Attending a Whitecaps FC game

As much as I've always liked the world's beautiful game, I have never been to a Whitecaps game in Vancouver. So when my daughter and son-in-law invited me to the game last Saturday...

We started at the Devil's Elbow and enjoyed the chants and exhortations of members of the Curva Collective who were also imbibing at the pub, not all that far from the stadium.





















Not only was this my first Whitecaps game, it was also my first visit to the new and improved BC Place. The renovations, wildly over budget, clocked in at well over $500 million, and were an impressive sight. But over $500 million of taxpayer money? Hmmm....  funny how quickly voters forget these things in this province.







My hosts have season tickets on the south-side of the stadium, and this is where the Curva Collective and the Southsiders have their seats, or rather where they choose to stand for the entire game. The Curva Collective and the Southsiders are two independent fan-based support groups for the Whitecaps. In fact, the Southsiders are the largest fan-based group of its kind in Canada with over 1200 members.





The Curva Collective is the smaller of the  two groups, though more visible with their flags and banners, and probably louder with their chants and songs. The Collective, as befits their name, has adopted a more democratic model in the way they present themselves in public.





We sat nearer the Curva Collective, in fact quite near, so it was easy to get caught up in their antics. The fellow with the beard and megaphone spent the entire match with his back to the pitch, calling out the chants and willing the larger group into doing all sorts of things. Like taking off your shoes to show support, or your shirt, or wave your arms... I got tired just watching. It's all family-friendly and fun.

A highlight at Saturday's game was the Curva Collective's recognition of Uruguay's Independence Day, and the unfurling of a large banner depicting the four Uruguayan players on Whitecaps FC.








Both fan groups are open to all, including families, and both strive to be positive role models for the entire crowd of 20,000. You won't hear much negativity from these guys.

The game itself featured a win for Vancouver over Dallas, was entertaining and fast. None of the long drawn out breaks for television at an MSL game.

At the end of the game all of us were standing to salute the Whitecaps, and most of us were singing the Whitecaps song.

If you haven't been to a game, it should be considered. Join the Curva Collective. It's all great fun. Especially when our team wins. Next game is tomorrow, August 26, at BC Place, against the Montreal Impact.



Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2015 by Jim Murray.
Front-on picture of banner from Curva Collective facebook page. 

Migrants are not the problem ~ the word is a problem

Lately, I've been thinking about the migrants crossing the Mediterranean into Europe. I've been considering the way the word migrant is being used by journalists and politicians alike. Somehow, I think, we have become desensitised to what is really happening, and part of that desensitisation is the repeated use of the word migrant.

When we allow our media and governments to apply reductive terminology to human beings, we get the British foreign minister referring to "marauding migrants," and an increase in hate speech and racism.


We don't really have a migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. In fact, according to the UN, the vast majority of these people are fleeing war. The largest group comes from Syria, a nation where about 300,000 have been killed in that escalating brutality. Others come from Afghanistan, Libya, Eritrea, Somalia and Iraq.



These people are not migrants, nor are they economic migrants. They most definitely are not marauding migrants.They are overwhelmingly refugees escaping the misery and danger of war, which includes, but is not limited to, rape, torture and death. And yet we call them migrants, as though they are on some kind of family excursion. "Oh, let's visit Europe this summer. Maybe next year we can see the Rocky Mountains." Yeah, right.

In the first seven months of this year, about 340,000 people have crossed into Europe. A large number, but in the context of a European population of over 700 million, not so significant at all. Contrast that with Turkey, which hosts almost 2 million refugees from Syria alone, or Lebanon where there are more than a million refugees from Syria.


And so, when hundreds of people drown crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy boats, they aren't called refugees. They are only migrants. Perhaps that is what our governments would have us believe. Perhaps it suits a political agenda to dehumanise the problem, to call them migrants instead of people or refugees.



Words are important. Migrant is a word that robs suffering people of identity and voice.

Not all that long ago we turned away boats filled with European Jews, escaping the madness of that war. We found convenient ways to dehumanise that problem too. Is history repeating itself ? Shame on Europe and shame on us.

Copyright 2015 by Jim Murray.
Photos by Milos Bicanski/Al Jazeera

Cumberland Brewing Company

The village of Cumberland, slightly south of Courtenay, has a reputation for being on the fringes. From the late 1800s through to the middle of the 1900s, Cumberland was a coal town, and at its peak, coal employed over 600 and supported a town of 3000. At one time Cumberland boasted the second largest Chinatown on the west coast of North America. There are still a number of old company houses and structures in Cumberland, including parts of the Chinatown, and some of the best hiking and mountain biking trails in BC, but... that's not why we're here.

Today's Cumberland, still on the fringes, features one of the new craft breweries springing up around the province and this one is definitely worth a look.






On the main street of the village it's not hard to miss, though the door that fronts the street actually looks in on the brew master and all his equipment. The proper entry is around the side and it boasts a large, mostly-covered patio for the summer-time crowd and indoor seating as well.

Mike Tymchuk is the brew master and his story is one of a passion for beer. While attending university and working at Canada's first in-house brew pub, Spinnakers in Victoria, in the 1980s, Mike was offered an opportunity to make beer, and one thing led to another.

A few years ago, Mike and his life-partner Caroline, found themselves in Cumberland. On the fringes. They opened Riders Pizza to blazing success, and in December 2014, together with another partner, opened the Cumberland Brewing Company.






There are flights of beer to be had, "and, why not?" said Jeem. Flights offer five different brews, though Cumberland Brewing Co. currently offers six, ranging from a delicious bitter to a wonderful oatmeal stout. The brews change with the season and available ingredients. All are worth tasting of course, though the English Bitter caught Jeem's favour.

Impressive as all this beer is, there's something else going on here too, and it's just as impressive. Caroline and Mike Tymchuk, through their two business ventures, have created twenty jobs in Cumberland, jobs that didn't exist before Riders Pizza and Cumberland Brewing. It's an example of how to grow jobs across our country. We don't need big corporations to produce beer, and we don't need to truck in beer from centralised breweries, let alone from Mexico or Belgium.


Beer can be produced in small batches, often with local ingredients, in every town and neighbourhood across the land. It's the way the industry began and it can happen again, giving us uniquely local brews with different flavours and tastes. Local breweries would be good for all of us. Mike and Caroline Tymchuk are doing something good for Cumberland, and other craft brewers are doing the same for their communities.

Globalization is the past. Localization is the future.




Cumberland Brewing Co. is a fun place with great people, beer and pizza. While the village might be on the fringes, the brewery provides all of us with a great reason to visit.

Photos by Jeem. Copyright 2015 by Jim Murray.