The Navigator Vol 47 Issue 12

M A RCH 9

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Vol 47

M A RCH 23 FREE

navigator VA NCOU V ER ISL A ND U NI V ERSIT Y ST U DEN T PR ESS

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06

Creep catcher

Under the alias Robi Lawfull, a Nanaimo man has been administering his own brand of justice online.

A little birdie told me: CCAA Nationals With 100 matches played over three days, the student athletes competed for the top spot.

08

The poetry of online restaurant reviews Four online restaurant reviews have been chopped up and rearranged into poetry.

contents

news

features 08

04

08 04 The poetry of online restaurant reviews

08 Editorials

sports & lifestyle

arts 14 08 08 January/February 2016 04 Playlist: music round-up

18 Beating Penticton: The 2016 Fred Page Cup playoffs begin Mariners' schedule

09

05 Sharing the key to VIU's Generation Q Conference success

Point of VIU

10

06 Creep catcher

Shawnigan Lake: Defining new perspectives VIU Services: Education abroad

07

11

Apathy-what?

Arts and Humanities Colloquium presents the VIU@ Cowichan Innovation Lab

Milner Gardens: An experience in sea, forest, and garden

15 Goddessmode book review

16 The Dirties movie review North Island Pride brings Yukon spoken-word author to campus

17 X-Fails: I no longer believe

19 08 04 Resurrecting my golf game

20 A little birdie told me: CCAA Nationals A Wee-Tipple, and then another

21 Bring out your inner Irish: St. Patty's drinks Mental Health Matters: The S word

22

12

Page 22

Professor Profile: Sonnet L'Abbe

23 Calendar

02

CON T EN TS

NAV IGATOR

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letters

nav

Letter to the Editor

the

.c a

Dear Editor, What’s with your latest editorial “Real Friends?”

I’ve been a big fan and a follower of the Navigator for the last few years, but your latest editorial was appalling.

Is this a celebrity gossip magazine? Or a newspaper that talks about the real issues that affect VIU students and university students as a whole? The editorial should be about thoughtprovoking issues that stir up debate and makes the reader question their own opinions. Writing about a Twitter feud that literally does not affect anybody in a significant way, other than maybe the two people it surrounds, is ludicrous.

On the other hand, obviously you’ve sparked some sort of reaction from me, but I think it’s the wrong kind. You could have at least expressed more of an opinion on the “debate” instead of merely seemingly re-creating it.

CONTRIBUTORS Reid Eccles Shanon Fenske Dane Gibson Philip Gordon Brandon Kornelson

Zoe Lauckner Jeff Sieniewicz Spenser Smith Chantelle Spicer Ziyang Zhang

But maybe this is just part of a bigger problem about the way we as a society worship these celebrities for no apparent reason. What is so empty in our own lives that makes us so attached to these “mythical creatures” that makes us love and hate them for no reason? Maybe I am part of the problem by continuing to discuss this, but this is still irrelevant drivel.

I like this newspaper and it should stay that way­—a newspaper.

Signed,

THE NAVIGATOR IS

A person that does not care about celebrity Twitter feuds

Molly Barrieau Editor-in-Chief

Emily Johnston Graphic Designer

Antony Stevens Associate Editor

Avery Crosson Graphic Designer

Kaytee Davis Art Director

Gabby Fleming Ad/Sales Rep

Natalie Gates News Editor

Shaina Bolduc Ad/Sales Rep

Catherine Charlebois Sports & Lifestyle Editor

Megan Wolfe Social Media Sp.

You don’t have to be a journalist to get published in the Navigator.

We encourage creators to submit poetry, art, comics, photo essays, editorial cartoons, and coverage of events on campus.

Brendan Barlow Arts Editor

Lynne Williams Bookkeeper

Send any inquiries or content to <editor@thenav.ca> or visit <thenav.ca>.

Kelly Whiteside Production Manager

Christine Franic Business Manager

All submissions must be original work of the author. Editors reserve the right to refuse submissions, and to edit for space or clarity. 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.

Lori Shwydky Copy Editor

900 Fifth St. Bldg. 193, rm. 217 Nanaimo, BC, V9R 5S5 T: 250-753-2225 F: 250-753-2257

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THE NAVIGATOR WELCOMES READER CONTRIBUTIONS

Correction: In the Navigator’s “Everyday Earth” column in issue 10, we erroneously used the word “toxic” where we should have used the word “contaminated.” We also falsely implicated the SIA group as being in charge of the Shawnigan Lake Mine and Reclamations site, when in fact the SIRM is currently operating the site. We have clarified these details in “Shawnigan Lake” on pg. 12.

NAV IGATOR

L ETTER S

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editorials

Dangerous roads Molly Barrieau Editor-in-Chief

In the small city of Nanaimo, nothing really happens. Or at least we all complain that nothing does. However, in the last two weeks, Nanaimo has seen its share of danger. In December it was reported that, along the train tracks downtown, a man attempted to sexually assault a young female who fled the scene, luckily. Then, again in February, along those same tracks, a 14-year-old female was also attacked. Reports say the assailant pulled her pants down, but she struggled and he fled. The police worked on finding details about the perp, looking at surveillance cameras. Then came Krogel. After a week or so, Kynan James Krogel’s face was released to the public, and the search was on.

And the weird thing? He’s our age, and went to school with us­—in the Creative Writing program. And what’s more, he knew friends of mine. Among other disturbances, I feel sick knowing that it could’ve been any one of us. For a long time, I felt very safe in my community.

And I’m a pedestrian. I don’t drive—it’s a long story, but I just don’t. So you’ll see me walking a lot, using crosswalks in front of your car, j-walking to get to the bus, and hoping you’ll see me. But you don’t, always. I’ve gotten the finger more than I should.

But then pedestrians got hit. Two lovely Nanaimo humans, around 5 a.m. each time, walking next to trucks, trusting the driver, the driver trusting the walker. Rain could have been a factor, sure, or negligence on both accounts. Lives were still lost.

Then, on my way to a friend’s house, I saw police tape. It was quiet, as if resolved. Turns out just hours prior, someone decided to use a silver sedan as target practice, blowing two holes into an unoccupied vehicle. Why, you may ask? Maybe we’ll never know. But these guys had the nerve to speed down the Island Highway to Ladysmith, where they hit and injured two police officers just doing their job. The officers have since been discharged from the hospital. They made it to Duncan, where, at a busy intersection, guns drawn, the police took the men into custody.

What’s being called a story out of “a Hollywood movie” happened right under our noses, and we just shared it on Facebook.

So, I say to you, devoted or new Nav reader, whether you are a criminal, a driver, or a pedestrian, please use caution and do your part to keep our small, boring city safe.

You won’t believe what this Navigator editor did last weekend Antony Stevens Associate Editor I have a dirty secret to admit: The other day, I willingly went to the BuzzFeed website.

It was the weekend, and I was sitting with my friend having a jolly old time, laughing about internet memes and how dumb BuzzFeed is, when I had the sudden realization that I had never actually seen BuzzFeed before. Of course I’d heard of it, but I didn’t really even know what it was.

BuzzFeed was already a mockery for its “clickbait” headlines by the time it was mainstream enough to start showing its face on my Facebook feed, so I removed it from my timeline the first time I saw a link. I unfollowed anyone who shared a BuzzFeed article. But it was a little unfair of me to have such an unfettered, ignorant hate, so I subjected myself to testing.

As it turns out, I don’t think anyone else goes to the BuzzFeed page either, because simply clicking on an article is nothing indicative of what content BuzzFeed actually produces. Ask someone you know if they can describe what BuzzFeed is, or what its website looks like, or check the BuzzFeed Facebook page to see how many of your friends have a regular relationship with it. For me, only three of my friends like the page, yet somehow these articles get passed around like an affluenza between friends of a friend of a friend who liked a page back in the stone age of Facebook, and “SLEEPING WITH YOUR PILLOW ON THE COLD SIDE” is now trying to stay relevant by reposting everything they see on Reddit and celebrity Twitter—that is, memes and BuzzFeed articles.

Let me paint the scene: At the top left of the screen is the familiar, orange BuzzFeed logo.

On the top right is a series of round, yellow buttons with the words “LOL,” “win,” “omg,” “cute,” “fail” (branded “sorry” in Canada), and “wtf.” (I’m already feeling nauseous at this point—why is LOL capitalized, but WTF isn’t?) Anyway, BuzzFeed is your number one source for your daily dose of curated LOLs. But you already knew that.

Just below the logo is the top menu, AKA the area that publications put their most visited sections a click away. There’s a link to the notquite-clickbait-but-just-vague-enough-for-youto-know-what-you’re-getting-into news section (filled to the brim with social commentary via embedded Twitter posts, where the writer has

simply entered a hashtag and then scrolled Twitter for an hour, choosing tweets as methodically as a crane-game machine).

And then there’s the videos section.

BuzzFeed is fairly popular on YouTube—you’ve probably seen BuzzFeed Yellow or BuzzFeed Blue grace your “recommended videos” and couldn’t help yourself from clicking—but did you know that BuzzFeed has 30 YouTube channels, across which they have 24 million subscribers?

I can’t even right now. I literally can’t even.

Seven things you probably didn’t know about this popular internet website 1.

BuzzFeed Food, BuzzFeed Video, BuzzFeed

2.

4.

The “DIY” section is the same as number 3. It’s just

6.

Their “About” page can’t even describe what BuzzFeed

UK, BuzzFeed Eugene, BuzzFeed Quiz,

pictures of things, and maybe a hyperlink to where

is, and, instead, is just a white paper document that talks

BuzzFeed Animals—these are just some of

you can buy it. To call this section disingenuous is to

about how many clicks they get. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.

the 98 Facebook pages that BuzzFeed has.

acknowledge its existence.

There is a quizzes section that rivals 2008 Facebook.

5.

The bottom of the homepage is just a never-ending

7.

BuzzFeed is worse than you thought.

blogroll, likely because BuzzFeed does not expect you to scroll down without clicking an article, or the little

3.

They post pictures of delicious-looking food

“x” in the top right.

(colloquially known as “food porn”) with seemingly no reason but to make you hungry.

There are no recipes. It’s just pictures.

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EDI TOR I A L S

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news

SHARING THE KEY TO VIU’S GENERATION Q CONFERENCE SUCCESS Dane Gibson

Their daughter spoke about her spirit as early as the age of two. At first they didn’t Contributor think much of it. “Isn’t that nice,” they said with a knowing smile. But as the daughter grew and gained more words, she became more insistent.

“She said very forcefully and repeatedly that her spirit was a boy,” said the mother, who was participating in a parent and youth panel at the Generation Q Conference held at VIU in early February.

After sharing stories of her child being bullied outside the home, and sibling confusion inside it, she talked about their family’s journey to accepting that their daughter, the youngest of four, identified as a boy—and was a boy in mind and spirit.

“All we ever wanted was for him to be his authentic self, to be happy,” she said. “He’s fully transitioned now and has no problem talking about it, but I remember those days back when he was in grades two and three when he would come to us crying because they forced him to go to the girl’s bathroom at school. I would say to him: does it matter about your parts?

What does your spirit say? And he would always say: ‘my spirit is a boy’.”

There were eight parent and youth participants on the panel. They all shared stories about their families to help contribute to a more welcoming and inclusive community for transgender, two-spirit, intersex, and non-binary youth.

The Generation Q Conference was held primarily for youth service providers. This was the first conference of this type locally, and organizers A.J. Macleod, Kerri Isham, Kathleen Reed, and Haley Lackie were blown away when more than 220 people showed up at VIU’s Malaspina Theatre for the conference.

Everyone from the Nanaimo RCMP, Vancouver Island Health Authority, and the BC Teachers Federation, to three different school districts, the City of Nanaimo, the Nanaimo Women’s Centre, and Vancouver Coastal Health were represented.

Reed, who is also on the steering committee for the VIU Positive Space Alliance, an on-campus group that raises awareness of diversity in sexual orientation and gender identity, said delegates were receptive and interactive, which helped make the event a success.

Reed said the discussions throughout the day were spirited and covered a wide range of topics. An example was when the capacity crowd was asked: “What is gender?” and hands shot into the air.

“Gender is what I feel between my ears, not what I feel between my legs,” one person said. Other voices joined in. “It’s about how you relate to yourself—a personal identity.” Another chimed in saying the problem with gender is it prescribes who we should be rather than recognizing who we are.

Reed says the level of discussion the conference encouraged was enlightening.

“We found there was a lot of curiosity, particularly within the service provider community. They wanted to know how to offer services to youth that are transgender, intersex, twospirited, or don’t identify as male or female,” said Reed.

Conference co-organizer A.J. Macleod is a coordinator with the Generation Q youth group, which is hosted by the Nanaimo Boys and Girls Club with a mission to create a safe, supportive, and inclusive space for youth to connect and openly express their concerns regarding issues impacting their lives.

“There are things we do as service providers that really affect the lives of gender variant people, and the conference was one way to bring some of those things out in the open,” said Macleod.

“We addressed everything, from surveys that ask respondents to identify if they’re male or female when it has

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Generation Q Conference co-organizer Kathleen Reed and keynote speaker Harlan Pruden.

no impact on the information they are collecting, to looking at the way language, is used—not just being aware of the language but being aware of the root of some of the terms that are used, because often they are rooted in oppression.”

Sponsors of the Generation Q Conference included the Boys and Girls Club of Central Vancouver Island, Starbucks (Fifth St. location), VIU Faculty of Health and Human Services, VIU Faculty Association, and VIU Positive Space Alliance. All proceeds from the event went to support the Generation Q youth group.

Macleod says the incredible level of community engagement that was generated from the event means they will definitely be working to make the Generation Q Conference an annual event.

“One of the cool things about the conference was people were willing to take a bit of a risk. It was a safe, supportive environment where they could share and learn, and it was recognized that everyone’s intentions for going were good,” said Macleod.

“We considered this a general knowledge conference, but we want to make it an annual event with themes that focus on specific topics like schools or health care. Our plan is to take what we learned this time around and build on it.”

Patrick Konkin is Chair of the Social Work and Community Support Worker Department at VIU. He was an advisor on the event and supported the idea from the beginning. He says that once the organizing was done and the conference got underway he could sit in the audience and enjoy the discussions that the keynote speakers and presenters encouraged throughout the day.

“The Generation Q Conference was a tripartite, collaborative arrangement between a wide community of service providers and members of the public, our VIU educational institution, and the LBGTQ community,” said Konkin. “It was structured to determine how best to raise awareness about the challenges that the LBGTQ community face on a day-to-day basis.”

“By providing a space to openly communicate together, all parties had the opportunity, with understanding, to determine the best way to move forward and to strengthen ties with each other. Obviously these are complex issues, but I think the conference was a successful way to address a wide range of gender and sexuality questions in an open and honest way.”

To learn more about sexual identity and gender issues, go to VIU’s Positive Alliance website: <www2.viu.ca/positivespace>.

NAV IGATOR

Dane Gibson

“GENDER .IS WHAT I .FEEL .BETWEEN .MY EARS, .NOT WHAT .I FEEL .BETWEEN .MY LEGS.”

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news

CREEP. CATCHER. Screenshot of a man Lawfull confronted in front of VIU.

Courtesy of <creepcatcher.ca>

Shanon Fenske Under the alias can be seen muttering an apology innocent to the world.”

Robi Lawfull, a Nanaimo man has been administrating his own brand of justice online.

Posing as a young teenager, Lawfull lures adults who are trying to solicit children for sex online into meeting him at a public location, videotapes the encounter, and then shares the encounter through social media.

“I have the most beautiful little girl in the world,” said Lawfull.

“That’s a huge motivation.”

Lawfull is a member of Creepcatcher, a small group of Canadians committed to ousting sexual predators through cunning and guile. The movement has been compared to American reality TV show To Catch a Predator by multiple news agencies such as CHEK News and CTV. A man who calls himself Dawson Raymond started Creepcatcher in Calgary, Alberta in September.

Since then, Raymond has posted two dozen videos of similar encounters on <creepcatcher.ca>. On the site—which redirects to <dawraymond.com>— Raymond lists Nanaimo, Victoria, and Saskatoon as having “partner” chapters—though only Nanaimo has content published. A post on Dawson’s Facebook account said that he personally trained Lawfull and that he’s proud of the job he’s doing.

Police have issued statements saying the encounters puts both parties, as well as the public, at risk of a violent confrontation, and could also impede existing investigations.

However, Lawfull said he has received, “No threats from the police, except to be careful.”

In a February 18 CHEK News interview, his face covered with a bandana, Lawfull said that it only took three hours for a man to want to meet for sex after he claimed to be 13 years old on a dating site. Similarly, in a 2015 Global News interview, Raymond said he had nine guys interested in meeting for sex within 20 minutes of posing as a minor.

CHEK News covered the first incident on February 17 after Lawfull’s footage went viral. In this video, Lawfull confronts a man in Woodgrove Centre. The predator Contributor

Lawfull wears the Guy Fawkes mask to represent anonymous protest.

Courtesy of Robi Lawfull

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as Lawfull tells him, “You’re done bud!” Lawfull also assures the man he is going to jail. He then loudly tells passersbys that the man was trying to have sex with the 13-year-old young girl he had posed as online.

The second video was published on Facebook on February 20. In this one, Lawfull confronts a man in front of VIU who expected to meet a 13-year-old boy. Lawfull can be seen accompanied by at least one other individual who antagonizes the deviant suspect as well. The male, who Lawfull said in the video is a student at VIU, limply protests his innocence.

Nanaimo recently received widespread media attention following two attempted sexual assaults on young teens. Both took place near downtown. The first occurred on December 3, when a man threw a 15-year-old girl to the ground. She screamed, a passerby came to her aid, and the suspect escaped. The second attack took place on February 12. The 14-year-old had her pants pulled down before the assailant ran away.

Police arrested a 25-year-old man in connection to the second assault, and have said he is a person of interest in the first assault. Statistically speaking, there could be others that haven’t been reported.

According to stats posted on <sexassault.ca>, only six out of 100 people report a sexual assault (less for date rape). Statistically, one out of every four women in North America will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime, with 60 per cent of them being under the age of 17. Eleven per cent will sustain physical injuries.

In 80 per cent of all cases, a friend or family member will have committed the assault.

Men like Robi Lawfull and Raymond Dawson target predators who seek underage targets online.

These predators aren’t known to their intended victims, and prefer methods more subtle than those used against the women recently attacked in Nanaimo.

“The cognitive abilities of a 13-year old can’t process this,” VIU Child and Youth Care student Kortney Ashcroft said. “You can lure young kids in because they’re unassuming and

Ashcroft says she supports Robi Lawfull’s actions. “This guy is willing to risk his safety while trying to help others,” Ashcroft said. “One could argue that posting it is a violation, but, at the same time, who can really say what privacy can still be held after breaking this type of law. There would probably be people who disagree, but I believe, in this instance, this is okay because it alerts the public who the person is.”

The Criminal Code of Canada says that “luring a child” over the internet for sexual purposes can result in imprisonment of up to 10 years.

“I hope he’s not wrongly accusing anyone,” said Dallas Bezaire, Science and Psychology student, “but at the same time, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. As long as he’s ridding doubt, he’s just outing them.”

Bezaire was aware of the videos, but hadn’t realized the incidents were taking place in Nanaimo, or that the movement had started in his hometown of Calgary.

“People should know who is a danger,” said Bezaire. “This is a mental illness, so it should be treated, but these people are acting on it, which is unhealthy and damaging.”

Lawfull says the support he has received has been overwhelmingly positive.

“People are interested in joining Creepcatcher from Campbell River, Victoria, Comox, Courtenay, and Duncan,” Lawfull said in a statement to CHEK News.

On the Creepcatcher site, bumper stickers are being sold for $10 saying, “You’re Done Bud!! Creepcatchers. ca.” Dawson Raymond posted on his Facebook page that there will be t-shirts for sale soon as well.

Lawfull says that since the news coverage, there have been fewer “creeps” online.

“I haven’t stopped and I don’t think I will,” Lawfull says. “Education for our kids is number one. And I would like to see funding for the RCMP for better investigations into child luring and online sex crimes, as well as community awareness into the dangers that live among us.”

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news

Apathy-what?

Youth proven to help boost election turnout

Avi Dixit with Justin Trudeau at a pride parade in Vancouver.

Natalie Gates

Michael Ribicic

According to a Statistics Canada post-federal election report released February 22, Canadian youth (aged 18-24) hit the ballots in record numbers, which helped increase the overall voter turnout to the highest level in 25 years.

Comparing the 2011 and 2015 elections, the number of Canadians who reported that they voted increased 12 percentage points among people aged 18 to 24, and 11 percentage points among those aged 25 to 34. In 2011, 54.6 per cent of voters aged 18-24 voted in the Federal Election, while 66.9 per cent voted in 2015. For those aged 25-34, 58.7 per cent voted in 2011, and 69.8 per cent voted in 2015.

“The Stats Canada report confirms what we saw at campuses across the province during the election: Students were interested, students were involved, and students wanted to help make a difference,” said Simka Marshall, chairperson of the BC Federation of Students in a press release. “Together we sent a powerful message to the skeptics and the cynics: Young Canadians do care about being part of the solution, and we’re stepping forward in record numbers. Don’t underestimate this generation.”

The VIU Young Greens, VIU NDP Club, and the Young Liberals in Nanaimo were all active during the election season in encouraging voter turnout. Conservative representatives were continuously absent at campaign events held at the university.

Chair of the VIU NDP club Trevor Dickinson and Young Liberal (a partisan organization not associated with the VIUSU) Avi Dixit believe the largest factor of the increased youth vote was the overall feeling towards Stephen Harper’s Conservatives among youth.

“The Conservatives’ relentless attacks on the environment added seriousness to this election that drew youth to the polls, particularly in BC,” Dickinson said. “I believe the Conservatives underestimated how much young voters care about the environment. The vast majority of Canadians wanted Harper out, and they flocked to the polls to make sure of it.”

Dixit also highlighted the unemployment rates for youth under the Conservatives and “a government which tried to oppress the people by trying to alienate them from their The Navigator

Nanaimo-Ladysmith NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson at the VIU MP meet-and-greet in October.

Natalie Gates

constitutional rights” as factors that encouraged youth to head to the polls. “The biggest thing I did to persuade people to vote was talking to them about the issues that affected them the most,” Dixit said.

In the 2017 provincial election, many will look to youth and whether their numbers will be well-represented again. “I expect to see a large increase in voter turnout among students,” Dickinson predicts. “Under the BC Liberal government, tuition fees have skyrocketed, making a university degree far more difficult to attain.”

Avery Bonner, also a Young Liberal and member of the VIU Political Society, believes the responsibility of continuing youth engagement lies in both the youth and government leaders’ hands. “I think it is up to the youth to work hard to engage other youth, but it is also just as important for institutions and government to provide the information and programs necessary to keep Canada’s youth politically engaged,” he said. “In the end, it all comes down to demographics and generations.”

Dixit is optimistic that this trend will continue. He says he has seen a higher political engagement from youth not only in Canada, but also in the US, as he recently visited Iowa to canvas for Hilary Clinton.

“Social media and our interconnectedness with the world through the internet help us keep track of current events,” he said. “It’s making us more aware and educated about the world we live in. This election I have found my friends who are not at all political to be much more informed and engaged in the election process than they were in the 2011 election.”

Dickinson agreed, saying he believes the youth vote is capable of continuing to grow.

“If the Liberal government keeps their election promise to replace the ‘first-past-thepost’ voting system with a form or proportional representation, I think we will see voter turnout among students continue to grow,” he said. “Seldom did a day go by during that marathon election campaign that the people around me did not talk about politics. I believe that energy is going to carry forward to the 2017 provincial election.”

ARTS AND HUMANITIES COLLOQUIUM PRESENTS THE VIU@COWICHAN INNOVATION LAB Gordon Hak

On March 18, members of the Arts and Humanities faculty at the Cowichan Contributor campus, as well as a contingent of staff and students, will travel to the Malaspina Theatre to strut their stuff. The presentation is part of the Arts and Humanities Colloquium, the popular lecture series that for the past six years has highlighted the provocative, intellectually stimulating, and exciting work being done by faculty members at VIU. This presentation is entitled “Stories and Raspberry Pi’s: An Innovational Approach to Experiential Learning” and will highlight the activities of the VIU@Cowichan Innovation Lab, an interdisciplinary space that lives at the Duncan campus.

Sally Carpentier, from VIU’s English Department, is

organizing the event, and she has been the manager on many projects sponsored by the Innovation Lab. Diversity is one of the main features of the Lab, and this will be evident in the Colloquium presentation, which, Carpentier says, “will bring together an Inuit storyteller; a jazz enthusiast and scholar; an anti-neoliberal; postmodern feminist; an unretired artist and graphic designer; a social activist practising the Theatre of the Oppressed; an information technologist and open source advocate; and a cross-dressing robot called Poppy.”

Another important aspect of the Innovation Lab is the involvement of students and a commitment to experiential learning. And so, Carpentier says, it was crucial to include “six brilliant work-op students” in the multimedia mini-

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presentations. This mix of students, faculty, and staff involved in a range of activities shows that collaboration is another important characteristic of the VIU@Cowichan Innovation Lab. This group of creative, interdisciplinary thinkers and artists will “collectively attempt to answer the larger institutional question of what is an Innovation Lab.” Moreover, says Carpentier, “in the process, they will give a decidedly eclectic but ultimately inspiring response to another institutional question: What in the name of scholarship and community engagement is going on down at Cowichan?”

The free Colloquium presentation is from 10 to 11:30 a.m..

It is open to all, and students are especially welcome. There will be refreshments.

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features

the poetry of online restaurant reviews Spenser Smith Contributor

What prompts people to take the time to write online restaurant reviews? I explored Google and TripAdvisor reviews of Nanaimo restaurants, and by my investigation, it’s either a superb dining experience, or an awful one. Yes, there are people who report on mediocre calamari in so-so restaurants, but the majority of the detailed,

lengthy reviews tend to fall on either end of the spectrum. The “terrible” one-star reviews are my favourite; the authors often employ their finest attempt at dramatic writing, and the results are peculiarly poetic. I chopped up and rearranged the prose of four reviews into free verse in an attempt to accentuate certain poetic moments.

nicol Street McDonald’s Review by Dez Desjardins left disappointed distraught wasting precious gas burger was left behind Would you rather eat at this McDonald’s, or eat a can of dusty beans?

Spenser Smith

I even tried to call you would rather eat a can of beans slightly ajar sitting in a dusty room for uncountable years than come back

your particular McDonald’s has become dirty the greasiest vendor please, pplleeaassseee close down before I have a stroke

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F E AT U R ES

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features

“worst hamburger ever!!! actually made me ill for a couple of days.”

Review by 535russ Gourmet burgers at MGM—an outrageous lie according to 535russ.

Spenser Smith

advertises in bold letters “Gourmet Burgers” this is an outrageous lie

“really? aunt Jemima!? gross!”

Review by Matthew M

the burger

stay away

has a standard

lord have mercy

non-yeast commercial bun

AUNT JEMIMA

frozen patty

no!

pink burger sauce A&W mama burger

need to throw up

is better

before we get back on the road please folks

felt ill for two days

do not eat at this place

until my body purged it

this is Canada

should be ashamed serving poison

PoInt oF VIU JeFF SIenIeWIcZ | contrIbUtor .

LAST WEEK WAS UNOFFICIAL BUNNY COEXISTENCE AWARENESS WEEK. DO YOU THINK THE BUNNIES ARE A NUISANCE OR DO YOU ENJOY THEIR PRESENCE HERE?

StePhanie kUehL

BranDOn BLOnD

rOBertO DOnOghUe

Sarah hain

LOrin caStLe

BA Liberal Arts Major, Psychology Minor

BA Liberal Arts Studies

Masters in Sustainable Leisure Management

Masters in Sustainable Leisure Management

Criminology

“It doesn’t bother me at all, so I sway toward enjoying them being here more than finding the bunnies any sort of an annoyance.”

“I fi nd them a nuisance.

I think they should all be culled, to be honest. I like bunny rabbits in general, but I don’t like bunny shit, or stepping in it, and I think there is a place for them, and it’s not on campus.”

“It’s nice to see a little wildlife around the campus.

The bunnies on campus allow a lot of us to connect with them and with nature.

It’s gratifying, on a certain level, to see them around.”

“I freaking love them to death. They are so cute.

I’m an animal lover, so perhaps I am bias, but I love seeing and feeding them.

They are adorable, and with them and the view of the mountains across the water it feels like the most beautiful place to go to school. The bunnies add character.”

“I enjoy them a lot on campus. They are cute, and that seems enough to be a good addition. The babies are even cuter, and they are entertaining overall to watch, and they’re just so cute they liven up my day.

I simply like to see them.”

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features

Shawnigan Lake: Defining New Perspectives Chantelle Spicer

A major take away point in critical thinking is that there are many Contributor perspectives in telling a story. This can be applied to better understanding history, relationships, and environmental issues. It’s also becoming even more apparent through the much deliberated issue at Shawnigan Lake, which I covered in issue 10 of the Nav. It helps to find a more educated and balanced point of view to understand and argue from; multiple perspectives are something that every person needs to consider when examining an issue, especially one which has created as much conflict as the one at Shawnigan Lake.

In a meeting delivered to Port Moody Council on January 12, the joint managers of the company who are now running the dumping site at Shawnigan Lake presented their perspective on its happenings. This included some facts regarding safety measures in place to protect what Shawnigan Lake residents are also trying to conserve—the water. The company, South Island Resource Management (SIRM), which is not affiliated with previous managers South Island Aggregates, is asking that we begin to examine exactly what “toxic” might mean on the environmental stage, stating that this word has, of late, been thrown around in an irresponsible and dangerous scare tactic.

It is, for the most part, a fact that the Western society in which we live is run on waste and disposability of many things.

This includes items like contaminated soils, such as those being accepted and controlled by SIRM. The company states that what they are managing is exactly that—‘contaminated,’ not ‘toxic.’

The soil which is entering their site contains substances such as cadmium, arsenic, and chromium, among many others, but these all naturally occur in the soil at some level. Shawnigan Lake is not a toxic dump, but a contaminated dump, as defined in the Environmental Management Act. Many concerns regarding run-off and discharge of contaminated soils, like those raised by Shawnigan Lake residents, media representatives, and scientists alike, all of which concerns are, according to Todd Muzuik of SIRM, unfounded.

“When rain falls into this [contaminated] area, the grade causes it to flow to the back of the Soil Management Area where it drains into containment,” Muzuik says. “No water that contacts contaminated soil is discharged from the site untreated. All soil ends up in the Permanent Encapsulation Area where it’s stabilized and compacted to geotechnical standards.”

The Permanent Encapsulation Area is a globally recognized seepage protection plan which is comprised of a layer of clay and a 40-mil. synthetic liner that the original management company placed over the natural bedrock of the site. This measure, according to the SIRM’s licensing and global marketing of the technology, is impermeable for thousands of years.

In terms of water, which has been a major driver for the environmental activism seen in this conflict, SIRM states that their management is extensive. It is based off a category system of whether the water has contacted contaminated soil or noncontact water—each of which have their own protocols.

“Contact water” includes rainwater that has fallen on the soil, or which resides in the soil itself, along with any water coming from the trucks being washed upon leaving the site. The contact water is collected and stored within a water containment pond, which SIRM states is “[treated] to better than drinking water standards.

“We test the water at least every 2000 m³, or with every change to the treatment system.”

Despite this, many residents of Shawnigan Lake have reportedly found problems in their waterways, which Muzuik states is just the iron bacteria naturally present in the water.

Based off the stringent management practices of SIRM, it seems virtually impossible that contact water could leave the site, which is backed by independent engineers and environmental experts whom also monitor the dump. All in all, SIRM boasts a multi-layer, redundant system by which to protect the environment surrounding their site.

Al Brunet of Shawnigan Lake Residents Association agreed with the SIRM’s statement, saying the waters of Shawnigan

Lake are not contaminated nor polluted, and remain drinkable.

Muzuik states this is due to the careful consideration that the company has put into controlling contaminated soils entering the site, and that any harm coming to the environment, water, or residents “is purely speculative.” Especially under the area’s current scrutiny, it would not be in the best interest of the company to have less-than-perfect management of the site.

One major point brought up during the discussion at the Port Moody council meeting is the fact that contaminated sites exist everywhere—in fact, there are more than 16 thousand potentially contaminated sites in Canada, and many more that are unregistered. Yet the SIRM site in Shawnigan seems to bear the brunt of concern in terms of environmental activism.

Perhaps this is partly due to the perspective missing from this environmental outcry—that until it happens in your backyard, it is often not acted upon.

Many of these sites are around us in our communities, and many in more vulnerable places than Shawnigan Lake. It is in moments like these that companies like SIRM are pushed to become more transparent, the laws around legislation to become more extensive regarding environmental concerns, and the concerned citizens to be allowed to have their voices heard alongside those of large companies. Hopefully, moments like these will push people to create a better way to treat contaminated soils, or to prevent them in the first place and avoid issues like the one at Shawnigan Lake at all. When folks become educated about what they are fighting against (on both sides), a more empathetic and logical mindset can be created—both of which are much needed in this push towards a more sustainable way of life.

VIU Services: Education Abroad Kelly Whiteside

Have you ever considered studying Culture in China? How about Business The Navigator in the Netherlands? What about Design in New Zealand, or Education in Norway? VIU’s Education Abroad program provides opportunities to continue your studies at a university in a different country.

VIU has a list of exchange partners to choose from. These include universities in Australia, China, England, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the US, and the West Indies. The cost of studying full time at one of the partner universities is equal to the cost of five courses at VIU, plus student and activity fees per semester. These fees are paid to VIU. You are also responsible for travel, accommodation, food, and insurance costs.

There is also the possibility of studying at a university that is not on the list as a “visiting student.” However, in this case, you would pay tuition at the overseas institution rather than VIU, and your eligibility for student loans may be affected.

Credits from courses taken abroad transfer back as unassigned credit that may be used to fulfill general elective

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requirements, and if a course is similar enough to one offered at VIU, an assigned credit may be awarded.

Financial assistance is available for those interested in studying abroad. All students participating in the exchange program for one or two semesters automatically receive the IE Exchange Award of $2200. You may also be eligible for the International Education Stipend, which can be between $750 and $1000. Further financial assistance can be found with other scholarships, awards, and grants.

In order to qualify for VIU’s international exchange program, you must be a current VIU student and have completed 30 credits before the application deadline of October 3, 2016, of which a minimum of 12 credits must have been completed at VIU. You need to have achieved a minimum GPA of 3.0 or higher in your past two full-time semesters. You must also be a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant, and you must be planning to return to VIU to complete your degree or diploma.

More information on education abroad can be found on the VIU website, in bldg. 255, or by emailing <educationabroad@ viu.ca>.

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Milner gardens:

An experience in sea, forest, and garden Looking for a way to give your brain some sweet release in the natural Contributor world? Look no further than Milner Gardens, which is an extraordinary combination of ocean, Douglas fir forests, and charming English gardens.

Acquired by the Milner family in 1937 (originally established in 1931), the 28-acre estate has a rich history of being inhabited

by British aristocracy and being visited by numerous members of the Royal family, including Princess Diana and the Queen Mum herself in the ‘80s. Ray Milner, the property’s second owner, married Veronica Milner in 1954, which started the gardens onto its path of becoming one of the most beloved places on the Island. Veronica was an avid horticulturalist, helping to found VanDusen Gardens in Vancouver as well as the Royal Horticultural Society, and was a fellow of the Garden Conservancy. She had an incredibly artistic eye, which she used to paint her surroundings, filling the property with a variety of colours and textures.

She spent her life with Mr. Milner, travelling in Canada and the world—a journey evident in the variety of plants she collected along the way, which totals more than 500 species of trees, shrubs, and flowers. Some of the most spectacular specimens include the nearly 100-year-old rhododendrons which reach for the sky on long, naked branches and droop with flowers in the late spring. Geoff Ball, Executive Director

chantelle Spicer

One of the many exquisite gardens surrounding the main house at the beginning of the flowering season.

Chantelle Spicer

of the gardens, loves the springtime, “when the garden has a sense of eruption and rebirth of another year.” Ball also says that beyond the cultivated garden, the marine ecosystem is coming alive through the herring spawn, which attracts thousands of seabirds to the area.

Veronica’s management of the gardens was her obvious love of naturalization. Rather than planting “annual” plants, which would need to be replaced year after year (in what she called “garden graveyards”), she chose bulbs which would naturalize in grass and gardens alike, and perennials which would return again and again. This would make an environment which, she felt, “would be a place of serenity, elegance, rhythm, and harmony, in tune with the Infinite.”

The serenity she so desired is mimicked in park-like settings of elegant trees and grasslands, inlaid with bubbling brooks, ponds, and fountains. Ball states this atmosphere has been added to over the years through various efforts and

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Milner House seen through the branches in the early spring.

Chantelle Spicer

opportunities, such as a bulb-salvaging endeavor which added to the hundreds of bulbs which already existed. Visitors can now see Ball’s favourite spring flower, the snowdrop, which is blooming in massive banks all over the property.

The gardens may have been loved through cultivation, but the forests were loved through leaving them be, preserving the old and second-growth stands which surround the estate.

Underneath the towering trees, a tumble of native species blankets the ground through which many trails wind, allowing guests to walk and observe this gem of unspoiled forest. This makes the park a very rare site, as many of these forests have been lost, and only two per cent of the Island’s old-growth Douglas fir remains.

When VIU acquired the garden estate in 1996, it was gifted with a new life, allowing people of all ages to learn about the natural world. The property is now part-time home to the VIU Horticulture program, allowing students to gain first-hand experience with their studies in landscaping and plant identification. It is also the home of Shoots with Roots, an intergenerational gardening program which works in association with Qualicum Elementary and many day camps to provide a horticulture knowledge base to the next wave of (hopeful) enthusiasts. Each year, approximately 300 children visit the gardens to learn about agriculture and food production for the backyard. There are many learning opportunities for the wider community as well, with courses being given on botanical Latin, herbal medicine, lawn alternatives, and beneficial insects.

Ball stresses the psychological benefits of visiting the gardens: “For students, it is especially important to have a place that is very restorative and peaceful during midterms.

This is a very positive and grounding place.”

Milner Gardens is open every Sunday, from February 14 to March 20, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and offers the opportunity to see the plethora of bulbs and spring flowers which cover the grounds like a blanket. The Milner House, which is also open for the public to explore, serves tea, and lets you sit back and take in the stunning view of the ocean and coastal mountain range. On March 25, the Gardens open again for a special event—the Bunny Trail, a winding tour of hidden rabbit treasures around the property. After Easter, the garden will be open on Thursdays and Sundays.

Admission is free for VIU students with student ID.

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Professor Profile: Sonnet L’Abbé Something to talk about

Antony Stevens The Navigator

I “My parents did it to me,” says Sonnet L’Abbé, poet and Creative Writing professor, at a faculty reading at VIU. She opens with a story about her name, because she knows it’s the first thing she’ll be asked.

But L’Abbé was not born a poem, and, despite being born in Toronto, she was not necessarily born a Canadian either. She was born to a French-Canadian father, Jason, and a Guyanese-South Asian mother, Janet, both of whom took the ends of their names and put them together, not for a love of poetry, but because someone they knew had named a boat that way.

“Of course there was poetry on our bookshelves,” L’Abbé says, “but I don’t think my dad ever touched any of it…I didn’t set out to be a writer, and I certainly didn’t set out to be a poet.”

L’Abbé was not born into poetry, and, just as well, her relationship with her Canadian identity has been fraught.

“There’s only one culture I’ve really been forced to answer for my whole life,” L’Abbé says. “Nobody’s going around and saying, ‘you look French-Canadian.’”

It was in the ‘70s, when her age could be counted on just one hand, that L’Abbé realized her struggle with identity. Her and her family’s accents and skin tones seemed to dictate the attitudes of others towards her. As far back as her earliest memories, L’Abbé recalls wondering why she had the parents she did, and why they were the colours that they were.

“I just hated that. I used to be like, ‘but I’m white,’ you know—if I’m half-white and half-brown, why am I getting this shit-kicking?”

When L’Abbé decided she wanted to write, she didn’t want to be known as a “South-Asian-Guyanese-Black-Canadian

writer”—but grad school professors enticed her to write about ethnicity, and her first book of poetry, A Strange Relief, employed much of her pent-up frustration. Today she looks at her identity more “strategically.”

“I am South-Asian diaspora,” she says, “and I am black diaspora, and I am French-Canadian diaspora, and I have a Muslim background and a Christian background, and I can use any of that if I want to.”

II in some ways, i was just trying to please people when i just started out [writing]. and then i was just pissed by the end of my first book, like, “what just happened here?” who did i just please? what did i prove?

i was old enough by that point that i had enough experiences to look around me and say “shit is not fair.” i know i was raised to not to see colour, etcetera, etcetera, it doesn’t matter. but something about that is not working for me—it’s not describing my experience.

even my second book tries to talk about some of that stuff. not with a ton of confidence, but with a ton of anger, and a ton of confusion. i mean, i wrote about wanting to blow shit up. i wrote about smoking dope. i wrote about a lot of fucked-up-ness.

there’s still a lot of fucked-up-ness about it [my writing], but i’ve reached this age and this point in my career, and the world around me seems to need and want someone who articulates themselves

around these issues. it’s almost like being a poet; i did not set out to have that kind of expertise, but when i hear other people struggling to articulate themselves around these same issues, then i realize i know what they’re saying.

it’s like when you’re teaching a young writer and you know what they’re going to say, and you’re like “okay, draw it out this way, talk about it this way.” i see that going on around me.

so, fine. i’ll keep talking about it.

III After publishing A Strange Relief, L’Abbé began her teaching career, first at the University of Toronto, and then at UBCOkanagan up until last year. Last fall, L’Abbé was hired on contract to teach Creative Writing and English here at VIU, where she has been put in charge of all three Creative Writing poetry courses, as well as an English 115 course.

Last month, L’Abbé says one of her students brought chocolate cupcakes to class. She took one and ate it with her coffee. When she saw the same student later, he offered her another, and she took that one too. But not all students are candy and sprinkles; L’Abbé says that she has found her teaching has changed over the years, and that she has had to become a “harder ass.”

“I’m going to be very careful with knowing what I’ve said,” L’Abbé says. “I find people will say to me ‘you never said that,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m pretty sure I said that.’

“The first couple times I was like, ‘Am I just tired? Am I losing my mind?’ So recently I’ve been much more methodical about what I say, and there’s still people saying I never said

that. So now I know, okay, this is gunna be a thing.

“It’s already a lot of work; I don’t need to be feeling gaslit,” L’Abbé laughs. “I’m bitching about it, but at the same time I’m learning and I’m building my own skills. I’m gunna take everything you do and apply it to the politics of navigating work.”

L’Abbé will take the chocolate cupcakes, and muffins too: “A great deal of my happiness comes from chocolate chip muffins,” she says. “They’re more pleasurable than sunsets to me.”

IV i met zadie smith last week. i went just to see her, just to meet her and shake her hand, and i knew it would be on a huge scale for me—the opposite of what i experience on a very small scale with other people.

somebody will say to me, “i love your work,” and that’s great, i love hearing that. but if i’m at an event or something, and i just meet someone briefly, i can’t connect with them, and chances are i won’t even remember.

it was that sort of thing meeting zadie smith. i like her work, and she’s a physically beautiful human being, and it is something to be in a room with someone that famous. but she doesn’t know who i am. and i don’t feel like i’ve made any kind of meaningful connection with her. it’s the work that i like.

it just reminded me that that’s not what you

do it for. there are ways in which the world can tell you that a lot of people have engaged with your work and liked it. but you can never really be there for that experience of that person reading alone.

the fact that there’s any degree of “glory”…i want what you have to do to get that, but it’s not that that i want.

V “I now try to take almost every opportunity to feel like a boss,” L’Abbé says. “Not like a [whipping sound] boss, but like a [flexes] boss…If I can imagine someone else giving themselves way more credit for what I just did, then maybe I’ll give myself credit for having just done that.”

Some things she has given herself credit for recently: The class she just taught—“seriously, these people are trying to gaslight me!” The bicycling she did the other night—“woah, I’m gunna look amazing after this!”

“I feel like I’ve done so much tracking of food and exercise in my life that when I feel really good about it I’m not tracking it. I’m just doing it because it feels good.”

On her computer screen is Microsoft Word, with an inprogress poem in the window, and a word count ticker on the bottom bar that she ignores; “I’ve got this email that tells me that I should write 750 words today. I just ignore it; I don’t need it. It’s just spam to me now. I’m writing pretty much every day.

“I journal a fair bit, too,” L’Abbé says. “When I started journaling when I was a kid, I was like ‘Sonnet’s Journal:

The true story behind the Sonnet that I will become.’ That’s basically what I thought it [my journal] was going to be. So I had this performative aspect to it as a kid, and I think I was in my late 20s when I realized that I was doing that—that I had never had a space to write stuff where I genuinely felt that nobody else could see it. I hadn’t really wanted that. So, now I have that.”

In her remaining free time, L’Abbé is working on her next book of poetry; Sonnet’s Sonnets is a passion project and allegorical retreading of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. For the last three and a half years, L’Abbé has weaved her own letters and language into more than 80 of Shakespeare’s classic works, to a point where the poems have no resemblance to their original versions.

Initially, L’Abbé was just writing what came to her, but she’s now working on “Sonnet LXXXVI” (86), the third in which she has weaved a section of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 “calls to action.” In essence, she has made hard work for herself even harder.

“Maybe it’s like biking up a hill,” L’Abbé says. She makes a slope with her hand of about 60 degrees. “You start to be okay with an incline like that, after you bike up a bunch of hills [like this].” She lifts her hand to a slope of 80 degrees, and smiles.

In some ways, Sonnet’s Sonnets is a reclamation. Yet, L’Abbé says she never gets annoyed by people always asking the same question about how she got her name.

“It’s fine,” she says, and pauses for a long moment.

“It’s something to talk about.”

“Maybe it’s like biking up a hill,” L’Abbé says. She makes a slope with her hand of about 60 degrees. “You start to be okay with an incline like that after you bike up a bunch of hills like [this].” She lifts her hand to a slope of 80 degrees, and smiles.

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Playlist:

January/February 2016 music round-up Brendan Barlow The Navigator

Only three months into the year and there are a surprising number of fantastic releases that span the genres. Here are five of my favourites from January and February that you might want to add to your rotation. With the insane saturation of music out there, I know all too well how easy it can be to get intimidated by the mess and stick to your old favourites. Get out of your comfort zone, and give these a try.

Courtesy of <ibtimes.co.uk>

The Life of Pablo by Kanye West Those of you who were, understandably, waiting on tenterhooks to hear the latest on the things on my “Most Anticipated Things of 2016” will be relieved to find that the wait is over for some of it. The Life of Pablo is the latest release from the perpetually adolescent, yet frustratingly talented Kanye West. This effort is considerably milder than his previous work, and has a mellower feel to the album as a whole. There are certainly a couple of heavy works more reminiscent of Yeezus. Pablo is also one of the more challenging hip-hop albums in recent memory, showcasing West’s ability to produce, and his flair for originality. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the album comes less from West, and more from his guests; with appearances from Chance the Rapper, Kendrick Lamar, and The Weeknd. The Life of Pablo is a dynamic and satisfying album worth checking out.

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Courtesy of <allhotmusic.com>

Songs in the Key of Animals

by Benji Hughes

Courtesy of <amazon.com>

Leave Me Alone by Hinds

Have you ever wondered what it would sound like if Ween, Chromeo, and Daft Punk got together and made an album together with the occasional visit from Sufjan Stevens? Look no further than this effort by Benji Hughes. There’s something so bizarre and wonderful about this album that manages to blend elements from the aforementioned artists into a unique and interesting album. There’s really not much else to say here; it’s worth experiencing on your own without having someone who doesn’t know how to write about music telling you to listen to it. If you’re looking for something a little bit different, this is a great place to start.

Hailing from Madrid, this quartet used to go by the name Deers until another band of the same name threatened legal action against them before they had even released their first full-length album.

Leave Me Alone is their debut album, and it’s absolutely fantastic. After my deep affection for last year’s Cities to Love by Sleater Kinney, my desire for new and awesome badass, female-led, indie rock knows no limits, and Hinds feeds that desire in a big way. They’ve been compared to bands like Velvet Underground, and they credit Black Lips, The Strokes, and Mac DeMarco as primary influences for their music. So if those comparisons grab you, then checking out Leave Me Alone should be added to the top of your priority list.

Courtesy of <mothersathens.bandcamp.

Courtesy of <heraldscotland.com>

When You Walk a Long Distance You Are Tired by Mothers

Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards by Gloryhammer

There’s something haunting and beautiful about Mothers; the vocals, supplied by Kristine Leschper, add a moody quality and make for a wonderful folksy album. As debut albums go, this is an impressive piece of work. The album title alone was enough to draw me in, and the music contained inside is very satisfying. Again, there’s not much more to say except that you should be listening to this album instead of reading this. Mothers are perfect for fans of Joanna Newsome, Iron & Wine, or even Beirut, and, like all others on this list, are well worth your time.

This is one of those albums that I have an automatic affection for, while admittedly, more of a guilty pleasure than anything else. Gloryhammer and their ilk are what I would consider “D&D metal,” typically full of epic tales and plenty of wizards and monsters. This new album from the Scottish outfit is as epic and symphonic as it is ridiculous, and I would recommend it for anyone looking for metal that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and clearly writes music from a very fun, and occasionally absurd place. Their previous effort, Tales From the Kingdom of Fife is what initially sucked me in, and this might just be more of the same, but it’s a blast regardless.

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BOOK REVIEW: GODDESSMODE Philip Gordon

Cover of Goddessmode.

Courtesy of <coolskullpress.com>

When I played role-playing video games as a kid, the characters I would make Contributor were all the same—game-appropriate, slightly better-looking versions of me. Video games were a power fantasy in a normal life of feeling ineffectual and useless, and watching my avatar complete grand quests I could never dream of navigating in real life became part of the experience of gaming for me in general. At a certain point, though—probably around the age of 19 or 20—I got tired of looking at white dudes as the protagonists of my video games. My player characters shifted from long-haired wizards and fighters to determined, usually anime-hair-coloured konoichi and no-nonsense, assertive space pilots. In a world filled with narratives by and about men, it just seemed to make sense to take a small step against the constant flow of patriarchal narrative.

Goddessmode, a collection of writing about video games from female and non-binary writers, published by Cool Skull Press in 2015, is the literary equivalent of a female character creation screen. While a lifetime of stereotypes has taught us female gamers don’t exist, here we have an entire volume of poetry, prose, and non-fiction straight from the mouth of every video game heroine we never took the time to listen to.

The writing in Goddessmode is more than confessional from girls in front of Playstations though; because video games were, for so many people in the last few decades, a companion to growing up and reflections on those games often lead to reflection on who we were as people when coming-of-age and pixels met each other. In “Post-High School Reality Quest,” Meg Eden uses the cumbersome syntax of a text-based adventure game to relive the experience of her high school graduation, the sensation of incompetence surrounded by a world of interactive things but with no willpower to influence any of them. She tells

By Levin C. Handy (per http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.04326) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

You don’t have to sit in school to stand among greatness.

us that a long youth in bible school has made her “eager for the alleged freedom of college // And freedom not just from rules, but freedom from people… who are “your friends” only because of your small school population. Because everyone has to survive somehow, and it’s dangerous to go alone.”

The quotes and allusions to video games buried throughout Goddessmode are tidbits for gamers to notice and enjoy, but also beautiful reappropriations of youthful emotion funnelled through the words of a pixelated safe haven. “You’ve never reached the end of anything before,” Eden writes. “All of the cartridges and discs in your room, you’ve never finished any games, never won any of them before.”

Beyond the direct and confessional, the writing in Goddessmode spans a variety of styles and perspectives; E. Kristen Anderson provides four erasure poems from old issues of Nintendo power, summarizing the adventures of Samus with “Enter. // Use every item / in the darkest corners of caverns… / Vertical? You’ve only scratched / the surface, dangerous. // Remain. // Make a map as you go.” It’s worth noting that despite her fairly asexual-looking space suit, Samus (from Metroid) is one of the first female video game protagonists—a point of view from a woman inside a controller shoved into a man’s hands, most often.

Goddessmode also does an excellent job of varying the perspectives and styles of its writers by jumping from erasure poems and the confessional stylings of Danielle Perry’s “I guess it helps my anxiety to pretend to be an elf” to Elinor Abbot describing the female revenge fantasies she discovered in the newest Tomb Raider, and how Lara’s new world and design make her the instrument of retribution to strike back at the patriarchy. “You’re about to become an avenging angel (and haven’t you wished to be one for so long?) / They’re going to come after you with guns and knives, with needs and bargains… and here, in this digital world…you can not only resist, but triumph… You don’t need to feel sorry for enjoying it. You’ve been sorry long enough.”

There’s no one style of writing in Goddessmode that dominates. Like the perspectives and authors included in the anthology, the stories about youth and technology are rendered in every form imaginable—a mother scrapping for an arcade high score against her son in Asteroids, an interview with video game icon Ms. Pacman, and the thoughts of someone in a room with their anxiety and sadness and a controller and a world claiming they don’t exist. If nothing else, Goddessmode is an excellent anti-matter harpoon against the “gamer girl” white whale floating in the collective unconsciousness—and, while it might not need saying, giving voices to women in the sphere of video games and their conversation seems necessary more now than ever in light of #GatorGame and all its idiotic conjecture about how women are supposed to feel in regards to video games.

Like previous titles from Cool Skull Press, Goddessmode has an instant in for anyone who has ever played video games and wanted to read poetry or other writing about them—but more than that, because video games are rapidly becoming a part of the cultural history of generation after generation, here we have a commentary from the maligned and mistreated second half of humanity, funnelling all the sexist displeasure and feminine identity through the lens of a common interest, drawing us to our televisions and computers to escape the reality we must exist in for most of our lives. Goddessmode is worth reading not just if you enjoy video games and the voices of marginalized authors, but deserves a look simply for being one of the first volumes of writing ever to represent such a normally voiceless demographic. Goddessmode is a cheat code for escaping the patriarchy, and hopefully one we can leave on until our next reset.

› Thomas Edison: The world’s most extraordinary failure never gave up.

Thank goodness.

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open. online. everywhere. go.athabascau.ca/online-courses

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THE DIRTIES:.

MOVIE REVIEW. Courtesy of <thestar.com>

Brendan Barlow

Released in 2013.

Courtesy of <hacerseacritica.com>

This one had come across my desk a number of times, on lists The Navigator of “movies you must see” and so on and so forth, but something about a movie depicting a school shooting just didn’t strike me as something I was terribly keen to see, especially given the frequency in which we see the tragic event unfold on almost a daily basis in real life. Admittedly, we are stepping back a few years to talk about this movie, but it feels like one that might not have gotten the attention that it deserves.

It’s a small, indie film, but one that deserves so much more support.

As more time went by, and more recommendations for the film came through, I finally broke down and checked it out. I couldn’t be more pleased that I did. The Dirties is gripping, frightening, and devastating, and I would say that if you’ve been avoiding it like me, it’s time to check it out.

One of the things that really makes this movie work is the performances. Director and lead actor Matt Johnson and Owen Williams are both dynamite in their roles as Matt and Owen. Their chemistry is solid, the depictions of high school students feel very genuine, and there seems to be a real element of writing from experience.

Their time in high school is complicated, and feels a lot like my own experiences with bullying, friends, and just trying to get through.

The mockumentary format is very effective, though there are sections that don’t make much sense in terms of where or why a camera man is present. Matt addresses the camera man from time to time, but even still there are times when it’s not really established why it’s there, such as during a heated argument where the cameraman appears to be hiding in a closet rather than actually hanging out with friends.

The final scene in the movie is one of the most gripping and intense scenes I’ve had the pleasure of sitting through in a very long time. You know exactly where the scene is going, and somehow that only increases the tension.

My heart was pounding in my chest, and I had a visceral reaction to what I was seeing.

That said, the movie is definitely disturbing, particularly given the current trend of mass shootings in the US, and found it as upsetting as it was entertaining.

I do recommend the movie, but as one for adults who have gone through high school and realized (as we all do) that those years ultimately don’t matter, rather than teens stuck in a shitty situation.

There are great performances, a fabulous soundtrack, and a lot of talent on display in The Dirties, and while it’s not without its faults, I really look forward to seeing what these filmmakers come out with next. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

North Island Pride brings Yukon spoken-word author to campus Kelly Whiteside

Ivan Coyote does not believe in gender pronouns.

Courtesy of <arsenalpulp.com>

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On Thursday, March 10, Ivan Coyote will be visiting VIU for The Navigator two events hosted by North Island Pride. These events are the first in a series of events on the north island called the North Island Pride Festival.

The first event on Thursday is a writing workshop entitled “Get It Down.” Coyote believes the first step in completing any writing project is getting an imperfect rough first draft out of your head and onto the page.

Participants will be encouraged to brainstorm new ideas and breathe new life into old ones. Lists will be made.

Intentions will be set. Questions will be answered. This event is free, and is open to students as well as the public.

The workshop runs from 2 to 4 p.m. in bldg. 355, rm. 211.

There is no pre-registration, so come early to ensure a seat, and come prepared to write.

The second event on March 10 featuring Coyote will be a talk entitled “Neither, Nor: How to Circumnavigate the Gender Binary in Seven Thousand Easy Steps.” Tickets for Coyote’s talk cost $5 for students or $10 for community members, and can be purchased at the door. The talk will take place in bldg. 355, rm. 203. Doors open at 7 p.m.

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Coyote often grapples with the complex and intensely personal issues of gender identity in their work and talks, as well as topics such as family, class, and social justice and queer liberation.

Coyote is a writer, storyteller, musician, and educator.

They are the author of 11 books, the creator of three albums and four short films, and a renowned live performer. Coyote has been the writer-in-residence at Carleton University, the University of Western Ontario, the University of Winnipeg, and the Vancouver Public Library. They have lectured at universities and colleges across the continent. Their books include Loose End, Boys Like Her, Missed Her, Gender Failure, and Tomboy Survival Guide.

North Island Pride is a local non-profit organization that hosts pride events in Nanaimo, Port Alberni, the Comox Valley, and Campbell River. So far, they only have one other event scheduled for this year’s North Island Pride Festival, featuring Kate Reid in Campbell River on June 25. Follow their Facebook page, North Island Pride, for more information, or join their Facebook group, North Island Pride Festival, if you would like to get involved.

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arts

X-FAILS: I NO LONGER BELIEVE Brendan Barlow The Navigator

Joel McHale and David Duchovney as Tad O’ Mally and Fox Mulder.

If you’ll recall, back in January I was excited enough about the return of The X-Files to include it on my list of things to watch for this year. Well, the six-episode season has finished and the final verdict is: what the hell was I thinking? There were signs of trouble before the show even started, when it was revealed that Gillian Anderson was offered half of what David Duchovney was paid, despite the two of them being paid equally after three seasons of the show. If this wasn’t a sign of trouble, I don’t know what would have been.

The X-Files has always been a campy show— being born in the ‘90s, that is something to be expected. So I was prepared to let campiness go as simply staying true to the original, and for the first two episodes my patience seemed infinite.

Mulder and Scully had returned to the FBI after much time away, and even Joel McHale was a face I wasn’t upset to see as internet conspiracy lunatic Tad O’Malley. I ate up those first two episodes, blissfully unaware of the pain and heartbreak that would be coming for me.

Trouble first arose in the third episode “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster.” The episode stars the hilarious Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords) and Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley), and I was initially excited for a bit of a throwback to the ‘90s silliness of the original X-Files series.

What I got instead was an episode littered with tasteless transphobic jokes and a moment where Mulder’s ringtone is the theme from the television show. It’s all just a bit too silly, and feels extremely out of place tonally in the entire series, especially given the relatively realistic tone the first two episodes take, and it falls so flat in its attempts to be funny.

The next huge problem came in episode five, which moved from “stupid campy ‘90s jokes” to being blatantly racist. It opens with the first explicitly Muslim characters in the series, and they turn out to be suicide bombers living in

Courtesy of <threeifbyspace.net>

the US who were, of course, part of a bigger cell bent on destroying America. The episode is fraught with Islamophobic and outwardly racist moments, and culminates with a conversation between Mulder and Scully that exudes extreme levels of preachiness as they wander through a meadow holding hands. My first thought was that the episode would make an attempt to subvert expectations and the bombers would turn out not to be the Muslim characters, but the show opted for laziness.

Episode five also contained one of the worst moments in the entire series, when Mulder is given what he believes to be magic mushrooms by another FBI agent “hilariously” named Agent Einstein, and proceeds to have a trip that was accompanied by the song “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” by Trace Adkins, and the episode features Mulder square dancing, and wearing huge hand-covering rings that say “mush” and “room” on them. The scene comes out of absolutely nowhere, and was a huge waste of everyone’s time, especially when it was included in an episode that featured a suicide-bombing, and a terrorist who spends most of the episode with most of his head

Mulder in full “honky tonk” mode.

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SEASON 10 OF THE X-FILES IS TERRIBLE, ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE graphically caved in. It’s tone deaf, and painfully uncomfortable.

Having sucked out almost all of my good will, I went into episode six of the series with a sliver of hope that things might pull together and give me something to get excited about. I was wrong, and the last ounce of hope was punched out of my heart from the opening credits. The episode suggests that vaccines, chemtrails, and microwave radiation are being used by the government to wipe out the human race. It was the nail in the coffin for me; coupled with the massively anticlimactic cliff hanger ending, I was just done. I no longer believed.

Disappointment is to be expected, and this obsession with the revival of old television shows is surely going to perpetuate this constant cycle of disappointment. It’s time to acknowledge that everything we liked in the ‘90s was not the pinnacle of quality, and maybe they can cancel the second season of Fuller House before it gets started. For those of you who skipped to the end to avoid spoilers, for some reason, let me reiterate: Season 10 of The X-Files is terrible, absolutely terrible.

Courtesy of <mashable.com>

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sports & lifestyle

Beating Penticton:

The 2016 Fred Page Cup playoffs begin Reid Eccles Contributor Friday, March 4, signaled the start of the 10-day 2016 Fred Page Cup playoffs, and the Clippers were set to play their first of a possible seven games against the Alberni Valley Bulldogs. The Clippers came into the playoffs seeded first in the Island Division, which gave them home ice advantage over the fourth-placed Bulldogs.

Though the Clippers had a streak of injuries to end the regular season, their roster was back to a healthy number of players going into the first round. The Clippers won the season series 6-2 outscoring the Bulldogs 34-24 in the process. The Bulldogs were only victorious in Frank Crane Arena once this season.

The close proximity of the Alberni Valley to Nanaimo has developed a rough rivalry between the two teams, and fans could expected series of rowdy games—and not just on the ice. If the series extends past the initial four matches, the stands will likely be quite animated. At press time, the Bulldogs have a lead in the series with a 2-1 win on Friday.

If the Clippers eliminated the Bulldogs first in the round they would have face the winning team of the second Island Division match-up between the Cowichan Valley Capitals and the Powell River Kings. With the best goal differential in the Island Division, the second-seeded Kings will most likely take the series, but nothing is certain in playoff hockey. Whichever team makes it through the second round will be crowned Island Division champion and will move on to the third round to face the Mainland Division and Interior Division champions in an unusual round-robin series.

The double-round-robin sees the division champions playing each other twice, once at each team’s home arena respectively, and the first team to accumulate three wins advances and secures home ice advance in the finals. The remaining two teams host each other back-to-back until a second team has won three games; the third team is eliminated. Into the finals, the seven-game series format is re-established, and the winning team takes home the cup and is awarded the title of the 2016 Fred Page Cup champions.

While the Clippers hold a strong chance of besting their Island Division rivals, the real test in post-season will be facing the Penticton Vees in the double-round-robin, and then possibly again in the finals. As defending champions, the Vees dominated the BCHL this season, only losing a total of seven games. The Vees ended the 2015-16 season with 101 points in 58 games, boasting the best special teams percentages in the league and an ungodly goal differential.

Penticton could easily be considered the best Junior-A team in the country this year.

Penticton took the limited season series, beating the Clippers

The Pentiction Vees are set to take on the Clippers during the Cup Games.

twice, once in regulation and once in double-overtime. The Clippers’ entire roster will have to stay healthy to stand a chance at beating the Penticton Vees in a seven-game series. That being said, nothing is certain in the post-season. It is entirely possible the Vees drop to either the Salmon Arm Silverbacks or the West Kelowna Warriors in the second round. Or a combination of losses could stop the Vees from making it through the double-round-robin, but, at this point, it seems likely the Vees will be defending their title in the Fred Page Cup Finals.

Regardless of what awaits the Clippers if they reach the Finals, the first hurtle was Alberni Valley. The Clippers hosted the Bulldogs in back-to-back home games Friday and Saturday, March 4 and 5, before the series went to Weyerhauser Arena the following Tuesday and Wednesday, March 8 and 9. If needed, the final three games will alternate between Nanaimo and Alberni Valley over the following weekend.

Puck drop for each game of the first round is set for 7 p.m. Tickets for Clippers games can be purchased at the box office at Frank Crane Arena starting an hour before puck drop. Tickets are only $10 for VIU students, and a free beer is included with admission. Tickets for the away games in Alberni Valley can be purchased at the Alberni Valley Multiplex, and a student discount of $11 is also offered.

For more information, visit <bchl.ca/playoffs>.

Mariners’ schedule

(March 9 – March 22)

BASKETBALL MEN’S

DATE Mar. 17-19

CCAA Nationals

Courtesy of the Oliver Daily News

VOLLEYBALL LOCATION ACAC

MEN’S WOMEN’S

DATE Mar. 10-12 Mar. 10-12

CCAA Nationals CCAA Nationals

LOCATION Québec Charlottetown, PEI

Congratulations to the PACWEST Provincial Champions, VIU Mariners’ women’s basketball team.

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SPORTS & L I F EST Y L E

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sports & lifestyle

RESURRECTING MY GOLF GAME

Jeff Sieniewicz practicing his putting.

You’re plus-seven at the turn—you never used to be more than plus-three. You send your tee-shot on the par-five 10th screeching into the trees on the right—another fairway missed. You used to be able to reach this green in two. Now you’re lucky to get one in three if you ever find your ball.

Your old game has followed you every shot of the round, with memories of past glory as a stark reminder of how badly you’re playing. Even your good shots aren’t good enough.

As you lug your clubs down the fairway, you glance over your shoulder at the clubhouse growing smaller behind you with every step. Is it too late to go back?

Golf’s tough enough without remembering years of solid to stellar shots while you struggle to hit average ones, yet that’s exactly what will happen if you take time away from the game, or simply reduce the amount you play. Playing golf at your best is not like riding a bike—it’s more like cracking a safe. Patience and precision are needed if you want to reach the reward inside.

This year I returned to the game after a back injury had forced me away for years.

When my health returned this spring, so did my thirst for competition. I retrieved my clubs from the attic and sped toward the driving range, eager to crush a 290-yard drive again.

I topped the first shot, a driver, and the next few swings weren’t much better. After about an hour of emptying range buckets, I ended up with a sore back and an even sorer ego. I tossed the clubs in the trunk and headed for home with my mind racing.

Over the next couple months, I played twice a week and found time for a few range sessions. The technique and feel that had once made me a scratch golfer slowly started to return. I broke 80 at the local course and shot 74 by the end of the summer, but mostly I was shooting in the mid-to-high 70s. My game was improving, yet I was still miles away from how I once played—breaking par nearly a third of the time.

Was my old game lost forever?

Former Canadian Football League (CFL) kicker Terry Baker, age 53, once played golf five to six times per week. Now, due to work and family responsibilities, he plays only once a week, and his handicap has felt the effects. At his best, Terry’s handicap was a six, but it spiked to 13 when he first began to play less often, and is now a 10.

The decrease in quantity and quality of play was a challenge, especially at first,

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Courtesy of Jeff Sieniewicz

as Baker’s competitive side stayed strong when he retired from football 13 years ago.

“I knew how well I could be playing if I was only able to play more often,” Baker said.

“It was frustrating.”

Canadian Professional Golfers Association (CPGA) teaching pro Kerry Davison has seen every type of golfer and challenge during the past four decades as a golf instructor. “It’s a psychological battle.

That’s what golf is in my estimation.”

Playing less often than you once did only adds to that challenge. Davison has been the Head Golf Professional at the Nanaimo Golf Club since 1983, and has given hundreds of lessons over this time.

“Set achievable goals in the short term,” advises Davison. “Then set new goals once you reach them. You’re not going to go back to playing like you once did, or however you want, overnight.” This all made sense to me, but something still didn’t sit right in my mind. I could still recall every shot I hit when I broke the competitive course record at Osprey Ridge and won the club championship. I wanted that feeling of playing at my best again.

“Also, you probably weren’t quite as good as you remember,” Davison said.

Whoa, I wasn’t expecting that.

“Ninety per cent of golfers don’t think they are playing up to their potential. I had a player come off the course last week and tell me, ‘I shot my best round ever—76,’ but then he qualified it with ‘Oh, but I could have been better.’”

True, it’s easy to fantasize a round or replay my best rounds in my head, but it’s a lot different when every five-footer is lipping out. Fact is, I had forgotten most of my worst rounds during my best years.

How can golfers like myself and Baker, who don’t have five days a week to play or hours to practice, still get results? Davison says the focus needs to be on attitude and short-game if the goal is saving shots and enjoying the game.

“Most golfers don’t have the right mindset. I’ve had people come to a lesson and they bring a driver. That’s it,” Davison said.

The instant gratification that comes with a powerful drive can overshadow the importance of decision-making and the finesse needed to become a complete player. The hours spent on the putting green before tournaments and nights reviewing the insights revealed in PGA coaching legend Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book comes to mind. I had forgotten how I became a good player in the first place.

“The game is 90 per cent mental. In a perfect

Jeff Sieniewicz Contributor

world, for our first lesson we wouldn’t even hit full shots. We’d talk about your game, how you see the game, work on the shortgame, and then work backwards. It’s about effective practice and not wasting time,” Davison said.

“The next time I’d have the golfer hit a couple shots, back off, and re-evaluate.

Think about what caused the result, then refocus on one or two individual things, such as tempo, which can make up for a lot of swing differences,” Davison said.

“Then after that 30 or 45 minute practice session, go home, look in the mirror, and check your posture, your swing plane, and your ball position. Video can be great too, but it’s not about some perfect swing. Focus on the right area of your swing and don’t get ahead of yourself.”

I could see it might be a long road back to playing as I once did.

“Get away from the thinking of ‘I should be this or that,’” Davison said. “You need a plan, and then go step-by-step. But have fun with it!”

“Even with limited time, you can improve your game with good course

Brother golfers on the green.

management,” Davison said. “You get out there and you think of the best shot you could hit in that situation, but it might not be the percentage shot, or the shot to go with.”

In other words, being realistic might be difficult at first, but it won’t eat up hours of time—and a little ego-check can pay longterm scoring gains.

This was making a lot of sense and I began to gain some much needed perspective. I want to play well, but it’s not like I am going to battle Jordan Spieth and Jason Day at Augusta next spring.

The first time I picked up a club was on a freshly-cut hayfield with my older brother. I was 11, and he was 14. We both had a seveniron our father had bought for us, and we slowly learned how to hit old Molitor golf balls back and forth across the field every day after school. We weren’t stuck in our heads, dwelling on score or swing paths.

We were just focused on learning to hit good shots with simple yet time-tested tips—tips like “keep your head down, your left arm straight, and follow through.” We were just outside, together, having fun.

Both of us achieved success in our teenage years by repeating those same techniques and simply playing for the fun of it. My brother won multiple junior titles

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at our home course, and a few years after him I did the same.

For Baker, fun is also an essential part of the game. “The biggest challenge initially was the enjoyment of the game. It took me quite a few years of playing irregularly to finally realize that I needed to lower my expectations. Doing that and increasing my patience level has allowed me to enjoy the game again. Now I focus on the people that I am playing with and the scenery around me.”

That’s all nice and good, but I want to score better too, I thought.

“Funny thing is, I play better now that I’ve relaxed and don’t try as hard as when I first returned to the game,” Baker said.

I asked Davison about Baker’s counterintuitive result. “Golf’s unlike any other sport I know,” said Davison. “You can’t just bear down, try harder, or be physical to get results. You need to back off. It’s difficult, but you play your best golf when you play with an ‘alert indifference.’”

Better scores, more fun, and I don’t need to try as hard—just differently with a focus on a couple tips such as tempo and ball

Courtesy of Jeff Sieniewicz

Sieniewicz out on the green on a sunny day.

Courtesy of Jeff Sieniewicz

position? That definitely sounded worth a try.

The next time I go to the range, it’ll be with one bucket of balls to find what works for me one shot at a time. When that one bucket is empty, it’s straight to the first tee with a focus on repeating the most rewarding experience from all my years of golf—beating my older brother.

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sports & lifestyle

A little birdie told me: CCAA Nationals Molly Barrieau The Navigator Last week, from March 2 to 5, VIU hosted the Canadian Collegiate Athletes Association’s (CCAA) Badminton Nationals in the gym. With 100 matches played over three days, the student athletes competed for the top spot in men’s and women’s singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, revealed Saturday night.

On March 2, during an awards banquet, VIU’s own Melissa Liew (PACWEST) and Graydon Robb were selected among six others as the 2016 Badminton All Canadians. According to the CCAA website, Liew captured gold in women’s singles at the Pacwest championship last month, setting her on track for the Nationals on home court.

She also gathered a silver in mixed doubles, and captains the VIU team. Liew was an All

Canadian in 2015 alongside her teammate Robb.

In the end, Liew lost to Olivia Lei (OCAA), two-time consecutive Female Player of the Year from Humber College in Ontario, and finishes with silver.

Robb, also an All Canadian last year, was the male player of the year for 2015. Losing in the second match against Ontario’s Owen Kurvits in the semi-finals, Kurvits continued on for gold against fellow Ontarian Wencaho Shi, who took the finals 21-15 and 21-10.

In doubles, the mixed team from Alberta’s Northern Albertan Institute of Technology (NAIT) took gold Saturday night, competing against Humber Colleges’ team. Men’s and women’s doubles gold went to Humber College and NAIT respectively.

1

2

3 1 — Owen Kurvitz takes home silver to Redeemer University.

Ziyang Zhang 2 — Graydon Robb goes for a save during the semi-finals on March 4.

Courtesy of the CCAA Flickr account 3 — Melissa Liew focuses on the win during the semi-finals on Friday.

Ziyang Zhang

A Wee-Tipple, and then another Brendan Barlow

Personal Favourites of the Night.

Brendan Barlow

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SPORTS & L I F EST Y L E

As I sit down to write this, a The Navigator haze remains on my brain that has been there since this morning—this being the result of an evening of sample upon sample at the Crimson Coast Dance Society’s 13th annual Wee-Tipple Party. For those of you unsure of what that means, it’s Nanaimo’s premiere whisky festival.

The event takes place in the lobby and banquet hall of the Grand Hotel on Rutherford Rd., and features the wares of a number of different distilleries and breweries, from as far away as Scotland or Japan, to as local as Nanaimo. On top of that, there is a buffet of foods that could keep you occupied for half the night if you allowed it to.

I entered the hotel with my complementary (and subsequently forgotten in my hotel room) sampling glass and embarked on an evening of unlimited samplings, and not spitting anything into a bucket, as it has been indicated to me is what should be done.

As I piece together the evening from various photos on my phone, info cards, and tasting notes found in my pockets, I have made some estimations in terms of the number of things that I sampled during the festivities. My best guess is that I partook in 21 different whiskies, eight beers, two wines, one gin, and a

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whisky-infused cheese. This does not include the ones that I went back for seconds (and thirds) for, so that should paint an image of what kind of event you might expect to be in for.

At $95, the tickets for the event can be a bit on the steep side, especially considering the primarily student readership that makes up many of those reading this, but it is one that truly makes itself worth the cost. Even for those of you not fond of whiskies or bourbons, it’s not hard to get your money’s worth.

The evening included exclusively local breweries, with beer on sample from Longwood, Wolf Brewing, and the new (and delicious) White Sails Brewing.

There was also a fantastic selection of wines available, though I only tried two of them. One was a stunning, dry Pino Grigio from Alma Mora, and the other was a Sauvignon Blanc from Turning Heads that tasted like fresh grapefruits. There were also samplings from Olive This & More, a local olive oil manufacturer, and whisky-infused cheddar from McLean’s Specialty Foods.

For those among you who are whisky lovers, there was so much more on offer than anyone could reasonably expect.

Most notable, for the second year in a row, my favourite came in the form of the Glenfarcles 105, cask strength, single malt whisky. It’s a strong, smoky, and

delicious whisky that made me wish I had an additional $95 to drop for the bottle.

Also of note was a Japanese blended whisky from Nikka Whisky. I also took the plunge and tried out an exceptionally sweet Maple Syrup Whisky from Québec’s Sortilege, which was absolutely fantastic.

Perhaps the most terrible thing I drank that night, and ever in my life, was a peted (read: tastes like dirt and moss) whisky from a distillery called Octomore. According to the gentleman at the table, this particular whisky is the peteiest whisky on the planet. The average for a petey whisky sits around 75 ppm (whatever that means), and this one is closer to 250 ppm. The taste lingered in my mouth, even after attempting to cover it with sushi, meatballs, and three other types of whisky.

All in all, the event is unique, and well worth your time. There’s something for everyone, and then some. I left with a basket of crackers and cheese, and nine holes of golf. After partaking in a $10 “pop a balloon, win a prize” event, and there were a number of silent auction items, though many fell well outside of my disposable income, although, to be fair, my disposable income is around zero. If you find yourself looking for something to do next year, make this that thing.

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sports & lifestyle

Bring out your inner Irish: St. Patty’s drinks Daffodils and crocuses are colouring the ground, and everything is turning a lush green with the sun coming out regularly again. With the semester more than halfway done, and reading break come and gone, you might still be feeling the urge to relax and unwind. These St. Patty’s drinks just might help—but drink responsibly.

Bagpiper’s Melody Ingredients Whisky Crème de menthe Ice

Instructions 1. Fill half of glass with ice cubes.

2. Pour in the crème de menthe, then add the whisky (Jameson Irish Whisky is a solid choice).

3. Stir and enjoy responsibly.

Courtesy of <grouprecipes.com/41631/bagpipers-melody.html>.

Shenanigans Ingredients 1 ½ ounce Jameson Irish Whiskey 1 ½ ounce Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur) 2 ounces half and half cream Ice

Instructions 1. Fill glass with ice cubes.

2. Mix all liquid ingredients together.

3. Add chocolate shavings, and enjoy responsibly.

Courtesy of <whitelightsonwednesday.com/st-pattys-day cocktails>.

Shamrock Shake

If you’re the DD or just want to take it easy for the night, this one might be for you.

Ingredients

2 cups vanilla ice cream or mint chocolate chip ice cream* 1 cup milk 1/4 tsp pure peppermint extract 1/4 tsp green food colouring Optional: whipped cream and green sprinkles *If you opt for mint chocolate chip, skip the extract and food colouring

Instructions 1. Scoop ice cream, milk, peppermint extract, and food colouring to blender.

2. Cover and blend until smooth, 3. Add toppings and serve immediately.

MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS: The S word Zoe Lauckner

Trigger warning: As you may be able to tell by the Contributor title of this article, I’m going to be discussing the S word—suicide—in all of its misconceptions and statistical truths. That being said, do what you gotta do—put this paper down and walk away, take a deep breath, and get grounded, or batten down the hatches of your heart and read on.

For whatever the reason—perhaps it’s fear of contagion, a lack of understanding, or an avoidance of the morose—we don’t like to talk about suicide. It’s just not comfortable.

I’m no expert—I’ve received some training through my work as a mental health worker, mainly in prevention, intervention, and assessment; even still, I know there are areas where I need to get my facts straight. I have had to ask the question, “Are you having thoughts about suicide right now?” many times; have met individuals that have attempted, sometimes with gruesome results; and have lost clients, co-workers, and friends to successful suicides. I have been touched by suicide in my life, and, according to the statistics, chances are you have too.

According to 2012 data from the World Health Organization (WHO), 800 thousand people per year die from suicide, and many more attempt, accounting for 1.4 per cent of worldwide deaths in that same year. Those are big numbers, and these statistics don’t include the various incidents that were suicides but were not reported as such—like single vehicle accidents. There are no up-to-date stats on suicide rates, either internationally or nationally, but I reckon those numbers are on the rise considering the way our world is evolving (or not).

Despite the stats and the number of suicide prevention and awareness programs, there are still many common misconceptions about suicide.

One very damaging fallacy is that people who attempt suicide are merely seeking attention. Not only can ignoring suicidal thoughts or actions be dangerous, but for many individuals these behaviours are invitations for others to help them live. Equally precarious is the idea that people who are thinking of killing themselves don’t often ask for help. While this can be true for some, it’s important to consider the reason—stigma. While the majority of individuals are uncomfortable talking about it, what message does that send to the individual considering suicide? WHO states, “The prevention of suicide has not been adequately addressed due to a lack of awareness of suicide as a major public health problem and the taboo in many societies to openly discuss it.”

So the first step? Talk about it.

Sometimes those misconceptions have little truths embedded in them—like the phenomenon called suicide contagion. This is the concept that when people are touched by suicide in their lives—perhaps of a friend or coworker—that this increases their chances of attempting suicide themselves. While generally this is not true, one study published in 2013 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal did find that this phenomenon was common with adolescents who had a classmate die by suicide. The data collected showed that suicide attempts among the exposed increased to 12.5 per cent versus 3.6 per cent for the unexposed. This research has major implications when it comes to developing school-wide intervention and prevention plans.

Youth in general are at a greater risk for suicide than any other age group, accounting for 24 per cent of deaths for people between 15 and 44 years of age, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).

Speaking of prevention, one of the most important things you can do is to know some of the risk factors that make people more vulnerable to suicidal thoughts and actions. If someone already has an existing mental illness, they are already at a greater risk of suicide, especially if that illness is within the realm of mood disorders, including depression, and bipolar disorder. The CMHA reports that 90 per cent of suicide victims have a psychiatric illness. If there is a history of suicide within a person’s family, or if they are in the grips of alcohol or drug abuse, these factors also increase the risk of suicide. Notable, too, is the concept of resilience, where someone who has all of the above risk factors may not experience thoughts of suicide in their lives. As is the case with all mental health issues, there is no black and white here, so it’s important we get comfortable wading through the grey.

If you know someone who is considering suicide, you can help. Don’t be afraid to talk about it—and no, talking about it actually does not increase the likelihood that the person will attempt (another common misconception).

The crisis line is another great resource and is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 1-888-494-3888. If someone is actively suicidal, do not leave him or her alone­—try to take them to the emergency room, and, if unable, do not hesitate to call 9-1-1.

You can, as well, call the local non-emergency police line and request that they do a safety check if you have concerns about someone. You can reach the non-emergency police in Nanaimo at 250 754-2345.

Courtesy of <sheknows.com>.

If in doubt, try Guinness—there’s no messing with perfection.

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Brandon Kornelson is a Sociology and History student. He hopes to become a journalist.

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NAV IGATOR

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March

SUN

MON

TUE

WED 9

THU 10

A Different Moon Malaspina Theatre, Bldg. 310 8 – 10 p.m.

Pimachihowan: Living with the Land VIU Nanaimo campus, Bldg. 250, rm. 125 Starts 5 p.m.

$10

FRI 11

SAT 12

The Wailers

His Greatness

Beban Park Auditorium, 2300 Bowen Rd.

Harbour City Theatre, 25 Victoria Rd.

Doors 7 p.m.

Doors 7:30 p.m.

$32.50

Students $12

FREE

13

14

15

16

Double Play

Coming Home

Jann Arden

Orange

Unity Centre, 2325 East Wellington Rd.

Avalon Cinema, 6631 North Island Hwy.

Port Theatre, 125 Front St.

The View Gallery, Bldg. 330

Starts 7 p.m.

Doors 7:30 p.m.

1 – 4 p.m.

$12

$70

FREE

Doors 2 p.m. $15

17 Ron Tran / Somewhat Mine: A Nanaimo Retrospective Nanaimo Art Gallery/ Art Lab, 150 Commercial St.

18

19

The Comic Strippers

De Danann

Port Theatre, 125 Front St.

Port Theatre, 125 Front St.

8 – 10 p.m.

Doors 7:30 p.m.

$39

Students $15

10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

By donation

20 RDN Water Day Bowen Park Complex, 500 Bowen Rd. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

FREE

21 The Glenn Miller Orchestra Port Theatre, 125 Front St. Doors 7:30 p.m. $38

22 Emerge Harbour City Theatre, 25 Victoria Rd. 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.

By donation

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