Eric Plummer

Tragedy rocked the small village of Nitinaht on Saturday, Sept. 28, with an incident that suddenly brought a heavy police presence to the Ditidaht First Nation community on southwest Vancouver Island. The early morning incident left one young man dead, while another individual was arrested after multiple RCMP units descended on the village by Nitinaht Lake. On the following day police made a charge of first-degree murder against the individual, who is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 8.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is being celebrated across Canada today, recognized with a civic holiday and walks in communities coast to coast.

The Nuchatlaht have filed with the B.C. Court of Appeal, launching the next phase of its legal battle to gain title over the northern part of Nootka Island. The appeal was announced Sept. 16, seven and a half years after the small First Nation’s late Tyee Ha’wilth Walter Michael stood on the steps of the B.C. Supreme Court to begin his community’s claim to own what they have considered their home territory for countless generations.

A music festival took over Pachena Bay this weekend, echoing a rhythm through the tall trees as throngs of bohemian-clad visitors rocked and swayed on the forest floor below into the early hours.

In recent weeks a group of whales have been in Pachena Bay, their backs occasionally emerging from the water, spouting bursts of mist into the Pacific air. For those fortunate to witness them from the shore, the whales serve as a reminder of the natural majesty that is integral to the site by the Huu-ay-aht village of Anacla. “That’s definitely the secret sauce,” said Ben Howells of the whales, who is the founder and head organizer of the upcoming Pachena Bay Music Festival. “The hidden agenda i…

B.C.’s fish farms now have five years to get open net-pens out of the water – a federal directive that has evoked opposing reactions from coastal First Nations. Since 2019 a deadline has loomed over the industry, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a mandate to have a plan by 2025 to transition away from the open-net pens that have long been the standard for finfish aquaculture. On June 19 it finally became clear where that plan will lead, as Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced that all op…

The annual allowable cut has been lowered for an area of forest that includes the fiercely contested Fairy Creek watershed, as the volume of old growth being logged in B.C. continues to decline. The province’s chief forester Shane Berg recently set an annual limit of 360,000 cubic metres of timber for Tree Farm Licence 46, representing a 5.5 per cent reduction in what the annual allowable cut was set at in 2012. This limit means that no more than 180,000 cubic metres of stands older than 250 years can be logged in one year, while that same number also applies to younger trees.

Help is coming to the streets of some Vancouver Island cities, with the latest effort to save Nuu-chah-nulth people from the harms of drug use.

If you want to save Pacific salmon from extinction, stop logging the forests they rely on for habitat.

The time is quickly approaching for the government to deliver a plan to remove net pens from the ocean, although Canada’s fisheries minister is assuring those tied to the salmon farming industry that no sites will be closed in 2025. Since 2019 salmon farming has faced a federal mandate to transition from the common industry practice of using net pens in B.C.’s coastal waters. Meeting calls from multiple advocacy groups to eliminate the practice, in December 2019 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau iss…