With a fire pit heating up to barbeque salmon behind them, students from the Eighth Avenue Learning Centre’s unveiled the name of the school’s new garden today.

When reflecting on this past school year, Nancy Logan said COVID-19 gave her students at Haahuupayak Elementary School an added bonus of “survival education.”

Located within the community of Tseshaht First Nation in Port Alberni, many of the school’s students are dealing with intergenerational traumas.

COVID-19 added to those challenges as students worried they’d be putting their grandparents and elders at risk by attending school. Some developed a fear of the outdoors, described Logan.

On Tuesday Teechuktl Mental Health hosted its first picnic in the park since 2019, returning to an annual tradition aimed at feeding the Port Alberni community.

Restrictions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic prevented a picnic last year. While the provincial health officer’s measures have been eased this spring, limits on outdoor gathering led to team that provides the Quu’asa program to set up a pick-up location rather than its usual large-scale gathering. Paper bags were prepared by staff at tables in Dry Creek Park, where over lunches were picked up by passersby.

On Tuesday, June 15 Rainbow Gardens marked the next stage of its expanding housing facilities, with 48 more units expected to be completed in summer 2022.

Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council President Kekinusuqs, Dr. Judith Sayers, will be installed as Vancouver Island University’s (VIU) third chancellor during a virtual ceremony on June 17.

Sayers was appointed into the position in October 2020 for a three-year term. The installation is a ceremonial introduction that’s normally held within the first year of the new chancellor assuming office duties.

A livestream of the event will begin at 10:45 a.m., with the installation at 11 a.m.

Federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan used World Oceans Day, June 8, to introduce via Zoom “the largest, most transformative investment in salmon by any government in history.”

“Many Pacific wild salmon are on the verge of collapse, and we need to take bold ambitious action now if we are to reverse the trend and give them a fighting chance at survival,” Jordan said, announcing the Pacific Salmon Strategic Initiative (PSSI).

An inquest into the death of Jocelyn Nynah Marsha George is set to begin June 21, scheduled for at least five days, with the possibility of extending into the following week.

The 18-year-old Hesquiaht/Ahousaht woman died of heart failure after spending a night in custody at the Port Alberni RCMP detachment in the summer of 2016.

Under the Coroners Act, inquests are mandatory for any deaths that occur while someone is detained by or in the custody of a police officer. 

After six months of all-out efforts to recover bulk oil and diesel seeping from a sunken freighter in Nootka Sound, officials were surprised by how little fuel remains on the bottom.

“I think the biggest surprise was the lack of oil down there,” said Coast Guard Unified Commander Paul Barrett, remarking on a technical assessment that found 147 cubic metres (147,000 litres) of fuel remains in two tanks aboard the MV Schiedyk.

Three weeks after tensions with logging protestors erupted into a clash with forestry workers in the Walbran Valley, an apology was made to the Nuu-chah-nulth nations with forestry interests in the region.

On June 4 owners from Island Forest, a contractor operating in Tree Farm Licence 44, ventured to the Ditidaht dry-land log sorting facility to express their regret to the First Nation, as well as the Huu-ay-aht and Pacheedaht.

As Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks Guardians sang and drummed outside Gaia Grocery in Tofino, owner Amorita Adair was swept by emotions.

Through tears and a wide smile, she watched as the guardians thanked her for becoming a Tribal Parks ally in January.

“You helped us through our COVID-19 response, keeping our community safe through a really difficult time,” said Saya Masso, Tla-o-qui-aht Tribal Parks director of lands. “We want to lift you up as you lifted us up.”