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SFU needs to improve their accommodations system

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Peak Web
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An image of a disability pride flag pin held by a person — only a hand is visible — with a black backdrop.
IMAGE: Gudrun Wai-Gunnarsson / The Peak

By: Noeka Nimmervoll, Staff Writer

Between Burnaby Mountain’s poor transportation and the daily Stairmaster challenge, it’s no wonder the majority of students, staff, and alums think the needs of people with disabilities aren’t met at SFU. This includes those with invisible disabilities, which are any chronic ailments not visible to the naked eye, which limit or otherwise impair someone’s physical or cognitive daily function. There is a considerably wide range of conditions that fall under this umbrella term, such as mental health conditions (depression), and physical conditions (chronic pain and digestive disorders). The current support system for students with invisible disabilities reflects a deeper truth: SFU’s current approach to accessibility is performative, placing emotional and physical burdens on disabled students instead of building truly inclusive systems. 

A reality for individuals living with invisible disabilities is the constant self-advocacy they must perform. At SFU, all students with an ongoing disability must register through the Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL). For this process, you must adhere to many procedures and deadlines to request accommodations. CAL explicitly outlines the many responsibilities of disabled students, while including a disclaimer that the requested accommodations might not be granted. This sends a clear message: support is conditional. How inviting. This means if you have a disability, you have to continuously advocate for yourself to get your needs met. 

It is incredibly challenging to reach out to a faceless department to ask for support for an invisible disability. The skill of self-advocacy requires confidence, clarity, and self-compassion, all of which are radical virtues within systems that treat accessibility like an inconvenience. How I see it, many more students are struggling than the university knows because of this emotionally exhausting barrier that CAL sets up.

The skill of self-advocacy requires confidence, clarity, and self-compassion, which are all radical virtues within systems that treat accessibility like an inconvenience.

Students are all aware of how, when school gets going, it just keeps going. Accommodations in the middle of the semester are challenging to acquire. Even if you are registered with CAL, there are situations where you’re required to obtain a doctor’s note to get your accommodations — this is both expensive and time-consuming. Wait times are a considerable challenge for seeing a doctor in BC, and it can be challenging or even impossible to get the medical attention you require in a timely fashion. It doesn’t make sense to require a doctor’s note when registration with CAL already means that a doctor has informed the university of your condition. 

As for students not registered with CAL, well, they simply don’t get access to their resources or accommodations. For those students, falling ill (again) or experiencing a flare-up, will not only lead to personal pain but to missing lectures and deadlines. In those cases, they’re required to reach out to multiple instructors as soon as possible, to share — often deeply personal and intrusive — information about their lives. Even with documentation, the responses vary from professor to professor, with the possibility they may not understand or empathize with students’ unique situations. This inconsistent and unpredictable treatment is not just frustrating — it’s unfair. 

SFU should make lecture recordings mandatory for full access to course material on days when it is difficult or impossible for students to get to school. Easily allowing extra time to be allotted on exams via student request with no questions asked may provide a necessary sense of ease and safety for those who require more time. Moreover, providing on-deck support to students filling out required CAL documents online, and providing accessible therapy to individuals who are struggling with invisible disabilities are some additional ways to foster a sense of communal support — without overrelying on students’ advocacy of self. 

While CAL has many resources, its programs at large miss the point: The rigidity of SFU’s policies in assignments, tests, and lectures is inherently ableist. SFU’s systems are built in a way that leaves many students behind. Not because of their lack of integrity or dedication, but because of the compounding issues that disadvantage them, making SFU an institution that centers able bodies. SFU’s inflexibility reinforces inequality — it’s not just a flaw; it’s a failure of inclusivity. To move towards accessibility, SFU must reform its ideology not just to accommodate people living with disabilities, but to include them from the start!

SFYou: Punk rocker in local politics Sean Orr

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Peak Web
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A photo of Sean Orr sitting on a desk, a name tag in front of him.
PHOTO: Courtesy of @seanorrofficial / Instagram

By: Yildiz Subuk, Staff Writer

Sean Orr recently completed his bachelor of arts in geography and political science at SFU. After beginning his studies at UBC and dropping out, Orr pursued writing for local publication Scout Magazine. Orr — who is also a vocalist in Vancouver-based punk rock group, NEEDS — has been involved in politics since a young age. Until recently, he worked as a dishwasher at Published on Main, until he put in his two weeks as he found a new job — city councillor of Vancouver. 

Orr won in a 2025 byelection that saw a 40% turnout increase from 2017. So, how did he manage to enter city hall while amassing a dedicated following? He wasn’t just fighting for the people; he was part of the people. Orr’s campaign focused on housing rights and fighting the political establishment — mayor Ken Sim’s ABC party for favouring the elites in Vancouver, building expensive homes many can’t afford to live in, and sending the police department to dismantle unhoused encampments.

Orr sat down with The Peak for an interview, discussing what shaped him, his roots in punk rock, and his education at SFU. The interview has been edited for concision and clarity. 

Tell us about your education at SFU and other institutes. What was the most helpful learning experience you had? Is there anything SFU should focus on to better prepare students interested in making a change?

“The best part about SFU was the breadth of learning I got — a good general background that covered a lot of the gaps I missed earlier. I’d already taken school, going to UBC in the ‘90s before dropping out. I was already writing, so I was already well-informed. But I think SFU does a good job rounding things up.”

“I took Geoff Mann’s course on the geography of capitalism. That was an incredible course. He’s a great teacher, writes for the London Review of Books. He really got me interested in doing everything I can to tackle capitalism or find problems and inefficiencies within [capitalist structures]. Building on [that, there] was a course called Geography of Racial Capitalism, [taught by] Sharon Luk — that was one of the most challenging courses I’ve ever taken, as I had to rethink everything I know about how race and capitalism go together. Another great course was on the Canadian Charter — really practical. It seems dry on the surface, but it’s a course that everybody should take, because I think we get confused [with what’s applicable] in the United States and what’s actually applicable here.”

How would you differentiate communism from democratic socialism?

“I don’t think seizing the means of production is inherently something we could do, especially at a city level. Democratic socialism pervades a lot of what we take for granted; libraries, public health, public housing, socialized medicine, even sewers, or having a fire department — it’s everywhere. It’s a social safety net. A lot of people, if they understood the benefits of socialism, they would [realize] they actually are socialists too.”

“There’s a lot of things that we can do immediately that will benefit everyone’s lives, it’s just about redistributing wealth. We’ve got a system that rewards people hoarding vast amounts of wealth — amounts that we have never seen on this planet before. In my mind, every billionaire is a policy failure. It [boils down] to taxing the rich properly; we have all the resources we need, we just need to redistribute properly. [Democratic socialism] is a little more practical and easier to do.”

“In my mind, every billionaire is a policy failure.”

How has the punk scene influenced your career in politics? 

“There’s a saying, right-wing governments make great punk bands. I don’t think it’s confined to punk. There’s a punk ethos that doesn’t necessarily have to be about punk music. I see the punk ethos in hip hop, visual art, in writing, and in all different aspects.”

“I don’t think a lot of adults have a good release for the stresses of this world. Punk is a really good outlet for that and it’s always been a good organizing tool to fight back against [oppressive] forces.”

Do you think there’s actually a stigma around social housing and social programs here in Vancouver, or do you think that municipalities don’t want to build them?

“When this current Council paused supportive housing, I think there were a lot of misconceptions around what that was. Supportive housing could mean seniors housing. It could mean housing for single women or for 2SLGBTQIA+ people. But there’s been a misconception to tie all social housing to [drug use] — and we need [sites like] those everywhere across the city — but, to use that to paint all social housing with the same brush is unfortunate and I do think there is a bit of that that goes on.”

“The by-election shows that people do want social housing and we want people to have those options. We want people off the streets. We have almost 4,000 homeless people — that doesn’t even include people that are precariously housed, who could be homeless within the next paycheck. So, people understand the value of social housing — we had it before.”

“We had a federal government that used to build tons of housing. Unfortunately, through neoliberalism, that has been downloaded off into provincial governments and then into municipal governments — we’re playing catch-up since. It was Paul Martin’s famous austerity budget in 1996. In 1993, we started deinstitutionalizing places like Riverview [a mental health facility in Coquitlam which closed later in 2012]. There was no model that allowed for community care. It was also the year that a lot of the drugs became poisoned. We had a chance to introduce progressive property taxes across the province, which would have paid for a lot of this. We didn’t do that. It was the height of neoliberalism — which has led to us playing catch up 20 to 30 years later.”

What are your plans for the future? Would you consider running for mayor? 

“I don’t think it’d ever be off the table, but for 2026, I want to get a grasp of what the city Council is. It’s a lot of information. There’s [more than] 9,000 people working for the City of Vancouver, there are a lot of different departments, some that I haven’t even met with. So, I would like to get a real grasp of what I can do as a city councillor. Focus on 2026 in terms of flipping and having a progressive Council.”

“Being mayor is [important], and what we saw with Zohran Mamdani in New York’s [mayoral primary race] was awesome. People want that for Vancouver and I’m humbled by the fact that they think that I could be that. I just have so much to learn. Zohran was in politics for a while before he ran for mayor too. So, I just want to make sure that if I ever decide that, it’s at the right time.”

Senate Spotlight: New intellectual property policy and 2025–30 academic plan drafts

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Peak Web
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This is an illustration of a man standing at a podium.
ILLUSTRATION: Abigail Streifel / The Peak

By:  Corbett Gildersleve, News Writer

On July 7, the SFU Senate reviewed new drafts of the intellectual property (IP) policy and the 2025–30 academic plan. They also discussed new definitions for full-time and part-time students and a bachelor of science in economics program. The Peak attended the open meeting for more information.

The Senate discussed a new draft version of the IP policy based on feedback received last March. This new policy focuses on the commercialization of IP through invention and software. The previous draft policy also concerned educational materials, which will now be part of another policy, based on community feedback. Senators raised concerns about student IP ownership, overly broad language for “non-commercial use,” and how the policy would impact class projects that involve external companies. Their next steps are consulting with the Teaching Support Staff Union and presenting it to the Board of Governors in September for approval. 

SFU associate vice president Peter Hall presented the draft 2025–30 academic plan. This was the third draft of the plan, updated on May 15. Some goals of the plan include opening the SFU School of Medicine and graduating the first class by 2030, supporting “interdisciplinary research clusters and cross-centre collaborations,” and expanding “program pathways and outreach activities that support Indigenous student recruitment, community building, and success.”

Hall stated that “changes in the immigration policy environment and changes in the provinces’ financial situation in the last months of 2024, really forced us to [ . . . ] think through what we can do in the next five years.” 

Senators raised a number of concerns while reviewing the plan. Senator Alexandra Lysova spoke for faculty members who had submitted feedback about language in the plan, stating that “there isn’t much focus on academic freedom, in terms of academic excellence in research and teaching as [explicit] terms.” She raised concerns about “administrative overreach in the teaching and research, particularly related to mandates for Indigenization and decolonization.” According to Lysova, at issue were words like “safe spaces” as they weren’t defined, and “honouring Indigenous Ways of Knowing. She believed words like “questioning, challenging, revisiting” should be used instead of “honouring” in the academic plan. She ended by asking if he had seen their feedback, to which Hall replied that he had.

“Changes in the immigration policy environment and changes in the provinces’ financial situation in the last months of 2024 really forced us to [ . . . ] think through what we can do in the next five years.” — Peter Hall, associate vice president, SFU

Senator Colin Percival said that SFU’s commitment to preventing all forms of discrimination was failing, as he believes Indigenous-focused financial aid and the hiring of Black scholars and Canada Research Chairs with lived experience were discriminatory acts. He claimed that Indigenous-only programs and admission on the basis of Indigeneity, as well as a higher grade cutoff for admission to male-majority programs, were also discriminatory.

This was later countered by Senator Suzanna Crage, who said “programs and policies that are meant to address groups that have historical disadvantages are not discriminations,” later echoed by Hall. Diversity, equity, and inclusion policies both combat historical disadvantages rooted in racism, sexism, and other types of systemic oppression, while also benefiting “people from all walks of life — including white people.”

The Senate also approved a new program for a bachelor of science in economics. According to the proposal, this program “integrates foundational grounding in mathematics, computer programming, quantitative modelling, and data analysis with a thorough grounding in economics.” This program is suited for economics students who want to pursue work in data science.   

Lastly, the Senate approved officially defining the credit limits for full and part-time students. In the past, SFU’s policy did not define this. According to the briefing note, having a formal definition helps students obtain funding through the Canadian Student Financial Assistance Program and report to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

The new definition classifies a part-time student as a person taking eight credits or less, and a full-time student taking nine credits or more. Additionally, it declares any student who is taking a Co-op and/or registered with the Center for Accessible Learning with a reduced course load as a full-time student.

The OneBC party is here to stop Comrade Rustad

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Peak Web
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A middle-aged woman standing in front of the logo of the new OneBC Party
EDIT: Gudrun Wai-Gunnarsson / The Peak

By: Yildiz Subuk, Staff Writer

The leader of the BC Conservative party, John Rustad, has recently lost the plot. He seems to be suppressing the Conservative party’s freedom of speech by not letting members make mockeries out of the trauma faced by Indigenous communities due to the residential school. John Rustad, the person we last expected to jump ship, has clearly joined the radical leftist squad.  

But OneBC will not stand for it. Their movement won’t get rattled easily, even though a lot of their messaging focuses on getting mad at made-up situations.

There is no more true Canadian conservatism. No respect for true conservative values such as: trickle down economics, racism, and bootlicking the elites. Canada is under attack — by the woke, by Chinese communism, and by radical grammar terrorists forcing pronouns on us. There’s an attack on freedom of speech. You can’t say anything without facing “consequences.” 

Yet a beacon of hope exists in this apocalyptic hell — a brand new party. Introducing, OneBC. More radical than the Conservatives and totally not a means to split right-wing votes. 

OneBC is run by a fierce, independent woman. You may be wondering, who is this diva? 

Well, my politically-savvy queens, it’s MLA Dallas Brodie, who scared even the likes of Comrade Rustad with her totally nondiscriminatory and brave comments on residential schools. She was removed from Radical Rustad’s caucus, so what did she do? She formed her own party. The party has gained traction, doubling in size (now having two members), and showing no indication of slowing down.

Brodie is also the primary critic of what is known as the “Reconciliation Industry” — a term she coined herself. We love our entrepreneur queen.

Brodie is now the target of the woke mafia (CBC), but STILL won’t back down. There are so many people who need to understand that large corporations and big investors are not the problem — it’s a group of people, whose culture focuses on sustainability (whatever that means). 

But that’s not all. OneBC is also focused on taking down gender ideology. Joined by Tara Armstrong, another MLA desperate enough — we mean passionate enough — to join the party, has combined forces with Brodie. 

Armstrong is a fierce critic of the BCNDP. Is it because the BCNDP tried to pass Bill 7, a bill criticized as an authoritarian “power grab” move? No, she has bigger fish to fry — like calling out premier Eby’s communist ties to China. Eby, a hardcore Marxist, is trying to destroy our province (while also destroying our environment . . . we give credit when credit is due!). 

The Conservatives have gone woke, and no other party can stand up to Eby the Big (Unfriendly) Giant except for OneBC. Together, the party will stay strong, together it will dismantle minority groups taking advantage of us, and together they will fight communism by maximizing shareholder interests!

PS — we have no idea what communism is, but from what we have heard, it’s dangerous. Don’t ask me any follow–up questions, I’m totally an independent journalist and not representing OneBC.

Dig, Baby Dig: SFU’s bold economic and educational plan

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Peak Web
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Fog fills the convocation mall as construction blocks off access. This leaves the question — what exactly is going on here?
PHOTO: Andres Chavarriaga / The Peak

By: Corbett Gildersleve, News Writer

Inspired by the rapid passing of BC’s Bill 15: The Infrastructure Projects Act, and the federal Bill C-5: One Canadian Economy Act, SFU has unveiled a new innovative direction for the university titled “Dig, Baby Dig.” This 10-year plan will be led by the university’s new vice-president of early childhood education and economy — who just so happens to be a generative AI created by two drunk guys from the Charles Chang Institute for Entrepreneurship last weekend. 

The strategic plan involves creating a labyrinthian series of tunnels and subterranean chambers under Burnaby Mountain. In a bold shift away from traditional campus construction, SFU will move much of its existing on-campus housing and programs underground. Higher education is so 1965 — welcome to the new age of underground education. 

“For decades, SFU has been engaging the (surface) world, now it’s time to engage the rest of it,” ChatVP stated in a press release.     

Like all generative AI, it drew inspiration for this plan by combining work by others and then claiming it as its own. With limited building space and a significant loss of revenue from the international student cap, ChatVP knew that surface development was ultimately a dead-end. It wasn’t until the rapid passage of the governments’ poorly written infrastructure bills and SFU’s newest phase of student housing and childcare construction that it came up with a solution. 

The Peak spoke with ChatVP about the ambitious plan. “Imagine it, cool temperatures year round, dry benches, ornate carved granite walls, and rock so solid even an earthquake can’t shake,” it said. The VP also claimed that SFU’s science departments already endorsed this new plan as grad students are “used to living in cramped concrete cells in the Shrum science center’s biology wing, hissing when they see the sun once a year to speak with their supervisors.” 

When asked how SFU will kickstart this, ChatVP assured us that “a significant financial investment” has already been provided by the Beedie School of Business. Under conditions of anonymity, a disgruntled professor said that Beedie negotiated the rights to occupy all the abandoned surface buildings on campus, thus fulfilling their desperate need to brand every square inch of the campus with their name. 

“We all know from Minecraft that children yearn for the mines,” said ChatVP when asked about labour costs. “I was inspired by the Wisconsin company, Packers Sanitation Services, who put 102 children to work in their meatpacking plants. SFU already has a childcare centre on campus, but the kids were getting bored.”

When told that it’s illegal to hire children to work in a mine, the VP said, “Digging these tunnels is not work; it’s education.” According to SFU’s strategic plan, each child will receive a specialized curriculum of optimal pickaxe swinging and learn how to cough out coal dust effectively. Welcome to SFU’s new youth-driven civil engineering field school program!

This nightmare of a project has already been approved for streamlining by Premier David Eby and given a federal grant from Prime Minister Mark Carney. In a joint statement, they called on other universities to take bold, new initiatives, saying “SFU is the job creator that we all need right now. Elbows up!”

Changes to supportive housing in Vancouver

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Peak Web
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This is a photo of Ken Sim talking at a podium with two people next to him.
PHOTO: Courtesy of @kensimcity / Instagram

By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer

In Vancouver, the supportive housing saga continues to develop. On July 3, mayor Ken Sim announced that his office has identified five unnamed potential city-owned locations for new supportive housing. This statement comes as the city looks for alternatives to three current supportive housing sites in the Granville Entertainment District as part of Vancouver City Council’s new revitalization plan. Supportive housing is “subsidized housing with on-site supports.”

These three present locations have not been without issues. The Vancouver Sun reported that the Luugat and St. Helen’s Hotel have had a total of 74 fires in the past five years, per mayor Sim. These locations, plus the Granville Villa, have “also been responsible for 1,364 police calls in 2024 alone, according to the city.” The Luugat also saw six deaths, three of which were overdoses, in 2024, according to Atira Women’s Resource Society, which operates the facility. 

The Peak corresponded with the mayor’s office and city councillor Pete Fry for more information on the past, present, and future of supportive housing in Vancouver. 

As to why the potential site names remain confidential, “any information related to potential City of Vancouver real estate transactions” requires a Council vote before disclosure, press secretary Taylor Verrall told The Peak. “Releasing the locations could have a significant commercial impact on the properties in question.”

“There is an effort to kind of sanitize it and gentrify it, which ignores the lived experience and historic reality of what Granville Street has been.” — Pete Fry, Vancouver city councillor

Fry recognized that Vancouver is disproportionately home to more supportive housing than other nearby areas. “The supportive housing in Vancouver is almost exclusively in the Downtown Eastside, which is frankly often to the detriment of the residents,” he added. “There is something to be said for more equitable distribution of supportive housing throughout the region.” Fry told the Vancouver Sun that “many single room occupancy residents wanted to stay in the area, but didn’t want to be housed in the Downtown Eastside.”

However, the Vancouver councillor said mayor Sim’s decision to freeze construction on net new supportive housing with the hope that other areas would step up may have had a reverse effect. 

On whose interests this relocation serves most, “it’s the business interests in the Granville Entertainment District,” Fry said. He also expressed worry that the housing closures could “create a more bland entertainment district that really panders to a very elite subset of the population that doesn’t have the broader kind of accessible appeal to folks.

“When we’re contemplating relocating folks who have lived there, most of that housing predates any of the nightclubs,” Fry added. “In fact, before Granville Street became the Granville Street Entertainment District, there were mostly beer halls and single room occupancy-type hotels,” he said. “So there is an effort to kind of sanitize it and gentrify it, which ignores the lived experience and historic reality of what Granville Street has been.”

With these considerations in mind, Fry explained his greatest concern regarding the plan to relocate these sites is “where we shift them to, and if we end up kettling even more supportive housing and more vulnerable populations in the Downtown Eastside. That is a disservice to the city of Vancouver and on those people we would be relocating,” he said. Doing so “ultimately just compounds a lot of the challenges we have with the Downtown Eastside.”

Understanding Bill C-2

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Peak Web
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This is a photo of a bunch of people protesting, with one large sign reading, “No One is Illegal.”
PHOTO: Maciej Prus / Pexels

By: Lucaiah Smith-Miodownik, News Writer

For many, the newly proposed Bill C-2 (also known as the Strong Borders Act) is cause for concern. According to a joint press release, it has received pushback from over 300 organizations. 

The federal government has touted the bill as a way to “strengthen our laws and keep Canadians safe by ensuring law enforcement has the right tools to keep our borders secure, combat transnational organized crime, stop the flow of illegal fentanyl, and crack down on money laundering.” The bill proposes a wide range of national security measures, including expanded surveillance powers, broader data collection and analysis, enhanced information sharing between federal and foreign government agencies, and changes to asylum claims. 

Among the organizations urging the federal government to withdraw Bill C-2 is the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), which aims to preserve and further “civil liberties and human rights.” The joint letter describes the bill as “a multi-pronged assault on the basic human rights and freedoms Canada holds dear,” as it “weakens our constitutional foundations on firmly domestic matters, including an enormous and unjustified expansion of power for police and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to access the data, mail, and communication patterns.”

The Peak spoke with Aislin Jackson, a staff lawyer in BCCLA’s policy department, for more information.

Bill C-2 is “an omnibus bill that touches on a bunch of different areas that are only vaguely related to one another,” Jackson said. But, they acknowledged that “some of the information sharing provisions that are in the bill could potentially be defended. When it comes to being able to information share within the government, that could make a lot of sense.” 

However, “on privacy grounds, I would expect there to be constitutional challenges to this legislation,” they said, referencing parts 14 and 15 of the bill. 

Part 14 concerns the “timely gathering and production of data and information during an investigation,” while part 15 establishes the “Supporting Authorized Access to Information Act.”

Jackson said these are “new powers for police and CSIS to demand information, including warrantless powers. The new act in part 15 “would allow for secret orders to be made, requiring companies to potentially gather information they otherwise wouldn’t.” 

This ability “raises the spectre of not only potentially undermining cybersecurity and muzzling these companies from being able to disclose those changes to their clients, but also conscripting these private companies into the surveillance state,” Jackson added.

“The most vulnerable people are affected, but also all of us in terms of our privacy rights.” — Aislin Jackson, staff lawyer, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association

In its current form, the bill would allow companies to not only obtain “information from online service providers, but potentially analog service providers” without “ever going in front of a court to be reviewed for charter compliance.” This includes data from “a niche dating site” or “a support message board for a particular medical condition that you have.” 

So, the act “is in tension with our charter values, especially relating to informational privacy,” Jackson said. The Peak reached out to the Minister of Public Safety, who proposed the bill, and was directed to the Department of Justice Canada. The department said, “The charter statement for Bill C-2 explains some of the considerations that support the reasonableness of the legislative proposals.” They also said “care was taken to strike a balance” between “state interest” and “its impacts on privacy interests” in developing Bill C-2.

“In many ways, it seems like we’re falling into this race to the bottom in terms of privacy protections and also the refugee provisions as well, like the one-year time window that people have from first entering Canada to making a claim.” 

The part of the bill relevant to refugee status referenced by Jackson “means that there we’re not just coming down towards the US level, because they also have a one-year ban,” but becoming even stricter than the US. Under Bill C-2, “asylum claims would also have to be made within a year of entering the country, including for international students and temporary residents.” 

Jackson described a hypothetical scenario in which “someone came here as a tourist, and then years later became a human rights advocate, or perhaps came out as queer, or the conditions on the ground in their country might change due to a foreign invasion or an international coup.” Since a year had already lapsed, that person would not be eligible for asylum despite their need and qualification as a refugee.

“The most vulnerable people are affected, but also all of us in terms of our privacy rights,” Jackson said. “Our behaviour [would be] distorted by the feeling of those eyes on us, even if we’re not actively being surveilled at that moment. It calls to mind Michel Foucault’s idea of the Panopticon,” they added, “a digital panopticon that everyone’s living in at all times.” 

The Peak was also directed to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for a statement. They said Bill C-2 will help “streamline the application process at all points of entry; refer complete claims to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada more quickly; improve decision timelines and remove inactive cases from the system; [and] facilitate voluntary departures and support vulnerable claimants.” They stated “these reforms reflect the government’s ongoing commitment to a fair, efficient, and rules-based asylum system that meets today’s migration challenges.”

Jackson encourages those concerned to write to their MPs. 

“Public pushback is one of the ways that when really problematic legal access provisions have come up in the past, they’ve been defeated.”

What Grinds Our Knees: Being too tall

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Peak Web
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an illustration of a person laying in bed, under the covers, with their feet sticking out because they’re too tall!
ILLUSTRATION: Victoria Lo / The Peak

By: Daniel Salcedo Rubio, Features Editor

Being tall might be something many want, but honestly, it’s a full-time curse. My knees? Crunchier than a Nature Valley granola bar. Running? Please. I’m one bad jog away from all my joints crumbling like a Nature Valley granola bar. Lower back? Falling apart faster than a Nature Valley granola bar. And to top it all off, I’m also more likely to get cancer just because I have more cells. Like, damn, can I live please?

And it doesn’t end with physiology. The world is just not made for people my height. I know, I’m an outlier, but it’s still so annoying that there are barely any accommodations. Most forms of seated transportation will likely be irritating at best, and nerve-damaging at worst. Once, on an eight-hour bus trip from Paris to Berlin, not a single seat had enough space for me to sit. Can’t sit, yet I can’t stand either — not like I would’ve been able to. So, I cramped my lower body into a seat, knees pressed flat against the seat ahead, calves numb. Any prospects of ever competing in the Olympics are gone. 

Once, while doing a fitting for a disposable hazmat suit for a human tissue culture course, I couldn’t fit into the largest available size and had to be excluded from the practical section of the course — too tall for science.

So yeah, I guess it really is true that the grass is always greener on the other side — or maybe the weather is nicer at another height?

We are the folk: the 48th Vancouver Folk Music Festival returns to Jericho Beach

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Peak Web
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This is a photo of a folk music festival scene
PHOTO: Amar Preciado / Pexels

By: Ashima Shukla, Staff Writer

From July 18–20, the salt-kissed shores of ʔəy̓alməxʷ / Iy̓ál̓mexw (Jericho Beach Park) will become a living, breathing experiment in togetherness — a place where folk music exists not merely as a genre but as a way of being — in an act of community resilience, with a brilliant blur of genres and geographies.

Forefronting Indigenous voices, the festival’s lineup is as sprawling and interconnected as a forest root system. You might want to listen to the electrifying fusion of Moroccan folk and Gnawa rhythm with psychedelic blues-rock by Bab L’ Bluz, or find yourself moved to tears with Elisapie’s hauntingly intimate Inuktitut-language reinterpretations of classic rock songs. Or, you might be drawn to the local folk sounds of Ocie Elliot or the dreamy acoustic harmonies of The Milk Carton Kids. 

And that’s just the start. Saturday night brings Scottish fusion from Shooglenifty and Sunday the retro-rock yet soulful sounds from the UK-based band, The Heavy Heavy. For the true indie lovers, catch Vancouver’s own high-energy Colombian and Mexican folk fusion from Locarno or Montreal’s Bel and Quinn, who blend Haitian traditions with Jazz, in a reminder of the diasporic spirit of Canada. 

Yes, it is a celebration of traditional and contemporary folk music, with over 40 artists. But it is also a celebration of community, with dancing, storytelling, and food. During the festival, you can visit the Artisan Market and Community Village and learn about diverse organizations building a better world, from West Coast Environmental Law to SFU’s community radio station, CJSF 90.1 FM. Or, amid corporate monopolies, you can shop from ethical local artisans and artists. There is a whole range of these to choose from, including African Fair Trade that imports soap, shampoo, and skin lotion from Senegal and Ghana and Bird Brothers Philanthropic Trading Company that sells hand-made clothing by hill tribe peoples in Southeast Asia such as the Hmong. Through supporting such initiatives, you can participate in building micro-economies of care and support causes and underrepresented voices from around the world. 

In this weekend escape full of life, you might glimpse a way forward — a future made by hands, voices, and shared breath by the southern shores of English Bay.

You’ll also find rich local flavors with vendors like Felt You Up, who use natural dyes and leaves from the Sunshine Coast to print patterns on scarves, or Thundercloud designs, who offer original Anishinaabe art. Each booth tells a story; each purchase allows you to envision a different world. 

Beyond music and culture, the festival honours its commitment to inclusivity with the Little Folks Village, where children of all ages can participate in free-spirited music, storytelling, play, and crafts. All day during the festival weekend, various activities invite you to disconnect from our obsession with productivity. Be on the look out for Pete “Redbird” Graham and his stilting family, juggling and starting sing-alongs, or get grooving with marimba ensembles from the Sarah McLachlan School of Music and the Saint James Music Academy. Learn unexpected lessons about interconnectedness from Kung Jaadee, a Haida storyteller who loves sharing many Haida and Squamish stories, or find yourself mesmerized by Angela Brown’s Nylon Zoo puppet shows. 

For three days, the lines blur between performer and audience, global and local, art and life. Folk music isn’t something we simply stream but something we actively take part in. In this weekend escape full of life, you might glimpse a way forward — a future made by hands, voices, and shared breath by the southern shores of English Bay. 

So come. Stay for a set or a stilt lesson. Stay for the possibility that strangers, songs, and sand might still show us how to be human again.

SFU alum challenges the stigma towards death

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Peak Web
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This is a photo of Ava Quissy, organizer of the SFU Death Cafe
PHOTO: Noeka Nimmervoll / The Peak

By: Noeka Nimmervoll, Staff Writer

On Sunday, June 29, Ava Quissy, a recent SFU political science graduate, hosted a Death Café at Slice Vancouver that welcomed all community members. The café hosted group conversations about death, using prompt cards to facilitate smaller group circles. Quissy led the larger group discussions, cultivating an open and grounded communal environment through questions such as, “What makes you feel most alive?” The Peak attended the event and interviewed Quissy to learn more. 

The Café Mortel was the original inspiration for Quissy’s Death Café, pioneered by Bernard Crettaz in 2004. It was a bistro where community members met monthly to talk about death. Jon Underwood developed this idea into the Death Café to further destigmatize death and bring dying back into the hands of the community instead of hospitals. Underwood expanded Crettaz’s project to become a more accessible global phenomenon, bringing conversations of death to all who wanted to partake. The café is based on four requirements: the event must not generate any financial profit, be an accessible hub for discussing death, have conversations led primarily by community members, and offer some form of refreshments. Underwood developed a website that outlines logistical aspects of Death Cafés, including a full guide on how to host your own. 

“I think a lot of people come because they’ve experienced a loss in their life and they felt like they haven’t really processed it” — Ava Quissy, SFU alum

When asked about her attraction to death, Quissy said that it has haunted her since she was 10, when she first realized everyone would eventually die. The anxiety of this inevitable moment was pushed away, at least until she took Jason Brown’s class at SFU called Death, Disease, and Disaster (HUM 330). Quissy said taking this class “changed [her] life,” through the exploration of this niche topic that “transcended education,” and encouraged her to have a greater appreciation of the multifaceted ways death is viewed around the world. Through the class’s topics relating to “how cultures respond to tragedy and dying,” she realized she wanted to have and host conversations around death, stemming from a desire for more cultural understanding and recognition around what she sees as “one of the most natural things” about human existence. 

“It started off as a class project,” Quissy said. “I was super curious to know, especially within my friend group, how other people approach this; if they felt the same way [as me].” Quissy plans to host more events like this, focusing on encouraging youth to come out and talk about death. “I definitely want to be able to inspire conversations [about death] in people that are younger so that they’re not first encountering them when they’re older,” she said. 

Quissy added, “I think a lot of people come because they’ve experienced a loss in their life and they felt like they haven’t really processed it,” owing to how “there’s no unified base for how people should grieve, and so people are just starting to do it in isolation.” Usually in Western cultures, she explained that “death has been sanitized and overly simplified,” which she believes to be detrimental to the individual and the community. Personally, I think Death Cafés provide a space for nuanced, personal conversations in which to grieve and process thoughts communally, and proves as a reminder for every human experience that we are not alone. 

Media about death recommended by Quissy

Die Wise by Stephen Jenkinson
The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief by Francis Weller
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
Departures (2008) by Yôjirô Takita 
The Order of the Good Death
Death Café

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Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

Contact us:
[email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society 1965-2024