The Georgia Straight - Covid Quandary - October 7, 2021

FREE | OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021 Volume 55 | Number 2799

YOKO ONO

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SEXTING EXES

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COVID QUANDARY Dr. Bonnie Henry is facing criticism from those feeling anxious that she is not imposing enough restrictions, as well as from those who think she has gone too far

By Craig Takeuchi THANKSGIVING • NFB FILMS • ROWHOUSES • LINDA PERRY

HEALTH

Human Rights Watch blasts government over heat wave

CONTENTS

October 7-14 / 2021

5

COVER

B.C. has come a long way since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there’s still much that could lie ahead.

by Charlie Smith

By Craig Takeuchi Cover photo by Don Craig/Province of B.C.

10 FOOD

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and if you don’t have the energy to cook up a feast, local restaurants will serve up a solution.

By Martin Dunphy

12

ARTS

Cheryl Sim, cocurator of the Yoko Ono exhibition GROWING FREEDOM, says that Ono and John Lennon were “unstoppable” in the sixties.

By Steve Newton

B.C. Emergency Health Services tweeted this photo on the final day of a devastating heat dome that killed hundreds of B.C. residents and created huge hardship for seniors and people with disabilities.

A

n international human-rights group has condemned the B.C. government’s failure to protect older British Columbians and people with disabilities during a summer heat wave.

According to Human Rights Watch, the B.C. government did not have a heat-action plan during a blistering “heat dome” from June 25 to July 1. In a report on its website, Human Rights Watch also stated that there was a “lack of access to cooling and targeted support for at-risk populations”.

The B.C. Coroners Service concluded that 569 people died of heat-related causes from June 20 to July 29, including 445 fatalities during the heat dome. Human Rights Watch described the late June heat wave as an “extreme and foreseeable” event.

“People with disabilities and older people are at high risk of heat stress, but they were left to cope with dangerous heat on their own,” Human Rights Watch senior disability rights researcher Emina Ćerimović said on the group’s website.

“The Canadian authorities need to listen to and provide much better support for people with disabilities and older people before disaster strikes again.”

Human Rights Watch conducted remote interviews with 31 people in B.C. in advance of publishing the report. This included 13 people with disabilities, seven older people, and two family members of older people.

Five of the seven older people and 12 of those with disabilities stated that the heat dome had a significant impact on their physical and mental health.

Fourteen said that they are experiencing “trauma, anxiety, or depression because of their experience and the uncertainty of how they will survive future heatwaves”, the report stated.

Human Rights Watch interviewed a 54-year-old Golden, B.C., resident named 2

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Edward Macarthur, who lives alone in a camper van with two dogs. He is described as “a spinal cord and traumatic brain injury survivor, and he uses a cane to walk”.

In addition, he has post-concussion syndrome and Tourette syndrome.

“Unable to find help or shelter in Golden, Edward decided to evacuate,” wrote Human Rights Watch senior web producer Paul Aufiero. “He drove through forest fires for 12 hours to reach the coast, thinking the sea breeze might help him and his dogs keep cool.

“But authorities use bylaws to stop people from camping in certain areas, like the beach, which prevents unhoused people like Edward from finding safety in coastal towns during a heatwave,” Aufiero continued. “Police threatened to ticket and tow his van, throwing him and his dogs on the street. He pleaded and explained his condition, but they still insisted he leave.”

As a result, Macarthur returned to Golden, where he was helped by friends.

The previous Canadian temperature record—set during the Depression on the Prairies—was shattered in several B.C. communities during the 2021 heat dome. A new record high was set in Lytton at 49.6°C shortly before the Fraser Canyon community burned to the ground in a wildfire.

Climate scientists who contribute research to the World Weather Attribution website concluded that the heat dome over B.C. “was virtually impossible without human-caused climate change”.

“The observed temperatures were so extreme that they lie far outside the range of historically observed temperatures,” they concluded. “This makes it hard to quantify with confidence how rare the event was. In the most realistic statistical analysis the event is estimated to be about a 1 in 1000 year event in today’s climate.” g For a longer version of this article, visit Straight.com.

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

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EDITOR Charlie Smith GENERAL MANAGER (ACTING) Sandra Oswald SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (ESports/Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) Craig Takeuchi SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald

e Online TOP 5

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

1 2 3 4 5

East Vancouver home sells for $500,000 over the asking price.

COVID-19 in B.C.: Almost 2,000 new cases and 20 flights with exposures.

Look what a former PPC candidate wrote on her Facebook page.

Elizabeth May says that Annamie Paul told her to remain silent.

Whistler resident receives whopping $60,000 fine for deliberately feeding bears. @GeorgiaStraight

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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REAL ESTATE

City of Vancouver remains resistant to rowhouses

M

by Carlito Pablo

ichael Geller never tires of talking about ways to make homes more affordable in Vancouver.

Everyone knows that it’s an expensive city, but that doesn’t faze him a bit. With decades of experience as an architect, urban planner, developer, and real-estate consultant, Geller has a lot of ideas about housing forms, tenures, and financing.

One of these is called freehold, or fee simple, rowhouses.

Most people are familiar with strata rowhouses, which are attached properties more popularly known as townhouses and owned as in a condo setting. Unlike in a strata arrangement, freehold, or fee simple, gives the owner complete control over both the home and the land it sits on.

“While condominium living is perfect for many people, it’s not perfect for everybody,” Geller told the Straight in a phone interview.

A few of these rowhouses have been built in the past few decades in the suburbs, but not in Vancouver.

An exception is the fee simple development by former Vancouver city councillor Art Cowie at Cambie Street and West 33rd Avenue across Queen Elizabeth Park.

Coun. Melissa De Genova says that subdividing land for rowhouses can lead to higher costs.

As Geller recalled in a background paper about the subject, Cowie had a difficult time getting approval from the city. In the end, he had to build two separate walls for each home, with space between them.

He said that “city lawyers refused to allow the required party wall agreement to be registered on title, since they questioned whether the provincial legislation allowed the agreement to ‘run with the land’ in perpetuity”.

(A party wall agreement is an agreement between two owners that neither will ever knock down their shared supporting wall.)

Cowie died in 2009, before his project, consisting of three units, was completed the following year.

Geller said in the paper that then–city

councillor Suzanne Anton suggested a change to provincial legislation to make it easier for future developers to build this type of housing in Vancouver.

That happened when Bill 41, or the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act of 2012, came into force. Among the changes introduced by the bill was an amendment to the Land Title Act, which allowed the registration of a party wall agreement against the title of adjoining parcels.

Following this legislative measure, the City of Vancouver in 2013 started allowing the development of freehold or fee simple rowhouses in zones designated for multifamily developments.

However, as far as Geller knows, none has been built during the past eight years or so in Vancouver.

Although the matter about party wall agreements has been addressed by the province, Geller noted that the city insists on individual hookups for utilities to service each home, which means additional development costs.

“My understanding is that it’s almost the same fee as if it was like a single-family house. So it gets to be too expensive,” Geller told the Straight.

In a separate interview, Coun. Melissa De Genova cited another factor that contributes to the higher cost of developing freehold rowhouses compared to similar but strata-title properties.

“You have to subdivide the land instead of stratifying the land, which often comes at a higher cost,” De Genova said by phone.

City regulations provide that a freehold rowhouse requires a lot with a minimum width of five metres (16.4 feet).

In addition, De Genova explained that subdividing lots makes for a longer development period, which contributes to the hesitance of builders to do such projects.

“It’s a bit of a gamble,” De Genova said.

De Genova also wonders if freehold rowhouses will ultimately provide an affordable option to households in Vancouver.

In the previous council, she voted against a measure in 2018 that allowed duplexes in most single-family areas.

Referencing recent reports by the Straight, De Genova noted that each half of a newly built duplex is selling for more than the purchase price of the original detached home.

With freehold rowhouses, De Genova is quite wary that these may only make Vancouver more unaffordable. g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

HEALTH

Leading B.C. through COVID-19 pandemic fears

I

By Craig Takeuchi

magine, for a moment, what the COVID-19 pandemic would have been like had the coronavirus symptoms been visible. Imagine what it would have been like if we had seen people—in person, on the street, in news articles, on social media—with physical signs of infection such as being covered in skin lesions, oozing bodily fluids, bleeding, or other visual symptoms.

Would there have been as many conspiracy theories or accusations of hoaxes?

Would there have been as much resistance to health measures such as closures, maskwearing, and vaccinations? Would there have been as many young people disregarding the impact of the virus?

Although there will always be conspiracy theories and doubts, it’s far more challenging to argue with visual evidence.

Accordingly, with a disease that’s difficult to represent visually—with symptoms similar to other respiratory diseases and with many mild cases (particularly among younger people)—the pandemic has often remained a conceptual one for many people, including those who weren’t infected themselves or haven’t been around others who were. Consequently, we’ve relied heavily upon health officials and

There’s also the question of when or if a booster is necessary.

– Craig Takeuchi

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry have frequently faced criticism for doing either too little or too much with COVID-19 pandemic health measures.

numbers to provide indications of where we are on the roller-coaster ride that’s been running for almost two years now.

How seriously each person reacted to the pandemic depended upon numerous factors, including how each person perceived the threat level, which has varied greatly. On one end are people who still contend that the virus isn’t worse than the flu or isn’t as serious as authorities claim, that restrictions are part of government control schemes or that contracting the novel coronavirus isn’t

as much of a concern as being unable to live “freely”. At the other end are those afraid that more needs to be done to prevent transmission, including border closures, mandatory masks and vaccinations, and enforcement of stricter, more protective measures.

In between are the majority, with varying degrees of conscientiousness in following health guidelines.

A common thread through all of this is how people react to and manage anxiety.

In the search for security and stability in an

uncertain time, a focal point for much of that nervous energy has been health officials across the province and nation, including Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam; provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry; and Health Minister Adrian Dix. Take, for instance, the responses to an October 1 news conference when Henry, along with Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside, announced an expansion of the mask mandate for students from kindergarten to Grade 3. Social media lit up with criticism of Henry, ranging from those deeming mandatory see next page

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

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from previous page

masks to be child abuse to others who perceived the move to be inadequate to disagreement with and condemnation of a statement she made comparing the flu to COVID-19 (“We know that influenza, unlike COVID, can cause very serious illness, more commonly in children,” she stated). Henry has previously explained that she gets attacked from both ends of the spectrum, and her oft-spoken phrase of finding the right balance applies to figuring out how to manage the often conflicting demands of health and well-being, the economy, social needs, education, and more.

While questioning is necessary, it can also be taken to extremes, and what has been most troubling is when criticisms have veered off into disturbing territory. In the most extreme examples, the once-lionized Henry has faced threats of harm or death, which she mentioned in September 2020 and February of this year—with both Dix and Premier John Horgan condemning these attacks—and in her book, Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe: Four Weeks That Shaped a Pandemic, in which she described how she needed a security detail at her home.

But there have been numerous other targets, too. There was the wave of antiAsian vandalism and assaults that arose early on in the pandemic, despite victims not having any connection to the pandemic’s cause; tantrums, physical disputes, and verbal abuse of or assaults upon staff at stores and on ferries over mask-wearing;

More protests against emergency health measures in B.C. could arise in response to a number of imminent developments this autumn, including vaccines for children and third, or booster, doses.

and protests held at hospitals and restaurants that have put lives at risk or targeted healthcare workers and service staff.

Yet the situation continues to demand that we all figure out how to focus on solutions if we’re intent on surviving and emerging from this pandemic or if we will remain impeded by confusion and conflict.

LEADING THROUGH DARKNESS In the allegory of the cave by Greek philosopher Plato, a group of people imprisoned in

a cave their entire lives develop misunderstandings about and misperceptions of the world because they had never experienced anything else. One escapes, emerges into the sunshine, and discovers what life is like beyond the cave, and is thereby obliged to share this enlightenment with the other prisoners.

Even though not everyone may see it this way, health officials and scientists have been endeavouring to help us emerge from the cave of the pandemic, from the darkness of

uncertainty toward living with COVID-19.

Consider, for example, how far we’ve come since the early days of the pandemic, when very little was known about the virus.

Remember when people washed all vegetables and grocery purchases with soap as a precautionary measure? Or products arose to help people open doors or press buttons without touching them? Or some people even resorted to burning down 5G towers due to beliefs that they contributed to the spread of the disease?

But as with Plato’s parable about education—like how the cave dwellers mistook the shadows cast on the cave walls for reality—one of the biggest difficulties has been confusion about what to believe and who to listen to. Acquiring knowledge about the pandemic has been a work in progress, so health officials haven’t been faultless in their delivery of information. Although one of Henry’s strengths has been her ability to convey complex scientific information in a digestible way for the average person, not all of her logic has, despite repeated explanations, completely aligned.

For instance, her stances on masks, particularly her reluctance to make them mandatory, have been perplexing at times. Although she has been consistent in maintaining that they aren’t the most reliable form of protection, she had argued in the past that masks can be counterproductive, particularly among children, because of people touching

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

16

R i o th e at r e

them and infecting themselves. Although she has since capitulated to public pressure to make them mandatory, what remains foggy is why wearing a mask—in reducing, at the very least, some transmission—wasn’t considered better than wearing nothing at all.

(The Georgia Straight submitted requests for an interview with Henry but did not obtain one.) In addition, though both she and the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) have stated that surface transmission has been limited, hand-washing and the sanitization of surfaces is still recommended. The BCCDC states that “even though COVID-19 can survive for hours or days on different surfaces, infection from contact with contaminated surfaces appears to be rare”, but it still advises hand-washing, not touching faces, and cleaning and disinfection of all high-contact surfaces.

Yet while there’s always room for improvement, we have only needed to look east or south throughout the pandemic to see how B.C. could be faring far worse.

WHAT LIES AHEAD As we head into our second “respiratory season” during this pandemic, vaccinations mean we’re in a different position than this time last year—but we’re also operating with fewer broad restrictions in this go-round. What could impact our progress is if a variant develops that’s even far more vaccine-resistant; Henry has stated a few times at briefings that every transmission of the virus is an opportunity for it

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to mutate. Needless to say, one of the major concerns is how the healthcare system will hold up under additional strains, including any potential increases in healthcareworker burnout as the pandemic drags on.

There’s also the question of when or if a booster dose is necessary. That may depend upon when data confirms that COVID-19 antibodies disappear from the vaccinated— news reports on October 4 stated that a study of the Pfizer vaccine suggests that antibodies may last only seven months. In September, B.C. began administering third doses for the most vulnerable individuals, including the severely immunocompromised and long-term-care residents. Of the latter group, Henry has explained that older individuals sometimes don’t mount immune-system responses as strong as younger people, which explains why numerous outbreaks and deaths have continued in healthcare facilities despite all residents being fully vaccinated.

As of October 4, the B.C. Health Ministry stated that there were 20 active outbreaks in healthcare facilities in the province.

Then there are the potential conflicts.

Third (and possibly other future doses) may also mean that the B.C. Vaccine Card program could be extended, which could also prolong resistance. Another imminent point of contention could arise when vaccinations are approved for children from ages 5 to 11. CBC News reported on October 4 that Pfizer and BioNTech are expected to formally file a submission for authorization of their vaccine for children

and we all are still forced to work together, whether we like it or not. The pandemic has highlighted numerous issues—social inequalities, violent resistance, the spread of misinformation—that will need to be addressed once the more immediate health concerns subside.

Zooming out to the bigger picture, something else to consider is that as the human population continues along its exponential curve of growth while being beset by numerous challenges—from the climate crisis and collapsing ecosystems to resource depletion and ongoing territorial conflicts— this pandemic may be a precusor to other global crises that could rise in the future.

We may have to consider the possibility that we may have seen nothing yet. g

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◗HOST

later this month.

Also, will there be a fifth wave? A sixth?

Henry has often clarified that modelling data and graphs are “not a crystal ball”— they provide an idea of possible outcomes and probabilities—but she has also said that unexpected developments can mean “all bets are off”. Illustrating how things can change, several regions or countries that have been regarded as success stories in keeping case numbers low throughout the pandemic—Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam—have been experiencing their largest surges, hitting hundreds and thousands in weekly case counts over recent months.

The only certainties are that we know much more now than we did in the past,

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

7

STYLE

Nature inspires creations by botanical designer

R

by Carlito Pablo

omina Urra-Gonzalez follows the changing of the seasons to create things of beauty with materials that nature provides.

Gonzalez produces botanical designs like fresh floral, live jewellery, wearables, and table centrepieces.

Blooms, foliage, twigs, pine cones, and moss are some of the materials she uses.

“It’s really getting inspiration directly from nature,” Gonzalez told the Straight by phone.

Her botanical creations take the form of earrings, necklaces, cuffs, and bracelets.

Wearables can be a floral belt or a fascinator, which is a headpiece. Other items could be part of a strap of a dress or for a

pair of high heels. She also makes potless plants, called kokedama in Japanese.

“As the seasons change, the flowers also change. It’s a nice opportunity to use what’s available,” Gonzalez said.

In the interview, the Port Moody resident and mother of three said that creating botanical designs is a sustainable practice as well as a way of supporting local growers and businesses.

Because it’s fall, Gonzalez works with pumpkins, gourds, and squashes, which she utilizes for flower and table centrepiece arrangements.

She likes to go to farmers’ markets and farms, pick items with unusual shapes and textures, then create from there.

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OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

Romina Urra-Gonzalez dresses a pumpkin with dahlias, chrysanthemums, solidago, greens, and Chinese lantern; (right) a model wears Gonzalez’s floral jewellery. Photo by Allan Florendo.

“You never know what you’re going to find,” Gonzalez said.

She recently found an elongated watermelon (a type of gourd), which she carved on one side and used for a flower arrangement with birds of paradise, eucalyptus leaves, purple statice, purple limonium, and solidago.

In a photo she sent of herself, Gonzalez showed an arrangement with a large and warty pumpkin, dahlias, chrysanthemums, Chinese lantern, solidago, boxwood branches, twigs, greens, and a long-neck gourd.

Another one of her creations is a cottonball pumpkin with fresh ferns, carnations, mums, pink ginger flower, ornamental cabbage, celosia, snapdragon, wax flowers, and boxwood.

Gonzalez is found on Instagram through her brand, Antofilo Botanical Creations.

She explained that antofilo comes from the word anthophile, which means “lover of flowers”.

“It describes my lifelong love for blooms of all kinds,” Gonzalez said. “Ever since I was a little girl, my dream was to own a flower shop.”

Although she didn’t get her own flower shop, Gonzalez got the chance to collaborate with florists when she was still working as an events planner and lifestyle-magazine editor in Manila.

“It feels so good to be able to do it again here in B.C., where the kind of blooms I work with change with every season,” she said. “Live jewellery for special events like weddings, graduations, showers, and intimate dinners is something I am drawn to and want to focus on.”

Gonzalez also worked as a fashion model and image consultant in the Philippines. Her wide experience taught her

about proportion, colours, and design.

When a niece got married in Stanley Park in Vancouver this year, Gonzalez made a floral hair accessory and bouquet for the bride, a moss purse for a cousin, and floral cuffs for the wedding guests.

Her creations are all different from each other.

If she’s about to produce something, she starts with ideas in her head, like a certain colour scheme. But when she goes out and gets her materials, she doesn’t mind tweaking the concept, depending on what she finds.

Sometimes she will simply venture out onto the trails near the family home to forage for materials to add into her works.

“With nature, there are so many things to pick from,” Gonzalez said.

Reigniting her creative side has served as a tonic for Gonzalez.

“Like many working moms here in North America, my days are nonstop,” she said about the demands of balancing a day job and family life. “A manicure or spa day, or even my yoga, didn’t get me grounded anymore.”

With her creative pursuits, Gonzalez also inspires in people a greater appreciation for nature.

“I get from the Earth and then create all of these, and because of what I do, people get surprised: ‘Oh, I didn’t realize I can wear jewellery made of botanicals,’ ” she said.

Gonzalez’s floral jewellery and botanical wearables are included in the ongoing online exhibit by the Filipino Canadian Art Museum, a B.C.–based virtual art gallery and heritage museum. The show, titled “Mountain Goddess | Mariang Makiling”, which also features paintings by artists Esmie Gayo McLaren and Charlie Frenal, runs until October 24. g

ESPORTS

Canadian E-Fest brings racing back to Vancouver

A

by Mike Usinger

s part of what’s being called Canadian E-Fest, Vancouver is getting a big-ticket esports event next year with a healthy prize pool part of the package. Those who’d rather watch competition in real life than on a computer screen can also look forward to E-Prix racing on the streets of Northeast False Creek. Both are part of a multifaceted three-day event being billed as Canadian E-Fest. In addition to a Formula E Race—a competition involving single-seat electric cars—with a spectators’ stand, and an esports tournament at the former Edgewater Casino, the draws also include celebrity races and a two-night concert series known as E-Live.

All events will take place over next year’s Canada long weekend, June 30 to July 2.

First, here is the thing that every keyboard warrior wants to know about. The groundwork for the Canadian E-Fest ESports tournament at the Plaza of Nations will be laid with spring advance qualifiers.

By the time Canada Day rolls around, the Plaza of Nations will host live qualifying action culminating with the finals. The prize pool for the tournament will be $50,000.

While the big-name artists who’ll take the stage for E-Live won’t be announced

Canadian E-Fest ambassador and Indy driver James Hinchcliffe with an electric race car.

until some point in the future, a gaggle of celebrities have been confirmed for an E-Prix prerace event. Climbing into ElectraMeccanica three-wheeled, single-seat Solo vehicles, and then zipping around False Creek, will be former Olympians Alexandre Bilodeau and Charmaine Crooks, and veteran actor Jason Priestley.

The main component of the E-Prix will be an all-electric race on the False Creek track, dubbed City Gate Straight.

The electric race is the first of its kind for Vancouver, with city officials like Counc.

Sarah Kirby-Yung excited about both the financial benefits of the event.

“The real driving force for me in pushing for Vancouver to be the Canadian host city for the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in 2022 was economic recovery,” Kirby-Yung said at a news conference for EFest. “Stimulus events like this are significant for our city and hard-hit tourism sector, plus they bring hope and fun for residents.

“With climate change,” she continued, we also need to advance the dialogue around and adoption of electric mobility

and Formula E can inspire people to make those choices.”

In addition to the E-Prix, E-Live, and ESports events, there will also be a two-day E-Volve conference featuring activist Erin Brockovich as the keynote speaker.

Formula E cofounder Alberto Longo, meanwhile, called E-Fest an event that will promote electric mobility while spotlighting the climate-change crisis.

“The Canadian E-Fest will be an exciting, dynamic, innovative sports and entertainment event that drives the promotion of electric mobility and the fight against climate change in Canada and around the world,” he said.

“Working with our local partners, we are excited to bring the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship to the streets of Vancouver in 2022 and showcase the latest innovations in sustainable technology.” g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

9

FOOD

Give thanks for turkeys that someone else cooks

A

by Martin Dunphy

s Thanksgiving 2021 approaches, marking consecutive pandemic years this holiday has been celebrated in B.C., there are, as always, things for which we can be thankful.

Given that Thanksgiving is, for many people, an occasion to gather with family and friends, we can be thankful that the high numbers of fully vaccinated people and relaxed COVID-19 restrictions will allow reasonable holiday gatherings.

We can also be thankful that despite pandemic-related farm labour shortages and supply-chain disruptions, most Canadians are still able to get access to the traditional cornucopia of foods commonly associated with this feast.

And because there are always those who love the eating but hate (or can’t provide) the long hours, work, and skills associated with cooking and cleanup, there will be many who are thankful that local restaurants provide options for both dine-in and takeout holiday meals.

Here are a few selected providers. (Unless stated as pick-up or takeout, all meals are dine-in, and reservations are recommended.)

specialty turkey (along with mushroomand-chorizo stuffing, pan gravy, whisky cranberry sauce, and garlic pomme purée) and smoked and boneless Fraser Valley pork rack. The sweet finish comes courtesy a chocolate-hazelnut crunch bar, and the dine-in experience will run you $62 per person (and there are plant-based vegan options available). There are savings for taking this meal home: $46 per person for cooled and needing reheating, and $49 for hot and ready to be served.

NUBA

Savoury City supplies a 10-pound brined turkey for six with roasted squash and carrots, green beans, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, salad, mac and cheese, dinner rolls, and pumpkin pie.

BELGARD KITCHEN

55 Dunlevy Avenue Railtown’s Belgard Kitchen is hosting what it calls a “Family Dinner” on October 11 for $35 per person (which includes a donation to Mealshare and the Indian Residential School Survivors Society). On the menu is turkey two ways (rolled and stuffed breast and leg confit with gravy and cranberry sauce), mashed potatoes, twice-baked rosemary-and–goat cheese bread pudding, roasted root vegetables, and dessert.

ST. LAWRENCE

St. Lawrence showcases Alsace cuisine with a starter of foie gras liver mousse on brioche.

BOTANIST

1038 Canada Place This restaurant in the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel is adding an extra day to its Thanksgiving brunch this year, offering a three-course menu for $78 per person on October 9, 10, and 11 that includes a

10

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

You can get sliced specialty local turkey and smoked Fraser Valley pork rack at Forage.

onion or crab and avocado). Round things off with brioche bread pudding, exotic fruits, or chocolate praline fondant.

SAVOURY CITY CATERING

3925 Fraser Street Savoury City has put together a complete “Thanksgiving To-Go” dinner package for six for $275 for pick-up or delivery (extra fee) on October 8, 9, and 10 that includes a whole, precarved, dry-brined, and seared 10-pound turkey with sous-vide legs and sliced breast; green beans, roasted squash, and maple-glazed roasted carrots; dinner rolls and stuffing made with house-made bread; mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, and cranberry-apple preserves; macaroni and cheese; kale winter salad; and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Extra gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pie are available for a fee, as are wine and beer.

Various locations The wrinkle for this offering is that its four locations will be leaving the bird business to you (if desired) while taking care of all the sides for $79. Just call before 6 p.m. on October 8 and your package for four will be available for pick-up at your chosen location on either October 9 or 10. And what do you not have to fret about while you nervously check your sizzling gobbler? Well, pearand-feta arugula salad, Brussels sprouts, pomegranate-braised carrots, onion-walnut bread, mashed parsnips, and roasted sweet potatoes with yam and pumpkin.

JUKE FRIED CHICKEN

Juke Fried Chicken did the tough part in just getting turkey, duck, and chicken together.

welcoming glass of sparkling wine and a brunch cocktail. After an opening choice of croissants and muffins, beef tartare, avocado toast, polenta, cheese and charcuterie, or burrata salad, the main event features the holiday star (turkey with mashed potatoes, pomme purée, and roasted vegetables) or a choice of prime rib, roasted and glazed ham, sablefish cassoulet, short-rib poutine, or brunch classic eggs Benedict (slow-roasted

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

182 Keefer Street The pick-up holiday meal kit from Juke requires cooking for its unusual main course, the Turducken Feast, but not to worry: it comes with detailed written and video instructions. For $199 (plus tax), a limited number of the hybrid feast centrepieces—featuring roast turkey, duck, and chicken, enough to feed four—will be available for pick-up from October 8 to 10.

Leek-and-sausage stuffing, turkey gravy, cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts, scalloped potatoes, roasted squash and carrots, and jalapeño cornbread round out the fixings for the avian triptych.

FORAGE

1300 Robson Street The Forage Thanksgiving Meal is available for both dine-in and takeout on October 9 and 10, and it kicks off the feast with a baby kale and arugula salad before presenting you with both sliced JD Farms

269 Powell Street German and Swiss culinary influences in France’s Alsace region are showcased in St. Lawrence’s autumn-flavours celebration for $75 (plus tax) per diner. (The special theme will be continued until the end of October.)

Complimentary buckwheat bread with lemon-chive butter prepares you for a choice of starters (smoked steelhead trout with cheese, potatoes, and cucumbers; rabbit pâté in pastry with foie gras and pickled mushrooms; or chicken-and-morels quenelle with spaetzle and Riesling sauce), mains (cod with brown butter and almond sauce, potato dumpling, and grilled cabbage; duck confit choucroute with sausage and potatoes; or bratwurst-stuffed pork with braised fennel, cheese croquette, and pickled mustard), and dessert (Alsace cheesecake, apple-and-raisin tart, profiteroles, or Alsace cheese with fruit and brioche).

NOTCH8

900 West Georgia Street This bistro at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver has a three-course Thanksgiving feast on October 10 and 11 for $75 per adult and $37.50 per child (12 and under; taxes and gratuities extra). After a starter of roasted butternut squash soup (with blacktruffle and Gruyère gougères), feasters will tuck into roasted Fraser Valley turkey with crispy sage-brioche stuffing, turkey sausage, Brussels sprouts, puréed potatoes, and “scratch” gravy. Pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust will finish you. g

LIQUOR

The Forager stands on its own as a Canadian original

A

by Mike Usinger

s a valuable public service, we crack open spirits from B.C. to Bahrain and beyond, and then give you a highly opinionated, pocket-flask-sized review.

TODAY’S FREE POUR

Forty Creek’s The Forager Botanical Whisky THEIR WORDS

“The Forager Botanical Whisky is the world’s first botanical Canadian whisky.

Every bottle of The Forager is infused with five wild botanicals; finding them demands patience. We forage from the Canadian wilderness, searching far and wide to respectfully and responsibly hand-pick the finest of these five natural botanicals. Our Master Whisky Blender, Bill Ashburn, infuses these wild botanicals with Canadian whisky, aged in virgin oak casks at our Forty Creek Distillery in Grimsby, Ontario.”

TASTING NOTES

As anyone who’s walked the aisles of their local liquor store lately knows, somewhere along the line flavoured whisky became a total thing. From cinnamon-infused Fireball to Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Apple to Jim

The Forager makes great use of hand-picked botanicals like sweet fern and juniper berries.

Beam Honey, there are options for those too lazy to infuse their spirits at home.

And for the rest of us, thanks to the Wolf in the Fog’s brilliant Cedar Sour cocktail, fall and the start of storm season is time to get busy in the kitchen with a block of cedar, a

P ho Nice!

wood planer, and a mason jar. As they used to say about Kenny Rogers Roasters, it’s the wood that makes it good. So get shaving, and don’t forget to let the whisky and cedar curls sit unmolested for at least a few days.

The beauty of The Forager Botanical Whisky is the way Forty Creek has done all the infusing work on the back end, creating a product that actually lives up to its marketing description of “category-defying”. Yes, it tastes like a flavoured product, but not in a way that’s gimmicky—which is more than House of Tamworth Eau de Musc (beaver’s butt) whisky can say. (Um, look it up. But not while you’re eating).

Created as a sort of tribute to the beautiful and expansive country we live in, The Forager is aged for three years, after which wildsourced Nova Scotia spruce tips, Georgian Bay juniper berries, Labrador tea, Algonquin Park sweet fern, and Creemore Ontario mugwort are added to the mix for two days of steeping. Those botanical ingredients are hand-picked by folks for whom sustainable foraging is a passion, not a job.

Lovely [“Lovely”] will do as a starting descriptor when you uncork the bottle, with The Forager smelling of single-forest Mauricie maple syrup and sliced Seville

oranges. Get to the drinking and it’s a complex mix of crushed pine, toasted almonds, and fresh citrus peel, with a herbal tea–like undercurrent. All of which is to say there’s zero need to grab the planer and cedar plank with The Forager. All that’s going to do is mess with a good thing.

If there’s a downside here, it’s that The Forager Botanical Whisky is so multi-layered it doesn’t always play well in cocktails that call for more straightforward options.

Hello, Spiced Pumpkin Flip. But being so unique that you’re pretty damn great on your own isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world. If only more of us could say that.

COCKTAIL TIME

As per above, neat or on ice is a perfect way to get the most of The Forager. But if you must play mixologist, here’s an easy-to-execute option that let’s this superior whisky with the cool backstory take centre stage.

THE FORAGER & TONIC

1oz The Forager Botanical Whisky 3oz tonic water Build in a tall glass, over ice, and garnish with a slice of lemon. g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

11

ARTS

Yoko Ono and John Lennon were “unstoppable”

I

by Steve Newton

n 2002, when Cheryl Sim was an artcrazed young woman in her twenties, she travelled from Montreal to Toronto to see an exhibition by her hero, Yoko Ono, at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The experience had a profound effect on her.

“I’m of Asian heritage as well,” Sim says on the line from Montreal. “I grew up in Canada in the ’70s, and I didn’t really see many people who looked like me in any kind of mainstream anything, so when I discovered this person named Yoko Ono through her music, I was like, ‘This is one kick-ass dame!’ I fell in love with her power, her strength, her being ‘out there’ and doing really avant-garde sort of work in the music world.

“And then as I also got into things like video art, I discovered her multidisciplinary practice, and I really was in love with the audacity and the free spirit that informed her work, and then later on just finding her message of peace and hope a real touchstone, you know. She’s been through so much, but she would always unwaveringly insist that we never let go of hope. And there was her own pursuit, artistically and otherwise, for freedom— that’s what we all really want. We all want to be happy and free.”

Now the curator and managing director of Montreal’s Phi Foundation for Contemporary Art, Sim is also cocurator, with Gunnar B. Kvaran, of GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono/The art of John and Yoko, a touring exhibition that opens at the Vancouver Art Gallery on October 9. The exhibition is divided into two parts, the first of which delves into Ono’s artistic process, reflecting her radical and unconventional approach, and the second highlighting Ono and her deceased husband John Lennon’s collaborative art projects aimed at promoting peace. (Two other works connected to the exhibition, ARISING (2013) and WATER EVENT (1971), will feature the participation of women and local Indigenous artists.)

In her role as cocurator of GROWING FREEDOM, Sim finally got to meet and exchange ideas with her visionary idol.

“She was really ahead of her time in terms of the way that she addressed art-making,” Sim explains. “First of all, what’s really cool is that all of her works are reproducible. She really thwarted the whole art-market issue, because anyone can reproduce her instructions. They’re words, right, so they’re not these discrete objects that travel around in crates and need to have special temperature and humidity and that kind of thing. And then the other thing that she did, which was extremely radical for the times, was including us as part of the work. And by us reading or experiencing the instructions and

12

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

The Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono/The art of John and Yoko, features works such as Bed-In for Peace (1969). Photo by Ivor Sharp.

then using our imaginations to engage with them, the work is concluded through us.

Without us, the work is not a work.

“So no one was doing that, and that was extremely unheard-of at the time. And then she was interdisciplinary at a time when no one was interdisciplinary. You know, you were a painter or you were a sculptor—you didn’t mix the two. She was doing everything, and she was an early conceptual artist in that way. Also, she was early in addressing issues of women, violence against women, and women’s bodies.

“One of her ‘Cut Pieces’, which is probably the most well-known—and is going to have a nice place in the show at the Vancouver Art Gallery—is really intense. She was

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

sitting on the stage, fully clothed, with a pair of scissors by her side, and the instructions people received when they arrived into the performance hall were: ‘Come and cut a piece of the artist’s clothing.’ And you can imagine that in the 1960s, seeing an Asian woman in that type of very public, very vulnerable form was something you weren’t seeing every day. It was challenging to so many sensibilities on many levels.”

Cut Piece will be displayed at the VAG through a short film of a performance that Ono did in Carnegie Hall in the mid-’60s.

It is part of “The instructions of Yoko Ono”, along with such works as Mend Piece, 1966 and Painting to Hammer a Nail, 1966.

“The instruction work is really a major

series that’s still ongoing for her,” Sim says, “and what those are are essentially words put together as instructions to us to follow. They manifest themselves in different ways. Sometimes they are really just text on the wall; sometimes they have a physical action that goes along with them. So Painting to Hammer a Nail, for example, that’s the instruction, but there is a canvasshaped wood panel that’s been painted white, and nails, and a hammer, and so you participate by kind of making this work of art by hammering in your nail.

“And there’s another piece called Mend Piece where there’s all these broken pieces of dishes that are on a table and you’re invited to take pieces and then create little works, little sculptures, through using tape and glue and string and making these pieces into something. Sort of making something positive out of destruction. So there’s action, participation, and imagination, all coming out, and it’s all us—we get to do everything. We complete every one of these works in the first part of the show.”

Sim believes that the second part of GROWING FREEDOM, “The art of John and Yoko”, may be the only exhibition so far to successfully drive home the fact that Lennon and Ono were making art together as collaborators.

“It wasn’t more John than Yoko,” she says. “It’s more the opposite. It’s what she had been working on for years leading up to the start of the collaborative work that informed the work that they made together…[like] War Is Over, the advertising campaign for peace, where she had been working with language and word and display and postering for a long time already.

I mean, the power of John Lennon at that time was really becoming engaged politically with the Vietnam War and civil-rights movement—all these things that were happening in the late ’60s—and when they met and started exchanging ideas, the two of them together were unstoppable.

“So in the second part we explore that.

We explore the Montreal bed-in, but we looked at it rather than just being this media event; we looked at it as an artwork.

It was a performance work. They did the same thing in Amsterdam a few months before, after they got married. And they had done this thing called Acorn Piece where they each planted acorns on the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral, one in the east and one in the west, to show that if a woman from Japan and a man from Liverpool could get together and make it work and join forces for good, then we can do anything.” g GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono/ The art of John and Yoko runs at the Vancouver Art Gallery from October 9, 2021, to May 1, 2022.

O no SEEKS WOMEN’S STORIES

Fri/Sat

Oct

15/16

A New World Orpheum | 8pm

Maestro Tausk brings us back to an exciting “New World” with two great masterpieces and indigenous cellist/ composer Cris Derksen’s powerful braiding of the traditional and contemporary.

Cris Derksen

GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono/The art of John and Yoko, shows at the Vancouver Art Gallery from October 9, 2021, until May 1, 2022. Photo by Blaine Campbell.

A MAJOR EXHIBITION, GROWING

FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono/ The art of John and Yoko, will open at the Vancouver Art Gallery on October 9.

As part of the exhibition, two other Yoko Ono “instructional” works—ARISING (2013) and WATER EVENT (1971)—will feature the participation of women and local invited Indigenous artists.

“Visionary artist Yoko Ono invites women of all ages from all over the world to send a testament of harm inflicted on them, for simply being what they are, a woman,” reads the ARISING event info

Yoko Ono, Mend Piece, 1966/2020.

Photo by Blaine Campbell.

on the VAG website. “The artist asks that you write your testament in your own language, in your own words and however openly you wish. You may sign your first name if you wish, but do not give your full name. Send a photograph only of your eyes.

“All statements of harm and photographs will be exhibited in Ono’s ARISING, an ongoing installation that has been shown internationally.”

Testaments and photographs can be sent by email to yoko@vanartgallery. bc.ca, or by regular mail to ARISING, c/o Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, B.C., V6Z 2H7.

During the entire run of GROWING FREEDOM, which continues until May 1, 2022, the VAG will be showing an iteration of Ono’s WATER EVENT (1971/2021).

“For this project,” reads the event info, “Ono invites a number of artists to create, or select, a container that can hold water. She then adds water to the sculpture for its presentation in the exhibition, which completes the sculpture and the collaboration. The work was initially presented in Ono’s first museum exhibition at the Emerson Museum in Syracuse, New York, in 1971, when she invited 120 artists and musicians to participate.

“For the iteration at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Ono has requested to work with local Indigenous artists to reflect the significance of water to these local communities, past and present, and to create specificity in the work that acknowledges and amplifies the Indigenous communities on whose land the Gallery resides.”

Invited artists for WATER EVENT include Orene Askew, Zac George, Leigh Joseph and Floyd Joseph, Diamond Point, Chrystal Sparrow and Chris Sparrow, Debra Sparrow, Manuel Axel Strain, and Sesemiya/Tracy Williams.

by Steve Newton

Hear it. Feel it.

Sat/Sun

Oct

23/24

Robert Silverman plays Bach Chan Centre, UBC | 8pm Bell Centre, Surrey | 7pm

A master of the international stage, Vancouver’s own Robert Silverman brings an intimate performance of Bach to the Chan Centre at UBC and Bell Performing Arts Centre in Surrey.

Robert Silverman

Fri/Sat

Oct

29/30

Sal Ferreras “Latin Nights” Orpheum | 8pm

Vancouver Percussionist Sal Ferreras joins his Latin Jazz sextet and the fabulous Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to open the London Drugs Pops series with a celebration of Latin American rhythm, dance and joy.

Sal Ferreras

Sun

Oct

31

The Composer is Dead!

By Nathaniel Stookey with Text by Lemony Snicket Orpheum | 2pm

There’s dreadful news from the symphony hall — the composer is dead! Where exactly were the violins on the night in question? Did anyone see the harp? There’s a mystery to be solved in the orchestra, and the suspect is still at large!

Plus a suite of Halloween-themed favourites.

Get Tickets Today! VancouverSymphony.ca 604.876.3434 OCT 15 & 16 MASTERWORKS GOLD SERIES SPONSOR

OCT 23 CONCERT SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

OCT 29 & 30 VSO POPS SERIES SPONSOR

OCT 31 KIDS CONCERTS SERIES SPONSOR

MEDIA SPONSOR

Yoko Ono, Cut Piece, 1964/1965.

Photo by Minoru Niizuma.

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

13

BOOKS

Ohlin among the finalists for Atwood Gibson prize

O

by Craig Takeuchi

n September 29, the Writers’ Trust of Canada announced the five finalists for the $60,000 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

One finalist is from Vancouver: Montrealborn author and UBC creative writing program chair Alix Ohlin for We Want What We Want (House of Anansi Press).

“A gem full of startling surprises and insights into human nature,” the jury said of Ohlin’s collection of short stories.

“These stories bring us into the company of people who want what we all want: to connect, to matter, to heal, and to cross into unfamiliar territory, hoping that the risk will be worthwhile.”

The other four books are Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch by Rivka Galchen (New York), published by Harper Perennial; Fight Night by Miriam Toews (Toronto), published by Knopf Canada; August Into Winter

by Guy Vanderhaeghe (Saskatoon), published

by McClelland and Stewart; and The Strangers by Katherena Vermette (Winnipeg), published by Hamish Hamilton Canada.

Toews has previously won the award twice—for The Flying Troutmans in 2008 and All My Puny Sorrows in 2014—in addition to

Each finalist receives $5,000, and the winner, to be announced at an online ceremony on November 3, will win $60,000.

This year, philanthropist Jim Balsillie is sponsoring the award as part of a $3-million commitment to supporting Canadian literature.

Formerly known as the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize from 1997 to 2019 and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the award was recently renamed in honour of Canadian writers Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson, two of the cofounders of the Writers’ Trust.

Last year, Toronto author Gil Adamson received the award for Ridgerunner.

UBC professor Alix Ohlin’s newest book is We Want What We Want. Photo by Emily Cooper.

the Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award in 2010, which honours a Canadian author for their body of work.

The Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize jury consisted of authors Rebecca Fisseha from Toronto, Michelle Good from South Central B.C., and Steven Price from Victoria.

THE BANFF CENTRE Mountain Film and Book Festival has announced its longlist of finalists for the 2021 Mountain Book Competition, which celebrates literature related to mountains.

The annual international competition offers more than $20,000 for awards in eight categories: nonfiction mountain literature, mountain fiction and poetry, mountain environment and natural history, adventure travel, mountain image, guidebooks, mountaineering articles, and climbing literature.

OPENS OCT 9 | VANARTGALLERY.BC.CA Major Sponsor:

Generously supported by:

Organized by:

Media Partners:

Naudia and Mark Maché

Organized by the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montréal, and presented in collaboration with the Vancouver Art Gallery

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

The 25 finalists in the eight categories were chosen from 153 book submissions from authors in 11 countries. Several B.C. writers were among the finalists.

UBC forest ecology professor Suzanne Simard is in the running for her book, Finding the Mother Tree (Allen Lane Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada), in the Mountain Environment and Natural History category.

In the Guidebooks category, Metro Vancouver–raised, Squamish-based Taryn Eyton was named for Backpacking in Southwestern British Columbia (Greystone Books).

Writer Jörgen Vikström made the list in the Mountaineering Article category for “Polish Syndrome” for Mountain Life Magazine (September 2020), which is based in Garibaldi Highlands, B.C. Among the other finalists from Canada, Ontario-raised, U.K.–based Jessica J. Lee is one of the nominees in the Adventure Travel category for Two Trees Make a Forest: Travels Among Taiwan’s Mountains and Coasts in Search of My Family’s Past (Hamish Hamilton Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada), which won the 2020 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. g

ARTS

Lichte lauds mind-blowing Chor Leoni season

by Steve Newton

Artistic director Erick Lichte (right) predicts “a heck of a time” when his Chor Leoni Men’s Choir returns for its 30th season, which kicks off on November 10. Left: photo by David Cooper.

W

hen Vancouver’s Chor Leoni Men’s Choir opens its 2021-22 season with Remembrance Day concerts on November 10 and 11, the program will include Dale Trumbore’s “Breathe in Hope”, Henrik Dahlgren’s “Son to Mother”, and Ēriks Ešenvalds’s “Lux Aeterna”.

But don’t try getting choir artistic director Erick Lichte to choose the piece he’s most excited about conducting. He says that would be very difficult.

“What I’m most excited about is our return to live music-making,” Lichte offers on the line from his East Van home, “that ability to share this music with people in the audience, with them really hearing us the way that they are meant to. This is our 30th season, and the very first concert that was given

by Chor Leoni was a Remembrance Day program, so it holds a very special place for us.

“That concert has a unique way of creating communion between the audience and the singers because of its subject matter; it’s a time for real reflection, and I think we get down into some very big topics, but we do so with at least what we hope is great compassion and empathy.”

Lichte—who discovered his love of choral music when he was in third grade and his mother took him to see a boys’ choir in his hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin—is more forthcoming when it comes to selecting his favourite Christmas song to lead. On December 17, 18, and 20, the Christmas with Chor Leoni program will include such seasonal faves as “Deck the Halls”, “Winter Wonderland”, and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”.

“It’s always ‘Silent Night’,” he reveals, “and especially the way we do it as part of our Christmas with Chor Leoni concerts, where the choir typically surrounds our audience with candles and we sing that piece together. And there is, again, something about that connection that you feel at that time of the year. I’m so excited to do that, especially in our new space at St. Andrew’sWesley [United] Church. They’ve renovated that church—it’s been a three-year renova-

tion—and the space was always gorgeous, but it is even more beautiful now. So having that celebration of the season in that room has always been a very special thing for me, and that song is, I think, the quintessential one for that experience.”

Another highlight of the Christmas program might be the world premiere of Lichte’s arrangement of “Auld Lang Syne”, which was recorded by Chor Leoni last year but which, due to COVID, hasn’t been performed live yet.

“It’s a real romper-stomper arrangement of that song,” Lichte promises. “It’s kinda got hoedown fiddling in it, as well as some really great percussion. So it’s a very celebratory take on ‘Auld Lang Syne’, which can sometimes be a sentimental piece, but this is gonna be kinda the rockin’ version of it.”

Local choral-music fans who like a little pop in the mix should pencil in the PopCappella II performance on March 4 and 5, which will see the choir joined by a full band comprised of guitarist Keith Sinclair, pianist Ken Cormier, organist Tim Woodford, bassist Jodi Proznick, and drummer Liam MacDonald. The setlist will include material made famous by Stevie Wonder and the Weeknd and will also feature tunes like Jimmy Cliff’s ‘I Can See Clearly Now” and Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”. So how did Lichte—whose favourite pop band “this week” is the Talking Heads—approach the daunting task of deciding which tunes to include?

“That is the trick,” he points out. “Once you get into the realm of popular music, I think everyone’s an expert and everyone has their favourites. I try to approach it in a way where the arrangements are really about what happens when a choir takes on these songs. A lot of times if you go to a choral concert you maybe have a soloist, and the choir sort of sings backup to the soloist on a pop song, and we try not to do that. We really try to have the sound of our full choir doing these pieces.”

On June 5, Lichte’s eighth season with Chor Leoni will conclude with C/4: Canadian Choral Composition Competition,

featuring Canadian composers Katerina Gimon, Pierre Simard, and Robert Rival.

But before that, A Sound Like This (May 12 and 13), and the VanMan Summit Concert (at the Chan Centre May 14) will see Chor Leoni performing with the Leonids, a nine-voice choral “supergroup” that he assembled. Its members include bass Eric Alatorre, bass-baritones Enrico Lagasca and Jonathan Woody, baritone Sam Kreidenweis, and tenors Dann Coakwell, Andrew Fuchs, Jacob Perry, Steven Soph, and Steven Caldicott Wilson.

“Chor Leoni’s always existed as an amateur choir,” Lichte says, “and we’ve done this VanMan Choral Summit, which brings together our large education program called

MyVoice, which is usually 150 to 180 young men from all over the Lower Mainland coming together to sing. And the last couple of years, we’ve been bringing in outside professional ensembles to do clinics with all of the singers, but the time that we’ve had together to do the educational aspects really well has always been so limited.…

“So to be able to bring them together into one group is amazing,” he raves, “because that hasn’t been done anywhere before. The repertoire is truly some of the most amazing, virtuosic pieces ever written for a chamber ensemble like that, so I think my own mind is going to be blown when I hear these guys— and I think our audience is gonna feel that way too. It’s gonna be a heck of a time.” g

Vancouver Writers Fest VancouverWriters October 18 – 24

Exceptional Books, Ideas, and Dialogue Festival: October 18 — 24

Special Events: September — December

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

Art: Arty Guava

writersfest.bc.ca

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

15

VIFF

Bosnia’s contradictions resonate in White Fortress

A

by Charlie Smith

lipašino polje is one of the most populated neighbourhoods of Sarajevo, with clusters of beige apartment blocks. Igor Drljača, a UBC assistant professor of theatre and film, told the Straight in a phone interview that he chose this location for his newest film, The White Fortress, for a few reasons.

First off, he knows it well because it was close to where he grew up before he and his family moved to Canada as refugees to escape the Bosnian civil war in the early 1990s. Secondly, he met many young people in Alipašino polje a decade ago while filming a short film there, “Woman in Purple”.

“It was one of the last major sort of Communist-era infrastructure projects in this city,” Drljača explained. “It has this kind of concrete and greenery that intermingle in this very kind of fascinating way, but there are also remnants from the war.”

In many ways, this neighbourhood reflects the reality of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a growing class divide, high unemployment among the young, and an elite political class that continues to benefit from the 1995 Dayton Accords that preserved Bosnia as a single state. This is the lens through which Drljača’s coming-of-age story unfolds in The White Fortress. The film takes its name

Faruk (Pavle Čemerikić) and Mona (Sumeja Dardagan) develop a romance in Sarajevo despite their obvious class differences in UBC film-studies professor Igor Drljača’s The White Fortress.

from an old fort overlooking the city.

The move begins with a teenage orphan, Faruk (Pavle Čemerikić), working with his uncle as a scrap collector before he falls for a teenage girl from the political class, Mona (Sumeja Dardagan). Drljača said that he met a lot of dispossessed young people like Faruk, the son of a deceased concert pianist, in the neighbourhood 10 years ago.

“Not much has changed,” he said. “If anything, there’s less hope that they can

function in that state.”

Drljača was one of the lucky ones. He was able to escape to Canada. But he noted that many other young people in Sarajevo can try to do the same, with all the difficulty and trauma that this can create, or gamble on their future within the country.

He emphasized that the framework of the Dayton Accords is still intact, which means that politicians in the capitals of neighbouring European Union member

Croatia and Russian ally Serbia are still controlling the narrative. And they’re suspicious of the Muslim Bosniaks, who form a bare majority over the Serbs and Croats.

“The country isn’t being allowed to create its own path,” Drljača said.

It doesn’t help that there’s a very active criminal class, which is also depicted in compelling ways in The White Fortress. But the film also shows the beauty of parts of Bosnia, as well as the longing among some young people for a better life.

Drljača said that there has been a persistent dream since the war of Bosnia becoming the next Switzerland, with three ethnic groups that somehow find a way to get along. But he believes that the current political structure, embedded in the Dayton Accords, makes that impossible because it enables Bosnia and Herzegovina to be controlled by outside forces.

“It’s almost like the country was set up to fail,” Drljača declared. “The international community—they got their headlines.

They left.” g As part of the Vancouver International Film Festival, The White Fortress will be screened at 9 p.m. on Saturday (October 9) at the Vancity Theatre and at 3:30 p.m. on Monday (October 11) at the Hollywood Theatre. It’s also available online until October 11.

NFB films consider Indigenous identity and history

T

by Charlie Smith

he National Film Board produced six films at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, which runs until October 11 in theatres and online at VIFF.org. Below, you can read reviews of two of them.

“MENEATH: THE HIDDEN ISLAND OF ETHICS” (CANADA) Métis filmmaker Terril Calder’s new animated short, “Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics”, deserves to become a classic.

The 19-minute NFB production features a wide-eyed Métis toddler contemplating her place in the world and pondering if she’s on her way to hell.

One of the sculpted dolls, looking like Jesus, speaks into one of her ears about the seven deadly sins. There are stark warnings about the dangers of sloth, gluttony, lust, pride, et cetera.

A second sculpted doll, the Great Mother of the Ojibway people, Nokomis, teaches the toddler about the seven sacred teachings: love, respect, wisdom, courage, truth, honesty, and humility. Whereas the Indigenous message is that the girl was created to dream, the Christian response is that she was created out of the original sin.

Guilt looms large in the Christian world but not in Indigenous culture. And this is reinforced by the stern voice of Jesus (Kent McQuaid) and the gentle and loving responses from Nokomis (Gail Maurice). The emotions in the child’s eyes are utterly captivating.

The language in “Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics”

16

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

Terril Calder’s animated short Meneath features ethics advice from the Great Mother of the Ojibway people and Jesus Christ.

is simple enough for a child to absorb yet so stirring that it can move an adult. It’s a beautiful and profound ref lection on Indigenous identity—and, ultimately, a film about healing.

“MARY TWO-AXE EARLEY: I AM INDIAN AGAIN” (CANADA) For more than two decades, Mohawk women’s-rights activist Two-Axe Earley advocated for an Indian Act amendment to eliminate a blatantly discriminatory section. This assimilationist measure took away Indigenous women’s Indian status if they married a nonIndigenous person, as well as the status of their children.

The effect was to reduce the number of officially

recognized First Nations people, thereby diminishing their political clout and making it easier for corporations to gain access to natural resources. It also had a profound impact on her life, as she lost friends in the fight to regain her identity.

Mohawk filmmaker Courtney Montour grew up two streets away in Kahnawake from Earley, who died in 1996.

Montour retained a lifelong fascination for this courageous and down-to-earth activist, even though the two women never met.

“I wanted to know you better, so I began to collect every fragment of your past that I could find,” Montour says in her deeply personal 34-minute film, “Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again”.

The film features audio and video that has not been heard or seen in decades, providing a well-rounded portrait of the Mohawk activist and the degree of discrimination that existed from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. Along the way, Two-Axe Earley encountered intense opposition from elected chiefs and councils, death threats from people on-reserve, and condescension from former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

The use of still images and video of old reel-to-reel tapes helps provide a visual backdrop for Two-Axe Earley’s stirring words, which permeate the film.

“Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again” is not only an important chapter in 20th-century history but also provides an inspirational lesson for contemporary activists on the value of persistence. g

VIFF

Linda Perry understands instincts are everything

A

by Mike Usinger

sked what she plans to cover in her keynote speech for the Vancouver International Film Festival’s upcoming AMP conference, and Linda Perry gives an answer that suggests, for some folks, honesty is indeed the best policy.

“Oh, my God,” the songwriting legend and alt-rock alumna says on the line from home in Los Angeles. “Disclaimer needed—I have no idea what I’ll be talking about or saying.”

Based on a half-hour interview with the Straight, it’s not like Perry will find herself short of things to discuss. The 56-year-old icon covers a wide-range of territory over the call, speaking colourfully on everything from not forcing the creative process to the importance of honesty in the often-dishonest industry known as the music business.

VIFF’s Amp component exists of course as a place for creatives to discuss and dissect things like scoring films, landing songs in movies and trailers, and the tricks of navigating the music side of the movie industry. This year’s keynote is billed as a one-on-one conversation, with Vancouverbased Jane Aurora, musician and producer, asking the questions. As for Perry, she’s in a better position than most to offer guidance and insights.

She first achieved lift-off as the frontwoman of 4 Non Blondes, which rode the grunge-soul anthem “What’s Up?” to multiplatinum status in the early ’90s alternative boom. Right around the turn of the millenium, Perry shifted her focus to songwriting for others, promptly piling up a string of hits that gave her instant hotshot status. If you ever sang along to “Get The Party Started” by P!nk or “Beautiful”

by Christina Aguilera, then you know and love her behind-the-scenes work.

Since then, Perry has written for everyone from Gwen Stefani and Alicia Keys to Lisa Marie Presley and Unwritten Law. She also moved into producing and, most recently, has started composing for film. It’s the latter that has her totally stoked today. She’s collaborated with Dolly Parton on 2018’s Dumplin’, Bono on 2020’s Citizen Penn, and Soleil Moon Frye for this year’s documentary Kid 90. And Perry is happy to report that the transition to film work has been seamless.

“Dating way back, to when I started in the 4 Non Blondes band, I’ve always been drawn to composing,” Perry says. “But it never felt like the right time. Life is like that—sometimes it’s the wrong time, and sometimes it’s the right time. And when it’s the right time, it’s go time. So I said to myself ‘It’s go time, because I really want this because I’m done with what I’m doing.’ So I started focusing on it, got the Citizen Penn documentary, and then the Kid 90 documentary. I’m so excited about this next part of my journey.”

Bonanza fanatic Linda Perry spends an inordinate amount of time dreaming about one day scoring Hoss: The Dan Blocker Story. Photo by Don Hardy.

Film work is, she notes, different from being in a band. And different from songwriting, which, in the pop world, she sees as being increasingly about proven formulas that tick the right boxes for streaming services.

“When you’re scoring, you’re working with a team with a vision,” Perry says. “I get to come in and emotionally support the story, and I get to do it with as heavy a hand, or as light a hand, as I want. You can go big, or go small, but in the end you go with what you feel is right. That can be me playing one note on the mandolin, or it could be an orchestra. The winner is whatever supports the emotions you’re seeing in a scene.”

While collaboration is a huge part of filmmaking, so is having a vision, whether you’re the director or the composer.

“I’m not easily intimidated because that shows weakness and not being confident,” Perry opines. “In order to be in this business you have to be confident. You have to have fucking balls and be able to be convincing.”

That confidence should not, however, be mistaken for arrogance. In fact, just as important as being confident, Perry says, is being able to show vulnerability.

“I don’t intimidate easily,” she offers.

“It’s actually the opposite where I find people are very intimidated by me, and I

T ips FROM A DIRECTOR

The Emmy-winning director—who has also helmed episodes of such shows as Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, and The Sopranos—will offer a private look at his work and some of his favourite scenes.

Alan Taylor (right) on Saints set with Alessandro Nivola and Michael Gandolfini.

d ALAN TAYLOR, the director of the new Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark, will be featured in a livestreamed director’s masterclass this Friday (October 8).

The talk, presented as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival, will be hosted by American Gods director Tim Southam.

To register for the event, which takes place at 6 p.m. Pacific time and includes an audience Q & A, visit VIFF.org.

by Steve Newton

think that’s because of my confidence. And my vulnerability as well. Vulnerability is not weakness—there’s a strength in not being afraid to show your emotions.”

And, suggesting that Perry might actually have a pretty good idea what she’ll be talking about in her AMP keynote speech, she’s got plenty more advice for those looking to break into the business of marrying music and movies.

“As you get older, and as you click back, you’ll see a series of moments in your life where you didn’t listen to your instincts or trust them,” Perry says. “You didn’t feel confident enough to go with whatever this thing inside of you was telling you to do. There are a series of moments that I can reflect back on and go ‘Okay. I could have done that. And, fuck, I could have done that too.’ There were numerous times I veered off course when I wasn’t listening to my gut feeling.

“The thing is, we all get to discover ourselves,” she continues. “Where I am right now, it may have taken me a little longer to get here, but I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be right now. That’s the part I’m really happy about. I don’t know if I’m ending where you want me to, but the point is that I’ve listened to my gut for a while now, and continue to follow my instincts. And that’s what’s going to lead you to where you want to be.” g Linda Perry gives VIFF's AMP keynote speech this Friday (October 8) at 2 p.m.

OCTOBER 7 – 14 / 2021

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

17

SAVAGE LOVE

Sext with ex while on a fantasy date, not a real one

by Dan Savage

b I’M A CIS woman. I had a quasi relationship with a man last year that only lasted a couple of months. The sex was great, and sexting was always a big part of our connection. Since the breakup, we’ve fluctuated between staying in touch and radio silence, sometimes going months without speaking. During our periods of contact, though, sexting always makes a comeback. It’s hot until the frustration of not actually being able to have sex with him sets in. (We live in different countries now.)

My issue is, if it weren’t for the sexting (which he really pushes), I don’t think he would converse with me about life in general. And there are other ways I feel this dynamic is detrimental to my postbreakup life.

For example, he is really into cuckolding.

He wants to hear about the dates I go on, the other men I have sex with, how they fucked me, et cetera. It’s fun to tease him and make him jealous by texting him, especially while I’m out with other men, but I wind up feeling like my attention is divided between him Massage and whoever I’m with, sometimes to a point where I can’t come with others because of how distracted I am (by him) and how disconnected I feel (from them).

- My Ex’s Sexy Sexts Are Getting Exhausting, Sorta

like your ex is just using you for sexts and you don’t enjoy being used like that, MESSAGES, stop sexting with your ex.

Maybe you’ll hear from him again after the

If you feel

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positive by people who cheerfully and defiantly self-identify as sluts.

And since pretty much any word that communicates the same thing that perv does in one catchy/percussive syllable has similarly negative connotations—deev for deviant, dej for degenerate, debbies for debauchers/debauchees—this perv thinks you should embrace the term perv, PERV, instead of trying to come up with something new.

Dan tells a reader that she should keep sexting with her cuckolding-obsessed ex if she still enjoys it, but she should do it when she is at home—and not on an actual date. Photo by Motorotion/Getty.

sexting stops, but even if you never hear from him again, that could be for the best. I mean, if you have a hard time resisting his sext requests and sexting with him leaves you feeling frustrated (because you can’t fuck him) and prevents you from being in the moment (with the guys you are fucking), you should probably block his number.

But if you enjoy sexting with your ex and you can reset your expectations to avoid disappointment (if you stop expecting more from him than just sexts), go ahead and sext with him. But don’t do it when you’re with someone else. Go out on dates; enjoy your dates; fuck your dates. And the next time you’re home alone and bored, text your ex and tell him you’re out on a date. You’ll get all the same enjoyment out of making him

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jealous—and he’ll get all the same enjoyment from his cuckold fantasies—without you being distracted during your actual dates. b AFTER MANY YEARS of a fulfilling sex life, I’ve begun to embrace the perv side of my sexuality and couldn’t be happier! But I’m looking for a better term than perv. While accurate, that term seems to carry negative connotations. I’m looking for something that communicates the same thing while being sex-positive. Any suggestions?

- Positively Exploring Rhetorical Variety

the word perv, an affectionate diminutive for “pervert”, and I consider it sex-positive in the same spirit that slut, having been reclaimed, is considered sex-

I’ve always liked

If masturbating about your arrogant, unfunny, and perhaps incompetent surgeon (three follow-up surgeries?!?) hasn’t done the trick, maybe it’s time to try masturbating about something and/or someone else?

(Or, even better, maybe talk with a therapist about this?) g Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @ FakeDanSavage. Website: www.savage.love.

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