Tag Archives: Vancouver Island University

Environment, Rivers & Oceans

Marine heatwaves a threat to B.C.’s shellfish industry says expert

Editor’s note: The shellfish industry is one of Cortes Island’s principle employers.

By Mick Sweetman,  CHLY 101.7 FM Nanaimo, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

This summer was hot, not only for us, but also for the life in our oceans as marine heatwaves swamped B.C’s coastal waters. According to researchers, sea temperatures off northeastern Vancouver Island reached 21 degrees Celsius in July, boiling kelp alive.

In the first week of August the average global sea surface temperature reached a record-breaking 30 degrees Celsius.

Continue reading Marine heatwaves a threat to B.C.’s shellfish industry says expert →
Education, Environment

A summer scarred by wildfire and drought puts climate crisis top of mind as university resumes

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After a summer marked by unprecedented wildfire and drought, it’s not surprising the climate crisis is top of mind as the school year launches, Vancouver Island University (VIU) geography professor Jeff Lewis says. 

There’s the usual hustle, bustle and excitement with the start of every school year, but virtually everyone returning to campus likely had direct experience with some sort of climate impact over the past few months, said Lewis. 

People across B.C. and most of Canada faced a range of issues — whether it was road closures, interrupted travel plans, cloying smoke, or more extreme threats and stress to themselves or loved ones due to mass evacuations or the loss of homes, businesses or communities to flames or floods. 

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Water

Small island community launches big effort to develop water security

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Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As a landscape architect specializing in wetland restoration, Bernie Amell knows how water moves across the landscape. 

However, he has had a crash course in drought after Amell and his wife moved to their Quadra Island agricultural acreage on B.C.’s so-called “Wet Coast” three years ago. 

“We arrived in 2021, in the ‘heat dome’ summer, and the shallow well dried up,” said Amell, a member of Quadra Island’s Climate Action Network (I-CAN).

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Justice

Breaking down crime statistics on Vancouver Island

Editor’s note: Trends to watch in Campbell River as well as other urban communities on Vancouver Island.

By Mick Sweetman,  CHLY 101.7 FM Nanaimo, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Violent crime in several Vancouver Island communities is on the rise according to new numbers from Statistics Canada.

Warren Silver, an analyst with Statistics Canada says that’s part of a broader trend across Canada where violent crime peaked in the mid to late 1990s before falling until recent years.

“Violent crime is something that we’re really tracking right now, because we’ve seen increases in quite a lot of places,” he said.

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Health, Indigenous Nations

Acclaimed First Nations healer and therapist wins Reconciliation Award

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After leaving residential school in the late 1950s, Klith-waa-taa would wade into a frigid river to brush himself with sacred cedar branches, cleansing away the trauma and negativity imposed upon him as a child. 

The traditional practice he learned as a boy at his grandfather’s side became vital to Klith-waa-taa, or Dr. Barney Williams, during his healing and path to sobriety at age 26 in 1965. 

“We would go into a river to bathe and ask for strength, but also to ask the Creator to look out for other people that needed help,” said Williams. 

“We usually go for four rounds in the water. The last round is for yourself — the first three are for other people.” 

Continue reading Acclaimed First Nations healer and therapist wins Reconciliation Award →