On the fifth day of protest, a group of tents had collected outside of the Port Alberni Shelter Society’s facility on eighth Avenue Wednesday afternoon.

But with the RCMP detachment across the field, the future of the encampment was uncertain after a message came from police earlier in the day that protesters would be removed, said the event’s organizer Graham Hughes.

Hughes, who recently ran as an independent in this fall’s provincial election, led the initiative with an online petition stating a broad range of allegations against the shelter’s management and operations.

Tensions on Canada’s east coast have been brewing ever since the Sipekne’katik First Nation opened a moderate livelihood lobster fishery outside of the federally regulated season last month in St. Marys Bay.

This led to violent backlash from Nova Scotia’s non-Indigenous commercial fishermen, who argue the Aboriginal fishers are threatening their way of life and will negatively impact lobster stocks.

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing widespread disruptions to how First Nations can access the justice system, and court restrictions are being felt most strongly by those in remote communities.

After the World Health Organization declared the respiratory disease a pandemic in March, courthouses across British Columbia were closed to in-person hearings. Some urgent matters were still heard by video conferencing and telephone, as the judiciary adjusted to how it would serve the public while limiting contact between people to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.

October is Caregiver Appreciation Month in British Columbia and Usma Nuu-chah-nulth Family & Child Services is celebrating by delivering gift baskets to its 146 care givers. Each basket has Indigenous-inspired creations, like home-canned salmon and jam.

In previous years Usma would celebrate care givers by hosting a dinner and offering prizes and gifts. But with the pandemic still posing a danger, they had to come up with alternative plans.

A second Port Alberni public school is reporting a confirmed COVID-19 case, raising concerns about the safety of schools during the pandemic.

School District 70 Pacific Rim, issued a news release Oct. 22, notifying the public that the district learned of a confirmed COVID-19 case in an individual at Wood Elementary School. person last attended the school on Monday, Oct. 19.

Those who form a government after the Oct. 24 election will inherit a province in the midst of a “paradigm shift” in how it sees ancient forests, according to an independent panel report released this fall.

For over two years, the Port Alberni Port Authority (PAPA) has been forging ahead trying to secure provincial and federal government funding to build a floating dry dock within the city.

In partnership with the Canadian Maritime Engineering Ltd (CME) and the Floating Dry Dock Community Committee, PAPA boasts that the construction project would create “significant labour, income and training opportunities for the region.”

Dry docks are used for lifting large ships and boats out of the water so that they can be inspected, repaired and maintained.

The number of recorded illicit drug deaths in British Columbia has increased by 112 per cent this September compared to the same month last year, according to the BC Coroners Service.

The province announced 127 fatalities in September alone.

While it did see a 15 per cent decrease from the number of deaths in August, Kevin Hollett, communications lead at the BC Centre on Substance Use, said that it’s too early to extract any kind of trend.

The sidewalks and businesses of Pandora Street in downtown Victoria, once buzzing with people, have quieted down considerably since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to March, hundreds of homeless people were camping on the grass medians in tent cities, allowing for easy access to support services operating in the area. But city bylaw enforcement and pandemic safety measures have forced the homeless indoors or to other areas.

As ugly threats and intimidation give way to violence against a Mi’kmaq lobster fishery on Canada’s East Coast, Nuu-chah-nulth leaders are demanding that Ottawa upholds the law.

NTC President Judith Sayers said she has been shocked by images captured over the past week showing tense confrontations between Indigenous fishermen and non-Indigenous protesters blocking their path in Nova Scotia.

On Saturday, a Mi’kmaq lobster storage facility was destroyed by fire, sending what police are calling a “person of suspicion” to hospital with serious injuries.