All posts by Guest Post

Education

Students, instructors enthusiastic about early stages of Cortes Island Academy pilot program

By Greg Osoba, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Students and instructors are happy with the first semester of a pilot program for senior high school students on Cortes Island. The Cortes Island Academy is the brainchild of parents on the island, where teenagers in grades 10, 11 and 12 had to either be homeschooled or leave to complete their high school education prior to this school year.

The Academy launched this past September. The school year is based on a semester system consisting of four blocks, each lasting four to five weeks: Outdoor Adventure & Leadership; Marine Ecology; Creative Tools For Truth Telling; and Film Making.

Continue reading Students, instructors enthusiastic about early stages of Cortes Island Academy pilot program →
Politics

Mark Vonesch faces no candidates, acclaimed regional director in Strathcona Regional District election

By Greg Osoba, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Mark Vonesch is facing no other candidates in the upcoming municipal election for directors to the Strathcona Regional District and he’s been acclaimed to represent Area B, which is Cortes Island.

Vonesch says it’s a relief not to have to run against anyone; he’s excited to get to work, when the new board convenes on Nov. 9, following the vote on Oct. 15.

Continue reading Mark Vonesch faces no candidates, acclaimed regional director in Strathcona Regional District election →
Politics

When is “Toxic” …Not?

Originally published on the Watershed Sentinel

By Delores Broten

We’ve seen this movie so many times before. Laws are proposed, and sound fine for health and the environment, but the details can render the whole effort worthless. (Buy me a beer and I can recount countless examples.) In this case, the removal of one word can open Canada’s premier environmental law to endless litigation and another fifty years of turtle walk on toxic chemicals.

Continue reading When is “Toxic” …Not? →
Rivers & Oceans

Salish Sea Rising

Originally published in the Watershed Sentinel

By Delores Broten

Thirty years ago, I was running the tiny Friends of Cortes Island office out of the community hall at Manson’s Landing. This led to many interesting and sometimes passionate conversations. One regular visitor was Basil Seaton, veteran of the internment camps for British soldiers in Burma during World War Two. Basil took it as his mission to educate me about climate change. I remember in particular a floppy disk he brought that contained various climate change scenarios.

Fast forward thirty years. My computer is more like a Ferrari than a horse and cart, and the Province of British Columbia advises communities to plan for one metre of sea level rise by 2100, and two metres by 2200. But the predictions are still all over the place, depending on the modelling used and the assumptions made.

Continue reading Salish Sea Rising →
Indigenous Nations History

Spill to Sustenance

Six years on from the fuel spill that devastated Heiltsuk waters and clam gardens, the nation is pulling together to proactively build food sovereignty

Originally published on the Watershed Sentinel

by Jamie-Leigh Gonzales

The central coast rainforest, with its horizons of emerald islands roamed by wolves, orcas, and bears, is a source of life and wellbeing for all peoples who live there. The Heiltsuk Nation have lived off their land since time immemorial, and their culture is deeply rooted in the land and marine ecosystems. They continue to protect their relationship with the land against extractive industry and ongoing colonial practices that seek to eradicate Indigenous land stewardship.

In 2016, the Nathan E. Stewart tug ran aground, spilling over 110,000 litres of diesel oil in Heiltsuk waters of Gale Creek Pass. The devastating impacts on marine life and the surrounding ecosystem continue today, nearly six years after the spill. A healthy clam beach has yet to return, and the site remains a danger to the marine life, such as herring, salmon, and kelp, that once thrived there.

Continue reading Spill to Sustenance →