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 […]
Deadly cocktail
By Benjamin Everett Over 40 fentanyl-related overdoses have been reported in Victoria and Nanaimo since December 20, 2015, 12 of them fatal. The victims have come from all walks of life, but Paul Hasselback, Medical Health Officer for Central Vancouver Island, says that “it’s the younger ones that are the most tragic.” Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate […]
Starboard spectacles
By Ben Chessor The ocean has always been an important part of Vancouver Islanders’ livelihoods. It fuels local tourism — including the whale watching industry — and gives flavour to our best restaurants. An orca even appears on the logo of the province’s most popular sports franchise, the Vancouver Canucks. Because the ocean plays such a large […]
Gaming Goes Indie
By Drew McLachlan Thirty years ago, if you wanted to create a video game, you started by clearing space in your garage. You had to make some room — for a couple Apple II’s, a BBC Microcomputer (if you were lucky), or a Tandy TRS-80 (if you weren’t). You also needed a guy who could […]
Prettynormal Activity
By Drew McLachlan “I could feel . . . something — like I was being watched.” Willow Friday opened Iron Oxide, an arts supply store in Nanaimo, on January 6th. It wasn’t her first business — she has operated the House of Indigo Boutique since 2002 — but she was nonetheless excited to see a […]
Nothing Phony About Bronies
By Drew McLachlan In 2010, an epic war of good vs. evil was waged. You may have missed it. The battle was fought in the land of Equestria, where its denizens — ponies, unicorns, and pegasuses with names like Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie — managed to stop the evil alicorn Nightmare Moon from casting their […]
Seizure Salad
By Katelyn Ross Looking at the calendar, I’m reminded it’s been a stressful month. Many of the days when I should have been at school are marked with a yellow highlighter. The semester is ending and I’m under pressure and scrambling to catch up. I’ve missed my Creative Writing class almost every week. Today I […]