The ThunderBlogs

Fourteen women were murdered and ten were injured at l’École Polytechnique de Montréal in Montreal. Marc Lépine walked into an engineering class, asked the men to leave, and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at the women remaining. Then he shot himself. This happened on the 6th of December, 1989.

Twenty-one years later, in 2010, the statistics around male violence towards women are still shocking. Globally, one in three women have suffered from some form of male violence. The Vancouver Relief and Women’s Shelter hosts a yearly event at the Vancouver Public Library in memory of murdered women.

A group of women met in East Vancouver this Thursday to plan the 2010 Montreal Massacre memorial. The goal of the memorial is to build solidarity amongst women, and also to raise awareness about male violence against women. Drug-facilitated rape, domestic violence, sexual assault, poverty, police accountability, the rape shield law, prostitution, and the marginalization of native and aboriginal women are some of the many issues that plague present-day Canada.

Daisy Kler, member of the VRRWS Collective and prominent Vancouver feminist, had a vision for the theme of the memorial. “’Reopening’ is a word that comes to mind,” said Kler. She added that she was thoughtful about a recent rape of a teenaged girl at a rave in Pitt Meadows. The spread of photographs of the rape through facebook had re-ignited concerns about child pornography. “I never though that pornography would come back as an issue,” said Kler, and described the complacency of society and the media about this issue. The theme is open to interpretation. It gives women a chance to work together, creating art that will engage and inspire the public.

Women at the meeting shared their experiences around organizing the memorial in previous years. One challenge has been to attract men to the event. “I wouldn’t say that involving men is an objective for me,” said Louisa Russell “it is more importantly a way to connect with women.” However, the women confirmed that they encourage men to participate.

The women volunteered time to design graphics, conceive the art installation that would occupy the atrium, and take care of guests and invited feminists. Other responsibilities that still need volunteers are: Set-up and take-down, audio recording of the speeches and discussions, pamphlet distribution and publicity.

To volunteer or get involved in any capacity, contact the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter at 604 872 2228. As violence against women begins to make front-page news in Canada, the women’s shelter hopes that more people will come forward in resistance.

To see brochures from previous events, visit:
Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter

Port Metro Vancouver is on a mission to make Vancouver’s port more sustainable. They have made the cruise industry one of their focal points, but visitors are hard pressed to see a lot of sustainable practices.

On the last weekend of the summer, the busiest cruise day of the season, visitors and locals flooded the cruise terminal at Canada Place. People disembarked after their cruises to Alaska. They looked relaxed and content from a week at sea. Many stayed close to the terminal, filled coffee shops and bought souvenirs. Some wandered the upper level of terminal. They snapped pictures of the boat they had just departed and waved to the new passengers getting set to leave.

Down at water level Holland America’s Zuiderdam was plugged into the terminal’s shore power system. Shore power is one of the key sustainability initiatives by Port Metro Vancouver. It allows ships to plug into a power supply at the terminal so the diesel engines can be shut off while in port. Shore power was implemented in 2009 in partnership with Princess Cruise lines, Holland America, B.C. Hydro, the Province of B.C. and the Government of Canada. Canada Place is one of only three ports of call in North America using shore power. Unfortunately, the cruise ships require a retrofit to be able to use the system so the system is in limited use. 58 shore power connections were made in the 2010 cruise season.

There were seven cruise ships in and out of Vancouver’s harbour on the busiest cruise weekend of the year and the Zuiderdam was the only ship to use shore power.

This is where the contradictions in the port begin. Port Metro Vancouver can point to their sustainable achievements: shore power, participation in the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy and the Globe 2010 ecoFreight Award for Sustainable Transportation. But closer inspection reveals a sadder reality. At the moment all the sustainability initiatives are overshadowed by the larger environmental impacts of the port system.

While onlookers waved and smiled as the ships departed Sunday afternoon another oil tanker sailed out of the harbour. The oil tanker is one of approximately 100 that will leave Vancouver’s port over the next 12 months full of oil destined for Asia. The footprint associated with all that oil far outweighs the use of shore power as an environmental protection.

Everyone who mingled about Sunday afternoon ignored the ship’s smoke stacks that billowed thick black smog in the air. They discussed the beautiful ships and the amazing scenery of Vancouver’s inner harbour while neglecting to notice the sulfur piles and toxic chemical terminals across the water. All they saw was a beautiful ship in a beautiful harbour, the environmental impact of that 82,000 ton, 300 metre long, 1,900 passenger ship made very little impact on their psyche.

Hassan Arshad sat on a chair in front of the UBC MRI Research Center on Saturday and read a consent form given to him by Matt Dixon.

Arshad took off his black sunglasses, crossed his legs and swayed his right foot lightly as he read the form. Arshad is subject number 14 of 15 participants that Dixon is using for his research leading to a Masters in Psychology. Each participant earns $30 by signing up and could possibly earn an equal amount through the experiment itself.

“I’m interested in how the brain allows us to form goals in our mind,” said Dixon. “Or intentions to do things before we do it, and therefore be more proactive in the world as opposed to just reactive to whatever is currently happening in our immediate environment.”

After signing the papers, Dixon left Arshad to prepare himself and entered the control room. In the room he greeted Paul Hamill, an MRI Technologist and seated himself facing a table full of computer screens. Arshad, now dressed in a cream coloured hospital pajama, leafed through a magazine until he was called in to start.

From the control room, Arshad could be seen being helped into the MRI machine by Hamill. Dixon placed a sticker on Arshad’s left eyebrow so he could differentiate the sides in the scans.

From the control room, only half of Arshad’s body was in view. He was wearing striped light and dark blue socks with red tips and red heels, he crossed and uncrossed his feet a few times as he waited.

The experiment started.

Dixon would explain to Arshad what to do over the intercom. He would then run a program asking him questions, when Arshad got the right answer he earned 25 cents. The aim of the research is to see what is happening throughout the brain and how it is active in different areas as a people make goals.

When Dixon was ready to start each interval he would turn to Hamill and say “guacamole”, the agreed upon signal. Every two seconds the MRI takes an image composed of 36 slices of different angles of the brain. That adds up to 1,600 images per subject, 36 slices each, for 15 subjects. The data will take at least two to three months to analyze and a month or more to write and publish, said Dixon.

The MRI machine made a set of different noises, one sounded like loud knocking, another time it started a loud squeal. An hour and a half later, Arshad was let out of the machine. He squinted, looked around and stretched.
I did this because it would be interesting to see a picture of my brain, he said.  “The brain is just so interesting, there are many things we don’t know about the brain…so I thought it would be a great way to get to see what happens with the MRI.”

A small crowd huddled under the overhang of a pizza shop.  Men puffing on cigarettes.  Cars swishing by.  An empty bike lane.

A sign hanging from the side of the brick building reads “Railway Club.”

Behind the discreet wooden doors is a staircase plastered with show posters.  Flash a festival wristband for free entry or pay $10 at the door.

Five bands.  One night.

The second Olio Festival.

Music. Art. Film. Comedy.  The festival showcased a heavy dose of Vancouver talent mixed with international artists from Sept.23-26.

The Railway Club was one of 41 venues listed in this year’s festival guide.  Sponsored by CBC Radio 3, Saturday’s line-up drew a healthy crowd of music enthusiasts.

By 9 p.m. the entrance was packed.  Arriving patrons took off their coats as the doorman collected cash and checked ID.  The audio engineer adjusted sliders on the soundboard.

A small group of men played darts as they waited for the first band to begin.

Musicians huddled around tables in the back bar.  A framed picture of K.D. Lang hangs with a crowd of random art.

Interviews conducted over beers.  A flannel-clad journalist passed a portable recording device around the table as members of Vancouver band Pineapple answered his questions.

“Make sure you vandalize something tonight,” said flannel-clad as the interview ended.

Young scenesters crowded in front of the small stage.  People strategized how to catch bands at The Media Club without missing Hard Drugs.

Buzz around the film “No Fun City” filled the bar.  The synopsis describes Vancouver as “a city that seems hell-bent on shutting down all the fun.”

The film was screened at The Rio on Saturday night.  At the same time, young music lovers bar-hopped across the city taking full advantage of their festival wristbands.

The Wild Bird Trust at Maplewood Flat provides an important wildlife refuge. The 40 hectares of trees, fields, ponds and marshes stand in juxtaposition to the concrete and steal which dominate most of the port of Vancouver.

The Maplewood Conservation Area in North Vancouver is the last undeveloped waterfront wetland on the north shore of Burrard Inlet. The land is owned by Port Metro Vancouver but was leased in 1992 for 49 years to the Wild Bird Trust.

Friendly volunteers greet guests at the modest hut that serves as both an office and an information centre. On Saturday Linda Smith manned her post. She walked out wearing a grandmother-like warm smile. Behind her was a large sign warning of bears and cougars. “Oh don’t worry that is up all the time, there hasn’t been a bear here all year,” said Smith.

The sanctuary runs on volunteer effort. There is one employee, Ernie Kennedy, serving as conservation manager. Kennedy has worked for the WBT for 11 years. He oversees the dozens of volunteers and works closely with the Board to ensure the sanctuary’s maintenance.

Kennedy strolled up the path looking like a park ranger. He wore khaki everything on Saturday afternoon accompanied by well-worn boots and a sturdy handshake. He confirmed Smith’s assurance about bears with a slight qualifier. “Well none have been sighted yet, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t roaming around.”

But even in the absence of bears and cougars there is still a lot of wildlife running around. Kennedy has seen deer, river otter and coyotes at the sanctuary, and every year more arrive. This year there were six new fawns, three baby river otters and a handful of coyote pups. With all the wildlife running around the amateur naturist could be forgiven for forgetting to look up, but the keen bird watchers at the sanctuary enjoy hunting for a glimpse of some of the 280 different species found at the sanctuary.

The list of birds spotted hangs on a large board on the wall of the info centre. The highlights according to Kennedy are the purple martins, which likely migrate from Brazil’s Amazon, and the Osprey that return every year from the Central America.

The sanctuary was quiet Saturday afternoon. Sandy Girardot came for a quiet walk in the late afternoon sun. Girardot is an amateur birdwatcher but a regular at the WBT. “Don’t tell too many people about this place,” said Girardot with a rye smile. “It is perfectly quiet, it would be a shame if word got out.

She strolled slowly, her binoculars draped around her neck. She stared in the trees above hunting for a glimpse of something rare. She hadn’t found anything more than a few chickadees, but was hopeful her persistence would pay off.

Most people don’t think about how their car gets from an overseas manufacturing plant to their local dealership. In the case of asian import cars shipped to Canada they all come through two terminals on the Fraser River. One of those, Fraser Wharves, is the port of entry for every Toyota, Mazda and Suzuki built in Japan and Korea.

Storing, upgrading and shipping thousands of cars could be chaos. The Fraser Wharves operations team has turned a logistical nightmare into a smooth operation despite having to coordinate multiple actors including the shipping companies, longshoremen, Canadian Customs, CN Rail, the car companies and their own 140 employees.

Operations Manager, Jerry Duncan, and Assistant Manager, Daniel Mosquera make sure Fraser Wharves run smoothly, even when there isn’t a ship to unload.

The dock sat empty on a wet Friday morning last week, but workers shunted cars all over the lot. Cars and trucks in a variety of colours and models were sorted by destination. The hoods still adored with white protective wrap were scrawled on with black, red and green marker. City names and lot codes were on every vehicle. The cars ready to go were moved into the correct line and then driven on the train. Other vehicles requiring upgrades were sent to the shop for alterations. A handful of workers raced around installing leather seats, roof racks and new stereos.

80 per cent of the cars through the terminal are loaded on rail cars and sent across the country. Currently the CN track carries the trains on a long loop through Richmond, but this may change soon.

Terminal operations are tied to plans by CN to build a new spur line running parallel to the south arm of the Fraser River, from No. 9 Road to Fraser Wharves. There is some controversy about the location of the new route, as it will run directly beside the new Waterstone Pier condominiums. Mosquera acknowledged the controversy but said CN’s decision was independent of Fraser Wharves. As CN’s main customer is Richmond it is hard to believe that Fraser Wharves wouldn’t play a role in making the final decision about the location for the new track.

Security is another major issue for Duncan and Mosquera. The thousands of cars covering multiple lots are a significant target for theft and vandalism. The keys remain in the cars to make moving them at anytime easier, so concrete barriers had to be installed around the perimeter. This hasn’t stopped the odd thief from trying, but Mosquera made it clear that successful theft is very rare. Most people that break in are kids trying to get a closer look at the cool new model before their friends.

Sometimes even the best security and most efficient operations aren’t enough to protect all the cars. A couple months ago a beaver living in a pond adjacent to one of the lots fell a tree that crashed through the perimeter fence and crushed a Toyota.

Outside the Ukrainian Hall in Strathcona, a young woman stood on the sidewalk, quietly playing a vaguely Eastern European-sounding tune.  But this was no traditional squeezebox concert geared for a polka-loving crowd.  Inside the hall, devotees of the accordion gathered on wooden chairs.  Dreadlocked punks with painted faces sat next to young hipsters and middle-aged men with grey ponytails and black berets.

Saturday’s concert, the penultimate event in the week-long Accordion Noir festival, opened with the anarcho-punk sounds of Vancouver-island’s Ursula.  Under the deep red curtains of the Ukrainian hall, a banjo, an accordion and a single drum inspired the gathered crowd of accordion enthusiasts to stomp their feet and cheer wildly.

“The accordion doesn’t only have to be a punch line,” said festival organizer Rowan Lipkovits, “real music can be done on the squeezebox.”  Lipkovits described the prejudice against the accordion as stemming, in part, from what he calls “Lawrence Welk champagne music.”  But those that dismiss the instrument as only being engineered to play polka are missing a whole world of music that is often dark and edgy.  Lipkovits said that the accordion is experiencing a renaissance as young people pick up the instrument and challenge the guitar’s hegemony in popular music.

Bruce Triggs, who, along with Lipkovits, started the radio show that gives its name to the festival, sees the accordion as having “a bunch of qualities that make it different and cool.”  He cited the instrument’s loudness, portability and its ability to play both rhythm and melody at the same time as being key features.  He described playing his accordion at the Seattle WTO protests in 1999.

While the older generation might think of Welk and dismiss the accordion, Triggs said that today’s young people have no real reason to be prejudiced against the instrument he described as “viscerally cool.”  Triggs reeled off an exhaustive list of accordion-oriented bands, spanning from the Finnish heavy metal of Turisas to the folk-punk sounds of Saint Petersburg-based Iva Nova.  He said that the radio show receives about 20 new cds of accordion music each week.

With a weekly radio show and podcast boasting as many as 3000 downloads, a monthly squeezebox circle and an annual festival that strained capacity at local venues, the edgy renaissance of the accordion appears to be gaining a strong hold in Vancouver’s music scene.

In an increasingly digital world, where one can download and read a book on a computer screen without ever setting foot in a library or bookstore, Word on the Street provides the perfect excuse for book lovers to come together.

The annual festival for readers and writers drew thousands to the Vancouver Public Library on Sunday. Everyone from well known British Columbian writers like Evelyn Lau and Ryan Knighton to small publishing houses and first-time novelists rubbed shoulders in the packed tents that lined the bustling plaza. Even a trio dressed as a Storm Trooper, Jawa and Boba Fett, respectively, made an appearance.

“I’ve attended this festival for years, and it just gets better,” said Keith Lim, a technical writer who also pens science fiction. Lim wore a shirt that read “Don’t Panic”, an inside joke for fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The apocalyptic comedy was the winner of the One Book, One Vancouver contest in which readers voted for the one book they believed all Vancouver residents should read.

“I think what you see here are a group of people who have always loved reading and writing, and no technology will change that,” Lim said.

The changing shape of book publishing and readership was evident from the large tent advertising the Sony Reader, a touchscreen e-book. Yet flanking either side of the Sony display were tables piled high with the stuff of bound covers, glossy images and printed pages, which festival attendees flipped through eagerly. The magazine tent was also popular this year, as Sad Mag and Poetry is Dead offered tips on how to start a ‘zine in the new era of print publishing.

“There used to be a stigma to self-publishing,” said Kaitlin Fontana, a UBC Creative Writing student and Editor of Prism magazine. “People would say, ‘If it was good, it would have been published by an official publisher.’ Now, the internet has opened everything up.”

If there was one thing the festival made clear, it was that the categories of “reader” and “writer” are not mutually exclusive.

“I’ve attended for many years, but this is my first time as an author,” said Christopher Meades, whose debut novel The Three Fates of Henrik Nordmark began as an entry in the 2007 Three-Day Novel Writing Contest.

“I live in a cubicle. I spend eleven hours a day looking at spreadsheets and doing not very exciting things. I asked myself, ‘What does it take to become unique? How can I leave a mark on the world after I’m gone?’ That’s why we write.”

On Thursday, a small group of parents, educators and community leaders gathered in Strathcona community centre for a meeting about school closures in East Vancouver.  The driving rain likely kept many at home, but those that did show up to the small room on the community centre’s ground floor spoke passionately about keeping schools like Seymour and Queen Alexandra Elementary open.

Jenny Kwan, MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, moderated a panel discussion about the effects of cuts to education spending.

For Andrea Esslemont, an Aboriginal mother living in Strathcona, the closing of Seymour Elementary school means a huge upheaval.  Esslemont, a mother of three, used to transport her ten year old daughter, who has special needs, to a school outside of the neighbourhood.  She worked for a year to get her child into a school closer to her home.  Within weeks of her daughter starting school, Esslemont found out that Seymour had been identified as one of 11 possible school closures.

Having her daughter at a school in the neighbourhood is important for Esslemont because she believes that there is more community support available there.  She said that going to a school nearby means that her daughter works with people who know her and can keep her safe.  She worries about her daughter getting lost in the system if she attends a larger school.  She is also concerned about the logistics of moving her daughter elsewhere.

Chrystal Tabobandung, from the Ojibwe nation, has four boys attending Queen Alexandra Elementary.  “I haven’t considered it,” she said when asked what she’d do if the school closed, “I’m going to fight with everything I have.”  Tabobandung called for parents to join together and act, rather than relying on petitions and meetings to stop the government’s planned closures.

Noel Herron, former principal of Strathcona Elementary school, highlighted the vulnerability of inner city students.  While the government cites declining enrollment as a reason for closing the schools, Herron believes that smaller classes are necessary for children in the area.  He also pointed to the role of schools as resource centres for the neighbourhood.  “You close a school, you close the heart of a community,” he said.

Steel fences and barbed wire surround the squat warehouses and buildings on Industrial avenue. Distant sounds of metal clanging, loads dropping and radios droning filled the air. At the CN railway yard, a single truck was fork-lifting rusty containers from one spot to another.

Eric Jorgens, a visiting manager at the yard pointed to six stationary tankers lined up on the tracks. The capacity of each tanker is marked in bright yellow paint: 25601 gallons. “Those ones contain biodiesel from Iowa. This yard is where steel wheel meets rubber wheel. From here, the diesel will go off to Chevron or Shell and such, and be diluted down to 5% or 10% and sold at gas stations. A lot of this biofuel coming into B.C.”

According to The B.C. government’s Livesmart website, “As B.C. continues to implement the Climate Action Plan, it is also moving ahead with coordinated actions to help the province adapt to climate change.” One of these actions is the imposition of the carbon tax and the motor fuel tax.

Two blocks west of CN railways, on 360 Industrial Avenue, is the green and yellow building of The Recycling Alternative, which houses the city’s only 100% biodiesel pump. The pump is run by the Vancouver Biodiesel Co-op, which has approximately 200 members who use 100% biodiesel to run their cars.

Alex Day, founder member of the co-operative, had something to say about the B.C. government’s efforts to “help British Columbians make green choices that save money at home, at work and on the road.”

“Since January 1st, 2010, the motor fuel tax, which biodiesel was previously exempt from, adds 25.11 cents per litre more to the cost of biodiesel. The government decided that it is too onerous to distinguish between the two, since they now have the renewable fuel standard so they’re just not distinguishing, so all renewable fuels are also being charged the carbon tax, which makes no sense.”

“The carbon tax is mostly just a slap in the face,” added Day. “The intention of the carbon tax is to put a disincentive on carbon based fuels and therefore create an incentive for renewable fuels. All the members talk about it , and are not happy about, and while they made the decision to choose renewable fuel, it is souring for them to know that the government won’t take the effort to exempt 100% biodiesel from the carbon and motor vehicle taxes instead of just bundling them in with other carbon-based fuels. Our membership is still growing, but some old members use less biodiesel and some have just stopped using it.

How backwards it is to charge carbon tax to renewable fuels, and how unhelpful it is to charge the motor fuel tax to biodiesel in a growing industry.” Day was not satisfied with the government’s steps to reduce British Columbia’s carbon footprint.