By Tayvie Van Eeuwen
@tayvieee

To be honest, the world feels pretty darn grim right now. Lucky for you we have a brand new A Happy Place article to cheer you up! Boost your serotonin levels with a quick happy read.

Local

Squamish Nation guarantees a living wage to employees

All I can say is: Indigenous 👏🏼 folks 👏🏼 are 👏🏼 the 👏🏼 best.

While the minimum wage in British Columbia is $14.60 per hour, Squamish Nation has recently been certified as a Living Wage Employer for providing $19.50 an hour without benefits or $17.16 per hour with benefits.

This comes as a great relief to Squamish Nation employees, who can comfortably make ends meet despite their job position.

As Living Wage Canada writes on their website,

The living wage sets a higher test — a living wage reflects what earners in a family need to bring home, based on the actual costs of living in a specific community. The living wage is a call to private and public sector employers to pay wages to both direct and contract employees sufficient to provide
the basics to families with children.

This is calculated based on a two-parent family with two children, assuming both parents work full-time.

This change will increase the standard of living for 94 Squamish Nation employees, of which 64% are nation members and another 11% identify as Indigenous.

“The Squamish Nation strives to be an employer of choice, where our community members and all current and prospective employees seek career opportunities with the Squamish Nation,” Orene Askew, Squamish Nation councillor and spokesperson, told Daily Hive. “Being a Living Wage employer and providing an annual cost of living increase are two ways that we can work towards accomplishing this goal.”

“It shows that we value our employees by ensuring they have their salary needs met to take care of their families and also build a strong and healthy Squamish Nation community.”

Beloved BC government interpreter becomes UBC’s latest language professor

As someone who is half-deaf I have to say, Nigel Howard has stolen my heart.

The University of British Columbia has recently announced that Howard will be joining their team this fall to offer an accredited first year American Sign Language (ASL) class.

Howard has been a part of the University of Victoria’s faculty for 11 years, consistently full with extended waitlists. Now, students from Metro Vancouver can immerse themselves in the same experience over virtual learning.

While Howard has been a successful interpreter for some time, being part of the United Nations priorly, he rose to fame particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. His expressive style was noticed alongside BC health officials, drawing a widespread fan base.

Some Metro Vancouver residents have begun selling merchandise of the star, with a Facebook fan page accumulating over 4,000 likes.

As Howard told CBC News,

Seeing a sign language interpreter present on the television has been a very new experience for many of our community members. For the deaf community, they feel like: ‘Finally we’re included at the same time. It’s not that we get a transcript later. We’re not an afterthought.’

We 💛 you Nigel!

National

Alberta man’s screenplay is taking on Hollywood

Just a small town boy making it big time. 🎉

An Edmonton man’s screenplay has caught the attention of Hollywood, set to start production this October in New Mexico and Georgia. “Cop Shop” came into existence six years ago when Kurt McLeod was studying at law school. Since then, the screenplay has been a work-in-progress, so much so it has made it to LA.

Global News reports the upcoming feature film will star actor Gerard Butler and will be directed by Joe Carnahan. Not going to lie, that’s impressive!

What’s even more surprising about the endeavour is that screenplay is simply a hobby for McLeod, who spends his days working as a financial advisor.

“My favourite part of it being a hobby is to have a career that I love and the flexibility to write whatever you want. If you need to make money, it limits what you’re able to do. If you’re doing it as a passion hobby, you can write whatever you want,” he told Global News.

The movie takes place over one night in a single police station, with a
“number of characters involved that have goals that don’t quite match.”

We can’t wait to see where his screenplay hobby takes him in the future! 🎥

Worldwide

Lifetime announces its first-ever Asian American holiday film

Everyone knows that the holidays mean Hallmark movies for the white women of North America. Well, Hallmark is finally stepping it up with Lifetime’s first-ever Asian American led holiday film. 🎄

Jacky Lai (V-Wars), Tony Giroux (Motherland: Fort Salem) and Tzi Ma (Mulan, Wu Assassins) are teaming up this winter to star in Sugar & Spice Holiday. The movie will feature a completely Asian American cast, as well as an Asian director, writer, and casting director.

🔥 Representation on and off screen. *Chef’s kisses* 🔥

TV Line reports that the movie follows Suzie (played by Lai), a rising young architect who returns to her small hometown in Maine for Christmas, where her Chinese-American parents, Pete (Ma) and Mimi (Motherland: Fort Salem‘s Lillian Lim), run the local Lobster Bar.

Following the loss of her beloved grandmother who was a legendary baker in their community, Suzie is guilted into following in her grandmother’s footsteps by entering — you guessed it — the local gingerbread house competition. Teaming up with an old high school friend Billy (Giroux), who grew up to be quite a catch, “Suzie must find the right mix of sugar and spice to win the competition, and perhaps find some love in the process.”

We love some corny, yet cute holiday charm. Watch it this December on Lifetime.

19 Black families buy 97 acres of land in Georgia to create a town called “Freedom”

“Welcome to freedom!” -Ashley Scott

In August, Scott and 19 other Black families teamed up to buy a total of 97 acres in Wilkinson County, Georgia. The initiative came into existence from a desire to create a safe space for Black families to live.

“I’m hoping that it will be a thriving safe haven for people of color, for Black families in particular,” Scott told CNN.

“Being able to create a community that is thriving, that is safe, that has agriculture and commercial businesses that are supporting one another and that dollars circulating in our community, that is our vision.”

Scott explained that after this year’s jarring murder of George Floyd, among others, ignited the need for a safe Black owned space—a place to form community.

“We both have Black husbands. We both have Black sons. And I was starting to get overwhelmed and have a sense of anxiety when my husband will leave the house to go to work,” said Walters. “So, it was like, OK, what can we do?”

From there, the Freedom Georgia campaign was born. While the land itself sits empty right now, the Freedom Georgia campaign plans to break ground and build up a community.

“It was just such a beautiful piece of land. It was affordable, and it just made sense that we could create something that would be amazing for our families,” said Scott.

SO EXCITED!