Volume 68, Number 21

Published February 19, 2014

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  • Proposed changes to immigration rules make it harder to become Canadian

    On February 6, 2014 the Canadian Federal government tabled Bill C-24, a new piece of legislation that proposes changes to the Citizenship Act making it more difficult for many to become Canadian citizens.

  • Discrimination and Sochi

    Sochi, Russia is the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and, as most following the event will already know, has become a source of controversy because of that country’s repressive laws targeting its LGBT* communities.

  • Restoration Week

    Reading Week can be a great time to relax, catch up on studying, and visit. Though the break is welcome, many students lament the fact that it is scheduled in February when our city’s streets are devoid of people and the air is frosty.

  • A blueprint for green

    Winnipeg’s post-secondary educational institutions are civic leaders in composting. The University of Winnipeg began its composting initiative in 2007, a few years after Red River College’s Notre Dame campus started in 2002, followed by the University of Manitoba in 2006.

  • Lifting the veil

    Even with the agricultural background we have in Manitoba, many of us are still in the dark about where our food comes from and who produces it. The annual Growing Local conference, organized by Food Matters Manitoba, aims to educate people about our local food economy, and hopefully dispel some of this uncertainty. The conference runs February 28 to March 1 this year.

  • Explain the manganese, please

    It’s no secret that Winnipeg’s water has always been a little murky. But, with the opening of the city’s new $300 million water treatment plant in 2009, the impression was that this problem would go away. What followed, however, was an increase in brown water complaints starting in 2010, and hitting an all-time high in 2013.

  • On the cusp

    Since its inception four years ago, Verge has become a great way for audiences to discover up-and-coming talent from Canada’s contemporary dance scene.

  • Train keeps a rollin’

    The Underground Comedy Railroad Tour is an all-black comedy tour designed to showcase a segment of the population that isn’t always front and center in Canadian comedy.

  • Comic Timing

    For years, The Uniter has included comic strips from local artists (turn the page) and syndicated masters (Matt Groening’s Life in Hell ran in the early ‘90s, among many others). Currently, our little street weekly hosts a rotating package of Lisa Jorgensen’s Circle Heads and Jean Floch’s The Creeps. The former, a light romp in the day to day experience of being in your mid-20s, balances nicely with the latter’s absurdist chaos, which involves two roommates who seemingly exist to annoy each other, all while misinterpreting normal social cues.

  • RoboCop

    Full disclosure: I love the original RoboCop. Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 ultraviolent action film about a murdered cop brought back through technology doubles as an incredibly smart and funny satire. He took the entire Reagan era to task, ridiculing the corporate greed, privatization, and military overspending that defined America in the 1980s. The character of RoboCop personified the way the callousness of those ultra-right wing policies dehumanized the people they were supposed to protect.

  • Asphalt Watches

    Asphalt Watches is the story of two friends, Bucktooth and Skeleton Hat, who are on a hitchhiking odyssey across Canada. At least, I think it is. Skeleton Hat is a pale kid with a ratstache, and I think Bucktooth might be a ghost. I’m not sure where they’re hitchhiking to, or why they’re going there. The entire picture feels like two skateboarders ate hallucinogenic mushrooms, went hitchhiking, and then animated the entire trip using the Windows 95 edition of MS Paint. And, just so we’re clear, I mean all of these things as a compliment.

  • Shayne and Seth’s excellent adventure

    Heads up Adult Swim fans. Asphalt Watches, a bizarre Flash animated feature that follows artists Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver as they hitchhike their way from a 7-Eleven in Chilliwack, B.C. to downtown Toronto, is headed to Cinematheque for a five-night run, Feb. 21 to 23, Feb. 26 and Feb. 27.

  • The Royal Oui

    Vancouver husband and wife duo Ari Shine and Adrienne Pierce have created 11 glorious tracks of baroque pop-infused goodness that blend acoustic guitars with rainstorms and haunting boy-girl harmonies, all while making it seem new and natural.

  • Chicken co-op

    Since forming in 2006, Vancouver garage rock duo the Pack A.D. has released five records, including January’s Do Not Engage and 2011’s Juno nominated Unpersons.

  • Back to the grind

    Head Hits Concrete is officially back. The Winnipeg grindcore band, which gets its name from the Misfits’ song “Bullet”, plays short compositions that punish your ears and flabbergast your mind.

  • Still breathing but barely

    When I turned 18 I did the typical tour of Winnipeg’s cool places. The places I knew I should like, that came with high recommendations from older friends. Where you could see the best bands, get cheap beers, and finally see for yourself the places whose mythologies had become part of our city’s collective consciousness (“Did you hear they found a dead body in the walls at the Collective?”).

  • Whose House? Amanda’s House.

    University of Winnipeg student Amanda Jonker likes to keep a full plate.

  • The Honeysliders

    Winnipeg’s Honeysliders creep up on you with five classic-rock (think late-70s Eagles meets early-90s Big Sugar) infused hits, guaranteed to get the heads at the Times Change(d) a noddin’.

  • Old Man Luedecke

    “Baby, We’d Be Rich”, the upbeat opening track from Juno winner Old Man Luedecke’s new four song EP, sounds suspiciously like it could be found on fellow Nova Scotian Joel Plaskett’s Three record, though it isn’t so suspicious when you see Plaskett produced and played most of the instruments on these tunes.

  • Distances

    This three song follow up to 2012’s four song EP finds local punk quintet Distances delivering a slew of hard-hitting, well produced punk radio classics.