Left to right: Fred Harding, Colleen Hardwick, Mark Marissen, Ken Sim and Kennedy Stewart at the CIJA-SUCCESS Vancouver Mayoral Pre-Election Townhall last month at Temple Sholom. (photo by Pat Johnson)
A forum for Vancouver’s leading mayoral candidates briefly descended into mayhem when candidate Ken Sim criticized the current city council for failing to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism.
The only other notable drama was the presence of a small group of protesters who had positioned themselves throughout the sanctuary at Temple Sholom synagogue. They rose and unfolded signs contending that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. The protesters were ejected and the meeting continued.
In addition to the incumbent, Mayor Kennedy Stewart (who is running on the Forward Together slate), and Sim (with A Better City, or ABC), invitees included Fred Harding (Non-Partisan Association), Colleen Hardwick (TEAM for a Livable Vancouver) and Mark Marissen (Progress Vancouver).
There are 15 individuals running for mayor of Vancouver. The Sept. 7 forum’s organizers, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and SUCCESS, invited those they viewed as frontrunners.
The election is a rematch after Sim was bested by Stewart in 2018 by just 984 votes. Each candidate repeatedly accused the other of misrepresenting their own record or positions and those of their opponent.
Among other conflicts, Stewart and Sim argued over comments Sim had made on CKNW radio, in which Stewart claimed that Sim had promised to cut $330 million from the city’s budget. Stewart characterized this as a “massive and radical cut,” while Sim replied that he was not speaking about cutting the budget but about reallocating funds within the budget.
Sim’s proposal to add 100 police officers as well as 100 mental health nurses to deal with crime and social problems on the street were dismissed by Stewart, who said the mayor of Vancouver does not have the authority to make those hiring decisions.
Housing was the hottest topic at the meeting, with Stewart touting the incumbent council’s record.
“Last year, we approved almost 9,000 units of housing,” Stewart said. “That is double what we approved just a decade ago. We’ve changed the way and the kind of housing we’re approving…. We used to approve about 75% of very expensive condominiums, but we’ve switched now to about 60% rental and social housing. That is a massive change.… Just last year alone, we opened and built 1,600 units of social housing, which is an absolute record.”
Sim slammed Stewart’s claim as quantity over quality.
“He believes in providing quantity of housing and having big headlines in the media,” Sim said of Stewart, “but he’s not focused on the quality. How bad do these units have to be where people would rather live in a tent on Hastings Street than in one of these unlivable units?”
Later, Sim went on the offensive again when the topic came to community safety.
“You can’t just warehouse people,” he said. “If you do not have support services, you set them up for failure, and that’s what we have done.”
Hardwick lamented that the cost of housing may be pushing her children and grandchildren away.
“I don’t want to be the last generation of my family that can afford to live in Vancouver,” she said. “I have two kids in their 30s and during this term on council I gained two grandbabies and I have to say that I’m not happy … that they are seriously considering moving to Nanaimo because they can’t see a future here. This is what we hear over and over again.”
Marissen said the city of Vancouver has lost 7,000 people in the last year, even as the province gained 60,000 new residents.
Housing, homelessness and community safety merged in the discussion. Hardwick said she, her daughter and her grandchildren went to the Chinatown Festival in July.
“We were pushing along the stroller and trying to navigate between people passed out on the sidewalk with needles in plain view,” she said. “How am I supposed to explain to my grandchildren what’s going on here? It’s just shocking.… It has been 30 years since the closure of Riverview [mental hospital] and we’ve just seen things get progressively worse. Yet we continue to perpetuate the same failed policies. We’ve seen zero improvement and I’d like to hear anybody here saying we have an improved situation. What’s the solution? If we’re spending $1 million a day down there, maybe we better analyze where that money is going.”
Marissen seconded Hardwick’s words, saying there should be an audit of what is being spent in the Downtown Eastside.
Harding, a retired police officer, positioned himself as the voice of experience on safety.
“You cannot have harm reduction and safer supply without access to treatment,” he said. “We have to increase the treatment for people who are addicted and going through a crisis on our streets. I’m here basically because of this issue. I spent 30 years as a police officer. I understand what we need to do and how we need to work on strategic targeting of criminals. We have to work on cleaning up the streets and we do that by targeting the 3% who commit 95% of the crime.”
Stewart said the city is providing “wraparound services, including complex care,” to people who require them and accused opponents of advocating policing where medical interventions are needed.
“There is no way we are going to arrest our way out of it and that’s what a lot of my colleagues here at the table are pointing to,” Stewart said.
“Don’t let Mr. Kennedy [Stewart] trick you into believing that we are trying to police our way out of this,” Sim responded, saying that a range of responses are needed to confront what has become a dangerous situation, including for visible minorities. “In the last four years, our city has become more unsafe. Mayor Stewart was on the news saying that he felt safe in our city. Being a person of Chinese descent, I don’t have that same experience. In fact, residents across the city have told me over and over again that they do not feel safe.”
Safety as it pertains to minorities, including the Jewish community, emerged repeatedly. Sim noted that it was Councilor Sarah Kirby-Yung, who is running on Sim’s ABC slate, who proposed the adoption of the Working Definition of Antisemitism during the current council’s term.
“And Mayor Stewart actually voted it down,” Sim said. “I think it’s incredibly important that council [adopt the definition] so VPD can actually define what an antisemitic hate crime is.”
“The rise in antisemitism and the rise of anti-Asian hate has been profound,” said Marissen. “It’s a tragedy. Leadership matters.”
He said it wasn’t long ago that local politicians were accusing Asian people of causing the housing crisis in Vancouver. He said he would adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism and urged more diversity work in schools.
“We need to educate our kids,” Marissen said. “It’s really important that people understand the history of all of this. We also need to give support to interfaith and intercultural groups.”
As part of the Jewish Independent’s election coverage, we have traditionally profiled members of the community seeking elective office. And this year’s Oct. 15 municipal elections are no different.
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Christine Boyle, Vancouver council candidate (incumbent)
Christine Boyle was elected to Vancouver city council in 2018 representing OneCity. She asked to be included in the Independent’s coverage as a member of a mixed family.
Boyle, who describes herself as a community organizer, climate justice leader and United Church minister, is married to author and public policy researcher Seth Klein. They are raising two children in East Vancouver.
Boyle said she has spent her first term on city council “working tirelessly to strengthen tenant protections, and make it faster and easier to build social, co-op, nonprofit and rental housing in every neighbourhood of Vancouver.” Her other priorities include public transportation, safer walking and cycling infrastructure, increased funding for curb ramps, public washrooms “and other tangible improvements to access and community health.”
“I am running for a second term on council, alongside a strong team of OneCity Vancouver candidates, because of my deep concern about the housing crisis, the climate emergency and the toxic drug crisis,” she told the Independent. “And I’m running because I know there’s so much more we can do.”
“My husband Seth was raised in a culturally Jewish home, the child of a secular Jewish father and a spiritually rooted Jewish mother,” she said. “When we were first dating, I remember him asking if he thought our religious differences would be a problem for our families, and my response was that we had much more in common than not.
“Throughout my upbringing, my theological training and my time working in religious leadership, I have constantly sought out opportunities to connect across faiths on shared issues of importance, from climate, to discrimination and anti-racism, to Indigenous rights, and more.
“More than a decade later, these values continue to be core to my family. The ketubah [marriage contract] that hangs on our bedroom wall reminds us daily of our shared commitment to tikkun olam, the struggle to rebuild and repair the world, to find our shared place in the centuries-old movements for equality and interdependence.
“We have worked hard to instil a sense of awe in our children and a connection to the faith and cultural traditions of their people,” said Boyle. “Our kids have attended programs at Or Shalom and the Peretz Centre. I became a regular challah baker. And we reach out to friends and leaders in our faith communities as we navigate how to raise good kids in the world these days.”
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Ken Charko, Vancouver council candidate
Ken Charko is running as a Non-Partisan Association Vancouver candidate.
“I have always had a connection to the Jewish community,” Charko told the Independent.
In his capacity as owner of the Dunbar Theatre and as a director on the board of the Motion Picture Theatre Association of British Columbia, he has been mentioned in the Independent over the years. Noting that he was profiled by former Menschenings columnist Alex Kliner in 2014, Charko said, “I have always been supporter of the arts and their importance in our community and the special connection the Jewish community has with the arts.”
Charko has run for Vancouver city councilor three times as an NPA candidate and, in 2018, as a candidate of the now-defunct Coalition Vancouver party. He said his top policy priorities concern “public safety and crime, including hate crimes; housing, including co-op housing on city land; arts venues and small business.”
While he initially thought of running in a federal election, he said, “Municipal politics is ‘touch politics,’ you feel the people and hear directly what each community needs and is looking for in an elected representative.”
He still has a lot of issues at the federal level that he wants to champion, he said, including “support for Israel, strong foreign policy, taxation fiscal policy and support for Ukraine,” but that, locally, he “can champion those policies more effectively as an elected council candidate.”
Charko acknowledged that “almost everyone running in this election wants the same thing I have mentioned above, including reduced tax increases. The choice for voters is who can get these things done. I am that person. I have always done that. As the only independent movie theatre owner on the Motion Picture Association board, I was able to get things done working with others.”
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Jonathan Lerner, District of Lantzville council candidate
Jonathan Lerner is running for council in Lantzville, which is immediately north of Nanaimo.
“I grew up in the Jewish community in Vancouver, attending Talmud Torah, Temple Sholom and working for many Jewish organizations,” Lerner told the Independent. He has a degree in philosophy from the University of British Columbia and has worked with many nonprofit organizations.
“These have included many Jewish organizations, such as Hillel BC, CIJA, Jewish Family Services of Vancouver and the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre,” Lerner said.
“During my career, I have helped to uplift communities through the power of the charitable sector, including raising millions of dollars for employment services, food banks, immigration services, animal welfare, student education and scholarships, anti-racism initiatives, and more,” he said. “While I intend to continue my career in the not-for-profit sector, I hope to put my experience in finance, management and community development to use in helping Lantzville fulfil its slogan of being a ‘lovable, livable’ community.”
His top political priorities include bringing more services directly to the people of Lantzville, such as library book-mobiles, preserving Lantzville’s scenic landscape and natural beauty, expanding councilor office hours, public hearings and town halls, and ramping up emergency preparedness for earthquakes, floods, fires, landslides and other major disasters.
“My Jewish education and upbringing have definitely affected my community connections and outlook, while spurring me to get involved in politics,” said Lerner. “I believe strongly in the value of tikkun olam and the need to help those who are vulnerable become vulnerable no longer. This has been a major source of my motivation for community and charitable involvement. I sincerely hope that municipal politics will be the next step in the evolution of my work toward building a better world.”
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Ellison Mallin, District of North Vancouver council candidate
Ellison Mallin was born and raised in North Vancouver. He has a degree in political science and a record of volunteerism, which led him to his current full-time position as constituency assistant for MLA Susie Chant. Ellison has served on North Vancouver’s Rental, Social and Affordable Housing Taskforce and the Community Services Advisory Committee, acting as the chair in 2022. He has coached in the North Shore Inline Hockey League and also has worked in the music industry.
“Housing affordability is the number one issue for me in this election,” he said. “We are losing workers and our sense of community because people can no longer afford to live on the North Shore. This causes a chain reaction that leads to many of our other top problems, like traffic and public safety. Solving our housing problems needs to be done as a priority so that we may address other issues.
“I also have a dedicated platform on transportation solutions, better spending and planning, environmental leadership, improving civic engagement and improving the health of our community,” Mallin said.
“I am the great-great-grandson of Rabbi David Belasoff, who was the first full-time Orthodox rabbi in Vancouver,” Mallin said. “He led the B’nai Yehuda (now Schara Tzedeck). My grandparents, Lil and Lloyd Mallin, used to host amazing Passover, Chanukah and Rosh Hashanah dinners, but when they passed those did not continue. I did take my Birthright trip in 2016 to explore Israel and became more connected with the Jewish community in Vancouver as a result. Connecting to the community really did help me find my identity and gave me a lot of the confidence I needed to put myself out there in electoral politics.… I attend the occasional social events that I am available for, and I do go to some public events held by Har El in West Vancouver. For me, the biggest barrier to attending more events is the traffic and distance to them from North Vancouver and would love to see more Jewish community opportunities in North Van.”
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Carla Frenkel, Vancouver Park Board candidate
Carla Frenkel has more than a decade of experience in architecture, working on affordable housing, urban design, and environmental responsibility. She is running for park board with Vision Vancouver.
“Finding alignment with Canadian values, we decided to immigrate to Vancouver [from the United States] in 2014,” she said. “We found an amazing community in Strathcona, anchored around Maclean Park, our community centre and gardens. Since 2018, I have been president of the Strathcona Community Garden, where I coordinate hundreds of volunteers, leading stewardship of Vancouver’s largest community garden. There, I spearhead a wetland project, which manages storm water while improving biodiversity. A mother of three, I chair the Strathcona PAC’s school grounds committee,” she said.
“Today we face monumental challenges of aging infrastructure, climate change and reconciliation,” said Frenkel. “From this arises unique opportunities to create resilient parks and community centres that serve the diverse needs of residents.”
Frenkel’s identity and core values are intrinsically tied to being Jewish, she said.
“I grew up in a progressive Reform synagogue, which reinforced tikkun olam, interconnectedness, social and environmental justice and mitzvot,” she said. “In high school, I followed suit, joining NFTY [the Reform Jewish youth movement], actively leading, planning services and gatherings. In university, I worked at the Berkeley Hillel, where I met my husband. Today, we are part of the Or Shalom community, where we share these traditions and values with our children.”
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John Irwin, Vancouver Park Board candidate (incumbent)
John Irwin was elected to the Vancouver Park Board in 2018 with the Coalition of Progressive Electors and is seeking reelection with Vision Vancouver. Like Boyle, he is part of a mixed family and his spouse is Jewish.
He holds a PhD specializing in sustainable urban development, works as a lecturer at Simon Fraser University and Alexander College and also has worked as a policy analyst for the Tenant’s Rights Action Coalition (now the Tenant Resource Advisory Centre) and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, B.C. office. He worked in fair trade retail from 1996 to 2006. He is a father of three school-aged kids and lives in the Fairview neighbourhood.
Irwin has served on boards including the Society Promoting Environmental Conservation, Friends of False Creek (now the False Creek Watershed Society) and the West End Residents Association. He was chair of the Henry Hudson Out-of-School Society and is an advocate for affordable childcare.
“I am running for reelection with Vision Vancouver as a park board commissioner, as I think that we have much more to achieve regarding the climate crisis, active transportation, ‘reconcili-action’ and accessible and affordable parks and recreation,” he said. “In my first term, I brought forward many successful motions: the Stanley Park Mobility Study focuses on reducing automobile traffic and promotes active transportation by increasing cycling, walking and public transit in the park while increasing accessibility for those with disabilities; a motion requesting the Port Authority give the park board the go-ahead to work with the local First Nations to plan and build an Indigenous cultural healing centre in CRAB Park; a recent motion asking staff to design fully accessible playgrounds for all children, which will help those with disabilities play with their peers in an active and inclusive way.
“I have also been a strong voice against discrimination of all types: antisemitism, Sinophobia and Islamophobia, etc.,” said Irwin.
“For many years, I have found the Vancouver Jewish community to be very welcoming,” he said. “Although I am not Jewish, many synagogues have welcomed me, my partner who is Jewish and my three children, who have all attended Hebrew school. Our children celebrated their b’nai mitzvahs at Beth Israel Synagogue, where we regularly attend as members. The practice of mitzvah has reinforced my activism to do my part in making our society in Vancouver socially just and sustainable. I am inspired by the practices of atonement and ecological consciousness, such as that found in Tu b’Shevat, the Jewish new year for trees.”
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Kyla Epstein, Vancouver School Board candidate
Kyla Epstein’s family left South Africa before she was born.
“I was raised in Toronto on the shoulders of my parents going to anti-apartheid rallies, marching in Pride protests, and attending public, alternative schools that were child-centred, social-justice-focused and showed me that public education and learning can take many forms,” she said.
“Over the past two decades, my curiosity and desire to build relationships have led me to work in a variety of sectors, including business, philanthropy and nonprofit (including two years in Guatemala) and labour, before moving into my current role doing government and stakeholder relations at BCIT [B.C. Institute of Technology].”
Epstein has served on many boards and was a trustee and chair of the Vancouver Public Library board. She is now on the boards of the Vancouver Writers Festival, the Laurier Institution and the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation. She has served on school parent advisory council executives for more than 10 years and is currently pursuing a master’s degree. She is running with OneCity.
“High-quality public education is one of the best ways that we, as a society, can care for future generations,” Epstein said. “Funding for the public school system should appropriately reflect the value of public education, not just for students and families currently in the system, but for communities and society more broadly.”
If elected, she said, she will advocate for funding to ensure that students with a range of diverse needs can thrive and every teacher and worker has the tools and resources they need; address climate change; stand up against any form of discrimination in schools; fully implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples across the school district and develop reciprocal relationships with local First Nations for all planning decisions, especially those related to school board land; and improve Vancouver School Board governance by listening to people, being accountable and considering those who are most impacted.
“While not raised religiously, it is hard for me to untangle my identity from my being Jewish,” she said. “Many of my most special memories, or the moments that formed my sense of self, are grounded in Jewishness. Holidays such as Pesach have always been important to me because it is a regular reminder, through stories and songs, of the ongoing struggles for justice and liberation.
“I also feel a kinship with the emphasis on asking questions that is a part of my Jewishness,” she added. “The stories shared in my family about persecution faced by Jews have certainly contributed to how I see the world. Family stories of unwilling migration are regular reminders to me that everyone’s dignity and safety be upheld all around the world. My parents’ very difficult choice to leave South Africa and the activism I was raised with were rooted in the lessons of tikkun olam and I draw upon those lessons regularly.”
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Fred Harding’s diverse DNA
During the mayoral candidates’ forum held at Temple Sholom Sept. 7, Non-Partisan Association candidate Fred Harding made a brief reference that he could become Vancouver’s first Jewish mayor. (He couldn’t. David Oppenheimer, Vancouver’s second mayor, was Jewish.)
The Independent asked Harding about his roots after the meeting.
“My mother is from Germany – and my family was Jewish,” he said. “After she married my father, all my siblings were raised in Catholicism. My mother actually converted later on to Mormonism, so the Jewish faith was never practised in our home. The tragedy is that my family remained in Germany and so I never had a connection to the Jewish faith.”
At the age of 14, however, Harding traveled to Germany and met some of his great-aunts, who had been persecuted in the war and later received financial compensation.
He also has visited Congregation Har El.
“I had some very dear friends bring me to the temple in West Vancouver probably 12 years ago and that was my first experience,” he said. “I actually felt very, very welcome.”
He sees his family’s diversity as a benefit as he seeks to lead one of the world’s most multicultural cities.
“This is only a fraction of my DNA. I’m a German Jewish Catholic with a Mormon mother, a Christian father who came from Africa. I’m married to a Chinese lady, my granddaughter is Chinese, my eldest daughter is blonde and blue-eyed,” he said. “I feel the privilege of representing just about everything and I’m honuored for that background in my DNA.”
Voters across British Columbia choose local officials on Saturday, Oct. 15. Remaining advance voting days in Vancouver are on Oct. 8, 11 and 13 and vote-by-mail ballots can be requested until Oct. 11. For full details see vancouver.ca or your local municipal website.
The Independent asked candidates we profiled two additional questions: “Will you (or won’t you) use your position as a platform to discuss international affairs, specifically Palestine and Israel?” and “If so, can you provide a brief explanation of your perspective on the subject?” (image from Wikipedia)
Civic politics generally deals with maintaining roads and sewers, reviewing development applications and a vast range of close-to-the-ground issues. But municipal politics has also been a place where a vast range of other issues are discussed. For example, Vancouver city council voted in 1983 to declare the city a “nuclear weapons free zone” and, formally or informally, members of council have felt free to address topics of national and global concern.
During debate around the city’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism – which a majority of council voted to refer to committee, effectively defeating it – critics of the definition warned that it could place limits on the right to criticize Israel, despite that the definition explicitly states that it is legally non-binding. While the condemnation of antisemitism is not an international issue, examples accompanying the definition included several relating to anti-Zionism.
Because of the history of using civic positions as platforms for international issues, the Independent asked candidates we profiled two additional questions: “Will you (or won’t you) use your position as a platform to discuss international affairs, specifically Palestine and Israel?” and “If so, can you provide a brief explanation of your perspective on the subject?”
Christine Boyle, the incumbent Vancouver city councilor who voted to refer the IHRA issue to committee, said that commenting on international affairs is not generally part of the role of a city councilor.
“And there are so many important issues and struggles locally that continue to be the focus of my attention,” she said. “But my practice on any topic is to listen to and engage with communities most impacted on an issue, always seeking to uphold human rights, peace and justice.
“I have spent much of my adult life actively engaged in justice work, including opposing and challenging hate and discrimination, and working to strengthen the human rights of all people,” she continued. “I am deeply committed to challenging antisemitism and ensuring that Jewish residents in Vancouver feel safe at home, at worship, and everywhere.
“When a motion came to council asking Vancouver to adopt the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, council received hundreds of emails on the subject, with a diverse range of perspectives on the topic,” said Boyle. “Even my own Jewish family members didn’t all agree on the issue. What I heard clearly from the community was that, while there wasn’t agreement on this definition, there was absolutely a need for the city to do more to address antisemitism and racism. And so council referred the definition to the City of Vancouver’s Racial and Cultural Equity Advisory Committee, with direction for staff to continue working vociferously to address antisemitism and other forms of racism and hate. Since then I have worked hard each budget cycle to ensure our anti-racism and anti-hate efforts are well funded and supported, and will continue that work.”
Vancouver council candidate Ken Charko told the Independent, “Yes, I would use my position as a city councilor as a platform to discuss international affairs [and] yes support of Israel will be part of that platform…. I support Canada moving its embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing it as the capital of Israel. I would use my position as a Vancouver city councilor and federal Conservative member to outline why Canada should do that under the next Conservative government.”
John Irwin, an incumbent member of the Vancouver Park Board, switched from the Coalition of Progressive Electors last election to Vision Vancouver this election because, he said, “There was a disagreement with COPE regarding their lack of acceptance of the IHRA definition of antisemitism (which was accepted by the Canadian government).”
He added: “As a local politician, I generally use my platform to discuss local issues.”
Carla Frenkel, also a candidate for the Vancouver Park Board, said simply: “I have no intention to use the role of park board commissioner as a platform for international affairs.”
Kyla Epstein, who is seeking a seat on the Vancouver School Board, said that, to her knowledge, international affairs do not regularly come up at the school board table, nor is it generally within the scope of the role of a trustee to take a position on international affairs.
“What I do know is that I bring to the role a deep commitment to human rights and an opposition to antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, and all forms of discrimination, racism and hatred,” she said. “In addition, my approach to governance is to listen, welcome different perspectives and reduce barriers for public and stakeholder participation – on any issue. I will fight to uphold a public education system that is a place of learning, curiosity and questioning. I will, no matter the issue that comes to the school board table, reach out to communities, listen and learn, and make my decisions to uphold human rights and equality.”
Ellison Mallin, running for council in the District of North Vancouver, said, “I am always discussing international issues with people, as, in this increasingly connected world, events that happen anywhere can affect us here.
“I do not intend to use any municipal specific platforms, or my position, to bring up Israel and Palestine, and will keep discussions on the subject to appropriate venues. I do recognize that, given my religion, there will likely be comments and questions directed to me, which I will not shy away from,” he said. “I strongly believe in Israel’s right to exist. A safe place for Jewish people to live and to foster Jewish identity and culture is needed. Perhaps, sadly, it is needed now more than ever, as we do see a rise in antisemitism in many areas. On that note, I do not deny Palestine’s right to exist, and believe a two-state solution is needed. I would also like to see Israel stop building settlements in the West Bank, as this further creates divides and hostilities.”
Jonathan Lerner, council candidate in Lantzville, said he does not see Middle Eastern affairs coming into play in Lantzville politics. But, he added: “Everyone familiar with my work will know that I am a strong advocate for respectful dialogue on these issues.
“Where I think municipal governments can play a larger role is in diversity, inclusion and anti-racism initiatives,” said Lerner. “Many communities, including the Jewish, Muslim and LGBTQ communities, have been targeted by an increase in hate crimes in Canada. Municipalities have a key role to play in addressing this issue. For example, governments of all levels are considering adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, as well as other racism classifications that help to define and address discrimination.”
Fran Drescher, best known for the TV show The Nanny, among other comedic roles, enraptured audience members at the Jewish Federation annual campaign launch Sept. 8. She offered deeply vulnerable descriptions of being raped and of surviving cancer, and the related mental health impacts these life-altering events sparked.
The presentation was the centrepoint of an evening dedicated to the topic of mental wellness. Actor, neuroscientist and Jeopardy host Mayim Bialik joined live from Los Angeles along with her partner and podcast cohost Jonathan Cohen. Their podcast, Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown, is focused on myths and misunderstandings about mental health and emotional well-being. They were interviewed by Globe and Mail reporter Marsha Lederman.
A panel of local experts completed the evening. Alisa Farina, Federation’s new child and youth mental health worker, Danya Rogen, a social worker who specializes in mood disorders, Dr. Annie Simpson, a clinical psychologist focused on childhood anxiety, and Tanja Demajo, chief executive officer of Jewish Family Services, shared reflections with Dr. Sandy Penn Whitehouse, a pediatrician and clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia and medical director at B.C. Children’s Hospital.
Lana Marks Pulver, chair of the campaign, opened the event. Candace Kwinter, chair of the Federation board, introduced a video on mental wellness. Sue Hector, chair of women’s philanthropy, introduced Drescher. Federation chief executive officer Ezra Shanken closed the event. King David High School Vocal Ensemble led the Canadian and Israeli national anthems.
Ephraim Mirvis, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, issued a special prayer in English and Hebrew to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. It was shared by Beth Israel’s Rabbi Jonathan Infeld at the opening of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver annual campaign Sept. 8, hours after the Queen passed away.
“In an age of profound change, she signified order and justice; and in times of tension, she offered generosity of spirit,” the prayer read. “A defender of faith with an unfailing sense of duty, she was a steadfast guardian of liberty, a symbol of unity and a champion of justice in all the lands of her dominion.… In life, she was a most gracious monarch, who occupied a throne of distinction and honour. In death, may her legacy inspire the nations of the world to live together in righteousness and in peace.”
History’s longest serving British monarch, Elizabeth II passed away 70 years and 214 days after ascending the throne upon the death of her father, King George VI.
Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon paid homage to the Queen and, on Monday, the government announced that Simon and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, perhaps accompanied by others, would represent the country at the monarch’s funeral Sept. 19.
President Isaac Herzog will represent Israel at the Queen’s funeral. Jewish leaders around the world joined others in lauding the Queen’s service.
In 2005, the monarch attended a ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. According to reports, she refused to be ushered away by staff, instead remaining to speak individually to the attendees and listening to each of their experiences of survival.
“She gave each survivor – it was a large group – her focused, unhurried attention. She stood with each until they had finished telling their personal story. It was an act of kindness that almost had me in tears,” the late British chief rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote afterward. “One after another, the survivors came to me in a kind of trance, saying: ‘Sixty years ago I did not know if I would be alive tomorrow, and here I am today talking to the Queen.’ It brought a kind of blessed closure into deeply lacerated lives.”
Queen Elizabeth II was patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a British government-funded charity that promotes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Buckingham Palace seems to have maintained an unspoken boycott of Israel, one of the countries the Queen never visited, although she met many Israeli leaders and knighted the former prime minister and president Shimon Peres.
Image from 1341 Frames of Love and War, a photo by Micha Bar-Am.
Photographer Micha Bar-Am, now 92, is considered perhaps the foremost visual chronicler of Israeli history. In 1341 Frames of Love and War, filmmaker Ran Tal creates what amounts to a family reminiscence among Bar-Am, his wife Orna and sons Barak and Nimrod, complete with snippy retorts and full-throated arguments. All of this is set against thousands of Bar-Am’s photos, creating a barrage to the senses of blown-up buses, dancing hippies, funerals and the scope of Israeli life captured in still photos. The family, whose voices make up the narration of the documentary, are seen only in the pictures.
Although Bar-Am was present to immortalize in images the Eichmann trial and the liberation of the Western Wall, his work is mostly of ordinary Israeli people and events, including war, which has been all too “ordinary” for the country and its people. The photos predictably begin in black-and-white – the first colour photo in the film appears during the 1967 war, perhaps not merely a sign of changing technology but also of the before and after times of the occupation.
A photo from the time – an image Bar-Am captured of a soldier praying at the newly liberated Kotel – is a prism through which Micha and Orna chronicle their own changing views of their country. The soldier had fashioned an ammunition belt into a makeshift prayer shawl. Orna explains how they loved the photo at first, apparently as a symbol of resistance and survival. After a few years, they came to detest it as a representation of the connection between religion and power. Now, in their later years, they are agnostic about the thing.
“That’s how it was then,” Orna says. “We don’t have to feel love or hate toward it. That’s how it was.”
Bar-Am acknowledges that he was a shy young man and the camera was an excuse to get closer to things, to understand people better. Through his eyes, and the immortality of his images, Israelis and others can perhaps view themselves and the world around them more closely.
The film is an intimate exploration into the work of a legendary craftsman and, through him, a snapshot into the past.
For the full film festival schedule, visit viff.org.
Anat Gogo, new executive director of Tikva Housing Society. (photo from Tikva Housing)
Anat Gogo is the new executive director of Tikva Housing Society. Gogo took over leadership of the affordable housing society on Sept. 1, after several years in other senior roles with the organization.
In making the announcement, Rhonda Sacks, board chair of the society, praised Gogo.
“As we welcome Rosh Hashanah and this exciting next chapter on an unprecedented growth trajectory, we are very pleased to welcome Anat as our new executive director and have full confidence in her ability to lead Tikva Housing,” said Sacks.
“The affordable housing issues in our communities across British Columbia continue to grow,” said Gogo. “I am honoured to take on the role of executive director and to continue the mission and vision of Tikva Housing.”
Originally from Israel, Gogo moved to Canada in 1991. She has worked with Tikva since 2016, initially as a housing administrator. In April 2020, she became manager of programs and donor relations.
“I feel very excited and very blessed to take over the management of the organization,” Gogo told the Independent. “I feel like I will be able to act on the mission and vision of Tikva and the values that it was formed on, which are dignity, community, innovation and tikkun olam [repair of the world].”
Tikva originated in 1994 as the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver Non-Profit Housing Society, a response to the housing needs identified in the Jewish community. The name was changed to Tikva Housing Society in 2007.
Tikva’s mission is to provide access to innovative and affordable housing solutions, primarily for Jewish individuals and families. The agency addresses housing issues through a range of initiatives, including short-term rent subsidies to households living in market housing who are unable to afford their rent due to a temporary crisis.
More visibly, the society acquires and operates affordable rental housing developments, which are home to individuals and families with low incomes. Tenants pay about 30% of their income in rent.
To realize their mission Tikva focuses on partnerships. Tikva currently operates a constellation of housing facilities that have been created through alliances with other government, community and private groups.
Dany Guincher House, in South Vancouver, has 11 units and is funded through capital donations from the Guincher family and a B.C. Housing grant.
Diamond Residences, also known as Storeys, in Richmond, is a 129-unit joint venture with four other housing societies and with capital funding from the Diamond Foundation, the City of Richmond and the federal and provincial governments, as well as other private funders. In it, Tikva owns and operates 18 units.
The 32-unit Ben and Esther Dayson Residences, in Vancouver’s River District, was completed in August 2020 in partnership with the Community Land Trust Foundation and the City of Vancouver. It was made possible with a major capital donation from the Ben and Esther Dayson Charitable Foundation. Sixty-seven children currently live in this development, a specific need Tikva identified.
“We are living in one of the most unaffordable places in the world,” said Gogo. “While all levels of government are focusing on increasing the inventory of affordable homes, the majority of this new inventory are studio, one- and two-bedroom units. This leaves a real void for families in need.”
Tikva operates 37 units in the 125-unit xwƛ̓əpicən / Arbutus Centre. The centre is a partnership led by the YWCA, which leased the air space from the City of Vancouver and subleased it to Tikva and the Association of Neighbourhood Houses of British Columbia. Rents are subsidized through private donations, including a substantial initial donation from the Diamond Foundation.
In total, Tikva operates 98 housing units, all of which are always occupied, said Gogo, and there is a long and growing waitlist.
Currently under development is Dogwood Gardens, which is being created in partnership with SUCCESS Affordable Housing Society and a leased air space parcel from the City of Vancouver, as well as Susana Cogan Place, in Burnaby, which is in partnership with Polygon Homes and with the financial support of B.C. Housing. The completion of these two projects will bring Tikva’s total number of units to 148.
Tikva was led by Susana Cogan until she passed away in 2017. Since 2018, Tikva has been led by Alice Sundberg, director of operations and housing development.
Vanessa Trester, manager of the Weinberg Residence, speaks to those gathered at the 20th anniversary party. (photos by Galit Lewinski)
The Weinberg Residence has just entered its 20th year. The assisted living and multi-level care facility opened in 2003 as the city’s first Jewish residence for people who choose the round-the-clock care and companionship they might not have at home. A celebration took place Aug. 21.
The Weinberg is located at the Dr. Irving and Phyliss Snider Campus for Jewish Seniors, which is also the location of the Louis Brier Home and Hospital. While the residents and staff are celebrating this anniversary milestone, plans are afoot for big changes in the years to come.
The Weinberg, which is a private, but not-for-profit, facility, opened at a time when the idea of assisted living was relatively fresh. The concept is a step between fully independent housing and supportive living – residents are able to live independently but sometimes need or desire a little assistance with things like personal care, and they enjoy the liberty of not having to cook.
The Weinberg includes a kosher dining room and special meals for Jewish holidays, as well as private dining for family events. There is 24-hour staffing, as well as a range of cultural, therapeutic and recreational activities. The Chava and Abrasha Wosk Synagogue is located on the campus, with regular and holiday services available without having to leave the premises.
The multi-level nature of the facility means it can welcome people across a large span of ages and physical needs.
“What’s really unique about the 24-hour care unit is the different residency options that historically we’ve offered within the unit,” said Vanessa Trester, manager of the Weinberg Residence. In addition to the assisted living option, there is the possibility of convalescence periods, post-surgery recovery, shorter stays, including for out-of-town guests who need support, as well as palliative support.
Trends in senior living have had an impact on the Weinberg, as they have had on all such facilities. Health authorities are encouraging aging in place, with governments funding more services to keep people at home longer and out of institutional care. As a result, said Trester, residents tend to be coming to the Weinberg at a later age than they might have in times past.
“It just means people are coming later in life,” she said. People who come in their 90s, rather than their 70s or 80s, will most likely have higher needs and require additional services upon first arrival.
“We see more people who are requiring 24-hour care,” said Trester. “The longer people wait, the more their needs increase.”
The residence was built by the Jewish community, Trester stresses, who raised $11 million to make it a reality.
“We are the Jewish campus,” she said. “So there should be a lot of pride and contentment from the community.”
However, like so many other institutions in Vancouver’s Jewish community, the Weinberg and the entire Snider campus are facing dramatic changes.
The campus is located kitty-corner to the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, whose $450 million redevelopment plan, called JWest, represents the most ambitious construction project in the history of Jewish Vancouver. Originally considered as part of that project, the 4.3-acre Snider Campus site will be revamped independently.
“There are tentative plans in place for Louis Brier redevelopment,” said Dr. David Keselman, chief executive officer of the Louis Brier Home and Hospital and Weinberg Residence. “There are assumptions of what it should be, can be and may be. It all really depends on approvals from the City of Vancouver, funding from Vancouver Coastal Health, all this kind of stuff.”
Management is in the due diligence stage, Keselman said. But even though the Weinberg Residence is far newer than the Louis Brier Home that shares the campus, both institutions are almost certain to be replaced in the future.
“The new build, of course, will be looking at going up versus horizontal,” Keselman said. “It depends on what the decisions are going to be, and approvals we get in the end, how big that building is going to be and how many beds it’s going to end up being.”
The Brier began as a seven-room seniors facility 70 years ago. It has transformed, grown and moved over the decades – and time marches on.
Timing of the redevelopment also depends on how fast approvals can be obtained, plans are finalized, costs are determined and funds are raised. “I’m going to say anywhere between eight to 12 years,” Keselman said.
Almost 80 people attended the Switzer family reunion Aug. 21. (photo by Will Verchere-Gopaulsingh)
A reunion at Beth Israel synagogue recently brought together branches of one of Canada’s largest Jewish family trees.
The story of this Canadian family began in 1848 with the birth of Wolf Baer Switzer, in Radom, Poland. He fathered 11 children, one of whom was a daughter named Bella.
Bella (Switzer) Singer passed away in 1994, at the age of 104, although the exact date of her birth is not certain. Bella and her husband Abraham Singer came to Canada first in 1905, then Bella and her son Hymie returned to Poland in 1907, while Abraham headed west to farmstead, with the family reuniting in 1910 in Calgary.
In the following decades, Bella and Abraham nurtured a vast Canadian family, including their own four children.
Sensing an ominous future for Jews in Poland, Bella settled in Calgary and then paid for other relatives to follow, with the understanding that once they arrived in Canada, they would be put to work, make enough money and send for another relative. It is estimated that as many as 300 family members were brought to Canada through Bella’s single-minded determination. Given later events in Poland, the number of lives saved is incalculable.
For her efforts, Bella was known as Mema (“Auntie”) Singer to all the family, regardless of actual relationship.
Turning necessity into invention, Bella built a small real estate empire, beginning with a rooming house to accommodate arriving relatives and expanding into apartments and hotels. She lived almost all her remaining life as a philanthropist and pillar of Calgary’s community, coming to Vancouver in her final years to live with her daughter’s family.
Bella had 10 grandchildren, of whom three live in Vancouver: Lola Pawer, her sister Shelley Ail and their cousin Leslie Diamond.
There are “way over 100” of Bella’s descendants living in Vancouver, says Pawer.
The Aug. 21 reunion was for the West Coast members of the family, with guests traveling in from around British Columbia, as well as from California and Hawaii, with a few coming from Alberta. There were almost 80 guests in total, “which is nothing for our family,” said Pawer’s daughter (and Bella’s great-granddaughter) Lisa Boroditsky, who estimates there are about 2,000 descendants of Bella. The first reunion of the extended family, about 20 years ago, took place at one of the Olympic venues in Calgary and attracted about 1,000 people. The last one, in 2016, drew 485 attendees.
Billy Switzer, Bella’s nephew and oldest descendant in Vancouver at 96 (the oldest descendant is Suchar Cyngiser, 98, in Calgary), recalled his family’s arrival in Canada, thanks to his aunt. At the chaos of the port in Montreal, his sister Lily was crying and the parents were speaking in Yiddish. A man approached, asking where they were headed and warned them that Calgary was a multiday journey further. The family assured the stranger that they had saved some carrots and other food for the trip but the man reached into his pocket and handed them $10.
“My father took out a notebook and asked the man to write his name and address,” so he could repay him, Billy Switzer recalled. “The man said, my name is when a Jew needs help, help him.… My father said, what a way to arrive in a new country.”
Reflecting on a century-plus after Bella’s arrival, he concluded: “When you look at our family tree, you will be amazed at what they have accomplished and this all happened because Bella Switzer made it happen by starting and inspiring everyone to get involved. It’s wonderful that grandchildren in Vancouver have made an effort for this family reunion today.”
Billy Switzer’s daughter, Renee Switzer, and another cousin, Jordana Corenblum, along with Pawer, Boroditsky and Cheryl Milner, were the core team that organized the reunion.
Renee Switzer blew up and colour-coded a graphic of the family tree. Name tags correlated to the family branch. There was a family Bingo game and Switzer trivia, as well as plenty of shmoozing.
Boroditsky has plenty of memories of the matriarch.
“She was living with my grandmother,” Boroditsky said. “I grew up with Bella, too…. She was so involved in her great-grandchildren’s lives.”
“She was a woman’s woman before it was even dreamt about,” added Pawer. “She ran a business. She knew dollars and how much things cost. She never learned to read. She was an Orthodox Jew and a magnificent woman. She drove until she was in her 90s.”
The lesson Pawer took from her grandmother is this: “Being a woman doesn’t mean a thing. Just do what you want to do, achieve what you want to do. She always gave us that advice.”
Reflecting on Bella (Switzer) Singer and the Canadian family she created, Pawer said: “It’s an honour to be [descended] from her and to learn all the things that she did. She was very philanthropic. How strong this family really is and will continue to be – that’s what she gave us.”
David Spaner’s new book, Solidarity: Canada’s Unknown Revolution of 1983, forms an archival testament of one of this province’s most dramatic epochs.
One of the funny things about watching the 1976 movie All the President’s Men, about how Washington Postreporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke Watergate and brought down Richard Nixon, is that, after 138 minutes of sitting on the edge of your seat, you realize that you’ve watched nothing more than two men making phone calls and knocking on doors asking questions. In other words, stuff doesn’t need to blow up in order to make an excellent movie. This thought occurs when reading Vancouver author David Spaner’s new book, Solidarity: Canada’s Unknown Revolution of 1983. On the surface, the book is a litany of bureaucratic meetings and activists’ backstories. Together, they form an archival testament of one of this province’s most dramatic epochs.
Spaner, an activist and journalist who has been immersed in the left-wing ferment for most of his life, chooses a different Hollywood reference. At the end of the book, he alludes to the 1983 film The Big Chill, in which disenchanted middle-agers convene for a friend’s funeral and lament their glory days. For anyone who has been part of British Columbia’s left-wing movements – recently, in 1983, or decades earlier – this book will provide many Big Chill moments. An initial criticism might be the title, which alleges this history is forgotten. Any person who was living in British Columbia in 1983 and even moderately politically aware will not forget that riotous time, though Spaner revives it effectively for new audiences.
Spaner’s thesis is that British Columbia’s well-known legacy of progressive activism that began in the 19th century converged in 1983. All the economic, social, racial, gender and other movements cohered in response to unparalleled government excess – and then refracted again into the myriad organizations and causes that drive B.C. politics today.
The province’s long history of progressive activism weaves its way through the book. More volunteers from Vancouver signed up to fight Franco’s fascists in the Spanish Civil War than from any other North American city save New York, Spaner says. And, in a more trivial note, he claims that the Industrial Workers of the World got their nickname “Wobblies” right here. Greenpeace was founded in Kitsilano in 1971. Movements against the Vietnam War and nuclear warships found fertile ground here. A squatters’ park stopped development at the entrance to Stanley Park. A “smoke-in” in Gastown protested police brutality and called for loosened marijuana laws. The Simon Fraser University Women’s Caucus, formed in 1968, was, according to the book, not only the first such group in Western Canada, but the first in North America. The first rumblings of gay rights activists were heard in these parts around the same time.
With all this as a foundation, the events of 1983 exploded out of the results of the provincial election on May 5. Dave Barrett’s New Democrats, who had governed the province for a short but tumultuous two-and-a-half years beginning in 1972, had been widely anticipated to defeat Bill Bennett’s right-wing Social Credit government. Instead, Bennett pulled out a surprise victory – and then launched a “restraint movement” that was unprecedented in Canada and is often compared with Thatcherism in Britain and Reaganism in the United States. On July 7, Bennett and his cabinet “unleashed a far-right legislative avalanche that tossed asunder virtually every advance achieved by B.C.’s social activists and trade unionists,” Spaner writes. “In an instant, and from every corner of the province, there was a rising of resistance.”
Almost exactly two months after the election, Bennett’s Socreds dropped 27 radical bills, affecting every area of government operations. For starters, 1,400 members of the B.C. Government and Services Employees Union (BCGEU) were summarily fired the day after the bills were tabled. The government eliminated special education programs, reduced student loans, fired family support workers, took away autonomy from local school boards and mandated fewer teachers and larger class sizes. Environmental protections were removed, welfare rates frozen, healthcare facilities closed and programs, including the Human Rights Commission, were cut. Funding for programs in services like the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective were eliminated. They closed the Tranquille mental health facility in Kamloops and fired its 600 employees. Labour relations laws were amended to take away rights such as seniority, working hours and overtime in collective agreements. Tenants could be evicted without cause and the Rentalsman’s office was eliminated, meaning any disputes would have to go to expensive court proceedings. The Agricultural Land Act, intended by the Barrett government to protect farmland, was gutted. User fees for hospital care increased exponentially.
Organized labour mobilized as soon as they could shake off the disbelief about what they were confronted with. They formed Operation Solidarity, an umbrella covering 400,000 unionized workers in the province, under the not-so-gentle guiding hand of the B.C. Federation of Labour. A parallel group, the Solidarity Coalition, was a motley amalgam of community groups and activists, less hierarchical and disciplined than the trade union groups. (The names were lifted from the nascent Polish anti-communist movement emerging at the time, but the ruptures in the B.C. movement make the moniker somewhat ironic.)
The first big rally took place in Victoria’s Memorial Arena, attracting 6,000 protesters. This was where the initial idea of an all-out general strike gained currency – and the seeds of the movement’s destruction were planted. A massive rally followed in front of the old CN station at Thornton Park on Main Street in Vancouver, on July 23. Organizers had hoped for 2,000 attendees but 25,000 showed up.
As is common in activist circles, Jewish individuals played an outsized role. The author, who is Jewish, comes by his credentials naturally – his grand-uncle was a good pal of Dave Barrett’s dad, Sam, in East Vancouver. One of the most visible faces of the movement was Renata Shearer, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who was fired as the province’s human rights commissioner. Feminist and union leader Marion Pollock and Carol Pastinsky, who grew up in a left-wing household that hosted meetings of the United Jewish People’s Order, are featured in the book. And, of course, Barrett, who, despite his recent defeat, led the charge in the legislature against the onslaught, was the province’s first, and so far only, Jewish premier.
Another Jewish person, Stan Persky, launched and edited the movement’s publication, Solidarity Times. The newspaper, funded by organized labour, provides one of many examples in the book about bitter feuds within and between the disparate factions in the Solidarity mishpachah (family). A bunch of young, idealistic journalists who were working under Persky got a taste of censorship that they might have expected in a career with the bourgeois press but perhaps had not anticipated from their comrades in the movement. “Remember who writes your checks,” a union apparatchik warned them after spiking a story that didn’t toe the union line.
One of the most visible schisms in the mass movement occurred at a huge rally where most of the rank-and-file attendees were apparently champing at the bit for a general strike, but the more cautious leader of the movement, Art Kube, instead urged everybody to get a copy of a petition, have their neighbours sign it and send it in to the government in Victoria.
Said one activist reflecting his response that day: “We want militant action. We want to shut down this province. Instead, were being told, ‘Go get a petition signed.’”
But, while Kube was the one who disappointed that day, many in the movement believe it was his illness – a physical or mental breakdown – that led to what many or most view as the ultimate betrayal of the entire project. The BCGEU and the teachers’ union went on strike, shutting down huge swaths of the province. As pressure built, an unexpected – and largely unwanted – resolution was hatched by one segment of the union movement.
Within the Solidarity movement, there were schisms between the far-left and the comparatively more right-leaning unions, between radicals who wanted transformative change and reformers more narrowly opposed to specific legislation. There were, of course, also a lot of very strong personalities, all packed together and stressed by the pressures of the time.
With Kube sidelined by illness, the B.C. Federation of Labour sent Jack Munro, one of British Columbia’s feistiest, foul-mouthed and most divisive union figures, to meet with Premier Bennett at his home in Kelowna. When other partners in the Solidarity movement found out that the meeting was taking place, they knew they were done for.
“Munro and Bennett reached the quick agreement, settling the BCGEU contract but offering little else to most Solidarity members,” writes Spaner. “Then they stepped out on the premier’s patio to announce their Kelowna Accord.”
“We were all in tears,” recalls one activist. “It was a horrible betrayal.”
Once a big swath of the union movement had pocketed what they wanted from the government, the larger movement effectively fizzled out.
“Some longtime union activists simply don’t have a bigger dream, so it was impossible for them to see the Solidarity drama as a failure. To them, it was just another contract negotiation,” Spaner writes.
But while the movement itself may be gone, the legacy lives on, Spaner argues. Those trenches formed a generation of B.C. activists, not least of whom is John Horgan, who was inspired by the lofty outrage of Barrett and marched down the road to join the NDP for the first time.
Spaner is no impartial observer. His stripes are on full display, but he delivers an insider’s view of the times – times that affect us still.