How to watch Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on television – BC News

Nina Grossman / Highlights – Sep 18, 2022 / 11:00 am | Story: 385730

Eileen Ramirez says she will not be observing the National Day of Mourning for Queen Elizabeth II on Monday.

She has too many other lives to mourn.

“On the day of her funeral, I will proudly wear my orange shirt,” says the Cowichan Tribes member, who has been busy preparing her food truck, Don’t Bannock Food Concession, for events around the Island marking National Truth and Reconciliation Day on Sept. 30.

For her, the extensive media coverage of the Queen’s death has highlighted the dwindling acknowledgement of the unmarked graves discovered at former residential schools.

“To think of all the deaths, all the young First Nations people that lost their lives in residential schools,” she said. “They are still finding bodies. … All these bodies are children that never made it home.

“And then the Queen dies and that’s when you make it a holiday? It’s like slap in the face.”

Ramirez says she sees the Queen’s death as a huge loss to her family, but she’s not mourning her as a monarch.

The Queen may not have been involved with the institutions where Indigenous children faced disease, abuse and death — just like she did not personally set up colonial regimes in Africa, Asia and North America, or develop the policy that led to India’s partition. But for some — including Ramirez — the Queen, as Britain’s head of state, is a symbol of those actions and their lasting impacts.

Rajinder Sahota, a Victoria lawyer with a Sikh Punjabi background, says he was shocked at the quick embrace of a new sovereign. “It’s difficult to look in the historical record and find crimes of a historical nature that are worse than those perpetrated on behalf of king and country,” he said. “I do ascribe to the principle that, if you’re going to inherit the privileges, you inherit the debts.”

Sahota’s great-grandfather, alongside his siblings, fought in the resistance to British occupation and colonization of India. His family was near Jallianwala Bagh in 1919 when British troops fired on a crowd of unarmed Indians — some of whom were protesting ongoing British occupation. An estimated 379 people were killed in what would become known as the Amritsar Massacre.

It’s just one story of the death, division and destruction left by British Imperialism, some of which occurred during Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, Sahota says.

British and Commonwealth forces fought the anti-colonial Malayan National Liberation Army from 1948 to 1960, thousands died during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the early 1950s, and British troops fired on Catholic civil rights demonstrators in Northern Ireland in the early 1970s.

Sahota notes that the Royal Family has refused to take responsibility for the Crown’s role in residential schools or rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, the framework used to justify European imperial colonialism around the world.

“She’s had plenty of opportunities, but here she is, actively doubling down on historic crimes and ignoring them and refusing to do what’s right,” he says, adding the attitude extends to the money, artifacts and cultural items taken by the monarchy throughout its history.

CNN reported Thursday that with the Queen’s death, South Africans are demanding the return of the Great Star of Africa, or Cullinan I, a diamond mined in their country in 1905 and given to the Royal Family by colonial authorities. Some Indians have also called on the Royal Family to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond, given to the Queen of England in 1849 when the British annexed Punjab, through what the Smithsonian Magazine reported as the forced signing of the Treaty of Lahore.

“This is the height of racism, this is the height of theft, this is the height of barbarism,” Sahota says. “And yet we don’t look or think about any of that because we do not accept a very simple principle in our society here — we focus with laser-like precision on the crimes of the other, but we cannot even bring ourselves to question our own history and our own crimes.

“Black and brown and Indigenous people throughout the world, they don’t forget this history.”

Sarah Hunt or T?ali?ila’ogwa, an assistant professor of Indigenous political ecology at the University of Victoria, says Indigenous people have been in mourning for more than 150 years.

“The building of empire in the name of the Crown has been at the expense of Indigenous people,” she says. “The quality of life we experience every day as Indigenous people is because of that expansion of empire.

“It’s not just the theft of our lands, but also the intergenerational impacts of vast amounts of loss of life. That includes missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, that includes the deaths of children at residential schools.”

For Hunt, who is Kwakwaka’wakw and Dzawada’enuxw, the response to the Queen’s death shows there is work to do in developing the “truth” in truth and reconciliation.

“To me, this shows that those truths are not fully understood because if they were, I think we would have a different sentiment around what this signifies,” she says. “How do we both mourn the loss of this monarch and at the same time, say that we’re in a time of reconciliation?

“I think that shows we have a lot of work to do with fully grasping the truth of colonialism.”

The Times Colonist – Sep 18, 2022 / 10:00 am | Story: 385726

Jane Seyd / North Shore News – Sep 18, 2022 / 7:25 am | Story: 385715

Roddy MacKenzie was just a young boy the first time he met the Queen during a royal visit to Saskatchewan in 1959. She was travelling by train across Canada and stopped in Moosomin, where she came over to speak to MacKenzie’s mother, who was in a wheelchair.

MacKenzie remembers the Queen as “incredibly kind and gracious” that day.

For MacKenzie, the early encounter with a young Queen Elizabeth II was the start of a lifelong fascination, which included becoming a life member of the Monarchist League of Canada.

“She was so deeply embedded into the fabric of Canada,” he said.

MacKenzie said many people have taken comfort in the stability of the Queen, who was a steady figure through decades of world political leaders.

“She was a continuing example of our better selves,” he said.

This week he stood in front of the Queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall and bowed to her for a last time.

MacKenzie said he booked his flight to London as soon as he heard the news that she had died.

Queuing for Queen ‘like a pilgrimage’

The experience of queuing with thousands of others, in what MacKenzie dubbed the QE Queue, to pay his respects, was “unlike anything I’ve experienced,” he said.

 

 

For MacKenzie, it took nine hours of lining up to get into the hall and spend a moment in front of the Queen’s coffin, including walking for an hour just to get to the end of the lineup and two hours before he was handed a wrist band.

MacKenzie said for him, the experience was akin to a pilgrimage, “to pay our last respects to someone we deeply admired and looked up to.”

During the nine-hour line-up, MacKenzie had plenty of time to make friends with similarly minded people.

 

 

One woman saved him from flagging by offering an energy drink from her backpack, said MacKenzie, while another fellow mourner and Queen’s Scout, Stuart Cunningham, made sure MacKenzie was OK during the long hours in the queue.

Many of those he met in the lineup spent hours swapping stories about why they were there and what the Queen had meant to them, he said.

MacKenzie said during his hours in the queue he was also interviewed several times by reporters from around the globe, who asked about his views on constitutional monarchy, what he thought of about the scale of the mourning for the Queen happening in the U.K., as well as his personal memories of the Queen.

The very end of the lineup involved walking back and forth about 70 times in a yard filled with people, he said, before finally approaching the security check, similar to systems in airports.

Nine-hour lineup ‘worth it’

Once actually in Westminster Hall, however, a hush fell on the crowd, he said. They approached the Queen’s coffin single file.

 

 

MacKenzie said he stopped, turned to face the coffin and gave the Queen a deep bow.

“Our time with her of only a minute or so was worth all nine hours of walking,” he said.

As it turns out, MacKenzie was probably one of the lucky ones with only nine hours of queuing to file past the Queen’s coffin.

By early Saturday morning U.K. time, officials were asking people not to join the lineup, as waiting times to see the Queen’s coffin stretched to 24 hours. According to the BBC, the queue – being tracked on a government “queue tracker” – had stretched to five miles long and was at capacity.

Among those also in the queue this week were former British prime minister Theresa May and her husband Philip. American celebrity Sharon Osborne and British soccer star David Beckham were also spotted in the queue. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was in the queue as well, remarking on Twitter that it was good to see so many Canadians paying their respects.

Meanwhile the queue seemed to take on a life of its own, with the BCC livestreaming the procession of mourners entering Westminster Hall around the clock.

Nina Grossman / Times Colonist – Sep 18, 2022 / 7:15 am | Story: 385714

A narrow sliver of Victoria’s Fernwood parkland is ground zero in a simmering dispute between tenters and the park’s neighbours.

About 1,000 people have signed a petition to end camping in Stadacona Park in Victoria, citing negative impacts both on campers and the area’s housed residents.

The petition says that “for the past three summers, Stadacona Park has experienced large, shifting encampments of unhoused individuals.”

One of those individuals is 60-year-old Cliff, who said he’s been sleeping in the park for four months.

“I see a lot of kids come in here, I see a lot of people come in here from all over the neighbourhood,” he said. “There’s people here who don’t use drugs … most of the people in here, if there’s a kid around they won’t use in front of them. They have respect.”

Cliff said his name has been on a provincial list for housing for more than five years.

“I’m still waiting,” he said.

Sandwiched between Pandora Avenue and Begbie Street, Stadacona Park is close to condominium buildings, rental apartments and single-family homes. The City of Victoria allowed full-day camping during the provincial government’s COVID-19 state of emergency, but that directive expired May 1, bringing back into effect a bylaw that allows tents in public parks only from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

But 24-hour camping has continued, and residents’ grievances go beyond the tents. They list drug overdoses, violent crimes, death, as well as intimidation of local residents, public urination, scattered drug paraphernalia, shouting of obscenities and loud music.

Michael Barr, a member of the ­neighbourhood group that launched the petition, said residents have reached a breaking point.

“Camping in parks lacks safety and dignity for campers, and lacks safety and respect for the community,” he said. “We’ve just reached a point where we are saying, ‘no more.’ ”

Barr said the neighbours are not against solutions for homelessness, but don’t think parks should be used as homes in the meantime. He suggested campers be moved to other city-owned land.

“We support solutions to house the homeless, but what we are saying is, parks are not part of that solution,” he said. “Moving campers around to another park does not solve the problem obviously … there are other municipal lands, or they could arrange to lease lands where camping and sheltering could occur.

“That allows parks to be free, to be back in the public domain.”

But not every neighbour feels as strongly about the campers.

On Friday around noon, Janette Hennigar, 85, walked her 12-year-old border collie Rory though the park, passing several tents near the park’s tennis courts, where a laughter-filled match was underway.

“You know when you shouldn’t approach [people]. You have to be sensible,” she said. “But I’ve met lots of lovely people, who, through no fault of their own, are stuck here.”

Hennigar, a former nurse, said she’s been coming to the park every other day for over a decade with Rory. She hasn’t encountered the violence or crime mentioned in the petition, but she said she does see a lot of people who need help.

“I’ve met a lot of people who are working and just haven’t got the money to pay the rent,” she said. “By the grace of God, we are not doing too bad, but if rents keep going up, everybody is going to be in the park.”

The province has been clear that encampments are not a safe or suitable form of housing.

In an email, the Attorney General’s Ministry, responsible for housing, said its most recent data indicates that approximately 10 people are camping at Stadacona Park, though the count fluctuates regularly.

“We know there’s an urgent need for more housing for people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness in Victoria,” the ministry said, noting that since 2018, B.C. Housing has opened 389 supportive housing units in the city and 390 spaces are currently under construction or in development.

“It is our priority to help people seeking shelter in encampments connect to the supports they need.”

The Canadian Press – Sep 18, 2022 / 6:40 am | Story: 385710

A family of sea otters emerges from the ocean and rambles up the rocky shoreline, while a great blue heron in search of a meal pokes at a wall of rocks.

Fountains of water squirt upwards from clams that have buried themselves across the beach.

Ken Thomas, standing on a rocking boat just off British Columbia’s Salt Spring Island, marvels at the beauty and bounty of the ancient Fulford Harbour sea garden.

He reflects on how the long row of rocks piled along the shoreline represents both past and modern-day West Coast Indigenous culture.

“I’m like, ‘My ancestors touched this, were part of building this.’ It’s something more special than a pile of rocks to hold clams,” said Thomas, the fisheries, wildlife and natural resources director for the Penelakut Tribe on southern Vancouver Island.

For years, academics wondered about the origins of the long string of rocks piled along the tide line. The answer came when they spoke to local First Nations, who said the rocks were sea gardens created by their ancestors as cultivation sites thousands of years ago.

Indigenous Peoples used the tides to trapclams, mussels, kelp and fish in the shallows once the water receded.

Now, Indigenous leaders hope to to gain approval for clam harvesting at the sea garden site on Salt Spring Island’s coast, and another at nearby Russell Island in Gulf Islands National Park, both of which are undergoing restoration. They are thousands of years old.

Thomas said on a recent trip to the sites that all participants want to ensure the clams and other food from the gardens are safe to harvest, which involves testing by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Canadian Food Inspection Agencyand Environment and Climate Change Canada.

He said he’s optimistic harvesting approval could come within one year, although others suggest it could be three or four years.

Indigenous nations, Parks Canada, scientists and academics are jointly participating in the restoration of the sea gardens, located along ancestral territories of Coast Salish First Nations who travelled the Gulf Islands trading and gathering food.

The COVID-19 pandemic halted efforts to restore the sea gardens, but the rebuilding work is resuming, Thomas said.

“When the tide comes in and out, it’s got the seeds floating around in the current, and if you’ve got a wall there, the seed will get stuck behind the wall when the tide goes out and settle into the beach,” said Thomas.

“These gardens have been here for generations and generations, pre-contact,” he said.

Elizabeth May, Saanich-Gulf Islands member of Parliament and former Green Party leader, said the presence of the rock walls on B.C. beaches had confounded scientists for years.

“We are, as settler-culture Canadians, blind to what’s right in front of us,” she said. “A wall along the side of an island, and to know that for quite a long time our expert geologists we’re baffled by these walls. Where did they come from? How were they formed?

“How about the obvious thing: Indigenous people moved the rocks to create a place to ensure food supplies of multiple species,” said May.

The work to restore the sea gardens involves aeration, debris removal and some harvesting and marks them as much more than heritage zones, said Nicole Norris, a First Nations partnerships co-ordinator who works for the Solicitor General’s Ministry.

“We’re not just here removing and filtering rocks through a wall,” she said. “We’re creating a sustainable food source in the same way that our old ones did.”

Adam Olsen, the Gulf Island region’s Green representative in the B.C. legislature, said sea gardens were managed for thousands of years until colonial settlers banned Indigenous Peoples from the beaches.

“This is an example of environmental racism,” said Olsen, who’s a member of the Victoria-area Tsartlip First Nation. “These policies are used to deliberately disconnect Indigenous people from their lands.”

The work to jointly restore the sea gardens is “inspirational,” considering past government policies of prohibiting access and disregarding Indigenous knowledge, said Erich Kelch, the sea garden project’s restoration manager for Parks Canada.

“It’s foundational how government and First Nations can be working together in a positive way on the land that’s taking care of it for future generations,” he said.

For the longest time, the government disregarded and even disbelieved the traditional Indigenous practices of managing the land, he said.

“And this is trying to change that, recover that and restore that and build a better future,” Kelch said.

Thomas said he once considered moving rocks as a form of exercise, but when he’s at the sea gardens it becomes a matter of cultural rebuilding.

“It’s more than just a clam bed,” he said. “It’s more than just a rock wall. It’s the connections there that our people have.”

B.C.’s chief justice was busy this past week, dismissing four separate challenges to B.C.’s vaccine passport program.

Since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic in March 2020, B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry issued a number of orders designed to reduce the spread of the virus in the province, including requiring proof of vaccination to enter a number of businesses like restaurants. The so-called “vaccine passport” was in place in B.C. from September 2021 to April 2022.

One of the four cases dismissed on Monday by Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson was a petition brought forward by a non-profit organization called the Canadian Society for the Advancement of Science in Public Policy, which sought to have Dr. Henry’s so-called “vaccine passport regime” ruled unconstitutional.

While the program was lifted in April of this year, Chief Justice Hinkson said it’s possible the government could reinstate the order at a later date, so he chose to hear the arguments despite the issue possibly being “moot.”

The CSASPP argued the health orders violated British Columbians Charter rights of freedom of religion, expression, assembly, association, life, liberty, security of the person and equality.

The society relied on a report from Dr. Joel Kettenr, the former Chief Medical Officer of Health and Chief Public Health Officer for the Province of Manitoba from 1999 to 2012. But since the report was made after the public health orders in question, Chief Justice Hinkson said it “cannot be the basis for a challenge to those [health] orders.”

The society’s executive director Kipling Warner said he was not double vaccinated for COVID-19, and the vaccine passport program meant he “could not enjoy Vivaldi’s Four Seasons candlelight performance, nor go to restaurants, movie theatres, yoga classes or cultural events for a period of time,” Justice Hinkson states.

“Mr. Warner claims that this amounts to violation of his Charter rights.”

But Chief Justice Hinkson said the vaccine passport only restricted access to private establishments, “to which there is no right to unfettered access.”

Ultimately, he was not convinced that Dr. Henry’s orders were unreasonable.

“I am satisfied that the [Public Health Officer] assessed available scientific evidence to determine COVID-19 risk for gatherings in British Columbia, including epidemiological data regarding transmission of SARS-CoV-2 globally, nationally, and in British Columbia, factors leading to elevated transmission risk in religious settings, and COVID-19 epidemiology in British Columbia,” Chief Justice Hinkson wrote.

“The PHO’s orders are limited in duration and constantly revised and reassessed to respond to current scientific evidence and epidemiological conditions in British Columbia.”

The CSAPP is also seeking to have a class-action suit certified against the province on behalf of British Columbians who have “suffered personal injury or other damages as a result of the actions of the defendants in declaring a state of emergency,” with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. A certification hearing is scheduled in that matter in December of this year.

With regards to Monday’s decision, Warner wrote to his followers: “In a nutshell, we lost. I am sorry.”

In a separate decision released by Chief Justice Hinkson Monday, he dismissed a similar petition by Victoria resident Jeremy Maddock, who was unable to access restaurants when the vaccine passport order was in place.

In his ruling, Chief Justice Hinkson said Maddock “relied mostly on his own unqualified scientific opinion on transmissibility which questioned the impact of vaccination on transmissibility. His materials did not acknowledge or engage with the increased risk of serious illness, hospitalization, or death for unvaccinated people.”

A third case Chief Justice Hinkson dealt with medical exemptions for the vaccine passport program.

The three petitioners in this case had either been told by their doctor not to get the COVID-19 vaccine due to a health issue, or they had bad reactions to their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and decided not to get a second dose.

Leigh Anne Eliason and Dawn Slykhuis had been unable to get an exemption for the vaccine passport, while William Prendiville was able to get an official exemption, but “his attempts to utilize the certificate for its intended purpose have largely been unsuccessful.”

“None of the petitioners are challenging the general importance of receiving vaccinations, and in particular, COVID-19 vaccines,” Chief Justice Hinkson noted.

“Their petition challenges the constitutional validity of the Orders … as allegedly limiting their ability to exercise their rights in a free and democratic society, as they assert that they have medical restrictions and limitations that prevent their ability to receive a full course of the vaccines contemplated by the Orders.”

But Chief Justice Hinkson ultimately ruled the Eliason and Slykhuis hadn’t exhausted all other options before taking the matter to court, as they had not yet “engaged with the reconsideration process.” Furthermore, he ruled that while Prendiville has “encountered less than full acceptance of his temporary deferral by businesses,” this is not the fault of the province.

“The Province cannot be held responsible for the implementation of the Orders by private businesses, nor can private businesses violate an individual’s Charter rights,” Chief Justice Hinkson wrote.

Finally, a fourth case brought forward by the Canadian Constitution Foundation was similar to the previous one, in that the three petitioners were supportive of vaccinations in general but took issue with the vaccine passport regime’s medical exemptions.

As was the case with the previous matter, Chief Justice Hinkson found the three petitioners “have not exhausted the remedies available to them under the legislative scheme.” As such, he ruled that it was unnecessary to deal with their Charter arguments, and the petition was dismissed.

Matt Preprost / Dawson Creek Mirror – Sep 17, 2022 / 4:35 pm | Story: 385634

UPDATE: 4:35 p.m.

An evacuation order for British Columbia’s largest wildfire has been rescinded, though the BC Wildfire Service says the blaze remains out of control.

The Battleship Mountain wildfire in the Prince George Fire Centre is now estimated at more than 302 square kilometres.

The fire in the northeast corner of the province led to an evacuation order for about 1,000 residents on Sept. 10, but the District of Hudson’s Hope says that has been lifted.

The BC Wildfire Service says the blaze about 50 kilometres west of Hudson’s Hope was caused by lightning on Aug. 30.

It is one of the two remaining blazes classified as wildfires of note on the service’s website.

But it is reporting the Bearhole Lake fire, which is also located in the Prince George region, will be downgraded Sunday as cooler temperatures and rain continue to dampen the fire’s activity.

– The Canadian Press

---

ORIGINAL: 10:45 a.m.

Good news this morning from the fire fight at Battleship Mountain.

BC Wildfire Service reports most areas of the wildfire have received upwards of 10 mm of rain since Friday, and with some areas reporting nearly 20 mm.

Rain is expected to continue until noon, with another five to 10 mm forecast, according to BCWS.

That will be accompanied by cool daytime temps from 8 to 10 degrees, and northwest winds gusting up to 40 kilometres.

“Though the precipitation helps cool fire activity, the fire continues to smolder in heavier fuels,” the wildfire service said in an update. “Surface fires displaying rank one fire behaviour are expected today.”

Hudson’s Hope remains under evacuation order.

Here is today’s operational update from BCWS:

• Decreased temperatures, higher humidity and rainfall have reduced fire activity on the Battleship Mountain wildfire.
• In the last 24 hours, between 10 and 20 mm of rain has been received on various sections of the fire.
• Precipitation continues to be received and is expected to last into this afternoon.
• The unit crew working on the west flank is nearly finished securing the guard on the fire’s western heel.
• Three unit crews continue working on fuel free and patrol operations on the southwest flank.
• The contingency line on the south flank should be completed by end of day today.
• The contingency line on the west side of Wright Lake is complete.
• On the northeast flank, three unit crews have begun assessing and removing patchy fuels, and mopping up and extinguishing hot spots.
• Due to low lying cloud, there was no visibility for helicopters to support operations yesterday.
• Opportunities for air support will be dependent on conditions today.
• With the downturn in weather, structure protection equipment has begun to be demobilized.

Claire Wilson / Highlights – Sep 17, 2022 / 10:30 am | Story: 385633

As the psilocybin movement in Canada continues to grow, B.C. residents can now order magic mushrooms online, delivered right to their door.

In what seems like a historical repeat of what happened with the movement to legalize cannabis, British Columbians are starting to become more aware of the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin, says Dana Larsen, owner of Magic Mushroom Dispensary and activist for drug policy reform.

He says that Vancouver will see more psilocybin dispensaries “popping up” and that there are already many mail-order websites.

“I think [the mail order websites] are becoming less afraid and more blatant and advertising more directly and promoting more directly. I think these are all very good things,” he said.

An aspect of the so-called “shroom boom” is the rise of micro-dosing for mental health and healing. Larsen says he somewhat compares micro-dosing psilocybin to the effects of CBD in cannabis.

“They’re both less psychoactive ways to get the medicinal benefits of the substances,” he said. “You know, mushrooms or full psychedelic mushrooms can be very therapeutic and beneficial, but also very overwhelming and not something somebody wants to do a couple of times a week.”

Clinical trials and programs that utilize psychedelic-assisted therapy have been popping up all over B.C., with Numinus in Vancouver and Roots to Thrive at Vancouver Island University. However, more and more websites have been emerging, allowing British Columbians to utilize the benefits of micro-dosing at home. But these websites have a caveat; they are not legal.

Larsen says that psilocybin is in a similar place to cannabis when considerations were first made to legalize the substance.

“It was really the medical aspect that kind of opened the door in Canada with the courts, recognizing that some Canadians had a medical need for this substance,” he said.

But how is it that websites selling psilocybin have been allowed to operate? Larsen says that it comes down to these businesses not being worth the time and effort it takes to shut them down.

“When cannabis dispensaries were widespread in Vancouver, the VPD would only really go after them if there were really strong community complaints or some kind of extenuating circumstances in some way,” he said. “They said that it cost about $30,000 to launch a raid on a cannabis dispensary. And usually, we would reopen again the same day or the next day.”

Larsen says that another avenue authorities may take is to target the landlords renting to the businesses and threaten hefty fines.

“I expect the city will go after mushroom dispensaries in the same kind of slow and methodical way that they went after cannabis dispensaries, which was to target them with bureaucracy,” he said.

However, it remains unclear how authorities will target mail order websites.

Earthy Microdosing is one of these mail-order websites. According to Miles Sampras, the Customer Experience Manager, the company’s goal is to provide natural alternatives to pharmaceuticals and a safe place to learn about the benefits of micro-dosing.

“How we’re really wanting to contribute is just to create a safe environment and a respectable, reputable environment, even down to the very products. We work with consultants around the community; we produce our products in an actual facility, a sanitized facility,” Sampras said.

According to Sampras, they have been operating since 2020. He said that part of the company’s mission is to move away from the mistakes made by cannabis companies pre-legalization.

Sampras said the company is “unregulated,” but they have not had any run-ins with authorities.

In a statement to Glacier Media, Vancouver Police Department said that psilocybin is a controlled substance under the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Unless someone is granted an exemption through Health Canada, it is illegal.

“Anyone who traffics psilocybin, specifically those who contribute to violence and organized crime, could face arrest and charges,” said VPD.

Glacier Media reached out to BC RCMP for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Both Larsen and Sampras see psilocybin micro-dosing as an alternative to pharmaceuticals.

“I think for a lot of people, they provide a more long-lasting kind of permanent benefit,” Larsen said.

Compared to antidepressants, which Larsen says have a dampening effect, psilocybin micro dosing offers a permanent psychological change that allows people to integrate the trauma of negative feelings they are experiencing and move past them.

“Antidepressants tend to sort of numb down all of their emotions. And so the negative things and the anxiety and the fear and the triggering can be reduced, but so too can the joy and the happiness and the vitality,” he said.

Sampras says Earthy Microdosing has a saying similar to this: “Don’t treat the symptoms, treat the problem.”

“We’re not about just taking a product and masking that pain. It’s to get you out of bed and hopefully open your mind to enjoy that nice cup of coffee in the morning or get your day started and develop your flow state to build a positive momentum for the future. And that’s really what we’re about, why we chose micro-dosing,” said Sampras.

Julie MacLellan / Burnaby Now – Sep 17, 2022 / 8:25 am | Story: 385626

No, COVID-19 is not just a cold — unless a cold has sent nearly 1,000 British Columbian children to hospital and left at least 8,000 more with long-term symptoms.

Protect Our Province B .C., a coalition that’s lobbying for safer schools, is issuing that warning as students return to class for the 2022/23 school year.

The discussion over kids and COVID in British Columbia shot into the headlines last week, when a new seroprevalence study was published in pre-print on the medRxiv site. The study, which includes provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry among its 13 authors, found 70 to 80 per cent of children in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley contracted COVID-19 between March 2020 and August 2022.

(The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, drew from 14,000 blood samples drawn from a cross-section of age groups at eight separate intervals over those months.)

So what does that mean for B.C.’s children?

Jennifer Heighton can sum up one major concern in two words: long COVID.

Long COVID refers to a collection of after-effects — chest pain, breathing problems, brain fog, fatigue, loss of smell or taste, anxiety and depression, among many more symptoms — that can linger for weeks or months following even a mild infection. Studies have found it occurs in anywhere from two to eight per cent of children.

Heighton, an elementary school teacher who’s part of Protect Our Province, says that number should concern everyone in B.C. — especially given how widespread COVID-19 infection has become.

Taking the approximately 570,000 students in B.C.’s kindergarten-to-Grade 12 schools as a starting point, she did the conservative calculation: If 70 per cent of those kids have been infected with COVID-19, and just two per cent of those kids had long COVID, that’s about 8,000 children.

Or you can take the high end of those numbers: If 80 per cent of them have had COVID-19, and eight per cent of them came down with long COVID? That’s more like 36,000 children.

“Reinfecting children again and again with a virus that shows it can have complications down the road is not a good way forward,” Heighton said. “It’s not good for the community.”

COVID-19 elevates risk of diabetes, heart problems in children

Dr. Lyne Filiatrault, a New Westminster resident and former emergency room physician who’s been working with the Protect Our Province coalition since September 2021, said there’s little public understanding of the long-term health risks that come along with COVID in young people.

 

 

She stressed COVID-19 can cause serious complications for children. Diabetes, heart problems, kidney disease and blood clots are among the risks that have been identified in scientific studies.

And, of course, there’s the ever-present spectre of long COVID — something B.C. doesn’t keep public data on.

“We classify those individuals as ‘recovered’ as opposed to chronically disabled,” she said. “Our public health measures should include how many people are disabled or affected by long COVID, and our mitigation measures should include limiting potentially chronic disability.”

Filiatrault said experience in the U.K. — where data on long COVID is, in fact, tracked — has shown that children can suffer greatly from its effects. Children who were good students or high-performing athletes now have difficulty keeping up with assignments or are too tired to even attend school.

“For some of them, it’s a big deal. They can’t get back to the level of fitness and activity that they had previously. It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “Long COVID in kids — ‘long’ takes on a totally new dimension when you’re a 10-year-old or a five-year-old.”

COVID-19: More than 600 B.C. children hospitalized in 2022 alone

The Protect Our Province coalition is also concerned about the number of children winding up in hospital with COVID.

 

 

Filiatrault points out there was a threefold increase in hospitalizations among children between January and August of this year.

In the first “epi-week” of 2022 (Jan. 2 to Jan. 8), the B.C. Centre for Disease Control reported that 198 children under the age of 10 had been hospitalized with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, with 18 admitted to intensive care.

By the latest reported period, epi-week 35 (Aug. 28 to Sept. 3), hospitalizations in that age group were up to 587 and critical care admissions up to 73.

For the 10-to-19-year-olds, the picture is similar. In epi-week 1, 158 children had been hospitalized and 30 admitted to intensive care. By epi-week 35, the hospitalization number had risen to 371 and critical care admissions to 53.

In total, that means 958 children and teens have been hospitalized — 602 of them since the beginning of 2022 alone — and 126 admitted to critical care.

For Heighton, those numbers are alarming.

“Just because COVID doesn’t send as many kids to the hospital as elderly folks, it still sent about a thousand children to the hospital, and about 600 of them have been in the Omicron era. That’s a lot of kids who still had to go to the hospital,” she said. “Even though for the elderly it might be in the thousands, these are kids. Kids are not supposed to get this sick. If it was something else sending 600 kids to the hospital in eight months, wouldn’t we be worried?”

Children’s vaccination rates remain low in B.C.

Filiatrault noted B.C.’s pandemic response has relied heavily on vaccination — but that poses a problem when children have not been vaccinated in large numbers.

 

 

As of Sept. 1, just 46.5 per cent of five-to-11-year-olds in B.C. had received two doses of vaccine.

Among the youngest kids — six months to four years — the number was even lower, with just 17,452 vaccines administered in a total population of 208,000 (or about 8.4 per cent).

“The bulk of them have not been immunized,” Filiatrault said. “We have a government that uses a vaccine-only strategy and is reopening schools, which are the perfect breeding ground for COVID. You bring people together for a long time in poorly ventilated schools, in classrooms, and you don’t mask them? We’re repeating the experience of last January without mitigation.”

Protect Our Province B.C. is calling on the government to introduce safety protections in schools based on what it calls “SMART” mitigation strategies: stay home when symptomatic; mask up; air cleaners in every classroom; refresh indoor air; and implementation of ‘test, trace and isolate’ policies.

(You can find a link to the seroprevalence study at medRxiv online.)

The Times Colonist / Times Colonist – Sep 17, 2022 / 8:15 am | Story: 385624

Royal Athletic Park was full of concertgoers for the first time in four years Friday, the second day of the annual Rifflandia music festival.

The event, in operation for the first time since 2018, seemed to thrill audiences with its mix of hip-hop, indie rock and roots music from across North America.

Friday featured sets by Bran Van 3000, Cat Power, and Bikini Kill.

“I’m so glad it’s back,” said Tim Gower, 24, a University of Victoria student who attended the festival when he was a teenager.

“It’s crazy how much I missed this.”

Festival founder Nick Blasko was similarly pleased. He said the audience of 7,000 was the best opening night at the park in the festival’s 14-year history.

*It’s a great day of music,” he said.

The festival got underway Thursday night near Phillips Brewery that included a warmly received set by Los Angeles DJ Dillon Francis.

The crowd was far larger than previous years, pointing to a strong weekend ahead. Blasko said he wouldn’t be surprised if the next two days sell out, with the total attendance for each day cresting at 15,000 people.

Acts set to play the festival during the remainder of the weekend include Lorde and Charli XCX.

The festival was without one of its key acts on Friday, Pussy Riot, which on short notice was forced to cancel its 5:30 p.m. appearance.

A publicist for the rabble-rousing, politically-motivated band, which originated in Russia but is now based in an undisclosed location, cited work visa issues as the reason.

The band sent a video message in which lead singer, Nadya Tolokonnikova, while wearing a ski mask to protect her identity, called Russian President Vladimir Putin “a murderer.”

The cancellation was the only scheduling hiccup for Rifflandia’s thus far.

“It’s a happy gathering full of support, for the entire city,” Blasko said. “Everyone has a Rifflandia story, and this is another opportunity for more.”

Cindy E. Harnett / Times Colonist – Sep 17, 2022 / 7:30 am | Story: 385619

Premier John Horgan says he regrets the frustration and ­confusion Monday’s federal holiday for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral has caused some British Columbians.

“It really does, quite frankly, diminish from what should have been an opportunity for all of us to spend a few moments ­reflecting on the ­extraordinary life of Queen Elizabeth and, rather, we have people ­frustrated because they have domestic issues they have to deal with,” Horgan said Friday, the final day of the week-long Union of B.C. Municipalities ­convention in Whistler.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Sept. 19 will be a federal holiday to mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, who died Sept. 8.

The federal government is giving all federal employees the day off, but left it up to ­provinces and territories to decide if they wanted to follow suit.

While Ontario and Alberta and the Northwest Territories opted not to have a statutory holiday, B.C. will recognize the day as a holiday for ­provincial ­public-sector employees, with schools, post-secondary ­institutions and most Crown ­corporations closing up shop.

Many working in the ­private sector will still have to work, and the unexpected last-­minute ­holiday has put pressure on ­parents already facing a strained child-care system, Lisa Connell, chair of Tillicum Elementary’s Parent Advisory Council, told the Times Colonist on Wednesday.

While some working parents have negotiated ways to work from home during the pandemic, others who must be physically at work say it’s unrealistic to find child care with less than a week’s notice.

Horgan said the province is hearing from those unhappy about the holiday in B.C., but has collective agreements that ­­say if the federal government ­mandates a holiday, that holiday is also in effect in B.C.

“So we were put into a bit of a dilemma,” said Horgan.

“I understand the challenges for parents. I very much hope that we can get through Monday as best as we all can.”

A provincial commemorative service for Queen Elizabeth II will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the B.C. legislature, with a procession departing at 10:15 a.m. for Christ Church Cathedral, where there will be a multi-faith service beginning at 11 a.m.

Horgan, Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin and a host of other dignitaries are expected to attend.

Louise Dickson / Times Colonist – Sep 17, 2022 / 7:05 am | Story: 385618

A man who punched two women, one of them pregnant, and spat on a police officer in ­downtown Victoria last year has been found not criminally responsible because of a severe mental ­disorder.

Brett Joseph Mountford, 33, was convicted of assault causing bodily harm in connection with the attacks on the two women and assaulting a police officer on March 19, 2021.

Mountford punched a pregnant woman on Pandora Avenue, then, a little while later, struck another woman walking in the area near Johnson and Wharf streets. Later, he spat on the officer who arrested him.

“These assaults on the two women were completely ­random, entirely unprovoked and very frightening for them,” said Victoria provincial court Judge Christine Lowe.

Mountford was in a dream-like state at the time of the attacks and did not believe the people were real, the judge said in a review of evidence. “It appeared from his comments that he was seeing the world as if he was in a dream, almost a dream he couldn’t escape from.”

As he walked down the street, Mountford saw people laughing and assumed they were dream characters. It frustrated him because he was taking life seriously and they clearly were not.

“They were laughing at stuff and he felt he was being ­pressured to die,” she said.

Lowe found that although Mountford appreciated the nature of his actions, he was incapable of knowing they were wrong because nothing was real to him.

Defence lawyer Chantelle Sutton welcomed the judge’s decision, saying it would protect the public for a longer duration. “It also allows Mr. Mountford to get the help he has needed for years and never received in the jail system,” said Sutton.

Mountford was transferred from the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional centre to the Forensic Psychiatric ­Hospital in Coquitlam in late December. He was certified under the Mental Health Act and involuntarily admitted to the hospital for treatment for ongoing psychosis on Jan. 25. He remains there today.

Mountford had previously been assessed in 2018 and found to have a severe methamphetamine use disorder. He was assessed by a second psychiatrist in January 2020 who concluded Mountford was suffering from psychosis in the context of a severe methamphetamine disorder. The psychiatrist suggested it was also possible Mountford had schizophrenia.

Dr. Sophie Anhoury, ­medical director of the Forensic ­Psychiatric Hospital, found Mountford’s psychosis might indicate he has an enduring underlying mental disorder such as schizophrenia.

“I find on balance, Mr. Mountford’s underlying psychiatric condition rendered him vulnerable to psychosis and this pre-existing condition does render him a threat to others,” said Lowe.