Concerns are re-emerging among Nuu-chah-nulth leaders about the presence of Métis amid the assertion of Indigenous rights in British Columbia.

The issue came up during a recent Council of Ha’wiih Forum on Fisheries, which was hosted by the Tseshaht First Nation in Port Alberni June 4 and 5. During the meetings Tseshaht member Hugh Braker, who serves on the First Nations Summit Political Executive, encouraged Nuu-chah-nulth nations to sign a letter to the federal government that clarifies their rights to territorial resources.

On May 31, the notorious serial killer who preyed on the vulnerable women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), Robert Pickton, took his last breath.

Convicted of six counts of second-degree murder, he received the maximum sentence under Canadian law.

Pickton murdered Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Marnie Frey, Georgina Papin, and Brenda Wolfe. But the names of his victims were many more than these six. Pickton was charged with 26 counts of murder, while 20 were stayed. 

It has been more than a month since the last confirmed sighting of the orphaned orca kʷisaḥiʔiis (Brave Little Hunter), but hope remains strong that the two-year-old Bigg’s killer whale is heading toward her family pod.

It was on March 23 when catastrophe struck for the young killer whale. That was the day kʷiisaḥiʔis and her mother, known as Spong, entered a shallow lagoon near Zeballos, likely hunting seals. Spong stranded in the shallow waters and drowned when the tide rose.

Management measures by the federal government have been announced to protect southern resident killer whales who face imminent threats to their survival and recovery.

According to the Government of Canada, protecting the whales, that have important cultural significance for Indigenous peoples and coastal communities in British Columbia, requires comprehensive and immediate action.

The three primary threats to the remaining 74 southern resident killer whales are reduced prey availability and accessibility, acoustic and physical disturbance and contaminants.

Hurt, angry, scared. That is how Cic John, 49, of Ehattesaht/Ahousaht said she felt when she learned she was being evacuated from Port Pub, the run-down hotel she called home for more than two years.

It has been less than two weeks since residents of the dilapidated 24-unit Port Pub received emergency evacuation orders from the Port Alberni Fire Department chief, and some former residents are struggling to find permanent homes.

On Wednesday, June 6, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) and Ocean Exploration Trust departed from Sydney, BC on their annual 21-day expedition, where the team could be the first to lay eyes on a newly formed ocean floor.

In early March a series of more than 200 earthquakes per hour, referred to as an earthquake swarm, was detected at a depth of five kilometers and roughly 240 kilometers offshore of Vancouver Island at the Juan de Fuca Ridge site. The earthquakes reached a magnitude of 4.1.

It was an all-hands-on-deck effort to finish the 1.2-kilometre missing link between the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve ʔapsčiik t̓ašii Trail (pronounced ups-cheek ta-shee) and the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) Multi-Use Path (MUP) that begins at the Junction and connects to Ucluelet’s MUP.

The annual allowable cut has been lowered for an area of forest that includes the fiercely contested Fairy Creek watershed, as the volume of old growth being logged in B.C. continues to decline.

The province’s chief forester Shane Berg recently set an annual limit of 360,000 cubic metres of timber for Tree Farm Licence 46, representing a 5.5 per cent reduction in what the annual allowable cut was set at in 2012. This limit means that no more than 180,000 cubic metres of stands older than 250 years can be logged in one year, while that same number also applies to younger trees.

By 8 a.m. Gus Bay, located on Nitinaht Lake, was filled with students, Ditidaht community members, and guests as another year of Paddle Days commenced. Students of all ages took to the water in canoes, as laughter and cheers could be heard throughout the bay, where a series of 100 metre and 400 metre races unfolded.

The day began in a circle with a prayer chant. The students of host Ditidaht Community School (DCS), then welcomed their guests to Ditidaht territory with a paddle dance.

Participants at a Nuu-chah-nulth Council of Ha’wiih Forum on Fisheries meeting were treated to a large performance from Haahuupayak students today, bringing a particularly emotional reaction to those who formerly attended residential school.

Discussion of topics like salmon farm licences and Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s plans to rebuild chinook stocks were broken up by a period designated for song and dance from over two dozen students of the school, which is located on the Tseshaht reserve.