Vancouver Courier September 26 2014 by Vancouver Courier

FRIDAY

September 26 2014 Vol. 105 No. 78

PACIFIC SPIRIT 14

Words for Burma ENTERTAINMENT 21

Music docs at VIFF SPORTS 23

Sports films at VIFF There’s more online at

vancourier.com WEEKEND EDITION

Post-Seconda Education ry Benefits Us Al l STOP THE C UTS!

universitiesw ork.ca University wo rkers at UBC and SFU CUPE Locals 2950 and 33 38

THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908

Presented by

Presented by

Painting “Stalking Leopard” by Karen Lawrence-Rowe.

PROGRAM GUIDE

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2014 AFC FESTIVAL PROGRAM & SCHEDULE

DAILY PROGRAM SCHEDULE Saturday, Sept. 27 (Public Opening Day) | 10am - 9:30pm Note: Exhibit/Theatre closed at 6pm for Ticketed Event 10:00am:

Art Exhibit opens

10:00am-10:30am: Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky) 11:00am-11:45pm: Opening ceremony w/ artists and performance by William Nahanee 12:00pm-12:30pm: Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky) 1:00pm-4:00pm:

Live Art Demos, Music & Live Birds of Prey (Drumming with Russell Shumsky, O.W.L.)

1:30pm-2:15pm:

Painting by Leslie Evans

Keynote Address (John & Suzie SeereyLester)

FILM SCREENING TIMES Public Opening Day: Sat, Sept 27 10:00am (AFC - Mtn Gorillas) 12:00pm (AFC - Soysambu) 4:30pm (AFC - Caymans)

2:30pm-3:15pm:

Festival Patron Address (Pollyanna Pickering)

3:30pm-4:15pm:

Lecture (Robert Glen & Sue Stolberger)

4:30pm-6:00pm:

Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky)

6:00pm:

Gallery & theatre close for wine & cheese event set-up

7:00pm-9:30pm:

Meet-the-Artists Wine & Cheese (Ticketed event)

10:00pm:

Exhibit & Theatre close

10:00am:

Art Exhibit opens

10:30am-1:30pm:

Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky)

1:00pm-4:00pm:

Live Art Demos, Music & Live Birds of Prey (Guitar with John Gilliat, O.W.L.)

5:00pm (Art for an Oil Free Coast) 5:30pm (Why Bears / Extremely Wild)

1:30pm-2:15pm:

Lecture (Chris Maynard: “Feathers, Form and Function”)

2:30pm-3:15pm: 3:30pm-4:15pm:

Lecture (Pollyanna Pickering, “Bears”) Lecture (Anna-Louise Pickering:

Sun day , Sep t 28 Mon day , Sep t 29 Tue sday , Sep t 30 Wed nesd ay, O ct 1 Thu rsda y, O ct 2 Frid ay, O ct 3 Satu rday , Oc t 4, Sun day ,Oct 5

“Photographing an Artist”)

10:00am 10:30am 11:00am 11:30am 12:00pm 12:30pm 1:00pm 1:30pm 2:00pm 2:30pm 3:00pm 3:30pm 4:00pm 4:30pm 5:00pm 5:30pm 6:00pm 6:30pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 8:30pm 9:00pm

AFC - Mtn Gorillas Why Bears / Extremely Wild AFC - Soysambu Art for an Oil Free Coast AFC - Caymans Why Bears / Extremely Wild AFC - Mtn Gorillas

Painting by Carole Niclasse

Sunday, September 28 | 10am - 9:30pm

4:30pm-5:15pm:

Lecture (Terry Woodall, AFC Artist)

5:30pm-9:30pm:

Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky)

9:30pm:

Exhibit & Theatre closes

Saturday, October 4 | 10am - 10pm (Family Weekend) Featuring special activities for youth and young-at-heart 10:00am:

Art Exhibit opens

10:00am-1:30pm:

Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky) Live painting & sculpting demonstrations and

1:00pm-4:00pm:

music (The Postmodern Camerata) 1:30pm-2:15pm:

Lecture (Dr. Robert Butler, “The Salish Sea”)

2:30pm-3:15pm:

Lecture & Film (Ian Hinkle, “Reaching Blue” Filmmaker)

3:30pm-10:00pm: 10:00pm:

Sunday, October 5 | 10am - 5pm (Closing Day/Family Weekend)

Monday, September 29 - Wednesday Oct. 1 | 10am - 9pm

10:00am 10:00am-1:30pm:

Featuring “Adventures in Art & Environment” School Workshops

1:00pm-4:00pm:

10:00am-3:00pm

3:30pm-9:30pm:

Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky)

9:30pm:

Exhibit & Theatre close

Ryuzen Ramos) 1:30pm-2:15pm:

Lecture (Jeffrey Whiting, Artists for

2:30pm-3:15pm:

Conservation) Lecture (Brent Cooke, Artists for Conservation)

Thursday, October 2 - Friday, October 3 | 10am - 9:30pm

Reaching Blue AFC - Soysambu Art for an Oil Free Coast AFC - Caymans Why Bears / Extremely Wild AFC - Mtn Gorillas Art for an Oil Free Coast AFC - Soysambu Bear Witness AFC - Caymans Reaching Blue AFC - Mtn Gorillas

Painting by Anne Peyton

10:00am:

Art Exhibit opens

10:00am-9:30pm:

Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky)

9:30pm:

Exhibit & Theatre close

Live painting, sculpting, First Nations (Shakuhachi Japanese Flute with Alcvin

workshops Art Exhibit opens

Art Exhibit opens Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky) carving demonstrations and music

“Adventures in Art & Environment” school

10:00am:

Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky) Exhibit & Theatre close

3:30pm--4:00pm:

Film Screenings (Theatre in the Sky)

4:00pm:

Festival closes

Painting by Mark Hobson

WWW.ARTISTSFORCONSERVATION.ORG/FESTIVAL

Post-Seconda Education ry Benefits Us Al l

PACIFIC SPIRIT 14

FRIDAY

September 26 2014

Words for Burma

Vol. 105 No. 78

ENTERTAINMENT 21

Music docs at VIFF SPORTS 23

STOP THE C UTS!

Sports films at VIFF There’s more online at

vancourier.com WEEKEND EDITION

universitiesw ork.ca University wo rkers at UBC and SFU CUPE Locals 2950 and 33 38

THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908

Thrill ride for senior

Harley ride a reality for cancer survivor Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

A media policy introduced at city hall under Mayor Gregor Robertson’s administration prevents reporters from directly accessing city staff for comment or explanation of policy. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

City’s restrictive media policy ‘attempt to manipulate public knowledge’ Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

On the morning of April 17 this year, Vision Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs sent a tantalizing tweet into the Twittersphere that piqued the interest of reporters who cover city hall. He posed this question: Is Vancouver treating civic affairs reporters fairly? The tweet’s link brought reporters to Meggs’ blog page, where he expounded on his question — somewhat cheekily — and acknowledged the city’s media policy isn’t like it used to be. “In the good old days, back in 2007, [reporters] could call any city staff person and interview them on and off the record,” he wrote. “City hall was a reporter’s paradise, with spin doctors restricted

to mayor Sam Sullivan’s ofﬁce and senior city staff accessible at all hours of the day and night. And so on.” He added: “Now, they say, it takes days to get a call back, if you get one at all from behind the closed doors of the city communications branch.” Meggs wrote the blog post to inform his readers and Twitter followers about an update he received from city manager Penny Ballem on the media policy; the information was not sent to reporters or posted on the city’s website for the public to view. In three separate memos, Ballem outlined how the policy adopted in late 2010 is effective and is in line with how other municipalities interact with reporters. Ballem’s update was prompted by a request from NPA Coun. George Afﬂeck,

who says the policy imposed under Vision Vancouver’s regime shuts out reporters from information and limits the number of experts able to explain and comment on what are sometimes complicated topics. “Staff are being completely disempowered by Vision and I think that’s inappropriate,” said Afﬂeck who, along with Meggs, is a former journalist and seeking re-election. “We should let the people who are experts in the categories of which they are experts speak to media. If we can’t trust our staff, then who can we trust at city hall?” While some might see the complaints of reporters as an internal matter best discussed with the city, Langara College journalism instructor Ross Howard believes the policy is an affront to democracy and should be of great concern to the public. Continued on page 12

Gerey Parker felt let down when her son and daughter, Sara, told her they were going to fulﬁll her dream of riding a Harley for her 65th birthday. “I thought she was going to tell me she was pregnant,” Parker said. But the woman who has lived with rheumatoid arthritis since she was a teenager, underwent chemotherapy last year, had a mastectomy and saw her breast reconstruction surgery fail, says in the end she was “beyond thrilled” Sara went to such great lengths to arrange a ride with the Lords of Gastown. “She just will do anything to make somebody else’s life better and happier,” Parker said of her daughter. Sara searched long and hard for anyone willing to take her mother for a spin. But the scruffy Tyler Hazelwood and tattooed Nik Markovina, co-owners of the Lords of Gastown motorcycle apparel company, “jumped at the chance to take mom for a ride, told me they wouldn’t take money, gave the entire family shirts (no charge), waited for the weather to be good and took her out for an adventure she won’t soon forget,” Sara wrote the Courier. “To say that they are a good group of people is an understatement,” she continued. “They made my year to give my mom something so special and taking something off her bucket list was a pretty big thrill for mom.” Parker’s hankering to ride a Harley Davidson intensiﬁed after she separated from Sara’s father in 1999. “I was looking for something to call my own,” she said. “Sara rode one of those really fast [bikes], they call them a crotch rocket… but I was only ever interested in a Harley. I just always liked the sound of them.” Sara bought her mother motorcycle lessons in 2002 but Parker, who’s had joint replacements in both knees, had a hard time working the gears and brake. She tried dozens of the school’s bikes to no avail. Cancer and her mother’s milestone birthday kicked Sara’s gift-giving efforts into high gear this year. Continued on page 8 BUY YOUR TICKETS ONLINE AT IDSWEST.COM OR AT THE DOOR

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F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

LaPointe promises ombudsman for city hall in Canada, maybe in North America.” Vision Coun. Andrea Reimer, who is seeking re-election, pointed out that B.C.’s Ofﬁce of the Ombudsman already exists and has jurisdiction over local governments. Reimer said LaPointe hadn’t done his homework. As for LaPointe’s accusations calling the Vision administration the most secretive in the city’s history, Reimer said the real secret is what the NPA’s plans are for homelessness, affordable housing, transit and childcare. “On the broader issue of consultation and engagement, we have done way more than any administration ever has — and that’s not to say that it’s enough,” said Reimer, noting the creation of the city’s engaged city task force. She noted the previous NPA administration in the 2005 to 2008 term led to the cutting of citizens’ advisory bodies, which reduced residents’ say in decisions at city hall. “So it’s been a lot of work

NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe argued Tuesday a city hall ombudsperson would be the public’s representative to handle complaints that are not being addressed by politicians or staff. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

to 2012. “That’s, I think, unhealthy for our system. It only broaches a kind of divisive nature and I don’t want that to be the culture we have under NPA.” LaPointe’s announcement Tuesday was not a surprise to readers of his blog “The Vancouver I want,” where he wrote Aug.

12 about the need for an ombudsperson’s ofﬁce to be created. In his ﬁrst news conference with reporters in July, LaPointe emphasized the need for more openness at city hall, saying “I believe we have an opportunity here to have the most transparent government of any

to rebuild that community capacity around resident engagement,” said Reimer, who was first elected to council in 2008 when Vision won its first of two majority governments. Concerns with how council and staff conduct business at city hall are not new. In 2009, lawyer Richard Peck outlined a series of recommendations to council that included hiring a so-called integrity commissioner to investigate councillors and employees who contravene the city’s code of conduct. The city hired Peck in 2008 to investigate the leak of a confidential document related to the Olympic Village project from an Oct. 14, 2008 in camera meeting of council. Some councillors took polygraph tests conducted by the Vancouver Police Department, which launched an investigation into the missing document but failed to recommend any charges. Council never did hire an integrity commissioner. twitter.com/Howellings

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NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe, a former CBC ombudsman, announced Tuesday that he will create an independent “office of the ombudsperson” if his party wins a majority in the civic election. At a news conference on the steps of city hall, LaPointe promised the office would be independent and serve as the public’s representative to handle complaints that are not being addressed by politicians or staff. “It will be a new independent mechanism to impartially ensure city government follows procedures,” he told reporters. “It will investigate public complaints, it will report its findings and it’s going to influence change at city hall.” LaPointe pointed out other cities such as Edmonton and Toronto have ombudsperson offices. Though he didn’t say specifically how much the office would cost to implement — saying that would have to be

matched with volume of complaints — he noted most cities require an annual budget of “slightly more than a million dollars.” In announcing his promise, LaPointe criticized the ruling Vision Vancouver party and accused the administration of being “the most secretive, least consultative government in our history.” He said people he’s spoken to in neighbourhoods have lost trust with the present administration and is a reason the city is facing 16 lawsuits, some of which are regarding the city’s planning policies and pushback over community plans. LaPointe acknowledged it is the role of civic politicians and government staff to answer citizens’ complaints but said if a citizen is unhappy with the results, an ombudsperson would be an outlet to appeal his or her concern. “The appeal process shouldn’t be to instantly ﬁle a lawsuit,” said LaPointe, a longtime media executive who served as CBC’s ombudsman from 2010

GRANVILLE

mhowell@vancourier.com

ARBUTUS

Mike Howell

www.facebook.com/ legacyseniorlivingvancouver

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

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News A revised agreement on homelessness that led to chaos 12TH&CAMBIE Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

As I’ve come to learn on the job, there’s always more to the story. So I’ve got some more information for you regarding the lengthy piece I wrote Wednesday about the problems facing the Marguerite Ford Apartments on West Second Avenue. In case you missed it, it was a look at why the 147unit social housing complex generated 729 police calls in its ﬁrst 16 months. It can be viewed online at vancourier.com. At the root of the story was how moving in a high percentage of homeless people with mental health and addictions issues, or both, into a building without proper support services led to drug activity, ﬁghts and general public disorder. Housing Minister Rich Coleman is not pleased.

The Marguerite Ford building is one of 14 projects open or in development that the provincial government agreed to build across the city. So far, 10 are open. The city put up the land for all 14 sites, with the Streetohome Foundation contributing $2.9 million to the Marguerite Ford project and several million dollars to some of the other projects. The reason Coleman isn’t pleased is because he said the provincial government reluctantly agreed to the city’s wish to revise a 2007 agreement between the two parties to allow for more homeless people to move into Marguerite Ford and other buildings. The new information I obtained? A copy of the revised agreement, signed by city manager Penny Ballem and B.C. Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay, dated Aug. 2, 2012, that allowed for more homeless people to move into the buildings. I haven’t got a lot of

space here in print to go into great detail (more on my blog, which you’ll ﬁnd on the lower right side of the Courier’s home page) but here’s two key paragraphs of the agreement: “Both B.C. Housing and the City will work together with Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (where appropriate) and the non-proﬁt operators to expedite tenanting of the new supportive housing buildings within four to six weeks of an occupancy permit being issued.” “B.C. Housing and the City agree that monitoring the outcomes of this major public policy initiative is essential and will work with Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (where appropriate) and the academic community to assist with appropriate metrics and research to answer key questions related to outcomes.” As Coleman and others told me, there are indeed many key questions. twitter.com/Howellings

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F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News Band program on the run Post-strike VSB returns to study fate of music programs CLASS NOTES

Liberty House of Worship REVIVAL HEALING SERVICE

Sat. 1 pm - Sept. 27th, Oct. 25, Nov. 22

Liberty House of Worship, 3403 E. 49th Ave. & Tyne (Salvation Army Church), Vancouver

Rev. Audrey Mabley Founder of Eternity Club

Wave” e the “Healing nc ie er p ex e m Co ! in God’s River Ezekiel 47:9

with Pastor Emmanuel Ayedzi

Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

Concern about elementary band and strings reached a crescendo last spring and now the Vancouver School Board has to determine how the program will play on. The VSB granted the elementary band and strings program a year’s reprieve in April with the hope the community would help the district find solutions to sustain the program without $630,651 from the board. Those who consider music education essential packed 2014-2015 budget meetings and presented impassioned reasons why the program should continue. VSB chairperson Patti Bacchus told the Courier Sept. 15 that conversations about the future of elementary band and strings had been “somewhat delayed” by the labour disruption because the district wants to involve teachers in talks and managers were busy “putting out fires.” On Sept. 11, the board’s education and student services committee discussed hiring a consultant to lead a working group that would explore band and strings programs in other districts and various options. Last year 2,900 students in grades 4 to 7 participated in elementary band and strings at 52 of 92 elementary schools in Vancouver. The program runs at 31 West Side schools and 21 East Side schools, including five inner city schools. Students pay $25 annually

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String students from several schools played a few songs before a budget meeting at the Vancouver School Board Education Centre in April. In front is Keith Topnik, a seven-year-old cellist. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

toward materials and parents rent the instruments. Arrangements are made to support families who can’t afford these costs. The district has funded the equivalent of eight fulltime teachers, in addition to other staff at each site where the program is offered. “Schools are required to offer ﬁne arts instruction to students within the classroom and the learning outcomes for music are met in a variety of ways,” states a Sept. 5 memo to the committee from associate superintendent Maureen Ciarniello. “The elementary band and strings program runs in addition to the regular ﬁne arts instruction, except in the few instances where it is offered within the timetable, and is an optional program over and above the curriculum requirements.” Ciarniello outlined two potential options for the program. Band and strings could be incorporated into prepa-

ration blocks at schools, but staff at individual schools would have to decide whether they supported this. All students within the designated grades would have to participate and parents would have to rent instruments. Alternatively, the district could partner with music schools to offer children lessons outside of school hours at schools or community centres. “Examples of these organizations include St. James Academy, the Sarah McLachlan School of Music, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s School of Music,” the memo states. “During the budget review process in the spring 2014, numerous organizations expressed their interest in providing support to the district in its consideration of other options.” Models and options are to be explored with a report back to the education and student services committee, Dec. 10. twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi

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What Do I Do With All My Stuff? A seminar on downsizing, packing, and moving Wednesday, October 8th, 1pm – 3pm So you want to make the most of your retirement lifestyle by considering a move to an independent retirement community? Great idea…but lifestyle transition requires planning and organizing. And an important and sometimes overwhelming question is: What do I do with all my stuff? The team at the retirement community of Tapestry at Wesbrook Village knows just how tough it can be to make the downsizing move and we’re happy to help! Join us and guest Jackie and Files, Certified Relocation and Transition Specialists professionally trained to help you in your move. Learn about solutions and strategies to save you time and reduce your stress as you make an important transition. Join us to learn practical skills to deal with all that stuff! Space is limited. RSVP to 604.225.5000 by October 6th to ensure your spot.

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better and companies are getting more aware of the fact that they’re not going to shy away from hiring a woman because she’s around 30 and just got married and might have kids some day. The tide is turning, slowly. And I don’t feel like as a whole my career has been held back by it, but there’s definitely been opportunities that I’ve missed out on.

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Gerey Parker and Nik Markovina at the Lords of Gastown compound. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Apparel company owners refused to take money

Continued from page 1 “I will often buy her Harley things, but it’s not quite the same,” Sara said. Lords of Gastown includes a store, tattoo studio, barbershop and a whisky bar on Dunlevy Avenue. The business owners not only jumped at the chance to take Parker for a ride, but also offered to give her a tattoo. Parker wants to transform her “winking wrinkly old man side” where she wears a prosthetic breast with a butterﬂy, but Sara and her brother, Troy, already gave their mother a gift certiﬁcate for a tattoo. “I don’t really like this kind of exposure,” Parker said. “But… it’s really important that they’re recognized for doing good. There’s enough bad stuff in the news.” Lords of Gastown started a group mid-summer to sa-

tiate the appetite of Harley riders hungry to ride with a group free from any whiff of criminal association. When Markovina told members about Parker’s ride, he was shocked to see up to 40 of them show up on a Sunday morning to accompany her. Parker slid onto the saddle behind the 35-year-old Markovina, a former model, and gripped the edges of his jacket. “There’s no way I was going to put my arms around his waist. I’m 65 and he’s, like, 30,” she said. “I’ve got a 31-year-old son. That would be creepy.” Parker worried the jaunt from Railtown to Trev Deeley Motorcycles on Boundary Road would be “ho-hum,” but Markovina didn’t let her down. “He didn’t just take me on a granny ride,” she said. She was not only im-

pressed by the roar of the bike’s engine but also to learn Lords of Gastown raises money for multiple charities. After they dropped her off Sept. 7, they completed the Vancouver Fireﬁghters’ Bikers for Burns fundraising ride. Markovina, who started competing in motocross races when he was four years old, says Parker gave him a gift, too. “It brought me back to why we ride motorcycles and how you take things for granted,” he said. “Riding on a sunny day, just going on a short trip would seem like nothing. But for her, the short trip was something that she’ll never forget. We should feel good that we can ride a motorcycle every day… It’s the simple things in life that you should just appreciate.” twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi

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F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News

CP to resume clearing Naoibh O’Connor

noconnor@vancourier.com

Canadian Paciﬁc plans to resume clearing its property on Arbutus Corridor in the latter half of next week. “We’re just working on operating plans. We had removed people and resources from the area during the conversations [with the city] and now we’re getting things lined back up,” explained CP spokeswoman Breanne Feigel. “I know it’s in the second half of next week. I don’t know an exact date or time.” Feigel said the company has approached the city for details on its proposed tree removal. Talks between CP and the city broke down earlier this month. Vancouver park board staff are prepared to start removing mature fruit

trees if they get the go-ahead from city hall. Bill Harding, the park board’s director of parks, said the total number of trees is in excess of 100 and staff are ready to go once word comes down from city hall, but there are no plans at present. “There are still a lot of questions about exactly which ones would need to be removed and which could stay,” he said. “It’s not as simple as moving a telephone pole or something like that [where] you know how deep it’s buried, you typically know what’s under it… What happens with a tree is you don’t really know what’s going on until you start digging around it, so obviously you have to get clearances to make sure there’s no Hydro lines or telephone lines or any of those other things underneath.” Harding said there are vari-

ous ways to move trees, such as using a mechanical tree spade or hand-digging them out, depending on the time or year and other circumstances. He said a tree spade is the simplest way to do it, but it wouldn’t be used unless there were a lot of trees being removed all at the same time. “If we were going to move an excess of 100 trees, we would probably use a tree spade,” he said. “Otherwise, you just dig them by hand and when you’re digging by hand, you don’t want to cut that many roots. You want to make it as clean as you can, so you’re not affecting the underground part of the tree because that’s where it gets fed from.” Harding said he didn’t have an estimate on the cost of moving the trees. twitter.com/naoibh

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

Opinion

Residents eye empty VIFF docs shine a homes of the rich spotlight on reality Allen Garr Columnist agarr@vancourier.com During almost every civic election campaign it seems we are hit by an unexpected ﬂying object that manages to seize centre stage. One of the most dramatic intrusions in recent times was the small matter of a $100-million dollar loan guarantee by the city regarding the Olympic Village. And for the past couple of weeks in the early days of this campaign we have diverted by another unexpected intrusion. This comes from COPE’s mayor candidate Meena Wong in what I would say is a contemporary take on the invitation to “eat the rich.” The phrase originated in the 18th century and comes from the philosopher JeanJacques Rousseau whose work inspired the French Revolution. It originally read: “When people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.” Brought forward to the here and now, the anxiety most broadly shared in our community is less about food and more about affordable housing. And that ultimately is what Wong is on about. COPE historically has focused its energy almost exclusively on the East Side of town. Wong’s issue, which has set off a spark that has drawn global attention, deals with the West Side. It has to do with the growing number of vacant multi-million dollar houses, many falling into disrepair, in the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods and how it is an issue that affects the whole city. It is, we are told, an obscene display of wealth, a manifestation of global capitalism where housing is not about homes but about investment opportunities. To curb this excess that drives up the price of all property in the city, Wong would like a tax on vacant housing — much of it foreign-owned, that would go towards the construction of affordable housing. While Wong has virtually no chance of winning election and any candidates running with her are long shots at best, nothing — not the squabble over the Arbutus corridor with the CPR, not a subway along Broadway, not Kinder-Morgan and increased tanker trafﬁc — has proven as broadly magnetic an issue. Wong’s proposal has gained traction, not just with the mainstream media but also social media. While leaders of the two major parties, Vision and the NPA, avert their eyes saying they need more information before declaring anything more than concern, Vancouver’s Green Party wants to get in on the feast.

“When people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.” — Rousseau

It is easy enough to ﬁnd critics who point out that as long as owners comply with the city’s standards of maintenance guidelines and keep their properties up, it is nobody’s business but their own if they choose to occupy their properties or not. But even before Wong made headlines with her proposal, there was a blog site which was launched last month that was mounted by concerned West Side citizens called “Beautiful Empty Homes of Vancouver.” The bloggers, who contribute pictures of empty houses both well cared for or boarded up and falling apart, complain this phenomenon is damaging to their neighbourhoods, making them feel like ghost towns or as derelict as the worst parts of Detroit, a classic case of ruin and abandonment. They also make the link between the vacancies and a lack of affordable housing observing that “some of these homes could house 10 families, or be a new cultural venue or homeless shelter. Instead they sit empty, teasing the homeless and underhoused with a luxurious apportionment of bedrooms, bathrooms, greenhouses and living rooms.” The passionate nature of this campaign, the enthusiasm with which it is being joined, has undoubtedly been fuelled by revelation two weeks ago from the Broadbent Institute. Using date from Statistics Canada’s 2012 census, it observed British Columbia has the highest inequity of wealth in the whole country. Here, the top 10 per cent of the population control 56 per cent of the wealth. The bottom half controls three per cent. Even though the mean net worth of families here is well above the national average, it is largely because of property values driven even higher by speculators. We may frequently be classed as one of the most livable cities in the world. But we are also the most unaffordable when it comes to housing. All of which can whet our appetite to eat the rich. twitter.com/allengarr

Geoff Olson Columnist

mwiseguise@yahoo.com

The Vancouver International Film Festival has harvested some great features for the two-week run, which began Sept. 25. Here are my recommendations of nonﬁction offerings, based on advance screenings:

A Dangerous Game

A sequel to the 2011 VIFF entry You’ve Been Trumped, in which New York mogul and reality TV ﬁxture Donald Trump jets into the U.K. on a gust of hot air and swirled hair to launch a luxury golf course on one of Scotland’s last untouched nature resorts while heaping abuse on villagers protesting the damage to their properties and local wildlife. With a bigger budget and better production values, director Alex Baxter examines the hidden costs of a game in which money doesn’t just talk, it shrieks. After recording a referendum launched by the residents of Dubrovnik against a luxury golf course planned for a UNESCO World Heritage site, Baxter returns to Scotland, where Trump agrees to meet with him for a comically condescending interview. Will The Donald get approval for a second course in Scotland just by waving his money wand again? A standout feature for doc ﬁends, whether or not you whack dimpled balls across manicured greens.

Walking Under Water

While 10-year-old Sari oversees a chugging air compressor on a rickety boat, his father Alexan dives undersea with a rubber tube in his mouth to hunt fish on coral reefs. Caught between the worlds of subsistence living and marine resort employment, young Sari gets advice from his father and uncle (“Promise me you’ll never dynamite fish,” says the latter, indicating the stump of his right arm). The schedules of the water-dwelling Badjoa people of Southeast Asia are timed by the sun, moon and tides, not the megahertz speeds of First World technology — all reflected in the film’s leisurely pace. A porthole onto a cinematically lush underwater world and a people you’ve likely never heard of before.

Cartoonists: Foot Soldiers for Democracy

There are places on the globe where drawing and publishing funny pictures of strongmen and their cronies is about

as risky as snapping selﬁes with ISIS. That doesn’t stop artists from Beijing to Burkina Faso from blackening newspapers and pamphlets with caricatures and captions. Watch for the warm reunion of two longtime friends: an Israeli cartoonist who can’t stand the ultra-right Likud party and a Palestinian cartoonist who can’t stand Hamas.

Pristine Coast

A two hour salt-water enema for supporters and promoters of Pacific Coast aquaculture. Pristine Coast unravels the hidden history of B.C. fish farms and presents hard-to-dismiss evidence from marine biologists that the permeable net pens of foreign-owned firms have been spreading parasites and diseases to wild fish stocks for years, compromising the coastal marine ecology as a whole.

Food Chains

“The most difﬁcult thing is knowing how little you mean to the people who employ you,” says a migrant farm worker in this proﬁle of the unheralded folks who put food on people’s plates. Food Chains tracks the efforts of Florida’s Coalition of Immokalee Workers to mobilize and pressure the four biggest supermarket chains in the U.S. to double the labourers’ meagre pay through a singularly unthreatening demand: pay a penny more per pound of tomatoes.

The Price We Pay

Director Harold Crooks peeks into the financial black holes that banksters, bureaucrats and politicians have co-engineered for the world’s sunniest climes, to benefit the rich. An estimated $21 trillion has flowed into the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and other tax havens, untaxed and untouched by the citizens of failed states, petrostates and every shade of democracy. Crooks has made a superb companion piece to Charles Ferguson’s 2010 evisceration of Wall Street, Inside Job, which also had insiders hang themselves with their own words. The film doesn’t present a hopeless case, however. Even business titans like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates support the so-called Robin Hood Tax, which would put on an incremental tax on the nonproductive flow of money to tax havens, returning money to state coffers while disincentivizing the bigwigs’ shell games. geoffolson.com

The week in num6ers...

60 377 48 83.5 341 92

The number of empty Vancouver homes listed at the anonymous blog beautifulemptyhomes.tumblr. com.

The number of Freedom of Information requests filed with the City of Vancouver last year.

The number of pages from a recent Courier FOI request to the city, out of a total of 68, that were useless due to having information redacted.

In millions of dollars, the price tag for Metro Vancouver’s most expensive real estate deal so far in 2014, a site on less than an acre on Alberni Street in the West End.

The total number of films, from 75 different countries, being screened at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival.

The number of VIFF films featured this year that are Canadian, selected from nearly 800 that were submitted.

F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A11

Mailbox Trustees don’t hold ‘absurd’ LGBTQ+ stance

CO U R I E R A R C H I V E S T H I S W E E K I N H I S T O R Y

Rookie sets CFL punt return record

Sept. 24, 1977: In a game against the Edmonton Eskimos, rookie B.C. Lions defensive back Ken Hinton returns Dave Cutler’s missed field goal 130 yards, setting a new record for longest punt return. The Lions, who earned the nickname “the Cardiac Kids” that season due to sudden heroics in the dying minutes of games, finished the year with a 10–6 record, good enough for second place in the Western Division — the first time the team had finished with a winning record since the Grey Cup year of 1964. B.C. opened the playoffs with a 33–32 upset of Winnipeg at home before being trounced 38–1 in Edmonton in the Western Division final.

Air India bombing suspect arrested

Sept. 27, 2000: RCMP officers arrest Vancouver businessman and Sikh separatist Ripudaman Singh Malik as a suspect in the 1985 terrorist bombing of Air India flight 182, which killed 329 passengers. After the most expensive trial in Canadian history, he and fellow suspect Ajaib Singh Bagri were acquitted of all charges in 2005. Mallik then unsuccessfully sued the B.C. government in an attempt to recoup $9 million in legal fees. The only person convicted, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was found guilty of manslaughter for manufacturing the bomb.

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To the editor: Re: “Ken Denike and Sophia Woo to run under Vancouver First,” Aug. 14. As reported in your article, we held a press conference Aug. 8 to announce our candidacies for school trustee with Vancouver’s new civic party Vancouver First. We are very pleased to be running as candidates for Vancouver First — a new party with a new voice that can truly engage with Vancouverites. Your article repeated an unfortunate characterization of a press conference we held earlier this summer. We would like to be clear about this. On June 13 we held a press conference to discuss concerns we had heard from parents who are realtors with expansive networks in the international community. They were concerned about the effect of budget cuts on the quality of education in Vancouver schools and the effect of changes to LGBTQ+ policy without sufﬁciently inclusive consultation upon enrolment of international students (who the VSB is dependent on for budgeting purposes). It was our view that further consultation could relieve those concerns. Our call for further consultation was in no way inconsistent with our commitment to the protection of LGBTQ+ communities. These concerns were distorted in media reports, including your Aug. 14 article, which attributed to us the view that the draft LGBTQ+ policy could harm real estate values. That is an obviously absurd and nonsensical position. It is not a position we have advanced or ever would consider advancing. Education is our passion. And it’s the passion of many, especially members of

our new communities who know it is critical to the future of their families. We are pleased to pursue this passion now in afﬁliation with a new party, one whose focus and goals comes from the citizens — who we have always listened to — and not the old politics that ignored too many Vancouver communities and citizens. Ken Denike and Sophia Woo, Vancouver School Board trustees

A big nope to COPE joke

To the editor: RE: “Kudos & Kvetches,” Sept. 17. I take exception to the remarks in the Courier with regard to COPE and mayoral candidate Meena Wong. Obviously the Courier’s editor knows who is running for COPE, so why would you be so rude and discourteous as to pretend otherwise? Further, your statement that COPE is a party inching closer to irrelevance is incredibly insulting to COPE members, COPE supporters, COPE voters. In the last civic election, COPE candidates Ellen Woodsworth and Tim Louis each drew in excess of 40,000 votes. NDP stalwarts Mel Lehan and David Eby are COPE members and many of COPE’s candidates are NDP. As COPE is the one party that — for nearly half a century — has steadfastly spoken for the poor, the homeless, the average working person, to do COPE such disservice as to feign knowing who the mayoral candidate is, and to dismiss the party based on zero thoughtful analysis of COPE’s policies or platform is more than disappointing, and an insult to those people COPE represents. Timothy Kevin O’Keeffe, Vancouver

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COURIER STORY: “Social housing project generates 729 police calls in first 16 months,” Sept. 24. TrippingPoint: I was shopping for a condo on that block and the adjacent blocks and very quickly decided to look elsewhere. There are too many crazy people coming and going from that building, loitering on the street corners, begging, selling drugs, hollering and screaming for no apparent reason, etc. etc. My family would not feel safe in that neighborhood. This noble experiment of trying to integrate society’s less fortunate in the midst of near million dollar condos is ridiculous. Nathan Pacino: If Victoria is so concerned about so many mentally challenged and addicted people living on their own, they should not have shut down Riverview. Stop shirking your responsibility, RE-OPEN RIVERVIEW and stop dumping these extremely vulnerable people into police care and then shaking your head when it doesn’t work. Peakie: Hmm. No analysis of where the calls come from. Is it mainly the “neighbours” calling or texting their views, watching out the windows, or hearing “noises”? I would hesitate to call them busybodies, or chicken littles, though I suspect they haven’t had a tour or even visited 215 West 2nd Avenue. Taxpayer: I don’t believe the Marguerite Ford Apartments is currently accepting “tours” given that they are undergoing renovations to repair damage caused by residents. COURIER STORY: “Glen Chernen drops out of mayoral race,” Sept. 24. Bob Ransford @BobRansford: Who? Bill McCreery @Bill_McCreery: Voters now can vote 4 not developer controlled. Jonathan Baker @jonbenbak: The gospel according to McCreery: An essential step in becoming a saint is to vote for the unelectable.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

Feature

City defends policy as standard

NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe, a former managing editor at The Vancouver Sun, says city hall staff are being muzzled under Vision Vancouver’s media policy. Vision Coun. Geoff Meggs (right) says the media policy has a purpose but it’s “not to make reporters happy.” PHOTOS DAN TOULGOET

“While politicians may say it is more efﬁcient to communicate this way, what they really mean is it is easier to manipulate public knowledge and debate.” — Ross Howard

Continued from page 1 “It is outrageous in a democracy but not surprising that a political party in power tries to cut off direct access to both elected representatives and public servants by journalists who are a citizen’s frontline resource for ﬁnding out what’s going on, for presenting views and opinions for debate and for watchdogging those politicians’ integrity, including the handling of citizens’ taxes,” wrote Howard, a former Globe and Mail reporter, in an email to the Courier. “While politicians may say it is more efﬁcient to communicate this way, what they really mean is it is easier to manipulate public knowledge and debate.” If Howard is right, then here’s the obvious question: Why have such a policy?

Surprised by outcry

It’s a question the Courier put to Meggs, who responded by ﬁrst telling a story of his days as the head of communications to Larry Campbell when he was mayor from 2002 to 2005. It caused Campbell great consternation, Meggs said, when a staff member spoke to the media about an issue that the then-mayor wasn’t

briefed on. “People expect him to be accountable and be able to speak to these issues and he would wake up in the morning and read the paper and find people saying things that he wasn’t aware of,” said Meggs, who also served as former premier Glen Clark’s media handler. “I don’t expect to be notified every time anybody speaks to a reporter — God forbid, there wouldn’t be enough hours in the day. But it is good to know when important announcements are being made and people are talking about areas of concern.” Meggs clarified he had “nothing to do” with changing the policy but believes the current arrangement is typical of media relations policies in the public and private sector. “I’ve been a bit surprised by the outcry from some reporters about it,” said Meggs, who believes the role of the city’s communications department is “not to make reporters happy” but to serve them professionally and in a timely way. “It can’t be assumed that you’re going to like the answers all the time.” Under the current policy, a reporter seeking an interview with a staff

member or searching for information must send a request to a general email address that is monitored by the city’s communications staff. Staff are then supposed to respond within an hour and set up interviews or provide information by the end of the day. The city has designated spokespersons for departments — usually general managers, who are not always available — which means the author of a report is often not allowed to speak to media. The Courier’s experience, along with other reporters who cover city hall, is the system is ﬂawed. Many times, staff don’t return calls before deadline and, instead, statements are sent via email that are often written in a bureaucratic tone and don’t answer questions. It’s also not clear whether the responses are drafted by communications staff or the person whose name is attributed to the statement. Senior staff who have given public presentations at city council or at an open house, where they speak to the public, are also prohibited to speak to reporters in those settings. Unlike other municipalities, the city doesn’t have

a designated spokesperson in the communications department. Vancouver communications staff routinely emphasize the information supplied is “on background” and not to be attributed to them. For the most part, city councillors are reachable on their cellphones but Mayor Gregor Robertson is rarely available over the phone, forcing reporters to track him down after meetings; his predecessors Sam Sullivan and Larry Campbell supplied their home and cellphone numbers to reporters who regularly covered city hall. The complaints from reporters, however, are not related to accessing politicians but getting basic nuts and bolts information from city staff. Howard pointed out that having public relations people direct questions to a city engineer or planner takes the spontaneity and scrutiny out of a reporter’s job and “reduces journalists to being repeaters, not reporters.” Too often, he added, time-pressed reporters settle for whatever response they receive, regardless of its value to a story. “To be truly progressive would be to reverse this regression to manipulation

and throw open the doors of city hall to all direct inquiries by the media,” Howard said. “Yes, it might take a few staff and a few more hours for the journalists to access the right persons to put the hard questions to, and to report their answers or evasions, but that is part of what the public pays taxes for — to know what is really going on at city hall.” An indication of the public’s need for information is represented in the number of requests made to city hall under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The City of Vancouver received 377 requests last year, according to one of Ballem’s memos to councillors. The Courier made a request under the Act in April for information related to housing and received a response ﬁve months later. That response came in 68 pages, 48 of which were totally or partially redacted. The number of requests is an issue NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe addressed in his ﬁrst news conference in July with reporters. LaPointe, the former managing editor of The Vancouver Sun, said “something is wrong with the system” when report-

F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Feature

practice for municipalities ers and the public have to resort to Freedom of Information requests. “So I would put the onus on elected and unelected ofﬁcials to disclose,” said LaPointe, who echoed Afﬂeck’s points about city staff being muzzled under city hall’s media policy. “People need to know where money is being spent, why it’s being spent. They need to know the views, the perspectives of those who are in positions of some authority. And I think in a lot of ways, they need to be able to anticipate the direction of policy so that they can then participate in it better. And without full, free disclosure, that isn’t going to happen.”

Free Surrey

In Ballem’s update to Meggs and others, she supplied information on the number of staff in the communications department and cost to run it. Overall, there has been an increase of $100,000 over the past four years, with the ofﬁce staffed by 22 full-time people at a cost of $1.94 million a year. Communications staff receive an average of 12 to 15 media calls per day and have a list of more than 60 spokespersons to speak to reporters. “A large number have received media training and may be asked to provide actual interviews,” Ballem wrote. But Ballem pointed out

that communications staff are responsible for a variety of tasks and projects, not just handling media requests. That includes graphic design, writing, editing, proofreading, in-house video production and advertising. Communications staff also provide “public engagement” advice to various departments and have helped roll out initiatives such as the Transportation 2040 plan, the Year of Reconciliation, the Vancouver Economic Action Strategy, the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability and Greenest City 2020. To learn how other municipalities’ handle media, the City of Vancouver sent a survey to 20 cities in Canada and the United States. Only 40 per cent responded, including Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, San Jose, Calif. and Charlotte, N.C. The information received was enough for Ballem to conclude that Vancouver’s media relations policy was consistent with other municipalities. But what the Courier learned is neither Burnaby nor Surrey has a central media line and reporters are free to directly contact staff members. “Why is that?” said Karen Leach, who works three days a week as Burnaby’s only communications staffer. “Because it works for us. In fact, there is no

media department.” In Burnaby, where the biggest issue these days is Kinder Morgan’s plan to build an oil pipeline through the city, Leach said city staff are directly available to reporters. “And if there are calls for the mayor’s office, the calls go through his assistant and he takes the calls directly,” she said, noting many reporters have Mayor Derek Corrigan’s cellphone number. In Surrey, Oliver Lum is that municipality’s sole employee working in media relations. Lum described his role more as a facilitator to those reporters unsure of which staff member to contact for information on a story. “You don’t have to go through me or the city manager’s office,” he said, noting many veteran reporters have established relationships with staff members and routinely call them for information. “It’s not a centralized thing.” In Richmond, the media relations policy is similar to the centralized system set up in Vancouver. As Ted Townsend of Richmond’s communications department explained, the rationale is “to make sure that whatever information does go out is correct and complete. And that benefits both parties.” That said, Townsend acknowledged general managers have leeway to speak directly to reporters, as occurred when the Cou-

rier contacted city manager George Duncan’s ofﬁce; his assistant forwarded the message to Duncan and followed up with a phone call the next day to say he was out of town but available at a later date.

Mayor responds

On the day Meggs released Ballem’s series of memos on his blog, Mayor Gregor Robertson’s schedule included a police board meeting. After the meeting, the mayor agreed via one of his media handlers to take questions from the Courier on the media policy. When Robertson campaigned in 2008 and 2011, he promised a more transparent and open government than under the NPA. So what was wrong with the old system? “There were concerns that there wasn’t followup that was tracked from one central place,” he said. “There was also concerns around the time required of different staff to respond to many requests — that departments and staff were running their own communications hub rather than having a more efﬁcient system like other cities have.” Added Robertson: “I totally respect the challenges media have with timing and getting the news out. But the city’s trying to do all we can to have a good reliable system that responds and shares information openly.” Three longtime civic af-

fairs reporters, Jeff Lee at The Vancouver Sun, Frances Bula at The Globe and Mail and Charlie Smith at The Georgia Straight, all used their blogs to weigh in on the new policy when its implementation suddenly became a reality in late 2010. Lee: “What sometimes seems forgotten in these increasing debates over lack of public transparency is that this is the public’s government. It is there to serve its citizens, not the other way around.” Bula, on calling planners to explain a report: “It’s the kind of call I’ve made hundreds of times over the past decade and a half, as have many in the city, which the city has always made easy for anyone to do by printing the names and phone numbers of the people who wrote the report at the top. But I didn’t get a call back from any of those planners, as I normally would. Instead, I got a call from [now former] communications ofﬁcer Wendy Stewart, who explained to me that I wouldn’t be getting any calls back.” Smith: “This is incredible. Bula and other journalists, including myself, have spoken to staff countless times to get them to explain their reports. It’s a sad day at Vancouver city hall if Vision Vancouver and its hired gun, city manager Penny Ballem, have decided to silence these public servants.” Though Ballem has

boasted about the city’s communications staff ability to handle a wideranging workload, she acknowledged improvement was needed on the media relations front. “There is full agreement that more can be done to work with reporters in the current media environment and strengthen existing guidelines in relations to process and service expectations, as well as ongoing need for improvement,” she wrote in one of her memos. “The responsibility is ours to address the issues of evolving communications practice and seek guidance to build strong relationships.”

Missed call

At the time of writing this story, the Courier emailed the city’s communications department at 10:23 a.m. on a Tuesday to request an interview with Ballem to discuss the media policy. The Courier gave Ballem until noon the next day to respond. Two days after the request was made, Tobin Postma of the city’s communications department left a phone message: “Apologies, we missed your deadline regarding your request to speak to Penny about the media policy. I wanted to give you a ring to see if you’re still interested in chatting with her.” The election is Nov. 15. twitter.com/Howellings

NPA Coun. George Affleck, a former journalist, says the City of Vancouver should not be afraid to let its staff speak to the media. City manager Penny Ballem (right) says “more can be done to work with reporters in the current media environment.” PHOTOS DAN TOULGOET

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

Community

Respect diversity to find peace Former Buddhist monk performs ‘activist entertainment’ in beneﬁt for Burma Project PACIFIC SPIRIT Pat Johnson

paciﬁcspiritpj@gmail.com

For 20 years, Alan Clements has lived in Vancouver, which is pretty tame compared with the earlier part of his life. Disenchanted with the American “war machine,” he quit the University of Virginia and, instead of returning to his hometown of Boston, went to Burma, where he became one of the ﬁrst Westerners ordained as a Buddhist monk there. “I went there as a young man in the late ‘70s, before it was a career move for people to get involved in mindfulness and meditation,” he says. While Clements was spending 20 hours a day in meditation, a man by the name of Tin Oo was completing an 11-year sentence of solitary conﬁnement. General Tin Oo had been commander-in-chief of

Alan Clements: “Without peace, we are in hell. And if it doesn’t come soon I think we’re doomed.” PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Burma’s armed forces until 1976, when he was forced out and accused of involvement in an attempted coup. Released from prison, he

retreated to the monastery where Clements was engaged in his introspective practice. “He got a room next to mine and for the next year

WORLD

he shared with me what it meant to live under dictatorship, which I had no real clue about, what totalitarian structures look like,” he

says. Tin Oo would go on to become a leader to this day in the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and Clements would become a deeply politicized democracy and human rights advocate. Clements spent the better part of a decade in Burma before, in 1988, the junta threw him out of the country, no explanation. Shortly after he left, pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed by the military, with thousands killed. Though banned from the country, Clements returned surreptitiously and went underground. “It was just walking back into a full-scale bloodbath. It was just scorching earth technique and the country was, as the BBC described it, a country of 40 million hostages,” he says. “Most of the students who had led that revolution ﬂed to the jungles.” His ﬁrst book, Burma: The Next Killing Fields? was the product of his two

months spent underground with the rebels. He would go on to co-author a book with Suu Kyi and last year, after he was permitted legal entry to the country again as a result of liberalizations there, he returned for three months with a ﬁlmmaker, interviewing close to 200 political prisoners. In the intervening years, Clements (who now calls himself a “recovering Buddhist”) taught meditation and mindfulness training. A participant in his classes invited him to speak to United Nations staff and NGOs in the former Yugoslavia while that country’s bloody civil wars were raging. Seeing the genocidal intents in the Balkans, and given his experiences in Burma, Clements expanded his pursuits further. He began to study the conﬂuences of faith, ideology, hysteria, hate, fear, greed and delusion that allow men and women to “feel joyous in murdering people.”

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Community “I’ve had the unfortunate blessing to be in several cultures and to see the absence of human rights,” he says. “How can we decode this proclivity for aggression? What is it in the human mind and the human heart, in our dharma, in our spirituality, that will lessen my proclivity for self-righteousness, blame, judgment and violence? That’s the core of it. Without peace, we are in hell. And if it doesn’t come

“I’ve had the unfortunate blessing to be in several cultures and to see the absence of human rights.” – Alan Clements soon I think we’re doomed.” Meanwhile, Clements reassessed his time spent in the monastery. “My monastic career was so dysfunctional that the pursuit of spirituality in many ways screwed me up more than I already was before I went into the monastery,” he says. “I came out of the monastery much more addicted than when I went in — addicted to cigarettes, addicted to alcohol, six years on Prozac. When I went to a war zone, [I] had no ability to stand up to the vicissitudes of day-to-day life that people were subjected to in war zones. There is no preparation in a monastery for the crisis of real life.” Tomorrow night (Sept. 27), Clements will present his performance “Spiritually Incorrect: In Defense

View my video with

of Being Human” on Granville Island’s Revue Stage. The event beneﬁts the Burma Project International, which seeks reform of that country’s military constitution, which, among other things, prevents Suu Kyi from running for president. Before his daughter was born seven years ago, Clements had performed nearly 200 times worldwide what he calls “activist enter-

tainment,” an unscripted, spoken-word event that somewhat reﬂects the Burmese tradition of Ah Nyeint, a mix of (often dangerous) political and social satire, humor and song. Despite the theme, Clements promises the event will offer a few side-splitting moments, in keeping with the Bill Maher-inﬂected title. “My number one goal here is to make people feel really, really good about themselves … to embrace more of our broken human wholeness,” he says. His message in a nutshell? “Respecting diversity is the road of peace,” he says. “The absence of diversity is genocide, totalitarianism and the homogenization of consciousness. End of story.”

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F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Community

FARM AID: Founded in 2008 by brothers Riley and Brandon Mari, Youth Education Farms is a Vancouver-based charity that develops and manages commercial farms in Swaziland and uses profits from the farms to fund schooling for orphans. Nearly 200 kids have benefitted from the pair’s philanthropic efforts. More than 250 pretty young things (most under the age of 35) gathered at Birks Jewellers for the fifth running of the YEF Gala. Yours truly hosted the sparkling affair that featured performances by the Young Executives and a spirited live auction led by Howard Blank. A record $110,000 was raised to provide Swaziland youth the knowledge and skills for a brighter future. TEE PARTY: More than 600 vulnerable and inner city kids have participated in the YMCA’s First Tee Program since its inception in 2010. Through the game of golf, youth from seven to 18 years of age learn the fundamental skills of the game as well as life-enhancing values. More than 144 players hit the links at Green Acres Golf Club in Richmond to support the one-of-a-kind program in Canada. Yours truly was master of ceremonies and auctioneer at the golf gala chaired by Michelle Collens and sponsored by G & F Financial Group. Proceeds — reported at $80,000 — will support the operations and allow youngsters regardless of their ability to pay to enjoy the game. CURTAIN RAISER: Arts Club Theatre and Wines of B.C. presented the first major wine tasting of the fall season, Chef Meets Grape. Hundreds filed into the Convention Centre for the annual tipple fest benefiting the venerable arts organization, which kicked off its 51st season on the same night. Artistic director Bill Millerd addressed a full house at the Stanley Theatre before raising a glass at the wine shindig downtown. The largest tasting of B.C. VQA wines saw more than 90 B.C. wineries poured more than 350 awardwinning wines. Fifteen restaurants paired sweet and savoury dishes to show off the best of our region. GARDEN PARTY: Celebrity chef Vikram Vij fronted Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden’s signature soiree. Led by party chairs Lauren Chang and Howard Ma, the CBC Dragon served specialty dishes inspired by the urban oasis. Several hundred supporters filed into the first Chinese or scholars garden built outside of China for an evening of fun and philanthropy. Guests enjoyed live entertainment, cocktails and unique silent auction items, while supporting the Garden’s educational and community programs.

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Youth Education Farms founder Riley Mari welcomed Design Lab Interior’s Alexis LaBonte and Eco fashion designer Nicole Bridger to the YEF Gala at Birks. A record $110,000 was raised to support sustainable agriculture and education for orphaned kids in Swaziland.

Wines of B.C.’s Maggie Anderson and Arts Club Theatre’s Gigi Wong fronted Chef Meets Grape, the season’s largest tipple fest in support of the venerable arts organization.

YMCA First Tee chair Doug Stone, left, and program manager Christophe Collins saw $80,000 raised to expose youth to the game of golf. Since its inception in 2010, more than 600 kids have participated in the community initiative.

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Celebrity chef and CBC Dragon Vikram Vij served specialty dishes inspired by Kathy Gibler’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. The annual benefit supported the garden’s ongoing educational programs.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

Travel

Via Ferrata offers high wire experience We were roughly 80 metres above the ground clinging to a sheer rock face in the Laurentian Mountains when we felt the ﬁrst few drops of rain.

“What do you suppose will happen if there is lightning?” asked the person perched precariously beside me also taking part in a tour offered by AventureX in Vallée Bras du Nord, located a 45-minute drive from Quebec City.

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It was a good question because, unlike traditional rock climbing where ropes are what keep climbers more or less safe from gravity’s inexorable pull, we were instead attached to electricity-conducting metal cables. It’s literally a foreign concept to most climbers in Canada, but in Europe a mountaineering discipline known as Via Ferrata — Italian for “iron way” — is an increasingly popular activity that enables amateurs with a bit of sang-froid in their veins to experience the kind of high-stakes altitudes normally reserved only for experienced rock jocks. The activity was invented by the Italian army during the First World War as a means to get troops and equipment through the Dolomite Mountains and attack enemy forces from above. The routes were left to rust away after the war, but hikers rediscovered them in the 1960s and hundreds of new recreational ones have since been strung up throughout the Alps and other neighbouring ranges. The way it works is you attach yourself to a thick wire bolted to the rock and stretches the entire length of a climbing route. Using carabiners (basically high-tech safety pins) attached via short lanyards to a special harness worn around the waist, Via Ferrata climbers work their

Via Ferrata guide Olivier Roy offers encouragement to a rookie climber on an AventureX tour in the Laurentian Mountains. PHOTO ANDREW FLEMING

way diagonally up cliffs by clipping and unclipping past special anchor points located every few metres apart. Special metal footholds, handholds and even wooden bridges are also helpfully hammered into place at trickier spots, and a fall should (in theory) only last a few feet before the harness catches you. Via Ferrata is not without controversy, with purists in the climbing community arguing that adding artiﬁcial aides is a form of sacrilege. While Europeans have been stringing gondola cables up mountains and building remote ski chalets for generations, most

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North Americans prefer wilderness environments to remain as pristine as possible. The tourist town of Whistler is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the only place in mountainous British Columbia yet to offer paid guided tours, but its widespread acceptance in Quebec is now a fait accompli, with more than a dozen different places across la belle province now offering it. Our guide on the sevenperson tour, a bilingual 24-year-old college student named Olivier Roy, says he can see it from both sides. “I’m a climber myself

and can understand why some people would feel that way, but I think there is enough room for both,” said Roy. “For one thing, you can only do Ferrata on private land, so partly it’s a property thing, but [making climbing more accessible] can change people’s lives by giving them a chance to really challenge themselves and get an appreciation for the mountains.” And, while Quebec’s mountains are molehills compared to B.C.’s, they are nonetheless stunning, especially in the fall. Being much lower to the ground, they presumably get struck by lightning less often as well. twitter.com/ﬂematic

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F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

The men who would be King Story on page E4

Elvis tribute artist Aaron Wong hit the stage at the Chandelier Lounge at the Super 8 Motel in last Tuesday’s The Ultimate Elvis Show with hits from the early years of Elvis’ career. Wong, from Vancouver, has won several competition titles, including placing in the top-five of the Legends in Concert Hawaii Elvis tribute contest in Honolulu last year. See photo gallery at vancourier.com. PHOTO REBECCA BLISSETT

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

Extra money for seniors centre could provide safer access Walk to and from bus stop too far says seniors advocate

Sandra Thomas

sthomas@vancourier.com

The weather could not have cooperated more for community advocate Lorna Gibbs during a pre-scheduled walk to demonstrate just how far the bus stop at East 49th Avenue and Kerr Street is from the main entrance to the Killarney Community Centre, which will eventually be shared with a new dedicated seniors facility. As the skies opened and the rain poured down, the Courier watched as several seniors leaving the centre trudged their way from the parking lot up the long hill towards East 49th Avenue. “They’re carrying umbrellas,” said Gibbs. “How would they manage that hill in the rain if they were using walkers?” While there is a bus stop on East 49th Avenue near the community centre’s driveway, for seniors travelling north and south and stopping at Kerr Street, accessing it would mean getting a transfer and wait-

Seniors advocate Lorna Gibb argues a new driveway and dedicated seniors entrance would alleviate the long walk up a hill. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

ing for another bus to travel just one block — albeit a long one. Gibbs wants $1.2 million previously committed by the city go towards creating a new driveway from Kerr Street to the back of the community centre, as well as a new dedicated entrance for seniors separate from the main access.

“The main entrance is so busy, I worry some of the frailer seniors will get knocked down by running children,” said Gibbs. “This way seniors would have direct access to the elevators and there could be a roundabout created for the HandyDart to drop them off. They also need a secure parking lot in the back.”

The city recently announced it will no longer commit $1.2 million of $3.7 million initially promised towards the longawaited seniors centre for southeast Vancouver due to the fact the provincial government ﬁnally agreed to a long-awaited contribution. In 2009, the park board committed land

adjacent to the Killarney Community Centre for the project, and in 2011 the city earmarked $2.5 million in capital funds towards the estimated $7.5 million cost. In 2012, the provincial government pledged $1.3 million, much less than the $2.5 million hoped for by the city and members of the Seniors’ Arts and Cultural Society. When the provincial government continued to drag its feet on the extra funding, city council agreed in February to contribute another $1.2 million. That announcement followed a $2.5-million commitment from the federal government. But then in April the provincial government made the extra $1.2 million contribution ofﬁcial. Seniors reacted with disappointment in July when the Courier obtained a memo from city manager Penny Ballem to council saying the April commitment from the provincial government eliminated “the need for the additional $1.2-million commitment by council.”

And while Gibbs still gives the park board and city council, in particular Vision Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie, credit for making the new centre a reality, she can’t hide her disappointment that it’s likely she and other seniors won’t get everything they had hoped for. But Louie said a new driveway, roundabout and separate entrance were never included in the original plans, estimated at $7.5 million. “What can I say,” said Louie. “We were the ﬁrst ones to commit to funding and we’re the ones who got the feds on board. We’re proceeding as originally planned and a new road was never part of that.” He added there are many other facilities across the city, including community centres and libraries, competing for extra funding. “We’re committed to making this project as accessible as possible while bringing it in within the $7.5 million budget,” said Louie. twitter.com/sthomas10

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F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

New film reflects artistic talent and stories of the Downtown Eastside Jenny Peng

jennypeng08@gmail

Samantha Boss-Chevelday will never look at the Downtown Eastside the same way after taking a small photography course run by the Union Gospel Mission. She’s come a long way since her first weeks of class when she hid behind peers and took photos quietly while absorbing the curriculum. The course was a seven- week journey Union Gospel staff and volunteers filmed and turned into the first documentary of the mission’s history. Five participants in this year’s Photo 101 course tell their stories in the film titled, Reflected Light: Exploring Photo 101 on the Downtown Eastside. The film chronicles the unpredictability of the creative process while participants examine their relationship with the neighbourhood, often better known for its homelessness, poverty and

crime than sense of community. The public will be able to view the ﬁlm Oct. 15 during Homeless Action Week at SFU Woodward’s, 149 West Hastings St. Before the course, BossChevelday walked the Downtown Eastside without a second glance at the architecture or notice of mundane objects around the city. “For me, I see something totally different within that,” she says referring to stop signs. “It could symbolize a lot of different things instead of the word stop. . . It gave a whole new perspective on what’s out there.” She described one memorable excursion out of ﬁve the class took during the program. Having lived in Gastown, she unexpectedly felt like a “tourist” in her community after rediscovering the winding red brick sidewalks, the lights and steam clock through a lens. Besides the photography skills she developed, Boss-

A new film chronicles participants of Photo 101, a photography course held in the DTES.

Chevelday hinted on “buried skills” she gained, such as the conﬁdence and self-awareness the program taught her after going through a rough patch in her personal life. Classmate Cory Lemieux echoed similar sentiments

of being more attuned to his environment. Having studied people’s faces for portraits, he noticed their expressions change with the change in season. The course also provided lighter moments for Lemieux, who laughed

thinking back to their reactions when they saw their developed photos the next week. Stories like Boss-Chevelday’s are not new to instructor Andrew Taran who’s seen students come and go for the past three years. He mentions student Liam Leishman who returns to the program every year. “It’s the thing that keeps [Leishman] sober. One of the things that helps him to be on track.” Leishman’s artistic career is far from the life he lived as an alcoholic for 40 years. As a child, he thought his desire to be an artist was far-fetched, but the accessibility of Photo 101 ignited Leishman’s artistic passion. He points to a camera case strapped to his belt to show his determination to excel as an artist. “Before I would wake up [and] get drunk, go to work, come home, pass out,” says Leishman, a graduate of Union Gospel’s drug and

alcohol recovery program. “When you get sober and you take the alcohol out of your life, then there’s pretty much nothing. There’s a big hole in your life. But when you ﬁll it with something like this, if it’s something that you’re passionate about, it is the most beautiful thing in the world… Why would I want to drink now? Never. I would not want to throw this away.” The idea for the ﬁlm was born out of suggestions from some community members last year after Union Gospel held walking tours around the Downtown Eastside to introduce its history, architecture and landmarks. J. Stewart, manager of community engagement for the mission, says members wanted to tell their own stories instead. The screening is part of Union Gospel’s goals to highlight issues around homelessness during Homeless Action Week. The documentary will be available online Nov. 22.

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No heartbreak at this motel Sandra Thomas

sthomas@vancourier.com

The Ultimate Elvis Show at the Chandelier Lounge of the Super 8 Motel features Brian “Elvis” Simpson. The tribute artist has won four world championships as Elvis. PHOTO REBECCA BLISSETT

At 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night at the Chandelier Lounge in the Super 8 Motel on Southeast Marine Drive, the speaker system blasts the unmistakable ﬁrst notes of the iconic music from the classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. As the music fades it’s replaced by the sound of a dozen different voices repeating just two words, “The King.” That’s when smoke billows out of a small machine tucked into the back of the lounge’s stage and hundreds of spinning red and green dots of light swirl around the room and across the walls and the small audience gathered on this night. At that moment Brian “Elvis” Simpson strides through a side door and takes to the stage where his partner in both life and business, Rhonda Williams, hands him a guitar and he launches into “See See

Rider,” an energetic version of an old blues song ﬁrst recorded in 1924 by Gertrude “Ma” Raine. In later years Elvis Presley often used it to open his shows. For tonight’s performance, Simpson is wearing an Aztec-inspired, turquoiseblue and black sequinned jumpsuit, a $5,000 replica of one Elvis famously wore known as the “Alpine.” Simpson doesn’t simply perform the song but brings it to life complete with hipshaking moves and a lip curl even Elvis would be proud of. His efforts are not lost on the table full of women sitting front and centre at the closest table in the room to the stage. With each pelvic thrust, knee shake and lip snarl, the women hoot and holler, slapping each other on the shoulder or knee when Simpson performs a particularly athletic move. It’s the Ultimate Elvis Show, which plays each Tuesday night at the Chandelier Lounge, named for the

surprisingly ostentatious light ﬁxture that hangs above the lobby of the Super 8. “I like to call it Ultimate Elvis Light,” kids Simpson prior to the start of the show. “Here it’s just me and one other performer. My actual Ultimate Elvis Show includes a lot more tribute artists.” Simpson explains there’s a difference between Elvis tribute artists, or ETAs as they’re often referred to, and Elvis impersonators. Elvis Aaron Presley was an iconic American singer and actor often referred to as the King of Rock and Roll. Born in 1935, he died unexpectedly in 1977, leaving behind a legion of fans old and new who have never forgotten the King. “An ETA strictly performs and then puts it away,” says Simpson. “Impersonators are more like actors who wear Elvis clothes and live it 24/7.” Simpson became a lifelong fan of the King after watching the Aloha from Hawaii TV special broadcast in 1973.

F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

ETAs draw female fans Despite the fact Simpson made his living as a musician and singer for years, he says it never occurred to him to become an ETA until his audiences demanded he perform more Elvis songs. “I never thought I was worthy,” says Simpson. “But then I thought, what better way to pay tribute to the King.” So Simpson decided to become a full-time ETA with a personal promise he would treat the job with sincerity and dignity. That decision paid off and for years Simpson was ranked one of the top 10 tribute artists in Canada. He won four world championships and placed in the top 20 in the Images of the King World Championship in 2002. Since then Simpson has graced the stage with Elvis’s original drummer D.J. Fontana, Elvis’ female backup group Sweet Inspiration and the King’s male backup singers, the Jordanaires. Today Simpson not only regularly performs as the King but also produces Ultimate Elvis, a comprehensive tribute to the singer including up to six performers at a time who cover songs from all of his eras, including his military, movie and 1970s performances. Joining Simpson on this night’s production of Ultimate Elvis is Kitsilano resident Terry “Aaron” Wong, who pays tribute to the King’s military and movie years. Wong, who wasn’t even born at the time of Elvis’s death, grew up listening to the King’s music thanks to his parents who were

both fans. Unlike Simpson, Wong was not a professional singer before pursuing a career as an ETA. Instead Wong dropped into an ETA Meetup where he met Sandor Gyarmati, an ETA and reporter with the Delta Optimist newspaper. At the time, Gyarmati and other ETAs were performing at a nowdefunct venue called Stars on Broadway. Gyarmati is the founder of the newly formed Vancouver Elvis Fan Club on Facebook. Wong signed up for Elvis 101, a course Simpson offers to budding ETAs. His talent was soon obvious and within two short years Wong’s tribute to 1950s Elvis saw him named nonprofessional grand champion at the now-famous Penticton Elvis Festival, which draws ETAs from across North America. Wong, a graphic designer by day, also plays Elvis in Red Robinson’s musical theatre revue On the Air. Sitting at a table along the wall of the Chandelier Lounge, Wong, wearing a 1950’s-inspired pink shirt and oversized, vintage black and white jacket, appears truly humbled to be doing what he does. But that shy persona vanishes on stage where Wong is all swagger and lip-curling snarls as he belts out early Elvis tunes, starting with a raucous rendition of “Hound Dog.” Again, as the athletic performer dances, legs shaking and defying gravity by leaning back while balancing on nothing more than the tips

of his toes, the female fans seated in front shout their approval, particularly when singing the song “Trouble” from the 1958 movie King Creole, Wong adds the name of one of the women to the lyrics. “Because I’m evil, my middle name is misery, well, I’m evil, so don’t mess around with me, Cora.” The addition of the woman’s name to the song has her giggling like a school girl and her friends laugh with delight. There is no rivalry amongst the group, which on this night includes Elsie Jackson, Val Eely, Gloria Schenk and Cora, who prefers not to give her last name. The women, all retired, met during the Ultimate Elvis Show at the Admiral Pub in Burnaby. The women regularly attend that show as well, typically with a group of about 15. “We saw each other sitting there and just started talking,” says Cora. “Then we became friends.” “During the 1950s show with Buddy Holly and Elvis, I crawled onto the stage,” Eely remembers, a comment that sends her friends into ﬁts of laughter. “Well, I got a kiss.” Not long after, Eely makes her way to the Chandelier’s stage while Simpson is performing and is rewarded with a scarf and another kiss. “Where else is it OK for a bunch of mature women to hoot and holler over young guys,” adds Eely, laughing. The women use Facebook to keep in touch and stay up to date on upcoming

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ETA shows. It’s obvious the women aren’t just fans of Elvis, but also of these local performers. At least two of the women admit to a hardcore addictions to collecting Elvis memorabilia and the majority of the group has travelled to the annual Penticton Elvis Festival more than once to watch their favourite ETAs perform. Many of those beloved ETAs learned their moves from Simpson, who was named world champion four times between 1997 and 2002. Simpson’s Elvis 101 course instructs budding ETAs on everything they need to know about performing as Elvis. One of those former ETA students doing well right now is Eli “Tigerman” Williams, who after only five years performing was named grand champion of the 2012 Pacific Northwest Elvis Festival, an annual Elvis Presley Enterprises registered event. That win qualified him to enter the Ultimate Elvis World Championship in Memphis, Tenn., where that same year he finished 15 out of 96 in the King of the World contest. In January 2013, Williams won the first Ultimate Elvis competition held in Waikiki, Hawaii, followed by a fifth place finish in the Concert Years division of the Ultimate Elvis World Championship in Memphis — despite the fact the airline lost his luggage and he had none of his own costumes to perform in. Continued on next page

Eli “Tigerman” Williams recently won the Ultimate Elvis contest in Hawaii. PHOTO REBECCA BLISSETT

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

Tribute artists give back

2 1. Rose “Elvis,” a lifelong fan of the King, watches tribute artist Eli “Tigerman” Williams perform at West End Fest. 2. Where there’s Elvis, there are Elvis fans. Die-hard Elvis fans sit at the closest table to the stage to cheer on their favourite tribute artists at the Chandelier Lounge of the Super 8 Motel. PHOTOS REBECCA BLISSETT

A few weeks earlier, Williams headlines West End Fest 2014, where he performs on an outdoor stage in the field out back of the West End Community Centre, surrounded by inflatable palm trees, a bouncy castle, members of the Vancouver Police Department’s Mounted Unit and a group of elderly women seated on walkers in the shade of several large trees. Giving back to community is something all of these ETAs take seriously and they often donate their time or perform for very little pay to help raise funds for charities and non-profit groups. On this sunny Vancouver day, Williams performs the classic Elvis hit “Blue Suede Shoes,” much to the delight of the audience seated in rows of foldable chairs. To the right of the stage a 50-something-aged couple dances enthusiastically to the tune, while nearby a toddler jumps up and wiggles his bum, waving his arms to the music. Seated in the front row is an older woman decked out in sequinned pants, crystal-

dotted sunglasses, a T-shirt adorned with a reproduction of Elvis’ Blue Hawaii album cover, a white cap with an Elvis pin at the front and a bag with a photograph of Elvis covering both sides. The woman, who introduces herself as “Rose Elvis,” says she grew up listening to the singer and watching this young generation of ETAs brings back memories. “I remember seeing Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show when he did all those moves,” Rose says in reference to the infamous occasion when while performing the song “Hound Dog” the singer’s gyrating hips caused such a scandal that on many future TV appearances Elvis was ﬁlmed from the waist up. “I used to go to the record shop and play his 45s,” remembers Rose. “Elvis was such a good person, he’ll never die.” Williams says it’s fans like Rose who make performing as an ETA so rewarding. “I’ll often perform in retirement homes and generally those people are the ones who actually saw Elvis

and can relate to his music so I get a great response,” says Williams, who explains his name has nothing to do with the Canadian hockey player Dave “Tiger” Williams. “It’s an ode to Elvis’s karate days.” Williams, a graphic designer, agrees there’s a difference between Elvis tribute artists and impersonators. “The other ETAs I know are just like myself, normal guys who like to get together and do this,” says Williams, who also appears in the Ultimate Elvis Shows at the Admiral Pub and Chandelier Lounge. “It’s just like any group of buddies who go golﬁng or ﬁshing, only we like to dress up like Elvis and perform.” During Simpson’s performance back at the Chandelier Lounge, an apparently inebriated man with a jug of beer in front of him heckles the performer. “You’re not as good as Elvis,” the man yells from his table. “No, I sure am not,” Simpson calmly responds. The man’s comments

have the female fans at the front of the room staring him down, with one yelling “Shut up.” The man, oblivious to the fact his remarks have had an effect on these women akin to poking a mother bear with a stick, continues with a loud, “Blah, blah, blah,” as Simpson attempts to introduce another song. “I’m going to go back there if he keeps this up,” one of the women warns. Ignoring the man, Simpson launches into the Elvis hit “It’s Now or Never,” hitting all the big notes despite an ailing throat. As Simpson belts out the ﬁnal line of the song, “It’s now or never, my love won’t waaaaaaaaait,” he gets perhaps his biggest compliment of the night. The heckler puts down his beer, staggers to his feet and gives Simpson a long and loud standing ovation. The Ultimate Elvis Show takes place at 8 p.m. each Tuesday night at the Chandelier Lounge at the Super 8 Motel, 725 Southeast Marine Dr. twitter.com/sthomas10

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There’s only one place you’ll find Mayor Gregor Robertson, Amazing Race finalist Ryan Steele, CTV News anchor Mi-Jung Lee, CBC’s Rick Cluff and Cecilia Walters and 30 Days Adventure founder Marc Smith serving brunch this Saturday and that’s the Celebrity Dim Sum event at Floata Seafood Restaurant on Keefer Street in Chinatown. The seventh annual brunch is a popular fundraising event that sees celebrities from across the city pushing dim sum carts to ticketholders with proceeds dedicated to AIDS Vancouver’s Community Outreach Program, which provides HIV information, education and support to people at high risk of contracting the disease. The most significant appeal of the event is the opportunity to meet and network with well-known Vancouverites. Acting as MC again is the Courier’s UnLeeshed man in the city Fred Lee, and Sophie Lui from Global TV News. Also serving dim sum this year is CTV’s Ann Luu, television

Event Guide OCTOBER 2014

host Fiona Forbes, Breakfast TV’s Kyle Donaldson and Michel McDermott, OMNI News anchor Bowen Zhang, Joytv’s Carmen Ruiz y Laza, Leah Bolton and Dean Atwal, former Real Housewife of Vancouver and recording artist Mary Zilba, and QueerFMVan radio host and Megamouth Media founder Barb Snelgrove. Besides brunch, guests can also take in the hugely popular chicken feet eating contest. Live and silent auctions round out the afternoon. The event is presented by Joytv and this year’s sponsors include Be the Change Group, Breakfast Television/CityTV, Haywire Winery, McMillan LLP, OMNI TV, Vancity, WestJet and WE Vancouver. Celebrity Dim Sum starts at 11 a.m. Sept. 27, at the Floata, 400-180 Keefer St. For ticket information visit aidsvancouver.org/celebrity_dim_sum.

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F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

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GOT ARTS? 604.738.1411 or events@vancourier.com

Sept. 26 to 30 2014 1. The Vancouver International Film Festival begins in earnest and keeps its projectors aglow until Oct. 10 (actually the festival has gone completely digital this year). For a full list of ﬁlms and show times — including the atmospheric CanadaNorway co-production Violent, directed by Andrew Huculiak, best known as the drummer of local band We Are the City — go to viff.org. And be sure to check out the Courier’s ﬁlm fest reviews and previews at vancourier.com/entertainment.

2. Since launching This American Life in 1995 on Chicago’s WBEZ, bespectacled creator and host Ira Glass has taken the beloved program to dizzying heights for a public radio program. Not only is it heard on more than 500 public radio stations each week by over 1.7 million listeners, it’s also one of the most downloaded podcasts on the continent. Glass will be at the Vogue, Sept. 27, for an event called Reinventing the Radio, where he talks about his program and how it’s put together, mixing stories from the show, narration, pre-taped quotes and music. To satiate the masses, Glass will do two shows, one at 7:30 p.m. and the other at 10 p.m. when things get really filthy. We just made that part up. Details at voguetheatre.com, tickets at northerntickets.com. 3. Things heat up as Vancouver Opera brings the sexy back, remounting its sensuous, box office smashing production of Carmen Sept. 27 to Oct. 5 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Director Joel Ivany situates the action in late-1940s Spain complete with bullfighters, deserting soldiers, murder and a seductive gypsy woman. Is there any other kind? For details and tickets, call 604683-0222 or go to vancouveropera.ca. 4. Although it will always be Word on the Street in our hearts, Western Canada’s largest celebration of literacy and reading Word Vancouver returns to Library Square for its flagship event Sept. 28, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The free day-long festival features musical performances, readings, panel discussions, authors, literary journals, writing workshops and book and magazine exhibitors. Details at wordvancouver.ca.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

“Like watching a flower blossom in time-lapse photography” —Variety

EVERY SHOW

Arts&Entertainment KUDOS & KVETCHES

By Willy Russell

K&K atones, part 1

By Willy Russell

NOW PLAYING!

GROUPS SAVE MORE!

In honour of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which this year begins the evening of Oct. 3 and ends the evening of Oct. 4, and indeed in honour of atonement rituals in religions everywhere, K&K revives its yearly atonement series, begging forgiveness for past mistakes, misdeeds, egregious errors in judgment and moments of all around douchiness. Once again, we’re sorry. • In high school there was a time when we grew our hair out, started wearing Guatemalan ponchos, listened to a lot of U2 and tried to project a culturally superior persona to our friends and classmates. We felt we had achieved a level of deepness despite being surrounded by a sea of mediocrity and meek acceptance, and we wanted everyone to know it. In addition to spouting off about our naïve politically left leanings, we also regularly claimed that Gandhi and Amadeus were our favourite movies. Our Star Wars and

Indiana Jones-loving friends challenged us on this, but we maintained our deep and abiding appreciation for these more “important” and “serious” films. We may have even uttered the phrase “beautifully rendered.” Sorry, high school friends, for falsely claiming Gandhi and Amadeus were our favourite movies, when in fact, to this day, we have only watched them once and remembered being kind of bored, and if given the choice would rather have watched Return of the Jedi or Temple of Doom in a heartbeat. Sorry, left wing political parties, for turning a lot of future voters away from your cause because who wants to align themselves with the superficial political beliefs of a pretentious Bono wannabe in a Guatemalan poncho and Rattle and Hum poster on their bedroom wall. • Years ago when we were a carefree, gallivanting, rough and tumble freelance journalist we wrote a story for a local paper. When we went to the publication’s office to pick up our cheque for $200, the receptionist handed us two envelopes. Both envelopes contained

cheques for $200. In other words, the paper had mistakenly paid us twice for the same story. Rather than inform them of the mistake, we cashed the cheques a few weeks apart not to arouse suspicion and in all likelihood used the unexpected windfall to buy booze or eat out at a few restaurants or purchase shoes that we no longer wear, because we have a bad habit of overestimating the longevity of footwear fashion and appropriateness on account of being easily enamoured by bright colours and applying an air of “fun” to our lowly feet. Sorry, local paper, for not fessing up and allowing you to pay us twice for the same job, and in a small way contributing to the ongoing financial challenges facing print media these days… you know what, screw it, we’re not sorry, $200 was a pittance for the time and effort we put into that story that none of the fulltime journalists wanted to write in the first place, and if you can’t keep your accounts in order, despite your high paid managers and profit hungry shareholders, then that’s on you. twitter.com/KudosKvetches

F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment VIFF turns up the music MOVIE REVIEWS Michael Kissinger

mkissinger@vancourier.com

The Vancouver International Film Festival runs until Oct. 10. For details, go to viff.org.

Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me

Sept. 27 at International Village, Oct. 1 at Vancouver Playhouse As intimate a portrait of Alzheimer’s as you’ll get, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me follows the country music legend and his family on Campbell’s 151-show farewell tour shortly after being diagnosed with the debilitating disease. And while there are some uncomfortable moments as the effects of Alzheimer’s takes hold, the ﬁlm feels less like watching a car wreck and more of a celebration of Campbell’s talents, family, supportive fans and the transcending power of music. Despite the employment of some overused music documentary tropes such as talking head testimonials from members of U2 and the recording of a new song as the ﬁlm’s conclusion, it’s a moving portrait of a man who can play a note-perfect rendition of “Duelling Banjos” with his daughter but forget her name by the time he walks off stage.

The Possibilities are Endless

Sept. 30 at Cinematheque, Oct. 1 at International Village In 2005, lyrically gifted frontman of Scottish postpunk band Orange Juice and solo artist Edwyn Collins suffered two strokes, partially paralyzing one side of his body and reducing his vocabulary to “yes,” “no,” his

Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me documents the country legend’s battle with Alzheimer’s.

wife’s name and the phrase “the possibilities endless,” which he would repeat dozens of times a day. James Hall and Edward Lovelace’s mesmerizing documentary is both haunting and poetic. Artfully shot images of the weather-beaten Scottish coast intricately woven together with voiceovers from Collins and his wife immerse the viewer in the musician’s struggle to hold onto and rediscover some semblance of his former self. And while it’s dark and weighty at times, the ﬁlm has a sweetness to it as the camera shifts focus to Collins’ recovery and his enduring relationship with his wife, appropriately named Grace.

The Past is a Grotesque Animal

Oct. 3 at International Village Kevin Barnes is the mad genius behind the psychedelic pop group Of Montreal, which emerged in Athens, Georgia in the early ’90s as part of the Elephant Six scene and blossomed into its own Technicolor butterﬂy, amassing legions of devoted fans including Solange Knowles (Beyonce’s sister) and, inexplicably, actress Susan Sarandon. And while Barnes’s talent and drive is undeniable, he doesn’t exactly evoke the warmest of feelings, possibly because he doesn’t appear to exhibit any, whether he’s talking about the revolving door

of musicians in his band or his estrangement from his Norwegian wife and mother of his child. Jason Miller’s doc efﬁciently captures the band’s evolution from low-ﬁ bedroom project to absurdist musical performance art to rave party spectacle. With Barnes clearly in the driver’s seat of his magic bus, Of Montreal’s musical direction can be wildly unpredictable, but it’s a fun ride.

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Nas: Time is Illmatic

Sept. 28 at the Rio, Oct. 1 at International Village, Oct. 3 at the Rio What begins as a fawning portrait of an artist who spends a lot of time in sunglasses looking out the windows of moving cars thankfully turns into a thought-provoking examination of the circumstances and environment that influenced rapper Nas (Nasir Jones) and his iconic 1994 debut album Illmatic. Nas’s story is a common one in the annals of hip hop — raised in the projects of Queensbridge, Queens by a single mother and frequently absent jazz musician father, Nas escaped the perils of drugs, crime and violence through music. Much like Illmatic’s jazz-inflected rhythms and brutally autobiographical lyrics, the film is both life-affirming and sobering, particularly when Nas’s brother scans a picture of the neighbourhood characters adorning the album’s inner sleeve and runs through each of their whereabouts. Graffiti artist turned-first-time-director One9, working with a wealth of live footage and sit-down interviews, does a thorough job setting the stage for Nas’s musical triumph and dissecting the ingredients that makes Illmatic such a revered album. twitter.com/MidlifeMan1

by: Entertainment ters. The Yellow Poin

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

Arts&Entertainment

Cavendish gets crotchety dolce e crudele Friday October 3 - 7:30pm

Grand Luxe Hall, 303 East 8th Ave, Vancouver Tickets Adult $35 • Senior $30 Students FREE, just call 604.731.6618

Saturday October 4 - 7:30pm Dunbar Heights United Church, 3525 West 24th Ave, Vancouver

Tickets Adult $35 • Senior $30 • Student $10 2014 - 2015 SEASON

nourishing music for the heart and soul

Seating is limited so purchase your tickets today at

musicaintima.org or call 604.731.6618 The Martha Lou Henley Charitable Foundation

THEATRE REVIEW Jo Ledingham

joled@telus.net

A good reason for mounting 4000 Miles, written by American playwright Amy Herzog in 2011, is that it gets actor Nicola Cavendish back on the boards after a threeyear hiatus. Vera, a crusty 91-year-old grandmother with a sharp tongue but a soft heart, is a role tailormade for Cavendish (who plays old and crotchety but is only in her early 60s). When Vera’s troubled 21-year-old grandson Leo (Nathan Barrett) turns up with his bike at his grandmother’s Manhattan

apartment in the middle of the night, she takes him in but not without asking him pointblank if he’s high and letting him know he smells terrible. Feisty old lady is something Cavendish does so well and she embellishes Herzog’s script with her own bits of business, like viciously kicking Leo’s casually dropped belongings messing up her tidy living room. Vera is still very sharp but, as she puts it, “I’m losing my words.” “Whatchamacallit” is a word she hasn’t lost and Leo is often called upon to ﬁll in the blanks. On opening night it appeared Cavendish herself slipped up and said to Leo, “Your father never did anything for me in bed,” at which point Barrett corrected her, “You mean my grandfather?” Maybe it’s in the script but it made for a very funny moment that Cavendish and Barrett seemed to enjoy as much as we did. Leo, however, is not very likeable. He’s been drifting, has a troubled relationship with his mother, which we’d like to hear more about but don’t, has a difﬁcult relation-

ship with his girlfriend Bec (very capable Ella Simon in an unrewarding role), and we’re not sure what his problem is. And he patronizes his grandmother whom we’ve come to adore with New Age-y stuff like, “You’ve got the power. Take it back” or advising her to, “Love and trust. You get that back.” And, with her permission, he helps himself to the money she keeps stashed in the guest room. I think we’re supposed to excuse him as a deeply distressed young man, but when we find out the source of some of his unhappiness, it feels insufficient. Indeed, the play feels insufficient. Herzog feeds us tidbits of information about Leo’s friend Micah until all is finally revealed. There’s also a sexual incident referred to between Leo and his Chinese adopted sister that goes nowhere. The best thing that can be said about the reference is that it brings Amanda, a ChineseAmerican bimbo, briefly into the story. As Amanda, Agnes Tong is hilarious: she staggers on

too-high heels, she falls on her face, she’s the epitome of, like, young woman flakiness. It’s a terrific performance but serves only a couple of plot points: Leo has no reservations about having sex with someone so drunk she can barely walk. And perhaps he’s attracted to her because he really lusts after his sister? The best part of this scene is that Vera, when she shuffles into the living room and discovers them tearing their clothes off, doesn’t give a fig. “You could choose not to be closed-minded,” Leo has earlier advised his old grannie. Closed-minded? Vera? Not this old nonagenarian. Directed by Roy Surette, 4000 Miles is heartwarming, darkly funny and a fantastic vehicle for Cavendish. But take her out of the mix and what’s left is a decent movie of the week and another piece of American realism. 4000 Miles runs until Oct. 12 at the Stanley. For tickets and info, call 604-687-1644 or go to artsclub.com. For more reviews, go to joledingham.ca.

Sitting on the Edge of Marlene (Canada, 90 mins)

Ana Valine’s darkly comic drama centres on mother/daughter con artists who just can’t catch a break. Seen through the eyes of 16-year-old Sammie (Paloma Kwiatkowski)―who lives with her pill-popping, alcoholic mom Marlene (Suzanne Clément)―this bittersweet journey leads us through dysfunction, love and addiction, before culminating with an unusual deliverance for this compelling pair. Winner, Best Director, Leo Awards 2014. Wed. Oct 1, 6:30 pm, Rio GENEROUSLY Fri. Oct 3, 3:30 pm, Intl Village 9 SPONSORED BY INFORMATION VIFF.org | FILM INFO LINE 604-683-FILM | ONLINE at VIFF.org

OCTOBER 3 - 13, 2014

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October 1, 7:00pm – 9:00pm BRITISH COLUMBIA WINE AWARDS AND RECEPTION The Laurel Packinghouse, Kelowna. Price: $50 (all incl). October 3 & 4, 7:00pm – 9:30pm THE WESTJET WINE TASTINGS Rotary Centre for the Arts, Kelowna. Price $70 (all incl) or $120 (all incl) for both nights. October 8, 7:00pm – 9:00pm THE BLIND WINE & CHEESE SOIREE BY VALLEY FIRST The Laurel Packinghouse, Kelowna. Price: $50 (all incl). October 9, 6:30pm – 9:00pm ALEXIS DE PORTNEUF PRESENTS “THE YOUNG CHEFS” “The Atrium” Centre for Learning Okanagan College, Kelowna. Price: $60 (all incl). October 9, 7:00 – 9:00pm ORGANIC CHEESE AND WINE - A NATURAL PAIRING Manteo Resort, Kelowna. Price: $47 (all incl). Tickets for all above events: www.selectyourtickets.com or 250.717.5304 October 10 & 11, 6:00pm – 9:00pm VALLEY FIRST GRAND FINALE CONSUMER TASTINGS Penticton Trade and Convention Centre. Price: $65 (all incl) or $110 (all incl) for both nights. Tickets: www.valleyfirsttix.com or 877.763.2849 All Signature Events are Get Home Safe Events. For more information visit our website, www.thewinefestivals.com

For more information or to Get Tickets visit www.thewinefestivals.com or call 250 861 6654

Be part of the Vision Share your ideas at the upcoming community Co-Design workshops. •

Brainstorm ideas for the future life of Riverview.

•

Participate in a group with an artist to create a scene that depicts a day in the life on the Riverview Lands.

•

View the drawings.

Join us for the whole event or just one part. Pre-registration strongly encouraged but not required. Date:

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Time:

4:30pm - 8:00pm

Place:

Douglas College, Coquitlam (Atrium) 1250 Pinetree Way, Coquitlam

Date:

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Time:

10:00am - 1:30pm

Place:

Centennial Pavilion, (address updated) 620 Poirier Street, Coquitlam (Beside Dogwood Pavilion, entrance off Winslow Avenue)

For more information and to view the drawings starting October 6, please visit our website www.renewingriverview.com or to register, contact: t: 604.216.7057 | e: questions@renewingriverview.com

F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Sports&Recreation

GOT SPORTS? 604.630.3549 or mstewart@vancourier.com

Sportshorts Calendar AAA varsity football, Week Three:

Notre Dame (1-1, 0-1) hosts the New West Hyacks at 7:30 p.m., Sept. 26. The Hyacks are fresh off an over-the-top homecoming win that saw the game ball bought down from the sky by parachutists. After a week off, the Vancouver College Fighting Irish (1-1, 0-1) travel to Victoria’s Goudy Turf to meet the three-time defending B.C. champion Mt. Douglas Rams. Kickoff is 2:30 p.m., Sept. 26.

Varsity football Tier II, Week Three:

Eric Hamber (0-0) plays its ﬁrst game of the season this week and head coach Bobby Gibson will be there as more than just a fan now that the teachers’ labour dispute has been resolved. The Grifﬁns host Moscrop at 3:30 p.m., Sept. 26.

Road running:

As twilight falls on Stanley Park, the sea wall will be the site of the fourth annual Vancouver Night Race. The ﬁve- and 10-kilometre races begin as the sun sets on Sept. 26. Runners wear headlamps provided by this year’s sponsor, Brooks, and registration is open near the entrance of Stanley Park before the 7 p.m. start. Cost is $70. Late registrants must pay in cash. The event raises money for the Starlight Children’s Foundation, which helps seriously ill children.

Longboarding:

The Vancouver Park Board and Longboarder Labs will hold a free clinic to promote safe longboarding. The session runs 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 28 at Queen Elizabeth Park. Children aged 11 to 16 are invited to learn the basics of carving, braking and sliding. Helmets and boards are provided. The sport is common on the North Shore and longboarders have also started using Vancouver’s more modest hills to reach higher speeds. “Longboarding has evolved from a fringe sport to one that’s gone mainstream,” said park board commissioner Sarah Blyth in a news release. “Unfortunately, some young people in Metro Vancouver have been killed or seriously injured so we’re offering this free clinic to make the sport safer.” Call 604-257-8645 to register.

PHOTO KEVIN HILL

Full Count

In millions, the number of visits to Hillcrest community centre since it opened four years ago following the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games after which Riley Park, the community centre across Ontario Street, was slowly shuttered.

1. The Asahi was a legendary Japanese-Canadian baseball team that played at Oppenheimer Park. Director Ishii Yuya brings a feature film about the Asahi to VIFF. 2. Giuseppe Marinoni hand-crafts some of the most desirable bike frames in Canada. Marinoni screens at VIFF.

Jocks on film

Vancouver International Film Festival runs through Oct. 10 JOCK AND JILL Megan Stewart

mstewart@vancourier.com

What’s your favourite baseball movie? Me, easy: Bull Durham. Not least of all because of the feminist subtext. But also for the exceptional veteran-schoolsthe-rookie scene about using mindless clichés to placate the media. Besides this 1988 blockbuster set in the minor leagues, most film about athletes competing against themselves or opponents in the pursuit of optimum performance will appeal to me. Quotable one-liners or otherwise. The Vancouver Asahi is the latest baseball flick, this one a documentary that hits very close to home in its exploration of the historic Japanese league that played at Oppenheimer Park. I won’t miss it. And over the next two weeks, there are a half dozen more sportthemed movies to check out at the Vancouver International Film Festival. In one way or another, they focus on the ways sport shapes us and our environment. For a complete list of films and screenings, visit viff.org.

A Dangerous Game

For some, golf is the game that ruins an otherwise perfectly good walk. For British ﬁlmmaker Anthony Baxter, golf is the game that exploits rural neighbourhoods, swills

thousands of gallons of drinking water to grow green grass in the desert, and builds manicured playgrounds in countries (such as China) where they are supposedly illegal … but no one is invited to play but the privileged rich. In this documentary, Baxter delivers an unﬂinching follow up to You’ve Been Trumped, the 2011 doc that examined the morally corrupt capitalism of Donald Trump. The tupee’d-wonder sits down with Baxter again for A Dangerous Game. Screenings: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 3, SFU Woodwards; 10 a.m. Oct. 5, Cinematheque; 12:15 p.m. Oct. 9, Vancity Theatre

Foxcatcher

An unrecognizable Steve Carell appears, like a Joe Paterno ﬁgure, as a mouthbreathing benefactor in a sweatshirt who invigorates and menaces Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz (played by Channing Tatum). Does he have too much power? He invites both Schultz brothers (Dave is played by Mark Ruffalo) to train on his Pennsylvania estate, Foxcatcher Farm. Mark, driven, lays out what he wants: “Me winning. America winning.” Oh yeah baby, bring on the hard-headed jingoism. But what ensues from director Bennett Miller (Moneyball, Capote) is a cold-blooded tour-de-force, a taught, complex psychological drama and the real-life mental

breakdown of a paranoid schizophrenic. Screenings: 3:15 p.m. Oct. 2, Centre for Performing Arts; 9:30 p.m. Oct. 10, Centre for Performing Arts

Marinoni

Meet Giuseppe Marinoni, a Montreal septuagenarian who for 40 years has hand-crafted some of the most desirable bicycle frames in the country. Just don’t get too close to the curmudgeon — at first. Filmmaker Tony Girardin, using a hand-held camera, is first spurned by the craftsman who has been harassed by hollow hipsters before. The film witnesses the growing camaraderie between director and subject as Marinoni opens himself up to reveal his spirited, visionary drive. A racer in his youth, Marinoni returns to his childhood home in Italy to attempt a recordsetting ride over one hour, one of sport’s most difficult feats. His newest friend is there, camera in hand even as he helps the cyclist shave his legs before the definitive day. Screenings: 9:15 p.m. Oct. 2, Vancouver Playhouse; 4 p.m. Oct. 4, Vancouver Playhouse

Red Army

Sport was an offensive front in the propaganda war the U.S.S.R. waged on the world and the people caught inside its borders. Hockey was its A-bomb. Director Gabe Polsky and a Hollywood production

team including Werner Herzog and Jerry Weintraub delivers a fascinating and slick, historic romp through the sport’s past in a country where, like Canada, kids grow up on ice skates but where the KGB supervises how you tie your laces. Screenings: 5 p.m. Oct. 5, Vancouver Playhouse; 10 a.m. Oct. 7, Vancity Theatre; 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9, Centre for Performing Arts

The Vancouver Asahi

Before Nippon Professional Baseball launched in Japan in 1950, Canadianborn Japanese kids played baseball at Oppenheimer Park. This is their story, set in the 1930s. The Asahi formed on the eve of the First World War and would later disband when Canada interned Japanese citizens. Between the wars, the Asahi developed a style of play (call it small ball but at the time it was called “brain ball”) that out-witted the burlier teams from Vancouver and brought their community pride and respect as well as the joy of watching baseball on a summer afternoon and down the stretch as the Asahi won the Paciﬁc Northwest Championship ﬁve years in a row. Ishii Yuya directed this CanadaJapan production, which has its world premiere at VIFF. Screenings: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 29, Centre for Performing Arts, 2:30 p.m. Oct. 4, Centre for Performing Arts; 1 p.m. Oct. 10, Vancouver Playhouse twitter.com/MHStewart

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

SEMINARS & EVENTS

Sports&Recreation

Choices South Surrey, 3248 King George Blvd. Thursday, October 16, 7:00-9:00pm. GMO OMG: Film Screening and Discussion sponsored by New Chapter. Cost $5. Register online or call 604-541-3902. Choices Floral Shop & Annex, 2615 W 16th Ave. Vancouver. Sunday, October 19, 2:00-4:00pm. Food Sensitivities? Cook Without Compromise with Choices’ Chef Antonio Cerullo and Dietitian Shannon Smith. Cost $20. Register online or call 604-736-0009.

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1. Bogdan Szafranowicz (left) and Wes McIntosh wait on the 12th hole of a temporary disc golf course at Queen Elizabeth Park as a family crosses through the fairway during the B.C. Provincial Championship Sept. 20. David Ross won the three-round tournament by a single shot to take home $350. Vancouver’s Stephen Crichton finished third at minus-nine, five shots behind Ross. 2. The temporary fairway for the 449-foot par-four 12th hole. PHOTOS MEGAN STEWART

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POLITICS HEALTH CARE LAW & ORDER TAXATION ADDICTIONS SENIORS CITY PLANNING EDUCATION

F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

START NOTHING: 1:31 p.m. to 3:50 p.m. Sunday, 8:29 p.m. Monday to 9:41 p.m. Tuesday, 9:18 a.m. Thursday to 1:00 a.m. Friday, and after 11:32 a.m. Saturday. PREAMBLE: Mars left Libra July 26, after an eight-month run. Have you noticed that Putin, a Libran, has been rather quiet on the war front in Ukraine the last two months? I think the crisis is essentially over, and this latest truce should hold. In early July, I advised selling stocks or “at least think about selling.” For six weeks after, most world markets declined. However, in North America (not so much elsewhere) markets not only rebounded after an initial decline, they hit (slender) new highs. As I write this, they’ve started another decline. Leo will often bet against the odds. My worry about the market is that the economic news looks poor – mixed at best. This has been borne out by recent events, including an historic new slowdown in China.

Relationships form the core of your life this week and the next few. This period won’t be totally easy, as your own drives for happiness and love run up against a barrier that somehow involves authority. This “authority” could be as subtle as your own sense of propriety (don’t want to be embarrassed) or as blatant as a parent, boss, cop or judge frowning on your activities.

Your energy, charisma and optimism rise to a yearly high over the weeks ahead, Libra. Usually I would urge you to start signiﬁcant projects during this time, but Mercury retrograde indicates indecision, false starts, delays and mistakes. For example, though it was an ongoing project, my kids put gyproc on my new kitchen wall during Mercury retro, but forgot the vapour barrier and I had to rip the wall off and replace it later.

The weeks ahead emphasize work and health issues. This zone is generally blessed now, but you can suffer some interference from more human-heart areas or from the law. Be ethical and legal, and don’t violate your principles just for work’s sake. Your partner, lover or spouse might advise you to slow down a little, to relax and he/she’s right. Protect your health, eat and dress sensibly. DO NOT start any new projects before Oct. 25.

Retreat, rest, contemplate over the weeks ahead, Scorpio. You’ll seek, and ﬁnd, sweet solitude. Be spiritual, meditate, institute those nutrition or health improvements. Usually I’d advise using this period to plan future action/ventures, but not now. Plans made before Oct. 25 are likely to prove unworkable later (sometimes, regrettably, long after you’ve started the action/project).

Start nothing major before Oct. 25, Gemini. Until then, reprise the past. Until Oct. 10, deal with ongoing or neglected chores and take care of old (perhaps now recurring) health concerns. The whole month ahead is creative, romantic, pleasure-oriented — at the same time (especially this Sunday to Tuesday) someone could treat you aggressively or assertively, yet you actually like this, it somehow makes you think of a happy, wish-fulﬁlled future.

Don’t start anything important, venture, task or relationship, before Oct. 25, Sage. Anything started will become an “unfinished symphony” – attractive but forever incomplete. Otherwise, this is a beautiful month ahead, bringing you popularity, flirtations, romance, entertainment, social delights, even wish fulfillment. You’ll feel alive, bright and optimistic.

The weeks ahead emphasize home, parents/kids, property, security, nutrition, retirement (preparation for) and all the basics. You like this arena, but note two things: around Oct. 4 (Saturday) you might face opposition to your plans, perhaps from a spouse; and around Oct. 7 you could ﬁnd that some authority disagrees with you. Don’t start anything new, projects nor relationships, before Oct. 25.

Start nothing important before Oct. 25, Cap. That includes everything, but especially career, business and other ambitions (e.g., politics) — the very things that are highlighted for you during the weeks ahead. This isn’t a dead-end: only for new projects/ relationships. Although ongoing projects will need some care and protection; guard against supply shortages.

Don’t start any new ventures, major tasks, nor relationships before Oct. 25, Leo. Avoid buying major items, especially tools, cars or travel tickets. Protect ongoing projects from delay, confusion and mistakes. Reprise the past. You might visit an old neighbourhood, or greet a “long lost” kid or parent, before the 10th. This is not a particularly good time to travel for business or with a practical goal.

Start nothing new and important before Oct. 25, Aquarius. The weeks ahead feature far travel, higher learning, publishing, advertising, international dealings and foreign-born people, law, cultural involvements, and gentle love. All these zones are subtly blessed and protected for you, right into Nov. 2015. Still, you will likely face two problems (even showdowns).

Start nothing new, projects nor relationships, before Oct. 25. Instead, protect ongoing projects from delays, missed meetings, supply disruptions, mistakes, misunderstood directions, and indecision. If you must make an important decision about an ongoing situation, trust in a decision you made earlier, rather than seeking a “new way.” Or, delay the ultimate decision to Oct. 25 onward.

Don’t start any new projects or relationships before Oct. 25, Pisces. Sign nothing, promise nothing. In general, the weeks ahead feature mystery, large ﬁnances (investments, debts, etc.) sexual urges and intimacy, research/detective work, health diagnosis and lifestyle changes, commitment and consequence. If you have an ongoing project in any of these areas, keep at it, but protect it also, from delays, mistakes, supply shortages, false starts, indecision and second-guessing.

Monday: Jerry Lee Lewis (79). Tuesday: Angie Dickinson (83). Wednesday: Jimmy Carter (90). Thursday: Sting (63) Friday: Neve Campbell (41). Saturday: Susan Sarandon (68). Sunday: Kate Winslet (39).

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

Today’shomes

Residential land prices skyrocket in 2014 Frank O’Brien

wieditor@biv.com

Developer Westbank paid $32.4 million, or more than $15 million per acre, for the 2.2-acre site of its new Vancouver House residential tower. But that is not the most expensive residential land sale in Metro Vancouver thus far this year. Top-dollar prize in that category goes to the $83.5 million paid for a site measuring less than an acre on Alberni Street in Vancouver’s West End. “[Residential] land remains the most soughtafter commercial real estate investment in British Columbia,” said an Avison Young mid-year report on commercial real estate sales. But one real estate commentator believes the white-hot demand for residential reveals an eco-

nomic fault line, because much more is being spent building condominiums than on places for people to work or learn. Residential land is clearly leading B.C.’s investment curve.

“There is something out of whack here.” – Ozzie Jurock In 2014’s ﬁrst half, the top ﬁve residential land sales across Metro Vancouver, at a total of $255.6 million, were worth more than all of B.C.’s industrial property sales, at $163 million, and accounted for 30 per cent of the total commercial property transactions in the province.

Other notable sales of residential land, all aimed at high-density development, include $69 million paid for 4.91 acres on No. 3 Road in Richmond and the $20.7 million sale of 1.1 acres in Burnaby’s Metrotown area. The higher land values could signal rising prices for future multi-family housing units in Metro Vancouver. The land costs for Vancouver House, for example, translate into $83,000 for each of the 388 condominiums in the twisting tower that will rise at the north end of the Granville Street Bridge. Real estate buyers pay much less for non-residential land, the Avison Young report reveals. Metro Vancouver industrial land, for example, sold for between $1 million and $2 million per acre this year, while the biggest sale of commer-

Turning up the heat for KidSport Vancouver

Shane (Mr. February) and Katrina (People’s Choice) are already competing to see who can raise the most money in the 2015 Hall of Flame Calendar Donation Challenge. They have each chosen KidSport Vancouver as their charity. On October 3, they are taking part in Dodge for Kids, KidSport’s annual dodgeball tournament at Creekside Community Centre. Monies raised will help kids overcome financial obstacles that are preventing them from participating in organized sport.

You can donate to their crowdfunding campaigns or start your own at FundAid.ca

cially zoned land pencils out to $1.45 million per acre for a 40-acre site near Burnaby’s Brentwood SkyTrain station. “There is something out of whack here,” said real estate consultant Ozzie Jurock, who hosted a Real Estate Outlook 2015 conference in Vancouver on September 13. Jurock noted that in 2014’s ﬁrst seven months, Metro Vancouver residential permits reached $2.9 billion compared with $1.2 billion for total non-residential construction. Across the province, home building permit values are outstripping non-residential permits by a four-to-one ratio. Said Jurock: “Residential construction this far ahead of non-residential reﬂects a weak pattern of business investment that could stunt economic growth.”

Onni readies to launch Marine Drive project Glen Korstrom

gkorstrom@biv.com

Onni Group is preparing to launch presales next month on Northwest, the third major project next to the Marine Gateway Canada Line station. Two under-construction projects, PCI Developments Corp.’s Marine Gateway and Intracorp’s MC2, sold out within days of going on sale. “We’ve been working around the clock to get everything prepared so we’re ready to go to market this fall,” said vice-president of sales Nick Belmar “We’re hoping to have construction start in the new year and to have the buildings complete by summer 2017.” Onni’s plans for the site are not that much different than those of Wesgroup Properties, which ushered the site through rezoning and then sold it to Onni for an undisclosed amount in June.

Onni’s plan is for two towers, 31 storeys and 13 storeys, to be built simultaneously. Combined there will be 349 homes, mostly one-bedroom units but also including twobedroom and three-bedroom condominiums. By the time Onni’s Northwest is complete, Marine Gateway, MC2 and a retail village will likely be fully occupied. Commercial tenants in the retail space include Cineplex, with an 11-theatre cinema complex, an Osaka Supermarket, Starbucks, A&W, multiple banks, a liquor store and more. Westport Innovations has leased seven ﬂoors, or about half of a commercial tower that is part of the Marine Gateway project. Prices on the Northwest’s units are set to start at $269,900 for a 440-square-foot one-bedroom unit. Prices range up to more than $1 million for a 1,100-square-foot-plus unit that is on the northeast corner of the taller tower.

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Car Care

Prepare for fall with batteries and tires

Sandra Thomas

batteries, Bidlake said they must be topped up with coolant to ensure the PH balance is correct and up to standard. And since you’re going to be at the garage anyway, he advises

sthomas@vancourier.com

The number of drivers suffering from battery problems increase substantially in the fall, says Craig Bidlake, owner of NZ Auto Works on West Second Avenue. “We see a lot of batteries fail in the fall,” said Bidlake. He explained that as the temperature drops, more cold cranking amps are needed to start a vehicle. Cold cranking amps determine how much power a driver has to start their car. “Batteries need a lot more cold cranking amps on colder mornings, so we see a big inﬂux of battery problems in the fall,” he said. To guard against dead

“We see a lot of batteries fail in the fall.” – Craig Bidlake drivers to have their snow tires installed or that they purchase a set before the ﬁrst snowfall. “People who wait until the ﬁrst snowfall to buy them end up in lineups around the block,” said

Bidlake. “According to most manufacturer’s instructions, you should start using your snow tires as soon as the temperature reaches seven degrees, which is a typical Vancouver winter.” He added summer tires are made up of a much harder compound than the winter version. He compared using winter tires in the summer to “driving in butter,” and added that’s a sure way to wear them out early. Bidlake noted even if a driver only uses their winter tires for six months at a time, they should still be replaced every six years because that’s when the rubber compound begins to harden. Continued on page 34

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Craig Bidlake, of NZ Auto Works, says worn windshield wipers should be replaced prior to winter driving. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

Car Care Install winter tires during fall oil change Continued from page 33

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PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

“And that’s when you should just run them out as summer tires and then get rid of them,” he advised. A good time to have winter tires installed is when a driver makes an appointment for their fall oil change. He noted with today’s vehicles, changing the oil every three to four months is not necessary. Improvements to oil means a vehicle really only needs to have it changed once in the summer and then again in the fall. Bidlake noted many automotive garages and service stations offer fall and summer driving packages, which is a good opportunity to have all of necessary vehicle maintenance done at the same time. He added as part of

that package, mechanics should also be checking out the vehicle’s brakes during the installation of winter tires or while rotating the existing set. Another vital car part of concern when moving from summer to winter driving is the windshield wipers. “Wipers are a big thing in the winter,” said Bidlake. “The rubber gets hard in the summer and soft in the winter and the ﬁrst time you have a heavy rain, you’ll see how much you need them. When you have new wipers installed you’ll see what a difference they make” The same goes for lights. Bidlake said a fall maintenance package should also include a check of all of a vehicle’s lights to ensure they’re not burned out or have dimmed with time. twitter.com/sthomas10

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A35

today’sdrive Your journey starts here.

20 VW GTI 15 If you'd prefer to fly under the radar, this is that sort of car Thirty years ago, Canada got its first taste of a new kind of flavour: the hot hatchback. Released in 1976 in Europe, it took nearly a decade to reach our shores, and even then it came in a slightly watered-down verBY BRENDAN McALEER sion. brendanmcaleer@gmail.com Tweet: @brendan_mcaleer It didn’t matter. This plucky little lightweight hatchback promptly set everyone’s pants ablaze with its scampering chuckability. You could fling it into a corner like a skipping stone and come out the other side with a grin so wide the top of your head was in danger of detaching. And ever since then, the GTI’s got fatter and faster with every generation. A more powerful four-cylinder engine, a narrow-angle V6, and finally turbocharging all debuted underhood, but the demand for greater refinement and more space caused this once-small car to balloon. But no more. Here is the seventh generation GTI, and curb weights are on their way back down again. Power is up, chassis stiffness is improved, the interior is upgraded, and the king of the hot hatchbacks is back.

Design

In many ways, the GTI is the Porsche 911 you can actually afford. If you scroll all the way back to the two-box shape of the original, you can still see the same lines here: an upright stance, a large greenhouse, a usefully-proportioned hatchback shape. Compared to rivals like the Focus ST or the Mazdaspeed3, the GTI is considerably more subdued. A thin red strip accents the front end from headlight to headlight, and foglights peek out from behind the side strakes. The back sports dual exhausts, and there are small, tasteful red GTI badges on either side. The large, ﬁve-spoke 18” alloys tend to say the most about this car’s sporting intent, but the rest is a collection of performance hints, rather than shouty plumage. If you’d prefer to ﬂy under the radar, this is that sort of car.

Environment

Inside the GTI, we find much the same story. No red seatbelts or endless swathes of tacked-on carbon-fibre trim here: just an all-black interior that’s a little too austere, if anything. The steering wheel is the best-looking one this side of a Porsche Macan Turbo, a flat-bottomed, hefty helm with metallic spokes and a GTI badge worked into the metal. The rest of the cabin now cants towards the driver like a 1980s BMW (in a good way), the redstitched seats are comfortable and well-bolstered, and there’s a more modern looking touchscreen for audio and navigation functions. There’s also quite a lot of room for a car that debuted as the performance version of the tiny little Rabbit. The trunk space is larger than that of a WRX sedan to start with, and then the split-folding rear seats and passthrough come into play to create an even-more-flexible cargo area. Or, leave it all buttoned up, and fit a rearfacing child seat or four adults with ease. Continued on page 37

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†O% APR purchase financing is available on all new 2014/2015 Mazda vehicles. Other terms available and vary by model. Based on a representative agreement using offered pricing of $24,490 (includes $500 Dealer Signing Bonus) for the 2015 CX·5 GX (NVXK65AAOO) with a financed amount of $25,000, the cost of borrowing for a 48·month term is So. monthly payment is $521, total finance obligation is $25,000. **Lease offers available on approved credit for new 2015 Mazda3 GX (D4XK65AAOO)/ 2015 Mazda3 Sport GX (D5XK65AA00)/2015 CX·5 GX (NVXK65AA00)/2015 Mazda6 GX (G4XL65AA00) with a lease APR of 1.99%/1.99%/0.99%/0.49% and bi·weekly payments of S96/S100/S144/S143 for 48 months, the total lease obligation is $10.021/ S10,397/S14,971/S14,894, including down payment of So. CX-5 lease offer includes $500 dealer signing bonus. PPSA and first monthly payment due at lease inception. 20.000 km lease allowance per year. if exceeded. additional 8t/km applies. 24,000 km leases available. Offered leasing available to retail customers only. Taxes extra. *The starting from price of Sl7,690/Sl8,690/S23.490/S26.290 for 2015 Mazda3 GX (D4XK65AA00)/2015 Mazda3 Sport GX (05XK65AA00)/2015 CX·5 GX (NVXK65AA00)/ 2015 Mazda6 GX (G4XL65AAOO) includes a cash discount of S0/$0/$1.500/SO. The selling price adjustment applies to the purchase and is deducted from the negotiated pre-tax price and cannot be combined with subsidized purchase financing or leasing rates. As shown, price for 2015 Mazda3 GT (D4TL65AA00)/2015 Mazda3 Sport (D5TL65AA00)/2015 CX-5 GT (NXTL85AA00)/2015 Mazda6 GT (G4Tl65AA00) is S27,750/S28,850/S34,245/S33,990. All prices include freight & PDI of $1,695/$1,895 for Mazda3. Mazda3 Sport. Mazda6/ CX-5 ▼With the lease or finance of a new 2015 CX-5, $500 Dealer Signing Bonus will be deducted from the negotiated price before taxes. ▼With the cash purchase. lease or finance of a new 2015 CX-5. a $500 Conquest Bonus is available to customers who trade in or own a competitive vehicle. Offer only applies to the owner/lessor of the competitive model and is not transferable. Proof of ownership/lease required. $500 Conquest Bonus will be deducted from the negotiated price after taxes. Offers valid Sept 3·30. 2014. PPSA. licence. insurance. taxes. down payment and other dealer charges are extra and may be required at the time of purchase. Dealer may sell/lease for less. Dealer order/trade may be necessary on certain vehicles. Lease and Finance on approved credit for qualified customers only. Offers valid Sept 3-30.2014, while supplies last. Prices and rates subject to change without notice. Visit mazda.ca or see your dealer for complete details

2013 MAZDA SPEED 3

One owner, local, blue, no accidents STK#MP1374

$15,888

Vancouver's Only Mazda Dealer

Boundary BCVancouver V5K 5C4 15951595 Boundary RoadRoad, (NorthVancouver, of 1st Ave.), Sales: 1 (888) 513-3057 Service: 1 (866) 942-0009

newmazda.ca your journey begins here.

A36

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

6 DAY sale!

SEPTEMBER 2014

S M T W T F S 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

TO COAST COAST TO

7,500

GET $

UP TO

IN PRICE ADJUSTMENTSΩ

1,000

HURRY IN. LIMITED QUANTITIES!

IN ADDITIONAL

BONUS

PRICE ADJUSTMENTS Ω

COMBINED AMOUNT AVAILABLE ON THE 2014 GENESIS COUPE 3.8L GT

HWY: 7.9L/100 KM CITY: 11.0L/100 KM▼

2014

HYUNDAI SANTA FE SPORT

WAS UP TO

NOW UP TO

4,000 5,000 $

IN PRICE ADJUSTMENTS Ω

Limited model shown♦

2014

HYUNDAI ACCENT

WAS UP TO

HWY: 5.3L/100 KM CITY: 7.5L/100 KM▼

NOW UP TO

4,185 4,500 $

2014 Accent “Highest Ranked Small Car in Initial Quality in the U.S.∆”

IN PRICE ADJUSTMENTS Ω

GLS model shown♦

HWY: 5.8L/100 KM CITY: 8.5L/100 KM▼

2014

HYUNDAI ELANTRA GT

WAS UP TO

NOW UP TO

3,500 4,000 $

IN PRICE ADJUSTMENTS Ω

SE w/Tech model shown♦

INCREDIBLE OFFERS ON OUR NEW 2015 MODELS 2015

HYUNDAI ELANTRA L

WAS

HWY: 6.4L/100 KM CITY: 8.8L/100 KM▼

NOW

17,594 14,959 +0 84 $

‡ 2014 Elantra “Highest Ranked Compact Car in Initial Quality in the U.S.∆”

FINANCING FOR

MONTHS ◊◊

Limited model shown♦

5-year/100,000 km Comprehensive Limited Warranty†† 5-year/100,000 km Powertrain Warranty 5-year/100,000 km Emission Warranty

HyundaiCanada.com

wn to wn Do

445 Kingsway near 12th Ave in Vancouver

E 12thh Ave A y wa gs Kin

call 604-292-8188

www.DestinationHyundai.ca

®The Hyundai names, logos, product names, feature names, images and slogans are trademarks owned by Hyundai Auto Canada Corp. ‡Cash price of $14,959 available on all remaining new in stock 2015 Elantra L Manual models. Prices include Delivery and Destination charges of $1,595. Prices exclude registration, insurance, PPSA, fees, levies, license fees, applicable taxes and dealer admin. fees of up to $499. Fees may vary by dealer. Delivery and Destination charge includes freight, P.D.E. and a full tank of gas. ◊◊Finance offer available O.A.C. from Hyundai Financial Services based on a new 2015 Elantra L 6-Speed Manual with an annual finance rate of 0% for 84 months. Finance offer includes Delivery and Destination charges of $1,595. Finance offer excludes registration, insurance, PPSA, fees, levies, license fees, applicable taxes and dealer admin. fees of up to $499. Fees may vary by dealer. Financing example: 2015 Elantra L 6-Speed Manual for $17,594 at 0% per annum equals $82 bi-weekly for 84 months for a total obligation of $15,419. $495 down payment required. Cash price is $14,959. Cost of Borrowing is $460. Example price includes Delivery and Destination of $1,595. Price excludes registration, insurance, PPSA, fees, levies, license fees, applicable taxes and dealer admin. fees of up to $499. Fees may vary by dealer. Price adjustments are calculated against the vehicle’s starting price. Price adjustments of up to $4,500/$4,000/$5,000/$8,500 available on in stock 2014 Accent 4-Door L Manual/2014 Elantra GT L Manual/2014 Santa Fe Sport 2.0T Limited w/saddle leather/2014 Genesis Coupe 3.8L GT on cash purchases only for September 22-27, 2014 (inclusive). Price adjustments applied before taxes. Offer cannot be combined or used in conjunction with any other available offers. Offer is non-transferable and cannot be assigned. No vehicle trade-in required. ♦Prices of models shown: 2014 Accent 4 Door GLS/2014 Elantra GT SE w/Tech/2014 Santa Fe 2.0T Limited AWD/2015 Elantra Limited are $20,394/$28,394/$40,894/$27,244. Prices include Delivery and Destination charges of $1,595/$1,595/$1,795/$1,595. Prices exclude registration, insurance, PPSA, fees, levies, license fees, applicable taxes and dealer admin. fees of up to $499. Fees may vary by dealer. ▼Fuel consumption for new 2014 Accent 4-Door L (HWY 5.3L/100KM; City 7.5L/100KM); 2014 Elantra GT L Manual (HWY 5.8L/100KM; City 8.5L/100KM); 2014 Santa Fe 2.0T Limited AWD (HWY 7.9L/100KM; City 11.0L/100KM); 2015 Elantra L Manual (HWY 6.4L/100KM; City 8.8L/100KM) are based on ManufacturerTesting. Actual fuel efficiency may vary based on driving conditions and the addition of certain vehicle accessories. Fuel economy figures are used for comparison purposes only.The Hyundai Accent/Elantra received the lowest number of problems per 100 vehicles among small/compact cars in the proprietary J.D. Power 2014 Initial Quality StudySM (IQS). Study based on responses from 86,118 new-vehicle owners, measuring 239 models and measures opinions after 90 days of ownership. Propriety study results are based on experiences and perceptions of owners surveyed in February-May 2014. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com. †‡ΩOffers available for a limited time and subject to change or cancellation without notice. Dealer may sell for less. Inventory is limited, dealer order may be required. Visit www.hyundaicanada.com or see dealer for complete details. ††Hyundai’s Comprehensive Limited Warranty coverage covers most vehicle components against defects in workmanship under normal use and maintenance conditions

F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A37

today’sdrive Continued from page 35

Performance

But that’s just the level of practicality that makes the regular Golf such a hot seller overseas. Built on the bones of a European family car, the GTI also needs a bit of steam for when its driver is alone on some winding back road. That shove comes from a familiar powerplant: a 2.0L four-cylinder featuring direct injection and turbocharging. Here, redesigned to incorporate the exhaust manifold directly into the head, it makes 210hp at 4500rpm (not much of a bump there), and 258lb/ft of torque at just 1600rpm. That’s an extra 50lb/ ft of low-end grunt over last year’s model, and it makes the GTI much more tractable and willing at street speeds to haul itself out of a corner or down and onramp with gumption. High-revving engines are fun too, but as a quick point-to-point car, the GTI’s new engine provides real-world speed without looking like you’re pulling a Vin Diesel. Grip is simply excellent, although later-release cars will be available with even more thanks to a Performance Package that includes a true front differential, larger brakes, and a slight bump in horsepower. As it is, the GTI handles with aplomb, albeit with a little less feedback from the steering than in past hydraulically assisted systems. Transmission choices include either a six-speed manual, which is far and away the most fun, or a six-speed dual-clutch automatic that does a good job in still giving the driver control while purring away happily in trafﬁc. As always, the GTI proves itself a jack-ofall-trades, tackling stop and go trafﬁc with good sightlines and a comfortable ride, hitting up the highway with relatively little wind-noise, and then tackling a winding backroad with scrappy handling and a nosefull of boost. Essentially, it does everything you ask of it. The only real caveat here is that the GTI might be a little too competent to have a lot of character. Like the current-gen 911, it’s so polished as to not have any of the rough edges that can make you fall in love with a car.

On the other hand, I just compared a family hatchback to a Porsche 911 twice. Enough said.

Features

For launch, VW Canada has requisitioned a batch of GTI’s that

are fairly pricey but very loaded. Bluetooth, dualzone climate control, and a giant panoramic sunroof are all standard. Leather seating and a 5.8” touchscreen satellite navigation are optional. Fuel economy is rated

at 9.5L/100kms in the city and 7.2L/100kms on the highway for the DSG automatic, and slightly better for the manual. Surprisingly, and perhaps the cherry on top, is that the GTI will actually hit these mileage targets even

if driven with a bit of spirit. Premium is recommended, of course.

Green Light

Usable cargo space; excellent dynamics; reﬁned ride and polished interior; strong, efﬁcient engine.

Stop Sign

Somewhat small touchscreen; more reﬁned than out-and-out fun; options can drive up price.

The Checkered Flag

The king of the hot-hatchbacks is back on the throne.

S E L C I H E V ALL

E V O M T MUS

VINGS A S H S A C T A E R MEANS G

FOR YOU

AFTER 40 YEARS WE ARE RE-LOCATING LOW RATE E NC FACTORY FINATES & LEASE RA

■

OVER 100

NEW TOYOTA’S

GM SAYS “SELL THEM, DON’T MOVE T HEM”

IN STOCK & PRICED TO MOVE

22 SCIONS ■ 26 RAV 4S ■ 20 COROLLAS ■ 18 PRIUS ■ 12 CAMRYS ■ 10 MATRIX ■ 25 TOYOTA TRUCKS

S GREAT SAVINGCK ON ALL IN STO MODELS

HAPPENING NOW AT A

1290 BURRARD ST.

BE BEFORE THE BIG MOVE SALE ENDS SEPTEMBER 30TH

1290 Burrard Street, Vancouver

604-682-8881

www.jptoyota-downtown.com

A38

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, SE P T E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 4

BACK TO SCHOOL Prices Effective September 25 to October 1, 2014.

While quantities last. Not all items available at all stores. We reserve the right to correct printing errors.

100% BC Owned and Operated PRODUCE

MEAT Organic Honeycrisp Apples from Harvest Moon, Cawston,BC

Organic Bartlett Pears from Cawston, BC

4.98 1.37kg bag

1.48lb/ 3.26kg

Product of Canada

West Creek Farmed Trout Fillets Ocean Wise

Organic Lean Ground Beef value pack

6.99lb/ 15.41kg

14.99lb/ 33.05kg

product of Canada

Organic Peaches from Harkers Organics, Cawston, BC

Organic Sweet Onions from Covert Farms, Oliver, BC

1.48lb/ 3.26kg

1.28lb/ 2.82kg

product of Canada

Fresh Boneless Sirloin Pork Chops

3.99lb/ 8.80kg

HEALTHCARE

Bonne Maman Jam

assorted varieties

4.49

SAVE

250ml product of France

28%

assorted varieties

SAVE

25%

assorted varieties

2/8.00

47%

650g product of Canada

Ecoideas Arnicure and Moms Kisses

Avalon Organic Butter salted or unsalted

8.99

SAVE

SAVE from FROM

25% off regular retail price

500g product of Canada

21%

20 pack

product of UK

assorted varieties

2/7.50

assorted sizes

SAVE 5.49

gimMe Organic Roasted Seaweed Snacks

Olympic Organic Yogurt

Sibu Facial Care

Avalon Organic Cottage Cheese

Twinings Tea

assorted varieties

25%

11.99lb/ 26.43kg

value pack

GROCERY SAVE

Boneless Leg of Lamb Steaks

10%

2/2.00

5-10g • product of USA

15.99 59ml

454g

product of Canada

Green Beaver Products assorted sizes

Green & Black's Organic Fair Trade Chocolate Bars

McVities Cookies assorted varieties

27%

100g

product of E.U.

Kuhne Sauerkraut,

SAVE Relish or Pickles

SAVE

FROM

Sezme Sesame Snaps

23% 3/.99

25% 2.99-3.99

22.5g • product of Poland

250ml – 1L • product of Germany

100g

32%

200-400g product of UK

assorted varieties

2/2.98

SAVE

FROM

SAVE 2/6.00

product of Germany

Wolfgang Puck Organic Soup assorted varieties

SAVE

35% 3/6.99

398ml

product of USA

Rogers Flour

Bechtle Egg Noodles

Rao’s Homemade Pasta Sauce

assorted varieties

broad or thin

assorted varieties

4.99 2.5kg • product of Canada

2/7.00 500g • product of Germany

6.99 680ml • product of USA xxx BAKERY

DELI

20% off regular retail price

assorted varieties

from SAVE 2/3.50

assorted varieties

31%

Efruiti Gummies

BULK All Soup Mixes

20% off regular retail price

GLUTEN FREE

xxx • product of xxx

Summer Fresh Snack ‘n Go

Organic Country French Bread

Spinach and Onion Quiche

assorted varieties

white or 60% whole wheat

2.99 100g 4.99 225g

2/3.49 82g

4.49

assorted varieties

Individual Cheesecake or Individual Brownie Cheesecake

6.99 24 oz

2.99-3.49 100g

Choices’ Own Fresh Chili

Happy Planet Soup assorted varieties

5.49 650ml

www.choicesmarkets.com

/ChoicesMarkets

480-530g

Cookies assorted varieties

3.99 pack of 6

@ChoicesMarkets

Kitsilano

Cambie

Kerrisdale

Yaletown

Gluten Free Bakery

South Surrey

Burnaby Crest

Kelowna

Floral Shop

2627 W. 16th Ave. Vancouver

3493 Cambie St. Vancouver

1888 W. 57th Ave. Vancouver

1202 Richards St. Vancouver

2595 W. 16th Ave. Vancouver

3248 King George Blvd. South Surrey

8683 10th Ave. Burnaby

1937 Harvey Ave. Kelowna

2615 W. 16th Vancouver

Best Organic Produce