Tuesday, February 14th, marked the 32nd year that the streets of the Downtown Eastside flooded with remembrance of murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls, and gender diverse peoples. Families from First Nations across Canada came to commemorate their missing and murdered loved ones. 

At the corner of Main and East Hasting Street people began to gather in the morning, organizing for the day's events. The sky was widely blue, and the air was crisp with a coastal winter bite.

The Ka:'yu:'k't'h'/Che:k'tles7et'h' First Nations are looking at a bigger future for its Walter’s Cove Resort, with the purchase of a 23-room luxury floating facility planned to become more than its original fishing lodge design.

On Feb. 7, the provincial government announced legislation to make Truth and Reconciliation Day a statutory holiday, starting on Sept. 30, 2023.

The day was formally recognized as a federal statutory holiday in June of 2021, as a direct response to Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action, 80. Though, this only allotted the statutory holiday to federally regulated workplaces.

Currently the federal government, Prince Edward Island, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon are the jurisdictions that have declared Sept. 30 a statutory holiday.

Feb. 14 marks a day of remembering, grieving, healing, and honoring the Indigenous women, girls, and gender diverse peoples who are missing or murdered. 

The annual women’s memorial walk started decades ago at a time when there was little response or awareness towards MMIWG2S+, said Sarah Hunt, Kwagu’l of Kwakwaka’wakw, an assistant professor at the University of Victoria and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Political Ecology. There was a “lack of systemic response,” she continued.

Visitors to Pacific Rim National Park’s Long Beach near Tofino will now have access to Nuu-chah-nulth art and culture, thanks to a new trail that celebrates history and teachings of local First Nations. The trail, named ʔapsčiik t̓ašii, is located in the haḥuułi of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ.

ʔapsčiik t̓ašii, pronounced ‘ups-cheek ta-shee’, is a 25-kilometre multi-use pathway through the Long Beach unit of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. It can be seen on the west side of Highway 4 heading to Tofino.

“There used to be 200 totem poles lining the front of Opitsaht,” said Tla-o-qui-aht artist Hjalmer Wenstob.

Most were broken or burned when American Captain Robert Gray bombed Opitsaht back in 1792, he added.

Back then, historians say there were 200 long houses in Opitsaht, located on Meares Island across from Tofino. Each longhouse held 50 to 100 people. But the village was abandoned that day, its residents likely at other seasonal villages.

The longhouses and totem poles were hit with cannon balls and burnt, leaving Opitsaht in ruins. But the people rebuilt.

BC Hydro has announced the installation of a second fast-charging electric vehicle (EV) unit at the Pacific Rim Visitor Centre. The centre was originally built in 2018 with one charging unit. The second was installed in December of 2022.

The site, which was funded as part of a collaboration between BC Hydro, the provincial government, and Natural Resources Canada, is one of 81 sites with 133 units across British Columbia, operated by BC Hydro. Including privately operated charging sites, there are now nearly 20 in the Tofino-Ucluelet area alone.

Kuu-us Crisis Line Society is one of 22 Indigenous-led non-profits awarded $216, 000 over the course of three years from a provincial program.

Cindy McAnerin, associate director at Kuu-us Crisis Line Society, said a need that they have is to upgrade their vehicles for outreach.

“The vehicles we have now are fairly old, [and have] high kilometers. So we've been really in need of a new vehicle,” said McAnerin. “Without a dependable vehicle, it essentially prevents us from being able to do our outreach.”

After years of negotiating the shared governance of a vast offshore area west of Vancouver Island, today the federal government and four First Nations groups announced a major step towards protecting the unique deep-sea territory.

“We’re not going to save Pacific Salmon through a government program,” says the head of the First Nations Fisheries Council of B.C., during the announcement of a coalition formed to stop the path to extinction for the species.