Nav Vol 46 Issue 01

No 01

SEP. 10

SEP. 23

Vol 46

NAV I GATOR VANCOUVER ISLAND UNIVERSITY STUDENT PRESS

FREE

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ON THE FRINGE

FEED ME

TECH COMPANY CROWDFUNDS WEB ALTERNATIVE

For two weeks in the middle of August the arts scene in Nanaimo breathed and pulsed with the fourth annual Fringe, an independent theatre festival which brought together artists, musicians, and theatre enthusiasts.

We’re surrounded by abundance, the reward of spring and summer labours; we reap what we have sown and it will nourish our bodies through the coming year.

A VIU professor and two 2014 graduates have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for testing new technology that will help spread internet information to areas of the world where web connections don’t exist.

Contents

NEWS

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05

06

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Editorials

VIU named Canada’s first accredited member of the National College Testing Association

Tech company crowdfunds web alternative

City awarded ‘Green Communities’ designation

VIU bookstore offers online price comparison

Pastoral poems to celebrate Farmer Appreciation Week

FEATURES

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Seven things you didn’t know you wanted to know about the porpoise

The High School at VIU offers enriching experience for students

Book Review: Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals

Sights of summer

The sins of our fathers

Feed me

Café review: Blenz

ARTS

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Peking circus in Nananimo

Kathy Page to speak on the death of Edward Thomas

Movie review: Boyhood

On the Fringe

On the Fringe photos

The Fringe experience At the Hub with Chelsee Damen

SPORTS

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VI Raiders crawl back to .500

Top ten sports stories of the summer

Mariners Men cruising to start season

Odds and Ends Comics, Sudoku and more

Buccaneers sail past Generals in season opener Mariner Women split season’s first two games

02 CONTENTS

THE NAVIGATOR

Letters

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TheNav .ca THE NAVIGATOR WELCOMES READER CONTRIBUTIONS

â&#x20AC;˘ To submit, visit <www.thenav.ca> or email <editor@thenav.ca> All submissions must be the original work of the author. Editors reserve the right to refuse submissions, and to edit for space or clarity.

CONTRIBUTORS Shaleeta Harper Philip Gordon Drew McLachlan [CUP] Dessa Bayrock Marilyn Assaf Ben Blate Jennifer Garceau Gordon Hak Spencer Wilson

Letters to the editor should be no more than 400 words in length. The Navigator does not pay for letters. Opinions expressed in The Navigator are expressly those of the author and/or artist and do not reflect the views of The Navigator staff.

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STAFF Leah Myers Editor-in-Chief

Blake Deal News Editor

Kotarah Rivere Copy Editor

Brendan Barlow Social Media Sp.

Rio Trenaman Art Director

Ben Chessor Sports Editor

Jessica Reid Graphic Designer

Antony Stevens Web Editor

Alexandria Stuart Associate Editor

Kelly Whiteside Production Editor

Dahlia Yuen Graphic Designer

Felix Naud Multimedia Prod.

Denisa Kraus Arts Editor

Molly Barrieau Senior Copy Editor

Euodia Mutua Ad/Sales Rep

Lynne Williams Bookkeeper

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LETTERS 03

Editorials

Out with the old... in with the new school year

Leah Myers Editor in Chief The Navigator

For many students, the first day of school is kind of like their New Year’s Eve (though likely a little less drunk). You make grand resolutions to actually use your complimentary agenda, hole-punch your handouts and put them in your binder right away, start working on your assignments the day of, etc. etc. In elementary school, you showed up for the first day back after summer vacation—maybe wearing new clothes or sneakers—you walked into the classroom wishing that everyone would notice the re-invented you that the sunshine, summer camp, and two months off magically created.

One of my favourite teenage angst idioms is when people complain, “people are staring, and judging me.” This is a favourite of mine for a few reasons. First off, these people are right: everyone is judging you (but not necessarily for the reasons you’d think).

I’ll admit that I’m a starer. In my defense, I’m also a writer and photographer, so by nature I’m an eavesdropper (or to put it more delicately, a people watcher). Whenever I ride the bus, I have a book in my knapsack, with good intentions to read it, but instead I observe the passengers around me. I

envy the years when I was a little kid, and I could unabashedly stare at the people, learning and absorbing the ways of the world. Now when I stare at people longer than socially acceptable, they don’t smile, or wave, or make silly faces; they usually just flash me dirty looks, or in most cases, do that long blink people do when they can feel you looking at them but don’t want to confront the situation.

However, one thing I’ve learned in my many-year career of being a student is that when you’re new on the first day and trying to meet people, the best thing you can remember is that people are always a lot less cool than you think they are. Or at least, the more you get to know someone, the less intimidating they become.

During my prep for back to school this summer, I sat down one morning, to clean my MacBook desktop. As with everything in my physical life, I’m also a file hoarder on my computer—more specifically, my desktop. Along with labeling things “Today,” having a messy, unorganized desktop is probably one of the worst habits to have as a student. Anyway, as I was trying to organize everything in sub-folders, I accidentally deleted a bunch of stuff I thought I made a duplicate folder for, and I lost a lot of files. After the initial panic, and trying to keep my cool in the coffee shop, I started scanning through the important files I didn’t delete, and realized that I may have saved myself hours of looking through stuff I didn’t need to backup on a harddrive, anyway.

Ever since I was little, I’ve been a hoarder. I hate throwing things out. Recently, as part of becoming a grown-up, I’ve realized with some anxiety that even with all my hoarded stuff, I still have no idea how to make my space look like

“home” to me. I’ve lived in the same apartment for about three years now, and so far “home” looks like an agglomeration of past roommates, which is okay. Before school began, I started a project that turned my hoarding problem into “art.” I’m not usually a crafty person, but I’m currently working on a piece where I take old bus tickets, receipts, old notes etc., and paste it all as a collage on canvas.

One of the worst things for a hoarder-personality, is being raised by a parent who prays to the art of maintenance. Being careful with your tools is one thing, but some of the best advice I’ve received was from a classmate when I was in photo-j college, who reiterated that the camera is a tool, not an accessory, and if you’re going to use it every day—it’s going to take some abuse. I also grew up with the habit of keeping my all books in mint condition (probably out of fear from librarians lecturing us in elementary about taking care of our loans). But when you buy a tool for school with your own money, or your own student loan—you own it. Don’t be afraid to abuse your tools. I’ve recently picked up a friend’s habit of turning down the corners of pages in books, where you like line or a phrase; and the gratification of easily finding your favourite passages is well worth the wear and tear.

Much like being a freshman at university, I think this editorial has been of the under-focused, overwhelmed, disoriented type. Oh well. I hope this week you all break your resolutions (then find the ones that actually matter to you), talk to all the people who terrify you, and most importantly, use all your books enough that there’s ripped pages and coffee stains, ruining the potential resale value.

Facing Fear, because it’s important Alexandria Stuart Associate Editor The Navigator

This is the scary part. There, it’s been said.

I’ve been a writer in different types of media for a long time, so this isn’t my first rodeo. “You should work on The Navigator,” a well-meaning spirit said. “Sure,” I thought, “I could do that.” I wound up associate editor, and that does feel like a whole new rodeo. Today, with Vol. 46 Issue #1, I’m peering over a steep cliff. On the other side of the chasm is a mountain, which would be the learning curve I’m facing. It’s pretty steep, and the bronco I’m riding is bucking pretty hard.

So this is fear: foreign territory, new ventures, moving into the unknown. For some, it’s energizing. For some, it’s immobilizing. I’m somewhere in between right now.

Humans are programmed with a fear response for important reasons: it puts us on alert, perks up our ears, brings physical and neurological resources to the party, pumps us up with adrenaline, and gives us the power to perform.

It can also bring crippling paralysis.

Psychiatrists and life coaches pretty much agree that pushing through fear is better, and less agonizing, than wallowing in the helplessness and indecision it can create.

But it’s just so… scary.

04 EDITORIALS

There’s no shortage of famous, and learned people who have weighed in on the topic. Courtesy of brainquote.com, I present some of my favourites.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.” Like exploring strange noises in a dark basement, during a storm, when the power’s gone out, and a psychopath from the local prison for the criminally insane is on the loose? I don’t think so. Standing in front of the class for a presentation? I’ll give him that one.

Franklyn D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This is all well and good until the above-noted psychopath sinks an axe between your shoulder blades. But in Roosevelt’s defence, yes, often the fear that’s buried in our anticipation of an event is scarier than the reality. We have rich imaginations, and they can create epic catastrophes out of the most innocuous situations.

Another American icon, Benjamin Franklin, didn’t candy coat it: “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure.”

This comes as a relief, because I’m pretty sure there’s some failure waiting out there for me. Now that Franklin has confirmed that, well, it really takes the pressure off.

Finally, one from a starlet who wasn’t known for deep thoughts, Marilyn Monroe: “We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets.” Right, then. Fear is stupid. If only it were so simple.

For most of us here, fear falls into the category of “first world problems.” We have the time—the luxury of time— to ruminate and obsess and panic about getting less than perfect marks on an assignment as opposed to, say, running from lions. I don’t think many of us are faced with imminent bodily, harm at the hands of lions, right now.

Also in the category of the legitimately scary:

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◊ Small town American police forces with tanks. ◊ Nuclear war coming back to the table (seriously?!?) ◊ Canning food improperly, and accidently killing your loved ones. ◊ Ruining an afternoon of soap making by spilling lye all over your friend. ◊ Bears. In the Old City Quarter. ◊ 10 days late. ◊ The Zombie Apocalypse.

The fears in our minds deserve respect, though, and we’re all facing them to some extent right now; even the most seasoned, mature student’s heart will beat a little faster the first time they open the door on a new class. Whether we’re in art studios, kitchens, shops, or classrooms, we’re cloaked in expectations that we will perform and succeed.

We’re here to exercise and enrich our minds. We’re paying a lot of money for the privilege to do so. It’s time to show what we’re made of. Looking around, it’s a safe bet that even the coolest looking cucumber in the room is feeling it too.

So here we are. Wherever we are, we move forward and make the leap because it’s important. Whatever we’re doing, it’s important. Important enough to stare fear in the face, kick it in the balls, and take that step over its writhing form.

Just showing up was our first move, walking through the door… moving forward is the easy part.

Whether this is your first year at VIU, the first semester of your last, or you’re somewhere in between, congratulations. You’ve done it. Welcome.

News

VIU named Canada’s first accredited member of the National College Testing Association BLAKE DEAL

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VIU Assessments coordinator Christina Brand and Felicity Blaiklock, assistant assessments coordinator, proudly display the plaque signifying VIU’s certification as the first Canadian member of the National College Testing Association.

The NCTA accreditation means that VIU is committed to fairness and academic integrity in testing

VIU recently became an accredited member of the National College Testing Association (NCTA), the first institution based out of the US to earn this designation.

While the new accreditation may not ease nerves, VIU Assessments Coordinator, Felicity Blaiklock said the NCTA designation means that test situations are designed to offer students an environment where they will have the best opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge.

“This is a real sign that VIU is committed to the highest standards of excellence in testing,” she said. “It’s really good because the NCTA is the most widely acknowledged professional testing organization in the world.”

Blaiklock credits her predecessor, Jane Saxton, for taking the first steps towards NCTA certification. Saxton was key in bringing together testing professionals at colleges and universities in BC to form the BC Higher Education Testing Association (BCHETA). The BCHETA became a chapter of the NCTA, which made it possible for VIU to pursue accreditation as an individual institution.

The NCTA accreditation means that VIU is committed to fairness and academic integrity in testing, Blaiklock said, including professional development that ensures instructors at VIU are aware of issues in testing, such as how new technology can be used in cheating.

While Blaiklock stressed that cheating is an extremely rare occurrence, she said it’s important to be aware of new technology.

VIU’s Assessment Services, located in the Student Services building, is set up to offer supervision services for prospective VIU students, as well as staff, community members, and external organizations seeking a professional testing environment.

“One of the great things about having the NCTA certification is that we have many external people and organizations interested in using our [supervision] services,” Blaiklock said.

“We can show that we are adhering to the highest standards of excellence in the testing world.”

Blaiklock can recall many examples where knowledge

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Blake Deal

of the best practices in testing has helped ease a student’s anxiety, and helped them deal with a result that is less than they expected.

“When they come in, they meet us, and feel they’re entering a calm, professional, friendly environment, with everything here that they need,” she says. “It’s not going to be a scary test environment; it’s a place where they’ll find we’re going to be as supportive as possible because we understand how stressful this is.”

When students aren’t successful, Blaiklock and her colleagues are there to offer support, and some perspective.

“It’s a really important part of assessment, knowing that even if you are not successful the first time, there will be other opportunities,” she said.

Students who take a poor result in stride with the understanding that they can improve for a future test are often the ones who find the best success in the long run, she said.

“Not succeeding the first time is sometimes a positive thing,” Blaiklock says. “The student who isn’t successful today goes away, does the work, and so often comes back to be successful, and that demonstrates motivation. You actually want to be here. And, what do we want? We want students at VIU who want to be here.”

The NCTA is dedicated to the promotion of professionalism and quality in the administration of testing services and programs, including issues relating to test administration, development, scoring, and assessment. The objectives of the organization are to enhance professional testing practices, offer opportunities for professional development, encourage professional support activities, and advance collaborative efforts among testing professionals, testing companies, and other policy-making agencies. Learn more at <ncta-testing.org>.

Individuals or organizations who require a professional, supervised testing location to complete computer-based or paper exams can learn more at < viu.ca/assessments> or contact Felicity Blaiklock at 250-740-6276 or at <felicity.blaiklock@viu.ca>.

NEWS 05

Tech company crowdfunds web alternative BLAKE DEAL A VIU professor and two 2014 graduates have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for testing new technology that will help spread internet information to areas of the world where web connections don’t exist.

VIU professor and CEO of Pixelstream Communications, Dr. Frank LoPinto, and recent Computing Science graduates Pauline Hagembe and Alican Kerman are working on new technology that could bring web pages to the world’s smartphones without the need for an internet connection.

LoPinto’s company has developed “PXIT” technology which can display digital information on video display devices ranging from smartphones to televisions to video monitors without the need for a web connection.

The team has developed a free Android-based smartphone app that allows the phone to read a pixelated code, which looks like a large, moving QR code, store the information, and play it back at any time.

LoPinto calls the PXIT codes “QR codes on steroids,” as they go far beyond a scan that simply links the user to a web page.

Unlike QR codes, PXIT codes are in colour and can provide the user with fully functional web pages and videos.

PXIT codes can transfer images, sound, and other data without internet connectivity—two-thirds of the world’s population is without internet.

THE NAVIGATOR “We’ve designed this app not to work on the latest versions but on the early versions of smartphones,” LoPinto said. “We’re not requiring the latest and the greatest for this to work.”

Hagembe said her interest in the project grew when she realized the potential it held for people in developing nations like her own home country, Kenya.

“My vision for this technology is mainly focused on education,” she said. “I see this being used, for example, with TVs at home, where we make smartphones available to each homestead and in the evening broadcast, what the children will be learning the next day.”

LoPinto says he is keen to get the support of local television broadcasters in the areas where the technology will be tested and eventually used.

With donated or low cost broadcast time on a Kenyan television station, for example, the technology could be spread widely to areas with no internet access.

Hagembe points to one example of PXIT codes’ use in Africa that is in the news today. “With the Ebola outbreak, which has led to the deaths of so many people, there is an informational gap,” she said.

“As an example, with everything set up as we hope it is, what I see is getting this health information out there quickly, and saving lives.”

Another big point of interest to Hagembe is the transfer of textbooks. With most families being

Brian Harris able to afford to put only one child in school, more often than not, it means the boy goes and the girl misses out.

Hagembe sees this as a great opportunity to provide the texts to families, and in turn make it possible for more girls to go to school.

The Kickstarter campaign concludes September 30 at which time LoPinto hopes to have raised enough money to start testing the technology in Kenya.

LoPinto hopes to have a team test 10 locations in Kenya, and eventu-

ally make them all work.

As with all broadcasting systems there is the potential for censorship because people will be controlling what information is released.

LoPinto hopes to discuss with tribal leaders what they need and want the most, and stream that information to as many people as possible.

Developing countries will benefit from this greatly, but LoPinto sees this as an international project. He hopes to get this technology working in northern Canada where there

VIU bookstore offers online price comparison BLAKE DEAL

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VIU’s bookstore is offering a new student service this year with their online textbook comparison tool.

The comparison tool allows students to compare VIU pricing with online competitors making it easier for students to find the best price.

Retail operations manager, Mike Thibodeau, said this is the bookstore’s way of becoming more transparent and beneficial to students.

“We know what year it is,” said Thibodeau. “It is time to change the image of the bookstore.”

Thibodeau said on-campus book sales have been dropping steadily over the years with the availability of digital texts and e-books.

This new tool is a way for the bookstore to not only help students find the best price, but has also led to prices dropping in

06 NEWS

the store itself.

“We are being both proactive and reactive,” said Thibodeau. “We want to be more competitive with our prices.”

The website does the research for you, with a menu where a student can select the courses they are taking, and the books for that course come up with their online comparison.

The tool is not just limited to the physical copies, but also has the option of purchasing course packs, e-books, or digital textbooks.

Students can order and pay for their books online, and have them sent to their house or held ready to pick up in the bookstore.

Thibodeau said he hopes this transparency shows how the bookstore is trying to help the VIU student community.

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are many places that cannot get internet connections.

LoPinto said many places do not have the infrastructure to provide these services available yet and this will help not only hold people over until it is there but also cause more of a demand for better technology.

For more information on what Pixelstream Communications does, what a PXIT Code is, or to contribute to the Kickstarter Campaign visit, <pxit.tv>.

City awarded ‘Green Communities’ designation BLAKE DEAL

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The City of Nanaimo has been recognized by the joint Provincial Union of BC Municipalities’ Green Communities Committee as a BC Climate Action Community for the second year in a row.

This marks the city’s achievement of Level Two of three, in the Climate Action Recognition Program.

The recognition follows the city’s successful completion of a Corporate Greenhouse Gas Inventory, and a report outlining current climate action revenue incentive programs through 2013.

The city was required to demonstrate familiarity with the Community Energy and Emissions Inventory, which shows energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from community-wide activities in road transportation, buildings, and solid waste.

Progress was made in reducing emissions in 2013 through a number of actions including lighting upgrades, upgrades to the the Beban Park pool pumps, and taking advantage of the city’s gravity-fed water supply to generate electricity at the new Reservoir no.1 facility.

The city has been a part of the Climate Action Charter since October 2008, and has demonstrated its commitment to work with the Province and Union of BC Municipalities and take action on climate change, reduc greenhouse gas emissions in municipal operations and the community.

In 2013, the city produced 3161 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions with 65 percent of emissions coming from powering, heating, and cooling municipal buildings; 29 percent coming from the municipal fleet; and 6 percent from city contracted services.

The Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program is a conditional grant program that provides funding to charter signatories that is equivalent to 100 percent of the carbon taxes they paid directly.

The 2013 Climate Action Revenue Incentive Program grant was $126k, and was deposited in the city’s Sustainability Reserve Fund to help fund future projects aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions in city facilities.

Pastoral poems to celebrate Farmers Appreciation Week BLAKE DEAL The BC Association of Farmers’ Markets (BCAFM) is celebrating their fifth annual Farmers Appreciation Week.

Farmers Appreciation Week takes place September 8-15, and will be celebrated at Farmers’

THE NAVIGATOR Markets across the province.

A large part of the celebration this year is the second annual poetry contest. The Ode to a Farmer Poetry Contest invites all writers to submit their best “agricultural inspired” poems.

The grand prize for the contest is a $150 gift certificate to the farmers’ market of their choice. There will also be one winning poem in each region of BC: Cariboo Chilcotin Coast, Kootenay Rockies, Northern Brit-

ish Columbia, Thompson Okanagan, Vancouver, Coast & Mountains, and Vancouver Island.

Regional winners will receive a $50 gift certificate for the farmers’ market of their choice.

“BC farmers are our best source

for fresh, healthy, local food,” says Jon Bell, BCAFM President, “and the poetry contest is a means to express our gratitude for BC farmers,0 and all the ways they contribute to our health, communities, and economy.”

Brian Harris

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NEWS 07

Features

Seven things you didn’t know you wanted to know about the porpoise DESSA BAYROCK ABBOTSFORD (CUP)—What is a porpoise?

The quick answer: porpoises are adorable. The longer answer: porpoises belong to the cetacean family, which includes whales and dolphins. If you’re trying to picture a porpoise in your mind, think of a broader, stouter dolphin without the “melon” lump dolphins and whales have on their heads.

Porpoises also take less kindly to living in captivity, and aren’t as easily trained as their dolphin cousins—think of porpoises as the indifferent cats of the cetacean family. Are they cute? Yes. Will they do what you say? It depends on how much fish you’re willing to dish out.

Porpoises: the underdogs of the ocean Porpoises are often beaten up or killed by dolphins or seals. As the smallest cetaceans, they’re often picked on by their larger family members. Scientists suspect that dolphins might see porpoises as competitors for food supplies— since both dolphins and porpoises feast on just about any fish they can get their jaws on, including herring, pollock, and squid.

Your local porpoise The Vancouver Aquarium currently

THE CASCADE has two porpoises, Jack and Daisy, who are actually the only two harbour porpoises in captivity in North America. They were both rescued as young porpoises, and although they don’t have impressive leaps or dives like their aquarium neighbours, you can catch an informational show at their tank every afternoon.

Porpoise en français?

The name “porpoise” hails not from French, but from the Old French: porcus for “pig” and piscis for “fish”. That’s right—“porpoise” figuratively means “pig fish.”

Speaking of names, porpoises are also called “mereswine,” although nobody but their mothers call them that.

The porpoise has nothing to do with potatoes… we think You’re forgiven for thinking tubercles have anything to do with tubers (or, for that matter, tuberculosis), but the fact of the matter is scientists are at a loss when it comes to figuring out just what, exactly, tubercles are for. Tubercles are one of the defining features of the porpoise—they’re tiny bumps along the dorsal ridge on porpoises’ backs. One theory states that the tubercles are the equivalent of antislip mats, designed to help adult porpoises carry calves. Another

(more likely) theory says that each tubercle might actually mark a bundle of nerve endings, serving as extra sensitive areas.

Porpoises are really fast If you’ve ever been on a whale-watching trip, you know cetaceans are surprisingly quick in the water.

Whales can hit speeds around 40 km/h in prime conditions (read as: shallow water and imminent danger). Dolphins really hit their stride by leaping out of the water to reduce drag, and get an extra boost of acceleration, but even then they only have a maximum speed of around 25 km/h. Porpoises, on the other hand, can reach a top speed of 55 km/h without breaking a sweat. How? No one’s quite sure.

Fossil porpoise has an underbite This spring, palaeontologists found fossils of an ancient porpoise— with a giant chin. While modern porpoises have chins of only a few centimetres, this fossil porpoise— dubbed Semirostrum ceruttii, or the skimming porpoise—has a chin a whopping 85 cm long. Researchers also found sensory nerves in the bone—meaning the porpoise probably used its giant jaw as a sixth sense, possibly making up for poor eyesight by feeling the ocean floor.

Courtesy of Anthony Biondi

Feed me ALEXANDRIA STUART

Farmship Growers’ Co-op message for farmers’ marketgoers.

Alexandria Stuart

September, season of the harvest, conjures images of baskets heaped with produce, grain milled to form rustic loaves, and cups overflowing with sweet wines and ciders.

We’re surrounded by abundance, the reward of spring and summer labours; we reap what we have sown, and it will nourish our bodies through the coming year. Gardeners and farmers’ market shoppers say that local, freshly picked fruits and vegetables more deeply satisfy our hunger, but the sweat on the nurturing hand is what feeds the spirit. We need much more than just food and drink to survive.

We’re complicated beings with a wide variety of requirements that need to be kept in balance. Nourishment isn’t just the food we eat; there’s hunger in our minds, hearts, and spirits as well. Pressed for time while juggling work, school, and

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THE NAVIGATOR home demands, self-care is often first to go. But without the balance that comes from putting our own needs first, the most carefully constructed house of cards will topple.

The new school year launches a fresh course of feeding for the mind. Regardless of our goals, we satisfy many hungers here: the hunger for knowledge, the hunger to achieve, the hunger for companionship, and even the hunger for a sense of hope for the future.

The hungers of the spirit—hope lives here too—can be more difficult to satisfy. For some the formula is simple: weekly trips to worship under organized religion can keep their spirits right with the gods of their understanding. For others the hunger for connection, a sense of community, is met by spending time outdoors, doing laps in the pool, or pulling a stool up to the

bar.

Feeding body, mind, and spirit includes one other dietary requirement: the nourishment we get from one another. Our closest friends, comrades in the classroom, and even passing acquaintances on transit all feed us socially. The human condition put us all here, sharing this space at the same moment in time. Locked in isolation we wither, but even the most casual and fleeting connections fuel our social selves. These hungers are intangible, less obvious, but still critical elements of our whole selves.

Here on the most affluent continent on the planet, one overflowing with resources, we still see great hungers of body, mind, and spirit.

We can all be fed—we just need the right basket of ingredients.

FEATURES 08

The High School at VIU offers enriching experience for students MARILYN ASSAF Rebecca Leigh jumped at the chance to complete her high school education in a non-traditional way.

While many of her peers enrolled in the public school system, she enrolled in The High School at Vancouver Island University (VIU) located on the Nanaimo campus, completing grade 11 and 12 with a cohort of classmates from around the world.

“It was life-changing,” says Leigh, who has since completed a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Master’s of Business Administration at VIU, and now works as a Marketing Assistant for the university’s International Education department.

According to newly appointed Principal Catherine Brazier, The High School at VIU offers Canadian and international students an environment where they are encouraged to thrive.

“Students graduate with a BC Dogwood diploma within our international program,” explains Brazier. “Our staff encourages students to become global citizens with a strong sense of social responsibility and a commitment to help solve problems in Canada, and around the world.”

Brazier, who took over as principal last spring, is the former founding head of Aspengrove School, an independent school located in

CONTRIBUTOR Lantzville. She is excited to return to the Nanaimo community, and share the unique opportunity that The High School offers students.

Operating on VIU’s Nanaimo campus since 1996, The High School at VIU is one of Nanaimo’s “hidden gems,” adds Brazier.

One message she wants to make clear is that The High School at VIU is open to both international and Canadian students. The diverse student body helps to enrich the learning experience for everyone. “Many Canadian students have excelled here, pursued further education, and are now employed in rewarding careers,” she says.

Alumna Caitlin Croft is one such student. She graduated from The High School in 2009 at age 16, travelled for a year, and then completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Northern BC in May 2014. She now works for a high-tech company in San Francisco.

“As a Canadian student at The High School, I made worldwide connections,” she says. The school’s partnership with the Seishu High School in Sapporo, Japan, allowed me to spend six weeks fully immersed in Japanese culture. It was an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Croft also enjoyed small class

Catherine Brazier (left), newly appointed principal of The High School at VIU and Rebecca Leigh, High School alumna and Marketing Assistant with VIU, ready to welcome Canadian and international students to the school in September.

Marilyn Assaf

sizes at The High School, opportunities for one-on-one classroom instruction, and the chance to deeply explore topics of personal interest.

The High School prepares students for entry into university, and qualified graduates are guaranteed direct admission to VIU. Students can take university courses in their grade 12 year, and have access to a myriad of resources and amenities, including VIU’s library, gymnasium, cafeteria, and science labs.

The High School at VIU is uniquely positioned as one of only three high schools attached to a Canadian university, Brazier says, and it is one of the most affordable options to students outside of the public system on Vancouver Island and throughout Canada.

Brazier brings 29 years of experience to her new position, including 16 years as vice-principal and principal in both the public and independent school systems. She says she looks forward to the start

of the new school year and meeting new and returning students.

She invites community members to stop by The High School, and find out more about what it offers.

Applications for grades 10, 11, and 12 will be accepted on an ongoing basis throughout the year.

For more information contact Brazier at <highschool@viu.ca> or 250740-6317.

Café review: Blenz SHALEETA HARPER

CONTRIBUTOR

Dark chocolate mocha (with whip) and an espresso brownie.

Shaleeta Harper

S

tudents are pretty well known drug addicts. Many of us can’t get through those 8 am classes without clutching a cup of caffeine. My addiction is minor compared to some of my peers, but it’s still typical to find me doing my homework in a coffee shop, the goods a few steps away

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at most. In a city with a university, we have quite a few local haunts, all with their own highlights, and it can be hard to know which one to visit. This year I’m dedicated to trying all of them—new ones and old favourites—and giving you the skinny on where you should hunker down during midterms and finals,

or just sit and people watch.

First up: Blenz. It’s pretty far from campus but I, like many young people in Nanaimo, work at Woodgrove Centre. They offer good discounts for mall staff, bonus number one in my books.

At my work, we are constantly taking turns doing coffee shop runs.

My co-worker Jayson Wall, who can be found with a Blenz Americano in hand most days, says, “The espresso brownie is a beanhead’s wet dream.” Obviously, he’s a fan.

My drink of choice is the mocha, or a matcha. Blenz makes an incredible mocha, with real Belgian chocolate, and give you a choice of dark, milk, or white.

One day I picked up a large, dark chocolate mocha (with whip), and an espresso brownie. The mocha was perfectly bitter, and not too sweet. Anyone who loves dark chocolate should know what I mean.

It’s quite a dense drink, so I’ll be ordering it with a cup of water in the future, but it’s like it should be: practically a dessert. It’s not very strong, so if you like your drinks dancing, you may want to order an

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extra shot of espresso.

The brownie was, as another co-worker mentioned, like a ganache. It wasn’t dense like a traditional brownie, but thick soft chocolate with a mild kick of espresso. Definitely a once-in-awhile treat.

I went back later for a vegetable samosa and real coffee at lunch.

The samosa was an interesting twist on traditional coffee shop fare— excellent for a savoury snack, with a kick of spice—and sizeable enough to work as a small lunch. The coffee tasted pure and clean. I’m not usually a straight coffee drinker but I’m glad I gave it a shot. I enjoyed it black at first, then added a bucket of cream and sugar.

The prices were moderately high—a large coffee and a muffin are about $4.50—but being in a large shopping centre, that isn’t surprising. They also bake all the goods in-shop, so they are very fresh.

The coffee shop is a bit cramped, but the seats spill out into a large section in the mall. The décor is modern, with local metalwork art

gracing the walls. They offer customers free Wi-Fi and comfortable seating, but the machines are quite loud in the small shop itself, which can make it hard to focus. They stay open later than most cafés in Nanaimo—matching the mall hours—but they also open later in the morning.

My thoughts? This is a great coffee shop to go to for a weekend off, or a relaxing people watching adventure with friends. It could even be a place to write if you enjoy background bustle, but it’s not perfect for a long study session when you need quiet.

Source: www.penguin.com

Book Review: Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals

by Patricia Lockwood PHILIP GORDON

Poems like “The Whole World Gets Together and Gangbangs a Deer” is a thinly-veiled critique on the pornography industry (and maybe the act of desire in the first place?)

CONTRIBUTOR

“sext: im poetry. im dead and im inside u at all times” Anyone who suckles even semi-regularly from the content-delivery teat of the internet should be fully aware of who Patricia Lockwood is—even if you’re not one of her 45k Twitter followers, chances are you caught a glimpse of Lockwood’s poetry when her poem “Rape Joke” went viral in July of 2013. There’s a good reason Lockwood has been hailed as Poet Laureate of the Internet—the prose poem that shot her to fame is a powerful mix of personal and political (at least as far as gender’s role in society is concerned), and her tweets regularly blur a surrealist poetic bent together with conversational language and contemporary attention to trend-savvy topics.

Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals is Lockwood’s second full length collection (her first, Balloon Pop Outlaw Black, was released in 2012). Besides “Rape Joke”, and another poem in a similar style, “The Father and Mother of American Tit-Pics”, the rest of the poems in Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals are delivered primarily in the same style/voice. Lockwood seems uncomfortable with stanza breaks on a larger scale, so each poem is rendered as a stream-of-consciousness word block with occasional enjambment and indentation for emphasis. The line breaks seem more arbitrary than anything, which might make one wonder if the majority of pieces in this collection wouldn’t have benefited from paragraph, prose-poem style arrangement. For a poet who works primarily in 140 character bites these days, Lockwood’s poems are surprisingly indivisible, and there doesn’t seem to be much effort to focus on brevity or extractable snippets; the poems are complete only in-and-of themselves, functioning purely as devices to deliver the conceit of their metaphor in a single dose.

Metaphor is an important topic in this collection. Aside from the titular gender-pronounification of the notion of country and belonging, almost every poem in Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals seems to aim head-on at becoming a pure exercise in metonymic pontification—it almost feels like Lockwood is completing a contemporary tribute to the metaphysical poets with the extent to which each poem carries the conceit of its metaphor. Poems like “The Whole World Gets Together and Gangbangs a Deer” are a thinly-veiled critique on the pornography industry (and maybe the act of desire in the first place?)

“The Feeling of Needing a Pen” takes the urge to create, and drives it like a nail into a board covered in analogous descriptions: “...like a urine but even more gold / ...that spot on a dog that causes its leg to kick.” “The Descent of the Dunk” details the tribulations of a young girl growing up to the resounding slam of a ball through a hoop, wrapping up the conquest of women’s rights and identity as a woman into a neat, sportsthemed package, and delivering it with a mimicking impact right at the moment of triumph.

It’s important to note that Lockwood, as evidenced by her most famous poem, is a cut-from-the-cloth feminist. Gender identity drips from her poetry, and imbues much of it with an innate power. In “The Father and Mother of American Tit-Pics,” Lockwood swaps the genders of two of America’s most notable poets, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, then barrages the reader with fantasies about their various gender-identifying features, tits, beards, etc. The pieces of anatomy at times serve as stand-ins for conceits like poetic ability, public acclaim, and other, more elusive subjects. As Lockwood reminds us in the middle of the poem, “What I am TRYING to say is that metaphors are dangerous!” By that logic, perhaps this book is a bomb of metonymy, and we’re meant to let it explode in our hands, one piece at a time.

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Truth be told, the litany of metaphysical imaginings seemed a little bit grating by the mid-way point of the book. I was occasionally unable to connect the subject to the poem’s title and rambling description, and even when I could, I often felt the meditation about different ways of obliquely describing a single entity to be a little lacking. When Lockwood tweets, she regularly uses a raw, surreal, contemporary voice that only seemed to peek out in little bits throughout the poems in Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals. I wanted more of her brash, “gonna tweet whatever don’t give a fuck” attitude in these poems, where instead I got a page and a half of diatribes that feel as though they’d be more at home in an MFA workshop environment than being yelled

by Lockwood, three inches away from my digital face. This might be purely a matter of preference, but there is the temptation to identify Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals as something of a bait-and-switch.

There’s certainly nothing objectionable about the poems in this collection—the only thing to take offense to might be the contrast between the relatively serious content of the poems contrasted with Lockwood’s bizarre humour style, which emerges occasionally in titles like “Search ‘Lizard Vagina’ and You Shall Find.” It feels like a missed opportunity when this absurdism is lacking in a concrete way from the poems proper. Even when it surfaces, it seems more to be alienating for its own sake, rather than delivering any kind of message or impact. If every poem ruminated on naked selfies and perplexing sexual politics, the collection as a whole might have felt more cohesive, linked by a thread of theme and meaning, rather than approach. Having “Rape Joke” finally in print elevates the collection to a powerful place entirely on its own, but the jarring, confrontational delivery in that poem is rarely picked up elsewhere. Even when Lockwood isn’t afraid to use raw, un-poetic language (“Careful not to tip over with those huge jugs Walt!”), it feels either forced or poorly utilized. Lockwood’s more traditional poetry could most likely benefit from a fresh injection of her internet sensibilities, and probably still manage to please both the traditional crowd and the less literary. Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals, in its current form, seems to pull its punches a bit too much for its own good.

This isn’t an indictment of the entire collection; there are certainly worthwhile moments woven throughout, and Lockwood’s language is riveting even when she isn’t swearing or discussing reptilian genitals. In “The Hatfields and McCoys”, Lockwood describes the hereditary line of conflict and ancestry: “...as if / they’d been written in Early Times Whiskey / and the match of my sight had been flicked / and was racing now along them, and racing / like a line to their houses.” The metaphysical parallels and similes jump out like this often enough to keep the collection interesting, but they don’t entirely account for the lack of power the poems themselves seem fitted with in comparison to what Lockwood is capable of in other places and mediums.

We have, ultimately, a collection of serviceable poetry rattling around in, perhaps, a too conventional cage. We have hopes that when Lockwood delivers her next piece of work, it will be packed with the bombs of captive accusation and agony that makes her strongest shouting in the form of poetry worth reading, rather than just peppered here and there with tastes of sharpness, which ultimately leaves the reader wanting more.

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Sights of summer Alexandria Stuart The Navigator

LEFT Mayne Island light.

Luke Bowles

RIGHT Gabriel Stuart on BC Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hospital Teen Spirit trip.

Ciro Di Ruocco VIU clouds.

Luke Bowles Artists paint murals for the Rock of the Woods Music Festival. From left to right: Sean Aram Gordon, Arlen Hogarth, Tea Luna Mei, Rio G. Trenaman.

Ciro Di Ruocco Hornby Island deck feet.

Alexandria Stuart

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The sins of our fathers

DREW MCLACHLAN

“W

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ith this apology today, we cannot undo this wrong, and we must never erase it,” BC Premier Christy Clark began her government’s apology to Chinese-Canadians in the provincial Legislature.

“It is a stain on our history, but it’s a piece of history we are obliged to remember, because there is no truer thing that if you forget your history you are doomed to repeat it.”

Government-sanctioned racism, against the Chinese at least, began in 1872 with the introduction of a head tax imposed to deter Chinese immigrants from landing on Canadian soil. The $50 fee was raised to $500 in 1903—equivalent to two years’ wages for many—before it was abolished in 1947. Despite the head tax, as well as rising levels of hostility

by Caucasian Canadians, Chinese ships continued to cross the Pacific, filled with an optimistic cargo in search of a better life. Pressured by BC and other provincial governments, Ottawa passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, effectively barring both Chinese nationals and members of the diaspora from landing on Canada’s shores. Aside from political adversity, Chinese-Canadians also faced animosity from groups like the Asiatic Exclusion League, who led a riot through Vancouver’s Chinatown in the fall of 1907, laying siege to both the population and their property.

However on May 15, BC’s government was finally ready to ask for forgiveness. With a few words, and a year of con-

sultation with the Chinese community, the descendants of those wronged could be freed from their cultural baggage.

Wiping tears from his eyes, Shui Lee, a 58-year-old restaurant owner from Kelowna recalled his arrival in 1969 to the Canadian Press. “I feel, why am I coming here? I hate myself.

I don’t want to be Chinese anymore. I lost my dignity. I feel shame to myself. But today, I finally say thank you BC government. When I walk out this door today, I feel so proud that I can put my head up and I tell everybody I’m proud to be Canadian, I can be proud to be Chinese.”

The apology was a joint effort by the Liberal Party, the Opposition New Democrats, the Green Party, and independent MLAs. But while the Legislature may have been united in the apology, not all of the recipients were pleased.

The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) is an organization devoted to promoting the rights of Chinese-Canadians. The organization was formed in 1979 in reaction to a CTV W5 documentary titled “Campus Giveaways,” which pointed out that “there are so many oriental foreign students that they rarely mix with their Canadian classmates. It’s as if there are two campuses at Canadian universities—foreign and domestic.” The CCNC forced a retraction and apology from CTV, and have since strived to create a positive environment for the Chinese diaspora in a country with no lack of ill sentiment in its history.

The CCNC, along with other leaders of the redress campaign, did not attend Clark’s apology motion, calling it insincere due to the government’s refusal to make reparation payments. “It’s just not so easy to get us to accept an apology,” says executive director Victor Wong. “The point we’re trying to make—with all British Columbians—is that the group that was affected has to accept the apology. We can offer an apology, but for it to take effect, it has to be accepted. It hasn’t been accepted by us.”

According to the CCNC, the head tax era saw 82k Chinese make payments to the government, a total of $23 million.

During that time, head tax revenues were shared with the provinces, mostly BC, who received, at first, one quarter of the payments, and later one half. Of that $23 million, CCNC estimates that $8.5 million was transferred to BC coffers, which would now be valued anywhere between $800 million and $1 billion—and the group wants that money back in the hands of the families who paid it. “That information has never been disputed by the provincial government,” says Wong, “they never disputed that this sum was transferred to the province. And so it is our position that you cannot just apologize, you must—at least at a symbolic level—return this sum back to the head tax families who paid it.”

Though the BC government refused to include reparation payments as part of their apology, the federal government,

under Stephen Harper’s Conservatives, did so following their own apology in 2006. Payments of $20k were made to head tax payers or their spouses, totalling just under $16 million. As the youngest payers had immigrated to Canada 83 years prior, few were still alive to receive their compensation. Wong and the CCNC are working to have a redress provided for the children—or grandchildren—of those who ended up waiting their whole lives for a “proper” apology.

In conjunction with payments made to individuals, the federal government also set aside $5 million to be used for projects designed to educate Canadians on the wrongs committed during and after the head tax era, under the banner of the Community Historical Recognition Program.

2013 saw a spark of controversy as $500k—ten percent of the total promised—was reclaimed by the government: $400k of funding from one organization that failed to file their paperwork properly, and the balance from other organizations that underspent. Jason Kenney, then Minister of Citizenship, Immigration, and Multiculturalism, refused to reissue the funds, saying that the program was a huge success and well-received in the community. “These projects don’t go on in perpetuity, they have an end date,” he told the Globe and Mail at the time.

While the CCNC and other advocacy groups saw the 2006 repayments as incomplete, reaching even that point was a long road. The topic was first introduced to the House of Commons by Margaret Mitchell, former NDP MP for Vancouver East, in 1984 after Vancouver resident Dak Leon approached her for help in having the $500 head tax he had once paid returned to him. Though Mitchell brought the issue to the House, it was quickly swept under the rug.

Soon thousands of Chinese-Canadians with similar stories demanded redress as well, but Ottawa refused to listen. In 1988, the federal government under Brian Mulroney awarded $300 million to Japanese-Canadians who were uprooted from their homes and sent to internment camps during the Second World War. This gave new hope to the Chinese community, and led to the formation of the BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses, and Descendants, who registered 1600 new head tax families and worked alongside the CCNC to pressure the government for an apology and redress. Shortly before retiring from office in 1993, Mulroney attempted to compromise with these groups, along with Ukrainian and Italian advocates by offering gold medallions and a Nation Builder’s Hall of Record. All three communities eventually rejected the offer. Future governments would refuse to make apologies until 2006.

Despite the decades leading up to recent events, some groups, the CCNC in particular, have had a hard time accepting the outcome. While the organization would still have likely rejected the apology, as it did not include redress payments, Clark’s speech in May was made on shaky ground.

In February 2013, the BC Liberals made a different kind of apology to many of the province’s ethnic and religious groups.

A Liberal document, called the “Multicultural Strategy,” was publicized by the BC NDP after it was leaked. The document contained plans for MLAs to garner support from various communities in the upcoming election by issuing apologies

for historical wrongs. Included in the document were outlines for an apology for the Komagata Maru Incident of 1914 where a ship of 365 passengers, after being anchored for two months, was turned away from the Vancouver Harbour. An apology for the Komagata Maru Incident had already been made in 2008 by then-premier Gordon Campbell. The BC Liberals came under fire for the document, even by members of their own caucus. “If you’re truly reaching out wanting to assist these communities, and you’re truly apologetic, do it from the heart, not for a check mark on the ballot come election day,” Liberal MLA Kash Heed said at the time.

Clark claimed that the document was still under review at the time, and that no government funds had been used to implement it. Still, she quickly offered an apology for it in the Legislature. “The document did not recognize there are lines that cannot be crossed in conducting this outreach and it is unacceptable,” her apology read. “The language in this draft document and some of the recommendations are absolutely inappropriate. Every community in British Columbia contributes to the rich diversity of our province and the very fabric of who we are. We need to embrace and respect that fact. As a government, we have a responsibility to reach out to every community to ensure they are engaged and understand the services that are available to them.”

Plans for an all-party apology ceased after the leak, so the BC NDP issued their own apology to Chinese-Canadians in January, supplementing it with the release of over 100 archived laws and motions documenting the head tax era.

While the party only formed the official opposition, they referred to the apology as “official.” “Rather than just criticize, we’re making a positive contribution by making this information available, by engaging with young people, by making the situation better,” said BC NDP leader at the time, Adrian Dix. Still, the CCNC felt the apology was empty, and that by ignoring the wishes of the group they claimed to be apologetic to they were using it as a means to gain public favour, just as the Liberals had planned to the year before. “It’s the same approach of offering words with no substance,” says Wong. “The NDP is also aware, they have not disputed, that a significant amount of money was collected from families. They don’t even make mention of it. This is the appalling thing I find with BC politicians, in this modern age, a hundred years after overt racism, they can’t even find themselves to put it on the record that they profited from racism. In this sense, the apology statement from May 15 is very insincere.” After Dix stepped down as party leader, the new BC NDP head John Horgan agreed to join the Liberals in the all-party apology delivered by Premier Clark in May. In a sense, the sins of our fathers, the unjust and prejudicial policies passed by former governments, have become a blessing for current politicians. Though it may take some consultation, at least some of those who have been wronged, or those whose ancestors have been wronged, aren’t concerned with repentance. On May 15, Clark took a stand in the Legislature, and told them that the government was sorry. The crowd gathered there, many wiping tears from their eyes, replied with “thank you.”

Arts

Peking Circus in Nanaimo

Samantha Letorneau, The Port Theatre

JENNIFER GARCEAU The National Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China, who have been amazing audiences since 1951, have created a new show to impress crowds on an international scale. The new production, Peking Cirque, utilizes exuberant costumes, exciting lighting, and physical features a “Nanaimoite” is not privy to on any regular day.

Luckily for the people of Nanai-

CONTRIBUTOR mo, the National Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China stopped in the Harbour City during their North American Tour for three performances: two evening shows on September 5 and 6 and a family-friendly afternoon matinee family show on September 6. The presentation featured seemingly impossible achievements in strength, balance, and contortion-

ism. The company continuously awed their audience with displays of dance and aerial maneuvers. For their new show, the acrobats also incorporated ballet, plate-spinning, tumbling, and juggling, all set to a backdrop of both traditional and modern music.

The troupe formed in 1951, and has generated over 200 gold and silver medal winners in

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various acrobat and circus competitions and festivals within China and internationally. The company has travelled throughout Europe, South America, and North America, performing in over 70 countries.

In addition to showcasing their extraordinary acrobatic and artistic talents, the National Acrobats of the People’s Republic of China were an important component on

establishing diplomatic reconciliation between the USA and China in 1972 during the Cold War. The company was invited to perform for arts ambassadors at the White House during a time in which the two countries had no formal diplomatic ties with one another—a prime example that art is the language which all humans can share, regardless of political idioms.

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Kathy Page to speak on the death of Edward Thomas GORDON HAK Well-known author Kathy Page from VIU’s Creative Writing and Journalism Department will give the first presentation of the academic year in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities Colloquium series.

The talk is entitled “Waters That No Vessel Ever Sailed” and will be held September 19 at 10 am in the Malaspina Theatre.

The focus of the talk is Edward Thomas, one of the renowned war poets of World War I. Thomas, who was married with three children, died at the age of 39 on April 9, 1917 at the Battle of Arras.

Page’s interest in Thomas, who is increasingly revered in the UK, began when her elderly father became unable to read.“During the last years of his life,” she says, “the family read to him.

Poetry was what he preferred; like many of his generation, he had memorized a great deal of verse at school, and while his memory for other things became erratic, poetry and his response to it per-

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CONTRIBUTOR sisted until the end. I felt extremely grateful to the poets my father loved, and read further into their work and lives.”

For Page, Thomas was fascinating because of his unique poetic voice and his poignant, well-documented life story. “Plagued by depression and creative frustration,” she notes, “Thomas blossomed as a poet when encouraged

by American poet Robert Frost—a development that coincided with his fateful choice to enlist and fight in France.”

Page was also curious about the way his reputation gathered momentum over the decades.

These interests coalesce in her current work-in-progress, a set of linked stories, three of which concern Thomas.

At the Colloquium, Page will present part of this work, a hybrid of story and essay that centres on Thomas’s poem “The Lane” and concerns the exact nature of his death, which she argues is open

to question. Using the available evidence to construct several possibilities, she will explore the border territory between fiction and non-fiction, and our need to make stories of our own and other people’s lives.

Page, who lives on Salt Spring Island, is a novelist and short story writer. Her works have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Orange Prize, a Governor General’s Literary Award, and a ReLit award.

The free talk is open to faculty, employees, the general public, and students. Refreshments will be served afterward.

Page’s presentation, which takes its title from a line in Thomas’ poem, is the first of three talks in the Arts and Humanities Colloquium series this fall. The theme for the term is war and its consequences, a subject fitting the 100th anniversary of World War I, Page’s talk promises to be a stimulating and enjoyable.

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Second Lieutenant Edward Thomas, 1917.

Courtesy of The Edward Thomas Fellowship

Movie Review: Boyhood

Transformation of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) in Boyhood.

SPENCER WILSON

Courtesy of <dreamsandvisions.squarespace.com>

CONTRIBUTOR

It’s easy to hear about this film and think it will come off as a gimmick: a film following a boy from ages six to 18 which uses the same cast to depict the process of aging. Thankfully, the reality is that Boyhood is a remarkable experience to witness on film.

Watching actors grow up on screen isn’t a new concept to film, the most historical example being François Truffaut’s films about the character Antione Doinel (played by JeanPierre Léaud), which began with The 400 Blows in 1959 and continued with films in 1962, ‘68, ‘70, and ‘79. There’s also the Harry Potter series, which director Richard Linklater makes reference to early in the film when the kids are being read the Philosopher’s Stone before bed, and again when they are older and going to an opening night release of the HalfBlood Prince. Those familiar with Linklater’s earlier works will know he is no stranger to depicting the evolution of people on-screen with his Before trilogy, but what sets it apart from any of the previously mentioned is that we get to witness the entire process presented as a complete narrative in two hours and 40 minutes.

Annually, for 12 years, Linklater assembled the cast and shot a 15 minute short film over the course of three days. He edited the footage each time they shot and then pieced each part of the film together. This included the music, which he carefully used to punctuate the years as they passed, and it brings you along for the ride.

The story progresses in a linear format, beginning with the boy, Mason Evans, Jr. (Ellar Coltrane), at age six in primary school, and then ending with him at college as a freshman at age 18. Alongside him we get to see his older sister, Samantha (played by Linklater’s daughter, Lorelei), grow up as well, but the focus is always on Mason and his personal perspective. At the beginning of the movie, we find out that Mason’s parents are divorced and the kids mainly live with their mother (Patricia Arquette) and visit with their father (Ethan Hawke) on weekends. Their mother moves frequently throughout the film as she tries to find affordable living

while also trying to complete her master’s degree to teach psychology. Meanwhile, their father works as a musician and tries to remain a meaningful presence in their lives by giving them as much life advice as possible when they’re together.

The changes in Mason are very subtle. Linklater does an excellent job of not drawing attention to Mason’s aging process with obvious cuts between showing his face one year and then the next, or showing 12 different birthday scenes—it flows seamlessly from one event to the other. In fact, the film is so excellently paced that it is hard to believe how many years have passed by the time it’s over. The choice of events feel natural, as if the film is showing Mason’s own memory of which events mattered to him.

Therefore, you won’t see predictable scenes that you might expect to see in a movie about a boy growing up and going to college, like a high school graduation. In an interview, Linklater spoke of his own graduation, saying “it was boring, and I was an extra in a big event, and there was nothing personal about it. But I do remember being in a car with my buddy Danny, and he had a drink, and we were kind of farting around afterwards.” The film then becomes this combination of Linklater’s growing up, and Coltrane’s own contributions to the character. The idea works perfectly, because we are left with many small, character-building moments in between periods of furious drama. Sometimes they are very small and quiet, like Mason finding the skeleton of a dead bird when he is six; sometimes they are very startling and dramatic, like when his alcoholic stepfather goes on a drunken rampage; and many times he’ll be given stereotypical male lessons on things like catching a football and shooting a gun.

As a character, Mason isn’t perfect. He starts off as a daydreamer who always forgets to hand in his homework. He’s always looking out windows and we’re given a sense of his disconnection with the world beginning at a young age. As he gets older, his procrastination with school continues as he makes time for video games, friends, and, later on,

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photography. He begins engaging in the usual rebellious teenage activities of getting drunk, smoking pot, and staying out all night. Throughout his life he sees adults, specifically his parents, struggling to find their own meanings in life, and it seems to perpetuate Mason’s own dissatisfaction with what the world has offered him so far.

Linklater has always been good at capturing people and ideas from a certain generation within his films, and Boyhood is no different. Mason comes across as a representation of the current generation of youth, which is amazing considering he manages to accurately depict the stages of Mason’s growth in an organic way. The strength within this, is, the film doesn’t feel like it’s celebrating youth or condemning them for being irresponsible in any way—it simply shows the events of a boy growing up.

When combined with great writing and acting, it almost feels like a documentary.

The actors are fantastically convincing. Arquette perfectly portrays the stress of raising the children alone, with Hawke trying to act cool and spout life philosophy like he does in some of Linklater’s other films (Before trilogy, Waking Life).

But the kids stand out the most. Coltrane and Lorelei are naturally talented and play their characters very well despite having to basically grow up with them. This is aided by a screenplay that constantly evolved with the characters to make all their conversations feel real. Mason has many moments of awkward conversation and mumbled begrudgery that makes him sound like a real character.

Overall, Linklater does a great job keeping everything understated. The moments and their conversations feel real; the directing is linear, but not too linear to be unimaginative; and the overall construction is brilliant. When the film is over, it feels disorienting to have experienced so much in one film, and yet feels like it wasn’t crammed together. It’s a very contemplative film and a perfect representation of human memory. Do not miss this extremely unique cinematic experience.

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On the Fringe DENISA KRAUS

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For two weeks in the middle of August the arts scene in Nanaimo breathed and pulsed with the fourth annual Fringe, an independent theatre festival which brought together international and local artists, musicians, and theatre enthusiasts. With eight plays, 48 shows, and 30 non-theatre performances in three venues, the festival attracted over 1000 visitors, marking a 32 percent increase in attendance since 2013. The plays presented a wide spectrum of theatre genres, ranging from stand-up comedy and storytelling pieces to intense sci-fi or psychological dramas. The Navigator saw six out of the eight plays and talked with festival producer Chelsee Damen.

Fringe Mini Reviews Danny and the Deep Blue Sea cornered the audience emotionally with brilliant, nerve-draining performances from beginning actors Carly Neigum and Raymond Knight who portrayed a duo of social outcasts in the deep muddy waters of the Bronx. An ambitious and deeply moving metaphorical love story of two broken souls where violence and masochism is the only natural response to the world resolves in a cathartic scene that turns all aggression into hope of forgiveness and understanding.

His repeated requests to laugh harder may have very well been a meta part of the show, consisting of nonetheless engaging drug jokes or celebrity impressions, but James’s demands on the small late night group of audiences outweighed the actual joy we could have taken from the whole experience.

The true story of Christmas in Bakersfield, on the other hand, amused the crowds with sassy but agreeable humour of California-based actor Les Kurkendaal, whose epic monologue about a surprise confrontation with his boyfriend’s conservative Caucasian family promises that “White Christmas ain’t gonna happen,” mostly because Les is black.

The Suckerpunch brought a tense and dramatic outlook into the near future where technology allows us to travel five seconds back in time and erase the mistakes we make or regrets we have. The breathtaking performance of Vancouver-based actor and playwright Brent Hirose masterfully balanced what could have been an overwhelmingly pessimistic journey to a sterile and artificial world of shallow joy. Hirose’s ability to switch back and forth between four different characters and portray each of them with equal persuasive energy was one of the highlights of the whole festival.

During StickMan, a witty yet slightly forced wordplay standup, Welsh comedian Noel James refused to let the crowd go until they provided a satisfactory level of laughter decibels.

The Best of Fest award, based on audience votes, went to the sharp romantic comedy Square—A Stage Pornography in which two old grade school acquaintances (Gary Alfred

and Samantha Pawliuk) engage in an explosive conversation to discover each other and gradually uncover more and more skin. There was no time to be shocked or even distracted by the actor’s complete nudity, as the dense, pun-heavy dialogue drew almost all attention to itself and thus challenged us to suspend our inhibitions and really listen to what the two 20-somethings had to say.

A personal favourite, MUSE, offered a peek into the psyche of Grace, a mental institution patient with a weakness for cellos, spontaneous melodies, and a little bit of mischief.

Her neurological condition forbid her to communicate clearly with the outside world, but well with the vivid music inside her head. With a realistic and captivating performance from actress Natalia Hautala, brilliantly interacting with the audience as part of her imaginary escape world, the story brought a critical perspective on the healthcare system in which psychiatric patients are submitted to harsh and insensitive treatment by indifferent authorities.

The fringe experience of Fringe Festival JENNIFER GARCEAU / CONTRIBUTOR An evening of work can be unpredictable at a café in downtown Nanaimo with a liquor license. There’s a mix of artists, working class, upper crust WASPs, white-collar types, and general left-of-centre folks creating an idyllic laissez-faire community.

This year, The Vault was selected to be the Nanaimo Fringe Hub venue, though I didn’t think it would’ve made much of a difference to my already whimsical evenings.

Fringe Festival taught me how passionate Nanaimo is for its theatre community. There were nights where we were at full capacity with people I had never seen before.

Also, observing the actors before and after shows intrigued me. The

unique music shows and performance artists doing standup kept me attentive all shift long.

The first show was on a typical night and wasn’t overly busy. I poured tea, chai latté’s and beer until midnight.

The music genres ranged between youthful indie rock, blues-inspired folk, and classic singer-songwriter. The following nights ranged between reggae, experimental electronic, and modern progressive rock. I enjoyed the earnesty of The Owl and the Pussycat, the bold experimental nature of The Massless and Friends, the audio textural experience of Mona Cold, and the raw stories of Chris

Ronald. Tucked in between the music were stand up comedians, performance art monologues, and the Best of Fringe awards.

I loved being included in the daily realities of the Fringe Festival—seeing the actors before each performance, being a part of their pre-show ritual and seeing them exuberant and proud with their various family members and supporters after the show. I loved catching snippets of attendee’s reviews, complete strangers giving each other reviews on what show they have to catch, and watching people experience the bohemian bliss for the first time at the Fringe Hub location for two weeks.

Chris Ronald performs at the Hub.

Denisa Kraus

At the Hub with Chelsee Damen

Festival producer Chelsee Damen and volunteer Keauna Miller with the “Best of Fest” award at the Vault Café.

Denisa Kraus

N

anaimo Fringe producer Chelsee Damen was probably the busiest person in town during the two weeks of the festival. Her stories about losing her toothbrush at one of the venues and barely sleeping for a few weeks only illustrate the rare moments when she couldn’t be seen running back and forth between the museum and Harbour City Theatre venues, or videotaping Hub concerts at The Vault Café.

Navigator: Did the Fringe surprise you in any way this year?

Chelsee Damen: The outpouring of support and enthusiasm this year went well beyond what we’ve experienced in the

17 ARTS

past. There was truly a sense that we have put down some roots and connected with the community. I was delightfully overwhelmed by media and public inquiries in the weeks leading up to the festival. And though that led me to believe we were going to have a great crowd this year, it was still surprising to look out over a full house at the preview show and have it sink in that the event we prepared all year had arrived and all those eager faces turned up. Fringe is all about bringing the community together, and in the theatre that night I was elated to see that the vision we started with four years ago is taking shape.

What was the biggest challenge for you and the volunteer crew?

In eight days we had 48 plays, over 30 performances in the hub, a preview show, the Best of Fest award, and a design jam. What I found challenging was not being able to be everywhere at once. Thankfully, we had an incredible staff and a big team of keen volunteers, so I knew my teammates were looking after things all around the festival. With so much going on at various locations I could only ever experience a part of it. The volunteers and staff have the tough job of sticking to a tight schedule and careful coordination. It was an exciting and sort of insane experience, and I feel like the people who help make Fringe happen are family.

How would you summarize your whole experience this year?

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There’s nothing like seeing a play or two, and then heading over to the café to talk about the plays with a bunch of friends, and neighbours, and the performers. I was always running into people just coming from or going to a show, or discussing the festival lineup. For two weeks, we were all sharing something. It was exhilerating and strange, and we were all in it together.

What is the plan for next year? Will you stay in your position of festival producer?

I plan to produce the Fringe next year. I helped create the event in 2011 and have been deeply invested in it. I hope to always participate in Nanaimo Fringe in some capacity. Fringe is a project I am passionate about and I aim to share that more as we develop. I would love to see my role eventually become a partnership with one or two other people—partly because I aspire to have room in my life for other projects, and also because I think it would add new dimensions to Fringe planning. Collaboration is a value we have worked on building in our organization over the past year, and one I see us continuing to focus on in coming years. None of this would have come about without a village, and I imagine that village growing. Our board of directors, staff, volunteers, relationships with other community groups, and engagement with the public have made so much possible. As we grow, I want that engagement and communication to grow also.

On the Fringe Denisa Kraus

Carly Neigum and Raymond Knight in Danny & The Deep Blue Sea.

Samantha Pawliuk and Gary Alfred in the award-winning Square.

Brent Hirose and his four characters in Suckerpunch.

Les Kurkendaal in Christmas in Bakersfield.

p

Natalia Hautala prepares for her performance in MUSE.

Noel James of StickMan improvises a mini performance with Valentina Cardinalli during the Fringe Design Jam.

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ARTS 18

Sports

VI Raiders crawl back to .500 BEN CHESSOR The Vancouver Island Raiders improved their record to 3-3 with an 81-6 win over the Valley Huskers at Caledonia Park September 6. The loss drops the last place Huskers to 0-6. The 81 point outburst moved the Raiders back to .500 for the first time since the second week of the season when the team was 1-1.

This year’s version of the Raiders features a lot of homegrown talent.

The team currently has 33 Islandborn players on their roster, including 24 from Nanaimo. The Raiders also have a new coach this season—as former Montreal Allouette linebacker Brian Ridgeway has taken over head coaching duties this season.

The Raiders started the season on

THE NAVIGATOR July 26 in Langley against the Rams in a rematch of last year’s league final. Unlike last year, it was the Rams who picked up the win by a final score of 44-36. The next week, the Raiders picked up the season’s first win on the road in Westshore against the Rebels. The game wasn’t close as Nanaimo handed their Island rivals a 39-9 victory. The game was over early as Nanaimo put up 26 points in the first quarter, and took a 32-0 lead into the fourth quarter, before the Rebels managed to get on the board. The Raiders then suffered back-to-back blowout losses in their third and fourth games of the season against the Okanagan Sun. First, the team was shutout

in a 38-0 loss in the Okanagan. The two teams traveled to the Island the following week. This time the Sun picked up the victory by a score of 64-20. The Raiders then improved their record to 2-3 the next week as the team avenged their week one

loss to Langley, picking up a hardfought 52-44 victory at Caledonia Park.The Raiders trailed 44-42 heading into the fourth quarter, but they managed to keep the Rams off the scoreboard while adding 10 points of their own to seal the victory.

The Raiders’ next home game is on September 13 at 2 pm against the Okanagan Sun. They’re looking to pick up their first win against the Sun this season. All home games are played at Caledonia Park. Visit <www.viraiders.ca> for more details.

BCFC

Record

Pts

Win%

PF

PA

Okanagan Sun

5–1

10

.833

248

86

Langley Ram

4–2

8

.667

276

179

Kamloops Broncos

4–2

8

.667

215

195

Vancouver Island Raiders

3–3

6

.500

228

205

Westshore Rebels

2–4

4

.333

117

216

Valley Huskers

0–6

0

0

82

285

Buccaneers sail past Generals in season opener BEN CHESSOR The Nanaimo Buccaneers started the 2014-2015 Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League season on the right note September 4 at the Nanaimo Ice Centre. Four different Buccaneers scored first period goals, leading the team to a 5-2 victory over the Oceanside Generals.

The Buccaneers opened the scoring short-handed just 2:40 into the game as Nolan Richardson beat

THE NAVIGATOR Oceanside starter David Anderson to make it 1-0 Buccaneers. Will McNamara, Jordan Levesque, and Jared Fedosoff would also beat Anderson before the first period ended, giving the Buccaneers a 4-0 lead after the first period whereshots on goal favoured the Buccaneers 18-9.

Oceanside started to gain a little momentum in the second period.

The Generals got on the board at

5:46 on a goal from Kyle Wade. Just over 10 minutes later the Generals got another goal, this time from Keanu Gallegos, to cut the Nanaimo lead to 4-2. The Generals had a few more good scoring opportunities before the end of the second period, but they were unable to beat Nanaimo starter Brandon Wood.

In the third period, Fedosoff added his second goal of the game at 4:50 to give the Buccaneers a 5-2

lead. But the third period was marked by a scary incident— Oceanside General, Nick Klassen, got tangled up with Buccaneers defenceman, Rowan Siider. The two collided. and Klassen fell awkwardly into the boards. He laid motionless on the ice for several minutes, and was eventually taken off the ice on a stretcher. Once the game resumed, the two teams played the last 13 minutes without scoring.

Final shots favoured the Buccaneers 36-30.

The Buccaneers’ next home game is September 11 against the visiting Kerry Park Islanders. On the following Thursday, the Buccaneers take on the team who eliminated them in the first round of last year’s playoffs, The Campbell River Storm. Puck drop for both games is at 7:15pm—tickets for students are only $8.

Mariner Women split season’s first two games BEN CHESSOR The VIU Mariners Women’s soccer team split their first two games of the PacWest season.

The Mariners won their season opener against Quest Kermodes on September 3. The team returned home for their season opener September 6, but fell to the visiting Langara Falcons.

Against Quest, the Mariners got on the board early with a goal by Zoey Grace coming in the 15th minute. The score stayed that way until the second half when the Mariners

THE NAVIGATOR got goals from Moira Brown and Bronte Fitzsimmons five minutes apart to put the Mariners up 3-0.

The Kermodes scored to cut into the Mariners lead, but were unable to continue the comeback. VIU picked up the win by a final score of 3-1.

The Mariners returned to the Island for their home opener September 6 against the Langara Falcons. It was a tightly-contested match between the two clubs. The match remained scoreless until the

90th minute when the Falcons were able to convert the game’s only goal, and spoiling the Mariner’s home opener with a 1-0 victory.

The Mariners next home games are September 13 and 14 against Douglas College on Saturday, and Kwantlen University on Sunday.

Kickoff for the Saturday game is 1 pm, and the Sunday game starts at noon.

For more information on the Mariners visit <mariners.viu.ca>.

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Women’s Soccer

Wins

Draws

Losses

Pts

Douglas Royals

2

0

0

6

VIU Mariners

1

0

1

3

Langara Falcons

1

0

1

3

Kwantlen Eagles

1

0

1

3

Capilano Blues

0

1

1

1

Quest Kermodes

0

1

1

1

SPORTS 19

Top 10 sports stories of the summer

BEN CHESSOR It was a busy summer in the world of sports. A new interesting story seemed to surface every week.

While I was glued to the computer reading about the latest development in the Donald Stirling incident, and everyone else was outside enjoying the beautiful weather, I created a list of some of the most interesting stories that took place in sports over the summer.

10

Rory McIlroy has great summer, makes casual fans talk about golf.

This summer, we finally saw Rory McIlroy raise his game to the level that many believed he was capable of. McIlroy got off to a mediocre start to the season, but caught fire as the summer wore on. Rory has won the last two major tournaments (The Open and PGA Championships). He also became the first golfer to pick up three straight wins on tour since Tiger Woods did in 2007. With controversy and injuries threatening Woods’ career, McIlroy seems poised to take over as the next big thing in the world of golf.

9

Michael Sam becomes first openly gay NFL draftee.

The 2014 NFL Draft started without incident May 8. The Houston Texans selected Jadeveon Clowney first overall. Blake Bortles became the first quarterback selected third overall. Former Texas A&M and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel was selected 22nd overall by the Cleveland Browns. It wasn’t until the last few picks of the draft that another interesting story took place. Michael Sam, a defensive end from Missouri University, was selected in the seventh round, 249th overall by the St. Louis Rams. This made Sam the first openly gay player ever drafted into the NFL. However, Sam still has a long way to go before achieving his dream of playing in the NFL. Since being drafted by St. Louis, he has been cut by the team and added to the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad.

8

Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays both having good seasons.

It hasn’t been easy being fan of baseball in BC for the past 21 years.

Since Joe Carter’s famous walk-off homerun to end the 1993 World Series, fans of baseball in this part of the world have had little to cheer about. The Seattle Mariners have had small periods of success since

20 SPORTS

THE NAVIGATOR the Toronto Blue Jays’ last championship, which was also their last playoff appearance. The 1995 Mariners team completed a historic September comeback in order to make the 1995 MLB Playoffs. That team’s American League Division Series win against the Yankees is still considered by many the greatest moment in team history. The 2001 Mariners team also tied the MLB record for wins in a season in 2001 with 116, but failed to do much damage in the playoffs that season. Now, with September here, and the baseball season down to its last 25 games, both the Mariners and Bluejays have a chance at securing a playoff spot, the first for either team since the 2001 Mariners team. As a big Mariners fan who is enjoying important baseball in September for the first time in over a decade, this feels like the biggest story of the summer, but it’s been really neat to see both teams playing competent baseball.

7

LA Kings survive the Western Conference, win Cup. It was obvious to anyone who watched NHL hockey last season that the Western conference was the tougher conference in the NHL. The big question was who was going to win the west, and would they be healthy enough to win another series against whoever was crowned champion of the east.

Well, the LA Kings turned out to be the team who survived the west, and “survived” is the best term to describe it. The Kings lost their first three games of the playoffs against San Jose before winning four straight to capture the series.

The Kings also became the first team in NHL history to win three game sevens in the same playoffs, all three of those on the road. The only team the Kings didn’t need seven games to defeat was the New York Rangers, who were defeated in five to win the Stanley Cup.

6

Andrew Wiggins selected first overall to Cleveland, promptly gets traded.

Andrew Wiggins, considered by many to be the greatest prospect in the history of Canadian basketball, was selected first overall in this year’s NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. A couple of years ago, Wiggins looked poised to become the first Canadian to be selected first overall in the NBA draft.

But the Cavaliers who also had the first overall pick in last year’s

draft, used that pick to select Canadian Anthony Bennett. Wiggins’ selection wasn’t a huge shock to the basketball world; it was what happened after that was surprising.

The Cavaliers, who made another sizeable acquisition this offseason (more on that later) traded both Canadians, Wiggins and Bennett, to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for power forward Kevin Love. The trade was discussed soon after Wiggins was drafted, but players cannot be traded until a month after they’ve been drafted. Wiggins also became the third first overall pick to be traded before even playing a game in the NBA.

5

Canucks clean house, restore respect to organization.

Last season was a pretty disappointing season to be a fan of the Vancouver Canucks. The team, who had won two of the last 14 playoff games they had been in, made few changes this offseason. The largest change the team made during the last offseason was replacing head coach Alain Vigneault with controversial coach John Tortorella. It would be an understatement to say the coaching change backfired terribly. Tortorella was fired after one season—less than one if you don’t count the time he spent suspended for trying to storm into the Calgary Flames dressing room and attack Bob Hartley during a game in January. The team also fired General Manager Mike Gillis before the season ended. Gillis’ firing was well-received by the Canucks fanbase, who disliked watching Gillis trade away two world-class goaltenders for less than market value returns.

This offseason, the Canucks organization promised change, and so far they have delivered on that promise. The Canucks started by hiring former great Trevor Linden as president. Linden’s first move was hiring former Boston Bruin Assistant GM Jim Benning to replace Gillis. In his short time as GM, Benning has made multiple big moves. He started by trading disgruntled forward Ryan Kesler to Anaheim. Benning then signed free agents Ryan Miller and Radim Vrbata. Miller comes to Vancouver hoping to return to his status as elite goalie in the NHL after a less -than-stellar playoff run with the St. Louis Blues. Vrbata, a former 30-goal scorer, looks to slot in on the wing of the Canucks’ first line alongside the Sedins. These moves, along with a few others Benning has made since the NHL

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draft, puts the Canucks in position to rebound from last year’s disappointing season.

Germany wins extremely high scoring 2014 World Cup. The 2014 World Cup took place this summer ,and was not without its share of surprises. The biggest surprise was the elimination of defending champion Spain, after two matches, including an embarrassing 5-1 loss at the hands of the Netherlands. This instalment of the World Cup was one of the highest scoring in history, with the tournament only having three games finish in a 0-0 tie. In the end, Germany was crowned champions as they defeated Argentina 1-0 in the final. The German team also defeated the host Brazilian team 7-1 in the semi-finals, which might be the biggest embarrassment in sports history.

surfaced to the public. Stirling was heard telling his friend that he didn’t want her bringing African Americans around his games or posting pictures with African Americans on her Instagram.

This was in response to photos that were posted by his friend on Instagram of her with NBA legend Magic Johnson. The backlash from Stirling’s comments were extreme as new NBA commissioner Adam Silver handed Stirling a lifetime ban, which barred him from any events involving the NBA. This included all practices and team events. The LA Clippers protested against their owner, and the team laid their warmup jackets on center court and warmed up with their practice jerseys inside out. The series of events eventually led to the sale of the team by Stirling’s wife to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for two billion dollars, putting an end to one of the most disgraceful periods in sports history.

3

1

4

Washington Redskins name controversy resurfaces.

The long-running debate about whether or not the Washington Redskins is a racist name for a professional sports franchise picked up once again this summer, but this time it seems like the cries for a change are starting to pick up more steam. First, it was former Redskins star Champ Bailey who stated that he thought the name should be changed. President Obama discussed the issue, stating during an interview that if he was the owner of the team he would look into getting the name changed. The Redskins organization has since released a statement that they don’t feel the name is racist. Instead, the Redskins organization feels that the team was named the Redskins in order to show respect for the accomplishments of Native Americans, including the team’s aboriginal head coach they employed at the time of naming. With influential names such as Obama and Champ Bailey making public comment, it seems like the time is drawing closer and closer to the name finally being changed.

2

Donald Stirling racist comments leaked.

Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Stirling caused quite a stir this summer as comments that he made during a phone conversation to a “special friend”

Lebron James returns to Cleveland, and everyone in Cleveland forgets they hate him.

It didn’t take long after the NBA season for the focus to shift to free agency, especially with the league’s best player opting out of his contract and becoming a free agent.

That is exactly what Lebron James did after the Miami Heat’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Championship; it was the Heat’s fourth consecutive appearance in the finals. The moment James declared himself a free agent the frenzy started. Every team who could afford it broke out all the stops in an attempt to try and land possibly the greatest player in NBA history. Much of the speculation from the start of free agency had Lebron either returning to Miami at an increased deal or returning to Cleveland, the city he left a few years earlier, leaving people to burn their Lebron merchandise in the streets. In the end, Lebron decided to take his talents back to Ohio as he signed a two year deal with the Cavaliers. The move turned Cleveland into an instant NBA Championship contender. But look for the whole free agent frenzy to happen again sooner rather than later, as Lebron’s contract includes an optout clause after this season.

Mariners Men cruising to start season BEN CHESSOR The Mariners Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soccer team picked up two big victories to open their season. VIU defeated Quest in the season opener before returning home, and routing the visiting Langara Falcons. The

Menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Soccer

Wins

Draws

Losses

Pts

VIU Mariners

2

0

0

6

Douglas Royals

1

1

0

3

Kwantlen Eagles

1

0

1

3

Capilano Blues

1

0

1

3

Langara Falcons

0

1

1

1

Quest Kermodes

0

0

2

0

THE NAVIGATOR Mariners are the only team in the PacWest to start the season with back to back victories.

The Marines got goals from Jordan Degraaf and Victor Blasco in a hard fought 2-1 victory in Squa-

mish against Quest University on September 3. The Mariners played their home opener on September 6, and their offense came wellprepared. The Mariners offense exploded for four goals blowing

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out the Falcons by a final score of 4-0.

The Mariners next home games are September 13, and 14. VIU plays Douglas College on Saturday, kickoff is at 3 pm. The next day the

Mariners face the Kwantlen Eagles, kickoff at 2 pm.

For more information on the Mariners visit <mariners.viu.ca>.

SPORTS 21

Odds & Ends

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ODDS & ENDS 22

September

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

10

11

12

13

FROSH Movie Night

FROSH Concert & Beer Garden

FROSH Pancake Breakfast

Fall Belly Dance Showcase & Bazaar

Royal Bank Plaza, Nanaimo Campus

Royal Bank Plaza, Nanaimo Campus

Wellington Hall, 3922 Corunna St.

Free

Free

Suggested $5

12 – 4PM

8 – 11AM

11AM – 4PM

Royal Bank Plaza, Nanaimo Campus Free 8PM

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

“Black Track Tour” of Nanaimo’s Old Coal Mining Sites

Calm Under Pressure: Stress Management workshop

Golf Tournament Fundraiser for VIU Athletics

Open Mic Night

Toastmasters: Open House

Synapse w/ Chunkasaurus, Weed Thrasher, Graveolence

The Nanaimo Harvest Festival

Morden Colliery Historic Provincial Park

Nanaimo campus, bldg.

250, room 308

Nanaimo Golf Course, 2800 Highland Blvd.

$30 Reserve: 250 714 0377

Free

$200

12 – 12:50PM

1:30 – 9PM

21

22

23

The Nanaimo Clippers vs. West Kelowna

Riding The Wave: Dealing with Difficult Emotions

Classical Coffee Concert with Sarah Hagen

The Vault Café, 499 Wallace St. Free 8:30AM – 4PM

Adults $14 2:30PM

Nanaimo campus, bldg.

200, room 324 Free Weekly until Oct 27

The Port Theatre, 125 Front St. Students $15 10:30AM – Noon

3 – 4PM

23 CALENDAR

Free 4:45 – 6:30PM

4 – 6:30 PM

Frank Crane Arena, 230 Bowen Rd.

Nanaimo campus, bldg.

180, room 138

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The Globe Hotel, 25 Front St. $10 9PM

Wesley St. Free 11AM – 6PM