter the current dating scene.

It seems that the dating world has changed quite a bit since I was last in it. Now in unfamiliar territory, new words such as Tinder have been added to my dictionary.

After hearing a few success stories from using Tinder, I thought why not give it a try? Oh, boy was I overwhelmed — not realizing what I was getting myself into. After swiping away excitedly, notifications were filling up the screen of my phone from multiple guys.

At one point, I was literally copying and pasting what I had said in other conversations to the new ones. I had to constantly remind myself of who’s who and what not. No one had warned me of what I was getting myself into or the too-fast, too-soon mentality of these guys.

The first guy I met in person from Tinder, I went on a total of two dates with. He seemed quite nice, but there were some aspects that, well, I simply didn’t like about him. So, I thought I would say goodbye through a text.

That’s okay, right? We went on two dates, not like we were in a relationship. I hardly knew the guy. But no, he was quite upset at the fact that I ended things over a text message.

Another guy who I only saw for a couple of weeks told

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me he loved me. I didn’t know what to say, I was stuttering like an idiot and I think I replied by saying, “I enjoy your company,” or something along those lines. The disappointment on his face said it all.

Again, a guy whom I was seeing for a few weeks told me that I should move out with him. I don’t understand this generation. Everything seems to be moving way too fast.

For me, it just scares me away. Don’t most people want to get to know the person before becoming official?

“The problem is, when we commit too fast, we don’t give the potential union enough time to develop the trust it will need to survive the meatballs people bring into relationships.”

I get the appeals of moving fast. It feels good to be so close to someone whom you just met and they’re crazy about you — the instant relationship where you are immediately comfortable with them.

That mentality poses a problem though. Couples in this situation forget about being rational and fall into the ridiculous thought process that, perhaps this person is their soulmate after knowing them for just a few days.

In Michelle Kennedy’s article, “The Too-Fast, TooSoon Flytrap,” for the Huffington Post, she states, “The problem is, when we commit too fast, we don’t give the

potential union enough time to develop the trust it will need to survive the meatballs people bring into relationships.”

Kennedy is talking about the inevitable faults that everyone has. Without getting to truly know the person before committing to them, it makes it hard for some people to handle certain qualities that are not so charming.

The mindset that this person is their soulmate, the perfect partner for them, blinds them to their short-comings and it makes it hard to deal with the imperfect person that they are. By taking dating slower, we can avoid this problem altogether.

What is wrong with taking it slow? Nothing. We can’t expect to find someone right for us right away and for some, that’s hard to swallow. Heartbreaks suck, ending a relationship sucks. It is easier to just dive into a relationship and give it our all right away. But won’t that in the end make it more difficult if it doesn’t work out?

My recent experiences in the dating world have left me feeling nervous to dip my toe back in again. I don’t want to deal with another guy saying he loves and wants me to move in after two weeks of dating. It is hard to deal with that. Especially since I struggle with being honest when I know I will hurt someone’s feelings.

Kennedy goes on, stating: “The stronger we get, and the more we fill our lives with love, joy, and positive actions, the less I feel we’ll barrel into [moving too fast].

Trust in our path and worth should ground us in knowing the slow-build can and will yield everything we desire, eventually. We just need to first be patient enough to walk mindfully through the initial awkwardness of dating.” And I truly believe that.

OPINION

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Op-Ed //

RE: SUB Room Allocation ALEC ZINMAN CONTRIBUTOR

At the April 25 board meeting, a motion was passed by the Student Union Society (SUS) to replace the current student lounge with more club space. This motion has caused quite an uproar among the students who use the lounge. This space is a place of recreation and downtime that is unlike any other place on campus. It is a place to sit, relax, play a game of pool, or even to catch a nap during those stressful exam periods. Friendships have been formed here that wouldn’t have been possible without this inclusive common area available.

Many of us who frequent the student lounge were taken aback by the sudden decision. Few announcements had been made about this decision, and many of us were unaware that the fate of our beloved room rested on the vote of a SUS board meeting. In fact, last we had heard, a budget had been arranged to give the lounge a much-needed renovation. It even included the addition of a mural to be painted on the far wall, one that represented the multiple different degree programs offered at UFV, and a symbol of how students can come together in this neutral space.

We feel as though this vote was not well publicized, and that SUS failed to properly communicate its intentions to the student body. Subsequently, due to this lack of communication, it did not allow a proper representation of the student body to vote on their opinion. We are now faced

Photo: Joel Robertson-Taylor

with the difficult dilemma of trying to express to the Student Union Society, in an appropriate manner, just how much this space means to many of the students, and how integral we feel the lounge is to the dynamic of the Student Union Building.

Our goal is not to cause conflict with the Student Union Society or to deny the clubs their needed space; in fact, certain clubs currently use the lounge as a meeting place. It’s not uncommon to see members of the trading card club playing cards, or

the tabletop club enjoying a board game.

We simply wish to let our voices be heard and to express how much we appreciate having space within UFV where we can all take a moment to relax, laugh, and enjoy our time together as students.

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OPINION

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

SNAPSHOTS

Curtailed commentary on current conditions

Panku Sharma

Panku Sharma

Illustrations: Amara Gelaude

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Why We Vote

The Graduate

The best time to support long-term, forward-thinking policy is, not surprisingly, a long time ago. The second best time is

by May 9.

Everyone has their policy area, specific interests, and pet projects that will guide their decision making in the voting booth; mine maybe won’t have the biggest impact on the next four years but it hopefully will in the next 40. Politics is probably at its worst when it’s about reactionary pendulum swings or motivated more by distaste than support.

I want money as motivation out of politics, I want stringent oversight and contribution limits to make politics about selling good ideas and not just buying more advertisements. I also want people to be able to go into the voting booth and be able to support candidates with a clean conscious, that means at the least a ranked ballot system so we don’t have to hold our nose or feel that our vote was wasted. Better yet, multi-member districts that can better proportionally represent the political views of this province.

Considering that two-thirds of major parties in this race are committed to these ideas, I hope that regardless of outcome, the winners can see the benefit this would have to our society and governance — if not to the parties themselves.

And with that, the final grade has come in and in a few weeks’ time I’ll be graduating with a bachelor of arts with a major in political science and minor in English.

I am returning in the fall for studies in a different program (which has practicums, woo!), but this still marks the end to a journey in my life that is hard to describe.

There have probably been more downs than ups, but those were in the classroom.

Everything else that I’ve taken on and tried on this campus, from CIVL, Student Life, The Cascade, SUS, and clubs, have all contributed just as much to my growth and education. I’ve gotten to put ideas into practice, gain new experience and skills, and argue over minutia and mandate to my heart’s content.

If there’s any advice I’d give to newer students, it would be to make the most of your experience while you’re here. This place ain’t perfect, but you also only get out of it what you put into it — just like any other part of life. And if there is any advice I’d give to UFV, it’s that more people would be willing to put in that little extra if we didn’t have to pay for parking.

Panku Sharma

Door Shaming

Nightmares of Not Passing

Look, I’m stoked you got the evening off so you can relive the soundtracks of your teenage years and eat overpriced concession food — I am genuinely happy. But how about you do me a favour and get through the gate without causing me to have to curse you and the circumstances that raised you.

First of all, don’t stand so close. Back the fuck up, it’s crowded and you smell.

Don’t keep your tickets on your phone.

Your screen is going to be too dark or too cracked for me to scan the QR code, and that’s assuming you even end up finding it in your email folder that you didn’t check until right now. If you’re going to insist on this (good luck getting back onto the GA floor if your phone dies and everyone’s tickets are on one person’s phone) at least take a damn screenshot of the code.

If you knew better, you would have printed off the tickets and handed one to each person in your party as they got through security. Just don’t rip them out of my hands like an asshole and give me papercuts.

Enjoy the show.

Nothing beats the hibernation that comes after finishing a brutal semester, the long needed rest after the hecticness stops.

When the last final paper has been handed in and last final exam has been written, there’s nothing better than spending at least an entire week in bed, catching up on all the sleep that was missed over the past four months.

But it doesn’t work when final grades are in the back of your mind. The long afternoon naps are disrupted with frantic wake-ups, fueled by a panic that in my inbox is sitting a notification for an F when I was hoping for an A, and my supposed to be pleasant dreams are replaced with nightmares of final essay questions I wasn’t prepared for. Instead of a relaxing week of recuperating and once again finding my sanity, I instead lose it even more over the stress of less than great grades.

It’s deceiving. The semester is over and I’m finally free, but my conscious isn’t and won’t be until every last grade has come in.

Vanessa Broadbent

FEATURE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

What Lies Beneath

A LOOK INTO HOW OIL PIPELINES AFFECT THE FRASER VALLEY WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY: JOEL ROBERTSON-TAYLOR

W

here the right-of-way crosses through Barbara Gard’s Sumas Mountain property, a narrow strip of land is scoured of everything but crabgrass. It looks like a massive ecological blemish — Paul Bunyan dragged his axe along the ground on his way to Vancouver.

A metre beneath the surface lurks a 1,150 kilometre-long pipe. It’s primarily used for transporting a hydrocarbon sludge, which has been diluted by other, lighter petroleum products to make it flow better. The unrefined oil comes from the Albertan tar sands.

A small part of Gard’s land belongs to the Trans Mountain pipeline. They’re responsible for the maintenance of the pipeline and so periodically, they clear the land above it. A tractor with a big mower buzzcuts everything to keep it neat and tidy.

On her property, a couple dozen activists, concerned landowners, journalists, and filmmakers gathered around Gard to listen to her explain the history of her relationship with the oil company. Most came to replant trees that were removed by the pipeline company, so Gard gave a tour of her several-acre property to put the past into perspective. For some reason, contractors hired by Kinder Morgan, for the last several years, have been cutting trees beyond the company’s allotted 18 metres of width. But her contentions with their practice go much further than the treeline.

The Trans Mountain pipeline crosses the Rocky Mountains at Yellowhead Pass from Edmonton. It runs through Jasper National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park, then curves south through the Coquihalla Canyon. From there it turns through the Fraser Valley towards Burnaby.

Kinder Morgan has rights to the strip of land where the pipeline lays through easement agreements. This “right-of-way” passage has existed for the over 60-year life of the pipeline. Any landowner with a pipeline right-of-way crossing through their property knows it’s land they can’t touch.

But supposedly, the land beyond the rightof-way, Kinder Morgan can’t touch.

On March 21, 1951, the Trans Mountain Pipeline Company was created by a special act of Parliament. The pipeline pro-

vided oil to southern B.C. for the Asia and U.S. markets and was seen by some as a strategic move for defence against the Soviet threat.

Ownership of the company was split between Canadian Bechtel Ltd. and Standard Oil; construction began in 1952 and oil first flowed through the pipe on October 17, 1953. The pipeline has been in use ever since. Now, Trans Mountain is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian division of Kinder Morgan.

In November last year, the Trudeau government approved the controversial pipeline’s proposed expansion — the pipeline’s “twinning.” That was when the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline also was approved, and the even more controversial Enbridge North Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, B.C., was rejected.

In January this year, Premier Christy Clark announced B.C.’s support for the expansion. Public perception of the approval was jaded, however, by political donations to the Liberal government. Activists allege hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations to the Liberal party swayed the province’s decision. They’ve taking action since and filed a lawsuit with the B.C. Supreme Court.

The Province reported that the court application names Premier Christy Clark, Environment Minister Mary Polak, and Natural Gas Development Minister Rich Coleman as being in an apparent conflict of interest when they approved the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline in January. It also alleges that Clark’s conflict was compounded by personally benefiting from $50,000 annually from the party for a total of $300,000 during the five years.

The lawsuit alleges that “a rational and informed observer would conclude that because of the payment of approximately $560,000 by the interested companies, including Kinder Morgan, to the Liberal par-

ty … it is more likely than not that the premier and the ministers were consciously or unconsciously affected by these enormous payments.”

The original court date was set for April 12, but it was adjourned to May 3 because the Liberal’s lawyer needed more time to respond. Regardless of the findings, B.C. has no legal authority to block the expansion. In 2010, B.C. signed away its environmental assessment rights through an “equivalency agreement” which gives Ottawa all the power.

Back to 1953, at the genesis of the pipeline’s dynasty, the pipeline’s capacity was 150,000 barrels per day (bbl/d). The line had four pump stations and a marine loading dock. Since it was built, the capacity of the system has been increased multiple times.

Currently, the system is about 1,150 kilometers long from Edmonton to Burnaby with 23 pump stations along the route maintaining its 300,000 bbl/d capacity. In addition to the pump stations, there are also multiple terminals that connect to “feeder” pipelines and tanker loading facilities. One of these terminals sits on Abbotsford’s Sumas Mountain. From here, the pipeline routes its contents down to either the Puget Sound system for delivery to Washington State refineries, or to the Burnaby marine terminal.

On December 16, 2013 the Trans Mountain Pipeline ULC applied to the National Energy Board (NEB) for approval of the expansion project. If approved, the project would expand the system and nearly triple its capacity from 300,000 bbl/d to 890,000 bbl/d.

To try and put that into perspective; there are 158.99 litres in a barrel. That approximately works out to 148,948,526 (148.9 million) Nalgene bottles per day.

Barbara Gard has had a great view of the approval and development process

“I’m living with what all the environmentalists are worried about, but what all the politicians are saying we have protection for”

from her home on Sumas Mountain. The scenic view she once had from her house has been destroyed, she says. But it has redirected her gaze to what’s causing the harm to her property.

In the last several years, Kinder Morgan has cut hundreds of trees on Gard’s property. According to Gard, the major changes came in December 2013, which would have been right around when Trans Mountain applied for the expansion.

Kinder Morgan told Gard they would cut trees to clear their right-of-way. As a landowner with an easement through her property, Gard doesn’t have any right to say no. But according to Gard, they told her she wouldn’t even know they were there once finished trimming. They were going to survey then spend two days cutting trees and would do it while the ground was frozen in the winter in order to not disturb the ground.

“Well what happened? They did not tag the trees, they did not survey it, they came in with heavy equipment and for seven days they cut and they mulched,” she said.

“I came down afterwards and just cried.”

Gard is a gentle woman, and sharp as a tack. You wouldn't expect someone kicking around in gumboots to rattle off species names, laws, and environmental legislation the way she can. From her home, Gard runs a dog rescue nonprofit. She lives where she does because it allows her to keep her dogs and goats safely. Her property is mostly forested. She said that to her, her forest is just another kind of rose garden.

“The right-of-way was not surveyed prior to the clearing, trees to be removed were not identified in advance, and an environmental inventory of at risk species was not conducted on my property.”

Sumas Mountain is known to be inhabited by at least 40 species at risk and 27 ecosystems at risk. It’s one of the few remaining somewhat untouched forests in the Fraser Valley. That’s why local landowners and activists are concerned about changes to the Sumas Mountain ecosystem.

To make a statement, dozens of activists and affected landowners organized a tree planting and fence building extravaganza.

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FEATURE

I watched as the group planted nearly 200 trees in Kinder Morgan’s prescribed area (the land just outside of their right-of-way), which is still and will continue to be Gard’s property. The fence was erected along the right-of-way. It was done to make it clear to Kinder Morgan where the property lines are.

Although Kinder Morgan prohibits digging within the pipeline boundary, apparently going down 30 centimetres is allowed. So that’s how deep the trees went.

Justine Nelson organized most of the tree planting event. She has a bachelor of applied arts from Kwantlen Polytechnic University and is working on a master of education for sustainability at UBC. She’s also the chapter coordinator for the Pipe Up network, an anti pipeline advocacy group.

“We’re working to replant native trees to help restore the ecosystem — Kinder Morgan has torn a lot of those trees down,” she said, while digging a hole for a sapling.

“This property has been impacted by the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline and it’s the area where they proposed to twin the pipeline as well.”

When the pipeline goes through, this is what she expects to see everywhere.

“This is our problem, it’s our duty to hold Kinder Morgan accountable because the government isn’t going to,” Nelson said while filling dirt in around the tree.

“As a community, if we want things to happen or things to change then we need to be out there watching what’s going on.”

Gard herself, is concerned about legal protection: “If my neighbour comes and cuts down my tree, under civil law that’s trespassing, I can sue them,” she said. “If they cut the root and kill the tree I can sue them, if they shear and kill the tree I can sue them. Kinder Morgan has done that so I asked if I have a right to sue them in civil court. Easy question for the National Energy Board, but they won’t give me the answer.”

She’s upset because Kinder Morgan cut far more trees than she believes they were supposed to. She’s spent years hand-trimming out the blackberry bushes that invaded her property when she bought the land in 2010. Every time Kinder Morgan mows,

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

they cut all the native species back to the ground. Then the blackberries return.

“They’ve been on my land about 50 feet beyond their right-of-way. The whole length is about a thousand feet, so it’s about 50,000 sq feet on my land,” Gard said, roughly estimating while looking down the right-of-way.

Michael Hale is one of the tree planters; he feels way more can be done to protect the environment, and if the pipeline companies won't do it, he will.

“What we were doing in support of the local landowner is putting back some of the trees that were removed by Kinder Morgan without any consultation,” Hale told me. “We’ve been planting back native species to try and reasonably bring this back to some resemblance of its former beauty.”

Hale is a sturdy man with a peaceful disposition. In an interview beside the McCallum Brook, which runs through Gard’s property, he explained some of the disagreement between Kinder Morgan and landowners.

“This is a riparian area alongside the stream here so there’s a bit of a clash between Kinder Morgan’s pipeline right-ofway and the set limits for a riparian zone, so they’re in conflict,” he said gesturing towards the stream.

“From the top of a creek bank, you’re supposed to have 15 metres that’s not drastically modified by humans. Kinder Morgan has their pipeline right-of-way and they want clear sight lines so they can fly over and see if there are any problems, so we’ve got a clear clash of interests.”

A riparian area is the interface zone between land and a stream. They’re the areas with moist or saturated soil, marshlands, water-loving plants, and everything associated with that ecosystem.

Riparian areas are everywhere in the Fraser Valley. If you didn’t play around one as a kid, you’ve at least walked through a

park with a meandering stream and its riparian zone. These zones are extremely important for the broader ecosystem because they circulate nutrients between different habitats. Another name for riparian zones are “stream corridors” — that’s what they are, a corridor for fish, land animals, plant life, and nutrients.

Riparian areas are governed by multiple bodies. It falls under federal jurisdiction through the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), but it also belongs to the provincial government through the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. Then, if they want, the City of Abbotsford can create by-laws to “meet or beat” provincial standards.

For several years now, Gard has been trying to figure out which environmental standards cover the stream on her property.

According to her, everyone points the finger at someone else.

The Federal Fisheries Act requires that projects avoid causing harm to fish. This includes work done in or around water bodies supporting fish that are part of or support a commercial, recreational, or Aboriginal fishery.

The part of the Fisheries Act that pertains to protecting key habitats and prohibiting fish habitat destruction is overseen by the DFO. But as of a Memorandum of Understanding between the NEB and DFO in 2013, the NEB now assesses impacts if they relate to NEB regulated pipelines. In other words, NEB regulated pipelines’ associated environmental impacts are assessed by the NEB. The National Energy Board’s website says that under their MOU, “the NEB will assess the potential impacts of a project to fish and fish habitat, including aquatic species at risk in a manner that considers the intent and requirements of the Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act (SARA).”

In effect, the potential impact is assessed

“I’ve been taken advantage of, badly mistreated. The oil companies are behaving like pirates, behaving one way and saying another”

by the NEB. Only if they find that a project will impact a species at risk will the project have to make a separate submission to the DFO. So where does the NEB get their information from, and who does the NEB work for?

In 2012, the Harper government brought in their Environmental Assessment Act which cancelled thousands of environmental reviews and handed environmental project assessments to agencies like the NEB. According to Jason Maclean writing for the Toronto Star, the 2012 changes were “lobbied for and literally written by industry advocates to reduce red tape and expedite project approvals.” It also “gutted” the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the National Energy Board Act, the Fisheries Act, and the Navigable Waters Protection Act. Marc Eliesen, a senior energy executive who once served as CEO of BC Hydro, was a big player in the federal review of the pipeline expansion project. He had worked in the energy sector for 40 years and as CEO of BC Hydro, he ran the nation's largest hydro utilities. He also served as chair of Manitoba Hydro, and as Ontario’s deputy minister of energy. In 2014, in the middle of the the review, Eliesen resigned.

In his letter of resignation from the NEB hearing, he said, “I have come to the conclusion that the Board, through its decisions, is engaged in a public deception.

Continued involvement with this process is a waste of time and effort, and represents a disservice to the public interest because it endorses a fraudulent process.”

Some of his frustration came from changes to the hearing process: “I was dismayed” he writes, “when the oral crossexamination phase … was inexplicably removed from this hearing.”

He continues: “The unwillingness of Trans Mountain to address most of my questions and the Board's almost complete endorsement of Trans Mountain's decision has exposed this process as deceptive and misleading.”

“In effect, this so-called public hearing process has become a farce, and this Board a truly industry captured regulator.”

Eliesen’s concerns resonated with many

FEATURE involved with the review process.

In June 2016 however, the Trudeau federal government launched a review of Canada’s environmental laws. One of the independent panels was set specifically to review the NEB. Around that time, many accusations pointed to the NEB being in bed with the industry it watches over.

This last April, less than a year from the review’s launch, the panel recommended a major overhaul to the environmental assessment process, the Globe and Mail reported. It was a welcomed announcement for many activists.

But back to the riparian area. If vegetation clearing from a riparian area is for maintenance of existing linear projects, the DFO is not required to review riparian vegetation removal. The Trans Mountain pipeline right-of-way is one of these “linear projects.” However, riparian vegetation removal is not allowed if it is identified as part of the critical habitat of a listed aquatic species at risk. So if the DFO had any reason to believe there were several endangered species living in or around the McCallum Brook, or watercourse 19 as per the applications, then decades of riparian vegetation removal might be considered illegal — certainly ongoing removal would be, without approval from the minister of Fisheries and Ocean Canada.

“We found dead Oregon forest snails throughout this area and around the area.

I’ve asked them to log that this is forest snail area, but they won’t acknowledge that this is Oregon forestsnail habitat,” said Gard.

The Oregon forestsnail is listed as a schedule one endangered species. Having that classification protects the snail, and their habitat. The northern red-legged frog is another creature listed as a schedule one as a special concern species, as is the mountain beaver. The little Oregon forestsnail is small, but it can stop a development proposal train and create a bureaucratic nightmare. Gard and others say that they have seen many; they’ve also seen the red-legged frog and its friend, the mountain beaver.

“They’re the ones who told me about the Oregon forestsnail,” said Gard. “When they came on to clear, they very clearly knew that this was Oregon forestsnail land, but by mowing it all down they’ve destroyed the habitat.”

So what if you enter the proposed project’s region several years before assessment is required and clearcut the full habitat?

Later on, there’s nothing to assess.

The riparian area removal didn’t stop with tree cutting, according to Gard.

“Kinder Morgan did an integrity dig in October 2015, this used to be wetland marsh, you couldn’t see the road,” said Gard, continuing the tour. She pointed to a section of the stream that was noticeably barren. “It was bulrushes and willows, about six metres wide. So when they took it out they put in rip rap and landscape fabric.” Rip rap is loose stones piled up to form a water break or stream bank. But by November 1, Gard said, the creek ran red.

In assessments approved by Kinder Morgan, the blame for the red water was placed upstream. But Gard pointed out that the stream didn’t turn red until after construction.

It’s possible that iron oxide is originating further upstream, as per the environmental assessment. A few hundred metres above is an aggregates mine and they’ve dug out the headwaters and replaced them with stormwater ponds. Wetlands are nature’s water

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017 filters. The riparian area that no longer exists could have been preventing whatever minerals or chemicals that leached in from further upstream from contaminating the water that Gard used to drink.

Back in 2012, an environmental assessment was conducted by an independent environmental consulting firm. It was done to determine if watercourses in the area would be affected by development unrelated to the pipeline.

The report says that their assessment was undertaken during typical weather through the year in the Fraser Valley which confirmed the permanency of McCallum Brook. This would classify the creek as a perennial — running throughout the year.

Kinder Morgan hired a company to do their own tests in 2016 to conduct stream channel and bank stabilization tests where the pipeline crosses. Their assessments were that McCallum Brook is an “ephemeral, non-fish bearing watercourse,” meaning that it’s a seasonal stream and doesn’t run year-round — or, a drainage ditch.

The contrast between the two reports is fairly stark. One says that the stream flows year round and the other says it doesn’t.

“Old reports call it a fish bearing perennial stream. But every report presented to the DFO or NEB calls it a non-fish bearing ephemeral stream,” said Gard. “Because it’s ephemeral to the NEB, there’s no riparian area and no protection. So this creek doesn’t exist to the NEB because there’s no room for a pipeline if it did.”

According to a Trans Mountain pipeline response to an information request, “Instream works associated with the integrity investigation … were conducted under a Section 9 Water Act Authorization.” Their response goes on to say that “Channel restoration specifications were designed and implemented to restore the preconstruction alignment and gradient of the watercourse with consideration of Section 11 of the Oil and Gas Activities Act Environmental Protection and Management Regulation.”

So the work was conducted under the Water Act and the restoration complied with the Oil and Gas Activities Act. But there’s nothing in those acts that protects riparian areas. The DFO says that riparian areas can’t be destroyed, B.C. has their own Fish Protection Act which includes the Riparian Areas Regulation, the Federal Fisheries Act says you can’t harm fish, and the Species at Risk Act prohibits harming any endangered species. But the pipeline rightof-way is regulated by the NEB, and since 2012, through the Harper government's wildly unpopular Environmental Assessment Act, major energy product assessments are conducted by the NEB. So who’s in charge of protecting the environment? That’s what Gard would like to know. It seems that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Or the right hand has no jurisdiction to oversee the left hand. Either way, Gard’s property is an example of what could be expected for the 643 officially classified water crossings.

All this means Kinder Morgan did nothing wrong — or at least, unlawful. They’ve obeyed legislation, which is minimal. In the words of Devon Page, executive director of the environmental law non-profit Ecojustice, “Canada has some of the worst environmental laws in the world.”

“When they did their anomaly dig [in 2015], this is what the engineer kept saying: ‘Oh I’m surprised, I wasn’t expecting to hit bedrock,’ ‘Oh I’m surprised there’s so much

11

FEATURE water,’” Gard said. “They’ve been told that it’s ephemeral and that there’s no water.

When they came to do the dig they weren’t prepared for bedrock or water. They were given false information on what to base their designs. So the engineering design is based on inaccurate information.”

A similar problem came up in 2007 when a Kinder Morgan pipeline ruptured after being hit by an excavator, spewing almost 250,000 litres of oil into Burrard Inlet and Burnaby Bay. According to the Transport Safety Board, the pipeline was hit by a contractor’s excavator bucket while digging the trench for a new storm sewer line. The mistake was considered a “lack of communication” but was caused because there was a "discrepancy between its location [on the drawing] … and its actual field location."

Original documents misplaced the location of the Burnaby pipeline — on Gard’s land, Kinder Morgan’s right-of-way is in the creek.

“I’m living with what all the environmentalists are worried about, but what all the politicians are saying we have protection for,” Gard told me as we walked down the easement.

Similarly in 2012, near Gard’s house, over at Kilgard Creek, about 90,000 litres of crude oil escaped the pipeline. A gasket failed, which exposed the oil, but the main problem was that Trans Mountain pipeline operators ignored warning alarms for three-and-a-half hours before responding,

12

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017 the official report said.

It’s ongoing stories like these that keep Gard worried about the future of her property, and the pipeline’s impact on the environment as a whole.

Although the tree planting was aimed at restoring the property, the tree planters couldn’t do anything about the creek and its riparian area. The pipeline goes under the creek and tree planting on the right-ofway would be strictly prohibited. Besides, according to the Kinder Morgan report on their integrity dig, they already restored the creek.

“We don’t think it was restored, so there’s a clear difference in language. What does it mean to restore habitat once you’ve done a dig for a pipeline?” asked Hale.

Hale has had experience reconstructing streams. He’s volunteered his time to improve damaged waterways — that’s a claim only someone completely dedicated to environmental harmony can make.

It also makes him an expert on stream health. In one of the communities where Hale lived, streams that ran through it had been modified by developers. As a member of the citizens association, he and the association worked to restore the community’s streams back to their natural state.

“In this case, they did [an integrity] dig because there was some anomaly, possibly a leak or something like that, and they dug down, fixed whatever it was then put it back,” Hale explained. “Supposedly as good as it was before, and what you get is

Photo: Tamsin Baker / South Coast Conservation Program

now there is no vegetation, although they did plant a few trees but they didn’t survive.”

Dan Coulter is another owner of land with a pipeline running through it. He has an intimate relationship with Kinder Morgan and says he’s been to more meetings to try and express his concerns about safety and his property than he cares to count.

Coulter’s is an industrial property. He took a break from tree planting to tell me that his problem is that the pipeline nullifies about four acres of his land. He and the businesses operating there will be affected further when the pipeline twinning goes through. Because of the expansion, and the 2016 implementation of what’s called the Pipeline Safety Act, 30 additional metres on either side of the already allotted pipeline right-of-way will be given as a “prescribed area” to the Trans Mountain pipeline.

There are landowners who don’t currently have the right-of-way cross their land but will now be in the prescribed area. No one gets paid for the prescribed area because it doesn’t belong to the rightof-way, but you can’t do anything on it because it’s “protected.”

“I’ve been taken advantage of, badly mistreated. The oil companies are behaving like pirates, behaving one way and saying another,” Coulter said, leaning on his shovel.

For Coulter, the changes to his property are a concern. What’s a bigger concern is that he believes oil infrastructure is completely outdated and Big Oil’s work on the ground is immoral regardless of where it happens.

“It’s nice to get out with the community of the concerned and reinforce each other in the work we see as absolutely essential to fight back and to try and bring exposure to how the government and industry glosses over systemic degradation — environmentally and socially — with their misrepresentation of what’s going on and their attempts to keep us in a pacified state with a lot of misinformation and outright lies,” he casually added.

In a report released last month, Simon Fraser University academic Tom Gunton argued that a pipeline would go to waste.

“Most young people agree I think — why would we lock ourselves into a 20th century infrastructure for 50 or more years?” said Hale. “The bottom line is there just won't be markets then.”

According to the Vancouver Sun, Gunton argues that with all the projects under development (Trans Mountain expansion, Keystone XL, Energy East pipelines) along with recent forecasts that suggest much less growth in Canadian oil output, the country will end up with a “massive overcapacity to move oil.”

But, Trans Mountain’s website says the project will “increase the value of Canadian oil by unlocking access to world markets.” It also says it could benefit Aboriginal groups, future employees, and Canada as a whole through tax revenue.

Gunton’s findings say that Canada could end up with millions of barrels of excess pipeline capacity if it turns out the National Energy Board predictions about future oil demand fall short. It’s difficult to predict the future. It seems everyone predicts the future they desire.

As it stands today, pipeline construction will begin this year. Kinder Morgan is turning to the public to help pay for the project. Last week, the National Post reported that Kinder Morgan Canada filed for initial public offering (IPO) to raise funds for the expansion. Reuters reported in February that the company had engaged in talks with institutional investors to secure capital for the project. They were looking at either an IPO or joint venture.

The IPO means that this is the first time the private company’s stocks will be offered to the public. So if you’re interested, you’ll likely soon be able to buy Kinder Morgan Canada stocks.

Gard’s fight has gone for several years.

She says it’s wearing her out. But she continues to work with Pipe Up and other members of the “community of the concerned” to find a way to keep her land protected.

Pipelines are a difficult subject. Anything with so much money involved and such a far reaching influence is never simple. Gard herself admits that she’s so emotionally attached to her property that it’s difficult to participate in meetings with pipeline and NEB representatives. In this conversation, emotions run as deep as opinions differ wide.

Whether Kinder Morgan has their way or not might not even matter; at the end of the day, it’s not necessarily the pipeline that’s the problem, it’s the lack of environmental protection. In a phrase: “Canada has some of the worst environmental laws in the world.”

CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Video games //

BC Elections //

Gaming and pancakes to collide at LANCakes

Abbotsford West all candidates debate comes to UFV

JEFF MIJO CULTURE EDITOR

Pancakes might not be the first food you associate with video games, but on May 5, UFV’s E-Sports Valley club (ESV) may change your mind. That’s when E-Sports Valley is hosting LANCakes, an all-day LAN (local area network) party at UFV to celebrate the end of the winter semester.

The president of ESV, Quan Nguyen, described it as “a great excuse to come play games at a university,” and to “see some new faces and hopefully make some friends.” The group will be hosting tournaments for a variety of games throughout the day, including League of Legends, Overwatch, and Super Smash Bros. “However,” Nguyen added, “we are always open to people bringing in or recommending to us their own games to share!

The club also has a Facebook event page where attendees can vote for which games they would like to see at the event, with Mario Party and Mario Kart leading the poll.

LANCakes, which runs from 10:00 a.m.

– 10:00 p.m in the north section of the SUB’s Great Hall (now called Evered Hall), is just the newest in a long line of events ESV has hosted over the years, including LAN parties, the Shinespiked Super Smash Bros. tournament series, and collaborations with the computing student association for their annual Child’s Play fundraiser. The pancakes, however, will be a new addition, and if you want to get some, you may want to drop by early in the event.

“I’m trying to see if we could have them all day,” Nguyen explained. “However, at the moment it will only be during the morning until about 2 p.m. I’m hoping this will change though!”

Nguyen suggested that anyone interested in attending should bring their PCs to

take part in the LAN, and invites attendees to bring their own consoles or controllers if they have another game that they want to play.

In the midst of the planning for LANCakes, E-Sports Valley also recently elected a new team of club executives, including Nguyen. Rounding out the team is Calia-Lynn Fitzpatrick as vice-president / treasurer, Cam Stephen as vice-president / secretary, and Tom Cohen as PR manager / league coordinator.

“We would all like to have more events in general and make things more lively,” said Nguyen. “My personal plans are to have ESV members more connected and involved. Sometimes I feel like some things are moving too fast for some members, and I would love to have everyone naturally involved and motivated to host events with a passion. We would also love to grow in general — the gaming scenes, executive positions if needed, interest in events, and more.”

Nguyen encouraged everyone who enjoys gaming to attend LANCakes, saying, “I personally see a charm with ESV’s community and scene. Regardless of your background, we are all friendly, weird, quirky, and can connect very well with each other!

There’s always something that makes me smile at each event, and I believe everyone can feel that as well.”

Speaking to prospective members of ESports Valley, Nguyen said “There’s no other club quite like us. We are all fairly tightly knit. Your passion, skills, talents, and even your struggles will be something we will all work on together — towards the better.

We also are just generally humorous and love jokes, memes, and the like. If you love joking around, you’ve definitely got eyes on the right club.”

LANCakes will run from 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m in Evered Hall on May 5.

Photo: Mitch Huttema

Photo: Alexandrah Pahl

PANKU SHARMA OPINION EDITOR

On the evening of April 25, the political science student association, with support from UFV, hosted an all-candidates debate for the riding of Abbotsford West. Hosted by professor Hamish Telford (great hair, great suit, rocking purple tie), it also had in attendance the incumbent Liberal candidate Michael de Jong (also in a purple tie), Kevin Eastwood of the Greens (green), NDP Preet Rai (surprisingly with a striped white and blue), Libertarian David Sharkey (with no tie at all), and Lynn Simcox of the Christian Heritage Party (who also favoured the blue and white colour scheme). The event drew a surprisingly engaged and diverse crowd of at least 50 students and community members.

Now of course, debates aren’t always the best metric for a candidate’s platform or ability, but they can give you an insight into how seriously they’re taking the race and how prepared they are for the position. It’s also a good way to judge their public speaking and interpersonal skills, which are essential tools in not just campaigns but also in governance, as you have to explain your ideas and decisions to the constituents you represent.

De Jong and Eastwood displayed professionalism and a good level of comfort on stage, citing specific policy and platforms in their answers to questions regarding everything from minimum wage to the carbon tax. While Preet Rai certainly had enthusiasm, most of his answers either failed to address specifics or were presented in a roundabout way to bring the discussion back to his favourite topic of high ICBC rates. The Libertarian candidate, who admitted he was new to the political scene, was very direct in either explaining that his party held no particular position on the issue or that their solution would be based on the principles of a “free market.” He also raised the important issue of par-

ties and politicians needing to do a better job of fostering voter turnout and engagement.

However, as bland as local political debates can be, the energy in the room was heightened and lively due to the presence of Lynn Simcox. He did not shy from controversy, with his opening statements declaring his belief that there is only one true God, and many of his answers were either unconcerned with being controversial or even unresearched. He was against a minimum wage increase, saying that it would just lead to more income tax going to the government, as well as denying that carbon emissions were actually pollution because trees and plants need it to convert to oxygen. A few times he pointed out that he agreed with something the Libertarian candidate said instead of expanding on his own thoughts. The contributions addressed some important issues, like the role and expectations of our education system (the CHP is in favour of vouchers for parents to select which school their children go to), but also provided some energy and levity to keep everyone engaged.

Moderation from Hamish as well as the timekeeper helped keep the conversation flowing, and most of the questions were pointed and of substance. (Although I think it would be justified to argue that there were a few fluff questions designed only to give de Jong the opportunity to talk about his accomplishments.) Hopefully people who couldn’t make it might tune into CIVL’s rebroadcasts, but they would probably be better off reading into platforms or deciding for themselves where their wedge issues are. There’s only so much entertainment or intrigue you can squeeze out of candidate debates for B.C. politics; the real fun is behind the scenes.

Our system isn’t perfect, but being what it is we should take ownership of our choice of local representatives when they are chosen on May 9.

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CULTURE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Society //

Life is a Box of Swiss Chocolates:

The world sees Canada — I see divisiveness

How studying abroad is letting me be a different person

PRIYA SHARMA CONTRIBUTOR

Abbotsford: the city I call home, yet the city I always want to escape. After completing my BA in international development studies and political science at UFV, I packed my bags and booked a ticket to Turkey, where I’d be teaching English for the year. At first, with the city being in such close proximity to Europe’s border, I didn’t spend much time thinking about my safety.

Soon enough, reality kicked in.

The stories of violence, terrorist attacks, bombs, refugees floating at sea, and protests became daily news. Such atrocities were “normal” to the Turkish people — it wasn’t the first time they experienced such terror. Journalists were being jailed for speaking out against Erdogan, a president seeking dictatorial powers. The major airport was bombed with hundreds of foreigners waiting to depart flights. Two weeks later a “coup” to take down the president was staged. The spillover effects of war coupled with the stress of being a Canadian in a city of millions made me feel uneasy.

I thought to myself, if I died here, who would know? It was time for me to come home.

Before I departed Istanbul for Abbotsford, I thought I was coming home to my safe “bubble” of a town. This thought too would be tested. After reading of the increased drug-related crime and gang violence in Abbotsford, it made me feel disappointed that such activities were taking place while the world was ripping to pieces abroad. I couldn’t believe the number of young individuals being killed from gunshots.

I thought to myself, this is not much different than the circumstances of Istanbul. It’s truly disheartening to see this in my city. It makes me want to leave.

In Istanbul there lived many minorities: Armenians, Kurds, Syrians, Jews, and others among them. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, a nationalism had taken hold — many, though in the majority, believed that in order to live in Turkey, one must be a Turk. This means speaking Turkish and partaking in Turkish norms. Many of these minorities have been forgotten, and no one seems to care, or if they do, they are too afraid to say anything.

It saddened me to see such divisiveness abroad. But to come back to Abbotsford and see it here deeply moved me. I see the west side of Abbotsford home to predominantly people of “South Indian decent,” and the east side

home to anyone that’s not. It’s evident that a physical divide is present, but what caused it? I think it comes down to strong cultural beliefs, lack of education, and fear. Such fear has created a monumental shift from a society meant to be inclusive, to one that clearly is not.

I’m unsure of how such a divide came to be, perhaps it’s always been there, or perhaps it’s escalated to something beyond ignoring. This reality moved me to raise awareness of the issue and bring light to the divide that no one seems to be talking about, or they’re too afraid to state its facts. There’s a clear issue of gang violence in Abbotsford, of which South Indian youth are the main participants, but there’s also a group of people extending hate throughout the city. Expressions like KKK flyers and white power graffiti painted on schools, it makes me feel uneasy, and it makes me want to do something about it.

I know I can’t stop people from acting in such a way, however, if I can get people to think about the issue by hearing my perspective, maybe it will make a difference in some way. It saddens me that people, rather than getting to know their neighbours would rather be quick to make generalizations, extend hate, or altogether distance himself or herself from anyone different. I too, believe such divisiveness has allowed the gang violence to occur; youth who don’t have a sense of identity are confused with “am I Canadian or am I Indian?”

They need to find their place in society, so they hang around those who look like them and where they feel the most empowered.

Overall, I think it all comes down to fear; fear of the “other.” The truth is, in the end, we all have a story, we are sharing this place, and this place is built on immigrants. This doesn’t justify not integrating into society, but rather to blend it and portray a true image of the Canada that people from across the world could only hope to be a part of.

This being said, I invite you to take part in raising awareness of this divide by joining myself and members of the community this month, Friday, May 26, 2017, on a walk across Abbotsford. I hope this walk will not only inspire and motivate Canadians, but also those of a different cultural background to embrace a more inclusive society; one that shares the common language of English and isn’t afraid to exercise it in order to loosen such a divide.

For details of the walk, email Priya directly at ileadabbotsford@gmail.com.

“There’s a clear issue of gang violence in Abbotsford, of which South Indian youth are the main participants”

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JENNIFER TRITHARDT-TUFTS CONTRIBUTOR

Life is a Box of Swiss Chocolates is a weekly column showcasing the life of a UFV student studying abroad. Jennifer is in Lucerne, Switzerland at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts this semester, and documenting the process as she goes.

Grüezi mitenand! I can’t believe I’m halfway through this experience. I’m starting to fall more in love with this country every day. Part of me wants to go back home to the comforts of Abbotsford, but the other part of me wants to never leave Europe and this fulfilling and adventurous journey I’m on.

I’m finally starting to get accustom to the rules and processes here in Switzerland.

In our school orientation week we were warned about various Swiss stereotypes and customs. Although being told these things has been very helpful in navigating some situations and understanding the culture, I think it has been a hinderance more often than not. It could be a generational thing, perhaps millennials just don’t follow the same customs as strictly as their parents or grandparents do. For example, we were told that Swiss people are cold and uninviting. However, my Swiss buddy, Andrina, invited me to stay in her house when she had to go to volleyball practice after only knowing me in person for a week.

Almost everyone I’ve met at least tries to speak English to me and is very accommodating. I suppose my being a student and surrounded by people my age who are open minded is maybe why I have been treated this way. If I were trying to immigrate here permanently perhaps I would receive more strife from locals.

Something I have been very pleased with is how Swiss people my age are willing to speak English around me as soon as they realize I don’t speak any German. I made a really great connection with a couple girls I met at a spa night hosted by the university student club. They asked me about my home and we talked about travelling and different Swiss customs and realities I found interesting. Because of what I had heard in orientation week about Swiss people liking to keep their distance, I didn’t bother asking for her phone number or Facebook. I didn’t want them to feel like I was coming on too strong. In Canada I wouldn’t hesitate to ask for their information or add them on Facebook right away. I’ve started to notice how I’m letting a stereotype get in the way of making my experience as full as it can be.

On that note, I strongly, strongly recommend you pay very close attention to the events going on at your home university and university abroad. I try to do this at UFV too, but it’s extra crucial on a semester abroad because you get to meet local students and do things for free or much cheaper than you would if you just went on your own. It’s so easy to just take a peek at

the notice boards in the school or follow the student union and university on Facebook, Twitter, or both. A couple weeks ago I saw a poster come through on one of my class group chats about a wine tasting, sushi making, and spa night taking place at a local hotel and hosted by the university student group. I decided to go on my own because the poster was all in German so I wasn’t really sure if I was going to the spa or if I was learning spa techniques. I decided to make the best of it whatever it was. I couldn’t pass up a 25 Swiss franc spa visit, and if it was learning spa techniques, I thought I would just charge my fellow exchange students chocolate for scalp massages or something.

It ended up being that we went to the spa, and it was so lovely. I had a treatment where you lay in a hammock suspended over the largest bronze bowl in the world, and a lady hits it with a log for seven minutes. The vibrations completely relax the body. Afterwards, I went upstairs and spent two hours in the sauna and steam rooms. In between I took breaks to relax and eat dried fruit and nuts while drinking herb infused water and delicious hot tea. I got the Swiss wellness spa experience for half the regular price, and I made friends.

I have been going on dates with a Swiss guy (my “fiance”), Sam. It has been so fun to get a dose of Swiss life from a Swiss person.

He invited me to watch his old rugby team’s match one weekend. On the train ride to the rugby match Sam looked at me and said, “I have a surprise for you.” With a huge grin on his face, he reached into his bag and pulled out two bottles of Canadian beer. I was so impressed he was able to find any here. The label said it was imported from Australia, which was kind of funny. Usually I am a Shock Top girl but I very much appreciated the gesture. The rugby game was so much fun, and I’m not used to drinking beer and eating sausages at a game that’s not in a stadium. If you thought Canadian rugby players were fun, crazy, and obnoxious you should meet the European ones.

I had the best evening hanging out with them and it’s a side of Swiss people I never would have seen if I hadn’t met Sam. Thank you, Tinder.

Obviously you don’t have to date abroad, and if you’re not ready for the complications or if you’re looking for something serious, I wouldn’t recommend it. I think joining a club or attending a weekly sport can be nerve-wracking but totally worth it because you get to meet locals. Don’t get me wrong, I love my roommates, and getting to live with people from all over the world has been invaluable, but it is quite nice to do as the locals do and get the full experience.

You get to see a much more real side of the country you’re staying in.

This experience is what you make it, and I am trying to live it to the fullest and take advantage of every opportunity I get. I don’t want it to end, but I am excited to see what is yet to come!

Tschüss!

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Music //

Casinos never left Front man Kier Junos on where Casinos are at

Photo: Facebook / Casinos

MARTIN CASTRO ARTS EDITOR

Casinos has been a part of Abbotsford’s music scene since 2012, and as most other bands in the Valley can attest, each member has been part of the music scene in Abbotsford in multiple capacities for many years now. From members shared with other bands to their presence in crowds affirms Abbotsford’s music community as one big, growing family.

Listening to “Shaun,” the band’s upcoming single, one realizes how much Casinos have grown over the years. All jangly pophooks and bittersweet vocal melodies, the track epitomizes the band in a manner even Junos may not have predicted as he penned its decidedly nostalgic lyrics.

Their most recent release, a self-titled EP, came out back in December of 2014.

Frontman Kier Junos told me that since then, the band has been quietly busy, working on new material as well as evolving as musicians. And with evolution comes change, specifically, a lineup change.

In late 2015, Ken Ditomaso replaced Alex Vevers on drums when Vevers left to pursue a career in the financial world.

“He’s an insurance broker, making a lot of money. I don’t blame him,” Junos quipped. “Alex was a metal drummer, and when it came to Casinos, he really made us a bona-fide pop-rock band. Ken comes from a prog-rock background, he experiments a lot more. That opens up some new things for us.”

Part of the reason for Casinos’ low profile lately comes from the fact that their members have a thirst for traveling, as well as dabbling in other projects. Casinos shares bassist Mitch Trainor with Blessed, and guitarist Zack Keely with Little Wild, a band which also features Trainor on bass.

“Blessed, by virtue of doing what they do, tours a lot. It’s hard to have Mitch around,” Junos said.

Band members’ other commitments are something Junos realizes Casinos must work around.

“I hire bassists sometimes, and pay them out from the band fund. Zach was studying in Germany for a while and I

even outsourced him for a bit.”

Junos said that for Casinos, patience is key.

“We have to be patient. I understand everyone else has career ideas that they want to foster, myself included. I play in Western Jaguar as well, and I’ve said in the documentary that was produced for us that sometimes you don’t have enough momentum to be brave about dropping everything else to be able to do the band thing.”

Despite their patience, Casinos is still actively adding to either their repertoire or their live performance checklist. Junos realizes that while sharing band members with other projects is limiting, Casinos is determined to make it work.

“People have a lot of different commitments, and it makes it difficult to write.

We’re not playing a lot right now, [but] we have some gigs lined up for the summer.”

Of those commitments, Junos said Mitch Trainor’s bass playing in Blessed and Little Wild is one of the hurdles Casinos has managed to adapt to.

“I called him on this last tour, [and asked] ‘Mitch, do you still want to do

this?’ And I was pleasantly surprised that he said ‘Yeah, I love playing in Casinos.’”

Junos noted that while it might economically make sense to bring on another bassist, Trainor’s presence is still essential Casinos.

“I don’t want to do that. Mitch has been with us for so long, I don’t think it would feel right. I want Mitch, you know what I mean?”

It’s no wonder, then, that the band is reticent to let go of Trainor, and Trainor of them. Sharing members is part of the Casinos charm. Taking the time away for other projects is what gives everyone a new outlook, and a new taste for music to bring into the band.

Casinos aren’t back — they never left.

And as Junos tells me, they’re here to stay.

Past the distortion, past the sometimestheatrical stage antics of their lead singer, past even the label of being in a band, Casinos remains, despite their growth, as tight-knit as ever.

You can listen to “Shaun” when it’s released later this week on Casinos’ Bandcamp page.

15

STUDY BREAK

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Crossword // ACROSS

DOWN

1. A person who has expressed interest in a job

2. A story that takes place before another, previously released story

6. A curving, semicircle shape 8. First name of The Cascade’s business manager

3. Norse god of trickery 4. Hundreds of years

9. A 3D shape, popular with ancient builders

5. Popular South Asian flatbread

11. Astrological sign whose horoscope this week is just musings about letter grades — come on Master Moji, that’s not even a prediction

9. Not wealthy

7. Orange cheese 10. Cat onomatopoeia

12. A type of word puzzle

LAST ISSUE’S ANSWERS: Across: 1. clone 3. ogle 5. chum 8. narration 9. Argentina 12. eggs 13. rare 14. tummy

Down: 1. cedar 2. E coli 4. guinea pig 6. Ulan Bator 7. scanner 10. ghost 11. ivory

Made by Jeff Mijo

Horoscope //

16

Astrological mysteries interpreted by Master Moji

Aries — Mar 21 to Apr 19 There’s unexpected travel in your future, and on this trip you will lose something small and of little value to you, but just important enough to be an inconvenience.

Leo — Jul 23 to Aug 22 Aren’t letter grades weird? It’s like, hey, here’s a less precise way of telling someone what percentage they got.

Sagittarius — Nov 22 to Dec 21 One of your favourite musicians just released a new album that you had no idea was coming. Better figure out which one.

Taurus — Apr 20 to May 20 With the temperature warming up, I think it’s pretty important to take care of yourself, try not to overdo it, and above all, stay hydrated.

Virgo —Aug 23 to Sep 22 The coming week promises excitement and adventure for you. Avoid any of that nonsense by staying in bed the whole time.

Capricorn — Dec 22 to Jan 19 I foresee voting in your future, because you really should do that.

Gemini — May 21 to Jun 20 If in doubt, add more cheese.

Libra — Sep 23 to Oct 22 Why has it taken me two semesters of interpreting these star signs to realize that it’d be a lot less confusing if I wrote them down at night?

Cancer —Jun 21 to Jul 22 Can’t afford to go on a big adventure of your own? Make a tiny version of yourself out of LEGO, tape it to the underside of a random car, and experience the vicarious excitement of knowing that somewhere out there, something that looks vaguely like you but without a nose is having fun (or falling onto the road and getting run over).

Scorpio — Oct 23 to Nov 21 Start the summer semester off right by making a lengthy list of all the things you hope to achieve before September.

That way, when you don’t do them, you can feel the guilt you’re used to from procrastinating on assignments.

Aquarius — Jan 20 to Feb 18 What’s the timeline for the Mario games?

Was he going to med school during all those adventures, and funding it with his impressive sports career? Or maybe the Mushroom Kingdom offers free tuition, but still, I can barely manage a few courses and a part-time job. Training to become a doctor while participating in the Olympics, saving a princess over and over, and teaching typing is super impressive.

Pisces — Feb 19 to Mar 20 Be careful, I heard the sewer goblins that live under UFV are getting bolder.

ARTS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Album Review //

CHARTS 1

Blessed EP 2

2

Feist Pleasure

3

Gianna Lauren Moving Parts

4

The New Pornographers Whiteout Conditions

5

Haim Something to Tell You

6

The Great Novel Skins

7

Gorillaz Humanz

8

Radio Free Universe Casa Del Diablo

9

Steve Kozak It’s Time

10

Jonghyun Story O.P. 2

11

Timber Timbre Sincerely, Future Pollution

12

Jon KcKiel Memorial Ten Count

13

Jenn Grant Paradise

14

Ghostkeeper Sheer Blouse Buffalo Knocks

15

B.A. Johnston Gremlins 3

16

Lydia Ainsworth Darling of the Afterglow

17

Thee Oh Sees An Odd Entrances

18

Mac DeMarco This Old Dog

19

Julia Holter Live at RAK: In The Same Room

20

The Fast Romantics Why We Fight (single)

SHUFFLE

The Blessed boys are back and pulling no punches on ii

AARON LEVY

BIG BIRD IMPERSONATOR

CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy stands with Adam Jones and Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles in supporting their individual human rights, and their excellence in and love for the great American game of baseball.

Future of the Left - Chin Music “Chin music” is a term that applies, in the game of baseball, to a pitcher who locates a ball thrown with high velocity in an area that does not make it a strike and also is close to the head, or “chin” of the batter. It is an aggressive act.

Britney Spears - Work Bitch I don’t know why I never knew what this song was before it came up on YouTube autoplay after the Britney/Iggy collab from a couple years back. I feel like this song is the most poorly framed attempt at advice ever put to song. At least since The End. The Doors - This is the End A song where Jim Morrison professes his deep-seated struggles with Freud’s Oedipal identified patricidal tendencies, and in one infamous performance, even allegedly flashed the crowd what his parents gave him before being descended upon by law enforcement. And this is a guy whose black and white visage is everywhere.

Theme From Full House This is the only song that has popped into my head for the last 240 seconds or more. It’s the only thing I can think about. It’s intoxicating in its unrelenting early-‘90s juke bait pomp, and the shimmery shine of the orchestration really frames the AM harmonies like gold.

MARTIN CASTRO ARTS EDITOR

Abbotsford post-punk foursome Blessed’s latest EP builds on every possible structural footing laid down by their debut, and does so with such unprecedented energy that it’s easy to see why the band has made waves in the past years.

Compared to their first release, ii is starkly more experimental, especially when it comes to rhythm.

“Phase,” the album opener, kicks off with a series of jump-starts that introduce us to the latest of Blessed’s achievements. “Phase” manages to throw out one rhythm for another, and one dominant melodic line for another, seemingly at a whim, all without losing track of itself. A blend of bittersweet guitar melodies dots the chorus, building up energy before discarding it and starting anew. With “Phase,” as with ii, Blessed somehow manage to skirt predictability, always shifting, morphing, changing into an entity at once different, yet still made up of the same howls, same anti-melodic shifts from one guitar line to another.

If there’s anything that’s characteristic of the entire record, it’s the sense of urgency which meets the listener at every turn. Not quite dissonant, “Body” drives incessantly on towards an undefined goal while meandering with a bass fill here, or a guitar lick there. What’s evident is that Blessed has honed their energetic playing into what resembles a four-piece orchestral ode to tension, and what a satisfyingly en-

raging ode it is. At any given point, two equally compelling rhythms pull at our attention, each vying for supremacy. Intense though it may be, both are inevitably cast aside for another, often more ambitious set of intertwining instrumentals.

Noticeable on ii is a more defined vocal track than what appeared on the band’s first release. Drew Riekman’s vocals, surprisingly subdued on “Endure,” ring out much clearer than they did on the band’s previous release. And while it seems that, as Blessed further refines their craft (and they have done just that on ii) they veer further from the straightforwardness of their first release and into new, more intricate and impressive territory.

“Headache,” the most energetic track on the record, encapsulates the drive and resourcefulness of Blessed. Out of the gate at a hundred miles an hour, the five-minute-long track makes a point to explore every possible sonic space allowed to it, proving just how fruitful it can be to stop and smell the roses, even if you’ve got the neuroticism of a pissed-off rattlesnake building up within you.

A burlap sack full of cats intent on making you writhe along to its unknowable beat, Blessed’s second EP compels us to move with it despite (perhaps even because of) its unpredictability.

And I’ll be damned if that’s not the mark of triumph.

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ARTS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Movie Review //

Tramps is easily forgetable VANESSA BROADBENT Tramps, Netflix’s latest film release, is more of an awkward series of events than it is a romantic comedy, although it’s trying hard to be both.

Tramps tells the story of Danny and Ellie, two New York teenagers on a mission to deliver a briefcase, the contents of which are unknown to both the characters and the audience. However, when they accidentally leave the briefcase with the wrong person, they embark on a quest to get it back, complete with a few break and enters and awkward late-night campouts, which force them to get to know each other better.

The film’s plot is typical: boy meets girl in a coincidentally unlikely situation, they like each other, something is in the way of them being together, they need to figure out what it is and overcome it. Update the loose plot with some illegal activity, a minimalistically-attractive female lead character thatwho is always smoking a cigarette, and a lead male character with an upbringing in a slightly lower-middle class ethnic neighbourhood and the plot is, well, still typical.

But this is fine. You think to yourself, “How is this movie going to take this story I’m pretty sure I’ve seen before and make it different?”

Unfortunately, Tramps doesn’t do that.

Instead of taking something classic and revamping it in a way that’s a tribute to its origins but still different enough to challenge the mould and be its own, the film doesn’t break any new ground, or even present any already-established conventions in a compelling way.

Even with its déjà vu story, the connection between its lead characters has the

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potential to be the film’s redeeming quality. Both forced into a crime circle that neither has the intention of staying in, Danny and Ellie have to face the consequences of one simple mistake. This could be enough to carry the story until the end of the film, and Callum Turner (Danny) almost pulls it off.

Starting out as timid and shy, by the end of the film his character is more endearing than anything. Unfortunately, Grace Van Patten (Ellie) doesn’t pull through. It’s more a case of poor writing than poor acting, but the character remains flat and still impersonal throughout the entire film.

Still remaining aloof to Danny, there are a few glimpses where her character feels transparent to the audience, but those end quickly, not leaving enough time to make her seem like anything more than an angsty teenager.

However, director Adam Leon’s cinematography is interesting enough to contrast the film’s dreary story line. Unlike the plot, which seems old but with a few modern additions to make it feel updated, Leon combines classic frames with contemporary editing. A few of his shots, Ellie leaning against a concrete wall smoking a cigarette, a whole montage of a carnival with low-key lighting and classic Ferris wWheel shots, seem timeless. But others, the shaky camera movement which follows them down the stairs into the subway station, give the film a modern vibe.

Leon does a great job of highlighting the emotion that the characters, mainly Ellie, aren’t able to carry on their own. Still, it doesn’t make up for the lack of originality or intrigue, and Tramps is easily as forgettable as its characters.

ARTS

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

Album Review //

DAMN.: The making of an angry black man MARTIN CASTRO ARTS EDITOR

As a follow-up to 2016’s Untitled Unmastered, Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. manages to reconcile the two main aspects of the rapper’s catalogue. The record’s triumph as a narrative vehicle is almost, but not quite, dwarfed by Lamar’s triumph in understanding that he had alienated listeners with his previous two projects, and bringing them back into the fold with this one.

Where Good Kid, M.A.A.D City presented listeners with a conventional hiphop record that unconventionally told a nuanced story of growing up in Compton, To Pimp A Butterfly, the rapper’s followup to his 2012 breakout record, told a more politically-charged story, that of African Americans disenfranchised in a political climate which normalized institutional discrimination.

It also placed that story against a backdrop of instrumentals influenced by free jazz and funk. To Pump A Butterfly featured scattered pianos, bristling horns, and an overall palate that focused on a more organic approach to the record.

Lyrically the record portrayed a man’s fraying confidence in the society around him as the reality of racial inequality ate away at his own identity and psyche.

Lauded by many that had up until then ignored Duckworth’s music, To Pimp a Butterfly also alienated many long-time listeners with its unconventional delivery and critical standpoint.

DAMN. comes back to straightforward production, but leaves none of the political angst of its predecessor at the door.

On DAMN., Duckworth realizes that awareness of systemic inequality doesn’t

negate his experience growing up in an impoverished neighbourhood, surrounded and informed by not only hatred, but ignorance as well. And often, Duckworth’s reaction towards that ignorance is filled to the brim with animosity.

“DNA” aims that dissatisfaction towards his own impulses. Throughout the record, the rapper toes the line between outrage at his own ignorance, as well as that of his country and peers, and a rampage fuelled just by that own ignorance.

He muses at the end of the track, “Tell me when destruction gonna be my fate/…

Peace to the world, let it rotate/Sex, money, murder — our DNA” It’s as if despite the pedestal he’s been placed on as the golden-boy of the rap genre, Duckworth is adamant about pointing out that the same qualities that he’s revered for by one group (his legitimacy in speaking about gang affairs) are in direct contradiction to praise from listeners outside of the conventional rap audience. If anything, this record speaks to the disenfranchisement of many while maintaining a very personal, if fragmented narrative.

Songs like “XXX” affirm the duality of the record, especially when Duckworth despairs over giving advice to a grieving father. “He was lookin’ for some closure, hoping I could bring him closer to the spiritual.” A situation which Duckworth answers by saying, “I can’t sugarcoat the answer for you…/If somebody kill my son, that mean somebody gettin’ killed/…I’ll wait in front a nigga’s spot and watch him hit his block/I’ll catch a nigga leavin’ service if it’s all I got/I’ll chip a nigga then throw the blower in his lap/Walk myself to the court like, ‘Bitch, I did that.’”

And what can commentators on the sidelines say? Particularly now, a time during which it seems movements for social equality are being repressed by traditionally privileged groups, the struggle against institutionalized racism, Duckworth realizes, is one that has to push back against oppression, but just as importantly root the ignorance out of itself.

Although the answer to that problem still eludes many of us, DAMN. epitomizes the confusion and outrage that has poured itself out onto the streets of many of our communities in response to a presumed unwillingness by institutions to address systemic inequality at its core.

So far, it seems, we still have a ways to go.

Theatre Review //

Grand Theft Terra Firma steals the show MITCH HUTTEMA CONTRIBUTOR

The latest exhibition at Abbotsford’s Reach Gallery Museum brings a unique approach to the narrative of Canada’s colonial history. Titled Grand Theft Terra Firma (GTTF), the work, created by artists David Campion and Sandra Shields, uses video game thematics to condemn the period of the colonisation of North America and satirises it as an amoral video game.

Using graphic themes and common elements from the video game series Grand Theft Auto (GTA) the artists draw parallels between the (re-)settlement of North America and the controversial thematic elements of the game. GTA requires players to commit illegal and violent acts to succeed in the game. The artists reinterpret these elements of the game in the context of GTTF as characters, methods of abuse, and the commodification of resources and eradication of Indigenous culture during the colonisation of the Americas.

GTTF blurs the boundaries between the use of photography and sculpture by using both media in conjunction; the sculptural elements of the exhibition seen in several photos lend to the success of the show as a cohesive work.

The sculptural elements attempt to draw the viewer back from the risk of viewing the colonial period as fictional like the game it mimics. These pieces are the lifeline of the work demonstrating its strongest front: the ability to satirise the era but still present it as a real — even if regrettable — part of our collective Canadian history.

Evidence of the research put into the work is clear as well. It demonstrates an extensive knowledge of the history and culture of the period in question. The artists pay homage to British Columbian history via replica news clippings aggregated from actual articles from the period. All the replica pieces in the show — from the letters on the writing desk to the canvas map of the settlements — contain elements of real historical fact.

This raises a unique question which the artists address in the introductory statement for the work: does the sati-

risation of the elements of the period trivialize the injustice of the time? It walks a thin line, since to satirise something without trivialization, the criticism must be accurate and fact-based. The clear, Photoshopped compilation obvious in most of the images brings this show as close as it gets to toeing the line. Because of the unwittingly humorous and staged nature of the photographs, the piece loses its touch with reality and gravity of the era in question in a way that makes it very tough for the sculptural components to draw it back. The work is still effective in satirising and convicting the social crimes of the time but technical barriers cripple it from being as effective as it could be. Utilizing actual historical photographs and artefacts as elements of a fictional video game would surely have a much more jarring effect than manufactured replicas. Due to the fact that this would likely be beyond the scope of the artists, this work is an effective attempt at doing as well as is realistically possible.

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UPCOMING EVENTS MAY

3

SUMMER CLASSES BEGIN RICKRACK IN THE WACK THEATRE FESTIVAL - OPENING CEREMONY

@ Rotary Hall Studio Theatre (Chilliwack) 10:30 AM – 9:00 PM

MAY

6

5

DILJIT DOSANJH

15

RICKRACK IN THE WACK THEATRE FESTIVAL

MAY

NEW STUDENT ORIENTATION

MAY

INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM DAY

RICKRACK IN THE WACK THEATRE FESTIVAL

@ Rotary Hall Studio Theatre and Players Guild Hall (Chilliwack) 10:30 AM – 9:00 PM 2017 SPRING ART SHOW ARTIST’S RECEPTION

@ Abbotsford Centre 7:30 PM

MAY

7

@ Rotary Hall Studio Theatre and Players Guild Hall (Chilliwack) 10:30 AM – 9:00 PM E-SPORTS VALLEY: LANCAKES

BLESSED W/ LOANS, WESTERN JAGUAR, AND JENNY BANAI

@ Captain’s Cabin (Mission) 7:00 PM RON JAMES

@ Abbotsford Arts Centre 7:30 PM – 11:00 PM

@ Rotary Hall Studio Theatre and Players Guild Hall (Chilliwack) 10:30 AM – 9:00 PM LET’S TALK FOOD SECURITY

MUNSCH UPON A TIME

@ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 2:00 PM

MAY

9

MAY

10

BC PROVINCIAL ELECTION

VERTICAL THEATRE: VINYL UNDERGROUND

@ The Goddess Movement Studio (Abbotsford) 8:00 PM

6

11

RIPPLES WINERY GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION

@ 3387 Tolmie Road (Abbotsford) 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM BC RUGBY CLUB FINALS

@ Abbotsford Exhibition Park 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

THE CASCADE’S WRITERS’ MEETING

@ S2111 (UFV Abbotsford) 12:00 - 12:30 PM

@ UFV Abbotsford 4:00 - 8:00 PM

MAY

13

@ B140 (UFV Abbotsford) 4:00 - 7:00 PM

BEYOUTIFUL BRIDAL WEDDING SHOW

@ Sandman Hotel (Abbotsford) 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

FRASER VALLEY REGIONAL HERITAGE FAIR

@ Envision Athletic Centre (UFV Abbotsford) 9:00 AM – 2:30 PM MERCY ME

@ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 8:00 PM

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2017 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM

@ UFV Chilliwack 4:00 - 8:00 PM

TELL US ANOTHER STORY RECOVERY STORIES TO INSPIRE CHANGE

MAY

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@ Trethewey House & MSA Museum (Abbotsford) 1:00 - 3:00 PM

NEW STUDENT ORIENTATION, PART 1

@ Abbotsford Events Centre 7:00 PM

@ Rotary Hall Studio Theatre and Players Guild Hall (Chilliwack) 10:30 AM – 9:00 PM

@ Clarke Theatre (Mission) 9:30 AM – 6:30 PM

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MAY

RICKRACK IN THE WACK THEATRE FESTIVAL

22ND ANNUAL UKRAINIAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL

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@ Various Locations 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM

PAUL WILLIAMSON (PIANIST)

@ Matsqui Centennial Auditorium 7:30 PM – 12:00 AM

MAY

@ Mission Library 1:30 – 4:30 PM

RICKRACK IN THE WACK THEATRE FESTIVAL

@ SUB Evered Hall (UFV Abbotsford) 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM

MAY

@ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

THOMAS RHETT

@ Clearbrook Library 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

MAY

VERTICAL THEATRE: VINYL UNDERGROUND

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CHILLIWACK’S ART OF WINE FESTIVAL

@ The Goddess Movement Studio (Abbotsford) 8:00 PM

@ Abbotsford Centre 8:00 PM

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@ Rotary Hall Studio Theatre and Players Guild Hall (Chilliwack) 10:30 AM – 9:00 PM

MAY

@ Chilliwack Cultural Centre 7:00 PM

ALL-CANDIDATES MEETING

MAY

RICKRACK IN THE WACK THEATRE FESTIVAL

MAY

WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017

FRASER VALLEY REGIONAL HERITAGE FAIR

@ Envision Athletic Centre (UFV Abbotsford)

FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL

@ Fraser River Heritage Park (Mission) 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

MAY

ENCHANTED APRIL (PLAY)

MAY

ENCHANTED APRIL (PLAY)

MAY

VICTORIA DAY (UFV CLOSED)

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@ Matsqui Centennial Auditorium 7:30 PM

@ Matsqui Centennial Auditorium 7:30 PM

HOSTING ANY EVENTS YOURSELF? WANT TO SEE THEM POSTED HERE? Send the date, time, location, and any relevant info for the event to: jeff@ufvcascade.ca