“The system is set up for failure,” said a worried and frustrated mother of a young, heroin addicted man. Jackie Dennis of Huu-ay-aht is doing whatever she can to help her adult son get clean, including taking him home to Anacla to care for him as he goes through the painful process of withdrawing from heroin addiction.

Dennis says her 30-year-old son wants to get clean after using heroin for six years.

“He told me he’s done with it, he wants out,” said Dennis.

But heroin is like a clingy lover, it doesn’t let you go easily.

A new film featuring Nuu-chah-nulth efforts to save salmon habitat on the west coast of Vancouver Island is made its premiere at Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) on March 2 in Vancouver.

Filmed in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territories, Salmon Parks, an 11-minute documentary, was filmed in 2021 by director Carter Kirilenko.

The filmmakers say that wild salmon and old-growth forests have evolved together over time and without one, the other couldn’t survive.

The Alberni District Secondary School (ADSS) senior girls’ Armada basketball team recently returned to Port Alberni after competing in the 2022 BC AAAA senior girls’ provincials in Langley. 

In the lead up to their first game at the Langley Events Centre on March 2, assistant captain Jenelle Johnson-Sabbas said her nerves were running high. 

Unlike her home gymnasium at ADSS, the basketball court in Langley hosted larger crowds, an announcer’s table, and a big screen TV that broadcasted the game. 

A plan is in place to ensure high school graduates have a better understanding of the ancestral history of British Columbia, with a requirement to complete coursework that focuses on Indigenous culture.

Announced by the B.C. Ministry of Education on March 4, this development would begin for high school students in the 2023-24 school year. To earn a Dogwood Diploma, all high school students would need to complete coursework with an Indigenous focus among the 80 credits they currently earn to graduate. A typical, one-semester course earns four credits towards the diploma.

The Pacific Salmon Treaty (PST) is under fire following a report suggesting that Alaskan fisheries are impacting struggling salmon populations by intercepting a significant number of B.C.-bound fish.

Commissioned by Watershed Watch Salmon Society and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, the report was released on Jan. 11, in conjunction with the U.S. and Canada’s annual review of bilateral management under the treaty.

Advocates say this came as no surprise and that in order to see change, the public needs to apply pressure on both sides of the border.

The Nootka Sound Watershed Society (NSWS) is nearing completion of its three-year riparian restoration project for watersheds located within traditional Nuu-chah-nulth territories.

As the government tightens restrictions on salmon farming, an aquaculture company on the West Coast is relying on technological advancements to meet a growing global demand.

Getting open net-pen fish farms out of the ocean appears to be more complicated than it sounded when this plan was promised by the Liberals in last fall’s federal election.

This year Fisheries and Oceans Canada is consulting with First Nations across B.C., a mosaic of coastal communities with diverse connections to the controversial industry.

Back in March of 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic put Cody Nielsen-Robinson in a tough position.

The 24-year-old’s Level 1 carpentry course was put on hold, with few prospects of progressing his career aspirations amid the new restrictions.

“I really was in a pickle because I couldn’t continue,” recalled Nielsen-Robinson. “They were pushing it through but they were online classes and I couldn’t really learn how to use power tools through Zoom meetings.”