Tag Archives: Michael Potestio

Animals

Did predatory bird lead to deaths of dozens of Bohemian waxwings in Kamloops?

Editor’s note: While the Bohemian waxwing is normally associated with colder climates, 8 were reported in Smelt Bay during Cortes Island’s ‘2021’ Christmas Bird count (possibly because of the severe weather.)

By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A Kamloops man came across a strange sight on Tuesday (March 1), finding numerous dead birds downtown as he headed home from work.

Continue reading Did predatory bird lead to deaths of dozens of Bohemian waxwings in Kamloops? →
Justice

Conservatives will vote against implementing Emergencies Act

By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Frank Caputo will vote against implementing the Emergencies Act to address weeks-long Freedom Convoy protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates that have resulted in a vehicle-clogged downtown Ottawa and border blockades across the country.

“I will be opposing it,” Caputo told KTW, arguing implementing the act should be legislation of the last resort.

It is the stance interim Conservative Leader Candace Bergen has said her party is taking as Parliament on Thursday (Feb. 17) began debating the federal Liberal government’s temporary special measures, which were invoked Monday for the first time since the act was created in 1988 to replace the War Measures Act.

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Disaster

Kamloops Search and Rescue helped save a dozen people in flooded Merritt

By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Kamloops Search and Rescue (KSAR) members helped save a dozen people from flood-stricken homes when waters rose in Merritt last week.

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Disaster

Flooding of Merritt led to greatest number of evacuees ever processed in Kamloops

By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Kamloops’ Emergency Support Services (ESS) is dealing with its highest number of evacuees ever after all 7,000 residents of the City of Merritt were ordered to evacuate on Nov. 15 due to flood waters compromising the town’s water and wastewater-treatment systems.

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History, Indigenous Nations History

Kamloops Indian Residential School Survivors share their stories

By Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Mona Jules recalls the Kamloops Indian Residential School sounding like a beehive when she arrived at the age of six in the late 1940s.

Being fluent in her own Indigenous language, Jules said she couldn’t understand anyone.

“The buzzing and the noise. I just looked form face to face. I couldn’t understand anything,” she said.

Leona Thomas remembers her first day, entering that school at the age of six in 1958, and being pried from her brother’s back and split up.

Continue reading Kamloops Indian Residential School Survivors share their stories →