News & Views Archive
Birds benefit from global efforts
With so many bad news stories about the environment in the media, it’s nice to hear about good news for a change — especially when it relates to international cooperation.
Jock interviews, and other useless TV pursuits
What a great moment in sports broadcasting. You may have seen it last week, sports fans: an interview with Canucks defenceman Mattias Ohlund, following a team practice. During that practice, coach Alain Vigneault and staff had placed a chair on the ice and made the players shoot pucks at it to test their accuracy. Ohlund, standing in a scrum of reporters, was asked about playing with chairs. “I haven’t done it for a few years,” he replied, “but I like it.”
Proposed incinerator causes pollution concerns
Fraser Valley representatives are deeply worried their citizens will breathe more pollution if Metro Vancouver builds a new waste-to-energy incinerator to deal with the region’s rising garbage volumes.
Toll plans for Port Mann Bridge still under wraps
Gateway Program officials say it will be months yet before they reveal exactly how the planned system of tolling will be applied to motorists crossing the Port Mann Bridge after it’s twinned. It was previously expected that the province would have released its planned tolling fee structure by now.
In the city UPCOMING EVENTS • inthecity@westender.com
Music for music’s sake: Enjoy an evening of uplifting songs from the non-denominational Universal Gospel Choir, at a fundraiser to help disadvantaged kids from the Downtown Eastside learn classical music. The 80-member choir performs at St. James Church (303 E. Cordova), on Saturday, Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m. Tickets $15-$20. Proceeds will benefit the St. James Music Academy, which offers children the chance to learn guitar, piano or violin for free. Info: UniversalGospelChoir.ca or 604 684-6924.
Suzuki: happy to be immortalized as a fly
I’ve been called pond scum before, but never before has it been quite so accurate.
Forget humans — have sex with robots
A weekly roundup of newsbites from the Truth is Stranger than Fiction department.
In the city UPCOMING EVENTS • inthecity@westender.com
Dance fever: Even if you can’t dance a single step, you can at least vicariously experience the thrill of fleet-footed grace at the second Vancouver Open Dancesport Championship, where professional and amateur dancers will showcase their moves in a range of categories, including Latin and Rhythm programs. The dance-off is on at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, at Canada Place, from Oct. 20-21. Spectator admission starts at $35. Info: VancouverOpen.ca or 778 888-9434.
Sexed-up soldiers, chatty aliens and Mozart’s back-door masterpiece
A weekly roundup of newsbites from the ‘Truth is Stranger than Fiction’ department.
Activists accuse premier of ignoring housing needs
A $41 million injection of cash from the province to help address B.C.’s housing crisis has been dismissed as a “commitment to homelessness” by local activists.
New addiction-treatment program seeks funding
Innovative research trials that aim to help addicts kick drug addiction — including crystal meth and crack cocaine — could make Vancouver world-renowned for taking a far-sighted approach to dealing with the dual problems of addiction and crime.
Human hormones mess with male fish
Most people alive today were born after 1950. To these people, our modern world is just the way things have always been. Imagining life without TV, radio, telephones and the internet is next to impossible. Teenagers probably have a hard time imagining life without text messaging!
Things aren’t perfect, but at least we have the noodles
The civic strike has been stabbed in the heart a couple of times, but, like Glenn Close popping out of the bathtub in Fatal Attraction, it’s not quite dead. Still, while we wait for the libraries to reopen, it’s possible to reflect on a few things have actually been accomplished during the strike. The former retro-futuristic car showroom at Georgia and Seymour, most recently a Fido store, is now a pile of rubble. That may actually have happened because, not in spite, of the strike — any attempt to designate the cool little building as a heritage structure was thwarted by the work stoppage. I’m sure whoever knocked it down plans to put something really memorable in its place. But then, I’m a gullible fool.
British Jews to China: We’re really not that smart
A weekly roundup of newsbites from the Truth is Stranger than Fiction department.
Social-housing advocates take their case to Victoria
Today (Oct. 11) — only days before a United Nations housing expert visits Vancouver — housing activists will march on the BC Parliament Buildings in Victoria to demand that Premier Gordon Campbell invest at least $250 million into solving Vancouver’s homeless crisis.
Syphilis cases in Vancouver almost 10 times the national rate
While syphilis is a disease most of us thought had long been consigned to the history books, recent figures show the potentially fatal sexually transmitted infection (STI) is back with a vengeance — especially in Vancouver, where the rate of infection is almost 10 times that of the national rate.
In the city UPCOMING EVENTS • inthecity@westender.com
Art with heart: Contemporary artists from Vancouver and around the world have donated their work to an auction that aims to help give needy children creative inspiration. Non-profit organization Arts Umbrella, which runs programs for kids aged two to 19, holds its annual Splash 2007 art auction and gala evening on Saturday (Oct. 13), beginning at 6 p.m, at Performance Works on Granville Island. Tickets $200 (includes wine and food catered by the Pan Pacific Hotel). Info: ArtsUmbrella.com or 604 681-5268, ext. 225
How much is a tomato worth?
Recently, a column appeared in The Vancouver Sun newspaper about the trend of eating locally grown food. The author began by describing some municipal initiatives to encourage growing local food and then arrived at the thesis of his article: “The eat-locally, grow-your-own phenomenon isn’t about access to affordable food, it’s about smashing the capitalist system.”
No city has a monopoly on urban nuisances
Somebody in my apartment building had their keys stolen a couple of weeks ago, so the locks for the storage and laundry areas had to be changed. I couldn’t get into the bike storage area for a few days and had to lock my bike to a street sign out front. Two nights — I was pushing my luck. On the third day, I came outside to find its back wheel gone, my poor bike still clinging to the post with its sorry ass dragging on the ground.
Organizers aim to bring car-free festivals to all of Vancouver
Modelled after similar festivals that have been successfully staged in Toronto, Montreal, and other cities around the world, organizers in Vancouver are planning a series of day-long events for summer of 2008 that will transform some of the city’s busiest streets into car-free zones.
In the city UPCOMING EVENTS • inthecity@westender.com
Gonna getcha! Is George Orwell’s 1984 your favourite book? Do you live by the dictum Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not all out to get you? Then tonight’s (Oct. 4) free workshop on privacy issues could be the ideal place for you to spend an evening. Find out who collects, uses and discloses your personal information at this enlightening and ever-so-slightly horrifying seminar, at the YWCA (733 Beatty) from 7-9.30 p.m. Brought to your tweaked-out self by the B.C. Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. Info: FIPA.bc.ca or 604 739-9788.
Is the vogue for celebrity crime invading Vancouver?
The Vancouver International Film Festival is certainly expected to produce positive spin-offs for the city, like increased tourism and a more vibrant movie industry. But what about the negative consequences — for example, the inevitable upsurge in celebrity crime? With famous Hollywood faces posing for mug shots seemingly every week nowadays, can Vancouver afford to attract that element, and possibly encourage copycat behaviour among local notables? The issue flared up last Saturday night, when this glitzy crime wave struck the red-carpet VIFF party that was held at the new Italian Kitchen restaurant.
Prepare your stick shift for the urinal driving test
A weekly roundup of newsbites from the ‘Truth is Stranger than Fiction’ department.
Forum will address increase in domestic violence
The tragic stories of domestic violence that have made headlines around the Lower Mainland during the past year — including several fatal attacks — have become a springboard for action on the issue.
Car-free festivals an international affair
The car-free-day initiative is not new, nor is it unique to Vancouver, with approximately 1,500 cities worldwide having organized such events.
