The Community Edition: April 2017

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 7 • APRIL 2017

CLINICS PAGE 4

CADAVERS PAGE 5

CARERS PAGE 6

APRIL 2017 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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IN THIS

ISSUE

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 7

APRIL 2017

FEATURE

8-9 ISCT: SMELLS LIKE COOKIES

INSIDE 3 4 5 6 6 7 10 10 11 11 12 13 14 14 15

IN BRIEF THE DOCTOR IS IN, MOSTLY UNDER THE SKIN CARING FOR YOUNG CARERS BETTER AND WORSE ANXIETIES MENNONITES AND THE CBC THE INTERNET OF THINGS HUNGRY NINJA DELIGHTS HIGH HOUSING PRICES WR AND HOWE NINE FARMING GENERATIONS THE NEW QUARTERLY AT 35 YEARS SELF-CLEANING VAGINAS YES, THERE IS ARTS LEADERSHIP IN WR OONA MOON: EPISODE FIVE COVER BY LAKYN BARTON

Volume 5, Issue 7 Next issue: May 3, 2017

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CONTRIBUTORS Fitsum Areguy Josh Barkman Alexandra Bissley Kerry Fast Luann Good Gingrich James Gowland James Howe Stacey Jacobs Adam Lawlor Shirley Madill Sam Nabi Megan Nourse Kristen Philippi John Roche Eva Rucki Raminder Sahota Matt Smith Nick Stanley Dave Thomas Cara Vandermey Bill Watterson TWITTER @THECOMMUNITYED INSTAGRAM @COMMUNITYEDITION

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matter of controversy.

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APRIL 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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IN BRIEF

There’s a new place to buy food in downtown Kitchener. J & P Grocery is now open at 8 Queen St. N. MATT SMITH PHOTO

NEWS

ARTS

URBAN

ISLAMOPHOBIA ALIVE AND WELL

MISSING FINE ART FOUND AT THRIFT

MORE “BAIL BEDS” IN THE REGION

“Protect your property, lifestyle & rights!” So read a flyer posted in the Laurelwood neighbourhood in March as part of an effort to resist a zoning change that could bring a Muslim prayer centre to the community.

More explicitly racist remarks were shared at a public meeting hosted by the Muslim Association of Canada late March.

A painting by esteemed east-coaster Maud Lewis was discovered at the New Hamburg Thrift Center late March. Before gaining national attention, Lewis periodically lived in poverty and sold work out of her house for as little as $2. She died in 1970, and her paintings have sold for up to $22,000 since. The Centre is auctioning the piece online.

House of Friendship is set to acquire 10 new bail beds, “to provide safe, supportive and supervised housing for vulnerable accused individuals.” This is one of many initiatives receiving provincial funding to achieve a “faster and fairer” time-to-trial and bail process, and more support for low-risk individuals in contact with the law.

MO’ FOOD BANKS, MO’ PROBLEMS?

ACCLAIMED AMISH VACCINATE OR PLAY RETURNS STAY HOME, KIDS

One in 20 households in the region is food insecure, meaning they don’t have the food they need when they need it. The Food Bank of Waterloo Region kicked off its Spring Food & Fund Drive on March 30 and remind us that $20 can feed a family for four days. Better still, join a social movement that seeks economic justice for all, as hunger is a political problem.

Green Light Arts, the local theatre arts company, is remounting Jessica Dickey’s critically acclaimed play, The Amish Project. The play, about the 2006 Amish schoolhouse shooting in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, starts its three city tour at The Registry Theatre in Kitchener, on Apr. 13. The 2014 production was described as “agonizingly good,” in the Waterloo Region Record, so there.

On Mar. 29, 1,021 students in public and Catholic schools were suspended for incomplete immunization records. Students or their parents must submit records to public health, and can seek an exemptions with proper legal or medical documentation or for reasons of conscience or religious reasons. All of which begs the question, how much of our bodies do we owe to our neighbours?

WR FALLS SHORT IN GAMES BID

OCCUPY SPRING HITS THE STAGE

ENRICHMENT PROGRAM OVER

Niagara beat out Sudbury, Ottawa and Waterloo Region to host the 2021 Canada Summer Games. Local dignitaries watched the sad announcement at Moose Winooski’s, and while many hoped the games would bring tourism to the region, others found a silver lining, in that the application brought many — in and outside of the sports community — together.

What does it mean to resist?

What does it mean to survive?

The Occupy Spring Project, an MT Space production, considers these and other questions through the stories of three families: Indigenous, Anglo-European and Syrian. Directed by Majdi Bou-Matar, the project started in 2012 as an exploration of the Occupy, Arab Spring and Idle No More movements.

Waterloo Unlimited shuts down this May, after 13 years. The week long program provided an opportunity for grade 10 – 12 students from across the country to seriously nerd out about math, science and art at the University of Waterloo. Prospective students have already started online petitions challenging the provost’s decision, who funded the program at his discretion.

EASY COME, HARD EARTH DAY, ARTS AND CULTURE TO GO TO T.O.

SUNSHINE LIST IS LONGER, AGAIN

All-day, two-way GO service between Kitchener and Toronto is a wee bit closer. Liberal MP Raj Saini announced in late March that $752 million has been earmarked for grading, and the construction of 40.2 kilometres of new track along the Kitchener GO transit corridor. Saini also concedes that “all-day service is still a long way off.”

Over 1,300 employees in the region make $100,000 or more.

The province’s annual Sunshine list for public sector workers was released late March; the first year the list was released, in 1996, there were 4,576 names. Pegged to inflation, the list should arguably start at salaries of $147, 219, now. Most locals on the list work for the WR Police Services.

To celebrate earth day, head to Regina St. uptown on Apr. 22. A street fair organized by a number of local businesses will feature local and international art works, guest lectures and classes, performances and food.

All of the above will focus on positive, cooperative solutions to pressing environmental and cultural issues, and be fun.

JAMES GOWLAND

APRIL 2017 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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THE DOCTOR IS IN, BUT WE COULD USE A FEW MORE

DESPITE MUCH HARD WORK AND SUCCESS, WATERLOO REGION IS STILL DESIGNATED AS “HIGH PHYSICIAN NEED”

SAM NABI CONTRIBUTOR Access to healthcare is fundamental for building healthy, livable communities. A physician who knows your history can mean the difference between detecting health issues early on or rushing to the emergency room.

As Waterloo Region grows, demand for doctors has grown too.

The latest data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, collected in 2014, shows Waterloo Region has slightly better access to family doctors than the provincial average.

But Kitchener, Cambridge, and parts of Waterloo are still listed as “areas of high physician need” by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. This designation takes into account the number of doctors per capita, and social factors specific to our community.

In other words, it’s a constant balancing act to provide enough health services for our rapidly growing, rapidly changing region.

I met Dr. Osama Hasan in a former funeral home on Benton St. in Kitchener, where he is in the midst of a

major remodeling. The fresh drywall is pristine, white and clinical – a stark change, no doubt, from the sombre halls that formerly occupied this building, which will soon be turned into the Benton Medical Centre, a new urgent care clinic.

Dr. Hasan is an emergency room physician at the St. Mary’s and Grand River Hospitals. He says the new clinic is needed due to a lack of family doctors and crowded hospital waiting rooms. “[Patients] wait for hours when they truly don’t need to be in the emergency department, for multiple reasons.

Mainly, they don’t have access to a quick care. Either they don’t have a family doctor, or their family doctor is quite busy. So they end up seeking immediate care through the emergency room.”

To make the Benton Medical Centre a reality, Dr. Hasan has partnered with two other emergency room physicians, Dr. Falah Hafuth and Dr. Zad Jaber. They have grand plans for expanding beyond urgent care to include family doctors, a pharmacy, a dentist’s office and chiropractic services.

During the late 1990s and into the 2000s, the number of family doctors per capita flatlined across Ontario.

But over the last 10 years, we’ve seen steady growth. While the Water-

loo-Wellington Health Region still lags behind national and provincial averages, there are many people and organizations across Waterloo Region whose efforts are starting to pay off.

Donna Gravelle is the Physician Recruitment Coordinator for the Cambridge & North Dumfries Recruitment Committee, and on the front line of attracting new doctors to our region.

“Everybody was desperate for family doctors [in the early 2000s]. But we’re still actively recruiting every year, and that’s basically due to retirement and doctors moving. They used to stay and practice for 30 or 40 years, but now they’re a little more mobile, so that’s a bit of an issue,” she says.

Since 2012, Cambridge and North Dumfries has lost 26 doctors to retirement or relocation, but gained 33 new ones. The Greater KW Chamber of Commerce has operated a similar recruitment program for the rest of the Region, attracting 190 family physicians since 1998.

Recruiting doctors may seem an odd task for a business-focused organization, but access to health care is a major selling point for new employers to locate here. And the truth is, every doctor counts.

“If you have a physician retire, or even two retire and they haven’t found replacements, that can be 5,000 peo-

ple without a doctor,” Gravelle says.

Downtown Kitchener’s Health Sciences Campus has also helped attract medical professionals to stay in the region. After millions of dollars in investment from provincial, regional and city governments, the campus opened in 2010. It now houses the University of Waterloo’s Schools of Pharmacy and Optometry and McMaster’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, which admits 28 undergraduate students per year.

Cathy Morris, regional assistant dean at the DeGroote School of Medicine, counts the region’s healthcare ecosystem, which also includes a nursing program at Conestoga College and Wilfrid Laurier University’s School of Social Work, as a big advantage over other mid-sized urban areas.

“Recruitment has been easier.

[Students] have the opportunity to add this extra dimension to their practice that they wouldn’t otherwise have had,” she says.

Roughly 60 per cent of family medicine students go on to stay in Waterloo Region after graduating.

As Waterloo Region positions itself to retain more young doctors who are just starting their careers, Morris notes that the face of medical facilities is changing.

“The days of the sole practitioner in

family medicine are quickly dwindling, because of these opportunities and the desire of graduates to work more in teams,” she says.

Outside of the traditional medical setting, you’ll find entrepreneurs like Chelsea Cybalski, the owner of a new health and wellness store called The Golden Mean in downtown Kitchener.

She is offering more than just a retail service. If you walk past the shelves of supplements and natural beauty products, you’ll find offices for a naturopath and homeopath.

Alternative health practitioners are generally not covered by OHIP, so the influx of high-paying jobs to downtown Kitchener has helped build a customer base for Cybalski’s business.

“It was a good opportunity for us to enter the market, and the younger urban populations tend to be more open and accepting of alternative medicine.

Also with the tech companies, Manulife and City Hall, they tend to have good private insurance,” she says.

Waterloo Region is pushing for more healthcare options on all fronts, rushing to fill different demands as more and more people call Waterloo Region home. Will it be enough to free us from the Province’s “high physician need” designation?

Despite a coordinated effort and a lot of hard work — including the soon-to-open Benton Medical Centre (pictured) — the region is still considered to be in “high physician need.” MATT SMITH PHOTO

APRIL 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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ANATOMY OF A GIFT

STUDENTS WORK WITH CADAVERS AT UW LAB

Jeremy Roth (top) is senior anatomy demonstrator at the University of Waterloo’s anatomy lab. NICK STANLEY PHOTOS

ADAM LAWLOR CONTRIBUTOR When some people die, their bodies are cremated. Some are buried, planted under trees, made into tattoo ink or shot into space. Some end up in the University of Waterloo’s anatomy lab, a modern building of bright whites and faded greys and blues. Inside this new building, which feels like a hospital-in-an-airport, students dissect and study the human body under the steady guidance of Jeremy Roth, senior anatomy demonstrator, and, on a cold Wednesday morning, my tour guide.

After greeting Roth I take a seat at the back of a lecture hall filled with 350 students. Roth’s lecture about the gluteal region – what parts look like, where they are, how they function – is a flurry of inferiors, superiors, and pear-shaped pieces (the piriformis, as I learned).

At times, he acts out the movements, showing the kind of activity that is going on inside him by the illustrations on screen. I rotate my leg as I sit, marvelling at the fact that I cannot feel the individual moving parts – the Latin-tongued quadrates and pears inside of me. I cannot tell them apart, cannot feel anything other than the whole.

The students around me, who have spent hours in the lab, drink coffee, jot notes and roughly sketch out the musculature into their courseware.

Hundreds of bundles of muscles, bones and nerves meticulously pieced together to think about themselves.

After the lecture, Roth and I head upstairs to the third level, where the lab is located. I am somewhat surprised that it is not hidden away in a dark basement. He informs me that the old anatomy lab, located across the street in the Optometry building, fit that image. He does not remember it fondly.

We both dress in white lab coats (Roth’s name is emblazoned on each of them) and enter a large, highly organized, brightly lit room with multiple metal gurneys, four of which are covered in white body bags. At first I am taken aback by the sheer immediacy of it all: we have moved from an office-like work station into the presence of the dead. That feeling quickly gives way to utter fascination, and as we walk about the room he describes the process that each of these four bodies underwent before ending up in the anatomy lab.

When death occurs, the deceased’s executor contacts the school within 24 hours.

“We work with the families quite closely at the time of death,” Roth tells me, adding that family members are aware of the deceased’s wishes.

“If we think that not everyone in the family is on board, we won’t accept the donation.”

Upon learning of the death, a screening process begins. Some medical cases rule out accepting a body, and sometimes the body is too large or tall to be adequately stored. There is

only so much space in such a small program. A funeral director embalms the bodies on site, but because “you can’t embalm a body that isn’t a closed system,” Ontario schools will only accept full body donations.

Bodies, by law, can be kept up to three years, but the University of Waterloo usually keeps them for two. After two years families are contacted for permission to keep certain parts of the body for further study. If they allow it, the body is examined and any specific parts that can be used – a knee joint, or a hand, for example – are removed before cremation. Otherwise the body is wholly cremated and the remains returned to the family.

The process, from start to finish, is dictated by the Anatomy Act of Ontario and the Human Tissue Gift Act, renamed the Trillium Gift of Life Network Act in 2000, but also by respect and attention to the emotions of the situation.

“You are now in the presence of those who have given their bodies for the advancement of science. Please treat them with the respect which is their due,” reads a quotation by the entry doorway to the lab, spoken originally by the School’s founder.

Roth’s behaviour emanates respect.

His touch is delicate as he carefully unzips the outer and inner white body bags and folds back the moistened material used to keep the body from drying out. He takes the opportunity to further his lecture, as the cadaver we observed was in a position that allowed us to more closely examine the gluteal region.

The powerful position these donors hold permeates the lab. In a society that tends to hold death at a distance this gift is particularly meaningful, continuously contributing to our understanding of science and of ourselves. The donors relish this opportunity – to help new students learn, to instill a sense of awe and respect for the complexity that is the human body. It is impossible to ignore Roth’s sincerity in this moment.

“It sucks, when you can’t [accept a donation]. When we’re full and you have to talk to someone whose loved one wanted to donate their body and we can’t? It sucks,” he says.

The students begin pouring in at the end of the tour, preparing themselves for the lab ahead. They all look professional and eager to get to work. Roth guides me through a small hallway that he refers to as the “art gallery,” which is decorated by art made by fine arts and kinesiology students. The pieces are beautifully done, some in black and white, some in full colour.

Some are so detailed that they could be used in study.

Roth points to one, showing a row of five butterflies. The second from the left, however, is actually the sphenoid bone, located in the skull. It is probably the most representative artwork of the whole drive and purpose behind the anatomy lab – to observe the world as it is, and understand all of the moving parts within. It is a somewhat comforting thought that in our heads there is a bone that looks like a butterfly.

APRIL 2017 // @THECOMMUNITYED

6

YOUNG CARERS NEED TO BE CARED FOR, TOO

LOCAL EFFORTS UNDERWAY TO SUPPORT YOUNG PEOPLE WHO BALANCE SCHOOL, WORK AND CARING FOR OTHERS

FITSUM AREGUY CONTRIBUTOR Imagine your 14-year-old self, sitting in class trying to focus on your teacher’s lesson. However, you’re distracted by the possibility that your younger sister, who has autism and epilepsy, will have a meltdown and text you at a moment’s notice.

Or imagine that while you hang out with friends after school you get a call from your father urging you to come home. English is not his first language, and he’s been stopped by police officers who can’t communicate with him.

These are real-life examples from young people in Waterloo Region, their names omitted to protect their privacy.

These two are not alone. A recent survey of high school students in Vancouver found that 12 per cent of youth are in a caregiving role. And yet there is virtually no formal recognition of their role by federal, provincial or local governments, and little public awareness, dedicated research or supportive social policies for those known as “young carers.”

The definition of a young carer is contested and diverse, but can loosely be described as a young person who takes on a range and depth of care-related responsibilities well before they might otherwise be expected or prepared to, on a regular basis.

Holly Mathers, a registered psychotherapist and one-time young carer, says that she was greatly impacted by her sister’s chronic health issues while growing up in Kitchener Waterloo.

“I felt like there was a hijacker in our lives who could take over at any time when Amy had another life-threatening health crisis. I would try to be constantly prepared, even when everything seemed okay.”

Though caring for siblings is a very common young carer scenario,

what happens when it’s a parent or grandparent who requires care or supervision?

“It can be difficult to acknowledge the impact on young carers in these families because of feelings of failure if the parents are not able to meet all of their children’s needs due to the situation,” Mathers points out. “This is where we need to spread the message that illness and other issues impact every family member and each of those members needs support.”

Young carers needs must be reflected in our social policies. At the federal level, supports that have been developed for carers, such as the caregiver credit and Compassionate Care Benefit, are intended for working adults.

While the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal prohibits family status as grounds for discrimination, we do not yet have precedent for young carers, nor do we have explicit policies for supporting and accommodating young carers in our schools and postsecondary institutions.

This is especially problematic, as Statistics Canada’s 2012 General Social Survey estimated there were then 1.18 million young carers in Canada.

This number includes young people aged 15-24, but not the many younger carers.

A great deal of research on adult caregivers outlines what many with personal experience know, which is that caregiving can take a toll.

Unsupported young carers are especially vulnerable to social isolation, mental health challenges and lower educational attainment. For the estimated 47 per cent of young carers who attend school, chronic lateness, absenteeism, insufficient time for assignments, anxiety and problems focusing can make balancing school and caregiving a challenge.

Some parents feel shame or guilt about young people taking on care-related responsibilities, which Mathers says can further contribute to the “hidden” nature of young carers and their work.

“Young carers in closed family

systems have a much harder time accessing outside supports, resources and services because their parents are not comfortable with these interventions,” she says.

However, the young carer experience is not all bad. When caregivers are supported, providing care for others can enhance social and emotional development, build a sense of competence and self-efficacy, and nurture empathy and compassion.

“I grew up focusing on others’ needs and having an awareness of issues beyond the typical life experiences of my peers. These are factors that contributed to my choice of a helping career,” she says.

In cases such as these, early experiences with caregiving can shape young carers’ identities and orient them to a future that is focused on making meaningful contributions to others’ lives.

Locally, we can support young carers in a few different ways. The Young Carers Project, along with the University of Waterloo’s Murray Alzheimer Research and Education Program, is a local community collaborative that is working to mobilize resources for young carers in the Waterloo Region.

(A past young carer and current active member of this collaborative, I facilitate free organizational workshops to teach professionals on how to best identify and support young carers.)

The City of Kitchener also offers a Young Carer Peer Support Group. It’s a free program that meets weekly on Monday nights from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Downtown Community Centre for young carers between the ages of 12 and 17.

Support can also be as simple as recognizing and acknowledging that young carers exist, and being willing to listen when they need someone to talk with.

As Mathers says, “adult allies can make a huge difference in the life of a young carer. We have resources and training available to help you support young carers in your family or work.”

BILL WATTERSON ILLUSTRATION

LIFE IS SUFFERING, BUT ANXIETY ISN’T INEVITABLE MENTAL MATTERS

JOHN ROCHE COLUMNIST Being human is hard. So hard, in fact, that the very first thing the Buddha had to say about life was that “existence is suffering.” That may sound like a downer, but it’s also a fact. Given that a big part of being human is to suffer, it’s pretty important to understand what suffering is — and how to deal with it.

In fact, there are two main types of suffering, and they need to be understood and treated differently.

Let’s call the first the suffering of old

wounds. This is the suffering we experience when we’re “triggered”: we’re coasting along, then bam, something nails us and we spiral into a dark place.

This type of suffering tends to leave us scratching our heads and wondering what the hell just happened: our thoughts become irrational, our feelings disproportionate and overwhelming, and our behaviour becomes rigid and unhelpful.

For example, maybe someone you’ve been dating for a week ghosts you and you’re devastated with grief, imagining this means you’re worthless and you’ll die alone. You decide to swear off romance forever.

The good news is, therapy can heal this stuff. What’s happening is that an unintegrated part of your brain has been activated by a situation that’s vaguely familiar to an original,

overwhelming event (or set of events).

You drop into a defensive pattern that made sense once upon a time but now gets you nowhere.

This kind of suffering can be dealt with in the short term by learning how to ground yourself in the present moment, and in the long term by integrating those stuck parts of your brain with a deep form of therapy like eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.

But there’s another kind of suffering, which we can call the suffering of the human condition. This suffering is unavoidable and it’s been bred into us through evolution.

When it comes to thoughts, everyone has an inner voice that compares them to other people. The evolutionary function of this was to prevent us from being too weird, getting kicked

out of the tribe, and promptly dying.

Everyone also has a tendency to focus on the negative, which kept us attentive to possible threats.

The same thing happens with emotions: we all experience anxiety in the face of uncertainty (so we avoid unnecessary risks), sadness in the face of loss (so we slow down and reflect to avoid similar losses in the future), and anger in the face of frustration over our needs (to give us energy to take action to meet our needs).

So 200,000 years ago being a zenned out, free-spirited positive thinker was a great way to get yourself killed — and being dead makes it really hard to reproduce and pass your genes on. Painful thoughts and feelings helped keep early homo sapiens alive, and they passed it all onto us. So by nature we’re self-critical, negative, and

prone to anxiety, sadness, and anger.

What can we do about this kind of suffering? Since fighting against our nature is pretty unhelpful, this is where acceptance and mindfulness come in.

As much as we can’t prevent this type of suffering from happening, we can prevent it from controlling our behaviour. Our default is just to get dragged along on autopilot by thoughts and feelings, or to get caught up in trying to push them away. The alternative is to notice them, accept that they’re there, and choose how we want to respond to the situation at hand. This is, of course, a lot easier said than done, and it takes a lot of practice. But it’s worth the effort.

John is a therapist who practices in Waterloo

APRIL 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

ARTS BEAT

7

CBC, “TRUTHINESS” & THE MENNONITES WR OPINION

LUANN GOOD GINGRICH CONTRIBUTOR

Green Light Arts, the local theatre arts company, is remounting Jessica Dickey’s critically acclaimed play, The Amish Project. The play, about the 2006 Amish schoolhouse shooting in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, starts its three city tour at The Registry Theatre in Kitchener, on Apr. 13. According to director Matt White, The Amish Project “initiates dialogue about what it means to live a compassionate life, a life without the need for retribution. It makes us wonder and contemplate what life would be like if we changed our behaviour and replaced revenge with empathy, let go of anger rather than let it fester.”

The play travels to Hamilton before returning to St. Jacobs for five shows. Reviewing the 2014 performance, also starring Amy Keating in the one woman, multiple character play, Waterloo Region Record reporter Valerie Hill wrote that “The Amish Project is agonizingly good… Amy Keating is simply mesmerizing.” PHOTO COURTESY JOEL MIESKE

TCE RADIO IS HERE.

LISTEN ONLINE AT COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

KERRY FAST CONTRIBUTOR It’s surprising to us that just about everyone who has had an encounter, personal or otherwise, with Mennonites from Mexico has an opinion about them — often a strong opinion, and usually unfavourable. And now, with the recent airing of CBC’s TV mini-series Pure followed by The Fifth Estate episode “The Mennonite Connection,” drug-trafficking “Mexican Mennonites” have become a favourite topic of conversation in lunchrooms and at parties, right up there with American politics.

These conversations are as predictable as they are problematic. Often, at least one person has read or viewed a report about a Friesen or Harms getting arrested for drugs and emerges as an expert on the topic. The discussion usually goes something like this: “Did you see the new CBC mini-series called Pure? They got it all wrong – they mixed up Old Order Mennonites with Mexican Mennonites.”

“This confusion is upsetting, because, you know, Mexican Mennonites are involved with drug trafficking, and the business has been very lucrative for some.”

“That’s more than I knew!”

“And horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites are hard-working, honest people who are just trying to live a simple, traditional lifestyle.”

The fall from grace is instant. No need in casual conversation or in a serious documentary to mention the 249 Mexican drug cartels that have expanded their business to include extortion, human trafficking, and kidnapping, and prey on Central American and Mexican migrants, including Mennonites.

Those people, who have been made desperate and vulnerable, are the casualties, the collateral damage, of northern wealth and excess. No matter that our glance was only cursory, that we know next to nothing of the backstory, and that we have never personally met a “Mexican Mennonite.” Justification for contempt and condemnation of a whole group of people has been born.

This is commonplace. We identify difference in another person, and in a split second, without thinking, we make a value judgment about that difference. We construct “them” as the “other,” as our own personal bad object to carry our secret fears and failings. Whether we frame “them” as lazy welfare bums or blameless victims of circumstance, the “other” provides us with a negative comparator by which we prop up an idealized image of ourselves as opposite. Stereotyping always goes hand-in-hand with social archetyping.

What’s more, we tend to divide those who are different from us into noble victims in need of our help or recalcitrant delinquents who should be punished. Veneration or contempt.

And we are more inclined to show generosity to those who are needy, through no fault of their own, and

duly dependent on us and grateful for our help. Either way, the “other” is positioned as inferior.

But drug-trafficking “Mexican Mennonites” are useful for both ends of the political spectrum: the involvement of a few in the drug trade ensures that the group as a whole cannot be worthy of our left-leaning pity or our right-leaning tolerance. CBC has handed us a bad object—guilt-free. Because they are white, and Christian, we don’t count them as bona fide refugees or even economic migrants. And they are definitely not blameless or “pure.”

The misrepresentations of both Old Order and Old Colony Mennonites in CBC’s recent programming are numerous, and have been outlined accurately by other writers. More contentious is the fact that the two groups are conflated into one, not only as a fictional group in Pure, but as journalistic fact in “The Mennonite Connection,” in shots of Old Order Mennonites used to depict Old Colony Mennonites.

On an obvious level, this is problematic. Old Order Mennonites, who have no connection to drug trafficking or Mexican drug cartels, are directly implicated in dangerous criminal activity. To use misrepresentation, fiction and stereotype for a serious non-fiction documentary at the expense of minority groups blatantly violates CBC’s own — or any other — journalistic standards and ethical guidelines. We are provided with yet another expression of our “post-truth” era; this time when facts are traded in for “truthiness.” We are drawn to stories and statements that seem true, that feel right, thus confirming a previously held belief. The truth of the matter is of little concern.

Yet even more egregious is the blatant disrespect, even symbolic violence, that is taking place in these misrepresentations. Most of “us” take the basic dignity of self-representation in the public eye for granted. We assume to have some say in media representations of us as individuals or as members of a cultural or ethnic group.

And if we are denied that respect, we do not hesitate to rebut such representations. These Mennonite groups are not the first ethnic or minority group to be defined by stereotype and exploited for the public’s consumption. But as religious groups that prefer to make their contribution to Canadian society outside the view of the public media and who do not often speak in their own defense, is their right to self-representation somehow revoked? How do “we” — and the CBC — determine which minority groups are deserving of self-representation and which are not? And who is worthy to decide?

Luann is associate professor in York University’s School of Social Work, and the author of the 2016 book, Out of Place: Social Exclusion and Mennonite Migrants in Canada. Kerry has been involved in numerous research projects focused on Old Colony Mennonites in Mexico, Bolivia, Ontario and Alberta, and holds a PhD from the Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto.

IF STREETS COULD TALK: KIN Officially, my neighbourhood is called Kingsdale, though some say Kingsdale-slash-Vanier-slash-Fairview and I typically describe it as the best-smelling place in the city. The sweet scent comes from Dare Foods, a cookie factory built way back when highway eight and King St. were one and the same. The neighbourhood, named for its relation to the street, was originally just a scattered collection of homes and businesses lining King on the edge of town, the kind of neighbourhood people passed through as they made their way to a bustling downtown.

The older parts of the smells-likecookies neighbourhood are also some of the last to be built in the traditional grid style in this region, while everything south of Wilson Ave. follows a pattern reminiscent of a bowl of pasta.

The architecture of the homes also changes as one moves from King towards Wilson and beyond. Small, mostly one-and-a-half story post war homes slowly give way to mid-century bungalows and run of the mill walkups and triplexes. The architecture of Kingsdale is modest, with most of the buildings and homes fitting into a time period and style between the pre-war brick and the cookie-cutter suburban. The homes of the area are mostly quite simple, quaint, well kept, and rarely boast a full second floor.

Dotted between the somewhat monotonous mid-centuries are a few more interesting buildings, like St. Aloysius Church, which acts as a terminating vista for Connaught Ave., and the much more modest Holy Trinity Church, which does the same for 8th Ave. At the eastern end of Wilson, you’ll find the Kingsdale Community Centre, which moved in recent years from a relatively sad collection of portables to its current and beautiful new home in the adaptively reused former Patrick J Doherty arena.

To the modern traveler, Kingsway Dr. might seem to house an odd collection of buildings, including – within spitting distance – the city’s best bagel shop (Woodfire Bagels), a vacuum dealer and a massage parlour with irregular hours. Further west you’ll find an oddly shaped plaza that once was a car dealership, and if you continue on Kingsway you’ll find Trinity Retirement Village. The Village is a former home to St. Jerome’s College, before it moved to Duke St. in downtown Kitchener on its way to becoming part of the University of Waterloo.

As Kingsway curves towards Fairview Park Mall, a somewhat unfortunate time capsule of 1960s and 70s urban planning reveals itself, in the mall and in the tower blocks that line the road.

In many ways, and at the time, these suburban developments were the beginning of the end for Kitchener’s downtown. Cars and people flocked to the mall and to the conveniences of living in growing communities like Kingsdale.

As a frontier neighbourhood on the city limits turned inner city suburb, the neighbourhood has seen its fair share of changes in the people who call it home.

According to my historical research and to the generations of people I’ve known from living in this neighbourhood for 20-plus years, in the 1960s Kingsdale was a preferred community

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY MATT SMITH

for young families looking for a quiet place to settle down — and older empty nesters retiring to the suburbs.

In 2017 the demographics are in some ways similar and also drastically different. The neighbourhood still has many older residents, and not just those at Trinity Village. Due to its relative affordability, it is a popular place for young families and those new to Canada and the region.

Large apartment buildings lining Fairway Rd. and close to the mall remain some of the most affordable housing in the region, even as – or perhaps because – some of the buildings are visibly deteriorating. And while individuals and families are incredibly diverse, incomes are typically not. I don’t see many ties or power suits as I walk the streets around my ‘hood. Instead it is overalls, high visibility jackets, hard-hats, hijabs, black pants with non slip shoes, and uniforms for many of the businesses on Fairway and the industrial areas beyond. This isn’t a neighbourhood full of techies, lawyers, or doctors. It’s a decidedly working class place full of hard working folks.

The future of Kingsdale looks denser, as small lots that once held a single family home are being turned into splits, townhouses and even multi-storey apartment buildings. These newer projects typically look like ugly transplants from the newest suburbs in the city, but they do provide more places for people to live in an established neighbourhood without paving over more farmland.

Kingsdale’s future also looks better connected, in some ways. The LRT line will stop at Fairview Park Mall, and so should connect the hood and bring it’s delicious cookie scent to the more urban parts of the region. Unfortunately, a lapse in city planning has the tracks essentially cutting off the neighbourhood from shopping and services on nearby Fairway Rd. After many in the community and beyond voiced their displeasure with being forced to walk all the way around the tracks – instead of across a short hydro corridor path – the City and Region have finally acknowledged this problem. An ongoing dialogue between citizens and local governments will hopefully lead to a solution.

Historically an affordable neighbourhood, real estate and rental costs in Kingsdale are currently on the rise, part of a broader trend in the region, as reported by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Interest in the local market from the GTA, the relatively strong local economy and the coming LRT continue to push property values upward, and while these forces could be temporary they also have the potential to make the neighbourhood less accessible and less affordable for younger and poorer families and individuals.

For Kingsdale to remain a great place to settle and for it to evolve with the times it will need to address these accessibility and affordability concerns before they become ingrained. Kingsdale is a modest, at times bustling, and in spots interesting, place to live.

Much like the city it resides in, it’s a pretty okay place to be and not just because it smells so damn good.

NGSDALE/VANIER/FAIRVIEW

APRIL 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

10

CATALYST TO BUILD THE INTERNET OF THINGS

OLD RUBBER FACTORY ON GLASGOW STREET REDEVELOPED INTO “INNOVATION HUB” FOR HARDWARE DEVELOPERS

KRISTEN PHILIPPI CONTRIBUTOR The developers behind Catalyst 137 aim to push the standards of innovation and entrepreneurship in WR still higher. When completed, Catalyst 137 should be an innovation hub for Internet of Things (IOT) hardware companies, who work to connect our stoves and vacuums and everything in between to the internet. It will also be the biggest of its kind in the world.

The project gets its name from its location at 137 Glasgow, and the drive to catalyze the production cycle of hardware products, by bringing together all steps of the manufacturing process

into one space — from contractors to testing to research and development to shipping.

The 24-acre building, less than a kilometre from the Tannery and Google buildings, is an old rubber factory that will become a place for hardware companies to reside in the city’s core. The project started when developer Frank Voisin and Miovision CEO and co-founder Kurtis McBride realized there was a gap in the niche IOT hardware market that desperately needed to be filled.

“When you are a software start-up, and you are leaving from any local accelerator programs, there is a lot of places in the core, in the existing software eco-system, to sit down and have your staff start working... But if you are a hardware company, where you are making a physical product, and you need certain heavy machinery

and you need to be loading constantly, having 18-wheelers backing up, there is nothing currently available anywhere in the core,” Voisin explains.

Catalyst 137 is pre-leasing office space to companies who are at the 20 to 30 employee level or higher and are currently 70 per cent full, proving that Catalyst 137 is needed for those just beyond the start-up stage. And, that hardware IOT companies are just as important as software ones.

The project is for the non-tech community as well. The Berlin restaurant in Kitchener will be opening a café and brew-pub, and there will be a gym put in that is hoping to take advantage of the building’s proximity to Iron Horse Trail.

The theme of collaboration is crucial to Voisin, in bridging the gap between tech and non-tech KW, between the companies within Catalyst 137 and

even in the architecture. Among Miovision and other hardware companies, a marketing firm, sign printing business and local bank representatives have all signed to move in. The building, which will be all white and filled with skylights, will have multiple “collaboration centers” where people can come together and brainstorm new ideas.

“We are most excited for the big question mark. Five years from now what will have occurred as a result [of Catalyst 137]?” Vision ponders. “What we are trying to do is say, ‘Hey there is going to be a brewery in here, and a bunch of tech guys. Maybe there are some things that can emerge from that intersection... We want to pull in non-tech companies to see if stuff emerges.”

The project is taking inspiration from Silicon Valley and Shenzhen,

China but is not looking to compete with those hubs. Rather, Catalyst 137 is hoping to be a space that will inspire and allow creators and innovators from both Canada and the world to, well, create.

“I don’t really view it as competition.

It’s not a zero sum game. If you create it, more will come. We are not trying to take people from here or there, but rather we [will] create a world-class facility and make it accessible and available to people,” concludes Voisin.

Miovision, the first official tenant, is planning on moving into the facility early summer 2017, but the project won’t be fully completed until 2018.

Regardless of the completion date, Catalyst 137 is certainly another win for the entire community of KW.

The developers behind Catalyst 137 — formerly a rubber factory on Glasgow St. — aim to turn the space (above) into an innovation hub for Internet of Things hardware companies. KRISTEN PHILIPPI PHOTO

HUNGRY NINJA MAKES THE SUSHI-BURRITOS YOU WANT

TCE REVIEWS

RAMINDER SAHOTA CONTRIBUTOR I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical before trying Hungry Ninja. I love burritos, and I love sushi, but sushi burritos? Are these really worlds that can collide into something palatable?

Hungry Ninja is located in an old house on Regina St. that has been split into two businesses. The south half of the building hosts The Unravelled

Self, a haven where you can fulfill your “gyrotonic” exercise needs (which I’m almost positive does not involve gyros).

The interior of the north side of the building could generously be described as minimal; you’ll find two DIY wood bars painted green against each wall of the room with about five chairs for enjoying your fare. This set up definitely leans toward the take out crowd, and I wouldn’t recommend it for your next romantic date night out.

A very friendly employee helpfully walked us through the menu. The two main options are your first decision point: sushi burrito or sushi bowl?

The sushi burrito replaces the typical

tortilla with seaweed, akin to a large uncut sushi roll, while the bowl piles the ingredients on top of rice, with shredded seaweed on top. Each comes with rice and a few standard items such as avocado, cucumber, pickled ginger and tempura bits.

Next up, you choose your filling – we were told that the shrimp tempura and ahi tuna are favorites – with an enticing signature sauce. My husband chose the ahi tuna bowl with sesame vinaigrette ($12) and I chose the veggie tempura with spicy miso ($11). My husband was also pretty excited to have a hard-to-find Cherry Coke.

We waited just a short time for our food to be prepared, a lucky occur-

rence as I was approaching the hangry zone when we arrived. (I may have run to the counter once our food was called out.)

My husband’s sushi bowl had great flavors. The ahi tuna was nicely prepared and the sesame dressing accented the tuna very well. The tempura bits and shredded seaweed added a nice crunch and flavor to the bowl. I was worried my sushi burrito would just taste like a giant piece of sushi, but it was more on the side of burrito with sushi flavors. The rice and tempura were good, but what really knocked this burrito out of the park was the spicy miso sauce. I can’t believe I don’t already own a bottle of

this myself, and am a little sad thinking of all the food that I’ve eaten in the past that could have been enhanced by some spicy miso.

I will definitely be returning to try some of the other flavour offerings, and recommend this as a good place to grab lunch uptown.

3.5 cherry cokes out of 5

APRIL 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

11

HOME PRICES KEEP RISING

FEWER HOMES ON THE MARKET, WHILE WR’S POPULATION GROWS

It’s a (home) seller’s market in Kitchener Waterloo. MATT SMITH PHOTO

ONE ACCIDENT IS ONE TOO MANY IN REGION WR AND HOWE

JAMES HOWE COLUMNIST In 2016, 1,851 people were injured on the streets of Waterloo Region. That includes drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. Six died. Over each of the previous four years, nine or 10 people died.

Now let’s take a look at the most vulnerable people using our streets — walkers and bikers who are not inside a box of steel with loads of safety features. In 2016, 120 collisions involved someone getting around by foot and 87 collisions involved someone on a bicycle. In stats for the last five years, we’ve had as many as 154 pedestrians and 130 cyclists hit in one year.

You could look at these numbers from the Region of Waterloo’s 2016 collision report and believe that we’re seeing progress.

However, each and every one of these collisions was preventable through better design.

The numbers I’m citing represent people going about their everyday lives who suddenly found their stories changed. Some momentarily, but for many people their lives changed for days, weeks, months or a lifetime — if they were fortunate to survive. So did the lives of their family, friends and neighbours.

One death is too many. One pedestrian injured after being hit by someone driving a car is too many. One cyclist killed by a driver coming off the expressway is one too many.

That is the philosophy behind the Vision Zero movement that began in Sweden in 1997 and has been gaining momentum ever since. The movement’s proponents recognized that people are human and make mistakes, yet believe that all deaths and serious injuries on our streets are preventable.

Vision Zero says that our streets need to be designed so that everyone using them is kept safe. At the same time, our streets must encourage people to feel safe enough to make choices like walking and biking that keep both people and the environment healthy.

This philosophy is a departure from the past, which placed the full responsibility for road safety on people using them. Vision Zero sees that responsibility being shared by those that design our streets and enforce the rules. And it expects the latter group to continually strive for improvement, until no one is injured or killed.

The same collision report that shows how much work needs to be done before we have safe roads in Waterloo Region contains a silver lining: our regional government is considering embracing the Vision Zero movement.

While municipal staff across Waterloo Region are continually working to improve the safety of our streets, I hope they will formally recommend embracing Vision Zero just as Hamilton, Toronto and Edmonton have.

We need to make a bold declaration that we will only consider our streets safe when no one is seriously injured or killed. Doing so means we value the lives of everyone using our roads, that we are serious about having a walkable community and that we encourage cycling year round.

DAVE THOMAS CONTRIBUTOR Thinking about buying a home? It’s going to be an expensive undertaking.

House prices continue to rise in Waterloo Region, at rates similar to the Greater Toronto Area. According to the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of Realtors, there were 474 homes sold through their MLS listings in KW in February, up from the 10-year average of 405 for that month. However, supply is much lower than it was last year.

At the end of February of this year there were 427 units on the market, compared to 1,226 in February 2016.

That decreased supply, plus population growth and a strong economy, helped push prices way up.

“Detached homes sold for an average price of $549,691, an increase of 30.7 per cent, while the average sale price for an apartment style condominium was $246,736, an increase of 8.8 per cent,” according to a KWAR news release. “Townhomes and semis sold for an average of $388,721 (up 20.6 per cent) and $369,624 (up 31 per cent) respectively.”

For now, low interest rates help. Michael Hewitson is a sales representa-

tive at Royal LePage Wolle Realty, and has worked in the industry for seven years. He hasn’t noticed a substantial decrease in the number of first-time buyers — yet. But a lot of them have had to adjust their expectations.

“Under the current market conditions, many first-time buyers are finding that their money won’t go as far as it did even just a few months ago,” says Hewitson. “Some buyers are reducing their expectations — size, condition, location — while others are spending more than they had initially planned to get what they want.”

There’s been a substantial increase in the number of buyers coming from the GTA. “The Region of Waterloo offers buyers from the Toronto area a nice home, with some property and it is still only a short drive to Toronto,” says Hewitson. “What we are also finding is as tech companies continue to grow in Waterloo, the demand for housing from those moving for jobs is increasing.”

That increased competition for fewer units also makes it more challenging for people who are already in the market. Lisa, a KW resident who asked The Community Edition not to use her real name, has a small bungalow where she lives with her husband and two kids under age five. Their current space no longer meets their needs.

“We are looking for something that gives our kids some extra space to run

around and play,” she says. “We want a place that is in need of updating so that we can renovate it to our taste.”

Lisa, who’s been looking for a new home since the spring of 2016, says the process is “disheartening and frustrating.”

Having to bid over asking price is nerve-racking.

“We [recently] put in another offer on another property — $70,000 over asking with no conditions, [which is] scary! And we were still not successful,” she says. “Despite the frustrations we are still looking. We know that we need to be patient. Hoping that the spring market will offer more inventory.”

Hewitson has some advice, especially for first-time buyers.

“The key is to be realistic within the market conditions. Prices are increasing and it is currently a strong sellers’ market. The buyer needs to be ready to act quickly and often with no conditions, which can be scary for any buyer, but especially for a first-time buyer. It is important to know what they want, understand what it will cost and determine a strategy with their realtor to get the home they want.”

Next month: What can be done to cool an over-heating housing market without causing it to crash?

APRIL 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

12

Did you know that Kitchener’s downtown Market uses a produce verification program called MyPick to guard against produce fraud? Now you know, because they do. MEG HARDER ILLUSTRATION

CULTIVATING APPLES & CHANGE

AFTER EIGHT GENERATIONS, LOCAL FAMILY FARMERS STILL HUSTLING

WR AT WORK

MEGAN NOURSE CONTRIBUTOR On a bitter cold day this February, Jen Howell showed me around her family farm. The Howells have farmed the land, now known as Brantview Apples and Cider, for eight generations.

Last year, Howell made the leap to full time farmer on the orchard, working alongside her dad Jay to learn and grow the business with the plan that, one day, she’ll take the reins.

Howell is part of a new generation of farmer: in her early 20s, university educated, passionate about agriculture and ready for a job traditionally held by men — usually much older.

“I always knew [farming] would be somewhat in my future, but I didn’t realize I would jump into it right off the bat,” Howell said as she showed me around the farm’s apple shed.

The shed is actually a big, green, barn-like structure housing the farm store, open every day during the September and October harvest season, and on weekends till the end of each year. Free of customers in the off

season, the store is like a museum of apple products. Jams, butters, vinegar, sauces, apple cider and signs of the farm’s newest product, hard cider.

Under the brand Howell Road Cider Co., the father and daughter have waded into the craft alcohol industry.

“I’ve always been super passionate about craft alcohol; knowing where your drinks come from the same way I am about knowing where my food comes from,” Howell said.

She and her dad brewed 2,400 liters of cider to sell at their farm and at markets in December. They were sold out within two weeks. In February, they had another 4,000 litres fermenting.

“Ours is a very dry cider. I didn’t want to add sugar; I didn’t want to put in anything that I wouldn’t want to drink myself,” said Howell.

She’s working on recipe development of a few seasonal ciders with rhubarb and sour cherries from the Niagara Region. A sweet cider is also in the works, using honey from a neighbouring farm.

“I love it. It’s so fun, it’s challenging, it’s interesting… we kind of just went for it,” said Howell.

If you want to get technical, Howell’s farm is just outside of Waterloo Region, in St. George. But, despite her farm being there, Howell is not about that small town life anymore, having

recently moved to Kitchener. Moving off the farm allows for more of a worklife balance and living in Kitchener allows for more of a social life, she told me. Howell commutes into the farm Monday to Friday now.

“I need to have a life outside of the farm too… that’s what kind of drove me to move away,” she said.

The farm is a true family business, especially during harvest season when all five Howells take part in picking, grading, baking, working at farmer’s markets and in the farm store. They’ve now added an event pavilion to their property, which is already fully booked for weddings this summer — another way to diversify revenue when many family farms are dying.

Howell knows that, especially in her small hometown, she stands out as a young female farmer. But she doesn’t’ think that will last long. She credits environmental movements like the 100-mile diet and our increasing cultural focus on living local with helping to change the perspective on the career farmer. She recently joined the Young Apple Growers, a group of mostly millennials in the Ontario farming industry.

The plan is that one day, Howell will take over the farm from her father, but for now she says she has a lot left to learn about agriculture and the industry as a whole.

Jen Howell is the ninth generation of family farmer on her homestead.

PHOTOS COURTESY JEN HOWELL

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APRIL 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

THE NEW QUARTERLY PUSHES CANLIT BOUNDARIES 35 YEARS IN THE GAME, WATERLOO LITERARY MAGAZINE KEEPS ASKING CRITICAL QUESTIONS ABOUT “OUR” IDENTITIES

ALEXANDRA BISSLEY CONTRIBUTOR Maybe you have seen The New Quarterly (TNQ) on the shelves at Words Worth Books in uptown, or posters for its annual Wild Writers Literary Festival in the fall. Maybe your neighbour’s sister writes for them, or maybe you’ve never heard of them at all.

“We’re Waterloo’s best kept secret but we’re not supposed to be a secret,” says TNQ’s editor Pamela Mulloy with a laugh.

Housed at St. Jerome’s University and now in its 36th year, TNQ is recognized by readers, writers, publishers and critics alike as a sort of incubator of Canadian Literature (CanLit), publishing award-winning emerging and established Canadian writers and foretelling the trends and voices of CanLit.

“The fact that we’re not in Toronto makes us a different publication,” Mulloy tells me. “I feel like [our] independence is greater because we’re not part of a literary scene there.”

Instead, TNQ benefits from a rich reader- and author-ship in Waterloo Region.

“There’s a solid base of readers and writers here,” Mulloy says. “That has helped us in terms of our own sense of being able to exist here and thrive.”

She attributes TNQ’s wide national recognition to a “nice sort of synergy” with other literary organizations both local and across the country (their summer issue is being guest-edited by a Vancouver-based editor, for example) and a well-supported literary journal and independent publishing community in Canada in general.

I met with Mulloy the week Stuart McLean died, which seemed to have prompted a lot of public discourse about Canada and its voice and its stories. This timing struck me as especially poignant, as we, as Canadians, undertake the critically important

work of critically examining how we define our “voice” as a “country”.

I asked Mulloy what she, as the editor of a distinctly Canadian literary journal, thinks our literary voice is saying, the story it is telling.

“It’s hard to capture… because I think it is quite diverse.” Maybe it was too big of a question? “I don’t see it as a voice, and I think that for me that’s the problem. It’s voices.”

Mulloy relays her own experience as a Canadian living in England in the 1990s during the emergence of CanLit, and its perennial tie to Margaret Atwood.

“Margaret Atwood has done a lot for CanLit,” she says, “but [the country’s literature] had become narrowly defined by that one person.”

In an effort to shirk any comparable narrowness, TNQ has recently renewed its commitment to diversifying the voices it publishes, putting out distinct calls to Indigenous writers, the LBGTQ+ community and young writers, amongst others, in an effort to broaden TNQ’s own breadth of voice.

MATT SMITH

Mulloy acknowledges that increasing the diversity of their contributors is part of a bigger perceived inaccessibility that can come with a prestigious literary magazine.

“People from diverse backgrounds may not submit to us because [they tell themselves] a white person, an intellectual, that’s not me.” She tells me that TNQ has its work cut out to tear down some of the myths surrounding who can contribute to literary magazines, and who they are for.

TNQ’s community book readings and the Wild Writer’s Festival have helped break down some of the perceived risk of the unknown that surrounds the “literature” label of the journal. “But it is tricky,” Mulloy says, “because I understand that people want to be safe in their purchases.”

She reminds me that “literature” doesn’t imply language that is any more difficult than what Chapters, for example, advertises to me, and suggests it is probably a lot more interesting.

“We say that at TNQ we discover

writers before they’re famous so it’s really the kind of ground-level, grassroots of literature… new and fresh and exciting.”

TNQ’s efforts to publish a wider representation of Canadian writers seems partly motivated by the obvious fact that these writers are already out there, waiting to be heard. When I ask Mulloy what direction she sees CanLit moving in, she suggests a new sense of authenticity and ownership of experience.

“You know, [a writer might have been] born and raised in South Asia but up to now they have felt that they needed to write a story about a white girl growing up in Mississauga because they didn’t feel that there was any legitimacy to their own voice… Maybe what is happening is people are more open. This is what I hope. That people are more open to speak honestly about what their voice is.”

I hope, for TNQ and for us all, that we’re willing to listen.

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APRIL 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

14

ON SELF-CLEANING VAGINAS SEXPLANATIONS

STACEY JACOBS COLUMNIST Someone recently told me they read online that a mixture of baking soda and vinegar was a good vagina cleaner.

Last week a person told me they heard tea tree oil was the best vagina cleaner.

A few months ago someone informed me that Coca-Cola acted as spermicide and should be poured into the vagina after sex to prevent pregnancy.

I am continually told by people with vaginas they use douche on a regular basis or while they are menstruating or after sex.

I have said it before and I will say it again: vaginas clean themselves.

There is no need to put any type of cleaning product, homemade or bought, in your vagina. When I say vagina I am referring to the canal that leads from the vulva on the outside of

the body to the cervix and uterus on the inside of the body.

Vulvas can be cleaned with a soft cloth and warm water, or even just warm water and clean fingers. Pubic hair and butts can be cleaned with mild soap, but leave the vagina out of it. Not even water is recommended to clean out the vagina.

When I think about cleaning body parts, I like to think about vaginas being similar to eyes. We do not clean our eyes, they clean themselves by watering or as we sleep. We do not put soap or vinegar solutions or Coca-Cola into our eyes. We do not scrub our eye balls. We gently clean around the eyes.

So treat your vagina as you do your eyes.

By putting solutions or soap or Coca-Cola into vaginas we can upset our body’s levels of acidity, which can cause discomfort, irritation and infection. Your vagina is acidic for a good reason – to protect your health. Because the vagina opens to the outside world, bacteria can get in. The vagina’s acidic environment controls bacteria and prevents the harmful types from overgrowing.

The vagina has natural secretions made up of oil, cells, sweat, bacteria and fluid from the cervix, uterus and fallopian tubes. Secretions are usually white or clear. Sometimes they can be slippery or sticky. Sometimes people call this discharge. It is the sign of a healthy vagina, a vagina that is fully capable of cleaning itself. There may also be a faint odour which may change depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle. This odour is also natural.

If your vaginal secretions are a different colour than usual or have a strong or different odour, it may be the sign of an abnormal secretion or infection and it is recommended you see a health care provider.

We live in a hectic world with more than enough to do, so let’s take cleaning our vaginas off our “to-do” lists. Keep your vagina healthy and happy by wearing cotton underwear or no underwear, avoiding G-strings or thongs, wiping from front to back, only putting food in our mouth where it belongs and making sure that anything — fingers, sex toys, penises — that goes inside the vagina is clean.

MATT SMITH

YES, THERE IS ARTS LEADERSHIP IN WR

WR OPINION

SHIRLEY MADILL CONTRIBUTOR I have recently heard statements about there being a lack of leadership in arts and culture in the Waterloo region; on the contrary, there is and it is strong. Leadership is not a singular phenomenon, nor does it encompass one organization or pilot program, or belong to a single individual. Arts leadership is multi-dimensional.

I witness arts and culture leadership in the exquisite and innovative performances of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony; in the extraordinary vision of boundary-pushing artists at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery; in the uplifting voices of Kitchener-Waterloo’s Grand Philharmonic Choir; and the joyful noise of children emanating out of the Maker Space at THEMUSEUM. In the heart of the Civic District, Centre in the Square brings in top performers and the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery continues to exhibit contemporary art and tackle big issues. I also see leadership in MT Space’s challenging and provocative productions, Registry Theatre’s plays, NUMUS’ contemporary music, and Neruda’s performances. It’s in the bold public art events organized by CAFKA and Night/Shift. It’s at Drayton Entertainment venues, our libraries, and art galleries I haven’t named.

Cultural leadership is practised in different ways and not only includes CEOs, senior managers, artistic and executive directors in our cultural institutions, but also educators and public officials who are developing and implementing policy for the cultural sector and local entrepreneurs in companies.

In the cultural world, a world I know very well, nobody has a monopoly on leadership.

Although leading the cultural sector does involve competently managing an organization — ensuring that it is financially viable, compliant and with qualified staff — it also means opening doors to different ways of thinking, feeling and experiencing the world, and bringing dynamism to the economy and wider society. In other words, the production of art in all its manifestations.

Cultural organizations face distinctive challenges. Cultural organiza-

tions are geared towards producing new ideas through the production of performances, exhibitions, and music – that which makes them cultural. Balancing this priority with the need to run a financially sustainable organisation, and one that makes a positive difference in the world, is what gives cultural leaders a unique set of challenges.

And here is a glimpse at the results of our arts and culture leaders’ good work. The Alliance for a Grand Community, composed of executive directors who lead various cultural institutions in our community, meets monthly, strategizing on how to work together and combine efforts on the cultural front for the benefit of the community The AGC was responsible for raising awareness of the value of our creative industries during the last election debates, as well as sharing and providing a brief on the federal government’s 150th anniversary funding initiatives. The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery engage with external organizations in the social services sector, such as Winston Park at Schlegel Villages to make a difference in our community’s seniors’ wellbeing and quality of life through music and art workshops.

Arts organizations have embraced and welcomed Syrian refugees offering free programming in the arts. Our arts and culture community contribute to the necessary creative education of our children from kindergarten to grade 12.

Notwithstanding the wide range of artists and organizations that make up the arts and culture community in this region, there are occasions when the totality of their achievement is celebrated. The most obvious example is the Waterloo Region Arts Awards.

From a different perspective, the City of Waterloo’s “Amplify” day-long summit in fall 2016 explicitly recognized the role of arts and culture right across the region.

The arts and culture sector in our region is connected to rich and diverse networks of supporters, funders and collaborators. They contribute to producing innovative and great ideas that make new ways of seeing, thinking and feeling possible – all about an expression of human freedom. Our cultural leaders have conviction and I have witnessed them work towards our community’s benefit and well-being in big ways.

Shirley is executive director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.

APRIL 2017 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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