Wasting not
By Lys Morton Food banks in Canada find themselves playing a numbers game. In March 2019 alone, 2326 food banks across the nation recorded a total of 1,084,386 visits — down marginally from the previous year, but still a staggering statistic. Like other food banks, Nanaimo Loaves and Fishes has struggled to keep up with the demand. Founded in 1996, the organization initially used […]
Transition ambitions
By Patrick Wilson It’s 2020 and society is facing the reality of climate change. The effects can be felt daily around the world, including on Vancouver Island. Rising sea levels, heat waves, and other abnormal weather patterns are predicted by the B.C. government to continue. The outcomes feel closer than the 2050 date given. In […]
Living Green on a Budget
By Kristen Bounds It’s no secret that the planet needs and deserves our immediate attention (“climate emergency” was Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year in 2019), but it’s easy to feel helpless with the abundance of depressing information about the environment we receive every day. Many people respond by trying to adopt more sustainable habits […]
Taking Their Chances
By Shauna Andrews Vancouver Island is a small nook in the world made up primarily of oceanside communities with a distinctly relaxed vibe. Perhaps that’s why more and more people are choosing it as ground-zero to take on the risks of an entrepreneurial adventure. The island’s casual, small-town comforts open the doors to new […]
Urban Refugees
By Laurie Jones Top photo: Richard James Milne With the continuing trend of rapidly rising home prices in Canada’s major centres, particularly Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto, many hard-pressed urbanites are looking to smaller towns for affordable properties. To their delight, Vancouver Island has turned out to be a prime place to buy. “Vancouver Island will […]
Hikes to Lose Yourself On
By Anika Michaux Do you know that feeling of getting lost in nature? Losing yourself among the pine trees that coat British Columbia? I was born in Nanaimo, and grew up with mountains and forests only a short distance away. This temperate rainforest will always be a place I call home, not only because of […]
Weed Etiquette
By Zachery Cooper A plume of pungent smoke puffs out of the person walking down the street ahead of me. It makes my nose twitch, my brow furrow, and my mouth say Maui Wowie. It’s a common enough smell on Vancouver Island, which may be weed central in Canada. But with marijuana use set to […]
Cubs Fans
By Reid Eccles A computer monitor flips between different angles on what might be a forest floor, if it weren’t for the cement blocks enclosing it. There are logs, a pool of water, a wooden den. The screen flips again and a groggy black bear stands up, its motion having tripped the camera’s sensors. This video feed […]
Searching for Staqeya
By Shanon Fenske The 25-foot Amanda Anne plows through the frigid February waters of the Juan De Fuca Strait. Somewhere in the darkness ahead of us are islands inhabited by a wolf many in the Songhees First Nation believe is sacred. Campers were the first to report a lone wolf on Discovery Island, five km. east […]
Now Showing: The Future
By Antony Stevens In the back corner of the projection booth at IMAX Victoria is a rack of 70mm film reels, each weighing between 250 and 500 pounds. The largest is Interstellar which, at eight-feet wide, touches the brim of the platter it rests on. There are nearly 30 of these films, collected over the span of 10 years, sitting […]