By Kyle Lees at Ski Ninjas
Liberal’s pro-marijuana stance is half-baked
The supposed youth vote should cost more than a dime bag of weed
By Rachel Braeuer
Photos by Gary Lim
I’m too old to smoke pot anymore. Or maybe it’s too strong. Either way, it’s not like high school where you could share a joint with a friend and talk about what colour you’d be if you were a colour. Don’t get me wrong, on a whim it’s cool to just sit around my house, mindlessly eating Smartfood pop corn and watching TV followed by a rousing nap, but if I’m in public I start to reenact Louis CK’s bit about smoking pot in Kansas City. Maybe that’s why the Young Liberal’s “keep calm and legalize it” posters and bottle opener key chains struck a nerve with me. The “legalize it” campaign is a cheap way to pander to the youth vote without having to offer anything substantial to young people in Canada.
A lot gets said about the youth vote in Canada close to election time, but for the most part, nobody really gives a shit about us three out of every four years. The Liberals are smart to try to capitalize on that population in the mean time, but what do they have to offer besides a knock off of “keep calm and carry on”? Besides legal pot, it would seem like the answer is “nothing.” Checking the Liberal’s three key websites, their only real sentiment is how much Harper sucks, a tactic that worked really well for them in the last election. Health care? Yeah, it’s a good thing. Education? Yeah, people should have access to that. The best part, though, is their claim that they want to keep B.C.’s coast clear of crude oil tanker transit, when essentially they’ve just said, “Well, if you toss enough money our way, it might be worth our while.” That is not the radical spirit expressed by Trudeau when he placed a moratorium on tanker transit in ‘72; it’s just sad.
Remember Trudeau? Probably not, I barely do. But I remember the things he did, because they were worthwhile, and I know the things he said, because they’re worth repeating. He told a nation that he didn’t care what they did in their bedrooms, he penned our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and he gave a bus full of people the finger without giving a single fuck that people were photographing the whole thing. Layton was a pretty badass guy, too. He never got his moment the way Trudeau did, but he affected the same charm. We were captivated by them, not for their policies, but by their realness. You never felt stupid while listening to them talk politics, you felt glad that someone was finally just telling it like it was, and more importantly was acknowledging you, your life, your work, and your needs.
If the Liberals want to achieve the kind of popularity they had previously, they’re going to have to give us something better than legal marijuana, crappy posters, bottle openers, and Bob Rae. I’m taking the bottle opener, but I’m not voting for you unless you give me a legitimate reason to believe you might actually do something different.
Letters to the editor, Sept. 24
Get engaged, SFU
Photo by Adam Ovenell-Carter
Dear editor,
I am writing to you because I feel that the majority of undergraduate students aren’t aware of the opportunity before them to reshape SFU. The $65 million Build SFU project relies on the their involvement in student consultation to make the building a success. Consultation is built into every aspect of the development documents, so we need help. We need students to tell us what they think the future of SFU should be: what should it look like, feel like, sound like, and how we can make SFU better.
The SFSS and SFU administration have developed a joint steering committee to oversee this project at a high level. This committee will consist of SFSS directors and staff, as well as university administrators. Again, the key to the success of this project and committee is that your elected directors have the information they need from students to make decisions.
The flow of information should be from the ground up. Therefore, the SFSS is also developing an all-student committee to advise the project. This committee will be a diverse set of students who will plan the project. This is hands-on experience in project planning that no class can offer.
If students would rather comment from a distance, a consultation plan has been drafted, and needs feedback from them to make sure that it reaches as many people as possible. We are literally going to have consultations about how to consult. If students don’t make their expectations clear, we can’t create a university that fits their unique needs.
Many students are excited about this project, and the opportunities arising from it are already apparent in its infancy. The SFSS is hiring project workers to assist in the day-to-day work of Build SFU, and we have received over 50 applications in two weeks. Let’s carry that momentum into the development phase.
Once the committee and employees are in place, we will start reconstructing the Think Tank, ensuring that it is an open and inviting space for students. This space will have the same goals as the student union building: creating community and engaging students to make a difference. There will be town halls and brainstorms, as well as stakeholder meetings and years of discussion and development. Again, student involvement is the key piece in making this project a success.
Of your undergraduate readers, I ask: are you interested in sustainability? Come help us make this project as sustainable as possible. Are you interested in finance? Come help us structure tthe financing, solicit donations, and develop cost recovery strategies. Geography major? Help us design a space that fosters interaction and community. Are you a Clan fan or a campus band? What potential does a stadium create for you, and what should it look like? Every single undergraduate student at SFU is studying a field that is directly relevant to some part of Build SFU.
I encourage students to visit sfss.ca to learn more about the Build SFU project and find ways to get involved. Students, it is your money and your SFU. We need your input and help for you to get the most out of this.
Sincerely,
URO, SFSS
Dylan’s never-ending fistful of folk
Bob Dylan’s Tempest is one of his best yet
By Patrick Chessel
Photos by Xavier Badosa
2012 marks the 50th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s self-titled debut album. This album introduced the world to a shaggy-haired troubadour who created thoughtful, introspective lyrics and performed them in a way that would move an entire generation. The 71-year-old’s new release, Tempest, proves that he’s still got it. The album echoes Dylan’s three main song-writing influences: Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, and Robert Johnson. Although some of the tracks have a really bluesy feel, Tempest explores that genre to a lesser degree than his last few albums: Dylan incorporates more country, folk, and jazz sounds into this collection. As a lifelong fan of Dylan, I have enjoyed most of his work, but truly believe that this may be one of the finest albums he has produced.
The opening track, “Duquesne Whistle”, is a foot-stomping country blues song. “Narrow Way” shows us that Dylan can still turn a phrase, using lines like: “If I can’t look up to you, you’ll surely have to look down on me someday.” His Robert Johnson influences shine through on this track.
Dylan’s hefty repertoire of folk music dates back to his days of hanging out in Greenwich Village in the early 60s with other folkies like Pete Seeger, Odetta, and the Clancy Brothers. His old routine of reworking of existing folk songs comes through again on Tempest. “Scarlet Town”, a song driven by banjo and fiddle, is his re-imagining of the traditional Scotch song “Barbara Allen”. While some have criticized Dylan over the last few decades for borrowing from the folk tradition, he recently responded in Rolling Stone Magazine that, “In folk and jazz, quotation is a rich and enriching tradition.” He has proven himself to be an exceptional interpreter of the American folk catalogue.
The only complaint this writer has towards Tempest is the artwork on the front cover. At first glance, one might assume this is the soundtrack for an 80s romance movie; it would have been more suitable to have something that fit the theme of the album. Luckily, the brilliant writing and performances make up for this oddly chosen cover. But the album inside is full of catchy melodies, well-thought arrangements, and exceptional instrumentation.
Bob Dylan plays Rogers Arena on Oct. 12 along with Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler.
TO/FROM: 100 years of railways and racism
The Vancouver International Centre for Asian Arts combines art with history
Photos by James Crookall
On Friday, Sept.14, the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, or Centre A, as it is more casually known, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the historic B.C. Electric Railway building. Since 1999 the building has housed the gallery, dedicated to contemporary Asian art and the promotion of dialogue and critical thought on the subject.
The exhibit, titled TO/FROM: B.C. Electric Railway 100 Years, measures Vancouver’s past with its present and weighs in on the significance of the building’s origin. As the city’s primary railway station, located at the junction of East Vancouver and downtown, the building has a history of facilitating intercultural movement and interaction. Accordingly, TO/FROM highlights the building’s importance in Vancouver by uniting different aspects of ethnicity, racism, and movement.
Raymond Boisjoly, an Aboriginal artist of Haida and Quebecois descent from Chilliwack, restructured the old railway map to a text-based piece as his contribution to the event. In the vertical lines of text mimicking the path of the railway, he expresses regret in Cherokee font for failing to connect with his aboriginal culture.
The sentiment of nostalgia is apparent in Vanessa Kwan’s piece, “Vancouver Family.” After moving to Vancouver from Newfoundland, Kwan was impressed by the number of people who shared her last name. She recalls the telephone book presenting her with “pages upon pages of Kwan.” In her display she establishes “a moment at a distance of connection” by writing to all Kwans and asking them where they would like to go if they could travel anywhere. The artist says the various responses demonstrate how “we find ourselves being places and wanting to be elsewhere.”
Adhering to the concept of movement, the works of Ali Kazimi and Cindy Mochizuki highlight a bleaker Canadian past.
Kazimi’s collages, taken from his film Continuous Journey, draws attention to the oppressive role ethnic hierarchy played in Canadian history. The film, which will be shown at Centre A in October, uses the story of the Komagata Maru to educate viewers about the Continuous Journey Regulation of 1908, an act intended to prevent immigration by South Asians.
A step closer to present time, Mochizuki’s “Confections” makes us reflect upon a bitter memory in a display of sweets. In her miniature kashiten (candy shop) display, she reminds us of the thriving Japantown community in Vancouver before the Japanese internment.
Stan Douglas’s “The Malabar People” reaffirms Vancouver’s position as a multicultural hub, both historically and currently. Makiko Hara, the curator of the exhibit, has tactfully placed Douglas’s display behind the in-progress work of Evan Lee. Lee focuses on racism, examining its role in our present society through a recreation of the image of the Ocean Lady migrant ship, which overwhelmed media outlets in 2009.
Annabel Vaughan, co-curator of the exhibit with Hara, said the works of the exhibit show us that “we’re all other.” The building has served as a hub for various social, business, and cultural exchanges, and though and its fate is uncertain after it was been sold in August, Hara is optimistic that Centre A will not lose its home anytime soon.
TO/FROM will be on exhibit at the Centre A at 2 West Hastings Street until Nov. 10.
Clybourne Park a relevant racial discussion
Whites and colours are not washed separately in this companion play to 1959’s A Raisin in the Sun.
By Esther Tung
Photos by David Cooper
“How is a white woman like a tampon?” is one of the many pressing questions on racial privilege raised in Clybourne Park. A no-holds-barred script mocks white guilt and the common tendency to identify racism as individual acts of meanness, rather than institutionalized behaviour. With racism as a stand-in for other forms of oppression, Clybourne Park finds itself a relevant guest in Vancouver.
1959’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first Broadway production written by an African-American woman, based on Lorraine Hansberry’s own experience growing up in the midst of a controversial lawsuit that threatened to rescind the purchase of her black family’s home in a hostile all-white neighbourhood. Clybourne Park borrows the premise of Raisin, as well as a minor character, and explores racism through real estate from the perspective of the white family moving out.
On an unusually chaotic morning for mourning parents Bev and Russ, they are visited by their clergyman, and accosted by a nosy, overbearing neighbour Karl and his deaf wife, Betsy. A slow build-up to the first act tips over the wall as Karl rambles his concerns over the black family moving in to replace Bev and Russ. Karl’s rant is a liberal’s nightmare ––“Find me some skiing Negroes!” — but as he’s in the midst of it, you look over to the far side of the stage, and suddenly remember that Francine and Albert, Bev’s black helper and her husband, have never left the room, and the message of the play clicks together.
Given the financial position, would Francine and Albert like to move into this white neighbourhood? Karl urges them for an answer, but it is not given on equal footing.
After a 20-minute intermission, the intricate stage set up of the first act has been torn down completely. Act two jumps forward 50 years, when America has voted in its first black president, and Chicago’s ghettoized Clybourne Park is on the precipice of gentrification.
A discussion on renovating the house to comply with bylaws highlights the resentments in each party, and suddenly degenerates into a scathing, horrifyingly funny one-two punch-and-punch-back of racist jokes.
But in the midst of the scathing commentary and witticisms, the play does not forget itself. Lingering behind the curtain all along, upstairs, and in that mysterious trunk, is the ghost of Kenneth, the son who killed himself. The coda returns to 1959 for a poignant, sentimental scene. “I do believe that things are going to change for the better,” Bev says to her son, somewhat naively, prompting a comparison of the two acts.
Have things changed for the better between then and now? How accurate a reflection are the characters on us, on the way we talk about race, class and gender?
In class, we throw out straw man arguments and regurgitate theories from our professors when discussing the exploitative working conditions of factories in developing countries, the victims of the sex trade, and other weights of the world, yet it seems the furthest thing from reality when you put privileged middlemen – the authors of our readings and our professors – in between us and the issue.
Clybourne Park is a useful complement to a university education, a stark reminder of the way that oppressed groups and those with less privilege are discussed in political and intellectual conversations, and most of all in academia.
Totem pole-naming ceremony honours restorative justice activist
Liz Elliott’s spirit commemorated by the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation
By Alison Roach
Photos by Marianne Meadahl
Almost exactly a year after she lost her battle with cancer, a traditional naming ceremony for a totem pole honouring Liz Elliot was held at SFU’s Burnaby campus. Elliot worked as a criminology professor at SFU, and she was a founding director of the SFU Centre for Restorative Justice. Elliott worked closely with a group of aboriginal inmates at Ferndale Institution, a minimum security prison just north of Mission. These men had the idea to dedicate a pole to her, and to the spiritual elder at Ferndale, Alex Paul, who selected a cedar that fell during the 2006 Stanley Park storm and was gifted to the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation for Elliott’s pole. Carving began in the spring of 2011.
Before she came to SFU, Elliott was a social worker, and was heavily involved in prison work. She wrote her thesis at SFU, and went on to found the Centre for Restorative Justice along with Robert Gordon. Largely due to Elliott’s work, SFU now has one of the strongest programs in teaching restorative justice at both an undergraduate and graduate level.
Elliott devoted much of her time working in her own community of Mission, working at Ferndale Institution and helping to found the Mission Restorative Justice Program. Said Dr. Brenda Morrison, a co-director of the Centre for Restorative Justice, “Her heart was always in her prison based work. Because she believed that for offenders to right their wrongs, and to reintegrate properly into society they need a community of care, and so she created that community of care at Ferndale.”
The process of having the totem pole carved is long and complex, requiring a number of different rituals, with four ceremonies involved. The first was the awakening of the pole, where the first chip was taken out and songs and rituals are performed to help the carvers do their work well, and to bring Elliot’s spirit and the spirit of the pole together. This ceremony was presided over by Alex Paul and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and took place on sacred ground at Ferndale. Elliot, who was still alive at the time, was also in attendance. The second ceremony marked the finishing of the pole, and the third its raising, which took place on Dec. 5, 2011. Finally, the fourth ceremony took place this September at SFU Burnaby, the naming of the pole. It was attended by people from the Correctional Service of Canada, Elliott’s community, her family members, and members of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
The pole is now erected at the mouth of the criminology department, and depicts three figures: a woman, who represents Elliott herself, an eagle above her, to give strength and wisdom for the journey, and a hummingbird at the top to lead the way. Elliott’s only request for the pole was the hummingbird, an allusion to a favourite parable of hers. In the story, there was a great fire in the forest and all the animals large and small ran from the forest to a place of safety, away from the injustice. And out of all the animals in the forest, the only one that turned around to face the fire, and the injustice was the hummingbird. Morrison explained, “For Liz and many of us, the hummingbird represents courage . . . to turn around and face injustice. And that’s what we try to do here.”
Elliott is also being honoured with the creation of the SFU Hummingbird Awards, which will be presented at the annual Liz Elliot Memorial Lecture during Restorative Justice Week in November. The awards are province-wide, and will be given to students who engage communities, research, and in critical thinking in the area of restorative justice. Morrison said, “Everyone who knew and loved Liz is still involved in this work.”
Carrying on ‘Irregardless’ launches at Bill Reid Gallery
Exhibit features 60 pieces of humourous indigenous artwork
By Graham Cook
Photos by William Neville
A new art exhibit, Carrying on “Irregardless”: Humour in Contemporary Northwest Coast Art, opened at the Bill Reid Gallery in Downtown Vancouver and will run from Sept. 12 through March 17. It features 60 pieces created by 28 Northwest Coast artists including paintings, sculptures, drawings, masks, etchings, photographs, textiles, jewelry, and multimedia works.
The term “Irregardless” is in reference to Bill Reid’s humourous “Billisms,” with which he made plays on words. “Irregardless” was one of his favourite intentional misuses, and he lived a life full of humour despite being suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
As the title suggests, the exhibit focuses on humour in the indigenous community. One of the co-curators, Peter Morin, is a known stand-up comedian. Morin spoke to The Peak about the project, stating that “the goal of the exhibition . . . as curators, we were interested in investigating the use of humour in Northwest Coast Native art. . . . As an indigenous curator, I wanted to try and enact the tradition of exhibiting indigenous art work,” he said.
“This kind of exhibitition . . . has not really happened a lot, and across the country I think there have been maybe four in total,” said Morin of the exhibit’s uniqueness. He also said that they would use the satire to examine and raise questions about indigenous life.
Morin said that they “also investigated what humour is within the community itself, and how humour is used within cultural practice, and of course each community has its own distinct cultural identity and so . . . the use of humour is very specific for each community.”
Peter Morin said that one of the struggles of the project was challenging his colleagues to “find the funny” artwork in museums, as museums are generally “serious, silent places.” He described a scenario in which a friend of his who works on the Archaeology floor of the Royal B.C. Museum approached him while he was touring the floor with a class and said, “Peter Morin, I found the funny.” She had found the one funny thing out of the millions of objects, a prehistoric stone bull.
One of Morin’s favourite pieces was what he described as “the most elaborate fart joke [he] had ever seen,” which depicted four men carrying the Haida conception of the world when one of them passes gas and the Earth shakes as the others are distracted.
In 2011, the Bill Reid Foundation gifted its entire 158-piece collection of Northwest Coast art, with an approximate value of $10 million, to Simon Fraser University. In return, SFU continued to contract the foundation to manage the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art.
Terry’s CAUSE on campus seeks to recruit universities
Colleges and Universities for Student Engagement aims to spread awareness of cancer prevention
By Graham Cook
Photos by Mark Burnham
Terry’s CAUSE (Colleges and Universities for Student Engagement), a group promoting awareness about cancer prevention at both the student and university level, is working on getting more post-secondary institutions involved in the Terry Fox Walk/Run.
Terry Fox, who was an SFU kinesiology student and played junior varsity basketball for the Clan, attempted to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He made it as far as Ontario before succumbing the cancer, which he was diagnosed with at 19. Every year runs are held in his memory to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation.
“The goal is to have as many colleges and universities having a Terry Fox run as possible,” said Tim Rahilly, SFU VP students and international, associate to The Peak. Describing how SFU came to be involved in this, Rahilly said, “Because SFU has a long history doing the Terry Fox Run, a lot of the other schools wanted to know . . . how to run a run.” He said that they “were approached by Victor Ling of the Terry Fox Research Foundation and Darrel Fox, who is Terry’s brother . . . and they asked us if we would be willing to help them to try to make this a national event, and we fairly quickly said ‘yes.’ ”
Rahilly stated that they were happy to help because Terry Fox had been an SFU student, and because, ine one way or another, many people have had exposure to cancer. Though he did not know the exact count, he said “about 10 other schools got involved . . . and the governor general of Canada agreed to be the patron for the Terry Fox Foundation, and actually recorded a message for us to promote the run.”
Tim Rahilly said that in the future they “really want to add Canadian institutions and, primarily . . . we want more colleges, because we don’t have a lot of colleges.” In addition, “there’s so many Canadians studying abroad . . . we would love to see more international activity around the Terry Fox Run and Terry’s CAUSE on campus.”
Rahilly concluded by saying that he hopes, “SFU students will feel proud to have been a part of a long tradition here as well as . . . participating in something that is now going coast-to-coast.”
SFU’s 2012 run took place on Tuesday, Sept. 18, and was a success by all accounts. Though attendance numbers for this year’s event were not known at the time of printing, the 2011 event saw 1,100 attendees across all three campuses with donations totaling over $16,000.
Carleton University, Dalhousie University, McMaster University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Queen’s University, the University of Calgary, and the University of Toronto all held similar runs this year, with more expected in the future.
University Briefs
By Graham Cook
Suspected bomb at Kwantlen
Last Monday the Surrey campus of Kwantlen Polytechnic University was evacuated by RCMP. The order came after a staff member found a small metal object closed at both ends. Police sent in a robot to detonate the device, which turned out to be nothing more than a pipe. They will continue to look into whether or not the object was intentionally made to look like an explosive. Students were reportedly running while pushing and shoving to leave a building.
SFU a top 10 research university
Higher Education Strategy Associates (HESA) released a report that names Simon Fraser University as one of the top 10 research universities in Canada. The ranking was part of Measuring Academic Research in Canada: Field-Normalized Academic Rankings 2012. SFU was placed sixth in science and engineering as well as 10th in social sciences and humanities. HESA is a research firm based in Toronto, Ontario.
Statistics Canada releases census data
According to Statistics Canada’s 2011 census, 4.3 million Canadians in their 20s had either never left their parents’ home or had moved back in. That number makes up for 42 per cent of the total, 10 per cent higher than twenty years ago. However, it shows a very small increase from 2006. In 1971, only about one in four young adults lived in their parent’s home. The data also showed that young men were more likely to live at home than young women.
– Graham Cook
