The Georgia Straight - Road Trips - June 25, 2020

FREE | JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

Volume 54 | Number 2735

APATHY IS HAPPY ESports star opens up

SEX WORK

Massage parlours reopen

ROAD Trips

PLUS

Folks can't wait to safely enjoy Super Natural B.C. Ganja Yoga

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Boca del Lupo

quintessential Canadian food and drink ||

Summer Movies

TECH / FINANCE

CEO says her contact-tracing app will protect users’ privacy

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CONTENTS 7

With Canada Day on the horizon and growing success against COVID-19, it’s time to once again start thinking about road trips in British Columbia.

by Charlie Smith

ay Arjomandi is president and CEO of Vancouver-based mimik technology, which has developed the Pandimik app. It’s the world’s first “anonymized” COVID-19 infection-tracing and positioning system, preserving confidentiality by not passing any information to the cloud, corporations, or governments.

By Charlie Smith

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GS: What needs to be done to ensure this federal app will protect privacy?

FA: Citizens should be able to delete the app and disable any privacy back doors in the operating system; this is why some countries have decided to avoid the approach from Google and Apple.

For any app to be effective it needs to be

By John Lucas

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2

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

ESPORTS

As a new father, two-time Call of Duty world champion Bryan “Apathy” Zhelyazkov is juggling a baby with a challenging career.

By Mike Usinger

Fay Arjomandi of mimik Technology wants the feds to consider her company’s Pandimik app.

adopted by 60 to 70 percent of the population. And people will only use it if they know for sure their data is safe and no one is tracking them. In other words, no contact-tracing information should ever be sent to the cloud and nobody other than the user of the app should be able to access the data that is on their device.

GS: What’s been the experience of contact-tracing apps for COVID-19 in other countries?

FA: As far as I know, to date, contact tracing in all countries has been a failure. Many governments have given up or are in the process of redesigning their apps. The experience has varied from extreme violation of privacy by constant surveillance in countries like Bahrain, Norway, and Singapore to highly ineffective with little adoption in countries like Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. g

S tock indexes OF THE YEAR HAD CANADIANS INVESTED $1,000 on major world stock indexes on January 2, the results would have varied tremendously depending on the market and the country.

That’s because the Canadian dollar has gone down against most currencies in 2020, but it’s risen in comparison to the British pound and the Indian rupee.

CANNABIS

Cover illustration by Asha Lynne

Practitioners of cannabis-enhanced yoga say it allows them to shed some of the baggage of day-to-day life.

Georgia Straight: What went through your mind when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the federal government will begin testing a new contact-tracing app?

Fay Arjomandi: I was encouraged, concerned, confused, and disappointed. Encouraged because I think we need a contacttracing app; concerned because I’m not sure how the app announced by the prime minister will protect citizens’ privacy rights. I was confused because I couldn’t figure out the role of Shopify, which is one of the largest cloud-based shopping platforms. What part of the application are they developing and what part of the data is shared in that application and with whom?

I was disappointed why the government didn’t assess the plausibility of utilizing other technology solutions from innovative and disruptive players such as the hybrid-edge cloud approach by mimik.

COVER

June 25 -July 2 / 2020

For fun, we looked at what would have happened to $1,000 with 11 of the best-known indexes. We factored in each country’s exchange rate on June 26 compared to January 2, based on the Bank of Canada’s figures. Here are the results: 1. NASDAQ Composite Index: $1,158.20 2. Shenzhen Composite Index: $1,154.12 3. S&P 500: $1,006.07 4. Nikkei 225: $1001.11 5. Shanghai A Share Index: $998.56 6. Dow Jones Industrial Average: $949.88 7. Hang Seng Index: $911.20 8. S&P/TSX Composite Index: $909.40 9. Euronext Top 100 Index: $908.31 10. S&P BSE Sensex: $817.95 11. FTSE 100 Index: $811.90

JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

by Charlie Smith

e Start Here 13 ARTS 2 FINANCE 9 FOOD 5 GAMING 10 HEALTH 8 LIQUOR 6 LIVING 12 MOVIES 4 PSYCHEDELICS 11 REAL ESTATE 14 SAVAGE LOVE 14 SEX 2 TECHNOLOGY 8 WINE

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 54 | Number 2735 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 T: 604.730.7000 F: 604.730.7010 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com

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PUBLISHER Brian Kalish FOUNDING PUBLISHER Dan McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS Janet Smith (Arts/Entertainment/Style) Brian Lynch (Books) Mike Usinger (eSports/Liquor/Music) SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy ASSOCIATE EDITORS Gail Johnson (Health/Food/Wine) John Lucas (Cannabis) STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) Craig Takeuchi SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li DIGITAL COORDINATOR Jon Cranny GRAPHIC DESIGNER Miguel Hernandez PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia SALES DIRECTOR Tara Lalanne ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Glenn Cohen, Robyn Marsh, Manon Paradis, David Pearlman

e Online TOP 5

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

1 2 3 4 5

Dr. Bonnie Henry raises concerns about crowds in Vancouver and Kelowna.

Ben Mulroney steps down as anchor of CTV’s etalk after wife’s controversy.

Sex workers’ Red Umbrella march goes virtual this year in wake of COVID-19.

Michael Korenberg resigns as chair of UBC board of governors.

Ooutdoor pools and spray parks to reopen, with lifeguards back at beaches. @GeorgiaStraight

CONTENT AND MARKETING SPECIALIST Rachel Moore CIRCULATION MANAGER Giles Roy CREDIT MANAGER Shannon Li ACCOUNTING SUPERVISOR Tamara Robinson

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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CANNABIS

Why some yogis enhance their practice with ganja

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by John Lucas

wo years ago, Amber Demers decided to leave her corporate career to pursue a new calling as a yoga teacher. Yoga had served her well in the past, first when she was a young figure skater, and then later as she moved into coaching and personal training.

By the time she chose to make her radical career shift, however, her athletic pursuits were in the past. Demers was working a sedentary desk job and struggling with back pain. Then she made two discoveries that would change her life.

The first was meditation, and the second was cannabis. After years of chiropractor visits failed to provide the relief she was seeking, Demers became a medical-cannabis patient.

“I was always trying to find something that would help other than pills, which seemed so readily handed out and that I knew a lot of other people used to heal themselves, even though I could tell it wasn’t actually healing them right,” Demers tells the Georgia Straight in a telephone interview from her home in San Diego. “A lot of people got sicker with their medications.

“One day I decided to lay down in the bathtub after a tough day at work,” she recalls. “I ate an edible and I put some Gregorian chanting in my ears, and I realized that cannabis helped me to ascend to high-

Practitioners of cannabis-enhanced yoga say it allows them to shed some of the baggage they have accumulated in day-to-day life. Photo by pondsaksit/iStock/Getty Images Plus

er dimensions of awareness and consciousness, and I could explore other realms.”

Today Demers operates a yoga and healing practice—although classes are currently on hold, thanks to COVID-19 physical-distancing measures. She is a certified instructor in hatha and vinyasa yoga. She also studied ganja yoga with Dee Dussault, who is considered a pioneer of the practice and, in fact, wrote the book on the subject.

That book is called Ganja Yoga: A Practical Guide to Conscious Relaxation,

Soothing Pain Relief, and Enlightened SelfDiscovery. Dussault declined to be interviewed for this article, but in 2018 she told the Straight that using cannabis can allow yoga practitioners to shed some of the psychic baggage they have accumulated in their day-to-day lives.

“With the busyness of our culture, the distractions and cellphone addictions, when you get to your yoga mat, there is still a lot of shedding to do before you can actually start to have mindfulness,” Dussault said. “It helps you let go of surface tensions

so that you’re starting your yoga immediately from a higher base line of relaxation.”

Cannabis isn’t a cure-all. Nor is a sun salutation the definitive remedy for every possible ailment. What Mulvey, Demers, and many others have discovered, though, is that, when used in concert, ganja and yoga seem to take them deeper than either would by itself.

As Dussault told the Straight in 2018: “Using cannabis is a sign of human adaptability. Over thousands of years, we have used it as a tool to help guide our spiritual practice. And we’re still growing with it today.”

Whether you’re a canna-curious yogi or a yoga-curious cannabis connoisseur and you’re eager to see where combining the two can take you, there are a number of online options (you’ll find some at www. ganjayoga.online), which is your safest bet in these pandemic times. g

MORE CANNABIS ONLINE AT CANNCENTRAL.COM

Psychedelic integration therapy opens the mind

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by Carlito Pablo

atya Sivak, a registered clinical counsellor, often hears something about going on a psychedelic trip.

“In many circumstances, they say that ingesting psychedelics is 30 percent of the work, and the integration is 70 percent,” Sivak told the Straight in a phone interview.

The founder of the Vancouver-based Within Counselling Therapy Collective is very much into this subject.

Since 2012, the UBC- and University of Victoria–educated counsellor has been providing what is known as psychedelic integration therapy. She works with people who’ve had a psychedelic experience. It’s like waking up from an “amazing dream,” Sivak explained.

“All of a sudden, you have some insight or something changed, and when you have some new knowledge or some new understanding, the question now is: how do I bring this into my daily life? How do I change my life?

How do I change my behaviour?” Sivak said.

According to her, people seek psychedelic integration therapy for different purposes. “A lot of people are using this for healing. They’re using this to improve their lives.

Sometimes, to improve their relationships,” she said.

In a number of cases, people simply want to talk about their experience. “Some people describe it as like living in another lifetime, and sometimes they just need to talk to someone about what they have seen, what they have experienced,” according to Sivak.

Sivak also recognized that, for some, psychedelic use is just for fun, and so they find no need for integration. “You 4

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

Within Counselling Therapy Collective founder Katya Sivak helps people make sense of their psychedelic experiences.

have the experience, but then it fades away. And nothing changes,” she said.

While psychedelics can produce pleasant experiences, some also encounter bad trips. “Sometimes I do get people who had very negative experiences, and what they’re going through is actually as if they experienced a traumatic event,” Sivak said. “So they’re actually seeking trauma therapy after their experience.”

According to her, people having bad trips see “disturbing images”, and “sometimes, disturbing memories

show up from the past”.

“I don’t actually go digging with clients if it is actually true or if this was just a dream, like you dreamed about something,” she said.

For example, images of rape show up and “a lot of people go, like, ‘Oh, I don’t remember that it happened.’

Sometimes, it’s very clear, and ‘Now I actually remember and I know this happened,’ ” Sivak related.

Sivak has a psychology degree from UBC and a master’s degree in counselling psychology from UVic. According to Sivak, people trying to make sense of their psychedelic experiences want to talk to someone who is “not going to look at them funny”.

“It’s kind of like someone is coming in for therapy and they lived a polyamorous relationship, which is very unconventional, and you want to talk to someone who is not going to judge you,” she said.

Her therapy sessions do not involve use of psychedelics.

During therapy, she does not suggest psychedelics. She does not advise clients on where and how to procure controlled substances.

Understanding a psychedelic experience can sometimes be like figuring out dreams. “When you receive a dream, there’s a theory that it comes from our subconscious,” Sivak said, “that our subconscious is sending a message to us, so we can work with those images to understand what’s happening in our lives.

“It really comes from you. No one else,” she continued.

“The messages are from yourself.” g

ESPORTS

Power naps, caffeine best friends of CDL champ

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by Mike Usinger

ne of the great challenges of life is fi nding the light when things get tough, and this period in history has been a decidedly trying one.

Although he has good reason to be on edge, Bryan “Apathy” Zhelyazkov sounds anything but when he’s reached by the Straight at home. Instead, he comes across as gracious, thoughtful, and unmistakably happy. There’s a good reason for that.

Like all of us, the Seattle Surge ESports athlete has had to make radical adjustments in the weeks and months since COVID-19 forced North Americans to embrace things like social distancing and mandatory quarantining.

Instead of travelling the world to compete live in Call of Duty League matches, Apathy has found himself playing out the season from home. And when not competing, he’s scrimmaging with teammates long-distance to keep his skills sharp.

Where his homebound life has gotten both tricky and interesting is in the fact that, at the age of 26, Apathy is also a new dad, making him something a rarity in the competitive world of ESports. Consider that the oldest player in the Call of Duty League is 27-year-old James “Clayster” Eubanks of the Dallas Empire, and that stats show that most men in America are waiting until their early 30s to have kids.

“One of my teammates was a dad—he was actually the only father in the league—

As a new father, two-time Call of Duty world champion Bryan “Apathy” Zhelyazkov has found the unpredictability of undisturbed sleep to be one of his biggest challenges and adjustments.

but he retired about two weeks ago,” Apathy relates. “So now none of my teammates have kids, and I’m pretty much the only dad in the whole Call of Duty League.”

Sleep deprivation is something you sign on for with parenthood, and that’s presented challenges when he’s com-

S mash INTO THE FUTURE FANS OF NINTENDO’S Super Smash Bros. franchise tend to agree that the second entry in the series, 2001’s Melee, is the best one. Except, that is, for those who argue that 2018’s Ultimate is, well, the ultimate.

Melee devotees got some welcome news regarding the game, which was originally released for the Nintendo GameCube shortly after the turn of the century. The word came in the form of a tweet that promised “rollback netcode” and “integrated matchmaking”.

For the uninitiated, that probably reads

like gibberish, but the upshot is that the team at Slippi—a project to bring Super Smash Bros. Melee into the modern gaming era—has made some major strides.

As the Slippi site explains: “Long-term players know that the game has nearly infinite possibilities as a competitive game. Being an old game, it lacks many of the features you expect to find in more recent ESport titles. The goal of Slippi is to bring Melee into the future and invigorate the sport surrounding the game.”

So, to define the above terms, rollback netcode enables ultra-smooth gameplay and low-lag connections—even when you’re playing against someone on another continent. And integrated matchmaking is a feature that allows you to find nearby opponents quickly and easily.

Find out more—and download the Slippi desktop app—at slippie.gg.

by John Lucas

peting against his fellow Call of Duty League athletes.

“It’s been awesome, but it’s hard,” Apathy relates. “When you’re competing at the professional level, there’s a lot of hours of work that you have to put in. I don’t think a lot of the players even think about that.”

As a two-time Call of Duty world champion and former member of FazeClan and Team Envy, he knows what it takes to win. A big part of success is being prepared, which requires considerably more planning than it did preparenthood.

Asked for his routine before he became a dad to daughter Amelia Victoria, he reveals with a laugh that days would typically start with him sleeping in.

“I’d feel great when I woke up,” Apathy says. “Sometimes I’d do a YouTube video or stream in the morning. Because I didn’t have any responsibilities, I’d get that out of the way. Then I’d usually eat breakfast and practise with the team all day. Then I’d go to the gym, come back, and get a little more practice time in, and then spend time with the wife at night— watching movies or TV.” Since fatherhood, life’s been considerably less predictable.

“For one, sleep is all over the place— it’s not the same as it used to be,” Apathy acknowledges. “You get fake sleep—sleep for an hour, wake up, sleep for three hours and wake up. You’re constantly

waking up, and not always because the baby’s crying. Sometimes you’ll wake up because it’s time to feed her and she’s moving around. So it’s mainly waking all the time in the middle of the night while trying to sleep as much as I can and still get some rest. Obviously, I have to be at my best during the day.”

For his job with the Surge in the Call of Duty League, that means doing what he can to maximize performance.

“Power naps are my best friend—some people like them, some people don’t, and I’ve always heard mixed things about them. I think they’re amazing—getting 20 or 30 minutes randomly when I’m really tired can help me a lot. They make me feel rested for a couple of hours. I also tend to take a lot of caffeine. I try and stay at a good level of caffeine intake and not go overboard, but I do take caffeine every day to help me kind of stay awake and stay focused.”

Being at his best also means thinking about balance in a different way. Recognizing that being a supportive partner is a key part of being a parent, Apathy starts every morning by making breakfast for the family.

“I try to do at least a YouTube video before I scrim, but I’m also helping take care of the baby so we’re spending time together. Then I’ll go to scrim for five hours, take two hours off for a bath for the baby, eat dinner together, and spend quality time with my wife and daughter.

Obviously, now that I’m a dad I want to be there more for both of them.”

And that’s where COVID-19 has in some ways had a silver lining. With teams, including the Surge, playing from home because of lockdown, Apathy has had time with the family he wouldn’t have had during a more conventional season.

“I haven’t thought about it much, because it’s been our lifestyle the last three months, but it’s been kind of a blessing,” he says. “Not having to travel means I’m always home. I was kind of dreading having to travel, because when I’m going places, that’s less time that I’ll be spending with my daughter. We travel pretty often— every two weeks we’re out for five or six days. So it really is a blessing that I get to be here during her early stages.” g

MORE eSPORTS ONLINE AT ECENTRALSPORTS.COM

JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

5

LIVING

Got a packed pandemic fridge? Time to declutter

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by Janet Smith

ridges are feeling the pandemic pinch right now, and that’s no surprise. We’re all cooking more at home, and that, mixed with the urge to stock up and the need to make fewer trips out for groceries, means our refrigerators are maxing out.

Rest assured, postpandemic, we’ll be saving money for larger refrigerators. But for now, a 25-cubic-foot Bosch French Door stainless-steel model is the stuff of dreams (on sale for $3,495 at Coast Appliances, for those lucky enough to still have a big paycheque rolling in).

Look instead to the hashtag #FridgeGoals: it’s a thing. No teetering condiments, no Saran-Wrapped leftovers, no fading vegetable sprigs caught in the crisper drawers here: on Instagram lies a serene new world of neatly arranged, and sometimes even meticulously labelled or colour-coordinated, containers.

They’ll inspire you to declutter and take on the art of cold-storage organization—an approach that will save your sanity, help you to preserve produce longer, and cost a lot less than a gleaming new Bosch.

Armed with your new ideas, first prep your 20-year-old Whirlpool or Frigidaire with a good cleaning with old-fashioned

the life of everything from baking to leftovers and vegetables ($26.59 for a 32-piece set in a range of sizes at Amazon.ca).

BERRY CLEVER

Binge buying to reduce grocery trips and increased home cooking during the pandemic have resulted in stacked condiments, wilted vegetables, and loads of leftovers in many refrigerators.

soap and water. Check the pull dates, and make some room for clean air to circulate.

When you’re ready to tackle reorganizing, here are some pieces that will help compartmentalize your consumables so they aren’t exploding from every shelf and drawer.

GET STACKING

Plastic is passé. Instead, store your leftovers in glass—with the added bonus that you can see what’s in there before it’s too late. The

Create a Garden Paradise

best basic set might be the Pyrex Simply Store Glass 18-piece food-storage set, whose stackable rectangular and circular containers won’t hold odours and can withstand a preheated oven, a microwave, a freezer, or a dishwasher. Yes, the lids are plastic, but they’re colourful, BPA-free, and top-rack dishwasher-safe ($58 at Amazon.ca). Some container brands even claim to prolong the life of your fruits and vegetables. The Prepworks Produce Keeper has an innovative design featuring dual vents that provide air flow that is supposed to double the lifespan of your produce ($20.49 to $38.49 at Bed Bath & Beyond). And in a bright lime hue, Debbie Meyer’s GreenBoxes are BPA-free and made from food-grade polypropylene and natural substances. Stackable and microwave- and dishwasher-safe, they’re designed to prolong

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

And finally, let’s get to what might be the most important storage riddle in your fridge during the pandemic: where to put your booze. Beer drinkers clogging up fridge shelves with radlers and pale ales should check out the InterDesign Fridge Tipper Organizer for “soft-drink cans”—a rounded dispenser that neatly packs nine cans and is grabbed easily without knocking the nearby egg carton on the floor ($19.94 for one, $36.99 for two, $110 for set of six at Amazon.ca). As for wine fans, they can neatly stow their Mission Hill 2019 Reserve Rosé and Bianca Vigna Prosecco in InterDesign’s stackable, transparent threebottle holder ($86 at Amazon.ca). g

to supercharge new growth. Try a blast of vivid magenta, or go subtler with bicoloured varieties in shades of pink.

LATE JUNE is when your spring flowers

BLUEBERRY PLANTS

I’LL DRINK TO THAT

Garden TIP SHEET

Escape to your own backyard this summer

SALVIA ‘CARADONNA’

Summer is berry season, and strawberries or raspberries can get crushed in an overpacked fridge. Get them out of their cardboard containers and into something like the InterDesign Fridge Binz Clear Stackable Berry Basket ($8.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond). The vented design lets air circulate to keep items fresh, while openings allow for washing and draining. For something pretty enough to leave out on the counter, we also love Crate and Barrel’s Berry Box White Colander ($6.95), a crisp porcelain version of the classic farmers-market standard. It doubles as a colander.

start to fade. And given how much time you’re going to be spending in your yard or on your balcony this summer, you’re going to want lasting colour. Here are three dependable annuals you can plant now (live plants from the nursery, not from seed) to supercharge your containers and beds through to the fall.

c ZONAL GERANIUMS Easy-care geraniums thrive in both flowerbeds and containers, providing a burst of colour well into Vancouver’s mild fall. Give them well-drained soil and don’t overwater them, clipping any fading flower heads

c COSMOS These hardy, drought-tolerant tall flowers with feathery leaves attract birds, bees, and butterflies. They’re just as happy in containers as beds; give them lots of sun and be ready to stake them for extra support if they start to zoom up. We love the old-fashioned farmhouse feel of cosmos in mixed colours, but you can make a bold impact with all-fuchsia. Deadhead them to spur more blooms, and collect them to reseed them next year. c IMPATIENS Bring colour to even shady areas with these hard-working annuals, rocking vibrant hues of purple-pink or orange-coral; for a picket-fence-tidy look that brings added light to a dark corner of the deck or yard, opt for New Guinea impatiens in “Divine White”.

Deadhead to try to keep them blooming till the frost hits. g

CANADA DAY

Here are two getaways within easy reach of the city

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by Charlie Smith and Carlito Pablo

he provincial government didn’t order the closure of hotels, motels, RV parks, cabins, resorts, hostels, lodges, and backcountry operators during the pandemic, but many closed voluntarily during the first two phases of B.C.’s restart plan. Southern Gulf Islands Tourism, Sunshine Coast Tourism, and Tourism Harrison Hot Springs, for example, explicitly stated on their websites that they preferred people to avoid nonessential travel in Phase 2.

In Phase 3, that’s likely to change in many areas of the province. Even Premier John Horgan said on June 17 that he was “looking at making bookings” after the provincial public health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, gave the green light for travelling within B.C. As this week’s Georgia Straight went to the printer, the B.C. government was poised to move to the third phase, so we’re highlighting two options for road trips close to Metro Vancouver when nonessential intraprovincial travel resumes.

SUNSHINE COAST

One word is often associated with the Sunshine Coast: adventure. From hiking and mountain biking to water activities like paddling, this sun-kissed destination

place in Canada, an attribute ascribed to the abundant natural beauty in the region.

A thriving artist community means that visitors can check out galleries and studios throughout the year.

Sunshine Coast Tourism advises visitors to book activities and accommodation in advance. Also, explore with your family or immediate circle only. When visiting places, respect safety procedures enacted there.

HARRISON HOT SPRINGS

Physical distancing is easier on water than on land. So when the province gives a green light to travel within B.C., why not rent a kayak and paddle along the Sunshine Coast? Photo by lightpoet

north of Vancouver is an outdoor lover’s dream. The Sunshine Coast has numerous hiking trails to choose from, including wheelchair accessible trails. Guided tours are also available.

For those who want to explore the region on two wheels, there are over 700 kilometres of bike trails stretching along the coast, which is accessible by a short ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay.

Here’s a tip from Sunshine Coast Tourism to ensure safe distancing from others in light of the ongoing pandemic: move off the trail to take a break when hiking or biking.

On the water, opportunities abound for kayaking, canoeing, and standup paddleboarding. You can take your pick of ocean or fresh-water sites.

The Sunshine Coast is also home to more artists per capita than any other

Just 90 minutes from Vancouver, this is another recreational paradise. The 1,217-hectare Sasquatch Provincial Park provides plenty of room for physical distancing— and the hiking is out of this world on several trails in the area. It’s also possible to get out on Harrison Lake on a jet boat or Sea-Doo, or a standup paddleboard, kayak, or canoe. Landlubbers can tee off at the Harrison Resort Golf Centre.

That’s not all. There are bike trails for cyclists of all abilities. Harrison Hot Springs is part the Eastern Pacific Ranges Ecosystem, which reaches into Washington state. According to the B.C. government, almost all of the valleys are dominated by Coastal Western Hemlock forests. g

WITH GLOWING HEARTS WE SEE THEE RISE. Happy Canada Day from your Liberal Party of Canada team.

The Honourable

The Honourable

The Honourable

Vancouver South

Vancouver Quadra

Vancouver Centre

HARJIT SAJJAN

JOYCE MURRAY

HEDY FRY

604.775.5323

604.664.9220

604.666.0135

Harjit.Sajjan@parl.gc.ca

Joyce.Murray@parl.gc.ca

Hedy.Fry@parl.gc.ca

JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

7

CANADA DAY

Great White North whisky is all about elegance

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by Mike Usinger

ne of the weird things about being Canadian is that, with the exception of the Tragically Hip and Nardwuar the Human Serviette, you usually have to find stardom in the United States to be appreciated at home.

The liquor nerds of the Great White North often don’t recognize what a treasure they have in Canadian whisky. We stop at American bourbons and Scotch and Irish whiskies when it’s time to restock the home bar.

Unless you have an endless thirst for classic Manhattans, it’s hard to resist the pull of Jim Beam and Johnnie Walker. But interestingly, that’s not the case across the line.

Ontario-based Davin de Kergommeaux is the author of The Definitive Guide to Canadian Distilleries: The Portable Expert to Over 200 Distilleries and the Spirits They Make (From Absinthe to Whisky, and Everything in Between).

He’s wonderfully informative as he talks by phone about Canadian whiskies and the way they are deeply loved down south. And he suggests there’s a reason why megabrands like Jack Daniel’s tend to get the spotlight on this side of the 49th.

“I think a lot of that is because of marketing,” he opines. “People have done a very good job of convincing consumers that single-malt Scotch is the best. People are doing a good job, especially in the States, convincing consumers that bourbon is the best. But Canadian whisky has been tremendously popular in the United States

Davin de Kergommeaux suggests Canadian whisky is increasingly loved at home.

since the American Civil War. And until 2010, it was the best-selling whisky style— better than Irish, better than Scotch, better than bourbon or any American whisky.

Even though bourbon caught up in 2010, Canadian whisky is still hugely popular.”

The origins of whisky in the U.S. and Canada are decidedly different. In the States, whisky production started out on a micro level, just like in Europe, with a single person often overseeing an operation.

“We didn’t start out with these oneperson distilleries,” de Kergommeaux says. “Obviously, there were always people making moonshine, just like there is today.

But a lot of Canada’s distilleries were big,

well-financed millers who made whisky with leftover wheat. By the time people came to Canada, whisky production was already being industrialized in Europe and America. So people saw that it was worth investing in these big operations.”

Today, as with bourbon, most Canadian whisky is made from a base of corn, but that wasn’t the case in the beginning. Distillers established themselves in Ontario, which was a major wheat belt at the time.

“Some German and Dutch immigrants remembered that whisky was made from rye back in Europe, so they’d say, ‘Why don’t you add a little more rye to make it more flavourful?’ ” de Kergommeaux notes.

“So they did. And then people would come to the mill and say, ‘We want the rye stuff, we don’t want the common wheat whisky.

That’s how it came to be known as rye.”

Today, the terms Canadian whisky and rye are interchangeable. As for what you’re getting when you opt for Canadian Club, Forty Creek, or Crown Royal, there are three touchstones to keep in mind, de Kergommeaux says.

“Canadian whisky starts sweet with caramel flavours that come from the oak barrels,” he says. “Then it’s spicy and peppery in the middle, and finishes bitter, almost like a grapefruit pith, which kind of refreshes your palate.”

He notes that barrels used for making Canadian whisky have often been previously used to make bourbon or other spirits. The

heavy tannins, vanilla, and caramel notes imparted to bourbon from fresh unused oak have therefore been washed out.

“That’s why Canadian whisky is a little more elegant, and a little more subtle than bourbon,” de Kergommeaux says.

When Canadian farmers started growing corn in the 1950s that was developed for our climate, production shifted away from wheat. As for the distilling process, used oak will give a Canadian whisky some of the same flavours as rye grain.

“Most Canadian whisky is made from corn, with a small amount of rye added for flavouring. But in Canada, rye means ‘whisky’, so you can have rye whisky that has zero rye-grain content.”

Whisky production is also no longer exclusively a big business, with micro-distillers popping up across the country.

“We’ve always had fabulous whisky up here, but most Canadian are too cheap to buy the good stuff,” de Kergommeaux says with a laugh. “It’s only in the last 10 years or so that people have really started to take notice up here in Canada. Canadians don’t always appreciate how great our whisky is, but it’s getting better.”

Here, from The Definitive Guide to Canadian Distilleries, is a drink you can make with Canadian whisky. g Mike Usinger is not a professional bartender. He does, however, spend most of his waking hours sitting on barstools.

Wines worth uncorking to celebrate Canada Day

I

by Gail Johnson

NK’MIP CELLARS’ NEW RELEASES

We couldn’t narrow it down to just one, so here are four from the Osoyoos Indian Band winery, the first Indigenous-owned winery in North America. All can be enjoyed on their own or with food, and all were selected by winemaker Justin Hall for celebration kits that the winery released for National Indigenous Peoples Day. “The Nk’Mip Winemaker’s Pinot Blanc 2019 [$17.99] is vibrant and crisp and really speaks to the terroir of the Okanagan,” Hall, a member of the Osoyoos Indian Band, tells the Straight.” Then there are Nk’mip’s Qwam Qwmt wines.

In the Okanagan language spoken by the Osoyoos Indian Band, qwam qwmt means “achieving excellence”. The Qwam Qwmt Pinot Noir 2018 ($29.99) has notes of dark cherry and lightly toasted oak, while the Qwam Qwmt Riesling Icewine 2018 ($69.99) has aromas of peach, and baked apple pie. Order online via Great Estates Okanagan.

ENRICO WINERY’S CÉLÉBRATION - CHARME DE L’ILE

Situated in the verdant Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, this 50-acre estate winery grows eight varietals, includ8

wineries using the Charmat method and that represent local terroir. With citrus and floral aromas, the golden-hued Célébration is refreshing and elegant. It’s $25.50 via the winery.

f you’re raising a glass in honour of Canada’s 153rd on July 1, here are few suggestions for what to fill it with.

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

CLOSSON CHASSE THE BROCK CHARDONNAY 2017

We love our B.C. wine, but let’s say you want to be truly Canadian and try something from another part of this vast and magnificent land in support our wine-loving neighbours out east. Your options are limited, especially if you want something other than ice wine. Closson Chase Vineyards is located in Ontario’s Prince Edward County, and its dry Brock Chardonnay (VQA Niagara) strikes a fine balance between citrus fruits and nuttiness. It’s at BC Liquor Stores for $23.49.

CHATEAU CANADA BORDEAUX SUPERIEUR 2016 The first Indigenous-owned winery in North Amerca was the Osoyoos Indian Band’s Nk’Mip Cellars . Photo by Gail Johnson.

ing Ortega, Petite Milo, and Pinot Noir, which all thrive in cooler climes. Estate Pinot Gris takes the spotlight in Enrico’s Célébration—Charme De L’Ile. Meaning “charm of the island”, the name Charme De L’Ile refers to sparkling wines that are made by Vancouver Island and Gulf Island

The name might be confusing, coming from France and all, but it’s not a gimmick, and the wine is the real deal. Mediumto full-bodied, it’s made in Saint-André-de-Cubzac, 15 kilometres northeast of Bordeaux. Apparently, the winery’s owner had spent some time in our home and native land and liked it so much he named a wine after it. A blend of 70 percent Merlot and 30 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, with notes of dark berries and savoury herbs, Find it at BC Liquor Stores for $20.99. g

CANADA DAY

Indigenous food prioritizes local, seasonal ingredients

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Canada Day!

by Gail Johnson

604.717.1140 Jody.Wilson-Raybould@parl.gc.ca jodywilson-raybould.ca

Owner Inez Cook, who says Salmon n’ Bannock is the only Indigenous-owned and -operated restaurant in Vancouver, describes Indigenous fare as food from the land. Photo by Kaas Cross.

D

efining quintessential “Canadian food” isn’t easy. Is it poutine, maple syrup, ketchup chips, or tourtière? Maybe it’s Prince Edward Island potatoes, Prairies grain, or back bacon. Some people might point to Saskatoon-berry pie, Nanaimo bars, or butter tarts. In fact, as Canada celebrates 153 years of Confederation, its culinary roots go back much further than any of those beloved items. Indigenous cuisine has always drawn from the natural splendour that’s a hallmark of the country: oceans, rivers, lakes, fields, and forests. Indigenous Peoples are, after all, the original creators of the 100-mile diet, the first proponents of the eat-local approach for which modern-day chefs are hailed. Here are three places to find Indigenous fare as we celebrate what makes Canada so delicious.

MR. BANNOCK INDIGENOUS CUISINE

Paul Natrall launched the region’s first Indigenous food truck a decade ago. The Squamish Nation member has pivoted in response to COVID-19, with Mr. Bannock now offering pick-up and delivery. On the menu: Venison Taco, Wild Game Bannock Burger, Indigenous Chicken and Waffle (the latter made of bannock), Bannock Éclair (with Nutella and whipped cream), and the DKB: smoked duck breast with One Arrow Meats’ Chinese Five-Spice Bacon, kimchi, and Korean barbecue sauce, all stuffed between fluffy bannock. Among his suppliers are other local Indigenous-owned ventures such as Spirit Bear Coffee and the abovementioned One Arrow.

BANNOCK QUEEN

Lifelong West Coast resident Donna Lee

discovered her Indigenous ancestry about five years ago when personal research revealed that she’s of Irish, Scottish, English, and Métis descent. One way she has been exploring her roots is through food. With Bannock Queen, she bakes a classic style of bread as well as several variations: bannock cheese bread and raisin bread; parmesanand-garlic bannock; apple-and-cinnamon bannock fritters; and bannock blueberry crumble. She also makes a variety of jams and blueberry iced tea to go with them.

This is her first season at Vancouver Farmers Markets summer markets.

Wednesday, July 1, 2020 / 12 – 7 p.m.

Free Online Event Musical Entertainment / Family Activities / Dance Performances Plan your day at

coquitlam.ca/canadaday | #ehcoquitlam

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR CORPORATE PARTNERS Summer Survey Partner:

SALMON N’ BANNOCK

The only Indigenous-owned and -operated restaurant in Vancouver, Salmon n’ Bannock is open for takeout while renovations take place; owner Inez Cook, of the Nuxalk Nation, hopes to reopen for dine-in service on July 1. Staffed entirely by Indigenous People—of Ojibway, Quw’utsun’, Squamish, Tsimshian, Cowessess, Frog Lake, Haida, and Lac La Ronge nations—the restaurant is known for its namesake dishes. Its signature bannock is fluffly and biscuitlike. Wild salmon is smoked in-house and served in a Pow Wow Power Salad with organic greens, crunchy vegetables, and Ojibway wild rice; it’s cured for a “bannockwich” with capers and red onions. (It’s also cooked and served many other ways.) But the restaurant offers much more: Wild Boar BLT; Hunter’s Pie, with organic, free-range game meat (such as slow-roasted bison); and Smokey Sunrise Flatbread with basted egg are among the many selections. Look for a three-course prix fixe menu when the restaurant opens anew; takeout will continue. g

HAVE YOU BEEN TO...

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

9

HEALTH

UBC stress study seeks to prep for second wave

C

by Craig Takeuchi

learly the COVID-19 pandemic in B.C. has been a stressful period for everyone. Yet even though the province is heading into the third phase of its reopening plan, these unusual conditions may be affecting individuals in different ways over the long term.

UBC psychology assistant professor Joelle LeMoult, who heads up the depression, anxiety, and stress lab, has been leading a study since April to examine how people are coping and what they can do to improve their emotional well-being.

During a phone interview, LeMoult, a clinical psychologist who also studies resilience and which positive elements can arise from difficulties, said that her study will follow participants during a period of a year to see how stress levels change in each stage.

“Our goal is to understand what happens if there’s a second wave,” she said.

UBC assistant professor Joelle LeMoult supervises the UBC stress lab. Photo by Paul Joseph.

“Are people inoculated a little bit? Like, ‘Okay, we’ve been through this; we can do this again.’ Or is it like, ‘Oh, my gosh, we’ve used all of our energy and resour-

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ces, all of our strength, to get through this the first time—this is just too much.’ ” She said the main goals of the study are “what’s making people resilient, who needs help, and how can we use that to inform the second wave but also how can we help people respond to stress more generally?”

Although the pandemic has affected everyone in “profound ways”, she said, not everyone has been impacted in the same ways or equally.

LeMoult pointed out that some groups are more heavily affected by these changes than others, due to access to resources, socioeconomic status, race, and other factors, and not everyone is experiencing the same pandemic stressors at the same time.

For instance, when the number of COVID-19 cases was peaking in B.C.,

she said, those who had to stay home from work may have enjoyed using the time constructively or reconnecting with their families.

Each phase has its “own challenges and also its own opportunities”, she said.

For example, some people may have found that having everything closed in the first phase was easier to deal with than during the current phase, in which everyone has to make their own decisions in uncertain or ambiguous circumstances.

Nonetheless, she said she believes the pandemic can offer the opportunity for people to develop and strengthen lifelong habits.

“If we can use this time to develop positive coping strategies and build our own resilience, it actually will help us cope with other stressors that come up in the future,” she said.

The good news, she said, is that everyone, regardless of personality, finances, or risk level, can learn strategies how to better cope with stress.

“I encourage people to start thinking about their mental health in the same way they do their physical health,” she said, likening mental wellness to going to the gym.

LeMoult said she feels that one benefit of the pandemic is the “increased conversation about mental health and self-care”.

For those seeking help, she recommends seeking out free online resources such as Anxiety Canada, Bounce Back, and Wellness Together Canada.

Anyone interested in participating in her study can do so by visiting blogs.ubc. ca/covidstudy/. g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

REAL ESTATE

Inspections are beneficial for buyers and sellers

H

by Carlito Pablo

ome inspectors are often sought by buyers of existing homes.

With the wear and tear of a property, purchasers want to make sure that the house is sound.

A home is a huge investment, and no one wants to deal with problems after moving in.

The services of a home inspector are also valuable for buyers of new developments.

Let’s take the case of a newly built condo that was purchased on the presale market.

Before completion date, which is the day ownership is transferred to the buyer, the developer’s representative takes the purchaser to what is known as a deficiency walk-through. The developer’s agent shows the condo, and defects seen are usually marked for fixing.

It’s a good idea to bring along a home inspector at such walk-throughs, according to Vancouver realtor David Hutchinson.

Hutchinson noted that it’s quite easy for anyone to see a little scratch on the wall or countertop. However, a qualified home inspector can spot potential major issues that a buyer may miss.

“When you’re actually living there, when all the water is running—the washing machine, the dishwasher, and the taps and showers—that’s when things start to appear,” Hutchinson told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.

With a home inspection, Hutchinson said, those issues can be immediately addressed rather than later.

Darren Larter is one of the home inspectors that Hutchinson usually recommends to clients.

As someone who has owned a number of properties, Larter has a lot of experience with homes.

I recommend avoiding those types of buildings that have lazy stratas.

– Darren Larter

Vancouver home inspector Darren Larter received a good grounding in his future occupation when he bought an apartment in one of the city’s infamous “leaky condo” buildings in 1995.

“I’m a very curious person by nature, and I like to understand how things work,” Larter told the Straight by phone.

Several years before he became a home inspector, Larter purchased his first property in a new condo development in Vancouver in 1995, and it turned out to be a leaky building.

“I didn’t even know about home inspectors. I didn’t have a real-estate agent, either,” he recalled.

Larter related that he went to look at the development and a sales representative for the condo project was there at the time.

Larter owned the condo unit for 12 years, until everything was fixed. He still had it when he purchased a second property, and this time he had a home inspector.

Larter’s work starts before he does the

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actual inspection. He reviews the strata corporation’s depreciation report, which lays out the condition of the building and what needs to be repaired or maintained.

If the report says the roof needs to be replaced and Larter sees that it has been done, that’s a good sign that the strata council is proactive.

“Generally, I recommend avoiding those types of buildings that have lazy stratas or stratas that are delayed in fixing things, because usually that just means that the problems are going to get worse and cause more damage and cost more money to repair later,” Larter said.

Inside existing condo units, typical issues observed by Larter are leaks under the kitchen or bathroom sink and old appliances that don’t work properly.

Larter also keeps an eye out for “shoddy do-it-yourself renovations”, like electrical and plumbing fixes. “Those types of things are quite common and often can lead to other issues,” he said.

Although home inspections are typically associated with buyers, Vancouver realtor Hutchinson said that sellers, too, can benefit from the services of an inspector.

“He will prepare the seller for what the buyer’s home inspector is going to bring up,” Hutchinson explained. “So the seller now has the chance to fix or repair those issues before it becomes an issue for the buyer.”

According to Hutchinson, a presale home inspection shows goodwill on the part of the seller, and nothing is stopping the buyer from having another inspection.

“There will be a binder of a home inspector sitting on the table, and so the buyer comes through and goes, ‘Wow, there’s already an inspection,’ ” Hutchinson said.

“So it gives peace of mind and they feel more comfortable purchasing the home, and it could reflect in a better price.” g

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11

MOVIES

Hamilton to Tenet, summer flicks we’re looking forward to

by Radheyan Simonpillai

parted the long-running Broadway hit.

(July 3, Disney+) THE OLD GUARD

It seems comic-book projects are a summer staple even for streaming services; this Netflix feature—adapted by DC and Marvel veteran Greg Rucka from the series he created with Leandro Fernandez—stars Charlize Theron, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Matthias Schoenaerts in a tale of immortal warriors turned modern mercenaries who find themselves on the run when their secret is exposed. The twist: it’s directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, whose filmography favours subtle, emotional dramas like Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights. What’s she going to do with this?

We have no idea, but we’re keen to find out.

(July 10, streaming) THE BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY

John David Washington (above) confronts a palindrome in director Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated spy film Tenet, which is scheduled to be released in Canadian theatres on July 31.

H

ere are 10 movies we’re looking forward to this summer.

IRRESISTIBLE

Jon Stewart doesn’t do much these days, which makes the arrival of his second feature as a writer-director kind of a big deal: Universal is also putting it in the quirky-cool late June slot that did so well for Danny Boyle’s Yesterday last year (which feels like a statement of confidence). All we know right now is that Steve Carell stars as a high-powered Democratic strategist who helps a retired colonel (Chris Cooper) run for mayor in a conservative Wisconsin town, and that the supporting cast includes

Mackenzie Davis, Topher Grace, Will Sasso, and Natasha Lyonne. And honestly, that’s enough. (June 26, streaming) HAMILTON

Those of us who had tickets to Hamilton performances that were cancelled

by COVID-19 will have to settle for the streaming version. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning musical about a rapping Alexander Hamilton is coming to Disney+ with its original cast. That includes Miranda (Mary Poppins), Daveed Diggs (Blindspotting), and Jonathan Groff (Frozen) in performances shot live on-stage just before the original cast de-

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The Museum of Broken Relationships dropped in at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre last summer. Seems it inspired a new Toronto-shot rom-com starring Blockers scene-stealer Geraldine Viswanathan as an emotional hoarder who curates a Broken Hearts Gallery after a bad breakup. The Canada-U.S. coproduction backed by Selena Gomez also stars Stranger Things heartthrob Dacre Montgomery and comedian Utkarsh Ambudkar. (July 10, theatrical) SAINT MAUD

Sure, we go to the movies for escapism, but if you’re seeking a more cathartic bigscreen experience, consider Rose Glass’s harrowing first feature about a young English palliative-care nurse (Morfydd Clark) convinced that her latest patient (Jennifer Ehle) is a lost soul in need of salvation… by any means necessary. Acclaimed at TIFF for Clark’s tour-de-force performance, its combination of illness, intensity, and isolated characters might be arriving at just the right time (July 17, theatrical) TENET

Christopher Nolan loves releasing movies in mid-July. And with good reason: The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Returns, and Dunkirk all opened in that window to massive box-office returns and (mostly) rapturous reviews. Will a global pandemic scuttle that plan for his latest thriller, which stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kenneth Branagh and may or may not involve espionage, time travel, and the end of the world? Ironically, only time will tell.

(July 31, theatrical) CHARM CITY KINGS

Here’s hoping the Sundance hype doesn’t disappoint with this prize-winner about

a teenager vying to get in with a dirt-bike crew in Baltimore. Newcomer Jahi Di’Allo Winston stars opposite Meek Mill in a story ripped from a 2013 documentary, 12 O’Clock Boys, about the limited options for a young Black kid in Baltimore. (Date and format to be confirmed, August 14) BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC

It’s been almost three full decades since Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan graced the big screen… and since then, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter have spent a lot of time making sure we know they’re not just California idiots. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know how odd it is to see them slip back into those characters after all these years—and how weirdly comforting it is, too. Given that original screenwriters Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon are behind this—with Galaxy Quest’s Dean Parisot directing—it seems like this movie’s ready to engage with all of those things, while still being very, very silly. (August 21, theatrical) ANTEBELLUM

The trailer looks like Get Out meets 12 Years a Slave meets Westworld. Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, the guys behind the “Kill Jay-Z” video, make their debut with this time-travelling horror movie starring recording artist turned actor Janelle Monáe. She plays an author plucked from her modern comforts, dropped into the 19th century to face her ancestors while forced into slavery. (August 21, theatrical) g

Movies

TIP SHEET ON THE HEELS of National

Indigenous Peoples Day and in the week leading up to Canada Day, here are some documentaries to stream.

c THE ROAD FORWARD (NFB) B.C. filmmaker Marie Clements interweaves a wealth of First Nations music with the national rise of Indigenous activism. c NOW IS THE TIME (NFB) Local Haida filmmaker Christopher Aucher’s short documentary marks the 50th anniversary of carver Robert Davidson’s first pole raising in Old Massett, at only 22. c SOVEREIGN SOIL (VIFF) David Curtis celebrates the northern wilds surrounding the tiny sub-Arctic town of Dawson City, where locals defy the harsh climate to take on sustainable farming. g

ARTS

Boca del Lupo finds nonvirtual ways to stage theatre

by Janet Smith

W

Red Phone takes the form of a scripted conversation between two strangers in separate phone booths—just one of two intimate but socially distanced shows Jay Dodge and Sherry J. Yoon are launching.

hat does theatre look like amid COVID-19? For the folks at Vancouver’s Boca del Lupo, performing via Zoom or Facebook Live didn’t quite hit the mark.

Instead, artistic director Sherry J. Yoon and artistic producer Jay Dodge devised two small-scale shows to form a live, interactive connection—within social distancing parameters, of course.

One, Red Phone, takes the form of a scripted conversation between two strangers in separate phone booths. The other, Plays2Perform@Home, finds box set of scripts by a Canadian playwright arriving at your door, to be acted out by the members of your own “bubble”.

“In a way, we’re in a business that’s the exact opposite of social distancing,” says Yoon, from the group’s office space on Granville Island. “The gravity of it right now is, as we look into the future, we know we’re in a pretty serious time. How to infuse it with creativity is where we want to be.”

“We wanted to make something that could exist beyond COVID times, but also had that sense of tangibility—essentially be in-person and doing something together in the same time and place,” adds Dodge, stressing there’s a role for digital work right now, too.

Boca del Lupo came up with the twoshow series after dealing with the fallout of COVID restrictions, including the shutdown of its planned Iron Peggy tour and axing the solo-performance series that it had under way on Granville Island. “We cancelled six events in 60 days,” Yoon reports.

When the pair got their heads above

water, they found themselves uniquely positioned to find live ways to create theatre amid pandemic restrictions. The company could draw on its experience staging the small-scale Micro Performance Series and interactive shows. It also had access to small, storefront Granville Island spaces, like the Fishbowl. And Boca del Lupo could turn for help on hygiene and other protocols to its technology director, Carey Dodge, who sits on the performing-arts standing committee of ActSafe, the body charting out new health and distancing measures for the arts sector.

The two-person Red Phone, which dates back to 2016 and has been performed in theatre lobbies and public spaces across the country, seemed ready-made for socially distanced theatrical connection.

In the piece, two audience members each enter a handcrafted, fully enclosed phone booth outfitted with a vintage red phone and a teleprompter. They then engage in a five-minute, thought-provoking conversation written by a Canadian writer—an act that somehow bridges anonymity and intimacy.

In this iteration, the two booths will sit at the Fishbowl, with free admission, open to walk-ups or online booking at bocadel lupo.com/ three days a week. Red Phone scripts are written by the likes of Hiro Kanagawa, Keith Barker, Karen Hines, Ivan Coyote, and Jay Dodge himself.

As for Plays2Perform@Home, it can be ordered online and delivered to your home (“like takeout or mail-order theatre,” Dodge says) or picked up from the Fishbowl. Valerie Thai, head designer and

art director of Adbusters, has helped create the artful look of the boutique box set of scripts.

“We were thinking of it as a gift—something they can hold on to in their hands and remember what they love about live performances,” Yoon says.

“Each character will have its own script, and you can perform it on a picnic blanket or around a campfire,” Dodge adds. “You can perform these plays in what in our world would be called a cold read, or, depending on how big your bubble is, could go with it and trade characters and try different personas on.”

The first four playwrights contributing scripts are Kanagawa, Hines, Jovanni Sy, and Leanna Brodie, each tackling a wildly different genre. As an example, Dodge describes Hines’s script as “a cottage-country

serio-comic dream thriller”.

In the case of either show, don’t expect the writers to reflect on the pandemic or social isolation in any literal way. Yoon and Dodge sought a way to free them of pressures to directly address the problems of our times.

“It’s an ability for artists to be creating and be creative without big answers or solutions for the global pandemic, but in some way respond to the many things erupting in the world,” Yoon says. “It’s an opportunity to be creative without having all the answers.” g Red Phone runs at the Fishbowl from Thursday to Saturday from July 1 to August 22, 1 to 5 p.m.; Plays2Perform@Home can be preordered now at bocadellupo.com/ and will be available between the same dates.

YOLANDA BIENZ Gallery Cadillac 555 Hamilton Street, Vancouver Exhibition: June 23rd to July 1st, 2020 daily, 11 am to 6 pm JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

13

SEX

Sex workers expect more business with restarts

Phase two plan already includes strict COVID-19 safety guidelines for massage parlours, lounges

M

by Charlie Smith

any people don’t realize that a fair number of sex workers are back on the job in British Columbia. That’s because health-enhancement centres and steam baths have been allowed to reopen under B.C.’s restart plan, provided these businesses meet critical safety requirements, including minimizing facial contact. There’s also a requirement for “hard screening” of clients and workers using the B.C. Centre for Disease Control’s selfassessment tool for COVID-19.

Sue Davis, director of the B.C. Coalition for Experiential Communities, told the Straight by phone that her group spent about a month developing guidelines in consultation with WorkSafe B.C., Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver city staff, and the mayor’s office.

“All the massage parlours around me are open,” Davis said. “I haven’t heard any complaints from operators about increased action or biased treatment—or people trying to close them down. Really, the topdown approach has kind of worked.”

Part of the motivation, according to Davis, was that sex workers were ineligible to receive $2,000 per month in Canada Emergency Response Benefit payments.

Because of ineligibility for federal CERB benefits during the pandemic, sex workers would have been forced to the streets if lounges and massage parlours hadn’t been allowed to reopen.

Even though these workers’ incomes were decimated by the pandemic, they couldn’t qualify for federal aid because the sale of sexual services is illegal under the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act.

“They were going to be forced to go back to work regardless of whether or not safe work spaces were allowed to open,” Davis pointed out. “So did we think they would be safer in cars? Or in massage parlours or show lounges? Forcing people to the streets

has always been a disaster.”

As the Straight went to the printer, the province was preparing to move to phase three of the restart plan.

“For us, hopefully it will mean an increase in business, with nightclubs and larger venues opening up a bit more,” Davis said. “We benefit like lots of small businesses do from trends like that.”

In the meantime, the guidelines for show lounges and massage parlours are very detailed and cover everything from hand sanitizers to ensuring sufficient physical distancing in staff rooms.

“Use of Personal Protective Equipment (masks, face shield, gloves) during sessions with clients is recommended,” the guideines state. “Face shields should be disinfected between appointments.”

Davis said that a sex worker hasn’t been murdered by a client in Vancouver for 11 years. For that, she credits the enlightened approach of the Vancouver police. But it bothers her that the city still has a rule on the books banning window coverings for ground-level businesses.

According to her, that leads clients to want to enter through back doors rather than the front entrance. “It’s so stupid,” Davis said. g

Post-pandemic hookup may have to wait a while

by Dan Savage

b I met someone I connected with during quarantine.

We’ve all but committed to screwing our brains out after we’re given the all-clear. But she recently suffered a devastating loss. We will meet, on her terms, most likely very soon. I know I should follow her lead, but should I avoid sex even if she wants to have sex? I don’t know if sex will help or hurt. Is being chaste and supportive the right move? Can sex help in a time of loss? I just don’t want to be the asshole someone winds up writing to you for advice about.

- Not Banging (Other) Dudes

- Looking Over Sexual Timing

Follow her lead —that’s a good impulse—and if she wants to have sex after you’ve met in person and after you’ve made it clear to her that there’s no rush, LOST, and if you want to have sex after you’ve met her in person, go ahead and have sex. Some people find sex after a devastating loss to be healing and affirming, and the last thing that person needs is for someone else to decide they shouldn’t be having sex or even wanting to have sex. As for the all-clear you’re waiting for, well, that could be a long time off, seeing as COVID-19 rates are spiking all over the country.

If you decide you can’t wait for the all-clear, please consult the New York Health Department’s safer sex/harmreduction recommendations for people who want to have sex during this pandemic. (Google “New York Health”, “coronavirus”, and “sex”.) To quickly summarize: you can minimize your risk of contracting or transmitting

14

since March, I’ve been having phone sex with a long-term booty call who lives across the country. Neither knows about the other and neither one knows I’m bisexual. No big deal, right? I’m a first responder in a male-dominated field and I put up with enough bullshit without the men in my life knowing I eat pussy. How much of an asshole am I for not disclosing what I don’t need to?

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

JUNE 25 – JULY 2 / 2020

Dan Savage says that spiking COVID-19 rates across the U.S. mean that casual sexual liaisons still require precautions.

COVID-19 by wearing a mask, not eating ass, using condoms, and using a glory hole. b I’VE BEEN DATING someone long distance for seven months. I’ve been transparent about my need for an open relationship. Recently this gentleman asked me to tell him if I slept with someone else. I agreed because I’m not sleeping with anyone at the moment due to COVID-19. But

You’re being an asshole—to yourself. Hiding your bisexuality from the men you’re dating increases your odds of winding up in a relationship with someone who judges, shames, or hates you for being bisexual, NBOD, and why on earth would you want to do that to yourself? Disclosing your bisexuality ups yours odds of attracting a guy who fetishizes your bisexuality, of course, but it’s easier to weed those guys out early than it is to leave (or divorce) some guy who reveals himself to be biphobic after you’ve made a huge emotional investment in him. As for the phone sex… You should disclose that too. If Mr. Seven Months can’t handle you having phone sex with some other guy, NBOD, he certainly won’t be able to handle you sleeping with someone else. And if he can’t handle that, he’s not the right guy for a woman who wants/needs/requires an open relationship. g Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. www.savagelovecast.com/.

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