More consistency is needed in determining who is permitted to accompany a loved one admitted to hospital, says those working closely with Nuu-chah-nulth families seeking emergency health care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal government says it is moving forward in transitioning away from open net-pen fish farms in coastal British Columbia.

In an online press conference today, Terry Beech, parliamentary secretary to the minister of fisheries, announced that moving towards more sustainable technology is a priority.

“What that technology is and what best fits for British Columbia over the near future is part of what needs to be examined,” he said.

A small crowd gathered in front of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #65 in Tofino for a commemorative demonstration in the morning on Remembrance Day.

Maintaining social distancing, around 30 people stood in silence to witness the ceremony.

The event, which normally draws nearly 300 community members together, signalled the sign of the times.

There are more than 20 known Nuu-chah-nulth veterans that fought in world wars. Many of them were laid to rest in unmarked graves.

“Since 1909, the Last Post Fund’s mission is to ensure that no veteran is denied a dignified funeral and burial, as well as a military gravestone, due to insufficient funds at time of death,” reads information from Last Post Fund.

Lower Third and Fourth Avenues in Port Alberni bustle with activity both day and night. Now that winter is approaching and the nights are getting longer, chances of pedestrians being struck by vehicles increase dramatically.

Const. Elizabeth O’Conner of the city’s RCMP Indigenous Policing Service notes that there have been fatal vehicle collisions with pedestrians in Port Alberni over the years. A recent fatality occurred about a year ago; it involved a Nuu-chah-nulth woman crossing Third Avenue near the Safe Injection Site on a dark night when she was struck and killed.

As a bitter U.S. presidential election drags on, Seattle residents with Nuu-chah-nulth ties have been anxiously glued to their screens, gripped with a mixture of hope and anxiety.

Chad Charlie, Ahousaht filmmaker, comedian and activist, watched polls trickle in on Friday morning, Nov. 6. Like countless millions of others, he expected the election outcome would be called after three days. The wait was nerve wracking but at least an end was in sight, or so it seemed.

“I have confidence in a Biden win, but it’s very anxiety driven right now,” Charlie said.

Barney Williams has had a fondness for apples ever since his first year at Christie Residential School.

He spent most days with his hollow belly aching from hunger pangs, but on occasion, the school’s staff discarded apple peels out of the kitchen window. Scrambling like dogs, Williams and his classmates would run out to collect them, savouring the sweet taste of the fruit.

As a six-year-old boy, Williams was forced from his home in Opitsaht, on Meares Island, and transported to Flores Island where he boarded in a stale, white building marked with a cross.

With a landslide NDP victory behind him, Premier John Horgan has yet to name the next attorney general. But whoever takes on this critical cabinet position will be faced with an increasingly daunting crisis facing British Columbia: the overrepresentation of Indigenous people being incarcerated.

In response to the pandemic, faculty at Haahuupayak Elementary School mobilized to try and minimize the added layer of stress imposed on students.

A poll was circulated among staff, students and families, asking whether they’d like to see the school week cut down from five days to four.

“It was almost unanimous across the board,” said principal Nancy Logan.

After presenting the idea to the school board, it was quickly passed and this week marked the first four-day week for the First Nations elementary school in Port Alberni.

Access restrictions begin today for the highway running south of Gold River, as Mowachaht/Muchalaht respond to a breakdown in negotiations with Western Forest Products over the road that passes through the First Nation’s reserve.

The decision to block the forestry company’s vehicles from passing through was announced by the Mowachaht/Muchalaht’s Council of Chiefs. Highway 28 passes through Ahaminiquus, Indian Reserve No. 12, and ends at Muchalaht Inlet.