The Georgia Straight - Virtual Learning - May 14, 2020

FREE | MAY 14 – 21 / 2020

Volume 54 | Number 2729

COVID-19 RACISM

Asian stars raise awareness

VALORANT Gen.G taps a Montreal team

i u r t l a V

Learnıng How colleges and universities are making a major transition that they never anticipated at the start of this year

CANNABIS

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FUTURE OF TRANSIT

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INDIAN SUMMER

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HOME FITNESS

ESPORTS

Riot’s VALORANT attracting the best

CONTENTS

May 14-21 / 2020

8

by Mike Usinger

COVER

B.C. colleges and universities have been forced to make a rapid transition to virtual learning, all thanks to COVID-19.

By Charlie Smith Cover illustration by Karla Monterrosa

2

ESPORTS

Stars of the eSports world have bailed on their existing leagues in favour of new careers in VALORANT.

By Mike Usinger

4

REAL ESTATE

The SkyTrain Millennium Line extension is expected to have a huge impact on land-use planning in the city.

By Carlito Pablo

7

CANNABIS

Activists in Canada, the U.S., and New Zealand are working to get cannabis and psilocybin on the ballot.

By John Lucas

I

15 STYLE

Gen.G has added a Montreal-based all-Canadian team to its roster to play in community-based VALORANT competitions.

magine having a runaway smash game on your hands months before an official release. That’s where Riot Games is with VALORANT, the new first-person shooter scheduled for an official rollout this summer.

The game made huge waves in closed beta in April, with an initial week leading to a mammoth 165 million hours watched on Twitch.

Since then, we’ve seen a stream of high-profi le players—among them Jay “Sinatraa” Won and Ryan “Freakazoid“ Abadir—leave Overwatch, Apex Legends, and CounterStrike: Global Offensive to launch new careers in VALORANT. To wrap your head around that, think of an NHL star abandoning everything that comes with playing on one of the greatest sports stages in the world for a startup league. Now you know how your great-grandfather felt when Bobby Hull left the Chicago Blackhawks for the World Hockey Association’s Winnipeg Jets.

What’s amazing about this is that there’s no official, Riot-sanctioned VALORANT league—the developer is letting grassroots gaming communities steer things where competitive play is concerned. The big question, then, is why so many big names have been eager to get in on the ground floor of something that— Twitch numbers and hype aside—is entirely unproven.

The folks at Gen.G are better qualified than most to answer that.

The high-powered international eSports organization, which has established teams in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, and NBA 2K, expanded its empire last week with an announcement showing it’s serious about VALORANT. Gen.G added an all-Canadian team from Montreal to its roster.

Coming from the world of CS:GO, that team—comprising Keven “PLAYER1” Champagne, Anthony “gMd” Guimond, Loic “eff ys” Sauvageau, Danny “huynh” Huynh, and Michael “ MkaeL” De Luca—has already started competing for Gen.G in community-organized VALORANT tournaments.

Reached at his current homebase in Los Angeles, Gen.G performance coach Andrew Leverette says Riot Games has taken a unique approach to VALORANT by designing it to appeal specifically to the eSports community.

“Riot has been very transparent about building VALORANT with eSports in mind,” he says. “A lot of other games will come out and the focus is on a more casual fan base, and then ultimately eSports will come around.

Riot has taken a different approach where they built the game from the ground up focusing on eSports. That makes us really excited as a competitive organization. That kind of gives us even more excitement and motivation to get in on the ground floor and build our team brand and our organ-

ization as having one of the premier VALORANT teams.”

Gen.G was watching communityrun tournaments as a way of scouting players. Leverette kept a spreadsheet of promising teams, one of them being a group with a history in CS:GO calling themselves FRENCH CANADIANS. “I started researching their background in CS:GO, and then conveniently they actually sent in an email after we’d put it out on Twitter that we were looking for teams,” the Gen.G coach relates. “The following week, they got first place in a Nerd Street Gamers tournament, which was arguably the biggest tournament at the time. They won over really wellrespected teams, so at that point we kind of made up our mind. We talked to them a little bit and we liked their attitudes, we liked their work ethic, and they were playing really well.

They were our number one option.”

Because CS:GO and VALORANT are both team-based and tacticalshooter-focused, the skill set translates from one to the other better than it does from Fortnite or Overwatch.

“Any player coming into VALORANT with a CS background comes in with a small advantage, because they don’t have to learn the basics of a tactical shooter—like rotations, or when to peek off your teammates,” Leverette says. “They come in already knowing it. Since our team had years of CS experience, and also years of playing together, it really allowed us to hit the ground running.

We immediately focused on learning the abilities in VALORANT and how to play around those as a team.”

That adaptability was on full display when the team placed first in the T1 x Nerd Street Gamers Invitational—one of the biggest VALORANT tournaments to date.

“It was really, really exciting for the guys,” Leverette says. “I know how hard they’ve been working every day. I’m a firm believer in hard work

always paying off, so I was really excited to see it. Moving forward, that puts a little bit of a target on our back. Teams are way more likely to watch how we play and why we play—we also get everyone’s A-game in practice now.”

The challenge, not only for Gen.G’s team but for all VALORANT players, is getting a handle on everything there is to learn about a game with a huge frontier.

“Ultimately, the game is so new that you truly see new things every day,” Leverette notes. “Something we’ll try in scrims will work great today, and then in three days everyone will have seen it, so it won’t work nearly as well. And it happens on the flipside. We’ll hop onto a scrim and a team will run something against us, and it kind of blows our mind because we hadn’t thought of it or seen it.”

And that, he suggests, is the appeal of VALORANT. “There’s so much to do and learn that it’s impossible to expect our guys to do it all. We kind of have to, as a community in VALORANT, work together to build up the whole scene in the meta for what does and doesn’t work.”

As for the number of established players from other games jumping aboard, Leverette points to several reasons. All of them suggest there will be more big names migrating to VALORANT. “We haven’t seen much of a competitor to CS:GO for a very long time, and maybe ever,” he posits.

“So you have your die-hard CS fans who are interested in VALORANT because it’s new and shiny and exciting. And then you also have players who’ve been dedicated to other games like Fortnite and Overwatch, who’ve grown a little tired of those games, and now they’re hopping on a tactical-shooter that’s new and interesting. They’re getting in on the ground floor to hopefully become top-tier competitors.” g

e Sports OF THE WEEK The Nevada Gaming Control Board lets bookies take bets on eSports.

WHEN FUTURE HISTORIANS

look back at eSports and the way it surfaced in the mainstream during COVID-19, one of the things that will resonate is what happened in Las Vegas at the regulatory level.

In a couple of short months, eSports betting in Sin City has gone from something approved

2 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MAY 14 – 21 / 2020

for rare, one-off matches to an ongoing thing. Vegas has allowed wagering on competitions in the Overwatch League, iRacing, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and League of Legends (both North America and Europe).

Now you can add the DreamHack Masters Spring to the list, as the Nevada Gaming Control Board has given bookies the green light to offer odds and accept wagers on the CS:GO showcase.

As with other approvals, bookmakers can offer three types of wager: head-to-head, match winner, and overall winner.

The DreamHack Masters is scheduled to get under way on May 19. g

by Mike Usinger

Arc’teryx is known for its technical apparel, but it has pivoted to making badly needed isolation gowns.

By Janet Smith

e Online TOP 5

e Start Here 17 ARTS 14 BEER 15 CONFESSIONS 12 FINANCE 11 FOOD 6 HEALTH 16 INDIAN SUMMER 17 I SAW YOU 14 LIQUOR 18 MOVIES 18 MUSIC 6 NEWS 19 SAVAGE LOVE 15 STYLE 12 TECHNOLOGY

Here’s what people are reading this week on Straight.com.

1 2 3 4 5

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Crowds at beaches, mask-wearing advice, and a COVID-19 protest.

Foreign investors and companies own most oilsands production.

Bryan Adams comes under fire for socialmedia posts.

B.C. government funds cellphones for homeless people.

Barry Neufeld post about health officer no longer on Facebook.

GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight @GeorgiaStraight

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REAL ESTATE

Senior economist warns Broadway growth affects 485 blocks of condo “supply gap”

by Carlito Pablo

D

by Charlie Smith

uring a recent webinar, a Vancouver housing-market data cruncher suggested there might be a “gap in supply” of Lower Mainland condos through 2023.

The senior economist at rennie intelligence, Ryan Berlin, pointed out that in the downtown core, there is no unsold new inventory in 2020. But he said that next year there could be 186 unsold units out of 815 completing at various price points—”if nothing else sold between now and then”.

They include three units in the hybrid-timber Terrace House at 1250 West Hastings Street. According to a chart he posted during the presentation, these will be the most expensive in the downtown core in 2021, at $2,605 per square foot.

Berlin’s chart also showed 78 units at the Pacific by Grosvenor priced at $2,171 per square foot. The next most pricey were 78 units at 1335 Howe Street, selling at $2,029 per square foot.

They were followed by 21 units at the Mirabel at 1283 Davie Street at $1,850 per square foot. Two units at the Smithe at 885 Cambie Street were identified at $1,516 per square foot.

The most affordable were 14 units in 8X on the Park at 1111 Richards Street at $1,470 per square foot.

For 2022, Berlin’s chart showed another 53 unsold completing condos, bringing the year-end total to 239, provided none of the new product was purchased before then. They included 38 units at 1818 Alberni Street at $2,400 per square foot and 17 units in the Sparrow at 239 Keefer Street at $1,339 per square foot.

Then in 2023, another 94 unsold completing units would lift the year-

Vancouver could see a condo supply gap. Photo by Stephen H/Unsplash

end built-and-unsold new inventory to 333 units downtown. These could include 25 units in the Butterfly at 1019 Nelson Street at $3,005 per square foot and 69 units at the Landmark on Robson at $3,300 per square foot.

“But, of course, we’re looking at a recovery that might, you know, extend out 24 months,” Berlin said.

“Between now and 2023, a lot can change, so we don’t expect there to be 330 homes available.”

Last month, the B.C. Real Estate Association released a report forecasting an “initial sharp decline” in home sales in 2020 as a result of the pandemic-induced economic slowdown.

“As measures implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 are gradually lifted, we expect that low interest rates and pent-up demand will translate to a significant recovery in home sales and prices,” the report states.

In 2019, there was a record 28,141 housing starts in the region, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., with the largest number of units being developed in Vancouver. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, it was expected that 2020 would be another strong year for housing starts. g

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City planners are preparing the Broadway Plan, which will be underpinned by a $2.8-billion subway. Photo by Perry Plane.

treets are an essential part of city life.

More than just an avenue to a destination, streets are also a precious public realm. They are, ultimately, about people.

Last year, Vancouver city council approved principles to guide planners in preparing a plan for Broadway. The plan will integrate growth on and around the major east-west thoroughfare with the planned $2.8-billion subway underneath it.

According to councillor Melissa De Genova, people are going to be at the centre of the future plan, which reimagines Broadway as a “Great Street”.

“A Great Street is a place that people are drawn to,” De Genova told the Straight in a phone interview.

Inevitably, she said, the Broadway Plan, which city planners are expected to present to council in December 2020, should be about affordability.

“It’s important that, with any investment that senior levels of government are willing to make into this area, we look at this with the lens of affordability and making this work for the people of Vancouver,” De Genova said.

Although housing is a major component, homes are not the only aspect of affordable living that the Broadway Plan should deliver, she said.

“This includes a focus on creating complete communities: parks, public space, childcare, and the inclusion of small business,” the Vancouver councillor noted.

Although anchored on Broadway—where most of the underground 5.7-kilometre extension of SkyTrain’s Millennium Line from VCC-Clark Station to a future station on Arbutus Street will run—the plan has considerable scope.

It covers 860 hectares, roughly 7.5 percent of the city’s total land area.

With 485 city blocks, the plan envelops the area from Clark Drive in the east to Vine Street in the west, and from 1st Avenue in the north to 16th Avenue in the south.

The Broadway plan area has a

population of 78,000, or 12 percent of the city’s inhabitants. They are found in portions of four neighbourhoods, namely: Strathcona, Mount Pleasant, Fairview, and Kitsilano.

Twenty percent of the city’s renter households, or more than 30,000 households, live in the planning area.

In a report to council last year, city planner Kevin McNaney noted challenges in the rental market in the Broadway plan area.

McNaney stated that the vacancy rate for purpose-built rental apartment units has been at or below one percent since 2010. A vacancy rate of three percent to five percent is normally held as a balanced market.

McNaney also noted that growth in business is bringing higher than average incomes. This puts pressure to redevelop old properties that generally have lower rental rates compared to newer properties.

When council deliberated on McNaney’s report on October 22, 2019, members unanimously approved an amendment brought forward by De Genova to one of the plan’s guiding principles, which was titled “Support Affordable, Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive Complete Neighbourhoods”.

“Leveraging the investment in the Broadway Subway, new housing opportunities (particularly purpose built market and below-market rental and social and supportive housing) close to transit should be expanded for a diversity of household types, incomes, and backgrounds, while retaining and reinvesting in existing older rental housing and with the goal that renters can remain in the neighbourhood at affordable rates,” the principle reads in part.

In the phone interview, De Genova indicated that she also wants to see affordable home ownership included in the mix.

De Genova is likewise interested to have innovative solutions like cohousing considered in the Broadway Plan.

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acquire land and plan, develop, and manage a multifamily development.

“If done right, the Broadway Plan has the potential to be a catalyst for real change in our city and region,” De Genova told the Straight.

According to De Genova, Vancouver’s aspirations for an accessible, green, and healthy city will come together by “considering convenience, affordability, and community first” in the plan.

In September 2018, the federal government and the province of B.C. confirmed funding contributions to the subway project of $888.4 million and $1.82 billion, respectively.

The City of Vancouver’s in-kind contribution of land is valued at $99.8 million.

Construction is scheduled to start in the fall of 2020, with service opening in 2025.

However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, public finances have been upturned as the federal and provincial governments scrambled to contain the economic fallout.

The federal budget deficit is projected to balloon to $250 billion in 2021. From a projected surplus for fiscal year 2020-2021, the provincial government is forecast to run a $5-billion deficit.

With ridership down because of the pandemic, the region’s public transportation agency, TransLink, announced in April this year that it is losing $75 million per month.

Neither TransLink nor the two senior levels of government have indicated whether or not the health crisis will derail the arrival of the Broadway subway.

De Genova noted that because of the pandemic, she doesn’t know exactly what the federal and provincial funding is going to look like.

The uncertain times may “likely affect projected timelines”, according to the Vancouver councillor.

“I would hate to see this being a missed opportunity,” De Genova added. g

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HEALTH

NEWS

How to get fit at home without a gym B.C. campaigns counter racist anti-Asian attacks

by Gail Johnson

by Craig Takeuchi

F

When doing push-ups at home, it’s a good idea to tuck the elbows close to the torso. Photo by Elly Fairytale/Pexels

or proof that you can effectively exercise at home, consider the story of South African athlete Ryan Sandes. He recently completed a 160-kilometre run around his house.

Sandes, who competed in Red Bull 400 Whistler in 2015, did 1,463 loops of his Cape Town abode. The route included some stairs, meaning the ultrarunner covered some 4,500 metres of ascent, about half the height of Mount Everest.

Now that working out at home is all the rage, you might be wondering what else you can do aside from trot past your front door over and over again.

Great news: you don’t need to end up bored out of your mind or own a single piece of equipment to exercise efficiently while self-isolating. Here are a few strengthening moves to help keep you fit without spending a dime.

Don’t forget to warm up for about five to eight minutes before launching into a workout, and remember to stretch afterward.

WALL SQUATS

Assuming you don’t live in an Arrested Development–style model home, you should be able to pull these off no problem. Lean against a wall with the back of your head, shoulders, shoulder blades, and glutes pressing against it. Have your feet hip-width apart a little bit out in front of you, not directly under your hips. Slide down the wall so that your hips are in line with your knees. Sit tight. Hold as long as you can and repeat two more times. Add on a second or two or more every time (ideally, every other day) to build strength in your quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteal muscles.

WALKING LUNGES

You just need a little stretch of hallway to do these challenging lunges, which work your quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteal muscles, calves, and core.

With your hands on your hips, take a giant step forward. From there, keeping your front knee over your ankle (never over your toes), come down into a lunge. Think about being in an elevator, with your torso moving straight up and down.

(Avoid leaning forward.) Come back up. Take a giant step with your other foot and repeat the same motion, then keep alternating sides. As you get used to these, you can have your hands by your temples, with elbows out, or reach your hands to the sky, your arms in line with your ears.

BRIDGE

This looks way easier than it really is and is a great way to work your gluteal muscles and your hamstrings. Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor, palms up. Lift your hips up as high as you possibly can.

Lower your hips to the ground, then lift them up again; repeat perhaps 10 times to start, then work your way up to more. There are a few ways to make this harder. Extend your arms up toward the ceiling. Hold your hips up at the top for 10 to 20 seconds or longer. Do the same things (lifting and lowering your hips, then holding steady at the top) with one foot off the floor, the leg extended upward or with both knees together.

PLANK

There are all kinds of variations you can do to increase the intensity of this exercise, which works your entire core (your back muscles, glutes,

6 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MAY 14 – 21 / 2020

and hips, as well as all of your abdominals), plus your arms, shoulders, chest, and legs. Lying face down on the floor, place your elbows under your shoulders, rest on your forearms, and come up onto your toes.

If need be, place your knees on the floor. Avoid swaying the lower back, and avoid rounding or shrugging the upper back and shoulders. Ideally, you’ll be as flat as a table top, not in an upside-down V shape. Once you’re comfortable holding a plank, you can rock back and forth on your toes. Or you can lift one foot straight off the floor for a few seconds, then switch sides, or tap one foot out to the side and alternate. Another way to do a plank is to be on your hands or fists rather than your elbows. Be sure to take deep breaths throughout; do not hold your breath.

PUSH-UPS

News flash: push-ups work the arms, shoulders, and chest. But only if they’re done correctly, and these are one of the most improperly performed exercises out there. Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart. You can be on your knees or toes; either way, imagine keeping the rest of your body in a straight line. You don’t want your butt sticking up in the air, your back swaying, or being in yoga’s cat/cow pose. Keep your elbows tucked in toward your torso, not flared out to the sides. As you come down, avoid leading with your forehead; keep your neck and spine in a straight line. Come down as low as you can, ideally to the point where your chin or chest touch the floor. It’s better to do fewer of these properly than dozens incorrectly. g

O

Actor Steph Song is helping to organize and participating in a local ad campaign.

n March 6, a white male shoved a 92-year-old Asian man with dementia out of an East Vancouver store while yelling racist remarks about COVID-19 at him. On April 2, a male suspect scrawled racial slurs on the windows of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown. On April 15, a white male got on a bus at Main Street and East Hastings and told two maskwearing Asian women aboard, “Go back to your country; that’s where it all started” before. When a woman told him to leave them alone, the man allegedly kicked her, pulled a clump of hair from her head, punched her in the head several times, and wrestled her to the floor before fleeing. In early May, a Queen Elizabeth Park bench dedicated to a Chinese Canadian widower and his late wife was defaced with racial insults.

These are only a few examples of the increasing number of anti-Asian assaults and acts of vandalism that have taken place during the pandemic.

The Vancouver Police Department stated on May 1 that 20 anti-Asian hate crimes have already been reported this year compared with only 12 reported in all of 2019. Out of the 15 hate crimes reported in April, 11 of these cases involved anti-Asian elements.

Such crimes have been occurring across North America. In Canada, all levels of government have spoken out against the anti-Asian attacks, including Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“When I heard about people of Asian descent being pushed to the ground and buildings being defaced with anti-Chinese slogans, I was angry,” B.C. Premier John Horgan stated on May 6 at a news conference for the province’s reopening plan.

“We need to stand together united against that type of racism whenever we see it. COVID-19 does not discriminate—British Columbians shouldn’t discriminate either.”

The B.C. government is funding the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society to help communities address racial discrimination. In addition, the provincial government’s Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network is accepting proposals until May 19 from community organizations for leading antiracism intiatives.

Meanwhile, individuals and organizations in screen industries are also launching awareness efforts to tackle the hatred.

The Vancouver Asian Film Festival announced on April 30 that it has launched the Elimin8hate cam-

paign, with the help of actor Ludi Lin (Power Rangers), who is a UBC theatre grad. VAFF is asking filmmakers and the public to make 60-second public-service announcements that feature their personal experiences of empowerment, education, and eliminating racism.

Lin, Vancouver’s Osric Chau (Supernatural), Celia Au (Wu Assassins), and Tzi Ma (Tigertail) are among the participants in a U.S. antiracism campaign called #WashtheHate that promotes hand-washing while addressing Asian discrimination.

Sonny Wong, creative director of Vancouver marketing agency Hamazaki Wong, drew upon his connections to the film and television industries for a public-service-announcement initiative—but went beyond Asian communities to show that the issues impact everyone. #HealthNotHate features a series of ads for print and online media in which actors, social influencers, and other well-known individuals are featured with surgical masks over their eyes, ears, or mouths, based on the Japanese maxim “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” All participation is being offered pro-bono.

By phone, Wong told the Straight that as a producer of the Leo Awards, B.C.’s annual film and television awards, he thought “Why don’t I take the opportunity to use the strength I have in my network and in my system to do good?”

He explained that his project seeks to redirect attention back onto the real concern. Yet instead of telling people not to discriminate, he wants the campaign to redirect attention back to the central issue at hand.

“What we’re saying in our campaign is that the trigger for all of this is not hate and it’s that we should be focussing on health,” he explained. “Public welfare and health…is what we should be focussing on and we shouldn’t be misguiding it and misdirecting it toward hatred of another race.”

Among those involved are Vancouver actor Steph Song (Blood and Water), who is one of the campaign’s organizers; actors of East Asian descent, such as Russell Yuen, Russell Wong, Ma, and Lin; as well as Sandy Sidhu, Fiona Forbes, John Cassini, Benjamin Ratner, and Gabrielle Miller.

Because the response from screen industries has been so “amazing”, Wong said they have unfortunately had to turn some interested people away.

“But that’s a good problem to have,” he said. “We want the entire community to say that this is unacceptable.” g

CANNABIS

Legalization campaigns ramping up

W

by John Lucas

hile some drug legalization and decriminalization campaigns have stalled in recent months—including the one in Missouri that was called off when organizers realized there was no practical way to collect enough signatures, thanks to social distancing—others are ramping up.

Here are a few places where activists and lawmakers are working to get cannabis, psychedelics, and other controlled substances on the ballot.

NEW ZEALAND

OREGON

CANADA

Two separate campaigns—one in support of legalizing psilocybin for therapeutic use and another to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs and expand addiction and recovery services—have teamed up.

Sam Chapman, who heads up the psilocybin campaign (IP 34), sent an email to supporters asking them to sign the petition in favour of putting the decriminalization initiative (IP 44) on the state’s November ballot.

“Initiative Petition 44—The Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act—will greatly expand addiction and recovery services using a portion of existing marijuana revenues,” Chapman wrote. “It will also end the cruel and ineffective policy of making criminals of people struggling with addiction by decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs.

This measure will be a game-changer.

But only if it gets on the ballot.”

When Kiwis go to the polls on September 19, they will vote yes or no in a referendum on recreational-cannabis legalization.

If passed, the new legislation would allow people aged 20 and older to buy up to 14 grams of dried cannabis per day from licensed outlets. They will also be able to grow two plants (with a maximum of four plants per household) and share up to 14 grams of dried cannabis (or its equivalent) with another person aged 20 or over.

When New Zealanders go to the polls on September 19, they will vote in a referendum on recreational-cannabis legalization.

adults as well as establish a regulatory framework for cultivation and sales.

The second, CI-118, would set the legal minimum age for purchasing, consuming, or possessing cannabis at 21.

In a reflection of the times, New Approach Montana is approaching its campaign with measures taken to address the difficulty of gathering signatures during a pandemic.

In a May 7 news release, the campaign’s political director, Pepper Petersen, is quoted as saying, “As our state reopens for business, we must also reopen for democracy. Our signature drive will allow Montana voters to exercise their constitutional right to a ballot initiative in a safe and responsible way.”

MONTANA New Approach Montana’s protoA group called New Approach Mon- cols include the following rules, per tana launched a statewide signature the May 7 news release: drive this past weekend in support of a pair of ballot initiatives. The first, I-190, • Circulators must wear masks at all would legalize cannabis in the state for times except when on a break;

• Disposable single-use wrapped pens will be provided to signers and discarded after each signature; • Disposable single-use gloves will be provided to signers and discarded after each signature; • Circulators must be provided disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer while in the field; • Circulators will provide tables for voters to use for signing petitions so that circulators can witness the signature while maintaining a six-foot distance requirement; • Circulators will be issued a singleuse, disposable clear plastic bag each day that contains their petitions, pens, gloves, masks, and other supplies for the day (backpacks or other reusable storage solutions are not allowed for any petition supplies); • Canvassers must wear gloves to handle petitions that have been touched by members of the public.

The campaign must gather 25,468 signatures for I-190 and 50,936 signatures for CI-118 in order to qualify for the November ballot, with all signatures submitted to county clerks

by June 19.

MINNESOTA

Legislation introduced by House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (D) would allow adult Minnesotans to grow as many as eight cannabis plants at home for personal use and would expunge most cannabis convictions.

“Minnesotans have been loud and clear that our current cannabis laws are doing more harm than good,” Winkler said in a statement. “By creating a regulatory framework, we can address the harms caused by cannabis and establish a more sensible set of laws to improve our health care and criminal justice systems and ensure better outcomes for communities.”

Thanks to a petition that quickly garnered the 500 signatures required for presentation to the House of Commons, this August will see Green Party MP Paul Manly officially make the case for the legalization of psychedelic plants and fungi, including psilocybin mushrooms.

As Toronto lawyer Rick Moscone told the Straight last week, however, if and when psychedelics are legalized in Canada, it is likely to be for medicinal purposes and not recreational use.

“The hurdle for legalizing psychedelics is the powerful reactions that result from their usage,” Moscone said. “I don’t think governments will be comfortable allowing recreational use of such products without the oversight of a doctor.” g

MORE CANNABIS ONLINE AT CANNCENTRAL.COM

MAY 14 – 21 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 7

EDUCATION

Digital classes are UBC’s new normal

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by Charlie Smith

n March 16, the University of British Columbia moved all of its classes online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, all inbound and outbound student study programs were cancelled.

It occurred just as students were getting ready for their final exams and the end of the school year in April.

Now online instruction will be extended through the summer and likely beyond that, according to Simon Bates, UBC’s associate provost, teaching and learning.

“We’ve learned that provision of learning content is relatively easy—online lectures and so on,” Bates told the Straight. “But we also know that interaction and developing a sense of community really matters in the online space, so that requires a careful balance of synchronous and self-paced, or asynchronous, activities.”

Earlier this month, Premier John Horgan said that a ban on public gatherings of more than 50 people will remain in place.

The Straight asked Bates seven questions in connection with UBC’s transition to online learning. Read his answers below: Georgia Straight: What was your reaction on hearing news that there would be no classroom instruction as a result of the pandemic?

Simon Bates: We had some advance warning, having been following the PHO [provincial health officer’s] guidance and messaging for a couple of weeks previously. We started conversations with faculty leadership early in March and stood up the keepteaching.ubc.ca website—which

or pass/fail options up to and including the time that grades were released was an example of that.

GS: Which areas were easiest and which were most challenging to move into the digital sphere?

UBC associate provost, teaching and learning, Simon Bates says online instruction will likely continue beyond the summer.

has expanded and developed into a speed to ensure this could occur? comprehensive resource for our pivot to online emergency instruction.

SB: Well, it was a challenge because it was so rapid a shift. No one expected GS: What was involved in trans- to end the semester in this way back in forming to more online instruction? January. It was really all about making sure everyone in our community SB: Many moving parts to consider. was informed as quickly as possible From a technology perspective, we of the transition to online and that already had a solid tools base to sup- we provided faculty with the supports port blended and online learning, they needed to make it work. with our core learning applications hosted in Canadian cloud installa- GS: How did the university ensure tions, which meant they could scale best practices were communicated to meet increased demand relatively across faculties and schools? easily. We put a lot of effort into supporting faculty in the rapid pivot to SB: Well, that is still a work in progonline instruction; our central and ress as we plan for summer courses faculty-based learning support units [starting on May 11]. Faculties are did a fantastic job, working long the experts in their subject domains, hours over that period in mid-March so their peer-to-peer networks were to provide a mixture of pedagogical invaluable components in this and and technical support to faculty to we simply looked to ways we could facilitate instructional continuity. support that—such as articulating some principles about what effective GS: How did the university bring online instruction looks like—but faculty and teaching assistants up to not to straitjacket them, because the

requirements of different disciplines means it is never a one-size-fits-all.

GS: What have you learned through this process?

SB: We are planning for a longer time horizon, a sort of “extended interim period” of online instruction through the summer and likely beyond that.

We’ve learned that provision of learning content is relatively easy: online lectures and so on. But we also know that interaction and developing a sense of community really matters in the online space, so that requires a careful balance of synchronous and self-paced, or asynchronous, activities. Assessments needed rethinking as well, particularly high-stakes exams, and our faculty members made a variety of adjustments to support student learning. We also learned to be as flexible as possible to the challenging and disruptive circumstances that our students found themselves in; granting late-withdrawal options

SB: Traditional lecture slots were probably easiest. Discussion, seminar tutorials also. Harder were things like labs—with a mid-semester pivot and no time to plan. Harder yet were the vast array of clinical and other placement activities, particularly in health disciplines and education, where the environments for placements were themselves massively affected by the safety measures mandated by the PHO (e.g., clinics, hospitals, schools, et cetera). These disciplines have done an amazing job working with both clinical partners and regulatory bodies to ensure students could for the most part complete their placements where it was a requirement for graduation, or to defer them. We’re continuing to look at these areas for the summer and the fall and think about ways we can redesign, virtualize, and reconceptualize these opportunities.

GS: What are the longer-term changes that we’ll see at UBC as a result of the pandemic after it’s over?

SB: Well, probably too early to say for sure at present. But it is clear that our new normal could be changed in significant ways, given the experiences of the past few and likely coming months. I think we probably will see a greater uptake of various tools and technologies to support blended learning—the mix of f2f [face-toface] and online activities—in the long run. g

VCC

Learn from anywhere VCC Continuing Studies offers an extensive range of online programming to upgrade your skills or learn something new.

Register now and get started. vcc.ca/cs 8 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MAY 14 – 21 / 2020

Continuing Studies Spring 2020

EDUCATION

The Learning Disabilities Society offers learning for kids during the pandemic Fashion designs its own online (This story is sponsored by

take on virtual learning

by Janet Smith

W

Hands-on work will always be a part of fashion, even as it goes digital. Photo from KPU

hether it’s learning to feel the difference between textile fibres or to steer an industrial sewing machine, fashion education comes with a hands-on element.

So what does that look like during social distancing, as instruction pivots to more e-learning? And how will that education shift as the entire fashion industry grapples with the challenges of fitting and producing garments during a lockdown that’s only gradually loosening? Local institutions are in the midst of finding that out, getting creative amid COVID-19 measures.

At Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Wilson School of Design, where the fashion-and-technology bachelor’s-degree program shifted quickly online mid-March, one handson assignment in making menswear morphed into an exercise in creating technical specs for an overseas manufacturer. “So instead of being an inhouse sewer, they were doing technical drawings and patterns and orders of operations,” explains faculty member Jessica Bayntun. “They put all this effort into the technical packages.”

Elsewhere, Bayntun had students submit video walk-throughs of their fashion-illustration sketchbooks, instead of physically handing them in, a project that offered new insights into their work.

Grad-class design students faced a special challenge as they wrapped up their final collections, normally displayed in a big spring catwalk show.

The faculty’s Lesley Pollard had a few days’ leeway in March to try to make sure the students had sewing machines at home to finish the projects.

“With the collections some of them came up with, there were some really interesting ideas that were a little different than they intended,” she says.“Without certain machinery, there was more handiwork. It was a slightly different creativity—especially with some of the knits. It’s a lot harder to sew a knit at home. I was amazed at how they were finishing some of these things.”

Students submitted the designs not physically, but through a photo project. “It was amazing how well you can see the truth of a garment in a photo,” says Pollard, who had the students shoot the pieces hanging, from both front and back, right-side out and inside out, along with close-ups of crucial details like hems and collars. “The light sort of points to an error when it’s hanging on a hanger. And the surprising benefit was it helped take them away from it—they’re too close to it sometimes. It helped them look at it from a distance.”

How else might the situation outside the school’s doors affect the curriculum? For one, Bayntun is set to launch KPU’s first online sewing course—a how-to on constructing a woven shirt, with free downloadable pattern.

And she and Pollard are interested to see how students turn to cuttingedge technology like EFI Optitex software at the school. Among its “socially distanced” attributes: displaying virtual samples in a 3-D digital environment that allows students to make quick alterations at the click of a button—“an avatar that can virtually stitch a garment together,” as Bayntun puts it.

OVER AT Vancouver Community College’s fashion design and production program, coordinator Andrea Korens explains how shifts in the industry prepared her team well for the changes that are happening now.

“One of the great things about working in fashion is we are so poised for a pivot already,” she observes. “I think we had less stress than other programs.”

Theory classes easily moved to virtual learning, and the school has found creative ways—both high- and low-tech—to translate more hands-on instruction with social distancing.

One example is VCC’s Fashion Cycle 4 collaborative garmentproduction class for custom clients.

Though it had to be put on pause because of COVID-19, instructor Jason Matlo and producer Brenda Gilbert decided to donate their time to hosting a Zoom-based “What’s Next for Fashion” series. “They’re meeting with students every week about what’s coming up next in the market given the current climate, to keep them inspired and engaged,” Korens says.

Elsewhere, Korens has used a simple tactic message to get into the tactile world of teaching fabric and textile studies right now. “I am actually mailing them pieces—I’ve got swatches and I send them to them in the mail,” she says with a laugh, pointing out that, as she’s based at home, the fabric pieces are sitting all around her.

With large studio space at VCC and the chance to return with social distancing in the fall, she looks forward to finding ways use to the classroom with some new approaches.

“We do all our teaching on professional equipment…and you have to turn things inside out and look at it from different angles,” she says. “There are certain things you just can’t learn without having someone there, going through with you step by step. There’s a reason the garments are not made by robots. Each garment has its own problem that hasn’t been solved before.”

That means the school is installing cameras to show close-ups of sewing and other work, and looking at altering floor plans and adding sanitization.

Curriculum may adapt, too. Because VCC’s programs include noncredit courses for industry upgrades or general interest, it’s pivoting to look at what COVID-19 will do to the sector and what it can offer contentwise.

“What problems out are there in the industry right now?” she asks.

One of the first installments planned to start June 1 will be an e-class called Solving Fit for Online Customers—an issue, as people fear contagion, and a complicated act of communication involving measurements and size charts.

Doing it right can also reduce shipping costs and increase sales and customer satisfaction, she points out.

As with instruction in other areas, all of it’s a work in progress—one that will require, as ever, direction from the industry that is also having to evolve online, outside the halls of the bricks-and-mortar school. “We will be reaching out to the industry association to say, ‘Are there needs that are emerging that we can help you with working collaboratively?’ ” Korens says. g

I

the Learning Disabilities Society.)

n efforts to flatten the curve of COVID-19, families have had to adjust to the “new normal”. This includes distance learning for many students, and for those who have time and flour, a whole lot of baking.

The Learning Disabilities Society of Greater Vancouver (LDS) is a nonprofit charity that provides specialized educational programming to students with suspected or diagnosed learning challenges. Their individualized one-to-one online lessons can help children with dyslexia, dyscalculia, auditory processing disorders, and other challenges gain the skills needed for a brighter future.

LDS’s new online program, RISE (Research-informed Individualized Student Education) at Home, helps to ensure that the risk of learning regressions during times of school disruption are minimized, thereby keeping kids confident in their return to school once safe to do so. RISE at Home includes one-on-one instruction with a student and instructor pairing based on the student’s specific learning, academic needs, and personality match with instructors.

“Consistent learning support is especially critical for students with learning disabilities,” says Rachel Forbes, executive director at LDS. “By designing a system that combines online learning with personalized instruction, we can provide some of the much-needed engagement and continuity that not only curtails potential regression through a break from school, but positively impacts learning.”

RISE at Home uses interactive software that can be customized by each instructor, resulting in lesson plans that suit a child’s learning style and needs. Along with customized coursework, LDS also provides additional re-

RISE at Home helps minimize the risk of learning regressions. Photo from LDS

sources and services for RISE students, including access to secure specialized educational software with interactive tools and a dynamic interface at no extra cost and entry to an online library.

Parents can find resources in the online library to further support their vulnerable child’s home learning, like informative videos, webinars, and technology support.

For children who learn better with a later start time, RISE at Home has increased instructional hours from Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. This is also beneficial for children who have had their sleep schedule disrupted from the recent change in routine and for sleepy teenagers.

Instead of using Zoom or Facetime to communicate with their students, the online instructors teach through TutorCruncher and Lessonspace.

TutorCruncher manages scheduling, calendars, and reporting to parents and other staff. Students learn through Lessonspace, the integrated whiteboard, where they can see and hear their instructors through video calls.

Lessonspace facilitates collaboration between the student and instructor when working through their school subjects or receiving remedial tutoring. After each lesson, parents are able

to access a performance report so they can track their child’s progress and continue the learning off-screen.

Both online teaching systems adhere to the world’s most strict data privacy standards and follow Canadian privacy laws—a child’s personal information and coursework will be kept confidential.

For those who worry that a child may feel nervousness toward switching to online learning, there are several ways to make the experience more comfortable: create a designated spot for the child to learn, limit distractions, work with the child to develop an updated daily routine that includes time for homework, and shower them with endless encouragement. An occasional ice-cream bribe can also be quite effective. g LDS relies on donations and community support in order to sustain its programming and provide bursaries to families in need during this uncertain time. If you would like to make a donation that will benefit vulnerable students, visit ldsociety.ca/ giving. To register your child for RISE online learning, visit www.ldsociety.ca/ enrollment/. For more information visit the website or follow the LDS on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

MAY 14 – 21 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 9

EDUCATION

Culinary-arts program adapts to challenges

by Gail Johnson

Tobias MacDonald is a certified master chef who has been teaching at VCC for the past 18 years. Photo by Angela Fama/Vancouver Community College

V

ancouver Community College’s culinary-arts program has earned a reputation as one of the best training grounds for B.C. chefs.

Grads have gone on to work at such respected places as Fairmont Hotels, Earls Kitchen and Bar, Pan Pacific Hotel Vancouver, and Hawksworth Restaurant, among many others.

COVID-19 isn’t putting a pause on developing the chefs of tomorrow.

Chef instructor Tobias MacDonald is a certified master chef who has been teaching at VCC for the past eight years.

When he received the CMC title, the highest culinary designation in Canada, in 2015, he was just the second person to do so. Only four other people in the country hold the esteemed rank.

It’s just one of several culinary achievements for MacDonald. He competed with Culinary Team Canada over a period of several years and helped it earn multiple gold medals at the Culinary Olympics. He has also coached Culinary Team Canada, as well as the junior national team. From 2010 to 2012, he qualified to represent Canada in the World Association of Chefs Societies’ Global Chefs’ Challenge, winning the semifinals for North and South America and placing third in the finals in South Korea.

Although the global pandemic hasn’t stopped VCC from training future chefs, operations look much different now than they did in the recent past.

Three of the VCC kitchens have transformed into commissary space where support staff prepares meals for residents of the Downtown Eastside. “Otherwise, it is a bit of a ghost town,” MacDonald tells the Straight.

“Students have been all working remotely since mid-March and will continue to until we get the Provincial Health Officer guidelines in the next few weeks.”

There’s a Zoom lecture daily to provide the theory and academic side, as well as activities, quizzes, and assignments via a Moodle online classroom. Students are also tasked with completing short essays (or video essays), a small research project, and other assignments.

“The hands-on part of our course continues to be the challenging part to implement,” MacDonald says. “We have been front-loading classes with

the lectures and demos, and plan to bring students back in a safe way, adhering to provincial health guidelines, in the coming weeks for their practical components.

“We cannot assume that all of our students have kitchens, ingredients, and equipment to do a lot of the tasks,” he adds. “I’ve made a lot of video content for students to watch. I’ve even experimented with wearing an action cam to do some point-of-view lessons for students to follow along.”

During a recent class, students did a fun take on a “black box” competition via Zoom, using foods they had on hand or could easily procure. They made items like soufflés, eclairs, and puff pastry. Only some could participate, however, as not all had the necessary ingredients. So MacDonald adapted anew.

“This week, for my new class, I made care packages and drove around the Lower Mainland, delivering them to everyone, so now I can actually structure a lesson that everyone can participate in,” MacDonald says. “I can give feedback and advice on what I can see, but I’m lucky my students are almost a year into the program, so it’s actually a great exercise for them to evaluate themselves.”

Things will continue to evolve as B.C. responds to the pandemic.

The school will assess classrooms to see how many students can safely fit amid physical distancing and will determine how the schedule will look with significant reduction in class size.

Courses will likely encompass a hybrid approach, with online classes for theory and reduced hours for hands-on, practical work.

On the positive side, the team has developed new multimedia content and activities that can be used down the road, pandemic or not.

“It has been quite a ride,” MacDonald says. “I believe this experience will make us stronger in the future. I really must commend and say a heartfelt thank you to all of the students who have beared with us in all of this, being guinea pigs for whatever we came up with, pushing me out of my comfort zone to learn some new things myself.

“Initially, when the restrictions first came out, my gut reaction was we would need to pause the program,” he adds. “But the issues are very complex, so we innovated quickly—which is an important part of being a chef.” g

10 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MAY 14 – 21 / 2020

Remote classes don’t work for all kids

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by Patti Bacchus

arents and teachers appear split on whether to keep trying to complete the school year through remote learning, with some finding it stressful and unworkable in the midst of the pandemic while others say it’s worth giving it a chance.

I’ve heard from teachers who are finding it hard to communicate with parents who have limited English skills, while others are overwhelmed with trying to teach remotely and stay in contact with students while their own kids are at home with their own work to do.

Some parents of students with special needs are telling me that remote learning is not working for them at all and that their kids desperately miss the human contact and support they get from attending school.

One parent messaged me that one of his kids’ teachers had assigned cooking projects that ended up costing him more than $100 for ingredients and required him to leave his kids home and line up at a grocery store.

“Call it off for now. Make everything optional,” he wrote. “Make it up later. Parents have no supports currently (grandparents, childcare) and they’re also trying to work from home—if they’re lucky—and we want them to also homeschool their kids?

While things are peak stressful? Seriously, I love our teachers and they’re trying, but this is unrealistic for many.

“It really favours households with a stay-at-home parent, which probably doesn’t bode well for lower-income or single-parent households,” he added, making a very good point.

High-school students can have eight different teachers, and if each one is communicating and assigning work, that can be a lot to manage, particularly for reluctant learners and those who aren’t strong when it comes to work habits.

We know many children and youth are affected by anxiety and mental-health issues, and the pandemic will be getting to many and making it hard to focus and maintain healthy sleep habits. Parents may be struggling more than ever now too, as will some teachers.

After getting several calls and messages in April—from teachers, parents, and several who are both—I posted a completely unscientific 24hour Twitter poll asking: “Should government just declare the school year over and stop stressing out families? School districts could provide optional activities, resources, projects etcetera. Teachers and support workers could be available to provide help by phone or online. What do you think (end the year or keep it going)?”

The results were almost evenly split throughout the 24 hours the poll was open, from a Sunday morning to Monday morning, with a total of 1,734 votes. Fifty-two percent

Some parents want remote learning to be optional, arguing that the pressure of homeschooling has added stress to their lives. Photo by VillieFlari/Wikimedia

said end the year now, while 48 percent voted to keep it going.

Twitter polls carry zero weight in terms of actual decisions—which is good, because when people are so evenly split, there’s probably no right or wrong answer. I’m relieved it’s not my call to make.

I appreciated the many people who took time to explain their positions and the many direct messages people sent. Some poured out their frustration and were all for pulling the plug on the formal school year, and others explained why it’s important to keep going while also keeping the pressure on parents and students to a minimum.

Seriously, I love our teachers and they’re trying, but this is unrealistic for many.

– A parent

There are many who are committed to finishing the year remotely, for several good reasons. Firstly, it’s working for many, and parents are reporting that their kids need the structure and something to keep them busy. Others point to the important mental-health benefits of keeping connected to teachers and classmates on a daily basis to minimize the impact of being isolated at home.

Something that worries me is the always concerning achievement gap between students from low-income families and those who come from more affluent families with parents with higher education levels. It may be difficult for those kids to learn from home if they’re in crowded or

high-conflict living situations, with inadequate nutrition and school supplies or lack of up-to-date technology. On the other hand, school districts are working to provide additional support to those families by providing them with Internetconnected devices and food to go.

I don’t think anyone should stress about schoolwork right now, although I know many are, including teachers.

I give credit to the Ministry of Education, school districts, and teachers for doing their best to put out the message that although continuity of learning matters, the most important thing right now is keeping everyone well, mentally and physically.

While the rollout of remote learning will have bumps, for sure, and will vary from district to district, school to school, and even from one teacher to another, I know everyone is doing their best to make it work and provide as much support and opportunities for students as possible under the difficult conditions we’re experiencing. Teachers deserve a lot of credit for rising to this unprecedented and unexpected challenge in a remarkably short period. The good news is we seem to be “flattening the curve” through selfisolation and social distancing.

In the meantime, the best we can do is keep doing what we’re doing and follow Dr. Bonnie Henry’s directions and hope for the best. A silver lining in all this is that kids, and especially girls, now have an incredible and inspiring role model in our top health officer, and maybe that will motivate some of them to pursue careers in public health and do so with Henry’s grace and compassion.

This pandemic is a life lesson in itself and something none of us will ever forget. Regardless of how much formal schoolwork kids are doing, I know they’re learning a great deal each day of this pandemic. g Patti Bacchus is the Georgia Straight K-12 education columnist. She was chair of the Vancouver school board from 2008 to 2014.

Pandemic rattles university students

C

by Charlie Smith

OVID-19 is wreaking havoc on Canadian college and university students, even as they’re far less likely to become gravely ill from the disease than their grandparents.

According to Statistics Canada, the most common disruption has been a delay or cancellation of work placements. In a survey of 100,000 postsecondary students from April 19 to May 1, this was cited by 35 percent of respondents.

“Just over one-quarter (26%) reported that some of their courses were postponed or cancelled by their institutions, including course work such as labs, applied learning and hands-on instruction that cannot be postsecondary students have delivered online,” the federal agency Many seen work placements cancelled. stated. “A further 11% of participants indicated they were not able to com- not able to complete some of their plete their degree, diploma or cer- winter-term courses.” tificate as planned, while 10% were More than half—54 percent—

expressed that they were “very or extremely concerned” that their diploma, degree, or certificate would not be viewed as the equivalent of those credentials earned by students in a period not affected by COVID-19.

Among the student respondents who were employed at the beginning of March, 55 percent reported either losing their job or being laid off by May. Another 26 percent said they are working fewer hours.

Statistics Canada acknowledged that the data was not collected using “probability-based sampling”, so the numbers cannot be applied to the overall population of students in Canada.

“However, the results provide a snapshot of the experiences of participating students and—given the large number of participants—offer valuable insights,” it stated. g

EDUCATION

Learn to cook in your own kitchen

B

by Gail Johnson

CHEF’S TABLE

eing home to so many outstanding chefs and such exceptional food, B.C. is also full of fabulous options when it comes to cooking classes.

With COVID-19, however, many schools have ceased operations while others have adapted to the world of virtual learning. Still other sources have been thriving online all along.

Here are a few places to learn new recipes and cooking techniques within the safety of your own kitchen.

HOT THAI KITCHEN

Thai-born Vancouver chef Pailin Chongchitnant is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu and author of Hot Thai Kitchen: Demystifying Thai Cuisine with Authentic Recipes to Make at Home. Host of the TV series One World Kitchen on Gusto TV, she also has a YouTube channel, where her cooking show Hot Thai Kitchen recently surpassed one million subscribers. Follow her there to learn how to make everything from Pad Makeua Yao, an eggplant stir fry with Thai basil served with rice, to Gaeng Ped Bped Yang, a red-curry dish with barbecued duck and pineapple. She posts a new video every Local chef Pailin Chongchitnant has a YouTube channel. Photo by Janis Nicolay Friday. Pai’s Kitchen is her other show, where she shares how-to home cooks with past participants site ingredients and create alongside videos of dishes from other parts of through Brewery & the Beast’s the pros. Partial proceeds benefit the Homeschool Series. chef, bartender, and a hospitality the world.

Each week, a different chef-and- charity of their choice.

BREWERY & THE BEAST bartender duo will join you and host The most recent episode featured HOMESCHOOL SERIES Gurley from the comfort of their Wolf in the Fog executive chef Nick The popular summertime craft beer own homes via Zoom to hang out Nutting and bartender Ken Gifford and sustainable meat festival gathers and share recipes, via a live cooking tuning in from Tofino. Future guests some of the province’s best chefs and and cocktail-making demonstration. include Roy’s Korean Kitchen’s Roy bartenders and sells out every year. Classes take place Thursdays at 6 Oh, the Southern Alberta Institute of Scott Gurney, founder of 17 Black p.m. and cost $10. Once you register Technology’s Madeline MacDonald, Events, which produces BATB and in advance, you receive the link and Toptable Group’s Kristian Eligh, and other culinary events, is connecting the recipes so you can get the requi- Elisa’s Katie Ingram.

Fable Kitchen chef/owner Trevor Bird is hosting live, virtual cooking classes while supporting people in need, with all proceeds from Chef’s Table going to Food Coalition YVR. The local collective of restaurants is providing meals to people in the Downtown Eastside and other vulnerable citizens.

The classes run every Friday from 6:30 to 8 p.m., with Bird sharing kitchen hacks and how-tos for the farm-to-table fare that Fable Kitchen is known for. Meal kits for each three-course menu will be delivered to registrants ahead of time, to cut down on extra trips to the grocery store. Participants will be able to refer back to the classes online afterward. Tickets are $45 per person.

COZYMEAL

A group of chefs in San Francisco started this company several years out of a desire to offer people freshly made gourmet meals at home. Now it connects individuals with local chefs in cities all over the United States and Canada, including Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary. It’s about to launch in Edmonton, Hamilton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Mississauga.

Cozymeal is offering live, interactive classes via Zoom. You can find everything from hand-made ravioli to pressure-cooker risotto to fried chicken and waffles. Note to talented cooks displaced by COVID-19: it’s hiring chefs in each city it works in.

Classes on the current menu: Thai, modern Moroccan, true Italian, traditional Spanish tapas, sushi for kids, gnocchi 101, fried chicken and THE TRUE NOSH CO. waffles, and more. Prices vary, with a limited time offer starting at $29 Registered dietitian Renée Chan runs per device.

True Nosh, and she has a keen interest in healthy foods, vegetarian fare, and SUSHI-MAKING WITH CHEF TOJO Asian cuisine. Prior to the outbreak If you’re going to attempt makof COVID-19, she hosted in-person ing sushi at home, you might as cooking classes (and plans to again well learn from the master. Tojo when such things are possible again). Hidezaku of Tojo’s Restaurant reguFor now, she’s offering online classes larly appears live on Instagram, with several days of the week; many are by video tutorials for everything from donation, with the exception being temaki (cone-shaped rolls) to noodle Friday evening courses, which are dishes. $30. (A registered dietitian’s receipt is available; 10 percent of the proceeds LUNCH AT HOME WITH go to Diabetes Canada.) Examples of CEDARCREEK ESTATE WINERY upcoming classes include dim sum If you’re working at home these days, (including gluten-free rice dumplings you might be getting tired of the same and vegan chive dumplings), Thai old, same old for lunch. Mondays chicken satay (with vegan options), at 12 p.m. throughout the month of and afternoon tea. Chan also offers May, CedarCreek executive chef Neil private cooking classes via livestream Taylor will be doing a Lunch at Home video, and, as a certified yoga teacher, Instagram live series. Look for simple and sometimes adds on a yoga ses- but delicious dishes like soups, salads, and pastas. g sion before the cooking begins.

INFO Sessions

Sign up now for our online info sessions. Meet instructors and get your questions answered.

Programs starting soon. vcc.ca/info Practical Nursing Thursday, May 14, 4 p.m.

VCC International Education Friday, May 15, 11 a.m.

Culinary Arts / Asian Culinary Arts Tuesday, May 19, 9:30 a.m.

Adult Upgrading Tuesday, May 19, 1 p.m.

Dental Technology Tuesday, May 19, 3 p.m.

Are you interested in developing your online skills and ability to facilitate learning online?

Medical Transcriptionist / Medical Office Assistant Tuesday, May 19, 4 p.m.

Occupational / Physical Therapy Assistant Wednesday, May 20, 10:30 a.m.

Graphic Design Wednesday, May 20, 11 a.m.

Join us for the PIDP 3320: Facilitating Learning Online Fundamentals

CAD and BIM (drafting) Wednesday, May 20, 3 p.m.

You will have the opportunity to facilitate and participate in three unique learning experiences and apply a wide range of tools as you collaborate and create effective online learning experiences.

Gemmology Wednesday, May 20, 5:30 p.m.

American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf Studies Wednesday, May 20, 6 p.m.

Location: Online – 6 weeks Cost: $336.30 Date: Now accepting registrations

Downtown campus 200-block Dunsmuir at Hamilton two blocks west of Stadium SkyTrain station.

To register contact School of Instructor Education sie@vcc.ca

Broadway campus 1155 East Broadway across from VCC/Clark SkyTrain station.

vcc.ca

MAY 14 – 21 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 11

FINANCE

Wilson makes money less scary for readers

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by Gail Johnson

hen Burnaby’s Nicole Wilson looks back at her 20s, she sees a financial disaster. She was living paycheque to paycheque and eating mainly instant noodles, had almost maxed-out two credit cards and a line of credit, and owed the government money.

She told no one about her horrendous situation. Instead, she started writing about her money troubles with the intention of starting a blog. Now a debt-free and married 34-year-old mom and project manager, she has turned those entries into a book.

Living in the Red is aimed at millennials and anyone else living beyond their means. Wilson wrote it to help people feel more comfortable talking about their finances and to encourage them to get professional help. She shares very basic tips that enabled her to eventually overcome her serious troubles.

“I want people to know that it is never too late,” Wilson tells the Straight. “By sharing my story, I hope to inspire others to make small changes to better their relationship with money.

“I have started to work with millennials with regards to money management,” she says. “I look to help them create a budget, start saving, get out of debt, and work towards their BHAFG: ’Big Hairy Audacious Financial Goals’.”

With COVID-19 making it harder than ever for many people to find or keep employment, resulting in even more debt, Wilson acknowledges that these are challenging times.

“I hope this experience will cre-

Nicole Wilson wrote Living in the Red for those living beyond their means.

ate awareness on the importance of an emergency fund,” Wilson says.

“It might not be feasible right now to stow away extra money, but it’s definitely possible to start making a plan to have in place for when things start to pick up. It should be a top priority. For starters, it can be as simple as contributing five percent of every paycheque into a separate savings account.

“Saving money and getting out of debt doesn’t have to be scary or daunting,” she adds. “There are small things you can do to ensure you are setting yourself up for success.” g

TECH

Smith will treasure his time at CDM

T

by Charlie Smith

he Centre for Digital Media is unlike any other postsecondary institution in B.C. Created in 2007 as a collaboration between UBC, SFU, BCIT, and Emily Carr University of Art + Design, it offers an applied master’s degree in digital media (MDM) while giving students the opportunity to work collaboratively to devise practical solutions for real-world clients.

For the past nine years, it’s been headed by Richard Smith, an imaginative and progressive academic who has played a key role in advancing Vancouver’s digital economy. Earlier this month, he announced that he’s moving on to a new phase in his career.

“When I came to the MDM program in 2011, I didn’t know much about how digital media was made,” Smith acknowledged in a message to students on the CDM website. “I was a critic of social media impacts, but I didn’t make anything (beyond a few web pages).

“I now know a lot more about the process that goes into making digital media, because I have watched what you, the students and faculty, do every day,” he continued.

He also stated that being director of the Centre for Digital Media has been “an intensely rewarding experience… The very best in my life. I shall treasure it forever.”

Over the phone, Smith told the Straight that he’s going on an “admin leave”, which is granted to regular faculty members after they complete a term in a position like the one he held. After that ends, he’ll return to his former position as a professor in SFU’s school of communication.

His successor as director is Larry Bafia, a long-time instructor and animator whose stop-motion credits include the California Raisins ad

The Centre for Digital Media’s Richard Smith will be returning to his old job at SFU.

campaign and a sequence in Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.

Smith’s tenure as director coincided with the expansion of digital technology into a wide range of industries, including finance, development, transportation, natural resources, and arts and culture. The Centre for Digital Media is the only school that’s a partnership of four postsecondary institutions.

“It was a lot of fun,” Smith said. “I got a good taste for it when I implemented some changes early on, I think 2012, and I had to take them through four universities and four university senates and four university graduate committees, and all that stuff. For the most part, there was a lot of goodwill.

People wanted it to succeed.”

As director of the school, he emphasized the importance of teambuilding. The goal has always been to recruit students with creativity, team-building and communications skills, and an aptitude for leadership and conveying of ideas.

Prior to heading up the Centre for Digital Media, Smith was director of SFU’s Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology. He is currently the publisher of the Canadian

Journal of Communication.

Back in 2013, when the Straight asked him about his research, Smith replied that he explores the links between technology and society.

“I’ve looked at older people, younger people, rural people, aboriginal people. I try and look at… how their participation in society as a whole is either enabled or impaired

by Internet technologies,” he said.

He cited Twitter as an example of an enduring technological innovation. It was launched to the public in July 2006, which is when Smith created his account. He was such an early adopter that he was able to secure the handle @Smith before anyone else had seized onto it.

“It didn’t exist at one time, and then it’s here, and then you have to try and figure out how is it going to fit into, as [Marshall] McLuhan used to call it, the communication ecology,” Smith said at the time.

Little did he or anyone else know in 2013 that a future presidential candidate, Donald Trump, would latch onto this platform to help him capture the White House. In this case, as McLuhan famously said, the medium turned out to be the message. g

Modo introduces exclusive vehicles for essential travel during the pandemic

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(This story is sponsored by Modo.)

odo is a member-owned community co-operative—the B.C.-based carshare organization has been putting people before profit for 23 years.

Despite the changes impinged upon our economy and communities

by COVID-19, Modo continues to offer convenient transportation options and its fleet is cleaner than ever.

Because of the outbreak, Modo has ramped up its sanitization practices by an impressive 40 percent, with extra focus on high-touch areas like steering wheels and door handles, to ensure the safety of its members.

In an effort to provide affordable and reliable transportation to those with necessary travel needs during the pandemic, Modo developed its essential transportation program at-cost. This is even more impressive and necessary as Zipcar recently pulled out of the region, making it the second international carshare corporation to exit this year.

The new program gives its member-owners (Modo Plus) an affordable and safe mode of transportation for their essential travel needs—during a time when carpooling isn’t an option and public transit is operating on greatly reduced schedules.

Members are still able to book vehicles by the hour or day during the pandemic but the new program gives Modo Plus members’ additional access to a vehicle for their exclusive use for 30 days. For a flat monthly fee of $500 or $550 (depending on the model), the vehicle also includes gas, insurance, and plenty of free parking in permit-only and residential zones, and for two hours at the me-

We know some members still require the use of our vehicles for essential trips.

– Selena McLachlan

Constance Barnes is a long-time Modo member and a DTES volunteer who relies on her Modo van’s temporary at-cost rate to continue her daily pandemic work.

ters. Members can store their items in the booked vehicle and park close to their home or place of work—the vehicle is theirs for the entire month.

The team at Modo wants to support those who need to leave selfisolation to run essential errands and travel to work, no matter what their job—with Modo’s open and inclusive co-operative, anyone is welcome to join.

Before the pandemic, Vancouver residents were able to rely on public transit. But with the tightening of

12 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MAY 14 – 21 / 2020

social-distancing regulations, many transit routes have been temporarily reduced or removed altogether.

“As physical distancing measures and travel restrictions continue, we know some members still require the use of our vehicles for essential trips,” says Selena McLachlan, director of marketing and communications at Modo. “For many, this means delivering care or necessary goods, picking up groceries, or simply getting to work if your doors are still open for business.”

After receiving requests from community volunteers and small business owners, the team at Modo saw an opportunity to offer a selection of their vehicles at cost—this was how the carshare company could give back to individuals and local businesses during the pandemic.

“We have seen small businesses have to reinvent themselves and implement delivery options,” says McLachlan. “They told us that they would love to have its delivery staff use Modo but that the service would be cost-prohibitive on a daily basis, especially now when many are seeing a dramatic drop in revenues.”

The temporary monthly rate will help local companies adapt and succeed during this challenging time.

Several of the small businesses using Modo vehicles have been able to avoid layoffs. A number of businesses have even had to hire more workers, providing employment opportunities for those who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

Supporting our communities during this unprecedented time is vital—

we are all in this together. But because of the changing economy, many volunteers felt that they would be unable to continue their charitable efforts to support the vulnerable without an affordable mode of transportation.

Long-time Modo member and volunteer Constance Barnes had this to say: “Right now my Modo van is my lifeline to the work I do in the Downtown Eastside. I deliver masks, gloves, food, water, cleaning supplies, and much more to the most vulnerable people in this province.”

Barnes is not only using Modo every day but has also been using her own money to purchase the personal protective equipment and food for those in need. “We were able to introduce her to the new essential transportation program as a way to support her and give back to our community”, says McLachlan, “now she can afford to keep doing her incredible relief work.”

Modo acknowledges there’s a multitude of reasons why people might need a vehicle during the pandemic. Whether you’re volunteering, travelling to work, or picking up groceries, the team at Modo believes all of those tasks are worthy of safe transportation.

“Whatever the definition of essential might be, we want to be there for our members when they need us most,” says McLachlan. g If you can make use of Modo’s essential transportation program, call Modo at 604685-1393 or send an email to info@modo. coop with “ESSENTIAL TRANSPORTATION” in the subject line. If you’re new to Modo, note in the email that you heard about the offer through the Straight and get $25 in driving credits with promo code “STRAIGHTETP”.

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Store Hours: Monday to Sunday: 9am to 5pm MAY 14 – 21 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 13

DRINK

Rum mixologists call on many brands Fuggles & Warlock plum beer is smashingly sour

by Mike Usinger

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Lovers of tiki cocktails will tell you that some of the best require four types of rum.

o-ho-ho, booze buddies, and welcome to another edition of Liquor Nerd, the column where the goal is to turn you into a home-bar star. Or at least a third-rate approximation of Donn Beach.

This week we’re talking rum, the one liquor that can mess up a drink fast.

Think about it. It really doesn’t matter if you reach for the Absolut, the Ketel One, or the East Van Vodka—all of them will create a screwdriver that only Viktor Korheev would be able to tell from the others.

As for whiskies, if you steer clear of peat-heavy Scottish offerings like Ardbeg and Laphroaig, you can swap Canadian Club with Jim Beam or Maker’s Mark in a Manhattan without anyone reporting you to the ghost of Iain Marshall.

Wrong as this may sound to casual imbibers—and downright barbaric to purists—generally speaking, the same goes for gins when it’s Gimlet time, and for tequilas when you’re pulling into Margaritaville.

Crazily, though, rum is a whole different deal, with specific drinks calling for specific brands. Want to ruin a Yellow Bird? Grab a molassesheavy Cruzan Black Strap instead of Bacardi White. Your Dark ’n Stormy

won’t bring to mind the Caribbean at midnight during monsoon season if you decide to invite Sailor Jerry to the party rather than Gosling’s.

And the best way to make a Tropicana bartender cry is to decline to root around for the Havana Club at the back of the liquor cabinet when there’s a bottle of Old Sam staring you right in the face.

Nowhere is this rule of designated rums for designated drinks more iron-clad than in the wonderful world of tiki cocktails, some of which will call for two, three, or even four different brands of rum.

For home mixologists who tend to land on the OCD side of things, that means short-term pain (in the form of financial ruination at the liquor store) for long-term, doing-thingsproperly gain.

The first step to mastering the art of rum drinks is accepting the fact that you’re going to need a good dozen brands on hand at home. Ignore this if you’re happy drinking nothing but rum and Cokes. Sorry, but you’re in the wrong place right now— namely, this week’s Liquor Nerd.

As for the rest of you, yes, the idea that different rum drinks call for different rums is daunting, but as American tiki guru Beachbum Berry notes in his essential book Sippin’ Safari,

“A drink that sings with a Haitian rum will likely croak with a Puerto Rican.”

(Not to rant, but do you know why getting a proper Mai Tai in Vancouver is pretty much missionimpossible unless you’re sitting on a barstool in a place like the Shameful Tiki on Main? It’s because a proper Mai Tai calls for Martinique rum [Saint James Hors d’Age or Clément, to be exact], a style that is basically nowhere to be found on the shelves of B.C. liquor stores.)

If you win the lottery tomorrow, head to Legacy or a government liquor store and stock up on one of everything you see in the rum section— eventually, you’ll stumble on a recipe that calls for whatever you unearth. If you’re on a fixed COVID-19-lockdown income, invest in a different brand with each visit. Assuming that you’re not practising for the role of Henry Chinaski in a Theatre Under the Stars mounting of Barfly, you’re only going to need an ounce or two of a specific brand for each happy hour.

Because all this is a lot to process, let’s end this week’s Liquor Nerd here. After you’ve picked up a bottle of Gosling’s, you can make the following cocktail, which we’ve modified with the addition of lime juice and homemade ginger syrup.

(For the latter, make a tea by boiling a cup of sliced fresh ginger with one cup of water. Mix hot tea with one cup of white sugar until the sugar dissolves).

No, it’s not the official registeredby-Gosling’s recipe, but it uses the right kind of rum. So don’t judge.

by Mike Usinger

A

Fuggles & Warlock Craftworks Kiwami Plum Sour will take you back to Tokyo.

s a valuable public service, we taste the latest in Lower Mainland beers and then give you a highly opinionated, pocket-sized review.

that reads: “Contains fresh plums.

Please keep refrigerated.” Colourwise, “wheat beer” normally makes you think of something paler than Stoya crossed with Bill Skarsgård in Season 1 of Castle Rock. Maybe the ON TAP plums have everything to do with Fuggles & Warlock Craftworks Ki- it, but here you’re getting a beer a wami Plum Sour. couple of shades darker than a standard Canadian lager. Taste-wise, THEIR WORDS this low-carbonated citrus-forward “A delicately tart wheat kettle sour offering suggests the plums were brewed with fresh plums.” pulled off the tree a good week or two before they were ready to drop, TASTE TEST which is to say as a sour it’s smashThere’s a very valid argument to be ingly as advertised. made that the folks at Fuggles & DARK ’N STORMY Warlock aren’t exactly the verbose DEEP THOUGHTS 2 oz Gosling’s Black Seal Rum types. Hop on their website and they Ever been lucky enough to spend 3/4 oz fresh lime juice seem to be all about the minimalist time in Tokyo, perhaps sipping plum 3/4 oz ginger syrup route. There’s a home link and an wine in Shibuya, or downing roasted 3 oz ginger beer (e.g. Old Tyme or order link and not much else, which plum martinis at the Park Hyatt’s Reed’s—not ginger ale) makes the job of coming up with a New York Bar? If not, Kiwami Plum detailed and informed breakdown of Sour will take you there, starting Pour ginger beer, syrup, and lime their Kiwami Plum Sour a little on with the indisputably styling artjuice over crushed ice in a tall glass. the difficult side. Maybe they figured work on the can. Then again, maybe Add Gosling’s and stir. Or don’t. g that the one-sentence “Their Words” it won’t. Sometimes you’ll look at blurb about fresh plums on the side something thinking it’s Japanese, Mike Usinger is not a professional of the can was enough. As for how only to discover—via Google transbartender. He does, however, spend most fresh, they evidently aren’t kidding; late—that something seems to have of his waking hours sitting on barstools. there’s a secondary bit of fine print gotten lost in translation. g

Yes, online wine tastings are a thing

By Gail Johnson

called Waldorf Wine Wednesdays.

(The time of day will vary; follow the company on Instagram for updates.)

With the global pandemic having led to the temporary closure of so many bricks-and-mortar wine stores and winery tasting rooms, virtual tastings are, at least for now, the new normal.

Here are other B.C.-based online tastings: just what you need to help you better appreciate and understand all the wine that seems to be disappearing these days.

SINGLETREE WINERY

With bricks-and-mortar wine stores temporarily closed, a number of sommeliers and winemakers are taking to the Internet. Photo by Okanagan Crush Pad

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hen sommelier Khristian took a sip of the Mas Roig Solà Fred 2018 during a recent wine tasting, he described the unoaked Spanish red, fermented in stainless steel vats, as a perfect example of “wine without makeup”— one that doesn’t need wood to mask the purity of the fruit.

From the Montsant (Holy Mountain) region of Catalonia, the 100-percent Carignan (Samso) wine is perfect for making the transition from the dining room to a sunsplashed patio. It takes well to a slight chill (about 20 minutes inside the fridge door, similar to a Pinot Noir or Gamay), and is super aromatic: “The aromas jump from the glass,”

said Laroche, sales manager of Waldorf Wine Group, a family-run importing company based in Steveston.

A versatile crowd-pleaser, the Solà Fred 2018 goes nicely with tacos, pizza, dips, charcuterie, and grilled salmon with teriyaki glaze, Laroche noted. (It’s also $2 off throughout the month of May, going for $17.99 rather than $19.99, as a BCLS Select product in 62 BCLDB stores.)

During the COVID-19 era of physical distancing, the tasting Laroche was leading was, of course, not at the wine shop or a restaurant or anywhere else we’re not currently allowed to gather, but online, in this case, on Instagram live.

Laroche is planning a weekly tasting via the social-media platform,

14 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MAY 14 – 21 / 2020

Winemaker Andrew Etsell will be leading the 2019 Vintage Virtual Tasting on May 22 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. He’ll take and taste you through the 12-acre family-run Fraser Valley winery’s seven new releases: 2019 Siegerrebe (Siggy); 2019 Grüner Veltliner; 2019 Rosé (Syrah/ Merlot); 2019 Pinot Gris; 2019 Viognier; 2019 Sauvignon Blanc; and 2017 Merlot.

OKANAGAN CRUSH PAD WINERY

Leave it to Christine Coletta and Steve Lornie to put an inventive spin on things. The team at the Summerland winery (home to Free Form, Haywire, Narrative, and the just-launched Bizou + Yukon label) will work around your schedule and preferences for its virtual wine tastings. Here’s how it works: you and at least three friends pick a date and time for an online gathering, whether it’s via Zoom, Skype, Facebook, or whatever other app you fancy.

At least four days in advance, you

instructor Moss Scheurkogel from the Vinstitute, a wine school in Oliver.

The themed tastings will cover the Oliver Osoyoos Wine Country’s 44 wineries. The series kicked off in April with a look at the basic differences between red and white wines; the next virtual tasting (on May 26 at 7 p.m.)

OLIVER OSOYOOS WINE COUNTRY focuses on rosés and spring pairings.

The organization’s Uncork the Sun Sip wines from Hidden Chapel, Hespodcast series and monthly Facebook ter Creek Estate Winery, and Culmina Live interactive tastings are hosted by Family Estate Winery. g order the wines you want to swirl and sip (each person buys a wine tasting pack consisting of two full bottles and one half bottle). A winery rep will meet you and go over the wines, and you get to say whether you want “geeky facts” or “fun and stories”.

S plash OF WINE SANDHILL WINES 2019 ROSÉ

TECH SHEET: A blend of premium Okanagan Gamay Noir (81 percent), Merlot (13 percent), and Sangiovese (six percent) grapes from the Sandhill Estate Vineyard and Rocky Ridge Vineyard, the wine begins with aromas of wild strawberry and melon and finishes with notes of notes of pomegranate, red berry, and pink grapefruit.

FIRST SIP: The last thing you want with a rosé is for it to taste like

a lollipop, the kind wrapped in a crinkly square of plastic, and we can thank winemaker Sandy Leier for saving us from that fate. Salmonpink in colour, this is the opposite of cloyingly sweet. Dry and earthy, it’s more like hanging out with your grounded BFF than making small talk with an acquaintance. This is the bottle to crack open when you’re connecting with your nearest and dearest at a safe distance.

NEXT LEVEL: You can’t go wrong

with steelhead or Arctic char, but why not crank the volume to 11 with Café Salade de Fruits’ Seafood Trio (with wild salmon, halibut, and scallop, alongside risotto, haricots vert, and other crisp vegetables)?

SWIRL THIS: Find it at Sandhill Wines for $20 and at certain B.C. retailers.

by Gail Johnson

STYLE

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Vancouver outdoor brands join forces and tap expertise for protective wear

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The materials and techniques that have made Arc’teryx a go-to for West Coast weather made it uniquely situated to redeploy its manufacturing facility to making protective hospital wear. It was all part of a united B.C. Apparel and Gear Association project.

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t first glance, Vancouver’s thriving outerwear industry might seem far removed from the world of protective surgical gowns. One apparel is designed to take adventurers outdoors, across glaciers and through rainforests; the other, as we see every night on the television news, is confined to a strictly indoor realm with its own invisible hazards.

But at Arc’teryx and other local outdoor-gear companies, the similarities between the two areas are coming sharply into focus.

Applying the materials, techniques, and innovation that’s made it a go-to in extreme-adventure sports, Arc’teryx managed to pivot within 10 days to manufacturing badly needed Level-3 isolation medical gowns for Vancouver Coastal Health. Under the health authority’s guidance, it’s joined in the effort by like-minded Mustang Survival (which makes protective gear for water rescue and mariners) and Boardroom Clothing (known for technical clothing focused on sustainability) in the B.C. Apparel and Gear Association project. Each company has committed to making 30,000 gowns—90,000 in total.

“When we were given the technical specs [from the health authority], we started to recognize the tests for water resistance and spray penetration, the breathability,” Shirley Chan, senior director of product commercialization and quality, who’s leading the project at Arc’teryx, explains over a video call. “What we do has nothing to do with pathogens, but it’s about barrier protection.

“We’re known for our waterproof, breathable technology,” Chan says, adding that’s achieved mostly through using Gore-Tex. “But it’s really about managing weather and the ability to sustain comfort in inclement weather. If you are comfortable, you will last longer at what you’re doing—whether that’s on a mountain top and you want to perform better or longer, or in protective gear at a hospital. You’ll generally feel safer as well; gear shouldn’t be something you think about.”

Like outdoor wear, she stresses, hospital gowns have to allow as much range of movement as possible. One of the challenges of the

surgical gowns is creating a universal fit for all shapes and sizes of frontline health-care worker; cuffs need to be flexible enough to be pushed up and ties have to sit in the right place.

Developing a pattern was relatively easy, though, compared to finding a material that would live up to the protective grade needed. “We weren’t wanting hundreds or thousands but hundreds of thousands of metres,” she stresses. Between Arc’teryx, Boardroom, and Mustang, they tested numerous materials in stock for quality, and found that some were too waterproof or too heavy or too thin, she explains.

That’s when Delta-based KenDor Textiles stepped in with a type of breathable Softshell.

At Arc’teryx’s ARC’One manufacturing facility in New Westminster, the company has sourced enough to deliver more than 1,500 Level-3 isolation gowns at a below-market rate. KenDor has tapped a mill in China, whose new shipment has been shipped here by boat to fill the rest of the 30,000 orders within four to six weeks.

If you are comfortable, you will last longer at what you are doing.

– Shirley Chan, Arc’teryx

Arc’teryx was forced to lay off about 450 workers from its New West facility when the pandemic struck.

Now it’s been able to bring some of those workers back, wearing medical masks and assigned to spread-out work stations. The project moved so fast, Chan relates, “we were literally cutting fabrics and moving machines simultaneously.” The company is already looking at the possibility of making more gowns for other districts once this batch is delivered.

As much as it’s been a smooth transition, there is one huge difference between what Arc’teryx

normally does and this project: the idea that sewers, sample makers, pattern makers, and engineers could finish prototypes and kick a design into production in only 10 days would be almost unthinkable in the world of high-end adventure apparel. Chan laughs that, normally, it takes Arc’teryx two years to design and take a piece to market.

“But then it’s blue sky—your options are limitless,” she says. “With this item the specs were predetermined.”

For now, while the medical gowns roll off the assembly line, Arc’teryx’s blue-sky creatives are working from home to create fall 2021 and spring 2022 collections.

“This is a bit of a hiatus on the world, but when the pandemic ends, we’re going to have to be ready to go,” Chan says. g

S neaker HE ADS OUR PICK from the world of kicks. c THE DEETS Save our rivers and lakes with your feet, as Vancouver-based Native repurposes algae into these earth-friendly kicks, available in new colours, including this springy pastel celtuce green.

The slip-on Jefferson style has Native’s signature perforations and flexible soles. Totally West Coast ($65 Canadian). c RANDOMNESS: During the manufacturing process, toxic algae is swept from lakes and other freshwater ecosystems and transformed into a highperformance material. Making each pair ends up cleaning up to 8 litres of water and 50 cubed metres of air. c STOCKIST: Nativeshoes.com/. c SOUNDTRACK: algae bloom’s “Thorns”. g

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The Georgia Straight Confessions, an outlet for submitting revelations about your private lives—or for the voyeurs among us who want to read what other people have disclosed.

Scan to confess Does Freedom die here?

I’m at odds why is so many people are in such a hurry to lose their rights and freedom all of sudden without so much as a thought. Freedom of speech, wether you like what another person says or doesn’t you owe it to them and honour their right to free speech because our Fathers died to protect that right. Holding one opinion only creates a vacuum where only those thoughts can exist thus creating an island which alienates everyone else except those who are deemed likeminded. Those who choose to live by cancel culture are only one misstep away from being cancelled themselves and you simply don’t know everything even though your phone might tell you that you do. I do not want my kids to live in a world where they aren’t free to speak without being attacked online from mobs of arm chair generals who live on the currency of loneliness and fear.

Spinster I’m so happy to be single right now. Not getting nagged to an early grave. Fuck, he was annoying. Even the friends I’ve seen (at a distance) are annoying as hell. I love lying in bed for as long as I please, getting up at noon to listen to jazz, eating pancakes with lots of maple syrup while sitting on the balcony as the sun shines all over my makeup free face.

Nothing beats it.

No summer concerts.... for reals.

I do not know how my life would be without the memories of being a 15, 16 and 17 year old going into the city for shows on summer nights. The buzz, the energy of being alive with little groups of friends adventuring the city in the hours leading up to shows, wandering Granville and Hastings and experiencing a big city open all night...

Visit

to post a Confession MAY 14 – 21 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 15

FEATURE / HEALTH

Indian Summer comes early this year

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by Charlie Smith

he cofounder and artistic director of the Indian Summer Festival had big plans this year. Sirish Rao launched the annual Vancouver event in 2011 with his wife, Laura Byspalko, at SFU Woodward’s, immediately connecting with those who thirsted for a festival that aimed high, intellectually and artistically. One of the highlights of the debut edition was seeing the Bollywood actor Tabu engaging in conversation with Canadian author Yann Martel. Tabu described her role in a film adaptation of Life of Pi, two years before it won four Oscars.

For this, the 10th anniversary, Rao was planning his grandest show with the overarching theme “River of Language”.

“It was going to be the big fat wedding—really the biggest, most intricate festival we’d dreamed up,” Rao told the Straight by phone.

The number of languages in the world has been reduced by more than 50 percent in the last few centuries, and the festival was going to explore the impact of this on human imagination. Then, of course, COVID-19 appeared on the scene and changed everything. Guests could not be flown in from other cities and the festival certainly wouldn’t be hosting large gatherings at SFU Woodward’s

and other local venues.

And it forced Rao to rely on jugaad—an Indian term referring to a workaround or innovative fix— to come up with something just as compelling. In the process, he and Byspalko had to really reflect on what constituted the core of the festival.

“Curiosity about the world—and the kind of dialogue that is unafraid, cheerful, local, and world-embracing—is what we’ve always been about,” Rao said.

As a result, he’s devised a program on 10 consecutive Saturdays that will continue this tradition. Artists, musicians, and leading thinkers will be connected online on different weeks to address what Rao calls “our human future” in the postpandemic world.

“We’re going to have to work together,” he said. “And I think that’s the spirit in which we’ve put this festival together. It’s really underlining that.”

He pointed out that before human beings expressed themselves through language, they had music.

“It was our way of packaging emotion into sound, Rao noted. “We began to make noises to communicate, so it’s always been the social glue.”

In that spirit, the festival’s first event, on Saturday (May 16), is called Beginnings - Sonic Tributes. It will

PIQSIQ’s Kayley Mackay and Tiffany Ayalik will be perform at the festival’s launch.

showcase 20 musicians playing 10 different tracks online that Rao hopes will “shorten the landscapes of Vancouver”. It will be available on Indiansummerfest.ca at 8 p.m.

“It’s kind of an ode to the city that we love, as well as a demonstration that this is not a monolingual city at all, in music or in language,” Rao related. “Even though it might have a monolingual skin, it has a multilingual heart.”

The lineup includes the Inuit throat-singing duo PIQSIQ (sisters

Kayley Mackay and Tiffany Ayalik), Delhi 2 Dublin’s Tarun Nayar, and drummer Ashwin Sood, who will perform with percussionist Sunny Matharu. On the same night, percussionist-composer Curtis Andrews will join Carnatic musician Lasya Vankayala in what Rao described as “a sort of Tamil rap”. And sitarist Mohamed Assani will play one of his compositions with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra violinist Jeanette Bernal-Singh.

The next Saturday (May 23), two

of the world’s leading environmentalists, Vancouver’s David Suzuki and India’s Vandana Shiva will engage in conversation over the Internet about why COVID-19 is a wake-up call to the world. Both are winners of the Right Livelihood Prize, which is an international award honouring those “offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”.

Rao referred to it as the “alternative Nobel Prize”, noting that Shiva, a long-time activist against genetically modified seeds, and Suzuki have each achieved legendary status in their own country.

“I think Vandana has convinced Bhutan to go all organic,” Rao said.

“They both have large-scale impacts.”

On the following Saturday (May 30), the festival will host It Could Be Verse: Poetry for a Pandemic, which will bring together 20 poets from around the world.

“Poets, to me, are like the literary surgeons of the emotion,” Rao said.

With language like that, the Straight couldn’t resist asking if he’s also a poet.

“I’ve written poetry, which is not the same thing as being a poet,” he quipped. “I haven’t done the work to call myself that.” g

Supplements can boost immunity

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by Gail Johnson

leukin-2, a protein that helps direct PROBIOTICS The health of our microbiome exthe actions of white blood cells. tends far beyond the gut itself; it ZINC seems that bacterial balance in our An essential mineral, zinc is vital for digestive system can affect our overall the development, function, and sig- health, including that of our immune nalling of immune cells. By stimu- system. Probiotics help achieve that lating particular immune cells, zinc healthy balance of gut bacteria. It’s can reduce oxidative stress, speed up possible that probiotics can support wound healing, minimize inflam- immune-system health by inhibiting mation, and decrease the risk of age- the growth of harmful bacteria in the related diseases, such as pneumonia. gut. Some probiotics may enhance the body’s production of antibodies.

e know that eating a balanced, wholesome, nutrient-dense diet that prioritizes plants is one way to keep healthy.

The best way to get vitamins and minerals is through food, but some people turn to supplements as another way to help boost their immune system. Here are some to consider, keeping in mind that it’s important to always consult a health professional before taking any new supplement, as some can have side effects, and to never exceed the recommended dosage.

VITAMIN D

VITAMIN C

Abundant in guavas, kiwifruit, bell peppers, strawberries, papaya, and broccoli, among other fruits and veggies, vitamin C helps the body absorb iron.

It is a powerful antioxidant and could possibly reduce the risk of some cancers, according to the Dietitians of Canada’s UnlockFood website. It helps heal cuts and wounds, protects you from bruising, and keeps gums healthy. Vitamin C also forms and repairs blood, bones, and other tissues.

Severe deficiencies in vitamin

It’s wise to never go beyond the recommended dose for vitamins and minerals.

min B6 can be found in chicken, cold-water fish, chickpeas, and green vegetables. A deficiency of B6 can lead to a reduced production of antibodies required to ward off infections. Being low in this vitamin might also diminish the body’s VITAMIN B6 production of white blood cells, inThis vitamin is essential for sup- cluding T cells, which regulate importing certain biochemical reac- mune function and response. Need tions of the immune system. Vita- more? B6 helps the body make interC can lead to bleeding gums, poor healing of wounds, tender joints, loose teeth, and infections.

However, our body doesn’t store excess vitamin C, and whatever we don’t use is excreted in the urine.

This fat-soluble vitamin plays several roles in the body, one of them being its contribution to immune-system health.

Also known as the sunshine vitamin because the body absorbs it through the sun’s rays, vitamin D has anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory properties. It strengthens the functioning of immune cells, including macrophages and T-cells, which help protect the body against infection. Very low levels of vitamin D have been linked to a greater susceptibility to immune-related disorders, respiratory diseases, viral and bacterial respiratory infections, and decreased lung function.

ECHINACEA

Echinacea plants are abundant in antioxidants, which help reduce the risk of chronic disease and protect the body from oxidative stress. As a result, echinacea may help keep some infections and viruses at bay, although no studies have conclusively proven more than a possible slight benefit.

OREGANO OIL

It’s possible that oil of oregano has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral effects. One of its main compounds is carvacrol, which research suggests may offer some protection against certain bacteria.

Oregano oil can be found as a tincture or in capsule form. g

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ARTS

Rumble’s B reveals unforeseen relevance

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by Janet Smith

couple of years ago, Rumble Theatre artistic director Jivesh Parasram spotted a book edition of Guillermo Calderón’s play B in a U.K. bookstore. But when he decided he wanted to stage the story of violent protest, he could never have foreseen the circumstances in which it would happen—or the digital form it would take.

Once lockdown was announced just before rehearsals started in March, the company took the bold step of moving the entire production from the stage to online. (Audience members will be able to sign up for free tickets, then tune in to a recording that was taped live.)

The process has meant a monumental effort involving video-conference run-throughs, computer-codelearning, and experimenting—“how to block it, how to rehearse it, what it means to be communicating through this medium through webcams,” Parasram explains. This, while designer Itai Erdal found resourceful ways to make sure the entire production has theatrical lighting (think sanitized gels being passed under doors and used with desk lamps), and while some cast members tried to juggle homeschooling.

Then there’s the biting comedy in this translation by William Gregory: “Humour is a big part in the process. It’s very difficult for the actors and we’re working on systems to try to accommodate that,” he explains.

“They can’t necessarily see the other actor when they’re acting, and it’s not like a film shoot: we’re doing a whole play. It’s having to listen—it becomes really hard to say well what is the rhythm of the piece. You are utterly alone. It’s finding that tone, and it

In B, Lili Robinson’s anarchist seeks out a bomb. Photo by Tim Matheson

has been tricky.”

But as challenging as the process has been, Parasram says it’s brought into sharp focus the ways the absurdist, politically charged story speaks to these COVID-19-wracked times.

And it’s revealed new meaning in the Chilean playwright’s provocative work.

First, the plot. The “B” of the title is a code name for “bomb”, and violence is a core theme. Calderón explores the tensions between two young, hapless female anarchists (played Maria Escolan and Lili Robinson) who want to make something go boom, and their meetup with a veteran explosivesmaker—written as a male character, but played by Carmen Aguirre

here. Drawing inspiration from protest in Chile he lived through, the playwright is exposing what revolutionary violence means to two different generations. At one point, the bomb maker questions the youths about what they’re protesting. “Protest everything… You know," one answers. And later: “Because of… Because of the system.”

“While it’s informed about the political reality in Chile, it’s super coded to global-North criticism,” Parasram observes. “With that, I don’t mean disrespect to anyone, but I often see righteousness and bandwagoning and posturing to say people are part of a cause. People working in solidarity is great, but there’s a lack of understanding of the larger frame of the political situation. All of us can be ill-informed very easily by not having to think about things because they’re less real to us.

“The protesters think they’re just getting a sound bomb, and what they end up with is a lethal weapon,” Parasram explains. “Then it becomes about ‘What are our lethal limits?’ ” Parasram reveals that the idea of a bomb set off in the streets became “more real” with COVID-19 and our fears of bringing injury or death to ourselves just by walking out amid germs. “Even with a sound bomb, you are invading a person’s personal space and you could really hurt somebody,” Parasram observes.

“That’s just like walking down the street now. Just when you cross the street now, you’re aware of how much you are in somebody’s space.”

Parasram says he’s finding the work’s themes also play to ideas of isolation we’re all grappling with now—at least in abstract ways.

The Isolation Diaries: duo keeps moving

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by Janet Smith

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MARCH 22, 2020 WHERE: In front of epicurean bakery

QUARANTINE SOUNDTRACK

“Four Tet, Caribou, and Childish Gambino have all put out new albums that have been on a pretty heavy rotation lately. Our three-year-old son has discovered animated Disney musicals, so we have been listening to bunches of Frozen (both of them), Moana, and The Little Mermaid. Also, our little co-op in Kits is normally super busy and active with families and children. But with everyone staying inside, the neighbourhood songbirds have really moved into the courtyard and have defined the sonic landscape outside of our windows for the past few weeks.”

we have been trying to gauge and respect our limitations as individuals and artists. Our daily rhythm of training and moving into kinesthetic and creative exchange has in most ways been suspended. So we are working on trying to be present, patient, and calm as our world and our sector transforms and adapts to the necessary isolation that we find ourselves in.”

STREAMING NOW

FITNESS HACK

Natalie LeFebvre Gnam and James Gnam, of plastic orchid factory, have been dancing, comfort baking, and running.

“James started running last year in preparation for Running Piece, a solo for a dancer and a large treadmill by Jacques Poulin-Denis/Grand Poney that he toured this fall. Running has continued to be a part of his practice since. Our soccer player also does a lot of running. And the three-year-old isn’t going anywhere if he’s not running. So naturally Natalie was curious. We were running the Arbutus greenway, but recently it has become really busy with everyone flocking there to get some run or walk or bike on. So now we just run in and around Kits streets.

Fitness-hack-wise, Nike Run Club is an awesome app that tracks progress and has some lead/coached runs that are super helpful. James has also been using the immersive running game-app Zombies, Run!. And we try to get the whole family out for an evening bike ride every day.” g

c RED SNOW (May 15 on Apple TV) In mid-March, when acclaimed B.C. playwright and screenwriter Marie Clements’s film was set to open in theatres, we called it “deliriously atmospheric storytelling and imagery” (shown here; photo by Pat Kane). The haunting project, which moves between the Arctic and Afghanistan, was pulled when theatres across the country closed days later. It’s well worth searching out on its streaming release Friday. c HIP.BANG! (May 16 at 10 p.m.)

One of Vancouver’s best sketch duos take to YouTube for a late-Saturday-night livestream of their bold and absurdly whacked-out mashup of theatre and comedy. These are the same guys that made you laugh your ass off during White Pants at the Vancouver Fringe Festival a few years back. g

> Go on-line to read hundreds of I Saw You posts or to respond to a message <

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

“We have been doing a bit of comfort baking—mostly cinnamon buns, when we can get our hands on yeast and flour. But overall, keeping it simple has been how we have found comfort in our food.”

“Online gaga and yoga classes. Natalie finally took her first house-dance class! Our 13-year-old son is very serious about his soccer and every day he joins an at-home streamed academy put on by the Whitecaps. A few years back, we inherited all of James’s family’s Lego and have added a few sets ourselves, so we have been busy building Millennium Falcons, Bat Caves, NASA Apollo lunar landers, and pirate ships. Natalie has been methodically building a 2,000-piece marinescape puzzle. But mostly,

c DANA GINGRAS: GYROKINESIS MOVEMENT (March 14 at 1 p.m.) The contemporarydance maverick who brought the breathless Frontera to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre for the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival just a few months ago (although it seems like the distant past) leads a flow class in her other passion. Presented via YouTube (as part of the National Arts Centre’s #CanadaPerforms programming), the practice is

You dropped your mushrooms all over the self checkout right beside me. I said I wanted to help, but covid got in the way...

I should have done more to help brighten what appeared to be a very frustrating day for you. Need a (socially distance approved) coffee/beach walk one day?

COMFORT FOOD

CREATIVE OR LEARNING OUTLET

THOUGH COVID-19 measures continue, quarantine isn’t stopping Vancouver’s arts scene. Here are some of the top streaming and digital offerings this week.

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Natalie LeFebvre Gnam and James Gnam are dance artists who live and work on the unceded Coast Salish Territories. For the past 11 years, they have codirected plastic orchid factory. In 2017, they founded Left of Main, an artist-run creative hub located in historic Chinatown.

You know them from pieces like Digital Folk and I Care What You Think.

Rumble Theatre presents B from May 21 to 24 online; register in advance at Eventbrite.

supposed to calm the nervous system and give a sense of wellbeing—in other words, what we all need right now.

I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 11, 2020 WHERE: Safeway West Broadway

THE ARTISTS

“I think that right now there is more consciousness than there has been in a long time, because there has been this global pandemic,” Parasram says. “The reality where people have had to change their lives—that makes people a little more aware. I think this is a really great time to be in that receptive state, where they look at things a little more critically.” g

Arts STREAM

IT’S ALL UP FROM HERE

ith theatres, galleries, stores, and restaurants shuttered to flatten the COVID-19 curve, the Isolation Diaries reach out to members of Vancouver’s creative sector to find out what they’re watching, how they’re coping, and where they’re finding inspiration.

“We bounce between Netflix, Crave, Prime, and CBC. The Brooklyn Rail’s New Social Environment: Lunchtime Conversations, when the timing works out with naps and online school sessions.”

“All the characters, at first glance, are people that are part of, or want to be part of, a bigger revolution,” he says, “but they are so isolated from it—severed from it. The text is pretty much word for word what Calderón offered us—but the idea of isolation is more implicit in the design. A lot of it has been designed to reference Zoom meetups.”

And so, for all the extra effort it’s taken, this online staging of B has apparently been a worthy exploration at a pertinent time.

I know you from my previous work in a busy cafe, you always were so kind and I always was somehow attracted by your aura. You stopped coming, I stopped working but yesterday I bumped into you randomly ( you were coming back home from work), I was secretely dancing and jumping in my head, so happy to see you again! we chatted, you said my dog was cute but I kept my distance because of this f***ing coronavirus. I d love to know you better...in those difficult dark times I understand we should avoid to meet but maybe we can start with texts. If you feel the same, respond to this by telling me what drink you used to have and where I m from. Talk to you soon I hope : )

ARE YOU THE GUY??

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 9, 2020 WHERE: Seawall

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Hilarious, sarcastic, nice guy, aged around 46-50ish, attractive with dark hair & nice eyes, who said he knows how to use a hammer & saw, but not at the same time. Seen today in the lower mainland being funny. This is a slim chance but am hoping we can connect didn't catch your name. If you'e not funny, then you're not the guy.

I SAW YOU AT A GROCERY STORE ON DENMAN ST

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: MAY 7, 2020 WHERE: At a grocery store on Denman St. We were waiting on the line together to the store and ran into each other multiple times in the store~! and you always smiled at me. We even paid at the same cashier, I was right behind you.

We got multiple eye contacts, and we both smiled. I should have asked your number right away! But I wasn’t brave enough at that time. Therefore I write our story here and hope you see this so we can start to chat?? :D

LYNN CANYON BEAUTY

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 17, 2020 WHERE: Lynn Canyon

We passed each other running in Lynn Canyon this morning near Inter-River Park, you had a white sweater on and had a big white dog with a muzzle. I commented how beautiful the dog was but was really thinking how pretty you were! I dont make a habit of chatting up strangers in the woods lol but should’ve started a conversation, you were friendly too...long shot, I know, but maybe you’ll see this someday :)

ENGLISH BAY BEACH GREEN HAIR/GREEN JACKET BABE ON A BIKE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 5, 2020 WHERE: English Bay - West End You: On a bike but had stopped at a bench in front of a way-toobusy English Bay beach on Sunday. You had a helmet on but I could see (I think) green streaked hair underneath, and you had a green jacket on. You stared at me for a few seconds... Me: Beard, long hair tied back into a man-bun, Canucks jersey, carrying a Stephen King novel with me. Note: I am NOT a sports bro and you don’t look like that type at all, I just happen to be into the Canucks but have a wild array of other interests including progressive politics, art and music.

BIRD LADY FOR BIRD LADY

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 15, 2020 WHERE: Livia Bakery

You were waiting behind me at the bakery take-out window and we spoke about setting up birdhouses outside of our apartments. I shared some of the birdseed I had just picked up from a too-big bag and I wish I would have shared my number, too! I think you’re a mega babe and I’d love to go on a bike ride with you sometime!

I LET YOU CROSS THE ROAD

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 30, 2020 WHERE: Wellingdon Ave before the overpass I was driving south on Wellingdon Ave about to turn onto the on ramp for Hwy 1 west, you thought I wasnt going to stop for you but I did and we exchange smiles, a few times. It was cute. I’d like to smile like that again.

HIKING NEAR WHYTE LAKE

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 25, 2020 WHERE: Horseshoebay

We crossed paths hiking, we chatted briefly. I asked you how far it was to Eagle Ridge bluffs.

You were super cute and I wished I had mustered the courage to ask you for your number.

When this COVID thing is over, I’d love to go on a hike or grab a drink with you sometime.

GRANVILLE ISLAND BOAT YARD

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I SAW A: I AM A: WHEN: APRIL 25, 2020 WHERE: Granville Island You were the first stranger to strike up a conversation with me since the pestilence began, and it was so refreshing. I’m glad you made it in to Canada before the gates closed. I wish I’d kept the conversation going instead of running away. Try again?

Visit straight.com to post your FREE I Saw You _ MAY 14 – 21 / 2020 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT 17

MUSIC / FILM

EP shows Young Canadians’ greatness

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by Mike Usinger

hat’s more important from a legacy standpoint: being the greatest band, or being the band that writes the greatest songs?

The question is an important one when you’re reflecting on the Young Canadians’ place in Vancouver’s fabled first-wave punk gold rush.

During their time together between the late ’70s and early ’80s, the trio of singer-guitarist Art Bergmann, bassist Jim Bescott, and drummer Barry Taylor had no shortage of competition for the title of top band on Canada’s fertile West Coast.

For the honours in brute power, parental-advisory lyrics, and shockand-awe live spectacles, D.O.A. and the Subhumans ran a dead-heat race. As for impeccably crafted, candied punk-pop, good luck in coming to a consensus on who did it better: the Modernettes on Teen City or Pointed Sticks with world-beating singles like “The Real Thing” and “Somebody’s Mom”.

Somewhere in the middle of all those legendary ground-breakers landed the Young Canadians, a band that was never as gloriously assaultive as D.O.A. and the Subhumans, or as fantastically flawless on record as Pointed Sticks and the Modernettes.

But looking back? It’s hard not to think that true greatness isn’t always easily quantified.

There’s a good reason to reflect on the Young Canadians’ legacy today: namely, a loving curated reissue of the group’s Hawaii EP by Los Angelesbased boutique label Porterhouse Records. It’s a meticulously detailed recreation of the long-out-of-print cover art and liner-notes insert, topped off by the brilliant decision to press the record on 180-gram orange vinyl.

In Vancouver’s punk-rock heyday, few bands were as musically talented as the Young Canadians. Photo by Bev Davies

The release is a reminder of how insanely potent the Young Canadians could be, and at the same time how undeniably flawed. Looking back, no band in the city was more talented musically. Bergmann arrived on the scene a fully formed guitar legend—one who oscillated between flame-throwing violence and art-star inventiveness. If you were learning bass in the era, you might have wanted the rock-star charisma of D.O.A.’s Randy Rampage, but the brilliantly busy Bescott was who you wanted to be as a musician. Taylor played like a man who lived on a steady diet of black coffee and black-market amphetamines, but not at the expense of knowing how to seriously swing.

As essential as its short-and-sweet

catalogue might be, the band never made a perfect record during its short time together. If that sounds harsh, it’s not meant to be. It’s more of a reflection that, when the Young Canadian were great, they were fucking devastating.

Seen through that prism, the great crime of “Don’t Tell Me” and “Where Are You?”, from the B-side of the band’s debut 7-inch EP, was that “Automan” on the A-side was so insanely good it could never be matched.

The reality of the band’s final EP, 1980’s This Is Your Life, is that none of the songs were able to live up to the kickoff track, “Data Redux”, for apocalyptic savagery, cold-war paranoia, and guitar work, in what’s arguably the greatest solo recorded

during Vancouver punk’s first wave.

And if “Hullabaloo Girls” is undeniably the weak link on the Hawaii EP, then blame the holy trinity of “Hawaii”, “Well, Well, Well” and “No Escape” for shining so brightly.

It was “Hawaii” that immediately made the band heroes on the West Coast, largely as a result of notorious lyrics like “Let’s go to fucking Hawaii/Get drunk in the sun” and “Running from the rain, thousands on the run/Making like the rich, heading for the sun.” No one has ever written a more perfect anthem for this city, where it’s basically monsoon season nine months out of 12.

But the gold-star goodness on Hawaii didn’t stop there.

Part of the record’s magic was that

it was about Vancouver—the real Vancouver, with its dark and menacing underbelly, not the shiny happy one the world would see on postcards and promo posters for Expo 86 a few years later.

“Well, Well, Well” had Bergmann— with a winning mix of amused disdain and world-weariness—singing of stepping over the great unwashed on his way to work at the Bank of B.C. at Hastings and Main. That there was no Bank of B.C. at Hastings and Main somehow made things even greater, partly because there was clearly a joke you weren’t in on.

And then there was “No Escape”, the cascading, claustrophobic closer that turned a spotlight on the fact that punk wasn’t exactly greeted with open arms by Vancouver, once you got beyond the underground.

Want to know what it was like to walk the West Coast with spiky hair and a “Young Canadians” button on your army jacket back in 1980? Proceed directly to the lyrics “Who’s always there when the fun begins/ The music’s loud they walk right in/ No escape from the city police/They chuck you out, you run through the streets.” And “This town’s frustrations are scrawled all over these walls/It’s a new minority and how does it feel to be so small?”

Today, one might ask of the Young Canadians “How did it feel to be so great?”

Once this whole COVID-19-lockdown thing is over, you’ll be able to go back to spending endless drunken evenings at the Railway Club, arguing over who was Vancouver’s greatest-ever punk band. The Hawaii reissue serves as an irrefutable argument that no band from that firstwave scene wrote better songs. g

It’s the year of virtual film festivals

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by Norman Wilner

18 THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT MAY 14 – 21 / 2020

f not for the coronavirus, I’d be walking around glassy-eyed, trying to enjoy a few moments of the May sunshine between screenings at the Hot Docs festival.

And I would be happy, because however much I might crab about being overloaded during the spring film-festival season, I would be enjoying the hell out of it.

There is no spring film-festival season this year, of course, unless you count the parade of cancellations and postponements that started in March, when theatres shut down due to COVID-19 concerns, and continued through April, as it became clear those theatres wouldn’t be opening back up any time soon. Now even the fall festivals are working on virtual editions.

As the film industry figures out how to negotiate this weird new normal, some festivals are taking themselves online. Hot Docs struck a deal with CBC to broadcast a modest selection of the festival’s premieres and organizers announced that over half of the festival’s 2020 titles will be available to stream online starting May 28.

The Canadian Film Fest, which was to take place at the end of March, will now hold a “virtual festival” on Super Channel Fuse from May 21 to June 6. Vancouver’s Doxa Documentary Film Festival, normally held in early May, will be online from June 18 to 26.

It brings up a certain existential question: can an online festival even come close to recapturing the spirit of a physical one?

Sure, we can all watch the same movie at the same time—TIFF has been doing its Stay-at-Home Cinema watch-alongs for several weeks now, with artistic director Cameron Bailey chatting with the likes of Mandy Patinkin, Sarah Polley, and Ethan Hawke on Instagram Live before directing viewers to Crave to watch The Princess Bride, Away From Her, and Before Sunrise, respectively—but those are more about nostalgia and celebrity than discovery.

Most film festivals have a retrospective component, it’s true, but the real thrills come from stumbling onto something new—a film, a filmmaker, a movement—surrounded by a rapt audience.

Can you replicate an experience like that at home? Is it even possible? Will a harrowing documentary like For Sama or On the President’s Orders grab you the same way if you’re safely situated in your own environment with a pause button readily available, rather than trapped in a dark auditorium with no sense of control?

Part of the bargain—and the appeal—of a film festival is our surrender to the collective experience: we walk into that theatre, sit down with everyone else, and watch a movie together. In the best version of that experience, the audience becomes a single organism, laughing or crying simultaneously… or very nearly so, anyway.

Because of COVID-19 concerns, many film festivals have moved online. Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters/Unsplash

The Toronto Jewish Film Festival is trying to replicate that thrill of discovery by releasing a handful of titles to its virtual platform every day, starting with its opening night movie, Keren Ben Rafael’s The End of Love, at 9 p.m. on May 30. Each film will be available for 24 hours, with live Zoom Q&As for selected titles the following afternoon.

Hot Docs, on the other hand, is dropping all of its features and shorts at once on the morning of May 28, with prerecorded Q&As attached to every title.

There’s also the We Are One Global Film Festival, a 10-day digital festival featuring “films, shorts, documentaries, music, comedy, and conversations” curated from film festivals around the world, including TIFF, Cannes, and Sundance. Produced by Tribeca Enterprises as a benefit for the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, it’ll launch on YouTube May 29, programming to be announced.

But of course the question isn’t whether online film festivals are a good idea. They’re literally all we have right now, and we have to make the best of it. And by “we” I don’t just mean moviegoers—a term that has become antiquated in a matter of weeks—but filmmakers as well. Festivals let them bring their work to buyers as well as audiences.

This year, of course, the whole thing is happening online and the pitches are prerecorded, which will remove some of the energy and spontaneity from the sessions. But it’s still going forward, and some of those projects will find homes as a result. Whether they’ll actually be produced this year is another question, of course, and one that no amount of funding can affect.

Which gets me back to the other reason we should look forward to these virtual festivals: if nothing else, at least they offer us an escape from the day-to-day desolation of coronavirus life. It’s not like any of us has a choice, after all. g

SAVAGE LOVE

Good riddance to your unfaithful ex

by Dan Savage

b IT’S TAKEN A lot to do this, but here goes. I am a 38-year-old gay male. I have been dating this guy for one year and 10 months. It’s been a lot of work.

He cheated on me numerous times, and he lives with me and doesn’t work and I’ve been taking care of him for seven months now. He always accuses me of cheating or finds something to blame me for. What I am angry about now is how for the past four months he has been accusing me of playing games by conspiring with people to make him hear voices. If I look up at the ceiling or look around, he said I am communicating with “them”. I keep telling him I do not hear or see anything but he insists that I am lying. He also says I put a curse on him. One day I got up and he packed his bags and said he had had enough and walked out. He said I was not being loyal. This is a man who has been doing coke since the age of 14 and he is now 43 years old. He does meth and whatever else. He said until I come clean about hearing the voices too and admit I cast some sort a spell on him, he won’t talk to me or see me.

Mental illness runs in his family, and one sibling already committed suicide. He didn’t want professional help because, he says, “I am too smart for that.” I’m hurt and angry and want some advice. Any advice. Please.

- Desperate For Answers I don’t see the problem.

A delusional and potentially dangerous drug addict with mentalhealth issues who refuses to get help packed his bags and walked out of your life. Yahtzee, DFA, you win.

It was his presence in your life (and your apartment) that was the problem, and your boyfriend—your exboyfriend—just solved it for you.

Block his number; change your locks; and pray he forgets your address.

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You might wanna seek some professional help yourself. You need to get to the bottom of why you wasted nearly two years on this asshole. Being alone can’t be worse than being with someone who cheats on you and then accuses you of cheating—to say nothing of someone who abuses drugs, hears voices, and makes other irrational/delusional accusations. He wasn’t just a danger to himself, DFA, he was a danger to you. He’s out of your apartment—now you need to get him out of your head. b ABOUT A MONTH ago, I broke up with my boyfriend after I found out he was cheating on me. Long before we broke up, I freaked out about a rash, and, looking back, I think it was probably herpes all along. I found out for sure three days ago, and I’m honestly thinking about not telling him.

He doesn’t show any symptoms, and he’s the type of guy who will call me a slut if I tell him. He’ll blame me for his wrongdoing and just keep going and going. I honestly don’t know if I should tell him, since he’s asymptomatic. This is going to cause a huge problem between us. He has a lot of anger issues and he could use this as blackmail. I’m legitimately scared.

- Her Ex Reacts Personally

sex partner know you may have exposed them to an STI— or that they may have exposed you to an STI—is the decent, responsible, courteous, and kind thing to do. Not just for their health and safety, HERP, but for the health and safety of their future sex partners.

But people who are unkind, scary, and violent have no one but themselves to blame when a former sex partner/ girlfriend/boyfriend/enbyfriend is too afraid for their own safety to make that disclosure. Provided your fears

Letting a former

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are legitimate, HERP, and you’re not no and I promise not to bring it up inflating them to avoid an awkward or again.”) But if the answer is yes, unpleasant conversation, you don’t owe HELP, send video. your ex a call. b I’M A GAY bondage bottom. My b I’M A BI guy, living alone. At the boyfriend of four years is 100-percent start of the year, this new guy moved vanilla and we solved the “problem” into the house where I live—we share of my need to get tied up—and it’s a communal areas but have private real need—by outsourcing it. (Can you rooms—and he’s a bit of a slacker, tell we’re long-time readers and listenbut, holy shit, is he hot. I’ve had regu- ers?) I was seeing two regular FWBs/ lar fantasies about him. And now bondage buddies, but that’s obviously with the quarantine, those fantasies on hold right now. (I’ve reached out to have increased, along with the num- both my FWBs to let them both know ber of times I see him in a day. I’ve I’m thinking about them and that I been feeling the urge to ask him if care about them, Dan, like you’ve been he’s interested in anything, but my urging people to do on your show.) The friends have advised me to “not shit issue is I still really need to get tied up where I eat”. But due to the quaran- and my boyfriend is willing, but he’s tine, the only other option I have is so bad at it that I don’t want to bother. masturbating, and that’s not doing He knows how much I need it, and he’s the trick. Should I take the plunge hurt that I’d rather go without than let and ask him? him put me in bondage that isn’t really - Household Entirely Lacks Pleasure bondage because I can easily get out.

We used to fight because I wanted him Health authorities have advised us to to tie me up and he didn’t want to do shit where we eat for the time being. it, and now we’re fighting because he The New York City Health Depart- wants to tie me up and I won’t let him ment recommends masturbation, do it. Any advice for a fan?

- This Isn’t Exactly Desirable HELP, because you are and always have been your safest sex partner.

But your next safest partner dur- If people can teach yoga, give coning this pandemic is someone with certs, and conduct first dates via onwhom you live. NYC Health has ad- line streaming services, then one of vised us all to “avoid close contact— your bondage buddies can—if they’re including sex—with anyone outside into the idea—give your boyfriend a few bondage tutorials online. your household.”

I’m glad to hear you already That doesn’t mean everyone inside your household is fair game, of reached out to your bondage buddies, course; some people are quarantin- TIED, since now you’ll be asking ing with their parents. But if there them to do you and your boyfriend was ever a time when you could a favour. But I imagine it’s a favour approach a nonrelated adult with they’ll enjoy doing. whom you live to see if they might wanna fuck around, now’s the time. b I’M A TEENAGE girl with a female Apologize to the hot slacker in ad- friend who keeps joking about having vance for potentially making things sex with me. We’re both into girls and awkward and invite him to say no. sex, but while I find her really hot, she (“If you’re not interested, please say probably doesn’t feel the same about

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me. How can I tell if she’s joking about it because she finds the idea ridiculous or if she’s joking about it because she actually wants to? Once everything goes back to normal, COVID-wise, what should I do?

- Getting Into Real Life

to ask someone a direct question—particularly someone you’re interested in romantically and/ or sexually—is an important skill, GIRL, and getting some practice now, when stakes are relatively low, will benefit you all your life. So get your friend on the phone and ask her this: “Are you serious about wanting to have sex with me? It’s fine if you don’t want to, but I’m actually attracted to you. Please say no if the answer’s no.” If the answer is yes, you can make a date to get together once circumstances/pandemics allow. But if the answer is no, GIRL, then you can get some practice making declarative statements: “I don’t want you to make those jokes anymore.

They’re hurtful to me.”

And if she continues to make jokes about having sex with you after you’ve made it clear she’s hurting your feelings, then she’s just being cruel and doesn’t deserve your time, attention, or friendship. g

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Listen to the Savage Lovecast, every Tuesday. This week, with Marc Maron! www.savagelovecast.com. Email: mail@ savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

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