2019

2019 was a busy year for SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. We hosted a number of diverse events and welcomed back many long-time community partners for other events. As we wind down 2019, we wanted to highlight some exciting events that we were a part of this past year.

Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies and the Urban Studies Program, spends a lot of time navigating the inequalities that exist and looking for ways to make spaces and cities more inclusive, particularly for LGBTQ2S people and women. In this episode, Am and Tiffany talk about why this work is necessary and the ways in which Tiffany challenges her students who do this work as well.

On this episode of Below the Radar, host Am Johal talks to Scott and Nicolas about how this project came to be, the profound impact it has had for the community, and what’s at stake for ethical research in the Downtown Eastside.

On this episode of Below the Radar, we sit down with Jarrett Martineau, a figure who is very well acquainted with the music scene both locally and abroad. On a local level, Jarrett works as the Music Planner for the City of Vancouver, where he works hard to support the Vancouver music scene and all aspects within that. He is also the host of Reclaimed, which is a weekly series on CBC Music that explores the many worlds of contemporary Indigenous music. In this conversation, we talk to Jarrett about how affordability affects available venues, the diverse array of music being created within the city, and the power of providing the platform of radio to early career musicians.

In this episode, Am Johal sits down with Milena and Brett to talk about how listening can offer a unique insight into the ongoing change around us that we might miss if we don’t take the time to do it.

In August of 2019, The Binners' Project faced a new change. After 5 years, co-founder Anna Godefroy stepped back and The Binners' Project welcomed Landon Hoyt as their new director. As a follow up to one of the first episodes of Below the Radar, we welcomed Anna back to the studio for a conversation with Landon and our host, Am Johal. Together, we talk about the ways in which The Binners' Project helped to provide economic opportunities and reduce the stigma of waste-pickers, and what's next for the group.

In this episode, our Program Assistant Paige Smith sits down with Teresa MacInnes, one of the directors behind the documentary Conviction. Conviction is a powerful documentary that gives an inside look into what life is like for women in a provincial and federal prison in Nova Scotia.

One year ago today, we released the very first episode of Below the Radar. It was 2018, and at that moment in time, BC was in the middle of an electoral referendum. Our very first episode was an interview with Maria Dobrinskaya of the Broadbent Institute on this topic.

In this episode, the founder of the Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week Joleen Mitton sits down with host Am Johal to discuss how and why she started the fashion show. They touch upon Joleen’s experiences as a teenage model and Indigenous youth mentor, along with her previous collaborations with critically acclaimed Indigenous artist Beau Dick.

The monster always represents the fear we repress. Maria Cecilia Saba talks Andean horror films with Rachel Wong about what got her interested in researching two Peruvian-Andean horror films for her Master’s thesis, what her personal experience with horror films are, and how she came to understand the viewing of horror films as a visceral journey and cathartic experience.

On September 25, 2019, we had the opportunity to co-host “Decolonizing the City: The Future of Indigenous Planning in Vancouver” with the Planning Institute of BC South Coast Chapter and Vancouver City Planning Commission. This was a presentation and panel discussion that proved to be a very important topic for our community, and we are thrilled at the support and interest for this event.

Visual artist and photographer Anne Marie Slater shared her recent 2019 Artist Residency with the Victoria Square Project {Artist Rick Lowe (USA) Documenta 14 in collaboration with Artist, Maria Papadimitriou (GR)} in Athens, Greece in a workshop at SFU Woodward’s entitled Intersections, Athens. The workshop highlighted the place based context of social practice that considers people and context.

Seth Klein, adjunct professor at SFU Urban Studies, and former Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in BC, sits down with Below the Radar to discuss what the Canadian government can do to combat the climate emergency. Seth discusses the proposed environmental policies of the major political parties running in the upcoming federal elections.

It’s that time of year again! Back for their 16th year, Heart of the City Festival will fill the Downtown Eastside with song, drama, visual art, film, workshops, and so much more. With over 100 events at over 40 venues throughout the Downtown Eastside, the 12 days between Wednesday, October 30 and Sunday, November 10 are sure to inspire and delight you. Many of these events are free or by suggested donation.

What are the similarities and differences between Nationalism and Patriotism? Simon Fraser University professor Jerry Zaslove and graduate student Nermin Gogalic discuss this question through the lens of personal identity and political transformation as seen in the former state of Yugoslavia. This in depth and easygoing conversation between our guests and host Am Johal explores the topic from a number of different academic thinker’s perspectives, digging deep to identify the core components of each ideology.

Climate change is a very real issue that we as a society are grappling with. But interestingly enough, climate change denial is particularly strong in the Anglosphere — in English speaking countries. Indian author Amitav Ghosh found the link between movement, the English language, and climate change to be quite interesting, and that is the focus of his book 'The Great Derangement.' This episode features Amitav in conversation with our host Am Johal and special guest host Olive Dempsey from the podcast 'Big Bright Dark.'

We are partnering again with Reel Causes for their upcoming event #Indigeneity, which will showcase Indigenous films that address pressing contemporary Indigenous issues here in Canada and around the world.

The new school year brings both new and returning faces to our university campus. As students and professors prepare for the start of their studies, we here at SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement are preparing for a fall packed with public programming.

There’s no denying that we are currently in a housing crisis. Regardless of whether you are a homeowner or a renter, the housing market is in a constant state of flux, making it difficult for people to find adequate and affordable housing for themselves. In this episode, we talk to Architects for Social Housing about housing and a potential solution: socialist architecture. Architects for Social Housing co-founders Geraldine Dening and Simon Elmer join host Am Johal to discuss the pillars of socialist architecture, housing as human rights, and why this is the way forward out of our housing situation.

In the current neoliberal world order, is it possible for authoritarianism to return? When we look to the founding of Germany in 1949, a decision was made to follow the logic of ordoliberalism: to firmly regulate the state through the market so as to prevent a return of fascism and authoritarianism. However, according to Samir Gandesha, the opposite effect happened. In this episode, Samir and our host Am Johal discuss the ‘neoliberal identity’, what contributes to it, and how this impacts our current political world order.

Teresa Wong has always been on the search for happiness. For some, happiness comes from success, wealth, or fancy trips to foreign places. And while Wong agrees that those things could make her happy, she’s opted to seek happiness in her daily life. Wong achieves this happiness through stepping out, learning new things, helping other people, and “upgrading [herself]”.

There has been a lot of talk of how Canada is currently in a ‘climate emergency’. At the same time, the federal government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain Pipeline means that the expansion project will begin very soon. How does the construction of this pipeline impact the current state of our climate emergency, and what does this say about our governments’ priorities? Our host Am Johal talks to Kai Nagata of Dogwood BC about the implications of this expansion and how this shifts Dogwood BC’s efforts in holding our elected officials accountable.

Democracy is a term that’s been used, misunderstood, and taken for granted by many — so what does democracy really mean? Am Johal sits down with activist and filmmaker Astra Taylor to explore how people interpret ‘democracy’ and how we can better understand it.

This past March, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement hosted a free community screening of the documentary, What is Democracy?. Co-presented with the National Film Board of Canada and Reel Causes, the screening took place at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema at the SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, and was followed by a conversation with the director, Astra Taylor.

What does it mean to use and enjoy a city park on unceded Indigenous land? Am Johal interviews co-authors of On This Patch of Grass: City Parks on Occupied Land (Fernwood Publishing 2019), Matt Hern and Selena Couture, who wrote the book with two of their daughters, Sadie Couture and Daisy Couture.

On June 7, we hosted Calcutta-born author and activist Siddharth Dube for a conversation about his latest book, An Indefinite Sentence: A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex. This talk took place in the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre and was presented in partnership with SFU’s Institute for the Humanities and Indian Summer Festival.

On this episode of Below the Radar, Am Johal sits down with Darcie Bennett, the co-author of the Pivot Legal Society report "Project Inclusion". This report draws on interviews and research conducted with people across BC and highlights the way stigma around drug use and poverty has become embedded into current law and policy. Am and Darcie talk about the report and what steps can be taken to reduce the stigma around these issues so that these systems better serve people.

At the seventh annual Jim Green Memorial Lecture, community planner Nathan Edelson explored the future of urban planning and how to encourage community engagement in policy-making processes.

This episode features Baljit Sangra, a Vancouver-based documentarian and filmmaker. Baljit's latest documentary, "Because We Are Girls", is a powerful film that follows three Indo-Canadian sisters from Williams Lake, BC, who experienced sexual abuse by an older relative in their childhood years. Through an empathetic lens, Baljit shows the sisters’ laughs and struggles, as they seek to break the cycle of abuse and redress the wrongs within their family. Am Johal and Maria Cecilia Saba talk to Baljit about her approach to a complex story in a way that highlights her heroines’ humanity and the power of true sisterhood.

This episode features Hilda Fernandez, a clinical psychoanalyst and a grad student at SFU. Hilda was also the former president of the Lacan Salon, a group that meets bi-weekly to read and discuss the work of Freud and Jacques Lacan. On this episode, she talks to Am Johal about love and desire from a psychoanalytical perspective — the stages of love, how it is sustained and reinvented, and break-ups and the hatred that can come along with it.

SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement partnered with Hives for Humanity to support the development of Research 101, a community-based project that produced resources for ethical research in the Downtown Eastside (DTES), including a resource card on informed consent and a manifesto for ethical research.

This spring, SFU hosted United Nations representative Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, a human rights expert from Hungary. She has worked with the UN as the former Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, and currently lives in Senegal and serves as the Special Rapporteur on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Episode 16 features Libby Davies, an activist and former Member of Parliament for Vancouver East. Melissa Roach and Jamie-Leigh Gonzales interview Libby about her newly released memoir, “Outside In”, covering her early days of community organizing, her experiences as a woman in politics, and representing her community’s concerns in Ottawa.

This episode of Below the Radar features mother, entrepreneur, creative, feminist Madeleine Shaw. Many of us now find the topic of menstruation significantly less taboo thanks to the work of folks like Madeleine. As one of the cofounders of Lunapads, Madeleine has been normalizing menstruation for nearly three decades.

Episode 14 features Ginger Gosnell-Myers, a Nisga’a-Kwakwaka'wakw urban planner, researcher, and policy expert, who was the City of Vancouver’s first Indigenous Relations Manager. Ginger is currently completing a master’s degree in public policy at Simon Fraser University.

Political Economist and SFU Geography Professor, Geoff Mann, joins Am Johal in episode 13 of Below the Radar. They discuss two of Geoff’s recent books: In the Long Run We Are All Dead and Climate Leviathan, which was co-written by Joel Wainwright. For those who may not be familiar with Keynesian economics, Geoff Mann has a way of communicating concepts that makes them easily digestible for all audiences — even without a degree in economics.

Adrienne Smith joins Am Johal and Melissa Roach in conversation for episode 12 of Below the Radar. A poet and human rights lawyer, Adrienne has a passion for social justice and advocacy. In this episode, they talk about the issues of misgendering folks in the justice system or in a workplace, and how the conflation of sex and gender can have dangerous repercussions on those who may not be out in their workplace.

In this episode Am Johal and Stephanie Allen discuss affordable housing, the pros and cons of not-for-profit real estate development, the nature of ownership and property, along with a look at the fight for Hogan’s Alley and the recognition of the erasure of Black culture from Vancouver through city development.

Episode 10 of Below the Radar features Sharon Gregson, who works with the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC as the provincial spokesperson for the successful $10aDay Child Care campaign. Sharon Gregson and Am Johal discuss policy change and what is needed for sustainable child care in BC.

Sarah Blyth joins Jamie-Leigh Gonzales for a conversation about the politics of illicit drugs. With an understanding of what it is like to make change from her experience as both a policy maker and a frontline worker, Sarah uses her voice to advocate for access to safe drugs for community members in the Downtown Eastside.

Megaphone creates meaningful work for people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Each month they produce a magazine that looks at issues and events happening in our city with a local perspective. This episode features Executive Director, Jessica Hannon, along with vendor, Peter Thompson in conversation with Jamie-Leigh Gonzales from SFU VOCE.

Hives for Humanity creates and supports opportunities to connect people back to the land through community and pollinators. They’ve been providing opportunities for people to engage in the therapeutic culture of beekeeping while supporting at-risk populations of people and pollinators since 2012.