National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The danger to rural women facing violence is higher than ever due to the COVID-19 crisis, but the number of victims reaching out for support is not growing apace in the North Island region, troubling the agencies that help them.
Continue reading Isolation Of Rural Women Facing ViolenceOn Monday, April 13, I was intending to board the ferry in Heriot Bay bound for Cortes Island.
“How will you be paying?” the officer in charge of boarding asked.
“Cash.” I replied. I only had cash, having left my wallet at home on Cortes.
“We don’t take cash… Because of the virus,” he replied.
Continue reading BC Ferries Don’t Take CashNational Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
David Suzuki put more than 350 people on hold Thursday evening after spotting salmon leaping in the ocean through the window of the Quadra Island home where he’s currently riding out the coronavirus pandemic. Canada’s best-known environmental activist, scientist and broadcaster was participating in a Zoom call hosted by National Observer to discuss the intersection of COVID-19 and climate change. But unable to contain his excitement, the 84-year-old naturalist wandered off-screen to alert his family to the beauty unfolding before him. The moment only underscored the point he’d been making during his conversation with National Observer CEO and editor-in-chief Linda Solomon Wood, that despite the havoc COVID-19 is wreaking on people and their families, public health and economies worldwide, the virus was providing a breather for the environment.
Continue reading David Sukuki On Covid 19National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Quadra Island quilter Terry Phillips is running a small but frenetic manufacturing assembly line in her bucolic rural community during the COVID-19 pandemic. When her sister-in-law Wendy Richardson issued a plea in mid-March for cloth masks to protect front-line social service workers on neighbouring Vancouver Island during the novel coronavirus crisis, Phillips turned to her fellow Quadra Island Quilters. The group, working in tandem with the Campbell River Friendship Quilters Guild, immediately established a cottage industry, revved up their sewing machines and churned out hundreds of masks for those who needed them most.
Continue reading Masks For Those Who Need Them MostRead Island’s 2018 ‘out of control’ wildfire spread over 8 hectares. According to the Campbell River Mirror, the 2019 blaze consumed 34 hectares. The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) is concerned about the potential for fires on some of the neighbouring islands in the Surge Narrows as well. After consultation with Read Island residents, on March 12, 2020 their protection plan was amended to become the Surge Narrows Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
Continue reading Surge Narrows Community Wildfire Protection Plan
