by Sean Orr | Have you noticed how all of a sudden Vancouver is filled with architects? Vancouver Art Gallery’s new design revealed. All the people who are complaining about how a Swiss architect was chosen over a Canadian one should look at the picture closely. See those personality-devoid, cookie-cutter, grey-green towers in the background? You really want more of those?

A couple of really great reader comments though:

“A layer cake of rusty sheds”
“Wasn’t this one of the Jawa repair hangars on Tatooine?”
“Mehchitecture…”
“The new VAG design is a little too boxy if you ask me.”
“You’d never guess what this couple in Wisconsin did with these re-purposed shipping containers.”
And my favourite: “Imagine if it was actually going to get built!”

Decent criminal: Man breaks into B.C. home, showers, shaves, feeds cats, writes in diary, starts fire, caught watching TV. “Today was my first full day at the ranch,” he wrote in the diary. “I fed the cats and horses. So much I can do here I have to remind myself to just relax and take my time…”

The opposite: Trail saboteur pleads guilty to mischief on Fromme. “She and her husband have been mercilessly harassed, not only by the press but through social media,” he said, adding, “Some of the comments on social media are by people who are very, very angry.” Here’s another: you are a selfish douchebag who could have killed someone and now you’re stressed out about online comments? Fuck. Right. Off.

Smoking gun: A real nation would not let this happen. Shame.

If it’s a typical eight weeks in Canada, then 1,425 Aboriginal kids dropped out of school, a rate three times the national average. Since the campaign began, 45 Aboriginal children died in infancy; they would have lived longer if they’d been born in Sri Lanka. As Canadian politicians bickered on the evening news, 1,074 Aboriginal children and 6,265 Aboriginal women were sexually assaulted. Since the writ dropped, 33,534 Aboriginals were violently victimized. Another 182 committed suicide, roughly eight times the national rate. And, if the last two months were anything like the last decade, 11 were murdered, at a rate almost seven times higher than the national average.

But sure, let’s talk about the niqab instead.

Meanwhile, wedge issues that prey upon paranoia and divisiveness? What could possibli go wrong? A pregnant woman wearing a hijab was assaulted in Anjou. But of course, it’s not the Conservatives fault for stirring up anti-niqab xenophobia to try and lure the racist rural Quebec vote. It’s…er…the mayor of Calgary and, wait for it….. “people like him”.

“If anything’s dangerous, it would be legitimizing a medieval tribal custom that treats women as property rather than people,” So this includes the Hutterites, right? Besides, as Arundhati Roy said: “Coercing a woman out of a burqa is as bad as coercing her into one…”

More of Lynton Crosby’s handiwork: Conservatives pledge funds, tip line to combat ‘barbaric cultural practices’. True to form, Twitter goes to work: #BarbaricCulturalPractices

And speaking of barbaric cultural practices: Teen faces crucifixion and beheading by Saudi government – Harper says no need to cancel Saudi arms deal.

Remember though, the Liberals voted for bill S-7 too. People are talking about a coalition government like there isn’t one already.

It’s not paranoia if they’re actually watching you: Marijuana ‘infinitely worse’ than tobacco, should be discouraged: Harper. Douglas Haddow breaks it down for us:

37,000 Canadians die from tobacco-related illnesses per year. So if we do some simple multiplication, 37,000 X ? = …. woh ….
According to Harper’s math, it means that every single person who has ever lived has died because of marijuana. That’s like a 9/11 happening every nanosecond of every day. Stay woke.

But hey, if fear and paranoia don’t work, just make it impossible to vote: Elections Canada mistake leaves B.C. resident skeptical. Come on, you live on Cortes Island. Like you weren’t already a super skeptical person.

While you’re at it, make it impossible to debate: too naive to understand economic policy.

Talk about a smear campaign: Julian Fantino facing charges over alleged ketchup-smearing incident 42 years ago.

What was that about slowly becoming America? Mac’s stores to be renamed Circle K. As long as I still get to giggle every time I see a Couche-Tard in Quebec, I’m pretty indifferent.

Instagram of the day: Gastown Yin Yang.

And speaking of Gastown, Michael Mann‘s contributor pick for the Straight’s Best of Vancouver wins the internet: Best reason that we no longer need to fear outlaw biker gangs: “The Lords of Gastown are permitted to exist.”