HEALTH

HEALTH Candidate pledges to restore universal masking in schools

by Charlie Smith

The only Vote Socialist candidate for Vancouver school board has promised what no existing trustee is prepared to do.

Dr. Karina Zeidler says that if she’s elected on October 15, she will try to bring universal masking back to Vancouver public schools to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

“I’m already seeing so many people infected by COVID in all kinds of di erent ways,” Zeidler, a family physician, told the Straight by phone. “So, by doing this, I’m hoping to improve the health of my community in general.”

Zeidler said that as part of her campaign, she plans to ask every other candidate what their position is on mask mandates in public schools.

“ ey are going to have to answer me— whether they favour the mask mandate or whether they favour disease and discrimination,” she stated. “ ose are the two options.”

Zeidler is cofounder and a member of the steering committee of Protect Our Province B.C., which is a volunteer group of physicians, nurses, health scientists, health-policy specialists, and community advocates. It advocates for evidence-based policies in response to COVID-19, with the ultimate aim of ending the pandemic.

“We are either going to decide as a society that we want the community together to protect everybody, including our most vulnerable, or if we’re going to go ‘survival of the ttest’,” Zeidler said.

In B.C., public health o cials have shi ed the onus of responsibility from society as a whole to individuals by making it a personal responsibility to decide whether to wear a mask in indoor spaces. Vancouver Coastal Health deputy medical health o cer Dr. Mark Lysyshyn articulated this philosophy in a recent interview on CTV.

According to Lysyshyn, most are protected from severe COVID with vaccination and a rst booster, though some remain at risk. In the interview, he also cautioned people about the health and well-being impacts of limiting social interactions.

“He’s actually promoting not wearing masks and going out and socializing with people,” Zeidler maintained. “It’s the opposite of what kind of education we should be putting out there.”

Zeidler argued that dropping indoor mask mandates “completely abandons” certain people in society. at includes those with disabilities and of low-income, as well as racialized and Indigenous people who have a higher rate of comorbidities, leaving them more susceptible to severe cases of COVID.

“We really need to decide what it is that we believe in,” Zeidler said. “And right now, people have decided that the most important thing is to maintain the status quo—maintain our current societal hierarchy and colonial capitalism—and we don’t care if that means there is a whole bunch of people who are going to su er death and disability because of that.” g

Dr. Karina Zeidler says trustees must protect the most vulnerable. Photo by Yvonne Hanson.

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7 COVER

Vancouver keyboardist Jason de Couto brings his in-demand musical talents to the Powell Street Festival.

By Steve Newton Cover photo by Diane Smithers

11 THEATRE

The romance of Mirza and Sahiban is a staple of Punjabi folk stories, but playwrights Paneet Singh and Andy Kalirai have given it a modern twist. By Charlie Smith

13 MUSIC

Rather than sit around and obsess during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Mother Mother’s Ryan Guldemond used the time to create Inside. By Mike Usinger

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Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 56 | Number 2837

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EDITOR Charlie Smith

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MUSIC Four acts to make the Ambleside experience great

by Mike Usinger

As concertgoing experiences go, Ambleside Music Festival is one of those you get excited about long before arriving on-site. One of the most insanely beautiful settings in all of the Lower Mainland? Check! A genre-spanning mix of platinum-shi ing headliners, wildly loved local favourites, proven veterans, and much-hyped up-and-comers? Bingo.

Come for the O spring, Mother Mother, Mariana’s Trench. But don’t miss these four acts, all of which already have us excited about next year’s Ambleside Music Festival.

CHARLOTTE CARDIN rough a combination of hard work, welltimed breaks, God-given talent, and superior genetics, some people on this Earth seem to accomplish more than others. Enter Montreal’s Charlotte Cardin, who started out life as a model, and then, seemingly e ortlessly, shi ed into music. e 27-year-old released her debut album, Phoenix, last year, and then promptly watched it rocket to number one on the Canadian charts. Getting the attention was a mix of urban electro-soul, throwback jazz, and atmospheric art-pop. Not to mention perfect lines like “You told me you love me/I said it back, I didn’t mean it”.

Canadian singer-songwriter Charlotte Cardin is just one of more than two dozen bands and musical performers appearing at the first Ambleside Music Festival in West Vancouver. VALLEY ings don’t always happen overnight in the music industry, which explains Valley forming in Toronto in 2014, ying well under the radar with a couple of early indie EPs, and then seemingly exploding out of nowhere during the pandemic. A Covid-ruined 2020 saw the quartet score a Juno nomination for Breakthrough Group of the Year, and release the indie-pop glitter bomb that was the sucks to see you doing better EP. Valley singles like “Last Birthday” and “Oh shit...are we in love” sound like they’ve been carefully cra ed for maximum impact on e Peak—all summersunshine hooks that make you want to turn o the air conditioning, roll down the windows, and hit the Sea to Sky highway with the radio cranked and the ocean sparkling.

VIRGINIA TO VEGAS e great thing about summer is that, unless your name is Trent Reznor, Anne Rice, or pre-makeover Allison Reynolds, it’s almost impossible to get in touch with your inner saddo. Who—besides Johnny Cash, Glenn Danzig, and Siouxsie Sioux—wants to be wearing black in August? Known to the world as Virginia to Vegas, Derik John Baker rst blazed into the pop world with “We Are Stars”, a 2014 dance oor anthem packed with feel-good lines like “Life is impossible/ So believe that you’re unstoppable.” A 2016 full-length, Utopian, mixed rubber-band electro with ruminations on love, lust, and the complications that come with relationships. So even if you show up all in black at Ambleside, you’ll be able to relate to lines like “Oh shit, it feels like you’re getting me high”.

CARTEL MADRAS Sometimes things don’t necessarily compute, which is to say one has to wonder how a city famous for cowboy hats, oil-industry tycoons, and a truly shitkicking stampede could be home to Cartel Madras. e hip-hop sister duo of Bhagya “Eboshi” Ramesh and Priya “Contra” Ramesh bill themselves as Cowtown’s nest purveyors of “Goonda Rap” (a term which will make sense to anyone who loves Bollywood’s Agneepath, Nayakan, and Gangs of Wasseypur I and II.) On last year’s e Serpent and the Tiger the Ramesh sisters are all menacing double-codeined darkness one minute, and exotic world-music weirdness the next. Which is to say that—based on stereotypes of the city—Calgary doesn’t deserve them. But we certainly do. g

Live energy and a stacked lineup for Ambleside

( is article is sponsored by the Ambleside Music Festival.)

Very few communities have become world-famous by hosting star-studded multiday rock and pop music festivals. ere’s Coachella in Indio, California. Another example is Glastonbury in Pilton, England.

Quinn Allen, festival producer of the Ambleside Music Festival, is hoping to do the same for West Vancouver. is threeday extravaganza will take place at gorgeous Ambleside Park from August 12 to 14, o ering a musical smorgasbord for festivalgoers from across the region and beyond.

For the Ambleside Music Festival’s maiden voyage in 2022, the headliners are platinumselling California punk legends the O spring and beloved Canadian bands Mother Mother, Marianas Trench, and Walk o the Earth.

“I’m beyond excited,” Allen says. “ e city and its people have missed live music, and the only thing better than a live show is an outdoor festival in a beautiful location with your friends!”

His goal is for the Ambleside Music Festival to ll this void for years to come by creating an incredible experience for Lower Mainland music lovers. Ambleside Park overlooks Burrard Inlet, providing a picturesque view of Stanley Park from a distance.

“I was very much behind the lineup,” Allen explains. “We wanted to get acts that were both Canadian and local but also have some air from abroad.

“Most importantly, we searched for great live acts that know how to command a stage and really play live—from the smaller acts like Aiden Ayers, the Blue Stones, and Tim Atlas to the headliners like the O spring and Mother Mother,” he continues. “Each act de nitely knows how to rock a crowd.”

He has programmed every slot of the Ambleside Music Festival with the intention of providing sensational music to ticket holders.

“We really wanted the people to get the most bang for their buck, so we tried to stack the lineup as best as possible,” the festival producer says.

To accomplish this, he’s invited Charlotte Cardin, Grandson, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Jon and Roy, Ria Mae, Tokyo Police Club, Hannah Georgas, and Little Destroyer, among others, to perform on-stage.

Allen acknowledges that the pandemic has been tough on the events industry.

“First and foremost, we had a late start,” he says. “Festivals require time to sink into the general public’s awareness, and we were not fortunate enough to allow for that this year. en there is the fact that so many artists have dates that they have to make up from before the pandemic, which made booking tricky.”

He checked out some online festivals over the past couple of years, noting that they could not generate the same feeling as a live music festival with friends or family attending in-person.

“You just can’t re-create the energy of being at a festival,” Allen adds. “While virtual attendance will no doubt be a component of festivals for years to come, I don’t think virtual reality will replace the real thing anytime soon, at least not for me.” g

Ambleside Music Festival producer Quinn Allen loves the energy created by live bands, especially with a lineup that includes the Offspring, Mother Mother, Marianas Trench, and Walk off the Earth.

The Ambleside Music Festival takes place at Ambleside Park in West Vancouver from August 12 to 14. Weekend general-admission tickets are $245 plus ticketing fees, with weekend VIP seating available for $525 plus ticketing fees. Ambleside Music Festival single-day passes are priced at $99 plus ticketing fees for early birds, with VIP early bird single-day tickets at $205, plus ticketing fees. For information and tickets, visit amblesidefestival.com.