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Marijuana company revives rooftop garden WE Vancouver. “In fact, I supplied a letter to the city that made it quite clear that there will be no applications ffinor, a Montrealfor marijuana. I don’t even based medical like the marijuana markets. I marijuana comcan’t get a $100-million purpany, is taking chase order for marijuana in over a controversial rooftop Canada but I can get one for garden in Vanstrawberries.” couver after the In an email, original operators the city conwent bankrupt. firmed that the Affinor says it final draft of the has purchased the licence agreeassets belonging ment signed to Alterrus, which by Affinor was grew baby greens “only for the on the top floor cultivation and of the city-owned production of parking garage in food, including the 500-block of Nick Brusatore fruits, vegetaRichards Street. bles, edible herbs But don’t expect and legumes.” any pot to start popping up. When the greenhouse Executive chairman Nick first launched in November Brusatore says Affinor only 2012, Alterrus projected plans to grow food. it could produce 150,000 “The rooftop in Vanpounds of pesticide-free couver is all about sustainleafy green vegetables and able food, I can promise herbs to be distributed you that,” Brusatore told
By Kelsey Klassen
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to local restaurants and grocers. The project – touted by Mayor Gregor Robertson as an example of Vancouver’s “booming clean tech sector” – closed when Alterrus Systems Inc. and its subsidiary Local Garden Vancouver Inc. declared bankruptcy on Jan. 21 after less than two years of operation. Brusatore said Affinor won’t face the same financial issues. “There’s no pressure on this facility,” he said. “It’s paid for, cash. There’s no debt.” Alterrus had a 10-year deal with the city to lease the property for $4,800 a month. When that deal was first announced, it prompted NPA Coun. George Affleck to issue a press release at that time calling for the city to invite the auditor general for local government to examine the contract between Alter-
rus and the city. Brusatore says Affinor has the same agreement. He also says Affinor expects to have the old facility producing baby greens again within the next 60 days, and is working on a proposal to expand the facility with new structures for the cultivation of mechanically-pollinated strawberries. Brusatore says the crops will be sold to Choices Markets. According to Brusatore, Affinor has also recently met with the University of British Columbia and the University of the Fraser Valley to fund aquaculture and greenhouse projects with its equipment. He says the company ultimately hopes to utilize its connections with the universities to run new wave agriculture and vertical farming technology training programs out of the rooftop facility.
“I’m all about solving world hunger, world crop problems,” said Brusatore. “I’m just excited to do this. If this small company does nothing but create jobs and we learn more from it, but I don’t lose my butt, then that’s fine.” Affinor, which became the first Canadian company to grow and sell marijuana in the United States in August, intends to market its vertical farming technology, along with Alterrus’ old greenhouse patents, to increase its stake in the medical marijuana market. ‘I’m not going to mention marijuana for the City of Vancouver [but] if the city is interested, now I can help you,” said Brusatore, “I can do it better than anybody for the city, and we could easily put the City of Vancouver as the instant leader as well.” –With files from Mike Howell
Save on Meats owner responds to multiple lawsuits By Jen St. Denis
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he owner of Save On Meats says that despite facing several lawsuits and a tumultuous two years in which several of his businesses were closed, sold, or relocated, it’s business as usual at his well-known Downtown Eastside diner and butcher shop. Court documents show Mark Brand is being sued for $324,000 by restaurant sup-
plier Sysco Canada for allegedly failing to pay invoices between May 2011 and April 2013. In a response, Brand says Sysco did not honour an agreement to give a discount to Save On Meats. Brand claims Sysco had agreed to charge him less because Save On Meats hires people with barriers to employment and operates a meals program for DTES residents. Court documents also show Save On Meats has made arrangements to pay
back a total of $407,495 in taxes in arrears. Brand has filed a counter suit, claiming damages for misrepresentation and unlawful interference with contractual relations. In a separate lawsuit, Cintas Canada, a uniform supplier, alleges Brand owes the company $21,077. Brand counters in his court filings that the contract was signed by an unauthorized staff member and is therefore invalid. Brand is also named in
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two small claims cases. Joanne Griffiths, who partnered to buy and run a charity with Brand in 2012, filed a case in April 2014 claiming Brand owes her $3,000 after she decided she no longer wanted to be involved in the charity and agreed to be bought out in February 2013. In documents filed with the court, Brand wrote that A Better Life Foundation is not in a position to pay Griffiths now, but that Griffiths is welcome to donate the $3,000 and get a tax receipt. The case is due to go before a mediator in November. Calen Knauf, a graphic designer, started a small claims case against Brand in 2012, claiming Brand owes him $6,000 for a website.
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According to a counterclaim Brand filed, the restaurateur claimed that missed “deliverables” on the project had caused him to lose $150,000 worth of business. Court documents show that Brand’s counterclaim was dismissed after Brand failed to attend a mediation session in June. None of the allegations in these lawsuits have been proven in court. Brand nevertheless says all the lawsuits are without merit and he is confident he will win. “We’re really good operators and we’re really honest, but we also won’t be bullied,” Brand said. “So I will never back down from a legal position.” –Story courtesy of Business in Vancouver; with files from Darryl Greer
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Teachers to vote Thursday on new contract
BC teachers could be back in the classrooms as early as Monday should they choose to vote in favour of a tentative six-year deal with the BC government on Thursday. Mediator Vince Ready helped the BC Teachers’ Federation and the BC Public School Employers’ Association reach the tentative settlement in the early hours of Sept. 16. BCTF president Jim Iker said Tuesday afternoon that the provincial teachers’ union is recommending its members ratify the contract. “It was a tough series of negotiations but there were meaningful achievements in this field for teachers and students,” said Iker. “A tentative deal includes hundreds of new teaching positions each year as the result of an annual education fund that will be used exclusively for bargaining with new members, a mutually agreed process to address any future court decision.” The public is prohibited from being told the complete details of the proposed deal until it is ratified by BCTF members, although leaked details are rumored to include a 7.25 per cent pay raise for teachers over six years, $108 million set aside to address class size and composition grievances, and an education fund of $480 million over five years with $400 million for BCTF members and $80 million for CUPE school support workers. A beaming Premier Christy Clark called the six-year agreement historic at her own afternoon press conference on Tuesday. “We’ll have five years in which we can sit and talk about the things that really matter and that’s improving education for children in classrooms,” she said. The Vancouver School Board has complained that costs of previous collective agreement settlements were downloaded to school districts. “Clearly, we made the commitment at the beginning of this that the increases are within our budget parameters, so it is the provincial government that is funding this particular settlement,” Education Minister Peter Fassbender said at the Tuesday press conference. –With files from Andrew Fleming and Cheryl Rossi
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arts
Twenty dancers will bring Vancouver to life in 20.20.20, a kinetic exploration of the cityscape. David Cooper photo
Not your average city tour
Free arts and culture activities happening in a community near you! Plan your weekend at culturedays.ca Enter the Black Press Culture Shapes Our Community Photo Contest to win prizes. http://bit.ly/culturedays2014
celebrating 5 years and over 5.5 million people’s love affair with culture
September 26, 27 & 28, 2014
CultureDays.ca Making the Arts More Accessible®
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atch Vancouver come to life on stage with 20.20.20, a collaboration between Dancers Dancing and SFU Woodwards that captures the living atmosphere of urban Vancouver. Running Sept. 24-27 at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 W. Hastings), choreographer Judith Garay celebrates 20 years of work in Vancouver by examining 20 intersections in the city using 20 dancers, whose motions are inspired by the dialogue between architecture, pigeons, overpasses, green spaces, mountain views, skateboards, and people. Tickets are $25/$20. Go to DancersDancing. com for more info.
Double dose of dance And if that’s not enough, sandwiched between those dates is opening show of The Dance Centre’s
2014-2015 Global Dance Connections contemporary dance series, starring the world-renowned Ballet Preljocaj. Created by the company’s celebrated French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, Empty Moves (parts I, II & III) is set to the infamous 1977 recording of John Cage’s Empty Words, where the minimalist composer calmly recites radically abstracted text at an uncomprehending and increasingly irate audience. This soundtrack is integral to Preljocaj’s choreographic response, which creates a sophisticated and meditative ode to the abstract as a quartet of dancers executes a flow of inexhaustible movement with absolute precision and technical skill. Spare, contemplative and sensual, this absorbing work unfolds as an elegant counterpoint to the turbulent score. Ballet Preljocaj will be at the Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie) Sept. 25-26. Tickets are $32/$24. Call 604-6842787 or go to TicketsTonight.ca. –Kelsey Klassen
Vancouver joins elite Design Week club By Kelsey Klassen
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esign is at its best when it is blending in seamlessly with our needs – so deliberate we don’t even notice it working – or shaking up our routines by promising answers to questions we hadn’t yet thought to ask. It affects us as we sit at our desks and read in our beds, as we walk through public spaces and drive through mountain passes, as we reach for the faucet or pick up the phone. Design helps us not only integrate information into our lives but effortlessly adapt to it. But what kind of conversation can include all that context, all those creators, and all those channels of energy? You’d need an entire week to cover it all. Or better yet, two. Vancouver’s first Design Week runs now until Sept. 28, featuring 14 days of studio tours, high-profile speakers, and showcases with artists of architecture, interior design, graphic design, food, and fashion. There are an estimated 80 design weeks globally. From established design hubs like New York and London to emerging creative centres like Reykjavik, Dublin, and Cape Town, these celebrations help advance the social, economic and cultural development in their respective cities through dialogue. Closer to home, Vancouver Design Week joins the recently established Seattle Design Festival (2011) and Design Week Portland (2012) to form a Pacific Northwest design fest trifecta. Over the years there have been other, more niche, design week initiatives, but according to Design Week co-founder Jennifer Cutbill this is a first for Vancouver with such scope. “They were fabulous efforts,” Cutbill says
of the predecessors, “but we’re really looking to see how we can leverage and expand that audience. This will be the first one that is inclusive of all the design disciplines. It’s design as a verb, design as process, and, really, design as potential.” The city-wide event opened with Vancouver’s inaugural Urban Design Awards – awarded by the City to 10 projects demonstrating visionary thinking in architecture and urban design – and ends with the 10th annual Interior Design Show West which brings exciting international design talent to the Vancouver Convention Centre Sept. 25-28. Other highlights include the Open Doors series, which allows patrons to visit with working design professionals in their studios, and Samplings, a food series taking place on the hardtops of coffee shops, tasting rooms, and restaurants throughout Vancouver, featuring talks with the chefs, mixologists, and interior designers who bring these spaces to life. The CreativeMornings breakfast series is teaming up with networking pros Likemind Vancouver and social media pioneers Hootsuite to get 300 people discussing the creative process at SFU Woodwards on Sept. 19. The talk will feature Vancouver artist Reece Terris, whose architectural portfolio includes a six-storey apartment building temporarily installed inside the Vancouver Art Gallery. Also that day, the Museum of Vancouver is hosting Why I Design, an interactive conversation with 30 designers (including Andrew Zo, creator of the buzzworthy engagement ring box that can fit in a wallet) about their work, and why they choose to do it in Vancouver. Ticket prices vary; go to VancouverDesignWk. com to register.
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2014-117.2_FOR807_GasOdourPrint_4.85x6.5_P1.indd September 18 – 24, 2014
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out after dark
OUT AFTER DARK is a weekly feature highlighting social and cultural events around Vancouver. Got an upcoming event? Email us at OutAfterDark@WEVancouver.com.
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rant/rave All rants are the opinion of the individual and do not reflect the opinions of WE. The editor reserves the right to edit for clarity and brevity, so please keep it short and (bitter)sweet.
A strike against teachers It’s so hard for school teachers – between winter vacation, spring vacation, and a massive summer vacation – how can they find time to strike? And the “professional development days” – to say that with a straight face? Wow. School is like a lotus pond. Beneath the surface is a dark slimy place. There is boredom, peer pressure, bullying (often, psychologically, by the teachers, who are no longer permitted to beat children, as I was when I suffered through school). There is suicide and evil predators like the diabolical Coquitlam teacher – “Mr. Swirl”. Sometimes, a lotus blooms – the child succeeds. For too many, it is a wasted childhood of droning teachers, useless information, and crappy box lunches. BCTF, the rebels think you’re full of it. –Arnie Carnegie
Bike rave The other day I was in the Burrard St./Cornwall Ave. area (near the southside end of Burrard Bridge) and the City had finished a road/ bike-path construction project in the area. It is
absolutely fabulous. I took a little walking tour around the region. The original plan to put a bike-path through the Kitsilano Beach park, which I thoroughly protested, was a horrible idea, and what they have done instead is really fantastic, I think. I can’t ride a bike anymore, but a friend of mine who does feels the same way. To be honest, I don’t care what problems might have resulted for motorists. Times are a-changing and the time will come, I predict, when mini-electric cars will be the norm. That will certainly reduce some problems and traffic congestion. The City deserves praise, too, for many things!!! –A citizen
Comma drama To the pompous ass, signed G Pick, who wasted almost half of the rant/rave section to admonish those who aren’t quite up to his/her grammar and punctuation standards and are therefore idiots (Rants, Sept. 11), may I remind you Vancouver is a multi-cultural city where for many English is not their first language. I realize, at this time of writing, the teachers’ (gee, I hope I used the apostrophe correctly) strike is still a reality but shouldn’t you use your spare time a little more constructively? Calling those who care for fair working conditions in third world countries by only using fair trade products ‘oh so superior’ and ‘elitist’ tells me what sorry boar you are. Or is that bore? –William Muller
Preventing gang activity in BC ▾ MYTH: As a gangsters girlfriend or wife you’ll have everything you want: Reality:
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1 Morgan Jones Phillips was in town Sept. 11 with his one-man Fringe Festival show The Emergency Monologues – a collection of stories from his 10 years as a paramedic in downtown Toronto. Kelsey Klassen photo 2 Brian Jessel gave tours of his newly renovated flagship BMW dealership on Boundary Road Sept. 9. Guests were also invited to test drive the all-new i3 Electric Vehicle. Supplied photo 3 Oliver & Lilly’s owner Leighann Boquist transformed her West 6th store into a Farmer’s Apprentice long-table feast Sept. 15 to reveal her Paris-inspired fall collection to local fashion writers. Kelsey Klassen photo 4 Realtor Salma Mitha, WE Vancouver publisher Dee Dhaliwal, and friend Shaine Virani at Passions Sept. 14 at the Imperial on Main Street. The popular annual fundraiser, which features samplers from 20 Vancouver restaurants, raised over $125,000 for the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation – a Vancouver-based non-profit that provides comfort care and resources for people living with HIV/AIDS. Supplied photo 5 The 13th annual Music Therapy Ride wrapped up Sept. 13 at the Garibaldi Lift Co. in Whistler with close to 200 people making the motorcycle ride up the Sea-to-Sky Highway to help raise funds to support music therapy services across BC. Music Therapy Ride organizers Patrick Zulinov (centre left) and Chris Duncombe (centre right) are flanked by Clayton Bellamy (far left) and Jason McCoy (far right) of the Juno award-winning country rock band, The Road Hammers. Robert Mangelsdorf photo
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Even gangsters’ girlfriends and wives are the target of violence and retribution, with women associated in some way to gangsters murdered, some in front of their children.Over the past several years there have been a number of women associated in some way to gangsters murdered, some in front of their children.
Read more by downloading your copy of the CFSEU-BC Community Report at www.cfseu.bc.ca and on your Black Press website at: bc-anti-gang.com
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COMBINED FORCES SPECIAL ENFORCEMENT UNIT - BRITISH COLUMBIA September 18 – 24, 2014
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Multi-Media Marketing Professional WE – Vancouver’s Urban Weekly, is seeking a fulltime Advertising/Marketing Representative to sell our print and digital products. This opportunity is for a results oriented individual. Candidates for this position will possess the ability to service existing clients and develop new business in an extensive and varied territory. Must enjoy outside sales, building relationships with local business owners to help them with their marketing needs. If you have a proven track record in sales and customer service, thrive on working in a fast-paced environment, are highly motivated, career oriented with strong organization and communication skills, we would like to hear from you. Our work environment sets industry standards for professionalism and combines a salary/benefit package designed to attract and retain outstanding employees. Please send your application in confidence to: Gail Nugent, Managing Director WE Vancouver gnugent@WEVancouver.com Closing Date: September 25, 2014 We thank all applicants for their interest, but only those chosen for an interview will be contacted. If you are not contacted, we will keep your resume on file for future opportunities.
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September 18 – 24, 2014
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