British Columbia

> "There's all kinds of care that they could be denied because governments are allowing faith-based institutions that are publicly funded… to deny care based on their religious beliefs and values."

Youth players on a Nelson soccer team were allegedly threatened with racial slurs during a May tournament in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Nelson Soccer Association (NSA) says a person in a truck shouted racist threats at a team with players of colour during a game May 12. Multiple Nelson teams were visiting Coeur d'Alene at the time for an annual tournament.

A detective with Coeur d'Alene Police Department told the Nelson Star that it had opened an investigation and has since sent the case to a local prosecutor for review, but did not offer any further details.

It's the second time this year athletes have faced racial abuse in Coeur d'Alene. In March, a Utah women's NCAA basketball team said its players were twice threatened by people in a vehicle who shouted racial epithets.

NSA board chair Goran Denkovski said NSA was not previously aware of the March incident involving the basketball team. The organization hasn't made a decision on its future participation in Idaho tournaments, but Denkovski said NSA will begin assessing regional safety prior to making tournament commitments.

“We do all recognize that Idaho specifically, that state is a state of concern that we should acknowledge.”

> As British Columbians gear up to celebrate Canada Day, officials are urging the public to plan ahead and stay safe amid expected travel congestion on ferries, highways, and at airports.

> The B.C. government, the federal government and seven land trust and conservancy organizations have worked together to secure critical old growth and habitat for species at risk at eight different sites.

> Coun. Colin Plant, who supported the legalization of rural secondary suites, said it's a much-needed step toward housing affordability — something residents have been asking for for years. He says he believes the province felt Saanich could be doing more to provide housing across the city and had a different view than the municipality on what that should look like.

> Adrian Dix held a news conference at the BC Cancer Clinic - Kelowna on June 27, providing a one-year update on the NDP’s 10-Year Cancer Care Action Plan.

> Consider radiotherapy. Available figures show a nearly 25 per cent improvement in the treatment wait-list, a 7.5 per cent increase in treatment starts, and an increase of 6.4 per cent in patients treated thanks to the hiring of additional radiation oncologists and radiation therapists. But current figures still show that just under 71 per cent of patients receive treatment within four weeks. Within 13 weeks, that figure rises to 80.2 per cent.

For more context on why this is such a positive change, this video from About Here / Uytae Lee serves as a great summary.

> The court heard how leaked district files were sent to Gondor's son, Darian, who has been fighting with neighbours and the district for years to turn his Meadowbrook Ridge property into a hobby farm.

The word “woke” — which has now lost any real or useful meaning since its origins in African American vernacular English — has become commonplace in right-wing campaigns and is being applied (seemingly quite effectively) to target anything and everything.

In B.C., the leader of the insurgent Conservative Party of BC, John Rustad, has raged against “woke ideology,” targeting trans people and sexuality and gender orientation education resources in schools (also known as SOGI 123).

When Rustad made comparisons between SOGI and residential schools last year, he was criticized and asked to apologize by politicians across the spectrum.

MLA Ravi Parmar, from the governing BC NDP, called Rustad’s comparisons “disgraceful” in a now-deleted tweet.

On a CBC Early Edition panel, Green MLA Adam Olsen denounced Rustad’s comments as “astonishing” and “inappropriate.”

And Elenore Sturko, then MLA for the Opposition party BC United who recently joined the B.C. Conservatives, called Rustad’s comments “incredibly insulting” at the time.

And then Bruce Banman, the B.C. Conservative MLA for Abbotsford South, summed up the criticism of Rustad’s comments as symptoms of a “hypersensitive, woke, far-left cancel culture” that he and his colleagues are trying to correct.

On a separate occasion, it appears that Paul Ratchford, a Conservative Party of BC candidate for Vancouver-Point Grey, referred to his now party member colleague Sturko as a “woke lesbian, social justice warrior.”

According to a search warrant, Campbell River RCMP raided this property on the We Wai Kai First Nation in February as part of a drug-trafficking investigation. Police claim they seized 3,500 safe-supply hydromorphone pills, as well as fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine.

What could be more idyllic than watching the sunset at the beach while being serenaded by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra? On July 6, grab your blankets and head to the beach for a performance that only comes once a year in Vancouver.

The VSO is taking to the shoreline at Sunset Beach for a special 90-minute sunset concert. Led by Maestro Otto Tausk, the Symphony at Sunset program will feature both classical and contemporary music.

The complete set list is:

• Coast Salish Anthem
• Star Wars: Suite for Orchestra I. Main Title
• Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, No. 1
• Élan: Sesquie for Canada’s 150th
• Concerto, Piccolo, C Major, RV443 III. Allegro molto
• Samson and Delila: Danse Bacchanle
• Lawerence of Arabia Overture
• Godfather: Love Theme
• Hook: The Flight to Neverland
• Star Trek
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• E.T.: Adventures on Earth
• Superman March

A transgender teacher who taught at Pitt Meadows Secondary School has filed a human rights complaint against a woman whom they believe launched an online campaign of hatred against them.

Wilson Wilson filed the complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal on Friday, June 22, with support from Lawyers Against Transphobia.

"I'm standing up because as much as this has robbed me of my privacy and like my dignity as a person, I haven't been robbed of my power or responsibility," Wilson told Black Press Media.

Wilson is currently on leave from the school because of the incident and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The incident started in December of last year when Wilson became the target of online threats after a far-right social media account, called Libs of TikTok, shared photos of Wilson, an artist who identifies as trans non-binary, that were from an art portfolio.

One image showed Wilson topless and in the other in a netted shirt – both appearing to show a double mastectomy.

A person claiming to be a parent of at least one student at the school, who goes by the name Blonde Bigot on X, made allegations of student abuse and accused the school district as having child grooming and “pedophilic” activities and accused the teacher of glorifying their self-mutilation. The mother has since been identified as Joanna Evenson.

Thousands of people commented on X, a majority of them harassing Wilson and calling them names.

At the time Martin Dmitrieff, head of the Maple Ridge Teachers’ Association, said the images were in the public sphere because it was important for the teacher to interact as an artist through community art programs, where their work is being showcased.

"This could be anybody," said Wilson about the online harassment. "This could be any trans teacher. So, what I can do is stand up. And, if I don't stand up now the right has a successful strategy to silence trans teachers."

> Eby paired this reminder with a critique of Ottawa's treatment of B.C. Eby specifically singled out Ontario's decision to spend $225 million toward the liberalization of liquor sales in that province for derision in questioning how Ontario is using B.C. tax money.

Lawsuit claims B.C. Parks is violating federal law by adding $6 fee at end of online checkout

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/23848745

> The wild population of Canada's most endangered mammal, the Vancouver Island marmot, is anticipated to exceed 350 by the end of the summer thanks to the Marmot Recovery Foundation's captive-breeding efforts. > > It may not seem like many, but 21 years ago the wild population had dropped to a count of fewer than two dozen.

When you think of B.C.’s central interior forests, you probably picture swaths of trees stretching over hills and up mountains, punctuated by rivers and the occasional lake.

You probably don’t think of sand.

But if a proposal working its way through the B.C. environmental assessment process is approved, a special type of sand used in hydraulic fracturing for gas — commonly known as fracking — will be extracted from a forest near Bear Lake, north of Prince George. The sand would be trucked to B.C.’s northeast, where a fracking boom is poised to begin to supply the province’s new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export industry.

Vitreo Minerals, a sand and gravel supplier based in Golden, B.C., proposes to build an open-pit mine and two processing facilities that could produce two million tonnes of frac sand per year for up to 20 years. The Angus mine, which has the potential to supply up to 400 fracking wells per year, would be B.C.’s only operating frac sand mine.

The project will involve building new access roads through the forest, clearing land for the mine and its crushing and drying facilities and constructing a new transmission line and natural gas pipeline to power the operation, according to a project description submitted to the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office.

“We propose to essentially mine — by drilling and blasting in a very conventional-looking quarry — a rock known as quartz arenite, a very high-purity silica-rich rock,” Vitreo Minerals CEO Scott Broughton explained during a recent project information session hosted by the assessment office. “It actually has the perfect-size sand grains that we’re looking for to produce proppant [frac sand] for the oil and gas industry.”

But environmental groups say the mine, which would be located in the Fraser River watershed, poses risks to nearby communities, water, local wildlife and the environment.

Sven Biggs, the Canadian oil and gas programs director for Stand.Earth, said the non-profit group will be keeping tabs on any long-term expansion plans for the frac sand industry in B.C. “If the plan really is to produce enough silica in British Columbia to support the LNG industry here in B.C. and Alberta, those would be very large operations and could have a much larger footprint than this initial project,” he told The Narwhal.

B.C. Premier David Eby chose Jinkerson Park in the growing community of Chilliwack on Monday (June 24), to announce a sizable increase to the BC Family Benefit starting next month.

"With global inflation and high interest rates driving up daily costs, we know families are being hit hard right now," said Eby.

The boosted BC Family Benefit will be going to more low- and middle-income families, and on average they'll receive $445 more than last year.

Eby also used the press conference to announce he'll be stepping away for a few weeks from his duties as premier for family reasons.

"Getting a little extra money to families for the basics is one of the ways we're helping people who are feeling squeezed right now," Eby said.

Chilliwack parent Katie Bartel was on-hand with her niece Maggie, to attest to the struggle local families are facing with skyrocketing costs of food, clothes, gas, childcare and housing.

"Life is expensive, especially for those of us raising a child with a disability, and raising any family right now comes with unique challenges," Bartel said.

The extra money will help her family pay for a support worker for her daughter, as an example, and she said families like hers are increasingly looking to their communities and their government for help.

"We can't do this alone," Bartel said.

> Van der Mark was unable to say how many children were on the bus. However, he said that all staff and students had been accounted for and were being checked out by first responders on the scene. He could not confirm whether there were injuries.

> He said the school district is working with police to ensure parents and guardians of the students on the bus are informed. Parents are being told to meet their kids at the South Cariboo Rec Centre in 100 Mile House, van der Mark said

> The British Columbia government has filed a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers of so-called "forever chemicals" it says are involved in the widespread contamination of drinking water systems.

Old-growth forests that were environmental and Indigenous rights battlegrounds over clearcut logging in the 1980s and 1990s during British Columbia’s “war in the woods” are set to receive permanent protections in a land and forest management agreement.

The B.C. government says an agreement Tuesday with two Vancouver Island First Nations will protect about 760 square kilometres of Crown land in Clayoquot Sound by establishing 10 new conservancies in areas that include old-growth forests and unique ecosystems.

The partnership involves reconfiguring the tree farm licence in the Clayoquot Sound area to protect the old-growth zones while supporting other forest industry tenures held by area First Nations, said Forests Minister Bruce Ralston in a statement.

Statements from the Clayoquot Sound’s Ahoushat and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations say the conservancies will preserve old-growth forests on Meares Island and the Kennedy Lake area, sites of protests that led to hundreds of arrests.

“We have successfully reached a first phase implementation of the land-use vision,” Tyson Atleo, Ahousaht First Nation hereditary representative, said in an interview. “We will see (Tree Farm Licence 54) on Meares Island actively become real legislated protected areas for the first time in history.”

Plans for clearcut logging on Meares Island, about one kilometre northeast of Tofino and the site of some of the world’s largest western red cedars, touched off environmental and Indigenous protests in the 1980s. They eventually resulted in a court injunction that halted logging, saying Indigenous land claim issues should be resolved.

About a decade later, more than 800 people were arrested in the Clayoquot Sound area of Kennedy Lake near Ucluelet as protesters descended to demonstrate against more logging activities.

The forest company eventually left the area after losing an estimated $200 million in contracts related to timber sales.

https://animaljustice.ca/blog/vegan-firefighter-loses-case

> His common sense vision for public safety involves a big increase in addiction treatment programs, most of them private and some of them involuntary, meaning during incarceration. He wants indefinite apprehension of permanently brain-damaged habitual offenders now wandering the streets, on mental health grounds. That could involve invoking the notwithstanding clause in the charter of rights to bypass constitutional concerns if need be, he said.

A Kelowna mom is speaking out and hoping to engage parents after she found out her child had been a target of racism and bullying at a local middle school.

Ashley, whose last name has been left out to protect the privacy of her child, said the issue first came to light when her kid acted out at home by ripping up her Mother's Day card in a burst of anger.

Questioning the outburst, Ashley who has a child of colour, soon learned that they had been called racial slurs such as 'monkey' by classmates.

She added that her child said they've heard other students also being called racial slurs.

The concerned mom took the issue to the school's principal to address the situation where she was offered an apology and told the school has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying and racism.

There’s so much to love about summer in British Columbia: greenery, beaches, fresh produce. And most notably, peaches, the best fruit there is.

Admittedly, the stone fruit is widely available all through the year nowadays, thanks to imports from places as far-flung as Chile, Argentina, California and New Zealand. But it’s only irresistible from mid-July to early September, when B.C.’s 600-odd growers gift us with 4.6 million kilograms of velvety, sun-softened, fragrant and fully superior peaches.

Give me a peach in October, and I turn into J. Alfred Prufrock, who famously asked, “Do I dare to eat a peach?”

Give me a peach in July, when I know it’s a fresh Okanagan Redhaven, Glohaven or Cresthaven, picked in Penticton and bursting with flavour? I’ll eat the whole thing before asking myself if I’m hungry.

As I’ve written previously, B.C. fruit is not only downright delicious; it’s practically overabundant most summers.

Blink, and a bucket of blueberries seems to materialize in your house; the same goes for peaches, piled high in their biodegradable, pulp berry baskets and bought for a pittance wherever fresh produce is sold.

Not this summer, though.

Cross-posted to https://sh.itjust.works/post/21102211

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• source (archive)

• "Castlegar opens Canada's tallest castle play structure". Chelsea Novak. Castlegar News. 2024-06-14T13:00. https://www.castlegarnews.com/community/castlegar-opens-canadas-tallest-castle-play-structure-7387997.

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Here is a before on Google Street View, and here is an after (while under construction).