In 2008, when the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks Guardianship Program took over the maintenance of the Meares Island Big Tree Trail, they had lots of work to do.
Saya Masso, lands director for the Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks Guardian Program, has been a guardian since 2008 when the positions were first inaugurated to help implement the land vision outlined in the Tribal Park Declaration.
Since the signing of the BC First Nation Justice Strategy in 2020, a carefully outlined plan with 43 actions to reform the system and restore Indigenous legal traditions, one of the priorities outlined is the implementation of 15 First Nation justice centres throughout the province.
The first four centres in Prince Rupert, Prince George, Merrit, and virtually marked their opening in January 2022.
In late 2022 the BCFNJC announced that the next centres to be opened will be in Nanaimo, Victoria, Vancouver, Surrey, and Kelowna in 2023.
With concerns for ‘fire, life and safety’ the City of Vancouver, with help from the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) are conducting a sweep in an effort to close an illegal encampment where approximately 80 tent structures stand along Hastings Street in the city’s notorious DTES (Downtown East Side).
For the Tseshaht beachkeepers, March 23 began when they met their supervisor down at the Port Alberni docks. They took two boats down the Alberni Inlet to Equis, where they had left Hemlock branches along a string of buoys with hopes to catch herring eggs. But with no luck they returned to Keith Island where they spent the remainder of the day.
Later on that day the crew decided to take their time on their way back home to Port Alberni. It was when they neared Nahmint Bay that they noticed sprays a few hundred metres ahead.
All in all the federal government’s fiscal plan for this year presents a positive collection of initiatives to help the struggles of many Nuu-chah-nulth people, says Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns - although the spending measures fall short in tackling the opioid crisis.
A calf was recently born to the feral herd of cattle that have roamed freely on Meares Island for more than a century.
According to resident Norman Thomas, the calf was born on April 3, behind his house, located at the back side of the village of Opitsaht.
“My boys (in early 20s) saw it being born yesterday and they were worried that dogs or something would get after it when the mother wandered off,” Thomas told Ha-Shilth-Sa.
A new toxic drug alert text service has expanded to Island Health. The new service, available on Vancouver Island, sends out warnings by text of toxic drug advisories in your city.
Launched by Toward the Heart, a British Columbia Centre for Disease Control program, and Island Health in 2022, the drug-poisoning overdose advisory became available for Vancouver Islanders by text message in December 2022.
Forty-three people at risk of homelessness will soon have a permanent home in Victoria, at a facility designed to provide the positive elements of a First Nations community.
Over the next two weeks the House of Courage will be taking in its first residents. Located at 865 Catherine Street, deep within a residential neighbourhood in west Victoria, the four-storey facility will offer a carefully selected group their own suites, with meal services, employment and life skills programming delivered by around-the-clock staff.
With First Nations in B.C. having died at a rate 5.4 times higher than other residents in 2021, and Port Alberni, a hub for Nuu-chah-nulth, seeing an increase in drug induced deaths, Tseshaht First Nation organized a forum to address the opioid crisis.
“We're actually in a state of emergency for the amount of people that we've lost,” said Wahmeesh (Ken Watts), elected chief councillor of Tseshaht First Nation. “We've lost more people to [the] opioid crisis than COVID-19.”
The Port Alberni Friendship Center (PAFC) opened its doors to families on Friday, March 31 to celebrate spring.
Guests were treated to spaghetti dinner with refreshments while they chatted. PAFC employees Chantel Lalonde and Roxy Taylor served up plates of food while taking down names for door prizes.
There were fewer guests than expected, likely because the PAFC was hosting another celebration at The Shelter on Eighth. The PAFC was recently awarded the contract to manage the shelter beginning April 1, 2023.