Editor’s note: The following story contains strong language from former students of the Christie Indian Residential School and references that may be upsetting to some readers.
Shattered glass.
Wailing cries soothed by traditional drums.
Wood cracked as the digger excavator tore into the roof of the old Christie Indian Residential School, releasing decades of bridled sorrow and anger.
The 2025 Point-in-Time (PiT) Count shows shifting rates of homelessness across Vancouver Island, particularly in Campbell River, Port Alberni, and Nanaimo, three cities where Indigenous people continue to be overrepresented among the unhoused.
Conducted across 20 communities, the count found homelessness decreased in eight and increased in 12 compared to 2023. The surveys for Campbell River and Port Alberni were conducted on April 30, 2025, with funding from BC Housing, while Nanaimo’s report followed on July 21 under the federal Reaching Home program.
The road to Bamfield is now expected to reopen by Oct. 24, two and a half months after the only southbound land route to Bamfield, Anacla and Nitinaht was shut off due to the Mount Underwood forest fire.
Announced by the province on Oct. 9, the road’s reopening is set to occur one week sooner than initially expected, as “significant progress has been made in recent weeks,” according to a press release from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.
Judith Sayers and Les Doiron have been elected serve another term as the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council’s president and vice-president.
Voted in by a majority of society members, the incumbent leaders were re-elected at the NTC’s annual general meeting on Oct. 1, which was held at the Tigh-Na-Mara resort in Parksville. Reflective of populations in the tribal council’s 14 First Nations, there are currently 108 NTC society members, who are determined by the leadership of their respective nations. Sayers and Doiron were the only candidates to step forward to be on the ballot.
The Citaapi Mahtii Housing Society is reaching an exciting milestone with the grand opening ceremony of their new apartment building set for Oct. 17, 2025.
Established in 2019, the Citaapi Mahtii Housing Society saw a need for Ahousaht members living in Port Alberni.
“We have a housing crisis, and we have people waiting to get in,” said Citaapi Mahtii operations manager Jude Newman.
When problems erupt between the people and their First Nations administrative workers or leadership, it can feel like there is little that can be done to resolve it. That’s because members are often connected by familial relationships to those in leadership or in the band office.
When dynamics like that happen, members often cite favoritism or nepotism, with certain individuals or families getting preferential treatment, while other issues are seemingly swept under the rug. Huu-ay-aht is working to resolve this with the introduction of their HFN Ombudsman Program.
Tla-o-qui-aht Chief Councillor Elmer Frank (Hyou-sin-up-shilth) is asking community members to be diligent about locking doors, especially at night, after a “scary situation” unfolded on Sept. 29 involving an attempted child abduction.
That evening a seven-year-old boy was taken from his home and carried through Ty-Histanis and left at the basketball court in Esowista, reads a memorandum released by Tla-o-qui-aht on Sept. 30.
In what has become an annual tradition, staff of ADSS (Alberni District Secondary School) along with the Indigenous Leadership Team threw a barbecue dinner as they welcomed new students for the 2025/26 school year.
According to Deborah Potter, who is an Indigenous Support Worker (ISW), the barbecue was held at ADSS on the evening of September 25.
More than 750 rural households on Vancouver Island and surrounding coastal communities will soon gain access to high-speed internet, thanks to federal and provincial investments.
The Ministry of Citizens’ Services announced that 11 rural communities will receive last-mile fibre and transport infrastructure.
The project includes services for 123 households in the rural areas of Texada Island, 129 households on Piers Island, and 500 families in Jordan River, as well as the Pacheedaht First Nation communities of Gordon River 2 and Pacheena 1.
A group of researchers led by the University of Victoria (UVic) are investigating the possible impacts of overuse on the B.C. coastal mountains and its connection to climate change.
Environmental researchers are collaborating with the Squamish Nation and BC Parks on their Alpine Horizons research initiative. B.C.’s alpine region is an understudied area, says lead researcher Dr. Noémie Boulanger-Lapointe, a UVic assistant professor in the Department of Geography.