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SFU men’s soccer wins GNAC Championship

By
EIC
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With the win, SFU won their first GNAC championship since 2013.

Is SFU’s men soccer team the new Leicester of the GNAC? It seems like it with the historical season they’ve had.

The Clan gave an impressive performance for their last home game and dismantled the Northwest Nazareth’s Crusaders with four goals. This victory extended the Clan’s unbeaten streak to 18 matches. SFU is now one of the only three unbeaten teams in NCAA Division II, and number one in the NCAA West Regional Ranking.

“What a result,” said head coach Clint Schneider after the game. “The players are over the moon. [We] said that is a goal for us to win the GNAC championship. We did it at home and it’s special. We now have two games in hand so two more to go in the GNAC.”

SFU’s midfield was decisive in the contest. Midfielders Adam Jones, Kyle Jones, and Brendan Shaw each scored a goal. Defender Magnus Kristensen also notched a goal.

Midfielder Adam Jones opened the box score for SFU with a late goal in the first half. Jones was assisted by teammate Mamadi Camara with a long, smooth pass. The ball found the path of Jones, who scored his seventh goal of the season.

It did not take long for the Clan to overwhelm NNU’s goalkeeper Aleja Basulto-Merito. At 65 minutes into the contest, defender Magnus Kristensen netted his third goal of the season off a free kick from the right side, finishing an assist from Robert Hyams, who has been very efficient in his assists attempts in the last three games.

Less than four minutes later, Kyle Jones gave the Clan a 3–0 margin. Jones fired a Messi-like free kick that found the back of the net from 25 yards.

With only 45 seconds left, midfielder Brendan Shaw showed off his soccer abilities and finished off SFU’s victory with a free ball in the box.

Goalkeeper Brandon Watson, who broke the GNAC record for the most shutouts in the previous game, recorded his 30th clean sheet in his career. Watson commented on his accomplishment for The Peak. “I owe to my team mates more than anything. That’s the biggest thing I would say about it. It’s the backline in front of me, and again it’s a huge credit to these guys. Now we got the GNAC [championship] and that’s one of the biggest things.”

“We still have two games left in the GNAC. I’m proud of the guys’ result today” noted head coach Clint Schneider. “Northwest Nazarene is a very good team; they caused us some problems today. I thought we responded pretty well. There is a frustration in the way the game ended. We don’t want to end the game that way — but we got through it, which is good.”

Schneider also commented on the contribution of newcomers Freddie Gard and Riley Pang. “Freddie [Gard] and Riley Pang are both two freshmen. I think they’re both excellent and to step into a team like ours, start and play a lot of minutes is a big credit to those guys. I don’t know if it is surprising though because we recruited them for that purpose. I’m happy that they are part of our team.”

The Clan will be on the road to take on Western Washington University on November 3.

Men’s basketball dominates in first exhibition game

By
EIC
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0
Michael Provenzano (#20) finished with 14 points in 25 minutes of game time.

It is to the sound of a cheerful crowd in the West Gym that SFU men’s basketball had its first preseason game. The Clan opened their preseason with authority with a 97–63 win over Douglas College and dropped 16 three-pointers in the victory.  

The Clan was up 22 points in the first half against the Royals, leading 51–29, before dropping 46 points in the second. SFU also outrebounded their opponent 43–31.

SFU men’s basketball featured a new head coach — former Terry Fox High School head coach Steve Hanson — as well as seven recruits.

The lineup on the court was drastically different from last season. Aleks Vranjes, who redshirted last year, played a total of 24 minutes against the Royals, while Ontario natives Othniel Spence and Michael Provenzano registered 16 and 25 minutes, respectively. Coach Hanson opened up about this strategic choice, stating “early in the season we want to give everybody a chance to see how they fit. I think all the guys on the court gave us a little bit of something.”

SFU’s new junior guard Kedar Wright and freshman guard Michael Provenzano dictated the game with continuous offensive actions on the court. UBC transfer Kedar Wright scored a total of 21 points and was four-of-seven on three-pointers. Freshman guard Michael Provenzano scored 14 points on four-of-six shooting. Freshman guard Graham Miller, who redshirted last year,, had 12 points. Senior guard Gibran Sewani, who is one of the two seniors returning this season, did not play the first exhibition game due to a concussion.

To add to this new roster, the team will be doing without some of SFU’s most talented recruits from last season. Freshman Oshea Gairey, who looked like he could carry the Clan’s future, departed the team. Victor Valley transfer Max Barkeley, who probably had the most exciting performances on the court, will not be part of Coach Hanson’s team.

However, despite the result, there is still room for improvement.“We’re not playing 40 minutes hard yet, so there are a lot of breakdowns early in the game that kind of let the other team back in,” said Hanson. “They threw some zones at us which we were not really ready for, so coaching is ready for that. Overall, I’d say it was a positive start.”

The coach also commented on Michael Provenzano’s performance: “As a young leader on our team, he is doing so far, so good.”  

Hanson, who was the lead assistant coach last year, admits that it will take a herculean effort to rebuild the team and be consistent enough. The Clan suffered an 18-game losing streak last year. The only conference win came from a game against Concordia University. In addition to rebuilding the team, Coach Hanson will face the challenge of adapting to the NCAA level. “We’re playing a very tough conference. Our expectations are really about ourselves and just trying to get better.”

Simon Fraser will be hosting an exhibition game tonight against Columbia Bible College. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Mulan can save China on her own

By
EIC
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1

At 20 years old, I finally watched Mulan for the first time. I was instantly enamoured with this strong heroine who aimed to bring honour to her family by doing the unthinkable: posing as a boy to go fight in a war against the Huns, so that her sick father could stay home and rest.

Beyond the fact that Mulan is a powerful heroine, she is also Chinese. As a Chinese-Canadian, I love that. To see someone who looks like me as a kick-ass protagonist exuding confidence and strength is incredibly empowering. However, I’m worried that upcoming generations of Chinese Canadians won’t be able to witness leading characters who share their identity.

The new live-action Mulan, slated to hit theatres in 2018, initially considered pushing Mulan aside in favour of a white male fighting to save China. The first script, written by Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin, saw a “30-something European trader [. . .] help the Chinese Imperial Army [. . .] because he sets eyes on Mulan,” according to the blog Angry Asian Man.  

Here’s my confusion: two women wrote the first iteration of this live-action movie. As a woman, I jumped with enthusiasm as I watched the animated Mulan save Li Shang, the emperor, and basically all of China from the yellow-eyed Huns.

Shouldn’t these women be celebrating these heroic actions by at least retaining the female hero in their retelling? Why was “heroism” automatically given back to men, while women were again stuck waiting for rescue? And beyond gender, what happened to having heroes of different ethnicities?

Hollywood evidently doesn’t consider these questions, or see the issue the same way that many of its consumers do. Since 2007, “characters from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups were 26.3 percent of all characters” in the top 100 Hollywood films, according to USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Further, Fusion Media reports that only 6.6 percent of main cast members across over 100 American network TV are of Asian descent.

There’s a massive gap in our media discourse as far as featuring heroes of colour is concerned — which is incredibly problematic, because not all heroes are white.

Time after time, Chinese characters find themselves stuck in the stereotypes of foreigners (usually with a difficult-to-understand accent), martial arts gurus, oversexualized females, asexual males, or subordinate nerds — not to mention restaurant owners, housekeepers, and suspicious shopkeepers, as musician and writer Zak Keith argues. Even when a heroic role is supposed to be Chinese, Hollywood finds a way to cast the whitest person possible and pass them off as Chinese. (I’m talking to you, Emma Stone.)

This live-action Mulan has the potential to break down these stereotypes and begin the first step towards properly including minorities as heroes. As of late, the script is being updated by Jurassic World writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, with a promise of a global casting call to find a Chinese female lead as well as Chinese actors for the other roles.

As a Chinese girl who has come to love how strong the character of Mulan is, the last thing I want to see on opening day is the likes of Matt Damon or (God forbid) Brad Pitt seducing a young and helpless Chinese girl. To quote an articulate tweet from Asian American actor and writer Anna Akana: “We don’t need a white man to save China in Mulan. That’s what Mulan is for. That’s literally her role.”

Save your pretty white boy arsenal for another day, Hollywood. Bring honour to us all and make Mulan Chinese, and right.

Privilege quizzes come from a place of privilege

By
EIC
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0

Privilege is a funny thing to quantify. Those who hold it generally can’t see it, which is what makes it problematic. Privileged people are oblivious to the special treatment they receive — be it on the basis of race, gender, religion, or class — relative to others. That makes it next to impossible to address the inequality that the difference generates.

Those who have the self-awareness to see this inequality typically draw attention to that divide, and devote themselves to decreasing it. Their efforts have led to such equality movements as the French Revolution and the push for suffrage.

Yet even as non-royals gained power in the revolution’s aftermath, not everyone had the means to participate in the newfound political system. Although suffrage extended voting rights to women, there were still restrictions on who could cast a ballot.

Privilege comes from belonging to an “in” group that others don’t. Groups are created by the differences between people, and as long as there’s diversity, there will be those who belong to the “in” group and those who don’t.

This takes us to the popular “classroom analogy.” Yes, some live closer to the goals that mainstream culture sets up, but what about those who can’t make a shot at the garbage can at all? What about those whose experiences don’t fit into the categories you’ve created?

For instance, a couple of weeks ago, The Peak ran a privilege quiz on the back cover. To be able to sit comfortably with access to this sort of newspaper, fill out your quiz, and see answers that match your life experiences is itself a kind of privilege.

When you try to define privilege the way these quizzes do, and take it upon yourself to classify people into categories based on that, you have yourself taken advantage of the concept of privilege. Your understanding of the topic might be sound, but you unfortunately miss the very point of your argument. You’ve failed to check your own privilege.

I find the conviction and judgement present in the tone of many privilege quizzes disconcerting. As with conducting research or presenting an argument, one must acknowledge their bias; privilege is no different. If you wish to speak of privilege, it’s important that you have the self-awareness to speak to your own.

What’s also troubling is the tendency to speak of privilege as some original sin that people carry around, like it’s something you need to feel guilty about. In assigning numerical values to privilege, and telling people that they need to “check” themselves if they received a certain result, you’re not actually educating anyone about it. You’re just creating new “in” groups of people, forming judgments based on each other’s scores.

No one person has the same experiences, opportunities, and privileges as another, and having privilege doesn’t make you a good or bad person. There may be commonalities among people which can be used to organize them into groups, but no one person will ever have everything.

At the end of the day, it’s unreasonable to ask someone to “check” something that they cannot properly see. Yes, some can acknowledge their privileged position relative to others, and learn to be cognizant of and respond to the inequalities that cause strife in society. But you can never truly “check” privilege in a manner as simple as taking a quiz, because it’s too vast and diverse to be sufficiently categorized.

Suffice it to say, these quizzes are based on a privileged understanding of privilege.

“Addiction shaming” on the Internet badly backfires

By
EIC
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0

Vancouver is in the middle of a drug crisis. We’ve known this for a while. But you might be surprised to hear that there’s more than one drug-related crisis plaguing our city.

Over the past few months, I’ve seen a steady increase in photos, anecdotes, and videos posted online, meant to show the harmful side of drugs and addiction. Many of them have probably appeared in your Facebook feed.

All of these posts have one thing in common: they were created to help educate people about the dangers of addiction. While these intentions sound good, I think these posts are themselves a sort of danger, and cause problems of their own.

Brenden Bickerstaff-Clark made one video that really caught my attention. In it, Bickerstaff-Clark sits down to tell his eight-year-old son that his mother died of a drug overdose. It is a deeply personal and sad moment, and it resonated with many people. Others, like me, had different concerns.

While Bickerstaff-Clark admits that his video is made for addicts, and the video is “focusing on the message it would send to people in active addiction,” what I worry about is the way others are receiving it. People who struggle with substance abuse are already incredibly stigmatized in our society, and these videos only increase that stigma.

According to Dr. Howard Koh, a Harvard professor, “The stigma associated with addiction can discourage people from coming forward to seek treatment.” Ironically, the very messages we’re creating to spread awareness about drug use and addiction could be alienating people struggling with addiction, and preventing them from getting help.

These online posts are also incredibly narrow in their focus, telling stories that are only about mistakes, tragedies, and otherwise negative outcomes. While addiction can lead to criminal charges, health problems, or death, it can also end in recovery or rehabilitation.

Therefore, they perpetuate the idea that there’s no hope for anyone who is currently struggling with addiction. They don’t recognize the people who have or are working towards having a life beyond their pasts with substance abuse. Our society continues to create a dialogue in which we only talk about “failures.”

Instead of trying to change people’s outlooks with guilt or fear, it would be much more beneficial to spread the stories of those who have recovered from substance abuse, and gone on to lead happier lives.

These online posts about addiction reduce people to a simple label, and judge them on a superficial level. They might intend to send a positive message, but they’re degrading and damaging.

I’m not an advocate for open drug usage. I just believe that, no matter who you are, you deserve compassion and dignity. These posts exploit people at their most vulnerable in order to take a moral high ground and teach others a lesson. The people in these videos are more than just their addiction, and if we as a society want to change the impact of drugs, we first need to change the way we talk about drugs and their users.

Let’s stop the angry black woman narrative

By
EIC
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1

Ever since I first got published at The Peak, I’ve received constant encouragement and feedback for what I write. Yet I always seem to hear the same things from people who read my pieces: “Gosh, you’re full of anger,” “You’ve got an attitude,” or “Wow, so sassy, girl!”

I’m neither angry nor sassy, nor do I have an attitude. I’m just speaking out. Is that so hard to believe? I’m not your angry black woman.

The moment I speak out, criticize, or otherwise share my opinion, I’m slapped in the face with the “angry black woman” stereotype. Don’t get me wrong: I have more than enough reason to justify being angry. Society throws derogative terms like “ghetto,” “ratchet,” and “baby mama” at me. I am feared. I am constantly being told that I’m too loud. I’m judged before I even speak.

Which is exactly why it’s time to end this damaging narrative. To make myself clear, having strong opinions and being passionate about them does not make me angry. Anytime a black woman stands up for what she believes, she is classified as “the angry black woman,” but when other people do it, they are called passionate.

When news headlines start with “Angry black woman says,” we stop listening and ignore what is being communicated. The stereotype is a social control mechanism that comes from the assumption that I am being irrational and unreasonable, and consequently, that listening to me is not worth anyone’s time.

In movies and TV shows, the angry black woman is often used as comic relief. The trope has grown so extensive that when a black female on screen is actually angry, the audience just finds it amusing. We no longer pay attention to what opinions the character is voicing.

Take Tyler Perry movies, for example. On one hand, his films have successfully created a wide audience and culture for African American comedies in Hollywood; on the other, movies like these only positively represent black men by shoving black women under the bus, perpetuating the stereotypes surrounding them.

Remember Angela from Why Did I Get Married? Or Lauren from Think Like a Man? Both were angry black women who were used as little more than comic relief.

Are you trying to tell me that I’d rather speak of social injustices such as recent shootings of unarmed black men than the Brangelina breakup, because I’m just an angry woman? That I’d rather talk about institutional gender inequalities than about how pumpkin spice is taking over fall because I’m “unreasonable”?

No, it’s because I choose to speak about what most people fear addressing. I’ll point out the white elephant in the room, so to speak. I’m not afraid to say that too many people are so afraid to talk about race that they won’t even mention the Black Lives Matter movement. I’m not ashamed to call someone out for making discriminatory and unjust statements.

To anyone who’s ever reprimanded or criticized another person for voicing their opinion or speaking up: when I speak passionately about a cause that you may not feel as passionate about, don’t try to shut me up by calling me “angry” and disregarding what I’m saying.

Try to dehumanize me and devalue me, but that will never take away my voice. I shall continue to speak for those who can’t, and to stand up even when I’m standing alone. You may say that I’m angry; well, I think I’m brave.

Acting president, resigned president run to be SFSS president once and for all

By
EIC
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0
Along with the presidential candidates, the position of environment rep. finally sees a candidate in 2016, after there were no candidates for the position in the spring.

The theme of the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) byelection might as well be second chances.

With the announcement of the candidates for the positions of president and environment representative today, it seems as though there is lots of potential for second chances in both categories. There are more candidates running for each position than there were in the general election, as president now has three candidates (two in the general election) and environment rep has two (up from zero in the general election).

The biggest one is perhaps Deepak Sharma, who will be asking the SFU student body for a second chance after having already been elected to the position once this year. He stepped down back in June, and raised speculation that he would be running again when he published his side of the events last week, breaking public silence for the first time since his resignation.

He’ll be running again against Darien Lechner, who was his opponent back in the spring general election. Lechner, an avid voice against the Build SFU levy, was hesitant to confirm he was running back when the byelection was announced, but it appears he will be seeking office yet again.

Even Larissa Chen had a chance at being the president before this byelection. Originally, she and Sharma were elected to board together as co-members of the Connected slate. Once Sharma stepped down, she filled in as interim president, as required of her as she was and still is the VP of student services. There was a chance for her to just take the role previously, but instead the decision back in summer was the byelection that we are now having.

It is unclear at this time why Chen passed on taking over the role of president permanently when offered, prompting another presidential election, only to run for the position now.

Furthermore, if she wins, the board does not allow for one person to serve in two positions. The SFSS has not responded to The Peak‘s request for comment at this time for what would happen with the VP student services position should Chen be elected as president.     

There are even second chances to be found in the race for the representative for the faculty of environment, although it is the position getting a do-over instead of any particular candidate. No one ran for the spot back in the general election, but now Supreet Malhi and Thadoe Wai will battle it out for the last unfilled spot on board.

Candidate platforms should be posted by tomorrow, meaning students will soon get to understand their motivations and promises very soon. They won’t have long to study it before the first debate, as it takes place at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday down at the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

Disclosure: Thadoe Wai used to be a part of  The Peak‘s Board of Directors. He stepped down in July.  

Rethinking the best and worst Pokémon

By
Peak Web
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1


PIKACHU

As the cute and world-renowned series mascot, it manages to slide into the DMs of just about every Pokemedia ever. It’s also a useless piece of shit.

This mangy yellow rat is clingy, melodramatic, selfish, and ungrateful. In Pokemon Yellow, I can drop 2,100 hard-earned for a Thunderstone and Pikachu will still throw a bitch-fit and refuse to evolve into an actual worthwhile Pokemon – an opportunity which, incidentally, it really can’t afford to pass up, considering its nonexistent battle potential. (320 base stat total? More like a career in Pokéathlons.)

I think this is a case of child stardom getting to one’s head.


GARBODOR

Garbodor might get a lot of flak for being literal garbage, but the waste-based Pokemon is my idol.

We’ve all taken a day or two to be a Garbodor. My work desk looks sloppier than the conceptualization behind Pokémon Trozei!, and I don’t care. When you wanna be cute and trashy for a night – because what people stereotypically consider “trashy” is just a holdover from the stigmas buried not-so-deeply into society’s collective consciousness — Garbodor will be there when your judgy fake friends have bailed. And when you need bombass pigtail game, you know who to call.

One day, you’ll see the value in letting yourself rest in those smelly plastic arms. At least they won’t kill you, unlike the toxic liquid arms of the inferior, irrelevant hot mess that is Muk.


CHARIZARD

Actually, I love Charizard. But I can admit it’s one of my problematic faves.

I mean, it’s powerful and all, but it’s not great enough to deserve getting two Mega Evolutions as opposed to every other starter’s one (can you say favoured child?).

It’s also fake as fuck. It looks like a Dragon, it’s used by self-proclaimed dragon-master trainers, but it’s. . . a Fire/Flying-type! In the cesspool of poor planning called the Pokémon animated series, it was all nice and sweet as a Charmander — but once it evolved and realized, just like the audience, that Ash wasn’t worth shit as a Trainer, it backstabbed him more times than I care to count.

I will, however, give it credit for its cameo in the “before and after she contours” meme, because staying educated about makeup is important for girls and boys alike.

INCINEROAR

The final forms of the Alolan starters have been revealed, and poor, poor Incineroar never had a chance with the fandom.

After the deluge of Fire/Fighting-type starters, we’ve come to expect greatness following Delphox’s break from tradition. To see a supposedly Fire/Dark Pokemon look like yet another flaming musclehead is an OHKO to everyone’s dreams.

However, let’s be real. The fuck would’ve been more creative? At least Incineroar’s design inspiration is actually something based in the sparse wasteland of American culture.

You think I’m going to pick that shit as my starter? Fuck no. It’s ugly as hell and there’s no point when I can just import Houndoom. But it’s what we got, and if you don’t like that, go cry about it on DeviantArt and satisfy your wish fulfilment there.

 

 

An Ode To TransLink

By
EIC
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0

TransLink
You suck
Angry bus drivers
Get fucked
I understand your job is arduous and hard
But you are not Columbus,
Magellan,
Picard

Why can’t the bus come on time?
Why does a ticket cost such a pretty dime?

The trains, they don’t run after quarter past one
The night bus is scary,  the transfer’s no fun

The other patrons are stuffy, smelly, and mean
Dealers and junkies and white stoner teens
A crying man and the wall I sit in between
An old man hits on a girl who’s only seventeen

Their phones are all ringing
No one’s heard of vibrate
I catch the last bus
But still, I’ll be late

Why won’t you go?
Mr. bus driver, sir,
Last week I was waiting for
Over an hour

I run alongside the bus when you’re five minutes early
Still I won’t stop until my sides start hurting
And as you drive down the street and out of my sight
I curse TransLink’s name with all of my might
Fuck you TransLink,
feel my spite!

 

How I manage my curly hair

By
Peak Web
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0

If you are a godforsaken soul with curly hair like myself, you know that managing these gigantic semi-sentient mop creatures can be a real fucking pain.

Most of the time, it feels like there’s no solution and it’s just a never-ending cycle of you violently brushing your hair while cursing heaven. And Earth. And both the observable and unobservable universes. Basically, just all existence. The reason it feels like there’s no way to have both inner peace and your gorgeous locks is because it mostly is impossible. However, these are a few ways I’ve learnt to manage my wild hair.

1) Barter off your first-born to an imp

Babies come and go, but the knot in the back of my hair is forever if there aren’t supernatural forces involved. Getting my curly hair to behave in the morning is definitely a perilous enough activity to rationalize selling my child to an imp that probably most definitely is a baby-eating imp. What other business does an imp have with a human infant? Regardless, if it gets the knot out of my hair, his weird European appetite is none of my business.

2) Offer a human sacrifice to the Aztec gods


We’ve all broken brushes when attempting to untangle the chaos that is curly hair after a windy day. I have found bugs in my hair, desperately struggling in fear for their mortality in that mess. Those are the days that I need to tear the still beating heart out of a man and kick his lifeless body down temple stairs to get my hair back to a normal state. I promise, the bounce your hair will have after the victim has given his service to the gods is phenomenal.


3) Kill a wizard and obtain his powers of dark magic

This tip I found out by accident, after having killed a wizard for a completely different reason (as one does). Evil wizards have amazing collections of dark magic potions, artifacts, and grimoires. Due to dumb luck and curiosity, I found out that nothing makes for a better hair conditioner than a vial of imprisoned human souls. You’ll finally be able to run your fingers through your silky hair — deep conditioning with damned spirits does wonders for your hair.  I’m not sure how to silence all the voices that are entangled in my hair, though.

4) Summon a spirit

Ghosts always seem to have a perfect head of floating hair, and that is totally ideal because I’m sick of constantly eating my fucking hair. When I got my Ouija board out and asked “What hair care product do you use?” the spirit answered with “eternal suffering.” Who knew it was so simple?

 

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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