The Community Edition: March 2020

VOLUME 8, ISSUE 6 • MARCH 2020

THE INSIDE SCOOP

PAGES 8-9

ON CANADIANA WITH VINTAGE BLACK CANADA

GEARING UP WITH CHRISTINE’S AUTOMOTIVE

WEED GO TOGETHER TO META CANNABIS

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MARCH 2020 // @THECOMMUNITYED

IN THIS

ISSUE

VOLUME 8, ISSUE 6

MARCH 2020

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FEATURE

8-9 THE INSIDE SCOOP AT FOUR ALL ICE CREAM

EDITOR’S PICK 4

VINTAGE BLACK CANADA

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IN BRIEF THE SIDE HUSTLE: @KEEPYOURHEADUPKW

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MENTAL MATTERS: THE CONTINUUM OF MENTAL HEALTH

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THE FAST AND THE CHRISTINE’S AUTOMOTIVE

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FEMME FOLKS FEST WATERLOO REGION

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THE UNDERGROUND RIVER OF ARTISTS

INSIDE

10 519 SCHMECKS: ONE SAPPY ARTICLE 10 NEW TUNE REVIEW: PIZZY ONLY THIS ISSUE OF TCE WAS FUELLED BY: THE WORD ‘SPICY’, DEBATES ABOUT CAPITAL LETTERS AND MOST OF ALL THE YOUNGEST MEMBER OF THE TCE TEAM — OSKAR. AND THANKS TO WARREN FOR JOINING AS COPYEDITOR. YOUR SKILLED EYE CAUGHT MANY THE EMBARASSING TYPO.

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MAKER EXPO MAKES FUNDING HAPPEN SEXPLANATIONS: ENDOMETRIOSIS AWARENESS MONTH

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SURFACE PARKING LOTS AND GIANT VAMPIRE SQUIDS

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EASY BEING GREEN: FOOD WASTE

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HOW PUBLIC ART COMES TO BE IN WATERLOO

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HYPERLOCAL TRAVEL: BE A TOURIST IN YOUR OWN CITY HARU NOON // EVENT LISTINGS

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KITCHENER’S FIRST CANNABIS RETAILOR

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COVER BY JESSE DERRY Volume 8, Issue 6 Next issue: April 1st 2020 75 University Ave. W. Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5 519-884-0710 x3564 THE COMMUNITY EDITION TEAM Editor in Chief Melissa Embury melissa@communityedition.ca Community Engagement Kristina Lalatovic kristina@communityedition.ca Publisher Lakyn Barton lakyn.barton@wlusp.com Social Media Coordinators Beth Bowles Ramona Leitao Staff Writers Rachael MacIntosh Racheal Walser Staff Photographers Jesse Derry Nick Stanley General Inquiries info@communityedition.ca

CONTRIBUTORS All advertising inquiries should be directed to Kurtis Rideout at 519-884-0710 x3560 kurtis.rideout@wlusp.com

WLUSP ADMINISTRATION President Aaron Waitson

Darin White Cara Vandermey Erin Applebee Jessie Skinner Natascha Stutz Nathan Bettio Nirupam Singh Sam Toman Victoria Rodney Warren Kocher

Executive Director Lakyn Barton Advertising Manager Kurtis Rideout Directors Alyssa Di Sabatino Arshy Mann Emily Crump Kashyap Patel Rosalind Horne

COLUMNISTS Jenna Aquino John Roche Juanita Metzger Kurtis Rideout Nick Benninger Stacey Danckert Stacey Jacobs

The Community Edition is an alternative monthly intended to engage and inform the community.

Started in 2012, the Community Edition is an editorially independent newspaper published by Wilfrid Laurier University Student Publications, Waterloo, a corporation without share capital. WLUSP is governed by its board of directors.

Opinions expressed within the Community Edition are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial board, the Community Edition, WLUSP, WLU or Centra Web. All content appearing in the Community Edition bears the copyright expressly of their creator(s) and may not be used without written consent.

The Community Edition is a member of the Ontario Press Council, which is an independent ethical organization established to deal with editorial concerns.

For additional information or to file a complaint, contact info@ontpress.com or call 416-340-1981.

Preamble to the Community Edition Constitution The Community Edition will keep faith with its readers by presenting news and expressions of opinions comprehensively, accurately and fairly. The Community Edition believes in a balanced and impartial presentation of all relevant facts in a news report, and of all substantial opinions in a

matter of controversy.

The staff of the Community Edition shall uphold all commonly held ethical conventions of journalism. When an error of omission or of commission has occurred, that error shall be acknowledged promptly.

When statements are made that are critical of an individual, or an organization, we shall give those affected the opportunity to reply at the earliest time possible. Ethical journalism requires impartiality, and consequently conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest will be avoided by all staff. The only limits of any newspaper are those of the world around it, and so the Community Edition will attempt to cover its world with a special focus on the community of Waterloo Region.

Ultimately, the Community Edition will be bound by neither philosophy nor geography in its mandate.

The Community Edition has an obligation to foster freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This obligation is best fulfilled when debate and dissent are encouraged, both in the internal workings of the paper, and through the Community Edition’s contact with the community. The Community Edition will always attempt to do what is right, with fear of neither repercussions, nor retaliation. The purpose of community press is to act as an agent of social awareness, and so shall conduct the affairs of our magazine.

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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NEWS IN BRIEF CORONAVIRUS

THOUSANDS RALLY NOT SPREADING, YET FOR TEACHERS

There’s two brick and mortar cannabis stores in the region now.

We went to the Kitchener one. It kinda looks like a Best Buy. JESSE DERRY PHOTO

CTS SITE YIELDS POSITIVE RESULTS

At time of print, Ontario has 20 diagnosed confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus, with three cases being cleared. According to Global News, health officials are confident that the virus was contracted out of the country, with no indication COVID-19 is “spreading” in the province. Still — wash your damn hands (even without a possible pandemic).

On Feb. 21, thousands of teachers and education workers gathered outside Kitchener City Hall to show support for four different unions, protesting funding cuts, increased class sizes and other grievances.

Elementary, Secondary, French and Catholic school workers had not had a simultaneous walkout since 1997.

A detailed report covering a three-month period for a local Consumption and Treatment Services / “safe injection/ consumption” site shows positive results. Between Nov. 2019 to Jan. 2020 the facility, at 150 Duke St. W. in downtown Kitchener saw no fatal overdoses, with over 300 referrals for counselling and other support groups.

NEW HQ OPENS FOR PARAMEDICS

HWY. 6 BLOCKADE REMAINS IN PLACE

KITCHENER COMIC CON DEFENDS

What do you call two people in an ambulance? A pair of medics. Now that we got your attention, 1001 Erbs Rd. in Waterloo will be home to brand-new headquarters for paramedic services. The facility is more than double the size of previous HQ at over 48,000 sq. ft. The new space is meant to help reduce overflow and travel times for ambulance drivers.

A blockade created in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs protecting land rights and protesting a controversial proposed oil pipeline in BC is currently still in place. Drivers inconvienced by this are advised to avoid Hwy.6 by-pass between Argyle Street S. and Greens Road in Caledonia — and to also check their privilege.

Organizers of Kitchener Comic Con featured voice actor Vic Mignogna as a guest despite online criticism as Mignogna has been accused of sexual harassment. Kitchener Comic Con also faced criticism in previous years for allegedly not having proper anti-harassment policies and training. The convention was Feb. 29 and Mar. 1.

CAMBRIDGE CODE OF SILENCE ARMED ROBBERIES AWARD FOR ERIN

ST PATRICKS DAY IS COMING AGAIN

Waterloo Regional Police reports indicate that the same individual is believed responsible for five robberies at convenience stores throughout Cambridge, including three separate robberies at the same location. In incidents spanning from Jan. 5, to Feb. 9, the suspect demanded cigarettes and cash from employees, who were unharmed.

A bad summary: big unsanctioned street party, safety concerns, fencing, resource diversion, taskforce. You know it all already.

We don’t have new info but we did hear that although it’s on a Tuesday this year, the previous Saturday might also be popular.

But it could be a ruse. We’ll update you next month on final numbers and if the bylaw changes work.

The Town of Erin has been awarded the 2019 “Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy.” This award is given to governments or goverment departments that are judged to be the least transparent or the most difficult to share information with the public, such as through FOI requests.

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MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

Aaron Francis started the Vintage Black Canada project.

NICK STANLEY PHOTOS

The Francis Family in England just prior to their arrival in Waterloo, mid-60s.

DONNE GERALD PHOTO, COURTESTY OF FRANCIS FAMILY.

VINTAGE BLACK CANADA

100 YEAR PHOTOGRAPHY ARCHIVE DEPICTING BLACK HISTORY IN CANADA

VICTORIA RODNEY CONTRIBUTER Kitchener-Waterloo has long been a community with rich CanadianJamaican representation.

In 1975, the Caribbean Canadian Association of Waterloo Region (CCAWR) was formed and it served to provide the Kitchener-Waterloo area with opportunities to enhance cross-cultural understanding. As a result of the formation of the CCAWR, many Jamaican families, including the Francis family from which Aaron Francis would be born, had the opportunity to thrive.

“My family came here in the 1960s.

My grandfather was an aerospace engineer. When he came here, he

only had a high school education. He achieved this through just sheer will and intelligence. He instilled in me a sense of pride, a sense of hard work,” Francis said.

Along with this sense of inspiration and drive, Francis’ grandfather would instill in him an archival spirit, one that would eventually lead to the creation of Vintage Black Canada.

“My grandfather was a photographer.

He was one of the go-to Black photographers in the area. He had a massive collection that he brought from Jamaica. Some he collected, some he had taken himself,” Francis said.

And so, shortly before his passing in January of 2019, he would bestow one last gift to Francis — his 100year photography archive. In the two months of surviving his grief, Francis decided that this archive was one worth sharing. In the archive, appropriately titled Vintage Black Canada (VBC), the complexity of Blackness was laid bare.

“I want to see Black people’s point of view, I don’t want Black people to be erased. Jamaican club, Jamaican restaurant, Jamaican patty shop… why did so many Jamaicans get deported?

How did we lose our place? Our history and our contributions are being erased,” Francis said.

The mainstream narrative of Black people in Canada renders us invisible.

In the eyes of the mainstream, we are little more than poor, incarcerated and violent. VBC allows us to see a world of Black people where there is more than grief. In the world of Black people, there is joy, celebration and a unique sense of freedom. Through works like Vintage Black Canada, we are able to redefine our history and from there, create a beautiful, sovereign future.

“We need to know where we’re coming from if we want to know where we’re going,” Francis said.

What we define as Canadiana has been filtered through one lens, one story. Specifically, that of the

preeminent European-Canadian experience. But what it means to be Canadian is changing, so too should the way that we view Canadiana and more importantly, Canadian history.

“Mine is just a slice of Black history.

Canadian Black history. I want to redefine what Canadiana is. I think what we see as Canadiana has long changed and I don’t want to continue to erase that fact,” Francis said.

The first Black family settled here in Waterloo’s first school building sometime in the 1800s, a story that is not often told or included when discussing the history of this community.

“The future is Black and Indigenous,” said Francis.

A future that sews together the pieces of different Canadian and Indigenous histories into a collaborative mosaic should be one that we all hope to create together.

The Vintage Black Canada exhibit is open at CIGI until Mar. 15.

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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KEEP YOUR HEAD UP KITCHENER-WATERLOO

ALLIE HARRISON AND FELICIA CORRADO LAUNCHED @KEEPYOURHEADUPKW TO SUPPORT THOSE RECOVERING BRAIN INJURY

THE SIDE HUSTLE

JENNA AQUINO COLUMNIST When we experience an unexpected trauma, relying on our community can be one of the most valuable pieces of our recovery — a network of people who can empathize and provide support.

Through their newly established passion project @keepyourheadupkw, Kitchener-Waterloo’s own Allie Harrison and Felicia Corrado are making this kind of support more accessible, particularly to those who are recovering from brain injuries.

“Felicia and I went to high school together locally and we both sustained sports-related concussions during that time that continue to affect us now.

We became a support system for each other,” Harrison said.

The two remained part of each other’s journeys throughout their studies at the University of Waterloo, where Corrado received a Bachelor of Public Health and Harrison is currently finishing a Bachelor of Health Studies. Their commitment to establishing a career in the health industry is unmistakably motivated by their own personal experiences.

“Since our injuries happened, there has been so much progress in the field of concussion awareness … but what we still find is that people who find themselves in that position often struggle to learn about what kind of support they need, where to find it and how to advocate for themselves,”

Harrison said.

Their intrinsic motivation to make an impact has led them to team up and share their own experiences with the public.

“We’ve created a platform through Instagram and our goal is to build an online community that offers hope for individuals going through similar journeys. We want to remind those enduring a seemingly never-ending recovery that there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” Harrison said.

Behind the scenes, the duo is busy fleshing out ambitious plans to centralize information about support for brain injuries to aid in the process of recovery.

“There is no clear cut path [to recovery] for every person because every concussion is different. There are a lot of support services available, but they’re often siloed and not well connected to each other, which can make it difficult for someone experiencing the symptoms of a concussion to navigate. You wouldn’t ask someone with a broken leg to run around jumping through hoops to get the medical care they need, so it shouldn’t be such a difficult research process to find support for a brain injury,” Harrison said.

“We want to go beyond teaching people about the signs and symptoms … we’re putting together an education program that allows individuals to put themselves in the shoes of someone facing a concussion and identify the kind of support that is available to them should they ever need it,” Corrado said.

“We don’t want to generalize [this education] based on what our personal experiences were. We have been meeting with all kinds of different experts in the community — medical authors, physical therapists,

Allie and Felicia breaking down silos and connecting the community.

NATHAN BETTIO PHOTO concussion researches, etc. — and gaining their insights to broaden our perspectives,” she added.

With plans to take this interactive education program into high schools, their intention is to not only support youth facing similar injuries but to provide their parents, teachers and coaches with the knowledge they can use to do so as well. In addition, Corrado and Harrison plan to coordinate community events that they hope will aid in other areas of brain rehabilitation.

“Social isolation is a big issue for

people who suffer from concussions and it can be detrimental to that person’s mental health. We want to shed light on that and provide opportunities for people to get out of the house and participate in fun activities that won’t create more symptoms, alongside people who understand what they’re going through,” Corrado said.

Recently having become a yoga instructor, Harrison is completing a certification through an organization called Love Your Brain that will allow her to teach yoga for people affected

by brain injuries as well, adding even more value to their programming.

Corrado commented on the overwhelmingly supportive response this community has showed them since the launch of their platform.

“We didn’t imagine things would progress as quickly as they already have and honestly, we’re flabbergasted! It has really reaffirmed how much of a need there is for this type of support in our community and we’re so excited to move forward,” she said.

Where are you on the continuum? CREATIVE COMMONS

WHAT IS THE CONTINUUM OF MENTAL HEALTH

HEALING WOUNDS, LIVING JOYFULLY AND TRANSCENDING YOUR EGO ON YOUR MENTAL HEALTH JOURNEY

MENTAL MATTERS

JOHN ROCHE COLUMNIST “Mental health exists on a continuum.”

These days, more and more Instagram posts are saying something along these lines and I agree wholeheartedly. But it does beg the question: what the hell does that actually mean?

One way to make sense of it — and the framework favoured in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) — is to think of the mental health journey as moving from being unable to control your behaviour to healing your deepest wounds, to

living joyfully, to transcending your ego.

That’s a mouthful but here’s what it looks like on the ground.

BEHAVIOURAL DYSCONTROL. This is a nerdy, clinical way of saying that someone compulsively does destructive things they don’t feel good about. Cutting, substance abuse, staying in bed all day, procrastination, disordered eating, attack or withdrawal in a relationship, overwork, compulsive spending and a whole bunch of other behaviours fall into this category.

It’s important to remember that all such actions are actually solutions to the problem of suffering. People at this point on the continuum of mental health learned early in life that doing one or more of these things temporarily reduces their suffering.

Unfortunately, over the long term,

these behaviours actually add to their suffering and lead to a classic vicious cycle.

EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCING Once a person learns to manage their suffering in ways that don’t create more suffering — their next task is to bring awareness and presence to what Carl Jung called ‘the shadow’.

At this point on the continuum, a person begins to heal the deep wounds that drove their destructive behaviours in the first place.

Therapies like EMDR, Somatic Experiencing and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy were designed to help specifically with this process.

It’s kind of humbling to realize how much shit we haul around without even being aware of it and this point on the continuum of mental health is all about finding and transforming it.

JOY Joy is about how we choose to live our lives if we’re no longer using up all our time and energy running away from our pain. This point on the continuum is characterized by loving relationships, a sense of meaning and purpose and an alignment between our most deeply held values and our actions.

However, it shows up — whether through time in nature, connection with loved ones, caring for our body, investing in our business, honing our craft or any number of other things — joy is about authenticity, calm, connection and integrity. It’s pretty sweet.

we could ever want or be, we already have and are.

We catch glimpses of transcendence in the moments where time stops: falling in love, standing on top of a mountain, witnessing the birth of a child or marvelling at the beauty of the sunset. Subject and object, time and space, me and you — all of it just falls away and underneath it is a profound oneness and unspeakable peace and power.

A great therapist can help you figure out where you fall on this continuum, get clarity on what’s keeping you stuck and take concrete steps toward joy or transcendence.

TRANSCENDENCE This point on the continuum is what the spiritual teachers throughout history are always on about. The main message here is that in this one little moment, everything

John Roche is a therapist in Kitchener-Waterloo

MARCH 2020 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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Christine Beck has been in the auto mechanic field for over 30 years. JESSE DERRY PHOTO

CHRISTINE TOOK THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED

HOW MECHANIC CHRISTINE BECK HAS BEEN BREAKING DOWN GENDER STEREOTYPES IN THE INDUSTRY FOR DECADES

RACHEAL WALSER STAFF WRITER Women who own auto mechanic shops are few and far between, but Christine Beck has continued to thrive in a male-dominated industry for more than three decades.

“When I was a kid, we used to have these portable radios. We would always have a couple of them. My mom would say, ‘make them work.’

And I would. From a really early age I loved fixing things!” Beck said.

Beck who is 50 now, owns her own shop. She’s been in the field for 34 years, and says she has “maybe another ten to go.”

The middle child in a family of three, Beck grew up with two brothers and a

resounding ability to stay focused on a singular goal.

From childhood, she knew she wanted to work on cars.

“In high school, I wanted into the men’s mechanical class and they wouldn’t let me. Even my parents went in and talked to the principal.

Everyone knew this is what I wanted to do,” Beck said.

Unsatisfied with the alternate programming for women, Beck pushed on undaunted. At 17, she got a job washing cars at the then, Wheelan Ford. She then found Country Hills Automotive and stayed there for over two decades.

“It was a big company, they signed me up to get my ticket and after a year, still had me washing cars. So I left,” She said.

To be a female mechanic at the time, left social implications that Beck didn’t really buy into.

“They always expected you to be sort of butchy and queer, but at

home, I’m in my skirts and dresses, I love jewellery. I just really like fixing things,” Beck said.

And she isn’t the type to have a driveway full of rusted-out old cars she’s trying to fix or cinder blocks off to the side just in case. Beck is a self-proclaimed neat freak and very clear that as much as she loves fixing cars — this is her profession, not her entire life. In her extraordinarily clean, three-bay shop, Becks has tires stacked to the ceiling, labelled for the most part, by first name.

“Sometimes the older men would look at me and say, ‘shouldn’t you be at home in the kitchen, having babies’ because that was the expectation in their generation. If they gave me a hard time about it, I would just say ‘I’m not fixing your car’ it’s that simple,” Beck said.

And it would seem that frankness has become a Christine’s Automotive staple.

“I love this work for the people. I

have three generations of people coming to see me now, some of them I’ve known since they were born and they’re having their own kids.”

Beck worked at Country Hills Automotive for 22 years, seeing the families of her customers grow. When her boss offered her the business, she bought it and moved the location to Hanson Avenue, a stone’s throw away from Wheelan Automotive where she first started.

“I was going to call it Chris’ Automotive,” she said.

Beck laughed about how she’d floated the idea past her orthodontist one day and was shot down on the basis that no one would know it’s her shop.

“He was right. I had to call it Christine’s!” Beck said.

Over the years, Beck’s traction in a male-dominated industry has not gone without recognition. She has given talks and mentored female coop students, but to her, it all comes

down to one thing — mechanical inclination.

“You’ve either got it, or you don’t,” she said.

Heading strong into its 13th year, the shop now serves as an inspiration and a community connection for her family and her clients. The whiteboard in the waiting room advertises mint Girl Guide cookies for five dollars a box.

And one other thing — a very special plaque.

In 2008, Beck was one of eight individuals selected from across Canada to drive a NASCAR race car around the official track.

“I was the fastest out of all the boys!

They said go fast, so I did,” Beck said.

Christine’s Automotive is located at 38 Hanson Avenue in Kitchener.

“Just knock on the door, we’re easygoing,” Beck said.

FEMME FOLKS FEST IN WR

CREATING YOUR OWN SPACE TO TELL AND PRODUCE YOUR OWN STORIES

ERIN APPLEBEE CONTRIBUTOR This March, Kitchener-Waterloo is hosting the inaugural Femme Folks Fest — the only women-identifying or presenting theatre festival of its size in Canada. Femme Folks Fest will be running throughout the month in various KW locations, coinciding with International Women’s Day and International Theatre Day. Femme Folks Fest did not start out with this lofty goal in mind though — it was not about creating a marathon festival, in fact, it started with a problem.

According to Lisa O’Connell, artistic director of Pat the Dog Theatre Creation, the problem was the limited stories on stage about women.

“For women in theatre, our stories are produced at about a third of what the male stories are. There is a myriad of reasons for that… but l am a practitioner, a practical person, and how come those stories are not on stage?” O’Connell asked.

Five years ago, O’Connell and Pat the Dog, a theatre incubator helping artists to tell their stories, began down

a road to solve this very problem.

Creating The Women’s Room, a place that gathered women from all over the region together in a safe environment to tell their stories — Pat the Dog was there to help them come to life.

“The issue was we had all these beautiful women’s stories but how could [we] get them to the audience.

A play is never finished until the audience comes. The audience is the final piece,” O’Connell said.

According to O’Connell, they were lacking producers. Pat the Dog had previously worked with emerging companies but it was always a oneoff. The theatre world needed more producers.

“It dawned on me, well why don’t I do it. Why don’t we move from being an incubator, where we work in play development, to a producer. We had started doing that in Northern Ontario seven years ago with some success, so I thought let me try it here,” O’Connell said.

For O’Connell and Pat the Dog, they aimed for a week, but after gathering work and inviting community organization, they had enough material for a whole month.

Kira Meyers Guidon will present Queer Spawn, one of the works created from an early Women’s Room, at Femme Folks Fest. Queer Spawn is a true telling of what it was like growing

up with two moms.

“Kira and I met and worked together in The Women’s Room and here we are four and a half years later — we have a piece that’s ready for production to be at our festival. The origins of [Femme Folks Fest] really came from getting all these beautiful stories and there are not enough people to produce them,” O’Connell said.

With 40 events, there is something for everyone. There are free and ticketed events along with professional development opportunities, including a workshop on lighting, puppetry and directing for musical theatre.

Femme Folks Fest will also have pop-ups, with details only posted a few hours before each event on social media. O’Connell hinted that something special might happen on International Theatre Day on Mar. 27.

The festival will feature traditional works and indie theatre. Many of the theatrical pieces are paired with a conversation.

“We hope to create a situation where people are able to see it, feel it, and talk about it,” O’Connell said.

One such conversation will be around cycling safety. Bike Face by Natalie Frijia is a solo show about a woman’s experience cycling across Canada. It’s being paired with a conversation with Kate Pearce from

In theatre, women’s stories are produced at about a third of what men’s stories are according to Lisa O’Connell at Pat the Dog. CREATIVE COMMONS Waterloo Global Science Initiative on cycling safety for people with children.

Femme Folks Fest is creating a place for conversation and inclusion.

For O’Connell, it’s not about male vs female stories. It is about the stories that are absent.

“You cannot know it, if it’s not available to you. You cannot identify it, if it’s not out there. You cannot be influenced by it and you cannot be angry at it. In theatre, you should not agree with everything but if it’s not present and if you do not see it, then there is just an absence,” O’Connell said.

O’Connell, a self-proclaimed lover

of The Godfather and Fast and the Furious, believes that men can appreciate these stories the same way women can appreciate the traditionally male-oriented work. The audience just needs to be given the opportunity to see them.

Femme Folks Fest is an invitation to the community with over 38 community partners.

According to O’Connell: “There is clearly an agreement that something needs to shift… I think this is our time — I think it is when the stars align, and I think everyone has just come together for a reason.”

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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Ralf Wall and Jen Gough are both local artists. NIRUPAM SINGH PHOTO

ON FINDING A LOCAL VIBRANT

UNDERGROUND RIVER OF ARTISTS

CONVERSATIONS WITH LOCAL ARTISTS RALF WALL AND JEN GOUGH ON FINDING AND MAKING YOUR OWN SPACE

MELISSA EMBURY EDITOR IN CHIEF What does it take to be successful as an artist in the region?

Ralf Wall went from a hobbyist painter working at Sun Life during the day, to a wildly successful full-time professional artist overnight. He credits his growth to the mentorship of Jen Gough of Mind’s Eye Studio, and the help of Globe Studios and Homer Watson Gallery.

Wall, who was born in Brazil, but raised in Kitchener from the age of one after his Mennonite family immigrated here, has found tremendous support in the art scene over the short time since becoming a full-time artist.

“I only came on the scene five years ago. I’ve always been an artist, but I didn’t go full time until then,” Wall said.

After losing his job suddenly at Sun Life five years ago, his wife encouraged him to reach out to a long-time friend and successful veteran artist in the Region’s art scene — Jen Gough.

“So I said, Jen, can I pick your brain?

Give me some advice. I’m just starting out. And I pretty much did everything she told me to do. And then, you know, things, my career just kind of skyrocketed. It was just amazing. I did a lot in a short span that a lot of bigname artists who have been around for 20 years [have not],” Gough said.

Gough owns Mind’s Eye Studio, a gallery space that features a new local artist reception every month. It was Wall’s turn to shine with his own show at the gallery called Spirit Within last month showcasing his layered abstracts.

Although Gough has been working as an artist for over ten years locally after quitting her career in retail. It was a long road to being commercially successful and she’s learned a lot along the way.

“For the first couple years, I just sort of splashed around and figured stuff out. And then a style started to emerge. And I sort of started to find my footing and my creative inspiration,” Gough said.

From there it was all about getting herself out there and community building to spread the word and promote other artists like herself just getting started on the scene.

“When I first was starting to get into the arts and when things were first starting picking up [in 2006/2007] and all that networking was happening. There was a group of us who sort of started that #KWAwesome to promote it,” Gough said.

Gough describes the arts and culture community in the region as a ‘vibrant underground river that nobody knows is there’ but with some digging can be found.

“What we are doing is trying to make that river more available for everyone to see that it was there….to help get the word out,” Gough said.

These days Minds Eye Studios and Gallery serves as a hub for emerging artists on the local scene and an affordable space for people to teach and practice yoga. Gough hopes that offering yoga for just $10 a class on the weekends will help others find some inner peace and happiness like she did when going through her depression.

“The depression kind of snuck up on me and then I lost all my inspiration.

And I wasn’t able to work anymore.

And so that put me in kind of a funk for almost three years. So then I found yoga. I felt like a bit of a weight had been lifted. The more I went, the

better I felt,” Gough explained.

So what was the advice and mentorship Gough gave to Wall that led to his artistic success?

“Be seen everywhere. Don’t let people forget you. But don’t be a salesman. Just be at every event. Enter every show that you can. If someone asks you to be part of something, say yes if you can do it,” Wall revealed.

When asked what it means to have always been an artist, he harkens back to school days when a teacher picked one of his paintings for an art competition at Homer Watson Gallery.

“It ended up at the Homer Watson at the end of the show and I remember saying, one day I’ll be a real artist and I’ll have stuff here.”

He now teaches watercolour landscapes and acrylic abstract painting classes to adults at Homer Watson Gallery on a regular basis.

Wall is also among more than 30 artists working out of Globe Studios at 141 Whitney Place, a not-for-profit organization providing a safe and affordable studio space to practising artists in the region.

“The vibe is awesome. Sometimes it’s just hopping — you feel the creative energy,” Wall said.

Wall talked about how important it is to stay on brand so people start to remember who you are. He recounted the story of Bob Ross once saying that if he got rid of his signature afro hairstyle, he would simply become Robert Ross.

“So I’m known for the big beard and the shorts. I wear shorts all the time.”

Why does Gough paint watercolour landscapes?

After taking a watercolour class with a Dutch WWII veteran who described life in a concentration camp, Wall painted a scene from his imagination of his teacher’s experiences The realization that art is about storytelling.

“That story just really stuck with me and I still have that painting hidden away here. And this is not flowers and fruit. I can tell stories with watercolour. It was like he woke up something in me,” Wall said.

At that time, Wall was primarily doing fantasy based art. His watercolour teacher told him if he wanted to do realistic landscapes to go outside to learn what it looks like.

“Because of him, I did that. So now I paint primarily outdoors, almost everything. Every landscape you see is probably done outdoors with very few exceptions,” Wall said.

And Wall has so many stories from those experiences. That time he forgot his brushes and painted with sticks and leaves. The time a dragonfly landed on his brush. That time a bird came to sit on his easel. Animals coming to watch him in action.

“It’s pretty bizarre. I love it. But it only happens when you are in the flow. Yeah, all that glitters. There’s nothing else.”

Last year, Wall took part in a local Kitchener company that invites artists on an Art Safari in Kenya.

He painted a watercolour 1000 feet in the air from a hot air balloon of the sunrise over the Serengeti. While in Kenya, Wall also got the opportunity to teach a painting class to local children who impressed him with their talent. They asked when the bearded man is coming back. He’ll be going again this year.

To paint with Ralf Wall, go to the Homer Watson Gallery website to register for one of his ongoing courses or follow him on Twitter @RaflarTheArtist to find out more.

Look for Jen Gough’s monthly Artist’s Reception event and the schedule for her weekend yoga classes posted on Minds Eye Studio’s Facebook page @MY.M.E.S.A.

Steph Boutari (above) designed and mapped out the mural in t main space and the Four All staff painted it as a tea

Ajoa Mintah in front of Four All’s new uptown Waterloo location on Willis Way. JESSE DERRY PHOTOS

the am.

Steph Bourari’s mural design is basically an abstract interpretation of imagining what it would be like to inhabit a tub of ice cream. STEPH BOUTARI GRAPHIC

CHILLIN’ WITH FOUR ALL IN UPTOWN WORDS BY NATASCHA STUTZ • PHOTOS BY JESSE DERRY Ice cream in the winter? Yes, please!

Ajoa Mintah, founder of Four All Ice Cream is ready to bring her handcrafted ice cream to uptown Waterloo with their first stand-alone retail location on Willis Way opening soon.

“It lets us deliver an experience for people. The space is cozy. We want to give people a comfortable place to sit.

If sitting is not what you need, we’re in a very central location of the city that can be a bit of a community hub,” Mintah said.

Their all-natural ice cream made with locally-sourced ingredients (Guernsey cow milk from Eby Manor farm, combined with local cream) will still be made in small batches by hand at the original production facility on Whitney St. in Kitchener. The new kitchen in uptown Waterloo will make the add-ins and sauces and do some of the baking for mix-ins like brownies.

“Our kitchen is relatively open so that people can, if they want, have a peek at what we’re doing. It lets us deliver on an experience for people,” Mintah said.

Mintah sees ice cream as a blank canvas and looks to add in local flavours. Supporting the local business community is a priority for her and she looks for opportunities to collaborate.

“The blank canvas of ice cream really is a chance for us to highlight what other makers are doing and get that

into our product to get back to people.

We are happy to tell people who we partnered with,” Mintah said.

They work with all local partners: small farmers, a honey apiary, a maple producer, a baker, bean-tobar chocolate makers, small-batch coffee roasters and local distillers and brewers in order to achieve “robust, full, deep flavour profiles that taste real.”

She has carried that local feeling into the decor of the shop as well, by using a local artist Steph Boutari to design two custom murals for the interior. The one on the main wall was sketched by the artist and painted by her team, and there are hidden surprises to discover in the bathrooms. Mintah is grateful to the KW community for their support of her and her business.

“I honestly feel if you are going to start a small business, [KW] is almost one of the best places to do it in. This is a community that loves entrepreneurship. People seek out and support new businesses or people trying something different,” Mintah said.

Although opening a business is not easy, she is thankful for the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in KW as well as support and resources available like Waterloo Region’s Small Business Centre.

“I see entrepreneurship in general as just not easy. In making a career

shift from something that I knew very well, it’s very hard to do. There’s a lot I don’t know, but the attitude is put one foot forward every single day and tap into the resources that exist in this community.”

She advises people to do their homework before jumping into a new business and to just push forward every day. Mintah feels that as long as she has put her best effort in, she has succeeded. But finding time to balance it all is difficult for a small business owner and she leans on her support network.

“I had a great support system of people behind me that picked up the stuff that I wasn’t able to do so that I could get this off the ground. My husband is very supportive and at the time that I started I had very young children,” Mintah said.

She emphasizes that entrepreneurship is risky and that there is no guarantee of success. If you have support, it can be the backbone to help you take that leap.

Her journey to owning a small business started out of a quest for something different and a way to bring passion to her everyday work.

She left the corporate world looking for a way to mix her education as a mechanical engineer with solving a problem and landed on ice cream.

“I know that everyone loves ice cream. I love ice cream. The issue is that people (have) stopped eating this

amazing treat that they love, typically because of dietary issues or lack of a good quality product,” Mintah said.

Mintah has so many ideas for new ice cream flavours. At Four All, she has divided the flavours into four categories with something for everyone, hence the name Four All. “Four All - because we want our products to be for as many people as possible. We make sure that we have a choice for everybody. It’s not just everything for everybody, but it is something for everybody,” Mintah said.

There are ‘Classic’ flavours for people that want a flavour that they recognize. ‘Childhood’ for some classic nostalgic favourites for the young and young at heart, as well as ‘Vegan’ for dairy-free options. Mintah’s favourite category is ‘Foodie’. “(The foodie category) is for ice cream lovers that are adventurous they want something that’s kind of out there. It’s something that we know works as a flavour combination that maybe we are actually hoping that you’ve never seen before as ice cream.

That’s what we put together and that’s definitely my favourite,” Mintah said.

Four All anticipates a Mar. 7 opening for the new store. In the meantime, their ice cream is available to buy at their Factory Store at 141 Whitney Place, Unit #105 open Wed. to Fri., from 12 P.M. to 6 P.M. and at various stockists around the region.

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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WARNING: THERE’S ONE SAPPY ARTICLE AHEAD

519 SCHMECKS

NICK BENNINGER COLUMNIST Maple marauder, sapsucker, syrup skeezer, pancake soaker, I’ve been called it all. A walking talking syrup slurping Canadian cliche — chubby, bearded and clad in plaid — I’m the poster boy, the maple equivalent to Aunt Jamima who has yet to grace the labels of our famous tin cans that line farmers market shelves from here to Gaspe Bay. You won’t find me at any famous pancake parties or town festivals but don’t mistake that for a lack of passion for Canada’s liquid gold. I adore it.

In fact, I’m proud of maple syrup, which is strange as I have nothing to do with its production. For some reason when I see maple syrup outside of Canada, I feel a sense of pride not unlike watching my children grow.

I love maple syrup and I identify through its sticky sweet and warm embrace of the palate.

Harvesting has changed over the years but remains still a relatively rustic production — kicked off by the

familiar sight of hardworking sugar bush stewards. They set our hundreds of km of tubbing, creating intricate highways of sap flowing from tree to tree.

As soon as temperatures start to climb, so does the sap, up from the roots and trunks it climbs the tree and makes its way free through holes cut near the base. The process hasn’t changed since Indigenous people discovered this natural magic and crafted the process — many moons before Europeans arrived.

Many legends exist regarding its discovery, one I like in particular involves a feast where venison was boiled in the sap in the absence of water, reducing and intensifying as it cooked. That chef’s discovery was a culinary game-changer. I mean even today we lean towards sweet sauces when cooking venison, food and recipes that intuitive choice amazes me.

After that, harvest became annual, holes cut, birch buckets filled and the nightly cold temps would be used to freeze the sap separating the frozen water from the slushy syrup. Night after night repeated until the sweetest sap remained. Ingenious!

Today, massive evaporators are used and it generally takes 40 liters of sap to make one liter of syrup. On average, a tree will produce 60 liters of sap

annually. So that’s how I see the forest — not for the trees but for the 1.5 litres of syrup each one gifts us.

Maple syrup isn’t just for sweets either — the beauty of maple over other sweeteners is its depth of flavours. As sweet as it is, it’s loaded with deep, dark, savoury flavours only heightened by reduction and the addition of other savoury elements.

In our early days at Uptown21, we used maple syrup fiercely across the whole menu — blended with soy and malt vinegar to finish tuna tempura, reduced and enhanced with black truffles to glaze foie gras croquettes.

From vinaigrettes and savoury braises to traditional Quebecois sugar pie — we worshiped it as our god and drank directly from the bottle. Drunk with Candian culinary pride.

Go hug a tree. Go celebrate an important yet cliche part of our culinary history.

Check out my recipe online at communityedition.ca for what we called “black umami sauce.” We literally used it on everything from fried chicken to sweet and savoury donuts and cheese.

Nick Benninger is a local chef and restaurant owner.

Liquid gold. CREATIVE COMMONS

NEW TUNE REVIEW

PIZZY ONLY:

DISTINCTIVE AND HYPNOTIC ALBUM: “Propane” by Pizzy Only LINK: https://m.soundcloud.com/pizzyonly Kitchener rapper Pizzy Only’s brand of aggressive, brooding trap is both distinctive and hypnotic.

With releases on popular upload sites SoundCloud and Datpiff stretching back as far as 2012, it’s easy to say that Pizzy has been in the game for a longer period than most.

Through his obvious vocal command and his ability to craft a song, his dedication is immediately apparent.

His distinctive style emerged on his 2015 mixtape DEATHxDONTxDISCRIMINATE but a more recent release — SoundCloud exclusive EP “NEVER ENDING RAGE” — doubles down on his signature style and sees the rapper perfecting his craft over hard hitting production from CAPGOD, Eggy, FLAMEE. 2020 will surely mark a shift in momentum in the local rap scene, seeing how both Pizzy and

collaborator CAPRICE SOLÉIL have been crushing shows and spreading their wares on different platforms.

Look for their collaboration “KNOTS” on all platforms, as well as Pizzy’s first single to hit streaming platforms, Propane. It’s gearing up to be a big year for both of these artists.

– Kurtis Rideout, local musician, producer and ad manager for WLUSP

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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MAKER EXPO

MAKES FUNDING HAPPEN

SPONSORSHIP CUTBACKS TO CROWD FUNDING

MELISSA EMBURY EDITOR IN CHIEF Maker Expo needs your help.

The event is a family-friendly showcase of makers, artists and organizations who create amazing things in celebration of the do-ityourself spirit. Their fifth event takes place this year May 30 and 31 at The Aud in Kitchener.

The free all-ages event celebrates creativity, invention, ingenuity and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

The previous Maker Expo’s have featured a wide range of exhibitors — 3D printing, agriculture, Arduino, arts computing, crafts, cardboard, electronics demos, metalworking, paper arts, painting, photography, robotics, sewing and textiles.

The first three years took place at Kitchener City Hall until they outgrew the space.

“In 2018, we moved to the Aud and we put on our biggest show ever.

Two arenas. 10,000 people and one hundred and something exhibitors,” Cameron Turner, Maker Expo’s co-

organizer said.

Starting off under the Maker Faire brand back in 2013, local organizers realized that the pricing model did not fit with the spirit of what they were trying to build. Turner explained that the biggest Maker Faires in the world in San Francisco and New York charge $100 a day to get in.

“That was one of the reasons we didn’t want to continue with that brand. It’s fundamentally against what we wanted to do. We wanted to run an event that was free to get in — but more than that, we wanted it to be free to participate,” Turner said.

Turner explains that in addition to Maker Expo not charging an entry fee, there is no pay-as-you-go model for the workshops either. No cost to watch the shows and no cost for the exhibitors.

“A lot of our exhibitors are passionate hobbyists. And we found that in 2015, a lot of them were out thousands of dollars in materials personally just to share their love of the thing they were showing off,” Turner said.

As they moved into 2016, Maker Expo organizer decided they were going to start funding exhibitors

Maker Expo works to run an event that is free to attend and free to participate. DARIN WHITE FILE PHOTO, 2016 to make sure Maker Expo could contribute as much as they could to help cover the cost of materials for exhibitors.

According to Turner, this year they already know at least 25 different things you can show up and do with your hands. Everything from learning to solder, to building cardboard armour.

For example, Laurier is going to be championing a multi-team, multidepartment space to teach people how to solder — which draws a huge crowd.

“Building electronic badges that have lights and glow and things like that. It’s probably our number one most talked about activity at any

Maker Expo and we are thrilled to have them back,” he said.

Turner revealed that they already have funding from the City of Kitchener, Hip Developments, the City of Waterloo, Shopify and a few others. But those plus the GoFundMe campaign is only going to get them a basic two day one arena event.

“Yeah, so we’re hyped, we’re ready to go. We know we can run it. Now the question is, can we actually run the event we want to run?”

They have until the end of March to come up with the money to make the event they hope to.

“Because we have some big things, physically large things that take

up a lot of space and compressing them down is going to diminish the experience,” Turner said.

What can people expect for this year’s Maker Expo?

“It’s the kind of event that you think you’re going to spend a couple of hours at and you end up spending two days at,” Turner said.

Applications to exhibit at the show close on Mar. 20. Tables are free.

Funded exhibitor applications have closed but additional funding may be awarded based on the success of their GoFundMe campaign. Their call for volunteers will happen early April.

ENDOMETRIOSIS

AWARENESS MONTH

SEXPLANATIONS

MOVIE + MARKET: Mar. 10 5YR THE VVITCH CONVERSATIONS: Mar. 12 CLASSIC PHILADELPHIA STORY YOU CAN EAT CEREAL Mar. 14 ALL AND CARTOONS FEATURE: Mar. 15 & 16 DOUBLE BIG LEBOWSKI/JESUS ROLLS Mar. 21 INTERACTIVE! BRING IT ON LIVE PRESENTS: Mar. 19 & 22 NATIONAL FLEABAG RECALL: Mar. 22 & 25 RETRO SNOWPIERCER

APOLLOCINEMA.CA

STACEY JACOBS COLUMNIST A big word, with even bigger consequences…

I got my first period over Christmas break when I was in grade seven. I remember looking down at the red streak in my underwear and not being happy or sad or confused or angry, just thinking, great, another thing to worry about.

Looking back it appears that I was already feeling the weight of being a woman in a patriarchal society.

Already knowing that having a period could hinder my life.

My periods continued over the years uneventfully — then one day I started having intense cramps and kidney pain. After surgery, I found out I had endometriosis, which was the reason for my non-functioning kidney. Endometriosis is a scary word for a 19-year-old who had never heard it before.

I asked the doctor what that was.

He said it meant I would have problems getting pregnant and so I better ‘hop to it’ as he walked out of the room. And so, I was left to figure things out on my own.

My pain got worse after surgery, debilitating at times, but I kept on going and didn’t say much. Partially because I didn’t know what to say.

I couldn’t explain to people what endometriosis was because I didn’t know. I was embarrassed that I didn’t know what was happening to my body.

Then one day my roommate found me passed out on the bathroom floor from pain. It scared her and me. I decided then that I deserved to know what was happening to my body, the

only one I had.

I did some research, I read some books and websites, I found out very little because there is very little to find out. Endometriosis, being a “woman’s” disease, is not important in the medical world.

My pain continued — I had more surgeries, took some medications with awful side effects and I tried to get pregnant without success.

Today I continue to have pain and health care providers continue to be able to do very little to help me.

What we know is that endometriosis is a common chronic inflammatory condition where tissue, similar to the tissue that normally grows inside the uterus, grows outside the uterus. Sounds simple enough, but this condition causes severe pain which is often worse during menstruation. It’s a leading cause of infertility, and because the tissue can be found anywhere in the body, it can cause pain and problems with organ function, emptying of the bowel and bladder, movement, sex and even breathing.

March is endometriosis awareness month. A month to bring awareness to the condition that affects 176 people worldwide. A condition that can take up to a decade to diagnose and yet disrupts life on a daily basis.

More research is needed. A cure is needed.

Maybe then we can live in a world where a woman tells a health care provider they have pain and the healthcare provider listens to them, trusts them and has the research and knowledge to help them. A day when the dismissal of women’s pain does not exist.

For more information, visit TheEndoNetwork on Facebook.

Stacey Jacobs is a local sex educator and advocate.

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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Pave paradise, put up a parking lot. And then a condo development I guess. NICK STANLEY PHOTO

ABOUT SURFACE PARKING LOTS

AND FIGHTING THE GREAT VAMPIRE SQUID

OPINION

SAM TOMAN CONTRIBUTOR Modern life doesn’t get much lazier than publicly-owned restricted surface parking lots.

You may have wondered why they’re sitting empty while you roll (or god-forbid, walk) past these brutal slush-swept concrete savannas on your way back to the one-bedroom place you share with four other people.

Indistinguishably useless — they’re grim reminders of our postindustrial collapse — to be sold off and transformed into housing as fast as possible. After all, they’re in prime locations near amenities like shopping and the LRT. Outside of often gutless zoning, we have little control over what happens to them. But many, like the strand of asphalt running along Caroline across from Waterloo Town Square or the parking across from the Tannery, are owned and controlled by municipalities. In other words, us — tax-paying citizens.

If sold-off, they’re gone forever, and what is built there will define a neighbourhood for generations.

Why not use them to collectively imagine a vision where all voices are at the table, where families can

live affordably and seniors can be safe from falls and cars. If it has a social value, these are the most efficient places to realize it. They’re blank canvases where we can apply a collective vision for the community we want.

Global trends out of our control (population growth, the information economy and climate change) are flowing people and capital from all over the world into Waterloo Region in search of opportunity.

Housing experts from the University of Waterloo, Martine August and Nick Revington follow these flows carefully. Their warning: housing development is increasingly at the mercy of a financialized global real estate market treating our basic human rights as commodities.

Author Matt Taibbi artfully calls this system “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” The moment our taxpayer-funded LRT intersected with explosive population-growth projections, developer algorithms in far away anonymized real estate investment trusts (REITs) started sniffing out Waterloo as a place to make a buck.

Thanks to a neoliberal fetish for austerity, there is an eagerness to sell public lots to REITs while demand is hot. This balances budgets, pays for needed services and wins elections.

Ideally, it also adds more supply to the overall inventory of private

housing creating enough supply to lower overall rental prices (hi YIMBYs!). Sadly we’re learning it’s not that simple.

Housing costs are still skyrocketing. The vampire squid hit Toronto first. According to economist Mike Moffatt, “over the past 13 years, Toronto and Peel have lost, on net, nearly 500,000 residents who have moved to other parts of Ontario.” As the fastest growing place in Canada, we can safely assume many of these folks are moving here for more affordable living.

It’s possible in the medium-term if we build enough housing, prices will stabilize. But what about all of the people who need a place to live right now, or a century from now?

Public surface parking lots have stupidity built into their DNA. Knock something down, put up a gate, add a ticket robot, then double-tap taxpayers for the right to store their car in the least-efficient manner possible. What sense does it make to inefficiently store people the same way?

It’s our duty to resist the vampire squid and seize the vanishing opportunity to transform our publicly-owned assets into durable spaces while we still have control.

Some local developers truly care about the community. But their money doesn’t have neighbours other than a hungry balance sheet stored in some server farm in the desert. That balance sheet craves single bedroom units.

Those most under the spell of the vampire squid are the start-up community we rely on to generate jobs and development here. Shoutout to them, they’re experts in UX and AI and have a big role to play in our housing crisis. But most are too preoccupied with growing a business or intellectually out-matched to deal with inherently unquantifiable social issues like housing.

Waterloo Region has a leading School of Planning advocating for multi-bedroom rental units, and an Architecture school working on universally-accessible designs.

We have artists advocating for beauty, social workers demanding affordability, climate change experts projecting problems in terms of centuries, and community builders trying to bring everyone together.

Giving in to simplified solutions means we’ll have to spend more time and energy fighting a more powerful vampire squid down the line. Let’s make a stand in our public parking lots — especially when the final boss awaits us (bye NIMBYs!).

And lastly, all land in Canada is unceded land taken from Indigenous people through genocide, betrayal and forced cultural assimilation.

The opinion section is a platform for community writers to share their views. Pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the paper.

Want to contribute? Contact info@communityedition.ca

13

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

How can we lower our food waste? CREATIVE COMMONS

LETTUCE BAND TOGETHER AGAINST FOOD WASTE

EASY BEING GREEN

STACEY DANCKERT COLUMNIST Food production, transport and waste are all big contributors to our carbon footprint as humans. One of the things I noticed in my own home recently was that we were throwing more in the compost bin than seemed necessary. In fact, our green bin is almost entirely full every week.

I realized that I was spending a great deal of time thinking about how the food got to our table but not a lot about how it left our house. I decided that cutting down on this waste would be our next goal.

It turns out that there is a lot to learn.

University of Guelph researchers have completed an in-depth study evaluating the multiple impacts of household food waste worldwide.

The study demonstrated that 64

per cent of food waste (food that we would otherwise consider edible) is preventable.

Per week, the average household in the study generated about three kilograms (or about six pounds) of avoidable food waste. That amounts to 3366 calories a day. Enough to feed more than two children! That is 5,000 litres of water. Consider that the average five-minute shower uses 35 litres of water. Wasted avoidable food items represented close to 143 showers per week.

I believe that sometimes we feel less guilty if we’re throwing it in a compost bin — but it’s important to think about what it took to grow and transport the food (and the waste).

Luckily, there are lots of easy ways to cut our food waste.

this easy. When you do have to buy more than you need for a particular meal, try to plan how you will use the remaining amount.

leftovers that can be quickly served in between events and activities (quick, easy and no planning.)

HOW YOU STORE IT:

I started thinking about what I toss and why. Sometimes it’s from the kids’ lunches or something that somehow got lost in the back or bottom of the fridge. But mostly it’s those parts of the fruits and vegetables that I have learned over the years not to eat. I’ve gotten better at decreasing the former waste, so this month I started working on the latter.

WHAT YOU BUY:

ORGANIZING YOUR FRIDGE:

This is something I’ve mentioned before — eating organically, choosing plant-based foods and eating as locally as possible are all ways to move toward sustainable eating.

Also important and perhaps most challenging is to buy the appropriate quantities. Stores often don’t make

The way you store your food can also have a big effect on how long it lasts.

Different types of foods can be kept fresh using a variety of techniques.

You can find a lot of information online about these techniques as well as useful charts. This made a big difference for me — such as storing dry zucchini and eggplants outside of the fridge and washing leafy veggies and wrapping them in a towel to keep them fresh and crispy a lot longer.

Learning how to freeze extras can also be really helpful in avoiding food from spoiling.

Keeping things in a predictable order can also help avoid food waste such as moving newer leftover containers behind or below older ones so they are more likely to be used. I also create a plan for leftovers when I pack them up so they are less likely to be forgotten.

Sometimes dinner is a hodge-podge of

WHAT YOU TOSS:

RETHINK EATING:

The simplest approach to using the tops, tails and skins of most veggies is to throw it in the freezer and eventually use it to make a batch of stock. This is great, but still results in a lot of unnecessary waste. I began to reconsider why I was disposing of so many parts of the vegetables.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS:

Some of the common ones include carrot and beet greens, cauliflower and broccoli stalks and kale stems.

Add on to that carrot and potato peels,

mushroom stems and broccoli leaves.

I think that our society has been gradually becoming more and more particular about the portions of fruit and vegetables that we are eating.

WHAT’S SAFE TO EAT:

Virtually the only parts of the plants that need to be thrown away are those that are unsafe to eat — such as rhubarb leaves (I always find it really bizarre that they are unsafe, but definitely don’t eat those!). Almost anything else you can think of can be eaten. Even orange and banana peels. Seriously, they contain health benefits and would cut down on a lot of waste. As with many other skinned fruits and veggies, the skin may absorb chemicals and pesticides so I would recommend sticking with organic if possible and giving them a good rinse.

Try being creative and using up many more of the bits you’ve been discarding. It may require some outof-the-box thinking, research, time and care, but it can make a big impact.

Stacey Danckert is co-director of Waterloo Region Environment Network (WREN)

HOW PUBLIC ART COMES TO BE IN THE CITY OF WATERLOO RACHAEL MACINTOSH STAFF WRITER

Does public art make you squirrelly? This piece is part of Nuts by Ted Fullerton on Father David Bauer Drive. NATHAN BETTIO PHOTO

Public art can serve many purposes within a community — representing local values and culture, beautifying spaces and starting conversations.

A couple of years ago, Waterloo was one of the early adopters of a public art program that required capital builds over a million dollars to contribute one per cent of their budget to public art. This development has helped fund many public art initiatives in the city.

Technically, public art is any art that exists where it is publicly accessible.

“When talking about public art in the capacity that I work in, we’re talking about capital-P. Capital-A public art, which means that it is owned by the city, it’s owned by the municipality, which then means that it’s actually owned by the citizens as it is managed and operated with taxpayer dollars,” Sonya Poweska, culture program specialist for the City of Waterloo said.

Public art projects can develop over a number of years, but the first steps usually involve choosing a place and the themes or subjects the art will explore. After these things are decided, there will be an artist call where those interested can submit their ideas to be chosen by a professional jury.

“We have done public consultation from the community about what they’d like to see, where they’d like to see it and how they’d like to see public art integrated,” Poweska said.

Public art can be either a permanent installation, lasting at least 25 years or a temporary installation.

During ION construction, the City of Waterloo had a yarn-bombing initiative to liven up construction fences. The project had over 300 participants who knitted or crocheted 30cm x 30cm squares with donated materials that were sewn together to create a larger piece. After the installation was taken down, the squares were cleaned and donated to the Humane Society to be used as cat blankets.

“Even if you didn’t know all the people who were involved, if you passed this, it was something a little bit different, something that could

potentially spark joy in people’s lives.

I think public art and temporary public art have the power to do that,” Poweska said.

A fairly recent project is the installation of Nuts by Ted Fullerton on Father David Bauer Drive. The piece consists of large tables with statues of a squirrel and a nut.

“It’s meant to symbolize gathering.

Also emergency preparedness as a city [as in] saving your nuts for the winter….We’ve seen some community picnics there hosted by the library — when the trees grow it will be a more shady area. But it’s a really comfortable area and we hope to see those areas grow,” Poweska said.

The City is currently working on a project creating custom tree grates for Willis Way. “I think the move towards more seamlessly designed art integrated into our public spaces is a really interesting thing that a lot of cities are exploring and that we’re really committed to exploring. It just makes for a more wholesome and engaging experience as a citizen,” Poweska said.

Maps to public art in the region can be found on the City of Waterloo website.

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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The City of Waterloo Museum in the Conestoga Mall

TIME TO BE A TOURIST

IN YOUR OWN CITY

THE LOCAL SITES YOU KNOW BUT HAVE NEVER ACTUALLY VISITED HYPERLOCAL TRAVEL

JUANITA METZGER COLUMNIST A 200-year-old Mennonite farmstead now surrounded by Kitchener’s urban core. A granite and limestone Scottish cottage in downtown Cambridge built in 1858.

A ten-year-old city museum tucked in a suburban shopping mall.

What do these three Waterloo Region locales have in common?

The first commonality comes with a confession: they represent historic sites or museums I’ve never visited while growing up and living in Waterloo Region. Secondly, and more importantly, this trifecta of local civic history takes a snapshot of early life for settlers and immigrants to this area during the 1800s.

Clearly, I was long overdue for a visit to Schneider Haus in downtown Kitchener, McDougall Cottage on the banks of the Grand River in downtown Cambridge and the City of Waterloo Museum at Conestoga Mall. And yes, I have never been to any of these sites.

But, you can escape this same predicament from developing in your life because March is the perfect time to visit each of these local gems. In fact, I would recommend visiting all three in one day. Here’s why.

McDougall Cottage re-opened on Mar. 4, after a months-long conservation and restoration project to reveal the long rumoured trompe l’oeil paintings on the walls of the cottage dining room.

Painted by Jack Baird, circa 19061907, brother of the Cottage’s second owner James Baird, the newly uncovered wall murals show a faux burgundy curtain and wooden shelf circling the room. In one place, the curtain, painted with a rippled fold, hints at books sitting hidden on a

shelf. Jack Baird also painted the ceiling friezes in the same room, along with several paintings on the walls of the cottage depicting scenes from his Naval travels in Canada, Scotland and the Philippines.

I never would have predicted it but I share a love of travel and art with a Canadian of Scottish descendant who lived in Galt around the early 1900s.

McDougall Cottage was built around 1858, which is about the same time that the second generation of Schneiders was running the 448-acre farm on Schneider Road, now Queen Street in Kitchener.

Schneider Haus was built in 1816, less than ten years after the GermanMennonite Schneider family immigrant from Pennsylvania. The wooden two-storey Georgian house is the oldest surviving building in Kitchener.

At this site, staff dress in period costume and operate the house and property much as it would have been in 1856.

When I visited, Grace had freshly baked “sandheart” cookies waiting on the giant family-sized table while she wove cotton tape for use on period clothing as ties for storage bags and general household uses.

Throughout the year, staff tasks include spinning, dyeing, gardening, drying and preserving food, tending the stove fire in the kitchen and hosting guests, all true to the 1850’s time period.

Recently, Schneider Haus began hosting ‘community bakes’ so that area residents could take advantage of a well-heated outdoor bread oven for a communal experience.

I come from a long line of German Mennonites from Pennsylvania and stepping into the Schneider Haus felt like stepping into my Grandmother’s kitchen. The same clock tick and creak of wooden floors. The same smell of old soap — a warm wood stove and prepared food.

So, how does a ten-year-old City of Waterloo Museum connect to all of

this 19th century history?

For starters, the City of Waterloo Museum holds the Seagram collection of artifacts (over 10,000 items) related to 100+ years of flour milling and spirit distilling in the heart of Waterloo.

Secondly, the museum’s current exhibit, “A Taste of Science,” a travelling exhibit from the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, pairs the science of pickling, fermenting, curing, canning and dehydrating of food with the history of food production and preservation among early settlers to Waterloo during the 1800s.

During the same 19th century era that the McDougalls in Galt (Cambridge) and Schneiders in Berlin (Kitchener) were building family lives, community and small industry, the Erbs, Sniders, Seagrams, Bauers and others were doing the same in Waterloo.

In my imagination, I picture these families knowing of one another across the distances between the three communities.

Did they gossip about their businesses and affairs? Did they ever correspond? Even though the Schneiders and early Mennonites would have brewed their own beer and cider, what would they have thought of the Seagrams and their alcohol enterprises? Would the McDougalls have been envious of the large house built by the Mennonites in Berlin?

Joseph E. Seagram was born in Fisher’s Mills (near Hespeler) — did he ever return to this industrious area and cross paths with other immigrants from the British Empire of the day?

This is why I suggest you visit all three museums in one day. They tie together similar but unique histories across three growing communities during a specific time period. That’s exactly what museums and historical sites are supposed to do for us — tell a connected story about the present, past and future of our communities so we can learn, grow and evolve.

An inside look into The Joseph Schneider House in Kitchener

The Joseph Schneider House in Kitchener

The McDougall House in Galt JUANITA METZGER PHOTOS

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

15

EVENT LISTINGS

WE’VE HAND SELECTED SOME COOL UPCOMING EVENTS AND WRITTEN SOME WITTY COMMENTARY. YOU’RE WELCOME.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4

SUNDAY, MARCH 8

SUNDAY, MARCH 15

COMMUNITECH TECH JAM BINGEMANS

SOLIDARITY W/ WET’SUWET’EN APOLLO CINEMA

GOOD CO. X STUDIO LAUNCH GOOD PRODUCTION CO.

Quit your day job — but not before visiting Communitech Tech Jam. Your next career move in the Tech industry is just one connection away. This is not your typical job fair. So leave your stuffy suits, bulky clipboards and get ready for kick-ass conversations with the best companies in town.

Stand in solidarity with Wet-suwet’en and Tyendinaga at the Apollo Cinema.

Educate yourself at this screening of the CBC documentary: Colonization Road. The afternoon will begin as all Indigenous gatherings do - with a good heart, a good spirit and a good mind. Your invited to bring your hand drums for prayer through song.

Good music. Good company. Good Production Co. and Someone’s Studio are getting their shiny new space at 44 Gaukle, downtown Kitchener, ready for you. Come be part of an experience. Who’s not into popup concerts, festivals, community music collectives and more?

Networking • Free • 4:30 - 8:30pm

Film • Free • 3:00pm - 6:00pm

Party • Free • 7:00pm - 10:00pm

THURSDAY, MARCH 5

SUNDAY, MARCH 8

FRIDAY, MARCH 20

WOMEN’S DAY BREAKFAST WALPER HOTEL

PLANTIFUL KWS 1ST BDAY BASH DECENDENTS

SPACE PROM WALPER HOTEL

Tell your boss you’ve got some important shit to do. Pastries, fresh fruit, yoghurt and more! Grab a friend, group of ladies or come by solo for inspiration from women in the community. Speakers and boss women from The Moonshine Co., Comback Snacks, and The Scented Market - this will be good.

Kitchener-Waterloo has a thriving vegan community. Come by and celebrate Plantiful’s ONE YEAR. I hear there will be vegan chicken, doughnuts, music, vegan shopping (let me catch my breath), raffle prizes, beer AND it’s a free event for all ages so bring those babies. Items listed available for purchase.

You’ve heard of regular prom, now get your space suit ready for Space Prom! Rainbow Reels is hosting a queer dance party complete with your favourite bops. But wait, this is a prom for everyone — if you’re not dancing inclined, there’s a craft table and other non-dancing related activities.

Breakfast • $25 • 9:30am - 12:00pm

Party • Free • 1:00pm - 5:00pm

Dance • $10-$15 • 8:00pm - 1:00am

THURSDAY, MARCH 12

THURSDAY, MARCH 12

SATURDAY, MARCH 21

WHOZITS & WHATZITS: DISNEY TRIVIA

CHAINSAW

FUCKUP NIGHTS KW VOL. VI CATALYST 137

THE RELEASE PARTY GOOD PRODUCTION CO.

Do you know every song from The Lion King? What about how to paint with all the colors of the wind?

We’re covering classic Disney films from 2000 and earlier. So get your Emperor’s New Crew ready and we’ll see you there. Teams of six max.

Tickets online. All supporting the Community Edition.

We’ve all fucked up at some point.

Check out leaders in the community talking about their failures. This speaker series gets raw about the looping path to success. Real people with relatable stories ease anxiety and create a cultural shift that enables progress and innovation.

Yeah, it’s that deep.

Sam Nabi is teaming up with Good Production Co. to launch his second hip-hop album, Attract Hazard, which features conversations about the region. You can expect Sam to get deep with a personal love letter to Kitchener-Waterloo and some hard truths about the more divided and less accessible downtown.

Trivia • $5 • 6:30pm- 9:30pm

Stories • $1 -20 • 6:00pm - 9:30pm

Party • $15-25 • 7:30 - 10:30pm

SATURDAY, MARCH 7

THURSDAY, MARCH 12

SATURDAY, MARCH 21

I HEART BEER & TACO FEST. BINGEMANS

CLASSIC CONVERSATIONS APOLLO CINEMA

INTERACTIVE! BRING IT ON APOLLO CINEMA

Just when you thought Taco Tuesday and Taco Thursday were over, now we have Taco and Beer Saturday!

What’s better than beer, cider, spirits and of course, tacos. Nothing, only maybe more tacos. Taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco...

Classic Hollywood’s leading ladies — it’s time for a re-frame. Damsels in distress? Eligible bachelorettes? Nah, these women were powerhouses in their own right. Philadelphia Story covers pivital moments in their careers and not in the way you might be expecting. It’s all about the recontextualizing the silver screen.

Your favourite movies, now Interactive! Taking the movie experience to a new level with bags full of snacks and props, a list of audience-led prompts and shoutouts and possible costumed Apollo Cinema staff. What do you say when getting yourself into an exciting new experience? Bring it on.

Food • $22-$30 • 4:30pm - 10:30pm

Film • $7-$14 • 6:45pm

Film • $13-$17 • 7:00pm

SATURDAY, MARCH 7

FRIDAY, MARCH 13

SUNDAY, MARCH 22

INTL. WOMENS DAY EVENT CIGI

TEQUILA SCHOOL TACO FARM

PLANT MARKET WATERLOO BREWING

Walk your fine self to this door. The Center for Internal Governance and Innovation is hosting a Know Better, Do Better International Women’s Day event. This is their fifth year hosting the event so you know it’s going to be lit. This all day event touches issues from reproductive justice to queer allyship.

“One tequila. Two tequila. Three tequila. Floor,” George Carlin.

Do you like to pretend you’re a conisoure of alcohol? Come by Taco Farm to actually learn a thing or two about tequila, the artform from Mexico. Learn how to make flavours of your dinner come alive. Finally, a reason to drink with your pinky up.

We didn’t know we needed this.

What better way to spend the first days of spring than to go to a brewery and browse a botanical market? With their signature menu and brews on tap, Waterloo Brewing is inviting you to join them and local vendors for another year at their Plant Market.

Speakers • $90-$150 • 10:00am - 5:30pm

Workshop • $60 • 7:30pm - 9:30pm

Market • Free • 11:30am - 4:00pm

SUNDAY, MARCH 8

SATURDAY, MARCH 14

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18

WOMXN 2020 WORKHAUS

CEILI IRISH FOLK DANCE VICTORIA PARK PAVILION

INDIGENOUS ART MARKET THEMUSEUM

If you like snacks, music, local art and plently of inspirational womxn, this is the place for you this Sunday.

Were you hoping to donate as a way to celebrate International Women’s Day? Perfect. All proceeds go to Waterloo region Sexual Assault and Domestic Violance Treatment Centre at St. Mary’s Hospital and YMCA KW.

Irish I was folk dancing to jigs and reels by the traditional Grand River Ceili Band. Come with friends or make new ones. With a caller guiding you through the steps, there’s no experience necessary. Just come in green and wear comfortable shoes.

You may be feelin’ lucky by the end.

Cash bar by Kennedy’s. All ages.

I AM Kitchener is at THEMUSEUM with a pop-up Indigenous Art Market. Vendors are showcasing prints and original artwork, beading, jewelry and other handmade creations. What better way to support the local Indigenous community and get ready for spring in Kitchener-Waterloo?

Speakers • $20-30 • 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Dance • $12-15 • 8:00pm - 11:30pm

Pop Up • $7• 9:00am - 3:00pm

COMMUNITYEDITION.CA @THECOMMUNITYED

MARCH 2020 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

16

META Cannabis Supply Co. is located at 569 Fairway Rd. S. and opened in March 2020. JESSE DERRY PHOTO

ROLL ON DOWN TO META CANNABIS

CANNABIS HAS BEEN LEGAL IN CANADA SINCE OCTOBER 2018, BUT KITCHENER JUST GOT ITS FIRST LEGAL RETAIL STORE THIS MONTH

JESSIE SKINNER CONTRIBUTOR On Oct.17, 2018 possession and acquisition of cannabis became federally permitted in Canada under the Cannabis Act (Bill, C-45).

If overturning a century of legal stigma felt like a relatively painless process, to the average Ontario user, actually being provided with a convenient reliable retail source for legal cannabis was another story.

“In my personal and professional opinion, as someone who came into the game almost a year before legalization actually kicked in — could things have gone smoother, in terms of how the federal and provincial governments rolled it out? Absolutely,

they could have,” Matt Ryan, VP of Marketing for META said.

META Growth, Corp. is the largest publicly-traded recreational cannabis retailer in Canada (by revenue).

“For us, and every other retailer out there. It could have gone smoother for all the licensed producers,” Ryan said.

A capped “lottery” system for distributing retail licences throughout the province, described by CBC News in Dec. 2019 as a “cumbersome process” was finally modified in 2020.

In the interim, legalization had not made the dent in black market prices and sales that regulators had hoped.

During the fiscal year 2018-2019, the National Post reported that Ontario government expectations for tax revenue from cannabis sales had fallen well below expectations — only $18 million of an anticipated $35 million.

Despite such bumps in the road, Ryan was diplomatic in describing the process in retrospect.

“This is an industry that has been constantly evolving, and has had a lot of pivots and changes … we all had to learn, very quickly. We all had to figure it out and I’m including those in government in that, as well,” Ryan said.

Now, one year and four months after legalization became a reality , META has opened KW’s first legal storefront for purchasing cannabis. META Cannabis Supply Co. is located at 569 Fairway Rd. S. — a location that, like all such dispensaries, was subject to a fair amount of scrutiny and forethought.

Among other regulations, cannabis retail outlets in Ontario must be located 150 meters away from any public or private schools. Facilities must be enclosed by walls separating it from any other commercial establishment or activity. Cannabis product must be kept locked in a vault before being sold.

With all stakeholders in retail cannabis now having a clearer idea

of what is and isn’t permissible, the market can finally open up.

“What’s happening now is stabilization. Things are running smoothly — products are in better supply,” he said.

According to Ryan there aren’t as many vicinity issues and challenges in Ontario, as say Alberta. He projects seeing a lot of stores that may open up close to each other in Ontario — especially in bigger cities.

“Looking at Kitchener, our strategy has been to find real estate locations that are easy to access and that are convenient for people. Yes, we avoid [being close to] schools and other things but for the most part retailers in Ontario get more choice [than other provinces].”

Remarking on the immediate future of cannabis retail in the Region, Ryan refers to plans by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to roll out a number of new stores per month

beginning in April of this year.

“We don’t know how long that will take but we’re looking at sites all the way to Windsor. More sites in the GTA … really, the whole province but first major cities and suburban areas around those cities.”

No matter where it happens, each successful step in legalization sets an example for other communities and even other nations — Canada was only the second country in the world to legalize cannabis cultivation and possession for recreational use. So, all eyes are on retailers pioneering what may become an international industry.

For now, Ryan sees things in a patriotic light.

“Legalizing cannabis federally just makes (Canada) a better place and it was already a pretty awesome place.

Governments that have similar outlooks on economics, standards of living and quality of life will look to us,” he said.

Sponsored by

Wellington County Brewery

Door Prizes:

Salus Marine Wear Princess Cinemas LOOP Clothing King Street Cycle

One Night

Thur March 26th - 7:30pm

On all 3 screens!

Advance Tickets at www.princesscinemas.com

DISNEY TRIVIA. MARCH 12 @ 7PM TICKETS AT THE DOOR AND ONLINE SEE YOU POOR UNFORTUNATE SOULS THERE