Vancouver Courier March 28 2014 by Vancouver Courier

FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2014

Vol. 105 No.26 • Established 1908

Raising the chocolate bar

WEEKEND EDITION

THE VOICE OF VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS

NEWS: Employees defend PHS 6/OPINION: Free the whales 9

Photos by Dan Toulgoet

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F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

news

Trees chopped for school’s seismic upgrade JENNIFER THUNCHER Contributing writer

photo Dan Toulgoet

Construction at Kits secondary, the fence has gone up with messages from concerned residents. 50 per cent of the school, which was built in 1927. “The site itself is rather small and there are all these requirements. From program requirements, areas of the classrooms, the gyms and a playing ﬁeld. We all had to take that into consideration and when ﬁnally the designers gathered all the information, they came up with this design … and there will be some trees that need to come out be-

cause of that,” Afan said. City of Vancouver project guidelines suggest the project planners “retain mature trees and shrubs that are healthy and attractive.” Crawford wondered how the city could allow the trees to be destroyed. “We are supposed to be a green city, this goes against that goal,” she said in an email to the Courier.

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ome Kitsilano residents are worried that work to seismically upgrade Kitsilano secondary school will involve sacriﬁcing more than a third of the school’s trees. Approximately 40 of the 110 trees on the school’s property will be felled as part of the seismic upgrade to the historic high school, according to the Vancouver School Board. Dunbar resident Penny Crawford was riding her bike through the area last weekend when she came upon the construction site and a magnolia tree in full bloom that had been cut down and left in a pile in the school courtyard. She said she saw more felled trees but she didn’t want to enter the restricted construction area to check. She said passersby told her many of the trees around the former tennis courts were to be cut down to make way for an expanded parking lot. “Folks are concerned,” Crawford said. Raymond Afan, VSB project manager, said the new parking lot on the corner of 12th Avenue and Trafalgar Street may take a few of the trees, but he noted the renovated school will have less parking than it does with its current 85 spots reduced to 75. He said the priority of the estimated $62.2 million renovation project is to make the school safe while at the same time save

The city’s communications department referred Courier requests for information back to the VSB. Afan said the project is as environmentally friendly as possible. The completed building will meet Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards, he said. Each tree cut down will be replaced by two new ones, he said, noting 80 new trees will be planted on the school site by the completion of the project in 2017. Jordi Sancho, who lives adjacent to the property, has photographed the trees since he ﬁrst found out two years ago about the planned renovation. He said he feared from the start the trees would not survive the project and is not moved by the tree replacement plan. He said it makes no sense to take out established trees that don’t need any watering or maintenance in favour of new and vulnerable landscaping. “A new tree might have a hard time establishing ground,” he said. “You can’t replace an 80-year-old tree. There is no replacement.” Sancho started an online petition last week asking the Vancouver School Board to save some of the most established trees on the site — four sycamores he estimates are 80 years old. As of the Courier’s print deadline, the petition had garnered 42 signatures. thuncher@shaw.ca twitter.com/Thuncher

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

10 Killer Job Interview Strategies

Even the most qualified job seekers need to prepare for interviews. Interviewing is a learned skill, and there are no second chances to make a great first impression. We asked our WorkBC career advisors for their advice on how to wow prospective employers.

1. Your Goal: ‘Build rapport with the interviewer’

People hire people that they like. Sometimes people get stressed out because they try to have the ‘perfect’ answer and remember everything they’ve prepared word for word.This can result in you being too mechanical and missing the whole point of the interview. An interview isn’t a math test. Actually, it’s more like a date.

2. Prepare

The most helpful feeling you can have going into the interview is confidence. Real confidence only comes through lots of preparation. To prepare, first, do as much RESEARCH as you can on the company and the position itself. PRACTICE specific questions, especially ones you find difficult. Butremember,thisisn’t about remembering everything word for word. To help you be natural, try remembering just the main points of your answers. Ask a friend or family member to interview you. And bring in a copy of your resume with you, so you can refer to it while in the interview, call it your “cheat sheet”!

3. Give a Strong First Impression

A good first impression goes a long way! Be early, dress accordingly. Try to gauge the mood of the interviewer and don’t be afraid to make some small talk.

4. Be Genuine

Be honest and positive about your strengths and abilities without oversharing or talking too much. Giving too much personal information can raise unnecessary red flags.

5. Know Your Skills and how they Relate to the Position

When employers ask what your skills are, or why they should hire you, understand what the employer

is looking for (from the job posting), know what your skills actually are, and tell a story that emphasizes two or three of your top skills which relate to the posting.

6. Breathe

Take deep breaths before the interview to help you relax and take your time to answer questions. Don’t be afraid to ask the interviewer to repeat a question or clarify if needed.

7. Be Conscious of your Body Language It is important to be relaxed, but not too relaxed. So, sit in a neutral position, shoulders back and sitting tall, no slouching or leaning forward. Don’t cross your arms, because you look defensive, and don’t point, or you will look aggressive. Smile and make eye contact.

8. Ask Good Questions

Part of being prepared and demonstrating your knowledge and interest in the industry and the position is asking great questions. Attend the interview with a list of 2-3 questions about the company and/or the position.

9. Follow-up

Follow-up the interview with a thank you that shows your appreciation for the employer’s time, showing your interest, and re-emphasizes your confidence in being the right candidate. While sending a thank-you email is good, try pre-purchasing a simple, business thank-you card and giving it to the reception once you’ve written in it after the interview.

10. Ask for Feedback

It takes, courage, but getting feedback from the interviewer can help you improve and gain confidence for the next interview. If you aren’t able to get feedback from the interviewer, take some time to reflect yourself. Ask yourself what you did well, and try to honestly evaluate what you can improve on and how. For more interview and job search information and support, visit your local WorkBC Employment Centre. Find the nearest location at WorkBCcentres.ca See you there!

news MLA questions costly B.C. recycling monopoly

F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Must Have Plan

POPHAM CALLS MMBC A ‘DUMMY COMPANY’ FOR MAJOR MULTINATIONALS ability of the project into question. She said the control of recycling should never have been outsourced to a large corporate outﬁt from Ontario, and that it represents a “profound failure.” Peter Kvarnstrom, chairman of the Canadian Newspaper Association, said there is no greater threat to the fragile newspaper industry than the new recycling policy. “It will cause a wave of damage and job losses across newsrooms everywhere, and affect many other businesses,” he said. “The government still hasn’t said what was so wrong with the current Blue Box program that they could only ﬁx it by hurting local businesses and costing hard-working people their jobs.” B.C. Liberal MLA Eric Foster, responding to Popham, said MMBC will reduce the amount of waste. The system “came forward as an opportunity to change people’s way of doing business and to put the onus on the original producers of the waste product or the recyclable product to reduce.” — Victoria Times Colonist

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ew Democrat MLA Lana Popham says a “dummy company” from Toronto is poised to start a nearmonopoly on recycling in B.C. A new recycling system under an organization called Multi-Materials B.C. is poised to begin operating in May, and Premier Christy Clark acknowledged recently that it has been a “bumpy road.” Popham told the legislature Monday it’s more than bumpy, it’s “impassable.” “They are setting up a system that’s dangerously close to a monopoly. This will inevitably lead to a decrease in quality of services and increase in price.” MMBC has signed contracts with municipalities that feature inadequate funding, business-killing penalties and a gag clause on reporting data, she added. The Saanich South MLA said the new agency also represents a hidden tax, in the form of a uniform new cost to big business, which will be passed on to consumers. The newspaper industry estimates MMBC will cost $10 million a year, and Popham said its refusal to participate throws the vi-

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

news

PHS defenders rally on Facebook

How to say farewell…with dignity, simplicity and aﬀordability…

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f the saying “A picture’s worth a thousand words” is to be taken at face value, the Facebook page dedicated to Friends of PHS Community Services can only be described as priceless. Hundreds of employees and supporters have gathered on the social network to share thoughts and photos of the work they do as part of the embattled organization. Some photos on the Facebook page show smiling staff members, and a Boston terrier, wearing T-shirts in support of Insite, North America’s ﬁrst legal supervised injection site. The page also includes several memes created in honour of the society, including one showing a group of grim-looking men in black carrying a cofﬁn with the words: “This is not a luxury. Support the Portland Hotel Society.” A second meme includes a photo of a needleexchange van with the words “Support the Portland Hotel Society. This ain’t no

limo” emblazoned across it. The limo reference is in response to a recent internal audit by Vancouver Coastal Health accusing the PHS board of directors of misspending, including more than $12,000 in limousine services. As reported in the Courier last week, the report was released a day after cofounder Mark Townsend announced his resignation, along with his wife and co-executive director Liz Evans, policy director Dan Small and human resources director Kerstin Steurzbecher. VCH chief medical health officer Dr. Patty Daly, B.C. Housing vice-president Craig Crawford and six others will replace the nine-member board, chaired by Jack Bibby. The report also noted that between 2009-2010 and 2011-2012 fiscal years, the board spent $69,000 in restaurants and $8,395 on spa services. Townsend, Evans, Small and Steurzbecher also spent $300,000 on flight, hotel and conference expenses. But despite the financial boondoggle the outgoing board is facing, PHS employees, clients and supporters have came out in droves online to support the organization. Between its creation Monday and Thursday morning, the Friends of the PHS Facebook page attracted 777 members. PHS employee Patrick Smith told

the Courier in an email, the reason so many front-line workers are publicly supporting Townsend and Evans is the culture of “love, kindness and compassion” they created. “But now, I work in a culture of fear — fear for the residents, fear of losing our programs, and fear of losing our employment,” Smith wrote. “I sincerely hope our new board and EDS can reconcile with the employees. But I cannot sit idly by and watch very kind and decent people like Mark, Liz, Kerstin and Dan be viliﬁed in the media.” Smith argued many of the accusations about expenses have been taken out of context. He noted one example is a psychologist who worked with a group of Downtown Eastside residents who had lost custody of their children to the Ministry of Children and Family Development. He noted the psychologist donated 20 sessions with the families in an effort to help them get their children home. As reward for her kindness, the PHS gave the therapist a gift certiﬁcate for $150 for a spa. Smith added on Wednesday he went to visit a woman in the hospital who had just been told she has three months to live. “As I was leaving her room, she said, ‘Tell Mark I have his back,’” Smith wrote. sthomas@vancourier.com twitter.com/sthomas10

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Kwan’s role dims NDP’s outrage

ew Democrat MLA Jenny Kwan got a snap unpaid leave of absence approved Monday, notwithstanding that up until now in the legislature, there has been no such thing. NDP Leader Adrian Dix said it was arranged Monday morning by new Opposition house leader Bruce Ralston and legislature clerk Craig James. While it’s fairly routine for MLAs to take paid leaves for things such as medical reasons, no one can remember anyone taking an unpaid leave for personal reasons. The distraught MLA announced the move Friday after paying back $35,000 worth of travel bills to Europe and Disneyland. She accompanied her then-husband, Dan Small, on the trips and an audit released last week showed that some of them were funded by the Portland Hotel Society, the non-profit housing society for which he worked. The wildly inappropriate travel bills were just a sampling of some outrageous spending uncovered by audits that led to the axing of the board and termination of the management last week. While work begins with a new team on rebuilding the society’s reputation for serving hard-pressed clients on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Kwan is now on the sidelines pondering the hit to her own name. She’s out $35,000 and losing $8,500 a month during the indefinite time-out. You have to wonder if she’d be better off just toughing it out, answering all the hard questions for a few days and hoping the storm subsides. Her defence to this point is that she was blindsided by how her ex billed the trip, and is paying all her costs back and more. She wouldn’t get any particularly rough treatment from the government if she rode it out. The B.C. Liberals are staying noticeably quiet on Kwan’s involvement. Rich Coleman, minister responsible for housing, took a pass on criticizing her. “She stepped up and said what her issues are.” And he downplayed the potential for any scandalous misuse of money in the past, saying the Portland Hotel Society started to raise flags only two years ago when it posted a deficit. An audit in 2002 raised some specific accounting problems that were dealt with and the outfit got a clean bill of health for the next several years. A deficit a couple of years ago was the trigger for some tough questions that eventually led to the audits that were completed last summer and made public last week. They outlined a culture of entitlement presided over by a lax board that led to limousine bills, travel jaunts to four-star hotels and cosy dealings between executive management and board directors. Coleman blamed it on “a bit of arrogance, and the comfort zone that management got into.” Even though the Liberals are lying low, there’s no question the Opposition took a hit when Kwan’s involvement came to light. Dix said the leave stems from significant personal issues and the caucus backs her decision. “I don’t think it’s correct to criticize people and say they have to take full accountability for things involving their spouses … She was misled by her husband; you can only imagine the seriousness of that.” Apart from Kwan’s difficulties, he said the audit scandal is negative and distracting. “I’m outraged at the results of the audit,” he said. The findings are “very damaging to the work we have to do together.” Caucus chairman Shane Simpson said the NDP caucus believes Kwan has been clear about her position and acted responsibly. He said she’s having a stressful time and needs a while to sort out some matters. “She didn’t want this to be a circus here,” he said. The most obvious impact of Kwan’s involvement on Monday was the remarkably mild way the Opposition handled the issue in question period. Simpson managed two circumspect questions about government oversight of non-government bodies such as the Portland Hotel Society. Coleman answered them and the house moved on to other issues. If the society wasn’t so friendly with the NDP, and if Kwan’s name hadn’t wound up in the middle of the spending outrage, it’s a safe bet the Opposition would have feasted on the outrages the audits exposed. lleyne@timescolonist.com

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F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

WE WANT YOUR OPINION Hate it or love it? We want to know... really, we do! Reach us by email: letters@vancourier.com

Captive whales a relic that must end

few days after a training boat for the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue was surrounded by up to 200 playful dolphins, I was on a beach in Maui with my partner watching a pod of humpback whales breaching on the horizon. It was quite the show, and I don’t mean the whales exclusively. Children yelled out with excitement, tourists in loud shirts stopped and fumbled for their cameras, and a father in a Speedo made a mad dash to alert his wife to the sunset show of airborne krill-swillers. It’s remarkable how human beings react to animals in their natural environment. Any of us lucky enough to have witnessed a herd of caribous, a murmuration of starlings, a mass murder of crows — to say nothing of a chorus line of humpback whales — knows the drill. There is the gut-level recognition that wild animals are most real, most affecting, in their natural environment. The humpback sighting brought to mind a memory of quite the opposite: a pitiful zoo at Stanley Park that once featured snakes, emus, monkeys, kangaroos and wolves. The penguins had a cement slide for their loweredexpectations recreation, but they were better off than the polar bears. I remember seeing the last sad, yellowed specimen “sunning” itself in the zoo’s brutalist-architecture fantasy of a polar bear home. Never once did I see the animal in motion (the enclosure is still visible just west of the Brockton Oval, as empty and timeworn as an Egyptian pharaoh’s sarcophagus). In the same time period, the nearby aquarium offered shows featuring dolphins and three killer whales, Hyak, Finna and Bjossa, that soaked delighted visitors with trained routines. The gift shop sold plush toy orcas and trinkets to commemorate the encounters between orcas and oglers, but the toys weren’t exact anatomical matches without the drooping dorsal fins of the penned performers. The orcas are no longer there, but Vancouver Aquarium’s rationale for keeping cetaceans in captivity, then as now, is that it’s educational for the young and promotes the values of animal conservation. Is there any actual evidence for this, or is this about lowbrow spectacle masquerading as natural history? Today, anyone with an HD television and the Discovery Channel is more likely to expose themselves and their kids to more marine biology, with better visuals, than anything offered by fish-tossing whale trainers. (And if tourists or locals want to see cetaceans up close in their natural habitat, there are whale tours galore on Vancouver Island.) On a recent CBC radio interview, Vancouver Aquarium CEO John Nightingale was asked if the aquarium would bring in more big marine mammals for its planned $100 million expansion. “The simple answer is likely,” he responded. If that’s the plan — and the aquarium has been sending out mixed messages on this — the arc of history is running in the opposite direction. The Stanley Park zoo was shuttered in 1996 after a referendum two years earlier in which a majority of voters chose to close the zoo and phase out the animal exhibits. The aquarium’s orca show ceased in 2001. And in August of last year, the U.S. government nixed a permit to the Georgia Aquarium and two other American aquariums to import 18 caught-in-the-wild beluga whales from Russia. The beluga is the last marine mammal with big box office for the remaining Sea Worlds and aquatic exhibits. There is little doubt we will hear all kinds of public relations talk about the need for their continued capture and choreographing, in spite of the abysmal record of premature deaths of whales in captivity. But the effort is failing to convince, because growing numbers of people believe it is terrifically cruel to condemn sentient, ocean-roaming beings to concrete tanks for life, just for the sake of Homo sap’s amusement and ticket sales. There is little doubt there are employees of the Vancouver Aquarium who love their jobs and the animals, too. The organization does valuable work. But the practice of cetacean captivity is as tired and tragic as the last mangy, ’90s-era polar bear of the Stanley Park Zoo — and it is destined to go the way of cock-fighting, bull-baiting, slave trading and witch burning. It’s just a matter of enough people getting the memo. geoffolson.com

GEOFF OLSON

THE VANCOUVER COURIER GOT GAME

To the editor: Re: “Vancouver b-ballers exit provincial championships with heads held high,” March 21. Thank you Vancouver Courier for posting the scores and stories from the Single A and Double AA B.C. boys basketball ﬁnals in March. The players, coaches, supporters and families at St. Patrick Regional, Notre Dame Regional and West Point Grey Academy appreciate the coverage this year. We’d like to see more local high school success stories showing the young achievers in our community. Keep up the good work! Doug Anderson, Vancouver

SEATTLE TRAVEL STORY WAS ON THE WRONG TRACK

To the editor: Re: “Carless in Seattle,” March 21. Interesting column as far as sightseeing is concerned. However the writer is somewhat geography-challenged. The Se-

photo Vision Quest

York House Tigers player Manpreet Deol protects the ball in a ﬁrst round game against Rick Hansen secondary in the girls AA provincial championship earlier this month. attle train station is not “just a few blocks away from the Fairmont Olympic Hotel” but a good 15 blocks as it is by the two stadiums and the International Village. Luckily the station for the Central Link LRT (fancy name for a big modern tramway) at the International Village is only a few short blocks —uphill — from the Amtrak King Street station. The LRT goes all the way to the Westlake station, near the Fairmont Hotel.

Though anyone foolish enough to stay at that overly expensive hotel would likely take a cab. Four hours to cover about 225 km by train is not “fast” at all being twice the times it takes by car. Osaka to Tokyo (515 km) takes two and a half hours by the Nozomi Shinkansen [bullet train] and three hours by the Hikari Shinkansen that stops more often.

J.L. Brussac, Coquitlam

ON YOUR MIND ONLINE COURIER STORY: “Salon butts up against complaints,” March 24. Ken Paquette @kenpaquette: Tempest in a teapot. Most people I know have an anus. Have a conversation with your kids, people. COURIER COLUMN: “Portland Hotel Society expenditures are mind-boggling,” March 24. Mooha: Skipped over in the criticism and defense of Ms. Kwan is that even IF she paid back her share of the trip, why no questions about why HIS share should have been paid in the first place? Mark Eddy: Who knows how much, if anything, that she knew. My partner and I have a joint bank account, but also maintain separate personal accounts. We also share credit cards and have personal ones. That’s what most couples do nowadays, I’m told. It works for us. I have NO idea what she does with her separate finances, and I don’t really feel it’s my business to ask. And so I will give Kwan the benefit of the doubt on that. When it comes right down to it, no one but her and her ex will ever know the real truth. There’s no point in speculating. What angers me about what’s in the media around this scandal is that so much of the discussion has been about Kwan. I suppose that’s because she’s the only one connected remotely to the story that has been honest enough to face the press. The blame absolutely belongs to the PHS directors, and more especially, with the minister in charge of this agency. From what I can see, no proper supervision or review has been ongoing with PHS for many years. No wonder this abuse was allowed to continue for as long as it has. The media is allowing the real snakes to slither away while roasting Kwan over this, to no real purpose. I’m not a big fan of the way she does her political business, but that’s irrelevant here. Let’s get after the minister and the directors in the media. I know none of this is probably strictly illegal (heaven knows, 98 per cent of the private and public sector executives in B.C. would be in jail if it was), but it’s more than a little immoral, and that calls for holding the feet of the people in charge to the fire… a VERY hot fire. Stop chasing red herrings. Follow us on Facebook: The VancouverCourierNewspaper and Twitter: @VanCourierNews

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Letters may be edited by the Courier for reasons of legality, taste, brevity and clarity. To be considered for publication, they must be less than 300 words, signed and include the writer’s full name (no

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

Best of our Vancouver Special

Neighbourhood Series

Vancouver – city of stories 14-MONTH PROJECT COMES TO AN END

BARRY LINK Editor

t began as a question: What if we dedicated one print issue every two weeks to a different neighbourhood and wrote about it in detail. Find the stories that make that community unique and interesting among the city’s more than two dozen formally identified neigbhbourhoods. The question became a challenge, and the challenge became the Vancouver Special neighbourhood series, which is wrapping up after 14 months. To the best of my knowledge, no news organization has done a project of the scope and breadth of Vancouver Special, and I can see why. It was a lot of work. It was also worth it. We confirmed the notion that Vancouverites like to read stories about their own neighbourhoods. We discovered they also like to read stories about the city’s other neighbourhoods, whether east side, west side, north or south. As with many of our readers, none of us knew what we would find when we started

our journey. I wasn’t expecting rabbit agility enthusiasts in Dunbar. Or an activist turned knitter and mom in Hastings-Sunrise. A Musqueam hip hop artist and mother who raps in the Musqueam dialect. An Arbutus Ridge barber who plays the accordion in his shop between clients. A Downtown Eastside drug addict whose life was saved by his dog. In a city beset with well-documented problems, from social isolation to unaffordable housing, we found that many Vancouverites work hard to make a difference. Setting up coffee spots in trafﬁc circles in Mount Pleasant. Leading bell ringers in Shaughnessy. Helping troubled kids ﬁnd focus in Renfrew-Collingwood through paddling and making lonely newcomers in Victoria-Fraserview feel at home. Organizing community dinners in Marpole. Young foodies starting innovative fusion restaurants in Chinatown and longtime hash slingers maintaining British tradition in Point Grey. What did we learn the most? That Vancouver is indeed special. But then, we knew that going in. ••• As part of our wrap-up, we asked our staff writers for their favourite stories from the past 14 months. We’re reprinting those stories in this edition in the following pages. We asked photography editor Dan Toulgoet for his favourite photos from the series: you can see his selections on page 1 and the facing page here. (Also see vancourier.com for a gallery of his Vancouver Special photos.)

Neighbourhood numbers 0 19 78 25 137

NUMBER OF GAS STATIONS IN GASTOWN OR MCDONALD’S RESTAURANTS IN MOUNT PLEASANT. NUMBER OF LANGUAGES SPOKEN BY STAFF AT COLLINGWOOD NEIGHBOURHOOD HOUSE.

IN KILOMETRES, THE COMBINED LENGTH OF TRAILS RUNNING THROUGH PACIFIC SPIRIT PARK. PERCENTAGE OF MARPOLE’S WATERFRONT THAT’S PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE. THE LENGTH IN METRES OF KITSILANO POOL.

1000

62 690 1 996 5

TOTAL NUMBER OF SEATS AVAILABLE AT FLOATA SEAFOOD RESTAURANT IN CHINATOWN NUMBER OF STEPS OF THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE INSIDE THE THREE-STOREY CARNEGIE CENTRE. AVERAGE NUMBER OF KIDS TREATED EACH DAY AT B.C. CHILDRENS HOSPITAL IN SOUTH CAMBIE. NUMBER OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES LOCATED DIRECTLY ABOVE A FIRE STATION. THE NUMBER OF NAMES ADDED TO THE AIDS MEMORIAL AT SUNSET BEACH. THE CIRCUMFERENCE, IN METRES, OF THE LARGEST GIANT SEQUOIA TREE ON THE CAMBIE STREET MEDIAN NEAR KING EDWARD.

PHOTOS OPPOSITE: 1,3,4,5 DAN TOULGOET 2 REBECCA BLISSETT

PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Best of our Neighbourhood Series

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Best of our Neighbourhood Series Hastings-Sunrise

Vancouver activist knits past with family life MIKE HOWELL Staff Writer

As a reporter for more than 20 years, I’ve written many stories about many people. Often, I don’t get a chance to track them down years later and ﬁnd out whatever happened to them. I did this with Anna Hunter and I thought my story gave readers a different perspective of the one-time Anti-Poverty Committee member, who is now a mom running a small business in Hastings-Sunrise. ••• How bad is Anna Hunter? Well, she’s so bad that she actually named her store Baaad Anna’s. No, that’s not a typographical error. Yes, three A’s in bad. Now say it again — baaad. Kind of sounds like a bleating sheep, right? And when you discover Hunter operates a yarn store along a busy strip in the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood, the name makes sense. It’s kind of funny, too. Except, Hunter will tell you, there’s a double meaning to it. Anna Hunter is the same Anna Hunter who once led the Anti-Poverty Committee in protests, sit-ins and actions that had her arrested several times in the run-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics. She was the one with a megaphone, rallying members of the committee to question why Vancouver needed to host an expensive international event when so many people were homeless. Hunter and friends also took their ﬁght to then-mayor Sam Sullivan and his so-called project civil city plan to reduce homelessness, the open drug market and public disorder by 2010. They called his plan a war on the poor. One of the members even doused Sullivan with a full pitcher of Coke during an NPA mayoral nomination meeting at a downtown hotel. So, yes — bad. But that was then. Hunter, who has a degree in international development and is the daughter of former Olympian ski racer “Jungle” Jim Hunter, is now 34 and married with two young boys.

She rents the main floor of a house close to her store, which she opened four years ago this month with her carpenter husband. It’s an inviting space, with big comfortable chairs up front and toys on the floor for children of parents who participate in knitting classes. It’s the only yarn store in Hastings-Sunrise. But as it says on the store’s awning, which features images of two pirate-like sheep, it’s “not your mama’s yarn store.” “I wanted a store that was edgy and maybe doing things a little bit differently and also reflective of who I am as a person and my politics,” said Hunter from her store in the 2600-block of East Hastings. “It’s a great name and the logo is great but spelling Baaad Anna’s out on the phone though is a total pain in the ass.” Hunter understands why people might get a laugh out of the activist-turned-knitter tale, but she has a couple of things to say about that. First, she learned how to knit when she was a live-in nanny many years ago in Switzerland. Second, she’s been knitting ever since, even in the courtroom while she watched a friend get sentenced for dousing Sullivan with Coke. Her days with the Anti-Poverty Committee, she said, were one part of her life and she doesn’t want to be defined solely by that period. But if you think she’s softened on the issues of housing and poverty, you would be wrong. Gentrification, the city’s proposed Grandview-Woodland community plan, housing affordability and keeping small businesses alive are all on her radar. “I don’t have the same opportunity or privilege to fight against cops to defend a building for homeless people,” she said, referring to raising her boys, aged one and three. “But meeting with my neighbours and with other business owners and with other moms and other parents — that’s more of what it looks like for me right now.” Added Hunter: “I guess the thought of sitting in jail when my kids need me at home — that doesn’t make sense for me right now. Two years from now, it might be a totally different story.” mhowell@vancourier.com

F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Best of our Neighbourhood Series Downtown Eastside:

Chico and the man whose life he saved SANDRA THOMAS

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Love Your Smile!

Staff Writer

The Downtown Eastside is a neighbourhood that almost wasn’t covered by the Courier due to a debate about whether it’s an ofﬁcial standalone community or made up from parts of other areas we had already covered. Regardless, it turned out to be my favourite neighbourhood of the entire series so it should be of no surprise my pick for best-of is a story about a little dog that helps his owner stay clean and deal with depression. “Chico and the man who saved him” is about the unlikely friendship between resident Rob Dumas, who lives in a lowincome apartment building in the Downtown Eastside, and a little shih tzu with a big attitude. Walking down East Hastings Street with Chico and Dumas on a sunny afternoon, it was quickly apparent the little dog also brightens the lives of many of the residents and regulars to the neighbourhood. ••• “Nice dog, man.” “Hi Chico. He’s so cute with his little coat on.” “I love that dog Chico.” It’s hard to walk more than a few steps along East Hastings Street without at least one person stopping Rob Dumas to compliment him on the multi-coloured shih tzu wandering along the sidewalk at his feet. On a street notorious for its open-air drug dealing, and sometimes public intoxication, the ﬂuffy brown and white dog got a smile or a pat from many passersby on a recent sunny Tuesday afternoon in the Downtown Eastside. And the shih tzu took it all in stride, sometimes gracing a man or woman with a quick stop as if to say hello. Sometimes not. “Chico has attitude,” explained Dumas. “But he makes people smile.” The person Chico brings the greatest joy to is Dumas, who admits he was not in a good place a year ago, just months before buying the dog off a fellow tenant in Tellier Tower on East Hastings Street.

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photo Rebecca Blissett

Rob Dumas says when he ﬁrst saw Chico, he knew they needed each other. “He saved me and in return I promised him I would never abandon him.” Dumas still feels the pain of his girlfriend’s death a year ago, which prompted him to give up drugs. He lost his job around the same time. “I was so depressed,” said Dumas. “I lost my job, I was sad about my girlfriend and I had to give up all my friends because I was trying to stay clean. Chico came at the right time in my life.” Chico had belonged to a man who gave the dog away to another tenant in their building because he was heading to jail. Not long after Dumas saw the mop-topped shih tzu and offered the new owner “a couple of bucks” for him. Man and dog have been inseparable ever since. “I knew when I saw him that we needed each other. He saved me and in return I promised him I would never abandon him,” said Dumas, who’s taking part in a methadone program. “That means I can’t steal or do drugs because I might go to jail and I can’t leave him.” Dumas moved to Vancouver from Montreal in the 1990s to get away from the drug scene there. He’s lived in Tellier Tower for one year. He says Chico is the reason he gets so

much exercise these days, whether he wants it or not. Their ﬁrst walk of the day is at about 9 a.m., an activity they’ll repeat every three to four hours of every day. If it’s raining, Dumas carries Chico to a covered grassy area in Chinatown just behind his building. “Chico doesn’t like the rain,” said Dumas. “He’s also taught me a lot about patience, something I’ve never had before. Despite his dislike for inclement weather, on Tuesday Chico sported a plaid raincoat, one of four randomly given to Dumas. He noted one was offered by a complete stranger who called out to him on the street. “She said, ‘Sir, sir, here’s a coat for your dog,’ for no reason,” said Dumas. “He likes his coats.” He described Chico as “self conscious,” adding the dog won’t eat if anyone’s watching. “When I had him shaved in the summer he didn’t talk to me for four days,” said Dumas, laughing. “And sometimes when I call him he just stays where he is and stands his ground. But I love him for that.” sthomas@vancourier.com twitter.com/sthomas10

Downtown Vancouver Bus Service Review Last summer, TransLink and the City of Vancouver reviewed the existing bus network and asked the public to identify opportunities to improve bus service downtown. We evaluated dozens of route alternatives and now we are sharing the most promising design concepts with you. Come to an open house or provide your feedback online by April 21, 2014 at translink.ca/downtownbusreview.

Open House Dates: Saturday, April 5, 11 am – 2 pm: West End Community Centre Wednesday, April 9, 3 pm - 6 pm: Woodwards – Atrium Thursday, April 10, 3 pm - 6 pm: Roundhouse Community Centre – Great Hall Saturday, April 12, 11 am - 2 pm: Vancouver Public Library Central Branch – Atrium

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

Apply for a grant of up to $1,000 for projects that make Vancouver greener or more connected and engaged. Deadline is April 7.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

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Best of our Neighbourhood Series South Cambie:

Flamenco bar serves up funny business

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My favourite Vancouver Special story to write was about the weekly comedy night at Kino Café. Not only did it give me

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“I had Graham Clark coming in here years ago doing three-minute sets and he went on to win the Canadian top comic award and $25,000 at Yuk Yuks,” said Allen. “Even after that, he would still come in here and work on new material.” Ivan Decker, who was among the performers at the packed sixth anniversary party in January, is another rising star in comedy circles who likes to fine-tune his act there. “Regardless of how high up you might get in comedy, you’re still going to need rooms like the Kino,” said Decker, a regular on the CBC Radio show The Debaters who is headlining later this month at the Comedy Mix. “Open mike rooms are very important for people who make their livings as comedians because you have to have them to practice your craft. There is no way to tell if a joke is good or not unless you tell it in front of an audience.” The clean-cut 27-year-old, who recently quit his day job at Science World to do comedy full-time, says starting out in stand-up is no laughing matter. “It’s very intimidating as a new comic. The idea of deciding that you want to go onstage is a hard enough battle and then there is the task of actually getting booked on a show.” afleming@vancourier.com twitter.com/flematic

$ .....................................

and so new comics couldn’t get a foot in the door.” After noticing the Cambie Village venue, which most nights of the week hosts live flamenco music and dance performances, tended to be a little empty on Tuesdays, he and fellow funnyman Byron Bertram (himself best known for playing a helpless husband in a NyQuil cold medicine ad) asked about using the place. Six years later, hundreds of different people — mostly male, mostly young — have since stepped up to the microphone at Komedy at Kino and it has become a popular weekly destination for new and established comics alike. It offers veterans a chance to work on new material in a more forgiving environment than traditional comedy clubs as well as giving rookies their first shot on stage in shorter sets lasting just three minutes long. “While there is always a professional who is the headliner, it’s also for people who want to try doing standup for the very first time — a lot of people want to try it at least once just to say ‘I did it’ — and then there are people who want to see if they have the knack for it. A lot of people think they can just go up there and talk like they normally talk to their friends but it doesn’t work like that.” Allen, 52, added he is particularly proud when he sees Kino comics move on to bigger things.

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able on our website. Komedy at Kino is also unique in the sense the performers are an interesting mix of established veterans and inexperienced rookies, not unlike the current roster of the Vancouver Canucks. ••• A lot of stand-up comedians owe their first break to Steve Allen. No, not the host of The Tonight Show before Johnny Carson took over, but rather a man with the same name who is the host of Vancouver’s oldest comedy room. The story behind it even sounds like the set-up for a joke. An actor walks into a flamenco bar and asks to start a comedy night, but this is precisely what happened when Allen approached the owners of the Kino Cafe Flamenco and Tapas Bar on Cambie Street in 2007. He had recently returned home after several years of living in Los Angeles, a city he moved to because of a small recurring role on The X-Files (under the stage name Willy Ross, he is best known for playing the guy who shot Cancer Man) and he headed south when the show relocated in 1998. He tried breaking into the L.A. comedy scene and discovered firsthand how tough it is to make a name for yourself. “I wanted to find a userfriendly room where newer comics can learn the trade,” said Allen. “All the other comedy rooms just seemed to be guys who knew guys

Mastro

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chance to shake the hand of the man who shot the evil Cancer Man from The X-Files but it also provided an excuse to check out the local live comedy scene and shoot a video of their sixth anniversary party that’s avail-

photo Jason Lang

Steve Allen hosts open mic comedy nights every Tuesday at the Kino Cafe on Cambie Street featuring new and established comics alike.

F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A15

Best of our Neighbourhood Series Hastings-Sunrise

Master Chef serves up cheap food with side of Chinese poetry CHARMS APLENTY AT UNPOLISHED EAST HASTINGS DINER CHERYL ROSSI Staff writer

Entering Master Chef Cafe is a refreshing step back in time in a city where developers have bulldozed too many beloved haunts and replaced them with tall, characterless concrete and glass structures. Even more charming than the cafe’s decades-old décor and disorganized paraphernalia are Master Chef’s co-owners, octogenarian couple May and Tony Fung, who run their humble business with pride, providing a meeting spot for Hastings-Sunrise residents of various ethnic backgrounds and means. In this increasingly unaffordable city it’s easy to focus on who’s doing better than whom. It was a treat to meet Tony, who’s so pleased with what he has. ••• When a trio slides into a red vinyl booth at Master Chef Cafe for a late lunch on a sweltering July afternoon, Tony Fung brings icy water to the table in a reused plastic juice container. When he delivers to the table a $1.75 plate of “May’s world famous freshly cut fries,” according to the worn paper menu, he jabs his ﬁnger at them and proclaims, “Cooked by order.” Tony and May Fung, a Chinese-Canadian couple, own and operate Master Chef at 2481 East Hastings St. Tony serves and May cooks. Both are in their 80s. When the Courier initially asks Tony a question, he replies: “English? Sorry.” But when he realizes he’s talking writer to writer, Tony pulls out the honorary credential he received last year, a plaque for World Chinese Art Leadership from the China Artists Association in Beijing. When he’s not taking orders, chatting with friends or reading his mail with a magnifying glass, Fung is writing classical Chinese poetry in his truly old-school diner where red vinyl stools line a long lunch counter and wood panelling covers the walls. He says he writes about the economy,

photo Rebecca Blissett

May and Tony Fung took over Master Chef Cafe on East Hastings from a friend in 1993. The no-frills diner is a favourite among locals with low prices and plenty of charm. culture and politics. His work, photo and biographical information have been published in China. But it’s not something he talks about much with the Chinese community in Vancouver. Instead he focuses on the day-to-day. “I am a good worker and hard worker and good for the social people,” he says. Tony hails from Canton, China, where he taught elementary school teachers. Sick of the politics, he moved to Hong Kong. He and May married in 1950 and in 1966 they immigrated to Canada with the ﬁrst three of their four children. Tony says he only studied English for one year in 1967, two hours a day in a church in Chinatown. He speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, a Chinese dialect and Spanish. He and May owned a restaurant in Edge-

mont Village in North Vancouver from 1970 to 1990, when their landlord reclaimed the space. “I retired for two years and then my wife wanted to work,” he says of his May, who sometimes wears a white cook’s cap that’s so tattered you can see tufts of black hair on top. They took over Master Chef Cafe from a friend in 1993. “I still want to work because I like to make the friendship,” Tony says. He’s proud their prices are affordable to everyone, that he doesn’t discriminate based on class and that he makes regulars feel important by anticipating their orders. “I’m doing my good job and taking the life resources,” he says. “I don’t care the people get rich.” Tea and toast costs $2, a cheeseburger de-

luxe and fries $4 and a roast turkey dinner with cranberry sauce $9.50. Tony feels fortunate for his family, his health, his ability to make a living and his friendships. One of his sons has a masters of business administration and works in the ﬁnancial world in Hong Kong. His other son is a mechanic in the United States. One daughter received her teaching degree from Simon Fraser University and his other daughter works in an automotive body shop. Portuguese, Italian and Croatian men visit the diner and chat with Tony every day. “I get a life no trouble,” Tony says. “All the people no ﬁght, all the friendship, how good, how excellent.” crossi@vancourier.com twitter.com/Cheryl_Rossi

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A16

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

Buy more, save BIG

when you stock up on the items you use most!

All Week Long - Friday thru Thursday Large Size

Kraft Salad Dressings Assorted varieties. 414 to 475 mL.

770 to 900 g. Or Pizza Pockets 8’s. Assorted varieties.

166 Each when you buy 3 or more

Assorted varieties. 454 g.

Minute Maid Juices

Knorr Sidekicks

200 Each when you buy 4 or more

Each when you buy 4 or more

FRIDAY

MARCH

Each when you buy 8 or more

CLUB PRICE

Palmolive Dish Liquid

Assorted varieties. 182 to 300 g.

Assorted varieties. 739 mL.

199

150 Each when you buy 2 or more

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29 30

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each steak

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SUNDAY

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f 4! Package o

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Each when you buy 3 or more

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Assorted varieties. 111 to 167 g.

Christie Cookies

Assorted varieties. 650 g.

250

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Yoplait Source Yogourt

Assorted varieties. 218 to 650 mL.

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Prices effective at all British Columbia Safeway stores Friday, March 28 through Thursday, April 3, 2014 only. We reserve the right to limit sales to retail quantities. Some items may not be available at all stores. All items while stocks last. Actual items may vary slightly from illustrations. Some illustrations are serving suggestions only. Advertised prices do not include GST. ®™ Trademarks of AIR MILES International Trading B.V. Used under license by LoyaltyOne, Co. and Safeway. Extreme Specials are prices that are so low they are limited to a one time purchase to Safeway Club Card Members within a household. Each household can purchase the limited items one time during the effective dates. A household is deﬁned by all Safeway Club Cards that are linked by the same address and phone number. Each household can purchase the EXTREME SPECIALS during the speciﬁed advertisement dates. For purchases over the household limits, regular pricing applies to overlimit purchases. On BUY ONE GET ONE FREE items, both items must be purchased. Lowest priced item is then free. Online and in-store prices, discounts, and offers may differ.

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F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A17

Best of our Neighbourhood Series Renfrew-Collingwood

Building confidence one paddle at a time JENNIFER THUNCHER Contributing writer

The story “Building conﬁdence one paddle at a time” impacted me on a personal level more than most. I attended one of the group’s meetings and sat as they shared a meal. The whole vibe of the night was relaxed and family-oriented. Children raced around and members chatted easily. The youth interviewed were thoughtful in their answers and their candour was touching. I think of them often and wonder how they are doing and where they are rowing next. It also helps that it is a story based on beautiful canoes and the outdoors. What is not to love? ••• Acceptance and family are the words members of the RenfrewCollingwood Aboriginal Youth Canoe Club (RCAYCC) use most often to describe their group. The club, which formed in 2000, focuses on Vancouver First Nations youth from age 10 to 29, but anyone can join. When the Courier recently paid a visit to the club at Collingwood Neighbourhood House, the group

photo Rebecca Blissett

Renfrew-Collingwood Aboriginal Canoe Club member Tanner Mitchell, 14, says he loves the scenery when he’s out on the water. had just returned from a three-day camping trip and “paddle” on Harrison Lake. According the group’s coordinator Emanuela Sheena, each year close to 100 youth access the program. On this night there are a dozen or so members in attendance. Youth worker Eileen Tann, 26, sits cross-legged on the ﬂoor while group members form a loose circle around her. Tann leads a “share” about highlights and lowlights of the recent trip. There is laughter

about a failed attempt to hold down a tarp with a rock thrown over a tree branch and grunted complaints about rain-soaked camping gear. Each paddle and land activity is planned and run entirely by the youth. Tann said the leaders are there to guide, not control. In addition to canoeing, activities have included drum making, ﬁrst aid and résumé workshops as well as trips around the province to meet with elders and youth from other

Nations. This night, the group discusses a possible rock-climbing excursion suggested by member. Stephen Cain, 23. “We have a lot of input which is crucial to any youth program,” he said. Tann agrees the expectation that each member will contribute ideas and energy to the group is a big part of its success. “Building conﬁdence,” she said, “involves pushing them to realize they can do more than they think they can.” Tann joined the club eight years ago as a teen mom of two. She said at the time she thought her path in life was set. “People tell you once you are a teen mom that is all you will ever be,” said Tann. She credits Sheena for pushing her to go to college to become a youth worker. Colten Quigley, 14, who said he was scared to go out in the canoe until Sheena encouraged him, also credits the group for fostering unconditional acceptance. “I am not First Nations and they accepted me,” he said. After the share, the group moves around a large table where Sheena dishes out huge helpings of lasagna and freshly tossed spinach salad. Members talk and laugh between

mouthfuls. Once finished eating, children get down and run in circles around the table. Tann said one of the differences with this group is that children of participants are welcome, reducing stress over childcare and allowing members to “role model healthy parenting” for each other. Member Verna Smith’s six-yearold son Douglas giggles as he pushes another boy around the room in a chair. Smith, 23, said the group is a family. “If there is a problem, we solve it together,” she said. This is the first year in the group for 14-year-old Tanner Mitchell. He said he likes “everything” about the group. He plans to continue canoeing indefinitely because he loves the scenery out on the water, but he also has many ideas about what else he could do with his life, “I might be a youth worker… or make good food as a chef, or maybe be a mechanic,” he said. Tanner’s mom Tania Mitchell said she has been happy to see her son’s confidence improve through the cultural pride the group instills. “I can see he will grow into the man I want him to be,” she said. thuncher@shaw.ca

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A18

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

Best of our Neighbourhood Series Kennsington-Cedar Cottage

Cohousing coming to the neighbourhood

NAOIBH O’CONNOR Staff writer

My favourite story that I covered during the Vancouver Special neighbourhood series was about the cohousing complex that’s going to be built at East 33rd Avenue near Argyle Street. It attracted my attention because many people, including me, wonder what it will be like to live in a development that demands such cooperation and interaction among its inhabitants. It will be fascinating to follow the story through the years and see if their optimism about living under these conditions is matched by reality. ••• Ericka Stephens-Rennie was raised in smalltown Rossland, B.C. “That life was really appealing to me — the idea that you knew all your neighbours,” she told the Courier. “I grew up sharing toys with my neighbours. My dad shared tools with the neighbours. Canning in the summertime and neighbourhood block parties were a reality of my life. I’ve always lived in big cities since moving away from home and was looking at a way to establish that again.” The 29-year-old has ﬁgured out how to return to small-town living in KensingtonCedar Cottage, where Vancouver’s ﬁrst cohousing community will be built. Last March, the city approved a rezoning

rendering courtesy of Ankenman Marchand

Last March, the city approved a rezoning proposal to allow for the cohousing complex to be constructed on three properties on East 33rd Avenue.

proposal to allow for the cohousing complex to be constructed on three properties on East 33rd Avenue near Argyle Street. Vancouver Cohousing appealed to Stephens-Rennie, in particular, because of neighbourhood amenities, including the Kensington Community Centre, Kensington Park, shops and restaurants on Kingsway and Victoria, and proximity to schools and transit on 33rd, Victoria and Knight. “Overall, we are very excited to get back to living in the neighbourhood — my hus-

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band and I rented in the area when we first moved to Vancouver two years ago — and to getting to know our neighbours better both within the cohousing and within the broader neighbourhood,” she said. The cohousing complex will include one level of underground parking and five buildings ranging from two to three storeys above grade. The four residential buildings will be separated from each other, but have a common courtyard in the centre, and there will be a 6,510-square-foot common house at the back of the property to encourage and promote interaction between residents. The 31 residential units range from studios to three-bedrooms. They will each have their own kitchen, living and dining rooms, while the common house will have a large kitchen and dining room, laundry facilities, a multipurpose room, a children’s playroom, two guestrooms, meditation space and an office with room for about six desks. There will also be a common deck and garden space outside. Price per unit is expected to be approximately $550 a square foot on average. While figures haven’t been finalized, that could translate to anywhere between $280,000 for a small studio to $600,000 for a threebedroom, all with access to common space. Stephens-Rennie works for the federal

government, but is on maternity leave with her six-month-old son Jacob. Her husband Andrew works for the Anglican Church, largely from home, and plans to use the complex’s common office space. “It’s that common amenity space that really facilitates, in the long term, much more affordable housing,” Stephens-Rennie said. Her family is considering sharing a car with another family in the complex and they’re looking forward to the possibility of help with childcare. Twenty-eight family groups have bought shares in the Vancouver Cohousing development company at this point. Regulations prohibit selling units until the city approves a development permit. “Ultimately it will be the shareholders that will make a recommendation to the company to sell the units in a particular way and so we’ll market to our own shareholders first,” Stephens-Rennie said. “For [my family], it’s about the value of knowing your neighbours, having a sharing economy at your fingertips and the ability to cut down on expenses…. All those things that make life a bit smoother and easier on a daily basis when you know not just two of your neighbours, but 30 of them.” noconnor@vancourier.com twitter.com/naoibh

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F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Proud sponsors of the Whistler Cup

SPECIAL FEATURE

WHISTLER CUP

IS WHERE SPEED AND SPIRIT MEET

THE FUTURE OF RACING

APRIL 4-6, 2014

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Rio Tinto Alcan is once again proud to be the Title Sponsor of the Whistler Cup. We extend a very warm welcome to our international ski family, including competing athletes, their families, coaches, FIS and participating ski federations, volunteers, sponsors, event partners and guests from across Canada and around the world. Together, we share a strong commitment to the future of alpine skiing.

A19

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

PROUD SPONSOR OF THE 2014 WHISTLER CUP.

Proud sponsors of the Whistler Cup

A message from Whistler Cup Chairman, Wayne Holm JIM DAVIE PHOTOGRAPHY

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A21

22 years young, the Whistler Cup is the highlight of the competitive ski season for many young racers around the world. The event was conceived of by Max Meier, the parent of a young Whistler ski racer. He and the Whistler Mountain Ski Club Program Director at the time, Joze Sparovec, were inspired to bring an international juvenile ski race to Canada after attending the famed “Trofeo Topolino” in Italy. With the help of the third founder, Jim Yeates, the inaugural Whistler Cup was held in 1993 and has grown in stature and influence.

The Parade of Nations: The Heart of the Cup Somewhat less elaborate than the Sochi Opening Ceremonies – by about $10 million – the Whistler Cup Parade of Nations is, nonetheless, an eye-catching event as it winds through the streets of Whistler. It is not just the kids’ exultant faces as they wave their nation’s flag. It is a combination of what the parade heralds for

the future: great skiers practicing for the day when they may lead their country delegation into an Olympic stadium. The Team Canada athletes wave from their perch on Whistler’s fire trucks and assorted siblings tag along, looking forward to the day when they may get to ride as official competitors in the Whistler Cup.

During the Sochi Olympics, I was reminded of how closely the events of the Whistler Cup are echoed on the world stage when American Mikaela Shiffrin brought home a gold medal in the women’s slalom. Shiffrin was a star of the 2009 Whistler Cup, giving us an Olympic preview only five years ago - right here in Whistler. And none of this would be possible without the hundreds of Whistler Cup volunteers and the dedicated Corporate Partners. It is such a joy to see it come together every year. I cannot thank you enough for all that you contribute. Regards, Wayne Holm

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

Proud sponsors of the Whistler Cup

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F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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GOT ARTS? 604-738-1411 | listings@vancourier.com

OURPICKS MARCH 28 - APRIL 1, 2014

1 2 3 4

LONGWAVE, Lionel Baier’s screwball comedy about two mismatched Swiss radio reporters who chance upon Portugal’s 1974 revolution is at the Cinematheque as part of DIVERCINÉ 2014. The annual series of acclaimed and award-winning French-language features from Africa, Asia, Europe and Canada screens March 28 to April 2. Details at thecinematheque.ca.

Feel more soulful and rhythmic than your Dockers, breathable fabrics and sensible shoes suggest at the Shooting Stars Foundation’s annual MOTOWN MELTDOWN fundraiser, March 29 at the Commodore Ballroom. August, Joanie Bye, Leora Cashe, Tom Landa, ALI MILNER, Marcus Moseley, Dawn Pemberton and someone from the Real Housewives of Vancouver, among others, lend their vocal chops to a slew of R&B classics in support of direct service AIDS agencies. Tickets at Highlife Records and all Ticketmaster outlets.

Local roots phenom STEVE DAWSON celebrates the launch of his new stripped-down solo album RATTLESNAKE CAGE, which was apparently recorded with a single vintage tube microphone rescued from the ceiling rafters of an old theatre in Detroit. How’s that for street cred? Hear for yourself when DAWSON performs at St. James Hall March 30. Tickets at Highlife Records, Rufus’ Guitar Shop and roguefolk.bc.ca. This one’s going be a goodie. ADAM GRANDUCIEL’s Philadelphia-based music project THE WAR ON DRUGS drops by the Biltmore March 29 for a sold-out show in support of its latest slab of hazy, hypnotic guitar-powered goodness, LOST IN A DREAM. White Laces open. It’s an early show. Details at biltmorecabaret.com. For video and web content, scan page using the Layar app.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

Best of our Neighbourhood Series

WEDNESDAY APRIL 2 7:30PM

Vids captured quirky side of Vancouver MICHAEL KISSINGER Staff writer

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n the initial planning of our Vancouver Special neighbourhood series, I volunteered, or perhaps was strongly coerced by my editor, to make a video for each neighbourhood we covered. The criteria was wide-open — it could be a person, an issue, a business — as long as it was interesting, if not unusual, and captured a slice of life or ﬂavour of the neighbourood. For the videos, I tended to favour an element of quirkiness and preferred to let the subjects do the talking. By far the most watched video in the series was on Musqeaum hip hop artist Christie Lee Charles, who even freestyled for the camera. Another favourite was the Vancouver Rabbit Agility Club. Ringleader Olga Betts set up an obstacle course in her Dunbar front yard and put her leaping lapins through their paces for me. “They’re like little horses,” she said. And of course, I have to mention the time I spent with pro wrestler the Honky Tonk Kid who dressed up in full wrestling regalia and took me through the West End in search of the best donair he’s ever eaten. In the end it was a journey of self-discovery, plus it inspired the gem of a headline “Fresh Prince of Donair.” mkissinger@vancourier.com

photo Jason Lang

To view videos, go to vancourier.com/ entertainment or scan page using the Layar app.

arts&entertainment

10questions:Columnisttravels totheheartofchocolateness MICHAEL KISSINGER Staff writer

he Courier’s Sweet Spot columnist Eagranie Yuh is a bit of a chocolate aficionado. Yuh first caught our attention dishing out sharp and witty dispatches on her blog thewelltemperedchocolatier.com. She also teaches chocolate tasting classes in Vancouver and Seattle and is a regular speaker on the subject of chocolaty goodness. Maybe it’s all that sugar, but Yuh found time to write The Chocolate Tasting Kit, released this month by San Francisco’s Chronicle Books. Not your average book, it’s exactly what it claims to be: a stylish looking kit, in the shape of an oversized chocolate bar, consisting of a 48-page booklet, 100-sheet tasting notepad, 12 tasting flash cards and a keepsake envelope for chocolate wrappers. Yuh hosts a “chocolate tasting party” at BarbaraJo’s Books to Cooks, April 1, 6:30 to 8 p.m (details at bookstocooks.com/events). But before all that, she talked with the Courier about Vancouver’s chocolate scene, her dislike of Reese’s peanut butter cups and the importance of “meltiness.”

3243 Main St

photo Dan Toulgoet

Sweet Spot columnist Eagranie Yuh takes a bite out of her newly released Chocolate Tasting Kit. 1. Where did your love of chocolate originate? I’ve always loved chocolate, but I took it further than most people. I have a science background and ended up at culinary school, training to be a pastry chef. While I dreamed of cakes, I ended up loving chocolate. Kitchen life wasn’t a good ﬁt for me, so I started looking into the science of chocolate. That led me to attend conferences in the chocolate industry and having insanely geeky conversations about crystallization and fermentation, packaging and marketing. I found my tribe. 2. How does one become a “chocolate expert”? I wish I knew. I learned

by teaching, and I learned by making a lot of mistakes. Over the years, I’ve met most of the chocolate makers in North America, and a lot of the ones in the world. I never meant to do that; it just sort of happened. And when you meet so many chocolate makers, you taste a lot of chocolate. Of course, the simpler answer is that I taste a lot of chocolate. I taste it like sommeliers taste wine, though I rarely spit my chocolate out. I taste it analytically and quietly and by making strange faces, but really my brain is trying to sort out all the ﬂavours and aromas and textures. 3. What are some misconceptions people have about chocolate?

There are too many to cite, but the one that gets me is this idea that chocolate is a health food and that this is a compelling reason to eat it. I eat things because they taste good, and eating them gives me pleasure and enjoyment, and for the most part I refrain from cramming food in my mouth indiscriminately. (Notable exceptions: Cool Ranch Doritos and Oreo cookies, neither of which are allowed in my house.) Sure, chocolate is good for you, but most things are in moderation. If you need an excuse to indulge in chocolate, then I won’t revoke that excuse. But if your sole reason for eating a square of dark chocolate is because you believe it’s good for your heart, then I implore you to actually taste and enjoy it. 4. What is one of the more mind-blowing facts you can tell us about chocolate? Chocolate is a universal tool for teaching. It has elements of agriculture, sustainability, geography, chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, gastronomy and culinary artistry. I’ve taught nine-year-olds about science and adults about agriculture — all because they wanted to learn about chocolate. Continued next page

F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

HAPPY SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY BURNABY CREST Stop by Saturday, March 29th from 11am to 3:00pm at 8683 10th Ave., Burnaby to celebrate our 7th Anniversary. We will be hosting a donation barbecue and serving cake and coffee. Take advantage of our many in-store specials. See you there!

arts&entertainment Continued from page 25 5. Unlike a lot of food, chocolate really crosses all cultures, demographics, incomes. Why do you think that is? I think it’s because choco-

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Notice of Upcoming Closure Highway 1 Ironworkers Memorial Bridge The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure would like to notify the public of the planned full closure of Highway 1 at the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge on: Wednesday, April 2, from 1:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m. Both the overhead signs spanning the width of the bridge will be removed during this closure, and traffic will be directed to use Lions Gate Bridge. The eastside bridge sidewalk remains closed until August 2014. Once the eastside sidewalk is completed and reopened, the westside sidewalk will then close until March 2015. This work is part of the safety fence installation and sidewalk widening construction for the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge project. To find out more about this project visit the project website at: http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/highwayprojects/IronWorkers/index.htm

For more information, please contact Project Manager Jay Porter at 604 527-3105, or by e-mail at Jay.Porter@gov.bc.ca

eryone. However, I will point out that there’s not much of a chocolate culture in hot climates, notably China and India, and that chocolate companies are desperately tinkering with chocolate to try to get into these markets. But mostly that tinkering means making chocolate that doesn’t melt as easily, which is not only creepy but makes it less nice to eat. That meltiness is a big part of the experience. 6. I know you normally deal with quality chocolate, but if you’re at a corner store eyeing up the commercial chocolate bar rack, what are you reaching for? Twix. Because there are two in a package so I don’t have to ﬁght my husband for one, and because it hardly qualiﬁes as a chocolate bar. It’s more about the texture: the crumbly cookie, the chewy caramel, the fauxchocolate coating that offers a bit of a creamy element. 7. What’s one chocolate bar that you can’t stomach? I tried eating a Reese’s peanut butter cup the other day, because I remembered really liking them. It tasted like a crayon. 8. How does Vancouver’s chocolate scene com-

pare to others? Vancouver has a phenomenal chocolate scene. Everyone’s doing something different, and for the most part, doing it well. I took a trip to Europe last fall and tasted chocolate all over Belgium, France and England. I was really impressed with how Vancouver’s chocolate held up — and in many cases was superior. 9. How much chocolate do you eat in a week? I probably eat about a 100-gram bar per week. On a stressful week, I might eat two or three times that. 10. Can one get a chocolate hangover and have you ever suffered from one? Yes and yes. I organized the International Chocolate Awards, Canada national competition last year. The ﬁrst day of judging is a screening round. Seven other judges and I had to taste every single entry — we had more than 100 — and by the end of it I was high from the sugar, buzzing from the chocolate, and sick to my stomach. The next morning I felt wretched, but the ﬁrst judging round started shortly afterward and the hair of the dog seemed to help. mkissinger@vancourier.com twitter.com/MidlifeMan1

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MAMIE MAY I? by Maria Tallarico

On a rainy Saturday night in Chinatown we headed to a place that is being hailed for its modern comfort food (read: we heard the fried chicken was a must-try). START NOTHING: 1:07 p.m. to 10:20 p.m. Monday, 11:43 p.m. Wednesday to 4:48 a.m. Thursday, and 7:55 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. Saturday. LOVE FORECAST FOR GEMINI: Until late July, Gemini, 2014 is good for sensual affairs. These might not be the best starting points for marriage, though. If you have entered an affair since last summer or do before late July, be patient, wait and see. Time will tell whether this is a keeper or not. In the interval, you and your lover will float along in a nice, comfortable, affectionate, polite, easy way. Notice I didn’t use the word “passionate” – and that could be the flaw. However, older folks might want things just that way. Younger Geminis, under, say, fifty, might be wise to avoid a long-term commitment.

Read more on www.vitamindaily.com

HEALTH BEAUTY DINING &&NIGHTLIFE

ON TARGET by Anya Georgijevic

Your energy, charisma and clout remain very high, Aries, especially this Sunday/Monday. Why then is someone opposing you? Here’s a hint: an enemy wants to be a partner/friend but will oppose you until you offer this. (Until July.) In general, although you have the short-term advantage now through April, you don’t have it for the long term.

The weeks ahead (especially this Sunday/Monday) emphasize relationships, new horizons, relocation, negotiation, litigation, agreements and dealing with the public — in general, going out of yourself to entwine/ interface with another person or place. This is your life’s purpose but everything comes in cycles, and now to November 2015 you are meant to strengthen yourself, to accent your own personality, to be independent.

Continue to rest, contemplate and plan this week (especially Sunday/Monday) but don’t throw your whole self into these, as they represent a subtle trap or “waste” now to November 2015. Ditto for government contacts, institutions, agents, warehousing, administration, delegating tasks, psychic explorations, meditation, yoga, and charities.

Sunday/Monday bring chores and health concerns, as do the weeks ahead. Do what you must here, but no more. Now to November 2015, you’ll be better off if you contemplate, plan, meditate, retreat, rather than work. Manage and delegate rather than dive into hands-on work. Tuesday/Wednesday a door opens to relationships, negotiations, agreements, contracts, fresh horizons and opportunities — enter, luck accompanies you.

Your popularity remains at a yearly high, Gemini, especially Sunday/Monday. Though not a lot goes right Sunday, you won’t mind; your mood soars above problems. Get out, make friends, join groups – doors will open to unions, political parties and less serious venues. You could meet a light, fun and ﬂirty romantic prospect.

The weekly accent lies on romance, creative and gambling urges, charming children, beauty, pleasure, games, especially Sunday/Monday when a new project might begin in one of these areas. Better for you if it doesn’t as the next 20 months weave a subtle trap or dead-end from these materials.

Ambition, prestige relations, reputation, status – these occupy your thoughts and steer your impulses now, especially Sunday/Monday. One particular ambition, perhaps a signiﬁcant one, might have stalled lately (and will, until May 19) – decide whether to chuck this one or to, over this ﬁrst half of the year, strengthen its base or widen its territory. Your boss’ tendency will be to let it die.

Now to November 2015, avoid an over-emphasis on home, family, security, real estate, retirement, rest and napping, gardening, and diet. This might be difﬁcult Sunday/Monday (and most of April) when just these things are emphasized. To “escape” a subtle, almost invisible trap (it will be plenty visible in hindsight, in a couple of years) aim instead for ambition, the outside world and worldly goals.

Read more on www.vitamindaily.com/canada/blog

The weeks ahead (especially this Sunday/Monday) emphasize intellectual pursuits, far travel, cultural venues, social rituals (e.g., weddings), legal matters and life philosophy. Don’t dive too deeply into the pool of these, as they can trap you in a dead end, now to November 2015. (This week, midweek, a sudden event, an “opportunity” or partnership/love situation, might try to propel you into this region

You can feel a split between the casual and the profound this spring, especially this Sunday/Monday. Between short and far travel, between “just friends” and a bigger commitment, between a verbal agreement and a written contract, between daily gossip and profound ideas. Stick with the profound, the long, big, philosophical, written agreement, etc., for 20 months ahead. Tuesday/Wednesday feature home, family, security, garden, stomach, nutrition.

CLOAKED IN CANADIAN

Handle intimacy, commitment, large ﬁnances, sexual desires, research, health investigations (especially Sunday/Monday) without being ruled or overwhelmed by them, now to November 2015. To travel the safe road, concentrate on earnings, routine spending rather than investments, and “friends with beneﬁts” rather than deep intimacy. Accept surface appearances – digging deep will only alienate those who trust you, and expect the same.

Patience and an investment in your future, in your net worth, is far safer and more rewarding over the next 20 months than wanting “immediate money” and spending on depreciating items (such as a car). The distinction is important this spring, and especially this Sunday/Monday. You can be fascinated this week by a very clever invention, or the Internet/computer, but keep any purchase small.

Monday: Ewan McGregor (43). Tuesday: Debbie Reynolds (82). Wednesday: Emmylou Harris (67). Thursday: Alec Baldwin (56), Friday: Robert Downey Jr. (49). Saturday: Pharrel Williams(41). Sunday: Merle Haggard (77).

Wu, Lim, Pilotto, Stevenson. The latest Target collaboration designer may not be a household name… yet! Canadian newcomer Sarah Stevenson’s capsule collection just about sums up how we want to kick off our spring: pretty in breezy florals. With the most expensive garment priced at just $59.99, parting with our cash will be just as breezy. At target stores. Read more on www.vitamindaily.com FASHION & SHOPPING

PUMPED UP KICKS by Kate LeGresley

We hit the exclusive Spring/Summer Native Shoes unveiling at WALRUS - and even got a peek at Fall 2014. Florals, stripes and fresco green - is it summer yet?

FASHION & SHOPPING

by Alexandra Suhner Isenberg

We’ve handpicked three Canadian brands to watch (and wear) this spring. Vancouver-based family business Thii’s super cool “The Pant” is a track pant made from a wool-cotton blend jersey with an adjustable leg cuff – so you can go as skinny as you like. Read more on www.vitamindaily.com FASHION & SHOPPING @vanvitamindaily

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Facebook.com/vitamin.daily

@vitamindaily

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A RC H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

Best of our Neighbourhood Series: Sports & Recreation Mount Pleasant

Don’t drop the gloves: 20 rules for ball hockey MEGAN STEWART Staff writer

There’s a hand-painted sign on Ontario Street that reads: “Slow. Children At Play.” You’ll pass this sign headed south from 12th Avenue on your way to an adult ball hockey game at Mount Pleasant Park. For 18 years the ball has dropped at the centre of a fenced-in concrete court where hundreds of different players — mostly men — have come to play hockey. Covering this regular Sunday event was one of my favourite stories of our Vancouver Special series because the players had outrageous stories and because they’d returned to the neighbourhood even as their lives brought different jobs, the birth of children, and new homes in the suburbs. As is the case most weeks, as long as the puddles aren’t too big, the next game is 1 p.m. Sunday at 15th Avenue near Manitoba. ••• There is no list affixed to any fence post, no bullet-point memo on someone’s blog, but for 17 years the countless players who drop in for a Mount Pleasant game of ball hockey have established a set of unwritten rules. The first thing you should know, Rule No. 1, about the East 15th Avenue pick-up game is that all players are welcome but not everyone can play. Keep this in mind when you read Rule No. 19. That’s because, as Darren Gay explains, these guys are serious about a good game of hockey. This is Rule No. 2: “We’re very open to anyone who wants to come out.” Everyone gets a shot, he said, but their game is not for everyone. “We find with

photo Megan Stewart

Michael Kissinger checks Erwin Schneider during a January Mount Pleasant ball hockey game. most hockey players, they know if they can keep up with us or not,” Gay said. “People usually know if they can handle it or not because it’s pretty intense. There’s a lot of running and there’s tight checking.” Dozens, maybe even hundreds, of players have circled through the roster and stepped into the cement arena, an urban coliseum enclosed by a 10-foot chain-link fence once used for tennis and now cluttered with four basketball nets. In September 1996, Gay organized the ﬁrst pick-up game for a group of friends after he put up a sign at Black Dog Video, the

business he’d just opened on Cambie Street. They played in gymnasiums, used a tennis ball and both men and women joined in. This brings us to Rule No. 3: there’s only one kind of ball for ball hockey and it’s not the green one you chase with a racquet. “Tennis balls are too bouncy,” said long-time player Erwin Schneider. “You can’t control them.” In January when a bare minimum 11 players came out, the game went ahead in 1 C weather with a single sub. Rule No. 4: A frozen ball will crack in half but it smarts when it smacks skin in any temperature. “It hurts

when it’s warm, too,” said Thomas Sanner. Rule No. 5: Actual rules. Teams are decided by drawing sticks and everyone packs a light and dark jersey. First team to 10 wins. “We have an unspoken rule that if it’s 50 we have the option to redraw the sticks again,” said Gay, “because sometimes it’s not fun to get clobbered but then sometimes it’s fun to do the clobbering.” Women are welcome, this is Rule No. 6, but none have come for years. “One woman was pretty good,” said Gay. “She could definitely hold her own.” Rule No. 7: “Lots of people come and go,” Gay added. When the casual drop-in game became more competitive pick-up ball hockey, causal players dropped out. Friends tag along and never return. Strangers drop by, then disappear after a game. Others, like Darrell Barr, are instantly hooked. Rule No. 8 is for him: Canadians are never far from home when there’s hockey. “When I moved out here, it took me about two years to find a game,” he said. “I found one three blocks from where I lived in Mount Pleasant.” Barr started at least five leagues in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Germany where he was stationed with the Canadian Air Force as an aircraft technician. “There’s always a game on somewhere,” he said. This story has been shortened since it was first published. For the remaining 12 rules, including guidelines for goalies, ugly makedo gear, family bonding and a story about a painful shot to a man’s delicates, keep reading online at vancourier.com/sports. mstewart@vancourier.com twitter: @MHStewart

Swept in four, Giants look ahead to youth He also singled out Lee, 17, who was reliable through three playoff games, and Delta defenceman Arvin Atwal, 18, for playing a competitive series. “It’s a positive sign in what we did this year and we can’t lose sight of that,” said Hay. mstewart@vancourier.com twitter.com/MHStewart

MEGAN STEWART Staff writer

he Vancouver Giants were swept from the playoffs by a team that set an example for them. “They’re a team we’d like to be like,” said head coach Don Hay after the Portland Winterhawks eliminated the Giants from the playoffs in four games with a 6-1 win March 26 at Pacific Coliseum. Vancouver was outscored 19-7 in the series. Portland scored three goals in 54 seconds at the end of the first period of Game 4, forcing Hay to pull Payton Lee and bring in Jared Rathjen. Vancouver scored to hold off the shutout, but Portland dominated the neutral zone, forced turnovers and scored three more goals. “That’s a sign of a good team,” said Hay. “They came out and they capitalized on a power play, got the fourth goal and then we really didn’t generate much after that and they didn’t let us generate much.” The Giants finished seventh in the Western Conference of the WHL and surpassed expectations at the end of a rebuilding year. They finished last in the WHL the previous season. “We made a lot of great strides to show the

CORRECTION:

photo Chris Relke / Vancouver Giants

Carter Popoff throws up a spray of ice as he makes a pass. He scored Vancouver’s lone goal in a 6-1 loss to the Portland Winterhawks at Paciﬁc Coliseum on March 26. improvement that we did and to get into the playoffs was important for us,” said Hay. “Just the four games playing in the playoffs is going to help our younger players.”

Vancouver relied on veterans like Cain Franson, who played his last WHL game Wednesday, and Hay has added young talent like Ty Ronning and Alec Baer, both 16.

The Courier has never shied away from covering the politics of high school sport, but one article mistakenly used the one word no school wants to be associated with: recruitment. I am correcting information that appeared in these pages March 14. Vancouver College competes outside the Vancouver public school league because it is not subject to the same rules governing those public schools, namely those regulating catchment areas. In a game report from the senior boys 4A basketball championships, the Courier erroneously reported Vancouver College competes outside the city league because it recruits athletes. — Megan Stewart

today’shomes

F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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INTERESTED IN ADVERTISING IN TODAY’S HOMES? Contact Linda Garner:

604-738-1411 | lgarner@vancourier.com

Housing moves into False Creek Flats PROJECT INCLUDES 209 CONDOS NEAR POTENTIAL SITE OF NEW SKYTRAIN STATION GLEN KORSTROM Contributing writer

ancouver city planners vow that development company Onni’s plan to build 209 condominiums in the largely industrial False Creek Flats will not spark a housing frenzy on what many view as a warehouse and distribution area. Instead, Onni Group’s two-building Canvas development, which will launch presales later this month, is the exception, said City of Vancouver general manager of planning Brian Jackson. “There’s no permission for any further residential other than what Onni has,” Jackson said. Thanks to Metro Vancouver’s two-yearold regional growth strategy, any change in zoning on the ﬂats will require more than just Vancouver city council approval. Converting what is mostly industrial land

$8,000

to other uses would also require regional approval. “We’re looking at this as being primarily a jobs area,” said Jackson. He added that city staff are preparing land-use and transportation plans for the area, which is bounded by Clark Drive, Great Northern Way, Main Street and Prior Street. They will present that plan to council next year, when council considers approving tearing down the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts to the east. Jobs-related construction along Great Northern Way east of Onni’s project at Thornton Avenue includes Emily Carr University of Art + Design’s (ECUAD) $134 million, 286,000-square-foot campus and Mountain Equipment Co-op’s $28 million, 112,000-square-foot headquarters. Onni won council’s approval for its Canvas project because the zoning was already IC3, or essentially a type of zoning that allows homes when compatible with com-

mercial use, said Onni vice-president of sales Nic Jensen. “With this zoning, the city encourages more durable floors, larger windows and a more artist-inspired feel,” he said. Indeed, the area is emerging as a hub for artists given that the Catriona Jeffries, Monte Clark and Equinox galleries are already operating on the flats. ECUAD’s plan to leave its longtime Granville Island home for new space on the flats is expected to create a hub for 1,800 people, including students and staff. The move comes partly so the art-focused university can be close to the Centre for Digital Media, which includes 76 student housing units and is operated in conjunction with the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and British Columbia Institute of Technology. Canvas and ECUAD’s campus is expected to break ground this summer with Canvas scheduled to be completed by spring 2016

and ECUAD’s campus ﬁnished by early 2017. Both will be near space that TransLink has identiﬁed as a potential future SkyTrain station if it and senior governments can provide funding for the Millennium Line to extend to Broadway largely via an underground route. Other infrastructure upgrades that have been discussed include a pedestrian and cyclist overpass over the largely disused network of railway tracks between Great Northern Way and Terminal Avenue. Onni is also contemplating a project that would include student housing, live-work space, rental accommodation and a potential hotel on East First Avenue, near a turn where it becomes Thornton Avenue. “That project is really up in the air though,” Jensen said. “It’s certainly in the pre-planning stage.” gkorstrom@biv.com twitter.com/glenkorstrom

Off 1&Dens LIMITED TIME ONLY

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· Prime Lower Lonsdale location · West facing 700 sq. ft. plans · Concrete Construction · 9’ ceilings · Full-sized appliances

MOVE IN LATE SPRING 2014 · 5% DOWN · LIVEATCAPSTONE.COM 604.929.8870 135 West 1st St. Open 12 – 5pm Daily (Except Fridays) Capstone is developed by Fairborne Capstone Homes Ltd. E.&O.E.

A30

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

COME HOME TO KERRISDALE

E S TA B L I S H E D N E I G H B O U R H O O D

STYLISH RESIDENCES

JUNIOR 1, 1, 2, & 3 BEDROOM PRIVATE RESIDENCES FROM

NOW SELLING

PRESENTATION CENTRE 6493 West Boulevard,Vancouver, British Columbia Open Daily 12-5pm except Fridays or By Appointment Developer reserves the right to make changes to the information herein. Photos and renderings are approximate. This is not an offering for sale. Any such offering can only be made with a Disclosure Statement. E & O.E.

365

800

604 685 5778 boulevardkerrisdale.com

F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

WE ARE METRO TOWN LIVE LARGE, INSIDE AND OUT

At 48 storeys, 4670 Assembly Way is the tallest tower at Station Square, featuring bold architectural design outside and well-appointed contemporary layouts inside. With almost 50,000 square feet of private green space stretching one city block, the building’s elevated amenity features a tranquil ﬁtness pavilion, reﬂecting pool, and large indoor/outdoor entertaining areas. 4670 Assembly Way sits above Restaurant Row, and the cafés and stores of Silver Drive – the best of Metrotown at your doorstep.

See it this April. Own it this May. Register now.

STATIONSQUARE.CA | 604.438.1113

The developer reserves the right to make changes and modifications to the information contained herein. Renderings are representational only and are not necessarily accurate, and final design, construction and features may differ. This is not an offering for sale as an offering can only be made after the filing of a disclosure statement, and only in jurisdictions where qualified in accordance with applicable local laws. E. & O. E.. Station Square and the Station Square logo are registered trademarks of Metro Shopping Centre Limited Partnership, and used under license.

A31

*For more details, please see your Village on False Creek Sales Representative. The information, pricing, and availability contained herein is subject to change without notice. E.&.O.E.

THEVILLAGEONFALSECREEK.COM · 604.733.2010

COME FOR A PERSONAL TOUR OF THE VILLAGE SALES CENTRE 1693 MANITOBA ST · OPEN DAILY 12 – 5PM, CLOSED FRIDAYS OR BY APPOINTMENT

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A32 THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

Attn: Honda Owners SAVE UP TO SA O $

100

ON YOUR SERVICE

They can’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, but there are plenty of reasons the CR-V, Civic and Fit are best-sellers† in BC.

G S E LL IN PA T C O M BCC S U V IN †

HERE’SHOWITWORKS:

2014 CR-V LX Lease for

134

1.99% APR¥

0 down

freight and PDI included. For 60 months. MSRP $27,685** includes freight and PDI Model shown: RM3H3EES

# 2014 CIVIC DX Lease for

85 0 down

1.99% APR*

†

WITH WITH GENUINE GENUINE HONDA HONDA OIL OIL CHANGE CHANGE

freight and PDI included. For 60 months. MSRP $17,185** includes freight and PDI Model shown: FB2E2EEX

2014 FIT DX

1.99% APR€

0 down wn

freight and PDI included. luded.

You spend: $500.00-$599.99, You save $50.00 You spend: $600.00-$699.99, You save $60.00 You spend: $700.00-$799.99, You save $70.00 You spend: $800.00-$899.99, You save $80.00 You spend: $900.00 or more, You save $100.00

WINTERMULTI-POINTINSPECTION SPRING MULTI-POINT INSPECTION

G S E LL IN PA T C O M CC C A R IN B

Lease for

You spend: $50.00-$99.00, You save $5.00 You spend: $100.00-$199.99, You save $10.00 You spend: $200.00-$299.99, You save $20.00 You spend: $300.00-$399.99, You save $30.00 You spend: $400.00-$499.99, You save $40.00

SE LL IN GOM PA ACCTT SU BC CA R IN BC †

For 60 months. MSRP $16,130** includes freight and PDI Model shown: GE8G2EEX

• Oil & ﬁlter change. Check for ﬂuid leaks • Battery load/charging test • Inspect coolant level and freezing point • Check cooling system, inspect hoses and clamps • Inspect all brakes for wear % and condition • Inspect brake calipers, wheel cylinders and parking brake • Inspect tire wear and pressure and tire rotation • Inspect drive belt condition (if applicable)

• Top-up washer fluid • Inspect transmission fluid level, power steering fluid level (if applicable), brake fluid level, clutch fluid level (if applicable) • Inspect windshield wipers, washer jets and blades • Inspect all lights and bulbs • Inspect and lubricate door locks, latches and handles • Wash and vacuum, plus shuttle service

Reg $169.95

Ultra fuel-efﬁcient vehicles that require 0W20 oils are additional cost.

bchonda.com †The CR-V, Civic and Fit are the #1 selling retail compact SUV, compact car, and subcompact car respectively in BC based on Polk 2013 Dec YTD report. Ω Limited time lease offer based on a new 2014 CR-V LX 2WD model RM3H3EES. ¥1.99% lease APR for 60 months O.A.C. Bi-weekly payment, including freight and PDI, is $133.83 based on applying $1,000 lease dollars. Downpayment of $0.00, first bi-weekly payment, environmental fees and $0 security deposit due at lease inception. Total lease obligation is $17,397.90. Taxes, license, insurance and registration are extra. 120,000 kilometre allowance; charge of $0.12/km for excess kilometer. #Limited time lease offer based on a new 2014 Civic DX model FB2E2EEX. *1.99% lease APR for 60 months O.A.C. Bi-weekly payment, including freight and PDI, is $84.63 based on applying $600 lease dollars. Down payment of $0.00, first bi-weekly payment, environmental fees and $0 security deposit due at lease inception. Total lease obligation is $11,001.90.Taxes, license, insurance and registration are extra. 120,000 kilometre allowance; charge of $0.12/ km for excess kilometer. £Limited time lease offer based on a new 2014 Fit DX model GE8G2EEX.€1.99% lease APR for 60 months O.A.C. Bi-weekly payment, including freight and PDI, is $74.56 based on applying $500 consumer incentive dollars and $1,100 lease dollars. Downpayment of $0.00, first bi-weekly payment, environmental fees and $0 security deposit due at lease inception. Total lease obligation is $9,692.80. Taxes, license, insurance and registration are extra. 120,000 kilometre allowance; charge of $0.12/km for excess kilometer.**MSRP is $17,185 / $27,685 / $16,130 including freight and PDI of $1,495 / $1,695 / $1,495 based on a new 2014 Civic DX model FB2E2EEX / 2014 CR-V LX 2WD model RM3H3EES / 2014 Fit DX model GE8G2EEX. PPSA, license, insurance, taxes, and other dealer charges are extra and may be required at the time of purchase. ¥/£/€/Ω/#/* Prices and/or payments shown do not include a PPSA lien registration fee of $30.31 and lien registering agent's fee of $5.25, which are both due at time of delivery. #/*/Ω/€/¥/£/** Offers valid from March 1st through 31st, 2014 at participating Honda retailers. Dealer may sell for less. Dealer trade may be necessary on certain vehicles. Offers valid only for British Columbia residents at BC Honda Dealers locations. Offers subject to change or cancellation without notice. Terms and conditions apply. Visit www.bchonda.com or see your Honda retailer for full details.

FREE SERVICE SHUTTLE (DOWNTOWN CORE) COURTESY CAR WASH FOR ALL SERVICE CUSTOMERS * All offers are effective until April 30, 2014. Not applicable to tire sales. Taxes not included. Environmental levies extra. °Not to be combined with other offers. January 11,2014. Please consult Kingsway Honda for more details. Please present coupon during write-up. Valid at Kingsway Honda only. Limit one per person. Coupon does not apply to prior purchases.

12th and Kingsway, Vancouver CALL 604-873-3676

www.kingswayhonda.ca

Dealer # D8508

A38

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

today’sdrive

2014 TOYOTA Matrix

Your journey starts here.

You can put things and people into it. It’s little, yet big inside. G S E L L IN PACT

ere’s the difference between Canada and the USA: Americans are the only ones to get the Chevy SS, which is basically a four-door Corvette; Canadians are the only folks to get one last go at a 132hp four-cylinder hatchback. Where they salute the ﬂag to red rockets in air and revolutionary cannon ﬁre, we retire early to BY BRENDAN McALEER bed with the dulcet tones of Peter Mansbridge ringbrendanmcaleer@gmail.com ing in our ears and thoughts of a nice cuppa of Red Tweet: @brendan_mcaleer Rose tea in the morning. Yes, occasionally we Canadians unleash Beast Mode when handed a length of timber and told that the other guys have the puck, but mostly we’re laid-back, reserved, and conservative. Continued on next page

C BC SU V IN

G S E LLMIN PA C T

ACT COMP G S E LL IN B C C A R IN

# CO BC C AR IN

†The CR-V, Civic and Fit are the #1 selling retail compact SUV, compact car, and subcompact car respectively in BC based on Polk 2013 Dec YTD report. Ω Limited time lease offer based on a new 2014 CR-V LX 2WD model RM3H3EES. ¥1.99% lease APR for 60 months O.A.C. Bi-weekly payment, including freight and PDI, is $133.83 based on applying $1,000 lease dollars. Downpayment of $0.00, first bi-weekly payment, environmental fees and $0 security deposit due at lease inception. Total lease obligation is $17,397.90. Taxes, license, insurance and registration are extra. 120,000 kilometre allowance; charge of $0.12/km for excess kilometer. #Limited time lease offer based on a new 2014 Civic DX model FB2E2EEX. *1.99% lease APR for 60 months O.A.C. Bi-weekly payment, including freight and PDI, is $84.63 based on applying $600 lease dollars. Down payment of $0.00, first bi-weekly payment, environmental fees and $0 security deposit due at lease inception. Total lease obligation is $11,001.90.Taxes, license, insurance and registration are extra. 120,000 kilometre allowance; charge of $0.12/km for excess kilometer. £Limited time lease offer based on a new 2014 Fit DX model GE8G2EEX.€1.99% lease APR for 60 months O.A.C. Bi-weekly payment, including freight and PDI, is $74.56 based on applying $500 consumer incentive dollars and $1,100 lease dollars. Downpayment of $0.00, first bi-weekly payment, environmental fees and $0 security deposit due at lease inception. Total lease obligation is $9,692.80. Taxes, license, insurance and registration are extra. 120,000 kilometre allowance; charge of $0.12/km for excess kilometer.**MSRP is $17,185 / $27,685 / $16,130 including freight and PDI of $1,495 / $1,695 / $1,495 based on a new 2014 Civic DX model FB2E2EEX / 2014 CR-V LX 2WD model RM3H3EES / 2014 Fit DX model GE8G2EEX. PPSA, license, insurance, taxes, and other dealer charges are extra and may be required at the time of purchase. ¥/£/€/Ω/#/* Prices and/or payments shown do not include a PPSA lien registration fee of $30.31 and lien registering agent’s fee of $5.25, which are both due at time of delivery. #/*/Ω/€/¥/£/** Offers valid from March 1st through 31st, 2014 at participating Honda retailers. Dealer may sell for less. Dealer trade may be necessary on certain vehicles. Offers valid only for British Columbia residents at BC Honda Dealers locations. Offers subject to change or cancellation without notice. Terms and conditions apply. Visit www.bchonda.com or see your Honda retailer for full details.

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F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

A39

today’sdrive The Matrix is a very Canadian sort of car, and a decade or so after its introduction, the Yankees have decided they don’t want it any more. We, on the other hand, apparently can’t get enough of the thing, so it’s back again for 2014 like one last Rush reunion tour.

Design:

The Matrix is built in Cambridge, Ont., and is sort of the Canadian tuxedo of cars. If ever a machine were to wear all denim attire, this’d be it. A vast amount of puffy sheet metal seems to dwarf the 16” steel wheels (17” alloys are available as an option), and the greenhouse of the car clusters atop the vehicle like the conning tower on the Seabus. Where newer machines ﬁnd their ad campaigns crammed with words like “aggressive,” “dynamic” and “emotional,” the Matrix is none of those things. The Matrix isn’t stylish, it’s simply there. The optional S package does add a tiny bit of pizzazz, with the aforementioned 17” alloys, front and rear aero-kit and a rear hatch spoiler, but it’s still a tad hum-drum. This is not a ﬂashy car. That wouldn’t be very Canadian.

Environment:

The Matrix carries a Toyota badge up front, but judging from the insides, a Rubbermaid one would be far more appropriate. While the Corolla now looks reasonably upscale inside, to the point of including a stitchedlook dash, the Matrix is from the old school Toyota line and is festooned inside with plastic-not-so-fantastic. The driver’s seat fabric does look pretty durable, but the armrests are unyielding. Rear seat room is surprisingly good, and while taller folks might not find the little Toyota to be especially comfortable, everybody else will. What’s more, the rear cargo area remains exemplary. It’s all plastic too, but that just means it’s highly durable and capable of handling bags of soil for the home gardener, or wet dogs, or lumberjack equipment. The seats fold as flat as the prairies — not always that common in the hatchback market — and the S model includes a flat-folding passenger seat as well. If you’re used to “S” standing for “sport,” then in this case,

the sport is cross-country skiing. The controls are simple and easy to use. One of the three rings of the gauge cluster is ﬂattened, as if somebody sat on it, but they’re easy to read. It’s a combination of slightly outdated, but familiar and unchallenging.

Performance:

Underneath the Matrix’s truncated hood, one will find a 1.8L, 132hp four-cylinder engine mated to either a five-speed manual gearbox or a four-speed automatic. In today’s world of CVTs, direct-injection, and smalldisplacement turbochargers, this sort of hardware is the motoring equivalent of Fred Flintstone’s feet. The suspension is not set up for corner-carving, and the traction control is as nervous as a new parent watching a toddler near a puddle. If a wheel so much as thinks about spinning, it scurries in to the rescue, flapping its electronic arms anxiously and urging you to be careful. And yet, for all that, it’s not so bad. What we have here, on the face of it, appears to be some sort of car. The pedal on the right makes it go, and the pedal on the left makes it stop. You can put things and people into it. It’s little, yet big inside. The road noise is really quite loud. Research indicates this may be down to Toyota’s choice of OEM tires, but the echo chamber of all this plastic inside is surely partly to blame. All hatchbacks can be boomy and the Matrix is no exception. It is not fast and body roll is pronounced. While there once was a performance model in the Matrix range, the sprightly 180hp XRS, this current car is essentially a Corolla hatchback and it is not at all interested in zippy driving. The manual might be a little better here. So there are a few demerits on the sheet, which makes it sound like a vehicle that is no longer competitive — but not so fast, literally, not so fast. The Matrix is not cutting edge, its working class. It’s a steadfast hauler, a peoplemover, a machine that puts its shoulder to the wheel and pushes. As it’s been around so long, it’s sturdy and reliable, and the simplicity of its packaging eschews flashin-the-pan goodies for tough essentials. What could be

eight passenger airbags. Disc brakes are standard at all four corners, and for an older design, the Matrix still retains good side and front impact results. Fuel economy ratings are solidly average at 8.1L/100kms in the city and 6.3L/100kmsonthehighway. Observed mixed-mileage was just under 9L/100kms.

more Canadian than that?

Features:

Your basic Matrix comes with power door locks and windows, but you must pay extra for the convenience package to get air-conditioning. The convenience package also adds Bluetooth connectivity, an upgrade to six-speaker stereo, cruise control and keyless entry. The touring package is basically a sunroof and alloy wheels affair, and the top-line S package adds in the front and rear fascias and the rear spoiler. No navigation is available. Safety features are good, with standard ABS and traction control joining PLEASE READ THE FINE PRINT: Offers valid until March 31, 2014. See toyota.ca for complete details on all cash back offers. In the event of any discrepancy or inconsistency between Toyota prices, rates and/or other information contained on toyotabc.ca and that contained on toyota.ca, the latter shall prevail. Errors and omissions excepted. 2014 Corolla CE 6M Manual BURCEM-A MSRP is $17,540 and includes $1,545 freight and pre-delivery inspection, tire levy, battery levy and air conditioning federal excise tax. *Lease example: 1.9% Lease APR for 60 months on approved credit. Semi-Monthly payment is $87 with $900 cash back applied as a down payment. Total Lease obligation is $11,340. Lease 60 mos. based on 100,000 km, excess km charge is $.07. Applicable taxes are extra. Down payment, first semi-monthly payment and security deposit plus GST and PST on first payment and full down payment are due at lease inception. A security deposit is not required on approval of credit. **Finance example: 1.9% finance for 84 months, upon credit approval, available on 2014 Corolla CE 6M. Applicable taxes are extra. ***Up to $900 Stackable Cash Back available on select 2014 Corolla models. Stackable cash back on 2014 Corolla CE 6M Manual is $900. 2014 Tacoma Double Cab V6 4x4 Automatic MU4FNA-A MSRP is $32,965 and includes $1,815 freight and pre-delivery inspection, tire levy, battery levy and air conditioning federal excise tax. †Lease example: 4.9% Lease APR for 60 months on approved credit. Semi-Monthly payment is $165 with $3,980 down payment. Total Lease obligation is $23,720. Lease 60 mos. based on 100,000 km, excess km charge is $.10. Applicable taxes are extra. Down payment, first semi-monthly payment and security deposit plus GST and PST on first payment and full down payment are due at lease inception. A security deposit is not required on approval of credit. ††Finance example: 0.9% finance for 36 months, upon credit approval, available on 2014 Tacoma. Applicable taxes are extra. †††Up to $1000 Non-Stackable Cash Back available on select 2014 Tacoma models. Non-stackable cash back on 2014 Tacoma Double Cab V6 4x4 Automatic is $1,000. 2014 Tundra Double Cab SR5 4.6L 4x4 Automatic UM5F1T-A MSRP is $36,640 and includes $1,815 freight and pre-delivery inspection, tire levy, battery levy and air conditioning federal excise tax. ‡Lease example: 1.9% Lease APR for 60 months on approved credit. Semi-Monthly payment is $175 with $4,000 down payment. Total Lease obligation is $24,940. Lease 60 mos. based on 100,000 km, excess km charge is $.15. Applicable taxes are extra. Down payment, first semi-monthly payment and security deposit plus GST and PST on first payment and full down payment are due at lease inception. A security deposit is not required on approval of credit. ‡‡Finance example: 0.9% finance for 72 months, upon credit approval, available on 2014 Tundra. Applicable taxes are extra. ‡‡‡Up to $4000 Non-Stackable Cash Back available on select 2014 Tundra models. Non-stackable cash back on 2014 Tundra Double Cab SR5 4.6L 4x4 Automatic is $4000. Stackable Cash Back offers may be combined with Toyota Financial Services (TFS) lease or finance rates. Vehicle must be purchased, registered and delivered by March 31, 2014. Cash incentives include taxes and are applied after taxes have been charged on the full amount of the negotiated price. See toyota.ca for complete details on all cash back offers. Non-stackable Cash Back offers may not be combined with Toyota Financial Services (TFS) lease or finance rates. If you would like to lease or finance at standard TFS rates (not the above special rates), then you may be able to take advantage of Cash Customer Incentives. Vehicle must be purchased, registered and delivered by March 31, 2014. Cash incentives include taxes and are applied after taxes have been charged on the full amount of the negotiated price. See toyota.ca for complete details on all cash back offers. ‡‡‡‡Semi-monthly lease offer available through Toyota Financial Services on approved credit to qualified retail customers on most 48 and 60 month leases (including Stretch leases) of new and demonstrator Toyota vehicles. First semi-monthly payment due at lease inception and next monthly payment due approximately 15 days later and semi-monthly thereafter throughout the term. Toyota Financial Services will waive the final payment. Semi-monthly lease offer can be combined with most other offers excluding the First Payment Free and Encore offers. First Payment Free offer is valid for eligible TFS Lease Renewal customers only. Toyota semi-monthly lease program based on 24 payments per year, on a 60-month lease, equals 120 payments, with the final 120th payment waived by Toyota Financial Services. Competitive bi-weekly lease programs based on 26 payments per year, on a 60-month lease, equals 130 payments. Not open to employees of Toyota Canada, Toyota Financial Services or TMMC/TMMC Vehicle Purchase Plan. Some conditions apply. See your Toyota dealer for complete details. Visit your Toyota BC Dealer or www.toyotabc.ca for more details. Some conditions apply; offers are time limited and may change without notice. Dealer may lease/sell for less.

Continued from previous page

Green Light:

Spacious storage; simple layout; plenty of interior room; reliable.

Stop Sign:

Outdated powertrain; plastic interior; plain styling.

The Checkered Flag:

Not fancy, but stands on guard for thee. The highly durable rear cargo area. Follow us at:

Only the Tags Look the Same. $

0 D OWN PAYMENT*

WITH UP TO

87 1.9% $900

LEASE FROM *

FINANCE FROM **

semi-monthly/60 mos.

per month/84 mos.

(COROLLA SPORT MODEL SHOWN)

2014 COROLLA

CE 6M MODEL $17,540 MSRP includes F+PDI

***

CASHBACK

2014 TACOMA

4x4 Double Cab V6 $32,965 MSRP includes F+PDI

FINANCE FROM ††

LEASE FROM †

165 0.9

OR UP TO †††

1,000

% $

semi-monthly/60 mos.

per month/36 mos.

(4X4 DOUBLE CAB LIMITED 5.7L MODEL SHOWN)

2014 TUNDRA

CASHBACK

DCab SR5 4.6L $36,640 MSRP includes F+PDI

LEASE FROM

‡

semi-monthly/60 mos.

30692

JIM PATTISON TOYOTA NORTH SHORE 849 Auto Mall Drive (604) 985-0591

GRANVILLE TOYOTA VANCOUVER 8265 Fraser Street (604) 263-2711 6978

OR UP TO ‡‡‡

per month/72 mos.

CASHBACK

SEMI-MONTHLY SAVES YOU UP TO 11 PAYMENTS!

FREE FIRST OR LAST PAYMENT

. Monthly or Semi-Monthly payment options . Standard or Low Kilometre Lease . No Security Deposit

JIM PATTISON TOYOTA DOWNTOWN 1290 Burrard Street (604) 682-8881

FINANCE FROM ‡‡

175 0.9% $4,000

‡‡‡‡

18732

LANGLEY TOYOTATOWN LANGLEY 20622 Langley Bypass (604) 530-3156

JIM PATTISON TOYOTA SURREY 15389 Guildford Drive (604) 495-4100 6701

Learn why we're better than bi-weekly at: ToyotaBC.ca

9497

OPENROAD TOYOTA RICHMOND Richmond Auto Mall (604) 273-3766

OPENROAD TOYOTA PORT MOODY 3166 St. John’s Street (604) 461-3656 7826

7825

To y o t a B C . c a

DESTINATION TOYOTA BURNABY 4278 Lougheed Highway (604) 571-4350 9374

PEACE ARCH TOYOTA SOUTH SURREY 3174 King George Highway (604) 531-2916 30377

SUNRISE TOYOTA ABBOTSFORD Fraser Valley Auto Mall (604) 857-2657 5736

REGENCY TOYOTA VANCOUVER 401 Kingsway (604) 879-8411 8507

WEST COAST TOYOTA PITT MEADOWS 19950 Lougheed Highway (866) 910-9543 7662

VALLEY TOYOTA CHILLIWACK 8750 Young Road (604) 792-1167 8176

SQUAMISH TOYOTA SQUAMISH 39150 Queens Way (604) 567-8888 31003

WESTMINSTER TOYOTA NEW WESTMINSTER 210 - 12th Street (604) 520-3333 8531

A40

THE VANCOUVER COURIER F R I DAY, M A R C H 2 8 , 2 0 1 4

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 100% BC Owned and Operated Prices Effective March 27 to April 2, 2014.

We reserve the right to limit quantities. We reserve the right to correct printing errors.

Grocery Department

Meat Department Hardbite Gluten Free Potato Chips

Liberté Greek Yogurt

assorted varieties

SAVE

SAVE 4.99-5.99

29%

33%

750g product of Canada

Blue Diamond Fresh Almond Breeze Beverages

22%

Earth's Choice Organic Fair Trade Coffee

SAVE

7.99

38%

32%

400g

roasted in Canada

Dairyland Organic Milk

assorted varieties

2.69

SAVE

21%

product of Canada

SAVE

select varieties

30%

3/4.98

5.99

SAVE from

28%

5.29-6.99

Taste of Nature Organic Fruit & Nut Bar

3/3.99

! New

227g product of USA

40g • product of Canada

20% off

Health Care Department

package of 12

8.99

Choices Bakery Gluten Free Fluffy White or Fluffy Whole Grain Bread

4.99

Sisu No.7 Joint Complex

17.99

Sisu Full Spectrum Omega Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil

15.99

512g

90 soft gels

• Sustainable & IFFO certified.

Platinum Super Easymulti 45+ Women

Double Chocolate Delight or Tiramisu Slices

76.49

2.99-3.99

120 soft gels

Super Easymulti 45+ for Women helps prevent age related diseases and reverse both the internal and external signs of aging.

150g

340-430g • product of Canada

30 capsules

Helps to relieve joint pain and stiffness in persons suffering from osteoarthritis in the knee within 7 days.

• High Potency 1200mg of 100% alaskan salmon oil.

Gluten Free

assorted varieties

85g • product of USA

Roasted Salted Hazelnuts

assorted varieties

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Frozen Pizza

assorted varieties

Bulk Department

300 - 400g product of USA

assorted varieties

Theo Organic Fair Trade Chocolate Bars

2/5.00

product of Canada

assorted varieties

5.99

500ml • product of Canada

Bakery Department

Better Than Boullion Base

1.5L product of Canada

assorted varieties

2/5.98

600g • product of Canada

44%

430-615g

Earth's Choice Organic Salsa

2/6.98

2/4.98

SAVE

product of Canada

each

25%

assorted varieties

40%

11.99

SAVE

Stahlbush Island Farms Frozen Vegetables

Organic Long English Cucumbers from Origin Organics, Delta

chicken or beef

Zorbas Spanakopitas

7.99-8.99

2/7.00

EchoClean 2X Concentrated Liquid Laundry Detergent

SAVE

3/7.50

250 - 320g product of Canada

from

Silver Hills Bread

Choices’ Own Family Size Pot Pies

Armstrong Cheese

skim, 1, 2 or 3.25%

product of USA

Deli Department

assorted varieties

SAVE

1.66L

Old Dutch Restaurante Tortilla Chips

1.48lb/ 3.26kg

5.99lb/ 13.21kg

6.99

product of Canada

4/10.00

bunch of 5 product of Canada

Organic Large Size Navel Oranges from Homegrown Organic Farms, California

value pack

assorted varieties

1.89L product of USA

assorted colours

Grass Fed Forage Finished Lean Ground Beef

SAVE

2/6.98

SAVE

Tulips

4.99lb/ 11.00kg

3/6.00

150g product of Canada

Breyers Ice Cream

assorted varieties

Produce Department

Whole Organic Chicken

Happy Anniversary Burnaby Crest! Stop by Saturday, March 29 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm at 8683 10th Ave, Burnaby to celebrate our 7th Anniversary. We will be hosting a donation barbecue and serving cake and coffee. Take advantage of our many in-store specials. See you there! 2010 - 2014 Awards. Your loyalty has helped Choices achieve these awards. Thank you!

Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/ChoicesMarkets Best Organic Grocery

Best Grocery Store

2010-2013

www.choicesmarkets.com Kitsilano

Cambie

Kerrisdale

Yaletown

Rice Bakery

South Surrey

2627 W. 16th Ave. Vancouver 604.736.0009

3493 Cambie St. Vancouver 604.875.0099

1888 W. 57th Ave. Vancouver 604.263.4600

1202 Richards St. Vancouver 604.633.2392

2595 W. 16th Ave. Vancouver 604.736.0301

3248 King George Blvd. South Surrey 604.541.3902

Burnaby Crest

8683 10th Ave. Burnaby 604.522.0936

Kelowna

Floral Shop

1937 Harvey Ave. Kelowna 250.862.4864

2615 W. 16th Vancouver 603-736-7522