by Pieter Vorster | Feb 28, 2021 | News and Events
The Green Party team in the Comox Valley raised $3160 for the Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY). The CNOY in the Comox Valley provides funds for Dawn to Dawn and Comox Valley Transition Society. These are really important social action groups providing support to homeless people and women and children who are in the middle of family disruptions. It was great to see Greens supporting local social actions both by fundraising and walking in a socially distant...
by Pieter Vorster | Nov 2, 2020 | News and Events, Newsletters
Message from the NIPR Greens It’s hard to believe it’s November. We’ve been dealing with COVID-19 for what feels like a very long time, and we’re all weary of it. One of the main effects for groups like ours is the inability to have in-person meetings and events. I think it’s safe to say many of us now know more about Zoom than we ever thought possible. And speaking of Zoom, it’s time for our … This year the AGM has to be virtual. The good news is that this means people can join us electronically who wouldn’t be able to make the journey to attend in person. Our meeting will be in two parts. Well, it will be two Zoom meetings, actually. The first part will be the business portion of the AGM, which will be open only to voting members of the Green Party of Canada. A voting member is one who has been a member in good standing for 30 days. So, you must have gotten your membership by October 15 in order to attend. Normally our AGMs are open to anyone interested with only members allowed to vote. In an in-person AGM, members have to sign in, so that we can verify they are members, and voting members get voting cards. Because we have to do this on Zoom, we have no way of verifying the people who vote are actually voting members, so we are having to restrict attendance to verified members. WHEN: Saturday, November 14, 2-3 pm. (We are going to open the meeting at 1:30 if anyone wants to join us...
by Pieter Vorster | Nov 2, 2020 | Environment, Member Submitted Articles, News and Events
Mitlenatch Island …a collaboration between Betty Donaldson, Carol Thatcher, and Mark de Bruijn Sometimes called “the Canadian Galapagos,” Mitlenatch Island is a BC Class A Nature Provincial Park located in the Salish Sea between Campbell River and Powell River. This little treasure trove of biodiversity comprises only 155 hectares, with an additional protective 300-metre water “boundary” beyond the high tide line. The tides from the north and south ends of Vancouver Island meet around the island, creating a biological richness in the surrounding waters. The island is in the rain shadow of Vancouver Island’s mountains, resulting in a semi-arid ecosystem that receives considerably more sunshine during the west coast’s normally wet and dreary winters. It is a unique ecosystem in the middle of the Salish Sea. This unique habitat has long been known to Indigenous peoples who made seasonal camps to harvest bird eggs, shellfish, fish, berries and plants. Generally, when SE Camp Bay is windy, Northwest Bay is not, so one of the Salish names means “calm waters behind.” In 1894, the island was acquired by the Manson family of Cortes Island, who used it as summer pasture for sheep and cattle. When post-WWII plans included using the Island for Lancaster bombing practice, in 1959 the Mansons sold the Island to the Province for $1 on the condition it become a nature park. In 1961, it became the first such designated area in Canada. The primary role of Mitlenatch Island Nature Park is to protect a unique island ecosystem and its special natural features. Perhaps the greatest of these is its birds, and it has been designated one...
by Pieter Vorster | Nov 2, 2020 | Member Submitted Articles, News and Events
Persons Day Lunch Virtual Success by Pat Carl Seventy-Five women joined organizer Lisbeth (Betty) Donaldson and the Persons Day Lunch Committee with co-host Heather Ney and the Transition Society (CVTS) for an online celebration commemorating important milestones reached by Canadian women in the early 20th century. Five local Comox Valley women leaders and change-makers shared their experiences during the pandemic. Alex Bissinger, a Comox Councillor and a mother with a 9-month-old just beginning to crawl, described how her professional trajectory has been upended by becoming a mother and how mothers desperately need access to child care as well as early childhood education. “What do mothers like me do who don’t want to stay at home (24/7) when there’s no care for their children available?” Speaking next was Rachel Jancowski, an Early Childhood Education student at North Island College and peer facilitator at CVTS. She acknowledged that she has a safe place to live, while other women face financial instability and have partners whom they fear. Jesse Ketler, a Cumberland Councillor and the current Chair of the CVRD, commented that women are still working within systems structured centuries ago by men (that are not responsive to women’s needs). She’s awoken to the challenges of the pandemic because she and her son are immuno-compromised and her step-father recently died in care, without family support. Dianne Hawkins, the CEO of the CV Chamber of Commerce, said she’s naturally an extrovert who is finding the collapse of community activities challenging. “I suffer from Zoom-fatigue,” she said, “and I’m helping elderly people in my family, so I’m missing work.” She mentioned how the isolation...
by Pieter Vorster | Oct 17, 2020 | Member Submitted Articles, Social Justice
Want to know what Bonnie Henry, our Provincial Health Officer, suggests be done about BC’s opioid crisis? Want to know what Horgan and the NDP have done to follow her advice? Read on … by Pat Carl On July 21, 2020, John Horgan sent a letter to Justin Trudeau requesting that the federal government decriminalize illicit drug possession. Horgan crafted his letter more than a year after Bonnie Henry’s Special Report – Stopping the Harm – dated April 24, 2019. In fact, despite an NDP member driven resolution at their annual convention on November 24, 2019, BC Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General, Mike Farnworth, stated that the Horgan government would neither decriminalize drug possession in BC nor send a letter to Premier Trudeau because changing drug laws is “not our responsibility … it’s up to the federal government.” In contradicting Farnworth, Bonnie Henry said, “In the context of the continuing overdose crisis that is affecting families and communities across B.C., the province cannot wait for action at the federal level … immediate provincial action is warranted.” Since the 2017 provincial election, critics of the NDP’s response to B.C.’s overdose crisis have argued the province could be doing much more to help people addicted to street opioids (synthetic opioids) [by providing them with access to a regulated (and safe) supply of opioids]. While the Horgan NDP Party has received kudos for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic (based on Bonnie Henry’s data-driven advice), they have been slow on the up-take regarding the opioid crisis. According to Guy Felicella, a peer clinical advisor at the BC Centre on Substance Use,...
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