Vancouver Courier June 12 2015

FRIDAY

June 12 2015 Vol. 106 No. 46

FEATURE STORY 16

Special needs at work KUDOS & KVETCHES 22

Predicting CBC’s next scandal SPORTS 24

Child’s play There’s more online at

vancourier.com WEEKEND EDITION

THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908

Pot sellers tell city to chill Proposed regulations called restrictive Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

Some of B.C.’s high-profile marijuana advocates sent a strong and consistent message to city council Wednesday night that it must make significant changes to a set of proposed rules to regulate pot shops before adopting legislation.

Though many of the 17 speakers on the first night of a public hearing commended city staff for the proposal, they argued that a $30,000 annual licensing fee was too expensive, that restricting pot shops within 300 metres of each other is unfair and banning marijuana-laced goods for sale would create an unregulated market for “edibles” such as cookies and brownies.

“I just beg you to always keep the critically and chronically ill patients in mind,” said Hilary Black, founder of the 18-yearold B.C. Compassion Club Society on Commercial Drive, where the business also operates a “wellness centre” that subsidized more than 3,300 health care appointments last year. “For 18 years,

that organization has been serving some of the most marginalized and impoverished members of our community.”

Black was one of more than 160 people registered to speak at the hearing, which was called to hear the public’s views on an unprecedented proposal brought forward by a Canadian municipality to regulate more than 90 pot shops in Vancouver.

Connor Fesenmaier, 18, of Smarter Approaches to Marijuana Canada, was the lone speaker Wednesday to call for an end to the hearing, saying the non-profit organization boycotted sending any more members to oppose the proposal.

“These hearings should not be taking place,” Fesenmaier said. “The federal government has made it abundantly clear that these dispensaries are illegal operations and it remains an open question as to whether or not civic servants or employees can be charged for conspiring to violate federal laws.”

Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose has publicly expressed her disappointment with the city’s proposal, saying the pot shops are illegal and will remain illegal under a Conservative government and should be closed by police.

Continued on page 5

City seeks family housing Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

With 8,000 families in Vancouver living in studio and one-bedroom apartments, city hall staff revealed Tuesday it is considering a city-wide rezoning policy to allow for the development of family housing near parks, schools and community centres.

Triggered by a shortage of three-bedroom units in a tight rental housing market and ownership of a home a distant dream for many, the city’s proposal looks to test the waters of neighbourhoods willing to allow new building forms such as townhouses and duplexes.

“This was a broad concept that was presented today for outlining the opportunities for affordable housing in other parts of the city,” said Brian Jackson, the $

1,2 49 ,00

city’s director of planning, in an interview with reporters following a presentation by housing staff to city council. “It’s the germination of the idea that has just started.”

Jackson emphasized “there are no grand plans to put this as an overlay across the city” or in specific neighbourhoods. He said the city has to first examine official community plans and zoning bylaws, along with reviewing what neighbourhoods previously indicated they could accommodate in terms of growth for rental and market housing.

City manager Penny Ballem noted the challenge of residents accepting change to their neighbourhoods, saying there was “mixed interest” from residents in discussions related to adopting new community plans in Grandview-Woodland, Marpole, the West End and Downtown Eastside.

Continued on page 4

POT POLITICS Marijuana advocates, including Diane Claveau and her flag, showed up by the dozens Wednesday to speak to council about proposed regulations for the city’s growing number of illegal pot dispensaries. PHOTO ROB KRUYT $

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F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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News

Pipeline politics in play at city hall NPA refuses to take position on Kinder Morgan proposal

12TH & CAMBIE Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

I’m going to make an assumption that most of you have come to the conclusion that Vancouver city council is opposed to Kinder Morgan’s plans to construct another pipeline from Alberta to Burrard Inlet.

I assume you’ve probably reached that conclusion by the countless number of times Mayor Gregor Robertson has appeared in the media and slammed the project.

If documented proof of council’s opposition is what you want, I went back and found the minutes of a Dec. 18, 2013 meeting where council unanimously approved a motion to have city staff apply for intervenor status and participate in the National Energy Board hearings.

The motion, which was moved by Vision Coun.

The politics of opposing or supporting Kinder Morgan’s pipeline proposal played out again this week at city hall, featuring NPA Coun.

Elizabeth Ball. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Andrea Reimer, is lengthy, so I’ll just quote her first point. It begins: “The expansion of the pipeline through the Metro

Vancouver region and associated increases in tanker traffic pose an unacceptable risk to the City of Vancouver, residents

and businesses including, but not limited to, risks to Vancouver and the region’s vibrant economy, local environment and parks, in-

frastructure, financial and legal liability, public health and our international brand as one of the world’s most livable cities.”

Pretty clear, right.

And, as I mentioned, council was unanimous in moving ahead on Reimer’s motion. And when I say unanimous, I include Vision, the NPA and Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr.

So that little bit of history brings me to Tuesday’s council meeting, where politicians again had a motion before them on the pipeline proposal.

Here’s how it read: “That having heard the expert evidence compiled by staff, and noting the overwhelming public opposition evidenced through public consultation, council reaffirm its position of December 18, 2013 that the City of Vancouver oppose the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain proposal as it poses an extreme risk to the people, businesses and environment of Vancouver, with very little benefit.”

Pretty clear, right.

Apparently not.

Continued on page 13

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The city wants to look at ways to build different types of housing for families, including townhouses. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

zones. Latif said measures will be put in place to “mitigate” land speculation but pointed out the city can’t prevent it.

Vision Vancouver Coun.

Geoff Meggs said the city has already made some gains in allowing mixed housing in neighbourhoods.

He pointed to the area between Heather and Oak streets, north of Douglas Park, which has a mix of townhouses, single-family homes and three-storey walk-ups. The area north of Broadway and west of Arbutus is another example of a mix of housing, he said.

“It’s important that when we talk about these zones that we indicate we’re moving forward from what I think has been a long established practice in certain neighbourhoods and we’ve had very successful outcomes,” Meggs said.

That shift in different types of housing is also evident in the city’s plans for the Cambie corridor, where planners want to include family-oriented housing such as townhouses, stacked townhouses and row housing as part of the development.

Other possible policy

changes outlined Tuesday by the city’s housing staff included: • Require social housing projects to have 50 per cent of units for families.

• Continue to allow cohousing projects.

• Research possibility of entry-level home ownership models to support families.

• Prioritize family housing on city property.

• Increase the current 25 per cent requirement for family housing in new developments to 35 per cent.

The policy proposals come two weeks after city council voted to continue with a controversial program that waives developers’ fees for construction of rental projects. Amendments to the Rental 100 program are aimed at encouraging the construction of three-bedroom units. @Howellings

Correction

A June 5 story profiling Jackie Hooper incorrectly made reference to Vancouver Coastal Health. The organization with which Hooper is involved is Coast Mental Health.

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Continued from page 1 In Marpole, residents pushed back against largescale rezoning plans for single-family home areas and Grandview-Woodland residents fought against proposed highrises and still haven’t finalized a community plan.

“We’ve got more work to do to understand — and help our public understand — what problems we’re trying to solve and what are the land economics of the possibilities,” said Ballem, noting the eventual shift of public acceptance of laneway houses and secondary suites. “The public are starting to realize that we do need more variety and there’s a journey we have to get them on, and the city has to understand and explain to them.”

Vision Vancouver Coun.

Raymond Louie said he was concerned a new rezoning policy could lead to real estate speculation, as occurred with homeowners along Cambie and Granville agreeing to assemble their land as a big parcel to entice developers and make a bigger buck.

“I’m foreshadowing that we need to be very firm in how we go about this to ensure that we don’t have some individuals speculating because we know it’s rampant in our city,” he said, pointing to Mayor Gregor Robertson’s recent pitch to Premier Christy Clark for a speculation tax. “It will preclude family housing from ever occurring, if we don’t put that in place.”

Mukhtar Latif, the city’s housing director, said examining land prices will be part of the city’s ongoing work on developing policies to create family housing

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F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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News

Banning edibles reduces risk, says city Continued from page 1 Dana Larsen of Sensible B.C. said the proposed rules that recommend pot shops can’t operate within 300 metres of each other or a school or community centre — or within certain areas of the Downtown Eastside — will possibly mean he’ll have to close one or both of his dispensaries, which are located on East Hastings and at Thurlow and Davie.

While city staff estimate a maximum of 94 pot shops could operate under new legislation, Larsen’s analysis is that the rules would only allow 40 to 50 shops.

Despite the city’s recommendation to ban anyone under 19 from entering a dispensary, he said minors should be allowed to visit a pot shop in the company of an adult or guardian.

“In many cases, a mother might have a young infant or a child and having to find babysitting or leave that kid somewhere else while they pop into a dispensary to get their medicine just seems overly restrictive,” said Larsen, who also argued against precluding operators with criminal records to be granted a business licence.

“Certainly someone who’s got a conviction for marijuana possession or even for marijuana trafficking, I don’t really see why that should limit them from operating a dispensary. If anything, it means they’ve got experience in the industry and understand it better.”

Lawyer Kirk Tousaw, who recently brought a case before the Supreme Court of Canada arguing for a person’s right to access goods infused with marijuana, told council that restricting sales to only marijuana oil would create a black market for edible cannabis goods and that would be made by unregulated suppliers.

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@VanCourierNews all you need to know in 140 characters!

City staff answered questions Wednesday during the first night of a public hearing at city hall. PHOTO ROB KRUYT

“It will increase harm rather than decrease harm,” Tousaw said. “Food safe requirements, labelling and child-proof containers promote health. The proposal to ban edible products other than cooking oils will not deal with those purported goals. In fact, it is likely to cause the opposite results.”

(The Supreme Court of Canada released a decision Thursday morning that edibles and other cannabisinfused products such as tea can be legally consumed.

It’s not known what effect the ruling will have on the city’s proposed regulations) Dr. Patricia Daly, chief medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health, has previously stated her support for the regulations, saying a ban on edibles is related to the growing evidence of the harm of such products, particularly in the American states that have legalized marijuana.

“Even putting these in child-resistant containers in the U.S. has not been a deterrent for poisonings,” Daly told council.

In a presentation to begin the hearings, city manager Penny Ballem provided council with new information on the proposal, includ-

n! li lio M

ing statistics that showed 18,383 British Columbians are authorized to possess marijuana for medical purposes. That’s in comparison to 19,501 patients in the rest of Canada.

B.C. also leads the way in the number of marijuana plants allowed to be grown for medicinal purposes at 2,073,285, compared to 899,489 in other parts of the country.

“So we constitute 70 per cent of the medicinal production by number of plants and 50 per cent of the authorized users,” said Ballem, who also outlined criteria for a potential operator to obtain a business licence, which includes reviewing an applicant’s previous business practices.

So far, Ballem added, the feedback from the public on the proposal is that “some people think we’re too strict, and some people’s input is that we’re too lenient.” If council agrees to the proposal, estimated start-up costs to implement the legislation in the first year is $1.4 million.

The hearing resumes Thursday night at 6 p.m. and will likely continue on Saturday. @Howellings

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

News

TransLink site open house unveils plans

Naoibh O’Connor

noconnor@vancourier.com

City staff will unveil a draft concept, which includes a park, lowrise, midrise and sites for two buildings up to 15 storeys, for the potential redevelopment of TransLink’s 13.8-acre transit centre site located near Oakridge Mall at open houses June 18 and 20.

The city, at the request of TransLink, is creating a policy statement to guide future development of the property.

Three concepts were pitched at open houses in February — the preferred option is a hybrid, according to Susan Haid, the city’s assistant director of planning for Vancouver South.

The site, located between 37th and 41st avenues and Oak and Willow streets, is expected to house about 1,250 new units at buildout of the site, for a population of approximately 2,050.

Haid said feedback from the last round of open houses didn’t identify a clear preferred option. The hybrid concept features a number of the desired elements, including a park.

“A really key feature is a large park, an approximately 2.3-acre park at the northern end of the site, which includes a play area and a daycare within it,” she said.

“There is an element of a curving street, which was a piece that we saw quite a lot of preference for in the options. That was in option C. However, the hybrid picks up on that notion and some of the area context has a number of curving streets because of the topography. So it’s more picking up on that element versus making it exactly as it was in concept C.”

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Haid said proposed heights remain similar to what was presented earlier this year — lowrise in the form of townhouses up to six storeys, midrise buildings up to 12 storeys, and sites for two buildings up to 15 storeys.

“I think working with this current concept, there’s a great opportunity for many units that look to a central greenspace,” she said.

Haid said public feedback gathered in February ranged from those who felt the proposed heights and density were too high, to others who thought it was about right, to still others who thought it was potentially too low for the area, which is close to Oakridge Centre — a site that’s being redeveloped and will feature among other things 11 residential towers.

“We found, in general, from the February open houses there was a reasonable level of support and I think the concepts were generally liked, but that doesn’t go to say everyone supported it,” she said. “There were definitely some that felt it was too dense and too high.”

The city still aims to include a target of 20 per cent affordable housing, the details of which would be addressed at the rezoning phase.

“It’s a very strong element of these large sites and policy statements that is required essentially from the city’s end,” she said.

Feedback will be accepted for several weeks after the June open houses.

“We’ll further develop and refine the concept plan and policy directions based on community feedback in order to prepare the policy statement for council’s consideration in the fall,” Haid told the Courier. “As part of this work, we’ll further assess residential unit and population estimates.”

The policy statement is a long-term plan, so development may occur in phases over time.

The June 18 open house runs from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The June 20th one runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Both will be held at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Floral Hall, 5251 Oak St. @naoibh

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F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A7

News

Closing school bad form, says mom CLASS NOTES

Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

“Day of Yoga = $150,000. ‘Savings’ from closing my kids’ school = $175,000.

BC Government’s priorities = totally wrong.”

That’s what Katie Riecken tweeted upon the release of the Ministry of Education’s special adviser’s report on the Vancouver School Board, June 9.

Riecken, whose son enters kindergarten at Champlain Heights Annex in September, would rather her nearest school survive than the government spend a reported $150,000 to close Burrard Bridge to celebrate International Day of Yoga, June 21.

Riecken attended meetings about the considered closure of Champlain Heights Annex, along with four other annexes and elementary schools in 2010.

A Vancouver School Board report from 2010

projected the board could save $175,000 annually by closing the annex, not to mention revenue and reduced facility operating and maintenance costs if the building was leased to a third party.

Ernst & Young (EY), the special adviser, reports capacity at the annex is at more than 100 per cent, whereas enrolment at the main Champlain Heights school is at less than 70 per cent capacity. Champlain Heights Annex isn’t specifically identified as a candidate for potential closure by the report.

“The feeling at the annex is it’s eternally on the potential chopping block because it’s such a small school and because the nearby schools are not at capacity, so they could just shift students,” Riecken said.

The report cites a preference for closing elementary annexes, where the incremental costs of educating a student are higher than at elementary schools.

The report notes that of the 16 annexes in the

Katie Riecken doesn’t want her neighbourhood school to close. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

district, eight are used at less than 75 per cent based on their enrolment and capacity, and seven of the eight have a total school population of less than 100 students. It says if seven underused annexes were closed immediately, EY estimated the district would save $1.5 million annually.

Riecken said the annex enjoys a strong sense of

community, with 10 kids in the upcoming kindergarten class who attended the same mom and baby group at the nearby community centre.

“A school is more than how full it is percentagewise,” said Riecken, who works for a union and is a former member of COPE and Vision Vancouver.

With 10,000 empty seats across the district,

the Ministry of Education sees opportunities for $250 million to $750 million in one-time savings and $72 million in annual savings if the 52 recommendations in the report are implemented.

The report notes elementary and secondary school utilization is at 96 per cent on the west side, 74 per cent on the east side. EY estimated up to

19 East Side schools could be closed, including seven annexes, 10 elementary and two secondary schools for potential annual savings of $37 million. Two pairs of these secondary schools are in close proximity to one another, Britannia and Templeton, and Gladstone and Windermere.

The report suggests the board could save money by closing schools awaiting costly seismic upgrades and maintenance.

Vision Vancouver trustee Mike Lombardi’s motion to extend a moratorium on school closures until December 2018 failed to pass at a school board meeting in January with the lone Green Party of Vancouver and four NPA trustees opposed.

The VSB must submit a balanced budget to the ministry by June 30. It must also submit a report that demonstrates the board read and considered the recommendations in the special advisor’s report prior to adopting the 2015-2016 budget. @Cheryl_Rossi

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

Community

Phillip Hewett, minister emeritus at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, describes himself as “29 per cent” Christian. “I draw from the Christian tradition and from the Buddhist tradition and from the other world religions that seem to ring my bell,” he says. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Don’t start believing with Unitarians Final entry in a series about Vancouverites who are SBNR – spiritual but not religious.

PACIFIC SPIRIT Pat Johnson

pacificspiritpj@gmail.com

This series has taken a crack at a bunch of ways Vancouverites are finding the sorts of satisfaction and fulfillment previous generations have attained through religion — just without the religion. Some of those approaches have been, as one of my interviewees puts it, pretty “woo-woo.”

To close this series, we’re bringing it back to a spiritual practice that most closely resembles traditional religion — on the outside at least.

“The term believer is used as a synonym for a person with a religious commitment,” says Phillip Hewett, minister emeritus at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver. That term doesn’t work for Unitarians because they do not share any common beliefs. You don’t need to believe in anything to be a good Unitarian — perhaps it’s better, in fact, if you don’t.

“The Unitarian movement has been set up to be based on personal spirituality, your own development, rather than adherence to a particular creed,” he says.

“The unifying factor is that we are looking for some kind of spiritual depth in life, but we are not constrained within any particular group so that we are able to draw from all the world’s traditions of religion and spirituality.”

The Indian mystic Ramakrishna talked about the ascent of the mountain, Hewett says.

“There are many paths up the mountain, but the nearer you get to the summit the closer they all converge,” he says. “They’re all in the same place when they get to the top. That’s kind of the basis on which we organize the congregation. People can start from all kinds of points of departure but what we’re looking for is something which is unifying.”

Unitarians can come from a wide range of conventional religious traditions, Hewett says. “It’s sort of a

spiritual co-op if you like.”

So does Reverend (“we don’t dwell on” titles, he says) Phillip Hewett of the Unitarian Church consider himself a Christian?

“The usual answer is 29 per cent — and the rate of exchange may go up from day to day. I draw from the Christian tradition and from the Buddhist tradition and from the other world religions that seem to ring my bell,” he says.

As far as rituals go, they are flexible.

“If you’ve come this week, don’t think it’s like this necessarily every time,” he says. But one thing you could expect on any given Sunday is “at the end of the service, we all join hands and sing ‘Carry the flame of peace and love until we meet again.’ That’s something I think would be really missed if it weren’t done.”

Despite the lack of structure and creed, Hewlett suggests Unitarianism is not for slackers.

“It’s somewhat demanding of a person,” he says.

“It’s something that can’t be

picked up casually. We do tend to draw people who are accustomed to thinking for themselves and making their own decisions in various dimensions of life. One of the old jokes says you don’t have to be a PhD to be a Unitarian, but it helps.”

Hewett, who like many who reach a certain age proudly declare it, is 90 years old. He came to Vancouver from Britain in 1956 after a short Unitarian ministry there. He presided over Vancouver’s Unitarian flock from then until 1991, overseeing the construction in 1964 of the current church and centre at Oak and 49th.

He discovered his calling after feeling that the Church of England, in which he was raised, wasn’t meeting his spiritual needs. There was no internet then, he points out, so he went to the Encyclopedia Britannica and investigated alternatives.

He got nearly to the end of the encyclopedia before he found his niche.

“Up to that point, I had never to my knowledge met

a Unitarian,” he says. “So I got in touch with the nearest minister after that and we had a long discussion. At the end of the discussion I said, well how do I become a Unitarian? And he said, I’ve been listening to you and you don’t have to become a Unitarian, you are a Unitarian. He recognized it before I did.”

Unitarianism flourished in North America in the 1950s and ’60s as people left traditional churches and sought something more freewheeling. But its history goes much further back. The Vancouver congregation began in 1909, brought by British immigrants mostly.

In the United States, Unitarianism evolved more from an organic reaction to founding Puritan ideals. But in Europe, the movement dates to the 16th century. As the power of the Roman Catholic Church over Western Europe disintegrated during the Reformation, Protestant groups emerged, some more liberal than others.

“They were just as intolerant, in fact. So-called

heretics were beheaded or burned at the stake by Protestants and Catholics alike,” Hewett says. Of all places, Transylvania, which is now part of Romania, is a veritable Unitarian hotbed.

This is because, Hewett says, his co-religionists were able to play off Christian Hapsburgs against Muslim Ottomans and find a niche in the civilizational divide between East and West.

Back in Vancouver, Hewett says his church has had its ups and downs.

He estimates about 500 members in all, with maybe 2,000 province-wide. A couple of churches and a few fellowships (Unitarian groups without a minister) are scattered around B.C. If you’re looking for answers or for someone to tell you what to believe, Unitarianism is probably not for you.

“It’s something which appeals to people who are willing to live with some degree of insecurity in life and know that nobody has the answer,” he says. @Pat604Johnson

F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Community

Learn to swim, go to Italian Day CALENDAR

9622 or the Langara Family YMCA at 604-324-9622.

Cheryl Rossi

June 13

crossi@vancourier.com

To end of June

Drowning is a leading cause of preventable death in children and the YMCA of Greater Vancouver believes learning to swim is a critical life skill, so the Y is offering free introduction to water safety classes throughout June, or “Splash Month,” for all children ages three to 12.

Children who participate in Splash Month seminars will learn basic water safety skills and will be offered a swim level assessment from the YMCA’s highly trained and qualified aquatics staff to encourage continued participation in swimming.

Participating families will also be given two week’s access to the YMCA to try programs so they can grow and play together in health.

Parents can register their child for a free water safety class by calling the Robert Lee YMCA at 604-689-

will all perform. Italian Day includes a fashion show, a kids zone and a bocce court.

Raffle prizes include a trip for two to Italy, and a Motorino electric scooter, with partial proceeds going to Theatre Temp, which supports youth mentorship through film and theatre. Visitors can dine on patios, at food trucks and see displays that include Italian honeybees and motorcycles.

The festivities will run from noon to 8 p.m. For more information, see italianday.ca.

Douglas Park Community Day will feature inflatables, interactive games, performances and displays showcasing local organizations and community groups. Douglas Park youth will host a food concession to help fund activities at Douglas Park Community Centre. The new, free event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the park that’s adjacent to the community centre at 801 West 22nd Avenue.

For more information, see douglasparkcc.org.

June 13 to the end of October

A fresh season of the UBC Farm Market will bloom June 13. The multi-vendor market provides customers the experience of shopping locally and organically for produce, herbs, flower and eggs, as well as the opportunity to visit and enjoy the farm where their food was grown. The market features bakers, craftspeople, snacks,

June 14

Commercial Drive celebrates Italian Day this Sunday with fun and food. PHOTO REBECCA BLISSETT

kids’ activities, coffee, music and a free guided tour each Saturday at 11:15 a.m. The market runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 3461 Ross Dr.

June 14

All things Italian will take over Commercial Drive, Sunday, June 14. There’ll

be a new third stage at Grandview Park featuring Italian martial art demonstrations by Blood and Iron, improv by Theatre Temp from Templeton secondary school, marionette puppet shows and music performances. The main stage will see special appearances

by actor Antonio Cupo, the Cory Weeds quartet, opera, theatre and jazz performances. City Opera Vancouver, Vancouver Opera, Italian folkloric choirs, traditional Famee Furlane dancers, Federico Fuoco and Fire and international singersongwriter Carmelina Cupo

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The TELUS Walk to Cure Diabetes provides individuals touched by type 1, insulin-dependent, diabetes the opportunity to unite with their peers and to raise money for research focused on curing, treating and better preventing type 1 diabetes. The five-kilometre walk starts at Lumbermen’s Arch in Stanley Park. Check-in starts at 8:30 a.m. The walk starts at 11:00 a.m.

For more information, see jdrfca.donordrive.com. @Cheryl_Rossi

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

Opinion

Listicles leading us to Missed opportunity created pot confusion Matrix-like bliss Allen Garr Columnist agarr@vancourier.com Thursday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision supporting the sale and use of edible marijuana products will not change the City of Vancouver’s declared intention to have them banned for sale.

This according to city manager Penny Ballem despite the fact that the court decision takes effect immediately.

It just adds to the confusion around marijuana use spawned by Stephen Harper’s ideologically driven government in Ottawa. And it reinforces the belief that none of this would be taking place had Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal government of the day almost five decades ago taken the advice of its own Le Dain Commission on the Non-medical Use of Drugs and decriminalized the use of pot.

This week the court ruled that the federal government’s restriction on patients prescribed medical marijuana to only smoking dried leaves is an infringement on their charter rights regarding the liberty of the person. The court agreed with a B.C. court ruling that smoking is less effective and can be harmful. So patients should be allowed to purchase and consume the drug in its many and varied edible forms as well.

(This all revolved around a 2009 case involving Victoria resident Owen Smith, who was busted for trafficking when he was found to be cooking up batches of goodies containing pot for a local compassion club.)

This decision comes just as the City of Vancouver is in the midst of its public hearings regarding its proposed regulations covering the now more than 90 outlets selling pot for what they claim are medicinal purposes only.

That explosion in the number of shops in this city, as you may know, came when Ottawa changed the regulations a couple of years ago about who could grow pot and how people could buy pot legally.

From folks growing their own or having people nearby with licences grow it for them, the feds changed the rules so that only large-scale licensed growers could produce pot and the only way a person could obtain it, after a doctor filled out a form, was through the mail. And they could only buy and

use pot as dried leaves that were to be smoked.

While the feds, most vocally in the person of Health Minister Rona Ambrose, continue to bellow that all those pot shops are illegal, the city, in an attempt to bring some order to the chaos of proliferating retail outlets, began the process of setting up regulations around those businesses.

The city claims that while it has no jurisdiction over the drug itself, it can regulate businesses, including location and who can be served.

So for all intents and purposes selling pot and using it in Vancouver is not going to get anyone charged under the Criminal Code.

The Vancouver cops won’t bust the shops if they aren’t serving adolescents or causing a disturbance in the neighborhood. The city has no interest in who is entering the shops to buy pot so long as they are 19 years of age or older. They could care less whether the person has a doctor’s prescription or got a note out of their cereal box.

The one apparent contradiction is the city’s proposal to ban the sale of edible marijuana products. That is undeniably regulating the drug over which the city says it has no authority.

Both Vancouver Coastal Health chief medical officer Patricia Daly and Ballem explained at council Wednesday that edibles are not regulated as to content by Heath Canada, so purchasers put themselves at risk, and besides, many of the products are attractive to kids in the form or candies and cookies.

The “compromise,” as Daly referred to it, is to all allow the sale of cannabis oil. People can purchase this and cook up their own edible products at home.

That aside, the Supreme Court ruling provides further evidence that folks will continue to flout the law.

Kirk Tousaw, the lawyer who handled the case of Owen Smith all the way to the Supreme Court, notes: “The primary unresolved issue is who can supply patients with these medicines. The law today does not allow anyone to do so.”

But the opportunity missed five decades ago that would have resolved all this is unlikely to be seized upon by the current crowd running the show in Ottawa today. @allengarr

The week in num6ers...

8

The number, in the thousands, of families in Vancouver living in studio or one-bedroom apartments.

35 150

Percentage of family housing city staff is proposing for new developments, an increase from the current requirements of 25 per cent.

In thousands of dollars, the approximate cost to taxpayers to shut down the Burrard Street Bridge for several hours June 21 in order to host a mass yoga class.

Geoff Olson Columnist mwiseguise@yahoo.com I used to think I could resist digitalage distractions better than the average person, but I may have met my electronic Waterloo.

I’m talking about listicles, the trivia links found on web portals everywhere from The Huffington Post to yahoo.com.

“In journalism and blogging, a listicle is a short-form of writing that uses a list as its thematic structure, but is fleshed out with sufficient copy to be published as an article,” according to an entry on Wikipedia. “List” plus “article.” get it?

“It has also been suggested that the word evokes popsicle, emphasizing the fun but not-too nutritious nature of the listicle,” the wiki adds.

Typical listicles have titles such as “10 Last Remaining Wonders of the World You Must See,” “The 25 Weirdest Things About Your Body You’ll Ever Learn,” or “17 Extreme Selfies That Are Not For the Faint-Hearted.”

Listicles are the species; the genus is clickbait, which is designed to make you click or tap from one mindless item to the next. The arrows for moving forward are often arranged in a purposefully confusing way, so you click by accident on a third-party advertiser’s link. The listiclebased revenue model is partly dependent on your surfing screw-ups.

Most of the times I can ignore this info-pollution. But every once a while I get pulled in by some underinformative but irresistible crap such as “6 Celebrities Who Have Aged Poorly” or “15 Hilarious Instagram Comments.” For there is always a listicle tailored just for me or you, ready to hijack processing cycles from our overclocked brains.

And once you’re pulled into this vortex of trivia, bounced from goweloveit.org to viralnado.com and beyond, you will click over and over like a lab rat on benzedrine. “16 Parents Spill the Beans on Their Kid’s Hilarious Secrets.”

Sure, why not?

Click.

“The Worst 16 Corporate Logo Fails Ever.”

Bring it on. Click, click.

“The 10 Worst Couples on Snapchat.”

Absolutely — you already hate yourself for doing this, why stop now?

Click, click, click.

When you finally stop and come to your senses, it seems only a short time

5

According to the British Columbia Real Estate Association, the percentage of the housing market bought by foreign investment.

has passed. Yet through some space/time swindle, it’s past midnight and the dog has crapped on the kitchen floor.

For example, the other day I was noodling around on the The Vancouver Sun’s website. How was I to know there were listicles lurking at the bottom of the page, among them “The 10 Best Super Bowl Commercials of All Time”?

I like SuperBowl ads as much as I dislike the game of football, so I clicked and found myself on indulgd.com, which immediately hoovered 10 precious minutes from my allotted time on Earth.

Shortly after that I got caught for an unfeasibly long stretch of time on hyperbomb.com, where I clicked on “These Photos From the Past are Shocking, Crazy, or Both: I Still Can’t Believe Some of Them.”

Some of the photos were actually quite compelling — and that’s the evil thing about these clocksuckers; you will go through reams of crap in search of bits of cheese.

It’s all about conditioned responses. A similar scheduling of positive reinforcement makes dogs drool at dinner bells, Croc-wearing seniors throw change at slot machines, and Americans vote for interchangeable, corporate-sponsored candidates.

All through my listicle adventures, my Firefox plug-in Ghostery was going nuts, highlighting (and stopping) dozens of bots from otherwise unseen data brokers.

Every time you’re on a big commercial portal your surfing patterns are tracked by these analytic and marketing companies, who buy your “clickstream” and sell it to third parties.

All those clicks add up to building a more precise, profitable profile of yourself. (Even your clickstream of listicle choices says something about you.)

In the end, all the free content on the web means the ultimate product for sale is you.

Perhaps one day our atrophied descendants will spend their days clicking, tapping and swiping in their Matrix-like pods.

The activity will supply energy to robot overlords, who will reward their farmed humans with holographically displayed listicles bearing titles such as “10 Crazy People Who Believe We Are Living in a False Reality,” or “Amazing pictures of People in the Past Communicating to Each Other With their Food Apertures.” @geoffolson

55 90

Years since Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita was first released.

The film introduced the term “paparazzo” to English viewers, and screens at the Rio Theatre as part of Italian Days.

The estimated number of medicinal marijuana outlets currently selling their potent products in Vancouver.

F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Inbox LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dorms not the norm for healthy living space

Re: “Micro housing units are worth a try,” June 5 Allan Garr seems to wax golden on micro housing with his example being the new student units at UBC. Yes, I understand student dormitory living. I have partaken of that. But mini housing for regular dwellings for regular Vancouverites is not a mentally healthy state.

Also, I take umbrage with the wealthy off-shore immigrants who are buying and building 7,000 sq. ft. houses and then don’t live in them but just have them around for when they might be in town. This has driven the cost of housing and property taxes in Vancouver to the point of impossibility for the average person. Only the politicians, developers and rich off-shoreites are benefitting.

Faye Lewis, Vancouver

•••

STALL SPACES Allen Garr’s recent column about UBC’s plan to build 43 new 145 sq. ft. “micro units” — each roughly the size of a parking stall — drew a lot of traffic to the Courier’s website.

PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

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

George Vancouver sails into town June 12, 1792: British explorer Captain George Vancouver, who had been mapping the coastline of southern B.C., arrives on the shore of the city that will eventually bear his name.

After leaving the Royal Navy ship HMS Discovery anchored at what is now known as Birch Bay in Washington, Vancouver, 34, and his crew took two smaller yawls to explore the area and first came ashore at Point Grey, which Vancouver decided to name in honour of his friend Captain George Grey.

“We again directed our course to the eastern shore [Point Grey] and landed about noon,” Vancouver wrote in his journal. “This, as was expected, formed the south point of a very extensive sound [English Bay] with a small arm leading to the eastward [False Creek]: the space, which seemed to be its main direction, and appeared very extensive, took a northerly course [Howe Sound].”

Shortly afterward, the group unexpectedly ran into a Spanish expedition off Point Roberts, and the British explorer was, in his words, “mortified” to discover the Spaniards already had a rudimentary chart of the Strait of Georgia based on a voyage by José María Narváez the previous year.

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Big houses for middle-class families are a relatively new development in Canada. Driving through Kerrisdale, Kitsilano etc., one can still see thousands of older houses of a modest size.

Truly big houses were the hallmark of upper middle-class families living in areas like Shaughnessy.

The many big houses built in the past 10 years are glorified houses of cards, cheaply built out of thin studs and sheets of plywood or oriented strand board.

The land is many times more expensive than the house itself.

Europeans and Asians don’t all live in doll-size houses, as a quick look at their real-estate sites will show. In any country the bigger the town, the smaller and expensive homes are. The biggest house in a big town will always be smaller than a country mansion.

J.L. Brussac, Coquitlam

Senior home-owners don’t all live on easy street

Re: Online comments,” Should I stay or should I go,” June 5 Braden [Morrison], I can understand your home sickness and your frustration that your family had to leave Vancouver and move to Edmonton because of the high prices of homes in Vancouver, but that does not give you the right to blame “a bunch of old people” so that as you state they “can be guaranteed that their investment in real estate can continue to appreciate without any limits on foreign ownership” This now begs the question: are you mad at the old people of Vancouver or the foreign investors?

Perhaps your parents could sell their

house or, if it is fully paid for, remortgage it and help you with a down payment. Or they could build a lane house or a suite in their existing home and you could pay for the construction and live there too.

Most of us “old people” who worked hard all of our working lives and struggled to buy and mortgage homes are now dealing with sky-high taxes and repairs to our homes, and if we did decide to sell, then we have to make enough money to pay the same high prices as you and your generation to buy something that we can live in. Or, God forbid, pay the sky high prices of care and nursing homes from which we would be asked to leave if our money ran out.

You are not the only one struggling, but you have the opportunity to be able to move, buy a home and get a better paying job than the one you had in Vancouver. I think you owe a lot of us “old people” an apology. We don’t like the ridiculous housing market any more than you do.

Anne Monahan, Vancouver

ONLINE COMMENTS NPA envisions 1,000 new secure bike stalls

Re: “Bike theft denies us more than our property, June 5.

Note: I have a motion coming forward to council this week regarding 1,000 new secure bike spots. Strangely only one speaker signed up to speak so far.

Wondering if I’ve shocked the entire bike community into silence with this NPA-driven motion?

Coun. George Affleck, via Facebook

•••

“If 2,000 stolen bikes represents only one third of the thefts in Vancouver, the problem is really much worse.” If. Montreal had crime-export rings, and Alain Gravel’s 2014 study on Radio-Canada’s “Enquête” TV program showed the extent there. It is much, much smaller in Vancouver. McGill just lazily followed up two months later to get a publishing credit.

Vancouver bikers report theft for insurance purposes to get money back. I have had my bike stolen, reported it, and the Vancouver police say to look for ir yourself at the well-known fencing places around town.

The dreadful Halcrow/Third Wave study for TransLink only surveyed two hundred regular cyclists and 50 “potential” cyclists. The main import was to justify bike lockers like the empty new ones at the new Main Street SkyTrain rebuild. peakie, via Comments section

•••

Bike theft is more than petty larceny. @radgirl22, via Twitter

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Send to: 303 West Fifth Ave., Vancouver V5Y-1J6 or email letters@vancourier.com

A12

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

News Meet Strathcona

Strathcona will host a “Meet the Maker” Expo on Saturday inviting Vancouverites to sample all the goods and services Strathcona has to offer.

The Made in Strathcona event is an effort by the Strathcona Business Improvement Association to make people more aware of one of Vancouver’s most historic and beloved

neighbourhoods.

The expo will showcase four key areas of business: restaurants, breweries, cafes and locally made goods.

People to meet include

Yolks owner Steven Ewing, who credits Strathcona as key in expanding his business from a food truck to a restaurant, and Homesteader’s Emporium founder Rick Havalk,

who created the store after being inspired by a DIY project.

Guests can anticipate samples, tastings and workshops from 18 local businesses, as well as at-

tend a panel headed by real estate marketer Bob Rennie.

The event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 13.

Free tickets are available at madeinstrathcona.ca.

Take the FAST FORWARD for Property Taxes Vancouver property taxes are due July 3, 2015.

Do you know the fastest and most convenient ways to pay your bill and claim a Home Owner Grant?

FASTEST Pay your taxes online through your financial institution Pay online through your bank or credit union account.

We want to hear from you about the second phase of the Seaside Greenway Public Realm Completion along Point Grey Road.

Claim your Home Owner Grant online It’s faster, provides instant confirmation and cuts down on errors.

Visit: vancouver.ca/ehog Tax Instalment Prepayment Plan Apply to pay through automatic instalment withdrawals.

Visit: vancouver.ca/tipp

SLOWER

Phase 1 of the Seaside Greenway Completion created a safe, convenient and comfortable walking and cycling connection between Burrard Bridge and Jericho Beach.

Drop off your payment at City Hall (453 West 12th Avenue) The mail slot outside the 12th Avenue entrance is secure and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Phase 2 of this project includes options to improve walking connections and local traffic north of West 4th Avenue. Share your comments on Phase 2 of this project.

In person at your bank or credit union Make sure you also claim your Home Owner Grant online, by mail or drop-off.

Join us at an open house. City staff will be available to discuss the project, answer questions and gather input.

Thursday, June 18, 4:30 - 8:30 pm Bayview Elementary School Gym, 2251 Collingwood Street

SLOWEST

Saturday, June 20, 12 noon - 6 pm Point Grey Road* (between Blenheim Street and Trutch Street)

By Mail Payment must be received by the due date. Postmarks are not accepted as proof of paying on time.

* In the event of rain, the June 20 event will take place at Bayview Elementary School.

In person at the City Hall Revenue Services office Line-ups may be long near the tax due date.

For day-of updates, visit: facebook.com/bikevancouver For more information: Phone 3-1-1 TTY 7-1-1 Visit: vancouver.ca/pointgreycornwall Email: pointgrey.cornwall@vancouver.ca

Did you know?

You can sign up to receive your next tax or utility bill by email and go online to check your account balance and print copies of current or past bills.

Find out how at: vancouver.ca/property-services

Development Permit Board Meeting: June 15

For more information on your tax notice, grant claims, understanding your tax bill and more: vancouver.ca/propertytax or phone 3-1-1

The Development Permit Board and Advisory Panel will meet: Monday, June 15, 2015 at 3 pm Vancouver City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue Ground Floor, Town Hall Meeting Room

Rain Barrel Sale

to consider the following development permit applications: 95 East 1st Avenue To develop the site with a 15-storey, multiple-dwelling building (secured City-owned rental building) that includes 135 units, all over two levels of underground parking with vehicle access from the proposed Pullman Porter Street.

1128 Alberni Street To provide interior alterations and change of use for a portion of the 1128 Alberni Street tower from residential to hotel. The change of use is proposed on 12 floors (7, 11, 12, 14, 16, 21-25, 30, and 31) for a total of 96 units from residential rental use to hotel use.

Please contact City Hall Security (ground floor) if your vehicle may be parked at City Hall for more than two hours.

TO SPEAK ON THIS ITEM: 604-873-7770 or lidia.mcleod@vancouver.ca

Quench the thirst of your plants with free water from a rain barrel. $50! Pre-order at enviroworld.ca/cityofvancouver Four special sales dates: drop-ins welcome, pre-ordering advised but not required.

June 13 10 am to 3 pm

Vancouver: VanDusen, driveway off Oak Street

June 14 10 am to 3 pm

North Vancouver: Loutet Farm, near Rufus Avenue and East 14th Street

Visit vancouver.ca/waterwise for more information.

Visit: vancouver.ca Phone: 3-1-1 TTY: 7-1-1

F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A13

News NPA’s stance on Kinder Morgan project murky

Continued from page 1 This time, council wasn’t unanimous in moving the motion ahead.

All three NPA councillors — George Affleck, Melissa De Genova and Elizabeth Ball — voted against it. The rationale, as I understood from a “strike and replace” motion from Ball and a later interview with the councillor, was that Vancouver wasn’t doing enough to sit down with Kinder Morgan “to have a meaningful say and influence on the safe transport and exportation of oil products through the

waters adjacent to the city and its environs.”

Ball’s motion, which was defeated, also requested the city convene a “tri-level round table” with the provincial and federal governments to agree upon “an appropriate and coordinated spill response strategy” for Vancouver’s harbour and surrounding waters.

Ball wasn’t done there.

She wanted the city to demand “the best science be brought to bear on all aspects of oil and oil products being shipped through Vancouver waters.” She also wanted

meetings to discuss what insurance is in place to deal with recovery efforts, in the event of a spill.

Not anywhere in her motion was mention of the Kinder Morgan proposal, or an indication of whether she and her NPA counterparts support or oppose the pipeline expansion project — an answer the NPA also avoided during the fall civic election campaign.

But that was a good nine or 10 months ago.

And since then, city staff sought expert opinion and research on Kinder

Morgan’s proposal, with deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston concluding last month that “after working on this for over a year at your direction, we as staff have determined that the risks and the costs outweigh the benefits of the proposal.”

So as Ball left the council chambers, I asked her several times whether she supported the project.

Here’s a taste of how that went: Me: What’s the NPA’s position on this?

Ball: “Our position is we want to protect Vancou-

ver every possible way we can and we’re not doing it now.”

Me: Does the NPA support Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain proposal, or not?

Ball: “The Trans Mountain proposal doesn’t exist, at this point. Oil is being shipped now. We want a response to that now. So regardless of what happens at the National Energy Board and then to the Parliament of Canada, we’re prepared. Right now, we’re not prepared for anything.”

Me: But does the NPA

support the Kinder Morgan project, or not?

Ball: “We support a safe harbour and a clean harbour.”

Me (laughing): We can keep talking in circles...

Ball: “No, I’m not talking in circles...”

Me: It’s a simple question. Do you support the proposal, or not?

Ball: “No, it’s not a simple question. That’s what I want to make really clear. People try to make it a simple question, but it’s not.”

Sorry, my mistake. @Howellings

Public Hearing: June 25 Thursday, June 25, 2015, at 6 pm City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue Third Floor, Council Chamber Vancouver City Council will hold a Public Hearing to consider heritage and zoning amendments for these locations:

8

1. 1014 West 11th Avenue (Muir House) To designate the exterior of the Muir House at 1014 West 11th Avenue as protected heritage property, and to approve a Heritage Revitalization Agreement (HRA) for the site. The application proposes variances to the Zoning and Development By-law, as set forth in Development Permit Application Number DE418220, to permit the construction of a new rental building with eleven dwelling units.

2. 1938 Ferndale Street (Rollo House) To designate the exterior of the Rollo House at 1938 Ferndale Street, which is listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register in the ‘C’ evaluation category, as a protected heritage property. The owners have requested the heritage designation on their own volition.

3. 3171 West 5th Avenue (Juno Miller House) To designate the exterior of the Juno Miller House at 3171 West 5th Avenue, which is listed on the Vancouver Heritage Register in the ‘C’ evaluation category, as protected heritage property. Under Development Permit Application Number DE418970, heritage designation of the Juno Miller House is required as a condition of approval.

4. 785 West 16th Avenue (Shalhevet Girls High School) To amend CD-1 (Comprehensive Development) District (303) By-law No. 7166 to add “School – Elementary or Secondary” as a permitted use and to limit this use to a maximum floor area of 260 square metres (2,799 square feet).

5. Vancouver General Hospital (Segal Centre) To amend CD-1 (Comprehensive Development) District (59) By-law No. 4472 to accommodate architectural features of the Segal Centre.

6. 1229-1281 Hornby Street (Burrard Gateway) To amend CD-1 (Comprehensive Development) District (588) By-law No. 11107 to decrease the permitted floor area for sub-area B by 1,960.7 square metres (21,076 square feet) and to increase the permitted floor area for sub-area A by the same amount, allowing for revisions to the proposed tower floor plate.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THESE APPLICATIONS: vancouver.ca/rezapps or 604-873-7038 Please register individually beginning 8:30 am on June 15 and before 5 pm on June 25.

Anyone who considers themselves affected by the proposed by-law amendments may speak at the Public Hearing. Please register individually by 5 pm on the day of the Public Hearing by emailing publichearing@vancouver.ca or by calling 604-829-4238. You may also register in person at the door between 5:30 and 6 pm on the day of the Public Hearing. You may submit your comments by email to mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca, or by mail to: City of Vancouver, City Clerk’s Office, 453 West 12th Avenue, Third Floor, Vancouver, BC, V5Y 1V4. All submitted comments will be distributed to Council and posted on the City’s website. Please visit vancouver.ca/publichearings for important details.

7. 5355-5389 Cambie Street To rezone 5355-5389 Cambie Street from RT-2 (Two-Family Dwelling) District to CD-1 (Comprehensive Development) District, to permit the development of one six-storey residential building with two-storey townhouses at the lane, containing a total of 48 dwelling units. A height of 22.3 metres (73 feet) and a floor space ratio (FSR) of 2.44 are proposed.

8. 520 West Georgia Street (TELUS Garden – Animated Sign) To amend the Sign By-law to allow a 7.5 metre x 11 metre retractable screen with electronic copy, in the form of projected video images, on the west façade of TELUS Garden, between the 16th and 18th floors of the 22-storey building.

The proposed screen will feature video art and community programming, as well as limited tenant recognition for TELUS Garden tenants who sponsor video programming. There will be no advertising for products or services. The screen will animate the building and precinct, which is in close proximity to the Granville Street entertainment district and to the existing and anticipated future location of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Copies of the draft by-laws are available for viewing at the City Clerk’s Office in City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue, Third Floor, Monday to Friday from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. All meetings of Council are webcast live at vancouver.ca/councilvideo, and minutes of Public Hearings are available at vancouver.ca/councilmeetings (posted approximately two business days after a meeting). For real time information on the progress of City Council meetings, visit vancouver.ca/speaker-wait-times or @VanCityClerk on Twitter.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON PUBLIC HEARINGS, INCLUDING REGISTERING TO SPEAK: vancouver.ca/publichearings

Visit: vancouver.ca Phone: 3-1-1 TTY: 7-1-1

A14

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

Community

HEART WARMER: Heart disease and stroke still takes one Canadian life every seven minutes, and today more than 1.6 million individuals live with the effects of these diseases. While research and advocacy efforts have contributed to a decline in the death rate from cardiovascular disease by more than 75 per cent over the last 60 years, a reported 350,000 people are still hospitalized annually. To further support research, prevention initiatives and treatment, more than 400 guests gathered for the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s 11th annual Heart of Gold Gala, sponsored by the Vancouver Courier.

Attendees were once again treated to an evening of culinary delights, dazzling entertainment and unique live auction offerings, over which yours truly and Jim Jungers presided.

Chaired by Goldcorp’s Charlene Ripley, the evening of inspiration and philanthropy generated a record $1.4 million. Among the power couples in attendance: Joe and Rosalie Segal, Allen and Karen Wong and Amar and Natalie Doman.

SMITH LEGACY: Artists for Kids was established in 1989 through a generous partnership among some of Canada’s finest artists and the North Vancouver School District. Through the sale of original prints created by its artist patrons, a legacy fund was established to provide art education for the children of British Columbia. Led by celebrated painted Gordon Smith and his wife Marion, the art program has enriched the lives of thousands of students of all ages each year. The Smith Foundation for Young Artists once again hosted its signature spring luncheon to support the Artist for Kids program and Gordon Smith Gallery programming. More than 200 supporters gathered at the Capilano Golf and Country Club for the annual lunch and auction, hosted by CTV’s Coleen Christie. The 95-year old Smith appeared by video to bring greetings and, not surprisingly, his recent painting fetched the afternoon’s highest bid, contributing to the record $105,000 haul.

A DRESSY AFFAIR: Dress for Success Vancouver hosted their 15th annual fundraiser, IMPACT 360, celebrating families and fundraising for change. The charity’s signature fundraising event, held at the Regency Lexus dealership, drew more than 300 of Vancouver’s most influential business and community supporters to the evening of fashion, networking and celebration of transformation hosted by media personalities Dan Burritt and Kimberley Caldwell. Attendees poured over a sea of unique auction items before taking in the Hudson’s Bay Richmond-sponsored fashion show featuring 10 Dress for Success clients.

The runway romp raised a reported $100,000 to support the organization’s career services and employment programs for women striving to get back into the work force.

email yvrflee@hotmail.com twitter @FredAboutTown

Heart and Stroke Foundation, B.C./Yukon chair Irfhan Rajani and CEO Adrienne Bakker welcomed 400 guests to the organization’s marquee event at the Hotel Vancouver.

Julie Lee (left) curated the Gordon Smith Foundation art auction that included works by Smith, Ian Wallace and Angela Grossman. A record $105,000 was generated from the spring luncheon.

Karen and Allen Wong and Sylvia Chen were among the evening’s heavyhitters that contributed to the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s record haul of $1.4 million for life saving cardiac treatment, research and prevention initiatives.

Florence Leung produced the fashion show that featured Dress for Success clients, including Withya Navaratnarajah (left) modeling fashions from Richmond’s Hudson’s Bay store.

Gordon Smith’s recent work of New York’s Central Park backed Smith Foundation executive director Astrid Heyerdahl. The painting fetched $28,000 for the charity’s Artist for Kids and Gordon Smith Gallery programs.

Dress for Success Vancouver executive director Jennifer Halinda (left) sang the praises of single mom Mary Blanca Villa Y Battenberg, a successful graduate of the charity’s 18-month career and professional development program.

Designers Nancy and Niels Bendtsen of Inform Interiors will collaborate with developer Intracorp on The Jervis, a design-led luxury tower in the West End. Two-bedroom, 1,000 square-foot homes will start at $1 million.

Chill Winston owners Jordan Stewart and Sonia Bozzi celebrated their restaurant and patio’s ninth anniversary and new menu and wine and cocktail offerings.

F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A15

3 DAYS ONLY

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Purchase must be made in single transaction. Limit one Bonus Offer per transaction. Coupon must be presented at time of purchase.

AIR MILES coupons cannot be combined with any other discount offer or AIR MILES coupon offer including Customer Appreciation Day & Senior’s Day. Not valid at Safeway Liquor Stores or Fuel Stations. See Customer Service for complete list of exclusions.

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A16

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

Feature

Helping special needs students g

Tupper students Eddie Zhou and Lily Tan face a heartfelt send-off at the end of their work experience at the Ramada downtown. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Vancouver School Board has doubled work experience for special needs students

Cheryl Rossi

crossi@vancourier.com

Dressed in crisp white shirts, decked with nametags that read “Career Program,” and black pants, Sir Charles Tupper secondary students Eddie Zhou and Lily Tan maneuvered a rolling cart into the elevator and up to the sixth floor of the Ramada hotel on West Pender. They stripped a bed as their special needs support worker repeated variations of, “Eddie, you know what to do.”

Earlier, the teenagers, looking like giant white Smurfs in head-totoe protective clothing, finished painting over the tagged back alley wall of the hotel, something even Sergio Apila, their support worker who assists them at work experience and at school, seemed dubious about.

After they collected bedding and vacuumed the breakfast and break room, hotel staff quickly

gathered to wish Zhou and Tan well.

“Ni hoa, today’s my last day,” Zhou greeted one of the hotel staffers in Mandarin.

“You can call me Edward, always,” he told one hotel employee.

“You can call me Eddie,” he told others, greeting everyone by name.

“Sad,” was how Zhou told the Courier he was feeling about their last day on the job.

“I won’t cry,” added the 18-year-old, who is on the autism spectrum.

Experience wanted

Zhou enjoyed painting most and Tan loved handling laundry. They initially struggled with holding mops and paint rollers, but once they’d practiced these motor skills, they completed related tasks expertly. Both say they’d like to work in a kitchen once they finish high school. Tan has already worked at White Spot through the Vancouver School Board’s job training

for youth with disabilities program, and Zhou wants to take the 10-month food preparation course at Vancouver Community College that he visited on a school field trip last year.

Zhou and Tan, both Grade 12 students, will be able to complete an extra year of high school because they will still be 18 by the end of the 2015-2016 school year. Derek McQuillen, work experience transition facilitator for this career program of the VSB, said Zhou already told him he wants to work at Denny’s next year.

McQuillen and Pam Neuman, the school board’s post-secondary transition low-incidence consultant, have doubled special needs students’ exposure to work experience in the community in the last three years. Now 200 students learn skills such as stocking shelves at Superstore, cleaning cars for Dueck, and providing animal care and cleaning cages for the B.C. SPCA.

“The kids have come back really proud of all of their placements,” said Tupper Life Skills teacher Allison Frers. “They come in, walking in with their uniform that says the company that’s supporting them.”

McQuillen completes an intake interview with students in Grade 10, showing them pictures of jobs they might want to do.

“Our students are kinesthetic learners. They really can’t conceptualize what a job might look like,” McQuillen said. “So, definitely the exploration piece is paramount for them.”

Students complete three unpaid work experiences in Grade 10 and another three in Grade 11. They work three months, one day a week for about four hours in pairs, while a support worker helps them, noting which tasks they need help with, which they can do independently, and what they enjoy most. Support workers photograph students during their work experiences, creating a visual resume they

can show future employers to demonstrate what they can do. In their final year, students work independently, perhaps in a job that’s been customized for them.

If a student is doing well in a job, McQuillen will talk to an employer about the possibility of them continuing on in paid employment. He connects students to case managers at WorkBC Employment Services Centres, which have funding to customize jobs for people with developmental disabilities.

“It’s important for us that we do connect them to an employment agency so that they’re followed after we leave the picture,” McQuillen said. “If the responsibilities of that position change, the student has resources in order to advance their knowledge and their skill set with the work.”

Over the last three years, McQuillen and Neuman have focused on finding ongoing employment for students leaving school, helping 20 students secure part-time jobs.

F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A17

Feature

get to work

These former students can earn up to $800 a month without losing their disability benefits of $906 a month that they’ll receive once they turn 19.

“The statistics show that if a student with a developmental disability has a part-time job before they finish high school, then their quality of life indicators skyrocket in comparison to those who don’t have that same opportunity,” McQuillen said.

He and Neuman are keen to establish social enterprises that could employ their students and are developing a market garden at Gladstone secondary.

Making plans

Neuman started helping students with developmental disabilities plan their transition from high school three years ago. Students now take a course called “self determination” and develop a comprehensive life plan that includes their goals for the school year and the next three to five years. They present this blueprint to their parents, administrators and teachers and their vision is incorporated into their individual education plan.

Neuman and others have also helped students focus on basic skills such as taking transit.

“We spent a full day on eye contact and hand shaking,” she added. “We spent a lot of time practising and role modelling interviews.”

This year, 10 students are entering a gateway to post-secondary programs where they’ll attend college three days a week and high school the other two days a week so they’ll get used to taking transit and func-

tioning in a less structured milieu. McQuillen expects another 10 students to enter this program in September, 10 more in January.

“Those are all kids who would have been waiting for day programs to open up. It can be a year or two wait and sometimes they’re not always suitable,” Neuman said. “Sometimes kids can end up in programs with 50- and 60-year-olds ... and these are 19-yearolds.”

When young adults with developmental disabilities don’t have work, school or a day program to go to, families suffer.

“A lot of families, somebody has to quit their job when their kids are 19,” Neuman said.

She said getting students with developmental disabilities employed or furthering their education before they leave high school benefits everyone.

She’d like students who will graduate with an Evergreen Certificate, instead of a Dogwood Diploma, to be expected to complete work experience, too.

“It’s a win-win for everybody in society if our population is working,” Neuman said. “For the families, for the kids, for society, for the employers, for everybody.”

Model employees

Shawn Martell, the Ramada hotel’s director of sales and marketing, learned the VSB matches students with developmental disabilities with employers when McQuillen was helping her son who’s in Grade 10 and on the autism spectrum find work.

She’s seen how terribly people can treat people

who seem different and has talked about opening up a café her could run so he could earn money and live on his own.

But she says she didn’t convince her general manager to employ Zhou and Tan because of her son.

“It’s the right thing to do,” she said.

Her coworkers thought so, too.

Martell had only intended to occupy Zhou and Tan with housekeeping duties but Dan Milicevic, the chief engineer who oversees maintenance, heard they were coming, he requested they help him, too.

“They could have been my children,” he told the Courier.

Then he whipped out his cellphone to show off the before and after photos of the tagged wall the students repainted.

Neuman disputes misconceptions that employing people with disabilities costs more in providing on-thejob support, making physical accommodations and results in lower productivity.

“If you talk to organizations like Tim Hortons back east and Walgreens, they actually say it’s more profitable [to employee people with developmental disabilities] because it costs them $4,000 to turn over an employee, and they are five times more likely to stay on the job and they are very loyal, they love coming to work, they have a great attitude, they’re rarely sick,” she said.

“Derek was just telling me that he was at Winners today and one of the guys in the back of the house who was working with our students was saying, ‘Man, I wish my regular employees would follow my instruc-

Tupper students Lily Tan and Eddie Zhou sort laundry as part of their work experience at the Ramada downtown. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

tions like your kids.’ He’s like, ‘I tell them what to do, I get them instructions, and they follow it to the exact degree of what I tell them.’

He’s like, ‘If I could only get all the employees to do this, my life would be so much easier,’” she added.

With new restrictions on foreign works and a labour shortage expected in 10 years, Neuman says it’s a “win-win” to get more people with disabilities working.

McQuillen and Neuman have poured countless hours into their jobs, attending meetings with Community Living B.C., other community-based agencies and non-profits.

“I really believe in what we’re doing. I really believe that we’re looking at a population that could be marginalized and I want them to have full integration into our society and that they be able to participate

and enjoy all of the great qualities of life that we all receive and that we’re a more equitable society,” McQuillen said. “I really believe in that passionately, and I see such incredible potential and opportunity for this population.”

Earlier on their last day, Tan mentioned she had an older sister who played tuba with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Martell ran upstairs and grabbed the part-time front desk clerk who had just nabbed his first tuba gig with the VSO. He knew Tan’s sister well.

“Although Lily’s quiet and she has a tougher time articulating what she wants to say, her body language spoke volumes. She had a connection with someone and they could actually have a real conversation about something that was important,” Martell said. “So as much as, yes, they learned

some really cool skills that they could actually make money doing, they actually had the opportunity to have really, meaningful, valuable conversations, which as much as we take for granted 10 times a day we get to have, they might not even have one in a week.”

McQuillen says it’s not just these youth who benefit from such interactions.

“I’ve also seen how this population will come in and really infuse a much more positive and friendly work environment,” McQuillen said. “Because [these young people] are genuine and they’re authentic and they’re just fun to be around.”

As Martell thanked the pair for working so hard at the hotel, Zhou clapped and jumped up and down, and Tan bent her head and pressed her hands together as if in prayer. @Cheryl_Rossi

A18

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

we’re big on COUPONS! Event on now.

See in-store or flyer for details.

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Limit one coupon per family and/or customer account. No cash value. No copies.

Coupon must be presented to the cashier at time of purchase. Valid from Friday, June 12 until closing, Thursday, June 18, 2015. Cannot be combined with any other coupons or promotional offers.

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*PC Plus gas offers and Superbucks® coupons CANNOT be combined. PC Plus option must be selected prior to purchase. Minimum redemption 20,000 points and in increments of 10,000 points thereafter. PC points redemption excludes purchase of tobacco, alcohol products, prescriptions, gift cards, phone cards, lottery tickets, all non-participating third party operations and any other products which are provincially regulated or as we determine from time to time. See pcplus.ca for details. Superbucks and PC Plus gas offers may vary by region and can change without notice. MasterCard is a registered trademark of MasterCard International Incorporated. President s Choice Bank a licensee of the mark. President s Choice Financial MasterCard is provided by President s Choice Financial bank. President s Choice Financial personal banking products are provided by the direct banking division of CIBC. ®/TM Trademarks of Loblaws Inc. ©2015

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Quantities and/or selection of items may be limited and may not be available in all stores. No rainchecks. No substitutions on clearance items or where quantities are advertised as limited. Advertised pricing and product selection (flavour, colour, patterns, style) may vary by store location. We reserve the right to limit quantities to reasonable family requirements. We are not obligated to sell items based on errors or misprints in typography or photography. Coupons must be presented and redeemed at time of purchase. Applicable taxes, deposits, or environmental surcharges are extra. No sales to retail outlets. Some items may have “plus deposit and environmental charge” where applicable. ®/™ The trademarks, service marks and logos displayed in this flyer are trademarks of Loblaws Inc. and others. All rights reserved. © 2015 Loblaws Inc. * we match prices! Applies only to our major supermarket competitors’ flyer items. Major supermarket competitors are determined solely by us based on a number of factors which can vary by store location. We will match the competitor’s advertised price only during the effective date of the competitor’s flyer advertisement. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO LIMIT QUANTITIES (note that our major supermarket competitors may not). Due to the fact that product is ordered prior to the time of our Ad Match checks, quantities may be limited. We match identical items (defined as same brand, size, and attributes) and in the case of fresh produce, meat, seafood and bakery, we match a comparable item (as determined solely by us). We will not match competitors’ “multi-buys” (eg. 2 for $4), “spend x get x”, “Free”, “clearance”, discounts obtained through loyalty programs, or offers related to our third party operations (post office, gas bars, dry cleaners etc.). We reserve the right to cancel or change the terms of this program at any time.

Customer Relations: 1-866-999-9890.

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F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

A19

GOT ARTS? 604.738.1411 or events@vancourier.com

1

June 12 to 16, 2015 1. Amber Fares’s Speed Sisters documents the Middle East’s first all-women racecar team, which is part of an emerging racing scene that sees contests between cities on the West Bank and draws thousands of avid spectators, despite constant dangers in the politically charged region. The film screens June 13 as part of Vancity Theatre’s Best of Hot Docs 2015 series, which runs June 12 to 16. Details at viff.org.

2

3

2. In Tune is a Vancouver-based biennial event that develops and showcases new Canadian musicals, and runs June 12 to 21 at various venues around Granville Island.

One such production is Theatre Passe Muraille’s hit musical The Way Back To Thursday about a grandmother and her gay grandson as they struggle to connect through his coming of age. For tickets, go to vancouvertix.com or call 604-629-8849.

Details at touchstonetheatre.com.

3. If the human cannonball outfit and oldschool telephone receiver glued into his motorcycle helmet isn’t enough of a giveaway, let it be known that Bob Log III is a lot of fun. The one-man primitive blues-trash band plays the Cobalt June 12 with openers Mother Upduff and Supernatural River.

Tickets at Red Cat, Zulu and ticketweb.ca.

4. Ageless Jonathan Richman brings his charm offensive back to the Biltmore along with drummer Tommy Larkins for an evening of sweet and stripped-down acoustic pop ditties about dancing in a lesbian bar, Vermeer, the ice cream man and, with any luck, that summer feeling. The fun begins June 12, 8 p.m. Tickets at Red Cat, Zulu, Highlife and ticketweb.ca.

5. The Rio Theatre helps celebrate Italian Days on the Drive with its Italian Nights film series, including Federico Fellini’s stylish and surreal 1960 classic La Dolce Vita, June 12, 7:30 p.m. Details at riotheatre.ca.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

Arts&Entertainment Sun shines on Beach Bay Cafe THE HIRED BELLY Tim Pawsey

info@hiredbelly.com

It must be open season for new restaurants, with one iconic space filled and another about to be reincarnated.

In the heart of English Bay, the good news is the brown paper is off and the doors now open at Beach Bay Cafe and Patio, at Denman and Davie.

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When Raincity Grill bit the dust a few months back, I was at first concerned but then relieved to hear the room had been picked up by the savvy Viaggio Hospitality Group, who operate Cibo, Uva Wine Bar, Red Card and the Waldorf’s Tiki Bar, among others.

Walk into the new space and you’ll be temporarily dazzled by the look thanks to a renovation that was badly needed. In truth, the overall feel hasn’t changed that much. It’s still a dynamic location, and that patio — especially given the early summer heat — is already rockin’.

I’m also impressed by the way in which the new owners have embraced Raincity’s West Coast credo. The menu is decidedly locally focused and ingredients thoughtfully sourced. I dropped by for a couple of small plates and was impressed. The dishes are well-conceived and executed with flair.

House-smoked Steelhead trout with apricot and cream is delicious, seductively textured and perfectly smoked. Another keeper, hard-to-find sweetbreads come with rhubarb and roasted baby beets. Wines are globally chosen and you can splurge, or not, as you choose. No surprise, the cocktail selection is also well-primed.

It looks as if Beach Bay Cafe (1193 Denman St., 604-685-7337, beachbaycafe.com) could assume that mantle that Raincity successfully wore over the years as the quintessential West Coast destination.

Giardino redux

June 18 – 25 juin 2015

Coming right up, the opening for which everyone’s been waiting: Umberto Menghi’s Giardino.

Smoked Steelhead trout with apricot and cream is one of the West Coast delights at the Beach Bay Cafe. PHOTO TIM PAWSEY

In the past week or so, all that remained of Menghi’s Il Giardino — except for the little yellow house itself — was bulldozed into oblivion to make way for more glass and steel. So it seems even more fitting that Giardino’s opening is just around the corner, hopefully by month’s end, if all goes well in the final phase.

The Tuscan-toned new room doesn’t try to precisely replicate the old. But it does add up to an homage of sorts. Diners will be wowed for all kinds of reasons both inside and out but especially by the attention to detail and little touches.

One item that did make the trip up the street, the original Il Giardino sign was saved from demolition at the last minute and is being installed beside the entrance.

For weeks, people have been popping their heads around the door asking:

“When are you going to open?”

“Soon” is the answer.

Stay tuned...

Forage for Timber

On the more distant horizon, sometime this fall, the folks at Forage, in Robson Street’s Listel Hotel, will launch Timber, in the space that used to be O’Douls and was briefly an art gallery.

Expect a laid back, gastropubby atmosphere, good taps (beer and wine), plenty of sustainable flavours and a Jervis Street patio. And, who knows? Maybe even some occasional live jazz.

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F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Arts&Entertainment

Scratch rubs reviewer the wrong way

Strong performances trump messy script about ‘a matter of lice and death’ THEATRE REVIEW Jo Ledingham

joled@telus.net

Notwithstanding a nomination for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play in 2009, the script for Charlotte CorbeilColeman’s Scratch is a dog’s breakfast. It’s a mixture of low comedy and real pathos.

Low comedy: young Anna (Caitlin McCarthy) surfacing after fellating “Poet” (Markian Tarasiuk) with faux ejaculate all over her face. Real pathos: a deathbed scene between McCarthy and Eileen Barrett (as “Mother”).

Genevieve Fleming (Hardline Productions’ artistic producer) directs for Theatre Plexus and brings together a hardworking cast including David Bloom (“Father”), Tamara McCarthy (“Aunt”) and Stephanie Izsak (Madelyn).

Performance trumps script. Caitlin McCarthy, as teenaged Anna (13? 15?), so believably has head lice and scratches so ceaselessly, sometimes frantically, that I had to quell the urge to start scratching my own head. But why, after months of scratching, Anna’s mother doesn’t get over her own flower-child anxiety about “chemicals”

Stephanie Izsak and Caitlin McCarthy (r) star in Theatre Plexus’s production of Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman’s Scratch.

and just give Anna the goahead to use the shampoo, I don’t know. Or why doesn’t Anna just do it herself? The playwright suggests that Anna uses suffering and lust — she’s desperate to have sex — as a way of dealing with her mother’s terminal illness. I didn’t buy it. It is, however, Corbeil-Coleman’s true story, written shortly after her own mother died of cancer when CorbeilColeman was a teenager, so I guess it happens and it’s

brave of the playwright to be so candid about it.

Barrett is the sweet, longsuffering mother and she’s good at it but we never really get to know this character. Bloom, the go-to guy for a nice-guy role, gets a small opportunity to vent his grief, but the role is badly underwritten. Tamara McCarthy, as the aunt, could be pulled way back: she doesn’t need to be a cartoon. And as the girlfriend of the poet — who appears to be just out of his

teens — McCarthy’s more cougar than credible. The poet is another unbelievable character: a young man of indeterminate age who writes very, very bad poetry and cooks veggies for the mother as she’s dying. Tarasiuk does his best but where do you take a character like this? And then, of course, he has to groan and moan and say, “Oh god, Oh god,” as Anna fellates him.

Oh god.

Buried in all of this is a re-

ally interesting play. But it’s not the one Corbeil-Coleman wrote. The play begins with each of the characters saying, one after the other, “If this were my story...”

The real story at the heart of Scratch, it seems to me, is Madelyn’s story and Stephanie Izsak nails it. Madelyn, a budding artist, is the child of uncaring parents and she adores Anna’s mother, a painter. Madelyn is devastated when the mother is diagnosed, but somehow

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she’s not allowed to see her because she’s not family.

Izsak makes this young girl’s grief truly heartfelt and it feels as if this should be the story. It reminds me of the number of gay men not named in the obits of their longtime partners.

Florence Barrett’s design works well: three woven screens are easily manipulated to provide a changing room at the Gap where Anna doesn’t buy jeans, a hospital room where the mother lies dying and various other settings. Jeff Elrick’s lighting zeroes in tightly and brightly on characters as they deliver monologues — some of which don’t seem to have much to do with moving the plot along.

Opening night audience seemed to like it and laughed a lot. As someone who has some experience with this situation (both head lice and cancer) — but used the shampoo to get rid of the lice and, miraculously, survived cancer — Scratch seems highly improbable and just plain awkward. The tagline — “It’s a matter of lice and death” — might have tipped me off to the jagged juxtaposition of laughter and tears.

For more reviews, go to joledingham.ca.

Scratch is at Havana Theatre until June 13. Tickets at brownpapertickets.com.

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A22

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

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Will Finnegan finally break his career-long silence about what life was really like in the Tickle Trunk and at the hands of his cruel masters, Casey and Mr. Dressup?

Who or what will scandalize CBC next?

KUDOS & KVETCHES

If you haven’t noticed, CBC has been in a bit of a tailspin as of late. The most recent hullabaloo in a series of hullabaloos — man, we like that word almost as much as brouhaha and donnybrook — involved the surprisingly swift dismissal of CBC golden boy Evan Solomon earlier this week.

Solomon’s crime, besides wearing unnervingly tight dress slacks from time to time? According to a report in the Toronto Star, the hunky Power and Politics host used his CBC connections to broker high-end art deals and collect more than $300,000 in commissions.

Sounds kind of exotic.

Solomon’s firing comes on the heels of news that anchor of The National and tough-but-loving-dad-voiceof-the-country Peter Mansbridge and Rex Murphy made paid speeches to the oil industry, questions about senior business reporter and possible heir apparent to Mansbridge Amanda Lang’s ties to the Royal Bank of Canada and, of course, that whole messy and disturbing Jian Ghomeshi shame-fest.

So what will be the next scandal to plague CBC? Here’s what we’re betting on: • After years of mothballed retirement in Mr. Dressup’s Tickle Trunk, mute dog Finnegan finally

breaks his silence and reveals that he, in fact, has always had a voice. According to the floppy-eared canine, CBC executives insisted on keeping him quiet to give his owner Casey a more of a prominent role on the show. Casey, according to Finnegan, was a narcissist and a raging cocaine addict, who would often pay Aunt Bird and Alligator Al to oil up and fight one another for sport.

• From 2007 to 2012, television program Little Mosque on the Prairie repeatedly misrepresented itself by falsely claiming to be a comedy, despite never once eliciting laughter from viewers.

• Easy-on-the-eyes CBC host Ian Hanomansing apparently came up with the whole “Handsome-ManThing” nickname on his own, and paid interns to use it in casual conversations with their friends until it became “a thing.”

• According to completely unsubstantiated but totally

believable rumours, Nature of Things host David Suzuki likes to urinate on effigies of Raffi while barbecuing baby panda steaks over Styrofoam bonfires in his backyard.

Wait… that was former CBC meteorologist Claire Martin. Sorry, our bad.

• Sources have uncovered that the Friendly Giant was merely average height and often had “off” days where he wasn’t particularly friendly, even standoffish.

He also stole those little toy chairs from the castle set and sold them on eBay.

• Although she has never been charged, former CBC News Vancouver host and gossamer of loveliness Gloria Macarenko is responsible for stealing our heart. @KudosKvetches

F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A23

July to September

START NOTHING: Before 10:51 a.m. Sun., 7:05 a.m. to 3:51 p.m. Tues., and 10:52 p.m. to 11:23 p.m. Thurs.

PREAMBLE: Sometimes, brightness obscures. Russia’s woes (sanctions, soaring inflation, 15 per cent interest rates, falling GDP) will ease after November (2015). Soon, I’ll start a new “Luck Forecast” for every sign. (For August 2015 to Sept. 2016.) Capricorn is an earth sign, but it’s more trees than dirt. Caps usually love deserts, rocks and mountains. Capricorns tend to live a long time – often productively. Betty White is still collecting accolades at 93 years. (Comedian/actor George Burns, often touted as the prime example of long-lived Capricorn, was probably an Aquarian. On the day of his birth, the Sun left Capricorn about 7 am, and travelled through Aquarius for 17 hours until midnight. So the mathematical probability is that he was Aquarius – though he certainly shared Cap’s proclivity toward long life. His comic gifts come from his Aries Moon.)

Believe it or not, another easy, smooth, crisis-free week!

(If a crisis occurs now, it comes from your personal birth chart. So, if one comes, look to your past, your actions and decisions, for both the cause and the cure.) The emphasis remains on errands, wanderlust, curiosity, paperwork, details, siblings and casual friends, trips and communications. Delays have ended in these zones, so make up for lost time now. You’ll be busy and adroit.

Recent delays have ended, Libra, so you can charge ahead. (Although new delays will appear in earning/ shopping, home improvements, and work/employment, lasting through the summer. If you need work, first seek out those who hired you in the past. You might also have been having second thoughts about home, a property – circumstances here have “returned” since last April, making you face some old problem.

No more delays, Taurus – you can charge ahead in the pursuit of money, possessions, clothes. You like finely crafted things. You are super-favoured to buy/sell real estate/home until early August, and mildly favoured even after, to early October. (You know how I say sometimes, “Don’t start living with someone – friction will result”?

Well, this is the opposite: if you started living with someone now to early Oct., affection and sweetness would result.)

The main delays have ended, Scorpio, so you can charge ahead with many things, including sexual, financial, research/investigative, health/surgery, social and lifestyle changes. (Especially Sunday mid-morn to Tues. afternoon, when these matters arise naturally; they succeed easily dawn Monday onward. However, keep a grain of scepticism, as subtle traps/delays/dead ends could lurk here.)

Your energy, charisma, sexual magnetism, effectiveness and clout remain at a yearly high (and soar upward this Sunday to Tues. afternoon). Delays are gone, so you can start good new projects. Others will follow your lead.

You’re tempted, if single, to turn a friendly bond to a more romantic one. This urge will last to early October, and will have some success, especially in August if you flatter someone, and in late Sept./early Oct.

Delays have ended, Sage, especially in relationships, relocation, dealings with the public, and negotiations in general. These are emphasized all week, but especially Sunday morn to Tues. afternoon. It’s still a little early to start a project or relationship in these areas, so take a receptive, wait-and-see approach. What seemed like a sobering development the first half of this year now backs away to give you a summer of buoyant irresponsibility.

Most delays have ended, Cancer. (They remain in partnership and love zones. A former spouse or marriage prospect – business prospect for marrieds – returns between this Sunday and early August – and “hangs around” until midSeptember.) Remain restful and contemplative this week, especially Sunday morning to Tuesday afternoon.

Recent delays are over, especially in work, machinery and health zones. These are emphasized this week, especially Sunday morning to Tues. afternoon. So charge ahead with these this week, but stop short of starting a new project in these areas. Something you had given up hope about these last six months, might return to tempt you again – or to please you again!

Another relatively easy week, Leo. You remain popular, your social life shines, a friendly romance might begin/ continue, and entertainment arrives. Wishes can come true. You feel optimistic, happy! A three-month period of work on the home front begins now, but that won’t lessen your joy this week. One of those people you’re so popular with might nudge you to marry, travel far away, or to enroll in higher education.

Delays have ended, Aquarius, so shoot forward – especially in romance, love, beauty, pleasure, creativity, speculation, risk, and in raising children – and especially this Sunday to Tues. afternoon.

However, don’t start a brand-new project or relationship these three days. All’s well – though you might spend too much on pleasure, love.

Delays have ended, Virgo, so charge ahead during this relatively easy week. The main accent remains on your career, ambitions, relations with higherups, and reputation. Pursue this, but be mild, not ruthless. VIPs and bosses can be impatient, temperamental, to late June. Grin and bear it. You are in one of the low-luck years of your life, but only until August, when one of the high-luck years of your life begins.

Delays have ended, especially in home, family, property, partnership, relocation, public dealings, negotiations. Still, don’t try to start a new venture in these zones Sunday morning to Tuesday afternoon, when they are emphasized. (All’s well, it’s just that something started now will tend to wilt.) Be patient with family and kids – just putter around and enjoy nature.

Monday: Neil Patrick Harris (42). Tuesday: Laurie Metcalf (60). Wednesday: Barry Manilow (72). Thursday: Paul McCartney (73). Friday: Kathleen Turner (61). Saturday: Lionel Richie (66). Sunday: Prince William (33).

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

Sports&Recreation

GOT GAME? Contact sports editor Megan Stewart at mstewart@vancourier.com or 604-630-3549

Count the ways a child plays

Less standing around in baseball than you’d think

players. (But it could actually happen at any time.)

Also, the wrestling is not always limited to players of the same team. For example, if the first baseman is a classmate of the batter who has just singled, then wrestling may occur.

COMMIT TO FIT Darnelle Moore

darnelle@eastsidefitness.ca

I am all about getting kids to join teams and learn to live an active lifestyle. As such, this spring I have been coaching my seven-yearold daughter and her Little League team.

Baseball is a great sport because kids can learn a lot of really important, albeit clichéd life lessons. (Think child-appropriate proverbs from Crash Davis.) The importance of effort and fair play: “The calls don’t always go your way.” Perseverance: “Keep your eye on the ball.”

And of course, this one for work effort: “You’ll miss 100 per cent of the balls you don’t swing at.”

In baseball, kids have to pay attention to an intricate sport and be ready to jump into action at a moment’s

Rolling

When players are assigned to any position that is not on the infield, the player will, at some point, hit the grass and roll around until a coach notices and pleads with the player to stand up.

At a rookies Little League game, players learn coordination and life’s constant clichés, such as, “Keep your eye on the ball.” PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

notice. They learn teamwork, decision-making, sportsmanship and the value of hard work. That’s all good stuff. And, as if all that paying attention and being a good sport isn’t exhausting enough for seven- and eightyear-olds, I have noticed that a game of baseball develops others physical skills and movement patterns you may not have thought of.

Besides base running, throwing and catching, here are other active movements that take place when rookies take to the baseball diamond:

do is climb the fence in the dugout. Repeatedly, no matter how many times you ask them to stop.

Climbing

When and if they do stop climbing the fence, players will move on to the bench, but not sitting of course.

They will jump on and off the bench.

Yes. Climbing. You might think that while the kids are waiting to take their turn at bat, they sit still on the bench. They don’t. What they usually

Jumping

Wrestling

This happens in the dugout while they’re waiting for their turn to bat, and it can happen when they’re in the field. The wrestling usually occurs with one’s own teammates and it usually occurs when a ball is hit close to two or more

A CHAIR

Modern Dance

Again, occurs mostly in the outfield, but players at second base and short stop can also get in a few good dance moves during the defensive half of the inning.

This involves jumping, twisting, turning and sometimes scissor kicks.

Sprinting

This is not what you might think. This sprinting occurs only when a player has to go to the bathroom or when the game is over and “team snack” is about to be served.

And now you know why kids — as well as coaches — are exhausted at the end of a baseball game.

Darnelle Moore is the cofounder of Eastside Fitness.

She believes fitness is for every body. Reach her at darnelle@ eastsidefitness.ca

Take play outside

For the past 10 years, children have increasingly signed up to play more sports. In 2005, about half of children and teens played organized sports, a dismal number that garnered a C+ from Participation in its annual physical activity report card. One year later, that grade dropped to a C- and for the next eight years, held steady at a C. In 2015, according to the report card released June 9, more than two thirds of children and teens are on sports teams. The increase garnered a B. Three out of every four able-bodied people aged five to 19 in Canada participate in organized physical activities and sports, according to research cited by Participation.

The largest barriers to participation are cost. Sixty-one per cent of those aged three to 17 cite enrollment fees and 52 per cent point to paying for equipment as reasons they don’t play, according to 2014 KidSport research. In Vancouver, organizations like More Sports help bridge these gaps.

— Megan Stewart

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Sports&Recreation

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B 3 3 0 0

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GROUP Cameroon CMR japan JPN switzerland SUI

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GROUP usa USA nigeria NGA sweden SWE australia AUS

C GROUP 3 brazil BRA 3 spain ESP 0 costa rica CRC 0 south korea KOR

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Trailblazers show Canada can compete

GROUPS & FIXTURES Updated at noon, Thursday June 11

5

MONTREAL Olympic Stadium CAPACITY: 61,000

CAPACITY: 24,000

MONCTON Moncton Stadium

CAPACITY: 10,000

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Megan Stewart

mstewart@vancourier.com

I love what I’m seeing on the pitch at B.C. Place and five other stadiums across Canada as we host the 2015 FIFA World Cup. In the stands, not so much.

Vancouver games are far from selling out and seats still remain when the dominant U.S. comes through town June 16.

In Montreal on June 9, 10,175 people filed into the 61,000-seat Olympic Stadium. But for a few small and boisterous packs of fans, that left the Big O feeling not just big but cavernous and pathetically empty — despite the presence of five-time player of the year, Brazil’s exhilarating Marta.

Attendance will pick up after the group stage, which still shows the lack of parity in the woman’s global game.

Eighteen of Canada’s little-heralded trailblazers were celebrated at the city’s fan zone in Larwill Park on June 8, brought together by independent sports organizers, not the Canadian Soccer Association as you might expect. When the first players were selected from provincial teams for a fledgling national program in 1986, the women were told the future of Canada’s game rested on their shoulders. They

Ecuadorian defenders pin Cameroon’s Gaëlle Enganamouit but couldn’t stop her from scoring three goals in a 6-0 win at B.C. Place on June 8. PHOTO JAY SHAW / CANADA SOCCER ASSOCIATION

travelled to Minneapolis for a two-game series against the U.S., winning the second match 2-1. Geri Donnelley scored both goals.

“We’ve never had the chance to get together like this. It’s so incredible to see the different generations,” said Donnelley.

Tracy David, now the head coach of the women’s program at the University of Victoria, remembered how the inaugural team was tasked with more than playing the double-header.

“We were under pressure and under threat to win.

And if we didn’t win, to make sure we didn’t embarrass ourselves because we were told that if we didn’t perform well, there would be no national team. Not only did we have the pressure of playing the U.S.,

we also had the pressure on ours shoulders of — we have to do this right, we have to represent Canada

well because we want this Canadian program to continue on forever.” @MHStewart

Neighbours of the BC Cancer Agency’s Functional Imaging Facility at 600 West 10th are invited for a Neighbour Update Meeting

Thursday, June 18th, 2015 7pm

BC Cancer Research Centre 1st Floor 675 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver

The BC Cancer Agency’s Functional Cancer Imaging Program PET Cyclotron/Radiopharmacy facility has been operating for five years. Neighbouring residents and businesses are invited to a meeting for an update on activities at the Centre and to answer any questions about its operation.

For more information, visit www.bccancer.bc.ca/cyclotron

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A25

A26

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

The Courier presents Vancouver’s Elite Graduating Athletes of 2015

PAST

DYNAMO FENCING CLUB

PRESENT

DYNAMO FENCING CLUB AT ROWAN PLACE IN RICHMOND

FUTURE

NCAA DIV. 1 OHIO STATE BUCKEYES

I

n a combat sport that demands unparalleled levels of concentration and mental acuity, an épée fencer succeeds when she can master her mood. Emma von Dadelszen tempers her technical flare and flashes of speed on the piste with a social turn of the competition hall.

“We try not to be in moods,” said the 17-year-old épéeists and reigning junior Pan American champion who’s been on Canada’s national team for four years.

“It doesn’t matter how we feel that day. Emotions, we try to

take them out and are not supposed to let them affect how we perform. When I fence at my perfect best, it’s almost like I don’t need to think. I know my point will land where I want it to.”

A lively extrovert who is known to some as “Sparkles,” von Dadelszen steadies her mind and calms her nerves by talking with friends. After a duel, she works off her energy in a relaxed but subtly ritualized way.

“Everyone is right beside each other and there are hundreds of people in the room.

Everyone interacts,” she said.

“I really enjoy talking to people between bouts, having mean-

ingless conversation to distract but not get too distracted.”

It’s a balance, one her friends and family understand and a favour she can return to teammates. “It’s what we all do with each other — it’s an unwritten rule,” she said. “You ask how they are and let them volunteer information. If they shake their head, you leave them alone.”

A member of the Dynamo Fencing Club since the age of 10, von Dadelszen is instructed

by Victor Gantsevich, also the Team B.C. head coach, whom she trusts completely. When von Dadelszen attends Ohio State next season, she will be coached

by Vladimir Nazlymov, a strict task-master who previously led the U.S.S.R. fencing program, including the Ukrainian team then coached by Gantsevich.

Enrolled at Magee secondary in the SpArts program that accommodates her 30-hour weekly training schedule, von Dadelszen was the 2013 Canada Summer Games individual and team champion and last year earned tremendous success at the U.S. National Championship, one of the sport’s premier competitions in the world. After she reached the Top 8 in the junior épée, an achievement in itself, von Dadelszen had a memorable — and

perhaps essential — conversation with friends.

“I was talking with them and I kept saying, ‘I’m not done yet.’

I felt every time I fenced, I was supposed to win. I wasn’t ready to stop. I belonged there.”

She reached the final and won silver.

“At that point, it was the best result I’d ever had. It was the best I’d ever fenced,” said the athlete who nearly turned her back on the sport after a disappointing previous season.

“I surprised myself. I got on the strip that day and it got better and better.”

— Megan Stewart

PHOTO REBECCA BLISSETT

Emma von Dadelszen

F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A27

Today’shomes Foreign investment in real estate ‘not significant’ Emma Crawford Hampel

ecrawford@biv.com

Fears of foreign investment in Metro Vancouver real estate driving up home prices are largely baseless, according to the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA), and intervention policies are unnecessary.

The BCREA said in a report released June 10 that foreign investment amounts to less than five per cent of the market. However, this number is based on estimates only as “no hard number on foreign buyers in Metro Vancouver housing market exists.”

“In the Metro Vancouver context, data relevant to measuring foreign investment does exist from the 2011 Canadian Census, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Urban Futures and REBGV,” the report states.

“While none of these measures are perfectly designed, they were independently produced and converge around a similar

central tendency in regard to foreign ownership in the Vancouver housing market.”

Based on these estimates, the BCREA said the percentage of vacant dwellings in Metro Vancouver is 5.35 per cent and those occupied by foreign or temporary residents is 0.78 per cent.

These proportions do not differ significantly from those of other large Canadian cities.

A recent poll by Insights West found that nearly three-quarters — 77 per cent — of Metro Vancouver residents support the idea of a vacant homeowners tax.

Land scarcity is a much bigger determinant of pricing than foreign ownership, the BCREA said.

According to the report, “[Vancouver’s] geography is constrained on all sides by natural and legal impediments to the supply of developable land. The vast suburban sprawl associated with many North American cities wasn’t able to fully take root in Vancouver as the relative scarcity of land forced housing stakehold-

Although it says no hard data exists, the British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) estimates foreign investment in the Metro Vancouver housing market is not significant enough to warrant intervention. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

ers to look up rather than farther afield.”

The study also found that the share of single detached homes in the region has dipped from 50 per cent of total housing in 1991 to around a third in 2011.

Eighty per cent of new home construction relates to multi-family dwellings.

This scarcity of singledetached houses has caused the price of these homes to soar. However, the price of condos has dipped in some

Metro Vancouver municipalities, taking into account inflation and wage growth.

The BCREA said using the average home price as a measure of housing affordability is misleading due to the diversity in the types of

homes in Metro Vancouver.

“A more realistic measure would be how many households can afford lowerpriced homes.”

According to the association, 70 per cent of all homes sold in the region in 2014 were below the reported average home price of $738,000. Thirty per cent of all home buyers at any given time are first-time buyers, and correspondingly, 32 per cent of homes were below $400,000.

Instead of policies to limit foreign investment, the BCREA said tracking the sources would be beneficial to come up with possible solutions going forward.

“BCREA recommends the government monitor the flow of foreign investment in housing by attaching a residency declaration somewhere in the land transfer form process, or other practical approach,” the report said.

“Gathering data on foreign investment in housing would provide an opportunity to gain further insight into this market segment.” @EmmaHampelBIV

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A32

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 1 5

WEEKLY SPECIALS Prices Effective June 11 to June 17, 2015.

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