November 14, 2018

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THE UBYSSEY

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NEWS

november 14, 2018 WEDNESday

Editors Alex Nguyen + Zak Vescera

SO CLOSE YET SO FAR //

3

waiting for the feds //

‘Unprecedented’: UBC to accelerate student housing with new trust, pending tax ruling

“If we begin to make gradual change on this, we can get a full week sometimes soon.”

FILE Iyanu Owolabi

AMS says fall reading break possible for next academic year, pending Senate decision Henry Anderson Staff Writer

The years-long fight for a fall reading break might be coming to an end.

During his report at the AMS’s Annual General Meeting on October 23, AMS VP Academic and University Affairs Max Holmes announced “there will be a fall reading break most likely in 2019/2020.”

It’s not yet guaranteed that the break will be achieved. If it is, it will not be a full week — but a long weekend created by adding an additional day or two to the Remembrance Day or Thanksgiving weekend.

Holmes is hopeful that a fouror five-day break would lead to a longer one in years to come.

“If we begin to make gradual change on this, we can get the full week sometimes soon,” he said.

Others working on the project are less optimistic. Senate Academic Policy Committee Chair Dr. Paul Harrison said no definitive proposals for a break have been put forward.

“Now, that’s not to say that it couldn’t happen for next fall, but there’s been no decision within the committee to take anything to Senate yet,” said Harrison.

Sacrifices There are a number of reasons why creating a fall reading break at UBC is particularly challenging.

UBC’s winter session is already tightly compressed.

“Did you know that UBC has the second-lowest number of instructional days of any major Canadian university?

That’s a fact,” said Harrison.

“So one question to calculate is: Do students want to give up instructional days?”

Harrison said his consultation with student groups shows that most students are reluctant to sacrifice instructional days.

“I heard directly from students saying, ‘We’re paying for our

instruction. Don’t take more days away from it,’” he said.

Another possible solution is beginning the school year at an earlier date, but Holmes explained this would create scheduling conflicts for orientation programs like Jumpstart and residence advisor training. It would also force students returning to Vancouver to pay rent for the month of August.

“We care about having a fall reading break,” said Holmes. “But the issue of affordability is also important, and having people pay an extra month’s rent for a couple days of school just doesn’t make sense.”

The examination period Holmes believes the key to implementing a break is shortening the December exam period — but this poses its own set of challenges.

UBC’s exam schedule, which will run from December 4 to 19 this winter term, is one of the longest in Canada. Holmes believes shrinking it would be the simplest way to allocate days for a reading break.

“The exam schedule is the main reason we can’t have a fall reading break,” he said.

To shorten the period, Holmes said the Senate is looking into allotting only two and a half hours per exam instead of three, scheduling exams on Sundays and reducing the number of courses that have final exams.

“The university only has a policy saying that first- and second-year courses have to have exams,” said Holmes. “There is no requirement for third- and fourth-year courses to have exams, and that’s something that needs to be more well-known throughout the university.”

But Harrison doesn’t expect the exam period to change anytime soon.

“The length of the exam period is certainly a source of

much study, but we haven’t come up with a way of reducing that effectively without greatly increasing the number of exam hardships students would have,” said Harrison.

An exam hardship, according to UBC policy, is when a student has three exams scheduled within a twenty-four-hour period.

Instead, Harrison thinks the short break before exams will have to be cut.

“The most we could do right now is ask students to give up one of the three days that are set aside between the last class and the first exams,” he said.

Who’s to blame?

Holmes emphasized that, despite many years of advocacy without progress, the Senate and AMS have been doing all they can to bring a fall reading break to fruition.

“Ultimately, if we do not have a fall reading break in 2019/20, it’s not going to be due to a lack of student advocacy or a lack of work from the Senate Academic Policy Committee,” said Holmes, “but rather, most likely, an unwillingness from the university to put forward the necessary resources to solve this issue and to consider the changes that need to be made.”

Holmes said UBC President Santa Ono has said that creating a break is a priority, which bodes well for the possibility of getting a break in the future.

“If it’s a priority across the university, there is no reason that we should not be able to do this,” said Holmes.

The AMS will hold a townhall on November 20 to collect student input and assess what students would be willing to sacrifice in order to make fall reading break a reality.

“It’s not a dead issue. It’s not a decided issue,” said Harrison.

“It’s still an ongoing, effective discussion.” U

“We know we have strong support from the province on this.”

Samantha McCabe Coordinating Editor

UBC may be ahead of the curve when it comes to addressing the massive need for student housing across the province.

The university is continuing to create a government business enterprise (GBE), an entirely separate trust that would let UBC circumvent the caps of provincial borrowing and build student housing at an accelerated rate. The project, called UBC Hospitality Trust (HOST), would function as a financially self-sufficient, university-owned provider of housing and food services.

“It is creative, it is unprecedented,” said interim VP Students Andrew Parr. “We would be the first institution in the province, and arguably one of the first if not the first in the country to create this arm’s-length entity that is still owned and operated by the institution.”

UBC believes this model would be the first of its kind for any publicly-funded Canadian university.

A memo obtained by The Ubyssey through a freedom of information request forecasts the need for approximately 16,800 additional beds for students across BC. The “mainland/southwest” area alone — which includes schools like UBC, BCIT, Simon Fraser and Langara — makes up 10,800 of that number.

Parr estimates UBC’s portion of that need is between 5,000 to 6,000 beds. Student Housing and Hospitality Services hopes to add approximately 6,300 beds across both UBC campuses over the next 10 years if the GBE is successful.

The memo from the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training notes that their developing student housing strategy includes exploring “partnerships such as a [GBE] model for the financing and operation of student housing.”

“We know we have a strong support from the province on this,” said Parr.

FILE JOrdan byrum

Parr said he is confident in the future of the project, but UBC still needs to go through a formal approval process.

That includes meeting the needs of credit rating agencies and determining the income and property tax implications of a GBE with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). UBC has already submitted their materials to the CRA and is awaiting a preliminary ruling.

The CRA could potentially rule that all forms of relevant tax are applicable, which would put such a massive cost burden on UBC that the GBE may not make sense anymore. But Parr said it’s more likely that any taxation won’t be extreme.

“If the preliminary ruling … is favourable, we are going to take that as being the equivalent of a final ruling and start to move forward on really digging into a deeper transition planning process and the formal approval process with the government,” he said.

A ministry spokesperson confirmed that “the Province and the university are working together to form a government business enterprise” and that government assessment would “ensure UBC HOST is viable and will not put the institution or the government’s fiscal plan at risk.”

Parr said it’s unlikely that smaller universities will be able to emulate this model, since they may not have access to as much startup and maintenance capital.

If all goes well, Parr says, the GBE could be presented to the Board of Governors for final approval as early as December 2018 and be formally established in the spring of 2019.

“If we can land it, I think it’s really something that can bring benefit to all stakeholders,” said Parr. “I would say first and foremost, by allowing UBC to build housing more quickly and more cost-effectively, that’s a benefit to students.” U —With files from Zak Vescera

4 | News | WEDNEsDAY november 14, 2018 LOBBYING TRIP //

AMS lobbies BC government for affordable education, sexual misconduct policy implementation support Sonia Pathak Contributor

In a recent trip to Victoria, AMS VP External Cristina Ilnitchi lobbied the provincial government about affordable higher education and support for schools’ sexual violence and misconduct policies implementation.

In particular, Ilnitchi advocated for a restructuring of BC’s financial aid system, increased funding for open education resources (OERs) and an assessment of postsecondary schools’ capacity and needs in addressing sexual violence.

To achieve its goals, the AMS partnered with the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) and the BC Federation of Students (BCFS), collectively representing over 200,000 students in the province.

Affording higher education The provinces of Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia have already eliminated interest from student loans. The AMS, SFSS and BCFS want BC to do the same.

According to Ilnitchi, students that take out student loans end up paying more compared to their wealthier peers who can pay their tuition up-front because of interest.

Since the NDP promised to do away with student loan interest

on the campaign trail, she thinks it’s a realistic ask.

“We’re really excited to see that this is something that the province recognizes and we hope to continue asking this from them, and to see how the next budget and the budget afterwards reflect this promise that they made,” said Ilnitchi.

The group also wants BC to offer up-front grants, since the province currently only provides “boutique” grants that are generally smaller and more selective. She said this change would help students when they need it most — in the beginning of term when tuition and housing fees are due.

Citing textbook costs, they also asked for funding to expand OERs. At UBC, the 2018 AMS Academic Experience Survey found the average amount spent on textbooks to be $760 for undergraduate respondents and slightly less for graduate respondents at $574. The survey noted the trend of students not buying textbooks due to costs.

The student groups advocated for a $5 million allocation to BC Campus, the provincial body that develops OERs. According to Ilnitchi, this funding would go towards building new OER textbooks and extra resources, like slides and test banks.

“Looking at the gaps” The trip’s other big ask was for the government to support schools’ sexual violence and misconduct policy implementation — a year and a half after the provincial deadline for schools to put their stand-alone policy into effect.

“What we’re asking for is now a year into it … is to do a full review of what sexual violence policies look like across the province — look at the gaps, look at the consistencies [and] how can we make them better,” said Ilnitchi.

Over the summer, UBC was criticized for the sluggish implementation of its own sexual misconduct policy after students flagged crucial gaps in the office.

Since then, the university has amped up its outreach efforts and worked toward filling capacity gaps.

But 20 of the 25 postsecondary schools in BC don’t even have dedicated offices for survivor support, making holistic assessment a priority.

“UBC is in a really lucky position to have the resources to be able to not just create a stand-alone office for sexual violence prevention and response, but to also have an investigations office and something like a dozen dedicated staff members,” Ilnitchi said.

“But other institutions don’t have as many resources.”

FILE AIKEN LAO

“[It] is a really strong message to the province that this is what students are looking for.”

“A really strong message” When asked about other student issues like mental health and rental rights, Ilnitchi said they were discussed — but since the trip was a collaboration, the AMS couldn’t focus on all of its asks.

SFSS VP External Jasdeep Gill said that students’ interests are also “competing” with many other important provincial issues that require funding, such as the need to rebuild communities that were devastated by recent wildfires.

“Recent natural disasters have strained the provincial budget and slowed the progress on issues such as investments in the

advanced education system of BC,” Gill wrote to The Ubyssey.

“Although there may be widespread support for the issues we lobbied on, I am uncertain as to how many of these asks will be fulfilled in the 2019 provincial budget.”

But Gill, Ilnitchi and BCFS Chair Aran Armutlu all considered this lobbying trip a success.

“Schools all across the province came together to advocate together, which is really exciting to ... be able to have this united front, to have these collective asks that all students agree on or are pushing for,” she said. “[It] is a really strong message to the province that this is what students are looking for.” U

two-track diplomacy //

How UBC’s program with North Korea could open diplomatic doors business could propel the program forward. “[For] all the time I’ve been working with them since 1989, [the North Koreans] have been interested in economic development,” said Evans.

“They’ve been interested in capitalist market-based societies — how we do things — not from a perspective of how they can change to be like us, but how they can learn to live with us and have profitable relations.”

Ticking along

ELIZABETH WANG

The expansion — or continuation — of the program comes down to the nuclear question.

Lawrence Ge Contributor

For the eighth year running, UBC will host six North Korean professors on campus.

It’s one of the few academic programs in North America with the dictatorship, and its directors hope it can become a tool for better understanding North Korea — and potentially even for expanding diplomatic relations with the isolated power.

Every year, four to six professors from North Korean universities study at the Sauder School of Business or the Faculty of Forestry for six months as part

of the university’s Knowledge Partnership Program (KPP).

Candidate professors are recommended after undergoing a series of reviews by their respective universities, including a review for their English language capabilities. They are also interviewed in-person by UBC Professor and KPP Director Dr. Kyung-Ae Park, who founded the program and has travelled to North Korea on occasion to oversee its development.

Dr. Paul Evans, a KPP cofounder and director emeritus of UBC’s Institute of Asian Research, believes that a North Korean interest in international

Park said the apolitical nature of the the program is what has allowed it to continue for eight years despite changing — and often worsening — relations between Canada and North Korea.

“During the last eight years, North Korea has [conducted] nuclear tests four times, but this has not affected our programme,” said Park.

The program is completely selffunded. According to both Park and Evans, the only part of the KPP the government oversees is issuing visas to the North Korean professors.

Park said that they have not faced any complications with visas since the program began and that the federal government recognizes the KPP as a tool for moderating tensions between the countries.

“Global Affairs Canada acknowledges the value in continued people-to-people exchanges between Canada and

the DPRK,” said Brendan Sutton, the spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada. “We appreciate UBC’s initiative to establish this program in 2010.”

Although the exchange of academic knowledge is the main purpose of the KPP, it can also be seen as a potential channel for twotrack diplomacy between the hermit kingdom and the outside world.

“Most people do not know about North Korea, and it’s important to understand each other,” said Park.

“The KPP has been serving as a powerful confidence-building tool between Canada and North Korea.”

The nuclear question Dr. Steven Lee, a history professor specializing in US-Korea relations, said the political climate between Canada and North Korea has worsened in the past decade due to the nuclear tests conducted by North Korea.

“In the aftermath of successive nuclear tests [by North Korea] in 2010, the Canadian government suspended its diplomatic ties with North Korea and adopted a policy of what it called ‘controlled engagement,’” said Lee. “So that meant there was very little, as far as I know, direct engagement between North Korea and Canada after the fall of 2010.”

But Evans explained that the KPP is one of the only two existing academic channels of communication between North Korea and Canada, the other

being a teacher-training program led by Trinity Western University.

“These are the kind of projects that can be ramped up if, when the time is right, we start putting in a development assistance program in North Korea,” said Evans. “The contacts that have been made through [the KPP], the 30 or 40 people that have gone through it, they will be people who would be natural interlocutors in that process later.”

Park has gathered a substantial amount of support for bringing North Korean students to UBC, but said funding has been a major issue because of renewed tensions with the isolated dictatorship.

According to Evans, changes in the political environment can heavily influence the success and expansion of the program.

“If there can be an accommodation reached on the nuclear and the missile questions … then we’re going to be looking at how we’re going to expand activities with North Korea and that could take the form of the expansion of programs like the KPP,” said Evans.

But ultimately, the expansion — or continuation — of the program comes down to the nuclear question. “[The government] feels that they should not make any significant changes in Canadian policy until basically the North Koreans and Americans have come to an agreement about the nuclear weapons issue,” said Lee. U

CULTURE

NOVEMber 14, 2018 WEDNEsday

Editor Bridget Chase

5

remembrance day //

‘It’s been incredibly humbling’: UBC film alum documents untold stories of WWII veterans Bridget Berner Contributor

When Canada entered WWII, some found themselves overseas while others held administrative duties or worked in factories manufacturing shells for the war effort. Everyone involved had something to contribute and every one of them has a rich story to tell of a Canada that is vastly different from what we have the privilege of knowing today.

Eric Brunt, a filmmaker and graduate of UBC’s film production program, has dedicated himself to documenting and preserving the stories of WWII veterans across the country in a documentary called Last Ones Standing.

Brunt first began his journey in Vancouver by listening to the stories of his grandfather, Clifford.

“My grandpa was a big part of my life … he actually passed away while I was at UBC in 2013,” Brunt said. “He was stationed in Quebec and Prince Edward Island for the entire war … he was kind of an unconditional veteran in that sense.

“Despite this, he had so many stories and I regret not hearing them all.”

Brunt began to think of how many other stories that are out there that have yet to be told or documented, shortly after Clifford had passed away at 95 years old.

“I started interviewing people in the Vancouver area and using my background in film,” he said.

“The idea of preserving stories that hadn’t yet been told appealed to me as a filmmaker.”

“I found all these different stories of men and women who served in all sorts of different capacities who felt that their stories weren’t worth telling ... The idea of preserving stories that hadn’t yet been told appealed to me as a filmmaker.”

What surprised Brunt the most was that for many of the veterans he spoke to, this was their first time telling their story on camera.

In some cases, it was the first time telling their story to anyone at all.

“You have veterans who have

never opened up because of PTSD or simply because they didn’t want to talk about it,” Brunt said. “I’ve had people tell me that they’ve never even told their families these stories before.”

“It’s been incredibly humbling,” he added. “I’m a 25-year-old filmmaker and they’re a 95-yearold man and they’re willing to share those secrets with me on camera no less.”

One of the veterans Brunt interviewed, Reg Harrison, turned

COURTESY ERIC BRUNT

out to have been good friends with Brunt’s grandmother’s brother, Peter Anaka, during military training. Harrison was able to share a photograph of himself and Anaka to Brunt — something that struck a major chord with him.

“There was a moment where I thought ‘Gosh, my family’s history has come together with my project’ and it just made me think that this is maybe really what I’m supposed to be doing. [Harrison] was just blown away, too,” Brunt said.

Brunt plans on ending his journey in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Currently, he has interviewed 191 veterans across the nation.

“My biggest wish is I could freeze time and interview them all.” u You can read some of the stories that our veterans have shared with Brunt, follow his journey across Canada and learn more information about Last Ones Standing on Brunt’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/ ericbruntmedia.

community collaboration //

UBC Himalaya Program partners with Nepal Cultural Society for a film screening of White Sun

Students in an intensive Tibetan summer language class, at a monastery on Granville St.

Karolina Skupien Contributor

The UBC Himalaya Program is collaborating with the Nepal Cultural Society of BC (NCSBC) to present White Sun, a Nepalese film directed by Deepak Rauniyar about the Nepalese civil war’s aftermath. The film, which will be presented at the Rio Theatre on November 13, is a part of the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.

Himalaya Program Co-Founder Sara Shneiderman explained the program was designed to be

interdisciplinary with “faculty in several different departments who have research interests in the Himalayan region.” Their goal was to create a platform for these shared interests by drawing upon faculty expertise, student engagement and community partnerships.

Based in the Institute of Asian Research within UBC’s new School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, the program does not operate as its own teaching unit. Instead, different faculty members teach their own courses in different departments — such

COURTESY UBC HIMALAYA PROGRAM

as anthropology and Asian studies as well as art history and visual art — all united through the common theme of the Himalayan region.

Shneiderman hopes that these courses, like “Ethnography of South Asia” or “Tibetan and Himalayan Culture and Society,” can come together to build an area of focus within a UBC student’s degree.

The program also runs twoweek, three-credit intensive language courses in the summer for Nepali and Tibetan.

Shneiderman described them as having “an innovative framework

for community engaged language learning,” where students participating in the courses have the opportunity to engage with Nepali and Tibetan speakers in the Vancouver area. This allows them to gain cultural knowledge while immersed in local communities.

The Tibetan language course is coordinated in collaboration with the Tibetan Cultural Society of BC and the Nepali language course is offered in collaboration with the NCSBC. NCSBC VP Alok Dhungana explained that the organization’s main focus is to bring the Nepali community together, “maintain contact within the community” and “do good in society.”

The NCSBC and Himalaya Program have now expanded their collaboration into events, including the upcoming showing of White Sun. In the film, antiregime partisan Chandra travels to his remote mountain village after nearly a decade away and must face his brother Suraj, who was on the opposing side during the Nepalese civil war.

Both Shneiderman and Dhungana agree that they hope White Sun will provide visibility for a part of South Asia that is often overlooked. U

COURTESY UBC HIMALAYA PROGRAM

COURTESY UBC HIMALAYA PROGRAM

COURTESY UBC HIMALAYA PROGRAM

6 | cULtUre | WeDNesDAY nOvEmbEr 14, 2018

Enter the

House of Lionesses

with UBC Theatre’s modern take on Much Ado About Nothing

by Cassandra betts and Tolu amuwo

W

hen one thinks of Shakespeare, their thoughts will most likely gravitate to Renaissance clothing and old English. UBC Theatre’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, which will be playing at Frederic Wood until November 24, seeks to modernize the classic play.

A modern take on Shakespeare may not be an entirely unique idea — especially in an industry where, as fourth-year bachelor of fine arts (BFA) acting student Gray Clark puts it, “everyone has done a million different versions of Shakespeare.”

But the unique quality of the play comes from their emphasis on strong women and female relationships, a blend of old and new fashion and the use of an exciting technical element.

Like the original play, Much Ado is set in Italy, but it now takes place in 2018 instead of in the 16th century.

“Instead of coming back from a war, we’re coming back from a soccer league,” said Clark, who plays Benedict. “[Using a soccer game in comparison to] a war makes things a little more modern and understandable at a certain level, because soccer players do have a certain level of celebrity that revered soldiers may have had in Shakespeare’s day.”

The show attempts to transform the classic script into something more relatable that can resonate with an audience.

crAfTing cArnevAle Not only does the production bring the context of the play into the present day, they also transform the fashion into a blend of modern day and classical Italian fashion. It is no easy feat to modernize the traditional look of the Renaissance era while still maintaining the inherent classical themes, but Much Ado is able to play with this concept.

“It’s supposed to be set in modern day Venice, so [the characters wear] very modern contemporary clothing, which is actually a lot harder than I was expecting,” said costume designer Erica Sterry.

The modernized costumes of the characters had to diverge from those Renaissance concepts.

“I tried to pull not so much traditional Shakespearean costume but more focus on an Italian carnevale costume,” said Sterry. “In that way, it becomes more unique because we’re blending Carnevale style with modern day style — very contemporary with slightly more traditional.”

UBC Theatre is also making use of modern technology to create a stunning experience.

“I don’t know if we want to spoil everything, but we’re using a technical element that you don’t often see in local theatre,” stage director Amanda Parafina said.

reAl Women on STAge This adaptation of Much Ado highlights women and female relationships, a theme that is very much relevant in today’s context. “... There were lots of genderswapped roles or ambiguous gender characters ... Leonata and Antonia,

“

The show attempts to transform the classic script into something more relatable.

400-YeAr-old romcom

we don’t need to see

”

frivolous women on stage

who were Leonato and Antonio, are now female characters,” said Clark. “The place that we visit is now run by a matriarchy, as opposed to a patriarchy, so it’s been really interesting to see the changes that has created [for] social dynamics and stuff.”

COurTESy JavIEr SOTrES

This adaptation of much ado highlights women and female relationships.

COurTESy JavIEr SOTrES

Daelyn Lester-Sarafini

Fourth-year BFA acting student Daelyn Lester-Sarafini — who plays Beatrice, Leonata’s daughter — agrees. “Having a mother … playing Leonata, we get into very emotional and heavier scenes where a scene felt very different when it was [played] by a father [character].”

“It’s crazy how much the same text between a mother-daughter relationship versus a father-daughter relationship has a completely different lens,” said Clark.

Part of the reason that Much Ado brings a strong emphasis on women and their relationships is because strong women are working to pull everything together.

Director Lois Anderson, a Bard on the Beach veteran and UBC alumnus with a MFA in directing, has had a huge impact on the students she is working with, especially when it comes to the female characters. “[Anderson] encouraged especially the female characters to take up space and learn to take

space when … we maybe inherently and not even noticing [it] take up less space everyday,” explained Lester-Sarafini.

“That was really challenging and also really exciting … to hear a director go ‘We don’t need to see frivolous women on stage. We can see real women. And these women take up space and they’re confident and intelligent and they know what they’re saying, and they’re complex and they’re making decisions.’”

Focusing on the female characters has allowed the show to break down some of the stereotypes that are often associated with Much Ado. “It’s very easy for Beatrice and Hero to slip into the bitch and the virgin archetypes and these types of ‘sweet and innocent’ and ‘crabby and man-hating,’” said Lester-Sarafini.

“It’s very easy for those characters to become stereotypes and we’ve just completely knocked that off the playing field and just gone ‘No, you do have that strength, you do have that agency, you have that power.’”

While the production does bring a new focus on gender and female empowerment, at its core it will always be a show about human relationships and love.

“You see two very opposite forms of love, which I thought was really cool,” said Clark. “And that’s been true for evidently 400 years because [Shakespeare] wrote this over 400 years ago and it’s still relevant …

“You have Hero and Claudio which is more of a love-at-first-sight kind of thing and then you have Beatrice and Benedict who think that they don’t like each other, think that they might even hate each other ... It’s just very interesting to see how those two different love stories play out and how they both can exist and have existed.”

Although the show is basically Shakespeare’s equivalent of a romantic comedy, the cast was quick to point out how it examines relationships of all sorts.

“I think this show is often just sold as ‘Oh there’s two love stories going on at once,’” said Lester-Sarafini. “But there’s so much more that’s happening ... with every character. Lois kind of introduced that on the first day she was like ‘These are all the different kind of love.’”

One of these core non-romantic relationships is between the four leading female characters. “[Lois] called us the ‘House of Lionesses’ which I really like,” said Lester-Sarafini.

“That’s something that came with switching the genders — you have these four powerhouse women [who] are living in a house together and really that kind of ties into what I think the take-home message of the show is: it’s support and community and love of all kinds.” U

nOvEmbEr 14, 2018 WeDNesDAY | cULtUre | 7 ArT? //

curTAin cAll //

Review: UBC Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing is a bright modernization of a Shakespeare classic

We had 10 minutes to draw whatever Tobin directed us to.

rIya TaLITHa

Come Draw With Me was a night of comedy, doodling and yelling riya Talitha Staff Writer

The Little Mountain Gallery, which is more of a fun-size theatre with a mini bar than a gallery, hosts a monthly, recurring art and comedy event called Come Draw With Me performed by Alicia Tobin.

“I’m a Canadian and an idiot,” said Tobin, a fairly wellestablished Vancouver comedian and podcaster. “I just like to draw

… and I’m bad at it.”

Tobin didn’t have to do any drawing though — that was the audience’s job.

We had 10 minutes to draw whatever Tobin directed us to and then we handed in our ‘art’ to be held up in front of everyone.

“Don’t make fun of people … that’s my job,” said Tobin.

She insisted that this was most certainly not improv because of a very particular reason, but she never specified what that reason

WanTEd illustrations coordinator

If you doodle, draw, and can navigate Photoshop or Illustrator, we’d love to have you on our editorial. visit www.ubyssey.ca/blog/illustrations-coordinator/ for more information or email visuals@ubyssey.ca.

was — and I’m pretty sure I was the only attendee who wanted to know. Not that I thought the other 40 or so attendees were any less conscientious than me, just that they were most likely all drunk on red wine.

I handed in my paper and was complimented on my abysmal rendering of a cat, a sweater and a pumpkin — Tobin wasn’t ever really mean.

There were also two guest performers. The first one onstage, Katie Nordgren, started off with a joke about the trials of commuting. Things went downhill after she shared a horrifying story about her IUD and something awful about surrogacy.

“Is this what adults find funny?” I remember thinking in a mild panic, while everyone around me roared with laughter.

I never thought the word ‘winsome’ could be used outside of Anne of Green Gables, but the second comedian was exactly that. Maddy Kelly was smart, hilarious and self-deprecating — but not in a way that makes you want to cough and avoid eyecontact.

Overall, it was a pleasant yet slightly confusing experience.

Tobin wasn’t straight up funny, but I think that it was because of the event’s format rather than any lack of ability of her part. Rather than traditional stand-up, the comedy was portrayed through a situation that the entire audience had essentially put themselves into: doodling with a bunch of strangers and then yelling about it.

Most notably, Tobin’s adorable dog Charlie was there too. He stayed next to me the whole evening which was an added bonus to an already fun night. U

COurTESy JavIEr SOTrES

The amount of fun the actors seemed to be having keeps the audience engaged.

cassandra betts Senior Staff Writer

UBC Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing oozes gaiety and merriment from start to finish.

One of the play’s greatest strengths is how visually pleasing it is. Taking place in 2018 Venice, Italy, the show takes advantage of the modern setting by dressing their characters in high waisted pants, tasteful crop tops, soccer jerseys and power suits. During Hero’s wedding, the girls wear elegant jumpsuits and flowing droppedback dresses that honestly had me envying their wardrobe.

The show makes use of a surprise technical feature to beautifully depict both the inside and outside of Leonata and Antonia’s mansion. One side of the set is a gorgeous representation of a Venetian canal, and the stage is awash in pastel blues. The other side shows the courtyard, warm and inviting with fairy-lights and cartoonish statues that transport the audience to summer nights on European patios.

In the play, Claudio (Matthew Rhodes) and Benedict (Gray Clark) are returning from a victory on the soccer pitch.

Sisters Leonata (Tebo Nzeku) and Antonia (Drew Carlson) host the team at their mansion for a month of partying. This festive atmosphere is conveyed through pop-y Italian tunes, spontaneous dance sessions and the occasional round of shots. The sheer amount of fun the actors seemed to be having helped keep the audience engaged, especially for those who may not have been following the quick jokes veiled in old English.

Another way Much Ado modernized the play is to genderbend the roles of Leonata and Antonia, who used to be two fathers instead of two mothers. This switch is surprisingly impactful, especially

in the scene where Leonata rails against her daughter, Hero, for her alleged indecency. Nzeku beautifully portrays this shattered mother and the scene is a standout in the production.

The villain of the show, Donna Johnna (Jodi Margit) is another gender-bent character.

Margit plays her role with equal parts wickedness and hilarity.

Dressed in an oversized white suit and caked in poorly blended foundation, Margit spends a large portion of the play smoking cigarettes and plotting in the shadows of the set. Her melodrama, which could be considered over the top, instead comes off as extremely funny, and little details, such as outfitting her with an ankle monitor, only add to the comedy.

Despite the show’s best efforts, Hero (Sophia Paskalidis) still seems very much like a pawn being shuffled around the stage.

Although it can be argued that she is very much enamoured with Claudio and eager to be his wife, the ensuing events show how little autonomy she truly has.

This version of Much Ado did a good job of switching up some of the power dynamics and trying to portray Hero as the master of fate, especially by developing her relationship with her mother.

But it just goes to show that no matter how much pop music is added to a production, sometimes Shakespeare’s words will still reflect the values of his time.

Even with this small transgression, Much Ado is still a fun production, and should be seen for the comedy, colours and modernized character dynamics. U Much Ado About Nothing will be playing at the Frederic Wood Theatre until November 24.

Tickets are available at https:// theatrefilm.ubc.ca. Student pricing is available at $11.50

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The Ubyssey’s Creative Nonfiction Supplement

Wednesday, November 14

home(s) creative nonfiction supplement

from the editor Few words allow us to explore who we are, where we are and where we’re going quite like the word “home.” In the pages to follow, writers for the first instalment of The Ubyssey’s creative nonfiction supplement seek to define and reflect upon their home(s) in ways that make it clear that a home is not merely a place but can be a feeling — a song, a breath, a story — that grounds us. Thank you to the contributors for their honesty and vulnerability in sharing these stories. I hope you, the readers, find comfort and opportunity in sharing a part of them, too.

Yours,

Moira Wyton Features Editor

illustrations Claire Lloyd

Wednesday, November 14

The Ubyssey’s Creative Nonfiction Supplement

9

home is

Camille Lemire

H

ome is grey. Grey like the hair of my grandmother who never remembers me. Grey like the gravestone of her husband. Grey like the storm clouds when mom and I watch the rain through the window. My sister told me a story about a princess with long, long hair who looks out a window from a tower. I wonder if she liked to watch the rain too. The rain sounds like one, long, continuous sigh. The cold seeps through the windows, into our skin.

Mom forgot to pay the power bill again. I don’t know what a power bill is. My older sister says that five years old is too young to know about power bills. Mom and I are in the living room. We have made a fortress using every blanket in the house — a mismatched mosaic wrapped tight around our skin like a snake and its snack.

“You know what happens after it rains?” Mom asks me. She runs her fingers through my hair. Her nails are long and I wonder what is the difference between nails and claws.

I think about it for a moment.

“More rain?”

“No, princess,” Mom insists.

“After the rain, there’s a rainbow.

And do you know what there is at the end of a rainbow?”

“More rainbows?” I ask.

“A pot of gold,” she muses, wistfully. “A pot of gold with-” “Ouch! I exclaim abruptly, as she

tugs a little bit too hard at my hair.

As if it were gold itself, as if it were long, long hair, as if I was a little princess looking out a window.

Mom’s hands flinch away.

“Sorry, baby.”

I never find out what comes with a pot of gold.

Home is black. Black like the ink I write my stories with. Black like shadows, both within and around me. Black like the night I walk underneath by myself, the nights I remember too starkly. I am 17 and the air still tastes like the beer I chugged before the frat party. My exposed skin shines like the moon I cannot see and I see a little bit of glitter tangled in the leg hair I missed while shaving. I am cold, but not from outside. There is a cold within.

I do not see him. We are all shadows shifting between each other. I hear his voice, slicing through the air like a war cry.

“What’s your name, pretty lady?”

My heartbeat sounds like rain, but also not like rain. It sounds like screaming, but it’s not me. It’s all around me.

His shadow shifts closer to me, each syllable shooting out of his mouth like a bullet. “My name is.

My name is. My name is.”

I do not hear his name. Or maybe I do. Maybe it is Paul or William or the name of your brother or

professor or soccer coach. Maybe I know him, but maybe you do, too.

His shadow seeps closer to mine, and I feel the cold quake in my chest.

“What’s your name?”

My heels grind against the cement as I sprint in the opposite direction. They smack on the road like drums, spelling out a war song with a beat I wish I did not know. I want to sing it, but my tongue feels heavy in my mouth. I can’t move it. I imagine it, stiff and unmoving, slowing rotting between my teeth.

A black slug decomposing beneath my smile.

Home is black like the rot within all of us. Home is my body. Home is the body that serves both as my cage and my freedom. Home is my skin.

It is my blood. It is every uneven hair and faded acne scar and chewed nail and mole. Home is the stardust stirring in my cells.

Home is white. White like uneven smudges of sunscreen behind Dad’s ears. White like vanilla ice cream.

White like the first snowfall of the year. White like the moon on the night you tell me you love me.

We climb onto the roof of a local grocery store. We are 19 and drunk off beer and this fleeting notion that we can never die. I cannot see the stars, but somehow I just know that they are watching this — how could they not? How could the

stars not want to watch you?

“I love you,” you say, quietly, the stale odour of beer rolling off your breath.

I want to say, “I love you, too.”

I want to smile. I want to kiss you.

I want to see a future and march toward it, unafraid. But the truth is I am 19 and I am drunk and I am scared of dying. My future can end at any moment, and I am not ready for it to end now. The truth is I know you are scared, too.

Home is white like the moon on the night you tell me you love me.

Home is white like the moon on a lonely night.

Mom never told me what you find with a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, but maybe it is a home.

Maybe, home is red. Cherry medicine my sister gives me when I am sick.

Colouring in hearts. Finding blood in my underwear. Your lipstick the first time we kiss.

Home is orange. Juice spilled on white counters. A creamsicle that makes my mouth sticky. Sunrises with you and sunsets without.

Home is yellow. Stealing Dad’s beer when I don’t think he would notice. He does. The sharp sting of lemonade in my mouth. Your turtleneck I always wanted to steal.

Home is green. Grass between my toes.

That joint from the kid living in the dorm across the hall. Your eyes in the sun.

Home is blue. The worst flavour of cotton candy. The ocean when it is warm. How I coloured in tears, how I coloured in sadness, because I did not know how to draw something invisible.

Home is purple. A bruise fading. The aroma of lilacs, thick in the air, during the summer. Icing on cupcakes at my friends’ birthday parties.

Home is gold. Sparks flying from a campfire. Your smile in the sunshine. Whatever it is that makes your heart shine so bright. A pot at the end of the rainbow.

Maybe it is not.

Maybe home is a journey, not a destination.

Maybe home is not a feeling, but a choice.

Maybe home is not a rainbow, but a storm. Maybe home is accepting you forgot your rain jacket and letting the cold seep into your skin and awakening something, something that lives within all of us. Maybe home is getting sick. Maybe home is the hard pill we dry swallow in the fleeting hope to feel better.

Maybe home is the promise of something better.

Home is a maybe. U

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The Ubyssey’s Creative Nonfiction Supplement

Wednesday, November 14

From black gold to Blanca Pawan Minhas

W

hen you’re gearing up for university, there are a few words of wisdom that are tossed around. Things like “You’re stepping into the real world,” or, “Professors don’t care if you sink or swim,” or “The freshman 15 is real, beware of Domino’s.” Once I set my mind on Vancouver, I saw a common thread in the advice I was given: “Small towns preserve you, big cities change you.”

Being 17, I felt suffocated by the former and was eager to experience the latter; that was, until I saw just how much my small town was changing, too.

A few short weeks before my graduation in May 2016, the wind started blowing a little harder in a different direction, and 20-foot flames started eating up my town.

Trees burned, gas stations exploded, and 70,000 people clamoured to get away. Whether they were going south to Edmonton on the “Highway of Death” or north to the oil camps with little food and fewer beds, every evacuee has a story to tell about May 5, 2016.

Weeks later, as I sat with my parents on the carpeted floor of an unfurnished ‘evacuee house,’ I got an email that would kick off months of conflict. I’d been accepted at UBC Vancouver. Initially, I was thrilled at the chance to jump into a new life in the city of beaches and movie shoots, where skyscrapers cut clouds and snow was a dalliance. That high was met with a steep fall when I realised what acceptance also meant: leaving my town at its most vulnerable.

I’d spent every moment since I could remember in this town; I’d seen the elation when oil prices rose high, and felt the constrictions when they tumbled down. While I was worrying over AP scores, some of my closest friends prepared for technical college, hoping to follow that welltrodden career path. Some weeks there was joy in my mum’s eyes as my dad came home with a pocketed bonus, courtesy of a price surge.

Other weeks, that joy became fear as profits were slimmer. I learned the distinct lack of job security that the oil industry promised to new immigrants with little Canadianstandard education.

It was that last disadvantage, the lack of “worthy” education, that drove my parents to push UBC on me, to push me into prospects better

than what they’d been afforded. I accepted my offer and watched as the end of summer brought with it the end of Fort McMurray’s nearlifelong tenure as my uncontested yet controversial “home.”

I came to UBC, as many students do, with a lot of emotional baggage. I worried over what I had left behind as I stared down the barrel of what was to come. Classes were hard and I spent more time than I should have monitoring the news and seeing just how quickly the media interest fled the town, leaving thousands to rebuild and wonder what comes next.

Fiercely defensive of Fort McMurray, I was quick to tout my upbringing as expert opinion on the politics of non-renewables against what I saw as big city jerks attacking honest folks trying to make ends meet. I saw any criticism of the oil industry as a slight on my friends and family, and responded in kind.

I’ve always considered myself an environmentalist, supporting green initiatives and keeping abreast with the latest bad news from climate scientists. But to combat that blatant hypocrisy, I allowed myself to develop a “provider” mentality. I revelled in what Fort McMurray’s industry meant to Canada and lavished in the idea that even Vancouver, a pillar of green development, was dependent on the oil sands for export and business — certainly not a great headspace to take into first year.

Even if I couldn’t stay at home and help there, I thought that by being an ‘Albertan voice’ in Vancouver, I could turn heads and change opinions. That semester didn’t see many friends made, something I refused to causally link with being a loud-mouthed, single-issue provincial patriot.

Y’know, things that make people enjoy your company. During this time, I was constantly calling home to keep homesickness at bay and to see if I could do anything to speed recovery along.

With each day, I heard that things were looking up for both my family and the town in general as insurance pleas were finally giving way to construction crews breaking ground. The Canadian Red Cross received over $300 million in donations to the wildfire fund, so cheques were issued and supplies

distributed left, right and centre.

This outpouring of support from around the country and the globe was perhaps the worst thing to happen to the fragile narrative I’d made for myself. The money that my hometown desperately needed was given without a moment’s hesitation by so many wonderful people, including a fair share of the callous, shallow Vancouverites I’d been so fond of lampooning.

Hearing it was one thing, but when I landed for winter break, it was crystal clear: I’d been waging a one-man war against those paying for the food on my neighbour’s table. The city was in full recovery mode, with everyone eager to get back to how things had been. Rubble was being cleared, blueprints were in review, new leases were being inked — I was in the middle of it all, looking like a fish out of water.

Whatever my “provider” mentality had left to stand on was cleanly knocked away as I saw that rather than the hero-abroad I thought I was, I’d actually been holding myself above the generous souls who’d donated to real change in Fort Mac. My home was back on track to what it had been and I was too busy rebelling against the benefactors to notice. My bad.

“Small towns preserve you, big cities change you.” I used to see this as zero-sum, something that demands you to choose a side and stay loyal to it. I’m very glad to report that I couldn’t have been more wrong. Vancouver has proven to be scary, gross and everything else that the townsfolk warned me about, but that’s now a firm part of its irresistible charm. I’ve had a hundred new experiences on these streets that Fort Mac could’ve never provided and I’m incredibly thankful for that.

But the opposite is just as true.

Fort Mac has been and will probably always be an oversized oil camp, but there’s not a thing in the world that could tempt me to give up my years in that town. I can confidently say that Vancouver has been my home for the last couple years and that, despite a rough start, it’s proven more than hospitable. With two fantastic homes in the books, I cannot imagine finding any place to top them.

But then again, I’ve been wrong before. U

Ink Lucy Fox

T

he whir of a tattoo machine is a homecoming.

I lie face down on the bench and slow my breathing. I can see the artists around me packing up their stations for the night, and mine reassures me that we can get the tattoo done before the convention closes for the day. I’m indifferent, lulled by the familiarity of the buzzing in my left ear. As she sets the needles into my skin, I focus on my heartbeat. In just over an hour, it’s done — what was once bare skin above my elbow is now a network of curved lines and dots, an intricate mandala.

My cousin lies down on the bench first, worried that if she watches me go first, she won’t get her tattoo done after all. I watch as the tattoo artist sinks the needle into her skin.

I cringe. She winces as the needle gets close to her ribcage, and keeps quiet as he traces the numbers and letters onto her side — the coordinates of the hospital where she was born.

I’ve never gotten a tattoo before. My mind races with all of the anecdotes I’ve heard from others. “It’s like a cat scratch.”

“It’s like a prickle bush.” But, as I watch the artist finish my cousin’s tattoo, I’m still fascinated. She sits up and goes to take a look at her

Wednesday, November 14

The Ubyssey’s Creative Nonfiction Supplement

11

piece and after a few minutes of clean up and switch over, I’m now lying on the bench, arm out to my side, lifelessly awaiting the first prick.

The buzzing starts and I clench my fist. The artist tells me to relax, and I attempt to as best I can. The needle sinks in — it is like a cat scratch — and within 15 minutes, it’s done. I stand up and take a look at what was once bare skin, now covered in linework. A geometric fox head, to represent my family and our last name. It’s small, but seems to engulf my whole forearm.

A permanent reminder of my dad’s side of the family. Creative and strong.

I’m back at the tattoo shop with my cousin. Round two. This time, we know what to expect — seasoned veterans. She goes first again, and this time I watch as our artist traces a small Daschund on her bicep.

I lie down next and watch as he traces out the lettering I sent him several weeks prior. I imagine my sister sitting down to write it out for me, her unique cursive writing flowing across the page. “Do you want me to clean up the writing a little or leave it as is?” the artists asks. “Leave it,” I say. It’s the imperfections that make it — that make her — unique. Intense but soft.

Again, within 15 minutes, it’s done. I stand up, and take a look in the mirror. On my right arm, between my two distinct freckles, is her writing. “Chummy.” It’s what we’ve called each other for years, but perhaps more so since we both went away for school and our parents separated.

It’s a comfort and a reminder that she — my twin sister — is a rarity.

first time. I successfully avoided showing her my upper arms on our trip to England several weeks before, but in the summer heat of Texas in June, it’s inevitable.

We are heading out for dinner, and my arms are bare. She sees it, her eyes widen and she comes to take a closer look. “When did you get this?” she asks. “A few months ago,” I say. She twists my arm to see the full piece, purses her lips and gives a small nod, then moves onto another topic.

I arrive in Houston a few months after my mandala has healed. My mother is about to see it for the

I let out an internal sigh of relief and then wonder why her opinion matters so much.

Because it is her tattoo.

It was spontaneous just like my mother is. It is both harsh and decisive, wild and expansive, just like my mother.

Five years ago, my parents separated. My mother moved to Texas permanently and my father sold our family home. My sister and my mother disconnected.

My parents, inevitably, stopped speaking to one another. What I thought was home fell apart.

But, as the tattoos collected and healed, my family healed too.

The house we grew up in was no longer my home. The people I love became home, no matter where in the world they were.

The whir of a tattoo machine is a homecoming, now — and each tattoo is a pillar of what makes me, me.

I am home. U

The art of feeling safe when you’re vulnerable Jenny Chantrakool

I

have countless memories of choking down tears in public, as many of us do. The familiar feeling of a wave of sadness that cuts like glass sweeping up my insides, flash flooding all my systems with the urge to kneel down where I stand and cry. But I don’t.

I lean my head back and blink furiously, take a few fortifying breaths and get on with my day.

The emotional dam that I’ve just constructed isn’t going to endure and it isn’t meant to. The moment I get home to my room, my bed, my blankets — that’s when the floodgates open. They’ve opened up here time after time because they can — there are no consequences to being emotional, upset, angry, vulnerable in my home.

Home doesn’t have to be a place either. I remember when I was in sixth grade on a trip with my

parents, I tried to steal a little Barbie mirror from a convenience store and was promptly caught.

The experience stands out to me because it was my first brush with “real life” authority and honestly, it scared the crap out of me. I was miles away from my room, bed and blankets, and yet I felt completely safe crying my eyes out in my parents’ arms in the back seat of our car.

We never speak about this aspect of home — having a place where it’s ok to break down, to break things, to be numb, to let all the negativity pour out of you and linger in the air like smoke and have that be ‘alright.’ Find that.

Be it a place or a person, find it — and when the next bad thing the universe throws at you makes you want to peel your mask off, go home and break down, do it. Then be grateful that you can. U

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The Ubyssey’s Creative Nonfiction Supplement

Wednesday, November 14

practices of belonging Beth

T

he first time I slipped up and called Vancouver “home” was the summer after my third year. I could see my mother’s face fall as we sat at our kitchen island and I reminded her I was flying “ho- to Vancouver” the next Saturday to start my summer classes. I wondered if she thought I could choose where home was. I wanted so badly to be able to choose my rainy piece of Vancouver.

Theirs. Yours. Ours. The lines of home blurred as my fourth year progressed in a whirlwind of work, school, a boyfriend and claiming Vancouver as my own. I spent my weekends exploring corners of a new person in all corners of the city, mapping my home on the inside of my heart.

Soon the local haunts I frequented with my friends and family on my few weekends at my other western home felt more like quaint tourist destinations than anywhere I was truly at ease. I could no longer see the places I had sat studying as a teenager as anything but relics of a childhood that was long-gone. Seeing my family, my dog and my friends no longer felt like a homecoming — these trips were now vacations from a life in Vancouver I loved as much as any holiday.

Home is solid. Home is immovable. Home is… suffocating.

A break-up ripped across the city and right through me at the end of the fall, seeming to turn

my home into a catalogue of places we had laughed, walked, eaten and danced together. Each intersection I passed on the bus to school was only a few streets over from where we climbed together on that jungle gym.

Every Evo I drove could have been the one I had driven him home in for the last time. I felt like Vancouver itself had spit me out into the cold rain, rejecting

me as the days grew darker.

My parents knew how I was feeling, but each visit to them after Christmas felt like I was hiding from one home between the ribs of another’s skeleton, not willing to let go of the haven Vancouver had once been. I clung to my threads of friendship in the city, never entertaining the notion that my home could be what was tearing me apart — I could not

fathom spending the summer living with my parents because that would mean accepting the city’s rejection. But soon I didn’t have a choice.

“I just need to come home,” I choked out to my sister over the phone as I stood on Cambie after a particularly difficult week, where the city and my humiliation seemed to loom over me no matter where I turned. My term surprised

me, but the prairies were the closest to what Vancouver had once been that I could think of.

I flew back and spent a weekend walking my dog by the river, eating dinner with my grandparents and studying for a final between bouts of crying. As I came back to Vancouver, wrote my exams and returned to my family home in the summer, I felt as if I was hiding from a breakup with the city itself behind the miles between us.

Only as the summer months wore on and I found myself missing the friends and the laughter that had seen me through the last semester did I realize that Vancouver was my home to reclaim, not blame. Now in my final year, the city’s intersections are just crossroads we all have to navigate, its bus lines all taking us where we choose to go. I found freedom in tracing the places I used to visit in tandem and finding paths only single footsteps could traverse — in claiming space where I used to wither and leading where I used to follow.

Home takes time to build and rebuild, to find and to treasure, to believe and then to feel. Last week, I told my parents I couldn’t wait for them to visit, to show them all the places that are mine. I’m theirs too.

Maybe home is where you choose to see past the pain to possibility.

Maybe home is a practice of belonging. U

The transformation Olivia Johnson of home H

ome is an escape from one reality into a different one.

Home used to be a place where once I entered through the door, all worries about school and people slipped off my body like raindrops on Gore-Tex. Home was filled with laughter from my younger brother, sharing the stupid adventures he and his friends got up to the night before. Home was my mother constantly cooking, having left her passion for interior design to bring up her two children.

The aroma of homemade food floated throughout my home and suffocated any other desire from my mind. Home was my rescue dogs barking when they heard my dad pull into the garage, returning from yet another day of tedious work.

Home, like people, changes.

Home went from being a space of unconditional reassurance and ease to a place that causes me more stress than the concrete bubble of university.

Home represents all the things

falling apart. My brother has left for college, depriving rooms of his sound.

Home represents sickness as my dad carries around tubes attached to his young yet struggling body. Cancer sucks.

My mom still cooks — but out of distraction and for the pleasure of others more than personal interest. Home feels different now.

Home can transform. It can adapt to new situations without moving itself.

Home isn’t perfect, and it never was. There were cracks that never appeared visible but they become apparent as I age. Home is simply a place that encompasses family but does not define its comfort.

Home has become the feeling of connection with my family on new levels that are unfamiliar, yet we will push through together, united.

Home becomes more than a space to escape reality, but a constant support through life’s changes. Home is in our hearts — always. U

Wednesday, November 14

The Ubyssey’s Creative Nonfiction Supplement

Home again Diana Oproescu

The Divine Alpine Tara Osler My mother tongue is a mountain song Peaks rising like sharp consonants Like a match catching on the side of its box.

Valleys like vowels, the absence of sound left Like a glacier leaves its mark in the land as it recedes.

The wind sings around these peaks in a way I always wished I could.

Something primordial caught in my vocal cords, That still believes I could produce a sound so wild.

I have seen castles and ancient walls, Fields of lavender and golden wheat, The great beauty of the world — but still, None can exceed my home in its splendour.

Whether it’s the scree left behind by an avalanche, Or the pale starbursts of wild roses that grow along the trail’s edge The harsh greyscale of the mountains is beyond compare.

The air at sea-level is oppressive Hanging around my head like a flock of seabirds Too heavy, too heady, too hot.

I breathe better a few thousand feet up, Where every breath feels like inhaling ice.

No place could feel as protective — as contained — As the valleys of the Rockies, where the masses of blue and grey Rise around me so high that all I can see is stone and snow.

Being in the mountains does something unspeakable to me.

I am made wild among those peaks.

I am made among these peaks.

To be in the mountains is to be in my mother’s arms.

Turtle shell Tina Kia I am a turtle I have a little shell and I carry it Everywhere I go In my shell I have happiness Sacrifice Warm meals Soft smiles Fleeting tastes of homemade rice Murky memories Childhood fights Scraped knees and broken kites I add to my shell As I go from here to there The lockers of my school The laughter of old friends No matter where I go

I once wished to soak the walls of my home in something resembling acid or anything to erase all the traces of those who have come unwelcomed, but then I remembered that my home regenerates itself every seven years and with that, the pain that has swelled flushes out of my body — I can settle in again.

House rules

Julia Burnham

please knock before you enter and take off your shoes at the door i insist. make yourself comfortable let me offer you a cup of tea we can steep together throw me away when my bitterness infuses you i am your secondhand loveseat and the leak in your ceiling repairs are slow these days but we can make do but please, please. knock first i do not await visitors my job is not to teach you how to be a house guest if you wish to be welcome in my home please wait for me to say yes

13

OPINIONS

november 14, 2018 wednesday

Editor tristan wheeler

14

study tips //

Ask Pawan: How do I stop procrastinating?

Lighten up

Pawan Minhas Advice Columnist

Hey Pawan, third-year student here and I can’t believe that I’m asking this, but exams are coming so I gotta ask: Got any tips to kick procrastination?

I love this question for a lot of reasons, one of which is that it lets me talk about something other than relationships. I’ve worked up some studying tips from a variety of sources, both anecdotal and analytical, and am glad to pass this off to the short attention spans of the next generation. Here are some strategies that work for me.

munch munch It’s always amazed me that once I sit down to work, I somehow become convinced that suffering is par for the course, especially when it comes to mundane tasks like consuming nutrients. It’s completely common knowledge that your mind is sharper when it doesn’t have to worry about starvation, so do all your cells a favour and grab a bite to eat before you get in the zone.

Build a nest Studying is hard, but if it’s a subject that doesn’t completely engage you, it’s a monumental

It’s important to remember the things that aren’t between your textbook covers.

task. In that situation, anything becomes a point of interest, from the meaningless conversations to pondering about the real meaning behind Limp Bizkit’s 1999 smash hit, “Counterfeit.”

You can combat this curiosity by constructing a cocoon of knowledge. Find yourself a place that you would only use to study and make it into a focusing paradise. A few good

attributes include a nearby outlet, comfortable seating and something that you can occasionally use to break the monotony, like a window.

Play yourself In line with the previous tip, I also recommend you to try and circumvent your future self by thinking ahead about what

MAGED MAHMOUD HASSAN

distractions you could fall prey to while studying. My most common distraction is little three- to five-minute YouTube videos that aren’t bad on their own, but they pile up very quickly. To fight future-me, I make sure I’ve got a 10-minute break-timer that reminds me that I’m trying to get a degree, regardless of how enticing the Darth JarJar theory video is.

“Why don’t I remember this from class?” “I totally bombed this part on the midterm!” “My university career is being torn down by this single equation.” These are all things that seem to run through our heads when we finally dive into our notes and see the veritable Everest of things we have to cover. It’s a given that this mindset hurts your grades, but it’s important to remember the things not between your textbook covers.

If you are working yourself to the bone to get that A, you’re going to be missing out on the good things that keep you fresh and sane. Granted, university is hard and between fees, grades and lessthan-stellar weather, it’s hard to remember those good things.

Still, I implore you to try. Take a walk with an umbrella and give a few minutes to really look around campus. Try as nature might, it’s hard to make flagpole plaza look anything less than great. While UBC’s location might suck when it comes to getting just about anywhere, it does give a damn good view of the waves and mountains. So breathe it in, remember what it felt like in the first weeks of semester where you (re)discovered just how beautiful of a campus this place can be and use that sentiment to make it through these next couple of weeks until the wondrous relief that winter break promises. U

ELECTION REFendum //

Letter: Proportional representation will help bring campus issues to provincial politics

“Under PR, parties would have to appeal to as many voters as possible, regardless of geography.“

Ranil Prasad Contributor

Depending on which circle you’re in, either way too much or way too little has been said about BC’s upcoming referendum on proportional representation (PR). Although modernizing our electoral system isn’t a magic wand that will solve all of our problems, there are some very strong

indicators that this referendum could improve the lives of students.

One of the major reasons why young people don’t show up to the polls is that they believe their vote doesn’t count — and who could blame them? A large number of British Columbians live in safe ridings, which is also the case in the two ridings that border UBC: Vancouver-Point Grey and Vancouver-Quilchena.

FILE ELIZABETH WANG

By all accounts, those two ridings are “safe seats” for the NDP and BC Liberals respectively, with both candidates receiving 55 per cent of the popular vote in the last election. If your riding hasn’t elected anyone from your party of choice in the past 30 years, why would you — a young and engaged UBC student — show up to the polls outside of some sense of democratic duty?

Our current electoral system forces politicians who would like to take power to ignore campaigning in those safe seats, and instead focus on ridings that are likely to flip. If by some miracle, Point Grey and Quilchena were swing ridings, I’d think that we’d see more of a commitment to education, public transit and mental health in order to sway the votes of students. Because those ridings are safe and the student vote is effectively ignored, the NDP and Liberals don’t care about swinging them to their favour, instead choosing to build billions of dollars in infrastructure projects in more competitive areas like Surrey and the Tri-Cities.

To win elections under our current system, it seems as though you have to fork out money or promises for certain swing ridings across the province, effectively leaving safe ridings — and sometimes entire regions! — out in the cold.

For example, the current BC NDP cabinet is leaving rural BC out in the cold with only three out of twentythree members representing rural constituencies. Under PR, parties would have to appeal to as many voters as possible, regardless of geography. To put it simply, student issues aren’t being addressed by the NDP or Liberals because we don’t vote — and we don’t vote because we’re concentrated in safe ridings all around Vancouver. If we want our fair share like the rest of the province, we need PR.

As university students, we’re also looking for stable conditions under which we’d like to begin our professional lives. PR is a key component of building that.

PR results in a more representative sample of politicians at the table to make decisions that a clear majority of people would be in favour of. This requires parties to work together, which is an absolute necessity if we’d like to avoid the costly phenomenon of “policy lurch” that occurs on every level of government. Due to the costly flip flops in policy every time a new government is elected, it’s tough to build lasting policy that will withstand the test of time. When the NDP are elected, they burn everything that the BC Liberals do to the ground, and vice versa. Ask yourself: Is this a good way to build climate policy to save us from ourselves? To decide whether to not to build natural resource projects? To build housing projects that take longer than an individual mandate of government to construct? Definitely not.

Ballots are being mailed out by Elections BC and are due back on November 30. Whether or not you’re in favour or against updating our electoral system, be sure to vote! U Ranil Prasad is a third-year human geography student, president of the UBC NDP Club and chair of Yes PR UBC. The opinions expressed are solely his own.

FROM THE BLOG

NOVEmber 14, 2018 wednesday

Editor TRISTAN WHEELER

15

raindrops //

UBC Love //

How to survive the next six months of darkness and cold

Is your relationship a UBC stereotype?

FILE JOSHUA MEDICOFF

Look out the window and think about how warm you are inside.

Sammy Smart Staff Writer

November is upon us, which means that the rain is here to stay until May, the days are getting shorter and it’s only getting colder. For a lot of people, this dreary weather makes it a bit harder to get through the day. Here are some tips for getting through it.

Learn to appreciate YOUR ENVIRONMENT If you go for a walk in the November weather, you might realize just how beautiful the season is. The rain is back after a summer of dry weather and fires.

The grass is green again, the air is fresher and the the cold rain feels amazing when you let it fall on your skin.

Tait Gamble Staff Writer

Situated on the western tip of Point Grey peninsula, the idyllic UBC campus is not just a place of mind or where “tuum est,” it is also the place where many relationships begin. While couples like to think their love story is special and unique, upon greater consideration, a thread of commonalities emerges amongst UBC relationships that makes this narrative less convincing.

Let’s consider the meet-cute.

Was it in the library? Day one of first-year orientation? Were you partners in a lab or part of an icebreaker at a club? Was the opening line “Hey, can you watch my stuff?” or a comment on the rain in a desperate attempt to capture their attention?

This predictable start to the relationship is followed by a familiar set of challenges.

Primarily, the scheduling conflict. Overwhelmed by the post-secondary workload and classes, you struggle to find time to see each other. Ultimately, you compromise with “the joint study session,” an opportunity to demonstrate both your dedication to each other and your academic rigour. As things escalate, you engage in the walk to class along Main Mall. This becomes

ELIZABETH WANG

As things escalate, you engage in the walk to class along Main Mall.

complicated when you belong to different faculties, but there is always the sunset stroll along Wreck Beach or the meander in Nitobe Garden. On a special occasion, you meet for a classy

dinner at The Point or Mercante, inevitably followed by Rain or Shine for dessert.

Whether your love story spanned two weeks of first year, the duration of a term, cuffing

keep falling on my head //

Why the rain is actually really good and not bad like you think it is dedicate a sustained amount of time indoors to your studies — or Netflix — guilt-free.

Get cozy Head inside, put on some warm socks, a sweater and maybe even a toque. Look out the window and think about how warm you are inside. Appreciate the cozy lighting, the seating, the fact that you’re protected from the weather indoors. Have a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate to really make yourself feel comfy.

Opportunities to express yourself through rain couture Torrential downpour opens up an exciting opportunity for more self expression through fall fashion.

Think rain jackets, rain pants, umbrellas and layers. Lots of layers.

Consider Vitamin D Vitamin D intake can impact mood.

Our major source of Vitamin D is from UVB rays from the sun.

Without the sun, you’re not getting as much as you should be getting — and while orange juice, milk and various cereals are often fortified with Vitamin D, it still might not be enough. Talk to a doctor about taking Vitamin D supplements, and see if that can help at all.

Ask for help If you feel down, stressed or otherwise impacted by the changing seasons, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Reach out to friends, family or other people you trust. Free counselling services are also there to help you build the skills you need to get through the darker, sadder seasons of the year. Remember that you’re not alone and help is near. U

season or ended after one of you decided to go on exchange, the stereotypical nature of your relationship will be the ties that bind you eternally to one another and all other couples at UBC. U

Increased probability of awkward physical altercations with your peers

What’s the most fun thing about the rain, you ask?

Tait Gamble Staff Writer

For some, a rainy day is an excuse to wallow, watch movies and consume copious amounts of comfort food. Come November in the Pacific Northwest, every day is a rainy day and as busy UBC students, this coping strategy is not sustainable. The only way to make it through the rest of term is to change your mindset from “rain is the absolute worst” to “rain is definitely a lot of fun!”

Here are some ideas to get you started.

Puddles Whether shallow, deep, murky or clear, puddles add a splash of childhood fun to your dreary walks around campus. Jump in them, leap over them or walk slowly and methodically through them. Just do it.

Running outside I don’t run (ever), but some people say that running is fun. Running in the rain is apparently even more fun. It keeps you cool and creates the illusion that you are a) very

FILE JULIAN YU

dedicated to your fitness and b) very hardcore. Give it a go!

You can never tell what time of day it is When you can’t see the sun, days become a timeless cloudy haze. The result? An injection of ambiguity and anxiety into your otherwise grey and drizzly day. Who doesn’t love that?

Guilt-free time indoors Without the sun, there’s no need to strategically maximize your time outdoors. Now you can

Navigating the crowded UBC campus on any day takes a certain amount of skill and agility. In the rain, everyone’s visibility is compromised. Think of the meetcutes! The near-death experiences!

The spike in the number of times you say “Sorry!” in a day! Doesn’t this sound like fun to you?

Complaining about the rain What’s the most fun thing about the rain, you ask? You get to complain about it all the time. The rain offers ample material for small talk, quenching every UBC student’s thirst to complain to family, friends and strangers about the multitude of ways rain is destroying their morale, depleting their spirits and cancelling their plans! U

SCIENCE

NOVEMBER 14, 2018 WEDNEsday

Editor JAMES VOGL

16

Cancer review //

Breast density report by UBC scientist emeritus turns up important public health findings James Vogl Science Editor

In October, BC became the first province in Canada to require healthcare providers to give women information about their breast density after they receive a mammogram, information that was previously available only upon request.

The change followed a external review completed in July by Dr. Andrew Coldman, a professor emeritus in the UBC School of Population and Public Health. BC Cancer requested the review, which assessed the current state of knowledge on breast density and breast cancer, in response to increasing concern over the issue.

There are many kinds of tissues in breasts, which can be broadly classified as “dense” and “non-dense.” People with dense breasts have a higher proportion of dense tissues, although breast density has no relation to size or feel, and can only be determined through a mammogram.

According to data from 2015, around a third of women in the BC Cancer Breast Screening Program (BCCBSP) qualify as having dense breasts.

Coldman used three different approaches to analyze breast density and breast cancer as part of his report.

The first was a review of the existing literature relevant to various aspects of the relationship between breast density and breast cancer. The second was an analysis of BC data — undertaken in partnership with BC Cancer — aimed at gathering more details about the specific effects of breast density on women who are a part of the BCCBSP. The final approach was a panel of knowledgeable individuals from a variety of fields who contributed to a broader understanding of the issue.

During his inquiry, Coldman identified several important findings about breast density and the risk of breast cancer, as well as the effectiveness of alternate methods of screening for breast cancer, different methods for measuring breast density and the factors that influence breast density.

“Increasing breast density has two major effects,” said Coldman.

“It increases the risk of breast cancer and reduces the ability to detect it by mammography.”

While the analysis of BCCBSP data found an increased risk of breast cancer associated with increased breast density for women of all ages — a finding echoed in the rest of the literature — that increased risk was much less pronounced in women over 50.

Coldman stressed, however, that there are many factors that affect a woman’s risk of breast

cancer and it is important not to overstate the relative effects of breast density.

“Most women won’t develop breast cancer, even women with dense breasts,” he said.

The literature also turned up evidence of a “masking” effect of increased breast density that can make cancers more difficult to detect with a mammogram.

“Most cancers are identified by areas of whiteness on a mammogram,” said Coldman.

“When you look at a mammogram of a really dense breast, the density shows up as patches of white ... having those areas of whiteness could conceal cancers that are present.”

Based on his findings, Coldman made three broad recommendations.

The first was to develop a plan to systematically communicate breast density information to women.

Coldman believes that while breast density is not the most important risk factor when it comes to breast cancer, communicating density information may allow women to mitigate the increased risks, as there is some evidence that suggests density can be altered through lifestyle changes like diet.

His second recommendation was to continue re-evaluating the current techniques for measuring breast density and be alert to new findings that could potentially improve the measurement process.

Around a third of women in the BCCBSP qualify as having dense breasts.

Finally, Coldman recommended monitoring the state of research on the effect of different imaging techniques — like breast ultrasounds, breast MRIs and breast tomography — on breast cancer prognoses.

While there is some evidence indicating breast ultrasounds may improve prognoses, Coldman turned up no findings conclusive enough to lead him to recommend imaging beyond regular mammograms.

JOSH KAMIJAN

“The ultimate aim of breast screening is not really to diagnose breast cancer, that’s really just a step in the path.

The objective is to diagnose it at an early enough stage where it makes a difference to the women’s prognosis,” he said.

“The problem is that there’s really not been a lot of research on what the effect of extra imaging would be.” U

it’s getting hot in here //

Climate Solutions Showcase aims to increase collaboration in struggle against climate change

COURTESY UBC CLIMATE HUB

“One of our main goals is to create a hopeful climate action movement.”

Jonny Warschauer Contributor

Adriana Laurent took a moment to think. She considered UBC’s place in the fight against climate change.

“There’s a lot of incredible work happening, but not enough collaboration,” said Laurent, the event coordinator at the UBC Climate Hub and a fifth-year global resource systems student.

This idea — that universities silo information as effectively

as they cultivate it — inspired Laurent to organize the 2018 UBC Climate Solutions Showcase.

Held in the Nest on October 25, the showcase brought together anyone interested in furthering UBC’s commitment to the mitigation of climate change. As with any event that unifies those invested in a social cause, the atmosphere hummed with hope and confidence when professors, researchers, activists and community members offered

solutions. It sobered when climate change’s sources and its future consequences were brought to the forefront.

A more potent feeling pervaded the air though, one that other sentiments eventually served to reinforce: determination. If Apollo 13 and the Climate Showcase went out to dinner, they’d agree on at least two things: science is awesome and failure isn’t an option.

The showcase featured panels of experts on topics such as engineering, food systems, finance, climate art and climate justice. At the end of the night, there was a social for attendees, embodying the central goal of the showcase: communication. We know a lot about how to stop the reckless destruction of Earth’s ecosystems. We just need to communicate and act together to integrate such knowledge. As with most things, preserving and engendering vibrant and healthy life on Earth is easier — and more fun — with friends.

“One of our main goals is to create a hopeful climate action movement,” said Laurent. “There’s just so much dread associated with climate change that it can be kind of paralyzing. We’re changing that narrative.”

Many of the obstacles staring down this movement are daunting and discouraging.

Whether despite or because of these challenges, people were there, finding time in their busy lives to gather for a world more sustainable than what we currently have. The event brought together a concerned climate community and by extension an energy of empowered optimism.

“A huge reason we wanted to showcase the research happening on campus is because we basically have the solutions that we need,” said Laurent. “We know what we need to do! We just need to actually do it! We need to mobilize that knowledge and get it to people who will be able to implement it.”

Speakers and guests at the event repeatedly emphasized that climate change will affect everyone, especially marginalized communities. Collective action is what will yield the greatest positive differences in this regard.

The burgeoning discipline of climate justice, according to Laurent, exposes the plight of those who contributed least to climate change but will bear the brunt of its consequences. This grants climate change an ethical urgency.

“Something I’m passionate about is understanding how climate change will impact people and how that relates to social justice issues,” said Laurent. “That’s what will get people moving, when they see how it will affect them and the people they care for.

“If you’re thinking about nature in an abstract form, in a way that’s unrelated to you — which is a lot of the time how we think about nature — it doesn’t necessarily encourage you to do something about it. A huge thing that I’m personally passionate about — and a huge reason why I think we’re in this mess — is that we’ve separated ourselves from the well-being of the environment.”

Laurent strongly encourages anyone concerned with the subject of climate change to get involved with the UBC Climate Hub. “We are student driven, and we are always, always looking for people to join, no matter what skill level or contribution they have in mind. We have students who are in first-year economics, but also PhD environmental law students. You are welcome to join us at anytime,” said Laurent.

“The most inspiring thing is to surround yourself with people who are as passionate as you are.” U

SporTS+rec

nOvEmbEr 14, 2018 WeDNesDAY

EdITOr LUCY FOX

17

recAp //

Weekend Rundown: Golfing glory, cross-country banners and winter sport success as fall teams’ seasons come to a close mitchell ballachay Senior Staff Writer

Women’S HockeY HiTS STride once AgAin

Despite the buzz, intrigue and eventual heartbreak generated by the men’s soccer nationals hosted at Thunderbird Stadium this weekend, a swath of other UBC teams were in action, too. Here are a couple of highlights from your Thunderbirds you may have missed this past weekend:

The Thunderbirds women’s hockey team played a pair of double-overtime games in a pivotal series against the Saskatchewan Huskies in Saskatoon on Friday and Saturday.

The teams entered the weekend separated by just one point in Canada West, with the Huskies clinging to a third-place spot over the T-Birds. In Friday’s match up, the ’Birds would manage some last-minute heroics to take the game to overtime, only to be foiled by the Huskies in OT. Turning the tables on Saturday, Hannah Clayton-Carroll would play T-Bird hero with the OT-winner in game two — snapping the teams’ threegame losing skid. The team leaves the weekend no further ahead in the league, though, as they still sit in fourth place by just a single point.

After a hot start, the UBC men’s hockey team has had a rocky few weeks that have seen them lose three straight and five of their last six. Thanks to their winning-streak to open the season, they find themselves back to just .500 overall. This weekend’s double-header matchup with the Saskatchewan Huskies saw them drop game one 6-1, and featured a heartbreaking loss on Saturday as the team conceded three goals in under two minutes in the third period.

They would go on to lose that one just 3-2.

bASkeTbAll iS bringing THe HeAT The UBC men’s basketball team picked up a pair of wins over the Manitoba Bisons in Winnipeg over the weekend: a resounding 23-point blowout and an overtime thriller. Veteran sharpshooter Manroop Clair got his first look at a starting role after coming off the bench to open the season. He saw major floor-time and picked up an impressive 53 points over the weekend. The team has won four straight games, and has quietly made its way into second place on the Canada West table.

The women’s basketball team split a double-header with the Bisons, moving to 3-3 on the season. Third-year forward Keylyn Filewich continued to be the engine of the team, posting back-to-back double-doubles. She led the team in minutes in each outing. After a slow start to the season, the team finds itself in the middle of the Canada West pack.

Not a bad start for either side so far this year.

glorY dAYS for ubc golf It was a big week for the UBC men’s golf team, as they picked up a pair of tournament wins and continue to dominate their competition. Rookie Thunderbird Andy Kim earned his first career university tournament-win on Monday, capturing the top spot at the 2018 NAIA Men’s National Preview tournament in Mesa, Arizona. Logan Carver and Zaahidali Nathu rounded out a 1-2-3 performance for UBC, which helped the group cruise to the team title — their third of the season following wins at the Northwest Christian Invitational and the College of Idaho Invitational in September.

The ’Birds were back in action again on Tuesday as they captured the team title at the Desert Showdown in Buckeye, Arizona. Nathu followed up his third-place finish a day prior with the individual title at the event, one of four Thunderbirds with a top-ten finish (Carver, Kim and Christopher Horton rounded out the group).

The golf team has amassed four tournament titles and six podium spots in six outings so far this season. Though they’ve been red hot this fall, they’ll look to keep that magic in hibernation through the winter months, as their next tournament is not slated until March. U For additional information on games, see the UBC Athletics website.

roAd To gold: ubc croSS counTrY This weekend marked a return to U Sports competition for the UBC cross country team, after spending the last two decades competing in the NAIA. Though the team placed out of medal contention in both the women’s and men’s divisions, they each picked up a Canada West conference banner for their performances.

The women’s team claimed the Canada West title, along with a fourth-place national finish. Nicola Symonds was named a Second Team All-Canadian, following her 14th-place finish, and a First Team Conference All-Star alongside teammate Sarah MacArthur. The solid finish would be combined

Sport

Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF) Expansion Join us on Wednesday, November 21 to view and comment on the expansion of the biomass processing capacity of the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility at 2337 Lower Mall.

Date: Wednesday, November 21, 2018 Times: 4:00 - 6:00PM Place: Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility, 2337 Lower Mall Plans will be displayed for the addition of hot water boiler capacity to the existing BRDF steam plant and resulting interior and exterior modifications to the existing site.

Representatives from the project team and Campus + Community Planning will be available to provide information and respond to inquiries about this project.

Guided tours of the existing BRDF will be available for those in attendance.

For further information: Please direct questions to Karen Russell, Manager, Development Services karen.russell@ubc.ca 604-822-1586 This event is wheelchair accessible.

Can’t attend in person? Online feedback will be accepted until November 28, 2018. To learn more or to comment on this project, please visit: planning.ubc.ca/vancouver/projects-consultations

with individual awards: Gabrielle Joffe was named the Canada West Women’s Rookie of the Year, and Norm Tinkham would take home Canada West Coach of the Year honours.

The men’s side would finish seventh in the nation, taking home Canada West bronze. In typical fashion, John Gay had a particularly strong outing for the Thunderbirds in what will be the final meet in his highly decorated career with the team. He finished less than a second out of individual medal contention, but his performance earned him a spot as a First Team All-Canadian and FirstTeam Canada West All-Star.

Fixtures

Notice of Development Permit Application - DP 10001-6

Public Open House

COurTESy HEyWOOd yu/THE SHEaF

Ireland Perrott is all smiles after a ubC goal.

Home

Score

Away

2-3

Carleton

Thursday, November 8 Soccer (M)

UBC

Friday, November 9 Volleyball (M)

UBC

1-3

Manitoba

Soccer (M)

UBC

1-2

Universite de Quebec a Montreal

Basketball (W)

Manitoba

75-72

UBC

Ice Hockey (W)

Saskatchewan

4-3

UBC

Volleyball (W)

UBC

3-1

Manitoba

Basketball (M)

Manitoba

57-80

UBC

Ice Hockey (M)

UBC

1-6

Saskatchewan

Saturday, November 10 Volleyball (M)

UBC

3-0

Manitoba

Ice Hockey (M)

UBC

2-3

Saskatchewan

Basketball (W)

Manitoba

63-71

UBC

Ice Hockey (W)

Saskatchewan

1-2

UBC

Basketball (M)

Manitoba

89-94

UBC

Volleyball (W)

UBC

2-3

Manitoba

18 | sports+rec | WEDNESDAY november 14, 2018 SPARKLY THINGS //

Thriller at Thunderbird: Montreal claim men’s soccer national gold medal in overtime over reigning champions Cape Breton

The Carabins celebrate their national win.

Lucy Fox and Scott Young Sports Editor and Staff Writer

Revenge, especially a year later, is sweet.

In a rematch of the 2017 U Sports men’s soccer national final, the Montreal Carabins finally defeated their old nemesis, the Cape Breton Capers — a team who took the title away from them in last year’s gold game — with a 2-1 overtime win. It’s the Carabins first-ever national title win in their program’s history.

Last year, the Capers bested the Quebec side 3-2 in penalty kicks.

It took just two minutes for this year’s final to see its first goal.

Latching on to a lobbed ball from the midfield, Carabins striker Guy-Frank Essome-Penda sent an

ELIZABETH WANG

arching shot past Capers keeper and last year’s gold medal man of the match Ben Jackson.

Through the rest of the half, the Capers pressured the Carabins consistently, though they were unable to execute on their possession in the final third — at best, they looked to be scrambling to find a way to net. Montreal, on the other hand, benefited from their counterattack and the speed of their strikers Esomme-Penda and Frederic Lajoie Gravelle to provide some creativity in and around the Capers box.

That said, both teams were unable to add to their team’s tally.

It wouldn’t be until the 44th minute that one of the teams would find the back of the net, though —

The Capers wonder what went wrong post-game.

it would be a goal to make things interesting going into the second half. In a crowded box, Cape Breton’s midfielder Caelann Budhoo slotted the ball past a sprawling Felix Goulet to even things up.

A goalless second would send the teams into overtime. For the Capers, their set-up getting into the box continued to impress, but Montreal’s defense held strong at the 20-yard mark to stimey any real opportunities. For the Carabins, the team continued to impress on the counterattack and started to find the feet of star striker LajoieGravelle, but his execution was subpar and he was unable to put his side ahead.

A second yellow card to Cape Breton defender Peter Schaale in the 104th minute put the Atlantic

side at a disadvantage with another OT half left to play — throughout the game, he had several verbal warnings too, so a sending-off was well within the realm of possibility.

The Capers would make it to the overtime break unscathed.

But their luck would run out in the 118th minute, as Montreal’s Omar Kreim beat two Cape Breton defenders and sent the ball across the goal line to a waiting LajoieGravelle — from that distance, he couldn’t miss and would set his team ahead 2-1.

One last-ditch attempt from a corner kick from the Capers would be deflected out. With the final whistle, the Carabins would claim gold.

“Honestly, I’ve missed a couple of chances and I just wanted to get

Ryan Neale

back, get the team in advance, so we did it a little bit late. We didn’t want to go [into] overtime, but we went and we stayed focused and that’s it,” Lajoie-Gravelle said after the game. “We knew, we believed in our chance, we believed in us and we won and that’s it.”

“Very proud of them, they showed a lot of character. As soon as we opened camp this year, we had one thing in mind: to get back to nationals and try to change the taste in [our team’s] mouth for last year’s [penalty kick] loss. And that’s the only objective they had in mind and they worked so hard to get back here and I’m really proud of them,” Montreal head coach Pat Raimondo said post-game. “Good character, good personalities, they did well — they deserve it.” U

PRO SPORTS //

Three T-Birds get the nod in inaugural Canadian Premier League pro soccer draft Lucy Fox Sports Editor

With the inaugural Canadian Premier League (CPL) draft results announcement, UBC fans can take some solace from three of the team’s players getting high praise from the West Coast Pacific FC’s staff with a selection spot: Thomas Gardner, Zach Verhoven and Nick Fussell.

Canada West player of the year and rookie of the year Thomas Gardner was the first T-Bird to go in Monday’s draft — he was the sixth pick in Round 1. Throughout this past season, Gardner was UBC’s star set play specialist, getting the nod to take the majority of the Thunderbirds free kicks around the box. The former Whitecaps FC II player scored six goals and notched two assists for the ’Birds through the regular season, putting him just behind strikers Kristian-Yli Hietanen and Caleb Clarke in terms of points, with eight overall.

Veteran Thunderbird of the three selections, Zach Verhoven, would get the nod in the second round as the ninth overall draft pick, also going to Pacific FC. The third-year midfielder has been an essential piece to UBC’s attack, particularly over the last two seasons, as his speed and footwork up the wing has caused opposing teams’ defenses lots of trouble.

This year, he has been part of a lethal offensive pairing alongside striker Yli-Hietanen — the two have wreaked havoc together on several goal-scoring plays. Verhoven led the team in assists for the regular season with five and had two goals to his name as well.

The final Thunderbird to get the call-up in Monday’s draft was first-year midfielder Nick Fussell.

A Whitecaps residency recruit, Fussell has been a recurring piece of UBC’s dominant central midfield group alongside Gardner.

In the 14 games he saw the pitch this regular season, he netted one

goal and three assists for the side.

It’s feasible that Pacific FC sees the pairing of Fussell and Gardner as advantageous for their side, given their prolificacy this past year. Though a young member of UBC’s side, he has held his own against Canada’s best teams, proving he has the capability to rise to the occasion on the professional level.

With their draft selection, all three UBC players receive an invite to Pacific FC’s preseason camp. Once there, each player will work to earn a contract for the inaugural CPL season which starts in April 2019.

As all three players are still eligible to play for UBC, they will be looking to sign a Standard Development Agreement with Pacific FC, which would allow them to return to the Thunderbirds in August 2019, for the fall season, and then head back to Pacific FC once UBC’s 2019 campaign is over to finish out the CPL season. U

Thomas Gardner was Canada West player of the year.

Zach Verhoven is the veteran of UBC’s three draftees.

SALOMON MICKO BENRIMOH

salomon micko benrimoh

november 14, 2018 WEDNESDAY | Sports+REC | 19 road to gold //

Thunderbirds men’s soccer’s reign of supremacy came crashing down at nationals. What went wrong?

For the T-Birds men’s soccer faithfuls, this past weekend was a true heartbreaker. After a season that saw the T-Birds go 13-1-2 — ­ well ahead of their nearest Canada West rival the Trinity Western Spartans, who had an 8-3-4 record in regular season — hopes were high going into the national tournament hosted here on campus.

Things didn’t go anywhere near as planned, as the T-Birds made an early exit from the tournament in their opening quarterfinal. The loss still stunned both the 1,100 fans in attendance (the best turnout for a men’s soccer game all season) and this Ubyssey sports team.

It’s hard to think things could get worse from there, but with the team’s luck this weekend there was of course added salt in the wound with a second loss.

Here’s what went down in the national weekend no one expected.

quarterfinal: UBC THUNDERBIRDS 2-3 CARLETON RAVENS Brendan Smith Staff Writer

In the nightcap of the men’s soccer national championships quarterfinals on Thursday, it was the Carleton Ravens who outlasted the Canada West champion UBC Thunderbirds, winning 3-2 in extra time.

In front of a strong contingent of UBC fans, the Thunderbirds came out flying.

T-Birds striker Kristian YliHietanen appeared to score the game’s first goal in the 14th minute, but it was disallowed due to an offside call. The play of Carleton goalkeeper Nick Jeffs also stymied the Thunderbirds attack for much of the first half, spoiling an otherwise dominant start by the hosts.

With the score tied 0-0, both teams went into the intermission needing adjustments to break the deadlock in the second half.

It was finally broken in the 74th minute on a beautiful strike from outside the box by Carleton’s Gabriel Bitar that beat the outstretched arms of UBC goalkeeper Jason Roberts.

Despite outshooting the Ravens, the Thunderbirds weren’t able to solve Jeffs. With the game nearing stoppage time, they were in search of answers. They found one in the 84th minute courtesy of second-half substitute Mackenzie Cole, who finished off a UBC corner kick.

Both teams exchanged scoring chances at the end of regulation, but neither were able to get the ball in the net and the game went into extra time.

After gaining momentum in the second half, the Ravens started to seize control in the extra frame. In the second minute of extra time, Carleton’s Christopher Malekos headed home a corner, putting the OUA finalists ahead once again. Bitar then made it 3-1 with his second goal of the game just before the end of the first half of extra time, silencing the crowd at Thunderbird Stadium.

In the second half of extra time, the Thunderbirds were able to cut the lead to one on an unassisted goal by Connor Guilherme, but were unable to find an equalizer.

After the game, Carleton coach Kwesi Loney expressed how proud he was of his team for adapting to the hostile environment, as well as his team’s poise to withstand the initial pressure put on by the Thunderbirds.

“Mosher and his team are an incredible side. [They’re a] very tough team to play against, and we knew that coming into this game.

We knew that it was going to be a battle from the beginning. We knew how to prepare for it, it was just a matter of weathering the storm and taking our chances,” Loney said afterwards.

Loney also spoke highly of his forward Gabriel Bitar.

“We knew that if we were going to have a shot today, Gabriel would have to play a real good game for us. And we know that he’s very clinical in his opportunities when [he] has them. We knew it was going to come, it was just a matter of whether he was ready for the moment,” Loney said of his star.

Connor Guilherme was a highlight of UBC’s weekend.

Salomon Micko Benrimoh

Chris Hansen-Barkun tries to get his hands to one of UQAM’s two penalties ­— he would be unsuccesful.

UBC and UQAM get into a scuffle at the end of their game.

SALOMON MICKO BENRIMOH

salomon micko benrimoh

CONSOLATION SEMI: UBC THUNDERBIRDS 1-2 UNIVERSITE DE QUEBEC A MONTREAL CITADINS Lucy Fox and Scott Young Sports Editor and Staff Writer

After a devastating 3-2 loss in overtime against Carleton in the quarterfinals — which took UBC out of the running for the national title — UBC head coach Mike Mosher fielded a new-look T-Birds team for their consolation semi against the Université de Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Citadins on Friday afternoon.

Again, it wouldn’t be UBC’s day — and again, it will be one UBC likely hopes to forget both for its 2-1 scoreline and the drama that ensued.

Compared to Thursday’s roster, seven new faces found their way into the T-Birds starting lineup: defenders Jora Saran and Manraj Bains, midfielders Mitch Piraux, Sam Fletcher and Dallin Akune and goalkeeper Chris Hansen-Barkun all got the call-up for the game.

For fifth-year team veteran Karn Phagura, it was no surprise that Mosher could look to his bench for the game.

"That's been our thing all season, the fact that we've been playing 23-man deep [roster], any of the subs ... have been able to come in any game of the season and maintain the standard. [You've]

seen that today, you can see that any game throughout the season.

We have lots of quality."

That left star central defender Connor Guilherme to captain an unfamiliar starting 11 — a challenge he lived up to in the match, despite an overall lacklustre performance from the team.

Though UBC generally held possession throughout the match, two penalty kicks awarded off of tackles by Hansen-Barkun would see UQAM take a 2-1 lead by the midway point of the half. Guilherme would be UBC’s lone goalscorer on the night, with a 54th minute header goal off a free kick — his second of the nationals tournament.

On the penalties, Hansen-Barkun would get his hands to both shots.

Mosher would opt to throw in some of the old faithfuls late in the game to try to get the scoreline back in hand, as striker Kristian Yli-Hietanen, veteran central midfielder Phagura and set play specialist, Canada West player of the year and rookie of the year Tommy Gardner all made their appearance.

With more of the usual suspects back in the roster, UBC settled back into their quick, creative game and momentum swayed in their favour with 20 minutes to spare.

Another Guilherme set play header roused the fans in the 70th, though it would swing just wide of the left post.

In the 87th minute, UBC’s tournament so far would be summed up perfectly with the ref issuing an unfortunate red card to Gardner.

From there, the game would take a quick downhill turn, ending in a rough challenge from UBC’s Nick Fussell, some pushing and shoving and a red card for both Fussell and UQAM’s Andre Bona.

Things couldn’t end fast enough in a game, and tournament so far, that UBC will likely hope to leave well in their past.

"We could've played better, could've changed the game on our own, but stuff happens, you get on with it," Phagura said.

Though the game may not have reflected their season in terms of results, for Phagura it did reflect the team atmosphere they have fostered.

"It's been a good group, we've been tight-knit and we showed it until the last minute. It got a little chippy and everyone had each other's back and we fought. It's hard to play in a game like this, a consolation game, but we did the best we could and I'm proud of the boys." U

20 | GAMes | WeDNesDAY nOvEmbEr 14, 2018

COurTESy KraZydad.COm

COurTESy bESTCrOSSWOrdS.COm

croSSWord puzzle AcroSS 1- “Gentlemen Prefer blondes” author; 5- Z ___ zebra; 9- become less intense, die off ; 14- To Live and die ___; 15- Facts and figures; 16- rudner and moreno; 17- Farthest aft; 19- Examines closely;

20- Island in Western Samoa; 21- Omigosh!; 23- Starters; 25- Covered vehicle; 26- Spots on Tv; 29- Singer Torme; 30- Taper holder; 33- martinique volcano; 34- Pacific weather phenomenon; 35- Gin flavoring; 38- before, to byron;

40- Shake ___ (hurry); 41- moon of Jupiter; 44- 1985 Kate nelligan film; 47- Careful; 49- The altar; 52- Pull; 53- Cartoon frame; 54- Totter; 56- Caracole; 58- Frank; 59- Kate & ___;

62- Fundamental reason; 64- “Surprise Symphony” composer; 65- 1982 disney film; 66- How sweet ___!; 67- Like Georgia brown; 68- ditto; 69- Penny; doWn 1- Supple; 2- recorded; 3- british secondary school exam; 4- It’s a wrap; 5- Commander in chief of a fleet; 6- ___ Paulo, brazil; 7- ___-bitsy; 8- aboriginal; 9- Weapons supply; 10- Some pens; 11- Loss leader?; 12- author amy; 13- Pothook shape; 18- bridget Fonda, to Jane; 22- Cabbagelike plant;

lAST Week’S AnSWerS

COurTESy KraZydad.COm

24- dagger; 26- Seed covering; 27- Sand hill; 28- Problem with L.a.; 31- Jeter of the yankees; 32- ___ b’rith; 33- unskilled laborer; 35- Equinox mo.; 36- Island feast; 37- not a dup.; 39- Some Ivy Leaguers; 42- Crown of ancient Egypt; 43- Suit to ___; 45- Fold; 46- marsh of mystery; 48- Tips off ; 49- related through males; 50- Land, as a fish; 51- Take into custody; 55- Photo finish?; 56- broad; 57- Zhivago’s love; 59- Sighs of relief; 60- actor Jude; 61- Cleaning agent; 63- male turkey;