THE KEEPIN’ IT WAVY ISSUE
Published since Nov. 21, 1910 Circulation: 3,500 ISSN 0845-356X Suite 3-04 8900 114 St. NW University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2J7 Advertising www.f-media.ca Cover Photo Amanda Rooney
OCTOBER 2018
Editor-in-Chief Arts & Culture Editor Oumar Salifou Jonah Dunch Managing Editor Sofia Osborne
Opinion Editor Andrew McWhinney
GSJS The Gateway is published by the Gateway Student Journalism Society (GSJS), a student-run, autonomous, apolitical not-for-profit organization, operated in accordance with the Societies Act of Alberta.
Art Director Staff Reporters Jessica Tang Calvin Chan Adam Lachacz Photo Editor Richard Bagan Director of Finance & Administration Online Editor Lukas Adomonis Victoria Chiu Webmaster News Editor Papa Gyeke-Lartey Nathan Fung
Copyright All materials appearing in The Gateway bear copyright of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent.
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TS N E D U T AS T R E B L A R ALL U
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AR C E N O D ALI ITH A V
PAINTING JULIET MORSE, “LOOK WHAT I MADE TODAY”
DEAR READER, How do you do an October issue that isn’t just Halloween-themed? After countless articles about haunted spots on campus and professors who study witchcraft, we wanted to do something different this year. We thought of making the magazine full of weird, surreal pieces, and you’ll see that reflected in some of the art and topics we explore in this issue. But as content came in, we started to get more grungy vibes. While September was the peppy, school-spirited first year, October is the jaded fifth year who goes to underground punk concerts, smokes weed, and just wishes it could be summer again. As you can see, the design for this issue shifted as well, with type manipulation and patterned shapes. These artistic choices and the feeling we curated inspired us to call this month’s magazine the “keepin’ it wavy” issue. This month, we’re also bringing forward even more student work, ranging from traditional mediums like painting and sculpture to digital mediums like photography and illustration. We’re excited to continue showcasing so much great writing, art, photography, and design in the magazine this year. g Keep it wavy, Sofia Osborne Managing Editor
Jessica Tang Art Director
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ILLUSTRATION DELIA CORMIER, “BURDENS”
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What to Watch Check out our picks for Edmonton’s
REQUIRED READING
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Picking the (Slight) Brains
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Throwback
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Double Portrait
performing arts season.
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Playing the Hand You’re Dealt
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Being and Academia
Read about one of our writer’s experience with tarot cards.
Realize that university is really kind of absurd.
Meet a local punk band that’s shaking up the music scene.
Get immersed in photos from summer that will remind you of a warmer, better time.
Check out these haunting student submissions.
Student Admission: $10 ($8 Matinée) Metro Cinema is a community-based non-profit society devoted to the exhibition and promotion of Canadian, international, and independent film and video. metrocinema.org Mandy
OCT 6 @ 11:30PM, OCT 12 - 18 Mandy is set in the primal wilderness of 1983 where Red Miller, a broken and haunted man hunts an unhinged religious sect who slaughtered the love of his life.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
OCT 20 @ MIDNIGHT, Oct 26 & 27 @ 10PM A newly engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must pay a call to the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Audience participation is encouraged. Dress up, bring props, and sing along! Tickets: $16.
5th Annual Halloween Mash
OCT 31 @ 7PM & 9PM
Once again Metro Cinema invites you to join us for a spooky Halloween night celebration. This time around we are presenting a pair of 3D classics, Creature from The Black Lagoon (1954) & House of Wax (1953), along with vintage cartoons. Both films for $13, 3D glasses included!
Metro Cinema at the Garneau 8712-109 Street | metrocinema.org
Metro Cinema receives ongoing support from these Arts Funders:
FEATURES Cannabis on Campus Find out how students will be affected when weed becomes legal on October 17.
Panacea Strap on your virtual reality headset and play.
DIVERSIONS Horoscopes Find out what October has in store for you.
Crossword Fill in the spooky blanks.
Comics Face your fears with Goblin and Mung.
C OnTri KHADRA AHMED
DAHLIA EUN
“Playing the Hand You’re Dealt” Khadra is a third-year science student who has been writing for The Gateway for over a year. She's a Halloween fanatic and will probably use the time she should be studying for midterms to watch Halloweentown, eat candy meant for trick-ortreaters, and put together the perfect costume (that she won’t wear to lectures).
“Mung” Dahlia is an aspiring artist in the fourth year of her BFA, focused on painting and intermedia art. She perceives herself to be a sentimental person, and is currently learning to love the people that she cares about the best she can. She hopes to comfort people through her art.
SHELBY CARLETON “Panacea” Shelby is a fourth-year English major who loves video games, writing, and writing for video games. When she’s not playing Ori and the Blind Forest, she’s hanging out with the person she loves most while writing books about the end of the world.
DELIA CORMIER “Burdens” Delia is a third-year visual communications design student. Her piece, “Burdens,” explores the idea of life’s troubles being in fact light and temporary, and invites viewers to ponder this seemingly odd spiritual concept and find a seed of hope in it. It is inspired by the biblical passage 2 Corinthians 4:17.
RILEY ELLIS Horoscopes and Crossword Riley is a third-year double major in biology and chemistry, but he plans to switch into the faculty of horoscope-writing this month. He likes long walks in the rain, spicy food, shorts, low-quality jokes, and validation.
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MIKELIE JOHNSTON Aquatic Sculpture Bust Mikelie is a fourth-year education student, majoring in art. Her piece for this issue was intended to be a classic portrait bust in an introductory sculpture class, but it quickly morphed into a trypophobic, aquatic creature. She drew inspiration for this piece from creature design in monster/horror films, another obsession of hers.
ABBY LACSON “Throwback” Abby is a third-year mechanical engineering student who enjoys making video edits, taking spontaneous trips to the mountains, penny boarding literally everywhere, and sneaking ice cream between classes. She loves spending time with friends and family but also works hard on campus with the rocketry team and school.
NINA LEGESSE “Picking the (Slight) Brains” Nina is a fourth-year English major and film studies minor whose contributions to The Gateway’s Arts & Culture section include reviews of local talent and entertainment. Nina is passionate about genredefying music and ruining fun things for people with unsolicited over-analysis.
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JULIET MORSE
STEPHEN RAITZ
“Look What I Made Today” Juliet is in her fourth year of her BFA in painting and intermedia. Much of her work employs humorous narratives and incorporates her own childhood artwork. In her painting, Juliet highlights the freespirited, innocent, and unrestrained qualities of children’s drawing by transforming a number of her own childhood drawings into one large-scale, mixedmedia painting which includes acrylic, paper, glue, glitter, felt marker, and pastel.
“Throwback” Stephen is a fifth-year urban planning student whose mischievous raccoon-like mind and slender greyhound-like figure mean he’s pretty much unstoppable. He’s a big fan of backyard raspberries, year-round cycling, and wintertime soups. He also just wants to remind everyone that life’s candy and the sun’s a ball of butter.
HALEY ONUOHA “Weird” Haley is a second-year psychology major who spends most of her time drinking coffee and watching true crime documentaries. She spent two years as a freelance photographer while living in Texas, shooting senior portraits and the occasional wedding. “Weird” is her first attempt at a double exposure and one of her favourite photos, taken and edited in a train station in Dallas.
ANDRÉS PALOMINO “Throwback” Andrés is a fourth-year industrial design student and the director of the Student Design Association (SDA). He enjoys taking mornings slow, cooking for his friends, and finding the time to draw something a little strange. Andrés is super snobby about music and makes it a rule of thumb to always opt out of group chats.
AMANDA ROONEY “Throwback” Amanda is a fourth-year environmental studies student with a love of food and dogs. You might spy her stomping across campus while listening to music that makes her feel like a badass, but don’t be fooled — she doesn’t bite. She's super silly and dabbles in rock climbing and radio.
ALEXANDER VINCENT “Panacea” and “Puppet Master” Alex is a fourth-year BFA student. He has a background in video game development and pixel art. For the design of this feature, he transferred user interface practices onto paper. He aims to continue the Goblin comic throughout the year.
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A preview of Edmonton’s performing arts season. TEXT JONAH DUNCH VISUALS JESSICA TANG From quirky comedies to cutting-edge multimedia dance shows, Edmonton’s 2018-19 performing arts season is full of opportunities to escape the confines of campus. Whether you’re looking for lighthearted improv or incisive feminist critique, we’ve got you covered. Check out some of our top picks below.
Citadel Theatre
Northern Light Theatre
The Candidate and The Party March 30 – April 21, 2019 The Citadel’s season highlight is Kat Sandler’s The Candidate and The Party, a pair of political comedies featuring the same cast and characters, fictionally set months apart, but actually staged simultaneously. Throughout the evening, the actors will be running back and forth between two of the Citadel’s venues to play their parts in both shows.
Origin of the Species October 12 – 27, 2018 With the theme “A Woman’s Body,” Northern Light’s season examines “the physical, psychological and emotional violence inflicted on women.” In the season opener, Origin of the Species, a four-million-year-old female body comes to life when archaeologist Molly kisses her on the lips. Hijinks ensue when Molly smuggles the primordial “Victoria” back to England in Byrony Laverly’s quirky and critical feminist comedy.
Theatre Network The Empress & the Prime Minister April 16 – May 15, 2019 Housed in The Roxy on Gateway, Theatre Network’s 44th season is full of “stories of perseverance over ignorance.” Our top pick is Darrin Hagen’s The Empress & the Prime Minister, which tells the story of the nation-changing connection between thenMinister of Justice Pierre Trudeau and drag queen ted northe, on the 50th anniversary of Canada’s decriminalization of homosexuality.
U of A Studio Theatre Lenin’s Embalmers October 11 – 20, 2018 Featuring the work of drama faculty members, BFA and MFA students, and theatre professionals, Studio Theatre offers classic and contemporary drama in the Timms Centre for the Arts. Lenin’s Embalmers, written by MFA playwriting alumnus Vern Thiessen and directed by MFA directing candidate Alex Donovan, depicts the foibles of two scientists tasked with embalming the Soviet leader’s remains.
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Fringe Theatre Lake of the Strangers January 22 – February 2, 2019 During the school year, the Arts Barns house Fringe Theatre’s “spotlights.” In January, U of A BFA acting alumnus Hunter Cardinal’s new play, Lake of the Strangers, invites the audience on “a journey of two brothers finding each other and themselves” in a drama inspired by Nehiyaw mythology.
Mile Zero Dance Digital Folk November 8 – 9, 2018 Presenting avant-garde dance, interdisciplinary performance, and experimental movement art, MZD’s season invites national and international artists to bring the artistic cutting edge to Edmonton. In November, Vancouver-based company Plastic Orchard Factory will erect Digital Folk — an art installation combining elements of interactive dance, music, costume parties, and video games — in the movement arts company’s Spazio Performativo.
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Shadow Theatre
Ballet Edmonton
Miss Teen January 23 – February 10, 2019 In a season of daring tragicomedy presented in the Varscona Theatre, Shadow Theatre’s season highlight is the world premiere of Michele Riml’s Miss Teen, an incisive comedy about class warfare and family relationships on the battleground of a teen beauty pageant — featuring a cast of U of A alumni.
I’m Still Here March 1 – 3, 2019 Formerly known as Citie Ballet, U of A students may have seen Ballet Edmonton’s advertisement at the HUB entrance to the university LRT station. In March, the company is producing I’m Still Here in Allard Hall’s Triffo Theatre, a double bill of innovative new work by young Alberta-born choreographers Joshua Beamish (who has choreographed for the U of A) and Shay Kuebler.
L’Unithéâtre Ma Irma November 21 – 24, 2018 In La Cité Francophone, French-language theatre company L’Unithéâtre is presenting Ma Irma, a heartfelt one-woman tragicomedy about a young woman exploring the death of her mother. Anglophones, have no fear: the production will project English-language surtitles (captions above the stage) on all but one of the performances.
Alberta Ballet de.Vi.ate February 22 – 23, 2019 For many readers, the word “ballet” may conjure images of tutus and tights, but Alberta Opera’s de.Vi.ate promises “two hours of cutting edge, high octane choreography wrapped in riveting multimedia spectacle” at the Jubilee Auditorium. The triple bill program will feature powerful, athletic dancing alongside futuristic projection design inspired by the march of technology and video game aesthetics.
Workshop West Playwright’s Theatre Matara November 28 – December 9, 2018 Workshop West’s 40th anniversary season features the world premiere of U of A MFA playwriting alumna Conni Massing’s Matara, which tells the story of an elephant keeper, a security guard, and a marketing executive burdened with fateful choices when a city zoo floods, placing the life of its star elephant in peril.
Edmonton Opera The Misadventures of Count Ory April 6, 9, 12, 2019 Though a night at the opera may seem daunting to undergrads, U of A students should feel at home watching Edmonton Opera’s production of Rossini’s The Misadventures of Count Ory, a raucous comedy featuring messy drama and wacky hijinks. The production stars tenor John Tessier, an assistant professor in the U of A’s department of music. g
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UnRAVELLING THE ENIGMA OF TAROT CARDS. TEXT KHADRA AHMED ILLUSTRATION JESSICA TANG
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When I think of predicting the future, I picture Raven-Symoné from That’s So Raven making a funny face as she has a vision. Watching that show each Saturday, I convinced myself that every bout of déjà vu I had was me channeling my inner Raven. I knew it wasn’t possible, but deep down I also wanted to know what fate had in store for me. Eventually the show ended, and I grew up no longer entertaining that fantasy. I first dealt with tarot cards the summer I worked in a cell biology lab. It felt ironic to practice tarot while I was delving into the world of science — one of tarot’s biggest critics. Despite my appreciation for the scientific method, the encounter intrigued me and I was motivated to reach out to my longtime friend Emma Williams, a third-year education student and seasoned tarot card reader. At 16, Williams learned how to read the cards from her mother Lloy, who herself has over 30 years of experience. Beginning in 15th-century Europe as a card game, tarot gained its current use as a divination tool in the 18th century. Working best with yes or no questions, tarot can be read for multiple situations: major life decisions, relationships, and overall views on the year. Tarot cards are broken up into two groups: the major and minor arcana. The major arcana are the main and most powerful cards, often addressing an overarching theme in your life. The minor arcana cover smaller circumstances, often dealing with day-to-day feelings. Similar to modern playing
cards, the minor arcana are made up of four suits: cups, wands, pentacles, and swords. Williams explained that cups often convey positivity, wands usually represent wisdom and being a student of life, pentacles address the material world, and swords indicate more negative situations.
period will be extremely challenging, but luckily my second semester will be a breeze. The dreaded tower card represents an unexpected disaster in May, but because most cards drawn were positive, Lloy believes it won’t ruin my year and I’ll finish it with a sense of achievement.
“I think a bit of healthy skepticism is always good, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to base your whole life around tarot cards.” When it comes down to actually reading the cards, Williams believes tarot is based on channeling your intuition. She told me that while shuffling, the reader focuses their energy on the question at hand and the cards feel it. Once the cards are drawn, it’s up to your intuition to read them correctly. “The cards are always right, but it’s how you interpret them that becomes the intuition part,” Williams said. “So if I’m wrong it’s my fault, not the cards'.” I asked Williams for a reading, but she offered me one better — she got her highly experienced mother to take a glimpse into my future instead. We sat ourselves at their dining room table as Lloy unwrapped the cards from a pink handkerchief and began shuffling them with a silent intensity. We started with my year reading. When a card depicting a tower was drawn, Williams and her mother let out a palpable gasp, but said nothing. According to the cards, my year will play out like a roller coaster with some really high and low moments. Apparently, the first exam
Now for the spicy part: my love life. Thankfully, this reading was void of any tower cards. Lloy believes my next partner will be a fellow university student I already know. Once we hit it off, the cards say it’ll be a fun relationship and we’ll travel somewhere cool together. Though aspects of my reading were spot on, it’s no secret that tarot has quite a few skeptics. Surprisingly, Williams isn’t bothered by the critics, and instead welcomes the suspicion. “I think a bit of healthy skepticism is always good, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to base your whole life around tarot cards,” she said. “I think that can be dangerous. Plus, reading cards for everything takes all the excitement out of life.” Williams advises novice tarot readers not to take the cards as gospel. “The future is still undecided and not everything is set in stone the moment you’re born,” she said. “I like to think it’s written in pencil and can be erased.” g
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ISN’T UNIVERSITY ABSURD? TEXT ANDREW MCWHINNEY ILLUSTRATION JESSICA TANG Sometimes the menial things in life can be the most surreal. As university students, we engage in pretty regular routines. We go to class, sit in lectures with hundreds of other students, study for midterms and finals, and write lab reports and papers. All that good, traditional university stuff. We think we do these things because there’s some kind of inherent purpose to them; they’re supposed to prepare us for a career, or help us learn fundamental truths about our world. These everyday realities of student life, however, may be a little more sinister — a little more absurd — than we might take them for. A cheery band of philosophers known as the existentialists — whose members include Søren Kierkegaard, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre — believe that human life, the act of living, is a completely arbitrary happenstance. For an existentialist, there is no such thing as destiny or fate, and there is no predetermined meaning to life. Instead, any individual is free to create their own meaning, and in doing so, resolve their burning
desires for an inherent purpose to their lives. Another existentialist, Albert Camus, had a very particular view on this lack of meaning. For him, the very act of seeking inherent value and meaning is completely irrational, as the universe is void of any purpose. When a person attempts to find clarity and unity in our fundamentally chaotic and meaningless universe, they may encounter the Absurd: the realization that one cannot create meaning out of a meaningless world. After an encounter with the Absurd, the realities of student life can be thrown into sharp relief. It seems absurd that your professor attempts to make a personal connection with you in a sea of 300 other faces. It seems absurd that you’re sitting in the library for 12 hours every day for two weeks, learning the content of a four-month course because you didn’t end up going to a single class. Hell, even the idea of attending class seems pretty damn pointless now. All of a sudden, the assumed meaning behind every menial thing collapses, leaving students washed up on a shore of confused, surreal despair.
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Everything they’ve worked for, their entire academic career, turned out to be worthless. How is anyone supposed to respond to a realization like that? Camus said there are several solutions to resolving the tension between the desire for meaning and the empty void of the universe. The first is suicide, which Camus wholly disavowed; the second is a leap of faith towards an abstract, irrational belief in something beyond the Absurd which may or may not exist, such as religious or ideological dogma; the third is to accept the Absurd and live in spite of its existence. Camus wished for people to accept the Absurd, but also to rebel against it by attempting to find beauty in life and create subjective, personal meaning for themselves. This doesn’t mean replacing the idea of the Absurd with one’s self-created meaning, but to hold the two in tandem, creating meaning from one’s own search for a greater truth.
HERE’S TO THE IRRATIONAL CHAOS OF UNIVERSITY LIFE. So while it may seem pointless to sit in a lecture for several hours a week, is it really pointless when you have the chance to make meaningful interpersonal connections? Is it really pointless when you can lie down in the middle of Quad on a summer day, absorbing the sun’s gentle rays as you feel the stress evaporate from your body? Is it really pointless when you can go for drinks with your friends after a final and celebrate your struggles and achievements? Perhaps we can find — or create — meaning in university life. That meaning may be the possibility of meeting the love of your life in a lecture; it may be reading really cool books or performing interesting experiments; it may be as simple as getting to leave your house every day and learn something new. So here’s to the irrational chaos of university life. It may all seem ridiculous and pointless, but you have the freedom to instill it with whatever meaning you want. Embrace the weirdness and embrace the freedom; ultimately, no one can stop you. g
REQUIRED READING
PICKING THE (SLIGHT) BRAINS
Members of the Edmonton punk band The Slight Brains reflect on their freshman year in the music PHOTO RICHARD BAGAN TEXT NINA LEGESSE
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scene, bleached hair, and ambitions to promote fellow up-and-comers.
REQUIRED READING
I never had much experience with punk rock. So, when I walked downstairs into the dark and denim-clad Sewing Machine Factory to watch Edmonton punk band The Slight Brains play, it felt like entering a new realm. But, in the end, I found it’s a lot friendlier than it looks. The Slight Brains can attest to this fact; they’ve returned many times to find a welcoming home for their craft. Formed in 2017, The Slight Brains consists of Braedon Acuña, a fourth-year University of Alberta philosophy major, on vocals and guitar; Eoin De Groot, in his fourth-year of film studies, on bass; Hazel Suter on vocals and bass; and Daniel Prior on drums. Like punk rock Power Rangers, they sport a trademark rainbow of mops. But their hair isn’t the only colourful thing about them. When I met the band, who lounged on a stageside couch before the show, they were warm and excited to perform alongside other local groups. “When we started playing, it just turned out that we lived, like, four blocks from each other, so it was very easy,” explained De Groot, who started jamming with Prior months before the group was fully formed. “We hang out a lot, and playing music was just how we spent our time.” Last to hit the stage, the band brought a gritty texture to the show, bathing the room with a markedly more distorted sound. Singers Suter and Acuña have a cool and effortless duet dynamic, with voices that deliver poignant, lyricized punches. Their sound is well-balanced by De Groot’s bass lines and Prior’s fast-paced rhythms. It's clear The Slight Brains enjoy the stage as much as each other’s company. Decidedly not a “surf punk” band (they exclaimed all at once), The Slight Brains found their entry into the rock scene quickly, starting at a home concert in a suburban Edmonton garage lined with Christmas lights. “Our skills on our instruments are constantly growing and changing,” said Prior, who’s only been playing drums for two years. Still brand new and finding their footing, the quartet was hungry for the stage in 2017, snagging opportunities left and right to play beyond garage walls. “We started playing shows for a fair amount of time before we put anything out,” De Groot said. “It was pretty wholesome, the way it came out.” Eventually, four out of six of their favourite tracks found a home on their debut EP, Demos from N3K House, which they used to assemble their set at The Sewing Machine Factory. Named after the house
that hosted their recordings, this EP is brimming with youthful energy, enjoying a blend of unique instrumentation and reckless lyrics. “Don’t Wanna Be (With You)” stands out with its catchy guitar riff, while the angsty “Checkin’ Out” is a toe-tapper with strong bass and vocals. Their biggest hit, “Carbon Tax Rebate Weekend” evokes the carefree relaxation of youth living in a “left-wing garbage fantasy” and proves the provincial government cheques didn’t go to waste in the pockets of The Slight Brains. “We definitely got beers,” Acuña admitted about the band’s first carbon tax rebate weekend. “We’d bought beer with the money and we were already drunk by the time we started writing it. Somebody said the words of the title out loud, then we picked up our instruments and thought, ‘This is a good idea.’” Acuña said bonding experiences like these are to thank for the band’s success in the collaboration department.
“OUR BIGGEST ADVANTAGE IS THAT WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME DRUNK TOGETHER”
As ambitious as they are, I noticed The Slight Brains are interested in more than just their own success. Through some ancillary ventures, they have plans to liven Edmonton’s rock music scene and bring fellow artists up with them. Prior’s side project centers around an open-door garage studio that gives bands the chance to create and promote. “If there’s a local band that wants to make a video, semi-professionally recorded, that’s pretty much all I’m focused on right now,” he explained. Acuña, meanwhile, funnels some creative energy into a group of artists called The Absurd Collective, which extends beyond music and into art and design. A genuine desire for collaboration and innovation is what defines the spirit of The Slight Brains. “The garage is usually locked, but always open,” Prior assured me. “Metaphorically, only,” De Groot interrupted. “Like, if it’s locked… you can’t actually get into it.” g
REQUIRED READING
THROWBACK: This summer, we gave four students disposable cameras to document their lives. Here are their photos.
ABBY LACSON
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REQUIRED READING
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REQUIRED READING
ANDRÉS PALOMINO
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REQUIRED READING
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FEATURES
HEALTH WARNING: This article contains content that may be triggering for some readers.
TEXT OUMAR SALIFOU PHOTOS RICHARD BAGAN
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FEATURES
As I walked into the home of Ethan Drory and Tyra Banda, I was immediately greeted by the familiar smell of weed. Banda, a third-year drama student at the University of Alberta, and Drory, a former English major who now studies digital production at Pixel Blue College, share a house off-campus with another roommate who doesn’t usually smoke. While an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race played silently in the background, Drory rolled a joint on the coffee table and started telling me about his first time smoking weed. It was in seventh grade at the house of a friend whose mom was dating a dealer at the time. “One day when the house was empty we just went into the sock drawer, rolled a little joint, and smoked it up real quick,” he recalled. “I didn’t feel high, though; that myth was true.” Banda’s first experience with cannabis was different; she tried an edible at a party on her 20th birthday and wasn’t prepared for the strong effects it had on her. “I was supposed to go to IKEA with my mom in the morning, but I couldn’t cause I woke up still just high out of my mind,” she said. Now, Drory primarily uses cannabis in the morning and when he’s producing music, while Banda uses it to help her calm her anxiety and get to sleep. The roommates both use the same dealer. “I call it ‘Uber Weeds,’” Drory said. “You text the number and then a driver comes and drops it off at your front door, usually within the hour.” When I was visiting there was some delivery confusion since they both ordered cannabis on the same day at different times. “We get a lot of weed here,” Banda said, laughing. Drory was quick to admit that juggling academic responsibility with daily cannabis use hasn’t mixed well for him. “One time last year I felt that I smelt too much like weed and I left class,” he said. “It’s hard to get motivated to do things you don’t want to do when you’re stoned.” Banda nodded. “It’s almost a blessing and a curse,” she added. “It prevents you from doing so many things but it helps so many things at the same time.”
Cannabis holds the spot as the most widely used illicit drug in Canada and worldwide, according to the Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction. The drug has been legal for medical use since 2001
and illegally available through an active online and retail black market. On October 17, 2018, recreational cannabis will be legalized, fulfilling a campaign promise made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the 2015 election. Legalizing the drug will clear the air for new users and blaze a trail for cannabis businesses, more types of cannabis research, and further policy development, but it will also impact students, who will be able to use the drug without being criminalized. What will legalization mean for our campus? The only certainty is that nobody knows how things will develop once cannabis is legal. Under the new cannabis act, each province has been given the responsibility of establishing their own rules around public consumption, distribution and retail, workplace safety, public health and education, impaired driving, and the choice to raise the minimum age from the federal 18-year-old minimum. Alberta has adopted a public-private hybrid cannabis sale policy; people will be able to buy cannabis through approved private dispensary locations — there are over 240 applicants in the City of Edmonton’s lottery draw for cannabis licenses — but online cannabis sales will be restricted to albertacannabis.org, a website run by the Alberta Gaming, Liquor, and Cannabis Commission.
FEATURES
With legalization imminent, the U of A began planning their own policy through the creation of a cannabis working group in fall 2017. The group was tasked with creating recommendations for the university. An advisory committee, consisting of students, faculty, and staff, was also formed to help provide feedback to the working group. There were differences in opinion within the committee, with some advising tighter restrictions and others advocating for more relaxed regulations. Elaine Hyshka, an assistant professor and researcher in the school of public health, is one member of the advisory committee. Hyshka is an advocate for more liberal cannabis policies and recommended cannabis legalization in a few papers pubished during her masters in 2008. “I didn’t expect to see this, so it’s very exciting,” she said. Hyshka was first motivated to research cannabis because of discriminatory criminalization under cannabis prohibition. She said its not fair that young people who are Indigenous or African-Canadian are more likely to be criminalized for using cannabis
than a peer who is upper-middle class and white. “We do have evidence showing that those young people are far more likely to be arrested for minor cannabis possession,” she explained. Hyshka’s research now focuses on understanding how all psychoactive substance use can be approached from a public health perspective. She believes limiting the commercial promotion of cannabis, discouraging driving high, and promoting treatment for students abusing cannabis should be priorities when cannabis is legalized. “The key really is for campus — and also society and the province more wholly — to be really open to evaluating what we do in the early days and to potentially changing direction if it’s not working,” she said. The working group also heard more cautionary advice from Dr. Katherine Aitchison, who is both a professor and researcher in the department of psychiatry and an adjunct professor in the department of medical genetics. She is also the lead psychiatrist for the Edmonton Early Psychosis Intervention Clinic. Working with other department of psychiatry
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FEATURES
colleagues, Dr. Aitchison and her team investigated genetic and environmental factors that may lead to early onset of psychotic disorders, including the consumption of cannabis as a teenager. Dr. Aitchison pointed me to a document released by the Canadian Psychiatric Association in 2017 on the implications of cannabis legalization for youth and young adults that highlighted research findings on early-age cannabis use and the risk for vulnerable people to develop psychotic disorders. Factors may include things like childhood trauma, genetics, and gender — with males having an earlier age of onset. The CPA recommended limiting access to cannabis to people over the age of 21, with restrictions on quantity and THC potency for those between 21 and 25 years of age because of its potential for inducing psychosis — especially schizophrenia — and negative impact on the developing brain. Another area of concern that Dr. Aitchison noted is the second-hand smoke risks associated with cannabis. When cannabis is burned, it's thought that it may generate similar chemicals as cigarettes, she said. “Even though we don’t yet have hard and fast data about long-term associations with lung cancer, that might just be a matter of time,” she explained. Using cannabis regularly can also place people at a higher risk of accidental injury, cannabis use disorder, and respiratory effects like chronic bronchitis. According to Statistics Canada, accidents are the number one cause of death in adults of student age nationally. Dr. Aitchison also told me that cannabis consumption is associated with a fourfold increased risk of collision when driving a motor vehicle in Canadian data. “Give yourself a really thoroughly informed choice [about whether to use cannabis],” she cautioned. “Otherwise your body may be led down a path that you regret taking.”
Andrew Leitch, the director of the U of A’s enterprise risk management programs, co-chairs the working group along with Kevin Friese, the university’s assistant dean of students (health and wellness). Townhall consultations and online surveys gave the group over 2,500 responses from the university community which, along with input from the advisory committee, directly informed their recommendations. The university administration has accepted the group's recommendations, however, how they will utilize them depends on Edmonton city council’s new public smoking bylaw, which increases its smoking ban of five meters away from doors, windows, bus stops, and patios to 10 meters for cannabis and tobacco, and bans smoking cannabis from the majority of the city's parks. “Some people have called this the biggest policy change in a generation,” Leitch said. “So I think the university at all levels has an opportunity to help society do this properly.” While the working group recommends the university acknowledge that cannabis isn’t a benign substance and that harm reduction strategies need to be taken, they also stress that members of the campus community are adults who are capable of making their own decisions.
Some of the major recommendations the working group has submitted include: • banning smoking, growing, and cooking cannabis in residence • creating designated zones on campus where cannabis vaping and smoking will be permitted • banning any form of cannabis consumption at university and student group events on or off campus, for at least the first year • prohibiting sales, advertising, branding, and sponsorship of cannabis products on campus.
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Cannabis legalization has created a unique policy challenge for university administrators as they try to anticipate what effects the drug will have on the campus community. The cannabis working group plans on revisiting their policy recommendations six months and a year after legalization to ensure they get things right. “We’ve certainly been aware of the fact that no matter where we land at the end of the day on the recommendations we’ll never make everybody happy,” Friese said.
Back on the couch with Banda and Drory, we chatted about the way legalization will affect their lives as smoke clouds blurred the room. While they’re “super pumped” for weed to become legal, social and institutional stigma is something that cannabis users may never evade, even with legalization. Despite this, legalization will undoubtedly transform how people access cannabis. “No one’s going to go to a dealer if you can just go to an establishment,” Drory said. “Uber Weeds might start to exist.” As we sat there, I thought about how the world might look once the proverbial floodgates are opened. Will this indeed turn out to be the biggest policy change of our generation? g
* This article contains the most up to date information as of September 17, 2018, but as this policy issue is constantly changing, please refer to our website, gtwy.ca, for any updates.
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DESIGN + ILLUSTRATION ALEXANDER VINCENT TEXT SHELBY CARLETON
Vicki was sitting on the couch with the gum stuck under the cushions and coffee stain on the left armrest. A controller was clutched in her sweaty hands and bits of crumbs and dust were tucked into the crevices circling the buttons and joysticks. She put on the headset, tightening the straps around her skull so her eyes leveled perfectly with her virtual reality. She shifted the blanket around her shoulders, pulling it tight as the screen lit up before her, the video game blooming into frame. Panacea, it read. Three selections appeared on the screen:
Vicki selected NEW GAME, her pupils dilating the moment the menu shifted to the all too familiar loading screen. She wiped her nose. Her eyes stung. She started to play the game.
Vicki and Abby were sitting on the couch with the gum stuck under the cushions and the coffee stain on the left armrest. A spinning vinyl suddenly stopped with that sound that old record players make, a little shaky and coarse on the ears. “I wish we could always stay like this,” Vicki said, her fingers loosely entwined around Abby’s. “Why wouldn’t we?” “I don’t know. Things happen sometimes,” Vicki frowned. “Bad things.”
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“What’s that face for? What are you thinking?” “I can’t remember.” “Hey,” Abby said, her grip tightening. “I will never let anything bad happen to you. I promise.”
Vicki stood in the hospital waiting room, listening to the news. “The flood has wreaked havoc all across the city. Streets are blocked off and homes are in ruin as families struggle to adapt to this apocalyptic event…” someone flicked it off. The hospital was still busy, despite the flooding. As Vicki shuffled by the front desk, the receptionist’s name, Lizzy, appeared floating above her head. Vicki could have asked the Non-Player Character about her doctor’s appointment, or maybe where the bathroom was. Instead she headed down the hallway. To end the game, all she had to do was find the Cure for Abby, the love of her life who’d gotten sick. But there was more to it than a simple trip to the hospital. As Vicki reached the supply room at the end of the hall and found it completely empty, a new quest objective appeared:
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The hospital was all out of the Cure because of the flood, but the warehouse that supplied the hospital would have a better chance of being fully stocked. She’d need to exit down the stairs at the back of the hospital on the ground floor to make it past the street barricades. “I’m coming, Abby. Just hold on,” she thought as she pulled yellow tape from a pair of doors and stepped into the stairwell that would take her to the belly of the hospital and beyond.
“I like this one,” Vicki said, staring at a painting at the local art gallery. Abby turned away from a cloud of scribbles and lines to look. “It’s not bad,” she said, tilting her chin up. “Don’t you like the trees? I think the flowers make them so pretty.” “I think the trees you paint are prettier.” “Come on, don’t say stuff like that,” Vicki said, blushing. “Whatever you say, love.” “Okay.” And Abby kissed her.
The bowels of the hospital were a wreck. Water pooled across the peeling linoleum and dripped from the ceiling, sending echoes through the ruined wing. In the centre of the floor leading to the stairwell was a chasm, with bits of debris and electric wiring sticking out in all directions. Vicki swayed, staring at the chaos. She’d need to cross over it. She could try a double jump, but looking at the size of the gap she already knew it wouldn’t take her far enough. In the middle of the hallway lay a single board. Vicki wiped her hands on her jeans again and gripped it. It wasn’t heavy, just awkward. “Like me,” Vicki thought. “You and me, board, we’re in this together.” She exhaled and began to push the board toward the chasm, sending it—
“Vicki! I’m home!” Abby walked into the room, carrying a grocery bag. “I thought I’d get some groceries before heading to work—” she stopped when she saw Vicki scrambling to pull off her headset. “I thought I told you not to play that game anymore.” “It was just for a little bit,” Vicki said, pushing herself lower into the couch. “No, not just for a little bit. Enough is enough,” Abby threw the groceries on the counter. “I’m going to work, and when I get home, you better not be playing this fucking game.” The door slammed. Vicki pulled the headset back on.
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—squeaking across the linoleum. Vicki slid the board across the length of the hole and stepped back, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Back and forth and back and forth. The board certainly looked sturdy enough to walk across. Sweaty palms, sweaty palms. Abby would have no problem crossing a gaping hole with no guarantee she’d make it to the other side. She would call Vicki a scaredy cat — and she’d be right. But none of that mattered. Abby was sick. Vicki didn’t even look down as she crossed the board to the other side and descended the final staircase, pushing open the exit that would lead her to the warehouse and the Cure. And as Vicki stood before the hulking warehouse, her bravery leveled up.
“Jesus, Vicki. Can you turn that shit off? I need to talk to you about something.” Vicki hit pause and set down her video game controller. “Sorry.” “Whatever. It’s fine. We need to talk.” Abby pulled something from her pocket. “I thought I told you I don’t want you seeing her,” she said, setting Vicki’s cellphone on the kitchen counter.
Vicki’s eyes went wide. “It wasn’t anything like that, Abby. She’s the only friend I have! I was helping her through a bad time, that’s all!” “Doesn’t she have other friends that can help her through these ‘bad’ times?” “No… it’s just me. I told you, I’m her friend.” “Oh yeah?” Abby looked away, and took a breath. “Maybe you need some better friends.” Vicki stared at the frozen screen of her video game. “Like you’d let me keep them.”
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The warehouse was also a mess. Water pooled in corners, and there were boxes, papers, cardboard, and chairs scattered across the hallway. An objective marker would have been useful, the kind that spools out glowing trails leading to quest points. But Vicki’s quest log provided no location or pinpoint on her useless mini-map. It felt like she was doomed to turn in endless circles. She opened the door at the end of the hall, and suddenly saw it: piled high atop boxes was a dull green liquid floating motionless within its clear plastic bottle: the Cure. “Yes!” she said, running forward. The crates were stacked high, though many had fallen from the tower to the ground below where they guarded the cargo in mismatched formations. Slowly and gently, she climbed over one crate and gripped another. She was so close it was practically in her grasp. Everything was going to be okay. Abby was going to be okay. Vicki would fix everything. Vicki nudged a crate forward to bring herself closer to the Cure. But the crate lurched forward with a terrible noise, and as she let go, it bumped against the tower of boxes balancing the Cure. It happened in slow motion. The camera zoomed in on the Cure, following it as it toppled from the tower, bouncing in perfect arcs down the crates until it reached the ground where it rolled across the floor and disappeared between the grates of a sewer drain. The camera pulled back. “No!” cried Vicki, collapsing beside the grate. “No, no, no, no, no.” She felt small. Her fingers closed around the grate of the sewer and pulled it up and away. She felt smaller than she had in all her life as she lowered herself into the drain.
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Vicki lay curled up at the bottom of the sewer in the damp and the cold with her knees pulled to her forehead. She listened hard in the quiet darkness but heard nothing except the trickle of water. “Get up,” she told herself, but she couldn’t move. She didn’t want to. “Get up,” she said “Oh my god, Vicki. Are you crying? Are you again, louder this time. fucking kidding me?” Abby’s fingers were pressed “Come on, Vicki, get up,” said a voice that to her temples. wasn’t Vicki’s. Abby’s voice-over began to play “I’m s-s-sorry,” Vicki always stuttered when over the soundtrack. she was upset. “I can’t help it—” “Abby?” Vicki raised her head. She’d been stuttering a lot lately. “Come on, Vicki. Stop being so pathetic. Up. “You always do this! You always turn me Now. You’re looking for something, aren’t you?” into the bad guy! How come nothing is ever Vicki pushed herself to her feet and your fault?” stumbled forward. “Abby?” she called out, her “It’s not your fault,” It was never Abby’s fault. It’s okay to take the blame sometimes. That’s what foot slipping into a stream of water. “Abby!” she pulled out her phone, illuminating the ground. happens when you love someone. “I won’t see my The tunnel system stretched out before her, friend anymore, okay?” a stream of water running through it. The water “Well that’s just great,” Abby massaged her forehead, her eyes shut tight. “Now you’ll just hate would have carried the Cure away. Follow the water. That’s all she had to do. me because I made you ditch your friend.” “You always quit,” Abby said. “You give up Vicki exploded. “Well what do you want me to do? I’m trying to solve this, but you’re not doing so easily. You were going to give up and go home if I hadn’t stepped in here, right?” anything to help! You’re just yelling at me—” “Abby,” she breathed, stumbling forward. “Shut up! Just shut up, Vicki! There’s a reason “You’re pathetic,” Abby’s voice echoed you only have one friend! Why do you always ruin through the tunnels, bouncing and running, everything—” Abby doubled over, her head in her encircling Vicki with every step she took. Abby hands, and screamed. was right though. She always was. “Abby?” Vicki collapsed beside her. “Abby “I’ll try harder. I’m s-sorry, Abby,” Vicki said, what’s wrong?” panting a little as she began to run. “You make me sick!” Abby said, collapsing “You always are.” to the floor. The Cure. The light from Vicki’s phone “No! No, no, no. I’m so sorry, Abby. This is all caught the glint of the bottle, lodged in a pile of my fault.” Vicki took Abby’s hand in her own and pressed it to her chest. “I’ll help you. I’ll find a Cure. stones. Vicki’s fingers closed around it, and her flashlight flickered a little. I promise.” “I did it,” she said. “Abby, I did it!” But Vicki was alone in the damp and the quiet and the dark.
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“Abby!” Vicki knelt beside the bed, pressing a cool cloth to Abby’s forehead. The bottle of the Cure lay empty on the floor. “Abby, it’s me. How do you feel?” Abby’s eyes opened very slowly. “Fine,” she said. A small flush of red was returning to her cheeks. “How long was I out for?” “Not long,” Vicki said, dipping the cloth back into a cool bowl of water. “And I know what you’re going to say. That this was all my fault, and that I made you angry and that’s what got you so worked up and made you sick.” She wrung the water from the cloth. “And you’d be right, Abby. About everything. You always are.” She twisted the fabric in her hands, balling it up between her palms and then stretching it between her fingers. “And I am so, so sorry.” “I know,” Abby said, resting her hand on Vicki’s. “You’re going to stay with me though, right?” she squeezed Vicki’s hand, hard. “Promise me,” Abby said, coughing a little. “Promise me you’ll stay with me forever.” “I will. I promise.”
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Vicki and Abby were sitting on the couch with the gum stuck under the cushions and the coffee stain on the left armrest. A spinning record suddenly stopped with that sound that old record players make, a little shaky and coarse on the ears. “I wish we could always stay like this,” Vicki said, her fingers loosely entwined around Abby’s. “Why wouldn’t we?” “I don’t know. Things happen sometimes,” Vicki frowned. “Bad things.” “What are you thinking?” “I can’t remember.” “Hey,” Abby said, her grip tightening. “I will never let anything bad happen to you. I promise.”
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“Fuck!” Vicki tore off the headset, her head in her hands. She leaned back into the couch, curled in the blanket, and heard the hollow sound of empty potato chip bags crunching behind her. Sallow skin and sunken eyes leered back at her from the glint of the black television screen. What time was it? The blinds were drawn. Morning? Night? Had Abby come home since their fight? Was she still mad about the game? The game always ended that way. But there had to be something more, something she wasn’t seeing. Something she could do differently to get a different ending, a better ending. She rubbed her sleeve against the controller, cleaning off the sheen of sweat glistening across the buttons. She wiped her cheeks and shifted the blanket around her shoulders, pulling it tight as the screen lit up before her, the pixelated game screen blooming into frame. , it read. Three selections appeared on the screen:
Vicki scrolled down to and selected it, her pupils dilating as a new screen popped up.
Vicki deleted one. She wiped her nose. Her eyes stung. She started to play the game. g
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REQUIRED READING
PHOTO HALEY ONUOHA, “WEIRD”
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REQUIRED READING
SCULPTURE MIKELIE JOHNSON PHOTO RICHARD BAGAN
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DIVER SIONS
HOROSCOPES TEXT RILEY ELLIS VISUALS JESSICA TANG
Cancer Your art is about to skyrocket in value.
Taurus Be the first to map all of Dark BioSci.
Pisces The North Sask Monster holds your key to true love.
Scorpio You’re in your artistic renaissance; bring back Grunge.
Leo Spice up your cat costume by dressing up as your favorite Warrior Cat this Halloween.
Aries Run.
DIVER SIONS
Aquarius You're ready to change your degree direction. When all else fails, minor in Ouija studies.
Libra GUBA lurks in the river valley. Sometimes you feel him watching you. Be careful.
Sagittarius The bus driver knows more than you think. I’d walk tomorrow.
Gemini October is a month for introspection. Your evil twin might not necessarily be the evil one.
Capricorn Take the plunge the next time you’re offered a part in a friendly occult ritual. It could really change your life!
Virgo Emotions run deep this month; avoid wells and haunted VHS tapes. g
DIVER SIONS
CROSSWORD BY RILEY ELLIS
ACROSS
DOWN
5 A dearly missed Students’ Union joke candidate 6 Campus bar with a safe 360 degree view for
1 After how many days do the victims die in The Ring? 2 Building that will never stand up to its full potential 3 The Daily Grind’s deceased sister store 4 Lister’s cult activity 7 Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror movie 8 Haunted physical therapy clinic
troubling times 9 University of Alberta wiccan chaplain 10 Number of Sharknado movies 11 The killer’s profession in My Bloody Valentine 12 The building the creepy desk is found behind 13 The day of the week you will experience a Halloween hangover 14 First name of Halloween’s Myers
Find the answers on our website, gtwy.ca
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EYE EXAM • CONTACT LENS GREAT SELECTION
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Black Bean Bowl MAKES:
4-6 servings
(6 cups/ 1.5 L prepared)
PREP TIME:
PULSES are the dry edible seeds of legumes and include beans, peas, lentils and chickpeas. Pulses like black beans are a delicious source of protein and fibre and are grown in Alberta.
20 minutes
Dressing
Salad
3 Tbsp (45 mL) ...........white wine vinegar
1 ½ cups (375 mL) ....cooked or canned black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 Tbsp (15 mL) ...........honey
1 ½ cups (375 mL) ....cooked pearl barley
2 tsp (10 mL) ..............whole grain mustard
1 ½ cups (375 mL) .... chopped red bell pepper
½ tsp (2 mL) ................ground turmeric
¼ cup (60 mL) ............chopped dried cranberries
¼ cup (60 mL) ............canola oil
3 Tbsp (45 mL) ..........chopped fresh dill
to taste salt and ground black pepper
3 Tbsp (45 mL) .......... lightly toasted sunflower seeds, divided
Directions
2 cups (500 mL) .......packed baby arugula or spinach
To prepare the dressing: whisk together the vinegar, mustard, honey and turmeric. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking continuously. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Combine all the salad ingredients together in a large bowl, reserving 1 Tbsp (15 mL) sunflower seeds. Add as much of the dressing as desired to the salad and toss to fully coat. Season to taste with salt and black pepper and garnish with remaining sunflower seeds. Nutrients per serving (1 cup/250 mL) 250 Calories, 12 g Fat, 1 g Saturated Fat, 0 mg Cholesterol, 32 g Carbohydrate, 7 g Fibre, 8 g Sugar, 6 g Protein, 181 mg Sodium, 380 mg Potassium, 2 mg Iron, 77 mcg Folate
Alberta Pulses – good for the farm, good for you! For more tasty recipes visit AlbertaPulse.com
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