VOL. 171 ISSUE 1 MAY 9, 2022
NEWS
O PINIO NS
ART S & C U LTU R E
H U MO U R
Meet your new SFSS president
We’re misattributing our mental health crisis
SFU alumni presents play on the climate crisis
The devastating tale of a former tote bag owner
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Planting seeds Embark learning gardens promote growth Features P.10
Volume 171, Issue 1
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Maggie Benston Centre 2900 Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6 (778) 782-5110
NEWS SFU food workers will soon be making a living wage
OPINIONS COVER Krystal Chan, Kelly Chia
How to engage with climate deniers
CONTRIBUTORS Jonadan Cheun, Michael Le, Nazmus Sakib, Jocelyn Stevens
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PEAK ASSOCIATES Maya Beninteso, Krystal Chan STAFF WRITERS Nercya Kalino, Yasmin Simsek, Isabella Urbani, and Olivia Vissier
FEATURES
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michelle Young eic@the-peak.ca COPY EDITOR Nancy La copy@the-peak.ca NEWS EDITOR Karissa Ketter news@the-peak.ca NEWS WRITERS Chloë Arneson
ARTS & CULTURE
OPINIONS EDITOR Luke Faulks opinions@the-peak.ca
Collecting Plum Blossoms by BFA grads of 2022 explore intersections in community identities
FEATURES EDITOR Meera Eragoda features@the-peak.ca ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Gem Yelin Lee arts@the-peak.ca HUMOUR EDITOR Kelly Chia humour@the-peak.ca
HUMOUR
PRODUCTION AND DESIGN EDITOR Josh Ralla production@the-peak.ca
The avocado disappears . . .
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The Peak newspaper of SFU and is published every Monday. We're funded by a student levy and governed by a board of directors. Any SFU student can become an editor, and we hire an editorial team every semester.
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MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Karla Salazar multimedia@the-peak.ca ASSISTANT MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Rashi Sethi BUSINESS / ADVERTISING MANAGER Yuri Zhou business@the-peak.ca 778.782.3598 PROMOTIONS COORDINATOR Jaymee Salisi promotions@the-peak.ca
Salish Territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), Kwikwitlem (Coquitlam), Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, and Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) Peoples. Unceded means that this land was never surrendered, relinquished, or handed over in any way. We recognize that the unceded land that we occupy includes not only the SFU Burnaby campus, but extends to the land occupied by the Vancouver and Surrey campuses as well.
WEBSITE MANAGER Karar Al-Mamaar web@the-peak.ca BOARD OF DIRECTORS Kelly Chia, Emma Dunbar, Emma Jean, Angela Wachowick, Yuri Zhou
NEWS
May 9, 2022
3
WORKERS WIN
Food service workers to sign historic contract Union contract guarantees better wages and increased health benefits for 160 workers
CHLO Ë ARN E S ON // NE WS W RI TE R
Over the next three years, some SFU food service workers are expected to see up to a 17% increase in wages. This is the largest increase for food service workers in SFU’s history. In their press release, UNITE HERE Local 40 — BC’s hospitality workers union — stated that after pushing for a living wage and rallying at SFU, the union’s bargaining committee was able to achieve a collective agreement with Compass Group. In addition to wage increases, workers can expect better health benefits and recall protections. Recall protection promises during emergencies such as COVID-19-related shutdowns or natural disasters, workers will not lose their seniority. SFU hires all food service workers through Compass Group, a third-party company. This means workers must bring their concerns to this external company instead of the university. In an interview with The Peak, Stephanie Fung, communications organizer for UNITE HERE Local 40, noted the health benefits from the new contract. “Physiotherapy has doubled to $500 a year, massage therapy tripled to $300 a year, and dental has increased from $1,500 to $2,000 a year,” she said. She elaborated on the struggles that SFU’s food service workers face due to COVID-19. “During the pandemic, workers were struggling with increased workloads, trying to ensure that the community’s health and safety was protected while they were serving meals to the community [ . . . ] Workers are feeling
Despite wage increase, the union continues to expand access to university resources. exhausted at the end of the day and feel like they’re not being treated with respect by their company.”
This is a historic moment that will help create a better future for future generations of service workers at SFU. STEPH ANIE FUNG UNITE HERE LOCAL 40 COMMUNICATIONS ORGANIZER
Fung said many of the workers are women of colour who have served the community for decades. The Peak had previously reported that “there is no data regarding the diversity of these workers, since they are not direct employees of the university.” The focus of the campaign was to provide food service workers with a living wage. They had planned a protest in February 2021 but it was cancelled when Compass agreed to renegotiate their contract. According to the press release, “Costs of living are soaring in Burnaby and Vancouver.” Fung explained, “A living wage [will] make a tremendous difference for food service workers.”
PHOTO: Unite Here! Local 40 / Facebook
The minimum wage in BC is currently $15.20 whereas the living wage in Metro Vancouver was $20.52 per hour in 2021. “Other companies and workers are noticing this [ . . . ] and it gives us more fuel to rise up and demand what we deserve,” Fung noted. “There are many other hospitality workers across the province who have been working through the pandemic [with] increased workloads and want job security during this time. “It’s time they get what they deserve for all the hard work they’ve done,” said Fung. UNITE HERE Local 40 is continuing to advocate for SFU’s food service workers. They’re asking for increased community benefits, including access to university facilities, such as campus libraries. Other employees directly hired by SFU already have these benefits. According to Fung, Compass Group “has agreed to meet within 45 days” of the announcement “to discuss expansion of access to university facilities for workers. “[It’s] a good sign that there will be conversations moving ahead,” said Fung. For more information or updates on their campaign, visit UNITE HERE Local 40’s website.
LEADERSHIP REFRESHED
Incoming SFSS president Helen Sofia Pahou discusses plans for the upcoming year Pahou plans to increase student engagement and accessibility to resources JAYMEE SALI S I // PR O M OTI O NS CO O RD I NATO R
With hopes to ease student hardships, Helen Sofia Pahou is prepared to begin her term as president of the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS). Pahou spoke with The Peak about her plans for the 2022/23 year. As president, Pahou aims to ensure clearer communication and collaboration within the SFSS. She hopes this will benefit students by increasing their access to opportunities and resources. Pahou plans to begin her term by “bringing events back to campus for SFU students to enjoy.” She said this would look like organizing town halls, educating students on Studentcare coverage, and encouraging clubs and departmental student unions to use the facilities in the Student Union Building (SUB). In regards to these new events, Pahou did not specify COVID-19 guidelines. However, Pahou discussed her plans to deal with campus concerns regarding COVID-19. “The SFSS is inclined to follow protocols and good practices recommended by the BC provincial government and their current province-wide restrictions.” The SFSS plans to continue circulating recommendations throughout the SUB on wearing masks in public spaces, washing hands, and wiping down high contact surfaces. Pahou noted they will continue to make spaces with cleaner air circulation accessible to students as the pandemic continues. She mentioned the spaces in the SUB’s 1000 level are equipped with HEPA filters. Additionally, she hopes to work alongside the SFSS Women’s Centre to increase and amplify safe spaces for women and the LGBTQIA2S+ community on campus. She explained being a woman in a leadership role inclines her to empower
women, as well as educate the SFU community on sexual violence and prevention. “Amplifying sexual violence prevention training to student leaders, and creating more dialogue on the realities of sexual violence on campus, will be a key project going into this year,” Pahou said. To do this, she plans to collaborate with SFU’s Active Bystander Network and SFU’s Sexual Violence Support and Prevention Office. Both groups offer the opportunity for SFU students and employees to be educated on and receive support for sexual violence. Pahou said she is “inclined to uphold the work, initiatives, and policies that have already been put in place to support students a part of marginalized communities.” She added, “Consultation with these communities, and holding ourselves accountable to serving these communities, will also be a key part of our role while forwarding initiatives and surveys centered on amplifying their needs.” To make her leadership services more accessible to students, Pahou said her plan is “to offer in-person and online office hours a few times per week for students to say hello, create new points of connection, and speak to [her] about whatever concerns they may have.” She aims to increase accessibility and engagement by frequently having members of the SFSS executive available to student members in Convocation Mall on the Burnaby campus. Pahou believes this will allow herself and her team to make better connections with students and answer their questions. Pahou said she is experienced in the functions of student politics and leadership as a result of her previous roles as
Pahou has served in various councillor and senate positions.
PHOTO: Helen Sofa Pahou
SFSS vice-chair of council, SFSS councillor for political science, and SFU undergraduate senator for the faculty of arts and social sciences. During her time serving in the Senate, she was involved in sub-committees including the Senate Committee on University Priorities and the Senate Committee on International Activities. Since the SUB’s soft-opening in August 2021, the building has not been fully operational. Pahou said as the SFSS reintroduces more in-person activities, she expects there to be a “learning curve” in engagement and event planning upon the building’s grand opening. However, she said she feels “very lucky to be working with a fantastic staff, and an eager team of vice presidents ready to help us overcome all these new challenges.” Students interested in getting in touch with Pahou can email her at president@sfss.ca.
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OPINIONS
Opinions Editor Luke Faulks
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opinions@the-peak.ca
BRAVE NEW-ISH WORLD
students for
The pandemic has radically shifted the job market in favour of a hybrid working environment
MICHAEL LE
A hybrid system represents the best of both worlds.
Over the last two years, we’ve learned to work in a whole new way. As of 2021, 66% of business leaders have cleared out space for a hybrid model going forward. With the popular trend seemingly here to stay, it only makes sense that SFU adapts a hybrid model to best prepare its students for the new job market.
workers and students alike have the best of both worlds. Despite some bumps along the way, we’ve proven the hybrid model can work.
While it’s been a challenge to adapt to, we’ve all felt the
As a student, I’ve felt the same way. Not only are we gaining more time from a reduced commute, but we’re also able to work from anywhere. As an accounting intern myself, being able to take naps in between breaks was a godsend. A hybrid system can also help students who may experience a shortterm upheavals, like moving or surgery. With more content available virtually, students will have an easier time working around unexpected shifts in their schedules. Hybridization also helps to clear frequent hurdles associated with the workplace. Being entirely in-person presents challenges for commuters who might not have access to frequent bus routes or a car, thus increasing commute time and stress. On the virtual side, workers that don’t have proper access to reliable internet services or electronic devices might not be able to keep up with the class. Through hybridization,
That’s not to say there aren’t some real concerns about the hybrid system. culture” in the workplace, or “campus life” at school. Socially, it’s true that a purely virtual environment severely limits the ways we can communicate and puts us at risk of Zoom fatigue. Completely hybridizing work, however, opens the door to choice in communication. It’s a key part of the business environment. Aside from creating a fun environment, socialization fosters psychological safety — a sense of being able to provide and receive positive feedback between coworkers. Adopting the communication channels needs and standards of today’s workforce early on gives students a headstart in practicing their hybridized communication skills. Should SFU pursue an expanded hybrid model, there are more factors than just an in-person culture to consider. Over the course of the pandemic, teaching staff have borne the brunt of having to adapt to a mostly virtual, sometimes hybrid environment. They’ve done so without the kinds of support they need from the administration and without
PHOTO: Dom Hou / Unsplash adequate compensation that reflects the extent of new training and extended hours they’re working. To prevent instructors from having too many non-teaching duties associated with a hybrid system, the administration needs to step in. Training intended to increase knowledge of requisite technologies and programs aimed at keeping learning fresh will help smoothen the transition to a hybrid system. Sitting down to establish a new pay scale that reflects an expanded job purview is also a necessity. For students, SFU can work to tie success to performance, which can enhance productivity. In a class setting, instructors can reinforce this by incorporating graded micro-projects or assignments throughout the semester to help students walk through class material via experiential learning, rather than large heavily-weighed exams. Moreover, students have to keep in mind that accountability has always been an in-demand skill, no matter the environment. With the hybrid model a likely mainstay to some degree going forward, students will need to not only embrace but adapt to the challenges that come along with it. This also means that, on the administrative side, SFU should allow students to continue with in-person and virtual learning systems. The for SFU to lean in.
FIGHTING CLIMATE DENIAL
is pointing to the It’s time we turn towards climate humanitarian consequences to fight misinformation
OLIVIA VI SSIE R
Climate change predictions are being fulfilled before our eyes.
Climate change is real, imminent, and one of the biggest
experience, those who are genuinely uninformed benefit the most from exposure to evidence. Emphasizing the massive consensus on human-driven climate change in the scientific literature is important. But it’s through examples like increasingly frequent heat waves and floods that we start to paint a humanitarian crisis.
research has led to the conclusion that humans must act quickly to prevent a global ecological and humanitarian crisis. Sadly, misinformation and disinformation still run rampant in conversations about the threat of climate change. An explosion of fake news on social media has only increased the level and accessibility of misinformation. By pointing out climate change has moved beyond a prediction to a reality back against that misinformation. It’s important to identify the drivers of climate change denial. Not everyone who shares misinformation does so out of malice — some people are genuinely uninformed. On the other hand, those who spread disinformation deliberately attempt to misinform people. You should not count on changing the minds of people who are caught up in disinformation, because they aim to reject evidence that opposes their existing beliefs. From my personal
The unprecedented North American heat wave of 2021 was made possible because of increased temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions. At least 595 lives were lost in BC alone to heat-related deaths. During this heat dome, the town displaced over 1,000 people and destroyed infrastructure. Meanwhile, in Abbotsford, we can point to the 2021 “atmospheric river” that caused 15,000 people to evacuate and $450 million in damages. It’s the kind of eye-catching event that can be used to underline how extreme weather events are increasingly severe in a changing climate. It’s also a personal reminder of the human cost of climate change.
PHOTO: Kira Schwartz / Pexels
Lives and small businesses were upended. The examples don’t stop there. The federal government published a handy list of 10 extreme weather events from 2021, including I believe much of our futures will be spent suffering through the consequences of ignoring climate change. These natural disasters are not isolated events, but an increasing reality that is catastrophically changing life on earth. Their unprecedented nature makes it particularly poignant as a potential tool to convince climate deniers of a shift in their environment. Climate predictions encourage people to act with their futures in mind, but catastrophes are already being realized. We must remind misinformed people of the existing and worsening humanitarian crisis that is climate change. If you care about people then you should care about the climate, issue remains unaddressed.
OPINIONS
May 9, 2022
5
MAYBE IT’S THE SYSTEM
Capitalism is killing us and telling us the problem is our brains The proliferation of mental illnesses points to a necessity to change the system ME E RA ERAGODA // F EATURES E D I TO R
One in three Canadians are likely to experience a mental illness in their lifetime. In 2020, pre-pandemic, The Tyee reported one-third of Canadians had been diagnosed with anxiety. Additionally, one-third had been prescribed anti-depressants. Since the pandemic, CBC reported 54% of Canadians felt their mental health has worsened. Given the scale of the problem, when do we recognize it’s not an individual but a systemic problem? There are many reasons why your depression and anxiety may not just be your problem. As mental health provider Madeleine Ritts writes for Jacobin, declining mental health is the inevitable outcome of an exploitative capitalist system. Case in point, a 2022 report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that climate change negatively affects mental health, with impacts being felt disproportionately depending on intersecting vulnerabilities, like race and class. If you can’t afford to rent or buy food or live or barely make ends meet, doesn’t it make sense you would feel anxious and depressed? If there’s a war going on in your country or you’re targeted by state forces, doesn’t it make sense you would be anxious and depressed? If you’re living through climate disaster after climate disaster, doesn’t it make sense you would be anxious and depressed? Instead of us being sold the idea that we need therapy or we need to medicate, perhaps the real solution is to stop war, to give
We’re failing to tackle the root causes of mental illnesses.
people basic needs, address multiple isms, and to ensure we will all have a world to live in? Capitalism and colonialism’s cycles of extraction and oppression are sending us hurtling over the cliff’s edge of climate destruction, all while we’re being told there is something wrong with us. We need to recognize what we’re being told may not be the whole story and to hold leaders of every institution accountable to make wide-scale changes. Now, I’m not saying that mental illnesses are not real (they are) but perhaps the scale at which they are proliferating is indicative of something beyond individual issues. I’m not saying we should stop advocating for low-cost access to counselling, medicine, and other supports. After all, we still have to live under late-stage capitalism and its intensifying series of crises — most recently, climate change and COVID-19 — which affect certain communities disproportionately. But while we advocate for these, we should also recognize that a capitalist system will demonize and dismiss anything that goes against its ability to extract and profit to create the illusion that it is not the problem.
PHOTO: Jonadan Cheun / The Peak
The late Marxist blogger Mark Fisher explained that capitalism creates a problem, offsets that onto individuals, and sells them the solution. Fisher suggested capitalism causes instability and oppression that people can’t cope with. As a result, Fisher argued that capitalism prompts people to believe there’s something wrong with their neurochemistry. He added that they can solve it by paying pharmaceutical companies and therapists. Fisher explained that because of this, “any question of social systemic causation is ruled out.” All of this prevents examination of the wider systemic causes of the problem and maintains the status quo for those in power. While we should continue to fight to lower barriers to accessing mental healthcare, we equally need to fight against the systems that cause such high levels of stress to our mental health. This fight starts in our communities — whether at home, at school, or in our workplaces. As sci-fi author Ursula LeGuin famously said, “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.”
EMBRACE THE UNEXPECTED
Why joining a student organization was the best decision I ever made This Clubs Day, learn to appreciate the unforeseen benefits of signing up
LUK E FAULKS // OPINI O NS E D I TO R
This May, for the first time in two years, Clubs Day is back in person at SFU! From May 17–19, SFU’s diverse set of clubs and student organizations will be on display for potential recruits, from the Bowlers to the Introverts, the Knitters to the Optimists. And you should join! But not because of the standard reasons you’re pressured to join; you should join because there’s no telling where your involvement will take you. I know “join a club” is a tired piece of advice. Joining, they say, will do everything from enhance your resume to giving you a new pool of friends to just keeping you busy. Those reasons are valid, but getting involved could open up a much wider world. Take my case. During the pandemic, when I found myself with a bit more time on my hands, I said “yes” to a number of opportunities that came across my plate. The first big one, the one that has not stopped paying me back, was signing onto a new student journal, Gadfly. I got to be a part of the first year of this journal, SFU’s first-ever journal of undergraduate political science research, back in 2020/2021.
Clubs Day returns in person for the first time in two years (photo taken before COVID-19 pandemic). Yes, it looks good on my resume. Yes, I’ve been able to spend a great deal of time with some fantastic, like-minded people. That’s all a given when you join a club or student organization. What I couldn’t have seen coming were the ways in which the journal provided a stepping-off point for more learning, more skills, and ever more opportunities on and off-campus. Because I fell into a section editor and head copy editor roles, I’ve been able to interact with contributors throughout the review and publishing process. Getting to learn about the issues that animate members is a big, unpredictable benefit of joining. Working with other students challenged my worldview and positions in the political arena outside my climate and energy focus. The big spin-off effect of joining a student group is following your passions to join other organizations. One of the single best things to come about from my joining
PHOTO: Gudrun Wai-Gunnarsson / The Peak
Gadfly has been my tenure at The Peak. Absent an Instagram account, and in the throes of a hectic semester, I’d missed the call for applications to The Peak’s open positions. An eleventh-hour suggestion by my Gadfly editor-in-chief that I go for a staff writer position prompted an ultimately successful application to this paper. Thanks, The Peak. Thanks, Gadfly. This May, instead of carefully avoiding the eyes of the bubbly folks stationed at booths in Convocation Mall, go talk to them! If that’s not your thing, I feel you. Hit ‘em up on social media! Joining a club opens up a world of possibilities that you have no way of appreciating until you’re in the thick of it. You’ve just got to take that first leap. If you’re interested in becoming a contributor, sign-up for pitch meetings on our website. And don’t forget to pop by The Peak’s booth this Club’s Day!
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ARTS & CULTURE
Arts & Culture Editor Gemma Yelin Lee
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arts@the-peak.ca
SMALL TOWN BLUES
Cast of Peace Country photographed by Sewari Campillo Photography (left to right): Sofía Rodríguez, Montserrat Videla, Sara Vickruck, Kaitlyn Yott, Garvin Chan.
PHOTO: Sewari Campillo Photography
Peace Country gives city dwellers insight into climate change realities faced by northern BC’s small towns Play by SFU alumnus reflected memories of childhood innocence and bleak community futures
JO CE LY N ST EVEN S / / SF U STUD E NT
As a former northern BC small town habitant, I was intrigued by the concept of Peace Country and pleasantly surprised at the emotional impact and relatability of the play. Written and directed by SFU alumnus Pedro Chamale, Peace Country expresses the clash of narratives he encountered from being born and raised in Chetwynd, BC. The play was a Rice and Beans Theatre production and was presented by the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts from April 27–30. I was thoroughly amazed at how well the play portrayed northern BC and the challenges that come with living there.
play. Along with this, the performers and stories represented a wide range of marginalized communities — such as queer and BIPOC folks. The play centres on the lives of two sisters (Sofía Rodríguez and Montserrat Videla) and their friends (Sara Vickruck, Garvin Chan, and Kaitlyn Yott). In spite of their differences, the five friends become close and endure hardships together such as loss, racism, and homophobia. The play flashes back between the past and present where they find themselves having to navigate the return of one of their friends: the newly elected MP of a green party.
Chamale was inspired by reflections on his youth and his family’s experiences in the Peace Region as Latinx people. Pushing for sociopolitical change, the play follows five friends and their growth in the Peace Region. Peace Country brings up the challenges that come with trying to make it in a small town, from being belittled by urban Canadian cities to trying to make ends meet, all in the midst of a changing climate.
The play touched on some of the hard realities many people face. Some examples of these include: local coffee shops unable to stay open with big-name brands taking customers, sudden increases and decreases in population due to the pipeline, and Indigenous communities still not being included in conversations around environmental change.
We, the world, need everything to change so that we can stop this climate crisis or try to mitigate it if we’re not already too far. P E D RO C HAMALE // P LAYW RI G HT
I was glad to see a meaningful land acknowledgement and welcome done by Quelemia Sparrow before beginning the
During my interview with Chamale, I asked him what ultimately led him to create Peace Country. He realized that the catastrophic effects of climate change were already happening in northern BC at a much greater scale than in urban centres. “I started researching climate change and the climate crisis that we’re in right now [ . . . ] and then realizing that a lot of my friends and family are dependent on those resource industries,” said Chamale. “We, the world, need everything to change so that we can stop this climate crisis or try to mitigate it if we’re not already too far.” When asked about the conflict between climate emergency and jobs in northern BC, Chamale discussed the need for sustainable solutions that take care of people in the industries up north as well. “It’s the larger corporations that have not cared for people because of capitalistic profits and the capitalism we live in.”
He continued, “We are subject to that system and so how do we talk across these differences that are just radicalizing so many people?” Peace Country captured what seemed like positive and innocent moments as children growing up with friends, going back and forth between past and present, which left me curious about what kind of scene was coming next. The transition between scenes starkly contrasted this positive energy with eerie and heavy breathing — as if to make the audience members uncomfortable. I saw the contrast between scenes and transitions as the simultaneity of everyday life and the climate crisis. I was emotionally struck by the personal stories of the characters, especially the solo monologue by Melissa (Sara Vickruck), where they spoke on the hardships of being the only openly queer person in a small town. They touched on the loneliness and lack of support available to LGBTQ2S+ people coming into their identities. This resonated with me and my friends because we left our small town due to the same struggles and ultimately found acceptance in urban cities. Chamale hopes audience members will feel inspired to pursue political action such as writing to their members of parliament or attending rallies. “Ask for these just transitions, ask for actual courage in our politicians to make actual change.” He added, “Provide for the people who need to switch out of those industries, not just drop them like dead weight.” This play was supported by Playwrights Theatre Centre and PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. To find out more about Peace Country presented by Rice and Beans Theatre, check out their Instagram or website. To keep up on Pedro Chamale’s work, follow him on Instagram.
ARTS & CULTURE
May 9, 2022
7
IDENTITY INTERPRETATIONS
PHOTO: Bachelors of Fine Arts graduates 2022
SFU Audain Gallery presents “Collecting Plum Blossoms,” a dazzling graduate-class student exhibition Graduating artists from SFU’s fine arts program explores identities and futurisms NE RCYA KALI N O // STAF F W RI TE R
identification of culture (or BIPOC communities, myself included). The artist collected the fabrics used on the large canvas from woman family members. What impressed me was the abstraction of the piece: it reminded me of the birthing organ. The colour coordination and the textures of chiffon, silk, and velvet gave it life. I think the textures worked in parallel with the themes the artist tackled. According to the exhibit pamphlet, these themes were “Indian culture, empowerment, internal conflict, and the body.” As someone who is drawn to abstract works, I was immediately enticed by the artistic elements of the piece including the materials themselves and the intentional arrangement of the fabric.
“Collecting Plum Blossoms,” the 2022 exhibition of student works displayed at SFU Audain Gallery from April 14–23, portrayed an intriguing approach to art and the future. The title of the exhibition was inspired by a 2021 artwork by Sahar Rahmanian and symbolizes students’ hopes for the future. The exhibition showcased various works from 13 graduating artists from SFU’s fine arts program. According to the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts Instagram post, “plum blossoms become a metaphor for the way disparate pieces can come together.” It writes about the special collectivity of showcasing with other artists and the “sense of futurity” that comes from graduation. Artists chose unique choices of materials and mediums to create their works. Before “Collecting Plum Blossoms,” I had only been to one other exhibition, so I didn’t know what to expect. It was wonderful to see several works expressing experiences of vulnerability. Each of the stories narrated reflections of the world. The first work I came across was by Sofia Grace titled I Leave You With All of Me, To You. It implemented wood, gesso, and acrylic paint.
2: Revealing Hidden Memories by Ravneet Kaur Sidhu Ravneet Kaur Sidhu’s work definitely brought childhood memories and feelings to the surface. Her art piece, Revealing Hidden Memories, stuck out to me. The wood, metal, and paper materials she used for the piece were items I played with as a child. The artist tied together the domestic and cultural relationships in her life in this piece. There was also an element of soundscape that complemented the pictures. The biggest piece — the wooden picture frame — had multiple pictures of family members in it. The photos had a tan filter layered on top with a newspaper background as the frame. Seeing this work, I reminisced about the smell of old newspapers or moments when all of our relatives gathered at the grandparents’ house with so much food and lively chatter. The dialogues of a festival celebration in a household within the background brought life to these memories. According to the exhibit pamphlet, Sidhu’s approach was to emphasize sentimentality and “the gaps between traditional and modern relations in her community.”
HUES (Highlighting Ubiquitous Emitted Sounds) by Daniel Lin was a piece that used a microphone and a projection — a work that used colour and sound to show new ways of expressing art. The piece responded to sounds that the viewers made. It was not marbled colours, but rather a portrait of colours in constant movement to the sounds, glowing and meandering into and out of each other. The colour emission was vivid in a way that did not take away from the movements; it was more like a lulling emission. The aspect of technology in art is shown through Lin’s attempts to experiment with the inputs and outputs of the camera feed and the microphone. It was quite impressive that he was able to tie it all together to show the possibility of going beyond the boundaries of medium functionality.
1: I Leave You With All of Me, To You by Sofia Grace The arrangement of the pieces resembled an author’s messy desk accompanied by a memory wall with intimate letter exchanges between strangers. For the project, Grace mailed hand-written cards “proposing friendship” to use for the exhibition. The letters appeared to elevate what was described by the gallery brochure as an “experimental gesture that looks to generate new connections through invitation.” Grace used the exchanges and contributions of letters she received to relate the meaning of her work to items within the art piece. The mixed media piece focused “on the idea of the pen pal” in order to convey this sense of vulnerability, as explained by the brochure.
4: HUES (Highlighting Ubiquitous Emitted Sounds) by Daniel Lin
3: Reformation by Shinaaz K. Johal
The other works exhibited at the Audain explored the idea of identity and the public in contemporary spaces. Through observing these works, I learned more about the innovative forms and executions of art in modern society. The exhibit encompassed broadened forms of media as tools to spark new ways of contemplating identities.
Another work that I particularly appreciated was Shinaaz K. Johal’s Reformation. This textiles piece was one I connected with on a deeper level — fabric and texture are an immense
To learn more about and view some of the pieces that were on display, follow the exhibit's Instagram page and SFU School for Contemporary Arts Instagram page.
FEATURES
WINDOWS TO THE PAST:
Building Up
HISTORIC CHINATOWN W R I T T E N BY K E L LY C H I A
on Pender Street, the CBA bu in Chinatown with recogniza Chinese eaves, recessed balc parapet (a barrier that starts a
The CBA was an important u services and provided crucia and communal needs of the community in Chinatown. Growing up, my fondest memories of Chinatown were walking through the iconic Millenium Gate that greets every visitor and seeing the dancing lions parading around red street lights every Lunar New Year. I also think back to the bakeries I would go to with my parents. We would come home with soft steamed pork buns and flaky pineapple buns. It’s only in recent years I’ve grown more appreciative of the history of Chinatown and the placemaking efforts of Chinese Canadians to make it such an iconic part of Vancouver. The buildings that make up Chinatown, some of which have existed proudly since the 1800s, reflect the strength of the neighbourhood and the community, offering a glimpse into its history of resistance and resilience. A Brief History of Chinatown in the 1800s Though Chinese immigration to BC started in the 1850s as part of the Gold Rush, the history of permanent settlement in what is now known as Chinatown dates largely back to the late 1800s. This coincided with the influx of the approximately 17,000 Chinese migrants arriving to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Though Chinese migrants made up the majority of the railway worker crew by the end of construction, none of them were in the historic photograph capturing the railway’s completion. It was clear the BC government only employed them as cheap labour, with hundreds dying through this work. They were given the most dangerous tasks, worked in harsh conditions, and were paid $1.00 a day while paying for food and gear out of pocket. Comparatively, white workers made $1.50 to $2.50 and were provided food and equipment. Additionally, due to racism and economic segregation, they were forced to self-segregate in the area which eventually became Chinatown. After the CPR’s completion in 1885, the federal government no longer needed this labour force and enacted the Head Tax in an attempt to restrict Chinese immigration. This fee required every Chinese person immigrating to Canada to pay $50.00 (approximately $1,240.00 today). That fee increased exponentially to $500 in 1903 (approximately $12,408.00 in 2022). Despite this, more than 90,000 Chinese immigrants entered Canada between 1885 and 1923. By 1901, Vancouver’s Chinatown had a population of around 2,900 people. Then, the government passed a new Chinese Immigration Act in 1923, completely banning Chinese migrants from entering Canada and leaving many unable to bring their families over. In a Canada Museum
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PHOTO: Xicotencatl / Wikimedia Commons
for Human Rights interview, the grandson of a Chinese migrant, Dr. Henry Yu, noted the act made it nearly impossible for most men to marry and have grandkids, and many would die alone. These policies resulted in the population going from 45,000 in 1923 to a little over 20,000 by 1947, when the act was finally repealed. Chinese people faced segregation in places like swimming pools, movie theatres, classrooms, and were excluded from voting. Their efforts to build a community in Chinatown faced constant threats, most notably in 1907, when thousands of white settlers rioted through Chinatown and Powell Street, destroying businesses and homes of Chinese and Japanese migrants. Looking into the history of the buildings in Chinatown show the efforts of Chinese Canadians to unify their growing communities, in spite of the discrimination they faced.
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Wing Sang Building
Movements to Revitalize an The oldest building in Chinatown — the Wing Sang building — was constructed in 1889 by Yip Sang, an immigrant from Guangdong. Yip Sang is often recognized today for being a formidable community leader in the then-budding Chinatown. Hired by the CPR as a bookkeeper, timekeeper, and paymaster for the Chinese railway workers, Yip went on to establish his own business — the extraordinarily successful Wing Sang Company. The import/export company, founded in 1888, opened a two-storey office on Pender Street which would eventually become the Wing Sang building. Beyond his business acumen, Yip helped build a number of social institutions. In 1902, he established Aiguo Xuetang, a school for his and other Chinese children. It provided a safe space in which students had proper access to education and could learn both English and Chinese. This, along with similar schools established by others, were likely a response to the racism Chinese students faced in the BC school system from additional entrance barriers to outright segregation. The Wing Sang building remained in Yip’s family until 2004, when it was bought by Bob Rennie, a real estate marketer, with the intent to restore and preserve it. For the legacy and community it represents, the Wing Sang building will be donated as the home of the Chinese Canadian Museum in 2023.
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The 1950s to 1970s thus saw making efforts to revitalise th entrepreneurs made new inv Chinatown’s value as a cultu recognized with it being dee 1971. Groups like the Strathc Tenants Association fought t areas against threats of dem
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This revitalization marked a n Chinatown focused on drawin for their social scene through Foo’s Ho Ho Restaurant
One of the major attractions were the neon signs that dec with a neon bowl and chops stood out to many visitors.
Chinese Benevolent Association Building Another key building Yip helped establish was the Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA). Built in 1910
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nd Preserve Chinatown
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ILLUSTRATION: Josh Ralla / The Peak
uilding was one of the first ably Chinese architecture: conies, and an inscribed at the roof).
would cement Chinese aesthetics to shape the city’s appearance and heritage value. On the bottom floor, Ho Ho restaurant, a buzzing social hub, was opened in 1954 by the Quon family, featuring Cantonese dishes. In 1997, the neon sign was removed, and the restaurant moved across the block. The building was designated a historic building in 2014. There are plans to reopen the restaurant on the same spot in 2022. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden I cannot discuss any significant historical buildings without discussing Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Garden, which sits staunchly in the heart of Chinatown. According to the garden’s website, the community recognized a need to create a central cultural artefact to preserve Chinatown as a civic asset. The Dr. Sun YatSen society formed with the hope to build a Chinese classical garden for the Chinese migrant community. But there had never been a garden like this built outside of China. Architects Joe Wai and Don Vaughan were invited to work on the Ming Dynasty Chinese Garden, and they worked with the Suzhou Garden administration to help design and construct this garden. The garden received large funding from the Canadian and Chinese governments, as well as many private and public contributors. Not only is it a physical reminder of the efforts to preserve cultural heritage in the face of demolition, it serves as a non-profit at the centre of Chinatown. The garden provides many educational programs and tours, and partners with various community organisations in Chinatown to promote cultural connections and celebrations. Chinatown’s Fight for the Future Through these buildings, I’ve learned there is a palpable determination and love for community in Chinatown. The next time you find yourself in Chinatown, I encourage you to take a walk through the neighbourhood and appreciate the culture and strength of a people who built it up in the face of harsh discrimination from the government and others. Chinatown has endured the rage of anti-Asian sentiment for decades. It still takes the brunt of these sentiments, particularly after 2020. In recent years, the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen garden, businesses, and murals have faced rampant vandalism. Gentrification has also threatened to displace lower income tenants. Even so, the fight to keep Chinatown alive has always been a part of Chinatown itself. However disheartening this period may be, Chinatown is here to stay. It has weathered so many disasters and formed a strong community nonetheless. You can learn more about the stories of Chinatown from the 1880s onwards at the Chinatown Storytelling Centre. Neon lights are visible through their augmented reality app.
FEATURES
Community-focused gardening Embark’s learning gardens provide space for food justice and reclamation Connecting to land and community ME E RA ERAGODA // F EATURES E D I TO R
“Gardening is an act of love — a love for the planet, a love for your community, and a love for yourself,” said fifth year Nimrit Basra. The garden plot she rents from Embark Sustainability helps her “build a reciprocal relationship with the earth,” manage stress, and find joy in sharing their harvest with loved ones.
Cycles of food and life
Embark is an SFU group dedicated to addressing systemic sustainability issues such as food access and climate change through a justice, decolonization, equity, diversity, and inclusion lens. Their learning garden plots are one way they further this mission. Having started as a student initiative in 2012, they now feature an impressive 84 raised garden beds and 24 vertical garden plots.
Food literacy refers to “how to grow food and how to prepare food,” Vimos explained. The former is done through the learning gardens and the latter through Embark’s complementary Community Kitchen program.
These plots are found on the Surrey and Burnaby campuses. The 3’x4’ raised plots are rented out yearly to individual students and student groups for an affordable price of $15/box or $25/two boxes for the year, with a cap on two boxes due to demand. While registration for plots is currently closed (and booked through to January of next year), Embark is running a Burnaby Learning Garden Cohort program for 10 students to learn the gardening ropes for free, with guidance. The program runs on Thursdays from June 2–August 11. All the tools are provided and no experience is required. Applications are due on May 20, 2022.
Gardening as food justice With the arrival of gardening season, The Peak spoke with Embark’s gardens manager Pablo Vimos and programs manager Desiree Gabriel about the importance of giving students access to this green space. “The idea behind [the gardens] is creating a space on campus to grow food, get in contact with the land, and to change the landscape that companies offer into a more agricultural environment,” Vimos said. Gabriel added, “At Embark, we prioritize two areas: climate equity and food justice. And our learning gardens obviously very much focus on food justice. So our gardens provide students a space to explore the connections to food production and deepen their understanding of food justice in our communities.” Embark provides garden users with a variety of food options to help them find more nutritious alternatives to mainstream organic grocers which are costlier and offer less cultural selection. Working through a food justice lens allows Embark to provide students with “low-barrier access to gardening and cultivating their own food,” said Gabriel. The gardens also aim to provide an antidote to the harm caused by universities. The university structure can increase stress and isolation, and require students to remain sedentary and focused on screens, Gabriel explained. Gardening, she said, gives students a place to “reconnect with nature, and also develop skills through hands-on experience without worrying about the framework of grades and scrutiny.” The gardens are a way for students of any identity to gain mindfulness practice, be out in fresh air, find independence from mainstream food systems, and access organic fruits and vegetables.
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Along with helping students build skills and gain a better understanding of food production, Embark’s program also enables students to “build community and develop food literacy in a way they might not be able to in classes.”
When growing food, Vimos teaches students the garden cycle from “planning, planting, caring for the garden, harvesting, and composting.” Being involved in the cycle helps students understand how it changes depending on the crop being grown. For example, growing a radish would take 35 days while growing garlic would take nine months. A key teaching of the cohort program is the interconnectedness of land and animals (including humans), which Embark honours by growing organic food. Care for the land includes care for all the living things in it. “When we start gardening, the first thing that we acknowledge is that we are part of nature and as a part of nature, we should work with it, not against it,” Vimos stressed. With their garden program, Embark tries to strike a balance between allowing certain bugs and protecting crops through natural pest control, such as garlic and chili pepper. Vimos said in urban environments, when people come across a spider, often their first thought is to kill it. “But, when you are in the garden and you see a spider, your attitude changes, because then you realize, ‘Oh, this spider is a gardener’s friend.’” This is because spiders often eat other bugs like mosquitoes. Not using pesticides also makes it easy to take a bite out of a particularly enticing vegetable right from the garden bed while ensuring soil health. An organic approach also helps gain an understanding of nature’s cycles and how they relate to food production. Understanding the influence of things like the moon, the length of days, and temperature help gardeners match “the right crop with the right season,” Vimos said.
Don’t be afraid. We will learn on the way and if something doesn’t work out, well, it’s a learning garden. PABLO V I M OS / / E M BA R K GA R D E N S M A N AG E R
Staying attuned to the world outside the garden by making connections between what’s growing in the plot and what native plants are growing in the surrounding environment, lead to deeper understandings of the seasons, Vimos said. Both Vimos and Gabriel stressed the importance of learning about Indigenous food systems which existed before Europeans colonized the global food cycle in order to understand there are multiple food pathways.
Their garden and kitchen programs build not only resiliency, but community. Gabriel explained the gardens build excitement and lead to people sharing recipes with each other. Vimos also shared a story about a previous cohort witnessing three deer walking into the garden. “Our gardens are open. So the deer and wildlife just show up now and then, and they like to taste the leaves of berries, the leaves of beans, the shoots of apple trees, and we just need to be patient, resilient. We cannot do anything without that. It became part of the land, part of where we live, and we just accept and remove whatever was eaten.” Gabriel said, “It was amazing to see the different reactions of all the cohort members when the deer arrived, adding “there was a mixture of fear to amazement to really stark happiness. It was interesting to see how differently everyone perceived the deer coming.” Encouraging students to join, Vimos said, “Don’t be afraid. We will learn on the way and if something doesn’t work out, well, it’s a learning garden. We are learning, it’s a learning process.”
Grow through what you go through Gardening as a process to gain mindfulness and provide a therapeutic practice is something Tricia-Kay Williams supports. Among her many hats, Williams provides counselling at SFU to help support Black students and runs her own counselling practice, Metamorphose Counselling. Williams currently runs a series of IBPOC Garden Therapy Workshops at SFU and spoke with The Peak about them. When she saw an email from SFU Health & Counselling (H&C) asking if anyone would like to use the two plots H&C rents out from Embark, she jumped on the opportunity. “I was super interested in this. And the reason I’m so interested in it is because my grandparents in Jamaica were farmers.” Williams’ grandparents were pea and bean farmers and she recounted her fascination with being able to help with harvest and taking produce to the market. It was what inspired her own gardening journey and with Embark’s garden plots, she saw an opportunity to use them “as a space for students to be able to gain a better understanding of themselves.” The workshops are specifically open to Indigenous and Black students and other students of colour. She highlighted the significance of this as being the ability to reclaim space and the “connection to nature.” She explained BIPOC have been historically separated from accessing land, either through slavery or other displacements. “This [gardening] is livelihood, this is building community. This is connecting to pieces of ourselves that help us to be self-preserving.” Williams added it can also be “healing and sustaining.” The IBPOC Garden Therapy workshops run in a series, corresponding roughly to the main stages of gardening: planting, maintenance, and harvesting. Each theme has four workshops and though the workshops on planting have wrapped up, the ones on maintenance will begin on May 27, 2022. They will be open to students whether or not they attended the planting workshops since Williams will provide a quick recap of the planting workshops in the first session. Though the workshops provide students with everything they need, Williams said students may opt to bring their own gloves to ensure they fit.
Planting
Harvesting
With the planting workshops, Williams wanted to explore different ways of planting and how that can be applied to the different life journeys students take. A couple different ways planting can happen is through getting seedlings that have already been prepared for you and placing them in your garden or the more “challenging process” of growing them from seeds. Williams said, with seeds, “you have to take so much care to ensure that they grow and even though it doesn’t matter how much care you put into it, sometimes they won’t.
The last in the series, which won’t begin until September, will be harvesting. Williams explained, in Jamaican culture, “harvesting is a celebration. It’s a time where you’re able to see the benefits of all the work you put into planting.”
“So you think about the different ways of planting and look at life and society and circumstances that we place ourselves in. You can see how there can be similarities or correlations that you can draw, right? And it will be different for everybody.” Williams spoke about how different soil conditions are required for different plants and similarly, societal conditions will impact people differently. She asked her cohort, if a seed is planted in rocks, even if it comes up, will it have enough of a foundation to grow and succeed? On the other hand, “a person that had all the nutrients, the right soil, and had somebody that was taking care of it for a period of time, that person will hopefully get to the place where they have all the things they need to succeed.”
This is an opportunity to “see the benefits of who you are as a person in society and be able to celebrate that.” Celebrating and embracing the joy of seeing all your hard work pay off is something Williams thinks is missing in today’s society.” These small things deserve celebration, Williams said, because they are “an important part of increasing confidence and your sense of self. “In order to get to the big things, there are really small things that you would have to accomplish.”
Applications for Embark’s Burnaby Learning Garden Cohort can be found on their website. Up-to-date information on Williams’ upcoming IBPOC Garden Therapy Workshops can be found on the H&C website.
The workshops were a “very open process.” Williams focused on the planting and got people thinking about how the process might apply to their lives. “There’s so much that can come out of the idea of planting a seed and waiting for it to grow.”
Maintenance The upcoming maintenance workshops will focus on giving plants the appropriate conditions to grow in. “Sometimes you have plants at home, and you have to prune the plant from time to time to cut away dead leaves.” She added you also need to ensure each plant is receiving the right amount of light and water. Williams plans to explore different concepts weekly such as how pruning can be applied to students’ lives. “We think about this idea of letting go of, you know, negative or toxic people in your life [and] being able to reflect and look at ourselves and identify areas that we need to improve on as well.” This reflection can be “really important to self development and also the idea of improving as a society.”
PHOTOS: Krystal Chan / The Peak
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ARTS & CULTURE
Arts & Culture Editor Gemma Yelin Lee
·
arts@the-peak.ca
Food for Thought: Menemen A Turkish breakfast dish that reminds me of home YASM IN V E J S S I M S E K / / STAF F W R I TE R
Are you desperately looking for new recipes that are easy to make and budget-friendly? Are you sick to your stomach of instant ramen 5–7 days a week? Would you like to add a hearty, healthy, and delicious meal to your repertoire? Then I want to introduce you to menemen, the Turkish breakfast dish which is just as perfect for lunch as it is for dinner. Originating from the Menemen area close to Izmir in Western Turkey, it shares a lot of similarities with the well-known shakshuka, another popular dish in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The best thing about making this dish is that you can customize your ingredients: you are the master of what goes in your menemen. This dish reminds me of the summer holidays in my family’s hometown of Kayseri, Turkey. More often than not, we would be in 40°C heat, sleeping in late, and waking up to the smell of my babaanne’s menemen. In my family, we would add a popular Turkish sausage called sucuk, an amazing garlicky beef sausage which adds a wonderful depth. It is not easy to find in Vancouver, but Mediterranean Specialty Foods on Commercial Drive sells them. Other meats typically used for breakfast dishes are a fine replacement. What makes my grandmother’s cooking unique is her love for sucuk and her generosity with olive oil — the house would frequently be immersed in cozy aromas of garlic. Sitting in my PJs at the table with the whole family gathered around it, we would dig into the feta, olives, and most importantly, the menemen. The main ingredients needed for this recipe are peppers, tomatoes, and eggs. There are huge debates on the addition of onion, with a 51/49 split on the matter. I belong to the “onion and garlic in everything” team, so I always add both to my menemen.
Ingredients: •
6–8 fresh tomatoes or 1 jar of canned tomatoes
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1–2 peppers (traditionally green capsicum pepper, but I use red/orange bell pepper)
•
1 onion (white, but again, use what your fridge has to offer)
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Garlic (an optional amount, I shamelessly go with 3–4 cloves)
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4 eggs (if scrambled, otherwise as many as will be eaten when served)
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Preferred meat(pork will make it much less Turkish, but you’re the boss)
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Butter or oil to fry (more is always better)
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Spices (such as paprika, black pepper, herbs)
Instructions: 1. Heat up a pan with oil or butter on medium heat and dice your onion to preferred size. Add them to the pan.
The great thing about this dish is how customizable it is. You can easily make it vegetarian or vegan; simply withhold the eggs and sausage and let the vegetables speak for themselves. Similarly, you can just add whatever you have at home or substitute fresh tomatoes with canned tomatoes for a cheaper meal. Bread goes perfectly with menemen, but for fewer carbohydrates, it can easily be enjoyed on its own. In Turkey, it would be served with the basic and inexpensive Turkish bread called somun ekmek. You can buy somun ekmek in literally every store there and it’s the perfect bread for soaking up the delicious, tomato-based sauce. I like to show off by poaching my eggs in the sauce, but traditionally it is scrambled into the mix.
2. Add your crushed or finely chopped garlic when the onions have started to soften.
Here is how I make menemen for 3–4 portions/people, so you can be sure to have leftovers the next day.
6. Turn the heat down to low-medium, and let it simmer with a lid on for 10–15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, cut pepper in squares and roughly chop the tomatoes. They will soften during cooking. 4. After 5 minutes on the pan, add pepper and meat to the onion and garlic. 5. After another few minutes, add the tomatoes and spices — again, you’re the boss, add some chili flakes if you’re feeling spicy.
7. When the tomatoes are basically dissolved and the dish has turned appropriately saucy, add the eggs. If scrambled, scramble them in the mixture till it reaches the preferred texture. If poaching, crack the eggs evenly around the pan and put the lid back on. Let it cook for 6-7 minutes or until the whites have hardened. 8. Sprinkle a little salt on top and serve in the pan for the most authentic presentation.
PH OTO: Vedat Zorluer / Pixabay
Afiyet Olsun! (Enjoy your meal!)
HUMOUR
May 9, 2022
PHOTO: Gudrun Wai-Gunnarsson / The Peak
TOP TEN Ways to cope with the beginning of another semester 1
Denial
What semester? This summer you’ll be tanning blissfully at the beach, laughing at the people signing up for another summer of the same school-related stress and poorly air-conditioned lecture halls. Instead of completing required readings, you’ll be reading a book — one that isn’t non-fiction and could double as a sleep aid.
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Cry
Let it all out. Your summer of freedom should be mourned. So grab your favorite snacks and your guilty pleasure TV series that you’ve watched too many times, and have a nice cry. While scrolling through social media when you should be studying, you’ll likely come across posts (from peers you’ve never met, but their bio says they’re from SFU, so you added them to be polite) with this caption: take me back to beachy days. Keep those #hotstudenttears coming.
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Hit the gym
Ah, yes, coping the healthy way. Physical pain is better than the prospect of enduring another semester. Hit the gym and contemplate life between sets of exercises you’re 100% sure you’re not doing correctly. Either way, you may lift your spirits by doing some exercise*. *Pro tip: combining #2 and #3 is an embarrassing, but oddly cathartic, way to cope. Have that sad boi hours playlist ready for your next gym session, folks.
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Discover Google Calendar
Since the end of your summer is upon you, you might as well have a visual aid to remind you. This is my personal favourite way to cope as I can schedule everything, like lectures, tutorials, outings with friends, work-outs, and my “do I really want to be a psychology major or do I just want to work through my own trauma” sessions.
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Procrastinate
Ah . . . yes, good-old fashioned procrastination. Surely the most familiar concept for SFU students (because physical textbooks never take weeks to ship). This coping mechanism never fails to cause anxiety to run rampant. Will I be prepared for this semester? Who knows! Will I learn my lesson for the next semester? Highly unlikely! If you love the adrenaline rush of not knowing whether you'll have all of your materials for the upcoming semester, this coping mechanism is for you!
Written by Maya Beninteso
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Hoard all the caffeine*
I mean it. Take a trip to your local family-sized-everything shop (ahem, Costco) or anywhere selling copious amounts of caffeinated beverages, and purchase your favourite source of caffeine. This proactive measure will surely get you through those all-nighters because you have, evidently, mastered coping mechanism #5. *Use coping mechanism with caution. Recommended use only if a bathroom is in close proximity.
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Start journaling
Journaling is a way to reflect and process the events in your life. This can look different for everyone, but here is a sample I think will be helpful: Dear stack of bound paper I refuse to call a diary, to no one’s surprise, I fucked up again. I willingly signed up for another semester. Totally unrelated, but something must be wrong with me. I am doomed to a semester of 300 pages of readings a week and a professor who I swear cannot intonate to save their life.
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Conduct intensive research
This is likely the most productive method of coping. Research absolutely everything and make sure to pay attention to Rate My Professor, Course Diggers, SFU course outlines, and other relevant sources. The aforementioned resources will ensure you’ll be ready to tackle another semester. Thoroughly researching the enemy, AKA your courses, will render you prepared for anything the semester can throw at you: exams, papers, existential dread, and more!
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Find sources of support
Whether this be your group of friends, family, a literal support group, or other loved ones, find people that will be in your corner. All jokes aside, university can be mentally trying, so it’s vital to have people you can lean on when times get rough. If all else fails, SFU’s avocado will always be there for you (unless the avocado ends up leaving you, too.)
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Succumb
Reach acceptance. You signed up for another semester and you’ll get through another semester. It will, for the most part, suck, but schedule some fun if you can. Look on the bright side! Your friends will have to listen to you make jokes about some guy named Pavlov and his drooling dog as he appears on your syllabus for the fourth time. Everything in life will pass and, with some luck and preparation, hopefully you’ll pass your courses this semester, too.
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HUMOUR
Written by Nercya Kalino
Humour Editor Kelly Chia
·
humour@the-peak.ca
Losing my emotional support tote bag Tote Bag Alliance unite! There are thieves among us . . .
Ah, tote bags. They give the perfect impression of looking put together and artsy. So what happens when a student loses it? It is with tremendous sadness that I announce my resignation from the Tote Bag Alliance. What can one do when they have lost a part of themself ? After a long while of feeling the validation of being an artsy tote bearer, it is quite embarrassing that I bear this news. Careless! I know. I have not only searched the highs and lows of my room, but I have also found a potential suspect! My roommate insists they had nothing to do with the disappearance of my tote bag, but I’m not quite so easily convinced. Two weeks ago, I went to Donald’s local market. After all, it is only fair to abide by the rules of the Tote Bag Alliance Section 420, which states, “When one has spent at least one month with their newly found emotional support bag, it is imperative they carry their work of Picasso to a local store.” I am also very aware of the subsequent section which states, “Without a tote bag in a local store, you are as naked as a worm on a pavement.” I write this to acknowledge my shame, for I feel like the most naked worm. I came home and left my tote bag in its place on the side of the laundry basket. I did not leave my house for a while. On one fateful day, I saw my roommate carrying a tote bag as she left the house. Now, I am not saying we have tote bag thieves among us, but this is worth noting, my friends! In my mind, I thought my roommate did not want to be a naked worm. I was merciful and did not think much about this. Of course, she only wanted to join the ranks of tote bag worship! Alas! Mercy is for tote bag losing losers! One day, I excitedly made plans to go outside. I unconsciously reached for the bag, and my hand grasped at air. It was gone! I anxiously searched. My makeup started to crease from the sweat of dread. This day was meant to be the day I was supposed to name my emotional tote bag. It left without a goodbye. Now we all know that it is different when your tote bag grows old and asks for a proper send-off, consisting of a proper wash and a final fold before being placed in the closet. But no! It left as if to mock me for all the times I had left it on the floors of the public bus, or the one time I almost forgot it in the Uber . . . And then it hit me! My roommate had been carrying a tote bag. It must’ve been mine! With anger, I barged into her room, and there she was, laying in her sleep. I immediately shook her awake and asked the most important question ever: “Did you take my tote bag?” This proceeded into an argument about how it is unfair to wake up people so abruptly for trivial things. How dare she? Calling my precious tote bag trivial. “Let me see your tote bags then,” I responded. Obviously, she had no intention of cooperating, but the investigation continues. She has not carried her tote bag ever since the confrontation. I suspect that it could be mine. So every time she leaves the house, I wait in the common area. I will NOT be the naked worm. My current mission is to catch her with my tote bag on her shoulder. Angrily, A lost lamb in the ranks of my tote bag comrades
I llustra tio n: Stella Nguyen / The Peak Ba ckg ro und : Ann Poan / Pexels
ABSENT AVOCADO
SFUnexplained: Whatever happened to the missing avocado statue? Hearing from the fruit itself about the truth
BREAKING NEWS!
Moving on.
The ENTIRETY of the SFU Burnaby Campus was thrown for a LOOP on the early mornings of Monday, May 2, when our beloved avocado statue was nowhere to be seen!!!!! If you don’t believe this nightmare, take a look for yourself. A few students started a vigil for the statue’s return. They laid candles, photos, and some avocado scented soaps at the site. Grief or reason for SUSPISION?
As of right now, 100 SFU avocado-related profiles have been set up on Instagram. There were more initially, but many of them were taken down when students started posting some BALLYHOO photos of them in the avocado. In their defense, the photos were so blurry, no one could tell a hand from a foot.
The Peak attended the vigil and spoke with those who chose to pay respect at the vacant spot the statue once resided upon. “I am at a loss for words,” a bystander said, suspiciously clad in a dark green blazer — avocado-like, one could even say. “That egg statue was the perfect place to roll a dart at night, perfect view of the stars and everything.”
When asked whether she knew anything about the whereabouts of the statue, or if SFU had any intention of buying a replacement, Joy had no joyful answer. Disappointedly, she said, and I quote, “Who?”
Other students suspected foul play to be involved.
Alas, it looked like students were never going to find out where their beloved statue went. Had it gone up and disappeared on its own? Did UBC really steal it for their avocado obsessed president? According to inside sources, he has worn an avocado tie each day since the statue went missing.
“It’s bloody murder,” one student shouted, throwing themself on the dirt where the statue occupied. “I bet it was UBC students, has anyone ever considered that?”
More questions arose from our investigations. Was there a SIMPLER solution? Had it gone for cleaning? If so, then why hasn’t it been cleaned more frequently?
UBC declined to comment on their suspected involvement in the matter, but The Peak did receive an anonymous email with a photo of UBC president, Santa Ono, cutting up an avocado for lunch in his office.
Below is the only statement ever known to be made by the avocado statue itself. It was delivered to The Peak office today, exactly one week after its disappearance:
The Peak observed they were the only one laying their gifts in front of the blue triangle statue, and nowhere remotely close to the avocado.
In the interest of being thorough, SFU did indeed try to bring this to court, but was turned down due to “circumstantial evidence.” Curses. As SFU’s student newspaper, The Peak felt obligated to track down every last person to find out what could have happened. We started with the creator of the sculpture, Carlos Basanta, but scrapped that idea when he confused his own statue.
Illustration: Nazmus Sakib / The Peak Background: Joe Woods / Unsplash
The Peak reached out to president Joy Johnson for a statement.
When probed, Basanta started speaking about some statue and its reflections or something of the like. Clearly, he did not know his own statue.
I know there have been a lot of theories floating around about my disappearance, and I’d just like to take this opportunity to clear it up. I have enjoyed my time at SFU, but I have mutually decided to part ways with the campus to make my long-life dream of becoming an organic avocado in your local grocery stores happen. I can only imagine we will meet again in the produce aisle — I know I will be waiting. XOXO, Former SFU avocado statue
Written by Isabella Urbani
HUMOUR
May 9, 2022
Your Weekly Horoscopes
May 9–May 15
The stars want you to drink water
Staff Writer
Yasmin Vejs Simsek,
ARIES — Mar 21–Apr 19
LIBRA — Sept 23–Oct 22
You will find all the unique Vancouver events and hidden
Ever the peacemaker, your summer will be spent trying to
speakeasies and your friends will all wonder how you do it.
achieve balance in your friendship groups. You take on the
You can’t help it! You’re always the first to discover where
role of mediator — even when you have absolutely nothing
it’s at. You’re the life of the party. Maybe you should focus
to do with the issue. Spend your summer trusting that
on being the life of your studies?
everything will work itself out with or without you. In other words: Butt out!
TAURUS — Apr 20 –May 20
SCORPIO — Oct 23–Nov 21
The summer for Taurus will be a horrible time . . . for their
The Scorpio spends their summer obsessing over small things.
wallet! You’re destined to be a big spender this summer,
Whether you’re formatting your essay or the perfect revenge,
whether that’s spending hours in Hudson’s Bay or that
it’ll takes days, sometimes weeks, of your time. As the star
weekly massage you think is an essential part of your budget.
seer’s spiritual icon, Elsa said, “Let it Go,” your time could be
Remember, there’s another semester in the fall that needs
better spent. Perhaps people watching at Wreck Beach? Maybe
sponsoring — tuition hikes don’t slow down for you.
it’s time to be a little less diabolical and a little more human.
GEMINI — May 21–Jun 20
SAGITTARIUS — Nov 22–Dec 21
Gemini is, as always, far too busy for their own good. Your
Oh, Sagittarius. You don’t need to hide your feelings behind the
FOMO is real. After all, you’re juggling schoolwork, a few part-
woods, you know? We know you’re independent and don’t need
time jobs, constantly bumping into Oprah Winfrey, and trying
no one to join you. Who needs friends when you have Insta-worthy
to make friends with the bears around campus. This circus act
selfies to take?! It’s bear season though, so maybe you should cut
makes you a chameleon; you’re adaptable and charismatic.
back on the sarcasm and bring a friend and bear spray. Don’t go
Isn’t it time people saw the real you? Maybe not.
chasing waterfalls, chase feelings instead.
CANCER — Jun 21–Jul 22
CAPRICORN — Dec 22–Jan 19
You’ve had a tough 2022 so far and this manifests itself in
A pessimist at heart, the Capricorn is upset that autumn
your need to protect yourself emotionally this summer. Self-
draws near, before summer has even started. You love your
care and improvement are all swell, but try and crank open
own company, but there is no “I” in summer. The weather
that emotional clamshell, Cancer! You’ll reap the pearl of
is beautiful so grab a friend enjoy a socially-distanced
your treasure: friendship! Open up to new people and new
Vancouver in the sun. And don’t worry, summer will come
opportunities and you could have yourself a hot vaxxed summer.
around again next year, too, but only if you smile for once (just not if a man tells you to).
LEO — Jul 23–Aug 22
AQUARIUS — Jan 20 –Feb 18
This is Leo’s summer, according to themselves, at least. You’ll
The summer is unpredictable for the Aquarius. Always going
be strutting down the well-ventilated Convocation Mall in
with the flow, you let other people plan your summer and it’s
your off-brand Lululemon while your friends are filming you
bound to be great because your friends are awesome. But if
flossing for TikTok. The mobile spotlight is on you and you live
there’s something you actually really want to do, get off your
for it. Remember, stay safe while socializing! Wouldn’t want to
backside and plan it. Your dream of singing Under the Sea with a
be a #2020in-flu-encer.
crab isn’t gonna plan itself.
VIRGO — Aug 23–Sept 22
PISCES — Feb 19–Mar 20
The Virgo’s summer is a time to work hard in order to play
People rely on you, Pisces. You are a good friend and always
hard. You just seem to forget the play hard part. Let down your
listen to your friend’s problems. There are lots of them this time
hair a little and get a Starbucks iced frappuccino. Everything
of year, especially with your fellow Pisces friends who are busy
doesn’t have to be perfect, some things just have to be fun.
fueling themselves with tears of summer enrollment. You seem
Like a hike. Everyone in Vancouver is always talking about
to forget that you can also be an emotional wreck that needs
hiking. Bring water though, the heatwave will arrive soon . . .
some TLC. Self-care is important, boo, put on some Taylor Swift and cry it out.
15
16
DIVERSIONS
Business Manager Yuri Zhou
·
business@the-peak.ca
CROSSWORD Across 1. Run after 6. Juicy fruit 10. Manufactured 14. Actress ____ Hayes 15. She, in Bordeaux 16. Still snoozing 17. Carrying a weapon 18. Short play 19. Dominate 20. Aretha Franklin song 22. Texas town 24. Pizza type (2 wds.) 27. Thick slice 31. Baltimore athlete
32. Got together 35. Fable 36. Extra work hours 38. Revise 39. Piano adjuster 41. Track event 42. "Scarface" gangster (2 wds.) 44. Prayer response 45. Southern general 46. Trial 49. Crusted desserts 50. Made a witty reply 52. Deli offering
55. Foodstuffs 60. Stopper 61. Peruvian capital 64. Unpaid toiler 65. Emerald ____ 66. Superman's girlfriend 67. Tailed celestial body 68. Narrated 69. English princess 70. Night twinklers
25. Early settler 26. Peace symbol 27. Swipe 28. Soup dipper 29. Rocker ____ Cooper 30. Phi ____ Kappa 32. Florida metropolis 33. Host 34. Adolescents 37. Mouse catcher 39. Taco ingredient 40. Take apart 43. Limerick, e.g. 47. Relaxed (2 wds.) 48. Directed
50. Expressed anger 51. Phonograph records 52. Roasting stick 53. Plus 54. Soothe 56. Ink spot 57. Buddhist monk 58. At all times 59. Collections 62. Electrified particle 63. Hr. part
Down 1. Scorch 2. Not there 3. Gifts to charity 4. Ooze 5. Terminated 6. Annoy 7. Lodge member 8. "The Greatest" 9. Store owner 10. Bog 11. Border 12. Hero shop 13. Genesis garden 21. Corporate VIP 23. Client
SUDOKU
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