The Georgia Straight - Twindemic - Oct. 15, 2020

FREE | OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020 Volume 54 | Number 2751

APARTMENT PETS

HEALTH ISSUE IN ELECTION?

CANNABIS PRICES

CANDIDATE DEMANDS DEREGULATION

TWINDEMIC TWIN DEMIC The confluence of seasonal flu with COVID-19 has potential to wreak havoc on Vancouver this fall

ESPORTS HOODIE

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WHISTLER WRITERS FEST

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CLIMATE PLAY

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HIGH-END SUSHI

FINANCE

Growing momentum to force corporate climate disclosure

CONTENTS 7

COVER

October 15 – 22 / 2020

The public needs to be vigilant about the spread of COVID-19 as we approach flu season, which has the potential to put a lot more people in hospital.

by Charlie Smith

By Charlie Smith

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Cover illustration by Leif Yu

ESPORTS

ESports fashion has received a boost with the release of new headwear, hoodies, and T-shirts by Champion.

By John Lucas

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CANNABIS

Smaller political parties sometimes bring up issues ignored by their mainstream counterparts, such as the high price of legal cannabis.

By Carlito Pablo

e Start Here UBC Peter A. Allard School of Law’s Carol Liao educates corporate directors and pension-plan trustees on their legal obligations relating to climate. Photo by Peter A. Allard School of Law.

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here’s a common misconception that corporate directors have a legal duty to maximize profits for shareholders, even if this comes at the expense of the planet. But according to UBC Peter A. Allard School of Law associate professor Carol Liao, that’s not true in Canada.

In fact, directors have a fiduciary duty to the corporation.

“Our Supreme Court has made it explicit that this includes a duty to treat individual stakeholders [including shareholders] affected by corporate actions equitably and fairly,” Liao explained by phone. “And the environment is a recognized stakeholder under the Canada Business Corporations Act.” Liao, UBC law professor Janis Sarra, and Osgoode Hall law professor Cynthia Williams are principal investigators with the Canada Climate Law Initiative, which focuses on fiduciary obligations related to climate change.

“The wording of our statutes and common-law fiduciary obligations make it clear there is a duty on directors to address climate change when material climatechange litigation is a reality in Canada,” Liao said.

That point is driven home in a legal opinion on the CCLI’s website. Written by corporate-governance expert Carol Hansell in June, it noted that Canadian courts “have accepted the existence of climate change risk without the need for litigants to prove the point”.

Moreover, Hansell stated that corporate directors “must put climate change on the board agenda”.

“They must then receive reports and recommendations from management and reports from external sources as necessary, to be satisfied that the corporation is addressing climate change risk appropriately,” Hansell added.

And if they don’t do these things, they 2

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

can create legal liability, according to Liao.

She described climate change as a “risk multiplier” because it’s interconnected with other systemic risks.

“So it’s really urgent for boards to be strategic in their deliberations as to how to enhance climate resilience,” Liao said.

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TFCD), chaired by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, is trying to help corporations develop principles and guidelines to accomplish this.

It recommends that corporations produce disclosure statements describing climate-related risks and opportunities over the short, medium, and long term.

“The TFCD recommendations are being endorsed as the global benchmark for climate-related reporting, including the governance of climate issues,” Liao said.

Last month, New Zealand became the first country in the world to announce plans to require asset managers and financial institutions to publicly report on the climate risks to their businesses and portfolios.

“Australia, Canada, the U.K., France, Japan and the European Union are all working towards some form of climate risk reporting for companies, but New Zealand is moving ahead of them by making disclosures about climate risk mandatory across the financial system,” that country’s climate change minister, James Shaw, said in a September news release.

So could we soon see the Canadian government pass a law requiring corporations to issue these statements?

“I feel like climate disclosure is just around the corner,” Liao said. “As we saw in the last federal election, climate change is on all the politicians’ agendas.” g The Canadian Climate Law Initiative off ers pro bono sessions to corporate and pension-plan boards on corporate governance strategies to address climate-related risks and opportunities.

OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

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ARTS BOOKS CLASSIFIEDS CONFESSIONS EDUCATION FINANCE FOOD LIQUOR MUSIC OUTSIDE REAL ESTATE SAVAGE LOVE THEATRE

Vancouver’s News and Entertainment Weekly Volume 54 | Number 2751 1635 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 1W9 T: 604.730.7000 F: 604.730.7010 E: gs.info@straight.com straight.com

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PUBLISHER Brian Kalish FOUNDING PUBLISHER Dan McLeod EDITOR Charlie Smith SECTION EDITORS Mike Usinger (ESports/Liquor/Music) Steve Newton SENIOR EDITOR Martin Dunphy ASSOCIATE EDITOR John Lucas (Cannabis) STAFF WRITERS Carlito Pablo (Real Estate) Craig Takeuchi SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT Jeff Li ART DEPARTMENT MANAGER Janet McDonald GRAPHIC DESIGNER Miguel Hernandez PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR Mike Correia PRODUCTION Sandra Oswald SALES DIRECTOR Tara Lalanne ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Glenn Cohen, Catherine Tickle, Robyn Marsh, Manon Paradis, David Pearlman CONTENT AND MARKETING SPECIALIST Rachel Moore

e Online TOP 5

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

1 2 3 4 5

TD Economics report boosts forecast of drop in home prices in 2021.

Lanie Gardner’s cover of “Dreams” preceded by swig of Ocean Spray juice.

Firefighters battle major blaze at recycling depot in New Westminster.

Can the B.C. Liberals win the 2020 election despite dreadful polling numbers?

B.C. researchers and advocates at forefront of psychedelic revolution. @GeorgiaStraight

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Bandicoot, XSET, powerzsurge make the news

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by John Lucas

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ESPORTS

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

imed to (sort of) coincide with the release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, Champion has released a capsule collection featuring the gaming world’s favourite marsupial.

The capsule includes a T-shirt in black and a gamer hoodie, available in Oxford grey heather and ebony. The T-shirt features Crash Bandicoot graphics and the hoodie comes with exclusive Crash Bandicoot and Champion patches.

We told you all about the patentpending gamer hoodie when Champion launched it back in August. But for those with short memories, here’s what the company itself has to say: “C LAB designers created this next-gen hoodie specifically for gamer’s needs and lifestyle. Tested by pro Esport athletes and gamer fans, our patent-pending Gamer Hoodie is designed for optimal performance with minimal distractions and blurs the line between streaming and streetwear.

Oversized, three-panel hood fits over your headset and keeps you in the zone with zero distractions, and the genius top-loading pockets allow easy-access to your controller, mouse or water bottle. Midweight, double-knit fleece hoodie has a slimmer fit and narrowed sleeves so you can move freely during long sessions. Advanced anti-odor technology on the fabric helps you stay focused when the game heats up. Even better, the cotton-rich fleece is responsibly made with recycled polyester fibers. Handwarming, micro-fleece lined holster side pockets and chest pocket with low profi le zippers secure your ID and phone.”

With the guidance of Dennis Calvero, XSET has released its first capsule collection of athletic wear; influencer Aerial “powerzsurge” Powers is pretty much better than you at everything.

XSET GETS SET FOR “FALL 1”

Given that XSET’s creative director is Dennis Calvero—one of the founders of iconic streetwear brand Crooks & Castles—you would expect the recently minted ESports organization to have a strong style game.

XSET has, in fact, launched its first capsule collection, the prosaically titled “Fall 1”. The capsule includes headwear, hoodies, and T-shirts, all in the style of classic collegiate athletic wear.

Peep at a video on ECentralSports.com to see some of the collection as modelled

by XSET’s newest recruit, Fortnite streamer Tatyana “Luvstruck” Worn. And, yes, you will definitely look as good as she does when you wear this stuff. Guaranteed! Unless, like me, you more closely resemble Crash Bandicoot.

FORD MODELS SIGNS POWERZSURGE

gaming influencer Aerial “powerzsurge” Powers to its Esports and Gaming division.

In addition to playing for the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Washington Mystics, Powers is a popular Twitch streamer. Specifically, she streams Call of Duty: Warzone and—shockingly— NBA 2K21.

Wait… rewind! Ford Models has an Esports and Gaming division?? They should really sign Luvstruck. Or, you know, Crash Bandicoot. g

MORE ESPORTS ONLINE AT ECENTRALSPORTS.COM

Ford Models has signed WNBA player and

Team Liquid suddenly got a bit more sexier

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by John Lucas

n reporting the fact that Asa Butterfield has joined Team Liquid, I will resist making a joke about the world of ESports needing a little sex education. I will also refrain from attempting to make a play on words conflating Team Liquid with nocturnal emissions.

Those would be very easy things to do, considering that Butterfield is best known for playing amateur sex therapist Otis on Sex Education. (The Netflix series also stars Gillian Anderson as Otis’s mom, who is an actual professional sex therapist.)

The Netherlands-based ESports organization Team Liquid took to Twitter earlier this week to welcome Butterfield aboard. “We’re happy to have you on board, and look forward to seeing what you accomplish next. (also if we ever need a sub for dota or smash, you’re getting a call)”.

That tweet is vague and doesn’t spell out Butterfield’s exact role.

It does, however, seem to indicate that he won’t be joining any of Liquid’s active teams. More likely, the actor will be a celebrity spokesperson or content creator for the long-running organization, which turned 20 this year.

Butterfield does have a Twitch channel. Although there isn’t a whole lot of content on it at the moment, a fan has uploaded some

OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

Team Liquid member Asa Butterfield is a gamer. Photo credit: Netflix.

of Butterfield’s old streams to YouTube.

So, yes, the guy is a bona fide gamer. And let’s not forget, too, that he starred in Ender’s Game, which revolved around virtualreality combat simulators and computerized “mind games”.

Actually, now that I think about it, maybe you should forget he was in that stinker. g

OUTSIDE

Deadly invasive mushroom is spreading in B.C.

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by Martin Dunphy

he B.C. Centre for Disease Control has issued an alert for residents of southern British Columbia to watch for the world’s deadliest mushroom this fall.

The death cap mushroom (scientific name Amanita phalloides) is an invasive species first discovered in Vancouver more than two decades ago. It is thought to have come here from Europe on the roots of imported trees.

The poisonous fungus has been found growing on urban lawns in and around Victoria on Vancouver Island, on Galiano Island, all over Vancouver’s streets and boulevards, and up the Fraser Valley. Trees favoured by A. phalloides are sweet chestnut, hazelnut, hornbeam, beech, linden, and oak.

The deadly fungus attacks the liver and kidneys, sometimes resulting in death or the need for organ transplantation. In 2016, a three-year-old in Victoria died of death cap poisoning.

Vancouver mycologist Paul Kroeger, who has studied B.C. mushrooms for more than three decades, told the Straight by phone that commercial importation almost certainly is responsible for the death cap spread in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

In its early stages of fruiting, the death cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides) can resemble an edible fugus like puffballs; a later phase is similar to straw mushrooms. Photo by Paul Kroeger.

“Most of the Vancouver appearances were associated with street-tree plantings in the 1960s,� Kroeger, a consultant for the B.C. Drug and Poison Information Centre (DPIC), said. “We think there’s a strong association with the recent spread [of A. phalloides] and the tree-nursery and horticulture industries.�

Approximately 90 percent of fatalities caused by mushrooms worldwide are thought to be due to A. phalloides. The mortality rate after ingestion of death

caps is about 22 percent overall, with children under 10 only having a 50-50 chance at surviving.

The fungus’s toxic compound, called amatoxin, is fatal in small doses and cannot be neutralized by cooking, drying, or freezing. Once eaten, symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, and severe abdominal pain can appear within a half-dozen hours and up to a full day or more. Those warning indications often subside after a day or two, only to be replaced by severe signs of liver,

kidney, or multisystem organ failure within four to nine days. These can lead to hemorrhaging, convulsions, coma, and death.

The BCCDC warns that pets are at grave risk as well.

One of the contributing factors to the accidental eating of death caps is the fact that at two stages of its fruiting development, it resembles edible mushrooms: an early aboveground stage resembles the popular puffball mushroom, and a later stage bears a likeness to paddy straw mushrooms, which are sometimes used in Asian cooking.

Kroeger told the Straight that if you have handled death caps, it’s best to take a simple precaution. “You don’t absorb much toxin through the skin, but you want to wash your hands afterwards.�

The BCCDC notes in its alert that anyone who suspects mushroom poisoning should immediately call poison control at 1-800-567-8911.

The centre also says that if you sight what you think may be death cap mushrooms in your neighbourhood, you should make note of the location, take photographs, and report it to the Invasive Species Council of B.C. g

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5

EDUCATION

Parents deserve more info about COVID-19 cases

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by Patti Bacchus

t was bad enough to send teachers, education assistants, and students back into stuffy, mask-optional, crowded classrooms, where it’s impossible to physically distance, in the middle of a pandemic.

The provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, defends the controversial COVID-19 school plan, saying schools are controlled environments. She says that “layers of protection” will keep the deadly virus from transmitting in poorly ventilated classrooms filled with maskless small people, and that if someone brings the virus in to class, it will be quickly identified and rapid contact tracing will occur.

Teachers and education assistants with risk factors like diabetes or other conditions were told they had to come into work anyway. Objectors were accused of fearmongering or dismissed as hysterical.

A month after kids went back to class, there have been dozens of school exposures but, apparently, no clusters or outbreaks.

Health authorities, or your school principal, may not tell you if a student or staff person in your child’s class came to school with COVID-19. If you’re a teacher and

a child in your class came to school with COVID-19, your health authority may decide you don’t need to know about it.

Because telling you there was someone in your class with the virus might violate the unnamed employee or student’s privacy rights, or some kind of nonsense.

You’ll get a notice if someone in your kid’s class has head lice or pinworms, so why is it different when it’s a potentially deadly virus? It’s boggles the mind.

If we—or our kids—are going to spend hours a day in classrooms with people who aren’t wearing masks, we need to know if any of them has COVID-19, and we need to know it as soon as possible. I don’t care if that person was sitting 10 feet away; I want to know if I spent hours in a room with someone with COVID-19 or if my kid did.

I don’t think that’s too much to expect.

I started hearing about positive cases in teachers in the first week of school, but those were never made public. Then we heard about more cases when the kids were back in the second week, and letters from principals to parents about exposures started circulating online and landing in my inboxes.

I’m no epidemiologist, but I do know a

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

Georgia Straight K-12 education columnist Patti Bacchus believes that Vancouver Coastal Health can do a better job of notifying parents about COVID-19 in schools. Photo by Jason Sung/Unsplash.

thing or two about communications. The first rule during a crisis is to provide accurate, honest, and timely information. That prevents the wrong information from getting shared and builds public trust.

By the third week of September, I was regularly getting copies of letters regarding exposures in several schools in the Vancouver Coastal Health region that weren’t listed publicly. Around that time, VCH’s deputy chief medical health officer, Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, was quoted in the media saying they wouldn’t post all school COVID-19 exposures because doing so could lead to “stigma” and “unnecessary worry”.

That didn’t go over well with West Vancouver parents, where principals at three secondary schools—Sentinel, West Vancouver secondary, and Collingwood private school—had already sent parents letters about school exposures.

You know what happens when you don’t give people the information they need or want? They create a Facebook group that becomes the de facto information source when official sources fail to do their jobs.

That’s risky, because inaccurate crowdsourced information can easily be spread, but I don’t blame parents for creating such groups. I blame VCH for failing to share accurate, timely information.

In West Vancouver, parents got minimal information regarding an exposure at Caulfield elementary but shared more information among themselves. They discovered that more than half a class tested positive for COVID, in addition to some siblings, parents, and grandparents. Parents were advised they didn’t need to have

kids tested if they weren’t showing symptoms, but one mom went ahead and had her child tested anyway, and the test came back positive. Three other asymptomatic cases later tested positive.

Good grief. What’s it going to take? Yet Henry insisted it wasn’t an outbreak, because kids were self-isolating at home.

Earlier this month, frustrated parents started circulating an open letter to Henry and Dr. Patricia Daly, the VCH’s chief medical health officer. The letter says parents are “rapidly losing faith in the cohort system” and opting to keep their kids home, with little to no educational support.

The letter asks for prompt disclosure of school exposures and isolation of full cohorts instead of waiting for contact tracers to determine close contacts for isolations.

They also want school-aged siblings included in the isolation strategy.

Henry was adamant in media briefings earlier this months that parents are getting all the information they need.

Yet I’m still finding out about COVID-19 exposures more quickly via social media and parents forwarding me notification letters (keep them coming) than I can find on health-authority websites, and so can parents.

If Henry expects parents to trust schools with their children—and, by extension, with their families’ health—she needs to make sure parents and school staff are getting as much information as possible, and as quickly as possible, and knock it off with the “we know best about what you need to know and/or don’t know” approach. Parents can handle the truth, and they deserve the truth. g

HEALTH

Twindemic raises stakes for British Columbians

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by Charlie Smith

ormally when there’s a B.C. election campaign underway, Adrian Dix spends tons of time knocking on doors. But this is not a normal time. And Dix, the health minister, has type 1 diabetes, which makes him far more susceptible to complications should he contract COVID-19.

“I am in…a high-vulnerability group, you know, with a chronic disease,” Dix, 56, recently told the Straight by phone. “I used to be younger as well.”

As a result, he’s doing almost all of his campaigning by telephone as he seeks reelection in Vancouver-Kingsway. But he’s also paying close attention to another matter of great concern: the overlapping of the coming flu season with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We put together a plan months ago to try and deal with the situation, but it is a mammoth challenge,” Dix conceded. “It’s a pandemic around the world, and I think the biggest mistake one can make in these things is to be in any way smug about our previous successes.”

According to Dix, the number of respiratory illnesses in B.C. could climb sharply as soon as next month, putting additional pressure on hospitals already treating people with the novel coronavirus.

“There are things we know and there are things we don’t know,” Dix said. “We’ve never had a November with COVID-19. We’ve never had a December with COVID-19.”

He described the confluence of seasonal flu and COVID-19 as a “known unknown”.

In addition, there are other considerations, including more time spent inside buildings at this time of the year rather than outside, in the fresh air.

“There’s a reason why, when you have more indoor activities, influenza spreads,” Dix said.

At the same time, there is encouraging news from Australia, which has already endured a winter with COVID-19 and the flu.

Dr. Ran Goldman, a professor in the UBC faculty of medicine’s department of pediatrics, told the Straight by phone that the recent flu season Down Under was relatively mild.

One reason is that Aussies were washing their hands more frequently this year and wearing masks in public. Goldman also noted that physical distancing, which has become de rigeur in the COVID era, helps reduce transmission of the seasonal flu.

“So, in general, it looks like there’s a good potential that influenza isn’t going to be as severe as in other years,” Goldman said.

In addition, people can be immunized against the seasonal flu, which isn’t the case for COVID-19. He described flu vaccines as “safe and effective”.

“In our research in 17 emergency departments in six countries—led by UBC—we found that there’s a significant increase in

Health Minister Adrian Dix says flu season will intensify in November and December, while the province is still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Don Craig/Government of B.C.

the number of parents who planned to give the influenza vaccine to their children this year,” Goldman said. “We found that it’s correlated to their concern about COVID-19.”

At the same time, Goldman remains concerned about the B.C. health-care system’s capacity to deal with the seasonal flu and COVID-19 simultaneously.

He pointed out that it will be “really hard” for some people to differentiate whether they have the flu or COVID-19 because they share similar symptoms. One difference is that the flu tends to come on very quickly, whereas there’s a more gradual onset of symptoms with COVID-19.

Any confusion that may exist over selfdiagnoses is another reason why he’s an ardent proponent of flu vaccinations and maintaining public-health measures to contain COVID-19.

“We can’t trust luck,” the UBC professor cautioned. “We have to be active to make sure we don’t see an uptick in influenza illnesses nowadays, as well as COVID.” Like Goldman, Dix is optimistic that physical distancing and more frequent handwashing will curtail the number of seasonal flu cases. But to improve the odds, the provincial government approved hiring 608 more contact tracers in the summer, essentially doubling their numbers.

“That will be key as we deal with the pressures of November and December and January on COVID-19,” Dix said. “I think that’s something the other jurisdictions in Canada are wishing they had done.”

In addition, the province placed orders for two million seasonal flu vaccines in April and May, up from the norm of 1.4 million. When asked if these vaccines will reach the public in time for seasonal flu season, Dix replied: “I think so.”

The B.C. pharmacy operations manager for London Drugs, Shawn Sangha, told the Straight by phone that he’s already seen very high demand for the flu vaccine as the

company is obtaining consent forms and conducting online prescreening. When he was reached on October 9, vaccines had just arrived in some stores in Vancouver, the Okanagan, and on Vancouver Island.

But for pharmacists, it’s also more complicated than in past years because people receiving immunizations need to maintain physical distance from other customers.

“We can’t have huge lineups or big groups of people getting vaccinated at the same time,” Sangha said.

Secondly, London Drugs must ensure that there’s sufficient personal protective equipment—including masks, shields, gowns, and gloves—for the staff who administer vaccinations.

“Then the other factor is once that patient leaves, we have to clean down the room, disinfect it,” he added.

In September, the Lancet reported that physical distancing and hygiene protocols are stemming the spread of COVID-19.

However, other factors, including altered infection-testing priorities and the behaviour of the public during the pandemic, also need to be considered.

“We need to bear in mind that the measures we’re putting in place to control COVID-19 may have some benefits for the flu as well, but with the resurgence of COVID-19 there may also be a double epidemic of flu and COVID-19 during the [northern hemisphere] winter,” WHO official Richard Pebody told the medical journal.

“All that we can do about it is to be ready and prepared with a range of measures we’ve got in our community ammunition box.” g

Join the City’s Short-term Rentals Community Working Group As part of our ongoing efforts to monitor the effectiveness and impact of our short-term rental regulations, we are seeking a broad variety of voices to join a volunteer short-term rentals community working group to help provide insights on community impacts and input to evolve our short-term rental program.

Members will be selected on the basis of their interest, relationship to short-term rentals, and demographics to ensure a diverse and balanced set of viewpoints between operators and non-operators.

Applications accepted online until midnight on Saturday, October 31, 2020.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: shapeyourcity.ca/str-working-group Visit: vancouver.ca Phone: 3-1-1 TTY: 7-1-1 OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

7

FOOD & DRINK

Chef elevates sushi with traditional culinary arts

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by Yuko Kojima and Craig Takeuchi

here’s sushi—and then there’s sushi.

Vancouverites are well-acquainted with the former: affordable sushi scarfed down casually, like sandwiches. It’s the latter that a Japanese chef wants to help local diners learn more about.

Sushi master Hiroshi Hoshiko, originally from Kumamto, Kyushu, in Japan, arrived in Vancouver in 2011. In an interview in English and Japanese with the Georgia Straight (with translation by Yuko Kojima), Hoshiko says that although most sushi chefs begin training at about 18 to 20 years old, he was 30 years old when he started.

“Since I started sushi chef quite late compared to other people, I wanted to make myself different,” he says in Japanese. “You can’t really win against younger people.”

Consequently, he decided to move abroad to develop a new approach.

In Vancouver, he worked for Miku and then Minami before he started his own catering company in 2016, which served private dining rooms at Rogers Arena for Canucks home games. However, when the pandemic arrived, all hockey games were cancelled.

It may seem antithetical to open a business during a lockdown, but Hoshiko did so. He began working out of another restaurant’s kitchen to provide his high-end catering business—Orizumé (orizume.ca/ )—which he launched at the end of the May.

Chef Hiroshi Hoshiko launched his catering business Orizumé during the pandemic lockdown to offer a variety of high-end sushi selections and will soon open his own physical restaurant.

Orizumé offers a range of artistically arranged boxes (the beautiful containers, imported from Japan, are integral to the visual presentation and part of omiyage, or the Japanese tradition of giving a gift to a host to express appreciation) of sophisticated nigiri, sashimi, and sushi, with prices ranging from $30 for a box of 10 wasabi inari (fried bean-curd pouches) sushi to $300 for a large nigiri box featuring 12 kinds of nigiri (four pieces each). Selections include a traditional nigiri sushi box ($55), with eight kinds of nigiri, chopped bluefin-tuna belly, and pickled daikon rolls; hon maguro jyu, with three sections of bluefin tuna on a bed of rice ($95); and a hand-roll kit to

make temaki, or cone, sushi ($250) with ingredients ranging from sockeye salmon, prawn, and cuttlefish to asparagus, pickled tomato, and egg omelette.

Hoshiko says that his fish buyer, Takuya Hikita, searches Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market for the best quality fish, including Thai snapper, hamachi, and bluefin tuna. In order to help educate people about the differences between various fish, Hoshiko explains that he adds extra seasoning to different fish, such as salt to whitefish, miso to other fish, to accentuate distinctions in flavours of each fish.

His high standards of quality extend to his unagi jyu (marinated barbecued eel), for

which he uses only wild eels: he says they’re less fatty and firmer than farmed eels.

Something unique about his approach is that he uses aged fish, which can only be made from high-quality fish. Using special techniques passed down from sushi chefs in Tokyo’s Ginza district to clean and treat the fish, he adds marinade and then leaves it for seven to 10 days to age, which creates the umami flavour from amino acids.

He says this process makes sashimi much more delicious.

In addition, for his shari (sushi rice), he explains that he uses akazu (red-vinegar rice)—which is made with sake kasu, the lees left from the sake-making process—because it has umami that balances with the aged fish.

Hoshiko points out that, originally, sushi was not white: it was red, and he uses traditional sushi-making methods from the Edo era.

All of this is only the beginning. He’s planning to also open Tsukiji Kitchen, named after the aforementioned fish market, to offer a variety of bento for takeout, and he’s searching for a potential space for a physical restaurant so he can serve omakase (dishes selected by the chef).

Most of all, he wants to teach locals more about the depth of Japan’s culinary culture beyond simple consumption. Considering Vancouver’s boundless appetite for sushi, there will be, undoubtedly, no shortage of students willing to enroll in his lessons. g

Time to get exotic with the liquor while in lockdown

H

by Mike Usinger

ere’s one of the many worst things ever about 2020: we’re all stuck at home. By that, we’re not talking glued to the couch seven days a week, counting down the hours, days, and seconds until the next episode of Fargo. But back to reality. Let’s face it: you aren’t going anywhere soon. That’s atrocious news if you’re the kind of imbiber who considers it one’s God-given obligation to mule back whatever liquor nerds abroads are knocking back.

Think pine-redolent Mastika from Greece, thyme-based Farigoule from France, and viscous Xtabentún from Mexico.

Anyone can plunk their ass down at the bar and croak out “Eine cerveza s’il vous plait.” But to truly immerse oneself in the local landscape is to show an appreciation for how your fellow liquor nerds get through the day. Here’s the thing about travelling: you can get vodka, whisky, rum, gin, and even tequila almost any place in the world.

But unless you’ve got a normal-times plane ticket and a willingness to push the envelope at Canada Customs, good luck getting your hands on a bottle or six of Portugal’s Licor Beirão. Or Latvia’s Riga Black Balsam.

More than something to sip, such off-the-radar offerings are actually transporting. Pour a couple of fingers, sit back, and suddenly you’re in a better place. Which is to say somewhere you not only survived after being pushed out of your comfort zone, but came back from with a new appreciation for life.

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

Nocino! from Ampersand Distilling starts with green walnuts, which are taken to new places with honey and cinnamon.

So what to do this year, when trekking to Northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region isn’t happening, and won’t be happening any time soon? That’s bad news if you’ve got a thing for, say, Nocino.

Internationally minded liquor nerds know that said liqueur is an Italian specialty made from green (which is to say, unripened) walnuts. Assuming you’re not Superman, literally flying to Italy for Nocino is out of the question.

But the folks at Ampersand Distilling in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island are seemingly of the opinion that when you can’t travel to Emilia-Romagna for Nocino, you make the best of what you’ve got at home. Ampersand

takes walnuts while they are still green in summer and then blends them with honey, and hints of cinnamon.

Acting fast is key here. As a past gold-medal winner at the Canadian Artisan Spirit competition, Nocino! is in high demand. Like all limited editions it’s here until it’s gone.

Your B.C.-flavoured trip to Italy in a bottle doesn’t stop with Ampersand. Sons of Vancouver distillery makes a world-beating No.82 Amaretto.

Dragon Mist out in Surrey, meanwhile, offers a Limoncello made from fresh lemons, while Odd Society in glorious East Van distills an Italian-style bittersweet vermouth. ou can find the Italian digestive Amaro (as well as Limoncello) at Long Table Distillery, with Amaro also available at Mad Laboratory Distillery. You may be stuck at home, but Italy, here you come—no plane ticket required.

Here’s a Nocino cocktail, courtesy of Ampersand, you can make at home.

CANADIAN CAMPFIRE

1.5 oz Nocino!

1 oz rye 1/4 lemon juice 2 dashes Angostura bitters Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube. Squeeze a lemon peel over the drink to express oils and then drop into the drink. g

REAL ESTATE

Pets in rental homes emerges as an election issue

P

by Carlito Pablo

oliticians like to talk a lot about housing affordability and mental health.

These are two of the biggest issues that affect the lives of people in B.C. What is often not mentioned is that pets in many cases are at the nexus of these concerns. Companion animals are vital to the mental wellness of many people.

However, it’s not easy to find a place where pets are welcome, because landlords can prohibit them under the law. Where finding an affordable home is already difficult, the no-pets policy adds another barrier to housing security.

This is where animal activists like Jordan Reichert come in.

“If housing is a priority for us, then we need to look at pets as well as a part of our housing policy,” Reichert said in a phone interview.

Reichert spoke to the Straight from the community of Victoria–Beacon Hill, where is he running as an independent candidate for MLA in the October 24 provincial election.

“I’m the only candidate—maybe in the province, but certainly locally—that is going to talk about this kind of thing as important,” Reichert explained, “and part of what I do as a candidate is to bring people, animals, and the environment together.”

Reichert, a vegan, is currently the West Coast campaign officer of the Animal Alliance of Canada. He is also deputy leader of the Animal Protection Party of Canada.

He was previously employed for 11 years as a mental health and addiction worker with the Vancouver Island Health Authority. According to Reichert, politicians are missing out on a significant aspect of mental health

For years, B.C. renters have been asking, lobbying, and demonstrating to persuade municipal and provincial politicians to allow them to keep pets in rental dwellings. Photo by Tamara Bellis.

by leaving pets out of the conversation.

“It’s about people having companion animals that can provide them with a sense of well-being, acceptance, maybe a companionship that they wouldn’t have anywhere else,” he said.

Having a pet also helps in physical fitness, as taking a dog out for a walk, for example, provides needed exercise for an owner.

Reichert is also the cofounder of Pets OK B.C., a group that advocates for petfriendly housing. The organization wants the province to change the Residential Tenancy Act and remove its no-pet clause.

It also seeks amendments to the Strata Property Act, which currently allows strata corporations to impose pet restric-

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tions on owners.

In 2018, the B.C. NDP government formed a rental housing task force to review tenancy laws in the province.

The task force’s online survey results showed that comments about pets were double the number of comments about affordability, the next most popular issue.

However, it concluded that the “high number of pet-related comments may be due to a campaign by one advocacy organization that encouraged people to comment on this issue”.

In December 2018, the task force—led

by Spencer Chandra Herbert, who is currently seeking another term as Vancouver–West End MLA—submitted its report

and recommendations.

“While Task Force members heard the desires of pet owners to require rental housing providers to allow pets as a way to increase the supply of pet-friendly housing, members also heard from many renters and rental housing providers who did not support this legal change,” the report stated.

The report also noted concerns about “allergies, damage and disturbances to other renters”. Also, some housing providers “indicated that they would rather remove homes from the rental market than be forced to allow people with pets to rent their properties”.

And so, “at this time, the Task Force was not persuaded that requiring all rental housing providers to allow pets would be fair for landlords or for renters who want or need to live in pet-free buildings”.

Meanwhile, Vancouver city councillor Jean Swanson is taking action about B.C.’s no-pets policy in rental homes. She has brought forward a motion to ask staff to look into what mechanisms the city can use to “curb landlords’ right to refuse rental on the basis of pet ownership”.

The motion also aims to have council ask the mayor to “advocate to the province for the prohibition of ‘no pets’ clauses in rental contracts”.

“Ontario prohibited ‘no pets’ policies in rental units, and this law has brought benefit to renters and pets for decades in Ontario,” Swanson’s motion reads.

According to Swanson, the current legislation in B.C. “discriminates against renters that have pets and are trying to find affordable housing”.

The motion is included in city council’s agenda for Thursday (October 15). g

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

9

ARTS

The Parade of Lost Souls plans to go interactive

W

by Steve Newton

ith Halloween night fast approaching, there’s a lot of uncertainty about how it will pan out in 2020.

People have questions. Like, how many trick-or-treaters can I expect this year?

Will there even be trick-or-treating? Will I have to eat all the Kit Kats and Coffee Crisps myself?

One thing Vancouverites can be sure of, at least, is that the Parade of Lost Souls is still happening. The time-honoured Commercial Drive Halloween tradition, put on by the local artist-run nonprofit Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret Society, will endure.

It will just look a lot different this

time around.

“This year we will not gather in one place, but we will gather in every place,” Dusty Flowerpot artistic executive director Kat Single-Dain writes on the society’s parade web page. “We invite you all to celebrate within your ‘bubble’ of families, friends, and community. We invite you to a program of activities that you will do on your own front yard or balcony, outside, where we can all be together…from a distance. Look to your neighbours on the left. Look to your right! We may need to isolate, but we do not need to be isolated. Now is the perfect time to become a community.”

Dusty Flowerpot artistic executive director Kat Single-Dain says a stay-at-home version of the ghoulish parade will include a dance party on Co-op Radio. Photo by Michael Wheatley.

The stay-at-home event—broadcast live on Co-op Radio—kicks off at 6:30 p.m., with a radio dance party at 7, games, storytelling, and singalong at 7:20, a dance break at 8, and closing ceremony and circle at 8:20. Participants are encouraged to wear costumes in keeping with this year’s theme, the Wild Side, and suggestions for other props and activities are provided on

the website.

“Every minute of our Lost Souls programming will be led by radio broadcast and podcast, and all of it is fully interactive,” Single-Dain writes. “If you happen to live in East Vancouver, a ‘surprise’ may pass you by during the program.”

For more info visit www.dustyflowerpotcabaret.com. g

DAVID A. HAUGHTON

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

ARTS

Theatre aids youths in processing climate change

by Charlie Smith

Cowritten and performed by actors between the ages of 13 and 20, Uprooted delves into how the characters feel about a pipeline project on traditional Indigenous territory. Photo by Emily Cooper.

S

ome Assembly Arts Society’s latest play, Uprooted, opens with a love letter to the Earth. Cowritten and acted by youths between the ages of 13 and 20, it revolves around a group of young campers near Chilliwack.

“It happens to be on some land leased by one of the youth’s parents,” playwright and director Valerie Methot tells the Straight by phone. “And these parents also are heading a contract for tree removal so that a pipeline could go through there.”

Another one of the youths is Indigenous, and because he spent a great deal of time there with his grandparents, he feels that the site is sacred. That sets the stage for the young actors to explore how it feels to be uprooted in the midst of a traumatic climate crisis.

“It’s really important to me that we’re all aware of our boundaries and that we be really mindful about what we say and what we do to protect ourselves,” Methot says.

“I strongly believe that we can address the seriousness of issues while not putting ourselves into vulnerable situations.”

As a graduate student, Methot first used theatre to process difficult issues in a play called Treated With Tango.

“I wrote it to honour my friend [John St. Louis] who died of AIDS, and I really wanted to celebrate his life,” Methot recalls. “I also wanted to address the stigma attached to AIDS and I wanted to promote awareness and dialogue about the issue.”

Since its inception, Some Assembly has enabled more than 2,500 youths to perform in front of more than 30,000 audience members. The society partners with Vancouver Coastal Health, which provides counsellors and clinicians to support youths in need of help.

Uprooted features Haley Christenson,

Raylen Adriano, Rune Campbell, Fox Hunt, Ben Gauthier, Mitch Broome, Ron MacGillivray, Ciara Wilkinson, John Aung, and Veronica Johns. g

Uprooted

can be viewed at someassembly.ca.

At 3:30 p.m. on Saturday (October 17), there will be a virtual question-and-answer session. Send questions to info@someassembly.ca.

lawyer Michael Doherty and Wilderness Committee campaigner Peter McCartney.

“We had our regular rehearsals and workshops with Zoom,” Methot says. “We didn’t miss a beat, actually.”

The young people eventually formed their own bubble and rehearsed in the Vancouver Opera’s space. The play was filmed at the York Theatre.

Trauma isn’t a new subject for Methot.

As a result of her experiences as a young person, she founded Some Assembly Arts Society with the Roundhouse Youth Theatre Action Group in 2002. The goal was to nurture youths’ artistic expression using theatre to process trauma.

“I certainly used art to help me work through my traumatic situations—and it’s been really helpful,” she says. “I’ve also had

Greta Thunberg certainly has become this incredible force of inspiration and energy for young people to express themselves, which has helped greatly.

– playwright and director Valerie Methot

To reinforces this story line, Methot intersperses multimedia presentations, including a video clip of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg speaking at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

“Greta Thunberg certainly has become this incredible force of inspiration and energy for young people to express themselves, which has helped greatly,” Methot says. “Because I strongly believe in the importance of processing concerns and using one’s voice to express these concerns.”

To enhance the play’s accuracy, the youths received script assistance from experienced climate advocates, including Ecojustice

key adult allies in my life who helped me express myself through art.”

Methot emphasizes that she has no interest in traumatizing audiences. This is why she balances her productions with beauty, hope, and humour while raising awareness about serious issues.

She also stresses the importance of creating safe spaces for youths. This is accomplished through an artistic methodology that she developed as a master’s student in UBC’s theatre department.

A key component is a “meeting agreement” in which participants define their boundaries in advance.

OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

11

BOOKS / MUSIC

Whistler Writers Festival reaches global fan base

F

by Charlie Smith

or the past 18 years, the Whistler Writers Festival has taken a great deal of pride in its friendly, accessible vibe. Visitors routinely ran into their favourite authors in the hallways of the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, chatted them up, and then heard them speak at their scheduled events.

But that won’t be possible this year because the 2020 Whistler Writers Festival is being held online from Thursday (October 15) to Sunday (October 18). The pandemic left organizers with no other option.

“It’s the smartest thing to do,” executive director Stella Harvey told the Straight by phone. “But it’s hard, too, because we’re known for the intimacy.”

On the upside, it’s enabling people from around the world to see a lengthy lineup of authors that includes Wade Davis (Magdalena: River of Dreams), Aislinn Hunter (The Certainties), and Annabel Lyon (Consent). According to Harvey, people have signed up for lectures and workshops from as far away as Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

They’ll still get a taste of Whistler through the festival’s videotaped Literary Cabaret, which will be hosted by local scribe and musician Stephen Vogler on Friday (October 16) evening. Here, winners of the Whistler Independent Book Awards will be announced at an event featuring musicians and a bevy of guest authors.

Globe and Mail reporter Dakshana Bascaramurty is among those participating in the Literary Cabaret. Her new book, This Is Not the End of Me, tells how a young Halifax husband and father coped with a terminal-cancer diagnosis.

Bascaramurty will also moderate this year’s Sunday

“Enjoy the Sunday Brunch from your own living room.”

Last year, the Whistler Writers Festival launched a murder-mystery session called the Domestic Thriller. It’s back again this time on Saturday (October 17), in a digital format.

Moderated by Amber Cowie, it will feature authors Roz Nay (Hurry Home), Amy Stuart (Still Here), and Stephanie Wrobel (Darling Rose Gold).

“Amber has come up with an interesting little game that fits with each of the themes of the books as well as poses a question about who might have done what to whom,” Harvey explained. “And she uses the characters of the three books.”

Enjoy the Sunday Brunch from your own living room.

This Is Not the End of Me author Dakshana Bascaramurty will moderate a Sunday Brunch event. Photo by Jenna Marie Wakani.

Brunch event, which will feature two authors who have been shortlisted for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize, David Bergen (Here the Dark) and Emily St. John Mandel (The Glass Hotel). They’ll be joined by Annahid Dashtgard (Breaking the Ocean: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Reconciliation) and Waubgeshig Rice (Moon of the Crusted Snow).

“Some of our partners—like the Fairmont, like Pasta Lupino, and others—have suggested something you could make for breakfast in your own home,” Harvey said.

– Whistler Writers Festival executive director Stella Harvey

Audience members can vote through Zoom, and an audience member who guesses correctly will win a prize.

Consider it as an online approach to retaining this fest’s old-time, intimate, and interactive persona. g The Whistler Writers Festival takes place from Thursday (October 15) to Sunday (October 18) at festival.whistlerwritersfest.com.

Terminal Station finds Brotherhood on new album

T

by Steve Newton

he coronavirus pandemic is a global catastrophe that has led to death, economic ruin, and untold suffering.

But it hasn’t stopped Scott Smith from rocking out.

It did slow him down a bit, though, as he admits on the line from his home near Trout Lake.

“It’s been very different, obviously,” says the guitar specialist, who is also a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. “The first two months were especially frustrating ’cause we had all these fantastic gigs lined up for the spring and summer, so to have that just wiped clean was a tough thing to take. But then it’s funny: if you’re a positive person, you kind of find your groove, and you just start doing different things.

“So I’ve got my home studio set up, like fully professional. I always sorta had it so I would do demos here, but I got it set up so I can do anything and started recording stuff for other people. We started doing some ‘basement live’ things, and then other gigs opened up—like Tractorgrease in Chilliwack and some smaller gigs. Then

12

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

Terminal Station’s Scott Smith is ready for “One More Bottle”. Photo by Ken G. Stewart.

just sideman stuff, playing with different bands. And I’m doing more teaching over FaceTime.”

Smith also found time to make a third album with his blues-rock quartet, Terminal Station, which sees him in the company of keyboardist Darryl Havers, bassist Jeremy Holmes, and drummer Liam MacDonald. Simply titled Brotherhood,

OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

the 12-track disc was recorded, mixed, mastered, and coproduced by Christopher Woudstra, who also fronts Rock and Roll Circus, another band that rockaholic Smith plays in.

“He’s got just a great ear for sounds,” Smith says of Woudstra. “And also, he’s comin’ from the same place as us, so he likes blues-rock kinda stuff. And he’s a big Stones fanatic, so he likes natural sounds.

And with him being a singer, when it came time for me to focus on the vocal tracks, he was great for just pushing me and getting the best vocal take out of me.”

Brotherhood is loaded with killer bluesand soul-rock tunes, one highlight being the instrumental “Booker D”, which sees Havers going to town on the Hammond B-3 organ. You’d be right in guessing that the song is a tribute to B-3 ace Booker T. Jones, but wrong in thinking that it might be in the key of D. “Actually that song is in C minor,” Smith points out. “The D is in reference to Darryl. We call him Booker D sometimes.”

The tune features some wild rock ‘n’ roll sax playing from Dominic Conway,

who is also a member of the local improvjazz group Malleus Trio. Another guest is vocalist Colleen Rennison, with whom Smith has played duo gigs and recorded for over the years. “She’s just one of the best voices I’ve ever heard,” he raves. “Just a natural. So soulful.”

When asked which song on Brotherhood might be his personal fave, Smith points to “One More Bottle”, a southerntinged track that saw him trading Allman Brothers–style guitar licks with yet another guest, John Sponarski. So which Allman Brother was he thinking of while doing that?

“Actually, it’s both,” he says with a chuckle. “Like, the first half with the slide is Duane [Allman], and then the outro part is Dickey [Betts].”

With Brotherhood in the can, don’t expect Smith to slack off any time soon. The day after our chat, he was set to fly out to Alberta to perform with country singer Aaron Pritchett doing drive-in gigs, where people come and watch the show in their cars.

“Music has to get played,” he reasons, “so we’re doing it however we can.” g

CANNABIS

Party seeks lower prices and end to wholesale monopoly

by Carlito Pablo

In B.C., licensed cannabis producers are required to sell their products to a government-owned wholesaler, but the B.C. Libertarian Party wants to change that. Photo by Andrea Porziella.

T

he B.C. Libertarian Party wants to see an end to the provincial government’s monopoly on wholesale cannabis. The party also seeks a stop to price-setting by the government.

In place of the current regulatory system, the B.C. Libertarian Party proposes a light-touch approach. This means any person can distribute or sell cannabis as long as the individual has a municipal permit.

Under this scheme, the government’s role is limited to the application of provincial sales tax (PST) on cannabis sales.

Kyle McCormack wears a number of hats for the party that prizes individual freedom, personal responsibility, and limited government. He sits on its board as a director, acts as secretary, and serves as “media leader”.

According to him, monopolies kill competition. “We all know that competition keeps prices low,” McCormack told the Straight in a phone interview.

He explained that if there are many players, they have to compete for a customer’s dollar. This involves providing the highest quality service or product at the lowest cost.

Private retailers currently cannot go below a set minimum price.

The province’s Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) serves as the sole distributor of wholesale cannabis. It supplies private retailers as well as government-run cannabis stores. The government also sets the minimum retail price at either the wholesale price a retailer paid or the current LDB wholesale price, whichever is lower.

“What they’re doing is artificially increasing the price of cannabis,” McCormack said.

It’s not clear to him whether the government’s pricing policy was intended to raise revenue or dissuade people from using cannabis. “The point is that the government should not be trying to dictate behaviour.”

According to McCormack, the government’s proper role should be to protect rights and freedoms and dispense justice. “It

doesn’t exist to tell us what is good behaviour and what is bad behaviour,” he said.

On October 1, the government-owned B.C. Cannabis Stores website showed a range of prices. For example, a gram of cannabis bud called Cold Creek Kush, a product by Redecan, retails from $7.99 a gram. A readyto-smoke Mandarin Cookie pre-roll by CannMart goes for $11.94 per gram.

The LDB posted a net income of $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2019-2020, mostly from liquor sales. In its annual report, the agency noted that the legal-cannabis sector is “struggling to remain competitive with illicit producers and retailers on price point”.

“The LDB remains focused on being competitive with the illicit market and keeping cannabis out of the hands of minors,” the agency stated.

According to the LDB, its net income of $1.1 billion was 1.2 percent below target and 0.3 percent higher than the previous fiscal year. “This was mainly due to lowerthan-anticipated cannabis sales and a provision for leasing costs related to a vacant office building,” the agency reported.

As well, the “cannabis division lost $5.3 million this fiscal year, which is included in the LDB net income of $1.1 billion”.

Liquor sales totalled $3.7 billion in fiscal year 2019-2020.

For the first full year of operations for the LDB’s cannabis division, transactions amounted to $135.9 million. The revenues came mostly in “sales in flower, extracts/ concentrates, and pre-rolls”.

As of March 31, 2020, the province had 15 B.C. Cannabis Stores. g

MORE CANNABIS ONLINE AT CANNCENTRAL.COM OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

13

SAVAGE LOVE

Exhibitionist husband’s Instagram photos okay

by Dan Savage

b MY HUSBAND RECENTLY passed away.

He was a wonderful person and we had 12 great years together. He was also very, very organized. His death was an accident, but everything was in order. He even left a note in a sealed envelope for his lawyer to present to me. It was one last love letter, Dan. Our relationship wasn’t perfect, no relationship is, but that’s who he was. Or that’s who I thought he was.

My husband was a very good-looking man who took meticulous care of his body.

We actually met in a gym at a hotel. He wasn’t conceited, which I think may be because he didn’t come into his looks until he was in his twenties, but he enjoyed the ef-

Scan to conffess

fect his appearance had on others. In addition to his last love letter and other documents, I was given a list with the passwords to my husband’s social-media accounts. I made the mistake of looking at his messages on Instagram. He exchanged private images with hundreds of women and gay men all over the world. Not just photos of him shirtless. Photos of him fully nude from the front and back, images of his genitals, even video clips of him masturbating with his face clearly visible.

I knew he had exhibitionistic tendencies. Years before we met he got in legal trouble for exposing himself in a public place. He sought help for impulse control 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.

Interested in having kids

Help me out people should I get up and do something or take another pill and go back to sleep. I haven’t been up for 3 days. It’s too cold for a bike ride but the sun is shining...

Crystal Ball I don’t have a Ouija board, a crystal ball or a tarot deck. I can’t read tea leaves or palms. But I have been trying to unsuccessfully read my past, present and future on confessions for years. It sometimes seemed to be a hidden reservoir of truth... and it might be, but I think that truth is that I could use a therapist.

Birthdays I am completely ignored throughout the year. But when it’s their birthday week, they seek me out. Suddenly there’s a request for them to follow me.

Pandemic or no pandemic, this is a connection clearly needing “likes” and another “happy birthday” message even though they don’t give a rats ass about me. Fortunately I never run into them so they will forget that they needed me this one week of the year. I’m only mirroring what they give: nothing.

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THE GEORGIA STR AIGHT

- Wishing Instagram Didn’t Open Window

P.S. Also, men? My husband was straight. Why was he sending photos to gay men? sorry for your loss, WIDOW, and I’m so sorry your grief has been complicated by what you found in your husband’s Instagram account. But you shouldn’t for a moment doubt the love of a man who wanted to make sure you got one last love letter if he should die unexpectedly. That’s not something a person would think to do for a someone they didn’t truly love. Your husband was who you thought he was.

Your marriage wasn’t a lie and your husband wasn’t a liar, WIDOW, it’s just that your grief—like you and your husband and your marriage and anything human beings do or feel or touch—is imperfect.

So far as you know, WIDOW, your husband never cheated on you—and after reading thousands of his DMs, and since your husband didn’t think you would ever see those DMs, it’s safe to say you know everything. And what you know now that you didn’t know before is that sharing pictures with strangers was one of your husband’s “thangs”.

Now I’m going to ask you to make a leap, WIDOW. Instead of seeing what you found on Instagram as evidence of your husband’s unfaithfulness, WIDOW, try to see it as something that made it possible for a man like your husband to remain faithful. Think of those DMs like a pressurerelease valve. On Instagram your husband could expose himself to strangers who wanted to see him naked—avoiding both consent violations and legal trouble—without exposing himself to the temptations of face-to-face encounters,

I am so

But it’s hard to find time to date between work. I think I should quit work and date for a while... have fun... then get back in the game when we are a bit more settled and ready to have kids.

Visit

and never did something like that again.

But he always had a very high libido, much higher than mine, and he masturbated frequently and public sex remained his biggest fantasy. I didn’t judge or shame him for any of that. We jokingly called masturbation “his thang” and sex, which we had roughly once a week, “our thang”, and one time, when it seemed safe, we did manage to have sex in public. He expressed an interest in opening up our relationship years ago but I am monogamous by nature and he agreed to keep our relationship closed.

And I believe he did: I’ve read through all his messages with these strangers, and there are no mentions of any meetings. I’ve seen dozens of messages from people who wanted to meet in person and he always turned them down. But he never turned down a request for more photos.

Help me understand this. I can’t tell anyone else about this and I hate sitting here feeling like my marriage was a lie.

to post a Confession OCTOBER 15 – 22 / 2020

Sending naked pics to strangers might be useful. Photo by Shamim Nakhaei/Unsplash.

WIDOW, temptations that might’ve led him to violate the monogamous commitment he made to you and, like all people who make monogamous commitments, sometimes struggled to keep.

One person can’t be all things to another person sexually. People can ask for monogamous commitments, of course, and we all have a right to expect consideration and compassion from our partners—and not having the needs we can’t meet or the ways we fall short thrown in our faces is one way our partners demonstrate consideration and compassion. Your husband needed more attention than any one person could ever provide. He didn’t rub that in your face. He cut an ethical corner by swapping DMs with strangers to meet a need you couldn’t—but if getting that need met the way he did made it possible for him to stay in your marriage and stay faithful to you, perhaps you benefited too. And while your husband should’ve asked for your permission—while he should’ve gotten your okay—if you had found his DMs while he was alive, WIDOW, he would no doubt ask for your forgiveness. Think of the years he gave you and the love he showed you and ask yourself if you could give him the forgiveness he would be asking for if he could.

Then give him—give yourself—that gift.

PS Your husband’s willingness to accept attention from gay men is another sign he was one of the good guys. Straight guys who are secure in their sexuality are much more willing to accept compliments from gay men these days—some straight guys, like your husband, even seek them out.

PPS I am, again, so very sorry for your loss. g Email: mail@savagelove.net. Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

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