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University Briefs

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Former UBC kinesiology professor charged with voyeurism

Former professor of kinesiology at the University of British Columbia, James Rupert, faces charges of voyeurism based on accusations of observing and recording nudity in private places without consent. He began in-court proceedings on August 19 and will appear once more on September 16.

According to UBC spokesperson Lucie McNeill, “The University of British Columbia remains one of the safest academic communities in North America [. . .] We are committed to maintaining a secure and respectful environment for all, and we investigate and address all incidents that threaten the safety of our students, faculty or staff.”

With files from The Ubyssey

Film program at UFV explores First Nations culture

The University of Fraser Valley has recently established a program called the Lens of Empowerment, aimed at using film to celebrate and accurately represent First Nations culture, the Sto:lo nation specifically.

The project not only aims to teach students how to create their own films, but also to change the focus of film as a medium in regards to First Nations representation, which in the past has been stereotypical in nature. These films are meant to promote a more clarified view of the Sto:lo as a diverse culture.

With files from The Cascade

U of T researches link between insomnia and old age

Research from the University of Toronto looks to explain the connection between age and the ability to get a good night’s sleep.

Findings show that the loss of a specific cluster of inhibitory neurons in animals is responsible for sleep disruption. The number of these neurons found in humans decreases with age.

“These findings may one day lead to novel treatments for insomnia and other patterns of sleep disruption in old age, thereby improving quality of life,” said U of T researcher Andrew Lim.

With files from University of Toronto Media Room

Board Shorts

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EIC
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Build SFU launches heroes campaign

Build SFU is launching their heroes campaign for the fall semester, which will feature posters of students involved in the Student Union Building (SUB) project next to the campaign slogan, “Heroes of today building the campus of tomorrow.”

Students who have been involved with the project in any capacity can be featured on the posters, whether they sat on a committee, attended a workshop, or simply stopped by the office to ask a question.

At the conclusion of his presentation to the board, Marc Fontaine, Build SFU general manager, stated, “You can be a hero. You already are, all of you.”

Space Expansion Fund debt transfer

In the continued pursuit of resolving the General Fund’s outstanding debt of $1.44 million to the SFSS Space Expansion Fund, VP finance Adam Potvin brought a motion to board to transfer $500,000 from the General Fund to the Space Expansion Fund. The $500,000 was subsequently transferred to Build SFU, as their mandate is to expand space.

Potvin explained, “We’re transferring to Build SFU because there is not a great enough need for the money that is currently in the Space Expansion Fund.”

Board passed the motion, which leaves the total remaining debt at $944,000.

SFSS tablet and paper usage

VP university relations Moe Kopahi brought a motion to board to approve up to $7,000 to purchase tablets for usage by board, committees, and departments for outreach. He also moved that the SFSS ban the usage of paper for any society meeting unless necessary.

The first part of the motion concerning tablet purchase was referred to the Financial and Administrative Services Committee, while the proposal to ban paper was voted down unanimously.

SFSS announces line-up for Fall Kickoff concert

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EIC
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cover photo
This afternoon, the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) announced the line-up for the 2014 Fall Kickoff concert, with five artists set to perform in Convocation Mall on Friday, September 19.

Unlike the previous two concerts held by the SFSS, the night will feature both live bands and DJs. Local bands BESTiE and The Faceplants will open the night, followed by Vancouver-based electronic dance music (EDM) artist LUVLYF.

Headlining the show will be Thomas Newson, a 19 year old DJ from the Netherlands, as well as the Montreal DJ duo Paris & Simo.

SFSS VP student services and concert lead, Zied Masmoudi, told The Peak, “It’s sort of a natural progression of the music. When we were looking at the artists we thought, ‘This might be a successful combination.’”

Masmoudi continued, “As the night progresses, it’s going to get crazier. If you notice, the first band is more like slow music, and it gets faster and faster and faster and builds up towards the end.”

The evening will begin at 5:00 p.m. with BESTiE, who won $50,000 as a finalist in November, 2013, in a radio talent competition called The Peak Performance Project. Started in 2012 by a group of East Vancouver boys, the band recently completed their first Canadian national tour.

The second band, The Faceplants, will follow, playing from 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Featuring local talent from Coquitlam, the band formed in 2010 and have recently released their debut self-titled EP with the help of Tommy Mac, the basist of Hedley.

“As the night progresses, it’s going to get crazier.” – Zied Masmoudi, project lead

Masmoudi explained that the organizers wanted to include local bands in the evening because the event is meant to promote the undergraduate student society, but also to promote Vancouver talent in general. “We thought that some local talent might have some pull and some following,” he said. The team also hoped that including bands would allow them to cater to students with different musical interests, since the last two concerts only had DJs performing.

Following The Faceplants, the evening will transition to electronic dance music with LUVLYF performing from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Also known as Colette Trudeau, LUVLYF is a DJ, singer and songwriter hailing from Vancouver. She defines her style as the “perfect balance of progressive house and pop music,” and is the first female performer to grace an SFSS concert lineup.

From 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., international DJ Thomas Newson will take the stage. Newson made history in 2013, becoming the youngest person ever to have two records simultaneously reach Beatport’s Top 10 list, which is chosen by the world’s largest DJ and electronic music community. In the last few years, Newson has also received support from Hardwell, Avicii, Tiesto, W&W, and Afrojack.

Newson will also perform at the event’s after party at the Highland Pub.

Finally, the evening will close with DJ duo Paris & Simo performing from 8:30 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. Formed in 2010, the band has earned support from industry leaders like Tiesto, Bob Sinclar, Hardwell, and Max Vangeli. In 2011, they reached #13 on the Beatport progressive house charts with their hit “Aura,” a collaboration with Mark Mendes. In the same year, they also opened for Deadmau5 and Skrillex at Resolution Quebec, playing for a crowd of 6,000.

Masmoudi hopes that these artists will bring lots of energy and enthusiasm to Convo Mall this September. “If you look at all the artists, they’re all young. They’re all less than 21 years old, except for the bands, so they’re all up and coming and they’re all motivated to play at the show,” he said. “We don’t want someone to show up, [to treat it as] just another gig, so we always want all the people around the concert to be motivated.”

Overall, Masmoudi and his team are confident that these artists will offer an exciting start to the school year for all concert-goers. “I think it’s a solid lineup. I think they have a lot of talent,” Masmoudi said. “I’m just hoping that they will give the students the best experience they can have.”

Tickets for the 2014 Fall Kickoff concert will go on sale this week, with regular prices for students set at $30 and discounted tickets for student groups set at $20.

A Touch of Noir

By
EIC
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double indemnity

I don’t know what it is about film noir, but it holds a special som’thin’ som’thin’ for a lot of people in Vancouver. For instance, this spring, the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage hosted the world premiere of Helen Lawrence, a mixed-media presentation from Stan Douglas and Chris Haddock with a film noir take on Vancouver politics in 1948. Then in June, the film noir short Under the Bridge of Fear, from Mackenzie Gray, received eight nominations at the Leo Awards. Gray, meanwhile, was inspired to create his short, in part, after reading the book Vancouver Noir: 1930-1960 by Diane Purvey and John Belshaw. Continuing this trend, The Cinematheque’s popular film noir summer season this August is also not to be missed. You’ve got all month to indulge in the hard-boiled wonderland of the burnt-out-case and evil dame.

Arguably a style rather than a genre, film noir began in July 1946, when seven Hollywood films arrived in Paris, the first American cinema to reach France since the German occupation in WWII. Unlike France, WWII did not stop Hollywood from making film, and French film critics were hoping that these American films could help shape the discussion on their own industry, which was in tatters following the war. Four of the seven films, all based on American crime novels, were B-movies from then unknown directors: The Maltese Falcon, Laura, Murder My Sweet, and Double Indemnity. The moment they arrived, with their squalid settings, cynical point of view and depraved characters, they produced moral outrage. Thanks, in part, to the French film critic Nino Frank, they eventually changed the shape of modern cinema.

On August 28, Frank produced an article A New Police Genre: The Criminal Adventure in defense of this vicious American cinema. Frank was a modernist, influenced by writers such as Emile Zola, along with Dada, Surrealism, Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche. True to his roots, he admired the films’ “third dimension” – that of truth, of life and of thought – and pointed to their realistic situations and the visible inner workings of believable characters. According to Frank, these films noir, as he called them, tossed out old film conventions by reproducing the hard-boiled spirit of the crime novels on which they were based: their sharp dialogue, misogynist eroticism, lives that moved in strange twists and, especially, the stream-of-conscious narration of the male lead. The films exposed the savage underbelly of civilization and freed the audience to even identify with the murderer!

For Frank, film noir conveyed the modern ambience of a world congested by mean streets and the harsh glare of electric lights at night that affected humans in strange, yet entirely believable ways. The hero’s journey, now took place in the dim, cramped rooms of urban reality, instead of out in wilds of romantic nature.

Other French critics seized on his idea that talented directors making mass-market films could probe human psychology, and film noir became the talk of the town. Critics were drawn to other elements in the films, such as their expressionistic lighting, low camera angles, surrealism, and the genre of film noir was born. In the 1960s, US filmmakers were inspired by French New Wave, which paid homage to film noir, and began to re-interpret the genre by way of existentialism. They explored themes of isolation, alienation, paranoia and psychosis. Roman Polanski’s nihilistic Chinatown (1974) represents the culmination of this exploration, but David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986) and Quentin Tarrantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) are all examples of films that owe a large debt to film noir.

At the Cinematheque, Gun Crazy tops the list of the films on offer this year. Jim Sinclair, Executive Director of The Cinematheque, describes it as “dynamic, stylish, cool.” Released in 1950 as a B-movie, Gun Crazy developed a cult following and became a cornerstone of film noir. It is widely regarded as one of best gangster movies to come out of America. So Dark the Night (1948), by the same director, Joseph Lewis, is a rare gem that Sinclair has been trying to get for years. It screens August 24 to 27. Another film to top Sinclair’s list is Detective Story (1951) starring Kirk Douglas as a bitter cop whose pursuit of an abortionist leads him to discover that his own wife had an abortion. The film delivers Douglas “in his best role ever,” says Sinclair. Not to mention – ooh – a gritty story.

For more information about The Cinematheque’s film noir series and other screenings, visit thecinematheque.ca.

Board Shorts

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EIC
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External chair for fall 2014 semester

The SFSS voted against having an external chair for the fall 2014 term.

Despite having already increased the honorarium for the position by $675 for the fall, board decided to discontinue the position. As such, they will reallocate the $675 at a later meeting.

 

Fall FSU referendum question

Board voted to hold a referendum this fall concerning the establishment of a Faculty of Business Student Union, a Faculty of Science Student Union, and a Faculty of Health Sciences Student Union.

Council representative from the business faculty, David Chapman, explained that the business administration student society (BASS) has been pursuing its establishment as an faculty student union (FSU) for several years. “For the last 14 years, BASS has been functioning [in the same ways that] an FSU is said to be doing right now,” said Chapman.

Some board members questioned the proposal, saying that three FSU questions are not enough to justify holding a referendum that would cost the society approximately $12,000. Others, however, felt that providing students with this voting opportunity is an important responsibility of the society.

 

Build SFU Working Drawings Phase Cost Control and Indemnity Agreement

Board approved the Working Drawings Phase Cost Control and Indemnity Agreement, which includes the expenditure of up to $3,500,000 from the proceeds of the surrender of SFSS office space in the Maggie Benston Centre; these funds are allocated for architectural, mechanical, electrical, structural, and other services relating to Working Drawings Phase of the Build SFU student union building (SUB) project.

This phase will see the creation of blueprints for the SUB, including all of the architectural drawings and specifications necessary to complete the project.

 

Board Group Photo

Board announced that they will take their group photo on Wednesday, September 3. “Come dressed in your Sunday best,” said president Chardaye Bueckert.

Board Shorts

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EIC
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SFSS Food Bank fall 2014 expansion

Board voted to approve multiple expenses for the fall 2014 expansion of the SFSS Food Bank, which will expand the initiative’s services to SFU’s Surrey and Vancouver campuses.

These services include: up to $500 for 100 Dining Hall vouchers; up to $1,875 for 75 vouchers from Safeway to be distributed at SFU Surrey; up to $2,000 for 80 vouchers from Nester’s Market to be distributed at SFU Vancouver; up to $7,500 for 300 vouchers from Nester’s Market to be distributed at SFU Burnaby; and up to $500 for printing costs.

The SFSS Food Bank Working Group analysed what students were actually purchasing with the vouchers, and found that a majority were being used to buy healthy products such as meat, produce, and dairy. Only nine per cent of the vouchers given out were used for junk food.

 

Collective agreement reached

Extensive collective bargaining between the SFSS and CUPE 3338 Unit 3, which formed in late October 2013, has concluded in a new collective agreement between the two.

The members of CUPE 3338, which represents employees in the Food and Beverage Services Division, accepted the SFSS bargaining committee’s last offer, which was tabled on July 29.

The new collective agreement will be in effect until April 30, 2016.

 

Board Strategic Planning defines four goals

After two strategic planning sessions held on July 16 and 17, the board has outlined four goals to pursue for the remainder of their term in office.

The goals are to strengthen SFSS accountability and transparency, increase the visibility and accessibility of the SFSS to its members and stakeholders, better align society services with members needs, and improve the SFSS governance and operational model.

The remainder of the initiatives discussed by board will be labeled objectives rather than goals, to be discussed further at later meetings.

Re: “No, #NotAllMen”

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EIC
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With respect to the intentions of the writer, the opinion piece “No, #NotAllMen” is a great example of a frustrating phenomenon for women* who speak out as feminists: the push from men for feminists to tailor their outrage to innocent men, framing it as advice on how to be effective feminists.

Perhaps some aren’t aware of the strategies used historically to silence women, including asking them to change their ‘tone,’ to not be ‘hysterical,’ and to treat us as if our impressions are without validity. This last strategy sometimes appears as ‘gaslighting’ (where a person is made to doubt their own senses and and memory), or as the assertion that if the complaint uses generalities or doesn’t include the type of specific argumentation that men are comfortable that the complaint is not valid.

However, the experience of sexism many women face is as much subtle and emotional as it is direct, immediate, or violent.  Assault — emotional or physical — is so pervasive, that it’s practically impossible to predict who will perpetuate it in your life. As a general experience, and in many different ways, women operate in a culture which puts them in the position to feel vulnerable at all times, and threat culture pushes back against any expression of resistance to that imposed vulnerability, including making it visible or resisting the attitudes or structures which insist upon it.

If this is an attitude that you feel oppresses you as a man, then think of how women feel — carrying around that paranoia and suspicion is exhausting and damaging. ‘Nice guys’ rape, they harass, they intimidate — both unknowingly and knowingly. Think about not being able to trust (or at least, told not to trust) your own judgment in your casual or intimate relationships. We are told we are being too- or hyper-sensitive. Imagine not being able to make choices about your clothes, location or attitude without thinking about what people would say about you if something were to happen. Telling us your disgust with this behaviour and wanting to be counted out is laudable, but ultimately talking to other men is your power.

Feminism is not a philosophy with a single voice or point of view, so I acknowledge how those who don’t connect with gendered experience can find it hard to navigate the particulars. Even if it is an imperfect generalization, I say take that feeling of being generalized about — which women of all types and privileges deal with in some way — and feel it with empathy, and direct that feeling towards those who are foisting that feeling on women and their male allies.

Women have enough to fight for, and about, already. Help us, regardless of the niceties — let us be loud and angry because this is worth being angry about. Lend us your voice, lend us your power, talk to the men that may not know how to listen to women but will listen to you. Your voice IS important, but if you are using it to tell us to be nicer, you will be drowned out by all the voices telling women to be nicer, to stay in their place. If you REALLY want your voice to be heard, then stand with feminists, where not as many men are found. THAT will make you really stand out and be seen as a man who doesn’t support rape culture. THAT will show that you are #NotAllMen.

*Note: for this letter I use the term “women” for brevity, but I mean it to intend self identified women, trans, and genderqueer persons or those who seen as non-traditionally masculine — many of them face similar issues around safety and invalidation.

Maegan Thomas

Spoken Word Coordinator, CJSF 90.1 FM

 

Board Shorts

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EIC
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Fraternities and Sororities

The board continued their discussion on SFU Greek life organizations and related clubs on July 29.

Representatives from Tau Kappa Epsilon, Phi Kappa Pi, and other SFU-associated fraternities and sororities were present to advocate for their groups and to explain to board about the types of events they host and are planning to host for the next year.

Board tasked Rebecca Langmead, at-large representative, and Moe Kopahi, VP university relations, to discuss what the university and the SFSS would require in order to recognize fraternities and sororities at SFU. The SFSS will also engage in a university consultation about the presence of fraternities and sororities at SFU.

 

Harbour Centre Student Space

Board tasked VP university relations, Moe Kopahi, to look into the establishment of a student space at the Harbour Centre Campus.

Arts and social sciences representative Brady Wallace explained that he has been in talks with the International Studies Student Association, who have expressed interest in such a space at Harbour Centre.

Although a student space currently exists at Harbour Centre, it is unclear whether or not the space is accessible to all students because it requires an access code.

 

SFSStv

Board discussed VP student life Kayode Fatoba’s proposal to launch SFSStv, which would act as the multimedia face of the SFSS.

The proposal would task the communications office to create approximately three videos each month related to society activities and events.

After several amendments and a lengthy discussion, the proposal failed. Fatoba, visibly upset, initially made as if to leave the meeting, but returned so that board would have quorum and be able to finish their meeting.

Boyhood is an authentic coming of age story

By
EIC
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Growing up is a universal experience that everyone can relate to, but Richard Linklater’s latest film puts a new twist on the classic coming of age story. He decided in 2002 that he wanted to do a film about a boy which followed him from grade one until he went to college, but he decided to use the same actor to achieve the continuity and authenticity he desired.

Ellar Coltrane was hired to play Mason Jr., and the film follows Mason from the time he’s six until he’s 18. Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette play his separated parents, and Linklater’s daughter plays Mason’s sister, Samantha.

We see Mason reach many of life’s milestones and go through experiences that most boys and men can relate to like spending long hours playing video games, riding bikes around the neighbourhood, looking through lingerie catalogues with friends, and having that first beer.

With their mom doing her best as a single parent while going to school, Mason and Samantha are forced to move around the state of Texas as she follows her dream, goes to college, and becomes a college professor herself. Along the way she marries one of her college professors, divorces him, and then marries one of her students, which also doesn’t work out.

Mason Sr. is the absentee dad who shows up every second weekend with presents and tries to make himself look much cooler than their mother. During the early years of the film, he is quite irresponsible, but we see him mature as well and eventually settle down. Mason doesn’t like the two men that his mother marries, and ends up having a strong relationship with his dad.

It is really neat to see certain pop culture references come up over the years that this was filmed. For example, when they are young Samantha sings Britney Spears’ “Oops, I did it again” to annoy Mason, and their mother reads them Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as a bedtime story. The soundtrack also takes us through the years with songs such as Coldplay’s “Yellow” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”

Of course there are the awkward teen years where Mason is getting interested in girls and lying about how many he has slept with, and there is a great scene where their dad tells a 15-year old Samantha to make sure she always uses a condom. Mason falls in love with his first girlfriend, Sheena, and they plan to move to Austin to go to college.

Mason’s ambivalence towards most things is something that I think a lot of boys can relate to at that age, along with his struggle to figure out what he wants in life. Although he plans to attend college, he isn’t sure that it will be a transformative experience.

The film is quite long at two hours and 45 minutes and could have come across as a series of short films strung together, but the development of the characters over the years added an extra level of credibility that could not have been achieved any other way. The performances are all nuanced and authentic, and this film is one long portrait of boyhood from childhood, through adolescence, to adulthood with a plot specific enough to keep you entertained and a premise general enough to be universal.

Monty Python take their final bow

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EIC
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0

monty python live

Broadcast from the O2 Arena in London to cinemas around the world, Monty Python Live (Mostly) included many of the comedy troupe’s classic sketches and hit songs, although they weren’t always done in predictable ways. Some have been updated with current references, but others remain the same and are as funny as always. The parrot may have passed on, but the members of Monty Python are not dead yet (mostly), and they joked that the subtitle of the show is One Down, Five to Go.

This epic comedy reunion was the perfect way for the remaining Pythons to perform together for one last hurrah. The “female Python” Carol Cleveland also joined them and reprised her role in “The Lumberjack Song,” among others. Although their Flying Circus has been off the air since 1974, and the Pythons haven’t done a stage show since 1980, their impact on pop culture is immense and has trickled down through the generations.

John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin took the stage (with Graham Chapman appearing via video recordings of their Flying Circus sketches) and performed some of their best loved sketches along with a mix of song and dance numbers and animated material from their Flying Circus and many films. Joining them on stage was an ensemble of twenty dancers who performed numbers like “Every Sperm is Sacred,” “I Like Chinese,” “Sit On My Face,” and “Money Song.”

Many of my favourite Python sketches were re-enacted on stage, and it was wonderful to see them fall right back into their old characters. During the Dead Parrot sketch, Cleese added a line saying that the bird had “gone to meet Dr. Chapman.” There was also some great banter between Cleese and Palin as they moved in and out of the sketch, and while in the pet shop they had some fun with the Cheese Shop sketch.

We were also treated to a great argument, as well as another favourite, the Lion Tamer sketch with the accountant which led straight into the classic “Lumberjack Song” where Palin proudly sang “I chop down trees, I wear high heels, suspenders and a bra.” Speaking of cross dressing there is plenty of that in the show as well. Know what I mean, eh? Say no more, say no more, say no more.

Maybe they have run out of money, or maybe they have succumbed to public demand, but whatever the reason, I’m thrilled they are back on stage for one last show. The cinema was roaring with laughter almost the entire time, and for long time Python fans, this will give them the sense of closure that they need as we officially bid farewell to these living legends of comedy.

The troupe closed with a resounding rendition of “Always look on the Bright Side of Life” that had the cinema singing along, and I almost felt the tears well up as they sang “Forget about your sin – give the audience a grin / Enjoy it – it’s your last chance anyhow.”

Long live the Pythons.

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

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© The Peak Publications Society

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society