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Stop by Nu Greek for downtown study lunches

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By Ljudmila Petrovic
Photos by Jenny Waters

Student discounts and a spot near Harbour Centre only improve food experience

Just on the border of Gastown and a stone’s throw away from Harbour Centre, Nu is the most recent addition to Vancouver’s Greek food scene. The interior is hip, but relaxed, and the atmosphere is very low-key, with only one employee working and any for-here food served on cheap stackable camping plates.

We got the chickpea and mint salad, which was served in a biodegradable paper cup. It was refreshing, but a little heavy on the olive oil, a flavour, which rarely manages to be overpowering. It was only $3 for a decent serving, the standard price for their salads. Other options are the Greek salad, the Caesar salad with octopus, and an orzo and walnut pesto.

The eggplant dip was tangy, with a strong balsamic taste, and came with hot sundried tomato pita bread, which really adds something. Of course, there are the standard tzatziki and hummus dips also available, all of which are as affordable as the salads.

For mains, they have a selection of souvlaki and wraps. Living in a West Coast city like Vancouver, one grows to have certain expectations of their salmon dishes, and the salmon souvlaki was nothing spectacular. Granted, Nu serves Greek cuisine, of which Pacific salmon is obviously not traditional, so slack can be cut here.

On the other hand, the octopus souvlaki was excellent. It’s common to complain of octopus as gummy to chew and bland. Nu’s octopus souvlaki was neither: it was perfectly chewy and had a subtle but pleasing taste. I highly recommend this one if you want to stray from the regular meats such as chicken or pork.

Their chicken souvlaki is quite good: just peppery enough, and perfectly tender. All the souvlakis come in a pita, with lettuce and tomatoes. Be warned: they are very heavy on the tzatziki  sauce. It doesn’t detract from the experience, but I would have preferred a little less. The souvlaki was all $7, with a student price of $5 — and filling enough to be totally worth it.

The wraps, neither of which we tried, also seemed good: there was a $7 prosciutto, feta and eggplant puree wrap, and a $6 wrap with Mediterranean vegetables, olives, and hummus. They also serve breakfast, and dessert (yes, of course they have baklava!).

Nu is a nice place to go for an affordable, quality lunch. It’s fast and low-key, in a nice location, and has window seats for people-watching. You will definitely leave with both a satisfied stomach and a happy wallet.

Boxing event a knockout

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By Graham Cook
Photos by Graham Cook 

Money raised at Woodwards for Downtown Eastside boxing gym

Punches were thrown for a good cause Wednesday night in the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.  The event, Restaurant Rumble 2012, was put on by newly formed group Aprons for Gloves, and benefited the creation of a boxing gym in East Vancouver which will exist, in part, to keep at-risk youth off the street and in organized sport.

The competition saw service sector employees from all over the lower mainland spend the past three months in training and trying out for the chance to fight in front of the sold out theatre.  To compete, each person had to fill a quota of $2,000 in donations.  Finally, 28 competitors were chosen, and literally traded their aprons for gloves on fight night.

The event featured 14 fights, the first eight of which were undercard fights consisting of three one-minute rounds with fighters wearing protective headgear and winners being presented with medallions.  The next two bouts were in the same format, except with rounds last twice as long and were recognized as sanctioned amateur fights.  Finally, there were four main event fights for the Aprons for Gloves championship “of the world” in different weight classes.  Due Combsport, British Columbia Combative Sports Association, rules, these fighters were allowed to take place without protective headgear and had a “professional” feel.

These co-featured events had fighters doing full-length ring walks accompanied with music, an entourage, and various theatrics.  One fighter went as far as having one of his backers dress up as infamous boxing promoter Don King, complete with crazy hair and gold chain.  Though each bout brought huge responses from the capacity crowd, these main events were fan favourites.

In the first title fight, “Sugar” Shay Washburn took on Kaitlin Daur in a women’s junior lightweight bout, with Washburn taking the victory by way of unanimous decision.  This was followed by a super featherweight bout between Chris Cho and Romano Castillo, which ended with the judges awarding Cho a victory. Cho proceeded to announce that he was dedicating the fight to his friend, Nick Hamilton, who had died in a car accident two years earlier.  Chen-Wei Lee then fought Kristofer Betts at middleweight, and though the decision was originally read as Betts being the winner, the error was corrected with Lee taking home the belt.  In the final fight of the evening Simon Kaulback took on Chris Dzaka at light heavyweight.  With the crowd cheering to near-deafening levels, fan favourite Kaulback knocked out Dzaka in the third round.  Though there was brutality in the ring, all fights ended with a sportsmanlike handshake, usually accompanied by an exhausted hug.

After the event had ended, coach Jordan Bowers commented to The Peak that it was “one of the best boxing events [he] had ever seen, even for pro fights . . . one of the sleekest productions.”  Fighter Steve Da Cruz, between being congratulated for his effort despite his loss, described the experience as a positive experience and added that he would continue on boxing.  Conversely, just minutes after their fight against each other, fighters Dennis Brock and Matt Lautsch took a moment to announce their retirement from competition to The Peak.  They were in good spirits with each other despite a few instances where they hit each other after the bell, which was cleared up as Brock explained that neither of them  “had heard a bell all fight, start or end” due to the adrenaline and volume of the crowd.

A referee and judge for the evening Dale Walters, who took home a bronze medal for Canada at the 1984 Olympics and is most known professionally for his 1986 bought against Tony Pep, stated, “I thought it was awesome, the fights were great. . . . Some of the fighters didn’t have a lot of experience and you could see that but they were still great fights.”  He went on to say that, “it was great to see a little bit of a boxing comeback.”

Though Dave Schuck, the head trainer for the new gym, could not be reached for comment, he seemed to be in good spirits throughout the event.  During training, he reinforced the importance of organized sports in a young person’s life.  He added that he was much more concerned about what kind of people his young charges would become rather than what kind of fighters they would be.  If a youth is unable to pay for the low fees that the non-profit charges, he runs a chores program where they can work off the debt in order to demonstrate that something can not be gained for nothing.

The event was deemed so successful by the City of Vancouver, that Mayor Gregor Robertson proclaimed July 25 as the official Aprons for Gloves Day.

Renovations on Burnaby campus

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By Graham Cook

Changes are currently being made to the Residence Dining Hall, the theatre, and the MBC atrium, to be ready by fall

Construction is underway at SFU’s Burnaby Campus as summer renovations are made to implement a variety of changes for the fall. The residence dining system on Burnaby Mountain will receive a complete overhaul, as well as renovations on the theatre adjacent to Convocation Mall. The SFSS is also doing renovations, with plans to re-do the Maggie Benston Centre (MBC) Atrium.
Mark McLaughlin, the executive director of Ancillary Services, spoke to The Peak about the upcoming changes to the dining system at the university, stating that they are “revitalizing the whole food program at the university, and the first steps are taking place this summer, and it is a two- or three-year process.” He added that, “for September there are going to be some pretty significant changes, especially in the Dining Hall and Mackenzie Cafe.”

The demolition of the Residence Dining Hall has already begun, with renovations tailored to match the new meal plan that is being introduced.

“We have had some complaints about that system; people run out of money half way through the term . . . there were different issues about value for the money,” said McLaughlin of the old format.

This new meal plan will instead include what is being called “any-time dining.” When the new plan is implemented, the dining hall will begin operating 24 hours a day. McLaughlin added that is a first in Canada, because, “in the past, if you showed up after seven o’clock, things were put away, things were kind of stale . . . a lot of the athletes get up early in the morning so they could not even eat at the dining hall.”

In addition, “any time dining” will do away with the declining balance nature of the meal plan. Instead, students will be able to choose either a five- or seven-day plan, which will most likely be priced at $1,350 and $1,650 respectively. McLaughlin added that while the Dining Hall will be ready in time for the Fall Semester, Mackenzie Cafe will be closed for six weeks for the renovations to be completed, though the Subway will remain open.

The theatre in Convocation Mall is also being upgraded. Work has been ongoing on the area for the past several months, and is scheduled to finish in the fall. McLaughlin stated that it will not be exclusively for the performing arts, but will accommodate a range of activities such as conferences and speaker tours.

Further renovations include $650,000 student society changes to the MBC Atrium. In an e-mail to The Peak, university relations officer Jeff McCann stated that they plan to improve the seating area.

“The seating area will feature nine microwaves, new flooring and lighting, electrical outlets, new booth seating and bar seating to increase total capacity . . . to make the space much more inviting to stay and chill as well as eat during peak hours,” said McCann. Three new food locations will be added, and The Ladle will be moved closer to the kitchen. Though this was planned to be done by the fall, McCann said that only the Ladle and new restaurant Opa! will be ready on schedule. The rest of the vendors will tentatively be open by Spring 2013 since they “were unable to secure tenants as quickly as originally anticipated . . . the spaces will be ready, the venors are the missing piece.”

As of August 1, the fees for using debit cards at the food venues will be eliminated. In addition, students will be able to use credit cards.

Clan athletes head to London

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By David Dyck
Photo by Jasper Chan

The Peak gets the scoop on who will represent SFU in the upcoming Summer 2012 games

Four competitors and two coaches from SFU’s Clan will represent Canada at this summer’s Olympic games in London. The Nigerian wrestling squad will also have some SFU influence, as their head coach is a former Clan wrestler.

“Her goal is just to go there and be able to compete against the best in the world, be as prepared as we possibly can going into the race, and hope that she can at least make the semi-final,” said Brit Townsend, SFU’s track and field head coach, of Jessica Smith. Smith, a North Vancouverite, recently finished her Clan career. “She has the fourth fastest time ever by a Canadian in the 800 meters, so she’s already accomplished a lot this year,” said Townsend.

Townsend left for London last week “to be able to be with [Smith] throughout the training camp and be able to hopefully guide her a little bit, keep her relaxed, keep her confident, and just focused on why she’s there.”

Arjan Bhullar and Carol Hunynh, competing for Canada in wrestling, and Teresa Gabriele, on the Canadian women’s basketball team, will also be joining Smith this year.

Gabriele, who hails from Mission, has experience in the Olympic games. She competed in the 2000 Sydney Games; a Canadian basketball team has not been back at the Olympics since.

“I think you’re taught that at a young age just to focus and to do the little things,” she told The Toronto Star. “It starts when you’re in high school and you’re worrying about your studies and you’re worried about training and not going out and partying, getting your sleep, getting your nutrition,” she said.

“In university, too, you have to be disciplined to be a good student, to be a good athlete, to be a student-athlete.”

“It’s another day, another match,” Bhullar told The Peak before he left for London. “I’m trying to treat it as another tournament.” He was confident, claiming that his chances were as good as anyone’s of coming home with a medal, but “if you ask anyone else, I’m an underdog.”

Townsend, a former Olympian herself, shared what it’s like for some of the athletes as they approach the final countdown to their competitions.

“I think initially it’s pretty overwhelming for them. Everything becomes focused on that one goal in the summer of being an Olympian and competing at whatever event they’re going to be in. I think that part is tough. It’s a tough adjustment from just rolling from competition to competition and trying to improve on their performance from before; now they’re competing on a world stage with all of Canada watching.”

Liam Donnelly, SFU’s swimming and diving head coach, discussed the physical challenge for swimmers who compete in such a large-scale event.

“Typically the most training that you do, in terms of volume of training, and intensity, and really pushing and punishing your body, is done well outside of the actual games,” three or four months prior, said Donnelley. “They won’t really be working intensively hard in high volumes, but they will be doing some very specific race preparation.”

Clan wrestling coach Dave McKay and former Clan women’s basketball coach Allison McNeill will join the athletes in London to represent Canada.

Former Clan wrestler, SFU alumni, and Canadian gold medal winner Daniel Igali will be at the Olympics, this time as the head coach for the Nigerian wrestling squad. Ingali will be inducted to the International Hall of Fame next month.

Ciseaux: the reinvention of Katie Schaan

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By Esther Tung
Photos by Julian Giordano

Singer-songwriter Katie Schaan is back with piano-pop, powerful vocals, and a staunch refusal to be told who to be

For Katie Schaan, trying to fit into the box that others outlined for her backfired on her first recorded album. Performing under her real name, she found that people tended to expect a folksy, acoustic singer-songwriter, and she tried to adhere to that. “I wasn’t proud of my first record, and I wasn’t excited to release it as Katie Schaan,” she says.

But earlier this year, Schaan cemented her reinvention into Ciseaux with the release of a self-titled EP and a western Canada tour opening for Dominique Fricot, which ended in a sold-out show at St. James Hall in Vancouver. While she had performed alone or with Fricot on tour, her backing band was present at the homecoming show, including trumpeter Olivier Clements, who is part of Aidan Knight’s backing band The Friendly Friends, and drummer Nigel Barry, whom Schaan met through church.

The album’s single, “The Game”, is about her experience with constructing her image as an artist. “Especially as a female artist, the industry wants to pigeonhole you, and I don’t fit in that pigeonhole.”

Ciseaux is a six-track adventure through musical styles, none of which are particularly folksy. From the soulful trumpets of “Your Hand” to the electro-tinged “The Ocean”, the only thing each track has in common is an underlying element of pop, and Schaan’s crystalline, soaring vocals. Even the quietest notes ring out clear and powerful on the songs, and it’s no surprise to find out that she’s a classically trained vocalist and cellist, and grew up around siblings who played instruments as well. “I loved music as a kid and never felt like it was forced on me. I assumed that it was what all kids did.”

“My dad looked at it like it would help to develop the right side of the brain. I don’t think he quite expected things to come this far though,” says Schaan, who majored in music first at McGill, then UVic.

And while singing is her main passion, Schaan knows there isn’t room for one-trick ponies in the music industry. She has picked up several other instruments over the years “out of necessity, because you can’t just be a singer anymore.”

The EP was produced by fellow islander and musician Aidan Knight and written in-studio over a total of two weeks, which isn’t Schaan’s usual style. “We went in with rough ideas of what to start from, and let everything else happen organically in the studio, which is terrifying when you’re paying for studio time,” she says.

“I was so in the thick of it [at the time] that I didn’t think about how ridiculous it was.”

With some time left before Schaan has to leave, we walk into a record store on Commercial Drive, and she points out records that she grew up with, singling out Al Green and other Motown artists. “That’s what my dad mainly listened to when I was a kid,” she says.

None of the other stores catch her eye as we stroll down the Drive, and there’s a sense that she’s a bit overwhelmed. Having grown up in quiet Victoria, the city is always a bit much, she says, but she mentions wanting to move here soon to focus on supporting Ciseaux.

Having sustained a stubborn shoulder injury from repetitive use as a hairdresser, Schaan was forced to divert her energies elsewhere, but she’s optimistic, and sees it as an opportunity to focus on her music. And if there’s anything to be said for the careers of other dark-haired, exuberant songstresses from Vancouver — Adaline and Brandi Sidoryk come to mind — breaking out of the mold might just pay off in time.

SFU conditionally approved for NCAA as first non-American school

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By David Dyck
Photos by Mark Burnham

Pending approval from the NCAA executive council this August, SFU will now be able to compete in national championships

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has conditionally approved SFU for membership. This will make SFU the first Canadian school to be accepted in the 100-year-old organization.

While SFU has been a member for the past three years, the decision was made recently to grant an exception to SFU’s lack of U.S. accreditation in order to compete in the post-season. This gives SFU the chance to win an NCAA national — now international —  championship.

“It’s the culmination of a total campus commitment from President Petter to Tim Rahilly to everyone you can think of, to become the first international school to join the NCAA,” SFU’s athletic director, Milt Richards, told The Peak. “It’s a tribute to Simon Fraser; if we weren’t such a great university academically, this wouldn’t happen.

“To make a long story short, the president’s council [the policy makers for Division Two] had a meeting,” Richards explained. “They discussed it and basically said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do for Simon Fraser: as long as you’re a candidate for accreditation,’ which we are, ‘as long as you’re accredited by your country’s accreditation, we’ll waive the bylaw that says you have to be accredited by a U.S. accreditation.’ ”

While Canada has no accreditation agencies similar to those in the U.S., SFU’s membership in the Association of Colleges and Universities of Canada (AUCC) has served as an acceptable replacement. The AUCC is a lobby group that represents over 90 universities nationally.

Meanwhile, SFU is currently still in the process of gaining U.S. accreditation with the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). It is projected that SFU will not earn full accreditation until 2017.

NCAA’s decision still hinges on an August 1 meeting of the executive council, made up of presidents and athletic directors. “Because it’s a change to the bylaws, they have to vote to say this is okay,” said Richards. “I don’t want to be overconfident, but it would be a major upset if they said no.”

Richards made it clear that despite being in the NCAA, SFU teams will still compete against their Canadian rivals.

“We would not have enough games and contests and matches if we only played U.S. schools, and we are a Canadian institution, and we’re proud of being in Canada,” said Richards.

Richards explained that the process for joining NCAA’s Division Two — the only division that has voted to allow international institutions to join — takes three years. In the first two years, the candidate institution is ineligible for championships.

He stated that last year’s men’s soccer, women’s basketball, track and field athletes, swimming, and wrestling all would have had good chances to be in the NCAA nationals, but were ineligible. “Softball would have made it the way they finished the season,” said Richards.

“When you have a really competitive program and you tell a student athlete that they can’t compete in championships? You hate to talk about negative recruiting, but you know other people talked about that; well that’s now been removed. That’s a big deal.”

“I’m ecstatic for the whole department, we definitely have some very strong teams,” said volleyball head coach Lisa Sulatycki. “You look at the men’s soccer team last year, who didn’t get their chance, and now they’re going to have their chance to do that.”

Futuristic jukebox installed in Highland Pub

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By Alison Roach

Photo by Mark Burnham

The Virtuo has been installed above the dance floor, on the platform with the DJ booth, as a new central feature of the pub

If you’ve ever been at the Highland Pub and found yourself wishing they would play anything other than that Rihanna song that you’ve already heard four times that day, you’re in luck. The Highland Pub has recently installed a new jukebox that will allow students to play what they want, when they want it — for a price.

The Virtuo SmartJuke is the Highland’s shiny new toy, and lets students play songs, take pictures of themselves, sing karaoke, and post to social media networks about their night out. The Virtuo has been installed above the dance floor, on the platform with the DJ booth, as a new central feature of the pub.

Meaghan Wilson, the external relations officer for the SFSS, brought the machine to SFU. “I consider it to be a human sized iPad . . . It’s very cool looking and it’s very big,” said Wilson. She thinks of the Virtuo as a new social tool for the campus, explaining that “every time a student takes a picture or purchases a song on the Virtuo, that information can be shared on a social network. They can show off to their friends how social they are.”

The Virtuo comes at no cost to the pub itself, and in fact a portion of the profits made will go back into the SFSS. Depending on how much the Virtuo brings in for the month, the revenue is shared between the pub and Amped Amusements, the company who owns and installs the jukeboxes. The larger the profit, the larger the split. For example, if the Virtuo nets $250 for the month, the SFSS receives 10 per cent of the profit. If it generates $900 or more, the SFSS takes 40 per cent. The only thing that will cost the Highland Pub is the karaoke feature, which runs at $129 for a night when it’s in use.

Wilson sees this feature as having huge potential for special events or themed nights hosted by the pub. Costs to the students using the machine are fairly standard, running at $1 a song and $2 for a picture. The machine can also upload pictures to email or social networking sites, or instantly print them out.

And if you’re worried that the whole thing will turn into that one guy playing Journey the entire night, the Highland has full control of the Virtuo by remote. The jukebox can be turned off or paused to allow for hockey games or special events, and the type of music can even be limited.

“Songs can be filtered by style, time or artist; for example, no explicit lyrics, or no rap before 9 p.m. Or no country ever, but Kid Rock is okay,” explained Wilson.

Another feature of the Virtuo is that students can actually control it remotely as well, through their smartphones. Through an app called myTouchTunes Mobile, pub patrons can choose and play their selected songs without even giving up their seats. The new jukebox is great for the Highland as well, since when patrons choose songs or take pictures, they also make posts to their Facebook or Twitter saying what they’re doing and where they are, so it acts as a new way of advertising for the pub. Wilson says that when she brought the idea to the SFSS executive, “It was such an easy sell because it’s such a cool feature for the pub.”

While the Virtuo is now installed, the online features are not yet available. “The one issue is that we need the Ethernet cord to connect it, which we need SFU facilities to do for us,” said Wilson. She hopes that this will be done in the next few days. For now, the Virtuo is running only the songs that are stored on the machine, since the internet is needed to access the larger online library. Once that is done however, virtually any song you can think of will be available. The Virtuo fits in with Wilson’s goals of bringing more social media to campus. As she put it, “I think in today’s age, everything is about sharing, and it’s not official until it’s Facebook official.”

University briefs

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By Ariane Madden

University of Alberta to become leader in recycling helium

Researchers at the University of Alberta are looking to capitalize on a world helium shortage by developing new ways to collect and recycle the elemental gas. Helium is most often used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, as well as welding, research, and to fill party balloons. However, most of the gas is released into the atmosphere after use, and depleted supplies and processing plants have only exacerbated the worldwide shortage.

 

York University students call for enhanced security communications

Students at York University in Toronto are calling for more public and synchronised emergency communication systems in light of a string of recent physical and sexual assaults on campus. Though a suspect has been arrested, many students say that the current methods of emails and putting posters around the school are uncoordinated and ineffective at informing the campus population of potential dangers like the one posed by the attacks.

 

Florida university chief resigns amid hazing scandal

The president of Florida A&M University resigned last week amid court proceedings from the death of a drum major after a hazing incident last fall. While the president originally gave 90 days notice, the university’s board of directors voted unanimously to force James Ammons to step down, effective immediately. The school has been beset by issues of low retention, financial inaccuracies, and an impending lawsuit implicating school officials of wrongful death related to the hazing incident.

Bears on Burnaby Mountain

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By Kelli Gustafson

“More [bear] sightings reported in this past week than in any weeks prior,” according to SFU spokesperson

Recently, many reports of bear sightings have been made on Burnaby Mountain and near the Simon Fraser University Burnaby campus. While bear sightings are not unusual on Burnaby Mountain, last week SFU representative Don MacLachlan stated that there were “more sightings reported in this past week than in any weeks prior.”

MacLachlan wants to remind students of the presence of black bears near SFU, and hopes students continue to be conscious of garbage they leave around campus. “Our main concern is garbage,” MacLachlan stated. “Don’t strew around edible garbage.” Bear-proof garbage bins are installed around the outskirts of the campus to deter bears from approaching the campus. SFU student residents have to be particularly careful that their garbage is properly disposed of in such bins.

David Cox, an officer of the B.C. Conservation Officer Services, commented on the keen sense of smell that bears have, stating that the biggest prevention students can take in order to ward off bears from entering campus is to not “leave any attractants available.” Cox said that even a backpack left unattended might get a bear’s attention because this may appear to be garbage to them. He stated that the presence of bears on Burnaby Mountain is “not unusual,” students are simply becoming more aware of their presence during this time of year, after hibernating. “They are actively looking to gain back the weight they lost during hibernation,” Cox described, “leaving no down time.” The bears are busy trying to gain back calories, and are eager to find food.

Both MacLachlan and Cox advised students to be aware of the presence of bears on Burnaby Mountain and be aware of attractants we might not think of. For example, it is important to remember not to leave food in your car if you are parked outside. With a bear’s keen sense of smell, and their sharp claws, it has not been unknown for a bear to break into a car in order to find the food their nose led them to.

Black bears do not pose a direct threat to humans, but if one is startled, or is a mother bear protecting her cubs, the bear may become agitated. “First of all, there’s nothing to be feared,” Cox stated when asked about how a student should react if they happen to stumble upon a bear near campus.

“Give them the respect they deserve.” Cox explained that if given this situation, one should simply remain calm, back away slowly, and choose an alternate route. Last Thursday, SFU tweeted that “[i]t took warning shots to drive a mother bear and two cubs back into the forest at #SFU Burnaby today.”

Bears are most active during the dawn and dusk hours, however it is necessary to be conscious of their possible presence at all hours of the day. Avid hikers are encouraged to wear bells on their backpacks, or carry bear bells with them, to ensure they do not startle any bears in the area.

SFU campaign emphasizes cultural diversity of LGBTQ members

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By Graham Cook

Posters stress that “sexual orientation is one part of a person, but it does not define a person”

A non-profit led by SFU students will march in the upcoming Vancouver Pride Parade on August 5 to raise awareness of LGBTQ issues. The non-profit, Our City of Colours, highlights members of the LGBTQ community from a variety of cultural backgrounds through an extensive poster campaign.

Founder and Chair of the organization Darren Ho, who is a third-year linguistics major at SFU, spoke with The Peak about the group’s ongoing work. According to Ho, it all began last year when he and some friends attended a workshop for gay men, which encouraged them to get more involved in the community. Ho, who is from a Chinese-Canadian background, stated that they hope to “increase visibility of LGBTQ people in different cultural and linguistic communities. . . . We want to get communities that do not often talk about gay issues to be more aware and be more vocal about gay topics.” He said that they “noticed a lot of gay exposure happens in the downtown core, so we just want to spread that out to the different suburbs.

“We target different cultural groups because one of the things we found was that unless [media] speaks directly to that group they tend to get left out. . . . Even though we have so many ‘gay-positive’ campaigns and media out there, a lot of times people who [are ESL] do not see these images,” said Ho of the poster campaign. He added that this campaign also targets those who feel that gay people do not exist within their community, with the intent of showing that these issues are relevant across all backgrounds. Ho said that so far they had received many positive responses to their poster campaign.

“The negative feedback that we’ve gotten has not been so much ‘to our faces,’ ” said Ho, pointing to reader comments made on a Georgia Straight online blog piece. “Any time we get written about online the comments section will have typical homophobic responses, along the lines of ‘I don’t want these posters in my neighborhood.’ ”

Simon Lam, an SFU student since 2008 and outreach and logistics chair for Our City of Colours, was also drawn to this project after attending the workshop with Ho last March. He echoed the importance of distributing gay-positive materials in languages other than English. Lam added that the posters “also fight the stereotype that LGBTQ people just like fashion and go out shopping all the time. . . . They do have different interests and they are like everyone else  . . . the one thing that’s different is their sexual orientation, and that is only one part of their personality.” He stressed the importance of these communities understanding that “sexual orientation is one part of a person, but it does not define a person . . . people are a whole lot more than who they like.”

This sentiment is reflected in the posters, which each feature one or two people accompanying phrases such as “Plays Volleyball,” “Watches hockey,” “Has a pet pit-bull,” “Business student,” and other personal interests before concluding on the note that they are a member of the LGBTQ community. Our City of Colours is currently planning to release a second series of posters in even more languages in time for the parade.

Correction: The original article mistakenly stated that Simon Lam was the outreach and logistics chair for Out on Campus, when in fact he is the outreach and logistics chair for Our City of Colours. The Peak apologizes for the mistake.

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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