Faces we

C H A N G E T H A T W O R K S | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6 

Faces we 

CELEBRATING THOSE MAKING A DIFFERENCE

FIND WHERE AND 

WHEN YOUR VENDOR 

SELLS MEGAPHONE 

Contents 

# 

180 

Out front 6 

There’s a new prime minister in Canada, and 

with him the federal government is launching 

a national inquiry into missing and murdered 

Indigenous women and girls, changing the 

backdrop of the annual Women’s Memorial 

March on Feb. 14. 

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A blood ban 10 

While the MSM policy excluding sexually 

active gay men from donating blood into 

Canada’s national supply continues into the 

21st century, there is a Vancouver initiative 

that aims to catch Canada up with the US. 

Mega-romance 12 

Clare Yow shares how she came to meet and 

fall in love with Leo Yu through a Megaphone 

event, Voices of the Street 2015. The two 

first met over social media, but the budding 

romance blossomed over social awareness, the 

will to make a difference, and picnics on an 

elephant-print blanket. 

Victoria homeless camp 14 

We profile three campers residing outside the 

Victoria courthouses who are part of the socalled 

“Super InTent City,” which has housed 

more than 100 campers since November. 

Cover Photography 

Jackie Dives 

About the photo 

From left to right, Leslie 

Pierre, Gina Bombay and 

Laura Dilley from PACE 

Society are among the five 

advocates and groups we 

heart, and whose work we 

want to recognize. 

Photo on this page 

Comedian Lewis Black is 

one of the headlining acts 

coming out of the inaugural 

JFL NorthWest comedy 

festival this month. 

MEGAPHONE IS SOLD IN 

VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA 

BY HOMELESS AND LOW- 

INCOME VENDORS. VENDORS 

BUY THE MAGAZINE FOR 75¢ 

AN ISSUE AND SELL IT TO 

CUSTOMERS FOR $2. 

Our goal is to provide a voice 

and an economic opportunity to 

homeless and low-income people 

while building grassroots support 

to end poverty. 

THANK YOU SUPPORTERS & SPONSORS 

Who do we love? 16 

The world becomes a better place through a 

collective of wonderful advocates and groups 

working hard and making sacrifices to affect 

change. That’s why we decided to zero in on a 

special few who stole our hearts this past year 

and celebrate them. 

Mount Pleasant's future 20 

Mount Pleasant resident Megan Lau shares her 

thoughts on what the neighbourhood needs, 

what it stands to lose, and scratches her head 

over who really deserves the seat. The byelection 

will have a role to play in the future of 

the contested riding. 

You’re having a laugh 24 

We review the upcoming Just For Laughs (JFL) 

NorthWest comedy festival this month, which 

is not only featuring local talent but a plethora 

of well known headliners including Wanda 

Sykes, Trevor Noah, David Cross, and much 

more. 

2 Change that Works 

MegaphoneMagazine.com 

3

Contributors 

Director’s Corner 

Executive Director 

Sean Condon 

Operations Manager 

Jessica Hannon 

Vendor Coordinator 

Misha Golston 

Managing Editor 

Stefania Seccia 

Art Director 

Harry Olson 

Editorial Support 

Geoff D’Auria 

Photographers 

David P. Ball, Jackie Dives, David 

Denofreo, Jamila Douhaibi, Adam 

Gilmer 

Writing Workshop Facilitators 

Surya Govender, Blythe Hutchcroft, 

Julia Kochuk, Helen Polychronakos, 

Shannon Rayne, Yvonne Robertson 

Board of Directors 

Nezihe Aquino, Bob Dennis, 

Emma Gauvin, David Lee, 

Kevin Hollett, Michael Roberts, 

Jo Shin 

Volunteers 

Brit Bachmann, Maddisen Dellsplain, 

Keith Martin, Jenn McDermid, Scott 

Neufeld 

Editorial Contributors This Issue 

Savanna Bazuik, Jamila Douhaibi, 

Katie Hyslop, Megan Lau, Ron 

McGrath, Sarah Ouellette, Alex Walls, 

Clare Yow 

Emma Gauvin 

Board member 

Emma Gauvin is a social worker with Vancouver Coastal 

Health and is passionate about reducing barriers to health 

care. She is currently the social work practice lead for 

the “Hope to Health” initiative, which aims to increase 

the quality of life for people living with or at risk of HIV. 

Previously she worked as a frontline social worker at several 

innovative health-care programs in the Downtown Eastside. 

Emma has been an avid reader of Megaphone since 2008 and 

is thrilled to be a member of the board. 

Jackie Dives 

Photographer 

Jackie Dives is a self-taught documentary and portrait 

photographer living in Vancouver, B.C. For four years, she 

photographed women giving birth and shared these photos 

both in print and online in order to bring attention to a 

misunderstood topic. She is a two-time prize winner at the 

annual 12x12 Film Photo Competition, and the 2011 recipient 

of a two-week artist residency scholarship with the Metchosin 

International School of Art. Her work has been featured by The 

Tyee, the Huffington Post, Vice, the Daily Mail, My Modern 

Metropolis, the Medical Observer, Feature Shoot, Beautiful/ 

Decay, and Disney. 

Jamila Douhaibi 

Writer 

Jamila Douhaibi is a born-and-raised Vancouver Islander 

originally from Nanaimo, B.C. She obtained a degree 

in anthropology and environmental studies from the 

University of Victoria in 2012, and has traveled to most 

continents and "wwoofed" on organic farms across 

Canada and in South America. Currently working for the 

Wilderness Committee, an environmental non-profit 

organization, she has worked for a number of NGOs in 

Victoria and Northern B.C. Outside of work and writing 

for Megaphone, her time is filled with reading, writing 

poetry, volunteering, adventuring, and creating various 

craft and food concoctions. 

A look ahead to 2016 

With 2015 firmly behind us, Megaphone 

is finally ringing in the New Year. Between 

the annual Hope in Shadows calendar 

and the special holiday issue of the 

magazine, vendors had a very busy end 

to the season, so please excuse the delay. 

(There will still be fireworks, however.) 

On behalf of all the vendors, a big thank 

you to everyone for your support over the 

year—you helped make it a great one. I’m 

really proud of the vendors and staff for 

all we accomplished. Some of the 2015 

highlights include: 

• Taking over the production of 

the Hope in Shadows calendar 

• Releasing our fifth annual Voices 

of the Street literary issue 

• Winning an international street 

paper award for our vendor app 

• Creating our own vendordesigned 

wrapping paper 

• Providing an employment opportunity 

to even more homeless and low-income 

people in Vancouver and Victoria 

We also had a really successful 

winter fundraising campaign, passing 

our goal and raising a total of $20,914. 

(Cue the fireworks!) This was amazing 

and goes a long way toward ensuring 

that Megaphone can provide the 

necessary training and support for 

the vendors to succeed this year. 

A huge thank you to everyone who dug 

deep and helped support our campaign. 

Megaphone works because we’re all 

invested in it. We’re all really proud of 

the vendors and writers and see them as 

valuable members of our community. So 

thank you for seeing the big picture and 

doing what you can to make it work. 

I’m really excited for 2016. With 

both Hope in Shadows and Megaphone 

we’re hoping for big things. And with 

your support, I know we can do it. 

One big thing on our horizon is a 

cashless payment app. We’ve heard from 

both our customers and vendors that 

there are times when you’d like to buy the 

magazine but can’t because you’re not 

carrying cash. Well, the future is here. 

With the help of the team from Mount 

Pleasant’s own Denim and Steel, we’re 

turning our vendor finder app into one 

that will allow you to buy the calendar 

and magazine through your phone. 

We’re expecting it to launch late spring/ 

early summer. (Cue more fireworks!) 

So thank you again for all your support. 

I look forward to giving you updates in this 

space about how Megaphone and Hope 

in Shadows will move forward in 2016. 

Sean Condon 

Executive Director 

Megaphone Magazine 

Stefania Seccia 

Managing editor 

Megaphone is published 

every month by Street Corner 

Media Foundation. 

121 Heatley Avenue 

Vancouver, B.C. 

V6A 3E9 

info@megaphonemagazine.com 

Stefania Seccia has been writing for Megaphone since 2009 

shortly after graduating from Langara College’s journalism 

program. Her work has appeared across Canada, in the 

Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver 

Province, the Windspeaker and many others. She’s worked for 

many newspapers, including the North Shore News, 24 hours, 

Metro—but first got her start at community paper Tofino- 

Ucluelet Westerly News. This is her first issue as managing 

editor for Megaphone. Beyond the written word, her interests 

include snowshoeing, raising her new puppy, and playing 

Dungeons and Dragons. 

4 Change that Works MegaphoneMagazine.com 

5

Out Front 

Women’s marches 

remain necessary 

despite fed’s call 

for inquiry, say 

organizers, family 

By Katie Hyslop 

Photo by David P. Ball 

Carol Martin promises she’s not going to 

cry when she addresses media, supporters, 

and friends at a press conference about the 

Women’s Memorial March in Vancouver’s 

Downtown Eastside last month. 

“The Memorial March is to commemorate 

and honour a lot of our sisters, our 

mothers, our daughters, our friends,” she 

says, breaking her promise as emotion 

wells up in her voice and eyes. 

She and other members of the march 

committee were discussing their concern the 

promised national inquiry into missing and 

murdered indigenous women—currently in 

the consultation phase—would only focus 

on the families, doing an injustice to all 

indigenous women and girls by ignoring the 

racism and sexism they face on a daily basis. 

“I don’t want this Memorial March turned 

into something that it’s not, because we 

honour all of our women who struggle 

in the system that plagues them with 

poverty, mental health, addiction, systemic 

racism, and genocide. Their lives matter 

and their spirits will live on until we all 

make a difference, and it’s up to all of us 

to make those differences,” Martin says. 

For a long time, the Women’s Memorial 

March, along with Victoria’s Stolen Sisters 

Memorial March and other marches 

across Canada, have served as a call to 

end the deaths and disappearances of 

indigenous women and girls rooted in 

racism, sexism, and Canada’s colonialism 

roots. But with a national inquiry finally 

on the way, what impact will that have 

on one of the best tools—the marches— 

that helped convince governments 

an inquiry was so long overdue? 

Marches serve as important reminder 

According to current committee chair 

Fay Blaney, Vancouver’s march attendance 

has seen significant increases since the 

2007 trial of serial killer Robert Pickton, 

who preyed on vulnerable, predominantly 

indigenous women in the DTES. The 

subsequent provincial Missing Women’s 

Commission of Inquiry also stirred up 

attendance in 2011 and 2012, mostly 

from people angry over its exclusion of 

women’s groups and victims’ families. 

The 2015 march drew hundreds of 

participants—not as large as the 5,000 

that marched in 2012—but still much 

larger than the first march in 1991. 

Last year was also the first federal 

election when a national inquiry drew 

attention from all parties, although the 

Conservatives did not support it at the 

time. That’s culminated in the promised 

inquiry from our new federal government, 

whose Indigenous and Northern Affairs 

Minister Carolyn Bennett has already 

begun pre-inquiry consultations, meeting 

with “stake holders”—survivors, victims’ 

families, government officials and workers, 

indigenous and women’s organizations—in 

Vancouver and Prince George last month. 

Cheam First Nation Chief Ernie Crey, 

older brother of Dawn Teresa Crey, one of 

60 women missing from the Downtown 

Eastside, says it would be a mistake for 

anyone to abandon the march now that the 

inquiry has been promised. Especially since 

some Canadians still look the other way, 

or even blame the victim, when vulnerable 

women go missing or turn up dead. 

“There’s a tendency to want to just 

label this issue of murdered and missing 

indigenous women as something really 

unpleasant: ‘it’s probably something that 

happens to poor people and people who 

live on the wrong side of the tracks. I’m not 

really sure how much I want to care about 

this, it’s all very troubling and sad,’” he says. 

“These marches serve to remind 

Canadians that not all is right out there.” 

Inquiry will strengthen resolve to march 

Victoria’s Stolen Sisters Memorial 

March, which started in 2009, saw a bit 

of an increase in 2015 from the 400 to 

500 people who normally show up, likely 

because they couldn’t hold a march in 2014, 

according to Stolen Sisters Organizing 

Collective member Jessica Humphries. 

It’s hard for her to predict how the 

inquiry will impact this year’s turnout. 

“I don’t know if it will change [march 

attendance] numbers, but it might 

bring out a different, more mainstream 

folks who maybe haven’t engaged in 

these topics before,” she says. 

Lorelei Williams has been attending 

Vancouver’s march for years, but only in the 

past four has she stayed longer than an hour. 

“It was always emotionally hard for 

me,” says Williams, whose auntie Belinda 

Williams and cousin Tanya Holyk are 

counted among the nearly 1,200 missing or 

murdered indigenous women in Canada. 

But since she started her own dance 

troupe Butterflies in Spirit in 2012 to both 

honour the women and help their families 

and friends heal, Williams has stayed 

until the end of the march every year. 

The troupe has performed across the 

country, where she still encounters 

people—especially back east—who 

aren’t aware of the depth of the missing 

and murdered women issue. 

Yet even if the inquiry is successful in 

changing the dangerous status quo for 

indigenous women and girls, Williams 

thinks the march will always be needed: 

“They are honouring our lost ones. Why 

would they want to stop honouring them?” 

Humphries notes the march will continue 

to be necessary “until we are no longer 

seeing the disappearance of women, we are 

no longer seeing violence within multiple 

systems, when we start seeing services 

that are actually adequately meeting the 

needs of indigenous people, we’re going 

to continue to march,” she says. “And I 

think we’re going to continue to remember 

these women even if there are changes in 

the system because we have lost them.” 

Martin predicts, if anything, the inquiry 

will only strengthen people’s resolve to 

keep attending Vancouver’s march. “Our 

hearts are there,” she says. “I’m hoping 

it will only bring more attention to the 

work that’s being done out there and the 

amount of people who do show they care 

about what is happening to the people.” 

m This photo was taken at a previous 

Vancouver memorial march. 

6 Change that Works MegaphoneMagazine.com 

7

Vendor Profile 

Vendor Voices 

Sang Hussain 

leaves Afghanistan 

for a better life 

in Victoria 

RON ASKS 

What does 

Valentine’s Day 

mean to you? 

Sang Hussain was 22 years old when he made the decision he 

would not become the killing machine that the Afghan government 

demanded of him. The only way to escape the mandatory army 

service was to flee Afghanistan. That meant leaving his family 

behind: his mother, father, two brothers and three sisters, along 

with aunts, uncles, cousins, and lifelong friends. With his family’s 

blessing and support he went to Pakistan, and then India. It was 

during his time in India he started doing research about where 

he needed to go to be safe. He had friends in India and they 

introduced him to some Canadians. He decided Canada would 

be the place he would start a new life, safe from the government 

that would surely punish him harshly for leaving the army. 

In 1983, Sang stepped off the plane and breathed his first 

breath of Canadian air. He had $50 and did not speak English. He 

claimed refugee status at the airport, with the help of a translator. 

With the government formalities taken care of, he was hopeful 

about starting fresh in a country with so much opportunity. 

Despite Canada’s reputation, Sang describes the years that 

followed as very hard. He recalls living in a single room with five or 

six other people, all of them very poor. The language barrier made 

employment along with daily life difficult. As time went on though, 

he met other people from Afghanistan and they all helped each 

other out. He met a woman who would be his common-law wife for 

the next 20 years. He found work in Alberta eventually, in a factory. 

Around that time, he stepped on a nail and with all the chaos 

around him, did not think too much of it. His foot developed an 

infection, which he treated but had unfortunately waited too long. 

The infection had spread to the bone, causing him severe pain. 

He moved to B.C. and created a healthy and quiet 

lifestyle for himself. Sang knew he needed help with 

his foot and leg, and doctors tried to treat him but the 

infection in the bone could not be reached. He lived with 

constant pain making employment unrealistic. 

In 2015, Sang’s good friend John introduced him to 

Megaphone magazine and Sang found his fit. He started 

selling Megaphone in James Bay and quickly felt like he was 

part of the community. He enjoyed meeting new people and 

telling them about Megaphone. Many customers ask each 

time they pass by, “Is the new one out yet?” Sang likes selling 

a magazine that talks about important social issues. 

In addition to selling Megaphone as basic employment, 

Sang is also fundraising. Where his family is in Afghanistan 

there are no hospitals or clinics, no medicines, and no medical 

supplies. Sang is working with a non-profit and currently has 

a big shipment of medical supplies ready to ship over. He is 

currently fundraising to pay the $22,000 shipping cost. 

While he is focused on helping others get medical help, his 

own health has required his attention recently. In August 2015, 

Sang went through with the only solution available for his leg: 

amputation. He had the surgery and with the use of a wheelchair 

he is learning how to live differently. He has not let the loss 

of his leg slow him down. The day he got out of the hospital, 

he was back to his spot in James Bay, selling Megaphone. 

m Sang sells Megaphone at Simcoe Street and Toronto Street in Victoria. 

Written by Savanna Bazuik. Photo: Adam Gilmer. 

I put the question out there to my customers. Some of them think it's 

a fabricated holiday, and others say they don't "feel anything." Come 

Feb. 14, it may either be flowers, chocolates … or the frying pan! 

But others said they have a good feeling about Valentine’s Day. Some do 

have bad ones though, probably because the dish ran away with the spoon. 

Another of my customers said it’s tradition for her mom to send 

her children Valentine gifts, and that she enjoyed getting chocolates. 

Valentine’s Day and chocolates really go together. I can consent to that. 

This was one of the best and funniest responses I got. One lady customer 

says she thinks Valentine’s Day is a lot of fun. I ask, “Why?” And she says, 

“Actually, we celebrate it on the 15th ‘cause that was our first date.” 

This is a sad one, which is something we can all get trapped in, and that 

is the pressure and obligation that comes with Valentine’s Day. Some people 

have a really hard time over all the different holidays, and even birthdays. 

To me, I like to be realistic: it’s just another day! Everyday, I look into my 

own heart, and try to be kind to myself, and love myself—the rest follows. 

What love is to me is radiance. It’s very spiritual. It’s all around us. It’s 

everywhere. I say, to a lot of people, “I love you,” meaning, I feel their radiance. 

And they need to hear that once in awhile. No matter what day it happens to 

be, or who they are, I say it as a reminder so they know they’re appreciated. 

I am not a Hallmark card who will give you what you 

desire, or Willie Wonka trying to sweeten you up. 

To my customers, let’s share our radiance every day. 

Love, Ron. 

Ron sells Megaphone at two locations: 

on Cambie and Broadway and the 

Choices Market on 16th and Stephens. 

Photo: David Denofreo, Black Opal Images. 

8 

Change that Works 

MegaphoneMagazine.com 9

Local News 

Local News 

Vancouver 

initiative wants 

to see gay men 

donating blood 

“What we have to be 

able to do is prove to 

Health Canada we 

can reliably identify 

those guys, and say 

to Health Canada, 

‘They’re safe donors, 

and we’re not 

introducing a risk.’” 

Controversial MSM 

policy taken to task 

By Stefania Seccia 

Photo courtesy of Canadian 

Blood Services 

Blood, it’s in you to give, unless 

you’re a sexually active gay man living 

in Canada. But one local initiative aims 

to transform that policy at its core. 

The Men who have Sex with Men 

policy (MSM) came to pass in the United 

States in the early 1980s, before the 

virus that causes AIDS was identified. At 

that time, homosexual men were noted 

to be a “particularly high-risk group,” 

according to a Canadian Blood Services 

backgrounder. The Canadian Red Cross 

Society, solely responsible for Canada’s 

blood supply during this period, followed 

in America’s lead. The society introduced 

donor eligibility criteria excluding 

this group, which was then included in 

Health Canada regulations in 1992. When 

Canadian Blood Services was created 

in 1988, its number one mission was to 

restore Canadians’ trust in the system 

following the tainted blood scandal. 

Any man who had sex with another 

man—even once—since 1977 was deferred 

from donating blood. But after reviewing 

the eligibility criteria in 2013, Canadian 

Blood Services and Hema-Quebec received 

approval from Health Canada to reduce that 

deferral period for MSM from an “indefinite 

period” to five years without having any 

sexual contact with another man. So if a gay 

man has not had sex with someone in five 

years, and meets all other donor eligibility 

criteria, then they can donate blood. 

Turned away at 18 

Despite this change in policy, the furor over 

being excluded from the gay community 

has only gotten louder, says Chad Walters, 

a Vancouver man working with Canadian 

Blood Services to someday reverse the 

policy. Walters was 18 years old when he 

was asked to leave a blood donation clinic 

because he was a sexually active gay man. 

But instead of focusing on that devastation 

he felt being turned away, he channeled that 

energy into researching the Health Canada 

policy stemming back to the tainted blood 

scandal of HIV and Hepatitis C getting into 

the national blood supply in the 1980s. 

“I think there are two camps involved 

here,” he says. “There are those people 

who are angry and upset and encourage 

boycotts, and they are more angry at 

Canadian Blood Services and do nothing 

but sit in that pool of anger, which is 

detrimental and has an unethical impact. 

Boycotts are not the answer, in my opinion. 

“The other camp is people who volunteer 

at the clinic, people who donate to netCAD, 

are engaged on a policy level and are trying 

to work with and trying to learn more and 

understand what all of the factors involved 

are—and why we are where we are.” 

Walters has been engaged in working 

with netCAD, a Vancouver-based apheresis 

donor clinic/research and development 

facility that works with Canadian Blood 

Services. It takes blood donations from 

donors who would normally be deferred, 

so instead of going into the national 

blood supply for transfusions the blood 

is instead used for research. Last 

February, he organized a Rainbow Clinic 

and Open House event at the facility to 

raise awareness about the work netCAD 

is doing and the opportunity it provides 

for sexually active gay men to showcase 

that they do want to donate blood. It also 

simultaneously was meant to stymie the 

contentious relationship between Canadian 

Blood Services and the community. 

In December, The U.S. Food and Drug 

Administration (FDA) altered its 30-year 

ban on blood donations from gay men, 

allowing ones who have not had sexual 

contact with another gay man in 12 

months to donate. While an incremental 

step in the right direction, gay rights 

advocates said the policy remains 

discriminatory. A statement from the 

FDA says, “Ultimately, the 12-month 

deferral window is supported by the best 

available scientific evidence, at this point 

in time, relevant to the U.S. population.” 

From five to one? 

While Canada is keeping a five-year 

benchmark, Walters says there is a proposal 

before Health Canada seeking the same 

one-year timeframe. “In spring 2016 

there should be a response,” he says. 

The proposal, penned Oct. 6, 2015 

and submitted to Health Canada for 

approval shortly afterward, was the result 

of 16 stakeholders representing patient 

groups and the broad LGBTQ community 

participating in consultation sessions. 

Almost all participants “expressed their 

personal and organizational support for 

the proposed change from five years to 12 

months,” the report states. “[Participants] 

spoke about the ‘power’ or ‘authority’ 

that Canadian Blood Services holds in 

helping reduce stigma around the MSM 

population (in particular, within rural 

areas and more isolated communities).” 

Walters notes if this change proves 

successful, it means Health Canada may 

be open to behaviour-based screening 

next. In the mean time, he’s encouraging 

gay men to bring in allies in to blood 

clinics to donate on their behalf. 

Dr. Dana Devine, chief medical and 

scientific officer with Canadian Blood 

Services who helped develop netCAD, says 

the idea to open the facility 10 years ago was 

to have a blood centre that could change 

things by helping test new devices and 

collect data on otherwise inaccessible blood. 

“We needed a development sandbox,” she 

says. “netCAD is a great opportunity to stay 

connected to people who want to be donors 

[and] participate in the system but who 

weren’t eligible for one reason or another.” 

The change began with the screening 

process. netCAD only asks people questions 

related to their own health. “We don’t 

ask men whether they’ve had sex with 

another man,” she says. “It’s not relevant 

to what we’ll do with their blood.” 

Devine has worked with Walters, 

including on the Rainbow Clinic, and 

helped develop the report to Health 

Canada on reducing the ban from five 

years to 12 months. “We know it’ll still 

exclude a large majority of men, and so 

we know that what we have to be able to 

do is be able to safely and consistently 

identify that population of sexually active 

gay men who have no more risk than all 

the other people we allow to donate. 

“What we have to be able to do is 

prove to Health Canada we can reliably 

identify those guys, and say to Health 

Canada, ‘They’re safe donors, and 

we’re not introducing a risk.’” 

In the next two years, Devine says 

there will be a better line of sight of 

what it will take to get Health Canada 

to a behaviour-based system for the 

community. “Something on a three 

to four-year timeline from now,” she 

says. “We’re committed to do this.” 

The need for blood 

February tends to be a difficult time for 

the national blood supply, Devine says, 

after the hustle and bustle of the holiday 

season. It serves as an extra reminder 

on how much Canadian Blood Services 

could use having a wider population base 

to pull from—particularly one that has 

been refused to donate for so long. 

“We look for people all year round,” she 

says. “When we look at overall numbers, 

we lose about four out of every 10 donors 

every year because they’ve got something 

else going on, or travel to a place with 

Malaria and get deferred for 12 months. 

The natural turnover of blood donors is 

about 40% of the donor population. 

“We need about 100,000 new 

blood donors in 2016.” 

While the uphill, incremental fight 

to ultimately reverse the ban on gay 

men is slowly being backed by science 

and stakeholder consultations, it’s 

ultimately up to a reluctant Health 

Canada, fearful of and careful to not 

repeat the mistakes of the past. 

As Walters says, “Progress is 

happening. It is slow. Legislation and 

policy, this stuff moves at a glacial 

pace —slower than public opinion, 

social media, and science expects.” 

10 MegaphoneMagazine.com 

11

Heartbeats 

Heartbeats 

FINDING LOVE 

BY CHANCE 

THROUGH 

MEGAPHONE 

I think that while we were 

still converging, before we 

made contact, we were in a 

state of mathematical grace. 

By Clare Yow 

Photo courtesy Clare Yow 

It was many years ago that I was reading a 

library book and jotted this line down. 

“I think that while we were still converging, 

before we made contact, we were in a state 

of mathematical grace.” 

I remember thinking that the sentence, 

from Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, was 

utterly poetic—the way it hinted at a 

kind of inevitability, bodies of strangers 

deep in glacial movements. The lonely, 

shy heart in me appreciated it, and like 

other sources of inspiration I encounter, 

pocketed those words for another day. 

Since then, most strangers have left 

me walking away from our small, positive 

moments of contact feeling wonderfully 

comforted. Discovering something in 

common with another person makes 

anonymity simply dissipate. Invisible 

threads are made visible. These fleeting 

moments are casual reminders that 

this world isn’t so immense after all. 

A chance meeting 

Leo Yu and I met on May 7, 2015, just 

before the celebration for Voices of the 

Street’s fifth annual edition. A group of his 

friends—all in social-change fields—were 

meeting up for drinks beforehand and Leo 

welcomed me to join in. I happily obliged 

and rushed over from the other end of 

the city after work. Being the last one to 

arrive, I sat at one end of the booth, only 

managing a wave at Leo before getting to 

know those closest by first. It humbled 

me to meet them, to know that they did 

meaningful work in the community. 

We finally met in person ten months after 

our initial contact on social media. At the 

start of 2015 though, we’d been in the same 

room for a film screening, unbeknownst 

to one another. A mutual acquaintance of 

ours shared something I posted on Twitter, 

and by luck, I popped up on Leo’s radar. 

We then discovered our commonalities 

through what we shared online: everything 

from our views on human rights and 

self-care, to pictures of old Volkswagen 

vans we saw, and our scuffed sneakers. 

Beyond an online connection 

It was fitting that we met where we 

did, seeing as building community and 

social awareness are both things we 

highly value and practice day-to-day. The 

stories and storytellers themselves at 

Voices of the Street were ever so powerful 

and spirited. I sat next to Leo whom I 

barely knew, save for his 140-character 

messages. Enveloped in the emotions 

that swirled around the room all night, I 

couldn’t help but feel a sense of comfort. 

I hadn’t thought about it until now, 

but in the months following that 

evening and today, still, Leo and I 

began to undertake what all those brave 

storytellers did in front of so many. 

We shared. 

It’s an act that demands the utmost 

openness, trust, and I believe above 

all, vulnerability. Through Megaphone, 

people listen, take notice, relate. This 

is the power and value of narrative. 

Leo and I mirrored that in our own way, 

growing our friendship throughout this past 

summer. Over pizza and wine, in community 

gardens, riding our bikes, and laying on 

an elephant-print blanket almost always 

overlooking a body of water. We spilled 

open and surfaced countless memories, 

delving deeply into childhood stories, our 

fumbles into heartache, and the fires in 

our bellies. Our shared Chinese-Canadian 

heritage and immigrant backgrounds 

underpinned all our exchanges. 

It was invigorating to have our 

histories and ideas collide with such 

frankness, optimism, but also caution, 

all at an unhurried pace. Those invisible 

threads had materialized and it’s safe 

to say, our heads were over our heels 

by the time August came around. 

You can see just how storytelling and 

relationship building are in perfect 

symbiosis, reciprocally empowering. We 

didn't know what, if anything, would come 

of our initial contact and subsequent 

ones, but the one constant all this time 

was an openness and natural trust in the 

other person. Here's to the continued 

beauty of chance and not knowing. 

k Clare Yow and Leo Yu. 

12 

13

Viewpoints 

Viewpoints 

Victoria campers share 

reasons to pitch a tent 

Story, interview and photos by Jamila Douhaibi 

At the foot of justice's door stands a 

sea of multi-coloured tarps and tents. 

Here since last November, the tent city on 

Quadra Street is just outside of the heart 

of downtown Victoria. Starting with just 

a few tents, the “Super InTent City” has 

housed more than 100 campers since its 

inception. City of Victoria bylaws would 

ensure that tent structures be removed by 

7 a.m. every day, but the courthouse land 

is owned by the province, so police have 

no jurisdiction to force people to leave. 

In reaction to the tent city, in early 

January, funding from the province, the 

City of Victoria, United Way and Our Place 

came together for a temporary shelter on 

Yates Street to open its doors until the end 

of April. Different from other transitional 

housing, this facility has new tents and 

equipment inside for campers to use 

during their stay. But many residents of 

the Super InTent City see this 40-spot 

temporary shelter as just that—a temporary 

band-aid for an issue that requires more 

than a short-term, small-scale solution. 

Megaphone interviewed residents of 

the tent city on Jan. 10, two days after 

they received a letter from the B.C. 

Ministry of Technology, Innovation and 

Citizens’ Services requesting campers 

to leave the courthouse property and 

seek out alternative spaces, such as 

the transitional shelter on Yates Street. 

Residents, along with other community 

supporters and service providers then 

held a news conference on Monday, 

Jan. 11 to push back against the 

possibility of future displacement. 

The following interviews provide 

viewpoints from three tent city residents 

on the significance of this community 

and what steps they think the city and 

province should take from here. 

Joseph J. Reville, 44 

“I recently returned in the last month and a 

half to Victoria, but I have been a member of the 

community in Victoria since the mid-'90s. 

“We're focusing on actual problems in our society 

right now, in Victoria and nationally, which is poverty 

and homelessness; a lack of affordable housing even 

though there are empty buildings all over the place. 

“There's an empty building at the end of the block 

behind the diocese. And we can't go there. Enough 

rooms for 100 people. I think, for less than $400,000, 

they could have sent in a clean-up crew. So it doesn't 

cost a whole bunch to go clean up and do what you 

gotta do for half a million bucks. For $400,000, the 

provincial government's given us a gymnasium. 

“We've established a community here. It's by no 

means perfect, but we're infusing structure and heart 

and soul into something after it's come to life. It's 

different, it's hard, but it's working. We're seeing 

what starts out as a bunch of people in need taking a 

stand and setting up tents somewhere becoming an 

actual funded service that the government and the 

service providers get behind. And actually leaving 

the governance to the residents 'cause they've 

demonstrated that they knew what they were doing. 

“It creates the safe, transitional environment that some 

people need. Shelters don't necessarily address that. 

Shelters tend to serve the same people over and over." 

Sherman Sherwood, 40 

“I've spent an accumulative of about eight years in Victoria. I was already doing 

a transient lifestyle by choice and this basically gave me an opportunity to use 

my voice and help with other people. I love this lifestyle and I don't really have 

that many problems in it, aside from the hours asked to tear down and set up. 

“I definitely feel safer here in a collective. You have people with different talents 

and abilities helping each other out. It's nice to be accepted as part of community. 

“My concern is that it would be a shame for them to actually try to 

disband this, which they're well on their way to doing. We have an 

estimated 80 to 120 people in the camp and they have seats for 40 people 

and they want to disperse the remaining into other seats in other programs 

around the community. This is just a divide-and-conquer technique. 

“Really, what they're missing out on is the fact that we're experiencing a 

microcosm of what is going on in our larger community. Really, if you want to go 

right down to it, we could tell what's going on in the world just by what's going 

on in this camp. Yes, we had one overdose death, but, you know, we had eight in 

Victoria. How many across Canada? There's no difference. Because the action 

is here, and the sensationalism is here, the media is like, ‘Jump all over that.’ 

“Basically it's the individual that gets to decide whether they want to go [to the 

temporary shelter] or whether they want to pass on whatever they're offering." 

Amanda Paska, 26 

“I live on Saltspring, but I've been living in tent city for about six 

weeks; community, my friends, the cause. I think it's a test. It's a 

challenge. One of my core beliefs and core values is that you can't 

choose your neighbours ... you can't choose your brother or your 

sister. You can choose where you live or where you find yourself. 

It's my responsibility to recognize what my responsibilities 

are and to live with respect and treat others with respect. 

“What I've realized while living here is that not many of us know 

how to respect, honour, or love ourselves. It's a lesson in how to 

do those three things for your self, while watching other people 

not really paying attention to that aspect of what's going on. 

“There's a huge amount of people who are not caring for 

themselves, even if the care is available here. And that goes 

down to the foundations. A lot of people are missing the basics, 

and I'm including myself in this; I don't have a good routine 

that's healthy. Look across the street, or part of the park, at 

the government building people who are working there, they 

definitely have, probably, mental health issues; they're rampant 

all over because of our system, right, and our country. 

“So that's what I'm here for. I'm here to see if there's 

something that can be done to maybe give the land 

back to the actual people who are the stewards. 

“As a woman, I have four key people I turn to if there's 

anything that makes me anxious. I have immediate support. 

I'm not concerned at all. From seeing other women here, it is 

a very safe place. There is a community and there is a shared 

desire of security. People are looking out for people here." 



15

Cover Story 

Cover Story 

we celebrate 

the advocates 

we love most 

Interviews by Stefania Seccia 

As it’s the month of celebrating love, we decided to 

take that opportunity here at Megaphone to recognize 

five people and groups who really stood out in the 

past year for, essentially, making the world a better 

place for all. Won’t you fall in love with them with us? 

“Love is the key we must turn / 

Truth is the flame we must burn / 

Freedom the lesson we must learn” 

– David Bowie, Love Song 

Don Evans 

Our Place Society executive director 

Our Place Society serves the most vulnerable 

in Greater Victoria, from the working poor, 

impoverished seniors to the mentally and 

physically challenged. It notably helped open 

the indoor tent city for 40 local campers in 

January—until April—allowing pets, buying 

them new tents, sleeping bags, mats, rubber 

totes, and lights. Don Evans, executive 

director, says opening up the society’s first 

shelter and getting another 58 people off the 

street, helping people from the camp into the 

transitional home, and connecting with people 

who are often off the grid has made the last 

year rewarding. “Seeing how the staff at Our 

Place have all come together and work together 

as teams, with the expansion of our hours, 

opening of a new facility, we’ve developed so 

many new programs this past year—everybody 

pulls together and makes it happen,” he says. 

“I have my own history of challenges. I know 

what addiction is and that connects me with 

the people in this field. It’s really about trying to 

make a difference through my own challenges.” 

Mohamed Fahmy 

The whole world was watching when the 

award-winning journalist was finally released 

from Egyptian prison. The government tried 

to make an example of him for his in-depth 

political reporting for Al Jazeera English at 

the time. Fahmy was the international bureau 

chief. He spent nearly two years in prison 

after being wrongfully accused of conspiring 

with a terrorist group and fabricating news 

that Egypt was in a state of civil war. After 

his release, the Egyptian-Canadian moved 

to Vancouver with his wife this past fall. The 

Fahmy Foundation (fahmyfoundation.org), 

based in the city, was launched during his 

incarceration. With it, he hopes to financially 

support 10 journalists a year in distress, 

for legal fees or a plane ticket home. 

m Photo by Jackie Dives. 

o Photo submitted. 

“This is my dedication to advocate 

[for] helping others because I know 

what happens in those dingy cells. 

I know raising huge awareness 

for someone could mean that the 

guards guarding him think 10 

times before torturing him, giving 

him treatment, giving him more 

food or a bed so he doesn’t die.” 



17

Cover Story 

Cover Story 

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond 

B.C.’s representative for children & youth 

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was appointed 

to ensure the Ministry of Children and Family 

Development is transparent and doing all it can 

to alleviate the suffering of B.C.’s most vulnerable 

youth. This past year was a particularly big one for 

her office with the release of the infamous Paige’s 

Report, which was emblematic of what a young 

teenager can experience living without proper safe 

guards under government care. Her office also 

handled 15,000 advocacy cases in the last year 

alone, and consistently advocates for the 3,000 

children currently waiting for adoption. As for the 

importance of the role her office plays, she says, 

“The type of love we have for children has to be a 

bit of a selfless love, sometimes you have to give 

more of yourself than you expect to give back.” 

m Photo submitted. 

q Photo by Stefania Seccia. 

“It’s life affirming but also really important to stand with 

people who are vulnerable. … That as a community, as a 

parent, and as a person to stand with people when they’re in 

need of support and not just find reasons to walk past them. 

That’s got to be the most important thing: we stop, learn, and 

lend whatever assistance we can because that’s what it is to be 

human and that’s what it is to have a good society.” 

King-mong Chan and the 

Chinatown Concern Group 

“Sex worker rights are human rights. 

If we only respect some people’s 

human rights while we don’t respect 

other people’s human rights, we’re not 

going to get anywhere.” 

– Laura Dilley, executive director 

m Photo by Jackie Dives. 

PACE Society 

Outreach workers Leslie Pierre and Gina 

Bombay, executive director Laura Dilley 

The Providing Alternatives, Counselling & 

Education Society located in the Downtown 

Eastside offers peer-driven support and lowbarrier 

programming to serve Vancouver’s sex 

worker community. The society has been involved 

in efforts to reverse recent federal policies that 

made conditions less safe and more isolating for 

sex workers. The outreach workers are former 

sex workers who walk down alleys and quiet 

streets, with kits and supplies in tow, trying to 

find people who often fall through the cracks. If 

they’re not helping sex workers on the streets, 

they’re sharing their ideas and influencing policy 

with Amnesty International, and in the year ahead 

they aim to provide more programs and events 

to improve the health and safety of sex workers. 

The group’s identity truly formed this past year as 

it launched a petition campaign calling on the City 

of Vancouver to put a temporary halt on new market 

development in the neighbourhood until there were “better 

policies to protect Chinatown’s heritage and culture from 

gentrification,” says King-mong Chan, the group’s lead. 

The group drew a line in the sand over the future of 105 

Keefer St., which has a rezoning application that’s raised 

the ire of community members. “This application will 

definitely be one of the biggest issues in this coming 

year and this process is marking another defining 

moment for Chinatown and its community.” 

“Gentrification is definitely a class struggle but it is also a race struggle for Chinatown. 

Through the work I’ve been doing, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to be Chinese. 

As gentrification threatens the cultural fabric of Chinatown, I’m compelled to stand and 

fight for this place that holds a cultural root for me as a Chinese person. But to not just 

do this by myself but instead to gather together with other Chinese-speaking community 

members to become a force that cannot be taken lightly.” – King-mong Chan 



19

Viewpoints 

Viewpoints 

Mount Pleasant’s 

future hangs in the 

ballot box balance 

The fabric of the 

neighbourhood may very 

well be determined by the 

provincial by-election 

By Megan Lau 

Photo courtesy City of Vancouver Archives 

Change is afoot in Mount Pleasant, the 

provincial riding I call home. It’s bound 

by Main Street to the west, Commercial 

Drive on its eastern border, and Kingsway 

to the Burrard Inlet on its south and 

north ends, respectively. Mount Pleasant 

covers a swath of neighbourhoods that 

speak different languages, are mixed 

income, and are generally diverse in 

their needs, hopes, and challenges. 

Despite its diversity—or perhaps because 

of it—in recent history, Mount Pleasant 

is united politically. For almost 20 years, 

we’ve hardly needed to pay attention 

to provincial election results in Mount 

Pleasant. You could count on voters to 

choose BC NDP incumbent Jenny Kwan. 

Kwan was a perennial shoo-in for the 

legislative seat starting from her first 

election in 1996. Thanks to Kwan’s abilities 

and track record, Mount Pleasant is one 

the safest NDP seats in the province. 

In July, Kwan left her seat to run in 

last year’s federal election, and ever 

since Mount Pleasant has been without 

representation in “The Ledge.” The byelection 

will take place on Feb. 2 and there 

are three neophyte candidates in the race. 

The three candidates 

Last month, the Georgia Straight 

reported, “If conventional wisdom holds, 

New Democrat candidate Melanie Mark 

is in for a sure win in this traditional 

BC NDP bailiwick.” Mark is a former 

president of the Urban Native Youth 

Association, and worked in the office of 

B.C.’s representative for children and youth 

for eight years. She was also a critical force 

in bringing about changes in the way the 

police interact with Aboriginal peoples. 

The BC Liberals nominated Gavin 

Dew, a young candidate whose focus is 

on the relocation of St. Paul’s Hospital, 

improving transit, and growing the tech 

sector. His official biography notes, “He 

is running to make sure that people in 

Vancouver Mount Pleasant have the same 

opportunity to work hard, prosper, and lay 

a foundation for the next generation—the 

Canadian Dream.” With credentials from 

Harvard and those allusions to Manifest 

Destiny, Dew seems to be out of touch 

with most of Mount Pleasant’s residents. 

And finally, Pete Fry, Strathcona resident 

and small business owner, is the Green 

Party candidate. I like Fry’s communityfocused 

platform—addressing poverty 

reduction, climate change, and public 

housing. Fry made a run for city council 

in 2014, earning about 46,000 votes, and 

has served as chairman of the Strathcona 

Residents' Association. He’s advocated 

for his neighbourhood in the Local Area 

Planning Process and in dealings regarding 

the viaducts removal. When a man brutally 

sexually assaulted a Strathcona resident 

in her home last year, Fry was noted in 

the local media as leader in organizing the 

community to support the woman. On paper, 

Fry best represents progressive politics and 

a grassroots approach to social change. 

If we were all informed and engaged 

voters, Fry could have a shot at winning. But 

our susceptibility to party politics means 

that it’s a race between the Dems and the 

Libs. And I’m starting to feel that it hardly 

matters which one wins on a community 

level (I think it does matter, a lot, when 

it comes to your positions on LNG, our 

responsibility to children and youth in care, 

and public education). The NDP and Liberal 

candidates seem to be jockeying for their 

parties at the expense of the neighbourhood. 

With a provincial election coming up in 

less than two years, the by-election was 

a testing ground for campaign strategies 

in preparation for the real deal in 2017. 

An ever-changing horizon 

The thing is, with the pace and the degree 

of change happening in Vancouver, the 

most vulnerable in our community stand to 

lose a lot before the government changes. 

When I worked in Chinatown in 2014 and 

2015, I watched buildings disappear, and 

storefronts being boarded up, as if as 

quickly as a sped-up, time-lapse video— 

the transformation was so rapid. Mount 

Pleasant had the lowest average income in 

B.C. and the highest proportion of lowincome 

single parents in 2006. Today, 

it’s the home of several craft breweries 

and countless market condos. Pushed out 

by high rents and housing prices, young 

families and upstarts have been moving 

east for years, bringing with them a taste for 

pressed juices, fixed-gear bicycles, and yoga. 

I bet it wouldn’t be hard to find a dozen 

Mount Pleasant residents on social media 

who are more than willing to pay $4 for a 

donut. Statements like that acknowledge 

there’s something wrong with the prices 

and that there’s some guilt involved. But it’s 

all said with a smirk and shrug—the online 

equivalent to knowingly turning a blind eye. 

I’m one of them 

As disapproving as I sound, by all 

measures, I was among the first of the 

gentrifiers. I moved into Mount Pleasant 

in 2011. I chose the neighbourhood for its 

affordability. It would bring me closer to 

my friends and work, and I could walk, 

bike or bus anywhere easily. I found a 

basement suite just east of Fraser Street 

and off the 10th Avenue bike path, and 

enjoyed cheap rent and a true sense of 

community. Politically, too, I felt at home in 

Mount Pleasant, where the riding’s voting 

record aligns with my personal values. I 

believe in protecting the environment. 

I believe in investing in social services 

and working towards justice and equality 

for all. I believe we should properly 

fund agencies that serve low-income 

people and people with addictions. 

But I’m also a middle-class, unattached 

professional who will be able to ride out 

the increases in rent and property values 

for a little while longer. When a new fancy 

restaurant replaces an old neighbourhood 

haunt, I can afford to try it and come 

back if I like it. When it’s cold and rainy, 

I have the luxury of considering flying 

somewhere warm for a vacation. Because 

I and people like me are attracted to 

Mount Pleasant, the most vulnerable 

in our population—particularly those 

living in Chinatown-Strathcona and the 

Downtown Eastside—could lose their 

homes, livelihoods and communities. 

The dynamics of Mount Pleasant aren’t 

unique in Vancouver, or the world, for that 

matter. Look at any neighbourhood around 

the world where communities of colour and 

low-income families live, and the stakes 

are the same: affordability and livability 

are eroding, and a sense of community 

is disappearing with it. Residents who 

have put down roots and contributed to 

the area’s social fabric are the ones who 

lose out in the process of gentrification. 

Who’s the right choice? 

In the by-election, there is a lot to 

consider. When it finally happens on Feb. 

2, I’m pessimistic that Mount Pleasant’s 

progressive colours will show with the same 

boldness they have for the last two decades. 

The hipsters are here, their corporate 

offices are next door, and upwardly mobile 

families have put down roots. Most don’t 

think about how Strathcona and Chinatown 

were officially sanctioned ghettos for 

communities of diverse racial backgrounds; 

they can’t tell you how Main and Hastings 

has transformed in the last decade. 

Only the most facile conversations 

about gentrification are strictly against 

development. Change is often the result of 

the very basic need for housing and work, 

which is a factor for every resident of Mount 

Pleasant. Change is fine—but what kind 

and at what cost? I’d like Mount Pleasant to 

elect an MLA who supports progress that is 

enterprising, equitable and compassionate; 

someone who knows Chinatown, the 

Downtown Eastside, small business owners, 

the local Aboriginal community, the 

neighbourhood houses, and our history. But 

I don’t know who best fits that description. 

m This 1939 photo taken by W.J. Moore 

was snapped on city hall’s roof. 

Editor's note: BC NDP candidate Melanie 

Mark won the Mount Pleasant by-election. 

20 



21

Arts Feature 

The full 

frontal 

with Vancouver’s Wes Barker 

Local comedic magician— 

and sometimes nudist — 

has gained some serious 

traction 

By Alex Walls 

Photo courtesy JFL NorthWest 

Wes Barker is pretty comfortable with 

nudity. The stunt magician—a term he 

coined in order to set himself apart as 

a performer—is fully clothed for this 

interview, but says with a grin that he’s 

always been one to streak the party, 

and one of his tricks involves pulling 

a beer from his underwear onstage— 

only to reveal another in its place. “It’s 

more burlesque-y than nude, really.” 

With more than 28 million views over 

his 37 YouTube videos, and gigs planned 

this year at the JFL NorthWest festival, 

in New Zealand, the United States, 

and in Ontario and Alberta, 29-yearold 

Barker is certainly keeping busy. 

Born and raised in Langley and now 

living near South Granville, Barker says he 

was always funny, but thought everyone 

else was too. At school and with friends, 

he was the one people came to for laughs, 

and when out and about, “I was always 

the one to [go], ‘Okay I’m going to strip 

off my clothes and run over here’, or 

just do something random or crazy.” 

He got into magic as a way to pick up 

girls at bars (“super not how it works out”), 

learning from books during his lunch 

hours working as part of a road crew for 

the City of Surrey, a summer job he had 

while studying business at University. He 

quit his job in 2011 after he was offered a 

promotion, and began to focus on what was 

then a sideline career of magic and comedy. 

While he had done some stand-up when 

he was 20, Barker says he originally wanted 

to be a serious magician (“I wore a suit”) but 

found that an even mix with comedy came 

more naturally. After an unlucky period 

of unsuccessfully booking work combined 

with high stress levels, including random 

nosebleeds, Barker says he began cold 

calling all sorts of places including senior 

homes, and the work picked up. Hustling 

helped him book many of his gigs, including 

international tours, he says. “I don’t 

think enough comedians try cold calling 

Australia.” 

Making ‘mutes’ speak 

He feels the last two years have seen 

him hit his stride when it comes to his act, 

including spots on television in the last 

12 months with "Penn & Teller: Fool Us", 

where he successfully stumped his magic 

heroes (apparently prompting the famous 

on-screen mute, Teller to say, “That’s 

awesome”), and America’s Got Talent. 

The latter saw Barker escape a straitjacket 

to a timer, with a photo of his naked self 

slowly revealed as the clock counted down. 

He made the stunt in time for America not 

to see the full Barker birthday suit but it has 

come close to going wrong once before, he 

says, when a buckle jammed, requiring some 

panicked smashing of the jacket against the 

stage. And yes, he really got naked to take 

the photo. “My buddy Neil is a professional 

photographer and I got him to take it. His 

studio is in his garage. All of a sudden, the 

door opens up and his wife rolls in and 

she’s like, ‘What the hell is going on?’” 

A combination of magic tricks and 

stunts, jokes, and audience interaction, 

Barker performs at colleges, corporate 

gigs and this month, at the Vogue, as part 

of the JFL NorthWest line-up, where he’ll 

be featuring two new tricks involving a 

boomerang and a blow dart gun. “No one 

will get hurt. Probably. But it’s going to 

be really fun. You’re going to want to have 

your wits about you.” The venue was the 

site of one of Barker’s more triumphant 

performances two years ago, when a selffinanced 

show saw about 1,000 tickets sold 

of the Vogue’s roughly 1,160 capacity. 

Tricks up his… 

From this performance came the 

top three viewed videos of Barker’s on 

YouTube, which involve, respectively, a 

topless woman, bras and girls kissing, 

the first earning more than 21 million 

views alone. Has Barker cracked the 

Internet? “I thought I did, so I tried other 

videos like that, and they don’t hold 

up.” He attributes the popularity to the 

production value, a recognizable thumbnail 

and a boost from a website. “Basically, 

no one knows how to do YouTube.” 

About 80 per cent of his act is of his 

own invention, he says, and he adds about 

20 minutes every year, practicing new 

tricks for however long it takes to get 

them right, which can be anything from 

no practice to months of preparation. 

Despite this, sometimes things don’t 

always go as planned. One performance 

saw Barker, blindfolded, throw a 

tomahawk past the target and backstage. 

“All I can hear is my sound guys jumping 

out of the way … and you just hear this 

crashing.” No one was hurt, and the 

audience was none the wiser, thinking 

the tomahawk was rubber and it had been 

an intentional miss, but “it was bad.” 

Personable and self-effacing, off-stage 

Barker appears to be softer than his onstage 

incarnation, which has been known 

to rifle through girls’ purses, pulling out 

a variety of objects including condoms 

and thongs, and to trick female audience 

members into kissing him. This last 

manoeuvre once saw some instant karma, 

however, when the audience member’s 

boyfriend strode onstage while Barker was 

trying to perform the straitjacket stunt, and 

kissed him “nice and long … He definitely 

burned me, I had no comeback to that … 

I didn’t even bother to do the straitjacket 

escape, there was already a half-standing 

ovation for this guy kissing me.” 

As for his plans for this year, booking 

a Netflix special, and Montreal Just For 

Laughs are high on his list of ambitions. 

Magic is in an upswing, Barker says, with 

more shows than ever being approved on 

television. In fact, he’s been approached 

to do an entire show naked, but turned it 

down, since once is enough for the joke. 

Speaking of which, his other goal for 2016? 

“Dress better. I’m going to dress better this 

year.” 

Rapid-fire questions: 

Alex Walls: Have you ever made someone 

pee their pants from laughing too hard? 

Wes Barker: No, I’ve had girls rolling 

around on the ground at parties, 

saying they will. That’s always a good 

feeling, when you’re causing someone 

physical pain from laughing. 

AW: What’s the strangest thing 

a fan has ever said to you? 

WB: I’ve had fans ask me to send them 

pictures of my feet. I don’t know why. 

AW: If you had (real) magic 

powers, what would they be? 

WB: I would like to do legitimate 

levitation, just because I would present 

it as a magic trick and I would only 

do a little levitation, so the audience 

would like it but no one would ever 

be able to figure out how it’s done. 

Watch Wes Barker perform as part of JFL 

NorthWest at the Vogue Theatre on Feb. 19. 

22 



23

Arts Preview 

Arts Preview 

VANCOUV-HA 

Just For Laughs comes to town 

TREVOR 

NOAH 

JFL NorthWest’s 

inaugural fest 

promises hysterics 

By Alex Walls 

Photos courtesy of JFL NorthWest 

Attention Vancouver: prepare for milk 

to gush out of your collective noses 

and maybe pay a visit to the washroom 

before mid-February because this month 

sees the birth of JFL NorthWest. 

The new incarnation of the NorthWest 

Comedy festival, JFL NorthWest is backed 

by Just For Laughs, the company behind 

the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival and 

Toronto’s JFL42. Running from Feb. 18 to 27, 

the festival has snagged some pretty hefty 

comedy names, including new host of The 

Daily Show, Trevor Noah, already making 

waves in the media with a call to Fox News 

to stop orbiting Mars when it comes to gun 

control and interpreting genuine human 

emotion; occasional Jennifer Lopez costar 

and veteran stand-up Wanda Sykes; 

everyone’s favourite member of the Blue 

Man Group, David Cross, and known anger 

management specialist Lewis Black. 

About 30 to 40 per cent bigger year on 

year, with about 50 shows across 12 

venues around Vancouver, Coquitlam, 

and Surrey, the festival is a result of a 

partnership between NorthWest Comedy 

Fest and JFL, and is expected to sell an 

estimated 25,000 tickets over its run, 

festival director Heather Wallace says. 

She founded the original NorthWest 

Comedy Fest, starting in 2013, and says 

the partnership with “the world’s biggest 

comedy brand” was an opportunity 

to take the festival to the next level, 

with the JFL brand opening doors to 

bigger names and more recognition. 

The company had been looking to establish 

a presence in Western North America after 

launching JFL42 in Toronto in 2012, chief 

operating officer Bruce Hills says. Despite 

other options in Western Canada and the 

US, JFL felt Vancouver was the place to do 

it after meeting with Wallace, he adds. 

Vancouver’s “great” comedy scene also 

fit the fare JFL was looking to produce—a 

more indie, cooler, comedy proposition 

than the broader Montreal offering, Hills 

says. And while the focus is on creating 

an event which feels homegrown, JFL’s 

attitude is that it is going to produce the 

biggest comedy festival in Western North 

America, with tourism marketing targeting 

not only Canadians but also nearby US 

cities, such as Portland and Seattle. 

Wallace echoes Hills’ confidence in 

Vancouver’s comedy market—“people 

seem to love comedy here”—and hopes 

JFL NorthWest will become a destination 

festival, one that is respected in the 

industry, and that people plan to come 

and see. As for 2016? “We’re super excited 

about this year, [it’s a] fabulous line-up.” 

Featured theatre venues include the 

Orpheum, the Vogue and the Queen 

Elizabeth, as well as the Rio and Yuk 

Yuk’s. Alas, there are no free shows for 

those wanting a taste of the festival, 

but prices range from $10 to about 

$70 for the headliners, she says. 

But it’s not just about comedy 

heavyweights—JFL NorthWest features 

a “Best of the West” series supporting 

local comedy and comedians, showcasing 

acts that take place all year round. 

One such local comedian is Kyle Bottom, 

who says the partnership with JFL is a “huge 

24 

25

Arts Preview 

Arts Preview 

are disrupted after their allotted 10 

minutes by madness and mayhem, 

including, apparently, the release of live 

crabs. 10 SPEED plays the Vancouver 

TheatreSports League on Feb. 24. 

A riffing show generally featuring four 

comedians and host, Kyle Bottom, audience 

suggestions for topics to riff off are pulled 

from a bucket. Previous suggestions, 

we are told, have included “almond 

butter.” Kyle Bottom’s Comedy Bucket 

will play at Hot Art Wet City on Feb. 25. 

If their Vancouver Sketchfest show is 

anything to go by, improv and sketch 

comedy duo Hip.Bang!’s show will 

be a rib-cracking affair with bizarre 

characters, occurrences and, if you’re 

lucky, a simulation of leopard slugs 

mating. Hip.Bang! plays at the Vancouver 

TheatreSports League on Feb. 26. 

VIR DAS 

step forward” for the festival. Industry 

people are likely to attend and the festival 

provides an opportunity for local comics to 

perform and use the festival as a credit, “at 

the very least”. And as for the millions sure 

to flow from appearing in the event? “I’m 

just looking forward to having a good time 

and not embarrassing myself,” he says. 

Vancouver improv duo Hip.Bang!, 

comprised of Tom Hill and Devin 

Mackenzie, are appearing in a number 

of shows and Mackenzie says just being 

involved with JFL and the festival is 

exciting. “When you work so hard and long 

in the local scene, building it up, this is 

actually a great break and a great event 

to bring to Vancouver and allow us to 

showcase what we have going on, so I think 

it’s very positive all around.” The festival 

has a good eye for local comedy, Hill says, 

and the duo’s focus will be on nailing their 

show. “If you do funny work, good things 

will happen.” As for Mackenzie, “I want 

and expect a huge deal with Netflix.” 

While the festival runs until Feb. 27, 

other one-off shows will be announced 

throughout the year under the JFL 

NorthWest banner. And as for whether 

the festival will be back next year? “Oh, 

absolutely,” Wallace says. “Absolutely.” 

(Some of) the headliners 

South African stand-up and newly baptised 

host of “The Daily Show”, Trevor Noah, 

has already caused some waves with a 

few controversial tweets and a call to Fox 

News to get a grip. Noah will be playing 

the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Feb. 19. 

Stand-up veteran and former “Chris 

Rock Show” writer, Wanda Sykes, has 

hosted her own talk show and the White 

House Correspondents’ Association 

dinner. Sykes will be playing the Queen 

Elizabeth Theatre on Feb. 24. 

David Cross plays Blue Man Group 

wannabe and never-nude Tobias Fünke in 

the US-sitcom “Arrested Development”, 

and has been in stand-up and sketch 

comedy since the ’80s. Cross will 

be playing the Vogue on Feb. 2. 

How many views do you think an off-key 

rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” 

would get? If you guessed less than 41 

million, you’d be wrong, at least when it 

comes to YouTube character Miranda Sings’ 

lipstick-smeared, Tommy-Wiseau-esqueaccented 

parody. Sings will be playing the 

Bell Performing Arts Centre on Feb. 20. 

If you’re looking for caustic rants delivered 

in a gravelly voice shaking with rage, 

Lewis Black may just be your comic. 

Having had a regular gig on “The Daily 

Show,” and more than two decades of 

stand-up experience, Black plays the Hard 

Rock Casino Vancouver on Feb. 28. 

Janeane Garofalo has had a brief stint 

on “Saturday Night Live”, appearances 

in Hollywood movies and television 

shows, and a lengthy career in 

observational stand-up. Garofalo will 

play the Rio Theatre on Feb. 23 and 24. 

(Some of) the locals 

A self-termed stunt magician, Wes 

Barker has more than 28 million views 

on YouTube and almost appeared nude 

on “America’s Got Talent”. Barker will be 

playing the Vogue Theatre on Feb. 19. 

Having performed at various comedy 

festivals around Canada, Instagraham/ 

Graham Clark also co-hosts the podcast, 

Stop Podcasting Yourself, and sells 

paintings made using his beard as 

a brush. You heard us. Clark will be 

playing at Hot Art Wet City on Feb. 19. 

A regular stand-up event at the Kings Head 

pub in Kitsilano, Kings Head Comedy 

promises to be full of Kings Head favourites 

for the festival, playing on Feb. 23. 

Hosted by the Hip.Bang! duo, 10 SPEED is 

a regular improv event where performers 

(Some of) the comedians’ picks 

Vancouver comedians Wes Barker, Kyle 

Bottom, Tom Hill and Devin Mackenzie 

gave Megaphone their pick of the acts 

to check out at the festival. Here are 

some of the names mentioned: 

Kyle Kinane has performed on various 

stand-up shows including “The Tonight 

Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, but this 

is surely small fry compared with his 

appearance on Comedy Central’s “Drunk 

History” and his voicing of Cloud Dance 

in “Adventure Time”. Kinane plays 

the Biltmore Cabaret on Feb. 26. 

A writer and actor on the “Kroll Show” 

and with spots on “Conan” and more, 

Funches has also appeared on “Drunk 

History”. Funches will be playing 

the Biltmore Cabaret on Feb. 24. 

Having performed at the Edinburgh 

Fringe Festival, the Melbourne Comedy 

Festival and Just For Laughs Montreal, 

Hari Kondabolu has prior form when 

it comes to comedy festivals, and has 

appeared on “Conan” and the “Late Show 

with David Letterman”. Kondabolu will be 

playing the Biltmore Cabaret on Feb. 25. 

Okay, okay, so he’s appeared on “Conan”, 

“Louie”, and “Chappelle’s Show”. But 

remember Todd Barry, the third Conchord 

from “Flight of the Conchords”? Yeah. He 

knows that New Zealand rocks! Barry will 

be playing Yuk Yuk’s from Feb. 25 to 27. 

Described as the “most raw, shocking, foul, 

filthy comedy show of the festival,” the 

Nasty Show is hosted by Bobby Slayton 

and features four comedians for your 

viewing pleasure. The Nasty Show will be 

playing the Rio Theatre from Feb. 23 to 27. 

Find out more at JFLNorthWest.com. 

WANDA 

SYKES 

26 



27

Writing Workshop 

February Arts Calendar 

What’s on 

“L” for Love 

By Sarah Ouellette 

I was in the process of leaving a violent 

relationship with a heroin addict, who 

loved his drug more than me. To say my 

man-hating tendencies were at their peak 

would be a slight understatement. 

“Who the fuck do you think you 

are?” I asked demandingly. 

I’d caught his attention. He had tried to 

be slick and flirt with me. This would be 

too easy, I thought. After being used and 

betrayed by every man in my life, I had 

decided at 15 I would be every man’s worst 

nightmare. Taking their hearts and crushing 

them beneath my feet. Chris would be a new 

exciting challenge. It was just another game. 

Days passed as we got to know each 

other. I learned that two days before his 

latest release, his lawyer came to tell him 

his girlfriend had hung herself in the 

closet he built her. She had left a note only 

to say that he was an unfit father. Their 

son was taken and put in foster care. 

We shared our stories of abuse and hard 

knocks. His mother being beaten, his father 

in jail for life. My heart began to soften. He 

was like an untrained puppy, gallivanting 

around. Playing rough with everyone, 

including me. Our first kiss was on a quiet 

hill, away from everyone else. He leaned in 

and accidentally burnt me with a lit smoke. 

It left a perfect circular scar on my wrist. 

At that time we were on the street, 

living at a youth shelter. I quickly found 

us a room to rent in the Downtown 

Eastside. We did nothing but spend every 

moment together. He wasn’t the ass he 

pretended to be. It was all a front. 

Two weeks in, I was pregnant with 

my first child; the second scar I would 

blame him for. Although we cared for 

each other, we were always fighting 

and breaking up. He later told me he 

was trying to get me pregnant, because 

he wanted us to stay together. 

My sick mind told me he was a liar 

just like the rest. I would stay just to 

prove him wrong. To see how much he 

would take before he would leave me. 

Constantly I tested him. Yet the crazier 

I got, the tighter he clung to me. 

We were on welfare and barely able to 

feed ourselves. Chris was doing B & E’s in 

the neighbourhood. Raiding people’s fridges 

and freezers to keep us fed. It was a volatile 

situation. Did I really want to be stuck with 

this guy for the rest of my life? What kind of 

world would that be for an infant to grow up 

in? All I could think was the baby was his. 

After the abortion, it became glaringly 

clear. It wasn’t just his baby. It was my 

baby too. But it was too late. To punish 

myself for the murder I was committing, 

I took no anesthetic. I wanted to burn 

it into my memory so I could never 

again make the same mistake. 

We moved out to New West, where we 

would make a new life together, or so we 

told ourselves. Everyone around us could 

see we were poison to one another. In some 

twisted way, we accepted whatever the 

other would throw. Unconditionally we 

stayed together. All those from our past 

had left us, rejected us, or turned their 

back to us. But we had each other no matter 

what. We were Bonnie and Clyde or Romeo 

and Juliet. We would never be apart. 

By the end of the second year, our 

fights were full-on physical. I’d slap him 

as many times as I could. He would drag 

me by my hair across the floor. I fractured 

his forearm with a metal pipe. He kicked 

me in the face, just missing my eye. 

Another scar he would leave me with. 

We were fighting in the kitchen, over what 

now I can’t recall. As usual, I was burning 

with anger. I picked up a pair of scissors and 

pretended to throw them at him with all my 

might. He cowered, I laughed. He lunged 

at me to take them away. But I wouldn’t 

let him. With my fingers in the holes, he 

grabbed them and twisted. I quickly held on 

to the tip with my other hand. We struggled 

like a tug-of-war. Then I twisted and 

pulled. It cut him between his forefinger 

and thumb. Blood went everywhere. 

At that moment the police busted in. 

Our neighbours must have called them. 

Chris jumped up and said I stabbed him. 

They quickly arrested me, then took my 

fingerprints and left me in city cells for 

the weekend. He made up this big story 

about how I attacked him, gave a statement 

and everything. But of course when 

the court date came, he didn’t show. 

We still have matching scars from that 

day. They look like the letter “L”. Jokingly 

I told him, while we were comparing scars 

before bed, “Hey look, ‘L’ for Love.” 

Sarah Ouellette is a former participant 

in one of Megaphone’s creative writing 

workshops. She lives in the Downtown 

Eastside. Photo: Daniel Lobo. 

Little One // Feb. 9-13 // Shows at 

1, 4 & 8 p.m. // Firehall Arts Centre 

(280 East Cordova) // Tickets from 

$23 // Vancouver 

When a New York Times review 

uses the words “a gorgeously 

creepy, darkly funny two-hander” 

to describe a show like this, it’s one 

to see. Vancouver-based company, 

Alley Theatre, brings a suspenseful 

psychodrama by Hannah Moscovitch 

about the story of four-year-old 

Claire being adopted into a family 

where her new brother, six-year-old 

Aaron, has to learn how to get along 

with this new “monstrous” sister. 

While February is arguably the most 

lovey-dovey month of them all, it’s 

nice to settle in with a relatively 

uncomfortable concept of adults 

playing children whilst coming to 

grips with an evolving nuclear family. 

Bunny Yoga // Feb. 7 // 1 p.m. // Ukrainian 

Cultural Centre (805 East Pender St.) // 

Tickets $20 // Vancouver 

I recently got into an argument with my partner 

over whether or not this event actually even 

exists. Not only does it exist but I’m further 

confirming its very existence because bunnies. 

Bunnies! Yoga! One of the most Vancouver-est 

of events since we got together and protested 

the non-bunny, LNG-approved yoga event 

on the Burrard Street Bridge on National 

Aboriginal Day some moons ago, which was 

eventually cancelled. Let that be a lesson to 

you, Premier Christy Clark, because if your yoga 

event is backed by the gas industry instead of 

adorable little bunnies, you’ll incur the wrath 

of the yogi community. This very real event is a 

fundraiser for the Vancouver Rabbit Rescue and 

Advocacy group, and it fills up fast. 

Barber of Seville // Feb. 11-21 // 2, 7 and 8 

p.m. performances // Royal Theatre (805 

Broughton St.) // Tickets start at $25 // 

Victoria 

Why not? The famous rollicking opera farce 

with byzantine plot twists will be in Italian with 

English subtitles. Rosina and Almaviva fall in 

love at first sight, and enlist the help of Figaro— 

made famous in all our childhoods by the one 

and only Bugs Bunny—and devise tricks to 

outwit Rosina’s guardian so they can marry. It's 

presented by Pacific Opera Victoria. 

BigMouth // Feb. 11-21 // 2 and 8 p.m. 

performances // York Theatre (639 

Commercial Dr.) // Tickets from $20 // 

Vancouver 

Paying tribute to about 2,500 years of oration, 

this sell-out hit from the Edinburgh Fringe 

Festival features Valentijn Dhaenens. He weaves 

together seminal speeches from the Grand 

Inquisitor, to Socrates, to Mohammed Ali, and 

Osama Bin Laden with just five microphones 

and his voice. After reading at least one 

speech a day, which turned into reading 1,000 

speeches last year, he ended up stacking them 

based on similarities and content. One of 

the pivotal moments in developing this very 

wordy performance came when he memorized 

the funeral oration of Pericles and that night 

watched French President Sarkozy repeat 

the same words over losing 10 soldiers in 

Afghanistan. 

Mardi Gras // Feb. 13 // 7 p.m. // Victoria Public 

Market at the Hudson (6-1701 Douglas St.) // 

Tickets $45 // Victoria 

If you couldn’t make it out to New Orleans this 

year, never fear, the loud music, flashy beads, 

and southern food will be featured at Victoria’s 

version of the annual Mardi Gras celebration. 

Complete with live bands, carnival performers, 

festive décor, and delicious New Orleans food. 

Dust off your mask and party outfit and head 

over to the market. Fun fact: Mardi Gras is 

French for “Fat Tuesday,” which is meant to 

reflect the practice of eating rich, fatty foods 

before the ritual fasting of the Christian Lent 

season. 

My Purple Valentine // Feb. 14 // 9 p.m. // 

Biltmore Cabaret (2755 Prince Edward) // 

Tickets $15 ($12 advance) // Vancouver 

It’s Valentine’s Day! There’s no denying it. What 

better way to celebrate the day of love than by 

heading over to a live rock burlesque tribute 

dedicated to the sexy vibes of Prince. Starring 

Seattle’s rock and roll burlesque star Ivan 

Handfull, Prince’s biggest hits will be performed 

live by the Hot & Heavy Band. Vancouver’s own 

stars will be featured, including Frankie Faux, 

Burgundy Brixx, Audrey Hipturn, Voracious V, 

Rebel Valentine, and Jenny Magenta. Bust out 

your purplest outfit and dancing shoes. 

A Twin Peaks Evening // Feb. 24 // 8:30 p.m. // 

The Copper Owl (1900 Douglas St.) // $10 at the 

door // Victoria 

With foil-covered chocolate hearts hopefully 

more than 50 per cent off by this point of the 

month, it’s time to get silly. That is, to dress 

up as your favourite Twin Peaks character 

because the University of Victoria Photo Club 

will be providing a Polaroid photo booth—by 

donation—to capture the moment for however 

long you post it to your fridge with an ironic 

magnet. Featured guests are Cleopatra & 

The Nile, Hansmole, Magic Message, Paper 

St. Studios Improv, and Brightest Darkest 

Lullabies—Lily Fawn. Tickets will be available 

at the door for a higher cost: $13. 



29

Crossword 

m Puzzle by New York Times contributor Patrick “Mac” McIntyre, 

courtesy of Real Change, Seattle’s Street Newspaper. 

Stand Out with Colour ... 

Printing, Copying, Finishing And More... 

CROSSWORD 

Something I Tossed Together 

ACROSS 

1 Items on a list (2 wds.) 

6 Peter, Paul or Mary 

11 Slip into 

14 Seattle's Key ____ 

15 Provide, as with a quality 

16 Chemical ending 

17 The Boomers' batch (2 wds.) 

19 Winter bug 

20 Admiral's rear? 

21 Narrow sea channel 

23 Traditional locales for public 

meetings (2 wds.) 

29 Unpopular high school spots 

30 Canal of song 

31 Go back to the drawing board 

34 Paparazzo's prey, briefly 

36 Little hopper 

37 U.S. Atty Gen. Eric and family 

40 Words heard at airports, 

seaports and depots (2 wds.) 

45 Surprise attack 

47 Fry quickly in a little butter 

or fat 

48 Snacks for active types (2 wds.) 

54 Extended family 

55 Detective Wolfe 

56 Least rough 

58 Catching it is said to signal 

an end to bachelorhood 

61 "___ luck?" 

62 Roth ____ 

63 Like some salads...or the 

starts of 17-, 31-, and 48-Across 

70 Fishing aid 

71 Prenatal care centers? 

72 Chestnut on a radio 

73 Diamond stat: Abbr. 

74 Marsh plant 

75 Ski run 

DOWN 

1 Telephone ___ 

2 Miner's find 

3 Lion's home 

4 Small bill 

5 Vaughan of jazz 

6 Agree out of court 

7 Singer DiFranco 

8 Nuptial agreement (2 wds.) 

9 Women in habits 

10 Phone type? 

11 Scratch up 

12 Available on the internet 

13 Fix, as a pet 

18 In the distance 

22 Hightailed it 

23 Part of M.I.T.: Abbr. 

24 Popular embossed edible 

25 Heir lines? 

26 Financial aid criterion, often 

27 Court do-over 

28 Nose-in-the-air type 

32 The G in LGBT 

33 March time? 

35 Shipping hazard, briefly 

38 Unit of hope? 

39 Sis and bro 

41 One of the Three B's 

42 Christmas season 

43 SeaTac postings 

44 E-mailed 

46 Hoover ___ 

48 V-8 or V-6 

49 "___ My God, to Thee" 

50 "Oops" list 

51 Decay 

52 Band aide 

53 Carol 

57 Newbies 

59 Flightless flock 

60 ____ of passage 

64 Crossed (out) 

65 A little bit of work 

66 Pipe bend 

67 Old name for Tokyo 

68 ____ in the air (frostiness) 

69 "Told ya!" 

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