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Four things that would’ve protected the Capitol better than their security

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Humour
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PHOTO: Louis Velazquez / Unsplash

By: Alex Masse, Staff Writer

Okay, so, the whole Capitol coup happened, right? And the officers supposedly protecting the place kind of . . . didn’t. They did take some selfies with the largely unmasked hoarde and let the place get destroyed with little action, though. I feel safer already!

With that terror residing in the back of your mind, here are five alternatives that most certainly would have done a better job defending this governmental building.

  1. The Chihuahua Next Door 

My neighbours have a chihuahua and it means business. 

How do I know this? Well, I hear it every time I walk past their house. It’s come at me a few times. Someone leaves the gate open, and it careens out into the street, screaming at the top of its tiny lungs, because barking isn’t enough. It’s also broken into our yard. Twice. We have to coax it out, which is easier said than done, because it’s a chihuahua. 

All it knows is rage. You can run at it, it’ll keep barking. It lives for the thrill. No one will ever get past it.

“No” isn’t a word it knows. “Stop” isn’t a word it knows. “Please dammit if I have to watch you get hit by a car I’ll never forgive myself” isn’t a phrase it even somewhat registers. And sure, it doesn’t know a lot about American politics, but that doesn’t seem to be a prerequisite for being in or near the Capitol any time, anyway.

2. My Long-Dead Tamagotchi 

Tamagotchis. If you were cool, you had one. If you were really cool, you had several. If you’re super cool(?) but also super nostalgic and have a hard time letting go of material possessions, you probably still have one kicking around. Anyways, mine has pink stripes. 

What if I told you it could be a tool for fighting Trump supporters? 

I mean, think about it. The Tamagotchi is a symbol of everything these people hate: it was created outside of America, it’s from after 1995, and to win you have to care about a living creature besides yourself. Simply by existing within their proximity, it’s going to send these wannabe revolutionaries spiralling. 

And if all else fails, it makes a kickass projectile. 

3. Literally Any Girl With A Selfie Stick 

This one’s great, because it’s more about the aftermath. 

In the moment, nothing attracts these violent people more than potential attention. I mean, look at them. They were streaming, they were taking selfies, they were updating their stories left and right. So, like, they’ll take a selfie opportunity. Of course they will. 

So, here’s the kicker: share your selfies and start asking if anyone knows their faces. It shouldn’t be that hard, because it’s not like any of them are wearing masks. The Venn diagram between Capitol Trumpies and COVID-19 deniers is basically a circle at this point — specifically the circle in the centre of the biohazard symbol. 

4. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter 

I know what you’re thinking: “Buddy, that’s a guy who can’t even get his website to ban Nazis.” 

And, sure, Twitter is home to folks who fit barrels of vitriol into 280 characters at most. If there was some sort of a Nobel Unrest Prize for someone who innovated new ways to sow chaos, Jack Dorsey would get it for unleashing Twitter upon the world. Just look at K-pop stans.

But also, they did ban the guy that many bigots worship. Big Boy Bigot. King Bigot, if you will. Dorsey more or less exiled the former President of the United States from his digital kingdom. You know, the then-president of the country he lives in. His platform did that. 

Do I still think most people could grab him by his scraggly quarantine beard and throw him a good few feet? Yeah, I do. But I also know that Trump supporters see this man as the slayer of their god. Put him in front of the Capitol and nobody’s getting through. They’ll stop to scream profanities at him and get tired.

The Bright-er Side: Hallmark movies are showing more diversity

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ILLUSTRATION: Siloam Yeung / The Peak

by Sara Wong, Arts & Culture Editor

I usually refer to watching Hallmark movies as my guilty pleasure. Not because they’re super cheesy, but because of the network’s history of prioritizing white, cisgender, heterosexual, and overall normative stories. However, with the latest batch of Christmas movies, I’ve noticed a significant change in the amount of diversity shown. 

In less than a year, Hallmark’s LGBTQ2+ representation went from plausibly deniable (two men dancing close together at a final party scene) to front and centre with actors Jonathan Bennett and Brad Harder playing the first gay lead couple in a Hallmark flick. For anyone interested, the title is The Christmas House, and it was by far my favourite Christmas movie of 2020. 

Bennett and Harder were not the only ones to make Hallmark history. Indo-Canadian actress Nazneen Contractor, star of The Christmas Ring, was Hallmark’s first South Asian lead. Vancouver’s Antonio Cayonne also became one of Hallmark’s first BIPOC leads with his role in Christmas in Evergreen: Bells are Ringing. 

Hallmark’s Christmas 2020 lineup also included Jewish representation with the movie Love, Lights, Hanukkah!, and interracial couples in movies such as Jingle Bell Bride and The Christmas Bow. The latter featured Lucia Micarelli, an American musician and actress who is half Korean — a noteworthy detail because I have never seen anyone distinctly East Asian as a primary character in a Hallmark film. After years of watching these movies, expecting to see mostly white people on my screen, I didn’t think that having someone who looked more like myself represented would mean so much, but it did. 

Obviously, Hallmark still has a long way to go in terms of diverse representation. For instance, while The Christmas House did have a leading gay couple, it also featured two heterosexual couples as part of the main cast. I would love to see a Hallmark movie in the future where an LGBTQ2+ romance was given more focus than a heterosexual one. Also, while there have definitely been more primary and secondary BIPOC characters lately, I would say that three quarters of casts are still white.

While I am disappointed that it took this long for Hallmark to stop casting the same rotation of white actors and actresses in their movies, I’m happy to see them making a conscious effort now. It’s better late than never, and I can now say, without embarrassment, that I’m a Hallmark movie fan.

Need to Know, Need to Go: February 1–7

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Arts
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Illustration of a blue calendar, with "Need to Know, Need to Go" written on top
Arts & Culture events to catch around the city. Image courtesy of Brianna Quan

By: Gurleen Aujla, SFU Student

Global Talent Night 2021 | February 5, 8:30 p.m.–10:00p.m. | FREE with registration | Online

Discover and celebrate the unique, diverse talents of the SFU community. Hosted by SFU International Services for Students, Global Peers, and the Simon Fraser Student Society, the third annual Global Talent Night will showcase a wide range of acts in music, dance, comedy, and poetry. The event is open for all SFU and FIC students to attend. There will also be an opportunity for both performers and audience members to win prizes. To register and learn more, visit their Eventbrite page.  

Are We Still Together? Ghislain Brown-Kossi | Available until February 15 | FREE | PoMoArts online & In-Person

Based in Vancouver, French artist Ghislain Brown-Kossi works to examine social relationships and individuals’ interactions with others. He is particularly interested in exploring if our society will overcome the barriers between diverse communities and engage in real, authentic communication. Brown-Kossi attempts to craft art that addresses the feeling of disconnection within our community and hopes to inspire meaningful dialogue. The recording of his Artist Talk can be found on Facebook. This show is both a live exhibition in the Port Moody Arts Centre gallery and a digital exhibition. 

New Red Order: Give it Back | Now until March 6  | FREE | Audain Gallery

In partnership with Cineworks, DOXA, and the SFU School for Contemporary Arts, the New Red Order (NRO) presents Give it Back, a window exhibition viewable from Hastings Street that engages with the Land Back movement. Calling to “restore stolen Indigenous territories to Indigenous people,” this exhibition primarily uses videos to envision a forward-future for this movement and for Indigenous peoples. You can learn more about the exhibition on the Audain Gallery’s website. 

What Grinds Our Gears: Breakout rooms are the worst way to learn

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Nothing ever happens in these grey-box-laden sessions anyway. IMAGE: Victor Tran / The Peak

by Marco Ovies, Editor-in-Chief 

Full disclosure: I think group work and discussions are the biggest waste of time. 

Breakout rooms are especially the worst. I thought that after a semester or two of online trials professors would have started to realize that. But nope, here I am being forced into a group of complete strangers to discuss a book none of us have even read, in a time period none of us have ever studied. Why am I paying premium prices for this nonsense when instead I can just go to GradeSaver or SparkNotes and get a more in-depth summary for absolutely free? 

Breakout rooms are a scam used by professors who are trying to fill up time because they don’t have enough content to lecture on. If there is less lecture content, let us out early so I can complete the 100 pages of readings that you need me to complete by next week. There are so many more productive things I could be doing instead than trying to start a conversation with three grey boxes on my screen. 

We are literally in a pandemic. Please professor, if you are reading this, throw me a bone. End break out rooms before I breakdown.

Asynchronous classes accommodate students’ unique circumstances

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ILLUSTRATION: Cora Fu / The Peak

by Charlene Aviles, Peak Associate

Synchronous online learning offers virtual face-to-face interaction that has often been missed during the pandemic. However, in the context of online education, synchronous learning is prone to more technical issues than any benefits can override. Asynchronous online learning offers more flexibility to students, and should be utilized more frequently across all SFU courses.

Asynchronous classes give students the opportunity to access their classes on demand. For example, pre-recorded lectures give students time and space to replay and rewind lectures. In contrast, live lectures require a strong internet connection, and students’ internet connection can crash at any time. Only 36% of rural communities in British Columbia have access to high-speed internet. Even in urban areas, the internet can be unreliable. In early January, my telecommunications provider had to repair damaged equipment in the neighbourhood, which disconnected the Wi-Fi for two days. Downloadable video or audio recordings offset these consequences and allow leisurely access to material without internet access. 

Recordings also allow students to listen to lectures while they are doing other tasks, such as riding the bus, which helps them maximize their time. Additionally, students without strong internet connections are at a disadvantage for live course components with participation points. These students may not be able to easily participate because of potential audio or video failures. While the chat feature is an option, it delays students’ responses and tends to be cluttered.

Students living in areas hit hard by BC’s storms are particularly disadvantaged. According to BC Hydro, 220,000 customers on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, and in the Lower Mainland and the Southern Interior lost power due to a storm in early January. These kinds of storms are not one-time occurrences either; it is safe to say that their frequency means that power outages will continue to happen. 

Pre-recorded lectures also accommodate international students in different time zones. While already struggling to get the recommended seven or more hours of sleep, students with time differences risk the consequences of sleep deprivation, which include lower grades and poor memory. Even students living in different Canadian time zones may not be able to adjust their sleep schedules over time. 

Asynchronous classes also take into account that students have different schedules and living situations. A survey conducted by the SFSS in April 2020 found that only 35.5% of respondents had access to a quiet study area. Yet, students have to either stay in their distracting environment or risk exposure to others at public study locations. Students with full-time responsibilities, such as with family members or employment, are also more susceptible to time conflicts and may face burnout from having to attend live classes. 

Because of these reasons, professors should strongly consider asynchronous teaching when planning their courses. Early in the semester, they should give their classes multiple choice surveys asking about factors like time zones and access to technology. With more information regarding students’ circumstances, professors can make informed decisions regarding asynchronous teaching.

As students face challenges including, but not limited to, unemployment, poor mental health, ineffective technology, and time differences, they require flexible course schedules that take into account their respective circumstances. Asynchronous learning demonstrates that adaptability must be mutual between educators and students to promote a flexible learning environment.

The secret radicalism of Netflix’s “Hilda”

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Arts
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Hilda’s soothing colours complement its radical spirit surprisingly well. Image courtesy of Netflix

By: Meera Eragoda, Copy Editor

It’s been a little over a month since Netflix released the second season of Hilda, a show about the blue-haired titular character’s adventures with friends and various fantastical beings, set to a soothing colour palette of muted, hazy blues, reds, and browns. The British-Canadian series was created by Luke Pearson, Stephanie Simpson, and Kurt Mueller, with the involvement of many Vancouverites. Based on a series of graphic novels by Pearson — who has also worked on Adventure Time — the animated fantasy show has a very charming, retro, autumnal vibe that continues to delight.

On the surface, Hilda’s escapades in the town of Trollberg with her trusty deer-fox sidekick Twig are exciting and the storylines engaging, but the power of Hilda goes beyond that. On closer examination, the show’s critiques of patriarchy and police become obvious, but remains enjoyable because they’re never preachy or over the top.

Hilda’s interpersonal relationships, as well, place an emphasis on positive portrayals without falling into overused tropes. Hilda lives with her single mother and that’s never questioned, commented on, or used to move the plot towards a nuclear family situation. Hilda’s mom finding happiness in her job and in her relationship with Hilda serves to normalize the representation of single parenthood and deemphasize the idea of romantic love as the most important kind.

In addition, her relationships with her friends, David and Frida, are portrayed as incredibly supportive. Season two opens with Hilda winning an essay and shows Frida, who also submitted an essay, congratulating Hilda on the win. To the show’s credit, both Frida and David are allowed to be complex characters and not flat sidekicks. Frida is allowed to be both Black and a bookworm who excels at school — a representation sadly lacking in mainstream depictions of Black girls  — and David is allowed to be a boy and scared.

Though David is portrayed as being incredibly loyal to his friends and being able to put his fears aside when he needs to, he is also allowed to express his reservations about going into dangerous situations. By showing Frida and Hilda as being understanding of David and not making fun of him or telling him to “grow a pair,” the show makes room for boys to feel a range of emotions outside of anger. It also sets up the expectation that these expressions will be met with empathy and kindness. While Hilda and Frida are repeatedly shown taking the lead on their adventures, the show also explores the value of not running headfirst into the unknown.

Hilda is technically the main character and much of season one focuses on her, but every episode in season two centers around a different character, highlighting their complexities, personalities, and skillsets. In one particularly important episode, Hilda wants to try something new, but is unsuccessful. It is later shown that Frida, aspiring for the same thing, is able to achieve her goal and learn something new about herself. When the revelation is made, Hilda expresses only happiness and support for her friend. The messaging is that Hilda does not need to win at everything or have everything, and allowing Frida to have this as part of her identity shows that Black girls don’t have to be sidelined and their wins are not losses for others.

The show’s pro-library stance, too, is evident in the frequent trips Hilda and her friends take to the library to find out more about the various creatures they encounter. The librarian, who is young and rocks purple ombre hair, always has the answers they’re looking for, along with a cool, mysterious vibe. The lasting assumption of librarians from their portrayal in shows is someone usually older, sometimes severe, and always shushing you — but Hilda is breaking that mould. With BC having implemented a funding freeze on public libraries since 2019, despite their importance to immigrants and others, the subtle push towards them was appreciated.

Hilda also has a minor anti-cop sentiment — or at least, the anarchist in me chooses to read it that way. The Trollberg Safety Patrol is the equivalent of the town’s police force and is focused on punitive action. Hilda, on the other hand, demonstrates compassion and empathy towards the creatures she encounters, trying to understand the root cause of their problems, not just focusing on perceived mayhem. She usually figures out that there’s something more complex going on, while the Safety Patrol ignores it. In talking about one of the members of the Safety Patrol, Hilda says, “He acts like he wants to protect the city, but all he’s doing is causing more problems.” If that isn’t a perfect encapsulation of the police, I don’t know what is.

Though Frida and David are represented in a positive light, there are other representations that are missing. For example, there are no queer characters in the show and the one character in a hijab only has one speaking line and is otherwise largely sidelined. In addition, despite Frida being fairly well-developed, the main character is ultimately Hilda. But while it would be nice if the show increases its representation in the future, it’s worth noting that the representation it does have is done really well.

Hilda is worth watching for many reasons: storyline, supportive characters, an emphasis on adventure and understanding, and so much more. The radical spirit of the show, however, is what enhances it, making it a must-watch series.

SFU-inspired cocktails to drown your university-related sorrows

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Humour
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ILLUSTRATION: Siloam Yeung / The Peak

By: Kyla Dowling, Staff Writer

CW: Mentions of blood, mental health

The Midterm Season

An iced-coffee inspired cocktail that is basically a $9 Starbucks drink with pizazz AKA an illegal amount of caffeine

Ingredients: 

  • A handful of caffeine pills, crushed
  • Two handfuls of Brain Boost, which I’m pretty sure is just legal Adderall, crushed 
  • A cup of oat milk, you healthy student <3
  • Black coffee (but not from the SFU Dining Hall, I know you’re broke but that is Not Coffee) 
  • Whiskey. How much does your Canvas homepage tell you to put?
  • Ice, but the tasty cubed ice because you’ve earned it for reading two pages

Directions: 

  1. Put the crushed caffeine pills, crushed Brain Boost, oat milk, coffee, whiskey, and ice in a blender. 
  2. Blend for 30 seconds while fervently repeating mnemonic devices to yourself. 
  3. Pour into a cute Starbucks cup, so when you log into Zoom for that midterm you’ll have something aesthetically pleasing to distract from your eyebags and tears. 
  4. Consume. Congratulations. Is your heart rate just that high or can you smell the other people in your Zoom call from here?

The SFU Health & Counselling 

A play on the classically disgusting Bloody Mary, this drink is sure to leave a bitter taste

Ingredients: 

  • A cup of nap drool from your desk after another lecture on classical conditioning
  • Copious amounts of vodka to cope with the waiting time to get an appointment 
  • Three cups of the blood I hacked up in the residence sink when I had pneumonia and SFU Health & Counselling had no available appointment slots for me 
  • ½ of a Naked smoothie to make like Marina and get some Froot

Directions: 

  1. Rim your glass with your spit. This will give you a nice taste of salt, similar to the internal saltiness you feel when going to Health & Counselling. 
  2. Put the blood, smoothie, and vodka into a blender. Note: it will not be hard to find the blood as I did not get the chance to clean it up, given that I nearly passed out and had to go to the hospital.
  3. Dissociate as you blend it. Has it been three minutes or three hours? SFU doesn’t really care, so why should you!
  4. Drink while on hold with Health & Counselling as they offer you an appointment for October 17, 2023. 

The Student Athlete 

You might be chasing the prize, but you’ll need a chase for this strong cocktail. 

Ingredients: 

  • Six cups of protein powder
  • Creatine, whatever the fuck that is 
  • EIGHT CUPS OF WATER. REFUEL. RECHARGE. GLUG GLUG
  • This is a cocktail, so there has to be alcohol, so add 2oz of rum. But be careful bro, I heard from Hunter that we’re gonna get drug-tested on Tuesday and you don’t wanna be put on second string, bro
  • A raw egg, because that’s good for you, apparently
  • A red backpack. No, it’s not going to be in the drink, but are you really a student athlete if you don’t obnoxiously have it hanging visibly in your Zoom background?

Directions: 

  1. Grind that creatine just like you rise and grind every day.
  2. Mix the creatine and protein powder into the water. 
  3. Mix the egg and the rum separately. No whisk, no reward.
  4. Combine the two mixtures, just like how you combine your cardio and your weight-training in practice.
  5. Put on the red backpack. Look in the mirror and repeat: “I am a beast. I stay hustling. ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. -Wayne Gretzky. -Michael Scott. -Andrew Petter.’”
  6. Chug 10 minutes before The Big Game. 

The 95 B-Line

The only reason we get blackout drunk anyway is to forget it’s called the R5 now, so . . .

Ingredients: 

  • Mint leaves, to replicate the smell of the people vaping at the bus stop 
  • A full bottle of rosé. Remember pregaming on the bus before going to Fortune? Wow, that made me sad to write . . .
  • A shot of gasoline. You’re not riding the 95 B-Line. You are the 95 B-Line

Directions: 

  1. Put on your favourite outfit.
  2. Put in your headphones.
  3. Take the 95 B-Line with no direction or end in mind.
  4. Begin taking careful yet dramatic sips out of your flask. 
  5. Press your head against the window as the rain drips down it. 
  6. Gaze longingly and mysteriously out at the night sky.
  7. Catch the eye of the entrancing stranger sitting across from you. Romanticize them. Create a life together in your head in which you get married, adopt dogs together, and they make you breakfast in a sunlit kitchen on a Sunday morning. 
  8. “And I need you, and I miss you . . .” 

The EDI 

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion who? 

Ingredients: 

  • “E” is for egg whites, a cocktail ingredient about as appealing as going to an SFU Senate meeting
  • “D” is for dark rum. Remember to include at least six shots of it. Yeah, you’ll be hungover, but it won’t be as bad as the headaches you get from receiving yet another EDI email
  • “I” is for Irish cream liqueur, which is actually what SFU administration has in their coffee every morning! Our tuition has to go somewhere . . .

Directions: 

  1. As you stir in the egg whites, chant: “We are an open, inclusive university whose foundation is intellectual and academic freedom.” 
  2. When mixing in the dark rum, whisper: “Our scholarship unites teaching and research: we celebrate discovery, diversity, and dialogue.” 
  3. Finally, when adding the Irish cream liqueur, howl to the moon: “We are a university where risks can be taken and bold initiatives embraced.”
  4. Maybe then you’ll believe those things are true.
  5. Keep drinking. It’ll happen if you just keep drinking.

Jeremy Stone: “‘Buy Local’ isn’t just for Christmas!”

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EIC
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Illustration courtesy of MCA.

Written by: Saman Dara, SFU Student

Jeremy Stone, director of the community economic development (CED) program at SFU, uses the concept of ecological resilience as an analogy for economic resilience within communities. The former refers to the capacity of an ecosystem to respond and recover from disturbances such as natural disasters. The current ‘disturbance’ in relation to economic resilience within communities is the pandemic. After these disturbances, the hope is for things to go back to normal. However, “You can only adapt to the changes that have happened [ . . . ] You will never be able to recover perfectly,” explains Stone in the first President’s Faculty lecture of 2021, The Hidden Gifts of Retail: Resilience and Planning for Community Life hosted by SFU Public Square and Joy Johnson.

Stone has 20 years of experience in economic development and resilience, including planning business recoveries for disaster horror stories like Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 9/11 attack. He received an MPA in international economic development from New York University and a BA in anthropology from Reed College. Currently, Stone is completing a PhD in community planning at UBC. Stone humbly acknowledged that the information being shared by him is from many group contributions within his career. 

In the past year, local retail businesses have experienced harsh impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic and government regulations around it. These consequences include gentrification, inequity, environmental concerns, and so much more. Like a destroyed grove of trees, Stone suggests that “if we lose these stores, we start to lose critical functions for society.” 

In particular, we risk losing cultural creation and development within our communities. Stone showcased multiple businesses within Vancouver which are keystones for art and cultural development, including Rokko Sarees, an Indo-Canadian fabric store on Fraser Street. It’s a store that my mother frequents as she tailors traditional dresses for the South Asian community in Vancouver. As I realized how much my own family relied on these businesses to express our culture, I found myself agreeing with him that “retail businesses are really critical [to support art and culture] and we haven’t necessarily deemed them essential in these ways.” 

Stone isn’t suggesting that British Columbia’s health guidelines need to be challenged. However, he is suggesting that municipalities need to do more to support and help local businesses recover as retail “is essential to our cities and our culture.” A point he emphasized throughout the lecture is that we should all be buying local.

 Stone makes it clear that we need to view entrepreneurs as local problem solvers for our community well-being. Their economic performance cannot be assessed solely by sales figures, and that’s why the CED program prioritizes the “needs and values of the community and how those are being met,” explains Stone. Compared to multinational companies, our local entrepreneurs and their businesses produce eight times more jobs on a square foot basis, give 24 times more philanthropically back to our communities, and keep 63% of revenue (compared to 14% for multinationals) in B.C. These statistics help prove that our local businesses are sustainable, but this circulation of credit in the local economy as an investment is not necessarily considered by consumers.

To be fair, even with my three years of experience working in multinational and local retail stores, I was still unaware of the importance of local businesses. Stone’s lecture was refreshing considering that local businesses provide people with the ability to grow, learn skills, and experience successful mentorship, all the while serving different demographics, trades, and geographic communities. 

Stone makes it clear that there is a priority towards supporting specific communities, such as Chinatown in Vancouver, which continues to face a great deal of gentrification pressures. In case of any disaster, Stone explains that “traditionally marginalized communities always suffer [greater] impacts. They have less long-term resources in order to dig themselves out.” Oftentimes, local businesses may not only be struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is why where we shop is so important.

A 10% shift of consumer purchasing to local businesses would result in approximately 14,000 jobs, 25% more to local charities, and an additional $4.3 billion in B.C.’s economy. Furthermore, a shift would increase the chances of profits being reinvested in our own communities. The 10% shift to spending locally would be a good start to decreasing orders from Amazon or large online retailers. Alongside this consumer shift, Stone recommends that small businesses should increase business to business procurement and treat one another as vendors to ultimately increase the economic resilience of the community.

Stone also spoke about emergency management plans, referencing a ResilientVille program completed in San Francisco, in which municipalities map and identify keystone local businesses that provide critical functions for the surrounding community. He called for municipalities in B.C. to replicate this program as many cities in Canada — including Vancouver — are lacking an economic resilience plan in the case of a disaster. 

Stone’s recent collaboration with Community Futures Central Kootenay and the Applied Research and Innovation Centre (of Selkirk College) processed plans for economic resilience in the Kootenays with the inclusion of eight municipalities. Stone shared details from this plan, including  small business financing, technical assistance, and mental health support. It was surprising to hear that in Stone’s past experience, he’d found that governmental bodies were not responsible in the case of recovery from disturbances; instead, the responsibility was placed on bottom-up community initiatives.

Economic resilience is often ignored by municipalities within plans of economic development and emergency management. Conceivably, this is why there was so much disarray for local businesses during the first pandemic lockdown. Stone accounted for this disarray in the recent Vancouver Economic Resilience Study done by the CED and Local BC, which conducted focus groups with Business Improvement Areas and cross-city business surveys. 

Their findings documented shortcomings by the City of Vancouver as there was lack of communication, complications to receive support, a lack of mental health support, and “essential” was not clearly defined. Stone was adamant that mental health support be prioritized as small business owners suffer from “double losses”; they are in the position to experience personal and business tragedies due to the pandemic. 

As long as we support our local businesses, we are working towards economic resilience and we avoid losing critical functions in our community. In defending local businesses, he expressed, “‘Buy Local’ isn’t just for Christmas!” Stone stressed that “the City of Vancouver needs a plan for economic disruption” as we are still in the midst of the pandemic and prone to future disasters without an effective plan in place to support local businesses. 

Course repeat limitations are harmful to students

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Why is SFU stopping us from learning? ILLUSTRATION: Siloam Yeung / The Peak

by Jacob Mattie, SFU Student

Currently, SFU maintains a punitive stance on course repeats, allowing one repeat per course and five in total. Exceptions can be made for students willing to go through the difficult task of seeking the permission of their faculty’s dean — but that may increase potential feelings of shame from failing a course. Regulating duplicate courses also limits students’ ability  to progress through education at their own discretion. These policies are ultimately restrictive and serve no purpose other than to add unnecessary stress to students’ studies.

Passed by the SFU Senate in 1982, this policy on course repeats was one of a series of highly controversial changes by then-Dean of Arts Robert C. Brown. The limitation on course duplicates was said to be a prevention method for students attempting to boost their GPAs. However, this notion was at best misguided, and at worst, willfully destructive. By implementing these changes, the university legitimized the notion that a GPA is a goal unto itself, and is more sought after than the education it is supposed to represent. At the same time, this limit made obtaining and maintaining a high GPA more difficult. This is incongruent with SFU’s role as a school, which should be to embrace the educational value of repetition and failure, not punish it. 

A student cannot take the time to properly question and absorb the material offered if they are studying to avoid failure. Rather than learning material out of pure interest, or desire for knowledge, a student under threat of failure can resort to tragic questions like, “Will we be tested on this?” This fixation on testing shows that priorities have moved away from self-guided learning, to simply being able to regurgitate needed information. This may be appropriate for an institution whose goal is producing degrees, but it’s not for one aiming to produce well-rounded students.

While it is possible that a student would retake a course a number of times to boost their GPA, is that not the entire purpose of education? That students practice material and repeat it to the point that they understand it? If a student deems it appropriate to submit another four months of their life to a course’s workload, we should applaud their commitment, not restrict them from it. 

SFU should encourage the idea of learning from failure, rather than enforcing the notion that anything but immediate success is a flaw that could jeopardize a student’s academic career. It is due time that we rekindle the debate around limitations on course repeats because it’s clear they’ve never been for the benefit of students.

BC Black History Awareness Society presents immersive Black History Month events

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Arts
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Celebrate BC’s Black history with these free programs. Image courtesy of the BC Black History Awareness Society

By: Charlene Aviles, Peak Associate

Black History Month celebrates the Black community’s resilience and accomplishments; and honours those who continue to take risks in advocating for justice and equality. With this in mind, the BC Black History Awareness Society has created a series of interactive programs, which include a hip hop lesson, musical performances, and symposiums.

Putting Black British Columbia History to Work: Contemporary Implications of Historical Blackness | Zoom | February 7 from 2–3 p.m. | Free with registration

Guest speaker and UBC professor Handel Kashope Wright will be giving a talk on Black history in BC. Wright will focus specifically on Mifflin Gibbs, Sylvia Stark, and Sir James Douglas’ role in “racist erasure.” The talk will be followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. Participants must register online to receive the Zoom link to this virtual event.

Symposium on Black Migration and British Columbia | Zoom | February 17 from 2:30–4:15 p.m. | Free with registration

During this conference, Sherry Edmunds-Flett, a doctoral candidate in the history department at SFU, and a group of other scholars from Canada and the U.S. will delve into the past of Black migration to BC. Through a discussion on their recent research, the scholars will analyze reasons for immigration, modes of transportation used during migration, along with the significance of each. Register for the event through their website.

The Fifth Element | Zoom | February 20 from 1–3 p.m. | Free with registration

Immerse yourself in the world of hip hop and learn the elements of “Knowledge, Djing/Lyricism, Breakdancing/African dance, and Graffiti.” Hip Hop Hall of Fame member Ernie Paniccioli will be joining to discuss topics such as creativity and cultural identity for Black and Indigenous youth.

Ross Bay Cemetery Tour | Zoom | February 21 from 2–3 p.m. | Recommended donation of $5

This event, hosted by John Adams of the Old Cemeteries Society and Valin Marshall of the BC Black History Awareness Society, offers an in-depth tour of the Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria, BC, where over 50 Black pioneers are buried. The event is free but the Old Cemeteries Society is accepting cheque donations by mail. Visit their website to receive the Zoom link and a donation address.

Pablo Càrdenas Plays Oscar Peterson | Live Stream | February 26 from 7–8:30 p.m. | By donation

For this one-time-only performance, pianist Pablo Càrdenas, bass player Rob Johnson, and drummer Curil Lojda will cover the classic jazz hits of eight-time Grammy award winner, Oscar Peterson. The event will be live streamed on the Hermann Jazz Club’s website, YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo. They are requesting donations through their website or by mailing a cheque.

The BC Black History Awareness Society is a local organization that educates on the cultural and historical significance of Black British Columbians by facilitating conferences, workshops, and more. They also offer support to members of the community that are facing socioeconomic barriers. To donate to the BC Black History Awareness Society, visit their website.

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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