The Georgia Straight - Sonia Furstenau - October 1, 2020

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020 | FREE

Volume 54 | Number 2749

SONIA FURSTENAU

EDUCATION ELECTION PATTI BACCHUS’S ADVICE

VIFF REVIEWS FEST PICKS TO CLICK

B.C.'s Green leader demands evidence-based responses to the climate and opioid crises

ESPORTS

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A N G RY W H I T E M E N

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K E R A L A C U R RY

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MINDFULNESS

EDUCATION

Public-school supporters can make the most of the election

CONTENTS 5

October 1 – 8 / 2020

COVER

B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau hopes to gain voters’ support by focusing on evidence-based policies and promising a truly collaborative government.

by Patti Bacchus

By Charlie Smith

7

REAL ESTATE

Cover photo by Jimmy Jeong

Heritage Vancouver opposes the proposed redevelopment of a 108-year-old building in Kitsilano that houses a historic corner store.

By Carlito Pablo

9

CANNABIS

Garin Heslop turned into a weed evangelist after his wife recommended that he take medicinal cannabis instead of meds.

By John Lucas

e Start Here

Education Minister Rob Fleming is probably in the mood to wash his hands of all the criticism he’s received for the government’s back-to-school plan now that the election campaign is underway.

I

was planning to devote this week’s column to making the case for scrapping this year’s controversial Foundation Skills Assessments (FSA) for grades four and seven students, but then John Horgan decided to call an election. Darn him.

I was going to rail about how FSAs are the equivalent of an imaginary medical test doctors found worthless, a waste of time to administer, and stressful for patients, and how ridiculous it would be for government to force doctors to administer them anyway, and particularly after kids have already lost months of class time. But that argument will have to wait for another column. Or an election campaign.

Like it or not, we’re going to the polls, or the mailbox. It’s sort of like a pandemic.

It’s here and we have to live with it and make the best of it.

Much like some folks find silver linings in the dark clouds that COVID 19 has cast over our lives, the election is an opportunity for those of us who care about public education and believe it needs better support from government. It’s a chance to push the parties and candidates to commit to doing better for public schools.

Public education is the cornerstone of democracy, and education is the solution to many of the most challenging problems we face. We have an excellent system, but it’s chronically undersupported, and those who work on the frontlines warn us they can’t do their best work and get the best outcomes in overcrowded classrooms without enough support and staffing in poorly maintained buildings.

2

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Like many, I’ve been underwhelmed and disappointed with the NDP government’s performance on the education fi le since it took power in the summer of 2017.

They’re not as bad as the B.C. Liberals, but also not a heck of a lot better.

Support for students with special needs is uneven.

– Patti Bacchus

My kids were in school while the B.C. Liberals were waging war with teachers and forcing harmful cuts to schooldistrict budgets, and I went head to head with several B.C. Liberal education ministers while I chaired the Vancouver School Board from 2008 to 2014. Those were hard days for the education system, and I thought things would get a lot better with an NDP government.

They have, somewhat, but not nearly enough.

There’s still a backlog of major school seismic-upgrade or replacement projects waiting for funding; kids are still coerced into writing the FSAs, even though teachers say they have

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

see page 4

14 19 18 2 8 6 17 12 16 13 18

ARTS CLASSIFIEDS CONFESSIONS EDUCATION ESPORTS FINANCE FOOD HEALTH LIQUOR MOVIES SAVAGE LOVE

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e Online TOP 5

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

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COVID-19: Kelowna church outbreak and a fistfight on a bus over wearing a mask.

Surrey residents respond to heartbreaking death of international student.

Martyn Brown: In election of duelling blackguards, Wilkinson is the worst.

Food recalls in B.C. for popcon, beef sasauges and burgers, and artichoke dip.

Twenty-nine years ago today: Eddie Vedder avoids impaling himself. @GeorgiaStraight

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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from page 2

little value and actually cause some harms; B.C. still lags behind most other provinces when it comes to per-student funding; and increases haven’t kept up with inflation.

B.C. teachers’ salaries are still lower than many of their Canadian counterparts; Surrey still has more portables than it did when John Horgan became premier; and Vancouver families in many parts of the city have to enter lotteries to get their kids into their neighbourhood schools—if, unlike those who live in the Olympic Village, their community actually has a school. And as we’ve seen over and over, when seismic upgrades or replacements finally get funded, the money is not adequate and the schools end up too small.

Support for students with special needs is uneven, and kids still get sent home and miss school due to a lack of support. Despite the NDP’s promises in the last election, parents still fundraise for basics and teachers still buy resources for their classrooms with their own money. Meanwhile, private and faith-based schools are getting more funding than they ever have from the provincial treasury, including elite private schools that charge more than $25,000 a year in tuition.

On the positive side, the Horgan government kept its promise to restore funding for classes for adults who’ve graduated from high school but need to upgrade courses, after the B.C. Liberals cut that funding in 2014.

It’s been interesting watching the NDP in

Alberta and Ontario criticizing their governments for shoddy back-to-school plans after the COVID-19 school closures last spring, given that B.C.’s COVID-19 schools plan is arguably as flawed as Alberta’s and Ontario’s.

The Alberta NDP is calling for a cap of 15 students per class and funding to “hire the staff necessary to accomplish this”. They also want more staff to be hired to cover paid sick leave and time off for employees who need to care for sick dependents. They want more custodians, mandatory masks in all school common areas, and mandatory physical distancing in classrooms.

The Ontario NDP is demanding its government provide school districts with funding for more teachers, support workers, and alternative classrooms, and to make classes smaller and safer.

Those seem like reasonable and prudent asks, given the increase in COVID-19 cases and “exposures” in B.C. schools. I don’t know how B.C.’s NDP can defend its schools plan while its counterparts in Alberta and Ontario are calling out their governments for plans that are so similar to B.C.’s.

The B.C. NDP’s schools plan has been the Horgan government’s weakest link in its COVID-19 response, and Education Minister Rob Fleming hasn’t exactly been one of Horgan’s top performers, in comparison to strong cabinet bright lights like Adrian Dix, David Eby, and Carole James. I expect the NDP will try to focus on other issues instead of education.

EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND POLICY Groups of 10-12 students 2 Summer Sessions 2 Winter Sessions: 4 weekends each

APPLY BY

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Patti Bacchus is the Georgia Straight K-12 education columnist. She was chair of the Vancouver School Board from 2008 to 2014. A longer version of this column is on Straight.com.

C apilano ADVANCES

mentorship for Indigenous entrepreneurs.

Over the next three years, the IDA program will work with 10 to 20 Indigenous businesses, according to a Capilano University news release. There’s a strong focus on companies that can increase Indigenous participation in the digital creative and cultural sectors.

Doreen Manuel welcomes TD’s donation.

Photo by Taehoon Kim/Capilano University

d CAPILANO UNIVERSITY can celebrate some good news in the midst of a pandemic that has created havoc for postsecondary institutions’ budgets.

On September 28, the TD Bank Group announced a $450,000 donation to the university’s Indigenous Digital Accelerator program. This initiative advances educational opportunities and

Doreen Manuel, a documentary maker and director of Capilano University’s Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film and Animation, noted in the release that fostering Indigenous-led businesses contributes to healthier First Nations communities.

“The IDA program bridges gaps in digital skills and business training to help Indigenous entrepreneurs break through barriers and succeed in the tech, digital-creative and cultural sectors,” Manuel said. g

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fingers and toes crossed that we don’t see more exposures, clusters, outbreaks, or whatever they’re calling them in the weeks between now and the election. g

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Don’t let them get away with it.

They’re going to have a tough campaign if they don’t acknowledge how badly Fleming fumbled the school plan, with its tissue-thin “layers of protection” and inadequate, hastily put together remote-learning options for those who don’t feel safe returning to class.

You can bet the NDP team has its

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OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

FEATURE

Furstenau says it’s not too late to govern differently

The B.C. Green leader promises to listen to science in addressing the climate crisis and overdose deaths

O

by Charlie Smith

ver the years, some political leaders have explicitly promised to follow evidence-based policies in responding to society’s most vexing challenges, including the climate crisis, if their party forms government. But after the election, they’ve ignored this pledge.

This was on display when Justin Trudeau was leading the federal Liberals into the 2015 election. Climate was a big issue during the campaign, but after the election, Trudeau’s party bought Kinder Morgan’s Canadian assets. He and his then–finance minister, Bill Morneau, subsequently proceeded with a pipeline project that will result in more annual downstream emissions than the entire total generated in B.C. each year. And its cost shot up astronomically.

Similarly, in 2005, Vancouver mayoral candidate Sam Sullivan promised to pursue evidence-based policies while leading the NPA. Afterward, his critics said he refused to follow best practices by not allowing separated bike lanes on the Burrard Bridge and in other areas of the city to reduce crashes between vehicles and cyclists.

However, the leader of the B.C. Greens, Sonia Furstenau, insists that she’s serious with her pledge to listen to scientists and experts. And it’s not only with regard to climate. In a phone interview with the Georgia Straight, she emphasized that she will embrace an evidence-based approach in other areas, including addressing the opioid crisis and combatting inequality.

“We cannot continue to ignore reality and we cannot continue to ignore evidence that tells us what solutions are needed to be in place,” Furstenau said. “So in a climate crisis, for a government to give $6 billion in tax cuts and incentives to the fracking industry makes no sense.”

Of course, she was referring to the NDP minority government’s efforts to attract a large, Shell Oil–led liquefied-natural-gas project in northwestern B.C. Often called a carbon bomb by its critics, the LNG Canada plant will rely on fracked natural gas—and it will gobble up a growing portion of B.C.’s carbon budget with each passing decade.

“It goes against what the evidence tells us we need to do,” Furstenau continued, “which is to urgently reduce our emissions and urgently invest in clean energy so that we can have a safer future for our children.”

As for the opioid crisis, Furstenau pointed to Portugal, which has decriminalized personal possession of cocaine and heroin and sharply driven down the number of overdose deaths and HIV infections. According to drug-policy researcher Adam Fisher, if Canada had the same overdosedeath rate as Portugal had in 2016, there

North Vancouver–Seymour Green candidate and climate-strike organizer Harrison Johnston says that Sonia Furstenau has been the only B.C. party leader to truly hear his concerns, whereas he felt like he was ignored by federal Liberal and provincial NDP cabinet ministers. Photo by Jimmy Jeong.

would have only been 96 such fatalities in 2018 instead of more than 4,000.

This year, there were 684 overdose deaths in B.C. in only a four-month period, from May to August, according to the B.C. Coroners Service.

Furstenau noted that the provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, issued a report two years ago with recommendations to address the overdose crisis. But many of those proposals, including decriminalization, have been ignored.

“We approached COVID-19 listening to what the experts told us what to do, listening to the scientists, listening to Dr. Bonnie Henry,” Furstenau said. “We’ve taken the guidance of experts in response to this global pandemic. We need to take the guidance of experts in response to the opioid crisis.”

Furstenau, a former teacher, told the Straight earlier this year that she entered politics—first at the local level in the Cowichan Valley, then provincially in 2017—to address a “feeling of disillusionment with decisions that were being made”. According to her, those decisions, such as granting a provincial permit for a contaminatedwaste dump in her town’s watershed, were affecting communities across the province.

“What we need to have more of in politics is forward-looking visions that put people at the centre of that,” she said at the time. “We’re in a transition. We’re in an

economic transition. We’re in transition because of climate change.

“Pretending that is not so is the worst thing that people in decision-making positions can do,” Furstenau added. “We actually need to get in front of that transition and decide where we want to end up.

Where I want B.C. to end up is resilient and safe and secure—and also where people can have a quality of life that isn’t rooted in consumption but about connection.”

We’re in a transition because of climate change.

– Sonia Furstenau

It’s a vision that has attracted the support of young environmental activists such as Harrison Johnston, a 20-year-old organizer with the climate-justice group Sustainabiliteens Vancouver. In a phone interview with the Straight, Johnston said that Furstenau was the only B.C. party leader who truly listened to what his group had to say.

In contrast, when he attended demonstrations at the offices of federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, B.C. Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman, and B.C. Attorney General David Eby, these politicians weren’t interested in engaging with young people in a serious way. As a result, Johnston has signed on as the Green candidate in his home community of North Vancouver–Seymour.

“Our leaders are failing young people, they’re failing Indigenous people, they’re failing Black people, they’re failing people with disabilities, they’re failing drug users, and they’re failing our communities as a whole,” Johnston wrote in a recent commentary on Straight.com. “We can’t beg them for change any longer. We need something to hope for again.”

Furstenau said that government’s job is to ensure that every person in the province has access to public services such as health care and education.

“I think we should really question the way we do political campaigns when party leaders go into ridings and make promises about what government should be ensuring exists for every community in this province,” the B.C. Green leader declared. “Every community should have schools where children have safe places to learn, where they thrive. Every community should have enough doctors.” g

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

5

FINANCE

Stock markets sometimes go haywire in October

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by Charlie Smith

ctober has a way of making investors nervous. And for good reason.

The largest percentage drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average came on October 19, 1987. It crashed by more than 22 percent on so-called Black Monday as traders engaged in panic selling.

In 18 other major world markets on that day, the index decline exceeded 20 percent.

The worst fall, 45.8 percent, occurred in Hong Kong. Even the city’s richest resident, Li Ka-shing, suffered large losses on paper, along with many other tycoons.

The third- and fourth-largest percentage collapses in the Dow also occurred in October—both times in 1929—preceding the Great Depression of the 1930s. (The Dow is a basket of 30 stocks of large American companies in a range of industries.)

And the 10th- and 11th-largest percentage drops happened on October 26, 1987, and on October 15, 2008. The latter came in the midst of a global economic meltdown that preceded the Great Recession.

A six-week Bankers’ Panic of 1907 also started in October. That followed a 50 percent fall in share prices from the previous year on the New York Stock Exchange.

Depositors quickly withdrew their money

Close the doors, be fearful when others are greedy.

– Warren Buffett

Tycoon Li Ka-shing has felt the sting of October.

Photo by EdTech Stanford School of Medicine.

from banks, triggering the collapse of some financial institutions, including the Knickerbocker Trust Company.

But even though the worst single-day market tar and featherings have occurred in October, the worst year for stocks, on average, has been September.

According to Investopedia director of trading and investing content James Chen, it’s the only month that has shown a negative return during the past century.

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

“However, the effect is not overwhelming and, more importantly, is not predictive in any useful sense,” Chen wrote last year. “If an individual had bet against September over the last 100 years, that individual would have made an overall profit.

If the investor had made that bet only in 2014, that investor would have lost money.”

This month, as of the close on September 28, the Dow had fallen 4.45 percent.

The more tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite Index declined by 7.91 percent over the same period.

There’s always a chance of another massive October decline in the markets in advance of

the November 3 presidential election. Some are even wondering whether Donald Trump will refuse to leave office even if he loses.

Then there’s the deteriorating situation with COVID-19 coinciding with fall flu season.

However, not everyone believes the end is nigh for investors.

SFU macroeconomist Lucas Herrenbrueck, for example, thinks that physical distancing and less international travel is leading people with regular incomes to turn more attention to their investments.

“To put it simply, the pandemic has increased demand for saving instruments, including stocks and bonds, while at the same time reduced our opportunities to spend on other things,” Herrenbrueck said in a recent SFU news release. “This combination is contributing to higher asset prices despite poor economic conditions.”

Of course, predicting the direction of markets is tougher than overcooked brisket, particularly over the short term.

But billionaire investor Warren Buffett has had success over the long term.

“I will tell you how to become rich,” the Sage of Omaha once advised. “Close the doors, be fearful when others are greedy.

Be greedy when others are fearful.” g

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REAL ESTATE

Century-old Kits corner store set for demolition

by Carlito Pablo

On June 24, Vancouver city council approved a motion by councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung to pursue the revival of neighbourhood stores.

In her motion, Kirby-Yung cited the importance of traditional corner stores in “creating social connection in neighbourhoods, as well as supporting daily needs”.

Moreover, with more people working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a “greater need for

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B on Ton ON THE BLOCK

that it generates annual gross revenue of $600,000, with approximately $100,000 in net income.

A 1912 building on the corner of Kitsilano’s Yew Street and West 6th Avenue that later became a neighbourhood corner store is slated for redevelopment. Photo by City of Vancouver in 1978.

C

orner stores have been disappearing in Vancouver over the years.

And now another one is likely headed that way.

That’s because a new housing project has been proposed at the northwest corner of Yew Street and West 6th Avenue in Kitsilano.

The site is home to a 1912 building with residential uses and a neighbourhood store that was once known as Helen’s Grocery.

The Heritage Vancouver Society has written the City of Vancouver to express its disappointment over the impending loss of the early 20th-century structure.

“Designed in 1912 by noted architect W. F. Gardiner, its loss will further erode Kitsilano’s ever-increasing loss of both its built and social character,” the group wrote on September 24.

Design Work Group has applied to the

city for a development permit to build a two-storey, two-family dwelling at 2137 Yew Street.

In its letter, the Heritage Vancouver Society recalled that the 1912 building was designed for Henry Douglas King and constructed by H. D. Crawford for $5,600.

“We also note that the set-back structure attached to the north of the main building may be the original residential frame dwelling, now covered in vinyl siding, dating from its construction in April 1907,” the group wrote.

The society stated that the proposed replacement “doesn’t address the loss of the commercial space which is still in use serving the neighbourhood as a corner store”.

In addition, the group noted the “lack of street engagement and activation, and absence of community integration, all of which helps in part to define Kitsilano’s neighbourhood character”.

A bakery and tearoom that is a popular Kitsilano fixture has been put up for sale.

d NOTTE’S BON TON Pastry & Confectionery, a well-known Vancouver bakeshop, is for sale.

Established in 1926, the business has been operating for almost a century.

A listing by the Restaurant Business Broker agency pegs its price at $249,000.

The sale includes the bakeshop and tearoom.

The business is located in Kitsilano, at 3150 West Broadway. The listing discloses

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A 2016 account on the site creatorsvancouver.com states that the bakeshop was started by Oreste and Agnes Notte in Victoria. They moved to Vancouver in the 1930s, according to this report, spending decades at 874 Granville Street as one of the first tenants of the Commodore building. The bakery reportedly remained in the Notte family.

Not all stories agree on the details, though. Another one, this on bakersjournal.com in 2017, recalled that Oreste Notte “initially emigrated from France to the United States as a teenager but didn’t like New York City and decided to try Canada”.

An account by Montecristo Magazine, on the other hand, recalled that the founder was “born in Italy and trained to be a pastry chef throughout Europe”. g

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

7

ESPORTS

ESports can be a magnet that’s worth exploring

S

by Mike Usinger

ometimes it’s hard to get a read on a place unless you’ve been there. Take Waterloo, Ontario, for example. Because it exists in the long shadow of Toronto, it’s often thought of as a small-town backwater.

Think Toronto’s answer to Abbotsford, the big difference being that computer science rather than God is worshipped above all.

The reality is the one-time Ontario farming town is now a major tech hub. And that explains a partnership between Explore Waterloo Region and Subnation.

Explore Waterloo Region is a tourism board with a mission to drive folks to the city. Subnation is a marketing organization that focuses on ESports.

The goal of the two hopping into bed is to establish Waterloo as an ESports hotspot for both local and international event organizers. As every ESports fan knows, the industry entails much more than sitting in front of a screen in one’s bedroom or basement.

ESports is in many ways about the live experience, with fans packing halls and even stadiums to both watch and play games like Overwatch, CS: GO, and Rocket League. At lower tiers, fans compete against

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Tech companies can help to revitalize cities, as evidenced by Google landing in Waterloo. Photo by Mark Jakson-Brown/Wikimedia Commons.

each other in bracket battles while their fellow enthusiasts look on. At the professional level they watch ESports giants wage digital war.

Such group gatherings have, of course, come to a halt thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that’s turned 2020 into one of the worst years in history. But Subnation and Explore Waterloo Region are clearly looking towards the future and a return to normalcy.

They’ve both announced a four-phase initiative to establish ESports as a major drawing card for the Waterloo region.

First up will be Subnation taking a deep dive into what Waterloo has to offer the world of ESports. This includes looking at promising venues as well as the technological assets that are needed to offer a solid, globally-minded platform.

The goal? At the moment many young people who come to Waterloo from elsewhere are lured by the strong tech program at the University of Waterloo. If you’re really at the top of your game, you might end up at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics or the Institute for Quantum Computing. And then there’s the tech companies, starting with Blackberry and including everyone from Thalmic Labs to Vidyard.

How respected is Waterloo as a tech hub? The area is regularly raided by Fortune 500 and Silicon Valley companies looking for both established talent and hotshot graduates.

With tech often comes a major influx of cash, that leading to revitalization and gentrification. At the tail end of last century, downtown Waterloo was littered with buildings that had seen better days as the

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

home of furniture manufacturers, distillers, and tire producers.

Those buildings have been repurposed by giants like Google, which chose the Waterloo area as a base for Canada.

Throw ESports into the region’s mix, and you’ve got another reason for the tech-savvy to sit up and take notice of a city where Ethel’s Lounge, Death Valley’s Little Brother coffee and whisky bar, and Herrle’s Country Farm Market corn maze were once the only reason for visiting.

And what’s interesting about that for folks who don’t live in Waterloo? It’s giving communities ranging from Corner Brook, Newfoundland, to Chilliwack, B.C., a crash course in the value of foresight. The thinking in Waterloo is obviously, with apologies to Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams, “Build it and they will come.” (In case it’s not obvious, we’re talking tech hubs here, not baseball diamonds.)

That raises the importance of thinking about the potential of ESports across the land. This much we know: the industry is a booming one with a global audience in the billions. And that means there’s a massive audience waiting to be monetized.

Rents are famously sky-high on the West Coast, and the pandemic has cut a wide swath through the commercial realestate sector. That includes downtown office spaces. And with the pandemic creating a paradigm where working from home is the new normal, there’s little reason to think people will ever want to go back to those spaces.

So why not reimagine them as hubs for those seeking a distraction from the daily grind of life? Like, for example, participating in ESports, either in the

trenches or behind the scenes.

Pre-pandemic, it wasn’t unusual to see places like Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby Campus host pop-up events for Overwatch, with fans gathering to compete and watch.

Imagine Tourism Vancouver hopping into bed with an organization like Subnation to explore the repurposing of existing infrastructure for ESports events. The Downtown Eastside might never look the same. Same goes for the unoffical ghost town known as Dunbar.

Further afield, where rent’s a little cheaper, Chilliwack might reinvent itself as something other than a destination for corn. And partying one’s brains out at Cultus Lake.

Both Vancouver and Chilliwack are, of course, best-known in the rest of the world for their natural beauty. But oh the possibilities for ESports fans and industry players. Make B.C. an infrastructure-rich destination, and the scenery would be a cherry on top.

Even folks who have never been here know that we live in one of the planet’s most scenic corners. But the drawing cards don’t have to stop with the ocean and the towering trees and the breweries of Yeast Vancouver. And Waterloo, of all the unlikely places, has just shown us the way. g

MORE ESPORTS ONLINE AT ECENTRALSPORTS.COM

CANNABIS

MedCare Farms founder joined weed biz by accident After a traumatic motorcycle crash, Garin Heslop was prescribed powerful and energy-sapping pain meds

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by John Lucas

arin Heslop never saw it coming.

Or, to put it more precisely, he did see it coming, but by then it was too late to do anything about it. In July of 2008, Heslop was riding home on his motorcycle. He came to an intersection, and so did a driver who was supposed to yield before making a left turn.

“Right at the last second, he pulled out in front of me,” Heslop tells the Straight in a recent phone interview. “At that point I couldn’t go left, I couldn’t go right; I just went headfirst straight into the back of a truck. I didn’t go over the truck, I just went straight into it.”

Heslop continues: “I just remember right before it happened, thinking, ‘No matter what, I have no control of what the outcome is at the end of this. There’s nothing I can do to change it: whether I’m dead, whether I’m paralyzed, whether I’m okay, or whatever it might be.’”

The number of people who have died from cannabis is...zero.

– Garin Heslop

In 2018 alone, almost 70,000 people died from drug overdoses. It was a leading cause of injury-related death in the U.S. Two out of three overdose deaths involved an opioid such as heroin, prescription opioids, or synthetic opioids (like fentanyl).

“The number of people who have died from cannabis,” Heslop wryly observes, “is the same as the number of unicorns that are out there: zero.”

NOT QUITE OKAY

The successful Washington-state realtor was neither dead nor paralyzed, but he wasn’t quite okay, either. His arm was so badly injured that it required eight hours of surgery. After his discharge from the hospital, Heslop continued to struggle with short-term memory loss and back issues.

His doctor put him on a cocktail of powerful prescription pain meds.

“Through my recovery process, it just seemed like the doctor was more interested in continuing to put a Band-Aid on it and prescribe me these drugs instead of really getting to the root cause and figuring out how do we find a solution?”

Heslop says. “How do we get past this and get to pain mitigation and get to a better quality of life?”

Heslop says he felt his zest for life slowly slipping away.

“The prescriptions changed who I was,” he recalls. “I get up at 5:30 in the morning and I go work out. I’m very passionate about life and energetic, you know, and I just want to improve. It took that away from me. I just wasn’t happy: I didn’t have energy; I didn’t want to do anything; I just wanted to take my pills and get through my day.”

TRAGIC PATHS

At around the same time, Heslop watched people in his life spiral into addiction. He cites the example of one of his best friends, a bank manager with a wife and two children.

After a bicycle accident, that friend got hooked on a widely prescribed opioid analgesic.

HEARTS AND MINDS

Kelly Heslop (right), a military veteran with a disability, was using cannabis medicinally when she advised husband Garin to try it as an alternative to prescription drugs. Photo by MedCare Farms.

“He ended up robbing banks to support his OxyContin habit,” Heslop says. “He ended up going to prison for that. So it’s not just the person that’s addicted but it’s the family members that are affected as well.”

Heslop knows this firsthand; one of his own kin went down a similarly tragic path.

“My cousin ended up getting addicted to OxyContin as well and ended up shooting somebody in the back of the head over OxyContin,” he says. “He’s in prison still today.”

ENTER CANNABIS

Meanwhile, Heslop’s wife, Kelly—a disabled United States Army veteran—was using cannabis medicinally. Seeing her husband’s struggles, she encouraged him to do the same.

When he did, Heslop recalls, his sleep improved, and so did his appetite. More importantly, he began to feel like himself again.

“It didn’t just fix everything, but it allowed me to get to a better quality of life,” Heslop tells CannCentral. “Me being able to work out, me sleeping well, feeling better—it just helps everything, right? It all flowed in conjunction with each other.”

Not long after that, the Heslops pulled up stakes and moved to California. Today, the couple run MedCare Farms, described on its website as “Southern California’s leading craft-cannabis, lifestyle management company”. At their Lake Elsinore facility, the Heslops produce strains such as the indica-dominant MedCare Kush, the sativa-forward Lemon Burst, and the hybrid Cookies and Cream.

POWERFUL MEDICINE

Heslop has a new mission in life: to spread the gospel of cannabis to everyone who needs to hear it. The little green plant, he says, is powerful medicine.

“That was the founding principle of MedCare Farms,” he says. “That’s why we chose the name MedCare. This has true medicinal healing powers if you need something that’s a better alternative to the majority of everything else that’s available to you and doesn’t have these insane side effects.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S. alone, more than 750,000 people died from a drug overdose from 1999 to 2018.

In February, MedCare opened a retail storefront connected to its production facility. It looks more like a high-end designer boutique than it does a seedy head shop of old. That, of course, is entirely the point.

Heslop says his aim is to win hearts and minds. Moreover, he would like to be seen in the same light as any other respectable member of the local business community.

It seems to be working. Lake Elsinore’s mayor, Brian Tisdale, attended the store’s grand opening, and he even cut the ribbon.

“We love the plant, and we focus on cultivation and we put so much work in,” Heslop says. “So we want our retail, because it’s customer-facing, to really represent all that hard work and that dedication and what it means to us. It’s about changing the perception from a cultural standpoint. That’s our mission.

“We wanted to change the face of what cannabis is and how people perceive it,” he continues. “So when you walk into our store, our whole thing is to have people leave happier than they came and have the highest level of customer service. We’re about creating customers for life, and we’re gonna earn it every day.” g

MORE CANNABIS ONLINE AT CANNCENTRAL.COM

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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Rapidly rising strata insurance needs to move near the top of British Columbia’s election agenda

by Trevor Hargreaves

Higher insurance premiums emerged as a serious issue for strata councils last autumn, and since then the provincial government has conducted research and sought input from stakeholders.

(This article is sponsored by the B.C. Real Estate Association.)

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trata Insurance: The Lower Mainland and other areas in B.C. have presented affordability challenges for years.

Rent and real estate prices climb higher year over year, while food, car insurance, and the array of sundry life expenses creep ever-upward. Factored against low percapita wages and a steady influx of new residents drawn from across the country and around the world, British Columbia, and in particular Vancouver, presents clear economic challenges for residents.

These challenges have only worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Layoffs, job loss, displaced office environments, lost opportunity, and economic uncertainty abounds. At the same time, the rapid rise of strata insurance has caused further hardship by increasing monthly strata fees for many. For people on fixed or limited incomes, and those facing sudden unexpected unemployment, the addition of hundreds of dollars out of their monthly housing budget can be simply too much to bear. Worse still, this is a complicated issue that could take years to fix.

As we head into this provincial election, 10

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there are plenty of issues for politicians on all sides to debate. The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) expects housing affordability to feature as an election issue. With more than 30,000 stratas in B.C. and approximately 1.5 million people living in these units, strata insurance should be part of the conversation.

This is an issue that effects the living budget of thousands of British Columbians and many B.C. residents and housing advocates not only want, but need a quick fix to this situation. Public dialogue often results in calls for government intervention.

Unfortunately, this is a significantly complex issue and there’s no quick fix. It will take detailed research, and a multipronged approach to make strata insurance more easily available and to drive prices back down toward a more affordable level. For example, data from the insurance industry suggests that while the total number of water-related claims has remained relatively stable from 2017 to 2019, the average value per claim has increased dramatically, from just over $5,000 to over $15,000. Coupled with a reduction in the number of “players” in the market (insurance companies offering policies to strata corporations) this results in less competition and higher premiums.

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

Major increases to strata insurance first appeared in fall 2019. The issue was further complicated and slowed by COVID-19 as everything was sidelined with an emergency on top of an emergency. To its credit,

Government and industry stakeholders need to work in a collaborative manner to seek immediate and practical solutions to this complex issue.

— Darlene Hyde, CEO of the B.C. Real Estate Association

the provincial government moved quickly to gather industry stakeholders, and set about identifying the causes of the problem. The provincial government has done

significant research into the issue and made a series of interventions into insurance-industry commission structures and client notification practices as first steps.

The government continues to research the root causes of rising strata insurance costs. At this point, there appear to be several core issues, including fewer insurers providing their services to B.C. strata corporations, possibly a high percentage of water damage claims in buildings across B.C., and poorly maintained buildings.

Finding solutions to these challenges won’t be easy and it won’t happen quickly.

But we believe the best way to do so is to work together, and that’s what we expect from the next government. Bring stakeholders together to understand the causes and then come up with ways to deal with the current high strata insurance prices and try to make sure they don’t happen again.

“Government and industry stakeholders need to work in a collaborative manner to seek immediate and practical solutions to this complex issue,” says Darlene Hyde, CEO of the B.C. Real Estate Association Part of that solution is to educate strata council members so they can make solid decisions about how to maintain their buildings. Strata councils control a given see next page

The B.C. Real Estate Association believes that mandatory education for strata council members is required to help elevate their understanding and protect the financial interests of homeowners.

building’s finances, schedule maintenance, and have general responsibility to operate a building in a sustainable manner. This is often a challenging balance of conflicting priorities. Many buildings are made up of residents whose primary concern is keeping their strata fees low. This is a common theme and a logical one in a province with high living costs and many residents on low or fixed incomes.

However, it still falls to a well-run strata to balance the needs of residents against the ongoing maintenance of the building.

As buildings age, ongoing investment, capital expenditures and planned maintenance are critical to the long-term viability of the structure.

Failure to make prudent investment in critical infrastructure such as water pipes and roofing can lead to costly repairs, which transfers the financial stress to the insurers. While this certainly hasn’t been the sole contributing factor to the sudden increase in strata insurance, it is a likely contributor.

While there are multiple contributing factors at play here, let’s give some consideration to who makes up stratas across B.C. This is volunteer work made up of building residents or owners of varied backgrounds, many of whom have little to no business, financial or building maintenance experience. Stratas are often stocked by well meaning residents who are willing to donate their time and efforts to

assure their building, or their property investment is being well run. Yet with such responsibility sitting upon their shoulders, it would be logical that in-depth oversight and training for these people should be firmly in place. While there is a variety of

Without equipping strata council members across the province with these skills, it’s going to be largely impossible to ensure that buildings are better run in the future.

Mandatory education for strata council members is necessary to significantly ele-

While the total number of water-related claims has remained relatively stable from 2017 to 2019, the average value per claim has increased dramatically, from just over $5,000 to over $15,000. Coupled with a reduction in the number of players in the market (insurance companies offering policies to strata corporations) this results in less competition and higher premiums.

— B.C. Real Estate Association

services available and on offer from the Condominium Home Owners Association of B.C. (CHOA), these services are not mandatory.

Serving on a strata council requires financial acumen, experience, and skill.

vate knowledge levels and best practices.

We’re not suggesting a significant burden for those who already give up their free time to manage their buildings. Instead, a streamlined mandatory education process could be administered online, cost

free and kept to a focused minimum of several hours.

In addition to education, the other area that requires strong governmental intervention is the oversight and regulation of the Strata Property Act. The Civil Resolution Tribunal handles disputes related to the act, but there’s no dedicated oversight body within British Columbia to monitor strata practices and ensure buildings are being run well.

In comparison, the Condominium Authority of Ontario provides detailed oversight of stratas across that province. It offers training, dispute resolution and other services to help improve strata living. It’s a much stronger environment in terms of consumer protection and it’s one that British Columbia should emulate. While there is cost and infrastructure involved here for government, it’s a necessary step to ensure better practices across the province. It is worthy of note that we are not hearing of issues relating to strata insurance cost increases in Ontario.

“This is a B.C. issue, it’s not a Canadian issue. The majority of the problem is taking place here,” says Hyde.

As the election dialogue heats up in coming days, the issues of mandatory strata education and a new regulatory oversight structure are topics that we all need to ask politicians about as part of a positive outcome in ensuring affordable strata insurance. g

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

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HEALTH

Mindfulness offers solace in a stressful pandemic It’s not going to kill the COVID-19 virus, but it can help people feel better equipped to respond to anxiety

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by Charlie Smith

re you doing okay? It’s been almost seven months since the World Health Organization described the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. And it’s understandable that we might be feeling frazzled.

The new normal makes a simple trip to the grocery store or a ride on the transit system an anxiety-ridden event. That’s to say nothing of the economic and career carnage inflicted on millions of Canadians.

Then imagine the pain for performing artists, most of whom were never flush

with cash in the best of times. Or for adult children of seniors in care. Then consider what it’s like to be one of those seniors—or a low-income person of colour or someone with compromised immunity—knowing that the virus is likely to be more deadly for them than others.

Health-care providers are also feeling stressed. Family doctors, for example, are likely to encounter patients with flulike symptoms this fall, not knowing whether it’s seasonal influenza or COVID-19. It adds up to a whole lot of stress.

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Earlier this year, on the Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre website, B.C. Children’s Hospital pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist Dr. Dzung X. Vo offered his top-five mindfulness tips for health-care professionals during the pandemic. They’re worth repeating, not only for doctors and nurses but for anyone feeling overwhelmed.

“A simple way of coming back to the present is by using my breathing as an anchor,” Vo advises. “When I breathe in, I say silently to myself, ‘Here.’ When I breathe out, I say ‘Now.’ Breathing in, breathing out… ‘Here… Now….’ ” Vo’s second tip is to make a list of things that have not been cancelled—and say these things out loud or write them down.

He’s also a big advocate of outdoor “walking meditation”, his third tip.

When doing this, ensure there’s physical distancing.

“This practice helps me to get ‘out of my head’ and into my body, connected to the earth,” Vo writes.

Fourth, he recommends being careful not to allow the news to overwhelm you.

“Mindfulness helps me to stop and make an intentional choice about my media consumption—which, in many cases, means that I decide to put down the phone or turn off the computer for the night so I can get a good night’s sleep! I know that the important information will be there for me the next morning.”

Finally, he endorses daily formal meditation.

Mindfulness is also helping youths cope with the stresses of the pandemic.

For example, the Crisis Centre of B.C. has launched an Indigenous Mindfulness Project. According to the centre’s website, it blends Indigenous “ways of knowing” with the centre’s existing mindfulness-based resiliency program for youths.

Vo is the author of The Mindful Teen: Powerful Skills to Help You Handle Stress One Moment at a Time.

“We all experience difficult challenges in our life, like stress, pain, and depression,” Vo says in a video promoting the socalled Breathr App, which was created to help youths. “Mindfulness can give us resilience to rise above those challenges and to live life more fully.

“Mindfulness is a particular type of meditation where we bring our awareness to the present moment,” he continues in the video. “We can let go of the past, let go of the future, and live life more fully, more joyfully.”

According to Vo, it can be practised by anyone—regardless of their religion, age,

B.C. Children’s Hospital’s Dr. Dzung X. Vo has five mindfulness tips for health professionals.

When I breathe in, I say silently to myself, ‘Here.’

– Dr. Dzung X. Vo

or background—and it’s available anywhere and anytime.

“We don’t have to wait until we have to do a formal sitting meditation to practise mindfulness,” he points out. “We can bring that same mindful awareness to any activity that we are doing through our daily lives: so walking can be a meditation; eating our lunch, brushing our teeth, being creative—painting, writing, or playing music—can get us deeply in touch with the present moment.” g

MOVIES

From summer to winter, it’s all on view at VIFF

A teenager is at the emotional centre of the South Korean family drama Moving On; Montrealers search for more than just missing belongings in Jean-François Lesage’s documentary Prayer for a Lost Mitten; a Filipina caregiver wonders if another presence is in the house in the thriller Sanzaru; two teenagers on the Normandy coast become inseparable in the French queer romance Summer of ’85.

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here’s one week left to catch selections at the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, which continues until October 7. Here’s a sampling of what’s on offer, with all titles below available at viff.org/ , unless noted.

FATHER (Serbia/France/Germany/Croatia/Slovenia/Bosnia and Herzegovina) When Nikola (a thoroughly committed Goran Bogdan) learns his wife is injured, he bolts from his worksite to reach her, ignoring an offer to be driven there. This action encapsulates his character—he’s wilful to a fault but driven by deep familial devotion. That fuels his 300-kilometre journey on foot from his impoverished village to Belgrade to appeal a decision by a corrupt ministry that took his children away from him. Along the way, he faces numerous adversities, with many being predictable but introduced in clever, unexpected ways.

Writer-director Srdan Golubović crafts an austere depiction of the extent to which this powerless individual will go in order to be heard. If actions speak louder than words, then what Nikola develops is a superhuman voice. > Craig Takeuchi MOVING ON (South Korea) The languid flow and episodic nature of this unassuming but keenly observed domestic tale evokes the feel of summertime as a separated father takes his two children to move in with and care for their ailing grandfather. It’s daughter Okju (Choi Jung-un) who inhabits the emotional nexus of the drama as she contends with adolescence and a strained relationship with her distant mother. Writer-director Yoon Danbi’s sensitively articulates the impact that living arrangements and intergenerational relationships can have upon youth facing the basic challenges of growing up. > CT

PRAYER FOR A LOST MITTEN (Canada) The lost-and-found department of Montreal’s Metro becomes a starting point for documentarian Jean-François Lesage to observe people seeking missing items. From the search for these mundane items, Lesage delves into the stories behind them. From there, elliptical jumps take viewers across the wintry city and into the dining and living rooms of homes where people exchange stories about what they have lost, much of which revolves around the theme of love. Light, artful touches frame these life lessons that help to illuminate and illustrate, whether you’re in gloomy Raincouver or snowy Montreal, that what provides the most enduring warmth are stories about the human spirit. > CT SANZARU (USA) More atypical suspense than conventional horror, the meditative Sanzaru is replete with patient observations of everyday life. Filipina caregiver Evelyn (Aina Dumlao) moves into an isolated home in rural Texas to look after the aging Dena (Jayne Taini). When Evelyn’s nephew Amos (Jon Viktor Corpuz) moves in, tensions arise. Writer-director Xia Magnus builds the growing unease effectively: as electric devices malfunction, Dena’s condition deteriorates, and Amos develops strange symptoms, Evelyn is uncertain if she’s imagining things or if there’s another presence in the house. Everyone here has secrets, with one particularly dark truth that has cast a pall over the house.

Although the conclusion may not satisfy, there’s much to appreciate, particularly the cast and directorial talent. > CT SUMMER OF ’85 (France) Boys, boats, beaches… and Bananarama songs.

Adapting British writer Aidan Chambers’s 1982 YA novel Dance On My Grave, prolific director François Ozon has made a fi lm that is equal parts queer romance,

psychological thriller, and meta mystery.

After the capricious, charismatic 18-yearold David (Benjamin Voisin) rescues the 16-year-old Alex (Félix Lefebvre) from a capsized boat, the two become inseparable during the summer of ‘85 on the Normandy coast. Hovering over this relationship,

however, is the fact that we know David dies and that Alex had something to do with it. It doesn’t all quite come together, but the fresh performances, spot-on costumes, and gorgeous cinematography offer lots of pleasures. Vancity, October 4 (6 p.m.) > Glenn Sumi

VIEW FROM THE SPIT VIII

DAVID A. HAUGHTON ISLAND PAINTINGS III

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ARTS

Trump’s election spurred painter to focus on evil

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by Charlie Smith

he images are disturbing in artist David A. Haughton’s series of paintings called Angry White Men III: The Puppet Masters.

They show some of the world’s most influential populist right-wing bigots and white supremacists, who whip up the masses to hate their neighbours on the basis of their skin colour, race, or religion. There’s a realistic image of Jew-hating writer John de Nugent looking upward with a zealous expression on his face. Another features notorious far-right Internet rabble-rouser Charles C. Johnson, staring intently forward. Then there’s Stephen Miller, the anti-immigration close adviser to President Donald Trump, looking somewhat suspiciously to the left.

So why would Haughton, a former B.C. Children’s Hospital pediatric emergencyroom physician, want to showcase these bad guys without any real distortions?

“I fell into the Angry White Men series because Trump was elected, and I was already painting,” Haughton explained to the Straight by phone. “I was finally exploring something I had started thinking about, perhaps in a rather inchoate manner, for 20 years before, which is, ‘Why is

This portrait of U.S. president Donald Trump, an acrylic on hardboard, is one of 20 paintings in artist David A. Haughton’s Puppet Masters collection, part of a series called Angry White Men.

there evil? Men are evil. Can you tell it in their faces?’ ” Haughton also included a nasty-looking Donald Trump, painted in acrylic on hard-

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board, in the series of 20 images. The artist’s fascination with evil marks an abrupt departure from the landscape paintings that were previously his trademark.

That’s because he felt that Trump when was elected in 2016, the president “enabled people to show off their white supremacist, racist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim beliefs in a conspicuous and audacious manner”. Haughton described one of those audacious racists, white nationalist leader Richard Spencer, as a “suit-and-tie version of the white supremacists of old”. He’s depicted with a bit of a smirk on his face.

“I’m informed by the photographs that are posted on the Internet, either in the Washington Post or New York Times or some other source,” the artist said. “It’s really the proportions and the lighting that informs me—and it’s my own strokes—but it’s probably a matter of luck which ones have good portraits that have enough detail that I can do something with.”

There’s also a painting of radio host and prolific conspiracy theorist Alex Jones looking somewhat demented. Haughton described him as “angry…but also canny”.

“He’s desperately selling stuff at the same time,” Haughton added. “I mean, how could people be fooled by these characters?”

There are three components to the Angry White Men series. One group of

ARTS

Gravity of COVID pandemic New city program offers aid blocked, then inspired artist to distressed arts programs

by Charlie Smith

by Craig Takeuchi

In addition to arts grants, a new civic program can enable Vancouver cultural organizations to gain access to some theatres, such as the Annex, for livestreaming. Photo by Vancouver Civic Theatres.

Two of Vancouver artist David Wilson’s paintings depicting “pre-COVID life” in his hometown— The Moon and the Sea (left) and Dreams of Distant Memories—portray local landmarks.

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he COVID-19 crisis has had an especially chilling impact on those with compromised immune systems and their families. Vancouver artist David Wilson knows that feeling well. That’s because two members of his household fall in that category.

It means that their bodies may not respond well to the virus—and, in fact, may be more likely to trigger a so-called cytokine storm in response to a lung infection or suffer the ravages of blood clots.

The realization of this virus’s virulence cost Wilson his inspiration to create. At least, temporarily.

“As the news raged about COVID’s ability to spread with impunity and overwhelm populations in great numbers, the thought of making art seemed so trivial, perhaps even a little bit self-indulgent,” Wilson said in a news release announcing his latest art show, Close to Home, at the Kurbatoff Gallery in the South Granville neighbourhood.

“My thoughts were consumed by the crisis at hand and its implications for me, my family, my community, and the world at large,” he continued. “So I stopped for a while and watched and listened. COVID created a concentrated time for introspection. Not just for me but for all of humanity.”

Wilson sought comfort in some old photographs. And when he finally recovered his muse, that led to his new series of acrylic paintings, which he calls “an attempt to time-stamp the tone of preCOVID life in Vancouver”.

One of the paintings in Close to Home is a late-night image of the Dunbar Theatre on the farther reaches of Vancouver’s West Side.

Another features the Stanley Theatre on Granville Street, showing a pedestrian trying to avoid the rain.

The Burrard Bridge is the focal point in yet another image.

“So much of my work is about the place I occupy, where I live, or where I have been,” Wilson said. “It’s less about being a literal visual documentation and more of a synthesizing of what I am feeling about the time while I was there.

“It’s a very strange alchemy of representation, memory, sound, smell, and feel as I work through those moments that eventually coalesce into something tangible and visibly recognizable.” g Close to Home will be held at the Kurbatoff Gallery (2435 Granville Street) from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays to Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays, between October 1 and 22.

paintings depicts them in the street, intimidating the public with their Nazi tattoos and fascist symbols. Another group shows the “puppets”—those who are sometimes mentally ill, confused, or ignorant and who are driven or recruited to commit gruesome crimes.

Then there are the puppet masters of this latest series, which will be shown at the Visual Space Gallery (3352 Dunbar Street) from October 8 to 21.

When Haughton unveiled his first Angry White Men series at Gallery 110 in Seattle in 2018, it elicited a hostile

W

hile measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic have affected every sector of society, some areas are facing financial challenges that are or may be devastating.

According to a City of Vancouver September 25 release, arts and cultural groups are expecting to lose more than $90 million.

The city said that of groups involved in theatre, music, and festivals, 45 percent of facility-based organizations are experiencing income loss from ticket sales and rentals compared to 24 percent of organizations without a facility.

Artists and cultural workers report more than $7 million in confirmed or projected lost income, the release noted, using Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance figures, and 27 percent of them anticipate their annual income to be under $20,000, whereas 36 percent had originally expected to earn $20,000 to $40,000.

Unfortunately, less than half of Vancouver artists and cultural groups have applied or intend to apply for federal emergency assistance because they didn’t or don’t meet eligibility requirements.

The City of Vancouver launched a new program on September 23—the COVID-19 Cultural Impact Critical Assistance program—in addition to previous initiatives to address how COVID-19 has affected local arts and culture, such as infrastructure grants for cultural spaces and recovery, providing operating grants for cultural spaces at risk, and more.

reaction in some quarters. These paintings showed Nazis in the street and some horrific mass murderers, including a sinister depiction of Norwegian child killer Anders Behring Breivik.

According to a report in the Stranger, an unnamed Black DJ was particularly upset that Haughton was asking for $5,000 for a painting of Dylann Roof, a U.S. white racist who perpetrated mass murder in a Charleston Black church in 2014.

“I had prices there mainly to plant my flag in the sand

Any Vancouver-based arts and cultural nonprofit organizations (as well as those that are providing programs, services, and spaces to impacted artists and groups) hit hard by the pandemic can apply for onetime grants of up to about $25,000 from this new program.

The funding will focus on continuity or adaptation of operations, programs, and services. In addition, the program will also support reopening or restart plans and critical cultural-space projects for restarting and recovering with health-and-safety measures in place.

The program can also allow access to Vancouver Civic Theatre venues for activities such as livestreaming or recording events.

“We are particularly keen to support groups and programs that champion equity, as well as groups who have played, and continue to play, a critical role in the city’s cultural and economic vitality or have been significantly impacted by COVID-19,” cultural-services managing director Branislav Henselmann stated in a news release from the city.

Groups that have already received civic funding are eligible to apply to this new program.

Applications involve a two-stage process: the deadline for an expression of interest is due by November 4, while a subsequent application must be submitted by November 18.

For further details, visit the City of Vancouver website. g

to say that these pieces are worthy art,” Haughton said by way of explanation.

However, after a threat to firebomb the gallery, he came to the realization that any proceeds from the sale of Angry White Men paintings should be donated to the Equal Justice Initiative and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which are both dedicated to countering hatred, injustice, and racism.

“There are about 70 families that live in studios above the gallery,” Haughton said. “I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what have I done?’ ” g OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

15

LIQUOR

Fall means it’s pumpkin spice cocktail season

A

by Mike Usinger

s you’ve done countless times over the years, blame Starbucks.

But first think of all that the Seattle-spawned coffee giant has given you since it roared into Vancouver in the late ’80s. If you’re like the rest of the us in the Cult of the Green Apron, the gifts start with a crippling caffeine addiction where—acid reflux be damned—there’s no such thing as just one cup.

Waddling through life looking like Orson Welles in his final act? That’s not your fault, it’s the fault of the barista who quite correctly assumes that no, you wouldn’t just “like” whipped cream on top of your 550-calories Caramel Brulee latte but would instead absolutely fucking love it.

And let’s not forget the reason you’re currently living day-to-day on a diet of Kraft Dinner, Nissin Top Ramen, and Great Value cheese from No Frills. They can take away your job—thanks, COVID-19!—but there’s no way they’re taking away your daily $6 hazelnut latte. That’s right, Starbucks somehow convinced you that there’s nothing abnormal about paying the same price for a coffee as you’d pay for a stupidly delicious banh mi at Viet Sub on Robson.

But the greatest Starbucks gift of all is

Too lazy to make DIY syrup? All you need is these four ingredients for an Orange Revolver.

one that comes every fall. That’s right—it’s officially Pumpkin Spice Latte time. Somewhere John Oliver is first in line, keenly aware that it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

As every student of ancient history

knows, the roots of the Pumpkin Spice Latte can be traced back to roughly 2003. After years of fiddling with a coffee drink recipe to capture the spirit of fall, the Starbucks taste team eventually accepted that at a certain point you have go with what you’ve got.

Pumpkin Spice Latte quickly became the drink that folks who never go to Starbucks started going to Starbucks for. And as it became entrenched in pop culture as a seasonal ritual, the world quickly took notice, including in business boardrooms.

Over the past couple of decades North Americans have become convinced that pumpkin spice goes great in everything, from seasonal beers to yogurt pretzels.

It’s no great shocker that the cocktail nation has got on board. Do a quick Google search and you’ll find a bumper crop of recipes to help usher in the fall: Bourbon Pumpkin Smash, Pumpkin Spice White Russian, Pumpkin Spice Martini, and Pumpkin Spice Old-Fashioned, to name just a few.

As with most everything cocktail-wise, you have a couple of options when it comes to embracing the most popular of squashes.

Truly obsessive cocktail nerds will want to make their own DIY syrup, that process only mildly labour-intensive.

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Authentic Greek Food

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With a new lockdown seemingly on the horizon, you’re going to have some time on your hands in the coming weeks. So let’s start by asking ourselves what a Williamsburg artisan with full-sleeve tattoos and a gourd-sized man-bun would do.

The answer of course is “Go anything but the easy route in the pursuit of excellence.” First off you’re going to need a sugar pumpkin or three—which is to say a jack-o’lantern pumpkin won’t do. If you can’t find sugar pumpkins at Choices or Whole Foods, load into the Evo and head out to Westham Island Herb Farm just past Delta.

Cut sugar pumpkins into halves, remove seeds, cover with foil in a baking dish, and roast in the oven at 425 Fahrenheit for an hour until tender. From there it’s easy.

Scoop out the flesh—you need a pound or so, which is a good reminder that a cheap digital kitchen scale can be your best friend. Use the flesh to make a simple pumpkin syrup by combining it with one and a half cups water and one and a half cups sugar and then bringing to a boil.

At this point you’re going to need actual pumpkin spice for a Starbucks-style flavour boost. Premixed pumpkin spice is readily available everywhere at an inflated price, but why not make your own instead?

Simply combine 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon with 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, and 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves.

Add a teaspoon and a half to your simple syrup, reduce heat for 20 minutes, and strain through two layers of cheesecloth.

Easy, right? Now all you have to do is substitute pumpkin syrup for simple syrup when making an Old Fashioned, Whiskey Sour, or Hot Toddy. Or, you know, you could just cheat and let some multinational corporation like Pernod Ricard—which owns Kahlúa—do the work. Like every other company making consumables, Kahlúa jumps on the all-orange bandwagon each fall, producing a limited-edition Pumpkin Spice offering. Blame Starbucks. And then make the following drink, which riffs on a creation by American bartender Jon Santer.

ORANGE REVOLVER

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1 oz. Gentleman Jack bourbon 1 oz. Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban scotch whiskey (use Gentleman Jack if between paycheques) 1/2 oz. Pumpkin Spice Kahlúa 2 dashes orange bitters Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice and stir until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe glass. Take a one-inch strip of orange peel and twist over the drink. g Mike Usinger is not a professional bartender. He does, however, spend most of his waking hours sitting on barstools.

FOOD

Authentic tastes of Kerala on the menu in Surrey

W

by Charlie Smith

hen James Barber used to write food reviews for the Georgia Straight in the 1980s and 1990s, he enjoyed visiting small, out-of-the-way family restaurants to educate readers about food from other countries.

In that spirit, I recently travelled to North Surrey to check out the cuisine of Kerala, a state on the southwestern Malabar Coast of India. Kerala is home to Indian elephants and plenty of coconut trees. But it’s perhaps best known to Vancouverites as the childhood home of Indian writer Arundhati Roy. Her Man Booker Prize–winning The God of Small Things was set in a fishing village in the state.

In fact, fish curry is the heart and soul of Kerala. It is to Kerala what beef bourguignon is to France. So when I arrived at Kerala Kitchen (103–9386 120 Street), a very casual eatery in a strip mall, it would have been sacrilegious not to order it.

The chef-owner, Sujith Rajasekharan, told the Straight that he’s created his own spicy recipe that includes turmeric, chili powder, asafoetida, ginger, garlic, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, tomato, coconut milk, and water.

The fish was incredibly tender and the sauce was super spicy. In fact, this Kerala

Kerala Kitchen chef-owner Sujith Rajasekharan replicates the flavours of his birthplace in South India with his stunningly spicy fish curry (left) and succulent Chicken 65. Photos by Charlie Smith.

fish curry was a flavour bomb, exploding with a combination of tangy, super-hot, and slightly sweet sensations. And it’s unlike the fish curry found in any local Malaysian, Thai, or Indian restaurants in this region.

In fact, this fish curry ranks up there among the hottest dishes I’ve ever eaten.

That’s the South Indian way—and it’s advisable to order a Coca-Cola or some other

cooling beverage in advance.

In comparison, the delicious Chicken 65 dish, which I also ordered, was less spicy, as was the dry-fried Beef Ularthiyathu.

“When people come here, they feel like they’re having something similar to home,” Rajasekharan said.

When asked about the difference between the cuisine of Kerala and food from

other parts of South India, Rajasekharan mentioned the extensive use of coconut. In addition, Keralans tend to eat a lot of seafood, like residents of many coastal regions.

Rice is the main staple, and it’s not unusual for people from this part of India to consume this grain three times a day. Rice paddies are a common sight in the state, which is why naan and roti aren’t as common in Keralan eateries as in North Indian establishments.

In 2009, Rajasekharan graduated with an advanced diploma in culinary arts from the Art Institute of Vancouver before going on to work at Fairmont hotels. He opened Kerala Kitchen almost three years ago.

He hails from Kerala’s capital, Thiruvananthapuram, which is near the southern tip of India. Long ruled by Marxists, Kerala’s literacy rate stood at 96.2 percent in 2018, and the state is famous for attracting medical tourists because of its well-regarded health-care system.

This part of India is also notable for its murals. For many centuries, artists have been depicting Hindu mythology in this way, mixing various pigments to create vibrant images. Reflecting that tradition, there’s one of these large and colourful murals on display in Rajasekharan’s restaurant. g

OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

17

SAVAGE LOVE

Poly relationships can cool after the honeymoon

by Dan Savage

b I’M A 30-SOMETHING gay man married to a 30-something gay man. For almost two years, we’ve been seeing another pair of married gay men around our age. They were our first experience with any sexual or romantic interaction outside of our relationship. The first six months were hot and heavy. We were together constantly and having sex almost every night. After the “honeymoon phase” ended, one member of the other couple (“Roger”) wanted to slow things down. Roger and I had some conflict over this, and I have to admit that I showed a pretty bad side of myself while grappling with insecurity. Eventually, Roger pulled me aside to talk one on one. He wanted us

Scan to conffess

to be “friends who have sex sometimes”.

Then, right after the COVID-19 lockdown started, Roger and I had another heart-to-heart on my birthday. After many drinks and a lot of making out we both said we loved each other. Roger walked it back the next day. “I don’t know what you thought you heard last night,” he basically said, “but I’m not in love with you.” I was devastated.

This isn’t what I want. I am in love with Roger and his husband. I don’t want to be “friends who have sex sometimes”. My husband is okay with just being friends with Roger and his husband, especially since their large friend group has adopted us and he worries we’ll lose all these new friends if I 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.

Unfree I wish I could express myself. Yesterday at the beach there was a woman playing ukulele and singing. I play music and sing but I would never be able to just sing on the beach where people can hear me. But really deep down I would love to do it I am just afraid. Why is it that some people are just free inside, and others like me are so inhibited. I just want to feel free and be free.

Quality confessions wanted My confession is simply that I am getting extremely bored of reading these mediocre type confessions. I am the kind of person who avoids using social media, and hardly even uses email except when necessary, and yet the Confessions grabs my attention as somehow relective of the average experience and often much more insightful. To my chagrin, most of the postings seem to be about television and very mind-numbingly boring ways and topics to write confessions about. Is this the best we can do? What has happened to the quality of the writing, not to mention the choice of topic? What happened to the originality and self expression that the Georgia Straight used to be known for? ...(con’t @straight.com)

Imaginary Island One time I received a ginormous grant to document an undiscovered island. Only I couldn’t find one (admittedly I didn’t look very hard), so for around 6 years every vacation until the money ran out I did find lots of real islands, and I inventoried their beer, hammocks, bikini varieties and tropical fruit.

Visit 18

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

to post a Confession OCTOBER 1 – 8 / 2020

end our friendship with Roger and his husband. I would really like to talk this out with Roger, but I’m not sure I can get through that conversation without DTMFAing him.

I mean, which was it? Were we a fun sexy fling and nothing about the last two years mattered? Or was he in love with me but decided the conflict and complication of this relationship wasn’t worth it? Which was it?

- Trouble In The Quad

Roger doesn’t want what you want.

That sucks and I’m sorry. But we’ve all been there. Falling for someone who doesn’t feel as strongly for us as we do for them, whether we’re dating as couples or singles, is always painful. But that pain is an unavoidable risk. And while it may seem unfair that you can only have Roger in your life on his terms, that’s the reality. That’s everyone’s reality, TITQ, because loving someone doesn’t obligate that person to love us back or love us in the same way that we love them or want the same things we want. But Roger can’t impose his terms on you. If being “just friends” feels like an insulting consolation prize after what the last two years has meant to you, if that’s not good enough, then Roger doesn’t get to be in your life. You can have terms too.

Backing up for a second: you seem to believe that if the relationship mattered—if Roger and his husband loved you and your husband and vice-versa—then it wouldn’t have ended. That’s false. Something can matter and still end. Something can also matter more to one person than it did to another person. You don’t have to dismiss or minimize what the four of you had because Roger has decided, for whatever reason, that being in a quad with you isn’t what he wants.

And if you’re hoping to get this quad back together, you’re going about it wrong. If Roger got cold feet due to the “conflict and complication” of being in a poly relationship, TITQ, then your best move is to avoid conflict and complication. If you think Roger told the truth on your birthday and lied to you the next day, then you need to demonstrate the kind of maturity that makes you a more attractive partner to a person like Roger. Provoking a confrontation with Roger—staging a scene where you’re likely to dump a guy who has already dumped you—will have the opposite effect. It will confirm for Roger the decision he has already made.

Your best strategy is to accept Roger’s offer of friendship and refrain from blowing up at him. You should also tell him, just once and very calmly, that you and your husband are open to getting back together with him and his husband. Best-case scenario, the quad gets back together. Worst-case scenario, you have some great memories, a whole bunch of great new friends, and maybe once in a while a hot foursome with Roger and his husband.

Two last things…

Sometimes relationships that matter still end.

Photo by Robert V. Ruggiero/Unsplash.

I would love to see video of you showing the “bad side” of yourself to Roger. Given the way people tend to minimize their own shitty behaviour—all people do it, myself included—I’m guessing it was/you were ugly.

If you’re prone to blowing up when you don’t get what you want, well, it’s understandable that someone who dislikes conflict and complication would start getting cold feet once the honeymoon phase ended. I’m not suggesting you’re toxic or unbearable‚ TITQ, only that different people have different tolerance levels for romantic conflict. But if what you want is for Roger to reconsider the decision he’s made, well, you might also wanna let him know you’re working on your approach to conflict. If you don’t want Roger to regret getting the quad back together and then quickly end things again, TITQ, you’ll talk with someone who can give you the tools to better handle conflict.

And finally, TITQ, the other two men in this quad feel strangely inert—more like houseplants than husbands. I mean, you have nothing to say about how Roger’s husband feels and very little to say about how yours does. Is Roger’s husband interested in keeping the quad together? Besides not wanting to lose some new friends, does your husband give two shits? Because even if Roger decides he wants back in, TITQ, and that’s a big if, your revived quad won’t last for long for if your houseplants—sorry, your husbands—aren’t just as invested as you are. b THE MAN I’M seeing is the first person I ever opened up to about my bisexuality. Over our first year together, we had several threesomes but we both became uncomfortable with them, and one day he told me he could not have that kind of sex with a woman he cares about. We quarantined together and he felt COVID-19 had forced us to rush see next page

pressed, and have spent years in therapy. The threesomes feel like too much, but we have great sex when we talk about other women. Is there any way we can make this work?

- Lost Into My Emotions

I feel really sorry for the women you two are having threesomes with. Even if you’re doing your very special guest stars the courtesy of waiting until they leave to break down in

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