The Cascade Vol. 28 Iss. 08

MARCH 4 TO MARCH 10, 2020

VOLUME 28 ISSUE 08

Beeeeeees since 1993

money for honey 3

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SUS ASKS FOR FEE INCREASE

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FEATURE: CONFLICTS OVER KASHMIR

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UFV THEATRE PUTS ON RICHARD III

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

Copy Editor Kat Marusiak kat@ufvcascade.ca

News Editor Jessica Barclay jessica@ufvcascade.ca

Jr. News Editor Sam Young samuel@ufvcascade.ca

Culture & Events Editor Carissa Wiens carissa@ufvcascade.ca

Opinion Editor Andrea Sadowski andrea@ufvcascade.ca

Feature Editor Darien Johnsen darien@ufvcascade.ca

Arts in Review Editor Chandy Dancey chandy@ufvcascade.ca Sports Editor Alex Jesus alex@ufvcascade.ca

Photographer David Myles

Illustrator Kayt Hine

Staff Writer Aleister Gwynne

Illustrator Kelly Ning

Staff Writer Nicholas Ashenhurst-Toews Staff Writer Krystina Spracklin

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Sports Writer Nic Jackson Social Media Coordinator Daniela Vasquez

The Shuffler Aaron Levy

CONTRIBUTORS Manjot Dhaliwal Danaye Reinhardt Front Cover: Aaron Burden. (Unsplash) Back Cover: Elyssa English

WWW.UFVCASCADE.CA

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12 20......Events Calendar

Snapshots.......8 @UFVCASCADE FACEBOOK.COM/UFVCASCADE INSTAGRAM.COM/UFVCASCADE Volume 28 · Issue 08 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 800 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. Pitch meetings are held every Monday in The Cascade’s office on the Abbotsford campus at 2:30pm.

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 200 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.

The Cascade is published on the traditional, unceded territory of the Stó:lō peoples. We are grateful to be able to work and learn on this beautiful land.

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ARTS

Digital Media Manager Anoop Dhaliwal anoop@ufvcascade.ca

OPINION

Production Manager Elyssa English elyssa@ufvcascade.ca

NEWS

Creative Director Mikaela Collins mikaela@ufvcascade.ca

CONTENTS

FEATURE

Business Manager Aneesha Narang aneesha@ufvcascade.ca

Managing Editor Nadia Tudhope nadia@ufvcascade.ca

CULTURE

Executive Editor Jessica Barclay jessica@ufvcascade.ca

18.......CIVL Shuffle

Study Break.......17

NEWS Honey extraction project......3

4......SUS referendum

Student Experience Design Labs......4 OPINION Editorial.......5

5.......Dear Robin

The price of pornography.......6

6.......Minimalism

Misinformation crisis.......7 CULTURE Cascade Kitchen......12 Altars and Avenues workshop......12

12.......Sumas Mountain Film Festial 13......Indigenous resource management

Richard III debut......14 SPORTS Wrestling.......15

16......Men's basketball

Baseball.......15 ARTS Horse girl......18 Trixie Mattel's new album......19

19......Andrea Loves Everybody

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

news@ufvcascade.ca Jessica Barclay — News Editor

NEWS NEWS

UFV //

NEWS BRIEFS Wetlands, forests can help cities save millions in climate adaptation costs The Municipal Natural Assets Initiative released a report Feb. 21 that outlined how “natural assets” are important tools in flood risk management for local governments. The report found that well-managed and healthy wetlands, forests, and ponds can reduce the need for expensive infrastructure projects.

Total estimated savings range from $200,000 to $414 million, based on six project assessments from the District of Sparwood and City of Courtenay in British Columbia; the communities of Florenceville-Bristol, Riverside-Albert, and Riverview in New Brunswick; and the City of Oshawa in Ontario.

The projects assessed included maintaining wetlands instead of creating storm management ponds in Riverview, N.B; protecting natural areas instead of building runoff channels to handle overflow of a river in Oshawa; and slowly removing infrastructure in certain locations on the Courtney River to allow the river to flood naturally.

- The Canadian Press

New health app uses “big data” to access health, require quarantine A New York Times report has found that a new software program is reporting the data of Chinese citizens in real time to local authorities. The software, called the Alipay Health Code, provides a real-time contagion risk analysis and assigns users a health code (red, yellow, or green). It has not been made clear how the system draws its conclusions, but its creators say it’s through analysis of “big data.”

Over 200 cities in China are currently using the software, with workers checking phones at subway stations and residential buildings for the green code. Those with yellow codes are required to stay home for a week, and those with red require a “two-week quarantine.”

Honey extraction project moves forward UFV engineers receive additional funding to support automatic prototype

Scott Hogan. (Unsplash)

SAM YOUNG Last month, the Canada-British Columbia Agri-Innovation Program (CBCAIP) announced that UFV would receive $170,320 in funding toward the production of an automated honey extraction system for use in local businesses and beyond.

The system, which is designed to automate the labour-intensive process of extracting honey from beehives, is the result of a partnership between UFV’s engineering physics program and the Worker Bee Honey Company in Chilliwack.

The project began in 2017, and is spearheaded by associate professor Lin Long, who has previous experience as an electrical engineer and is now co-chair of UFV’s engineering physics program.

The honey extraction project previously received a grant from the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), which Long said was spent on working out the design of the system. The additional $170,320 received from the CBCAIP last month will go toward the production of a functional prototype, which Long hopes to have finished in less than three months.

“If everything goes according to plan, the prototype can be built in

May … and [tested] in the field during this summer,” she said. Long added that her long-term vision for the automated extraction system might also include mass production, although she cautioned that there are no guarantees.

“After this prototype is built,

“This is a real-world engineering project where students can get experience, even while they’re in school.” tested, and around for some time, our industry partner, Worker Bee Honey, will probably consider building more,” she said. “If we build more, we can sell in either B.C. or Canada, if we can get [certification] … the current design is built to meet a Canadian standard, but we can modify and then go to the American market.”

Long said that once completed, the device should help to increase the profitability of the beekeeping industry. She also acknowledged that developing sustainable

beekeeping methods has become increasingly important given the steep decline in bee populations over the last few decades, and said she believes the new extraction system may be able to help address the growing crisis, albeit in a small way.

“For our system, we have also built in a tracking function,” she said. “For each of the hives [the machine is used in], we can track how much honey is produced, and from this tracking, we can see which hives the queens are functioning better in.”

Long said this feature will allow beekeepers to track overall hive health, and may help them to identify which queens to selectively breed, allowing them to produce stronger bees in higher quantities.

Long added that she sees the project as an excellent opportunity not only for beekeepers and B.C. agriculture, but also for UFV students. She has hired multiple engineering physics students each semester since 2017 to work on the project alongside her, and work on the project is still ongoing.

“This is a real-world engineering project where students can get experience, even while they’re in school,” she said. “The students who’ve worked on this project [in the past], after they graduated, they all got jobs. I really love it.”

- New York Times

Correction: In Volume 28, Issue 07 of The Cascade, the article “New pro-life club hosts tabling event” erroneously stated Rachael Keras’ name as “Rachel Keras.”

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VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

NEWS UFV //

A month of madness

A series of events from the new Student Experience Design Lab challenges arts students to problem-solve together SAM YOUNG Beginning March 9, the College of Arts will be hosting a series of “Mad Monday” challenges, offering UFV arts students the opportunity to work together to solve institutional problems and compete for cash prizes.

The first challenge, titled “Branding of College of Arts Experiential Learning Project,” will be held on March 9, with further challenges held each Monday through the end of the month.

Mad Monday challenges pit two teams of four College of Arts students against one another and task them with inventing solutions to institutional problems over the course of an afternoon. Participating teams must contain four members: two international students and two domestic students, and students must be from at least two different disciplines.

Participants in each challenge will receive $100 for their time, and the team selected as winners by faculty judges will receive an additional $500 that can either be split between teammates, or put toward

a sponsored event such as a group dinner, movie outing, or escape room visit.

Linda Pardy, associate dean of students, is one of the key figures behind the Mad Monday initiative. Pardy said that the main source of inspiration for Mad Mondays are hackathons: a collaborative practice in IT where interdisciplinary teams are given large problems and limited time, and must work together to invent solutions.

“This is the same principle,” she said.

“It's a format that's been used in industry a lot … in the healthcare profession, in design work and industrial design. And what we're realizing is that arts graduates are a real integral part of those teams.”

For example, Pardy said the “Scalable Experiential Learning challenge,” which will be held on March 30, will task participants with considering different kinds of work-integrated learning opportunities.

She describes these as various experiential alternatives to traditional co-op work, which could allow UFV arts students to get valuable hands-on experience in their fields.

“What we want to know from students

is which of these things would you want to do? Which of these things would you value? … We've got a whole list of questions that we want students to answer and problem-solve amongst themselves,” Pardy said.

According to Pardy, the primary purpose of Mad Mondays is to give students a chance to gain valuable problem-solving experience that looks good on a resume.

The current set of challenges will also provide administrators with valuable insight into what College of Arts students might want out of their education, but Pardy said she hopes to eventually expand the scope of the challenges even more, allowing students to engage with issues beyond the university.

“We'd like to get the community to bring challenges to us. [The current] challenges are challenges we have inside the institution, but we've got employers and community members that have the same types of problems that they would like input on, and that would also help the students get connected to employers,” she said.

Mad Mondays are the first project to come out of the new Student Experience

Design (SXD) Lab, an initiative organized by the office of the provost that is designed to give arts students a voice in how their education is shaped. “The design lab allows us to get input from students,” said Pardy. “It's a vehicle. This is a pilot project that got some funding from the provost's office on the fund for innovative teaching.”

Aside from Mad Mondays, which may eventually expand to allow for larger events if additional funding can be acquired, Pardy said the SXD Lab will be seeking other ways to get student input, and hopes to begin monthly programming in September. She also cited criticism over the College of Arts’ decision to add a portfolio requirement to degrees as exactly the kind of issue she hopes the SXD Lab can address. “[The portfolio courses] need a ton of work,” she said. “So we see the design lab as the place for student input to have a constant. We should be able to bring the courses in and let students pick them apart.”

SUS //

SUS goes to referendum

At February board meeting, SUS changes fund request policies and procedures, approves three referendum questions JESSICA BARCLAY

The Student Union Society (SUS) board of directors is the highest governing body of SUS. In addition to discussing matters related to oversight of the society, the board approves changes to policies, the annual operating budget, and project initiatives. They are also responsible for both supporting the SUS executive team and holding them accountable. Executives give a report at the monthly meetings on their activities and the progress of their goal plans. There are currently seven members on the SUS board of directors, which includes the four executives.

Approval of three referendum questions SUS will be going to referendum this April to ask for up to a 30 per cent increase to the shuttle bus fee and a $2 levy to sponsor two refugee students per year through a student-run group on campus.

The shuttle bus service is expected to run a $100,000 deficit in the 2019/20 fiscal year, according to SUS. Although services were decreased for Winter 2020, a decrease in service is not enough to amend the deficit for future fiscal years.

“If the referendum does not pass, shuttle services will be reduced until we are no longer running a deficit,” SUS said over a press release.

Additionally, SUS is renegotiating their contract with the company that provides

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the shuttle bus service and costs are expected to rise.

The referendum ballot will have two fee-increase options. One 15 per cent increase would allow the shuttle to continue operations at its current reduced capacity.

An additional 15 per cent increase, for a total increase of 30 per cent, would allow it to operate at the capacity before its reduction, in Fall 2019, and give SUS room for future expansions.

The current shuttle bus fee students pay to SUS per semester is $27.23. A 15 per cent increase would raise the fee by $4.08, bringing it up to $31.31 per semester, and a 30 per cent increase would raise it by $8.17, to a total of $35.40 per semester.

The increase has been separated into two questions to give students the option to vote for how much they would be willing to increase the service.

“If the first question passes and the second does not, the shuttle will only be indexed 15%. If the first question fails, the second will as well,” SUS said.

The third question will be for a $2 fee increase to sponsor refugee students through the UFV branch of the World University Services of Canada (WUSC) organization. The student-run group petitioned SUS to support the fee increase at SUS’s board meeting in January.

WUSC is a non-profit that organizes the sponsorship of refugee students on campuses across Canada. UFV’s branch of this organization formed in January 2018, and

has fundraised to sponsor one student.

However, the group has found that fundraising at UFV is currently not sustainable.

“For less than what you pay for parking or coffee in a day, you can change the lives of another student forever, enrich our campus with diversity and experience, and contribute towards the global push to provide education for all,” WUSC said over a press release.

The three referendum questions will be posed to students during the election voting period. The questions will be sent out in the same email and will be available to vote on over the same timeframe, from April 5 to 9. Tania Smart, SUS VP internal, said at the board meeting that it will be made very clear in the email that the election and referendum ballots are seperate.

Fund Request Policy/Procedure The Fund Request Policy and Procedure have been updated to allow funding for student-run events that are not fundraisers and receive funds to purchase inventory.

The policy and the procedure govern how individual students and Clubs and Associations (C&A) acquire funding and the types of funding that is available to them.

The policy updates remove the requirement for events to be “non-academic in nature.” Events now only need to be open

to all current students and held with the intent to build on-campus community to be eligible for funding.

The number of requests students are eligible for per fiscal year was increased from two to four, with a maximum funding availability of $500 per request and $1,000 per fiscal year. Collaboration between C&A was added into the policy; multiple clubs and associations can apply for funding to collaboratively run the same event.

Alcohol will still not be purchased by SUS, but events serving alcohol will now be eligible for funding.

Investor purchases may also be approved under the new policy, but only for items to be used at specific events. An example given was that students running a board game night would be eligible to apply for funding to purchase a copy of Settlers of Catan, but not club-only T-shirts.

Previously, the Fund Request Policy only allowed student groups to request funding for fundraising initiatives, and they were not eligible for funding to purchase any inventory.

As part of the policy and procedure review, Smart held a focus group with various stakeholders on campus, including representatives from several clubs and associations, to gather student opinion on the policies before they were presented to the board. Several policy changes were at the recommendation of these stakeholders, according to Smart.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

opinion@ufvcascade.ca Andrea Sadowski — Opinion Editor

Editorial //

OPINION OPINION

Advice //

SUS shouldn’t run Dear Robin the shuttle bus JESSICA BARCLAY The Student Union Society (SUS) is holding a referendum to increase shuttle bus fees by up to 30 per cent.

The fee increase is necessary; the shuttle bus has become essential for students as it connects UFV’s two largest campuses, and it is currently running at around a $100,000 deficit. However, providing this service should not be the student union's responsibility; it should fall to the university to organize and provide services students need to attend class and complete their degrees.

UFV is a multi-campus university. Many programs offer classes on all three of our main campuses, requiring students to commute between campuses that have limited public transport options. Providing equal services and developing student culture on all campuses has been a continuous concern for UFV in recent years, something that easy movement and a physical connection between the campuses certainly helps.

The shuttle buses are continuously packed and issues have been ongoing, with sudden changes to the schedule, limited capacity, and generally ineffective communication between SUS, students, and the contracted company. SUS does not have the resources to run this service, nor should it have to.

Student unions in Canada have devolved into service-providing bureaucracies: maelstroms of mismanagement that suck in money and spit out half-baked engagement and advocacy plans. Their resources are being put toward the creation and maintenance of services such as health plans, transit passes, and, in the case of our student union, shuttle services.

Student unions were originally created to act as a collective voice of students on campus, and advocate for individuals and groups on matters of academic significance.

In most of the world they have evolved but maintained this original mandate. The majority of student unions worldwide are not providers of services in the same way B.C. 's are; advocacy is still a high priority, both at national and university levels, as is running extra-curricular activities and supporting smaller groups similar to our Clubs and Associations. Even the running of student union buildings, which often house important student organizations, food services, clinics, and campus bars, is not an insignificant task.

Currently at SUS, less than 1.3 per cent of their 2019/20 operating budget is dedicated to funding student-run events and only 3.8 per cent is set aside for SUS-run programming. In the 2018/19 financial statements, only $23,013 was spent on conference and travel (which is generally for advocacy work) and $67,729 for events, which accounted for a measly two per cent of their total expenditures.

SUS resources are not going where they should be, yet they’re going where students need them to be. If a student can’t get to their own university’s campuses, they can’t access the classes that they need. If they need to work to save for dental surgery or are in pain from an untreated cavity, they’re going to have trouble attending school. While these are things student unions should be addressing, it should be through advocacy. If this were the case, SUS could more effectively approach multiple issues rather than sinking their money into huge, singular problems.

The university’s unwillingness to shoulder these responsibilities, which should never have fallen on SUS, has made SUS stagnant.

Instead of being able to innovate and press for change, SUS is stuck providing essential services.

UFV needs to step up, and SUS needs to advocate for them to do it.

ROBIN HALPER Life is tough and confusing and weird.

We all need help sometimes, and when you need an expert opinion, you turn to an expert opinion-giver like Robin Halper. Whatever problem you’re facing in life, Robin will have a solution.

The Cascade cannot guarantee the effectiveness of Robin’s unique approach to life, but if you’re in a jam, get some advice by writing to halp@ufvcascade. ca Airplane problems Dear Robin, I'm going to be doing some air travel pretty soon, and I am already feeling anxious about the small talk the people next to me will want to engage in. I have tried travelling with headphones, pretending I don't speak English, faking being asleep — but my main issue is that the snack cart will come and my need for snacks will cause me to become wide awake. Then when I talk to the snack person in fluent English the jig will be up, and my seatmate will want to banter with me as we enjoy our juice and pretzels. What can I do?

Hello,

UFV shuttle bus. (The Cascade)

Sincerely, Silent sitter

It always confuses me why people want to talk to strangers on planes, and I’m sorry that you’ll be a victim of this travesty in a short while. Obviously wear headphones at all hours, even when you go to the bathroom. It doesn’t matter if they’re connected to your phone or not, just have them on. Head-

phones are like poison to the social butterflies — they will always stay clear of you. But when the snack cart comes around, just point to what you want, smile and go with it while keeping your mouth shut, and keep those headphones on!

Robin The next step Dear Robin, This spring I’m graduating with my BA in English, and I’m only realizing now that I’m qualified in absolutely nothing and have no special skills to get employed. Help!

Sincerely,

Uncontrollably unqualified Hello, Many people are in the exact same boat as you, so don’t fret; you are not alone. If you’re not skilled or qualified for anything then why bother trying to join the workforce?

You can take out another loan and stay at UFV for eight years like the rest of us. Then you’ll be able to take all those random classes you’ve always wanted to take. If you don’t want to do that, then have a baby (if you’re able to) or adopt a child. A kid gives you an excuse to not work for a while because you’ll have another life to care for. If all else fails, maybe attend a workshop or something that will teach you how to use MS Word; that should help in some way.

Robin

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

OPINION Life //

Life //

The price of pornography

Minimalism

Porn harms both producers and consumers, but the industry faces little retribution

I was first introduced to the concept of minimalism when I walked into my best friend’s dorm room way back in 2011 to discover that she had gotten rid of almost all of her possessions. She told me that she felt burdened by owning so much stuff, so when she moved from her mom’s house into her dorm room she took almost nothing with her, and she felt freer than ever.

At the time, I thought she was crazy, but years later, I now find myself in a similar situation. I have had to move into an extremely tight living space, which has forced me to limit my possessions down to just a couple of duffel bags. And you know what? I understand my friend’s motivations now; I feel more free than ever, unhindered from the weight of unnecessary baggage.

Minimalism isn’t just about Marie Kondoing your life — getting rid of everything that no longer “sparks joy” and organizing whatever you have left into per fec t ly labelled boxes.

It ’s also not

DANAYE REINHARDT Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines pornography as “the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement.”

This definition, however, does not come close to highlighting the prevalent and harmful effects of pornography. Not only does this industry hide its involvement with sex trafficking, but pornography also can alter the brain and affect the relationships of a porn consumer.

It may be simpler to write off antiporn organizations as religiously motivated or scientifically invalid. But this isn’t about an evangelical purity culture. This isn't about shaming people.

This is about scientific evidence and personal stories that all point to the same conclusion — pornography harms everyone involved.

For porn consumers in a relationship, porn gives unrealistic expectations of women, men, and sexual performance.

If pornography shows ideal or fantasy sex, how can actual sex meet that idealization? As is true with any content, any type of pornography — even violent or extreme acts — can begin to seem acceptable or desirable if it is consumed enough, warping partner expectations.

While somewhat contested, many studies indicate that porn use can alter the brain and may have addictive qualities.

Studies have found that porn addiction may be comparable to food addiction and even addiction to hard drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, specifically in pedophilic porn.

No matter if these studies are disputed, however, the fact remains that porn negatively affects those viewing it and causes harm to those involved in its production.

From the surface, it seems that porn websites only show consenting adults in sexual activities, but consent is an ambiguous and alarming issue on these sites. There are numberous stories of pornography being made non-consentually and distributed online. For example, in Florida, a missing 15-year-old girl was located after her mother found sexually explicit photos of her distributed online, including on Pornhub and Snapchat. For others, they may consent to the activity, but not to online distribution. In San Diego, 22 women filed and won a lawsuit against GirlsDoPorn creator Michael Pratt. They were told that the videos of them engaging in sexual intercourse would not go online, but the videos appeared on porn websites within weeks.

As the organization Fight The New

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Drug explains, the problem with consent is that it is difficult to determine from the outside; there is no way to know the type of consent the actors in these productions have given. The age of consent in Canada is 16 years old, so minors under this age cannot legally consent to sexual activity. Even 16- and 17-year-olds cannot consent if their partner is in a position of trust or authority, such as coach or teacher, or if they are dependent upon their partner for support. As a broad definition, child pornography includes anyone under the age of 18, so these convoluted ideas of consent are even more layered.

For adults, some may consent to sex but be uninformed of filming or, in the GirlsDoPorn case mentioned above, unaware that it would be distributed. Others may not be aware of the activity or violence their partner intends, even if they originally consented.

In these cases, the fact that much of pornography is possibly consensual is not important. There is enough evidence toward the contrary that it is impossible to look beyond it. If even one person is being abused or mistreated due to the porn industry (and evidence shows that this is not a single occurrence), it should be closely monitored and, ideally, those involved in the production of filming unconsentual sex should be prosecuted.

Even for people in the porn industry who do choose to be apart of it, their futures and career opportunities are often limited once they leave the industry. Bree Olsen (whose real name is Rachel Oberlin) is a former porn star who found her transition out of the industry difficult. In a Real Women Real Stories video, Olsen said that she has extremely limited career options, that she cannot even leave the house without the judgment of others, and receives no royalties for videos of her that are still being viewed countless times every day.

Olsen said, “Porn is the one industry where the more successful a woman is, the more she will suffer for the rest of her life.”

Fulfilling our human need for sex and relationships in front of a screen will never compare to the love and joy found in real, authentic relationships.

Pornography is a taboo subject, but we need to bring this industry to justice.

Don’t call yourself a feminist if you support pornography. Don’t protest against human or sex trafficking without calling out the porn industry. If you advocate for the emotional, mental, and sexual well-being of our world, keep the discussion going.

Why you should own less ANDREA SADOWSKI

about t h rowi n g a w a y everything you own and feig n i ng unnecessary poverty. It's a conscious decision to not get sucked into the destructive forces of capitalism that pressure you every day to buy more stuff.

It’s making do and being content with what you have. It is about finding joy not in items, but in people, places, and experiences.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to minimalism. No one decides the exact number of objects you may possess in order to be called a minimalist. It’s completely up to you. If you are considering minimalism, I would suggest focusing on areas of your life that seem out of control. Is your wardrobe overflowing with clothes, yet you spend hours every day trying to find an acceptable outfit? You might consider pairing back to just a capsule wardrobe, which involves only keeping a few of your favourite, most versatile pieces, and swapping out items with each season.

Consider a similar habit when it comes to all of the half-empty bottles of lotions and potions under your bathroom sink.

Stick with the most basic, necessary toiletries that you use every single day or every

week and get rid of everything else. The beauty industry thrives on selling you goop in plastic bottles that will magically fix all your flaws.

If your cupboards are crammed full of pots, pans, and coffee mugs, your pantry is filled to the brim with expired food, and you have a million different Tupperware containers which somehow don’t have a single lid that fits them, then you might want to do a purge of your kitchen.

Remove every single item out of every single drawer, shelf, and cupboard. Put it all somewhere else. Over the next month, only put back into the kitchen what you actually use; the rest can go. But what about those “what if” items like your julienne slicer or immersion blender? Just borrow those random, rarely-used items from a friend or a neighbour who is not a minimalist.

I promise you won’t need them as much as you think you do, or you

Illustration by Kayt Hine

would’ve used it in the past month.

Follow this model with every room of your house you feel has gotten out of control. It might even be your entire house if you’re in the mood to purge, or maybe it is just clearing out the stack of useless membership cards in your wallet.

Once you have cleansed your life of needless items, be sure that you don’t refill your space with more clutter; remind yourself of why you started this minimalist journey in the first place. Focus on filling your life with experiences more than things. Minimalism is a reprioritization of where you focus your time, money, and energy, and only giving up those precious, limited resources to the things that most align with your values.

I have no regrets in becoming a minimalist myself. I never look at my tiny space with feelings of want or lack and think to myself: “Gee, I wish I could scan through my old high-school yearbooks right about now.” It feels good to have broken free of the chains of the consumer culture and to be content with my few, treasured possessions.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

OPINION OPINION World //

Anti-vax and the misinformation crisis Skepticism about vaccinations is on the rise, and our declining trust in experts is to blame SAM YOUNG When it comes to believing medical experts that our children should be vaccinated, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the world has a trust problem. A 2018 survey showed that only 72 per cent of North Americans “somewhat” or “strongly” believe that vaccines are safe, and last year, for the first time ever, the World Health Organization named vaccine hesitancy a threat to global health.

Parents’ reasoning for why they refuse to vaccinate their children is complex: one of the most common arguments is that vaccines increase the risk of autism in children, a misconception that began in 1998 when a (now-discredited) study was published in the Lancet medical journal. The study, conducted by former gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield (who was later erased from the U.K. medical register following allegations of professional misconduct), claimed that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine caused behavioural regression and autism in children. Other anti-vax reasoning involves fear about the ingredients present in certain vaccines, which can include ethylmercury, aluminum, and formaldehyde, though that too is based on a misunderstanding of the absolutely miniscule amounts that are used.

However, there’s a case to be made that the anti-vaccination epidemic isn’t the root of the problem facing our society today.

Rather, it’s a symptom of a greater disease: the decline of our trust in experts, and the rise of conspiracy thinking in popular culture.

Those who distrust authority often create alternative narratives to explain events: some are harmless (if a little infuriating), such as flat-Earthers and moon-landing deniers, while others have proven to have graver and more far-reaching consequences, such as those who believe school shootings such as Sandy Hook were staged, and have harassed grieving parents and accused children involved of being “crisis actors.”

Sadly, the anti-vax movement leans closer to the dangerous end of this spectrum, putting children whose only crime was being born into the wrong family at risk of potentially life-altering and fatal diseases.

According to the United States Center for Disease Control, last year saw 1,282 cases of measles in the United States — the greatest number since 1992, and the majority of

cases occurred in individuals who were not vaccinated.

So just why exactly is this happening?

The digital age we’re living in likely has something to do with it. The 21st century is the era of unprecedented access to information; the internet has revolutionized the way we learn, work, and communicate, and given billions of people access to a network of nearly limitless data, ideas, and media. But with access to such a wide number of information sources, it is only becoming harder to determine what should be believed, and what is misleading (or altogether fabricated). The phenomena of clickbait and so-called “fake news” has been a topic of much discussion in recent years, and despite numerous efforts by social media platforms and other tech companies to limit the spread of misinformation, they have remained a persistent concern.

Worse still, malicious actors have seized on the internet’s ability to mislead the masses, using it as an opportunity to deliberately misinform us — sometimes merely for cynical amusement, but often in order to further specific agendas (such as Russia’s meddling in the United States’s presidential elections). A 2016 poll conducted

by Buzzfeed News found that an alarming 75 per cent of American adults admitted to having fallen for fake news during the 2016 election cycle, and similar polling conducted in Canada shows that we aren’t far behind.

Poor journalism hasn’t done the public’s trust in experts any favours either; immensely popular websites with slickly-edited videos and clickbait headlines such as “IFL Science” often make misleading and bombastic declarations about science, only for it to later turn out that the underlying studies came to conclusions that were nowhere near as explosive as online media suggests.

And although the internet has almost certainly made matters worse, this isn’t just a recent trend — alarmist reporting that treats conjecture as fact has been going on for decades now, and is at least partly to blame for other public opinion crises, such as climate change denial. It is frequently argued by deniers that because journalists and scientists in the 1970s and ‘80s erroneously predicted “global cooling,” science as a whole should not be trusted (even though those views were broadly denounced by scientists, even at the time).

The claims made by groups such as

Illustration by Kayt Hine

flat-Earthers and anti-vaxxers follow very similar logic, and it is hard to believe that the growing prominence of both groups in recent years is a coincidence. YouTube in particular has come under fire for having a recommendation engine that regularly propagates conspiracy-theorist materials, and in at least one case was found to be recommending anti-vax videos to users viewing pro-vaccination content.

In all of this chaos, however, there is a beacon of hope. Recent data from Pew Research Center suggests that public confidence in scientists is slowly going up, with surveys last year showing that since 2016, there has been an increase in Americans’ beliefs that scientists act in the public interest (although 14 per cent of adults still remain unconvinced). This finding may suggest that the efforts of journalists and

platform-holders to stem the flow of disinformation have been at least partially successful, but the battle is still far from over, and the fight can’t be theirs alone. There is no sure-fire way for any of us to avoid fake news completely, but it falls on each of us to do our part to mitigate the spread of misleading and false information when we can. If we make the effort to call out misleading stories and videos when we see them, click on the citations in the articles we read rather than taking the author’s word for it, and encourage others to do the same, we can continue to push back against misinformation. It isn’t much, but if humanity is going to figure our way out of this era of political turmoil, information overload, and existential threats, defending truth really is the only chance we’ve got.

7

BRIEF BITS OF BITE-SIZED BREVITY

SN S AP HO TS

CURTAILED COMMENTARY ON CURRENT CONDITIONS

Illustrations by Kelly Ning

Seductive shoulders

I am currently doing my global development studies (GDS) internship in India, and let me tell you I did not pack the right clothes. First of all, all of January until the middle of February was cold — much colder than I ever expected India to be. I shivered in my light jackets all day until I could come home and sit directly in front of my heater to thaw. Thankfully it has started to get warmer, and I can actually leave the house without draping myself in a blanket.

However, because of the conservative culture here I have to constantly find creative ways to cover my seductive shoulders from the lustful

male gaze. It makes me reminisce of when I worked at a Mennonite summer camp near Cultus Lake, or when I served as a missionary in South America and needed to cover every inch of skin possible, because God forbid a boy would see my kneecaps and become aroused. I understand that I have to be respectful of the culture I reside in, but I am dreading the sweltering heat that is awaiting me in May and the unruly sweat stains that will come with it.

Trampling on paradise

I am sure a lot of us would like to travel the world and see its wonders, but in the modern age such mass tourism has consequences. We are treated to sights like Mt. Everest covered in litter, or the Eiffel Tower always being so jampacked you can barely get in. Visiting places like these is a valuable experience for anyone. It creates cherished memories and enables one to gain a greater understanding of the world that books, film, and the internet cannot adequately convey. Yet in the act of visiting some secluded island paradise, I draw that place and the people

who live there further into the world I seek to get away from. In doing so, I fear I may be ruining the experience of those who come after me, and possibly the lives of the locals as well. As in physics, the mere act of observation changes what is observed. Before visiting that “unspoiled” part of the world, ask yourself if it is worth degrading that place a bit so you can have the experience of it. The world is a cake — you cannot have it and eat it too.

Aleister Gwynne

Andrea Sadowski

The economy is not your friend

Successful sweets

When I was growing up, baking was my jam. I loved making cupcakes and cookies and giving them away to people. But as I’ve grown up, I’ve favoured cooking over baking. To me it seems like there are so many more options with flavours and textures in cooking, plus I love my vegetables, and I love not having to follow a recipe exactly as it is.

But yesterday, I baked. After watching the episode of Chef’s Table, Table, featuring Christina Tosi (creator of Milk Bar), I was inspired to get in

8

touch with my sweet tooth, so I made donuts. It turns out that using yeast is not as complex as some make it out to be and following a recipe to the tee isn’t the worst thing in the world.

And if I do say so myself, the result was spectacular. Since I excelled at donuts, I’ll tackle croissants next week. Stay tuned.

Carissa Wiens

The Wet’suwet’en movement has a lot of people concerned about the economic harm it has caused. People have been saying that struggling single mothers who need to pay their bills can’t get to work because of the blockades, and that the Wet’suwet’en Nation under the elected leader system really needs the jobs Coastal GasLink (CGL) will supply with this pipeline project.

Here’s the thing: the economy is not your friend. This economy that is causing all these people to suffer and struggle is the same one that the hereditary leaders and other demonstrators are fighting against. The only argument for this pipeline is an economic one,

and it’s a desperate argument about how struggling people need it. This is the same economy that’s been marginalizing Indigenous communities for hundreds of years. Why is it that so many people don’t care about struggling single moms and jobless Indigenous people until they can use these people as leverage to try and denounce the Wet’suwet’en movement? It sounds like a lot of people in this country need to wake up and look around at the reality of our economy — it is designed to work against us.

Darien Johnsen

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

THE BC GOVERNMENT JUST ANNOUNCED

BC’S FIRST UP-FRONT GRANTS IN 15 YEARS

In its 2020 Budget, the BC Government announced the creation of the BC Access Grant: an up-front, needs-based student grant program with $41 million in funding annually.

WORKING TOGETHER GETS RESULTS! 15 YEARS OF ACTIVISM

DOZENS OF GOVERNMENT SUBMISSIONS 100+ GOVERNMENT MEETINGS HUNDREDS OF VOLUNTEERS

THOUSANDS OF POSTCARDS + PETITIONS

ONE COMMITTED STUDENT MOVEMENT

STUDENTS NEED GRANTS NOT LOANS 9

The battle over Kashmir Past and current conflicts between Pakistan and India

B

eing a person of Indian origin myself, I had not known much about India and Pakistan’s conflicts or the reasons why they partitioned in 1947.

In 1947, after 200 years of rule, Britain left the Indian subcontinent and divided the area into two countries: India and Pakistan. Kashmir was one of the independent states in the region and was given the option of which country to choose.

Kashmir initially chose to remain independent, but threats of war caused it to sign an agreement, Article 370, with India that same year exchanging certain freedoms for protection.

India and Pakistan have not experienced great relations since then. The Kashmir region has been a main focal point of historical and current conflicts between both countries.

Kashmir has been in lockdown since August 2019 when the Indian government lifted Article 370, thereby eliminating Kashmir’s status as an independent region. Article 370 allowed Kashmir certain rights, including “its own constitution, a separate flag and freedom to make laws.” This article also prevented Indians who did not live in Kashmir from purchasing land. To enforce this, India sent troops into the region, arrested political figures, and began limiting telecommunications — including an internet ban that has just begun to ease.

India and Pakistan have had a long and complex history of violence and conflicts. The tension between both countries has not been dying down — instead they are experiencing more conflict.

What caused the partition between India and Pakistan in the first place?

Before the partition, the British had ruled most of the the Indian subcontinent for 200 years. Their rule ended in August of 1947 after the British divided the region they ruled into two countries based on religion, which are now known as India and Pakistan. Pakistan would turn into a Muslim majority, and

by Manjot Dhaliwal

India would turn into a Hindu majority. Kashmir was one of the many territories that were not under British rule, and were able to choose which country to join. Kashmir wanted to remain independent and did not join either country. “[Pakistan and India were] designed around religious communities, and the other religious communities who lived in that region were forced out and moved back to India, and the ones who lived in India moved to Pakistan,” said Satwinder Bains, director of the South Asian Studies Institute, the principal of UFV India, and the university advisor for Canada-India relations at UFV. The partition made “divisions of land, people, people’s assets, and their homes,” according to Bains. When the divide began, people who lived in both of the newly divided countries started attacking and killing each other in what The New Yorker described as a “terrifying outbreak of sectarian violence.” Bains said that people who lived together for millennia, whether they were neighbours, friends, or family suddenly became enemies because of the divide between the two countries. The past they shared with each other faded away and hatred filled its place in their hearts and minds.

The main problem with the partition was that it was mishandled. “If the handing over of power by the British had been done through proper channels and through a way that managed the transfer of people, perhaps it would not have been millions of people dying,” Bains said.

gains control of land in India after the Battle of Plassey.

Jammu and Kashmir come under British control with internal autonomy.

The second war started in August 1965 when 26,000 to 33,000 Pakistani soldiers dressed as Kashmiri locals and entered Kashmir. As the war heated up, Indian troops crossed the international border in Lahore. The war ended by Sept. 22, 1965 once it reached a stalemate.

By 1971, India and Pakistan were at their third war; this time it was not over Kashmir but East Pakistan. The war started after Pakistan’s air force launched a preemptive attack to weaken northwest India’s airfields. India followed with a coordinated land, air, and sea assault on East Pakistan. The war ended when Pakistan’s army surrendered.

The conflict after the partition After the partition, the independent region of Kashmir was highly argued over, and is still greatly argued over. The region lies north of Pakistan and India, and both countries wanted to acquire it.

“Both countries have already fought two of the three wars on this issue, and both cannot afford to go to another war in this nuclear age,” said Akhtar. India and Pakistan are two nuclear-powered neighbours.

“Kashmir was free to choose [to be a part of] India or Pakistan, but the ruler could not decide and war started,” said

When India lifted Article 370 in August 2019, they decided they were going to integrate Kashmir into their country, there-

the Indian Rebellion of 1857, British Crown takes over East India Company’s administration and taxation.

This is the beginning of the British Raj.

1845-1846: First Anglo-Sikh War.

The first war between India and Pakistan occurred from October 1947 to January 1949. Hari Singh, the ruler of Kashmir at the time, wanted Kashmir to remain independent, but an attack from Pakistan pushed Singh to join India in October 1947. The first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, sent troops to Kashmir for protection, and in return Kashmir agreed to join India, signing over control of his “defence, communications, and foreign affairs to the Indian government.”

After a few decades, it was clear India did not really want to protect Kashmir’s autonomy as it started oppressing the Muslim population. India and Pakistan could not and still cannot agree upon which country should get Kashmir or if Kashmir should be independent.

1857-1858: After 1757: East India Company

Akhtar Malik, a Muslim instructor in computer information systems at UFV.

1965: Indo-

Pakistani War of 1965, fought over Kashmir.

2019: India lifts Article 370

1947: Partition

1971: Indo-Pakistani War of 1971

1947-1949: First Kashmir War between

India and Pakistan. Ends in a ceasefire, with the region divided between India and Pakistan.

1999: Kargil

War breaks out in Kashmir’s Kargil district

fore removing its preferred status as an independent region.

Kashmir feels their freedom has been taken away by the Indian parliament. The Muslims in Kashmir, who are a minority, feel the threat of the Hindus who are a majority in India.

Minority-majority clashes are constant, from clashes between Hindus and Sikhs, and Sikhs and Muslims, Bains said.

The Indian government has been accused of trying to erase Kashmir’s history and politics by eliminating culturally specific holidays and abolishing Article 370, which allowed the region to have its own flag, constitution, and law-making ability. The Indian government has also been arresting Kashmiri politicians since August 2019. During this time, the Indian government has been trying to stifle possible protests from the people of Kashmir by cutting their phone, internet service, and cable networks.

Changing dynamics between India and Pakistan in recent years Bains believes that if you talk to people who are travelling between both of the countries, perhaps to go to religious events or to trade with Pakistan as a neighbour, good things are said.

Indians who have travelled to Pakistan or Pakistanis who have travelled to India have been treated well and welcomed into the other country.

At the end of 2019, the Kartarpur Corridor was opened for Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s 550th birthday, which was very important for Sikhs in India. The opening of the corridor showed how welcoming the Pakistanis were to the Indians who were coming to see Sikh heritage sites.

Bains thinks that, on average, day-to-day individual interactions seem to be okay between the people of India and Pakistan. In terms of economics, politics of defence, and land, however, it is very complicated.

Currently, both countries spend high amounts on defence.

India’s spending is at 2.04 per cent of its GDP, and while Pakistan spends less on defence than India, its spending amounts to 4 per cent of its GDP. If the money spent on defence was spent on education or health, Bains believes India and Pakistan would thrive. Akhtar agrees: “Both countries have great potential and resources if they spend more on education and welfare instead of weapons.”

The fear of nuclear war is rising between both countries. If Pakistan has the nuclear capabilities they claim they have, they would be an equal power to India, which would not be good for the people in either country or around the world.

per se on a day-to-day basis. If Pakistan attacks, India is going to attack as well, and they are always at this kind of dance that is going on between both countries. She said that if “the average person believes what they read, India has more might.

It is a much more powerful country, it has more money, it has more people, and it has more clout.”

Religion’s role in the partition Before the partition, Bains believes religions were not in stubborn dispute or disagreement with each other. “People used to live as brothers and sisters in the Indian subcontinent, and there were no conflicts in the regions now known as Pakistan or India,” she said.

When India was divided into states, they were divided on “linguistic lines and not religious lines,” said Bains. Bains believes “dividing India based on language was an easy and safe route for the government, and it prevented religious riots from occurring. But when the British divided India and Pakistan based on religious lines, neighbours and friends who lived together their whole lives became enemies.

Although the riots were initiated by the people, perhaps the government’s choice to divide the states along religious lines was misguided.

She said it has been a very silent era, and only now in the last 10 years have stories of partition come out. She believes that there has been conflict between India and Pakistan because the divisions between the two countries happened on religious lines.

Are there solutions for this conflict?

Bains thinks that for India and Pakistan the bright light on the horizon is a young population. India needs to focus on the youth and give them better education and some more jobs.

There are not many jobs in India anymore for the youth, so they are struggling. They see no future in India. Most of the youth are trying to get out of India and into other countries to have a chance at a better future and education.

Bains thinks that the conflict will not be solved diplomatically, but rather it will take time to fix. She believes it is more about getting to the people, lifting the underclass, and raising the standard of living. The Indian economy needs to be lifted for India to be able to solve these problems.

Meanwhile, Pakistan is doubly conflicted because it has a conflictual border with Afghanistan as well as India, so it is feeling the stress from both sides. Bains thinks the only way change will happen between India and Pakistan is if they see each other as good neighbours.

The land between the India and Pakistan border states is underdeveloped due to ongoing conflicts, and no businesses want to operate there. From what Bains hears, there are skirmishes all the time, and they may not be heard about because newspapers are not going to report that every day. Businesses want to feel safe and not feel that they might be involved in some sort of conflict. Businesses and people fear the conflicts that have been occurring between India and Pakistan.

India and Pakistan could be very good trade partners if they choose to put their conflicts behind them and come to a decision about Kashmir. Getting to a decision about Kashmir is a slower change and it would not happen overnight. Other countries should be trying to get India and Pakistan to talk about Kashmir and better their situation. It is an old problem that needs to be discussed and resolved.

“Kashmir is not going to get resolved overnight. It is going to be a 30- or 40-year battle. It has already been a 60- or 70-year-old wound that will not heal, so I do not feel it will be resolved in the short-term.”

Canada is currently seen as a peace broker in the world, and Canadians see themselves as playing an important role in that.

There have not been a lot of overtures from the Canadian government on the Kashmir conflict. Bains feels that Canada could do more diplomatically to respond to the conflict.

Bains believes neither one is fanning the flames of conflict

The international community’s response

In August 2019, Global News reported that Kashmiri Canadians believed the Canadian government was not doing enough to help Kashmir. Kashmiri Canadians were trying to reach out to the Canadian government “to condemn ethnic and religious discrimination in India.”

Bains said, “I haven’t seen Canada making news releases or making statements from the prime minister [very] often.”

Bains believes there may be other much more complicated conflicts occuring in the world that Canada is paying attention to.

Bains feels there is always a way for the international community to intervene in conflicts. Every time there is conflict in the world, the countries and organizations who are the brokers of peace, such as the UN, come forward and call for peace and a ceasing of the war.

Information coming out of Kashmir is limited because of the restrictions on the internet by the Indian government, so as a global community it is difficult to respond. What do we respond to? “[We] actually have no access to what is happening in the country,” said Bains.

It is also possible that the Canadian government might be helping with the India and Pakistan conflict behind doors away from the public and world’s eyes.

“India is not looking for other countries to meddle in their business. India may very well say this is an internal domestic problem and [they] are dealing with it,” said Bains.

Unfortunately, because it is difficult to obtain information about what’s going on in Kashmir, the international community can only speculate about the currently, ongoing situation until people in the region are able to freely share their experiences.

Why we, as Canadians, should care about the conflicts that are taking place in Kashmir We, as Canadians, pride ourselves on being peacekeepers on the world stage, while also having the privilege of living in a developed country. It is a moral obligation to help those who are in conflict or underprivileged.

But Bains thinks India is a major economic power that Canada wants to have trade and build relationships with. India is one of the top 10 countries that Canada trades with, so it is in Canada’s best economic interest if India is not conflicted.

This may impact how Canada is responding to the conflicts between India and Kashmir.

“For us as Canadians, we also have a large Indian diaspora, a huge number of people, of Indian heritage or people who are from Indian origin who live in Canada, so Canadians are not separate from this conflict. The diaspora is also very politically engaged, both in communities as well as the federal government and provincial governments,” Bains said.

She thinks it behooves Canada to know that we as Canadians still have a really important connection with Pakistan and India. It is a natural desire for Canadians to want to help. We should care and we do care.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

CULTURE

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

culture@ufvcascade.ca Carissa Wiens — Culture Editor

Column //

Community Event //

Cascade Kitchen: Milky, silky beans

A trail-running film festival The Sumas Mountain Film Festival promotes local non-profits and our local environment

CARISSA WIENS

Beans. March 1, 2020.

(Carissa Wiens/The Cascade)

CARISSA WIENS The Cascade Kitchen is a student-run food column that brings you budget-friendly recipes and cooking tips. Check back weekly for something new to try in the kitchen, or if you want to see your own recipe featured next, get started by reaching out to culture@ufvcascade.ca.

When I first tried out this recipe, I was genuinely shocked at how good it was. I mean, it’s just a pot of beans — how good can beans really taste? Turns out they can taste insanely delicious.

This recipe is from Ali Slagle from the New York Times. If you ever need some dinner inspiration, head to cooking.nytimes. com. You won’t be disappointed.

I enjoy this recipe because it’s incredibly filling and incredibly affordable to make. Plus, it takes about a half hour to whip up.

This recipe makes at least four servings, so you’ll definitely have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. If you want some greens with your meal, I recommend roasting some asparagus in olive oil.

But beware, if you do not like garlic, do not make this recipe.

Garlic lovers only from here on out.

Ingredients: 1 tbsp butter 1 head garlic, peeled and each clove cut in half lengthwise 1 yellow onion, diced 1 cup whole milk 1 can chickpeas including the liquid 1 can white beans (like cannellini) drained and rinsed 1 bay leaf 1 tsp garam masala Salt and pepper, to taste Dark toasted bread, for serving Parmesan cheese, for serving Red pepper flakes, for serving Method: 1. In a medium-sized saucepan, melt butter on medium heat.

Add in garlic and onions and cook until translucent, about five minutes.

2. Add milk, chickpeas and their liquid, white beans, bay leaf, and garam masala to saucepan. Season generously with salt and pepper. Let cook for several minutes and make sure the milk does not boil. Once small bubbles appear on the surface, turn the heat down low, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes.

3. To thicken the mixture, use the back of a wooden spoon to mash some of the beans after cooking for at least 15 minutes.

4. Take beans off heat for several minutes before serving to make it even thicker. Use a ladle to serve beans and milk into bowls with parmesan and red pepper flakes on top.

Serve with toasted bread.

12

On March 4, the Sumas Mountain Film Festival took place for the third time. There were various short films about trail running being presented at the event — some locally produced and others international. Along with the $25 ticket comes two free beers from Field House Brewing Co. In 2017 a proposal to perform mineral mining on Sumas Mountain raised concerns from multiple recreational groups in the area. There was opposition to the application because it proposed to mine right in the centre of where much of the recreational activity takes place on Sumas Mountain. If the proposal were to go through, many people would lose their valuable recreational location.

Paul Enns, one of the festival coordinators, partnered with the leader of the Abbotsford Trail Running Club and several others to conduct a large media campaign under the hashtag #savesu-

mas to bring this proposal to the public’s attention. Eventually the applicant withdrew their proposal and some restrictions were put into place about which types of applications would even be considered for the mountain.

In response to this, several members of the community, including Enns, decided to launch the Sumas Mountain Film Festival in 2018 to bring positive attention toward Sumas Mountain and all the good it provides for our community and to promote two local non-profit organizations, Run for Water and the Abbotsford Trail Running Club. The profits from the event also help support the Fraser Valley Bike Association, which maintains all of the trails on Sumas Mountain.

Enns first got into road running, but the pavement became too hard on his knees, so Enns switched to trail running. From there, he got connected with local non-profit, Run for Water, who hosts an annual 5K, 10K, and halfmarathon to raise funds for clean

water and education in Ethiopia, and proposed an annual trail run too. With the trail runs, all proceeds go to humanitarian projects in Ethiopia.

As a trained clinical counsellor, Enns enjoys the social and mental health benefits trail running provides for people: “I like that running in nature, being away from the urban elements, and being immersed in the forest, in a social environment like the trail running club, and then connecting to different causes, opens up different ways of being healthy and being connected to others and taking care of the planet. I think it is unique that we can do that here in the Fraser Valley.”

If you are inspired to get involved in trail running, the Abbotsford Trail Running Club hosts various free group runs each month. Follow along for updated information on Instragram @abbytrailrunningclub. If you want to run with Run for Water, all of the information you need is on their website runforwater.ca.

UFV Event //

Altars & Avenues with Adèle Barclay

Writer in residence hosts workshop on breaking the fear of writing with others NICHOLAS ASHENHURSTTOEWS

On Feb. 26, current UFV writer-inresidence, Adèle Barclay, held the Altars & Avenues Creative Writing Workshop. It was the first of two events that she will be holding during the winter semester.

Barclay has been running this particular workshop for four years and stated that she likes hosting it because each time it’s held, it’s different than previous events.

Barclay led participants in several creative writing exercises.

The workshop began with Barclay asking the group to contribute a beloved item to the “community altar.” After, she read a selection of poems, both her own and those of others, and invited the group to share pieces of writing, prose or poetry, that they found inspiring.

The group was ready and willing to participate, and shared a collection of writing from a wide range of sources including the

Bible, Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey, and part of a blog post by fantasy writer Scott Lynch, best known for his Gentlemen Bastard series, on the passing of Terry Pratchett.

Much of the writing that took place was prompt-based; however, to get the group writing there was a 10-minute free-write period in which participants were encouraged to just write whatever came to mind. After, she instructed the group to envision a friend or close acquaintance and write them a letter. The final prompt came in the form of writing a list of instructions.

After a short break, Barclay led the group through an exercise she referred to as a “poetry quilt.” In this exercise, participants were to look back on what they had written, highlight any lines, sentences, or phrases that caught their interest and “stitch” them together into one piece. At the end of the exercise, members of the group were encouraged to share what they had written with a partner in order to gain both feedback and

break the illusion that you can only show people polished pieces.

Many members did read what they had written aloud. The range of types of writing were vast, with many people beginning drafts of poems, short snippets of prose, or even journaling about the experience.

The workshop concluded with a short question-and-answer period with Barclay on how she writes, how long she takes to draft a poem, and the time she takes before going back to edit it. In both cases, Barclay said, it varies.

Overall, the workshop was a fun and informative experience and allowed everyone involved to practice their writing craft with no judgment.

If you missed Altars & Avenues, Barclay will also be involved in a reading and panel discussion. It will be held on Tuesday, March 31 from 3:15 - 5:15 p.m. at the Abbotsford campus in B121. The panel will also feature B.C. writers Dina Del Bucchia and Kyla Jamieson.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

CULTURE UFV Event //

Respecting the land that provides Nancy Turner speaks on Indigenous land management and the passing down of knowledge JESSICA BARCLAY On Feb. 28, Nancy Turner spoke to a group of elders, community members, and students at the Gathering Place (A1457) in Chilliwack on Indigenous resource management methods, and how traditional knowledge of plants and the environment is passed on.

Turner is an ethnobotanist and a ethnobiologist: she studies people’s knowledge and relationship with plants, and with the natural world. For 40 years she has worked with Indigenous people and communities in northwestern North America to study and record knowledge and traditions around plants and their environment.

She is an emeritus professor at the University of Victoria (UVIC) and has authored and co-authored numerous books, publications, book chapters, and peer-reviewed papers.

Turner began her talk with thanks, to both those who organized the event and all those who have contributed to her re-

search and shared their knowledge with her. Her presentation strongly reflected the importance of the people in her work; many of her slides included the faces behind the information she was sharing with the group, and their names held as much weight as their knowledge in her stories.

Her area of study focuses west of the Rocky Mountains, from central Alaska to the Columbia River in the south. Over 50 unique languages were spoken in this area, bringing weight to the sheer volume of knowledge and tradition that were, and still are, present in such a diversity of communities.

Knowledge was shared through these communities through a variety of means, including trade, marriage, warfare, and hosting and feasting. The types of knowledge that were shared included fishing, hunting and food processing technologies, basketry techniques, stories, ceremonies, and phenological indicators.

Phenological indicators, in this context, refer to how one species can indicate what another species is doing. For example, sage-

brush buttercup, also known as spring salmon run buttercup, blooms during the start of the

“Indigenous management systems have been conveniently overlooked for generations by newcomers.” first spring salmon run.

“People don’t need to go traipsing down to the bottom of the canyon to check whether the fish are coming; they can see [that] when the spring salmon run buttercup is blooming, they can go down and fish,” said Turner.

Another important type of

knowledge that was shared was resource management. Indigeous people in the Northwest intentionally managed the land, cultivating plants, managing berry plots, and developing the ideal environment for food sources.

“Indigenous management systems have been conveniently overlooked for generations by newcomers,” Turner said. “People like James Douglas and others who came saw the beautiful landscapes and assumed they were natural.”

One method of management was through controlled burns.

Certain plants are productive after a burn, such as trailing blackberry, nodding onion, and huckleberry.

Berry bushes were intentionally cultivated and managed; elders, families, and communities would have ownership over certain shrubs or patches, and would only pick in certain areas.

The shrubs would be pruned and cared for.

There were also areas where everything was cultivated and maintained. “I think there are more of these than any of us realize,” Turner said.

A recent archeological find indicates that the practice of intentional cultivation has been going on for thousands of years. In a site along the Fraser River Delta near Vancouver, a 3,800-yearold patch of tended wapato (Inw dian potato, or x ̌ʷəq ̓ʷə́wl̕ś in hən ̓q ̓əmin ̓əm )̓ was found with digging sticks. “That shows the antiquity of the kind of practices that people were using,” said Turner.

There were a number of agriculture students at the talk, and in closing Turner was asked if she has any advice for those going into the industry, who will be working with plants and the land.

“Think about those things you are raising, those things you are growing, those things you are caring for … as more than just things, but as beings,” Turner said.

“We have our responsibilities; they [plants and animals] give us so much. But in turn, we need to be grateful, and respectful, and appreciative, and generous, and loving.”

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VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

CULTURE UFV Event Preview //

Richard III opens next week UFV Theatre and School of Creative Arts prepare a new production opening on March 11 CARISSA WIENS UFV students, Makailla Palliyaguru (theatre diploma) and Joshua Balzer (BA in History and English) share their experiences acting and preparing for the upcoming play, Richard III by William Shakespeare, as adapted and directed

by Anna Griffith.

What drew you to audition for this play?

Palliyaguru: I really like the director, Anna, and had always wanted to work with her. I’ve taken several classes with her and think she’s an amazing person.

Balzer: I’ve had some experience with Shakespeare in the past, and as a theatre person, whenever you hear Shakespeare you want to get involved with it. I was in Anna’s Performance History course last semester, and through the course I had learned that she was holding auditions for the play. As soon as I heard she was directing it I wanted to be involved.

Palliyaguru: I also like how she teaches us to find the character; it’s really interesting.

Balzer: A lot of directors I’ve worked with in the past have a very clear vision

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on who they want the characters to be, but working with Anna, she’s very kind and passionate, and really leaves room for the actors to find the characters on their own.

So a lot of what we’ve been doing is discovering the characters for ourselves. It’s been a very personal journey for all of us.

What elements of the original play have been adapted to fit this production at UFV? Palliyaguru: There’s a lot of line cuts.

Balzer: As I understand it, the original play is about four hours in length. So Anna has taken out all of the unnecessary bits and left just the core elements. There are three characters that have been turned into one, and some characters have been cut altogether if they’re not serving the narrative that we’re trying to push.

Palliyaguru: Since there’s been so many line cuts, Anna has written in lines to make sure the storyline is still told well and the audience understands more about what’s happening.

What elements of this play can be connected to our current society?

Balzer: The character of Richard goes

against our perceptions of what a leader should be, like someone who’s charming, good-looking, and really takes the forefront, but Richard is described as everything but that. Yet he’s still able to come to a position of power without ever doing anything physical. He’s very persuasive in the way that he acts to different people. If you look at politics today, most politicians won’t go and stab someone in the back, which was common in Shakespeare’s time, but they pull strings behind the scenes and make all of these other things happen.

Palliyaguru: You can tell that Richard really knows how to act with people. He acts differently to every single person. He really plays on being an invalid to seem weak, and then people don’t really see him coming at all.

What are your roles in the play?

Palliyaguru: I’m Richard.

Balzer: And I’m playing the Duchess of York, Richard’s mother, and her son, King Edward the IV. There are several actors playing maybe three or four roles. There’s over 20 characters, but there’s only eight of us in the cast.

Palliyaguru: Our location is really small, so having 20 different cast members would

be a lot. We don’t really have a backstage, and our cast of eight is already the biggest cast a play has had since moving to Abbotsford from Chilliwack. I’m interested in how it’s all going to go at the performance.

What have you found most challenging when preparing for this play?

Palliyaguru: I have a really bad memory and am dyslexic. And Shakespeare is sort of another language, so memorizing all of Richard’s lines has been my biggest challenge. But I’m off-book now, so that’s really good!

Balzer: I have struggled because I’m playing a woman and I’ve never played a character of the opposite sex before onstage. So to completely change my physicality — like, I never realized how subtle it is, and how you hold yourself and move and gesture is so tied to each side. So making these quick changes from male to female has been a very conscious decision.

Richard III will be playing at UFV Abbotsford in room D105 from March 11 to 21. For more information and showtimes go to https://www. ufv.ca/plays/.

This interview has been cut and edited for clarity.

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020 sports@ufvcascade.ca Alex Jesus — Sports Editor

Baseball //

Looking back at the Cascades’ 2019 season Baseball is just around the corner, and the Cascades are looking to continue last year’s success

SPORTS

Wrestling //

Wrestling shows strong performance in final tournament At Brock University, UFV took home 2 silvers and 2 bronzes in U Sports championships

NIC JACKSON

Brody Vogel. March 30, 2019. (UFV Athletics)

NIC JACKSON While March marks the second half of the winter semester for most students, those who love baseball know that March means that college baseball is right around the corner. Although UFV has only had a baseball program for a few seasons now, their short history has shown that fans of the sport will be in for an exciting spring.

At the end of the 2019 regular season, two of the Cascades’ players held three season records in total. Riley Jepson held a batting average of 0.405, making him the most consistent batter in the league.

Jepson also held the record for the most homeruns over the course of the season, with six. Dylan Emmons also holds a record, with an Earned Run Average (ERA) of 1.23. This means that Emmons averaged giving up only 1.23 earned runs per game.

Last year, the UFV men’s baseball team started out the season strong, with three wins and one loss in their opening weekend against the Vancouver Island University Mariners. From there, the team went on to have a regular season record of 15-9. With this record, the Cascades seeded in third place heading into the playoffs.

The 2019 playoffs started with a double-elimination round. This means that teams continue to play until they lose

two games in the tournament. Although the Cascades lost their first playoff game against the University of Calgary, 7-4, the team went on to win their next four games, against Vancouver Island University, University of Calgary, Prairie Baseball Academy, and Thompson Rivers University, respectively.

With the small four-game playoff streak, the Cascades made it to a best-ofthree series against the Okanagan College Coyotes in the finals. For the first two games, the Cascades and the Coyotes each registered wins. The first game went to the Cascades, with a score of 6-4, while the Coyotes won the second, 7-5. Although the first two games were close, the third game saw the Cascades dominate, with a score of 13-2. With the final win, the Cascades were named the Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) champions.

With the championship, seven of the Cascades were named as CCBC all-stars.

Riley Jepson, Josh Berenbaum, Dylan Merritt, and Dylan Emmons were named to the first team, while Jonah Weisner, Brad Bishop, and Travis McDougall were placed on the second team.

The UFV men’s baseball team is starting to gear up for the 2020 season. Although the schedule has not been released, the season usually starts around the last week of March. Let’s hope the returning champs can repeat their success from last season.

From Friday, Feb. 21 to Saturday, Feb. 22, Brock University hosted the U Sports national championships for wrestling. Competing in the tournament were Cascades’ Jason Bains, Karan Dhillon, Calista Espinosa, Ali Rahguzar, and Amarvir Atwal.

On the first day of the competition, Bains, Cascades’ 100 kg weight class wrestler, was able to grab three wins, without a loss. Similarly, Dhillon went 3-0 in the 90 kg weight class. With no losses on the first day, both Bains and Dhillon qualified for the championship match.

Also on Friday, Espinosa, Rahguzar, and Amarvir attempted to move to the championship match in their weight classes. With a record of 2-1, Espinosa, UFV’s only female competitor, and Rahguzar, UFV’s men’s 68 kg wrestler, were both placed in the bronze medal game on Saturday. Atwal’s record in the 76 kg weight class placed him in the fifth-sixth placing match on Saturday.

On the second day of the tournament, Bains was paired up against Clayton Pye from Brock University. While Bains fought hard in the championship match, Pye seemed determined to represent his

university on home soil. Eventually Pye took the match by technical fall, with a score of 11-0.

Dhillon too was unsuccessful in his championship match. In his final match, Dhillon was also unable to find a point, with a score of 11-0 for his opponent, Hunter Lee. Although Espinosa and Rahguzar did not qualify for the championship match, both wrestlers still came out of the tournament with a medal. Espinosa won bronze in her final match, with a decision win over Concordia’s Kaleigh Prieur, while Rahguzar won in a 4-4 decision against Alberta’s Devan Larkin.

Unfortunately for second-year Amarvir Atwal, he was the only Cascades member at the tournament that did not come home with a medal. Although he did not qualify for a medal match, Atwal finished the tournament with a strong final performance. In his final match, Atwal won with a score of 10-0, finishing fifth in the men’s 76 kg weight class.

At the end of the season, the Cascades’ strong performance was great to see for fans. Although UFV did not go home with a gold medal, they did manage to grab two silvers and two bronzes.

Ali Rahguzar. Jan. 26, 2020. (UFV Athletics)

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VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

SPORTS Men’s Basketball //

Men’s basketball continues to defy expectations

UFV Cascades Sports Scores Feb. 29 – March 1, 2020

Women’s Rugby Game/Date: UFV vs. University of Alberta / Saturday, Feb. 29 Score: UFV 5 UoA 47 Game/Date: UFV vs. UBC / Saturday, Feb. 29 Score: UFV 7 UBC 41 Game/Date: UFV vs. Trinity West / Saturday, Feb. 29 Score: UFV 7 TWU 33 Game/Date: UFV vs. Lethbridge University / Sunday, March 1 Score: UFV 0 Leth 38 Daniel Adediran. Jan. 4, 2020. (UFV Athletics)

ALEX JESUS When the 2018/19 men’s basketball season ended last year, the story was better than Cascades fans could have hoped for.

After a tough second-round playoff series against UBC that did not favour UFV, there was no doubt that the team had performed up to expectations, if not beyond them. The doubt was about the next chapter, as the Cascades lost three quality players: Mark Johnson, Navjot Bains, and Andrew Morris.

Things didn’t look that much better when fans learned that star centre Sukhman Sandhu would not be rejoining the team. 2019/20 was shaping up to be a major down year for the program.

Yet, there was one question that could change the course of the season for the Cascades: could players step up? Could new and returning players rise for the team?

The answer was yes, but the season began with as much doubt as the last season ended with. Parm Bains, UFV’s senior point guard, showed early that his offensive game was dramatically improving, as he became one of the top three-point shooters of the Canada West conference and U Sports. Senior Matt Cooley, who had

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played quietly the season prior, jumped up as the Cascades’ starting centre and began systematically altering games with skillful passing and playmaking. Cascades star senior Sukhjot Bains raised his game for the team, showing improvements in his jump shot and his confidence with the ball.

One might think that this spelled a new era for the Cascades, but eight games into the season the team was 3-5 and still looking for its identity without its previous stars. Three seniors raising their games would ultimately not be enough to return to the second round of the playoffs. However, a cold night in January would prove to be a pivotal moment for UFV. 2020 started with a weekend clash against arguably the team’s biggest rival, the UBC Thunderbirds, led by former NCAA talents Jadon Cohee and Manroop Clair. The Cascades lost their opening home match of 2020, and the future for UFV seemed bleak.

The next night, things changed. The Cascades fought tooth and nail against the Thunderbirds, battling for rebounds and maintaining the score so that they were never too far out from a shot at a win.

When Clair missed the game-winning shot for UBC and the horn sounded, the crowd burst into cheers. It was then that

the new version of the Cascades was born.

The Cascades began gathering wins and seeing big contributions from players other than the trio of star seniors. Jaskarn Bajwa, a new transfer, started to show impressive shooting skills, coming down the floor in transition and giving the Cascades a tall wing to throw the ball to. Jordyn Sekhon, a third-year player, stepped up when he started to find his rhythm offensively and improve his shot. If the question going into the season was shooting, the Cascades answered it.

Vlad Mihaila came to UFV as a first-year guard from Semiahmoo Secondary in Surrey and contributed as a rookie. His playmaking ability combined with his height of 6’4 proved valuable for the Cascades, especially since the team’s star guards Parm Bains and Vick Toor are shorter players.

The team went on to have a nine-game win streak toward the end of their 2019/20 season; however, the playoffs loomed large for the squad who had come up short a year before. This team, considered by many as less talented, shocked its supporters when it repeated the success of last season and defeated the University of Winnipeg in overtime of their first-round playoff match. A clutch shot from rising star Sekhon sent the game to overtime, where the Cascades ran away with the

Game/Date: UFV vs. UBC Okanagan / Sunday, March 1 Score: UFV 12 UBCO 19

game to add another playoff victory for Adam Friesen, the head coach of the Cascades.

Their second-round match against the reigning national champions, the Calgary Dinos, would be a very tough test, as star point guard Parm Bains was injured and could not play. UFV lost to the Dinos in a close game which signalled the end of this year’s campaign.

Those who followed the team this year learned one thing: this team is still growing and progressing. The coaching staff, the players, and the drive from the fans have shown spectators that when this team seems to go down, they rise back up. Losing Parm Bains, Matt Cooley, and Sukhjot Bains is a dramatic loss of talent for the team, but as we learned last season, hope is not lost as long as coach Friesen and this group of players continue playing and progressing for UFV.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

STUDY BREAK Crossword //

Made by Carissa Wiens

ACROSS

DOWN

1. Arthur, your favourite childhood cartoon, was this animal.

2. What parents give their children.

6. A Hawaiian flower accessory.

4. Big.

7. The middle of nowhere.

5. A biome in Africa.

3. Michael Scott fell into this type of pond.

8. Use a Q-tip to get this out of your ear.

9. An artist’s tool.

10. Another word for when a spaceship takes off.

11. The piece of furniture Ross tells Rachel she needs to “PIVOT.” 12. An epic poem by Homer.

LAST ISSUE’S

ANSWERS: Across: 3. Rim 5. Tax 6. Eject 8. Thankyou 10. Romantic 12. Net 13. Health

Down: 1. Orca 2. Brie 4. Nun 7. Council 9. March 11. Oath

Snakes and Lizards

Horoscopes //

Illustration by Elyssa English Your weekly life predictions as told by Ang the Great

Aries — Mar 21 to Apr 19 Spice things up this week! Get moving! Get shaking! Things in your life have been far too dull for far too long. Turn your monochromic life into a vibrant, saturated wonderland.

Taurus — Apr 20 to May 20 Things will really start to heat up in your relationship this week. You will discover new sides of each other you have never seen before, and you will love it! Your love for your significant other will feel new, fresh, and more exciting than ever!

Gemini — May 21 to Jun 20 You will discover a new-found independence this week and feel brave enough to take on new challenges you have been too afraid to face before. You will do great as long as you keep up the confidence and trust your intuition.

Cancer —Jun 21 to Jul 22 An unexpected payment will have to be made this week. A bill may be much larger than you expected, or perhaps a minor accident could put a dent in your bank account. Learn from situations like this by setting up an emergency fund in the future.

Leo — Jul 23 to Aug 22 The smallest, slightest annoyance will cause a major fight with your partner this week.

However, this fight did not spring up out of nowhere, but is rooted in deeper issues that have yet to be resolved.

Sagittarius — Nov 22 to Dec 21 Many people will approach you this week in an attempt to win your affections. While most of them are genuine and kind-hearted, there are a few you must steer clear from. Be discerning and on guard.

Virgo —Aug 23 to Sep 22 You will need to rely on others this week to do something very important for you. This is a foreign concept for you, and you will have a hard time trusting them to do it right.

Nonetheless, you must give up the reigns and allow them to have control.

Capricorn — Dec 22 to Jan 19 You are a light to everyone around you, a source of joy, a wellspring of peace. Your cheerful attitude will win the favour of someone with great power, and this person will give you the resources you need to complete a very important task.

Libra — Sep 23 to Oct 22 You may be tempted to make a large purchase this week that you know very well you cannot afford. Steer clear of this common temptation that enters your life far too often.

Remind yourself how broke you are before you tap that card.

Aquarius — Jan 20 to Feb 18 Times have been tough lately, but keep your chin up! This is just a rough patch in your life, and all your troubles will soon pass. You will once again find joy in the little things, and your heart will not be overwhelmed by sorrow.

Scorpio — Oct 23 to Nov 21 You have options. You have so many options.

So don’t get stuck in a rut thinking that there is just one path you should take, when in fact there are many paths that will be equally beneficial to you. Keep an open mind.

Pisces — Feb 19 to Mar 20 You need to make a decision this week. It will feel like life is pulling you in two different directions, and you will need to have your wits about you to make some important choices. Trust your gut and think about your long-term goals.

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

ARTS ARTS

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

arts@ufvcascade.ca Chandy Dancey — Arts Editor

Netflix //

CHARTS

SHUFFLE

1 Woolworm

AARON LEVY

2 Dead Soft

4 nêhiyawak

CIVL Station Manager Aaron Levy is pretty deep in the dumps these days. In honour of that, give a friend a hug, and tell them about something good they do that they might not hear as often as they should, and also check out these chronologically increasingly sad songs!

5

Non La Not In Love

Elton John - “Sad Songs (Say So Much)”

6

Becky Ninkovic Woe

7

Dixie Alley 719

8

Psychic Void Skeleton Paradise

Elton is a genius, and while some people may think that he’s too show, not enough go, and others just don’t know what good music sounds like, most of that has to do with the fact that I can’t write a complete sentence, at least not for the time being!

9

Bhura Rosebuds 2

Greet Death - “You’re Gonna Hate What You’ve Done”

Awe

Big Blue

3 Grimes

Miss Anthropocene Nipiy

Tame Impala The Slow Rush

11

Begonia Fear

12

Walrus Cool to Who

13

JOYFULTALK A Separation Of Being

14

The Avalanches Disguise” We Will Always Love You feat. Blood Orange (Single) “You’ve got the perfect dis-

15

Cartel Madras Age Of The Goonda

16

Nap Eyes So Tired (Single)

17

Corridor Junior

19 20

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A long — wait for it, because I’m about to use two of the most over-utilized words in the English language according to fake statistics drawn up about this very column — SPRAWLING near-torch song that is self-aware as much as it is pessimistic to a point somewhere near what resembles nihilism.

Modest Mouse - “Perfect

guise, and you’re lookin’ okay / From the bottom of the best to the worst, well what can I say? / ‘Cause you cocked your head to shoot me down / and I don’t give a damn about you or this town, no more / No, but I know the score.”

Modest Mouse - “Make Everyone Happy/MeMitch Webb and the chanical Birds” Swindles Fantastico

Horse Girl uses dreams and hallucinations to explore mental illness

SAD PANDA

10

18

To sleep, perchance to dream

“... said you shouldn’t make facts out of opinions / He said Common Holly that I was right / You’re right, When I Say to You Black I knew that I was / … / And I said you can’t make everyLightning body happy / He said you’d like to at least make yourself RIIT happy though / I’m not sure Ataataga who I am / I’m not sure who I am but I know who I’ve been.”

CHANDY DANCEY Horse Girl is a psychological drama that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival at the end of January, and premiered on Netflix in early February. The first half of the movie lulls viewers into a fall sense of security: the protagonist Sarah spends her time visiting her childhood horse, going to Zumba classes, watching supernatural crime shows, and awkwardly talking to a love interest. Unexpectedly, what quickly follows are a series of strange dreams, loss of time, and manifestations of mental illness.

While the plot line heavily involves Sarah’s descent into mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, it does so empathetically. Mental health workers let her know they believe her while also trying to help her recover from hallucinations, and viewers are never comforted that their reality is the objective truth. The movie forces the viewer to question what’s real and what’s not, never committing to making Sarah’s beliefs completely baseless. In the process, it confronts its audience with the stark truth: Sarah could be anyone, and what she experiences is real to her.

The director, Jeff Baena, emphasized in an interview with the radio show KCRW: “It's really dismissive just to say, ‘Oh they’re just crazy.’ Because they're an actual person. They're experiencing life like you are. … And to judge those people and basically write them off as being crazy, I think is sort of doing a massive disservice and … counting them out as people.”

Additionally, Sarah is a multidimensional character who isn’t deprived of moments of lightness or joy. Even in her deepest bout of derealization, she meets people she loves and experiences happiness and comfort. Her journey with mental illness isn’t presented as a constant fearbased experience, and this is an important part of representing people with mental illness — especially one as stigmatized as schizophrenia.

This awareness and empathy in the film is refreshing. Media often associates schizophrenia with unpredictable and violent behaviour, giving the impression that those with the mental illness are dangerous to others.

This is far from the truth. Those with serious mental illnesses are more likely to be victims of violent acts rather than perpetrators. Although, Horse Girl can be criticized for dramatizing mental illness since it focuses heavily on visual hallucinations. Those with schizophrenia more commonly experience symptoms like auditory hallucinations and avolition, a lack of motivation to engage in selfdirected activities.

The film was co-written by Alison Brie, the actress who plays Sarah, whose own grandmother struggled with paranoid schizophrenia and depression.

The movie helped her explore the fear of having a genetic predisposition to mental illness and seeing it manifest in her bouts of depression. Although Sarah’s arc is personal to Brie, what she goes through is relatable in that it’s universally terrifying to be unable to trust your own perception of the world.

The performance by Brie as

Sarah stands out as exceptional.

Her commitment to the role and all the dynamics of Sarah’s confusion, fear, and mania do her character justice and sell the film as a whole. The script was purposefully written as a detailed outline, allowing for the actors to improvise most of the dialogue. This lends a hand in making characters seem genuine and believable, further contributing to the uneasiness that comes with how much Sarah believes her reality even when it begins to break down.

Colour and sound are two elements that heavily contribute to the atmosphere of the film in subtle ways. While Sarah blinks, confused at how she stepped out of the shower and into a crafts store, there is stark silence. Other times, dissonant, electronic notes loop continuously. At times when she has the most clarity, scenes take on a sobering blue tone in regards to lighting, outfits, and backdrop.

But when Sarah slips into a dissociation of reality, the world is a wash of peach, a colour she’s told by another character has protective energy.

Despite the title, the movie doesn’t excessively feature horses. Instead it focuses on the archetype of the horse girl: a mysterious female character who is disconnected from others, lost in her own world. For Sarah, her seemingly normal life turns into a surreal experience where she spirals into paranoia and hallucinations, but it’s one that nonetheless empathizes with her struggle in a powerful way and forces viewers to understand her world.

VOL. 28 // ISSUE 08

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020

ARTS Podcast //

Lets talk about love Andrea Loves Everybody is a lesson in love and empathy NICHOLAS ASHENHURSTTOEWS In her podcast, Andrea Loves Everybody, Los Angeles-based comedian and artist Andrea Guzzetta talks to various guests about their experiences with dating and love. Over the limited 38-episode run, Guzzetta talks to a wide variety of people, each of them with their own unique view on love. Through this format, a conversation is formed allowing for topics, both light and heavy, to be discussed in an open, honest way. Guzzetta manages to approach each topic with a brilliant enthusiasm and a genuine interest in learning to better understand her friends, family members, and fellow comedians.

Episodes can range from about 40 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on the topic of discussion and the guest.

Many of Guzzetta’s guests are comedians, which can occasionally lead to jokes about individual traumas and experiences. In this way, the show is not for everyone, as some people may be uncomfortable with some of the jokes made.

Album //

There are serious discussions on serious topics, and it’s recommended to be cautious when going into an episode that you think might have overwhelming content.

The conversations contained in this podcast are some of the most fascinating, as Guzzetta tries to go as in depth as possible into every given topic.

The topics on this show also have a huge range. While it always comes back to love, each guest is able to share their unique perspective and struggles with the concept. And not all the conversations in that episode are beholden to any given topic. It feels very much like you’ve been invited to a friendly gathering, which can make some of the more intense topics discussed a little more manageable.

Topics range from polyamory to how religion factors into dating, and to how mental health, traumatic childhoods, addiction, or homelessness can factor into a relationship. Guzzetta also discusses kink and fetishization, talks to her parents about their relationship, and has a very difficult but enlightening conversation with a friend about how her health journey with her mutated BRCA2 gene, a gene that increases the risk of breast and ovarian

cancer, affected her relationship. She talks to people about how race, gender, and sexuality affect whom and how they date.

This podcast is so fantastic for allowing access to such a wide range of people, opinions, and experiences. As someone who finds the entire notion of sex and relationships quite baffling, it’s invaluable to hear how other people interact with it. After listening to it, I feel more ready to engage with questions of love with myself. This podcast thrives in showing that the ways people love can be vastly different but still beautiful. It’s also nice to hear so many people talk about how trauma can affect relationships, and the ongoing conversation with people about codependency has led me to recognize my own patterns in close relationships.

This is a podcast I want to recommend

Full circle, Barbara

to anybody who thinks they are able to listen to it because of how much empathy and understanding it can foster in an individual. With the wide range of topics discussed, everyone can learn something from Andrea and her friends.

...Book Online and Save 5%!

Trixie Mattel’s pop album debut takes her back to basics MIKAELA COLLINS After testing the beach pop waters with her single, “Yellow Cloud” in 2019, Trixie Mattel released her third studio album, Barbara, on Feb. 7.

With an A-side reminiscent of ‘60s beach music and ‘90s pop groups like Sixpence None the Richer, Barbara is an incredibly polished foray into a new genre that feels like a natural next step for Mattel’s Malibu Barbie aesthetic and persona. Mattel, now accompanied by a full band, blends acoustic guitar, electric instrumentation, kicky drum beats, and catchy vocal stings to make a sunny, sugary road trip playlist. If the Hannah Montana theme song grew up, got a degree in political science, and then went back to its music career because it was more fun, Barbara is what it would sound like.

In an interview with Paper Magazine, Mattel said that she went (literally) back to the drawing board, looking for inspiration in concept sketches for Trixie from 10 years ago. Mattel originally performed the country music she’s known for under her legal name, Brian Firkus, but took advantage of her Drag Race fame by integrating her music and drag careers; her first two albums, Two Birds and One Stone, were pure country and folk, complete with autoharps, plaintive violins, and poetic lyrics. Both featured Trixie and Brian on their album art — but Barbara has just Trixie, signalling a return to basics for Mattel’s drag character and the synthesis of a 10-year career for Mattel as

a performer.

Mattel’s evocative songwriting is far from wasted on pop music: her jokey ballad to Jesse Eisenberg, “Jesse Jesse,” is bursting with playful allusions and turns of phrase, and is as clever as Mattel’s best country tracks. But it’s clear that at this stage of her pop career, Mattel is experimenting more with sound and feeling.

“We Got The Look” is uncharacteristically edgy but flippantly fun, and the entire album feels more relaxed and comfortable than Two Birds and One Stone.

However, it doesn’t seem like Mattel is saying goodbye to country music; Barbara’s B-side features folk fare more familiar to Mattel’s fans. However, the two halves make a seamless, cohesive whole, as these tracks are breezier and more lighthearted than many songs from Mattel’s previous two albums. The final song on the album is a cover of Lavender Country’s 1973 song, “I Can’t Shake the Stranger Out of You,” listed as simply “Stranger.” The original singer Patrick Haggerty, a pioneer of queer country music, helped with its recording, even holding Mattel’s hand in the recording booth, and it’s Barbara’s emotional crown jewel.

Mattel’s newest album is expertly crafted. While lacking the density of heavy-hitters that her first two albums had, Barbara represents a compelling transition for Mattel, whose emerging pop sound already feels complete and distinct. Barbara is a great album, a synthesis, a transition, and a character study all in one.

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Note:

Some of these events require tickets, most are on Facebook. If something catches your eye, take to the internet for more details.

• Record Steward Introduction Session @ UFV (Abbotsford) K151, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

• Woof Woof Wednesday @ UFV (Chilliwack) Building A Atrium, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

• UFV Theatre and UFV School of Creative Arts Ashland Speaker: Jivesh Parasram @ UFV (Abbotsford) D105, 1:00 – 5:30 p.m.

• Long Night Against Procrastination @ UFV (Abbotsford) Building G, 5:00 – 11:59 p.m.

• Long Night Against Procrastination @ UFV (Chilliwack) Building A, 3:00 – 10:00 p.m.

• Improv Night @ UFV (Abbotsford) D123, 6:10 – 8:20 p.m.

• Indian Cinema and Shakespeare: Maqbool (adaptation of Macbeth) @ UFV (Abbotsford) B101, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

• Open Mic Night @ Trading Post Brewery and Tasting Room, 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

• Live music @ S+L Abbotsford, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

• Rewire Your Brain for Change @ Tractorgrease Cafe, 7:00 – 8:15 p.m.

• Sumas Mountain Film Festival @ Matsqui Centennial Auditorium, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.

• Intercultural Fluency @ UFV (Abbotsford) A225, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

• Argument Management Workshop @ UFV (Abbotsford) K173, 4:00 – 7:00 p.m.

• “Because We Are Girls” first screening @ UFV (Abbotsford) B101, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

• “Because We Are Girls” second screening @ UFV (Abbotsford) B101, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

• Open Education Check-Up: How Are We Doing At UFV? @ UFV (Abbotsford) G171g, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

• Talking About Teaching: Team Teaching @ UFV (Abbotsford) C1425, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.

• President’s Leadership Lecture Series: International Women’s Day @ UFV (Abbotsford) Evered Hall, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.

• Live music @ Trading Post Brewery and Tasting Room, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.

• Friday Open Mic @ Tractorgrease Cafe, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.

• Karaoke Fridays @ Captain’s Cabin Pub, 8:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.

• Art-Making for Newcomers to Canada @ The Reach, 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.

• Geoff Berner @ Tractorgrease Cafe, 7:00 – 10:00 p.m.

• Bend & Brew @ Dead Frog Brewery, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

• Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon @ The Reach, 12:00 – 4:00 p.m.

• Grad Photo Sessions @ UFV (Abbotsford) Lot 10 outside SUB, 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.

• Paws for a Break @ UFV (Chilliwack), Trades and Technology Centre, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

• Mad Monday Challenges @ UFV (Abbotsford) U-House, 12:00 – 7:00 p.m.

• Record Steward Introduction Session @ UFV (Abbotsford) A225, 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.

• Indigenizing Forum Theatre: Interactive talk with Dr. Cindy Jardine @ UFV (Abbotsford) B101, 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

• Youth Open Stage @ The Railyard, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

• Grad Photo Sessions @ UFV (Abbotsford) Lot 10 outside SUB, 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.

• Community Lunch @ UFV (Abbotsford) S1111, 11:30 a.m – 1:00 p.m.

• Mindfulness Mini-Series @ UFV (Abbotsford) U-House, 12:15 – 12:45 p.m.

• Live Music @ Trading Post Eatery Fort Langley, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

• Live Music @ Trading Post Eatery Abbotsford, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

• Grad Photo Sessions @ UFV (Abbotsford) Lot 10 outside SUB, 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.

• Woof Woof Wednesday @ UFV (Chilliwack) Building A Atrium, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

• Mindfulness Mini-Series @ UFV (Abbotsford) S1111, 12:15 – 12:45 p.m.

• Mid-Semester Motivator @ UFV (Abbotsford) Student Life Lounge, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

• Record Steward Introduction Session @ UFV (Chilliwack) A2426, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

• Indian Cinema and Shakespeare: Haider @ UFV (Abbotsford) B101, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

• Improv Night @ UFV (Abbotsford) D123, 6:10 – 8:20 p.m.

• Live music @ S+L Abbotsford, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

• Open Mic Night @ Trading Post Brewery and Tasting Room, 6:30 – 9:30 p.m.

• Richard III by William Shakespeare @ UFV (Abbotsford) D105, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.