It has been more than a year since the first case of COVID-19 was identified in British Columbia. It started with a man living in the Vancouver Coastal Health Region who had just returned from Wuhan, China.

The man has since recovered but in the following months more than 69,716 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in British Columbia.

As of Feb. 5, 2021, a total of 1,246 British Columbians have died of COVID-19; at least three of those deaths were Nuu-chah-nulth people.

Members of the Alberni Valley’s Grassroots Homelessness Coalition (GHC), now a registered society, are getting closer to providing a more permanent mobile warming centre for those experiencing homelessness.

Lax regulations compared to neighbouring U.S. states have made Canada’s West Coast a convenient dumping ground for cruise ship pollution, environmentalists believe.

While the cruise ship industry disputes the claim and defends its standards, Stand.earth and West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL) are pressing the federal government to step up with marine discharge regulations comparable to those in California, Washington and Alaska.

A follow up report on discrimination in B.C.’s health care system is stressing the need to improve access to primary treatment, as too many Indigenous people are forced to seek help in the emergency department due to little access to a family doctor.

A call for urgent reforms in logging practices to protect B.C. communities from climate change impacts reflects what First Nations have known all along, says NTC President Judith Sayers.

“There is so much at stake,” Sayers said after speaking out on the issue, publicly backing a Sierra Club report released Feb. 1. “I’m hoping people wake up. The forest fires two summers ago in British Columbia were just devastating.”

In a growing effort to revitalize Indigenous languages, Hesquiaht First Nation is encouraging their youth to apply to a free filmmaking program fused with language learning.

Collaborating with Reel Youth, a non-profit organization that delivers community development programming to youth across Canada, each participant will be paired with a fluent speaking elder to collaborate on a video with. 

Together, they will create a storyline that reveals the elder’s personality while incorporating Hesquiaht language throughout at least 50 per cent of the video. 

A new book showcasing the historical views and development of canoes as well as contemporary stories featuring canoes has been published. Alan L. Hoover, a retired curator and manager at the Royal British Columbia Museum co-authored Northwest Coast Canoes of Indigenous North America, which was released in December 2020.

Hoover collaborated on the book with retired researcher and author Eugene Arima, who wrote A Report on A West Coast Whaling Canoe Reconstructed at Port Renfrew, B.C. (1975) and The Whaling People of Vancouver Island and Cape Flattery (2011)

The provincial government has pledged $5-million towards development projects spanning across 24 B.C. parks. 

As part of the province’s StrongerBC economic recovery initiative to promote wellness and employment, the funds will be allocated towards improvements, such as the instillation of a raised boardwalk and viewing platform in MacMillan Provincial Park and the replacement of boardwalk and stair structures in Maquinna Marine Provincial Park.

A cane and leg brace sit near the entrance to Paul Sam’s apartment in Port Alberni. They’re familiar items for the 64-year-old, but also an indication of the empowerment Sam has gained during the last eight months over his Type 2 diabetes.

“I don’t use these anymore,” said Sam in a gentle, unrushed manner characteristic of his Ahousaht roots.

The First Nations Health Authority reports that it has, in partnership with regional health authorities, delivered more than 10,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to First Nations Communities.

Dr. Shannon McDonald, acting chief medical health officer at FNHA, told Ha-Shilth-Sa that B.C. Indigenous Communities have received more than 10,000 doses of vaccine since late December, and the number is approaching 11,000. She added that this work was made possible not only through FNHA but also through their partnerships with regional health authorities.