Tag Archives: Maple Ridge

Forests, Youth

A Beacon of Hope: Questions from the Children’s Forest Alumni

One of the world’s leading forest ecologists was the feature speaker at the Cortes Children’s Forest virtual AGM on Saturday, January 28th. This is the last in a series of programs from that meeting, in which Dr Suzanne Simard’s answers questions from the Children’s Forest Alumni. 

Forrest Berman-Hatch emceed the session and this abridged broadcast of the audio opens with him asking, “ How do you see the value of the Children’s Forest taking into account all the different factors that are important to small communities like the ecological, the economic, as well as the cultural and scientific values?”

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Community

British Columbians open homes, hearts and wallets for Ukrainian refugees

By Fabian Dawson, New Canadian Media, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

In Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Aleks Vrublevskij’s email is inundated with offers of housing, cash and jobs for Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the invasion of their homeland.

“We can barely keep up…people are telling us they are ready to help, and they want Canada to speed up the process,” he tells New Canadian Media.

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Community, Indigenous Nations History

Confessions of an ignorant Racist

The following piece is potentially triggering, and contains references to racism, racial slurs, and violence.This opinion piece is based on my personal experience and exploration within my lifetime, of the continuing cycle of systemic racism and colonial violence.

Associate professor Rajnish Dhawan, from the University of the Fraser Valley, makes a distinction between hate-based and ignorance-based racism. 

He is quoted in a series of programs that Fraser Valley Community Radio recently broadcast about Abbotsford’s hushed racist history.

That prompted me to think about the community I was raised in, across the river in Maple Ridge.

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Transportation

mechanics are afraid of electric cars

Carl Meyer, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Klaus Uebelacker thinks mechanics are afraid of electric cars.

The German-born, Maple Ridge, B.C., resident has spent his career fiddling around with cars. Uebelacker, 53, worked as a Mercedes-Benz mechanic for more than 20 years before moving to his current line of work, training roadside assistance providers at BCAA, while also teaching in Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s automotive program.

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Housing, Poverty

Election 2020: Liberals’ Tough Talk on Homelessness Is Heartless and Uninformed, Say Advocates

By Jen St. Denis, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

People who have been working on the housing file for years in British Columbia are cringing at BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson’s “law and  order” framing that connects crime with increasing homelessness.

Continue reading Election 2020: Liberals’ Tough Talk on Homelessness Is Heartless and Uninformed, Say Advocates →