It’s been five years since six-year-old Dontay Lucas was found unresponsive in his home in a townhouse on the south side of Port Alberni and now his mother and her husband, who have been in custody since May 2022, are appearing in a Port Alberni courtroom as the preliminary hearing begins.

In Canada, a preliminary inquiry is a judicial hearing that is used in serious criminal cases to determine whether the evidence assembled by the Crown against an accused person is sufficient to proceed with a trial.

For two sunny days, community members and guests gathered at Nitinaht lake to celebrate Paddle Days on June 7 and 8.

Each day began at Gus Bay, where Ditidaht Community School and guests partook in 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m canoe races.

Students and teachers battled for first, second, and third place while laughter, chanting, and cheering filled the North-East corner of the Lake.

Following the first morning of races were performances, shared meals and activities such as screen printing, axe throwing and archery, among others. 

The Fairy Creek watershed, a highly contested area of old growth that saw nearly 1,200 arrests in southern Vancouver Island in 2021, is being protected from logging for another year and a half.

The deferral announcement came from the B.C. Ministry of Forests in early June, days before the existing ban on harvesting old growth trees was set to expire. In place until Feb. 1, 2025, the extended deferral encompasses 1,183.9 hectares of Crown forest land near Port Renfrew that is entirely located within the territory of the Pacheedaht First Nation.

As the wildfire rages on at Cameron Bluffs and Highway 4 remains closed for the foreseeable future, travelers became stranded as the emergency detour closed for several hours on Friday, June 9.

Earlier this week, a container truck utilizing the emergency detour rolled over. The emergency detour was scheduled to be closed for eight hours on June 9 as crews work to pull the truck out of Francis Lake.

Both Highway 4 and the detour through Cowichan Lake will be closed today. According to the Ministry of Transportation, the highway remains closed due to the Cameron Bluffs wildfire which has been burning since June 3 and has grown to 208 hectares according to BC Wildfire Services.

The detour will be closed to all vehicles from 1 p.m. until 9 p.m. on Friday so that crews can work to extract a commercial truck that rolled into Francis Lake near Nitinaht. According to the Ministry, the detour will open sooner if the vehicle extraction is completed quickly.

A circuitous detour route to Port Alberni set up for the essential delivery of supplies due to the Cameron Bluffs wildfire will be closed on Friday for eight hours, as crews work to move an overturned container truck that has been lying in Francis Lake since Wednesday.

Highway 4 has been closed for the second full day due to the Cameron Bluff wildfire and western Vancouver Island communities are beginning to run low on supplies as people rush to fill their gas tanks and pantries.

The BC Wildfire Service says the fire is still burning out of control at 140 hectares in size, according to their latest update on Thursday, June 8.

It’s been less than 24 hours since Highway 4 closed on June 6 and motorists are reporting that a Tofino-based service station is rationing fuel purchases to 30 liters per customer.

A spokesperson for Tofino Consumer Co-op Gas Bar confirmed that the limit is being implemented until they can get a fuel delivery. But nobody knows when that can be since the fuel truck is stranded on the other side of the fire zone at Cameron Lake east of Port Alberni. As of 11 a.m. today, the Cameron Bluffs wildfire has grown to 140 hectares since it was discovered on Saturday.

The forest fire burning on the mountain side above Highway 4 at Cameron Lake has been upgraded to Wildfire of Note according to the BC Wildfire Services. This means that the fire is highly visible or poses a threat to public safety.

In addition, the fire is deemed out of control. It is continuing to spread and is not responding to suppression efforts. The fire had grown to 80 hectares according to BC Wildfire Services latest update, which was Tuesday, June 6, at 5:04 p.m.