Vancouver Courier November 5 2014 by Vancouver Courier

WEDNESDAY

November 5 2014

Vol. 105 No. 89

NEWS 6

Renfrew vs. park board OPINION 10

Kelly votes for love ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Festival of zines

Voter’s Guide There’s more online at INSIDE vancourier.com MIDWEEK EDITION

THE VOICE of VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOODS since 1908

Robertson on the record Third in a three-part series with mayoral candidates

Mayor Gregor Robertson is seeking a third term at city hall. To achieve his goal, the Vision Vancouver mayor has to beat a cast of challengers, including the NPA’s Kirk LaPointe and COPE’s Meena Wong. Last Thursday, Robertson joined the Courier for one hour in a livestream broadcast at Creekside Community Centre, where he answered questions about his reelection bid. The full interview can be viewed at vancourier.com. Here is a condensed and edited transcript of our conversation.

BARED SHIRTLESS Vancouver College Fighting Irish fans show their colours at the 58th annual Archbishops’ Cup, an annual football game between Catholic schools Vancouver College and Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish extended their winning streak to 11 with a 46-7 win at Burnaby Lake Park Oct. 31. See story page 37. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Kits woman recalls bombings, danger and adventures of Second World War ‘Sassy Canadian soldier’ Doris Gregory pens book about her wartime experiences

REMEMBRANCE DAY Karen Segal

karensegal@hotmail.com

Doris Gregory was stopped and interrogated 21 times as she and a friend made their way on bicycles from Dublin to Belfast during the Second World War. Having snuck into the Irish Republic on a nine-day leave from the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC), the pair

was extremely relieved by the time they finally made it back to Northern Ireland. “They were afraid of spies,” said Gregory, now 93 and living in Kitsilano, of the British who had declared the Irish Republic off limits to all but immediate relatives due to its neutral stance. “We were cycling in the dark. We sounded like parrots [during the interrogations]. ‘My name is Jean White and I’m in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.’ It was very stressful. Then we got lost in the mountains so we ended up sneaking across twice. When we finally got to Belfast we had no place to stay. We stopped a Canadian Naval officer who sent us to the Grand Central Hotel. We were exhausted.”

But Gregory was also exhilarated. “We weren’t in combat. We were young and adventurous.” Gregory joined CWAC in 1942, after leaving the University of British Columbia where she had been studying psychology. A reporter at the university’s student newspaper, The Ubyssey, she had led a minor revolt against the male-only segregation of a mandatory second-year English course. “[The professor] felt that there were certain things in English literature that couldn’t be discussed in mixed company,” Gregory said. Ultimately, she and 20 other young women marched into the class and were just as quickly marched out. Continued on page 14

Courier: Why are you seeking a third term? Gregor Robertson: Things definitely don’t happen overnight in government, and it’s really important to have a steady experienced team able to work on a body of work for a consistent period of time. We had several one-term mayors prior to myself and the Vision team coming in. Not a lot got accomplished and we ended up having to clean up a lot of messes in our first couple of years. I see real potential in continuing the work for this next term, on affordable housing in particular. We’re just starting to move the needle, getting rental housing built and making progress on homelessness. It’s very difficult dealing with affordability and challenges like homelessness in the Downtown Eastside. But we have to stay very much focused on those and completing the work to get going on the Broadway subway. I want to go back to 2008 when you first ran for mayor. In several mayoral debates, you mentioned that you wanted to become mayor of this city to improve lives for people in this city. After six years the question is: “Whose lives have been improved under a Vision Vancouver administration? Is it the poor? Is it the middle class? Is it the rich? The goal is, that across the board it’s a better city for all people, and that we achieve more equity and more opportunity regardless of your income, your background. And that’s really, I think, at the core of Vancouver’s values. Continued on page 12

DYSLEXIA DIDN’T STOP ALBERT. We don’t let dyslexia or language-related learning disabilities affect our students, either. They learn differently, and we offer them an education in a setting where they can thrive. See for yourself at the Fraser Academy Open House: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 9:30-11:15 am. For more info or to RSVP, visit www.fraseracademy.ca or call 604 736 5575. © Estate of Yousuf Karsh

THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Civic parties release lists of campaign donors

12TH & CAMBIE Mike Howell

mhowell@vancourier.com

Lots of talk and debate this election campaign about civic parties collecting cash from unions, developers and others with deep pockets. Maybe you read my Oct. 21 feature that explained why some of the city’s big hitters such as realtor Bob Rennie and developer Rob Macdonald give money to civic parties. By the end of this week, we may find out how much they gave to Vision Vancouver and the NPA, respectively. You’ve probably heard the NPA and Vision agreed to release a list of contributors to their campaigns. The NPA also said it will provide the dollar amounts. Vision, which promised to release its donor list over the weekend but failed, hasn’t clarified whether it will include who gave what. While we wait, the Green Party of Vancouver was the first party to release its list, collecting a total of $46,387, including a $5,000 donation from the Vancouver Firefighters’ Union. OneCity pulled in $47,286, including more than $30,000 from unions. COPE said it will disclose its donations by the end of the week. The fact the parties are doing this is significant because they usually wait 90 days after the election — which is the law — to disclose such information. So that’s some good news. But I’ve written about this topic for more than a decade and the story never seems to change: No, says the politician, I’m not influenced by all that cash. And, yes, says

the politician, I want caps on contributions and spending limits but those higher paid politicians in Victoria aren’t doing anything to change the laws to make that happen! Well, they’re right about Victoria offering excuse after excuse for why Vancouver parties are allowed to raise as much as they want and spend as much as they want; city hall watchers may recall Macdonald’s $960,000 donation to the NPA in the 2011 campaign, which is believed to be the biggest contribution to a civic party in Canadian history. Anyway, Vancouver has been on the record for years of wanting campaign ﬁnance reform. Heck, the NPA, COPE and Vision even got together several years ago to demand a cap on union and corporate donations and other measures to get the big money out of civic politics. Victoria is well aware of this. Or, at least, I think so. But just in case Premier Christy Clark and her crew haven’t quite understood Vancouver’s demands, there are two meetings this Friday and Saturday where people can weigh in on the topic. Huh? An all-party committee of the Legislature, which includes former mayor Sam Sullivan who is now the Liberal MLA for VancouverFalse Creek, wants to hear from “stakeholders” and the public regarding expense limits. The meetings are scheduled for the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at 580 West Hastings. Two thoughts on this: One, isn’t the committee aware of the poor timing of trying to get people out to talk about campaign ﬁnance reform when there

is an election in a couple of weeks and people have a difficult time as it is to cast a ballot?;Two, isn’t the committee aware of the poor timing of trying to get people out to talk about campaign finance reform when there is an election in a couple of weeks and people have a difficult time as it is to cast a ballot? Yes, I wrote the same sentence twice. It is to make a point. And that point is: Why now? Didn’t the Local Government Elections Task Force release recommendations on expense limits four years ago? And haven’t three-year terms been replaced with four-year terms, so any new rules won’t go into effect until the 2018 election? Yes, and yes. I was going to end this piece with a stinging rebuke; not really, just wanted to write stinging rebuke. Instead, I’ll turn it over to Dermod Travis, the executive director of Integrity B.C., a non-profit organization “dedicated to help restore a bond built on trust and confidence between citizens and their elected officials.” Take it away Mr. Travis: “While the committee has offered some key stakeholders a conference call option ‘upon request’ and a possible ‘final meeting’ four days after local elections on Nov. 15, their disregard for providing adequate notice to all stakeholders and their decision to conduct virtually the entire process while local elections are underway makes a mockery of the importance of the committee’s work.” Love that word, mockery. twitter.com/Howellings

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While some parties have already disclosed who gave what to their campaigns, the NPA and Vision are expected to release a list of contributors to their campaigns by Friday. The election is Nov. 15.

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W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Candidates address address issues

LaPointe unable to vote for himself, Robertson no longer lives at residence listed in nomination documents

ANALYSIS Bob Mackin

bob@bobmackin.ca

Housing is a hot-button issue in Vancouver’s civic election campaign, but the law says the incumbent mayor need not tell voters where he lives and his biggest challenger need not be a resident of the city and cannot vote for himself. Provincial Court Judge Margaret Rae upheld Mayor Gregor Robertson’s nomination Oct. 16 after Cedar Party city council candidate Glen Chernen disputed the address on the Vision Vancouver leader’s nomination and ﬁnancial disclosure documents. Robertson called his residence the Kitsilano duplex from which he moved before July. Robertson’s lawyer David Gruber submitted afﬁdavits by Gregor and Amy Robertson, which

both said they “reached a mutual and amicable decision to separate” in mid-2014. Said the mayor’s affidavit: “I have been staying in an apartment in downtown Vancouver while our family works out what the future holds for us. Amy continues to stay in the Kitsilano residence, while I keep my belongings there, pay the bills and sometimes eat there.” Robertson’s legal filings did not mention the address of his downtown apartment. “I continue to consider the Kitsilano residence to be Gregor’s home as well while our family considers our future,” said Amy Robertson’s affidavit. “Gregor keeps a key and comes sometimes for meals. His furniture and many of his personal items remain in the home. He also pays bills, including property taxes for the home.”

While Lord Blackburn famously said in 1859 that “a man’s residence is where he habitually sleeps,” Rae agreed with Gruber that Robertson is within the Vancouver Charter’s broad definition of residential address as that which “includes an indication of the area in which a person lives if no other specific designation is reasonably available.” “I find that troubling that somebody that is running for mayor can’t indicate where he lives and more troubling that he can get away with it,” Chernen, a Dunbar resident, said outside the court. “I put where I live, my residence, because that’s what the forms asked for.” IntegrityBC executive director Dermod Travis said despite Rae’s verdict, a candidate should be forthcoming with voters, so as to avoid any perception that he or she is hiding a conflict of interest.

“The issue has become an issue because [Robertson] is living somewhere and nobody knows where he is living,” Travis told the Courier. “If he were to be transparent on that matter, the secondary matter of what his principal residence is would not have come before a judge. He’s creating doubt where doubt may not need to exist.” Meanwhile, NPA challenger Kirk LaPointe disclosed on his nomination papers that he lives on the University of British Columbia Point Grey campus. He is eligible to vote in the school board election, but not for city council or park board. In B.C., a candidate for ofﬁce need only be voting age and a Canadian citizen residing somewhere in the province. “If you’re setting tax rates for ratepayers to pay, you should be paying those tax rates, you should have a vested interest in

how ﬁscal policy in the municipality that you want to lead is being conducted and if you don’t live in that municipality, you don’t have that vested interest,” Travis said. LaPointe, who was managing editor of the Vancouver Sun from 2003 to 2010, told the Courier that he is committed to moving into Vancouver after the election. LaPointe said he and his wife, associate dean Mary Lynn Young, have been searching for an affordable home in the city off-and-on for more than three years. One occasion he said they were outbid. LaPointe declared his candidacy on July 14 and said it would not have been feasible for him and his family to juggle a political campaign with selling his UBC house, buying a new one in the city, packing up and moving. “There are way more important things to talk

about than where each of us lives,” LaPointe said. “What each of us believes and thinks and wants for the city, that’s what we ought to be discussing in this campaign. We’re into the silly season to hire actors to pretend they’re aware of the issues and having them chit chat for 30 seconds in a radio spot; if that’s how they think is a sensible use of campaign donations, they must have a lot more donors than I think because what they ought to be talking about is trying to explain to the city what it is that they’re sorry for doing or not doing in the last six years and how they intend to clean it up to restore conﬁdence in them.” The best example for why the B.C. law needs reform, Travis said, is fringe candidate David Shebib, who is running for mayor of all 13 municipalities in the Victoria region. twitter.com/bobmackin

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News

Renfrew Community Centre drops out of park board negotiations Park board accused of ‘no longer negotiating in good faith’

Sandra Thomas

sthomas@vancourier.com

The president of the Renfrew Community Centre Association says the decision to drop out of negotiations with the park board over an interim joint operating agreement (JOA) has nothing to do with politics, despite the fact the municipal election is less than two weeks away. “It has everything to do with the park board,” said Hazel Hollingdale. “We decided the park board is no longer negotiating in good faith and we had no choice.” In a letter to park board general manager Malcolm Bromley obtained by the Courier, Hollingdale noted Renfrew delegates have attended more than 50 meetings in the past 21 months regarding the JOA and are disappointed in the lack of progress. The letter added the association’s initial con-

cerns began in 2013, after the park board ﬁred negotiator Terry Harris. The Vision Vancouver-dominated park board wants to change the way community centres operate, including centralizing “core programs.” The most contentious of the recommendations would see the park board take all revenues from room rentals and programs — money traditionally retained by the associations. The park board argued the money should be pooled into a general account to be distributed amongst “have-not” centres. In response, 12 community centre associations, including Renfrew, began negotiations around the interim JOA with the park board. According to Hollingdale, also at issue was an order from the park board to community centre staff to not charge the Renfrew association’s $3 membership

Renfrew Community Centre Association president Hazel Hollingdale says the non-profit’s decision to drop out of negotiations with the park board is not political. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

fee when registration for fall programs opened Aug. 11. As reported in the Courier at the time, during a trial period that began last September, membership fees were waived and low-income users could register for seasonal programs at half-price, with

the remainder subsidized. They previously charged $8 for families, $6 for adults and $3 for children, seniors and youth, and the program subsidies were capped at $50. Hollingdale said when these subsidies cost the association almost $12,000,

they imposed the $3 ﬂat fee. In response, the park board requested the association raise their program fees. Hollingdale noted because lowincome members don’t pay a membership fee, raising the cost of programs would have been punitive to them. “When we told the park board we would no longer be participating in the interim agreement, recreation manager Terry Walton told the community centre staff they weren’t allowed to collect membership fees,” said Hollingdale. “We didn’t want to raise the cost of our programs because we have a lot of low-income residents living in our community.” Hollingdale added during negotiations the associations and park board agreed any public announcements pertaining to the interim agreement would be a collaboration. She said the park board violated that

agreement when it launched a media campaign with no consultation or approval from the associations. “We did not make this decision lightly,” said Hollingdale. “But we feel the park board is no longer negotiating in good faith and that’s all we want for our community.” Vision Vancouver park board chair Aaron Jasper said he’s disappointed with the association’s decision. “We are making progress,” said Jasper. “The [universal] OneCard has been a huge success and it’s helped low-income families and individuals reduce their barriers to recreation.” Jasper added since both sides have invested almost two years, he had hoped Renfrew would hang in there until a scheduled review of the process is completed. “But they chose to leave before then.”

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W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

News COPE floats plan to expand city-owned housing

COPE mayoral candidate Meena Wong is promising to build 800 units of cityowned affordable housing each year if elected and with the support of city council. The 2005 Homeless Action Plan, developed under the formerly COPE-led city council, called for 800 units of social housing annually for ten years, and she said half of these – 400 per year – would gradually replace the 4,000 units of privatelyowned low-income hotel rooms in the Downtown Eastside. “COPE is learning from housing authorities in our region, from Whistler to UBC,” said Wong in a prepared statement. “UBC’s housing agency built three

developments that have each generated about $100 million in proﬁts for the university’s endowment. A Vancouver housing authority could do the same for our city.” She said funding for construction would come from placing a duty on vacant properties and introducing a luxury housing tax, contributions from the private sector, housing authority proﬁts and a property endowment fund.

Contractor sues CBC

Disgraced former Q host Jian Ghomeshi isn’t the only person suing the CBC these days. Randy Kautzman, the owner of Level One Construction, is suing the broadcaster over an allegedly defamatory news story in which the company was accused of fraudulently in-

ducing a customer into hiring it for a renovation job. Level One and Kautzman ﬁled a notice of civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court claiming reporters Eric Rankin and Jenni Sheppard, news director Wayne Williams and several unknown CBC employees libelled the company in a CBC Investigates segment broadcast on Feb. 14, 2014. The plaintiffs claim defendant Marla Burnham falsely accused them of dishonest conduct when they gave her an estimate and accepted a $5,000 deposit for a renovation job to ﬁx a shed roof, redo her basement and install a sauna. Burnham, according to the lawsuit, demanded her deposit back after the estimate for the job ballooned to more than $35,000 from $18,000.

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W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Mayoral candidates back city’s diversity Chinatown forum discussed immigration and transparency

Christopher Cheung

chrischcheung@hotmail.com

Mayoral candidates were questioned about how they would serve Vancouver’s multicultural communities during a forum hosted by multicultural service organization SUCCESS. Approximately 150 people attended the forum in Chinatown. Cantonese and Mandarin speakers were provided with headsets that offered live translation. Most of the crowd was of Chinese ethnicity and COPE mayoral candidate Meena Wong seized the opportunity to highlight her ﬂuency in Cantonese and Mandarin by greeting them in both languages. Vision Vancouver mayoral incumbent candidate Gregor Robertson also made the effort to introduce himself in both Cantonese and Mandarin. A panel composed of Chinese media presented results

from an Insights West survey regarding ethnic discrimination in the workplace and asked how candidates would combat the issue. “We have to be relentless about producing more inclusion,” said Robertson, who stressed hiring practices needed to be more diverse. Wong said she related to the struggles of immigrants as she came to Canada from Hong Kong when she was 19. She said employment policies had to tackle the issue of immigrant professionals who arrive in Canada to ﬁnd their credentials are not recognized. NPA mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe shared his past experience launching a diversity initiative during his time at CTV. He addressed the panel directly and said the city’s lack of immediate releases in Chinese to Chinese media had to be a top priority.

Also in attendance were independents Mike Hansen, Bob Kasting and Tim Ly, making the total number of mayoral candidates present at the forum six out of the 10 running. Rival candidates had the chance to voice what they would do differently from Robertson. A common theme was listening to residents. “Neighbourhood after neighbourhood in this city is angry,” said LaPointe. “The relationship with developers is too cozy. Neighbourhood consultation has ended, it’s not genuine.” Wong criticized city spending on the expansion of bike lanes in Kitsilano. “If you want to put the bike lane in there, you got to consult the community ﬁrst,” said Wong. Kasting stated housing as his top issue. Regarding developments, he said the “neighbourhood has to

Independent mayoral candidate Tim Ly speaks at the all candidates meeting held by SUCCESS in Chinatown Thursday afternoon. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

decide where they are.” Robertson received the most cheers from those in attendance, especially when he mentioned the increase of “green” jobs and a growing tech industry. Time limitations and predetermined speaking turns restricted heated debates, but a few jabs were exchanged. Robertson and LaPointe both claimed to be the right mayor to oversee the de-

velopment of the proposed Broadway SkyTrain extension. He attacked LaPointe for living outside of Vancouver and not knowing the correct station where the extension would begin. Robertson said the line is “essential to our city’s future” and that he has worked well with other B.C. mayors on expansion strategies in preparation for next spring’s transit referendum. LaPointe’s major challenge

came in the direction of transparency as he promoted building the most open government in Canada. He announced the NPA would be revealing its list of campaign donors by Nov. 7 and challenged all parties, especially Vision, to do the same. Following the forum, Robertson told the Courier Vision would release its donors list by this weekend. The election is Nov. 15. twitter.com/chrischeungtogo

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

Opinion Every vote counts and Look beyond your so does love for the job ABCs at the ballot box Trish Kelly Columnist trishkellyc@gmail.com By the time this column is published, I will have already voted at advance polls for the Vancouver civic election. Here’s my voting plan. I’m voting early. There aren’t many early polling stations in East Vancouver, so I’m heading to city hall itself to cast my vote. I received an invite from Aboriginal Rock the Vote, and I’m going to join them in a trip to city hall even if it will take me two buses to get there. Having done my civic duty early, I plan to have a peaceful election day, parking my iPhone at home, steering clear of the Internet and television, and spending E-day celebrating non-election life with my partner. This election I’m more engaged than any other election before. I understand more about how electoral politics works and I am glad to say that I’m proportionately opinionated about who I hope to see elected. I understand some of the problems we have in our Vancouver electoral system. Without campaign spending limits, we’ll see more dollars spent on this election than even 2011’s bloated $5.3 million. As the only large city in Canada that has not moved to a ward system, we’ll likely continue to see some neighbourhoods and communities disadvantaged and underrepresented in our at-large system. With no chance to revamp our electoral system before Nov. 15, I’m doing what I can with the votes I have. Even though I’ve been following the election closely and I’ve looked through the list of 119 candidates, I don’t feel I know enough about all the candidates to select 10 councillors, seven park board commissioners and nine school board trustees that I can vouch will represent Vancouver’s interests with the integrity and holistic lens necessary. I’m going to cast votes for the ones I can vouch for. That’s not going to max out my ballot but I’d rather, for example, plump a few city council candidates I feel good about than ﬁll out the roster with maybes. Every vote I don’t give to a maybe is one less vote my preferred candidates need to make it across the line. I’m thinking of each vote I give as an arrow.

Looking back at the last Vancouver election, the Green Party’s Adriane Carr won the 10th council spot with just 90 votes over COPE’s Ellen Woodsworth. Fewer than two hundred votes separated Woodsworth from the candidate in 12th spot. Every voter counts. I’m also voting for diversity. Since dipping my own toe into electoral politics early this year, I’ve been advocating for new voices at the decision making table. I want to see Vancouver’s next government reflect our city’s diversity in gender, age, sexuality, ethnicity and income. This means looking at the kind of representation we’ve had and looking for candidates who embody the gaps. We’ve never had an indigenous person on city council or park board. Several other significant communities, including Filipino-Canadians and Indo-Canadians, are not represented on council. It isn’t that I feel candidates from underrepresented communities will serve just my interests; I’m trying to ask myself what will be best for all of Vancouver. I think diverse representation benefits us all, because when underrepresented communities finally see faces like theirs in positions of power, they are seeing validation that they belong here too. A sense of belonging is important. As the Vancouver Foundation revealed in its 2012 report on social isolation, feeling alone, even in a crowd, breeds mistrust, a hardening of attitudes towards one’s neighbours and even poor health. And finally, I am voting for love. From the affluent luxury condo owners who could live anywhere in the world, to the front line workers who spend their days supporting the city’s hardest to house while they barely hold on to their own basement suite apartment. I hope we all live here because we love Vancouver. I have no votes for anyone who’s phoning it in. I want to vote for the people who clearly love this place too, who see public office as a way to dedicate themselves to the city they care about. I want to vote for the people who love what this city is, and speak passionately about how we can make it better. I feel I’ve done my homework and I’ve made my picks. If you’re not there yet, you have until Nov. 15. twitter.com/trishkellyc/

The week in num6ers...

In thousands of dollars, the amount of money donated so far to the campaign of RJ Aquino, the sole candidate for the new OneCity Vancouver party.

The number of hours per day advance polling stations across the city are open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Michael Geller Columnist michaelarthurgeller@gmail.com Do you remember the late Gim Huey? Carole Taylor certainly does. In 1986, Gim Huey was seeking a spot on the NPA city council slate. He packed the nomination meeting with scores of recently signed-up supporters, many of whom had trouble reading English. Since the NPA was running a nine council candidate slate and his name started with the letter “H,” he instructed his supporters to vote for the ﬁrst nine names on the ballot. He was elected. Unfortunately Carole Taylor’s name started with a “T” and appeared 12th on the ballot. She was not elected. She subsequently decided to run as an independent candidate and won. She went on to become one of British Columbia’s most admired and respected politicians and public ﬁgures. Huey placed 15th and went on to lose four more elections. I think of Gim Huey and Carole Taylor every election year as I review the long list of candidates running for city council, school board and park board. This year there are 119 people seeking 27 seats. Of the 49 candidates running for council, 38 represent seven different parties and the other 11 are independents. Although there have been good independent candidates in recent years such as Sandy Garossino, no independent has won a seat on council since Taylor’s 1986 victory. Unfortunately, most of us know very little about the 49 council candidates, other than perhaps some incumbents. That is because the party campaigns and media tend to focus on mayoral candidates, not council candidates. This is a mistake since the 10 winning councillors will each have a vote equal to that of the mayor. While some park board and school board candidates have fared a bit better, most are also not well known. Consequently, many voters will be tempted to vote for a party slate, even though every party has some weaker candidates. Other voters will start at the beginning of the alphabetical list and put marks beside candidates’ names until they run out of X’s.

As a result, those candidates whose names start with A, B and C will likely do better than those whose names start with T. Just ask Carole Taylor. Many more residents will decide not to vote, believing this is better than voting for candidates they know little about, other than the number of signs they may have in the neighbourhood. I would like to suggest a different approach. This year we can learn about the candidates from various websites. To begin, there are those of the parties. In addition to COPE, Green, NPA and Vision Vancouver, you may want to check out OneCity, VancouverFirst and the Cedar Party. You can also learn about candidates in the City of Vancouver’s website (vancouver.ca) or explore a new website called myvotematters.ca that includes information on many candidates and issues facing the electorate. Finally, you can find an extensive Voters Guide in this edition of the Vancouver Courier and online election coverage in the paper’s Vancouver Votes 2014 section at vancourier.com/ vancouver-votes, including candidate profiles and dozens of excellent news stories. Sadly, in the last election almost two thirds of Vancouver residents did not vote. Ironically, this didn’t stop many from complaining after the fact about council, school and park board decisions. This year I hope more people will vote, especially since the 10 other people on Vancouver city council could turn out to be as important as the mayor. It may well be that candidates other than those running for Vision or NPA could hold the balance of power for the next four years. That’s right — four years. There are also many important issues facing the park and school boards. We need to elect commissioners offering various points of view. With the election just 10 days away, now is a good time to learn about the candidates. Let us not be like Gim Huey’s people who blindly voted from the top of the alphabet. Instead, vote for the best people, regardless of party affiliation or the letter with which their name begins. twitter.com/michaelgeller

50 119 200 2-6

Meetings in the past 21 months Renfrew Community Centre delegates have attended trying to unsuccessfully agree on an interim Joint Operating Agreement.

The number of candidates running for 27 seats in the upcoming civic election.

The approximate number of zines participating in the Canzine West festival taking place Nov. 8 at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.

The UBC Thunderbirds football team’s record for 2014. Head coach Shawn Olson was fired on Monday after five seasons with the team.

W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Mailbox Charged up over lack of EV station usage

To the editor: Re: “Lonely times for electric chargers,” Oct. 31. EV chargers (EVSE) are like flowers: they need to be there for bees, butterflies, and humming birds to sip from, whether you see one using it or not. Similarly, where you plant your flowers will determine how often they get used. If the logs of an EVSE show it is getting less use than other local EVSE, there are factors that were not considered in the planning of the EVSE installation. Is the EVSE location where plugin drivers want to go? If no one wants to go there, do not install EVSE there. Favored locations are just like fuel-cars: at shopping centers, theaters, restaurants, airport/train/bus stations, etc. Is the cost of using the EVSE too high? If some bean counter set the use fee too high, plugin drivers will go elsewhere. What should have been done is to use an EVSE finder website or app (i.e.: plugshare.com ) to know what plugin drivers use, how often and how

much it costs, etc. Then set the EVSE use fee accordingly competitive. The location of the installation in the parking lot should not be preferential spaces. If possible, side or rear parking spots are ﬁne. Obstinate fuel-car drivers will park in EV spots, thus blocking access. A blocked EV spot is a waste of tax dollars too, so the violator should be both ticketed and towed away. Lastly, because it is likely that the people who made all the incorrect decisions do not drive electric, there is a solution: relocate the EVSE to where it will be used. Too many times, the media complains about EVSE being under or over used, written by writers who do not drive electric and do not know of what they write about. When the real problem is the people who originally spent the money to install the EVSE also do not drive electric, thus did not know what they were doing. It isn’t the EVs, nor the EVSE at fault here. There are just too many people that are too ignorant to make simple common sense decisions. EVs are not rocket science, they are actually easier to know than fuel cars, they are just new to people’s minds. Bruce Parmenter, Vancouver

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

Ex-Beatle plays Paciﬁc Coliseum

Nov. 2, 1974: George Harrison begins a 45-date tour with a concert at Pacific Coliseum, the first former Beatle to perform in North America since the band broke up four years earlier. The Dark Horse tour, co-headlined with Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar, attracted huge crowds but also negative reviews due to Harrison sermonizing and reworking several Beatles’ songs, a perceived over-emphasis on Shankar’s music, the show’s two and a half hour length, and the heavy-smoking Liverpudlian’s vocal troubles, which earned it the nickname “Dark Hoarse Tour.”

Vancouver Grizzlies win debut game

Nov. 3, 1995: The Vancouver Grizzlies beat the Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden 92-80 in their first game as, along with the Toronto Raptors, one of two new NBA expansion teams in Canada. Benoit Benjamin scored a team-high 29 points and 13 rebounds for the Grizzlies. It was a rare victory for the new basketball team, who were denied a top-five draft pick in their first season under coach Brian Winters and instead went with seven-foot-tall center Bryant “Big Country” Reeves as their first choice, who proved to be an injury-prone disappointment over his career in Vancouver. The Grizzlies finished last in their division in five of six seasons, never winning more than 30 per cent of games in any given year, and relocated to Memphis, Tenn. in 2001. ADVERTISING

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COURIER VIDEO: “Q&A with Mayor Gregor Robertson,” online only. FCRA @FalseCreekRes: Too bad he wasn’t at our event last night. He could have spoken directly to residents! Chris Parry @ChrisParry: Did he discuss why two of his councillors, and city pension plan, have investments in oil companies? COURIER STORY: “Vision, NPA scrap over schools,” Oct. 31. Sandy: Bacchus is right. If Chevron wants to donate, they should cut a cheque with no strings attached. But Chevron isn’t interested in supporting public education, they’re interested in increasing profits by selling more gas. And any money donated to the schools would be tax deductible for them, meaning still less money available for public education. In the U.S., Chevron funnels millions to the Republican party. And after Richmond, California took them to court to improve safety conditions(following a refinery fire that released toxic fumes, Chevron has responded by backing its own slate of candidates for mayor and council with a $3 million campaign — including a fake website disguised to look like it’s from the community, an avalanche of mailings, push polls and every billboard in town. So thank you to Bacchus for keeping Chevron away from our schools and our children. Eugene: I’ve got bad news for you, Sandy. The province is planning to cover its end of your retirement costs with the proceeds of gas sales. Quit being so selfish with your hypocritical ideology and let the schools get the money. KUDOS & KVETCHES: “50 Shades of Jian,” Oct. 31. Wanda Mae Amelia Anderson: You never fail to bring humour to all and everything. Brenda Jones: Moxy Fruvous was AWFUL! They tried too hard to sound smart. While I think the majority of conversations around Jian’s actions may be surface-deep, I wouldn’t consider it all to be unimportant. Clearly, his pattern of violence against women went on for over a decade without being reported — the reasons behind that are important to get to. And this case might inspire other women who have been abused to come forward and lay actual charges against their abuser. COURIER STORY: “Lonely times for electric chargers,” Oct. 31. ACMEsalesrep: There’s an even simpler issue to consider: How many drivers know these spots exist without having driven past them at some point? I only knew about the location on Granville Island because I’ve seen it. I had no idea there were chargers at the other locations mentioned in the story. If nobody knows they’re there, they’re not going to be used.

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Feature

Mayor talks homelessness,

Mayor Gregor Robertson told the Courier’s Mike Howell and Naoibh O’Connor that some of the lawsuits launched against the city by residents were by people with a political agenda. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

Continued from page 1 It’s being inclusive and creating opportunity for everyone. So we’ve certainly made an enormous difference in the lives of the most vulnerable. There’s still people suffering. There’s no doubt about that. But we’re closing in on 1,000 people moving from the street into shelters and housing, which is a huge improvement from prior years when it was going the other way. The biggest challenge will continue to be the low and middle income and making sure people on middle incomes can actually live in Vancouver, which is why our focus on rental housing and childcare and transit are critical. We’ve seen young people who have decent jobs leaving because they can’t afford to stay here. We’ve seen people, when they start families, have to move out because they can’t afford a larger space. So those are the pieces we need to focus on. You’ve promised to end street homelessness by 2015. But if I understand correctly, the next home-

less count is not done until March 2015. So we won’t really know if you’ve ended street homelessness by maybe April or May of next year, when the results are released. What will be a good indicator this winter is whether there is some capacity in our shelter system and housing units that continue to come available. The last count last March was about 538 people on the street. We’ve opened a couple of hundred units up since then of social housing. We’ve got over 400 more units opening up in the next two months, and we’ve got shelter capacity opening as well. So on paper, anyway, it looks like enough capacity is opening between now and the end of the year that everyone should have an opportunity to move inside. We won’t know for sure if all that space is taken up. There may still be some people outside. Some may be choosing to do that. But if there are people still outside who have nowhere to go, then we’ve got a problem there.

I know that the media and the public are going to come to you Jan. 1 and say, “So have we ended street homelessness?” And what are you going to tell them? Ideally we’re saying, yes. We’ve got space in the system now. There’s space in our shelters. Anyone who wants to come inside can. And our outreach teams are doing the good work on the street and making sure that everyone has the opportunity and the connection to get inside. We just have to keep going on this full tilt. My goal is to go ﬂat out to the end of the year, see if we can get everyone in with all the housing and shelter space opening. And at that point, we just continue. There’s no slowing down on this. As long as I’m mayor, I’m going to keep pressing as hard as I can. The city held a meeting Oct. 29 to talk to residents concerned about the opening of the former Kettle of Fish as a shelter and the Quality Inn on Howe Street as temporary housing. We had a reporter there

and we understand that not all residents are happy about this. So what would you say to those residents? I’d say to those residents it’s important that we get everyone in off the street. And in that neighbourhood there are homeless people. You see lots of young homeless people on Granville Street in recent months. That’s become a much bigger issue than it was even a couple of years ago — an inﬂux of young people living on Granville and Davie Street again. We have had shelters open in that neighbourhood over the last six years. We’ve had winter shelters that have been quite successful. We had initial problems the ﬁrst year close by there, with two shelters that were right across an alley from each other. And we resolved that, closed one and dealt with the challenges there. But since that time, I think we’ve had good success with those shelters. The operator at the Howe Street housing project has had great success at Hastings [at Skeena] in the old hotel

there that’s now social housing. And they’ve worked very well with the neighbourhood. That was a very angry neighbourhood when we tried to open that, and now it’s worked out very well. Are you conﬁdent that all the people who were camped out at the Oppenheimer Park tent city have found shelter or temporary or permanent housing? There was a ton of work done by outreach workers over the several months that the tent camp was there. Their count was almost 150 people moved from the park into housing and shelter, which is good news for those people. We deﬁnitely saw some people move back into their SROs or apartments that they’d been living in previously. Are you tracking everyone though? Is anybody left on the street? The tracking is done by B.C. Housing primarily, and the city’s outreach workers complement that. They collaborate to keep track of everyone who’s

outside on the street. It’s not always the easiest thing to do, but there’s been a lot of progress in better tracking systems and identifying people that do need the support. The bigger challenge is that there just isn’t enough housing, and we have two big B.C. Housing projects opening a couple of blocks from Oppenheimer Park in the months ahead. And it would have been nice if those had been open months ago as planned, and they would have taken in a lot of the people who were in the park. But those are still coming on stream. Let’s shift and talk about affordable housing. Your government developed its own program to get rental housing built in Vancouver. It was known as STIR and is now called Rental 100. Out of those programs, some downtown studio apartments are renting for $1,400 per month. A lot of people would say, well, that’s not affordable. The key piece is to create more rental supply.

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Feature

housing, lawsuits

We’ve had huge constraints on the supply of rental housing, which has put vacancy at basically zero for many years now and driven the cost of the rents up in the process and pushed people out who just couldn’t ﬁnd a place to rent. So now we have brand new purposebuilt rental housing. Lots of it does come in on the higher end of current rents because they’re brand new buildings. But it creates capacity. We’re one of the few cities that have taken this step to get incentives and rental housing built, and it’s working. A thousand units a year is the pace that we’re on now. The program’s incentives include waiving thousands of dollars in fees for developers. Some say this program is a windfall for developers. What would you say to that? I don’t describe it as a windfall. They get enough incentive to actually do the projects instead of doing condo developments, or instead of going and building in other cities. So our goal was to keep it lean. One of the biggest incentives is reducing the parking requirements in these buildings, and we want them close to transit where people won’t actually need to have a car necessarily. And that means great savings in terms of building parkades. So that’s been a big piece of the incentive that works for everybody and is probably long overdue in Vancouver. The developers still, I think, would rather build condos in most cases. There’s more money to be made at that. But with that incentive, it’s just enough for them to opt for rental, and that creates value for the city. And it makes sure that we have people in middle incomes, can stay and live and work in the city. Let’s talk about neighbourhoods. The city’s faced numerous lawsuits since you’ve become mayor from residents concerned about changes happening in their neighbourhood, such as the Point Grey bike lane. I can’t recall a government being taken to court as

would be advertising in the classroom? I don’t know about speciﬁc advertising and materials. All I know is that there is a direct connection of the funding to kids and families buying gas at Chevron.

Mayor Gregor Robertson maintains that his promise to end street homelessness by 2015 is achievable. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

much. So what does that say about the way the city’s being run? I think it says more about the political agenda of some of these people. Some of these cases are being thrown out of court, and the city is being awarded costs by the judge because they’re nuisance cases effectively. They’re very political. It looks like a political strategy that tangles the city up and makes everything look more controversial. I can’t comment on the contents of some of the cases that are in process right now. But I think we do work out a lot of these issues through very public processes. But Vision has been criticized a lot by some residents who feel like you’re not consulting properly. They either feel the deal’s being done before it’s brought to residents for feedback, or when they do give feedback, they don’t feel it’s considered genuine. What would you say to those residents? It’s all about continuing to improve the process. We have done a lot more engagement and consultation. We’ve improved the process in terms of early input from residents. We rely on the community plans that have been built in many different neighbourhoods for the guidelines for rezoning. So there will always be people who don’t want any change,

who don’t want more density or rezoning. Who don’t like the look or, you know, the architecture. Who don’t like the impact of a project. And I respect that. People can certainly have that opinion. When it comes to blaming the process, I think we have to be careful because we had a process in place for many years. Vision has come in and actually added to the process, tried to make it better and improve it. We still have people that are either blaming the process or just don’t like the outcome of the decision, and I respect their input. But as a council, we have to make decisions to deal with the whole city and the bigger challenges is we have to create more housing in certain parts of the city. Sure, but there are groups such as the Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods, which has been formed by 25 resident groups. They don’t feel they’ve been listened to, and they want to inﬂuence planning and development. So what do you say to groups like that? There is a lot of politics at work in that and people have different opinions about growth. Quite a few of the, I think, members and associations are not supportive of growth. Or they’re supportive of very little growth. Certainly not enough to deal with the pressure that we’re facing.

The only way to address affordability in Vancouver is to add density and to try and get savings through using city land or rezonings. We don’t really have a lot of choices here. I still believe that most people in Vancouver, the majority of people understand, we have to add more density and more housing, more business opportunities in the city. We try and do that as thoughtfully and carefully as we can, with an open process. And there’s always going to be some disagreement about that. The Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal. Your critics have said you are spending way too much time on an issue that’s out of your jurisdiction. So what do you say to those critics who say that the city doesn’t really have any power here to stop a pipeline or stop tankers from going up and down the inlet? We don’t make the decision directly, but our voice is our power. And as the leaders of the city, it’s our responsibility to ensure the voices of Vancouver are heard in Ottawa. There is a federal government run process with the National Energy Board that recently approved the pipeline in the north, the Northern Gateway Enbridge pipeline proposal. And then they’ve dramatically stripped back

the public process for the Kinder Morgan hearings and shut out over half of the voices that were trying to intervene and be part of that hearing process. I am absolutely against the proposal and 340 more tankers every year in our waters. It’s an enormous threat to our economy and our environment. And I don’t see any benefit for Vancouver in this. I just see a ton of risk, and it doesn’t make sense to me. Lot of talk recently about the Vision-led school board turning down a financial contribution from Chevron. What was Chevron looking for? As I understand it, there were no strings attached. My understanding is that it was a program where if kids and their parents were buying more gas from Chevron, that more dollars would flow to their school and their classroom. And that that would actually be promoted within the classroom and some materials to actually talk about Chevron and oil and energy industry and what it does, that that becomes part of the package. But there are actually incentives to raise money based on the kids getting their parents to buy gas at Chevron, which is a very direct intervention in our schools. You’re saying there

Your push for a subway along the Broadway corridor. For the record, have you met with the province? Have you met with the feds? Who have you met with, and what have they told you? Is the money coming? I’ve had one-on-one meetings. We’ve had team meetings with groups of mayors and ministers for years. I’m the chair of the Big City Mayors across Canada and meet with ministers in that capacity as well and championing the need for transit in cities across the country too. And what are they telling you? The provincial and federal governments have not been moving a lot of infrastructure dollars into cities in recent years. When we have a referendum from the province in a couple of months, we have to be doing everything in our power to make sure that referendum is approved, it passes and we get funding for transit, and we can get started on the Broadway subway and improve buses all over the region as well. A park was supposed to be built more than 20 years ago on the big chunk of asphalt next to Science World. If elected, can you promise residents it will be built before you complete your next term? I can’t promise it because of the legal constraints on it. The money that’s tied to the Concord development next door and the [Georgia and Dunsmuir] viaducts question, which also has significant financial commitments related. Until I know exactly what the cost benefit is for the city, I’m not willing to vote yay or nay on that. I think what we are going to see is a decision will be made early in the next term around the viaducts. And that will likely trigger change all around, with the Concord land and with the park next door.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

Feature

1. Retired soldier Doris Gregory has penned a memoir about her time served in the Second World War. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET 2. Doris Gregory’s (r) adventures overseas as a soldier during the Second World War included a cycling trip through Devon.

Disaster as stenographer led to deployment overseas Continued from page 1 “The men booed as we went out.” The Canadian University Press picked up the story and she found herself a minor celebrity. By the next year, however, fellow journalist Pierre Burton had graduated and she no longer found the newspaper atmosphere a pleasant one. She learned about the CWAC, which, along with the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division (RCAF WD) and the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS or “Wrens”) was formed during the Second World War to relieve the men from non-combatant roles. In 1941, Gregory made the decision to sign up. “[At university] I felt on

“I’m worried about Mom.”

the fringe of things. The idea of joining the army and developing a sense of belonging [was appealing]. I was adventurous. I wasn’t patriotic. I was adventurous. They were ready to take anybody who could breathe.” She was sent to Victoria for a clerk’s course and then to Nanaimo to a military hospital. “I was a disaster as a stenographer. It would take me two hours to decipher what I’d written. It was gobbledygook. I was demoted to a typist.” When her commanding ofﬁcer called and asked if she wanted to go overseas, she was thrilled. “I wasn’t her ﬁrst choice. I was not mature or sensible but the two ahead of me had turned it

down,” she laughed. Sent to London, her first job was dull and dry. “Typewriters with 18 inch characters — officers name, rank, courses, copying from handwritten notes. It was terribly, terribly boring. I complained about it so got sent to work in personnel selection. I had statistical stuff to do — not my favourite part of psychological study. That job was OK but after a while the research came to an end. Then I did filing for months and months. It was soul destroying. You hardly needed three years of university to do that job.” The work may have been tedious but Gregory loved her life in London. “London was wonderful. We went to the pubs

and dancing in the clubs. We went out every evening. There were loads of things to do.” The air raids and the blackouts didn’t scare her. “You got used to the air raids. Fortunately nothing ever landed close to me. I had my comrades with me. There was so much camaraderie. I felt safer in the blackout than I did in Vancouver at night. I never heard of any of our girls being attacked. You’d see a little shaft of light out of the pub and you’d go in. It would be so lovely.” Only one time was she truly terriﬁed. “Once I really thought I was going to die — this was with the buzz bombs,” says Gregory who was in a London hostel for

the weekend. “The noise stopped right overhead. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness here it comes and I don’t have my identity disc with me.’ The buzz bombs sailed on for a few seconds after her engine shuts off. Then I heard the explosion and I wasn’t hit. I remember the feeling of absolute calm. My life didn’t pass in front of my eyes.” After D-Day, Gregory was moved to the barracks in Farmborough until the end of the war. “I ﬁnally got to be a sergeant. And the air was better, my health was much better. But I had no heat in my room, just a little tiny shallow ﬁreplace,” remembers Gregory. “There was a coal bin outside my room — mostly coal dust.

Half the time I couldn’t keep that ﬁre going.” Gregory, who has written a book about her adventures, was also disturbingly aware that some of the soldiers she dated were most likely killed during the war. In How I Won the War for the Allies: One Sassy Canadian Soldier’s Story, she also writes about her encounters with “bigoted American soldiers who treated blacks abominably.” “I met one of the original suffragettes in England from the First World War. My book runs the whole gamut of human emotion.” How I Won the War for the Allies: One Sassy Canadian Soldier’s Story is available at UBC Bookstore, Kidsbooks and Chapters.

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W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Vancouver Voter’s Guide

Why you should vote Making sure you can vote Who’s running

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

Recent poll shows:

Two out of three

Vancouverites support a multi-party slate

– with no majority of any one party

Single party dominance has brought us:

8 unparalleled secrecy & unaccountability, 8 policy failures on housing affordability,

MAYOR LAPOINTE, Kirk

transit & homelessness,

(NPA)

BARRETT, Lisa

8 a rising tide of community lawsuits against the city, AND

(Green)

CARR, Adriane

8 uncontrolled spending & tax increases. A multi-party government is the most effective government, and protects citizens & taxpayers against bias, waste & corruption. To help you cut through the clutter of the municipal ballot, we have consulted with community associations all over the city to produce this multi-party slate.

FRY, Pete GAVIN, Gayle LOW, Ken McDOWELL, Rob

We believe this slate is most likely to respect the rule of law, act transparently, spend taxpayer dollars effectively, AND defend the values of the city’s neighbourhoods, residents & businesses.

(Green)

CHERNEN, Nicholas DEAL, Heather

(NPA) (COPE)

BROWN, Cleta

COUPAR, John MACKINNON, Stuart

COUNCIL AFFLECK, George

volatile labour relations, strikes & large payouts,

PARKS

(Cedar) (Vision) (Green)

ROMANIUK, Anita

SCHOOL (NPA) (Green) (COPE)

BACCHUS, Patti BALLANTYNE, Fraser

DAY, Diana

SHUM, Erin

FRASER, Janet

WIEBE, Michael WYSS, Cease

(Green) (COPE)

(NPA)

BOUEY, Jane (Public Education Project)

ROSSETTI, Massimo (Vancouver 1st) (NPA)

(Vision)

(COPE) (Green)

NOBLE, Penny OAK, Mischa

(NPA) (Green)

RICHARDSON, Christopher WONG, Allan

(NPA) (Vision)

(COPE) (NPA) (NPA)

Take this list to your polling station on Saturday, November15 & VOTE to help make Vancouver a better city! A Better City (ABC) is a non-partisan, democratic, civic movement in Vancouver. By promoting broad public dialogue on what makes a better city, we partner with civic organizations & individuals to establish consensus around principles of accountable governance, community-led urban planning & development, and progressive policy solutions that serve everyone, including generations yet to come.

www.facebook.com/abettercityvancouver

A BETTER CITY calls on YOU to consult your community association & on November 15 – VOTE to make Vancouver a better city.

Authorized by A Better City (ABC) Vancouver Association, registered sponsor under LECFA, abcvan@shaw.ca

W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Why you should vote Voting is about you, your community and your money

Make sure you can vote

Barry Link

blink@vancourier.com

We got better last time around. In the 2011 civic election, 34.57 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot. That was an increase from 2008 when an abysmal 30.79 per cent of us voted in the lowest turnout in half a century. The City of Vancouver, ever optimistic, wants to raise voter turnout again this year with the long-term goal of doubling the turnout percentage by 2025. We have a long way to go to get there. So why should you care? The reason is simple: You may not want to help decide what happens at city hall. But city hall, and the park board and school board, helps decide what happens to you.

FOLLOW YOUR MONEY If you own property in Vancouver, you pay taxes to civic government, including to the school district. You don’t have a choice. If you’re a renter in Vancouver, you’re paying your landlord’s property taxes. Depending on the value of the property, that adds up to hundreds or thousands of dollars a year. You’ll want a say in how your money is spent. Look out your door or window to the street. That street, the sidewalks, the sewers and water lines running underneath it are all built by the city using your money. In fact, large physical infrastructure like roads and sewers takes up the bulk of city spending. They’re expensive and difficult to create, but they make cities livable thanks to the taxes you pay. Look at the cars parked along the street. The amount of time they can park there, how close they can be to an intersection and, more importantly, the fines received (that’s more of your money) if they break those regulations are set and monitored by city officials whose salaries you provide. See the person walking their dog? They pay the city for the licence required to own that dog. That licence is an example of the many fees you and your neighbours pay for various services, from putting on events to approval of renovations in your home. The park they’re heading to is run by the park board, which maintains that park

CASTING YOUR BALLOT Voting in this year’s civic election has expanded with more hours, more days and more locations, and the city hopes the extra opportunities will encourage Vancouverites to cast their ballots. This year, you’ll be asked to elect the mayor, 10 city council members, seven park board commissioners and nine school trustees for a four-year term. You will also help decide whether to authorize the city to borrow money for major projects including parks, roads, affordable housing, childcare and transportation.

DOUBLECHECK REGISTRATION If you’ve registered for the voter’s list in the past, you’re likely registered for this year’s election. A voter information card will arrive by mail and likely has arrived by now. If you’re unsure of your voter status, visit elections.bc.ca. If you’re not on the voter’s list you can register on the day you vote with two pieces of identiﬁcation that indicate name, signature and residential address. If you have only one piece of ID, you can still vote if you swear a declaration of residence. Vancouver’s skyline as seen from Queen Elizabeth Park. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

and decides how it can be used, all with your money. The board controls where and whether that person can let their dog run off leash in that park. It even provides plastic bags they can use to pick up after their animal. Now note the bike lane. The cyclists barreling along it might delight or annoy you. Either way, you paid for it. Bike lanes are controlled by the city and their steady growth throughout Vancouver in recent years is the direct result of city policy. Watch the police car drive by. That vehicle, the officers inside it, and all their equipment is paid for by the city. How much they earn, where they patrol and their enforcement priorities are set by a police board chaired by the mayor. All with your money. The firehall down the street is also run by the city. Their ability to respond to your home for a fire or medical emergency depends on your taxes. Walk by a school. Your money helped build that school. It also pays for the salaries of the teachers and staff who watch over those young minds each day. Finally, go to a nearby major intersection. Chances are tall residential towers are springing up there. The proposals to build those towers, the process, including consulting you, by which they were approved, and their design and implementation, were all controlled by the city, run by politicians and

staff your money pays for. Did you get your money’s worth? All this spending adds up. The city’s operating budget approaches a billion dollars a year. The school board spends nearly half a billion dollars a year. How to spend $1.5 billion a year in a city the size of Vancouver has an enormous impact on your life. You can’t escape the reach of civic government.

FOUR MORE YEARS If there ever was a civic election for you to vote in, this is it. In a recent change legislated by the provincial government, the people you elect to city council, park board and school board will be in power for four years. Four years, nearly half a decade, is a long time in anyone’s life. Many of you will have upgraded through two new iPhones in that span and some will have bought a new car. You might have even changed spouses or partners. Certainly you’ll be older. The mayor and 10 councillors you elect will be setting property zoning policies and guiding the development, or redevelopment, of neighbourhoods and transportation right through to November 2018. If you pay your mortgage monthly, that’s 48 mortgage payments for property whose value that council’s decisions will inﬂuence. For renters, that’s 48 months of rent at a rate also inﬂuenced by the decisions made by the people you elect to be in

charge. For parents and caregivers with kids in schools, four years is an epoch. That’s half of the time a child spends in elementary school. If your teenager started Grade 9 this fall, they’ll have the same school board trustees enacting district policies that guide public schools right into their graduation year. Those nine school trustees you elect will have a signiﬁcant inﬂuence on the education and classroom experience your child will receive.

DOES MY VOTE COUNT? Yes, as much as the richest or poorest person in the city. The developer, the binner, the single parent and the first-year university student all get exactly one vote. Our democratic system is flawed. Campaign donations should be curtailed and made transparent. The city should join other “world class” cities and introduce wards. We could all be more civil in our political debates. But it’s remarkable in historic and global terms that we settle our differences and push our agendas, good or bad, not by mortar shells or rockets fired across Main Street but through the ballot box. In the month that we remember Canadian men and women who died in our country’s wars, voting in an open election in a free country is a fine way to honour their sacrifice. twitter.com/ trueblinkit

WHERE AND WHEN TO VOTE Advance voting has begun as of this guide’s publication and continues to Nov. 12 (excluding Nov. 11 for Remembrance Day), 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. There are eight advance voting locations at community centres and city hall. Additional support for voters with disabilities will be available during advance voting, including a sip and puff device, an audio system that will read the ballot and a magnification option. Election day is Saturday, Nov. 15 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can vote at any of the nearly 120, hightraffic locations across Vancouver. New locations include Oakridge Mall, International Village Mall and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Multilingual staff and audio devices will be onsite. If you are unable to attend voting opportunities due to absence or ability, register online or call 311 to receive a ballot to vote by mail. WHO CAN VOTE Vancouver residents (for at least 30 days before registration) and Vancouver property owners who live elsewhere in B.C. (for at least six months before registration) are eligible to vote. You are required to be age 18 or older on voting day and a Canadian citizen. If you have no fixed address but a general place of residence such as a street corner or a commonly frequented shelter, you are allowed to register as long as you have two pieces of identification. The option to swear a declaration if you only have one piece is also open. Young voters are a special target to reach this year. Strategies to encourage younger voters has included social media campaigns, city staff visiting UBC and welcoming election workers at age 15 instead of 18. The goal this year is a 40 per cent turnout. The last civic election in 2011 saw 35 per cent, up from 30.76 in 2008. The aim for turnout in 2025 is 65 per cent. Chris Cheung twitter.com/chrischeungtogo A note on the candidate profiles: We’ve tried to make the presentation as neutral as possible while retaining what the candidates say they are promising or pledging to voters. Readers are urged to use their own judgment. You can read about the candidates in their own words in the Vancouver Votes section at vancourier.com. You can also see what the candidates filed about themselves at the city’s elections site at Vancouver.ca/votes.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

Affordability and campaign donors Here are some of the issues raised during the election

Barry Link

blink@vancourier.com

What are some of the issues that have arisen during this campaign? Not surprisingly, they involve money.

THE PRICE IS WRONG Affordability arguably became the biggest issue for Vancouver voters during the 2011 election and its

position as a top concern for residents hasn’t changed. The reason is simple: the cost of housing, whether buying or renting, has continued to rise. Vancouver might place highly in global quality of living surveys, but it’s at the bottom worldwide for affordable housing. That’s led to proposals and debates among candidates on the merits of taxing vacant homes and

setting up housing authorities. While interesting, none of the solutions promise an immediate impact on real estate prices. Money has also become an issue for campaign donations, thanks to the increasing amount spent by civic parties in a system that remains functionally unregulated. Candidates and parties have accused each other of being in the

pockets of various donors. Some candidates have declared that they are free of such inﬂuence. Voters must decide.

ON THE BUSES How we get to where we’re going also has become an issue, with a proposed subway along Broadway the subject of heated debate as to the details and ﬁnancing. One party proposed a

The price of real estate in Vancouver remains a key concern for Vancouver voters. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

JESSE JOHL

MILAN KLJAJIC

ELENA MURGOCI

MERCEDES WONG

PARK BOARD

BRENT HAYDEN

YOGI JOHL

MASSIMO ROSSETTI

DOUG STARINK

SCHOOL BOARD

SUSAN BHATHA

KEN DENIKE

SCHOOL DAYS The race for school board has been quiet for most of the campaign, perhaps thanks in part to parents and politicians recovering after a protracted and bitter teachers strike that delayed the start of the school year. The issue of transgender policy in city schools attracted widespread interest in the spring and summer, but since its adoption in the summer has not returned as a signiﬁcant campaign issue. Instead, candidates have drawn headlines by debating school district policy on accepting or rejecting funding from private corporate donors and whether such money should come with strings attached. PARK PLACE One of the biggest election issues for park board has been the rebellion of six community centre associa-

tions against the incumbent park board over the role of those associations in running and funding community centre operations. After hours of meetings, negotiations and tangled legal proceedings over many months, the two sides remain at an impasse. The outcome of the standoff probably matters little to the average voter who uses their nearby community centre, but for the volunteers and staff at community centres and park board, a peace treaty would be welcome news. Other park board issues raised by voters during the campaign included a long-promised but unbuilt park on the north shore of False Creek, ofﬂeash dog parks and a desire for more outdoor pools. Find out more on issues raised in the campaign at vancouriernews.com.

• Lower Property & Business Taxes! • Ombudsman & Lobbyist Registry Accountability Consultation Transparency • Policing Oﬃces in Every Community Reduce Property Crime • Restore Weekly Garbage Pickup

COUNCIL

FEDERICO FUOCO

cheaper monthly bus pass as a way to encourage more transit use.

SOPHIA WOO

RICHARD WONG

• Save Community Centres & Promote Independent Model • Reinvest in Outdoor/Indoor Pools • Building New Senior Centres • Build & Replace Playgrounds for Kids • Creating More Preschool & Daycare • Expand Hot Lunch & Breakfast Program

W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

BROWN Is The New

Vote Cleta Brown

For City Council On November 15

Cleta Brown

wants to put people and neighbourhoods first!

For City Council

Cleta Brown is well qualified to be your City Councillor. She was born and raised in our city. She attended public schools here and then went on to obtain a degree in law at the University of Victoria and a Masters in Law at the London School of Economics. Cleta was raised in a family that values social justice (her mother was the late Rosemary Brown). Her public service has included work as General Counsel with the Office of the Ombudsperson, Crown Counsel, and the B.C. Review Board. She has also volunteered extensively and sat on the boards of the YWCA, Mosaic, the B.C. Kidney Foundation and L.E.A.F.

Why should you vote for Cleta Brown? 1. Cleta will champion Vancouver’s unique neighbourhoods and protect our quality of life by advocating for a new planning process that will genuinely engage citizens, and not just developers. 2. Cleta will fight for affordable housing by promoting policies that encourage retention of existing housing stock, and policies that ensure that new housing is affordable and proportionate to the neighbourhood in which it is built. 3. Cleta will fight to reduce traffic congestion and offer practical transportation solutions that are supported by citizens. For example, minimizing lane closures for construction and considering locating bike routes off of arterial streets. 4. Cleta will fight to increase and improve the city’s response to homelessness, and to the growing dilemma of poverty among children and seniors. 5. As a councillor, Cleta will insist on a return to true democracy and a collaborative city council that values citizens’ rights and interests. She will fight to change the public consultation process to one that has actual meaning. Approved by Financial Agent M. Ryan 604-290-5600

YOU GET 10 VOTES FOR CITY COUNCIL

SAVE ONE VOTE FOR

RJ AQUINO

“I support OneCity because it brings progressive individuals together to work for positive change. Vancouver City Council would be better with RJ Aquino on it.” - Mable Elmore, NDP MLA, Vancouver-Kensington “As new parents, we support RJ Aquino and OneCity because we want to raise our daughter in a world where justice and inclusiveness aren’t just farfetched ideals, but part of our everyday lives.” - Cara Ng, OneCity Founding Member, and Charlie Demers, Author and Comedian

Visit us at VOTEoneCITY.ca Authorized by Mia Edbrooke, Financial Agent, info@onecityvancouver.ca

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Adriane Carr, Vancouver’s first Green councillor: Two thirds of Vancouverites polled said that our city would be better if no one party dominated City Council. Three Greens on Council could hold a balance of power. We will listen. We will collaborate. We will put public interest first. Vote Green First

A better Vancouver, together

VOTE: 3 for City Council 2 for Park Board 2 for School Board AUTHORIZED BY JOHN WHISTLER, FINANCIAL AGENT GREEN PARTY OF VANCOUVER 604-689-9200

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Gregor

Robertson is not listening to you

Made “cash for favours” deal with CUPE, got a campaign cheque for $102,000 (Vancouver Courier, Georgia Straight - October 2014)

Taxes up 46%, debt up 58%, family incomes stalled and millions squandered on pet projects making Vancouver less affordable for us all Elected on a promise to end homlessness by 2015 but homeless population has doubled (Vancouver Courier - April 2014)

Imposed a Vision agenda over neighbourhoods’ wishes, prompting costly lawsuits against the City Put our growing population at risk with cutbacks to Vancouver’s ﬁrst responders (Open Letter by Vancouver Fire Fighters IAFF Local #18 - October 2014)

Clawed back millions in promised dollars for much needed Seniors Centre

Vancouver can’t take 4 more years of “Vision”

We Need Change.

Authorized by Wayneby Zielke, Financial Agent Financial Agent Authorized Wayne Zielke, ﬁnancial.agent@npvancouver2014.ca

Vote for Change.

Kirk LaPointe

and the NPA Team

The Most Open City Hall in Canada

The NPA will freeze property taxes until the books have been audited, pass a disclosure bylaw and create a lobbyist registry.

365 Nutrition Program for Children

No child should go hungry in a city as rich as ours. Success starts with nutrition; let’s get needy Vancouver kids fed every day of the year.

Constructive Action on Transportation

The NPA built 75% of Vancouver’s bikeways without dividing the city. Let’s address all modes of transportation, including Broadway rapid transit, to get Vancouver moving again.

Real Consultation

Let’s put an end to Vision’s phoney consultations and get real dialogue going again on what matters to you.

Restore Free Sunday parking outside the downtown core and after 8pm city-wide.

Together, the VANCOUVER we want. N PAVa n c o u v e r 2 0 1 4 . c a

financial.agent@npvancouver2014.ca

PARK BOARD CANDIDATES

COUNCIL CANDIDATES

AFFLECK ,

LOW ,

George

Ken

BAKER ,

McDOWELL, Rob

Gregory

ROBERTSON,

BALL ,

Ian

Elizabeth

SCOTT,

DE GENOVA,

Suzanne

Melissa

for Mayor

LaPOINTE, Kirk

SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES

COUPAR ,

BALLANTYNE,

CRAWFORD,

NOBLE ,

JAGPAL ,

RICHARDSON,

John

Casey

Fraser

Penny

Jay

Christopher

KIRBY-YUNG,

ROBERTSON,

Sarah

Stacey

MOU , MOUTTET

SHARMA ,

St Stéphane

SHU , SHUM Erin

Sandy

W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Who’s running for mayor AUBICHON, MEYNARD STOP PARTY Aubichon is pro-marijuana and intends to lower property taxes for “pro-pot” stores by two per cent and raise property taxes by two per cent for stores that are not. He will push all public libraries to open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and wants to limit mayoral terms to two years. He is against immigrants purchasing the land of longtime residents and intends to raise property taxes for them by five per cent. Aubichon has attended Douglas and Langara colleges, taking courses in political science and criminology. HANSEN, MIKE INDEPENDENT Hansen wants to make Vancouver the safest city in the world and believes that crime controls Vancouver. His platform focuses on challenges in the Downtown Eastside. He says he’s been poor, homeless, alcoholic and drug addicted and says those experiences educated him on the neighbourhood’s issues. He believes drug distribution to be the source of homelessness and that it needs to be targeted rather than implementing programs like safe injection sites. He will also push for police to wear cameras. If elected, he intends to move his office to the Downtown Eastside. Hansen does not believe the city is a democracy and hopes to be a facilitator of residents’ needs. He says he would implement an office that gives full disclosure, transparency and unrestricted public input on all issues. He promises not to travel out of the Metro Vancouver area.

Hansen grew up in Alberta and has lived in Vancouver for nine years. He says his campaign is funded by cannabis sales to individuals over 18 and that he is a cannabis educator. HILL, JEFF INDEPENDENT Hill intends to impose heavy taxes on empty homes and put limitations on foreign housing investment to make the city more affordable for locals. He adds in his candidate statement that he will “work to grow business and encourage entrepreneurship in Vancouver creating new jobs.” Hill wants to lower fares for monthly pass holders and improve the public transit system. Hill hopes to make Vancouver Canada’s largest festival and event destination. KAISER,CHERRYSEKAUR INDEPENDENT Kaiser’s candidate statement shares that she wakes up at 2:30 p.m. and plays the piano but did not explain her platform. An extract from her statement reads: “Holy Shishkabob!! I’m the luckYESt girl in the world. I’ve discovered how to live my raw, primal truth and everyone’s wild child lives in that place in my heart a woman gets heard to her very essence.” KASTING, BOB INDEPENDENT A lawyer for 25 years specializing in administrative law and estate litigation, Kasting hopes to bring his business background and what he says would be a collaborative approach to the city. He disagrees with the need to take a city to court if concerns are not met and his platform pledges to cre-

ate a city hall that deals with concerns practically while listening to residents. Kasting argues partnering with organizations and senior governments is required to alleviate homelessness. He says new models of housing must be embraced. Kasting acknowledges rules on zoning and development and will respect them in an effort to restrain growth that drives up housing prices. He says community planning will be met with a collaborative approach and that neighbourhoods should assume primary responsibility for how they grow and prosper. Kasting was educated at Yale University, the University of Stockholm, and McGill Law School. He was the director of legal services for the Northwest Territories and director of client services with the Legal Services Society of British Columbia. He was an Olympic bronze medalist in swimming in 1972 and is the father of ﬁve children. LAPOINTE, KIRK NON-PARTISAN ASSOCIATION LaPointe’s platform pledges to make Vancouver the most open civic government in Canada. A journalist for more than 30 years he says he wants to ensure residents are consulted and listened to regarding rezoning, development and bike infrastructure. LaPointe argues public servants should be widely accessible and promises more openness with media, interest groups and the public. LaPointe wants volunteer associations to run community centres as opposed to a centralized, city-wide sys-

tem. He says he will work with partners to establish a lunch program for children at community centres and schools. He wants to establish city-wide Wi-Fi and lower parking meter times to 8 p.m. Regarding empty homes, LaPointe wants to examine the evidence to pursue an enforceable option. LaPointe says he is no stranger to poverty as the child of a struggling single mother, and adds he empathizes with those combatting Vancouver’s unaffordability. He is the publisher and editor-in-chief of SelfCounsel Press and teaches at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism. His interests include softball, hockey goaltending and music.” He is married with three children. LY, TIM INDEPENDENT Ly calls his platform the True Leadership program. He advocates for democracy, allowing citizens to bring their concerns to city hall and wants a transparent government open to media and the public. He says he wants no more secrecy at city hall. Ly hopes to increase housing stock and control prices by ensuring the city has no ﬁnancial ties with developers. He also wishes to beautify the city with art and green space. Other issues touched upon in Ly’s candidate statement include eliminating drugs, violence and homelessness. ROBERTSON, GREGOR VISION VANCOUVER Robertson is running for his third term as mayor and promotes ending street homelessness, providing affordable housing and making Vancouver the world’s

NOTE: We’ve compiled these profiles from statements filed by candidates to the Courier, the city’s elections office and from other sources as needed. They are necessarily brief due to space constraints.

greenest city as key planks in his platform. Robertson cites affordability as one of his top goals and his platform with Vision includes building more rental housing, allowing the new Affordable Housing Agency to use city-owned land for housing, creating more child care spaces and providing free beginner swimming lessons for children. He is committed to growing a “green” economy, with focus on jobs in digital media, clean technology and renewable energy. He wants businesses to see that going green can be beneﬁcial. Robertson points to his previous two terms during which social housing was built and multiple bike routes added to the city. He wants to create a rapid transit route along the Broadway corridor as part of a region-wide transit plan in cooperation with other mayors. Prior to his ﬁrst term in 2008, Robertson was the co-founder of organic juice company Happy Planet and the NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview for one term. He is a father and a fan of soccer and hockey. SHANDLER, COLIN INDEPENDENT The owner of Tipper Restaurant and Review Room in Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Shandler said during a mayoral candidates debate at Langara College that being an independent allowed him to mix the best ideas of rival candidates. Shandler calls for more transparent media coverage. He believes local media is weak because of underfunding and members being “too cozy with each other,

and our current politicians,” according to his website. Other objectives of his platform include better resource measurements, more funding for ﬁrst responders, more First Nations leadership and fostering more communication between city departments. WONG, MEENA COMMITTEE OF PROGRESSIVE ELECTORS Wong promises to be a voice for the city’s diverse communities and wants to confront the challenge of affordability in Vancouver. She wants to introduce a $30 monthly, all-zone bus pass and argues that more residents will choose transit if it’s cheaper. She wants to increase the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour to help bring it closer to a living wage. Wong intends to enforce taxes for homes that remain unoccupied for 12 months and suggests smart meters installed in homes could help regulate this policy. Wong wants to protect renters from unfair “renovictions,” when landlords evict residents to renovate and then raise rents. Wong says COPE will stop the development of condos in the Downtown Eastside and will oversee the construction of social housing in the area. Wong was born in Beijing, lived in Hong Kong and moved to Vancouver when she was 19. She speaks Cantonese and Mandarin. She has been a COPE activist since 2005, ran for the federal NDP in Vancouver South in 2011 and is a mental health support worker for Vancouver Coastal Health.

On November 15 Elect

Kirk

George AFFLECK

Gregory BAKER

Elizabeth BALL

Ken LOW

Rob McDOWELL

Ian ROBERTSON

Melissa DE

YOUR CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES

GENOVA

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LaPointe

and the NPA Team

Suzanne SCOTT

NPAVancouver2014.ca

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Who’s running for city council

10 to be elected

AFFLECK, GEORGE NPA Affleck is seeking re-election to city council for what he calls his commitment to stand up for the interests of Vancouver residents, taxpayers and businesses. In his first term on council, Affleck says he pushed for budget transparency and fiscal restraint at city hall. He cites introducing motions including the expansion of craft beer tasting rooms, highlighting the risks of the city investing in private-sector companies, securing the future of leasehold property on South False Creek and the creation of a paddling centre for dragon boaters. Before entering civic politics, Affleck chaired False Creek Elementary School’s Parent Advisory Committee, the Vancouver International Comedy Festival, the Co-operative Auto Network and served as a director of the Vancouver International Children’s Festival. He is president of local marketing firm Curve Communications, a published author and former CBC journalist. ALM, KELLY INDEPENDENT Alm is running for city council as an independent for the third time. He wishes to work on the city’s transportation infrastructure, citing the trial commercial use of HOV lanes, expanding the capacity of the Georgia Viaduct to the Trans-Canada Highway and the trial removal of low-volume bike lanes. Alm wants more community events, such as sports championships and flea markets. He’s interested in disaster preparedness, seniors housing and community crime

prevention. He is a small business consultant and former realtor. ANGUS, DAVID INDEPENDENT Angus resigned from his current position to run for city councillor with what he says is a passion to improve social conditions. He has experience working as a community centre coordinator and promises to be an honest voice on council and demand responsible and logical decisions from the civic government. He says he is dedicated to reﬂecting common sense and ensuring equality. AQUINO, RJ ONECITY VANCOUVER Aquino calls himself a proud Filipino-Canadian, parent and community activist who works in the hightech sector. He co-founded the Tulayan Filipino Diaspora Society, is on the board of the Collingwood Neighbourhood House and is a former member of the Vancouver City Planning Commission. He is the ﬁrst candidate to represent OneCity Vancouver, an independent organization which claims to bring young people, seniors, immigrants and working people together to share their stories and work toward a city that is affordable, sustainable and liveable. Aquino says he and OneCity are focused on housing and child care, giving communities a voice in decision making at city hall, transit, climate justice, job creation and the local economy. He pledges to work with city council to make sure Vancouverite’s voices are heard and that the city is built for everyone.

BAKER, GREGORY NPA Baker has worked in Vancouver’s entrepreneurial scene since the early 1990s. In 1994, Baker opened PC Galore in Kitsilano, Canada’s first computer recycling business, which earned him a place on Business in Vancouver’s Forty under 40 list in 1996. Baker’s latest venture is No Pirates Allowed, a boutique neighbourhood toy store in Kitsilano. He is a supporter of the Kitsilano community and member of the Kitsilano Chamber of Commerce. If elected, Baker promises to remove uncertainty from city zoning and planning, improve traffic congestion in the city by allowing vehicles to move quickly and efficiently and decrease greenhouse gas emissions, fight for accountability and transparency in city hall and push for a tax freeze. BALL, ELIZABETH NPA Ball is a two-time city councillor who calls herself a passionate advocate of arts, culture and heritage in Vancouver. She founded and was managing director of Carousel Theatre for three decades. She cofounded and helped build Granville Island’s Waterfront Theatre. She serves on the advisory committees for Vancouver Civic Theatres and Metro Vancouver’s Cultural Committee and has worked with the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame, Vancouver Heritage Board and Minerva Foundation for B.C. Women. Ball’s appointments in office included the Vancouver Public Library Board, the Mayor’s Task Force on

Children and Childcare, City of Vancouver Creative Task Force, Metro Labour Relations Bureau and Metro Parks Committee. She cites receiving community honours, including the Granville Island Outstanding Contribution Award, YWCA Woman of Distinction Nominations and the Vancouver Theatre Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award. Ball promises to continue working to improve life in Vancouver. BARRETT, LISA COPE Barrett is a two-time former mayor of Bowen Island and served nine years on Metro Vancouver’s board. She says she knows city issues including housing, affordability, inclusiveness, transportation, environmental restoration and the local economy. Barrett served six years as director at Vancity Credit Union and chaired the community investment and risk committee. She says she wants to bring her understanding of ﬁnance and prioritizing for optimum allocation of resources in the city budget. She describes herself as an advocate for participatory budgeting processes where citizens are empowered to make budgeting decisions about issues that will affect them. Barrett calls herself a “life-long learner” and has studied politics, economics, commerce, journalism, art curation, conﬂict resolution and law. A former gallery owner, she practises civil mediation. BOYER, MARC INDEPENDENT Boyer wishes to legalize cannabis in B.C. to create

A better Vancouver, together

more revenue. BROWN, CLETA GREEN Brown says she wants to provide leadership that makes sure citizens’ voices are included in the way the city is governed, especially for neighbourhood character, development and community interactions. She says she wants to fight for initiatives that tackle social inequality in Vancouver and that approachability, transparency, accountability and respectfulness are Brown’s minimum goals. She attended Dalhousie University, the University of Victoria and the London School of Economics. She was a general counsel for the Ombudsman of B.C., B.C. Review Board and a Crown counsel in the provincial courts. She has served on the boards of the YWCA, MOSAIC and West Coast LEAF. She is the first vice president of the University Women’s Club of Vancouver and vice president and secretary of the Kidney Foundation of Canada’s B.C. branch. CARR, ADRIANE GREEN Carr was elected in 2011 as Vancouver’s first Green Party city councillor. She cites speaking up for affordable housing, more public amenities, lower taxes for small businesses, planning that includes residents and protecting the character of neighbourhoods. If re-elected, she says she will help find solutions to key city issues such as affordability, homelessness, congestion and development. She says she hopes to be part of a more balanced city council

that is diverse and collaborative. She earned an MA in urban geography from UBC, taught at Langara College and worked to establish the Gastown-based Wilderness Committee. CHERNEN, GLEN CEDAR PARTY Chernen says he founded the Cedar Party to make residents heard and transfer power from special interests to the community. He wants a fully transparent and open government that does not allow for backroom deals and backs new measures such as a lobbyist registry, open information and community centres he says are truly community run. He promises to represent businesses and residents equally with fair minded judgment while encouraging debate. He says the Cedar Party was founded not to accept developer funding and he believes political parties should impose funding limits. CHERNEN, NICHOLAS CEDAR PARTY Chernen became involved in politics two years ago as he believed city plans to increase density and alter neighbourhoods lacked public consultation and engagement. He and his brother Glen created the Cedar Party. Chernen is a single father to two teenage sons and says he wants his home city to stay affordable, accessible, liveable and inclusive for them. He says he is committed to work across party lines to ﬁnd the best solutions for Vancouver from a community rather than party perspectives and supports the idea of a non-majority council. CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

Vote Green First FOR CITY COUNCIL

BROWN, Cleta CARR, Adriane FRY, Pete

FOR PARK BOARD

MACKINNON, Stuart WIEBE, Michael FOR SCHOOL BOARD

FRASER, Janet OAK, Mischa

vote.vangreens.ca AUTHORIZED BY JOHN WHISTLER, FINANCIAL AGENT GREEN PARTY OF VANCOUVER 604-689-9200

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Complete list of city council candidates

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CHOW TAN, SID COPE Since 1994, Tan voluntarily produced a weekly community television program named ACCESS Community Television. A freelance community organizer and media producer, Tan says he helped found and build an organization to fill personal and community needs. He cites working for decades for redress of the Chinese head tax and exclusion. He has served as national chairperson of the Chinese Canadian National Council and is the founding director of Head Tax Families Society of Canada and the Sacred Circle Society. COPELAND, CORD TED INDEPENDENT Copeland, running as an independent, hopes to be an alternative to the Vision Vancouver party. He was born in Vancouver and lived in the city for 53 years. Copeland believes the city’s identity, warmth and livability is gone and has become unaffordable, unfriendly and dirty. He wants to fight to keep developer influence out of the city and make sure residents are heard. DE GENOVA, MELISSA NPA De Genova has been a Vancouver park board commissioner since 2011 and cites working to improve the city’s parks and recreation services for its residents. She says she worked with the Killarney neighbourhood to secure funding for a seniors centre in southeast Vancouver and has advocated for community centres and associations. De Genova is the director of development for the Vancouver Resource Society, where she works to acquire and secure accessible housing for persons with disabilities. She is a board member and fundraising chair for Honour House, a refuge for Canadian Forces and emergency personnel and their families to stay for free while they receive medical care in Metro Vancouver. DEAL, HEATHER VISION VANCOUVER Deal was elected as a park board commissioner in 2002 and has served as a city councillor since 2005. Deal says she brings passion for urban ecosystems, arts and culture and accessibility to city hall. She serves as liaison to the active transportation, arts and culture, food policy and heritage advisory councils and as a Vancouver Public Library

trustee. Deal also sits on the board of Metro Vancouver as chair of their Environment and Parks Committee. At the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, she sits on the social policy, environmental and women in politics committees. She says during her time on council she has spoken out for bringing fun and festive events to Vancouver, including new food carts, championing livework spaces, reducing red tape for new performance spaces, encouraging large scale arts celebrations and extending patio hours. DEOCERA, ABRAHAM INDEPENDENT Deocera is a registered nurse in B.C. If elected, he promises to become an advocate for the city’s pet owners and find solutions for increasing space for childcare, care for the elderly and training for skilled immigrant workers. Deocera has worked with Vancouver Coastal Health as a staff nurse. He is an educator at Gateway College and a community nurse with Folkstone Adult Family Care Homes. FRASER, GRANT INDEPENDENT Fraser aims to raise awareness to help improve the electoral process. This includes a locally unique proposal for campaign finance and vote counting. He has spent most of his adult life as a non-voter until he became involved in a movement to throw out the provincial ward system in favour of a form of representation known as single transferable vote. Fraser is proposing a new voting process that is a hybrid of proportional representation and the Condorcet method. FRY, PETE GREEN Fry calls himself a community activist, entrepreneur and professional immersed in politics and volunteerism. With a background in arts and business, he has been self-employed as a graphic and web designer for over 20 years, working with small businesses, artists, cultural groups and non-profits. A longtime resident of the East Side, Fry cites leading community actions on housing, land use, heritage, traffic management, viaduct removal and helping organize a city-wide coalition of neighbourhoods to promote Vancouver as community over a commodity. Fry re-

cently served as chair of the Strathcona Residents’ Association and on the city’s Downtown Eastside Local Area Planning Committee. He says his biggest concerns are affordability, and empowering people and communities as meaningful participants in planning the city as an inclusive, livable environment where everybody can thrive. FUOCO, FEDERICO VANCOUVER 1ST Fuoco says he’s running for council because he is dismayed with the recent direction of the city. If elected, he promises to work for the good steward-

says she helped residents against a city agenda driven by developers. If elected, Gavin promises to give neighbourhoods a real voice and halt development in single-family residential neighbourhoods. GUITAR, ANTHONY INDEPENDENT Guitar is a resident of the Downtown Eastside and is attending CDI College studying to be a social service worker recovery specialist. Guitar wants to use his voice to draw attention to growing inequalities in the city and building a Vancouver where basic needs and humanity come

she believes in transparency and keeping the public up to date with happenings at city hall to provide opportunities for feedback and involvement. GUSTAFSON, JEREMY CEDAR PARTY Gustafson became politically active a year ago after being upset with the options in the 2013 provincial election and running as an independent candidate to help make the political system more accessible to working class people. Gustafson promises to be a candidate completely free of outside inﬂuence with no campaign donations from developer,

Vancouverites enjoy the seawall around Stanley Park. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

ship of taxpayer’s money, a practical transportation plan, the preservation of neighbourhoods and accountability, consultation and transparency in government. A graduate of Britannia secondary, he earned a BA in political science and teaching certiﬁcate from UBC. He established Federico’s Supper Club restaurant on Commercial Drive 16 years ago and has been a director of the Commercial Drive BIA for over 10 years. GAVIN, GAYLE COPE Gavin is trial lawyer, community activist, mother and grandmother who cites winning precedent-setting cases she says helped cement the rights of women, same-sex couples, workers and victims of crime. She says community planning has been the focus of her activist work, where she

before corporate proﬁt and politics. He recently helped coordinate the protest tent city at Oppenheimer Park. GUNN, CHARLENE CEDAR PARTY Gunn works in health administration and says she wants to bring her individuality, intelligence and compassion to city hall. She says she feels strongly about being genuine and listening to the concerns of Vancouver’s community. Gunn does not believe the rapid changes in her Marpole neighbourhood were conducted with honest and true consultation and says she was compelled to get involved in the municipal process. She promises to be a strong and compassionate ally in city hall not only for South Vancouver residents but all those in Vancouver who feel disenfranchised. She wants to focus on longterm goals for the city, says

mining or oil companies. He says he is not obliged to vote with the Cedar Party if he disagrees on an issue and thinking ahead and says he is not afraid to “burn bridges” in politics to stand up for residents’ needs. HIGGINS, KEITH COPE Higgins is an artist, business owner and manager of artist-run organizations in Vancouver. A former business consultant with clients in ﬁnancial services, marketing, public opinion research and advertising, he cites heading the revival of the Helen Pitt Gallery as UNIT/PITT Projects in 2011. Higgins says he knows Vancouverites need real transparency and fairness at city hall and want real action on housing affordability. He promotes a COPE council he says will introduce measures to protect industrial land and

jobs, implement a plan for protecting cultural spaces and take decisive steps to deal with Vancouver’s housing. With his wife Kathy Slade, he operates Publication Studio Vancouver, a publisher of artists’ books and editions. JANG, KERRY VISION VANCOUVER Jang was first elected to city council in 2008 and is a professor of psychiatry at UBC. He served on the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Mental Health and Law Advisory Committee to assist municipalities on issues like policing, corrections and housing standards for the mentally ill and addicted. He cites leading Vancouver’s first mental health and addictions plan, a strategy to help survival sex-trade workers, modular affordable housing for Vancouver’s homeless, and the Healthy City Strategy. He says his background in mental health and addictions has given him experience working for programs that help vulnerable people. Jang was named “Academic of the Year” by B.C. Universities in 2006 for developing a homelessness program for his neighbourhood. He’s also been honoured with B.C.’s Community Achievement Award for his work with communities. JOHL, JESSE VANCOUVER 1ST Johl is the founder of the Vancouver 1st party and former president of the Riley Park /Hillcrest Community Association board. Johl says he believes in simple core values: community centres, police, fire, schools, parks and a city plan. He says Vancouver 1st is pro-business and prodevelopment but will ensure progress is reasonable and responsible with open and transparent consultation. KLJAJIC, MILAN VANCOUVER 1ST Kljajic says city council should be transparent to its people. He says he’s running because he strongly feels the importance of the accountability of elected bodies to the public and stakeholders on matters of policy at city hall. Kljajic is president of the Kensington Community Centre Association and has been a civic worker since 2002 in positions such as supervision and driving trucks. CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

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At Kensington, he has been involved in developing and maintaining programs of a recreational, educational, cultural, social and economic nature he says are an effort to improve community life. LING, LENA INDEPENDENT Ling says she wants to be a voice that represents the needs of middle-class families trying to make ends meet. She believes in a financially responsible city council and in making the city affordable for those who live, work and are raising families. Ling was born to immigrant parents and says she learned through her upbringing the importance of hard work, perseverance and honesty. She is a firstgeneration Canadian with over 14 years experience as an educator, teaching both overseas and in the B.C. public school system. She works as the service delivery manager at Special Education Technology British Columbia. LOUIE, RAYMOND VISION VANCOUVER Louie was first elected to city council in 2002 and cites working towards supporting new affordable housing and keeping taxes low. Over the past six years, Raymond served as the chair of the Services and Budget Committee. He says he helped make sure programs like affordable housing, environment and public safety maintained strong funding despite facing record budget shortfalls. He says he oversaw new investments in childcare and grants to support mental health and addictions treatment. Nationally, Louie serves as the second vice president on the board of directors of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and chairs the Green Municipal Fund Council. LOUIS, TIM COPE Louis says he wants a city hall in the hands of citizens without developer influence. He served on the park board from 1990 to 1996 and city council from 1999 to 2005, where he led the creation of the city’s ethical purchasing policy and its food policy council and chaired the finance committee. He cites a long record of community activism as the co-founder of HandyDART, the HandyDART Riders Alliance, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and Access Hous-

ing Co-op. Louis has been a vocal critic of many local and international causes, including the 2010 Olympic Games and public-private partnerships, in particular the Canada Line to YVR, speaking for what he believes to be community priorities. Louis is a lawyer. LOW, KEN NPA Low has been involved in community services in the Greater Vancouver area for more than four decades. Born in Hong Kong, he worked as an engineer for the City of White Rock and City of Vancouver. Low worked on projects including the Chinatown Millennium Gate and Gastown’s lighting upgrade. He cites being an active member

redefine the city’s relationship with developers. He has worked abroad as a trade officer and Canadian consul in Vietnam and China before his return to Vancouver in 2000. Since his return, he has worked with the B.C. Centre for Disease Control setting up HIV/STI clinics in Vietnam and as the deputy regional director for the Canada South East Asia Regional HIV Program. McDowell has volunteered on non-profit boards, including the Scotiabank Dance Centre, the Comedy Festival and the Radical System Arts Society. He is the strata president for his 300-unit complex and has been involved in neighbourhood issues and development in Yaletown over the past 14 years.

MUNOZ, WILSON COPE Munoz says he is committed to making Vancouver a sanctuary city, strengthening participatory democracy, implement election campaign ﬁnance reform and build an affordable Vancouver. Munoz came to Canada as a refugee from El Salvador during the civil war in the 1980s. He has been a ﬁnancial and property administrator, community organizer and social and environmental justice activist for the past 25 years. Soon after coming to Canada, Munoz became involved in supporting B.C. labour movements and organizing with the BCTF and Unemployed Teachers’ Action Centre. Munoz has also had an active role in

Parents and kids take part in an elementary school sports day. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

of Vancouver’s Chinese community, the co-chair of the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations and the former director of the Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association. If elected, Low says he will ﬁght for government transparency, the development of an effective and sensible transportation plan,and community safety. Low founded the Western Canadian Chinese Martial Arts Association and Wushu B.C. and is the president of the Canadian International Health Qigong Association and the Canadian Sport Sanshou Federation. MCDOWELL, ROB NPA McDowell says he hopes to return power to Vancouver’s neighbourhoods and

MEGGS, GEOFF VISION VANCOUVER Meggs was ﬁrst elected to council in 2008 and cites becoming a key advocate for transportation issues. He says he helped make the city’s efforts to build rapid transit along Broadway a transportation priority. He is a member of the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Task Force and has also served as co-chair of the Mayor’s Working Group on Immigration to make Vancouver a more inclusive city. Meggs is one of Vancouver’s directors at Metro Vancouver, where he sits on the water and housing committees and the labour relations bureau. He is a communications specialist and former journalist.

designing and implementing programs to support Latin American refugees and immigrants in his capacity as vice-president of the Canadian Hispanic Congress B.C. Chapter. Munoz hosts a weekly radio program on mining issues in the Americas and continues to be involved in migrant justice movements. MURGOCI, ELENA VANCOUVER 1ST Murgoci is running because she says she’s concerned decisions made at city hall have not been in the best interest of the residents. She feels accountability, consultation and transparency need to be brought back and are the fundamental keys to good and respective government. If elected, she promises to ensure

residents are involved in key decision making regarding their neighbourhoods and increase vital services such as firefighting and police. She says community service is important to her and has volunteered for Kiwanis, the Vancouver Board of Trade and Health Partners. She is a former president of the University of Western Ontario Alumni Branch and sits on the university’s alumni board of directors. Murgoci cites experience in both private and non-profit sectors, most recently as the British Columbia and Yukon regional director for the Canadian Liver Foundation. O’KEEFFE, JENNIFER COPE O’Keeffe says she demands transparency and accountability from public officials and has no patience for representatives who fail to abide by democratic principles or the rule of law. She is a graduate of Capilano University and an advocate for educational rights and social justice. She cites fighting against program closures at her university, meeting with Premier Christy Clark and other elected officials during the 2013 provincial election, and pursuing government intervention in efforts to preserve programs. She says her work revealed financial “irregularities” in Capilano’s budget, and collaborated with Vancouver-Point Grey NDP MLA David Eby in his investigations into the overpayment of administrative personnel at various post-secondary institutions. She calls herself a strong and vocal advocate for COPE’s plans for a Vancouver Housing Authority, a $15 minimum wage, affordable housing, autonomy for Vancouver’s community centres and for dialogue with Vancouver’s resident associations. ORSER, RICK IDEA Orser believes his new and innovative ideas will help improve the city and council, as he says he’s not tied to any particular ideology or special interests. He wants to bring accountability and transparency to taxpayers, consultative problem solving and more health and wellness to citizens. Orser graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in communications and has a career in marketing and consulting, mostly for local technology firms.

PANDEY, RAJIV INDEPENDENT Pandev specializes in real estate throughout the Lower Mainland and would like to implement transparency in the way the city handles public property sales. He promises to work hard to reduce taxes, provide more daycare and affordable housing and help ease traffic in the downtown care. RAMOS, FERDINAND HOTEL WORKERS UNITED LOCAL 40 Ramos promises to be a leading voice for tourism workers and making tourism a greener industry on council. He is a member of the union Unite Here Local 40 and believes hotel workers should have a voice on city council. Ramos is an electrician and has worked at Hyatt Regency Vancouver for 17 years. REIMER, ANDREA VISION VANCOUVER Reimer was first elected to school board in 2002 with the Green Party. In 2008, she joined Vision Vancouver and was elected to council. Her environmental work began in the non-profit sector before she was elected and continues now in her role as a city councillor. Reimer chairs the Planning and Environment Committee and cites working to make Vancouver a global environmental leader with the Greenest City Action Team and implementing the strategies of the Greenest City Action Plan. She also serves as the council liaison to the Joint Childcare Council, coordinating with the park and school boards. ROBERTSON, IAN NPA Robertson is a former Vancouver park board commissioner and a public servant and campaigner for Vancouver’s parks and tourism operators. He is the executive director of the Tourism Industry Association of British Columbia and serves on the board of governors for VanDusen Botanical Gardens. First elected to the park board in 2005, Robertson served as its chair in 2006 and cites leading the board through windstorms that damaged Stanley Park. He cites recognition for his work in Vancouver with honours that include the BCIT Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service to the Community and the B.C. Little League Honour Roll CONTINUED ON PAGE 25

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City council candidates

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for Service to Little League in B.C. rSCOTT, SUZANNE NPA Scott says she was drawn to politics after a home invasion prompted her to be an advocate for crime prevention and safety in Vancouver. If elected, she says she will develop programs with local neighbourhoods to ensure the safety of the city’s most vulnerable residents. She cites experience in the private sector, government and post-secondary institutions and has worked for TD Bank in electronic banking and corporate communications as a communications consultant for the Canadian International Development Agency and for UNICEF-Bangladesh. Most recently, she was executive co-ordinator to the Dean of UBC’s Faculty of Education. Scott has held volunteer leadership roles with the Britannia Community Services Centre and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C.

SHARMA, NIKI VISION VANCOUVER Sharma has served as a park board commissioner and was chair in 2013. She cites working to develop an Urban Forest Strategy and an environmental stewardship plan. She says she was an advocate for the park board to voice opposition to oil tanker expansion in Burrard Inlet and acted as co-chair of the Local Food Task Force. Sharma has completed degrees in environmental biology and law, now focusing on aboriginal law, and represents residential school survivors and works for band councils. She serves on the board of directors of the Battered Women Support Services. SIEGL, AUDREY COPE Siegl’s platform promotes Indigenous sovereignty, housing justice and an end to violence against women, especially from First Nations. She says she wants to radically change Vancouver and to build a city where

basic needs and humanity come before corporate proﬁt and corporate politics. Siegl has been active in the Idle No More movement. In 2012, she was involved in organizing the protection of the Marpole Midden and also the protesting tent city camp in Oppenheimer Park. Siegl was raised in East Vancouver by a single father of East Indian and British heritage and by her mother’s Musqueam family. She has moved back to the Musqueam Indian Reserve where she worked in the Musqueam Language and Culture Department. SKALICKY, LUDVIK INDEPENDENT Skalicky is a former board member of the DTES Neighbourhood Council and the Carnegie Community Centre Association and has many goals for the Downtown Eastside. He wants to see daycare incorporated into buildings with more than 50 families, housing for single fathers and mothers, stricter measures for illegal actions

On November 15th, Vote Meena Wong for Mayor and Tim Louis and the full COPE Slate for City Council Tim Louis Lisa Barrett Gayle Gavin Keith Higgins Wilson Munoz Jennifer O’Keeffe Audrey Siegl Sid Chow Tan

in single-room occupancies. Skalicky works as an actor. STEVENSON, TIM VISION VANCOUVER Stevenson was elected to council in 2002, 2005 and 2008 and cites spending his terms pursuing equality and justice. He cites his commitment to public service, volunteering at First United Church, becoming Canada’s ﬁrst openly gay minister, monitoring human rights overseas and serving in provincial public ofﬁce as a cabinet minister and MLA. Stevenson says he has been an advocate on city council for renters’ rights and protecting low-income housing. He notes receiving attention representing Vancouver at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games where he spoke out against Russia’s anti-gay laws and promoted protection of LGBTQ rights. He also headed the city granting civic event status to the Pride Parade, Lunar New Year and Vaisakhi, which he says increased support for Vancouver’s largest cultural events.

TANG, TONY VISION VANCOUVER Tang was elected to city council in 2011 and served as a liaison to the Vancouver Seniors Advisory Committee, Vancouver City Planning Commission, Gastown Historic Area Planning Committee and Chinatown Historic Area Planning Committee. He oversaw the Age-Friendly Action Plan, which he says is the city’s ﬁrst comprehensive plan for Vancouver’s growing population of seniors. Tang came to Canada in 1968. Prior to being elected to city council, he was twice appointed to the Vancouver Board of Variance and served as chair. He cites working experience in the homebuilding industry and insight into small businesses. A professional engineer, Tang has a master’s degree in engineering from UBC. WONG, MERCEDES VANCOUVER 1ST Wong says being a successful businessperson is more than helping clients: it’s also

GAYLE GAVIN for Council

Put Community into City Hall Prominent Trial Lawyer Stands up for neighbourhoods fighting inappropriate development Will support Community led Neighbourhood Development

Vote COPE • MEENA WONG for Mayor • Lisa Barrett • Sid Chow Tan • Gayle Gavin • Keith Higgins

• Tim Louis • Jennifer O'Keeffe • Wilson Munoz • Audrey Siegl

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about being actively involved in the community. She cites a background in commercial real estate and says she intends to be the voice and representative of Vancouver’s citizens and ensure communication, consultation and transparency from city hall. Wong has served as a director of G & F Financial Group, Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, Yaletown Business Improvement Association and Vancouver Society of Children’s Centre. She is president of the Rotary Club of Vancouver Fraserview, the strata council chair for Balsam West, a member of the Advisory Committee Eastside Division, on the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, a building community member of the Vancouver Native Health Society, the director of Aboriginal Mother Centre, Volunteer Tzu Chi Foundation and Kitsilano Showboat.

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Who’s running for school board Nine to be elected

ALEXANDER, JOY VISION VANCOUVER Alexander is a retired teacher and school psychologist with a PhD in educational psychology. She says she wants to expand the work of the current school board by improving early learning outcomes and learning outcomes for aboriginal students, supporting efforts to keep neighbourhood schools open and maximizing the district’s relationship with post-secondary institutions. As an educational psychologist in Vancouver schools for more than 12 years, Alexander says she worked with children with learning difficulties, helped parents and children navigate the school system and worked with teachers to help improve programming for at-risk students, particularly aboriginal children. Joy and her husband Dean have three grown sons who all attended Vancouver public schools. She has volunteered with parent advisory councils, reading programs in schools, parent support services at Children’s Hospital and on the board of and fundraising for the YWCA. BACCHUS, PATTI VISION VANCOUVER Bacchus was elected to the Vancouver School Board in 2008 and has served as board chair every year. She cites supporting public education and working to minimize the impact of provincial funding shortfalls on classrooms and to secure additional provincial education funding. She has played a role in seismic upgrade processes. Bacchus worked on developing plans for Vancouver’s first aboriginal-focused school, and an early Mandarin bilingual program, expanded Montessori programming and Vancouver’s first primary International Baccalaureate program. She was named one of B.C.’s Top 100 Influential Women by the Vancouver Sun. Bacchus was born and raised in Vancouver, attending Point Grey secondary school. She graduated from the University of Victoria and Langara College. BALLANTYNE, FRASER NPA Ballantyne says he’s seeking re-election to continue working to help support the city’s most vulnerable students. In his 38 years working in public education, he has served as a

teacher, counsellor, school administrator and district management team member. Ballantyne has worked with ESL, Downtown Eastside, aboriginal and southeast Vancouver youths, which he says helped give him experience regarding the issues and concerns of a diverse range of students, parents and teachers. He served for five years on the Vancouver School Board’s senior management team in human resources, where he managed staffing for Vancouver’s high schools, special education and alternative schools. Ballantyne intends to continue to focus on fiscal responsibility and accountability at the school board and to advocate for sustainable funding for important programs like band, strings and ESL-related multicultural support workers. BHATHA, SUSAN VANCOUVER 1ST Bhatha has an executive role on the parent advisory committee of John Henderson elementary and has been an adviser to the executive team of Guru Nanak’s Free Kitchen, an organization that serves meals to the Downtown Eastside community. She helped launch SikhRI’s “Vidia” program in 2013, which helps link university students to professionals in their field of study. Bhathan is also a volunteer at the environmental and rentals board at Sunset Community Centre. She believes there is a lack of funding for playgrounds and parents should not be required to fundraise to help replace them. She is a full-time stay-home mother of two and says she chose to run for school trustee after volunteering for various candidates during the past two federal and provincial elections. Bhatha hopes to increase parent consultation, keep decisions transparent and reassess district school closures. BOUEY, JANE PUBLIC EDUCATION PROJECT Bouey is running with the Public Education Project, a new civic party she says is solely focused on public education and creating wellfunded, safe and inclusive schools that meet all students’ unique needs. Bouey is the parent of a special needs child and says she empathizes with many students’ barriers. She served two terms as a school trust-

ee and was board vice-chair in 2008 to 2011. She helped develop school board policy on sexual orientation and gender identities. Bouey intends to continue focusing on anti-racism programs, aboriginal education and equity for low-income students. She is on the advisory committee to B.C. Farm to Schools and an advocate of food security, expansion of food programs and school gardens. Bouey works as an executive assistant at Parent Support Services Society of B.C. and is a host and producer with Co-op Radio’s Media Mornings. CLEMENT, KEN VISION VANCOUVER Clement, of Ktunaxa First Nation ancestry, is the CEO of the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network and cites guiding various aboriginal health organizations. Clement has been involved in the aboriginal HIV and AIDS movement since 1998, works with the National Aboriginal Council on HIV and AIDS and collaborates with many non-proﬁts. His formal education began with a decade spent in residential school which shaped his character. Clement says he is a believer in social justice and is the ﬁrst aboriginal trustee of the school board. If elected, he pledges to continue to work towards enhancing the educational system’s ability to provide opportunities for every student to succeed, regardless of where they live in the city, their income level or cultural background. DAY, DIANA COPE Day has been involved in education as a member of parent advisory councils since 2002 and is the cochair of the VSB District PAC, where she has been a member since 2012. She works on the aboriginal education enhancement agreement committee and the student services committee, where she says she helps voice adequate funding for race relations, multicultural support and culturally safe schools. Day is an indigenous woman, single parent and works full-time and has related to others she has met with similar challenges in the system. She believes schools must be fully funded to provide equitable programming across the district with support where students need it the most. Day is a member of the

Urban Aboriginal Peoples Advisory Committee to the City of Vancouver. DENIKE, KEN VANCOUVER 1ST Running for his tenth term, Denike says he believes in listening to parents, staff and the community and carrying through motions in forum. He says he hopes to give a voice to Vancouver’s families to help ensure their children have a future. Denike was the chair of the VSB from 2005 to 2006 and lobbied the federal government to fund settlement workers in schools in B.C. He served as trustee representative with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation in 2006, which helped lead to the 2006 to 2011 contract. Denike promises to listen to parents and staff, make common-sense interpretations and discuss issues in open dialogue. If elected, he hopes to address the issue of rising student populations in areas that lack capacity. Denike is a faculty emeritus of UBC with a PhD thesis in public finance and a masters degree in community and regional planning. DODDS, T “MRS. DOUBTFIRE” INDEPENDENT Dodds believes parents should have access to their children’s school, regardless of their gender identity. He wants to see fathers decriminalized and children decommoditized. Dodds wants children to be in charge of their own livelihoods. FALLS, LARRY INDEPENDENT Falls cites over 30 years experience in addictions and mental health as director of clinical programs and an educator. Dodds has lectured at international scientific conferences and says the role of a school trustee is to practice good stewardship with the potential to create greater partnerships with parents, students, teachers and key stakeholders, within the school system. If elected, he says his first priority is to focus on continuing relationships, reciprocity and participation in order to make dramatic changes that would improve education for students and adults.

FRAATZ, RALPH COPE Fraatz is a retired teacher with the school board after 32 years, working with special needs students and has been a union supporter, serving as a Vancouver Elementary School Teachers Association staff representative for three years. Since retiring, Fraatz has volunteered in the community at the Kitsilano Fairview Policing Centre and has coordinated the Speed Watch program. If elected, he says he will advocate support for students with special needs and First Nations students as well as reinstatement of junior kindergarten. Fraatz has lived in Vancouver since 1957. Fraatz attended John Oliver secondary school, Langara College, and UBC earning a bachelor of education. Prior to his teaching career, Fraatz was employed by the City of Vancouver Water Works Department and was a member of CUPE Local 1004. FRASER, JANET GREEN Fraser is the parent advisory council co-chair at Sir Wilfrid Laurier elementary and, for the last 10 years, has been either the co-chair or chair at Laurier or Laurier Annex. She graduated from the University of Bristol with a PhD in chemistry. In Marpole, she played a role in neighbourhood development issues, co-founding Marpole Matters and engaging in the city’s Marpole plan. She is a Hockey Canada safety person and was a baseball assistant coach. Most recently she worked at Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science and Technology, which helps advance engineering and science as welcoming careers for women. Fraser says she hopes to ensure that schools are fully funded, that every student can succeed and that schools are the heart of the community. GIESBRECHT, GWEN PUBLIC EDUCATION PROJECT Giesbrecht has been a parent representative at the VSB for more than a decade. Running with the Public Education Project, which focuses solely on education, she hopes the school board will be valued for its democracy and that all those involved in schools impact communities, the city and the province.

Giesbrecht says she is an advocate of public education and wants to see solutions made. GUPTA, RAJ INDEPENDENT Gupta has been a realtor for 24 years with Royal Paciﬁc Realty and has managed retail, insurance and mortgage services. He believes school board should be monitored and evaluated to help improve students’ achievements through effective communication, policy making, transparency and audits and overall governance improvement. JIVRAJ, AMIN INDEPENDENT Jivraj did not submit a candidate statement. LOMBARDI, MIKE VISION VANCOUVER Lombardi is vice-chairperson of the VSB, serving as a trustee since 2008. Before seeking ofﬁce, he served in the public education system for 35 years and now works as an education consultant. He has volunteered as chair and member of two school parent advisory councils, coached children’s soccer, softball and baseball and served as board director of several Italian community organizations. He chairs the VSB management and coordinating committee and is the school board trustee representative on the Vancouver Public Library Board, Vancouver City Planning Commission and Vancouver City Youth and Child Advisory Committee. He holds a bachelor of general studies from SFU and a master of education degree from UBC. NAGTEGAAL, HEIDI COPE Nagtegaal hopes to address systemic issues of poverty and bring anti-racism and anti-homophobia policies to Vancouver schools. She promises to speak for anti-oppression training for all staff in the school system, increased support for creating safer spaces, gender neutral bathrooms, sensory rooms for students with various special needs to ensure accessible and inclusive education and facilities for all students, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, or socioeconomic status. Nagtegaal is an artist, resident and community advocate CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

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of Grandview-Woodland. In 2006 she founded the Hammock Residency, a community-based initiative to create space for local and international artists to grow their practice. NANJALAH, KOMBII COPE Nanjalah has experience as a union activist, youth advocacy worker and community organizer. She is a shop steward with BCGEU Local 003 and has also served as member at large on its local executive. In Nairobi, she organized lowincome youth in Kibera, Africa’s second largest slum. She worked at UN Habitat’s headquarters as a youth organizer for five years. Nanjalah works as a community care worker at Pathway Community Services supporting mentally and physically challenged children. She also works with the African Great Lakes Networking Foundation. If elected, Nanjalah says she will help children in poverty access education, ensure children receive the attention they need, combat discrimination in schools and advocate for special attention to newcomers and those with special needs. She supports the sanctuary city movement. NGUYEN, BANG INDEPENDENT Nguyen does not believe parents should have to come up with money for education and wants to help find a better way to generate revenue for the benefit of students. He says he wants to make sure all children have a smooth path to postsecondary. Nguyen wants to eliminate split classes in elementary schools, make sure no child goes to school hungry and that they have the right supplies to help with schooling. He hopes children won’t have to be forced into large classes to make budget. NOBLE, PENNY NPA Noble is a former teacher of elementary and secondary schools in Canada and the United Kingdom, including with the VSB. If elected, she says her priorities include helping restore meaningful consultation between the board and residents, preserving Vancouver schools and creating a safe, reliable transportation plan for students and parents. Noble has served as senior director of public affairs for the B.C. Cancer Foundation and

has held communications posts with Langara College, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver and within the tourism sector. She is the executive director of Bike to Work B.C. Society. OAK, MISCHA GREEN Oak has been a teacher-oncall for the VSB since 2008 and cites teaching in almost every Vancouver school. If elected, Oak says he will help protect programs that support vulnerable students and make sure schools are providing all students with the skills they need. Oak has a bachelor of commerce degree from Queen’s University and worked in marketing before becoming a teacher. He says his work experience taught him respect for balanced budgets and the necessity for ﬁnancial diligence and creativity to adequately fund schools. Oak is a longtime LGBTQ advocate, dedicated to creating a progressive, diverse community. He served on the board of directors for the Vancouver Pride Society and as volunteer coordinator for Pride in 2012. He served as president of the Vancouver Centre NDP. PAYNE, CHERIE VISION VANCOUVER Payne was elected in 2011 and cites voicing support for inner city schools, increasing childcare spaces and building safe and inclusive communities. She worked for 15 years as a public affairs consultant and has experience negotiating with government decision makers. Payne served as co-chair of the West End Mayor’s Advisory Committee and as legislative assistant to former federal health minister Ujjal Dosanjh. She holds a BA from McGill University and an LL.B from Osgoode Hall Law School. Payne says she wants to help the education system because her parents immigrated to Canada from the Caribbean and struggled to send Payne and her sister to Crofton and post-secondary education on working-class salaries. RICHARDSON, CHRISTOPHER NPA Richardson served three times as a Vancouver park board commissioner and was vice-chair in 1990. He says he hopes to improve school resources for students with learning issues,

food sustainability for the city’s youth and help integrate school amenities into the community. Richardson has spent his career advising non-proﬁts in charitable gift planning and assisting donors across Canada with their philanthropic goals. He is a chartered accountant and often serves the community. He is president of the Mount Pleasant Community Centre Association, a trustee of the Vancouver Maritime Museum and an adviser to the Downtown Eastside Seniors Resource Sanctuary. For more than 40 years, he has served the Vancouver Police Department as a trafﬁc authority special constable. ROBERTSON, STACY NPA Robertson says he hopes to improve resources for Vancouver’s special needs students, help create clear and open policy for grants and other charitable giving and look at alternative methods to address the lack of daycare spaces. Robertson is a lawyer and works as enforcement counsel at the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. In the community, he is involved in Hastings Park Conservancy, a community group promoting the greening and public use of the area, and is also a coach in the Hastings Little League. Robertson is a graduate of McMaster University and completed his law degree at the University of New Brunswick. SHARMA, SANDY NPA Sharma has been involved with Vancouver schools both as a member of PAC Executive and the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council, where she served as vice-chairperson. Sharma represented DPAC on several VSB committees, including the Mandarin bilingual committee and the assessment for learning committee. She says she hopes to include student voices in consultation and decision making and address the lack of transparency and accountability at the school board. Sharma is a residential real estate appraiser and holds the Canadian Residential Appraiser designation with the Appraisal Institute of Canada. Since 2003, Sharma has owned Westside Appraisals Inc., CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

Public Education Project

“The Public Education Project believes that investing in our children will bring us a brighter future and better economy. I look forward to working with Gwen and Jane.”

Allan Wong – Five Term COPE and Current Vision Vancouver School Trustee “Save two votes for Jane Bouey and Gwen Giesbrecht for School Board. They are experienced representatives for your children, your community, and your city.”

David Cadman - Former COPE City Councillor

GWEN

GIESBRECHT

JANE

BOUEY “Both Gwen Giesbrecht and Jane Bouey are knowledgeable and articulate and will be great additions to a Vancouver Board of Education majority that stand up for public education, kids and parents.”

George Heyman MLA, Vancouver-Fairview “Jane and Gwen have demonstrated a level of commitment, passion and hard work that the VSB needs in protecting and advancing public education.”

Eleanor Gregory – Former Vancouver School Trustee

On November 15 Vote for Public Education. Vote for Jane Bouey and Gwen Giesbrecht. #votepubliced http://publiceducationproject.ca 604-362-5313 Authorized by Financial Agent Carrie Bercic carriebercic@gmail.com

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School board candidates

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a real estate appraisal and consulting company. She is a licensed associate broker and has been involved with the city’s real estate industry for more than 21 years. SHECTER, ILANA COPE Shecter promises to work with other trustees and students to create a holistic approach to sustainability through a newly created students’ environmental bill of rights. Through this policy, climate change mitigation and adaptation will be taught through an

economic, environmental and social justice lens. She wants to help start more effective anti-poverty advocacy and says she would not tolerate budget cuts. Shecter says she will work towards the school board being the greenest in North America. WONG, ALLAN VISION VANCOUVER Wong has served ﬁve terms as trustee since 1999 and is a former board vicechair. After graduating from UBC’s multicultural teacher education program,

Wong taught in Vancouver public schools for ﬁve years. He cites advocating for a healthy education system, including adequate support for ESL and special needs students. Wong served as chair of the VSB planning and facilities committee that initiated Vancouver’s seismic upgrades. He has been an employee with TELUS for more than 25 years. WOO, SOPHIA VANCOUVER 1ST Running for a second term, Woo calls her role at the school board “as

opposition” and says she hopes to bring a more inclusive vision that serves a multicultural, evolving Vancouver. Woo has played a role in Vancouver city committees such as the women’s advisory committee and the persons with disabilities advisory committee. She is a recipient of the Outstanding Chinese Woman Award in 2007. Woo graduated from Simon Fraser University and from Hong Kong University with a master’s degree in social work. Woo is a

practising mental health clinician in Vancouver and cites speaking at conferences and publication in journals. WYNEN, ROB VISION VANCOUVER Wynen is seeking re-election. He chaired the staff and personnel committee and served as vice-chair of the building services program. Wynen is a health and lifestyle consultant and says he is knowledgeable on the relationship between urban design and promoting healthy,

active transportation. His community work includes founding and leading the West End Residents Association, and he has served on the boards of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation, the Pedestrian Action Coalition, chair of the Lord Nelson parent advisory committee and chair of the Vancouver active transportation policy committee. If elected, he says one of his major goals is to promote student health.

Who’s running for park board Seven to be elected BLOOM, EZRA COPE Bloom says he recognizes that parks and green spaces are where many city residents spend much of their free time. He says the power of these places to bring people together inspired him to ﬁght to defend public space and the environment. If elected, Bloom promises work to make Vancouver and its parks and recreation facilities welcoming, affordable and enjoyable for all and not a playground for the super-rich. He opposes the privatization of parks and says he will try to keep parks public and work to integrate arts and culture programming. Bloom is an artist, organizer, curator, critic and student at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. BUCKSHON, JAMES INDEPENDENT Buckshon says he loves Vancouver’s parks and wants to see them remain natural, green, non-commercialized and available to all citizens. He is against corporate restaurants in parks. He is also adamant that parks remain green, use natural materials and refrain from being paved unless absolutely necessary. Buckshon is a music and theatre producer and is employed by Renegade Productions Inc. and serves as a volunteer board member of the Renegade Arts Society, a non-proﬁt arts company which produces events for the community. CLARKE, ROLAND INDEPENDENT Clarke believes the park board and community centres can play a larger role

in alleviating the hardships of poverty and could do more to help reduce urban isolation. He wants to open up parks to swap meets, complementing farmer’s markets, as he understands that “survival vending” is practised in the city. Clarke is a coordinator of the DTES Street Market and cites ﬁghting for the rights of vendors to make a modest living in Pigeon Park on Sundays. If elected, he promises to continue ﬁghting for the acceptance of the informal economy of binning and recycling. COUPAR, JOHN NPA Coupar is seeking reelection as a park board commissioner. He has been an advocate of horticultural excellence in parks and green spaces and cites being known for helping to save and restore the Bloedel Conservatory at Queen Elizabeth Park. Other efforts include working to obtain capital funding for the Bloedel Conservatory roof replacement, helping to stop the paving of Hadden and Kitsilano beach parks and putting forward a successful motion to ensure that a dragon boat storage facility is built by False Creek. He is the past president of the Friends of the Bloedel Association and a past governor of VanDusen Botanical Gardens. Coupar says he brings a business background to his candidacy, having spent years in senior management positions in Canadian corporations and seven years ago founded a marketing and branding company.

CRAWFORD, CASEY NPA Crawford says he hopes to help restore independence to the park board, promote transparent and collaborative planning for facilities, and repair relationships with neighbourhood associations and community centres. Crawford says he has given back to the city as a volunteer, especially in the areas of health and sports as chair of the board of directors for the Stroke Recovery Association of B.C. and as a player agent with Little Mountain Baseball. He has also been involved the Canadian Diabetes Association, the University of British Columbia’s Crane Library and the Quilchena Elementary School parent advisory council, where he served as chair. DE CASTRIS, JENNY INDEPENDENT De Castris says she hopes to bring a fresh and unbiased perspective as an independent. Her priorities include allocating green spaces amid Vancouver’s redevelopment, increasing recycling and waste bins in parks, improving public washrooms, creating and maintaining community gardens, ensuring adequate off-leash areas and offering diverse and engaging community centre programming. De Castris completed an undergraduate degree in criminology at Simon Fraser University and worked in the regulatory ﬁeld, enforcing legislation on behalf of various organizations as an auditor and investigator. She hopes to bring her experience with policy and procedure to help ensure the integrity of park board spending.

De Castris seeks to elevate Vancouver’s status as a world-class city through its spectacular parks and amenities. EVANS, CATHERINE VISION VANCOUVER Evans believes Vancouver’s public spaces are increasingly important to quality of life and that the park board, responsible for the majority of public spaces, has a special responsibility to enhance the livability of the city. A policy adviser, lawyer and senior public service manager for 15 years, she cites contributing to advances in elder law, adult guardianship, human rights, employment equity and pay equity. Evans has also been active in the community. She served as chair of the Vancouver Public Library’s board of directors in 2009, was the chair of the parent advisory committee at Point Grey secondary school and a founding member of the B.C. Society for Public Education. She co-owns Ethos Strategy Group, a planning, research and public relations ﬁrm. Evans has a BA from Dalhousie University, a master of divinity from the University of Toronto and a bachelor of laws from York University. GIRN, NAVEEN VISION VANCOUVER Girn believes in a vibrant and inclusive Vancouver where people are connected to their land, history, each other and their future. He says he’s committed to fostering greater intercultural engagement and ensuring Vancouver’s public spaces are based on the needs and input of the city’s diverse communities.

If elected, Girn promises to promote a strong intercultural engagement strategy that includes voices from diverse communities and work towards fulﬁlling the goals of the Greenest Action Plan to increase the amount of parks, green spaces and community gardens in Vancouver. Girn is a curator, community engagement specialist and project manager for the 100th anniversary commemoration of the Komagata Maru. He is a member of the city’s public art committee, where cites building relationships between diverse groups and engaged community leaders to ensure that informed and equitable decisions were made. GRANBY, BRENT VISION VANCOUVER Granby says he wants to ensure that the priorities of local government adequately address the issues of sustainability and livability for residents and businesses to improve the city. Granby is a community advocate in the West End. He is a past president of the West End Residents Association, a former board member of the West End Community Centre and vice chair of the Save St. Paul’s Coalition. As a volunteer activist, he has participated in the construction of community gardens, art projects and celebrations and cites advocating for active transportation infrastructure. Granby was born and raised in Hamilton and moved to Vancouver in 1996. He has a degree in religious studies from McGill University.

HADLEY, ELEANOR INDEPENDENT Hadley is a community advocate and has been involved in efforts to save public parks and spaces, especially Stanley Park and English Bay Beach, from commercialism. She is opposed to the Vancouver Aquarium and whales in captivity. Hadley, 93, was born in Ontario and has lived in the West End since the 1960s. She has attended many park board and city hall meetings since then. Hadley believes Canada is a beautiful country and wants to help keep parks in their natural state. HAMILTON, JAMIE LEE IDEA Hamilton is concerned about the privatization and commercialization of public spaces and cuts from the park board budget. She also calls for a referendum on whales and dolphins. Hamilton has served on the Downtown Eastside arts in parks committee, the Pride Society and as an elder with the Greater Vancouver Native Cultural Society. HAYDEN, BRENT VANCOUVER 1ST Hayden is a bronze medal winner in the 100m freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and says he wants to share his passion for swimming with Vancouverites. He says he wants to ensure facilities are built to the standards needed for future Olympians and the needs of a growing community. Hayden believes in accountability and transparency for residents. CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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JAGPAL, JAY NPA Jagpal says he hopes to advance the role parks and facilities play in connecting communities. He also intends to prioritize city spaces for young families and seniors if elected. Jagpal’s interest for community centre renewal and engagement started when he was introduced to the Sunset Community Centre by his grandfather. He works as mechanical engineer at Olympic International Sales and has also worked internationally, including in Singapore, where he helped the transit authority with bus service. Jagpal has spent the last ﬁve years as an ambassador for the Vancouver Board of Trade and as a member of its advisory committee for the Company of Young Professionals. He cites helping create committees to promote participation in the political process among residents under 40. JAMAL, UROOBA COPE Jamal wishes to advocate on behalf of racialized communities, in particular youth. She intends to work to build equitable programming to serve diverse cultural needs. Jamal supports economic justice and wishes to bring back grassroots community programming. She says she plans to bring both her anti-oppressive lens and youthful perspective to park board issues. Jamal is a UBC student, writer and social justice advocate with experience in the community. She has been involved with founding The Talon at UBC, a new publication with a focus on student issues from a critical perspective. JOHL, YOGI VANCOUVER 1ST Johl is a two-time former Olympic wrestler and is the co-owner of Heirloom, a vegetarian restaurant. He hopes to bring his competitive spirit and business experience if elected. Johl says he is disappointed with costs associated in providing minor league sports in the city and believes a better solution can be found to avoid marginalizing children and their families. He believes a good civic government should be accountable and transparent. KADIOGLU, MATT INDEPENDENT Kadioglu believes Vancouver’s parks have helped it rank internationally on livability lists and that parks,

community centres and the contribution of neighbours are important to the city’s culture. If elected, he will propose that developers reserve more park space in their projects. He hopes diversity is reflected in parks and community centres. Kadioglu is an engineer, has lived overseas and believes Vancouver to be the best place to live and raise a family. KIRBY-YUNG, SARAH NPA Kirby-Yung hopes to advocate for creative uses of public spaces, including public art. She says she wishes to strengthen public consultation and rebuild the relationship between the park board and community centres. Kirby-Yung has worked in the tourism industry and is the executive director for Coast Hotels, a Vancouver-based international hotel group. She has served as director of marketing and sponsorship for Tourism Vancouver and vice-president of marketing and communications for the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre. She was involved in the branding of Vancouver in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics and helped develop Dine Out Vancouver. LOKE, TREVOR VISION VANCOUVER Loke is seeking re-election and cites supporting the expansion of parks and green spaces in the city. He advocated to reduce the use of chemicals in pools, bring free public Wi-Fi to the city and improve customer service and accessibility at community centres. Loke says he played a leadership role in the drafting of the Building Bridges Report which sought to improve trans and gender-variant inclusivity in Vancouver. He has been named B.C.’s Top 30 Under 30 twice and was profiled in Maclean’s in 2014. Loke co-founded Weeve, a technology company he sold in 2013, works at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and lives in the West End. MACKINNON, STUART GREEN Mackinnon believes the city needs to ensure that recreational programs reflect the community, that decisions reflect the values of citizens and that parks, gardens and natural spaces are a priority. He cites being an advocate for parks and green space issues for 15 years with a focus on access, preservation

and conservation. Mackinnon served as a park board commissioner in 2008 to 2011 and says he worked toward the better maintenance of the city’s parks and gardens, the accessibility of washrooms, noise reduction in parks and against recreational fees for toddlers. He sits on the board of the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association and is a special education teacher at Killarney secondary school. MOUTTET, STÉPHANE NPA Mouttet has worked over two decades in the hospitality industry and hopes to bring an enthusiasm for Vancouver’s accommodations to the park board. He is the chef concierge at Vancouver’s Shangri-La Hotel and graduated from Paris’s International Concierge Institute. Mouttet has served on the Regional Board of Les Clef d’Or Canada, an international association of hotel concierges. He is a board member for the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame and one of the founding members of the Vancouver Lumière Festival. POPAT, IMTIAZ COPE Popat hopes to expand Vancouver’s community services and programming to reflect the city’s diverse communities. He plans to use Toronto’s 519 Church Street Community Centre as a model for community programming as it reflects diversity, including LGBTQ and newcomers. He supports the sanctuary city movement and is an advocate for the rights of the marginalized. Popat is a media producer has hosted The Rational on Vancouver Co-op Radio, ACCESS TV on Shaw Cable 4 and produced feature films, including the documentary Stolen Memories about Japanese internment in B.C. He has worked at Gallery Gachet in the Downtown Eastside and cites advocating for newcomers through his work with the rainbow refugee committee and the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. ROMANIUK, ANITA COPE Romaniuk was a park commissioner from 2002 to 2005, serving as chair and liaison to the Vancouver Public Library Board and Vancouver City Planning Commission. She is a former member of the Douglas Park Community Association’s board of directors and

its ﬁnance, arts and park improvement committees. Romaniuk says she respects the joint operating agreement between community associations and the park board to operate community centres and supports expanding recreation facilities to keep pace with the city’s growth. She joined the Mount Pleasant Community Association’s pool committee in 2006 and is a founder and treasurer of the Vancouver Society for Promotion of Outdoor Pools. Romaniuk joined the Save Our Parklands Association in 2008 and is now president. ROSSETTI, MASSIMO VANCOUVER 1ST Rossetti has volunteered for the past 25 years at various community centres and is a strong believer in community. He is a former president of the Thunderbird Neighbourhood Association’s board of directors, past president of the Hastings Community Association and was a Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreations volunteer of the year. Rossetti has helped acquire equipment, supervised at risk youth and worked with the park board regarding budget restraint. He hopes to continue his spirit for public service if elected. RUMBAUA, SAMMIE JO VISION VANCOUVER Rumbaua says she wants to build intergenerational and intercultural bridges, which she believes are important in a diverse and growing Vancouver. She wants inclusion for the city’s parks and centres, especially for youth, seniors and immigrants. Rumbaua is a community organizer, youth settlement worker and employment program assistant, specializing in services for survivors of abuse and violence. She is a volunteer board member of the Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Society and Tulayan, Filipino-Canadian non-proﬁt. She cites receiving the VancouverKensington community leadership award in 2010 and the Filipino Canadian Cultural Heritage Society Maharlika Award for community service for youth in 2011. SHUM, ERIN NPA Shum hopes to advocate universal accessibility to community resources, the renovation of aging facilities and encourage more revenue-generating attractions like music festivals

and art exhibits in the city’s parks. She is the co-owner and director of She to Shic Boutique Beauty Lounge, an eco-friendly and organic spa in Kerrisdale. She started volunteering at a young age and today serves at the Lotus Light Charity society, helping raise funds and daily necessities for residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and as a special education assistant working with students with autism spectrum. Shum cites receiving the Duke of Edinburgh Award before the age of 21 and serves on the board for the Learning Disabilities Association of Vancouver. STARINK, DOUG VANCOUVER 1ST Starink hopes to bring his experience from 50 years of community service and leadership roles to the park board. He has been a member of the Vancouver Central Lions Club for 43 years and is a past president, zone chairperson and has served on district boards. Starink cites helping oversee fundraising activities and capital projects, including helping raise $250,000 for the housing of Engine 374 at the Roundhouse Community Centre. He is a licensed life insurance agent specializing in estate, business and ﬁnancial planning and holds CLU and ChFC designations. SUNSHINE, EARL INDEPENDENT Sunshine believes in change and accountability. He wants children and families to feel safe at every park. Sunshine is on the board of the Aboriginal Mother Centre and has volunteered for AIDS Vancouver and Native Health. He is a cancer survivor. TULL, COREE VISION VANCOUVER Tull supports the ongoing expansion of urban green space, such as stream and habitat restoration, rain gardens and urban forests, combined with community outreach and education programs to improve biodiversity and the ecological health of the city’s urban environment. She has a BA in geography and international relations from UBC, a bachelor of technology in ecological restoration from BCIT, and says she understands the importance of protecting, connecting and expanding community parks and green space. Tull is the co-founder of the Double Rainbow Dodgeball

League, co-chair of Out In Sports Society and a board member with Mabel League Fastpitch. She cites organizing community LGBTQ sports leagues and working to connect people and communities across Vancouver. WIEBE, MICHAEL GREEN Wiebe hopes to bring his environmental advocacy, business and community experience to the park board. He says he wants to help ensure decisions made for parks are guided by evidence-based policies and principles of sustainability. Wiebe marked out the wheelchair accessibility of all the trails in Stanley Park when he was 12 and later co-founded the Vancouver Lifeguard Association. With a degree in business administration, Wiebe worked for the provincial government before opening his own restaurant, Eight 1/2, based on sustainable principles and zero waste. He is a director of the Mount Pleasant BIA and recently spoke at an international conference on zero waste. WONG, RICHARD VANCOUVER 1ST Wong hopes to foster an inclusive park board that recognizes the needs of the city’s diverse communities. He wants to bring more arts and culture to community centres, keep the cost of youth sports low, give more independence to community centres and help better the lives of seniors. Wong volunteers at retirement homes to show his appreciation for the elderly. WYSS, CEASE COPE Wyss hopes to create better “cultural handshakes” with the diverse individuals who share public spaces and be a voice of their concerns. She wants to bring an indigenous voice to parks and recreation issues, where she believes they have been underrepresented. Wyss intends to help grow and strength programs that address the unique needs of indigenous youth, elders and diverse cultural communities that have long been excluded. As an ethnobotanist, she looks to share her traditional knowledge of indigenous plant systems to parks. Wyss has been involved in the Idle No More movement and cites ﬁghting for First Nations’ rights to hunt, gather and ﬁsh in their traditional territories.

iStock/michaeljung/Thinkstock

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

FOR S

Q: What can one person do to make a positive difference for thousands nds of school children?

L TR CHOO

USTE

y ER, Jo D N A ALEX , P atti S U H BACC , Jane Y E U BO Ken ENT, M E n L C , G we T H C RE GIESB ike DI, M R A B LOM ie , Cher E N Y PA an G, All N O W b N, Ro E N Y W tion

uca lic Ed ncouver b u P a Vote ision Volls V & t p Projec Take me to the

A: Vote Public Education Project & Vision Vancouver Saturday, November 15th. Advance voting will take place over eight days (November 4 to 12, excluding exclu November 11) and at eight locations, from 8am to 8pm. Need information mation on voting and registration? See website:

http://vancouver.ca/yo .ca/your-government/2014-municipal-election.aspx

This Message Brought to You by Vancouver Public School Teachers

Authorized by VESTA, registered sponsor under LECFA, 604-873-8378 and VSTA, registered sponsor under LECFA, 604-873-5570.

W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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DENTURISTS ARE DENTURE SPECIALISTS Need Dentures? Denture Problems? We can help you!

What screening tests to take and when?

Davidicus Wong dawong@shaw.ca

Because a routine physical examination is not covered by the Medical Services Plan in a patient with no symptoms and no known disease, most adults are not aware of all the screening tests they should consider. Screening tests are recommended for the early detection and treatment of particular medical conditions in individuals of average risk and no symptoms. For example, the stool occult blood test (FOBT or FIT) is recommended as a screen for colon cancer for adults over 50 years every two to three years. If it is positive (indicating a source of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract), the next test is usually a colonoscopy (in which a flexible scope is inserted into the anus and used to see and remove polyps and other growths in the large intestine). However, if an older adult has obvious blood in his stools, his physician will likely arrange a colonoscopy without the need for a positive stool occult blood test. If another individual with no symptoms has a family history of colon cancer, the first surveillance colonoscopy should begin at an age 10 years before the age at which the relative was diagnosed. For example, if a woman’s father was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 52 and her sister was diagnosed at age 48, she should have her first colonoscopy at age 38. These are the screening tests for other conditions.

High Blood Pressure

For adults 18 and older, blood pressure should be measured at every appropriate medical visit (e.g. annually). Once hypertension or high blood pressure is identiﬁed, the patient and doctor will discuss the appropriate frequency of rechecking blood pressure.

Cervical Cancer

The Pap smear is a sample of cervical cells taken during a pelvic examination, but please note that a Pap smear is not necessarily done with every pelvic exam, which

For adults 18 and older, blood pressure should be measured annually.

may have been necessary for pelvic pain or a possible infection. A woman should always clarify with her physician what tests were done during each examination. Women should start Pap smears at age 25 and continue at a frequency of every three years (or more frequently depending on the recommendations of the B.C. Cancer Agency, which interprets the Pap smears and sends reports to the physician). Women 70 years and older may stop screening after three successive normal paps in the previous 10 years.

Diabetes

The fasting glucose blood test was formerly recommended as the screening test for adults over age 40. The conﬁrmatory test was the two-hour 75 gm glucose

tolerance test. The newest recommendation is the Hb a1c blood test only in high risk and very high risk patients based on the FINDRISC or CANRISK calculators. Those found to be high risk for diabetes should be screened every three to ﬁve years; those at very high risk every year.

Breast Cancer

Monthly self-examinations and annual clinical examinations by physicians are no longer recommended. Screening mammograms are now the only remaining screening test and the Canadian guidelines recommend them every two years in women from age 50 to 70.

Prostate Cancer

The standard screening test is the annual DRE (digital rectal examina-

tion). Don’t be fooled by the name; it’s not high tech imaging. It’s high touch with your doctor’s gloved finger checking the size and shape of the prostate. My patient, Tom, calls it the fickle finger of fate. This is not the right time to ask your doctor for a second opinion. Doctor (as he snaps off his glove): “You have a huge prostate and you need surgery.” Patient: “Can I have a second opinion?” Doctor: “You already did. I used two fingers and they both feel the same.” The PSA (prostate specific antigen) is a blood test to detect levels of a protein produced by the prostate. It may be elevated by benign enlargement of the prostate or by prostate cancer. It is not recommended as a routine screening test for men at any age. Men should discuss the value of this test with their physicians as it has to be interpreted in conjunction with the rectal examination. The PSA is not recommended as a screening test because an abnormal test may result in investigations and treatment that may cause more harm than a slow growing prostate cancer that may not otherwise affect the patient. Dr. Davidicus Wong is Physician Lead of the Burnaby Division of Family Practice. A poster of these screening tests can be found at divisionsbc.ca/ burnaby. For more on achieving your positive potential in health, visit davidicuswong. wordpress.com. For more information on screening tests, go to canadiantaskforce.ca

Seeking volunteers with knee osteoarthritis. We need your help for a research study! The Motion Analysis and Biofeedback Lab at the University of British Columbia is seeking volunteers with knee osteoarthritis to participate in a study assessing the effects of different types of custom-fitted insoles on knee pain and physical function. If eligible, you will be asked to attend 5 sessions at the University assessing different insoles over a period of 6 months. To take part you must: • be 50 – 80 years old • have osteoarthritis in at least one knee • not currently wear shoe orthotics • not have had a hip or knee replacement • be willing to complete a 6-month study Visit www.ubc-mablab.ca, or contact Natasha (604-822-7948 or mablabstudies@gmail.com) for further details!

Certified BPS Denture Centre OPEN MON-FRI 10-5 SAT: By appointment ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS EMERGENCY REPAIRS AVAILABLE

CALL TODAY! Hastings Denture Clinic (604)255-9433 Free Consultation

2609 E. Hastings St. Vancouver (at Penticton St.)

“Quality work you can count on”

Ken Wong, Denturist

DENTURES THAT FIT

GUARANTEED! All our Dentures and Services are TAX FREE! Friedrich H.G. Brumm D.D. B.A. Denturist - 26 yrs exp

For your free consultation please call 604-325-1914 www.mydentures.ca

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Now Accepting New Patients No Referral Needed VICTORIA DRIVE DENTURE CLINIC 5477 Victoria Drive (at 39th) “EUROPEAN QUALITY AT CANADIAN PRICES”

DR SELENA CHOW 215-3540 W. 41St AVE (at Dunbar St) dunbardental@gmail.com 604-261-2220

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

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W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

Arts&Entertainment

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GOT ARTS? 604.738.1411 or events@vancourier.com

1 Nov. 5 to 7, 2014 1. Anyone who dreads turning 29 probably still thinks “shots” are an acceptable way to consume alcohol. Not the limber peeps at Ballet B.C., which kicks off its 29th season with the appropriately titled program No. 29. In addition to stylishly well-ventilated outfits, the show features the world premiere of “White Act” by Spanishborn choreographer Fernando Hernando Magadan, the Ballet B.C. premiere of “An Instant” by Vancouver-born choreographer Lesley Telford and the reprisal of “the explosive audience favourite” “A.U.R.A.” by Italy’s Jacopo Godani. Check it out Nov. 6 to 8 at Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Tickets at ticketmaster.ca. Details at balletbc.com. 2. Lyrically-adept singer-songwriter Kinnie Starr teams up with Janet Panic for an early show at Fortune Sound Club, Nov. 6, as part of the Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival. Starr’s latest album, From Far Away, finds the performer straddling the lines between folk, rap, art-pop and poetry. Details at fortunesoundclub.com. 3. The Commodore Ballroom hosts a memorial service for former owner Drew Burns, who passed away in late September. Burns ran the venerable Granville Street music venue from 1969 to 1996 and made an indelible mark on Vancouver’s music scene, bringing in such acts as U2, The Police, R.E.M., Talking Heads and James Brown. Following the Nov. 5, 2 to 5 p.m. memorial service, there’ll be a “Musical Walk Down Memory Lane with Drew Burns” Tribute Show at 7 p.m. featuring several of Drew’s favourite local acts representing different eras of his career, including Teen Angel and the Rockin’ Rebels, members of Doug and the Slugs, Joe Keithley, Jim Foster, the Bobcats and Billy Dixon’s Soul Train Express, among others. Admission is free, however registration is recommended. Details at commodoreballroom.com/calendar. 4. Remember that fantastic scene in Louie where Parker Posey takes Louis C.K. to an old-time Jewish deli to sample all sorts of delicious food? That deli is Russ & Daughters, which continues to survive and thrive after 100 years in business under four generations of the same Jewish immigrant family. Julie Cohen’s touching documentary on the famed Lower East Side lox and herring emporium, The Sturgeon Queens, is just one of 25 films screening at this year’s Vancouver Jewish Film Festival, Nov. 6 to 13 at Fifth Avenue Cinemas. For show times and a full list of films, go to vjff.org.

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

Arts&Entertainment

Identical twins Kailey and Sam Spear take on Hamlet and give the Shakespearean tragedy a modern, gender-swapping twist.

Method in madness of Hamlet reboot

November 20 – 23

Twin directors look at Shakespeare tragedy from feminist perspective

Daily 11am – 9pm • Sunday 11am – 6pm

THEATRE Christine Lyon

clyon@nsnews.com

JOIN US TO HONOUR THE AWARD NOMINEES FOR THE 2014 GIVING HEARTS AWARDS OUTSTANDING CORPORATION

Cadillac Fairview Corp

Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers

Coast Capital Savings

TD Bank Group

Concert Properties

The Pacific Group of Companies

De Dutch

Trans-Continental Textile Recycling

Lush Handmade Cosmetics

Mangia E Bevi Ristorante

Children who will be attending Kindergarten in September 2015, need to first register at their neighbourhood English catchment School.

Unlock Your Future: The Key to Scholarships

Help us honour these outstanding organizations at the National Philanthropy Day Luncheon

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14, 2014 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM

at the Vancouver Convention Centre, 1055 Canada Place

Tickets on sale now at afpvancouver.org

CONTRIBUTING SPONSORS:

n e t r a g r K indeistration Reg November - January 31st

OUTSTANDING SMALL BUSINESS

GIVING HEARTS AWARDS SPONSORS:

A new production of Hamlet seeks to recharge Shakespeare’s often-staged tragedy by casting a woman in the title role. Identical twins Kailey and Sam Spear are the brains behind BlackSpear Productions. For their unorthodox take on Hamlet, which runs until Nov. 9 at the Shop Theatre, they hand-picked New York-trained actress

Libby Osler to portray the melancholy Danish prince (now princess). Three other characters traditionally represented by men are also being played by women in this production — Laertes, Rosencrantz and Marcello (now Marcella). The 25-year-old sisters hope their genderswap casting will shake up the character dynamics and allow audience members familiar with the classic work to experience the play in a new way. “The play is often put

on a pedestal and we really wanted people to watch it and to see it fresh and new,” Kailey explains. Switching the sex of certain characters has allowed the Spear sisters to create complex roles for women in a play that traditionally has only two female cast members — Hamlet’s mother Gertrude and his love interest Ophelia (both of whom are women in this production). “It’s really nice to see well-rounded female characters because you don’t get a lot in theatre or ﬁlm,” Kailey explains. “It’s tricky to ﬁnd well-crafted female roles just in general.” Continued next page

GIVING HEARTS AWARDS RECEPTION SPONSOR:

TV SPONSOR: ADDITIONAL THANKS:

NOTE: If your child was born outside of Canada, please register at DRPC (District Reception and Placement Centre) at Moberly Elementary. Call: 604-713-5999 Locate your English catchment school using www.vsb.bc.ca/school-locator

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.vsb.bc.ca/kindergarten or Visit your neighbourhood English Catchment School

W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 THE VANCOUVER COURIER

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Bard buzzes with social media Continued from previous page The story takes place in the present day in a fictitious and “Hollywoodesque” Denmark, Kailey says. Born with celebrity status and facing constant public scrutiny, this modern royal finds herself swarmed by paparazzi and uses social media to shape her image. The theatre set features a multimedia component that flashes Twitter updates, newspaper articles and magazine covers. Hamlet, which is being co-produced by Renegade Productions, marks Kailey and Sam’s theatre direction debut. The sisters grew up on Bowen Island and attended Tir-na-nog Theatre School where they had the chance to perform Hamlet in Grade 8 (Sam played Horatio; Kailey was Guildenstern and a gravedigger). “That was really nice, being exposed to it so early. You know, we understood half of what was going on, but it gave us that base for when we got into high school and studied it in Grade 12,” Kailey says. The sisters graduated from Simon Fraser University’s film program in 2012 and although both of their careers have since focused on film, they decided to return to their theatre roots and co-direct a stage production of Hamlet — something they’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Despite the gender reversals and modern-day setting, their production

Libby Osler plays the title role in BlackSpear Productions’ Hamlet, which sets the Shakespeare tragedy in the present day complete with paparazzi and Twitter updates.

stays true to Shakespeare’s original text (minus the gendered pronouns) and the major themes of betrayal, revenge, love and loyalty remain. “It’s amazing how well it translates into a contemporary setting. It deals with so many life obstacles and struggles,” Kailey says, noting that certain themes become more obvious with a female protagonist. The contrast between appearance versus reality, for example, is something this Hamlet struggles with as a female celebrity in a culture obsessed with superﬁcial beauty. “Everybody has an opinion on Hamlet. Everybody knows the story, or thinks they know the story, but we

BCAR

CASH

really just want the audience to take in these characters as fresh new characters,” Kailey says. Both sisters say their casting decision has allowed them to appreciate just how complex, dynamic and still relevant Hamlet really is. “Hopefully with [Hamlet] being a female, people will be able to re-see the character and re-see the experiences that this character’s going through,” Sam says. “Shakespeare’s such an amazing writer that there is so much to ﬁnd in there.” BlackSpear Productions presents Hamlet, until Nov. 9 at the Shop Theatre, 125 East Second Ave. Tickets at theshophamlet.brownpapertickets.com.

For youth living on the streets, there is no home for the holidays

NOVEMBER 1 – DECEMBER 16

DOUBLE BALLOT

MONDAYS!

WIN $1,000 CASH AT 8PM AND 9PM EVERY TUESDAY STARTING NOVEMBER 11! GRAND PRIZE CAR DRAW ON DECEMBER 16 AT 9PM! *CAR AWARDED MAY NOT BE EXACTLY AS SHOWN. **DOUBLE BALLOTS EARNED ON MONDAY WILL BE AVAILABLE ON TUESDAY.

Vancouver’s problem with homelessness is at an all time high, with many of those with no home of their own being under the age of 24. At the Courier, we decided to provide an opportunity to our readers to give a little cheer and kindness to the youth on our streets this holiday season.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH:

Here’s how you can help

When out shopping for those stocking stuffers this holiday season, see what’s on special and grab an extra something on top of your usual purchase. Please note that we ask that all items be NEW! Simply drop your items off in the big box situated in the Courier lobby at

1574 West 6th Ave., near Fir St. between November 1st and December 1st. Hours are Mon-Fri, 8:30 am to 4:30pm.

PRESENTS

ANNUAL

BLUES FOR PAWS FOR THE BC SPCA

Hosted by Rob Montgomery

TICKETS: $15

Available at Guest Services and www.stadiumclub.ticketleap.com

Across from BC Place • 750 Pacific Boulevard S., Vancouver • edgewatercasino.c a

Edgewater Casino, Vancouver

@CasinoEdgewater

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THE VANCOUVER COURIER W E DN E SDAY, N OV E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

Arts&Entertainment

P R E S E N T S

Parfumerie

Festival spotlights zine culture

November 8th - 29th Wednesday to Saturday at 8:00pm Sunday Matinees on November 16th & 23rd at 2:00pm

Jenny Peng

jennypeng08@gmail.com

Tickets: Adults $23 or Student/Seniors $20 1370 SW Marine Drive, Vancouver www.metrotheatre.com

Reservations • Box Office: 604-266-7191 or buy tickets online at metrotheatre.com SPECIAL OFFERS

Wednesday - 2 tickets for $32 • Thursday - 2 tickets for $34

Preview on November 7th is $12 per ticket

FINAL WEEK

Where else can readers satisfy their literary appetite for Hawaiian tiki bars or delve into the seemingly mundane chronicles of a professional dishwasher? These are just some the options found at Canzine West: Festival of Zines, which celebrates the many charms of self-published, non-commercial magazines, comics and chapbooks. Taking place Nov. 8 at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 West Hastings St.) the event showcases lesser-known and independently published writing and artwork from anyone with a message or story to tell. However, the results don’t have to be quirky or unconventional. Often zines are wellsprings of political discussions and social issues. In addition to hundreds of zines and comics on display and for sale, festival goers can peruse chapbooks, broadsheets and posters. The chance to explore a small piece of someone else’s “unﬁltered” daily life and ideas is one reason Le-

Canzine West celebrates the charms of self-published, noncommercial magazines, comics and chapbooks.

anne Prain has been a zine enthusiast since her days as a college student. Prain, author of Strange Material: Storytelling through Textiles, will be one of the presenters at the festival’s Radical Reading Series. Although her book was released by a conventional publisher, Prain says her messages on textiles, crafts and design are influenced by the edgy, non-conformist qualities that define zine culture. The festival, which originated in Toronto, is a great way for writers and artists from Western Canada to show off their projects, says Prain. “So it brings up the national profile of people

who are doing independent projects here in the west, because we don’t have a lot of stuff that goes from east to west in this country.” The festival is organized by Toronto-based magazine Broken Pencil, which profiles and reviews independently produced zines, books, websites, videos and artwork four times a year. Hal Niedzviecki, founder and fiction editor of Broken Pencil, says the magazine was born in the early days of his writing career when he wanted to elevate the profile of zine culture. As for Vancouver’s relationship with zine culture, Niedzviecki points to the city’s reputation in the ’60s as “a hotbed of underground journals.”

“There’s still that element of kind of anarchy, and hippiness, and a little bit of punk thrown in,” explains Niedzviecki. “But I have been noticing there’s a lot of ﬁner arts stuff starting to come from Vancouver — illustration… drawings and really beautiful handmade books.” In addition to the festival’s giant zine and small press faire, writer and cartoonist Mimi Pond will give a talk. The illustrator, who has worked for such publications as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times and written for The Simpsons and Pee Wee’s Playhouse, will discuss her recent graphic novel, Over Easy, which is set in the “tumultuous world of the 1970s…a dark moral swamp she was left to navigate on her own.” For visitors looking for some quick laughs, the festival will feature the popular 1-2 Punch Book Pitch where participants have two minutes to convince judges in front of a crowd to publish their book. The judges will then deliver their own one-minute rejection or approval of the idea. The winner gets a $200 prize pack. Visit brokenpencil. com for more information. twitter.com/JennyPengNow

FUTURE SHOP - CORRECTION NOTICE

NEWSPAPER RETRACTION FOR THE FUTURE SHOP NOVEMBER OCTOBER 22 31 CORPORATE FLYER

In the October 31 flyer, page 16, Marley Positive Vibrations Headphones (Web ID 10303221 and 10303225) were incorrectly listed as Bluetooth headphones, but they are not Bluetooth capable. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our valued customers.

We s t e r n G o l d Th e a t re p re s e n t s

Edward Albee’s

There’s so much cool stuff here!

Three Tall Women “A n n a H a g a n i s s i m p l y a s t o n i s h i n g ” - B a i rd B l a c k s t o n e , B r o k e n L e g Re v i e w s

DATE: TIME: VENUE:

ERN ST WE OLD G TRE EA H T

senti

n g

senti

Photo: Tim Matheson / Poster: Joseph Emms

M u s t C l o s e No v e m b e r 9 t h . . .

B ox O f f i c e : 6 04 - 3 6 3 - 5 7 3 4 5 8 1 C a rd e r o S t re e t ( C o a l H a r b o u r ) w w w . We s t e r n G o l d Th e a t re . o rg

ARTHRITIS Arthritis can be a debilitating disease. Add the stresses of everyday life and it may be overwhelming! In this interactive workshop, you will learn about the relationship between the two. By uncovering the many facets of stress and how it affects us – you will learn how to better manage your stress AND your arthritis!

“darkly funny ” - Jo L e d i n g h a m , Va n c o u v e r C o u ri e r

t i c k e t s : t h re e . B r o w n Pa p e r Ti c k e t s . c o m

STRESS AND

COST:

Wednesday, November 12, 2014 2:00 – 3:30pm Robert and Lily Lee Family Community Health Centre 1669 East Broadway, Vancouver Room 225 FREE, but donations gratefully accepted

To register please call 604.714.5550 BUY TICKETS ONLINE

WWW.CIRCLECRAFT.NET OPEN DAILY AT 10:00AM

www.arthritis.ca

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Sports&Recreation

GOT SPORTS? 604.630.3549 or mstewart@vancourier.com

Tables updated 11 a.m. Nov. 4.

VSSAA SENIOR GIRLS VOLLEYBALL QUARTER-FINALS TUESDAY AT DAVID THOMPSON SECONDARY TEAM

KILLARNEY POINT GREY CHURCHILL VAN TECH

01 03 03 00

TEAM

POINT GREY

VS PRINCE OF WALES

CHURCHILL

THOMPSON

03 00 03 01

PRINCE OF WALES GLADSTONE THOMPSON KITSILANO

SEMI-FINALS TUESDAY AT DAVID THOMPSON SECONDARY TEAM

THOMPSON CHURCHILL

TEAM

00 00

TBA

00 POINT GREY 00 PRINCE OF WALES

TBA

CHAMPIONSHIP 6 P.M. NOVEMBER 6 AT DAVID THOMPSON SECONDARY 00

TBA

VSSAA SENIOR BOYS VOLLEYBALL QUARTER-FINALS MONDAY AT VANCOUVER TECHNICAL TEAM

CHURCHILL BRITANNIA VAN TECH MAGEE

03 00 03 00

TEAM

CHURCHILL

GLADSTONE

VAN TECH

THOMPSON

03 00 00 03

GLADSTONE TUPPER HAMBER THOMPSON

SEMI-FINALS MONDAY AT VANCOUVER TECHNICAL 00 00

TBA

00 00

GLADSTONE CHURCHILL

CHAMPIONSHIP 6PM NOVEMBER 6 AT VANCOUVER TECHNICAL TBA

PHOTOS DAN TOULGOET

Irish turn historic streak up to 11

Vancouver College quarterback Giordy Belﬁore named MVP ARCHBISHOPS’ TROPHY mstewart@vancourier.com

TEAM

TBA

Weekend Scoresheet On the eve of their elimination from the CIS post-season, two players on the UBC Thunderbirds men’s soccer team were recognized by Canada West: one as the most valuable player in the CIS western conference and the other as its rookie of the year. The accolades were dampened when the 2012 and 2013 CIS champion T-birds lost their Canada West semi-final 2-0 to the University of Alberta Golden Bears on Oct. 31. The defeat ended their season. Navid Mashinchi, a fifth-year midfielder for the men’s soccer team, was named the Canada West MVP for his role in leading UBC to a 9-2-1 record. A fifth-year Sauder School of Business student, Mashinchi scored eight goals in nine regular season games. Head coach Mike Mosher said Mashinchi was a top Canada West player and “one of the nicest guys to come through our program.” Freshman Chris Serban was named the Canada West rookie of the year at 18 years of age. The Calgarian was integral to the UBC defence, which surrendered a league-low seven goals in 12 games. Serban, also a Sauder business school student, played all but 16 minutes in 11 games and, offensively, chipped in two assists. According to Mosher, the epitome of an outside defender: “Quick, strong defensively, a good range of passing to keep possession and an ability to get forward and join the attack.”

1. Notre Dame running back Nicholas Carusi (No. 34) is hauled down by three Vancouver College tacklers. 2. Vancouver College wide receiver Joseph Anthony (No. 29) flies down the sideline in a 46-7 win over Notre Dame at Burnaby Lake Park on Oct. 31.

Megan Stewart

TEAM

THOMPSON VAN TECH

Vancouver College Fighting Irish marked another check — its 11th consecutive check — in the win column for the historic Archbishops’ Trophy, an annual meeting of Catholic school football titans that dates back to 1957. Vancouver College won the ﬁrst meeting in 1957 and added eight more consecutive wins. Notre Dame answered from 1970 to 1976 with eight in a row of their own. The Jugglers’

streak ended in 1977 when the teams tied 8-8. In the 58th meeting between the brotherhoods at Burnaby Lake Park on Halloween afternoon, B.C.’s No. 5 Vancouver College took an all-time five-game lead with an overall series record of 31-26-1. Fighting Irish quarterback Giordy Belfiore was good on nine of 12 attempts and threw for 192 yards, including two 65-yard bombs to different receivers. He connected with Matt Legge in the first quarter and Richard Jarin in the second. Both touchdowns came after running back Ovie Odjegba opened scoring with a

four-yard run. Before the half, Belfiore scored again on a 34-yard pass to Chris Andrews and Vancouver College led 30-7. Odjegba added to the tally with a three-yard rush, the Irish scored two safety plays and Joelson delRosario added a final rushing touchdown on a four-yard run to take a 46-7 lead by the end of the third quarter. Kicker Kieran Mitha was solid on all six converts. For his three-touchdown passes and 75 per cent completion rate, Belfiore was named the 2014 Archbishops’ Cup MVP. The Fighting Irish took home the other two accolades as

well: Odjegba was named the outstanding back and Emilio Cantagallo the outstanding lineman. Vancouver College (1-1, 4-3) extended its winning streak to four games and turned around the slow start to the season. They’re tied for third in the Western Conference behind South Delta and undefeated Mt. Douglas. Notre Dame (1-1, 2-4) sinks lower in the conference, eight points out of first and tied for fifth in the west, which is the final conference berth to the post-season. The first round of the AAA varsity playoffs begins Nov. 14. twitter.com/MHStewart

UBC sacks football coach Olson

Olson had 10-30 record in ﬁve seasons

Shawn Olson was ﬁred as the head coach of the UBC Thunderbirds football program Monday. In a news release, UBC Athletics said Olson “will be moving on from his role as UBC head football coach effective immediately.” In ﬁve seasons with the Thunderbirds program,

Olson amassed a regular season record of 10-30. In 2011, the year he was named Canada West Coach of the Year, the Tbirds winning 6-2 record was wiped to a 0-8 losing record after ineligible players were on the roster because of an administrative error.

For ﬁve years as a student-athlete from 1996 to 2000, Olson was the Thunderbirds quarterback and led UBC to a Vanier Cup championship in 1997. “The UBC Thunderbirds thank coach Olson for his tireless leadership of the team,” the school wrote in the news release.

“Coach Olson has been dedicated to the program, and to UBC, throughout his time as head coach and we wish him continued success in the future.” The Thunderbirds ﬁnished the 2014 season with a 2-6 record with no road wins in four games. — Megan Stewart

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Sports&Recreation

Sandhu nets historic finish UBC wins fourth straight CIS ﬁeld hockey championship THUNDERBIRDS Megan Stewart

mstewart@vancourier.com

Record: 16 CIS championships Record: Four consecutive CIS championships Record: One player to appear in five CIS championships When you’re as accomplished as the women’s field hockey program at UBC, one record leads to more records. The storied Thunderbirds won their 16th McCrae Cup at the CIS championships this weekend when they shutout the host University of Toronto Blues 2-0. The win was their fourth consecutive title, a CIS record since the inaugural tournament in 1975. Poonam Sandhu, a fifth-year T-bird and John Oliver graduate, scored the winning goal against the Blues. She is the only player in CIS history to

be on five championship teams. She sat out the season in 2010, the last time the Thunderbirds didn’t win the McCrae Cup. She did it by picking off a pass in the Blues defensive end and, after slipping past the last defender, capitalized. “I saw her look inside to make that pass and I went for it,” said Sandhu, a midfielder with UBC and the national women’s team. “I made one move around the defender and it was just one on one with the goalie after that.” Until the title game, the Blues were undefeated and had beaten UBC earlier in the draw. “Scoring that goal was the most amazing feeling ever,” said Sandhu. “My team played so well, so it was so easy to just put it in for them. Coming into this tournament, we were definitely an underdog because of the age difference. Coming out of last year we lost 11

UBC midfielder Poonam Sandhu (in white) became the only athlete in CIS history to win five field hockey championships when the Thunderbirds won their 16th McCrae Cup in Toronto on Nov. 2. PHOTO MARTIN BAZYL / UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

players and this year we had a really young team but I think we did so well from the beginning of the season to now.” This season marked the ﬁrst for Robin D’Abreo, the head coach who stepped in after Hash Kanjee retired after 21 years and nine McCrae Cup wins. Sandhu trains with D’Abreo on the national team and she was familiar with his use of technology

and video. “I have had a really good relationship with him but for the rest of the girls, it was a pretty big change in terms of style. Hash has a very traditional style but Robin, he brings something new. It was a good change and

that’s a big reason why we won, honestly.” The CIS championship on Nov. 2 was the seventh gold-medal meeting between UBC and Toronto. The T-birds hold a 5-2 advantage. “It feels really good. I am so proud of the girls,”

said D’Abreo. “This team has improved so much since we ﬁrst started. It’s absolutely incredible. It’s a credit to the girls. They completely bought in to every single thing that the coaching staff put out there.” twitter.com/MHStewart

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LIONS REIGN Magee Lions co-captain Megan Ma (in red) dumps off the ball in a 4-0 loss to Richmond’s McMath in the AAA zone championship final at Eric Hamber secondary on Oct. 30. Despite the loss, Magee returns to provincials for the first time since 2008. Head coach Nancy Archbould said the team is bolstered by Team B.C. players and others who compete for the Vancouver Hawks, which extends the high school season. “Returning to provincials this year has been an unexpected surprise,” she wrote in an email. “I feel our success is attributed to having all our players involved in the games and play on the field, not just individual play-making. The experienced players have definitely contributed immensely, but they have also raised the standard of play for all the players.” The 2014 B.C. Championships run Nov. 12 to 14 in North Vancouver. PHOTO DAN TOULGOET

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