FOCUS

PM 40051145 

FOCUS 

Victoria’s monthly magazine of people, ideas and culture February 2016 $3.95

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2 February 2016 • FOCUS

contents 

February 2016 VOL. 28 NO. 5 

STERLING STANFORD 

CHARTERED PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANTS 

4 OUR FOCUS IS CHANGING 

After 28 years as a monthly, we’re going to decarbonize a bit. 

Leslie Campbell 

12 OPTION 10: OUR BEST BET TO AVOID SEWERCIDE? 

Fisheries Act requirements for sewage treatment in Victoria 

could be met for less than $200 million. 

David Broadland 

16 STANDOFF AT POLAK SPRINGS 

Shawnigan Lake residents dig in for a long fight to protect their water 

from a controversial contaminated soil landfill. 

Judith Lavoie 

18 WHOSE SECRET INSTRUCTIONS WASTED $100 MILLION? 

The likely cost of the unjustified firing of eight Ministry of Health researchers 

is staggering, yet no one has been held accountable. 

Alan Cassels 

20 TRANS MOUNTAIN OPPONENTS GET BOOST FROM FEDS 

How the National Energy Board found itself 

under attack by everyone in January. 

Briony Penn 

22 ILLUMINATING THE EVERYDAY 

Barbara Callow uses light to bring life to the painted form. 

Aaren Madden 

36 CALLING YOUR INNER GYPSY 

Swain on swing: The 5th Annual Victoria Django Festival. 

Mollie Kaye 

38 THE VALLEY 

Issues around policing and mental health lie at the heart of 

award-winning playwright Joan MacLeod’s work. 

Monica Prendergast 

40 NATURE IS FORECLOSING 

The Climate Nexus calls for a transformative discussion 

on adapting our life-support systems to climate change. 

Amy Reiswig 

editor’s letter 4 

readers’ views 6 

talk of the town 12 

palette 22 

the arts in february 26 

vibe 36 

curtain call 38 

coastlines 40 

urbanities 42 

natural city 44 

finding balance 46 

ON THE COVER 

“Fan Tan Alley” by Barbara 

Callow, 24 x 20. See 

story on page 22. 

Kim Sterling, FCPA, FCGA 

Experienced • Knowledgeable • Approachable 

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Time Regained 

Specialty antique and vintage desks 

42 SEWERCIDE 

Local politicians are bumbling toward a multi-billion-dollar 

sewage treatment plan the community doesn’t need. 

Gene Miller 

44 A BIRDING EVANGELIST’S BIG YEAR 

Knowing our fellow creatures inspires Ann Nightingale’s passion. 

Maleea Acker 

Your desk, your sanctuary. Timeless. Soulful. 

A selection of desks now available 

at Bolen Books and Russell Books 

46 SNUGGLE UP WITH KOSELIGHET 

The yarn that keeps us knitted together, especially through winter. 

Trudy Duivenvoorden Mitic 

250-477-7457 

www.timeregained.net 

February 2016 • www.focusonline.ca 

3

editor’s letter 

Our focus is changing 

LESLIE CAMPBELL 

After 28 years as a monthly, we’re going to decarbonize a bit. 

DISCOVERY ISLANDS LODGE 

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Discover affordable backcountry comfort 

at our truly-green kayaker’s inn near 

Quadra’s best sea kayaking! 

• Friendly, oceanfront B&B 

• Guest kitchen & sauna 

• Parks, lakes & hiking trails 

www.Discovery-Islands-Lodge.com 

In 1988 I started the pre-cursor to Focus, a monthly magazine called 

Focus on Women. Those were the days when a person with no 

money, a friend’s Mac Plus, a waxer, a bit of moxie, and a lot of 

help from friends, could start a magazine. And survive. Although 

when I think of producing page layouts on that six-inch screen, I am 

not sure how we did it. 

Technology has always been key to being able to produce a monthly 

magazine. From 28 years on, though, the “advanced desktop publishing 

technology” we used back in ’88 seems archaic. When I rented a 

photocopier that could re-size logos for the ads, which were all cut 

and paste affairs, it was a huge step forward. Those were pre-scanner 

days. The “waxer” was a little electric hand-roller that had a cavity 

containing melted wax. You rolled the back of pages with the wax 

and pasted them onto large, four-page printer flats, carefully aligning 

them with the print area (a light table helped). Then we had to paste 

up the editorial images and ads. Photo mechanical transfers (PMTs) 

were screened photos made for us to the needed size at Island Blueprint 

on a room-size camera. 

Once completed, the flats were driven to the printer—after which 

I collapsed for a few days. Then I and some volunteers loaded our 

cars with bundles of magazines and dropped them off at numerous 

distribution sites. 

It’s fascinating for me—321 editions later—to reflect on such beginnings 

and the changes I’ve lived through as an editor and owner of a 

local magazine. I was there before scanners and faxes and pagers 

and cell phones, let alone digital cameras, the internet and online 

proofing. When I compare the early days of producing Focus on 

Women to our pre-press production now, about the only similarity is 

still having a few late nights prior to our press deadline—and thankfully 

not as late. 

Besides the technology, there have been other changes of course. 

The biggest one was the shift in focus. In 2004, David Broadland and 

I transformed Focus on Women to Focus: “Victoria’s monthly magazine 

of people, ideas, and culture.” Around the same time, we went 

from newsprint to full-colour glossy pages. And soon thereafter, 

we started publishing our stories on our website, www.focusonline.ca. 

Though there’ve been plateaus, change has been a near constant 

in our publishing careers. But it’s the web that has been the biggest 

game-changer. Research is so much easier that we do a lot more of 

it. We can publish stories almost instantaneously. Online, we can reach 

far more people, for far less cost, at the expense of far fewer or no 

trees. If we find out a new fact, or heaven forbid, find out something 

we published is not accurate, we can immediately correct it online, 

rather than wait a full month. We can reach younger people for whom 

a printed product seems a bit alien. The web allows more possibilities, 

too, for interaction, between Focus and our readers, as well as 

between readers who share the stories. It also allows stories to be told 

with sound and moving images. 

For those very reasons, the web has been massively disruptive to 

the publishing industry. For years now we’ve been hearing of the 

transformations among media players; the movement of ad revenue 

away from print and towards the web; the lack of a sustainable model 


Focus presents: Kirk Béasse Psychology 

ADVERTISEMENT 

BECAUSE MANY OF OUR READERS still express a 

strong affinity for reading words on paper, we will 

continue to print Focus but on a bi-monthly schedule— 

starting next month with our March/April edition. 

for funding investigative journalism, particularly at the local level; 

the competition for attention from Facebook and all that click bait 

the internet dishes up. 

It can be unsettling at times. This January alone brought news of 

Postmedia collapsing its newsrooms in four cities; the 141-year-old 

Nanaimo Daily News being shuttered by Black Press; the even older 

Guelph Mercury (the only paper in its city) closing its print operations; 

the elimination of 200 positions at Rogers Media (which 

owns 40 magazines, as well as TV and radio stations); and the 

loss of hundreds more jobs at the Toronto Star. Again, that’s just in 

the past month in Canada. 

It is hard for big and small players alike to find a way to pay for 

quality journalism. But it may well be easier for small, nimble, lean 

publishers like Focus to carve out a niche for journalism’s survival. 

We have less baggage and are fuelled more by passion for telling our 

community’s stories than by making a profit. 

Inevitably, the web is the place to be for virtually any publisher. 

For Focus, the opportunities luring us to do more online are too many 

to resist. Our digital magazine offers the ability to produce more journalism 

about local and regional issues and the arts, as well as a 

community forum, all without the big press bill. We can provide 

updates on the website about developments in the stories our writers 

cover regularly—from homelessness, sewage treatment, and the City’s 

new bridge, to art shows and environmental news. 

Because many of our readers still express a strong affinity for reading 

words on paper, we will continue to print Focus but on a bi-monthly 

schedule—starting next month with our March/April edition (my 

322nd). The print edition will be more robust, with more pages, more 

visual arts coverage, interviews, and investigative reporting. But 

the reduced frequency of printing and the fewer constraints on our 

time that will accompany it, will allow us to explore how to further 

our mission—to foster dialogue on important local social, political 

and environmental issues and celebrate the arts—in the wide-open 

spaces online. 

Finally, applying the climate change lens, all businesses are going to 

have to work towards decarbonizing their businesses. For us the obvious 

way to do that is to lower our consumption of CO 2 -absorbing trees. 

At Focus we strive to provide independent, critical analysis of issues 

that would likely otherwise not be covered. We plan to do more of 

that more often, online. 

Though independently owned by David and I, Focus is really a 

community project, reflecting this special place of ours and involving 

the people who inhabit it. Thanks for being here—in print and online. 

www.focusonline.ca • February 2016 

After 28 years with Focus, Leslie Campbell thinks 

she’ll make it to 30—though she never would have 

believed that back in 1988. And she never would 

have imagined all the twists and turns and wonders 

along the way. 

Looking to the body to help heal the mind 

When I reach out for 

“ 

support from others, I hope 

for gentleness, respect, 

and caring. This is what I 

strive to provide those who 

reach out to me. 

“ 

—Mr. Kirk Béasse 

Registered Psychologist 

We all go through stressful situations in our lives—the death of a family 

member, the loss of a job, challenges with family or friends, or a more 

general sense of anxiety. When we try to avoid uncomfortable emotions, 

and don’t fully express and experience what we feel, the pressure can build in our 

bodies and minds until, eventually, something has to give. 

When it does, there are often major consequences—and opportunities. Kirk Béasse, 

a Registered Psychologist in Victoria, is passionate about bringing mind and body 

together to help people heal in a more holistic way. “Clients who have physical symptoms—in 

their stomach, head, or chest—can work with the tangible experience 

they’re having in their bodies and connect it with their emotional lives to uncover 

deeply symbolic and powerful access points to healing and understanding.” 

Kirk’s bright, beautiful, tranquil office, nestled beneath three giant Sequoia trees 

in Fairfield, helps clients feel comfortable the moment they walk in the door. The 

feedback he hears most often, he says, “is a feeling of being safe and understood 

when talking to me—that my particular approach helps them fully integrate their 

experiences and understand themselves more deeply.” 

“I’ve had my own challenges,” Kirk explains. “It took years for me to recognize that 

the painful feelings I was having in my chest were directly linked to anxiety.” Seeing 

how stress was directly affecting his own health, he took a multi-layered approach 

that led him to new ways of caring for himself on all levels—physical, emotional, and 

spiritual—and this is what informs his transformative work with clients. 

“It’s tempting to imagine that everyone else has it together,” says Kirk, but it’s 

not true, and it leads to more suffering. “Having someone to trust and confide in 

is such a necessary part of moving through the inevitable challenges of life,” says 

Kirk. “It is so much easier to deal with when you can work together with someone.” 

While Kirk has extensive psychology training and certification, years of family 

and community therapy experience, and cross-cultural awareness, he says he believes 

the core of his successful approach comes from his ability to forge a strong relationship 

with clients. 

“A person can have all kinds of skills and technical expertise,” he says, “but if 

they are not deeply compassionate and human in their interactions, their effectiveness 

as a helper will be greatly diminished. A saying that resonates with me very 

deeply is ‘all healing happens in relationship.’ When I reach out for support from 

others, I hope for gentleness, respect, and caring. This is what I strive to provide those 

who reach out to me.” 

Kirk Béasse, Master of Counselling 

Registered Psychologist #2207 

250-507-4322 • kirkbeasse.com • contact@kirkbeasse.com 

5

eaders’ views 

Super Intent City 

An excellent article by Leslie Campbell 

on the homeless camp. Perhaps we should all 

be grateful to the Intent residents for forcing 

this issue onto the front page instead of 

languishing among everyone’s “to do” lists. 

Six weeks of mud and cold are more than most 

advocates could—or would—endure for a 

cause. Maybe we should give them a medal! 

Instead of spreading fear, Central Middle 

School and its parent advisory council should 

be seizing this opportunity for education. 

Almost every camper, from military veteran 

to outdoor enthusiast, has a story to tell if 

teachers have enough courage to cross the 

street and take their classes to meet them. What 

could be more important to our children than 

learning that we are all citizens, we all have 

rights and we all have something to share. It 

is up to us to make this issue our issue, not just 

“their” issue. 

Alison Acker 

As a partial solution to the homelessness 

problem has anyone considered housing the 

homeless on large sea going barges like the 

ones used by Seaspan? It could be docked in 

the industrial section of Victoria Harbour thus 

eliminating residential concerns. The barge 

could be fitted with multi levels of suite sized 

sea containers for shelter. The sea containers/suites 

would be butted up to one another around 

the periphery of the barge allowing the back 

portion to act as a safety barrier. Entrance to 

each suite/room would face inward to an inner 

courtyard with ground/central floor area serving 

Editor: Leslie Campbell Publisher: David Broadland 

Sales: Mollie Kaye, Bonnie Light, Rosalinde Compton 

ADVERTISING & SUBSCRIPTIONS 

250-388-7231 Email focuspublish@shaw.ca 

EDITORIAL INQUIRIES and letters to the editor 

focusedit@shaw.ca 

WEBSITE www.focusonline.ca 

MAIL Box 5310, Victoria, V8R 6S4 

SUBSCRIPTIONS 

(Tax included): 

$21/year (6 editions) 

$42.00/2 years (12 editions) 

Copyright © 2016. No portion of this publication may be 

reproduced in whole or in part without written permission 

of the publisher. The views expressed herein are not necessarily 

those of the publisher of Focus Magazine. 

Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement 

No. 40051145 

as central washroom facility. Access to and 

from the barge could be a tastefully gated and 

fenced walkway from the street eliminating 

access to adjacent properties. Just a thought. 

R. W. McKay 

Scientists to CRD: petition the feds 

The current sewage treatment schedule 

seems too short to allow proper planning, 

or to take advantage of broad changes expected 

to come with decarbonization. I suspect there 

are a number of people in positions of responsibility 

who would love to see the whole issue 

punted down the road for a few decades. 

Maybe it makes sense to set a completion 

date of 2030, with a phased plan and funding 

for the first stages. It could go something 

like this: 

1. New federal funding for green infrastructure 

is announced, and the lower island 

has just the opportunity. Our local MPs carry 

the banner in Ottawa, and lobby for assurances 

in place of the promised existing grants. 

2. BC adopts the advisory panel recommendation 

to ramp the carbon tax up to $150 

per tonne by 2030 (adding to the business 

case for heat recovery). 

3. BC Hydro Power Smart and similar new 

resources provide financial and technical 

support to the project. 

4. We slowly start again. Studies of innovative 

and successful projects in other jurisdictions 

are done. Emerging technologies for treatment 

of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, heat 

recovery and power generation are evaluated 

objectively. Locations (existing pump stations, 

sea platforms, and other) are evaluated. Deeper 

public consultation is conducted; not just 

town halls, but all kinds, for example, asking 

windsurfers, kiteboarders and sailors what 

potential outfalls have the best wind for turbines 

to power plant(s); asking sailors where the 

strongest and steadiest currents might provide 

the best ocean power; involving the arts 

community in planning an innovation-themed 

site art process. 

5. Governments and large private building 

owners participate in the planning, with the 

hope of new heating and power generating 

systems for their facilities. Groups of buildings 

are identified where district energy would 

be a good fit. 

Dreaming in technocolor? Maybe, but I 

think all options should stay on the table until 

something that makes sense emerges; something 

with a net contribution to the region, 

and to the next generation of Victorians. 

Bob Landell 

Amalgamation: the plumber’s dilemma 

Thank you to Mr Miller for bringing the 

amalgamation issue back to the forefront early 

in the new year. 

A couple of comments he may wish to 

ponder: 

During the 2014 municipal election 75 

percent of those who voted in Greater Victoria 

municipalities (representing 90 percent of the 

CRD population) voted “Yes” to questions 

dealing with reform of local government. In 

addition, numerous polls consistently show a 

very high level (over 80 percent) in favour 

of some form of governance review or change. 

Yes, we have this sticky thing called democracy. 

Hard cheese, I know. 

Andrew Sanction, the Canadian academic 

who writes about amalgamation, posted a 

Facebook comment on July 2, 2015 that his 

writing “has been almost exclusively in the 

context of the legislated (i.e. forced) amalgamations 

that were so prevalent in eastern 

Canada a decade or two ago” and have not 

included voluntary amalgamations. 

As recently as October 25, 2015 Sancton 

tweeted “Of course amalg can work if that is 

what citizens in each affected muni want. I 

have never suggested otherwise.” 

Obviously there is a huge research gap 

of the type required in Greater Victoria, 

where there is a massive grassroots appetite 

to look at reform. It is reasonable to expect 

a study will be useful to provide information 

hitherto unobtainable. 

Banishment of the word “amalgamation” 

might appeal to Mr Miller. This is a type of 

strategy adopted by various countries in past 

decades, notably Germany in the 1930s. 

How did this work out for them? Perhaps, 

instead, we can speak of “unification,” 

completed during Germany’s more successful 

latter decades. 

Supporters of local government reform are 

united in a common belief that the region must 

be improved. They represent the full political 

spectrum of voters who can’t be pigeonholed 

and dismissed as lefties, middle, or right wing. 

For the first time, thousands of people have 

an organization, such as Amalgamation Yes, 

around which to coalesce and advocate for 

change, and they will not be deterred from 

their democratic rights to determine how they 

are governed. 

Thoughtful discourse can take us a long way 

to improving our regional problems. An unbiased 

study of the current governing structure 

will inform and equip us to vote Yes or No for 

change on a future binding referendum. 


But Mr Miller’s desperate and corrosive 

comments designed to insult and shut down 

the conversation are not helpful. 

Lesley Ewing, board member, 

Amalgamation Yes 

Gene Miller responds: Yes, I’m enraptured 

by the political management of 1930s Germany, 

want to reassert it locally, and won’t be happy 

until cyborgian storm troopers are breaking 

down the doors of Amalgamation Yesterday 

advocates and even people who simply want 

to preserve democratic institutions…and 

forcing these citizens to watch as their puppies 

are kicked to death. [Add Miller’s demonic 

laughter here.] I wonder how you could tell I 

was that kind of guy. 

Is it that hard to read history’s wind? Grand 

scale-bureaucracy is waning in our emergent 

post-centralized world that will see its political 

geography become more local and 

autonomous. I wrote: “The future is filled 

with the collapse of impossibly large and 

unmanageable structures—political, social, 

economic—that contribute little to citizen 

well-being or community pleasure. Desperately, 

longingly, people will look for alternatives 

and for models of workable, rich, sustaining 

community. We live in one.” 

We live in one. 

In my opinion, it would be much more 

useful if folks spent less time maundering 

about democratic rights and more time exercising 

them by further improving our exquisite 

local governments.—GM 

Gene Miller’s fear of amalgamation red flag 

is really a red herring. Sure, it is easy to cherry 

pick other cities’ experience with amalgamation 

and say, for example: “ Look at Toronto—a 

Harris horror show.” 

Steady on, Gene. Before Harris made Toronto 

a mega city it had two tier government—a 

metropolitan government that looked after 

the needs of the whole region and six boroughs 

looking after local issues—down from 13 as 

it happens. Metro government acted on behalf 

of the region without divided loyalty. Boroughs 

looked after problems at the local level. This 

system worked well. It is common. Too bad 

Toronto no longer has this system. Too bad 

this region doesn’t have it. It is not for nothing 

that Jack Knox calls us “dysfunction by the 

water.” This has not escaped the notice of 

voters who asked for the Province to also take 

notice and take a lead towards achieving better 

governance. The ball is in the Province’s court. 

John Olson 

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7


Pro amalgamation proponents have been so vocal over the last few 

years, that I was beginning to doubt my own concerns about how amalgamation 

of our municipalities would not save money and result in 

more bureaucracy and less public engagement. Then I happened to be 

flipping through Focus, randomly landed on this article that mixed the 

words plumbing and amalgamation—and lo, my belief that amalgamation 

would be disastrous has been restored. Good public policy is 

based on solid research and analysis; the research shows there is little 

to gain and a lot to lose with amalgamation. 

Thank you Gene Miller. 

Steve Coe 

Commissioner Lowe’s open window 

In regards to David Broadland’s article “Commissioner Lowe’s open 

window,” Stan Lowe’s conduct and actions may not be as transparent 

as they appear. 

First, consider that the Office of the Police Complaint Commission 

(OPCC) is staffed partly by former police officers. Also, few people 

realize that complaints to the OPCC about police departments are 

first investigated by officers working at the very same police departments 

about which the complaints have been made. Since complaints 

about BC police departments are not conducted in an arms-length 

manner, considerable opportunity for misconduct by the OPCC exists. 

Here is one example: In 2010, a former BC Complaint Commissioner, 

Don Morrison, conducted an investigation into the OPCC’s investigation 

of a complaint about the Saanich Police Department. Former 

commissioner Morrison issued a legal opinion citing misconduct by 

the OPCC and by current Commissioner Lowe in disregarding “deceit 

and abuse of authority,” including inappropriate threats of arrest, by a 

police officer. Mr. Morrison also concluded that Commissioner Stan 

Lowe’s role in the matter had been “fatally compromised” because of 

egregious failure to consider evidence, ignoring regulations for handling 

complaints and not following legislation governing the OPCC. 

Mr. Morrison recommended that an external investigation be 

conducted into the OPCC’s handling of this complaint. Commissioner 

Lowe was advised of this finding, but he has never responded or taken 

any further action. 

Regarding the VPD chief ’s inappropriate communications with 

another police officer’s wife, there may be other motives for Commissioner 

Lowe’s sudden interest in providing an “open window.” In the past 

year, there have been reports of other police departments in Canada 

questioning whether police boards should be run by civilians. The Police 

Complaint Commissioner has issued what appears to be an order to 

the Victoria and Esquimalt mayors with respect to their conduct as 

VPD Board members. I believe that sets a dangerous precedent. 

Civilian oversight must not be bullied nor dispensed with; it should 

be strengthened with respect to all public authorities, especially the police. 

Lois J. Sampson 

Split DFO in two 

When I was a kid in the 60s, in addition to the spectacular beauty 

seen from BC Ferries, I also looked forward to an affordable and 

delicious salmon sandwich. No White Spot on the boat in those days. 

And no doubt the salmon was wild. 

I admire Alexandra Morton’s epic work to keep profit-driven salmon 

farms off our coast so wild salmon can survive; however, there is an 

intractable dilemma—the farms exist because there are two classes of 

consumers: those who can afford wild salmon and those who can’t 

in the capitalist world market. 

Do we want wild salmon to be a food of privilege? 

Anything that restricts fish farms increases the farmed and wild 

salmon price under capitalism. Anything that limits the wild catch also 

increases the price. That prevents more people from having access to 

salmon, except the well-to-do. 

The only fair and ecological solution is to start the long rewilding 

process. That means abolishing fish farms, allowing coastal 

First Nations enough to feed themselves, and decommodifying salmon 

with world quotas. 

Frances Pearson 

Walbran logging 

In response to your article “In terms of emissions logging the Walbran 

makes no sense,” besides emissions there is another salient point in not 

cutting old-growth forests. This came to me one very hot summer day 

while riding my bike down a long exposed hill which leads into Mt 

Douglas Park. When I entered the park, which is old-growth forest, the 

temperature plunged what felt like 20 degrees. And I realized that forests, 

especially old-growth forests, are wonderful natural air conditioners. 

With this in mind, let’s consider the glaciers of the Himalayas,the 

Hindu Kush, and Kilimanjaro to name a few. Most, if not all of the oldgrowth 

forests in their foothills have been stripped. Now when the hot 

air from the plains rushes up the slopes, there is no forest to cool the 

air. Consequently the glaciers melt. 

And I might add that old-growth forests do something else called 

respiration which sends up into the atmosphere vast amounts of water 

which comes down as rain. When these forests are cut, it stops respiration 

which helps create drought. 

Old-growth forests are vital and it would help the biosphere immensely 

to leave them be. 

Stephen Fairclough 

Premier Clark: Please decarbonize 

Under Letters in your January issue I see where Dorothy Field 

addresses her concerns re LNG and the destruction of the Peace 

River Valley in a letter to Ms Clark. Even though I’ve read just a few 

articles so far, I’m beginning to see a thread—the increasing loss of 

our fragile environment. 

I found myself remembering what the author Yann Martel did to 

enlighten Stephen Harper. He mailed him a carefully chosen book 

every two weeks, some accompanied by a note, some not. After reading 

Briony Penn’s article on her visit to New Zealand and Trudy Duivenvoorden’s 

on championing something local, I found myself wanting to find them 

on the Focus website and email them to the Premier because of the notso-subliminal 

lessons in them. But then, using Yann’s approach, I wonder 

if a subscription to Focus might be an easier way to get these powerful 

messages to her on a continual basis! I’m more than willing to gift 

her with a subscription and pay extra to have it registered so she has 

to sign for it. Otherwise, I fear, Ms Clark’s legacy may centre around 

her leadership and complicity in the destruction of all we hold dear 

in this beautiful province. 

Rosemary Baxter, Courtenay 

Tomorrowland: Victoria and the New Economy 

In his December column, Gene Miller paints a rosy picture about 

how “Victoria is ground zero…a living laboratory, a model in the transition 

to the sharing economy, a place the world could visit and study.” 

Apparently people will flock to this former colonial outpost on the 


southern tip of Vancouver Island to admire “the contours of an 

open-ended future” which is being shaped before our very eyes. 

Mr Miller embraces the notion of post-capitalism “sharing” like 

an ardent born-again evangelist who, having repudiated the sin of 

substance abuse and anti-social behaviour, now finds salvation in the 

modern American consumerism gospel according to Messrs Paul Mason 

and Jeremy Rifkin. 

Allegedly, Victoria “seems to have the right DNA for this—the 

unplanned purpose for which this place was made.” The city possesses 

not only that elusive quality of being “self-aware” but also enjoys the 

unique role of being a “global crucible for this profound social and 

economic transformation.” 

According to this fanciful urban mythologist, Victoria is known 

for its “love of generosity,” “benign climate and fecund nature,” and 

not a lot of “financial aggression and make-a-zillion triumphalism.” 

The sharing economy, however, isn’t about sharing relationships, 

redistributing wealth, or establishing a collaborative global village. It 

is simply another slick way to make money, most of which ends up in 

the pockets of multi-billion-dollar entities, investment banks, and 

accredited private investors. 

The sharing economy is a network of digitally-mediated commercial 

exchange platforms that facilitate a link between those who own 

something and those who wish to use that something on a short-term 

basis. It’s about owners of goods and services making money by offering 

consumers access to their goods, services or resources for a given period 

of time and for a specified fee. 

It’s a pity the author hasn’t assessed one of the darlings of the “sharing” 

economy, AirBnB. This multi-billion-dollar venture-capital backed 

peer-to-peer short-term lodging service is having a negative impact on 

affordable rental housing in many high-cost-of-living cities around the 

world in which it now operates. (See “The Sharing Economy Isn’t About 

Sharing at All,” Gina M. Eckhardt and Fleura Bardhi, Harvard Business 

Review, January 28, 2015.) 

While 58 hotels operate in the Victoria area, a variety of online 

vacation rental platforms now offer hundreds of premium condo suites 

and penthouses for well-heeled short-stay guests. Local residents 

seeking permanent rental accommodation are being squeezed out of 

the housing market in favour of the higher valued, “sophisticated 

sharing guests” who are hosted by condo owners seeking additional 

income opportunities without being regulated or taxed as a hospitality 

industry provider. 

While some “sharing” platforms present an unassuming face to 

the world, others reflect predatory, anti-competitive business practices, 

such as the new “Uber” ride-sharing service, backed by Google and 

Goldman Sachs. (See “Debating the Sharing Economy,” Juliet Schor, 

October 2014, www.greattransition.org) Or, they represent the corporatization 

of auto-sharing services such as Zipcar. 

The new “sharing” economy favours concentrating ever greater 

amounts of wealth in fewer and fewer hands in the shortest time possible, 

with little or no interference by government or regulators. 

Whom does the “sharing” economy serve, and who really enjoys its 

promised “benefits”? 

V. Adams 

Tried everything else? Now make 

a resolution to try something that WORKS 

Victoria Podiatric Laser Clinic 

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Learn more at: www.victoriapodiatriclaserclinic.com 

Gene Miller responds: Hey, V. Adams, fabulous letter! Puts me in 

my place. You have me entirely rethinking my perspective, and 

now I recognize that the “sharing economy” is simply a Trojan horse 

for more capitalist agglomeration by mega-corporations. I’ve been 


9


an inadvertent cheerleader for the billionaires. 

I simply didn’t realize it. I feel like such 

a fool. 

My friend, life right now is a matrix of 

rackets run by the cynical and the self-absorbed. 

Victoria, within my poetics, is the capital 

of innocence and (relative) social honesty. 

Do you really want to fault me and tear down 

my propositions about Victoria’s potential 

to emerge as a centre for economic and social 

sharing, as practiced by the Fernwood NRG 

(Neighbourhood Resources Group), various 

co-housing projects and a range of other 

community-scale initiatives? What, too sunny 

and hopeful for you? 

Please give me a call (250-514-2525) so 

we can plan to meet. We have lots to talk 

about and I’ll buy the coffee.—GM 

sions, all protected. The message is “What’s 

left, the rest of you—the ‘crazies’ as one Liberal 

MLA calls engaged citizens—can have.” 

Early in 2016 the “government” will hand 

us a Great Bear Rainforest plan conceived 

through the same kind of ideological scheme 

proposed for the Okanagan. Hand-picked 

enviros, regional Indian bands, commercial 

interests and the timber industry—annointed 

by government—have sliced up the Great 

Bear pie without having ever done an environmental 

impact assessment, without an 

open process for incorporating public scrutiny, 

and “free” of the best conservation science. 

Citizens who did submit comment saw it disappear 

into the maw of government who fed it 

to the insider participants. 

The Great Bear “plan” capitulates to vested 

interests like all insider deals do. Scientifically 

sound conservation measures are disembowelled 

by pro-business and timber industry 

bias in legislation and management plans that 

state habitat protection is acceptable only 

if it can be implemented “without unduly 

reducing the supply of timber from British 

Columbia’s forests.” The Liberal government 

commissioned a report by MLA Mike Morris— 

“Improving wildlife habitat management in 

BC”—that rightly recognizes the timber 

supply protection clause “significantly lowers 

the threshold protecting our biodiversity” 

and “This…has contributed to a degradation 

of biodiversity.” 

British Columbians want to be optimistic 

about 2016. We know we are entitled to a 

great deal more “democracy” but we’re going 

to have to battle for it. 

Dr Brian L. Horejsi, Penticton 

Missing and murdered indigenous 

women inquiry 

An open letter to Minister Bennett, Minister 

Wilson-Raybould, and Minister Hajdu: 

We are a group of families from the traditional 

territories of the Indigenous peoples 

living in the Province of BC. We are family 

members of loved ones who have gone missing 

or who are now passed on to the spirit world 

after being violently murdered. We are writing 

after hearing that there is planning ahead 

for a pre-inquiry process, which will then lead 

to a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered 

Indigenous Women and Girls. We are writing 

to advise of our experiences (or lack of experiences) 

in the Oppal Inquiry, which took place 

here in BC from 2012-2014. 

First of all, we are relieved to hear that there 

is a pre-inquiry process being planned in order 

Slicing Up The Great Bear Pie 

I’d like to think that most British Columbians 

have heard of the Great Bear Rainforest—one 

of the most biologically productive landscapes 

in the world, stretching from the Yukon-Alaska- 

BC corner all the way south to Bute Inlet, from 

the interior coastal range west to the Pacific. 

It harbours runs of salmon in the millions, 

great bears and wolves, birds that nest only in 

ancient trees, rainfall that can reach four metres 

annually, and extensive forests hundreds of 

years old. 

Remarkably, you and I—and all British 

Columbians—still own the Great Bear, 

although we are morally and ethically obligated 

to hold it in trust for all of Canada and 

the rest of the world. 

Its presumed protection and management 

rests in Victoria with people like Premier Clark, 

Forests Minister Steve Thompson and an 

entrenched public service historically steeped 

in resource exploitation. 

For 50 years it has been managed almost 

exclusively for the timber industry; a half 

century of insider politics have effectively 

left the people of BC on the outside looking 

in. Roughly one-tenth of the area was designated 

Protected Areas in the ’90s, then a series 

of land-resource management plans carved 

up the remainder for various forms of “management,” 

almost all it based on logging and 

road building. 

Some of you are familiar with the fraudulent 

insider committee originally set up to 

massage public comment on the South Okanagan 

park plan; you have seen the offensive and 

absurd conditions Minister of Environment 

Mary Polak has set for Park designation; 

hunting, off-roading, grazing, helicopter intrufor 

our voices to be heard. This did not happen 

with the Oppal Inquiry. We want to ensure 

that you are aware of the issues that we, as 

families, had to deal with as a result of the 

lack of consultations with the Province of 

British Columbia. We believe that there are 

many lessons learned from the Oppal Inquiry 

that can be addressed in the planning of the 

National Inquiry. 

When the Oppal Inquiry began, the Province 

of BC already had appointed a commissioner 

and its staff, and had finalized its terms of reference. 

No one had any opportunity to make 

recommendations for anything. We believe 

that commissioners for the National Inquiry 

must be appointed with consultations with 

families and advocates of MMIWG to advise 

regarding who the commissioners should be. 

We would recommend four commissioners. 

Families need to be informed about what 

an Inquiry actually is and what it will do, and 

be informed about the process at all stages. 

The terms of reference should not already 

be set in stone, as they were in the Oppal 

Inquiry. Consultations with families and advocates 

must include the discussions of the terms 

of reference. 

There must be a family/advocate advisory 

committee to provide advice to the commissioners 

at all stages of the inquiry. 

All families and advocate organizations 

must be given immediate standing with 

proper resources provided to legal counsel 

at the Inquiry. This did not happen at the 

Oppal Inquiry and we, as families, were 

totally silenced. 

Proper support (i.e. mental health counsellors, 

Elder guidance) should be provided at 

the pre-inquiry and inquiry process. We feel 

that we will also require supports for at least 

a year after the National Inquiry and right 

now. Families are already being triggered. 

We wish to reiterate that you must meet 

with families in northern communities as well 

as on Vancouver Island. 

Lorelei Williams, Michele Pineault, 

Elaine Williams, Harriet Prince, CJ Julian, 

Bernie Williams, Lillian Howard, 

Gertie Pierre, Melody Pierre, 

Lila Purcell, Mona Woodward 

LETTERS 

Send letters to 

focusedit@shaw.ca 


Focus presents: Peninsula Gallery 

ADVERTISEMENT 

New owner expands Peninsula Gallery’s horizons 

Peninsula Gallery in Sidney 

When Ying Tang heard through a friend that 

Peninsula Gallery was for sale a couple of 

years ago, she leapt at the chance to buy 

it. She had been visiting many galleries in Western 

Canada, looking for an opportunity to invest in the art 

business. When she saw Peninsula Gallery, she says, 

“I fell in love with it right away.” 

The gallery, originally founded by Larry Hanlon and 

a partner, is approaching its 30th anniversary. Ying, 

a filmmaker (TV dramas mostly) for 15 years and former 

news reporter in China, was impressed by the wellmaintained 

and established gallery with its high calibre 

of artists. The gallery’s long-time representation of 

Robert Bateman was especially attractive. 

Mr Bateman, at 85, is so busy with various causes 

he doesn’t have much time to paint, and what he does 

paint gets snapped up quickly. A new piece brought to 

the gallery in November was immediately sold. But the 

gallery is also involved in the “secondary market” for 

Bateman’s work so always has some of his works, such 

as “Defensive Stand,” shown in the photo below. Gallery 

Manager Jonathan Jia, who serves on the board of the 

Robert Bateman Foundation, says, “He’s a wonderful 

man; so intelligent on so many topics.” 

As one of the largest galleries on Vancouver Island, 

Peninsula hosts about 40 artists. “We carry the whole 

portfolio of artists from the previous owner,” says 

Ying. Besides Bateman, artworks at Peninsula include 

other western Canadian masters such as Alan Wylie, 

Michael Svob and Carol Evans, as well as some who 

cite Bateman as an inspiration—Alan Hancock 

with his wildlife images, and Jim Park. Park, who 

attended Robert Bateman Secondary School, is one 

of the new artists the gallery represents. A Koreanborn 

Vancouver artist in his 30s, he paints full-time 

and sells everything he produces. His large (60 x 48 

inches) painting of a dramatic coastal mountain scene 

testifies to his impressive gift for capturing water, 

mountains and light. 

Much of their first year and a half, says Jonathan, 

was spent getting to know the artists they had inherited, 

doing studio visits near and far. Jonathan, a lifetime 

art lover, known to paint a bit himself, enjoyed it thoroughly. 

He and his family arrived in Victoria in 2013 

after ten years in Calgary where Jonathan worked as 

an accountant. “We’ve now got to know every one of 

our artists, which allows us to represent them better,” 

he says. Besides those already mentioned, the Peninsula 

Peninsula’s new owner Ying Tang, manager Jonathan Jia, and Robert Bateman’s “Defensive Stand” 

carries Kathryn Amisson’s paintings of wondrous skies, 

Clement Kwan’s portraits, Ice Bear’s abstracts, Michael 

O’Toole’s sea and landscapes, Catherine Moffat’s still 

lifes, Dennis Magnusson’s large scale flower portraits, 

and others. There’s also a fine selection of sculptures 

available from such artists as Lindsay Branson, Douglas 

Fisher, Jack Kreutzer, and Brent Cooke. 

Ying and Jonathan, who bring international expertise 

in art investment to their clientele, are very selective 

about new artists they take on (besides Jim Park, they 

now represent Tofino-based artist Mark Hobson) and 

are devoting some time to cross-cultural art development. 

They recently created a book on Canadian artist 

Real Fournier and shipped 49 of his paintings for a twoweek 

long exhibit at the Today Art Museum, one of the 

top museums in China. Canadian Ambassador Guy St 

Jacques attended the opening reception. They have 

also worked hard to make sure Robert Bateman is wellknown 

in China. “Many Chinese collectors are now 

looking at investing in his work,” says Ying. 

And now they are excited to introduce a Chinese 

artist to Canada and the local art scene: Hongwei Yang, 

China’s premiere woodcut artist. Yang was recently a 

visiting scholar at Columbia University, and earlier 

studied under teacher Bing Xu who is a member of the 

Asian Art Council of the Vancouver Art Gallery, and 

whose works represented China in the 2015 Venice 

Biennial. Says Ying, “Hongwei’s style is unique, rare. 

You can find a lot of Chinese oils and calligraphy here 

but nothing like this.” Indeed, the 38-inch-square woodcuts 

in the “Island Series” are stunning and unusual. 

Also helping out Ying and Peninsula’s clients is Elma 

Tankink who has worked in the gallery for 23 years. 

People from near and far bring Elma their art for framing. 

Her experienced eye and technical expertise can make 

a painting sing. Says Ying, “Many reframe a beloved 

painting and find it looks immediately different.” 

Those who wander into Peninsula Gallery are in for 

a special time. Experience the comfortable, spacious 

gallery and art that stimulates but also soothes the soul. 

Peninsula Gallery 

2506 Beacon Avenue, Sidney, BC 

250-655-1282 • www.pengal.com 

11

talk 

of the 

town 

Judith Lavoie 16 Alan Cassels 18 Briony Penn 20 

Option 10: our best bet to avoid sewercide? 

DAVID BROADLAND 

Fisheries Act requirements for sewage treatment in Victoria could be met for less than $200 million. 

Are politicians better at solving problems or creating them? 

After following Victoria’s billion-dollar sewage treatment 

issue for several years, I’ve concluded they’re awfully good 

at creating them. The failure to find a reasonable solution to the treatment 

issue seems to stem from local politicians not being able to decide 

whether the problem they’re trying to solve is an environmental question 

or a question about how to meet funding deadlines. 

In this conflicted state, the politicians have allowed themselves 

to be led to a solution designed by senior government technocrats 

far more intent on creating giant construction projects than protecting 

orca. The ease with which local political leaders have allowed themselves 

to be controlled by the impulses and promises of upper levels 

of government has been astonishing. The promise of federal and 

provincial funding—and the fear of losing any of that loot—grabbed 

them firmly by the throat several years ago, choking off any further 

supply of oxygen to their brains. 

At the same time, local political leaders have failed to listen to, 

or act on, concerns from their constituents about the obviously-flawed 

underpinnings of the federal and provincial regulations that led to 

this billion-dollar moment. Just before last fall’s federal election, I 

asked Victoria MP Murray Rankin if he would support a sciencebased 

determination of whether Victoria’s existing sewage treatment 

system is harming the environment, and whether any treatment 

proposal brought forward should be scientifically evaluated to determine 

whether it will provide a net environmental benefit. Rather than 

addressing those questions squarely, Rankin would only say “The 

existing sewage system does not meet provincial regulations and 

federal Fisheries Act requirements.” 

Such unquestioning acceptance of Fisheries Act “requirements” has 

been the modus operandi of almost all the politicians involved over 

the last five years in this costly ($76 million and counting) exercise in 

futility. If Rankin is so certain that those requirements should be adhered 

to, why doesn’t he tell us why? 

In the absence of informed political leadership, scientists have had to 

step forward. Some time ago, 10 prominent local marine scientists 

penned a letter to Focus in which they stated: “The federal government’s 

‘one size fits all’ regulations are clearly inappropriate in failing to take 

account of differences in receiving environments and hence different 

impacts and risks. The CRD’s willing compliance is disappointing.” 

Recently, those same ten scientists again wrote to Focus stating: “At 

the very least, we urge the CRD to petition the federal government to 

reclassify Victoria’s discharges as medium or low risk, with treatment 

deadlines of 2030 and 2040 respectively, rather than (as is now the 

case) high risk requiring treatment by 2020. That way we would have 

time for the rational, quantitative evaluation of potential problems 

and their solution if necessary, rather than rushing into expensive treatment 

systems that would largely address non-problems.” 

Underlining those scientists’ concerns about the CRD’s unquestioning 

acceptance of a high risk classification is a recently-released 

study by Victoria-based DFO scientists who concluded that upgrading 

all Victoria and Vancouver sewage treatment facilities to a secondary 

level of treatment would have a “negligible effect” on environmental 

conditions in the Salish Sea. 

While there’s little support from the scientific community for the 

CRD to proceed in the direction it’s moving, there’s even less support 

from the broader community for the mounting cost of meeting provincial 

and federal requirements. 

All of the current options on the table—including the original 

McLoughlin Point proposal—would likely exceed a billion dollars 

in capital costs. Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen’s recent push in the Times 

Colonist to resuscitate a project the municipality of Esquimalt has 

already rejected is founded entirely on Jensen’s contention that the 

2010 estimate of $783 million for that project still applies. But the 

latest estimate from the CRD on McLoughlin is $879 million. That 

new figure accounts for 11.5 percent inflation on engineering and 

construction costs since 2010. Even that $879 million is suspect, 

though. In 2010, the accountancy firm Ernst & Young independently 

estimated the McLoughlin project would cost $830 million. It provided 

that estimate for the business case study for the project that was 

required by the Province. If an 11.5 percent inflation premium is 

applied to Ernst & Young’s estimate, the cost of McLoughlin Point 

rises to $925 million. 

The lowest-cost option developed as an alternative to McLoughlin— 

a secondary treatment plant at Rock Bay—has been estimated at 

$1.03 billion. Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps exhibited a sketchy grasp 

of the history of the sewage treatment issue when she suggested 

“conceptual” estimates for Rock Bay-based options would be followed 

by lower cost estimates. There is no record of a local municipal 

government completing a major infrastructure project at a lower 

cost than originally estimated. Helps herself has been intimately 

involved with the notorious Johnson Street Bridge project as it 

ballooned from $77 million in 2011 to close to $140 million today. 

It’s incomprehensible that Helps would claim the cost for a Rock 

Bay plant will go down. 

Cost is a major determinant of the level of public support for the 

treatment project. Ipsos, on behalf of the CRD, recently asked Victorians: 

“At what price would you consider the solution to be so expensive that 

you would not be willing to support it?” If the project cost households 

more than $1 per day, 67 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t 

support it. Yet CRD calculations for annual household costs for the 

least expensive Rock Bay option, which assumed promised federal 

and provincial grants would materialize, showed that households in 

every participating municipality except Colwood would pay more 

than a $1 per day. Once cost overruns are figured in, most households 

would pay well over $2 per day. That will be onerous for many in our 

community. If local scientists with expert knowledge of the environmental 

conditions in the Strait of Juan de Fuca say this expenditure is 

unnecessary, why aren’t local political leaders listening? 

Many pro-treatment advocates have told me their support is based 

on the precautionary principle: if an action or policy has a suspected 


WHEN SENIOR GOVERNMENTS IMPOSE unreasonable regulations that have no useful outcome other than to 

create vast profits for engineering and construction companies, what are communities to do? Should they huff and 

puff and fall all over themselves in order to meet an unreasonable regulation by some artificially-important date? 

risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence 

of scientific consensus that the action or policy isn’t harmful, the burden 

of proof that it’s not harmful falls on those taking the action. 

There is actually strong scientific consensus that the current method 

of marine treatment is not causing harm. Regardless, shouldn’t the 

precautionary principle also be applied to the action being demanded 

by the Province and Environment Canada? Shouldn’t the proponents 

of treatment bear the burden of proof that what they propose will not 

cause harm? There are reasons to be concerned that what the CRD 

hopes to build will cause harm to both the environment and humans. 

Let me give you one example. 

In last month’s edition I wrote about a peer-reviewed study prepared 

by local DFO research scientists Sophie Johannessen, Rob Macdonald, 

and others. Their study looked at the impact secondary sewage treatment 

would have on environmental conditions in our waters. The 

study’s authors stated: “Secondary treatment…will reduce fluxes of 

some contaminants, but will have negligible effect on regional budgets 

for organic carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, metals and PCBs. Removal of 

PBDEs from wastewater will affect regional budgets, depending on 

how the sludge is sequestered.” 

Johannessen’s and Macdonald’s study indicated, then, that the 

only substantial difference that secondary treatment could make 

would be removal of some contaminants, especially polybrominated 

diphenyl ethers, which are used as flame retardants in a variety of 

household objects. 

As I mentioned last month, PBDEs are persistent organic pollutants 

and are thought to be endocrine disruptors. They may produce adverse 

reproductive, developmental, neurological, and immune effects in 

both humans and wildlife. There is broad concern that PBDEs, like 

PCBs, bioaccumulate. (See the 2014 US EPA fact sheet for more information 

on the language scientists are using regarding these effects.) 

Environment Canada and Health Canada have stated it’s their objective 

to reduce the concentration of PBDEs in the Canadian environment 

“to the lowest level possible.” Consequently, the manufacture and use 

of PBDEs have recently been banned in Canada. 

According to scientists, the three main pathways for PBDEs to enter 

marine waters are atmospheric deposition (44-56 percent), sewage 

(25-38 percent), and surface runoff (18 percent). Here’s how PBDEs 

get into sewage effluent: First they are released from something in our 

home that contains them—like a foam mattress—and attach to particles 

of dust, some of which settle on our clothing. Finally, when we 

wash our clothes the PBDEs head to the Strait of Juan de Fuca through 

the sewers. Secondary sewage treatment could remove as much as 80 

percent of the estimated 8.3 kilograms of PBDEs currently discharged 

through Victoria’s outfalls each year. Diverting 80 percent of that— 

just under seven kilograms a year—was the only potential environmental 

benefit Johannessen et al identified that could be obtained from spending 

a billion dollars on secondary sewage treatment. 

But even obtaining that small benefit would depend on what happens 

to the end product of sewage treatment—the biosolids. As I wrote 

last month, none of the current avenues available to the CRD for 

disposing of these contaminated biosolids would safely isolate or 

destroy the PBDEs. 

Anaerobic biodigestion doesn’t affect PBDEs. Landfilling the 

biosolids would result in ever-increasing levels of PBDEs in the 

landfill’s leachate. A study by BC scientists of the level of PBDEs in 

Comparative cost estimates: McLoughlin Point, Rock Bay, Option 10 

Development cost* McLoughlin Point** Rock Bay*** Option 10**** 

Liquid Treatment Plant(s) $351 M $416 M $25 M 

Outfall(s) $38 M $43 M $120 M 

Conveyance and pumping $176 M $246 M $35 M 

Land $13 M $67 M $0 

Biosolids Treatment $347 M $258 M $0 

2015 Subtotal $925 M $1030 M $180 M 

2020-2030 I&I reduction $420 M $420 M $0 

2030 Additional Treatment Capacity $253 M***** $253 M***** $0 

Total out to 2030 $1598 M $1703 M $180 M 

Notes 

* Includes all contingencies, engineering, project management, CRD administration, inflation to mid-point of construction, etc 

** Based on independent study by Ernst & Young, 2010, plus 11.5 percent inflation since 

*** Lowest cost option, one-plant secondary treatment, biosolids treatment at Rock Bay 

**** Based on comparisons with similar project estimates 

***** The need for additional treatment capacity is expected as soon as 2030. This estimate if from the Rock Bay estimates by Urban Systems/Carollo 


13

leachate from municipal landfills across Canada shows some landfills 

with highly elevated levels of PBDEs in their leachate. We can only 

guess where those PBDEs are coming from. 

Likewise, spreading biosolids on farm or forest land would allow 

the PBDEs to accumulate in animals—some destined for human 

consumption—or be washed into aquatic environments. 

Incineration of the biosolids would put the PBDEs into our airshed, 

with some being converted to extremely toxic furans and dioxins. 

How about gasification? A 2012 publication from the UN that 

provided “Guidance on best available techniques and best environmental 

practices for the recycling and disposal of articles containing 

polybrominated diphenyl ethers” noted that gasification would result 

in the production of dioxins and furans. It concluded, “Currently 

pyrolysis and gasification cannot be considered best available techniques 

or best environmental practices for treatment of 

POP-PBDE-containing materials until long-term full-scale applications 

have shown to result in products and product flows that can 

be considered environmentally sound.” 

Do Victorians want to be guinea pigs in that experiment? 

If proponents of treatment want to apply the precautionary principle 

to the current marine-based treatment system (in spite of reassurances 

from scientists), then why haven’t they supported repeated calls for 

proof that the proposed treatment plan won’t cause harm? Part of 

the answer to that is that the CRD doesn’t know what it would do with 

those biosolids. Conveniently for the CRD, that lack of a plan makes 

it difficult to criticize. 

We are in a crazy-making situation: The community’s political 

leaders are being stampeded to meet funding deadlines for a billiondollar 

construction project—one justified by the technocrats entirely 

on environmental grounds—without having any plan for how to isolate 

or destroy the toxins a treatment plant will produce. 

One way out of this insanity would be to find a course of action that 

would cost far less than $1 billion, doesn’t depend on funding from 

senior governments, allows Victoria to meet federal regulations and 

doesn’t eliminate the possibility of pursuing some other course of 

action in the future. Believe it or not, there is such an option. 

Let’s call it “Option 10.” Just like Jensen’s and Helps’ options, Option 

10 will require new outfalls. But in every other respect it’s completely 

different. Unlike the mayors’ options, Option 10 wouldn’t involve any 

land that isn’t already used for sewage treatment. It wouldn’t require 

the excavation of a single kilometre of roads for new pipes. There would 

be no polluting of our airshed or permanent storage of vast quantities 

of chemical-laden human crap at the Hartland Landfill. Instead of 

a billion dollars, Option 10 would cost in the neighbourhood of $180 

million and would take less than two years to construct. 

Here’s the nuts and bolts of Option 10 (see below): Small, circular 

underground tanks (swirlpools) would be located at both Macaulay 

Point and Clover Point immediately downstream from the existing 

Option 10 from the air: no other facilities or pipelines would be required 

Effluent 

supply line 

Existing Clover Point 

Treatment Centre 

Swirlpool 

Saltwater 

pumps 

Swirlpool 

Effluent 

supply line 

Existing Macaulay Point 

Treatment Centre 

Saltwater 

pumps 

Saltwater 

intake 

New outfall 

Saltwater 

intake 

New outfall 


WE ARE IN A CRAZY-MAKING SITUATION: The community’s political leaders are being stampeded to 

meet funding deadlines for a billion-dollar construction project—one that has been justified by the technocrats 

entirely on environmental grounds—without having any plan for how to isolate or destroy the toxins 

a treatment plant will produce. 

treatment facilities. At both locations three large axial-flow saltwater 

pumps would draw water from the ocean and swirl that a couple of 

times around the tank, mixing it thoroughly with a smaller stream 

of effluent coming from the existing screening and settling facilities. 

The mixture of seawater and effluent would then drain by gravity 

through a kilometre-long outfall. 

The ratio of seawater to effluent would be carefully controlled by 

continuous sampling of the concentration of suspended solids in the 

super effluent being discharged through the outfall. Each of the new 

outfalls would need to have significantly greater hydraulic capacity 

than the existing outfalls; that’s because the effluent discharged by the 

outfall’s diffuser (think of a giant underwater lawn sprinkler) would 

contain up to 90 percent seawater. With such a system, the Fisheries 

Act regulations that are currently holding Victorians hostage for a 

billion-dollar ransom could be met. 

The Fisheries Act regulations don’t prohibit the discharge of effluent 

from sanitary sewers, they simply specify the allowable levels of four 

different characteristics common to all sewage. Victoria’s sewage effluent 

exceeds the allowed value for only two of those characteristics: suspended 

solids and carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand. All the community 

needs to do is dilute its effluent to meet the Fisheries Act regulations. 

During drier weather, the effluent that flows out of the outfalls at 

both Macaulay Point and Clover Point exceeds the regulatory limit 

on suspended solids by a factor of about 10. By adding 9 litres of 

seawater to every litre of effluent, the concentration of suspended 

solids in the resulting super effluent would meet the technical requirements 

of the Fisheries Act regulations. By meeting the regulations’ 

limit on suspended solids, the regulatory limit on biochemical oxygen 

demand would also be met. 

This strategy would also meet the intention of the Fisheries Act 

regulations, which is to ensure that water is not “deleterious to fish or 

fish habitat or to the use by man of fish that frequent that water.” In 

the case of sewage effluent, the “water” the Act measures and regulates 

is the water inside the sewage outfall. 

The Fisheries Act regulations are intended, in effect, to protect a 

hypothetical fish that is swimming inside an outfall. Although there 

is no evidence that fish are swimming inside either of Victoria’s outfalls, 

according to the regulations that doesn’t matter. Perversely, the regulations 

have nothing to say at all about the condition of the water 

immediately outside the outfall, where actual fish can be found. 

As a tool for environmental protection, then, the Act’s wastewater 

systems effluent regulations are exceedingly blunt. Those 10 local 

marine scientists were being too polite when they characterized the 

regulations as “one size fits all.” They’re unreasonable. 

When senior governments impose unreasonable regulations that 

have no useful outcome other than to create vast profits for engineering 

and construction companies, what are communities to do? 

Should they huff and puff and fall all over themselves in order to meet 

an unreasonable regulation by some artificially-important date? 

In such a situation, protecting the economic integrity of a community 

by simply diluting the effluent inside the outfalls so that it conforms 

with the Act and goes no further seems a reasonable response. The 

Act doesn’t prescribe how to conform to the regulations—that’s left 

entirely to the affected community. 

Let me whet your appetite for this idea with a cash bonus that would 

completely pay for Option 10. Both Mayor Jensen’s and Mayor Helps’ 

options would cost in excess of $1 billion. But with both there would 

be significant additional cost just down the road. Both options would 

require the City of Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt and Oak Bay to spend 

hundreds of millions on reducing the amount of rainfall and groundwater 

that is leaking into sewers. Capital and operating costs for sewage 

treatment increase with the volume treated, so eliminating rainwater 

saves money. The CRD has estimated that would cost $420 million for 

the municipalities participating in the treatment project, but that cost is 

not included in the billion-dollar price tags. The City of Victoria’s engineering 

department has estimated $330 million for the City of Victoria 

alone to eliminate its inflow and infiltration “problem.” 

With Option 10, though, inflow and infiltration aren’t a problem. 

Instead, they’re a natural benefit—a gift from the sky—that helps to 

dilute the effluent and reduce the concentration of suspended solids 

closer to the Fisheries Act regulations’ limit. That extra water would 

reduce the amount of seawater that needs to be pumped and thus 

would lower the operating costs of Option 10. Under Option 10, the 

region would save not only the $800 million difference in capital cost 

for treatment compared to the CRD’s options, but also the $420 million 

cost of waterproofing sewers. (The Uplands’ combined sewer/storm 

drains is a special case that does need to be fixed.) 

Option 10 shouldn’t be the CRD’s starting position, though. It 

ought to be its fallback position. To start with, our regional, provincial 

and federal representatives should be going to the federal and 

provincial governments and presenting Option 9. 

In exercising Option 9, our leaders try to negotiate an annual voluntary 

payment to allow the community to continue to use the giant 

tidal-powered treatment system off Clover Point and Macaulay Point 

until such time as either the federal or provincial government provides 

scientific proof that the current system is doing harm. If the feds or 

the Province can’t provide that proof within four years, the community 

gets its money back and stops payments. 

Under the Fisheries Act, fines levelled against polluters often go to 

the Environmental Damages Fund. According to Environment Canada, 

the fund provides “a mechanism for directing funds received as a 

result of fines, court orders, and voluntary payments to priority 

projects that will benefit our natural environment.” 

What might be an appropriate voluntary payment to offer the federal 

government in the negotiation? CRD taxpayers are currently paying 

about $10 million each year for the never-ending sewage treatment 

planning process. That’s only enriching already mega-rich consultants 

like Stantec. Instead, why not offer the feds the $10 million per year 

we would otherwise pay to Stantec or the consultant de jour? If the 

feds say “No,” then we go to Option 10. 

David Broadland is the publisher of Focus Magazine. 


15

Standoff at Polak Springs 

talk of the town 

JUDITH LAVOIE 

Shawnigan Lake residents dig in for a long fight to protect their water from a controversial contaminated soil landfill. 

Under rocks covered with snow, between 

a barbed wire fence and a sign warning 

of potential contamination, water is 

running underground and emerging in a small 

stream. The sound of flowing water, combined 

with an eerily empty settling pond behind 

the fence at a controversial contaminated soil 

landfill, reinforces the absolute conviction 

of Shawnigan Lake residents such as Cliff 

Evans that untreated contaminated water 

is flowing from the landfill into Shawnigan 

Creek and, ultimately, into Shawnigan Lake, 

the community’s source of drinking water. 

“You can hear it running underneath. That’s 

why we have put up a sign saying “Warning, 

this water may be contaminated with untreated 

effluent,” said Evans as he led a group of 

Shawnigan residents and media on a tour of 

the perimeter fence. 

It is a charge emphatically denied by South 

Island Resource Management Ltd (SIRM), 

the company that last year took over management 

of the operation from South Island 

Aggregates. SIRM says categorically that no 

water that has come into contact with contaminated 

soil at the site is discharged until it 

has been treated. “If I had any doubt about 

this site, I would shut it down myself,” said 

Todd Miziuk, SIRM co-owner. 

Miziuk went a step further at a council 

meeting in Port Moody, where much of the 

contaminated soil originates, and drank a 

bottle of water from the site. “This is treated 

contact water, no colour and no orange 

sludge,” Miziuk said, referring to orangebrown 

“Polak Springs” water, bottled by 

landfill opponents and labelled with a photo 

of BC’s Environment Minister Mary Polak. 

The bottled water skirmish, with SIRM 

claiming the orange sludge is naturally occurring 

iron bacteria and opponents saying it is 

an example of contamination flowing from 

the lot adjacent to the quarry and landfill, 

also owned by Cobble Hill Holdings, illustrates 

the emotionally charged fight that has 

galvanized Shawnigan Lake’s 8000 residents. 

Regardless of potential risks from the landfill 

site, concerns about the drinking water 

supply are already affecting the health of residents 

according to Dr Bill Moulaison, a family 

doctor in Shawnigan Lake for 24 years.“I am 

seeing a considerable amount of angst and 

NDP Leader John Horgan: “Shut this thing down 

and let’s start working on a solution that’s in 

the interest of the people that live here.” 

anxiety in the community. There are several 

people in my office on a daily basis with 

increasing anxiety,” he said. 

But Muziak points to numerous tests 

showing no risk to public health and accuses 

opponents of running a campaign based on 

false statements and misinformation. 

Evans and other volunteers, who patrol 

the perimeter of the site for about one hour 

a day and document alleged permit infractions, 

however, have little faith in company 

assurances or scientific reports that, in 2013, 

led the Province to approve a permit allowing 

the site to accept 100,000 tonnes of contaminated 

soil (contaminated with salts, 

hydrocarbons, glycols, etc) a year for 50 

years—a decision upheld by the Environmental 

Appeal Board. 

“We keep sending the [list of problems] to 

the Ministry of Environment and Ministry 

of Mines and they ignore them,” Evans said 

with a shrug. 

But with the issue uniting almost all factions 

in the village and no sign of the residents 

PHOTO: JUDITH LAVOIE 

backing down, it will become increasingly 

difficult for the Province to ignore the 

Shawnigan Lake battle. The complicated 

saga includes two court cases, a bribery 

complaint to RCMP, anonymous informers, 

charges of a secret profit-making deal, 

competing scientific reports, demonstrations, 

arrests and recent accusations by SIRM 

of vandalism after a large patch of yellow 

snow was found near the water treatment 

plant, forcing the company into a full spill 

response. (The yellow snow has since been 

found to be stained with marking dye, something 

which has aroused SIRM suspicions 

that it was dumped by someone trying to 

track flow from the landfill.) 

High profile opposition to the landfill from 

NDP leader John Horgan, Green Party leader 

Andrew Weaver, and diverse personalities 

such as children’s entertainer Raffi Cavoukian, 

plus an all-out effort by Shawnigan Residents 

Association and local politicians to focus 

attention on what they believe is a fight for 

their health and the community’s future, is 

propelling the issue up the provincial agenda. 

“This is an enormous issue,” said Horgan, 

holding a bottle of the murky water. “The 

government is tone-deaf to the fact that the 

entire community is saying ‘don’t do this’ 

and a handful of permit holders are holding 

sway over the people of this region,” said 

Horgan, questioning whether anyone from 

government had looked at the amphitheatre 

topography and runoff paths into the lake 

before issuing the permit. 

“It’s not rocket science; it’s not even science. 

It’s a tone-deaf government that didn’t look 

at the circumstances they were creating…Shut 

this thing down and let’s start working on 

a solution that’s in the interest of the people 

that live here.” 

Weaver is using his scientific background 

to argue for a shutdown. Previous tests 

conducted by Weaver from Lot 21 runoff 

found high levels of iron and manganese 

and, in January, Weaver scrambled over 

rocks in the ephemeral stream, close to the 

settling pond, to collect more samples. The 

tests found elevated levels of sodium and 

sulphur apparently originating from Pacific 

Coast Terminal soils dumped at the site, 

Weaver said. 


“ 

IN MY OPINION it would be prudent for the Ministry of Environment 

to immediately cease operations at the facility.” 

—Andrew Weaver, BC Green Party 

“While it is clear to me that there are no 

immediate health concerns to the residents 

of Shawnigan Lake from the samples I collected, 

questions still remain. In my opinion it would 

be prudent for the Ministry of Environment 

to immediately cease operations at the facility,” 

he said. 

But Polak shows no sign of wavering and 

said she must respect the independence of 

ministry technical experts and ensure she 

does not act without appropriate evidence. 

“The original decision to grant the permit 

was made by a ministry statutory decision 

maker who is a technical expert, independent 

of any political process,” she said. 

A ministry spokesman said far from ignoring 

complaints that the company is in non-compliance, 

staff have investigated the site several 

times. “To date, samples have shown no 

concerns for human health or environmental 

impacts,” said the spokesman. 

Those on the front line, such as Sonia 

Furstenau, Cowichan Valley Regional District 

director for Shawnigan Lake, are not mollified 

by ministry reassurances. “I want the 

government of BC to understand that this 

community is totally determined, totally 

committed to stopping this insanity from 

carrying on,” said Furstenau as she watched 

a helicopter, provided by a well-wisher, lift 

off from Shawnigan village, carrying contingents 

of media and politicians on trips over 

the landfill and quarry site. 

The view from the helicopter shows the 

close proximity of the site to Sooke Lake, the 

source of Greater Victoria’s drinking water, 

and, even though there is no evidence of 

hydrogeological ties, the geography has 

the potential to make other communities 

uncomfortable. 

“It’s actually closer to Sooke Lake than 

Shawnigan Lake,” mused Calvin Cook, 

Shawnigan Residents Association president, 

gazing down from the helicopter at the 

site, where, outside the gates, about 500 

protesters waved placards while trucks sat 

immobile on the approach road. 

IN VICTORIA, COUNCILLORS unanimously 

passed a motion in January asking 

that the permit be revoked and that contaminated 

site regulations and contaminated 

soils permitting be amended to allow thorough 

local government input, with full 

consideration of local land use regulations. 

However, the struggle may be decided in 

the courts rather than by protests or politics. 

A BC Supreme Court decision is expected 

shortly on a regional district petition asking 

the court to enforce zoning bylaws. In another 

court action, the Supreme Court is hearing 

a case brought by Shawnigan Residents 

Association, expected to last until late January, 

asking for a judicial review of the Environmental 

Appeal Board decision. It is a case fraught 

with twists and turns, some of it hinging on 

whether new material is admissible. 

An envelope, delivered anonymously in 

July to the Residents Association, documented 

a secret profit-sharing deal between South 

Island Aggregates, Cobble Hill Holdings and 

Active Earth Engineering Ltd, the company 

that wrote the technical report for the site. 

The documents allegedly show Active Earth 

agreed to write the report for a 50-50 split 

of the landfill’s future profits, through a 

numbered company. 

While Cobble Hill Holdings and Active 

Earth have conceded such an agreement 

existed as a method of ensuring the engineering 

company was paid, their lawyers say 

it was never enacted and was then abandoned. 

The Province has said that site studies were 

also conducted by ministerial staff. 

But opponents want to know how much 

reliance was placed on an engineering report 

they claim was tainted. “Our stand is that 

these documents were concealed from the 

Environmental Appeal Board,” Cook said. 

“We feel the board would have made a 

different decision if they were fully aware 

of all the information they should have been 

aware of.” 

Documents released as part of a court 

order include allegations, not yet proved in 

court, that former Malahat First Nation 

Chief Michael Harry, who supported the 

landfill, was receiving a “consulting fee per 

tonne of soil.” 

The documents include a February 2014 

email from South Islands Aggregates co-owner 

Marty Block to Active Earth engineers which 

says “I am hopeful that in the future we won’t 

have to deal with First Nations, but, that 

being said, we must be in agreement that they 

get paid first, in fact they normally hit us up 

before the damn job ever starts, for example 

we sent them to Vegas for New Years.” 

Block, although still with Cobble Hill 

Holdings, has no connection with SIRM and 

has had nothing to do with the site operation 

since last year, when SIRM took over 

operation of the landfill from SIA. 

Revelations about dealings with the Malahat 

First Nation prompted Shawnigan resident 

David Hutchinson to ask RCMP for a criminal 

investigation, but, as is usual, RCMP 

would not confirm whether an investigation 

is underway 

Michael Harry has since stepped down 

and the new Malahat chief and council have 

written to Polak expressing serious concerns 

about information used to make the decision. 

“We ask that you provide the Nation 

with information that confirms that the 

science provided by Active Earth has been 

re-assessed,” says the letter signed by Chief 

Caroline Harry. “If the ministry is unable to 

provide the requested information or has 

not undertaken an independent re-assessment, 

the Nation must reconsider its position 

on the permit.” 

In an interview with Focus, Caroline Harry 

was more blunt. 

“I want the permit to be ended completely. 

I see the damage this has done to Shawnigan 

Lake,” she said. The Malahat appeared in 

court in late January, backing residents’ appeal 

for a stay of the permit on the basis of concerns 

around Active Earth’s involvement. 

Concerns have also been expressed by 

Cowichan Tribes Chief William Seymour. 

That support is heartening for opponents, 

but, so far, there is no sign of a resolution or 

even a truce. 

“It’s only going to get bigger,” said Furstenau. 

“We are not going away. We are only getting 

stronger and louder over time.” 

Judith Lavoie is an awardwinning 

journalist specializing 

in the environment, First 

Nations, and social issues. 

Twitter @LavoieJudith 


17


Whose secret instructions wasted $100 million? 

ALAN CASSELS 

The likely cost of the unjustified firing of eight Ministry of Health researchers is staggering, yet no one has been held accountable. 

Next month will mark four years since 

whistleblower Alana James raised 

concerns to BC’s Office of the Auditor 

General about contracting and drug research 

irregularities in the BC Ministry of Health. 

Her complaint ignited a tiny fuse that led to 

a powder keg within the Ministry of Health. 

Thus began a truly unprecedented and bizarre 

chain of events that included the botched firing 

of eight employees and researchers, numerous 

investigations, a suicide, apologies, settlements 

and reinstatements. There have been few 

answers as to why all this happened, and no 

one in government has been held accountable. 

At the time James raised those concerns, Mike 

de Jong was the Minister of Health. 

Since then we’ve seen an election come and 

go, a second explosion when it was revealed 

that an RCMP investigation into the firings 

that the government claimed was underway 

was never provided with evidence by the government, 

and a massive scandal—now dubbed 

“Deletegate,” about government employees 

deleting emails or otherwise not keeping records 

of vital public business—which could explain 

why many FOI requests about the Health 

Ministry firings came back “no records found.” 

All this led last summer to a massive outcry for 

a public inquiry to explain who set the charges 

that blew up the biggest ministry in the provincial 

government. 

In late December 2015, the last two lawsuits 

were settled between the government and Bill 

Warburton (a contractor) and Rebecca 

Warburton (an employee in the Ministry of 

Health). While it might seem like a bit of closure 

has been achieved, the public is still no closer 

to knowing who led what appeared to be a 

vindictive, opaque and ham-fisted attempt to 

freeze numerous research projects in BC 

and destroy the reputations of people working 

in drug safety evaluation. The coziness between 

the pharmaceutical industry and the current 

government, on full display for the last decade, 

provides strong potential motives and is delicious 

bait for conspiracy theorists. But again, 

no answers and no accountability. 

The lack of clarity on the issue came to a 

head last summer with shrill calls for a public 

inquiry. A compromise of sorts was found with 

Jay Chalke. BC’s new Ombudsperson hit the 

ground running as he was appointed to conduct 

Former Health Minister Mike de Jong 

a thorough investigation and get to the bottom 

of things. He demanded money, staff, and 

legislative authority to do the investigation 

and he basically got what he asked for. 

However, few people expect that the 

Ombudsperson is going to turn up a smoking 

gun to answer the “Why?” question around 

the biggest scandal ever to hit a BC provincial 

ministry. He may have the power to subpoena 

witnesses and get testimony, but it may be 

another year before we have any answers. 

Meanwhile, can we estimate the financial 

impact of this debacle—how much has it cost 

BC taxpayers, so far? 

There have been direct costs which are, to 

some degree, estimable, and indirect costs that 

may never be known. After some back and 

forth with the Ministry of Health, which 

admitted that it’s difficult to tease out the costs 

of this investigation from everything else it 

does, I received no numbers from the Ministry 

other than what has been publicly available or 

what I have received from FOI requests filed 

by others. How to fill in the blanks? It’s worth 

at least a back-of-the-envelope calculation. 

We do know the tab for the call centre that 

was set up to deal with an alleged data breach 

($1.1 million) even though the centre received 

very few calls. Through an FOI, it was learned 

the government had spent an additional $2.1 

million on the investigation up to March 

2014 (which would include staff costs but 

not legal costs). 

That doesn’t include lawyer Marcia McNeil’s 

two-month investigation and report later in 

2014, which found the process flawed but 

failed to answer central questions around 

accountability because of “a dearth of documents.” 

Her bill was $80,069 and there were 

certainly other costs, such as staff time to brief 

her and prepare documents, so the final costs 

for this are likely closer to $130,000. 

We also know that the budget for the 

Ombudsperson’s investigation was set at 

$885,000, and that he requested an additional 

$1.188 million, bringing that total towards 

$2 million. 

Other related costs were four separate 

contracts with Deloitte dealing with data security 

matters: $1.6 million. 

Here’s some guesstimates around other 

taxpayer costs related to the scandal: 

• The Auditor General investigation and 

staff time dealing with the initial complaint: 

$100,000 to $200,000. 

• Legal fees for the fired union employees: 

$60,000 to $150,000 (plus whatever the 

BCGEU had to pay their own legal teams). 

• Comptroller General’s investigation and 

report, staff time, etc: $100,000-$200,000. 

• The Office of the Information and Privacy 

Commissioner investigation: $100,000 to 

$200,000. 

• RCMP costs: There was no investigation, 

but there was apparently lots of back 

and forth between the Ministry and the RCMP, 

so it’s clear some staff time was used: $10,000 

to $50,000. 

• The Stephen Brown Review: This is the 

deputy minister who reviewed the issue in 

2013. Since he was already being paid, we’ll 

never know how much of his and his staff’s 

time went to this review because there are no 

records, but this undoubtedly chewed through 

considerable time: $40,000 to $100,000. 

• Further government expenses for legal 

and internal management. Government-hired 

lawyers make up to $400 per hour but it is 

almost impossible to determine how many 

hours they billed the government for: $560,000 

to $700,000. 

• Finance Committee costs. Several meetings 

of MLAs, staff time: $20,000 to $30,000. 

• Staff time to process Freedom of Information 

requests (finding documents, legal review, etc). 


THE DEATH of our drug safety monitoring capacity means more wasteful 

spending on drugs, and also that many more people will suffer and even 

die from the adverse effects of drugs—and that cost is incalculable. 

This is almost impossible to estimate but with 

dozens of FOI requests and efforts by government 

to stop releases, let’s say $125,000 to 

$150,000. 

• Settlements with Bob Hart, Ron Mattson, 

Malcolm Maclure, and Bill and Rebecca 

Warburton, modestly guesstimated at $250,000 

to $600,000. 

What does this add up to? Somewhere 

towards $10 million in public funds, though 

I could be way off (either way) on some of the 

staff time estimates and the settlements. 

But that is just the beginning of what this 

scandal has cost. 

For the bigger picture we’d have to consider 

all the delayed and cancelled research and 

evaluation projects that were either in progress 

or in the pipeline. If you dial things back to 

2011, PharmaCare had numerous drug safety 

evaluations in progress, looking at the safety 

of drugs for Alzheimer’s disease; smoking 

cessation drugs including Champix (considered 

so dangerous other jurisdictions in the 

world have stopped paying for it); Accutane, 

for acne (known to cause birth defects); antipsychotics 

(given to one-third of seniors in BC’s 

longterm care facilities in 2012/13); and new 

anticoagulants (very expensive drugs which 

are replacing Warfarin). 

The Alzheimer’s study has been completed 

but the government has yet to make a decision 

on whether to continue to fund these 

drugs, considered by most independent experts 

to be ineffective, and for some patients, intolerable 

and toxic. The three-year delay caused 

by the Ministry’s turmoil has meant three more 

years of profits for the companies and costs 

of probably $30 to $40 million for the taxpayer. 

Blood glucose test strips were also going to be 

re-evaluated but those studies were delayed 

for four years, meaning a waste of about 

$10 million per year, or about $40 million 

(new limits were placed on them in January 

2015). The cancellation of research on atypical 

antipsychotic use means both avoidable 

deaths each year plus other costs in the use of 

the drugs deemed toxic for many seniors, especially 

those with dementia—likely in the tens 

of millions. 

What are we up to now? It’s not a stretch 

to say that the cost of the scandal has been 

in excess of $100 million due mostly to delayed 

and cancelled research programs and halted 

policy changes. 

Perhaps the biggest frustration in this scandal 

is the sense of loss of what had been a worldclass 

capacity and willingness to evaluate drug 

safety in BC. With PharmaNet, our provincewide 

pharmacy database covering every 

soul in the province, we collect some of the 

most robust data in the country, meaning we 

can assess with a good deal of precision how 

well drugs are being tolerated. Yet with the 

ongoing chill over the Ministry, very few independent 

drug safety evaluations are being 

carried out. In fact the Research and Evidence 

Development branch at PharmaCare was 

destroyed and has never been restarted. 

So the math only goes so far in capturing 

the impact of this scandal. 

Is it acceptable that PharmaCare, a government 

agency that spends over $1.4 billion per 

year of public money on drugs, is overseen by 

a government with a chronic habit of siding 

with the pharmaceutical industry (and which 

receives political donations from them)? Is it 

acceptable that government has failed to revamp 

important evaluation studies that are measuring 

the population effects of the drugs it pays for? 

The loss to our health system—which I’m 

pegging at perhaps $100 million dollars—may 

some day be fully accounted for. The death 

of our drug safety monitoring capacity means 

more wasteful spending on drugs, and also 

that many more people will suffer and even 

die from the adverse effects of drugs—and 

that cost is incalculable. 

I admit that my back-of-the-envelope calculations 

may be wildly off, but let me ask you, 

dear readers: Do you have any data to help 

me make those calculations more accurate? 

Do you work in the Ministry of Health? Do 

you have any hard numbers I could put into 

my spreadsheet? More importantly, do you 

know who initiated the firings and why? Please 

contact me. Brown envelopes most welcome. 

Alan Cassels is a drug policy 

researcher and author in Victoria. 

He attended the press briefing 

in September 2012 when the 

scandal was announced to the 

world, and has been following 

the saga ever since. 

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19

Trans Mountain opponents get boost from feds 

BRIONY PENN 

How the National Energy Board found itself under attack by everyone in January. 


January 2016 was a month full of news 

around Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain 

pipeline. As dozens of intervenors gave 

their final arguments in the closing days of the 

National Energy Board’s hearings, the federal 

government made moves towards living up 

to their pre-election promises. 

The NEB hearings on the risks and benefits 

of the 987-kilometre pipeline will be 

wrapped up on February 5. During ten days 

of hearings in Burnaby, a flurry of intervenors 

delivered varied condemnations of both the 

project and its approval process, deeming the 

NEB process flawed and reliant on inadequate 

data. Of particular concern to coastal British 

Columbians is the quadrupling of tankers shipping 

dilbit off our shores. On January 25, 

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and Councillor 

Ben Isitt joined the chorus, expressing grave 

concern about the effects of an oil spill on 

Victoria’s environment and economy. 

Earlier, on January 11, the BC Liberals 

rejected the project in their final argument in 

front of the NEB on the basis of inadequate 

details of spill-response plans, noting these 

plans fall short of a “world-leading standard.” 

BC Green Party leader, scientist and MLA 

Andrew Weaver delivered his final argument 

January 20, concluding the application is 

incomplete with inadequate data on the behaviour 

of bitumen. 

Federal Green leader and Saanich Gulf- 

Islands MP Elizabeth May was also an intervenor 

and gave a scorching testimony, citing serious 

issues with evidence, First Nations rights, and 

process, particularly the exclusion of the public 

from hearing rooms and the lack of oral crossexamination. 

“In essence, none of the witnesses 

were available to answer any question—whether 

orally or in writing,” she said. 

(Neither federal nor provincial NDP representatives 

appeared as intervenors, though the 

party has stated the NEB process is a failure.) 

The BC Civil Liberties Association also 

appeared as an intervenor and, like Elizabeth 

May, condemned the hearings as potentially 

unlawful by not allowing the public to attend. 

First Nations from all over BC, as well as 

US indigenous groups, appeared in late January, 

too, expressing concerns about the impact of 

all that coastal oil tanker traffic on their fishing 

rights and cultural heritage. The additional 

350 tankers a year mean “all risk and no 

reward,” said a lawyer for the US tribes. 

AMONG ENVIRONMENTAL intervenors 

were Raincoast Conservation Foundation’s 

Misty Macduffee and Karen Wristen of Living 

Oceans, both veteran researchers. Along with 

lawyers at Ecojustice they helped prepare a 

joint final argument based on the behaviour 

of spilled diluted bitumen in the marine environment. 

Their particular concern is its impact 

on marine and Fraser River fish species and 

the southern resident killer whales. They also 

looked at air quality and other human health 

impacts, as well as economic considerations. 

They argued that the NEB doesn’t have enough 

information before it about the project’s environmental 

effects and how they will be mitigated; 

that the project will have significant environmental 

impacts that are not justified by any 

benefits of the project; and, relatedly, that the 

project is not in the public interest. 

The rules, however, are such that they were 

not allowed to present what they believe is 

critical new evidence from the US independent 

non-profit National Academy of Sciences 

(NAS). Coming out just one week before Kinder 

Morgan’s final written evidence in December, 

the NAS report provides evidence that diluted 

bitumen doesn’t behave like Kinder Morgan 

says it behaves. 

With the new principles and longer timeframe 

announced by the federal government 

on January 27, there’s now a good possibility 

that the NAS information will factor 

into the government’s final decision, but 

meanwhile the NEB has indicated it is too 

late for their process. 

Tanker and humpback whale in Haro Strait 

What the NAS concluded in their 126-page 

report is this: “In comparison to other commonly 

transported crude oils, many of the chemical 

and physical properties of diluted bitumen, 

especially those relevant to environmental 

impacts, are found to differ substantially from 

those of the other crude oils. The key differences 

are in the exceptionally high density, 

viscosity, and adhesion properties of the bitumen 

component of the diluted bitumen that dictate 

environmental behaviour as the crude oil is 

subjected to weathering…For this reason spills 

of diluted bitumen pose particular challenges 

when they reach water bodies. In some cases, 

the residues can submerge or sink to the bottom 

body. Importantly, the density of the residual 

oil does not need to reach or exceed the density 

of the surrounding water for this to occur.” 

(italics theirs) 

This is a hugely important finding from a 

highly authoritative source. It means that within 

hours of an ocean spill, dilbit separates into 

its original components. The hydrocarbons 

evaporate and the air around the spill becomes 

explosive, while the bitumen sinks. Normal 

spill response technologies like skimmers and 

dispersants, the NAS found, are inadequate 

because the time window for their effectiveness 

is very small. Once bitumen has sunk, 

there really is no way to clean it up. 

According to the NAS report, the “weathered” 

bitumen components that form within 

days of a spill mean that “spills of diluted 

bitumen should elicit unique, immediate 

actions in response.” 

According to Macduffee this is the most 

comprehensive review on dilbit yet produced 

and renders Kinder Morgan’s final submis- 

PHOTO: JUDITH LAVOIE 


KINDER MORGAN’S submission that dilbit would be expected to float 

following a spill was accepted without being subject to cross examination, 

but, under National Energy Board rules, critical new evidence from the 

US National Academy of Sciences that dilbit sinks was disallowed. 

sion inadequate since all its modelling of environmental 

impacts and oil spills is predicated 

on earlier assumptions that spilled dilbit 

performed like any other crude oil and didn’t 

sink. Kinder Morgan stated in their submission 

to the NEB that “Dilbits…[and other 

Group 3 hydrocarbons] have been transported 

throughout the world and the general 

behaviour of these oils are quite comparable 

with respect to fate and weathering, and spill 

countermeasures.” (italics added) Kinder 

Morgan also stated that dilbit proved “no 

different than what might be expected of 

other conventional heavy crudes when exposed 

to similar conditions.” 

The NAS report, commissioned by the US 

Congress to consider that country’s own spill 

response preparedness, first became available 

in its pre-publication form online in early 

December. Raincoast and Living Oceans 

immediately filed a motion to have its evidence 

included because of its significance. The NEB, 

however, accepted Kinder Morgan’s argument 

that it was “procedurally unfair to permit 

the filing of new evidence, prepared by third 

parties, on the eve of argument. Kinder 

Morgan said fairness requires that participants 

have a sufficient opportunity to test 

new evidence by asking questions to those 

who prepared it, and there is not enough 

time to do so in this case.” 

Raincoast and Living Oceans argued back 

that most evidence is from third party research, 

and that doesn’t provide a basis for dismissal— 

just an argument for bringing back oral cross 

examination which Stephen Harper got rid 

of in his last fiddle with the NEB. Kinder 

Morgan also argued that it was a pre-publication 

report and “it was difficult to ascertain 

which part of the Report contained errors.” 

According to Macduffee, the NEB could 

have gone back to the federal government 

to ask for an extension to provide time for 

the company to review this critical evidence, 

but didn’t. 

Now, with the federal government giving 

itself more time to make a decision, and 

promising its decision will be based on science 

(as well as traditional indigenous knowledge 

and other relevant evidence), the NAS’ findings 

do stand a chance, ultimately, of being 

weighed in the final decision on the project. 

AT A PRESS CONFERENCE ON JANUARY 

27, Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr and 

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna 

introduced five new principles that will guide 

its decision-making on major natural resource 

projects while the government undertakes a 

broader review of environmental assessment 

processes (which is expected to take two years). 

For the Trans Mountain Expansion project, 

the government promised to “undertake deeper 

consultations with Indigenous peoples and 

provide funding to support participation in 

these consultations; assess the upstream greenhouse 

gas emissions associated with the project; 

and appoint a Ministerial Representative to 

engage communities, including Indigenous 

communities potentially affected by the project, 

to seek their views and report back to the 

Minister of Natural Resources.” 

While the NEB deadline for its recommendations 

on Trans Mountain remains May 2016, 

the government has given itself until December 

2016 (it had been set for August 2016) to 

consider the NEB’s recommendation and carry 

out the extra consultations and assessments 

before making a decision on the pipeline. 

Elizabeth May spoke at a press conference 

after the announcement and expressed her 

approval, given the situation. She said the 

Conservatives, through Bill C-38, had 

“wrecked” the environmental assessment 

process, allowing the Energy Board to leave 

climate change out of their review. “Energy 

regulators should never be asked to do environmental 

reviews,” May said. Explaining 

that Canada would be mired in litigation if 

the government interfered at this stage in the 

NEB process, she felt these new measures 

offered a “reasonable approach” and “provide 

more confidence” until a complete overhaul 

could be done. 

Andrew Weaver said he was thrilled with 

the federal government’s announcement: “As 

a climate scientist, I see including upstream 

emissions on energy projects as a major step 

forward for Canada.” He is still opposed to 

the Trans Mountain pipeline going ahead: 

“This announcement does nothing to alleviate 

my concerns on spill response and spill preparedness. 

For British Columbians the central issue 

is about the potential for a catastrophic accident 

and not as much about the climate impacts 

of the project. On these grounds the project 

should still be rejected.” 

Not everyone was happy with the fed’s 

interim measures. Besides condemnation from 

Conservatives, regional First Nations chiefs 

from Quebec, Manitoba and BC issued a 

strong joint statement slamming “artificial 

timelines, the sidelining of critics, a lack of 

oral cross-examination of the companies’ 

evidence, and the exclusion of key elements 

of evidence such as the behaviour of sinking 

dilbit,” as well as the NEB itself—“a politicized 

and industry-captured ‘rubber stamper’ 

that pays only lip service to the respect for 

the positions and rights of First Nations.” 

UBCIC President Grand Chief Stewart Phillip 

said, “What needs to be demonstrated is 

the federal government’s willingness to 

take NO for an answer from First Nations 

like Tsleil-Waututh Nation who are exercising 

their sovereign decision-making power.” 

The chiefs and others also complained that 

the new review guidelines omit reference to 

the downstream greenhouse gas emissions of 

tarsands bitumen, which comprise most of the 

total emissions (climate economist Mark 

Jaccard’s analysis estimates 90 percent). 

In that same last week of January, the NEB 

itself was reprimanded by the federal 

Commissioner of the Environment and 

Sustainable Development Julie Gelfand who 

came out with the results of an audit of the 

NEB. In her statement, she said, “Our audit 

concluded that the Board did not adequately 

track companies’ implementation of pipeline 

approval conditions, and that it was not consistently 

following up on company deficiencies. 

We found that the Board’s tracking systems 

were outdated and inefficient.” In both types 

of cases that were audited, about half were 

lacking in proper oversight, which means the 

NEB was not meeting its regulatory mandate. 

The NEB has agreed with the auditor’s conclusions 

and stated it will, among other things, 

“clarify the consequences for companies that 

do not undertake corrective action.” 

Lack of faith in the NEB, combined with 

Minister Carr’s stated determination to move 

oil resources to tidewater, mean pipeline opponents 

are, at most, cautiously optimistic about 

the new government’s direction. 

Briony Penn PhD is the author 

of the new book, The Real 

Thing: The Natural History of 

Ian McTaggart Cowan. 


21

Creative 

Coast palette22 the arts in february26 vibe 36 curtain call 38 coastlines 40 

When Barbara Callow is at the grocery store or the farmers’ 

market making produce selections, she has a larger set 

of criteria than most. Fruit and vegetables in particular 

need to meet standards not just of freshness and nutritional value, 

but of aesthetics as well. Such is the case for many a still life 

painter like herself. “An artist is always looking at the world in terms 

of what they can paint,” she says, admitting, “Quite often I will buy 

something just because I like the look of it, then I will bring it home 

and take photos, then eat it later.” 

The tantalizing, lumpy irregularity of a pear’s surface will catch 

the light in just the right way when tumbled onto a crisp white 

cloth laid over a wooden table. So, into the shopping basket it goes. 

An apple may be attractive because of the way the skin, with its mottled 

swaths of red, gold and green, already looks painted on. Gather several 

into a wooden bowl, and again the light’s reflections rendered in 

oil on canvas is what brings them to life. 

Though Callow paints in a variety of genres using different media, 

she says, “I like painting these [still lifes] because it’s fun to use light 

to make the form. I like to paint the reflections, that way you can get 

the highlights on fruit especially. A very strong directional light on 

your subject makes a strong form,” she explains. Many of Callow’s 

still life paintings are of a traditional style—fruit, vessel and swag 

of fabric arranged on a table—but some present a contemporary view, 

such as “Apples in a Wooden Bowl,” which zeroes in on—and thus 

communicates—the sensual potential of the humble fruit. This and 

other paintings bring to mind works by prominent East Coast painter 

Mary Pratt. So taken was Pratt with the way sunlight came through 

her kitchen window to illuminate fruit, preserves or even filleted fish 

on foil, she produced paintings from these scenes that seem to layer 

sanctity over the domestic sphere. 

“Light is important to most artists,” Callow says. “They use light 

a lot and it influences whatever they are going to paint.” It plays as 

much a role in meaning and delineation as the object itself, no matter 

the style of painting. While Pratt’s works are nearly photo-realistic, 

light is just as essential to Callow’s practice. “Not that I don’t admire 

the highly-detailed painting, but it’s not quite as moving—to me, 

anyway—as more impressionistic, gestural painting,” she relates. 

Immediacy of experience is conveyed by the quick gestural stroke. 

Callow has come to her preferred style over a life which, from an 

early age, nearly always included an art practice. She was born in 

Victoria in 1956. Her father worked in the printing industry while 

her mother was a homemaker. Seeing an interest and aptitude in their 

daughter—“I was addicted to drawing as a kid,” Callow laughs— 

they enrolled her in art classes. As a teen she was “lucky enough at 

Oak Bay High School to have Carole Sabiston and Bill West as art 

teachers, which was phenomenal.” She credits both national luminaries 

for their early support and guidance. 

In fact, Callow attended the University of Victoria with the intention 

to become an art teacher herself. However, “I ended up getting 

married and having kids instead,” she says. Moving to Vancouver 

Illuminating the everyday 

AAREN MADDEN 

Barbara Callow uses light to bring life to the painted form. 

“Apples in a Wooden Bowl” 14 x 11 inches, oil on canvas 

in 1977, she had a son and daughter and completed a two-year Visual 

Arts Diploma program at Langara College. Callow eventually worked 

in the printing industry as well, mainly in graphic design and prepress 

areas. Returning to Victoria 15 years later, she worked for the 

Queen’s Printer before “retiring” in 1996 to devote herself to art fulltime. 

“I never worked this hard when working at an outside job,” she 

laughs, quick to add, “It doesn’t feel like work.” A member (and 

former executive) of the Federation of Canadian Artists, she has 

become an award-winning and internationally-collected artist. 

Early on in this phase of life, looking to heighten skills she was not 

previously able to hone daily, she took workshops and masterclasses 

from artists like Caren Heine, Marney Ward, Deborah Tilby, and 

Keith Hiscock. Many went from being mentors to friends and colleagues, 


Supporting arts, 

culture and our community. 

John West 

& Holly Harper 

With 50 years of 

combined real estate 

experience, John 

and Holly share your 

passion for Greater 

Victoria's unique and 

exciting housing 

opportunities. 

1286 Fairfield Road, Victoria 

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www.newportrealty.com 

PHOTO: CARL TESSMANN 

Barbara Callow 

and Callow herself teaches many workshops now (including one in 

February at Coast Collective Gallery). It is as valuable for her practice 

as it is for the students of a wide range of experience that 

attend them. “When they ask questions, you start to realize what 

exactly you are or aren’t doing. You become more aware; you have 

to figure out why and how,” she says. 

The why and how, for her, usually returns to light, no matter which 

genre she is working in. Besides still life, Callow paints landscapes and 

urban scenes in oil and watercolour. Like the Impressionists, the Group 

of Seven and Emily Carr, from whom she gathers the most inspiration, 

she is an avid plein air painter. Painted sketches done on sight 

are of a subject chosen because of the way the fog plays on a beach or, 

in the past seven-odd months, how the light will hit a particular branch 

WEST END GALLERY 

The Art of Romance 

February 13 -25, 2016 

1203 Broad Street Open Daily 

250-388-0009 westendgalleryltd.com 

“Cranberry Roses” by Elka Nowicka, 36 x 24 inches, mixed media on canvas 


23

“Red, Yellow, Green” 12 x 20 inches, oil on canvas 

“Fernwood Square” 8 x 10 inches, watercolour and ink 


1040 MOSS ST | AGGV.CA 

“The Road Home” 16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas 

or mossy patch in the woods near her new home in Cumberland. In 

“The Road Home,” the long shadows reaching across the bumpy road 

are compelling to Callow and compositionally satisfying in the horizontal 

counterpoint they add to the vanishing road. 

The raking light of winter and, any time of year, the early or late 

day are what she likes the best. “I am just looking out my window 

now. It’s late morning and there are beautiful long shadows,” she 

describes over the phone. “It’s the low light at this time of year. I 

guess it’s the moisture in the air from the ocean,” she suspects. More 

diffuse, perhaps, than the crisp prairie light. 

It is a major component of generating sense of place, as is local 

specificity. Again in “The Road Home,” one will notice how the light 

plays on the rugose surface of the road. Callow likes its roughness: 

“It is a sort of subversiveness,” she offers, adding, “There are very 

interesting back lanes around Cumberland here—old garages, chimneys 

sticking out of them, that sort of thing. They are not manicured; 

they have just sort of evolved over the years.” 

Callow is attracted to the particular quirk inherent in any urban 

area that has seen such an evolution. It’s what she explores in her urban 

scenes, which she usually does in watercolour and ink to heighten the 

character of the architecture. In “Fernwood Square,” ink snakes in a 

fine, jittery line along the building’s cornice to suggest its weathered 

state. And then the pale watercolour wash of sun on its façade gives 

it vitality. Follow that light as it spills through the upstairs window, 

and one could imagine it landing, just so, on a perfect bowl of apples. 

See “Apples in a Wooden Bowl” at the juried group show, Red, 

February 3-21 at Coast Collective Gallery. 103-318 Wale Road, Colwood, 

250-391-5522, www.coastcollective.ca. Barbara Callow is teaching a 

workshop at Coast Collective, February 13 & 14. See www.coastcollective.ca. 

Find Barbara Callow online at www.barbaracallow.ca. 

WATER + PIGMENT + PAPER 

JANUARY 30 - MAY 23. 2016 

Enter the unexpected world of watercolours! Not 

often recognized as an experimental medium, 

we'll explore the groundbreaking work of known 

and not so well known artists who pushed 

watercolour boundaries, spanning over 200 years. 

For the very reason that the raking light illuminates the 

moss the way it does, Aaren Madden’s favourite West 

Coast season is winter. 

GRACE WILSON MELVIN | SUMMER RADIANCE II WATERCOLOUR, TEMPERA, INK, 

WOMEN'S COMMITTEE CULTURAL FUND, COLLECTION OF THE AGGV 


25

BLOOM 

Paintings byBonnie Laird 

www.bonnielaird.com 

Opening Reception Saturday, February 6th, 7-9pm 

Exhibition continues to March 3, 2016 

FEATURING THE 

PAINTINGS OF: 

Continuing to February 6 

CONVIVIUM 

Gage Gallery 

Solo exhibition of work by Shelby 

Assenheimer, who paints on canvas with 

acrylics and layers of glazes, and markmaking 

and sgraffito provide counterpoint 

rhythm. Abstracted scenes of the transitioning 

seasons conjure messages of our 

relationship with each other and the world 

around us. 2031 Oak Bay Ave, 250-592- 

2760, www.gagegallery.ca. 


OFFERINGS/ OFFRANDES 

Open Space 

This collaborative multimedia installation 

by France Trépanier with guest 

artists invites viewers to contemplate 

“presence” instead of presents, when 

considering the gifting process. The exhibition 

explores the meaning of gifting 

and offering in three components: performative 

rituals, longhouse and website. 

Artist talk Feb 6, 3:30pm. 510 Fort St, 

250-383-8833, www.openspace.ca. 


ALL YOU NEED IS HEART 

Goward House 

Show and sale by the Oak Bay Art 

Club. Artists’ reception Jan 31, 1:30- 

3:30pm. Hours Mon-Fri, 9am-4pm. 

2495 Arbutus Road, 250-477-4401, 

www.gowardhouse.com/shows. 


HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT 

Deluge Contemporary Art 

An exhibition of new work by James 

Lindsay and Lance Austin Olsen. These 

contemporaries have evolved highly 

developed visual languages through 

five decades of continuous artistic activity 

and experimentation with abstraction. 

Wed-Sat, 12-5pm. 636 Yates St, 250- 

385-3327, www.deluge.ca. 

Continuing to April 3 

ASIAN ART ACQUISITIONS 

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria 

Works from a wide range of cultures, 

media and time periods to honour many 

dedicated Asian art patrons in Victoria, 

Canada and the US. 1040 Moss St, 250- 

384-4171, www.aggv.ca. 


WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY 

Royal BC Museum 

Winners of an international photography 

competition include images by 

Canadians Connor Stefanison, Don Gutoski, 

Josiah Launstein (under 10 years). Tours, 

camps, workshops. 250-356-7226, 

www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca. 

visual arts 


PA SI A MA 

(THE FIRE IS JUST STARTING) 


A new work by Port Alberni artists 

Klewetua, Rodney Sayers and Emily Luce. 

Constructed from local, rough-cut cedar 

and fir from two Port Alberni mills, the 

structure makes reference to two traditions 

common in British Columbia: the 

European sauna and the First Nations 

smokehouse. 1040 Moss St, 250-384- 

4171, www.aggv.ca. 


SOSAKU HANGA 


During the early 20th century, Japanese 

artists studying in Europe discovered that 

many acclaimed Western artists handled 

all aspects of the printmaking process 

from the first sketch to the last pull of the 

print. This discovery resulted in a new 

approach to printmaking in Japan. The 

AGGV’s permanent collection is one of 

the largest and most comprehensive sosaku 

hanga collections in the world. 1040 Moss 

St, 250-384-4171, www.aggv.ca. 

Continuing to May 23 

WATER + PIGMENT + PAPER 


This investigation into the Gallery’s 

collection of watercolour paintings uncovers 

an unexpected array of works that challenge 

assumptions about the medium. 

Spanning nearly 200 years of production 

and including works by Maxwell Bates, 

Pat Martin Bates, Emily Carr, Pegi Nicol 

MacLeod, Jack Shadbolt, Herbert Siebner, 

Margaret Peterson, Mark Tobey and Vera 

Weatherbie. Opening reception Jan 

29, 8-10pm. 1040 Moss St, 250-384- 

4171, www.aggv.ca. 

February 3–21 

RED 

Coast Collective Gallery 

Red is energizing. It sets our emotions 

alive and motivates us to take action. This 

show is all about the power of RED–in 

paintings, photography, glass art, sculpture 

and fabric art. Artists reception: Feb 

5, 7:30pm. www.coastcollective.ca, 103- 

318 Wale Rd, Colwood, 250-391-5522. 

February 6–March 3 

BLOOM: BONNIE LAIRD 

Martin Batchelor Gallery 

Bonnie Laird’s paintings of “undefined 

floral imagery embrace light, shadow, 

and ambiguous space to explore ideas 

of introspection, memory and dreams.” 

Opening reception Feb 6, 7-9pm. 712 

Cormorant Street, 250-385-7919, 

www.martinbatchelorgallery.ca. 


“The Struggle,” by Cameron Kuntz, at Gage Gallery in February 


BODY & SOUL 

Gage Gallery 

Artists Arlene Nesbitt and Cameron 

Kuntz (image above) speak to the dialogue 

between Body and Soul and take us on a 

philosophical journey that is symbolic, yet 

personal and unique–exploring and 

responding to ideas and relationships 

between the material world and the spiritual 

one. From the esoteric to the physical, 

from the ethereal to the bawdy, their work, 

featuring drawings, paintings, photography 

and poetry, pulls us into that mysterious 

world of discovery and possibility. Reception, 

Feb 11, 7-9pm. 2031 Oak Bay Ave, 250- 

592-2760, www.gagegallery.com. 


REMEMBERING ART THOMPSON 

Alcheringa Gallery 

This exhibition honours the late Nuu- 

Chah-Nulth artist, Art Thompson with a 

Serigraph Retrospective 1974- 2004. 

Well-versed in many artistic styles of the 

coast, Art developed his own innovative 

and distinctive interpretation of Nuu-Chah- 

Nulth design over many years. As a survivor 

of the Residential School System, Thompson 

passionately advocated for healing, transformation 

and change, by representing 

these themes in his art, and also by being 

a passionate community speaker on residential 

school abominations. This evolution 

of form and themes can be seen in Art 

Thompson’s pursuit for truth and healing 

throughout his life. 621 Fort St, 250-383- 

8224, www.alcheringa-gallery.com. 


AUTO CORREKT 

Polychrome Fine Art 

Solo show of paintings by Cameron 

Kidd, whose paintings of graphic imagery 

are loaded with bold colour and refined 

lines, reflecting his long association with 

urban art aesthetics. Opening Feb 18, 

7-9pm. 977-A Fort St, 250-382-2787, 

www.polychromefinearts.com. 


SPRING SHOWCASE 

Coast Collective Gallery 

This gallery exhibit will highlight the 

strength and diversity of southern Vancouver 

Island’s arts community. Meet the Artists 

Reception: Friday, Feb 26, 7:30-9:30pm. 

www.coastcollective.ca, 103-318 Wale 

Rd, Colwood, 250-391-5522. 

February 29–April 2 

MACDOUGALL & SPARANESE 

Eclectic Gallery 

Dan MacDougall presents the “Sea 

Wall Project”, encompassing painting, 

photography, fabric printing, sculpture, 

and the notion of preserving fragments 

of nature as a museum might. Alanna 

Sparanese uses the encaustic process 

combining bees wax, resin, pigment and 

photo transfer, fused by blow torch to 

render subtle, dreamlike images. Opening 

reception with artists March 5, 3-5pm. 

Eclectic’s Winter Salon, featuring pottery 

and paintings by regional artists, continues 

through February. 2170 Oak Bay Ave, 

250-590-8095, www.eclecticgallery.ca. 

Pulp and Process 

February 11 – March 8 

A group exhibition of works on paper 

by contemporary Canadian artists 

Opening reception Thursday, February 11th, 7 - 9pm 

606 View Street • 250.380.4660 • www.madronagallery.com 

“Tide Loppers” by Meghan Hildebrand, 11 x 14 inches, watercolour on paper 


27

METAL TYPE, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, UVIC LIBRARIES, PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN FREDERICK 

February 19–May 16 

NEW BOOK HISTORIES: PUBLISHERS, PRINTERS & PRESSES 

Legacy Maltwood, University of Victoria 

This exhibition traces the role of publishers and printers in literary history from 

early production in scriptoria to 21st-century BC small presses. Learn how early 

publishers remade the codex in the 16th century, how 18th-century printers made 

Shakespeare, what drove Dickens to become his own publisher, how Lady Chatterley’s 

Lover escaped the censors, and why serial publication mattered. The exhibit, from 

UVic’s Special Collections and Archives, is curated by students of English 500 supervised 

by Dr Janelle Jensted. Mearns Centre-McPherson Library, UVic. www.uvac.uvic.ca. 

“MADRONA DRIVE” PAUL JORGENSEN, 24 X 36 INCHES, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 


THE ART OF ROMANCE 

West End Gallery 

Sweeten your Valentine this year with art! Local artist Elka Nowicka presents a 

series of floral paintings that will outlast any fresh bouquet and Alain Bédard captures 

romance by painting cozy café tables set for two. Ariane Dubois’ dreamy new paintings 

hint at love in the air while Grant Leier gets straight to the point with “A Crazy 

Little Thing Called Love,” as do Gabryel Harrison’s exquisitely painted red roses. Paul 

Jorgensen’s new paintings playfully capture cherished West Coast landscapes. There’s 

more and jewelry too. 1203 Broad St, 250-388-0009, www.westendgalleryltd.com. 

UNTITLED (BOWHEAD WHALE), TIM PITSIULAK, 36 X 96 INCHES, COLOURED PENCIL ON PAPER 


PULP AND PROCESS 

Madrona Gallery 

A group exhibition of works on paper by contemporary Canadian artists. This 

show explores the various creative, often surprising ways artists use paper in their 

practice. From watercolours to detailed drawings, prints to three-dimensional collages. 

Featured artists include Meghan Hildebrand, Luke Ramsey, Barry Hodgson, Miles 

Hunter, Morgana Wallace and Catilin McDonagh. Also featuring Inuit artists Shuvinai 

Ashoona, Ningeokuluk Teevee and Tim Pitsiulak. Opening reception on Thursday 

February 11, 7-9pm. 606 View Street, 250-380-4660, www.madronagallery.com. 

“CLOUD OVER ISLAND” JIM PARK, 48 X 60 INCHES, OIL ON CANVAS 

Throughout February 

INTRODUCING JIM PARK 

Peninsula Gallery 

Jim Park’s primary goal is to unravel the relationship between one place and another, 

between what he can see and what is obscured by darkness. He approaches each 

painting without any set formula, in an effort to simplify the process, and be faithful 

to the creative evolution of each individual work. Born in 1978 in South Korea, Jim 

Park moved to Canada at age 13 and completed his BFA at the Emily Carr Institute 

of Art and Design. His work is collected both publicly and privately in Canada and U.S. 

100-2506 Beacon Ave, 250-655-1282, www.pengal.com. 

28 

February 2016 • FOCUS

“To Begin Again” by Kimberly Kiel, 36 x 36, oil on canvas 

Kimberly Kiel 

2184 OAK BAY AVENUE VICTORIA 

www.theavenuegallery.com 250-598-2184 

Exhibition 

RED, February 3-21 2016 | OPENING RECEPTION, February 5, 2016 | 7:30pm - 9:30pm 

RED is energizing. It sets our emotions alive and motivates us to take action. Come celebrate the 

Coast Collective’s Official Grand Opening on Friday night, February 5th. Try your hand at crafting 

an artisanal valentine and meet the artists from RED! 

This Valentine’s Day, Be Original, Buy Local 

At our local artisan Gift Shop, you can find one-of-a-kind, handmade Valentines cards and 

gifts for all the loves in your life, and support your arts community at the same time. Or give 

someone you love the gift of learning, with one of our dozens of workshops. 


29

February 3 

BLACK PIONEERS OF BC 

Royal BC Museum 

12-1pm, Newcombe Hall, 675 Belleville St. Free/ 

by donation. 250-356-7226, www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca. 

February 5 

THE ILLUMINATION EVENT 

Victoria Conference Centre 

The Victoria Yoga Conference hosts an evening of 

inspirational speakers as its opening night event. 7- 

9:30pm. $50 at www.victoriayogaconference.com. 

February 6 & 7 

THE WALL JAM PROJECT 


As part of the Victoria Yoga Conference marketplace, 

an interactive art installation–a social experiment to 

foster conversation using blank, white walls in an empty 

gallery. Free for conference delegates; $10 day/$15 

weekend. www.victoriayogaconference.com. 

readings & presentations 


AFTERNOONS AT THE GALLERY 


A 4-part art lecture series focusing on the “shock of 

the new,” looking at art between the wars. 2-4pm, Feb 

14 & 21, Mar 6 & 13, 1040 Moss St. $35/ $30 per 

lecture or $120/ $100 for package (packages until Feb 

14 only). Tickets at 1040 Moss St, or www.aggv.ca. 

February 15 

PRAIRIE SUNSET 

Eric Martin Pavilion 

Dion Manastyrski will give a slide show presentation 

and share stories behind his new hardcover historical 

photography book, Prairie Sunset: A Story of Change. 

A short film will follow. The project began in 2003, 

when Manastyrski began photographing abandoned 

artifacts in the Canadian prairies: old homes, barns, 

schools, and churches. 6:30pm, Fort St. by Lee Ave. By 

donation. Books available for sale (cash only) and 

signing. More at www.moviemonday.ca. 

O’Malley’s 

Greenscapes 

Certified Horticulturist 

GARDEN SERVICES 

• pruning 

• bed tending 

• lawn maintenance 

• what have you 

Bryan O’Malley 

250.389.1783 

February 6 

WHAT’S IT WORTH? 


Learn the value of your treasures at this event organized 

by the Gallery Associates. Local auctioneers Alison 

Ross and Jeff Dean will verbally appraise your art, 

antiques, collectibles and other items. Up to two portable 

items will be evaluated at morning (10am-12:30pm) 

and afternoon (1:30-4pm) sessions. $35 includes Gallery 

exhibition access and light refreshments. Tickets at the 

Gallery, 1040 Moss St, or www.aggv.ca. 


REPAIR CAFÉ 

Two venues 

Experienced “fixers” on hand to help you repair 

broken items: clothes, furniture, appliances, 

toys, bicycles, etc. Free with donations welcome. 

Feb 6, 10:30am-1:30pm: Pearkes Rec Centre, 3100 

Tillicum Rd. Feb 13, 9:30am-12:30pm: Victoria 

Public Library, central branch, 735 Broughton St. Info: 

www.repaircafe.org/en/locations/repair-cafe-victoria-bc. 

February 7 

FAMILY FAITH FAIR 

Cadboro Bay United Church 

Hosted by the Victoria Multifaith Society in honour 

of World Interfaith Harmony Week, on the theme of 

the spiritual education of children. Included will be a 

fundraising effort for the Syrian Refugee Program. Donations 

to the refugee program by cash or cheque will provide 

automatic entry in the prize draw. 1:30-4:30pm, 2625 

Arbutus Rd. Free. Info: victoriamultifaith@gmail.com. 

February 8 

PAINTED DOG TALK 

Robert Bateman Centre 

A fundraising and awareness event highlighting 

and supporting the work being done by Dr Gregory 

Rasmussen and the local community near Victoria Falls, 

Zimbabwe to protect the endangered African Painted 

Dog. 7-9pm, 470 Belleville St. $21.80 regular / $80.11 

VIP (includes time with Dr Rasmusseun and free refreshments) 

at www.oasesconservation.org/painted-dog. 

February 15 

FABLES IN FEBRUARY 

1831 Fern Street 

The Victoria Storytellers Guild invites you to hear 

and tell stories. Doors at 7:15pm, stories start at 7:30pm. 

$5/ students $3. Refreshments. Parking on Begbie. 

250-477-7044, www.victoriastorytellers.org. 

February 15 

JENNIFER ROBSON 

Munro’s Books 

The bestselling author of Somewhere in France and After 

the War is Over presents her newest book, Moonlight 

Over Paris. Set in a bohemian paradise teeming with 

actors, painters, and writers, the book recounts the 

artistic flourishing of France’s capital in the 1920s. 

7:30pm, 1108 Government St. 250-382-2464, 

www.munrobooks.com. 

February 16 

CANADIAN CLUB OF VICTORIA 

Harbour Towers Hotel 

Luncheon and talk by Louise Mandell, titled “The 

Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report: What 

now?” Mandell, QC, Chancellor of Vancouver Island 

University (VIU), is an Aboriginal rights lawyer and 

advocate for Canada’s First Nations. Tickets and info: 

www.thecanadianclubofvictoria.com. 

February 18 

FROM SNIPPETS TO SERIES 

University of Victoria 

Lecture with Dr Leslie Howsam (University of Windsor) 

on Historical Writing and the Book Historians. 4pm, 

room A003 Lower Level, Mearns Centre for Learning, 

McPherson Library. www.uvic.ca/library/locations/- 

home/spcoll/events 

February 19 

BLACK HISTORY ROUND TABLE 

École Victor-Brodeur 

Topic: “The Black French Community: Minority Among 

Minorities.” Followed by storytelling show. 6:30pm, 

637 Head St. By donation; register: vaccsociety@gmail.com. 


eadings & presentations 

February 20 

SEEDY SATURDAY 


Non GMO seeds, seedlings, fruit and olive trees, 

seed and used garden book exchanges (bring yours!), 

food and garden products, lots of speakers. New 

vendors. 10am-4pm, 720 Douglas St. $7 cash, under 

16 free. www.jamesbaymarket.com/seedysaturday, 

250-381-5323 

February 21 

THE SONG OF POETS 

Congregation Emanu-El Synagogue 

A fundraiser for the synagogue’s Syrian Refugee 

Family Sponsorship Project. Original poetry by Judith 

Castle, Dvora Levin, Isa Milman and Barbara Pelman, 

published poets and members of Congregation Emanu- 

El, will be featured with music by The Klez reflecting 

the essence of the poetry. 2pm (doors 1:30 pm), 1461 

Blanshard St. Light refreshments. Admission by donation. 

250-382-0615 or info@congregationemanuel.ca. 

February 25 

THE BANTAMS 

James Bay New Horizons 

The Victoria Historical Society presents “The 

Bantams: Victoria’s Unknown Soldiers” with Sidney 

Allinson. Based on his book, the military historian, 

novelist and chairman of the Pacific Coast Branch 

of the Western Front Association will relate the fate 

of this unique group. 7:30pm, 230 Menzies St. 

www.victoriahistoricalsociety.bc.ca. 

WILD 

HONEY 

By MICHAEL FRAYN 

Adapted from an original play by 

ANTON CHEKHOV 

FEBRUARY 

11-20, 2016 

DIRECTOR 

PETER McGUIRE 

SET DESIGNER 

DALLAS ASHBY 

COSTUME DESIGNER 

GRAHAM McMONAGLE 

LIGHTING DESIGNER 

MICHAEL WHITFIELD 

SOUND DESIGNER 

CAROLYN MOON 

STAGE MANAGER 

REBECCA MARCHAND 

PHOENIXTHEATRES.CA TRES.CA 

| 250.721.8000 

PREVIEWS @ 8PM: FEB. 9 & 10 | EVENINGS @ 8PM: MON. - SAT. | 

MATINEE @ 2PM: SATURDAY FEB. 20 

February 25 

CITY TALKS: CITIES OF REFUGE 

Legacy Art Gallery 

A presentation by Alison Mountz, Professor and 

Canada Research Chair in Global Migration, Department 

of Geography, Wilfrid Laurier University and Visiting 

Professor of Canadian Studies, Harvard University will 

explore the potential of all cities to become sites of refuge. 

7:30pm, 630 Yates Street. Free. www.thecitytalks.ca. 

February 27 

BLACK HISTORY MONTH CLOSING GALA 

Cedar Hill Rec Centre 

Pulchérie Mboussi, on behalf of the Victoria African 

and Caribbean Cultural Society, presents awards to 

several members of the black community who have 

distinguished themselves in the public, private and 

community sectors. Live music and dance celebration 

to follow. Dress code: black tie or African attire. 6:30pm, 

3220 Cedar Hill Rd. Admission by donation. RSVP at 

www.blackhistorymonthclosinggala.eventbrite.ca. 

February 29 

VANDANA SHIVA 

Farquhar Auditorium, UVic 

An evening lecture on the resilience of organic 

agroecosystems, innovative responses to the global 

industrial food system, and global examples that can 

inform local efforts here. 8-9pm, book signing to follow, 

University Centre. $20 advance at www.tickets.uvic.ca. 

Send your listing in the above format 

to focusedit@shaw.ca 

by the 15th of preceding month 


31



THE VALLEY 

Belfry Theatre 

Joan MacLeod’s latest play. See story, 

page 38. 250-385-6815, www.belfry.bc.ca. 

February 6 

THE HUNT 

Intrepid Theatre Club 

A multidisciplinary investigation 

into masculinity, featuring and conceived 

by Impulse Theatre’s Artistic Director 

Andrew Barrett with John Han. 5pm & 

8pm shows, 2-1609 Blanshard St. $10 

at door only, starting 1 hour before showtime. 

www.intrepidtheatre.com. 


WILD HONEY 

Phoenix Theatre, UVic 

Adapted from Anton Chekhov. This 

cocktail of melodrama and farce takes 

audiences to a provincial country estate 

where friends, neighbours and family 

gather for a party. Ages 13+. Fine Arts 

district, west side of campus, outside Ring 

Rd. 250-721-8000, finearts.uvic.ca. 


MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET 

Chemainus Theatre 

Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and 

Johnny Cash meet for the first (and only) 

time. Their red-hot jam session created 

a score of rock ‘n’ roll hits, including “Blue 

Suede Shoes,” “Fever,” “Great Balls of 

Fire,” and more. 1-800-565-7738, 

www.chemainustheatrefestival.ca. 


BAD JEWS 

Theatre Inconnu 

Three young Jewish adults find themselves 

together in the aftermath of their 

grandfather’s funeral. A vicious and hilarious 

brawl over family, faith and legacy 

ensues. 1923 Fernwood Rd. Feb 16: $7 

preview; Feb 23: pay what you wish. 

$14/ $10 at www.ticketrocket.co. 

theatre 

February 17–21 & 24–27 

WHERE THERE’S A WILL 

Craigdarroch Castle 

2016 marks the 400th anniversary of 

Shakespeare’s legacy, and the Greater 

Victoria Shakespeare Festival is celebrating 

the greatest English dramatist in song, 

verse and cake. Meet Elizabeth I, Christopher 

Marlowe, Anne Hathaway, and Bill himself. 

Afterwards, recite your favourite line or 

couplet as part of “We are Shakespeare,” 

a global video project initiative. 8pm, 

1050 Joan Cres. www.vicshakespeare.com. 


ACTION REVUE 

Metro Studio 

This presentation will delve deep into 

the differences and similarities between 

feminine and masculine. 8pm, 1411 

Quadra Street. $22 at www.ticketrocket.co. 


ROBINSON & CRUSOE 

Metro Studio 

In this family production from 

Kaleidoscope Theatre, two unlucky soldiers 

from opposing sides find themselves 

stranded on the roof of a house adrift 

at sea. Together they must overcome their 

heightened suspicions if they are to make 

it out of this ordeal alive. 1411 Quadra 

St. $20 adults/ $13 age 17 & under at 

250-386-6121, www.rmts.bc.ca. 

dance 


LES BALLETS JAZZ DE MONTRÉAL 

Royal Theatre 

Contemporary dance works by choreographers 

from Greece, Brazil and Israel. 

In Kosmos, Andonis Foniadakis draws 

his inspiration from the modern world, 

the frenetic pace of everyday. The score 

for Rodrigo Pedeneiras’ Rouge includes 

throat singing, the sound of waves, the 

rustling wind, and the cry of wild geese. 

Itzik Galili’s Mono Lisa, too, promises 

dynamic movement.7:30pm. From $29 

at 250-386-6121, www.rmts.bc.ca. 

Early Music 

Society 

OF THE ISLANDS 

S 

Back 

Bach 

Before Piffaro, fa 

The 

Renaissance Band 

PHILADELPHIA 

PHIA 

For 30 years, the gold 

standard ard in Renaissance 

wind music performance 

Recorders, rs, shawms, sackbuts, 

pipes 

20 

February 2016 

Box office 

Alix Goolden Hall 8pm 

250-386-6121 

www.earlymusicsocietyoftheislands.ca 

w. 

theislands.ca 

“WINDSWEPT SHORE” RON PARKER, 36 X 28 INCHES, OIL ON CANVAS 


RON PARKER 

The Avenue Gallery 

Ron Parker’s oil paintings represent the culmination of all the skills he has acquired 

over 36 years of painting. He began with wildlife in the 1970s, learning how to render 

feathers, fir and foliage realistically, then began figurative paintings and portraits. 

In 2003 he began a series of over 400 “essentialist” paintings focused on form and 

rhythm using acrylics. In 2013 Ron embraced the medium of oil paints. By working 

wet into wet and using only one coat of paint in most paintings, he has returned to 

realistic, detailed renderings of landscape. But now he can create subtle water reflections, 

smooth gradations in clouds, as well as refined detail in foliage, capturing 

the detail, light, texture, colour and mood of any scene. 

“Windswept Shore,” left, is Parker’s majestic tribute to Clover Point in Victoria, where 

wind-whipped waves crash upon beached kelp as the storm clouds build—a typical 

West Coast day. 184 Oak Bay Ave, 250-598-2184, www.theavenuegallery.com. 


33

February 4 

SCHUBERT’S WINTERREISE 

Phillip T. Young Recital Hall 

Daniel Lichti, bass baritone, and pianist, conductor, 

author, vocal coach, and accompanist Leslie De’Ath 

perform Franz Schubert’s epic song cycle, a setting of 

24 poems by Wilhelm Müller. 8pm, MacLaurin Building, 

UVic. Free. www.finearts.uvic.ca/music/events. 


PACIFIC BAROQUE FESTIVAL 

Two venues 

Presenting German baroque music before Bach. 

Including performances by the Pacific Baroque Festival 

Ensemble, the renowned German soprano Dorothee 

Mields, and the Victoria Children’s Choir. Program details 

and tickets: www.pacbaroque.com. 

February 5 

JIM BYRNES 

Mary Winspear Centre 

The Juno-award winning blues musician performs. 

7:30pm, 2243 Beacon Ave, Sidney. $40.95 at 250- 

656-0275, www.marywinspear.ca. 

February 5 

WINDS OF CHANGE 


University of Victoria Wind Symphony with the Naden 

Band of the Royal Canadian Navy performing Symphony 

No. IV: Bookmarks from Japan by Julie Giroux and Pictures 

at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky (Ravel/Lavender). 

8pm, University Centre. $15/ $10 seniors & alumni/ 

$5 students at 250-721-8480, www.tickets.uvic.ca. 


BARB TOWELL & TINA CHANG 

Two venues 

Towell, mezzo-soprano, and Chang, piano, perform 

classical and popular vocal songs. Feb 6: 2:30pm, St 

Andrew’s Church, 9686 Third St, Sidney. Feb 7: 2:30pm, 

St Mary’s Church, 1701 Elgin Rd, Oak Bay. $25/ $20 

at door or 250-386-6121, www.rmts.bc.ca. 

February 7 

ALEX CUBA 

Mary Winspear Centre 

A singer-songwriter and musician pushing the boundaries 

of Latin music. 7:30pm, 2243 Beacon Ave, Sidney. 

$44.63 at 250-656-0275, www.marywinspear.ca. 


THE BARBER OF SEVILLE 

Royal Theatre 

With its byzantine plot twists and irresistible music, 

Rossini’s farce is a conspiracy on behalf of youth, hope, 

and the joy of first love. Performance dates: Feb 11, 

13, 17, 19, 21, 805 Broughton St. From $25 at 250- 

386-6121, www.rmts.bc.ca. 

February 12 

THE LONELY 

Roxy Theatre 

A group of experienced musicians and performers 

in tribute to Roy Orbison. 7pm, 2657 Quadra St. $35.50/ 

$30.25 at 250-382-3370, www.bluebridgetheatre.ca. 

music 


VICTORIA DJANGO FESTIVAL 

Various venues 

Three nights of ’gypsy swing’ concerts, dance halls 

and speakeasy. See story page 36. 

February 14 

BARBARA EBBESON & ALISON NISHIHARA 

St Mary’s Church 

West Coast performers Ebbeson (mezzo-soprano) 

and Nishihara (piano) present Schubert’s song cycle 

The Beautiful Miller, paired with a cycle by Grieg, The 

Mountain Maid. Sung in German and Norwegian 

respectively. 2:30pm, 1701 Elgin Rd. $23.50 at 250- 

386-6121, www.rmts.bc.ca. 

February 17 

MATT ANDERSEN 


The renowned blues singer/ guitarist performs with 

a guest. 7:30pm, University Centre. $39/ $31/ $23 

at UVic Box Office, 250-721-8480, www.tickets.uvic.ca. 


LENTEN CONCERTS 

St Mary’s Anglican Church 

Annual Lenten lunchtime concerts on Weds. Feb 

17: Curt Bergen, organ; Kelly Kyungch Chang, violin. 

Feb 24: Nathan MacDonald, baritone; Alana Hayes, 

mezzo-soprano; Csinszka Redai, piano. 12:10-12:55pm, 

1701 Elgin Road. Bring lunch. Coffee and tea provided. By 

donation ($8 suggested), proceeds to BC Cancer 

Foundation. 250-598-2212 or info@stmarysoakbay.ca. 

February 19 

BRUCE VOGT 


The pianist performs the late sonatas of Ludwig van 

Beethoven. 8pm, MacLaurin Building, UVic. $18/ $14 

at 250-721-8480, www.tickets.uvic.ca. 


VICTORIA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA 

Two venues 

An all-Beethoven program with Symphony No. 1 

in C Minor and Symphony No. 3 in E Flat. Feb 19: 8pm, 

First Metropolitan Church, 932 Balmoral Rd (at Quadra). Feb 

21: 2pm, Oak Bay United Church, 1355 Mitchell St. 

$20/ $15; music students free at Long & McQuade, 

Ivy’s Bookshop, door, www.victoriachamberorchestra.org. 

February 20 

BACK BEFORE BACH 

Alix Goolden Hall 

Early Music Society of the Islands presents Philadelphia’s 

Piffaro: The Renaissance Band performing a program 

exploring the repertoire familiar to JS Bach’s father, 

Johann Ambrosius Bach. 8pm $30 at 250-386-6121, 

www.rmts.bc.ca. Also watch for Tafelmusik, March 5. 

February 27 

LAFAYETTE STRING QUARTET 


With pianist Arthur Rowe in a program including music 

by Murray Adaskin, Dmitri Shostakovich and Antonín 

Dvorák. 8pm, MacLaurin Building, UVic. $25 at 250- 

721-8480, www.tickets.uvic.ca. 

February 27 

DIEMAHLER CHAMBER GROUP 

St Mary’s the Virgin Church 

An Oak Bay Rotary fundraising concert for literacy 

and Syrian refugees. 2:30pm, 1701 Elgin Rd. $25 

(students by donation) at Ivy’s Bookshop or 250-386- 

6121, www.rmts.bc.ca. 

February 28 

JAZZ AT THE GALLERY 


Pianist Miles Black will interpret Oscar Peterson. 

2pm, 1040 Moss St. $35/ discount for AGGV or U-JAM 

members, includes gallery admission. Available at the 

gallery or 250-384-4171. Info and full lineup: 

www.aggv.ca/events/jazz-gallery-2016. 

February 28 

MAY LING KWOK 


The recording artist and instructor performs piano 

works by Mozart and Schumann. 2:30pm, MacLaurin 

Building, UVic. $18/ $14 seniors, students & alumni at 

250-721-8480, www.tickets.uvic.ca. 

February 29 

BRAHMS DOUBLE 

Royal Theatre 

Victoria Symphony Concertmaster Terence Tam and 

Principal Cello Brian Yoon play the Brahms’ Double 

Concerto. Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, led by VS Principal 

Guest Conductor Bernhard Gueller, concludes the concert. 

8pm. From $30 at 250-386-6121, www.rmts.bc.ca. 

Saturdays in February 

CHOIR REHEARSALS 

Cadboro Bay United Church 

The Victoria Good New choir invites people of all 

ages–families, children and seniors included–to join 

the choir. People are welcome to visit a rehearsal before 

joining. Repertoire includes music from the sixteenth 

century to funk, rock ’n roll, gospel, and more. Performances 

take place at many venues around Victoria throughout 

the year. Seasonal or semester fees for families, adults, 

youth, and first-time members are available on the 

choir website; children under 12 years are free when 

accompanied by an adult member. Info: 250-658- 

1946, www.victoriagoodnewschoir.com. 

Sunday nights in February 

FOLK MUSIC CONCERTS 

Norway House 

Feb 7: Morgan Davis; Feb 14: Odell Fox; Feb 21: 

Genevieve and the Wild Sundays; Feb 28: Paradise 

Street. $5/ 16 & under free. Feature performers after 

open stage unless noted. 7:30pm, 1110 Hillside Ave. 

250-475-1355, www.victoriafolkmusic.ca. 


UVIC MUSIC EVENTS 

Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, UVic 

Concerts, lectures, workshops and recitals featuring 

School of Music faculty, students and guests. Several 

free and by donation events. Full listings at 

www.finearts.uvic.ca/music/events. 


music 


VICTORIA FILM FESTIVAL 

Various venues 

Beginning with an opening gala, over 150 local, 

Canadian and international films will be screened over 

10 days. Special programs include Canadian Wave, French 

Canadian Wave, Indigenous and Asian and 

World Perspective. Also in the schedule are special 

events, including “in conversation” sessions with industry 

heavyweights, Sips ‘n’ Cinema, and family events. 

ConVerge returns to VFF for one day with over 30 

pop up cinemas screening films in unexpected locations 

from the City Hall clock tower to a dog house to 

a limousine. ConVerge starts with a street party on Friday, 

Feb 12 on Broad St, 4:30-7pm with music from local 

band Bucan Bucan. (Free; all ages). 

VFF films will be screened at the Vic Theatre, the 

Odeon, Parkside Hotel and Spa, and Star Cinema 

in Sidney. $2 membership required. Tickets, schedule 

and info: www.victoriafilmfestival.com. 

February 10 

AWARENESS FILM NIGHT: INHABIT 

Edward Milne Comm School, Sooke 

Permaculture evening, with the film Inhabit and 

panel discussion with three Sooke permaculture 

maestros. 7-9pm, 6218 Sooke Rd. By donation. 

www.awarenessfilmnight.ca. 

4-7 February, 2016 

Discover German baroque 

music before Bach 

Dorothee Mields 

Soprano 

Ben Butterfield Tenor 

Sumner Thompson 

Baritone 

Marc Destrubé, 

Artistic Director, violin 

Pacific Baroque 

Festival Ensemble 

Victoria Children’s 

Choir 

Alix Goolden 

Performance 

Hall 

907 Pandora Ave 

Christ Church 

Cathedral 

Quadra Street at 

Rockland 

Program details 

and tickets: 

pacbaroque.com 

February 26 

FILM SCREENING AND FEAST 

Open Space 

Since May 2015, Indigenous youth and artist mentors 

have been active in exploring different aspects of art 

practice. Participants are creating short films, finalizing 

a publication project and developing media installations. 

A public screening and community feast will 

showcase their projects and celebrate the program. 

5pm, 510 Fort St. By donation. 250-383-8833, 

www.openspace.ca. 

FESTIVAL SPONSOR PRESENTED IN 

PARTNERSHIP WITH 

THE GALLERY 

AT MATTICK’S FARM 

February 26 

FILM SCREENING 

Café Simpatico 

Western Canada premier of Life Is Waiting: Referendum 

and Resistance in Western Sahara, a documentary 

on Western Sahara and refugee camps in Algeria. 

Discussion to follow. 7:30pm, 1923 Fernwood Rd. By 

donation. Info: bbcf@bbcf.ca. 

Mondays in February 

MOVIE MONDAYS 

Eric Martin Pavilion 

Feb 1: What Happened Miss Simone? followed by 

guest Erin Michalak, PhD, Network Lead Associate 

Professor, Mood Disorders Centre, Dept of Psychiatry, 

UBC; Feb 8: Monsoon; Feb 15: Prairie Sunset author 

presentation and short films. Screenings at 6:30pm, 

Fort St by Lee Ave. By donation. www.moviemonday.ca. 


MOVIE SCREENINGS 

Vic Theatre 

Including Spotlight Feb 1-4 and Victoria Film Festival 

screenings Feb 5-14. Most screenings at 4, 7 or 

9pm, 808 Douglas St. Listings at www.thevic.ca. 

Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream 

with Gertie Jocksch, SC DMin 

4 Tuesdays, February 9 - March 1, 10am - 12pm 

$75 or $20 drop in 

Friends Meeting House, 1831 Fern Street 

Cosmic Story, Earth Story, Sacred Story 

with Gertie Jocksch, SC DMin 

& Margaret Walters, BA 

Saturday, February 20, 10am - 4pm 

$95 + applicable taxes 

Best to register by February 6, at RRU Continuing 

Studies, www.royalroads.ca/continuing-studies 

Please do not let cost deter you from 

attending—ask us about our scholarships. 

See website for more winter programs. 

earthliteracies@gmail.com 

250-220-4601 • www.earthliteracies.org 

Louise Monfette 

February 2 - 28 

Opening Reception Sat. Feb. 6, 1-3pm 

Artist in attendance 

109-5325 Cordova Bay Road • 250-658-8333 

www.thegalleryatmatticksfarm.com 

Open 10am - 5:30pm every day 

“Palm Desert Lines # 4” 24 x 18 inches, acrylic 


35

vibe 

ensemble Hot Club D’Europe—convenes at the cozy and intimate 

Hermann’s Jazz Club on the evening of February 14. 

Whether you’re a serious student of Gypsy jazz or just a casual passerby, 

this particular form of virtuosic, guitar-based acoustic swing lifts the 

spirits and inspires awe without any blare or bombast. 

“Gypsy jazz is incredible music, it just hits you with the soul and the 

technical prowess,” Swain says as he explains his passion for the art 

form. “No other jazz musician had the impact of Django Reinhardt, 

and how fascinating is it that this member of the Roma community— 

a community who faced incredible prejudice in Europe—found a home 

within African-American music in the 20s…and did it in Paris.” 

And while our region boasts a healthy population of what Swain 

calls “wonderful exponents of the form,” some of whom will grace the 

stages of the festival, headlining this year’s lineup is top international 

ensemble Hot Club D’Europe, featuring acclaimed virtuoso guitarist 

Paulus Schafer. “It’s our fifth year, and we’re finally bringing in some 

Old World masters,” Swain enthuses. Schafer, a native of the Netherlands, 

“has played with everybody and grew up in the tradition, not far from 

where Django Reinhardt was raised. Just the fact that we’re bringing 

those guys in for two exclusive concerts is a bit of a dream come true.” 

Swain wanted the festival to include some of the genesis of the 

legendary Reinhardt’s inspiration, and explore the Roma roots of the 

tradition. Bulgarian-born Vancouver violinist Lache Cercel and The 

Roma Swing Ensemble, featuring vocalist Miriam Bellamore, will offer 

this elemental aspect, he says. “It’s a more diverse, more international 

program than we’ve ever put forward; I’m excited about that.” 

Expanding the offerings into other areas of swing, Swain is also 

highlighting Vancouverites Petunia and the Vipers, “a veteran five- 

February can be a time 

of conflict in many 

hearts and relationships, 

as most of us fall into 

one of two opposing camps: 

those who would rather 

ignore the culturally-enforced 

mass celebration of romantic 

love in the middle of the 

month, and those who crave 

some kind of significant 

observance. 

It’s hard to know in which 

camp legendary jazz guitarist 

Django Reinhardt would 

have found himself, but the 

5th annual Victoria Django 

Festival offers what I’d call 

the perfect solution for the 

Valentine-phobic and -philic 

who are simply looking for 

a damned good time. The 

purpose of the three-day 

swingin’ smorgasbord is to 

fill the dark nights with music, celebration, food and drink—and show 

me the person in this town who doesn’t need some of that as we plod 

through these stubbornly soggy days of midwinter. 

Envisioned and organized by celebrated local bassist Oliver Swain— 

himself a longtime Gypsy jazz enthusiast—the Victoria Django Festival 

aims to deliver on more than just the musical front. Back in the day, 

Swain says, “they would have a full dance floor, good food, a full 

bar…We’re modelling this after the underground venues in Paris of the 

1920s; we try to stay in the spirit of providing fine traditional European 

bistro food and a kickin’ dance floor—and if you don’t want to 

dance all night, there’s lots of places to just relax and enjoy the music.” 

Swain hand-picked some of the best local providers of artisan food 

and drink: Hoyne’s Brewery, Pizzeria Prima Strada, and The Whole 

Beast Charcuterie, among other favourites. 

If that’s not enough to break the spell of sedentary screen time on 

the sofa, this festival offers more to those who overcome their inertia 

and dare to venture out. Friday and Saturday audiences will be in for 

a true “1930s European Hot Club” scene, with two adjacent venues 

offering contrasting entertainment experiences each night. Ticket 

holders can experience cabaret seating and a full dance floor in one 

area—along with food and beverage service available during concerts. 

Or pop into the more “concert-style” side of things, where jam sessions 

organically blossom and the focus is on listening. One admission price 

allows patrons to freely roam. 

Sunday’s event sounds like a winner if you’re looking for a more 

classically “romantic” experience. It’s fitting that this full-on dinner 

show—with a four-course, French-inspired Valentine’s Day feast created 

by guest chef Cosmo Meens and paired with international headliner 

Calling your inner Gypsy 

MOLLIE KAYE 

Swain on swing: The 5th Annual Victoria Django Festival. 

Oliver Swain Paulus Schafer Petunia 


“ 

I’VE BEEN PASSIONATELY performing this music for 

years, and I wanted to do a Gypsy jazz music festival— 

and an event where there was food and dancing and 

concert experience all rolled into one night.”—Oliver Swain 

piece I’ve been following for a few years.” The band’s lead vocalist, 

he says, “is just a remarkable artist; he’s doing some really interesting 

things, and diversifying our lineup a bit by bringing in a full-on Western 

Swing ensemble.” Victoria-based groups the Marc Atkinson Trio and 

Trio Voltaire (with whom Swain himself will take up his bass 

during the shows) round out the list of performers. 

When I asked Swain whether he would be performing, he said 

that in the past few years of the festival, he hung back, but looks 

forward to taking the stage this time. “I’m an artist first; I’ve been 

passionately performing this music for years, and I wanted to do a 

Gypsy jazz music festival—and also wanted to do an event where 

there was food and dancing and concert experience all rolled into 

one night.” 

The impassioned, rhythmic precision of authentic renditions of 

labyrinthine 1920s and 30s Gypsy jazz repertoire does tend to inspire 

dancers of all ages to hit the floor; after all, the art form developed 

in an era when people came out to dance, not just listen. 

“All of our groups say they often end up doing [straight] concerts,” 

remarks Swain, “but one of the things that sets us apart from the way 

a lot of jazz is presented is to have the dance component, and our 

artists love it. They absolutely love the fact they can do a concert 

set on one side, then walk down the hall and play for dancers.” 

There are swing lessons offered before the Friday and Saturday shows, 

and a competition each night (with prizes) for the more experienced 

and flashy aficionados of the dance. Join in, or sit steadfastly in your 

chair—either way, the visual spectacle of swirling skirts, fancy footwork, 

and acrobatic “aerial” lifts is worth the price of admission. “During 

the show, people are really cuttin’ a rug,” says Swain. “It’s a total crowd 

favourite. Elite dancers from Vancouver and Seattle are now coming 

in to participate. Have a drink or snack and watch some pretty worldclass 

dancers; come early and learn a few steps.” 

Victoria Django Festival runs February 12-14. On Friday, Feb 12, 

Petunia & The Vipers and The Marc Atkinson Trio, 8pm at White 

Eagle Hall, 90 Dock Street: $25 advance (available at Hoyne Brewery, 

Lyle’s Place & Larsen Music) / $30 door; Saturday, Feb 13, Hot 

Club D'Europe, Petunia & the Vipers, Lache Cercel and the Roma 

Swing Ensemble, Trio Voltaire, 8pm at St Andrews Church & Kirk 

Hall, 680 Courtney: $40 advance / $45 door; Friday & Saturday pass: 

$60 advance / $70 door. Sunday, Feb 14, 6pm dinner concert with Hot 

Club D'Europe at Hermann’s Jazz Club, 753 View: $80 advance. 

Musicians can also check out DJANGOCAMP afternoon workshops 

with Paulus Schafer (Guitar), Olli Soikkeli (Guitar) and Lache Cercel 

(violin), $40 per class, booked at Larsen Music, 250-389-1988. See 

www.victoriadjangofestival.com. 

Mollie Kaye, a local writer and passionate lover of all 

things swing, will see you on the dance floor. 

Ea rly 

Music Society 

OF THE ISLANDSS 

House of 

Dreams 

TD 

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra 

ra 

TORONTO 

5 

March 

2016 

Alix Goolden Hall 8pm 8 

A magical multi-media journey 

to the meeting places of 

Baroque art and music 

www.earlymusicsocietyoftheislands.ca 

w. 

theislands.ca 

Box office 250-386-6121 

February 2 — 28 

2016 

The 

Valley 

BYJoan 

MacLeod 

DIRECTED BY ROY SURETTE 

“Relentlessly topical – and deeply 

empathetic” THE GLOBE AND MAIL 

TICKETS ON SALE NOW 

250 385 6815 / belfry.bc.ca 

1291 Gladstone at Fernwood 


37

The Valley 

curtain call 

MONICA PRENDERGAST 

Issues around policing and mental health lie at the heart of award-winning playwright Joan MacLeod’s work. 

Joan MacLeod 

The production of The Valley by Canadian playwright Joan 

MacLeod at the Belfry Theatre is a cause for cultural celebration. 

We are very fortunate to have MacLeod call herself a local 

playwright since moving to Vancouver Island in 2004. 

An associate professor of Creative Writing at the University of 

Victoria, MacLeod won the Governor General’s Award in 1991 for 

Amigo’s Blue Guitar, and has been shortlisted for it twice since. Her 

one-woman play The Shape of a Girl, a response to the Reena Virk 

murder here, won the Jessie Richardson and Betty Mitchell awards 

in Vancouver in 2001. The play toured across the country and has 

been performed many times internationally to this day (it has been 

translated into six languages). In 2011, MacLeod was the recipient 

of the prestigious Siminovitch Prize ($100,000) for playwriting. Jury 

chair Maureen Labonté said, “Joan is a master of expressing the 

profoundest human emotions, putting to paper the vulnerability, the 

compassion, the weaknesses and strengths of the human spirit.” 

I am pleased to call MacLeod my colleague at UVic, but my own 

connection to MacLeod goes back to 1987 when I saw her performing 

in her first play Jewel at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. The actress 

who was to play the role in this first of MacLeod’s numerous onewoman 

plays had left the production during rehearsal. MacLeod 

ended up playing the role of a young widow whose husband died 

in the Ocean Ranger oil rig disaster off the coast of Newfoundland. 

I was very moved by the play, found it beautifully 

written, honest and powerful. Although 

MacLeod was clearly not a professional actor, 

she delivered the text with simplicity and 

directness. I immediately placed Jewel on a 

list of plays I wanted to do myself someday 

(I did so in 2000), and became a fan of 

MacLeod’s work. I saw her next play Toronto, 

Mississippi at Tarragon and have been following 

her career ever since. 

After MacLeod and I became colleagues 

we have kept in touch the way overbusy 

professors usually do, with the occasional 

email, classroom guest visit, or chat on opening 

nights. I knew about the productions of The 

Valley that had been done at Alberta Theatre 

Projects in Calgary and at the Tarragon 

Theatre, both in 2013. When I learned that 

the play was part of the Belfry’s 2015-2016 

season, I invited MacLeod for lunch to 

talk about the genesis of the play and its 

reception elsewhere. 

Most of MacLeod’s plays have a social 

issue driving them at their heart. She is a 

socially engaged writer who has often been 

inspired by current events. The Valley addresses 

the ongoing challenges faced by those with 

mental health problems, particularly in their 

often negative (if not fatal) encounters with 

the police. In the play we see the after-effects of an encounter on a 

subway platform between a first year university student named 

Connor, who is suffering from depression, and a police officer named 

Dan. The encounter ends with Dan breaking Connor’s jaw and a 

number of his teeth. 

MacLeod tells me that the play arose in part from her concerns 

as a university instructor after witnessing too many students falling 

apart for various reasons, often including anxiety and depression. 

“These are very vulnerable years for young people,” she says. “I 

became more aware of the everydayness of mental illness. I can see 

the stress we create for students.” Indeed, stress and anxiety are the 

number one health issues for postsecondary students. And in some 

cases these conditions can tip students into depression. 

The play also developed in part as a response to the tasering death 

of Robert Dziekanski by RCMP officers at the Vancouver airport in 

2007. This event angered MacLeod, understandably so. She began 

to be interested in investigating how police officers deal with the 

complex job of being frontline workers with those who are mentally 

ill. “I go into writing plays with a certain bias,” MacLeod tells me, 

“and I want to get rid of that bias. I grew up with a negative attitude 

toward the police, but that changed as I aged and saw the 

need for the police, for them to protect me. These biases and how I 

try to address them are always interesting to explore.” 


“ 

I BECAME MORE AWARE of the everydayness of 

mental illness. I can see the stress we create for students.” 

—Joan MacLeod 

The play includes a series of monologues by the four characters in 

it—Connor and Dan, Dan’s wife Janie (who is suffering from postpartum 

depression) and Connor’s mother Sharon—about their 

encounters with the police throughout their lives. 

Another impetus for the play came from MacLeod reading the 

award-winning book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression 

by Andrew Solomon. The book deeply affected MacLeod in its 

personal, social and scientific investigation of depression. The 

character of Sharon is MacLeod’s imaginative response to any mother 

dealing with her child’s depression, wanting to protect her child, and 

feeling the despair that can envelope someone who is dealing with 

a loved one in the throes of mental illness. “The process I go through 

is how I connect to characters. I love writing mothers and teenagers, 

remembering my own teenage angst and now having a teenage daughter 

at UVic myself. The police officer was more challenging for me to 

make that connection, but I do love him. This is not a play about 

police brutality; that’s not what it’s about,” asserts MacLeod. 

I asked MacLeod about the response audiences have had to the 

play in its previous productions in Calgary and Toronto (it has also 

been done in St Catharine’s and will be at the Arts Club in Vancouver 

this spring). She tells me that the Calgary response was very positive. 

However, in Toronto there was an even higher degree of interest in 

the play due to a recent event there. Three months before the production 

opened at the Tarragon Theatre, Toronto teenager Sammy Yatim 

brandished a three-inch knife and threatened passengers on a streetcar. 

He was shot at nine times and killed by police officer James Forcillo. 

Forcillo, charged with second degree murder, was recently convicted 

on a lesser charge of attempted murder. 

While this coincidence was of course just that, it galvanized audiences 

who came to the play seeking answers, and healing. “The play 

is about healing, the characters are in a healing circle as the potential 

is always there—the characters are on the edge of this circle,” says 

MacLeod. “It is not a dark and terrible night in the theatre. The play 

is hopeful, even funny. I hope the audience will leave feeling some 

compassion for people around us who are suffering and with more 

awareness about mental health issues.” 

WordsThaw 

2016 

The Malahat Review’s Literary Symposium 

Landsdowne Lecture 

Readings 

Panels 

Master Class 

UNIVERSITY OF 

VICTORIAIA 

March 

17–20 

Register today! 

#wordsthaw 

For more 

information, 

visit 

malahatreview.ca/wordsthaw 

The Belfry production is directed by former Artistic Director Roy 

Surette and features actors Rebecca Auerbach, Matt Reznek, Luc 

Roderique, and Colleen Wheeler. Set design is by Pam Johnson, lighting 

design by Itai Erdal, sound design by Brian Linds and costumes by Erin 

Macklem. The show runs from February 2-28 with tickets at www.belfry.bc.ca 

or by calling 250-385-6815. On Thursday, February 11 there will be 

a talkback after the show for audiences to engage in a discussion 

about the play. Focus is the proud media sponsor for The Valley. 

Monica continues to review for CBC Radio’s On the Island 

and to teach and conduct her research at the University 

of Victoria. This spring the second edition of her textbook 

Applied Theatre, co-authored and edited with Juliana 

Saxton, will be released. 


39

Nature is foreclosing 

coastlines 

AMY REISWIG 

The Climate Nexus calls for a transformative discussion on adapting our life-support systems to climate change. 

PHOTO: TONY BOUNSALL 

Dr Jon O’Riordan 

Most people I know would never say “I support ocean 

acidification” or “I support soil degradation” or “I support 

drought and food price increases.” Many of us pledge to 

fight these and other effects of carbon emissions—as if we can, like 

Superman, step out on the tracks and stop the runaway train. Yet 

often, through our actions, we unknowingly support the very things 

we say we stand against. 

In their book The Climate Nexus: Water, Food, Energy and 

Biodiversity in a Changing World (Rocky Mountain Books, December 

2015), Robert William Sandford and Victoria’s Dr Jon O’Riordan 

explain the Earth’s delicately interconnected systems—our life-support 

systems—and how our daily decisions affect them. The book’s goal 

is not to pretend we can stop the changes already set in motion but 

to encourage us to understand the nexus and to actively plan and 

adapt rather than just react when crisis hits. If we can’t stop the train, 

we can at least learn what power we have to steer or slow it. 

As the authors state simply, the nexus of where our demands for 

food, water and energy meet “lies at the very heart of human civilization.” 

But through population growth and climate change, which 

have become mutually entangled, human civilization is bumping 

up against the planet’s ability to meet those ever-increasing demands. 

“Nature is gradually foreclosing,” O’Riordan tells me matter of factly 

over morning tea. “It’s not overnight, but it is inexorable.” 

Our formerly resilient planetary systems are in decline. Whether 

it’s poor land use and agricultural practice leading to loss of soil— 

key for absorbing water, distributing nutrients, anchoring ecosystems 

and capturing carbon—or altered water cycles and ocean warming, 

the book warns of the “cascading effects of the failure to adapt to 

hydro-climatic change. On a global scale, failure leads first to greater 

vulnerability to extreme weather events, food crises, water crises, 

large-scale forced migration, and further human-made environmental 

catastrophes. These in turn lead to accelerating biodiversity loss and 

Earth-system collapse.” 

Bye-bye, beautiful blue planet. Sorry we were such demanding, 

messy, destructive guests. 

Does it have to be that way? 

Signed by 195 world leaders, the Paris agreement to limit and eventually 

reduce carbon emissions with a goal of keeping global warming 

to 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels is a cooperative, coordinated step. 

“Up until now, very seldom has humanity acted in concert,” O’Riordan 

notes, stressing that while we’ll only know five years from now if it’s 

been successful, “at least everybody signed one piece of paper.” 

But that piece of paper isn’t a licence for citizen complacency. Even 

within that limited warming scenario, big changes are coming—are 

actually already underway—and they’re not in civilization’s favour. 

For O’Riordan, there’s no question what we need to do: learn, get 

engaged and plan. And so the book promotes adaptation as not just 

an important policy area, but a personal practice. “Humans are the 

most damaging but also the most changeable” of Earth’s creatures, 

O’Riordan claims with a smile, sounding reservedly hopeful. 

Himself a committed cyclist (who despite being about 20 years my 

senior looks like he could easily leave me in the dust on the trails), 

O’Riordan has spent 35 years in the public service in areas of environmental 

management and land and resource planning, including 

as BC’s Deputy Minister of Sustainable Resource Management. In 

2007 he was invited to join Simon Fraser University’s Adaptation to 

Climate Change Team (ACT), a think tank focused specifically on 

studying risks associated with climate change and promoting adaptive 

solutions. He’s participated in three of their five major reports, 

and this book is the combination of five years of ACT research. As 

he says: “The nexus was much bigger than the individual parts, and 

they needed to be looked at together.” While the topic is bigger, 

the book itself is a manageable 150-ish pages, intended as an accessible 

introduction that can be read in a couple of hours. A second 

volume, on adaptive policies, is in the works. 

Adaptation is a way of taking some control of the train. It involves 

being creative in how we use the resources in the nexus, from looking 

at new technologies and business models to reorganization of governance 

structures and thinking beyond environmental sustainability 

to environmental restoration. Above all, it means uprooting entrenched 

attitudes. “If we don’t confront the value system that created our 


Focus presents: Triangle Healing 

ADVERTISEMENT 

“ 

IF WE DON’T CONFRONT the value system that 

created our problems in the first place, we will fail.” 

—Dr Jon O’Riordan and Robert William Sandford 

problems in the first place,” the 

authors warn, “we will fail.” That 

means that the needs—or what we 

perceive as needs—must also change. 

For instance, Canadian households 

throw away 2.1 million tonnes 

of food a year—“enough to fill 

Toronto’s Rogers Centre three times 

over,” the authors write. And waste 

occurs in land and resource use as 

well, often discounting ecosystem 

value in favour of single-resource 

exploitation. 

But our survival depends on turning 

away from a siloed and throwaway 

approach based on comfort, conformity 

and a love affair with the 

appearance of prosperity. Close to 

home for me, strata rules prohibit 

sun-drying clothes on the balcony— 

something free and sustainable that eliminates wear on building 

systems and clothing, and reduces energy consumption. But because 

some people think it looks bad—perhaps, God forbid, makes it look 

like we can’t afford fancy machines—it’s prohibited. How much 

longer can we afford to let appearance rule our decision-making 

around resources? 

“All of our buying,” O’Riordan says, pointing to holiday consumption 

as an example, “is buying energy and water.” He laments that 

people don’t see that chain behind products and services, don’t realize 

the wasteful and environmentally destructive processes they’re 

supporting. That’s why we need what he calls transformative discussions 

and, above all, education—like the kind we get in this book. 

O’Riordan hopes that a better understanding of the nexus will 

motivate people to change their behaviour, not because it’s financially 

expedient but because it’s the right thing to do. His ideal would 

be for everyone, from primary to university, to take a course on the 

climate nexus. He’s currently helping develop a pilot course for use 

in high schools. 

Academic but applicable, the book is a call for us all to be creative 

engineers of our future. “In the end,” O’Riordan and Sandford 

conclude, “the entire human population on Earth is one…If we are 

to solve the crisis in the nexus, we will have to act in concert as one 

overall system, and learn to co-operate and support each other in 

ways that we have never thought of before. For better or worse, we 

are all in this together.” Full steam ahead. 


Writer and editor Amy Reiswig proudly and stubbornly 

stealth dries her clothes on the balcony. 

Clean water: the most economical path to optimum health 

In four decades of research,” says Triangle Healing Products owner Diane Regan, 

“I’ve found that two of the most valuable tools for optimum health are water 

distillers and structured water units. Drink clean water and your health will change 

for the better.” Distilled water is the most beneficial and most economical way to 

clean your water. 

Diane, a youthful looking 70-something, confirms, “I drink it, I promote it.” The 

benefits of drinking distilled water can be dramatic. Many people with arthritis state 

that they can knit again without pain, and fibromyalgia symptoms dissipate within 

the first month of drinking distilled water. 

The purpose of water in our bodies is to act as a solvent—to dissolve food 

substances for assimilation, and to dissolve inorganic mineral substances for elimination. 

Because our bodies are 75 percent water, it makes sense to drink the cleanest 

purest water. Dr. Allen E. Banik, author of The Choice is Clear, says, “Distilled 

water is the greatest solvent on Earth—the only one that can be taken into the body 

without damage to the tissues.” 

See the website aquariusthewaterbearer.com 

for more evidence 

and watch Andrew Norton Webber 

on Distilled Water research. 

Clean water also tastes better. 

One client had enjoyed a very good 

cup of coffee at her friend’s home— 

much better than she seemed able 

to brew at home. Yet both used the 

same brand of coffee. The key to 

the great taste she discovered, was 

her friend’s use of distilled water. 

As a result she came in to Triangle 

to buy her own distiller. 

Filtered water is not the same as 

distilled water, and in fact, can be 

dangerous. Decaying matter collects 

Precision Water System 8-gallons-per-day automatic 

counter-top distiller 

on the bottom of every filter, forming an excellent breeding ground for bacteria. 

Structure your clean water for optimum health. All water is dead, even distilled 

water, but structuring water is like sending it over a waterfall, erasing its negative 

memories and allowing it to return to its natural state. Clayton Nolte, a researcher 

who invented life-transforming Natural Action Water Structuring Technologies, calls 

structured water the ultimate health food. Beverages taste better, cut flowers last 

longer, livestock and pets are healthier, and less soap is required for washing. 

One Triangle client who had two arthritic dogs on medication and having trouble 

walking any distance, bought a water distiller and a structuring unit. Within a month, 

she reported that she couldn’t keep up with her dogs on their walks. There are no 

placebo effects with animals. 

Visit Triangle Healing Products to see the technology and to taste the difference. 

We are led to believe Victoria has a clean water source. Come into Triangle and 

see what is left after distilling one gallon of water. And bottled water is not as clean 

as we are led to believe either. 

Diane will show you the residue left behind when tap water is distilled, as well 

as photos of potatoes grown from discarded peels and watered with distilled structured 

water. Seeing is believing. 

Triangle Healing Products 

770 Spruce Avenue, Victoria, BC 

250-370-1818 • www.trianglehealing.com 

Triangle Healing Products, its owner, its employees do not provide medical advice or treatment. They provide information and 

products that you may choose after evaluating your health needs and in consultation with health professionals of your choosing. 

41

Sewercide 

urbanities 

GENE MILLER 

Local politicians are bumbling toward a multi-billion-dollar sewage treatment plan the community doesn’t need. 

Without intentionally wishing to set 

a fecal tone throughout this 

column, I have to say that Chris 

Corps, a local capital projects financial strategist, 

scares the crap out of me. By the time 

he finishes one of his patented rants about 

the long and still continuing history of CRD 

misstep on the wastewater treatment file, I’m 

left with the impression that we are being 

governed and managed, and our precious 

money sluiced down the drain, by Financial 

Limit Deniers, FLD’s—bureaucrats who 

blithely carry on, year after year, spending 

dough—our dough—on studies, reports, 

consultants, process, process, and more 

process, to the accompaniment of adding 

machine sounds, ka-ching! ka-ching!, and 

who have managed to-date to cut cheques 

for over (sit down, please) $76 million. On 

wastewater treatment planning. Not treatment. 

Planning. 

This is a form of legal and socially abetted 

insanity, and I call it that for a very particular 

reason. Any community—its citizens, its 

elected leaders, its managers—unable to 

understand the real public benefits money at 

that scale can deliver, and unable to impose 

and sustain a culture of judicious investment 

and spending, is insane. 

How much money is $76 million? It’s an 

amount large enough to transform Downtown’s 

public realm into a visual delight, an amenityrich 

physical paradise, instead of the grim, 

grubby and underwhelming mess it is today. 

Or we could direct that amount of money 

to economic development and business attraction, 

targeted to ocean science and marine 

tech, and win status as a pre-eminent global 

research and applied science centre (an 

outcome, by the way, that would pay business-creation 

and employment dividends for 

a very long time). 

Or we could, on our own, completely house 

and deliver all necessary services to the abject 

homeless, so that this collective social tragedy 

and human shambles didn’t stare up at us 

from every street-corner, park bench and 

cardboard mattress. 

A million, two million, even five million? 

Sure. But 76 million and counting? I’m stunned 

CRD management hasn’t received death 

threats. Or termination notices. 

As you read this, the Capital Regional 

District appears to be bumbling and stumbling 

toward a determination of site, operating 

system and budget on wastewater treatment— 

the latter described in the media as a roughly 

$1.1-1.3 billion infrastructure undertaking. 

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, who is current 

chair of CALWMC, the CRD’s Core Area 

Liquid Waste Management Committee, was 

quoted in the news in early December, 

reminding us that “[Cost is] at a conceptual 

level. When the last plan was first costed in 

2007, it was $1.2 billion and it came down 

to $788 million.” 

Let’s hope she’s right (after all, way lower’s 

way better), but let me borrow a few prophetic 

lines from Focus publisher David Broadland’s 

June, 2015 column: “If the sewage treatment 

project turns out to be anything like the 

[Johnson Street] bridge project, local taxpayers 

are in for a wild ride. The bridge experience 

provides insight into the level of optimism 

bias about cost that’s built into local political 

and governance cultures.” 

“Optimism bias.” Lovely and diplomatic turn 

of phrase. A less circumspect and more jaundiced 

observer might reach for “clusterfuck.” 

I guess chairs of regional liquid waste 

management committees can’t be quoted in 

the media showing pessimism bias: “Holy 

shit, if the conceptual cost is $1.3 billion, 

what’s to keep the actual cost from topping 

out at $2 or 3 billion?” 

This, by the way, is what the aforementioned 

Corps is forecasting. And who knows 

what Urban Systems, the CRD’s latest consultant 

on this project, is excluding from that 

billion-plus number, and whether all kinds 

of “marginal” items have been conveniently 

swept to the unlit corners of the public conversation 

about project scope and cost. Stuff like 

this could make catastrophists of even the 

most hopeful among us. 

As you read this, essential questions and 

contradictions continue to swirl regarding 

every aspect of this would-be project. Nothing 

in recent memory has triggered so much 

raging debate, released so much suspicion, 

or generated so much cynicism about the 

values and agendas of every player and stakeholder 

involved. Triggered everything, 

unfortunately, but a metaphoric lynch mob. 

If you sift all of the over-coffee gossip and 

business lunch rumour-swapping, you learn 

that: municipal politicians and CRD management 

have been seduced by consultants 

and suppliers of systems and services who 

wine and dine them; Ottawa listened to 

Seattle’s complaints about our deepwater 

sewer outfalls befouling Puget Sound without 

first considering the science that makes that 

an impossible outcome, and additional wastewater 

treatment unnecessary; all the local 

lefty politicians are supporting big infrastructure 

because it means lots of long-term work 

and fat contracts for union crews and companies; 

even though precedents exist, Ottawa 

wouldn’t exempt Victoria from the need for 

additional treatment, though it could have 

through a legal exclusion; local politicians 

are dismissively treating their worried 

constituents like pests or lunatics; innovators 

who propose to the CRD much cheaper 

alternatives to the conventional plan are 

humoured then sent away; local politicians 

are afraid of rocking the boat out of fear 


ANY COMMUNITY—its citizens, its elected leaders, its managers—unable 

to understand the real public benefits money at that scale can deliver, and unable 

to impose and sustain a culture of judicious investment and spending, is insane. 

Ottawa will never offer us another dime for 

capital works; the wastewater treatment plant 

site selection’s a done deal and Greater Victoria 

taxpayers are going to pay $70 million for 

the Rock Bay dirt alone; city streets and other 

arteries are going to be torn up for years, 

financially damaging nearby businesses without 

recompense; and, saving perhaps the worst 

for last, whatever “they” say it’ll cost—$800 

million or $1.2 billion—think “times two.” 

Concerning this last point, Eric Jaffe writes 

in The Atlantic: “The only thing we can confidently 

expect from a big infrastructure project 

is that it will cost way more than expected. 

The people who predict the cost of urban 

mega-projects do a terrible job. Nine in ten 

projects exceed their cost estimates. The overruns 

average 28 percent across the board.” 

So, let’s play loose and call 28 percent a 

third. One-third of consultant Urban System’s 

$1.1-1.3 billion estimate, rounded, comes 

to $400 million, making possible a total 

project cost of $1.6 billion. 

I’m not the sharpest spreadsheet on the 

block, but my napkin math suggests that 

regional taxpayers will be forking over $500- 

$800 or more a year for 50 years to deal with 

the capital and operating costs of this one. 

A link to a video of a CRD board meeting 

is quietly making the rounds these days. It 

features now ex-CRD Chair, Oak Bay Mayor 

Nils Jensen, quizzing a Stantec Engineering 

wastewater expert in a Q&A which conveniently 

permits the expert to draw the foregone 

conclusion that only conventional wastewater 

handling technologies are appropriate, 

other technologies being “risky” and 

“unproven.” If you tend toward fury over 

insane public spending protocols, you will 

find Jensen’s witness-leading performance 

surreal and vomitous, a strangely dreamlike 

piece of public theatre, and a revelatory 

example of inter-municipal aversion to innovation 

and enterprise clumsily dressed up as 

risk-avoidance. 

And this is central to the problem we’re 

facing: that the CRD mandate, or letters 

patent or charter nowhere states: “The CRD 

will treat the public’s money as a precious 

resource. It will not waste a dime. It will 

operate with a leadership model that makes 

it morally and operationally impossible to 

justify spending $76 million on wastewater 

treatment studies.” The CRD’s passions, character 

and esprit de corps may exist but are 

diffuse, and the problem is structural: No 

one had to raise his or her right hand at the 

moment of their appointment and state, cleareyed, 

“The buck absolutely stops here.” 

The stakes and implications of wastewater 

treatment decision-making are enormous. 

Wrong and costly choices will impact both 

taxpayers and public wealth. That is, this 

potentially multi-billion-dollar undertaking 

could for years make the taxpaying electorate 

gun-shy and hobble (or foreclose) other municipal 

spending on housing, public realm 

beautification, parks services, supports for 

culture and recreation, investment in economic 

development, other needed public works, 

and God knows what else on various municipal 

to-do lists. 

Helps, new to the CALWMC chair, is, in 

my opinion, staring system failure in the eye 

here—not evil, but a professional disregard 

for the limits of community wealth combined 

with insufficient recognition of the crucial 

need for thrifty, innovative thinking and 

doing. It’s difficult to understand exactly 

which public and/or professional bodies to 

hold to account, but I actually worry it’s the 

operating governance culture, a form of soft 

social rot. Like ash-raking an exhausted relationship: 

“Where did we go wrong?” and 

never coming up with an answer better than: 

“Oh, well, shit happens.” 

In a rangy Atlantic Magazine piece, “What 

Was Volkswagen Thinking,” writer Jerry Useem 

describes a landmark study of damage to the 

O-rings on the doomed space shuttle Challenger: 

“Engineers and managers developed a definition 

of the situation, a ‘script,’ that allowed 

them to carry on as if nothing was wrong. 

To clarify: They were not merely acting as if 

nothing was wrong. They believed it.” 

Quick, think of a synonym for optimism bias. 

Gene Miller is a founder of 

Open Space Cultural Centre, 

Monday Magazine and the 

Gaining Ground Conferences. 

He currently serves on the 

Mayor’s Task Force on 

Housing Affordability. 

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touchinglives@shaw.ca 

STRUGGLING WITH LIFE? 

MARLENE BROUWER 

Jungian Psychoanalyst, I.A.A.P. 

D. Analytical Psych., C.G. Jung Institute-Zurich 

www.jungianconsultant.com 

Inquiries welcome: 778-679-5199 


43

natural city 

A birding evangelist’s Big Year 

MALEEA ACKER 

Knowing our fellow creatures inspires Ann Nightingale’s passion. 

When lifelong Vancouver Island 

resident Ann Nightingale started 

birding in the 1990s, she had in 

her head American naturalist Ken Kauffman’s 

words. If people could name 50 plants and 

animals in their own area, said Kauffman, it 

would fundamentally change how they fit 

into the world. A chance opportunity with 

a co-worker took Nightingale out to Skirt 

Mountain (now Bear Mountain) on her first 

birding trip. “It knocked my socks off,” she 

tells me. Within a year of studying, she could 

identify most of the birds in the Capital Region. 

Twenty years later, Nightingale, small, redhaired, 

with dancing eyes and a fortuitous 

name, tells me, “I’m a birding evangelist.” 

Her resume attests to the assertion. Nightingale 

is past president of the Rocky Point Bird 

Observatory (RPBO) and an 18-year volunteer 

with the organization. She coordinates 

Victoria’s Christmas Bird Count, serves on 

the board of the Victoria Natural History 

Society, and leads nature walks and gives 

lectures at various locations around the south 

island. She also writes her own blog, centering 

on a passion that bloomed throughout 2015. 

Last December, Nightingale chalked up 

final numbers for her “Big Year,” shorthand 

among birders for a year spent identifying 

and counting as many bird species as possible 

on Vancouver Island, then writing about them 

on www.vibigyear.ca. She had aimed for 275. 

Supporters pledged donations to the RPBO 

based on how many species she could find. 

When I contacted Nightingale, she had activated 

her Spot GPS and I followed her 

movements around Bamfield, where she was 

on a last dash to bring up her count. 

Vancouver Island’s bird species are on the 

decline, as are one in eight worldwide, according 

to the David Suzuki Foundation. Environment 

Canada estimated the nine leading causes of 

premature deaths of birds in a 2013 study 

(see sidebar). Domestic and feral cats are, by 

far, the biggest threat to birds. 

Lack of food can also be an issue. Mosquitos 

are one of the prime food sources of barn 

swallows, but as urban dwellers take more 

care to prevent mosquito larvae from 

hatching—for fear of West Nile Virus and 

for their own comfort—their primary meal 

disappears. Perhaps nowhere is this conflict 

Ann Nightingale 

more on display in the region than at Island 

View Beach, where local residents have become 

polarized around the Capital Regional District’s 

attempts to rehabilitate a native saltwater 

marsh below a subdivision of high-priced 

houses. Those who don’t want to slap at their 

arms on their patios in the evenings are fighting 

to prevent re-creation of the wetland—prime 

habitat for many native bird species who, 

along with frogs and other creatures, will eat 

the mosquitos. 

The root causes of overall bird species 

decline, however, are unknown. Findings 

tend to depend more on volunteers like 

Nightingale than on funded scientists. The 

Province collects and uses information gathered 

by Nightingale and other volunteers, 

including count numbers and bird banding 

expeditions. The Christmas Bird Count, sponsored 

by the Victoria Natural History Society 

(VNHS) and which she has coordinated since 

2001, features over 200 participants and is 

regularly cited by scientists. 

The count, which VNHS President Darren 

Copley says is the longest standing citizen 

science project he knows of, has taken place 

in Victoria since 1958. “It shows us where 

the birds are in winter, and how they are 

generally doing,” explains Copley. “Ann has 

made our area one of the most successful and 

well-attended Christmas Bird Counts 

anywhere,” he adds. Counting occurs on the 

first Sunday after December 13 every year. 

There is also a bird hotline for residents to 

The 9 leading causes 

of bird deaths in Canada* 

1. Domestic and feral cats 200 M 

2. Powerlines** 25 M 

3. Collisions with houses or buildings 25 M 

4. Vehicle collisions 14 M 

5. Game bird hunting 5 M 

6. Agricultural pesticides 2.7 M 

7. Agricultural mowing 2.2 M 

8. Commercial forestry .9 M 

9. Communications towers .22M 

* According to Environment Canada, 2013 

** Wind turbines accounted for about 16,700 

of these deaths 

call if they see an unusual bird at any time of 

the year. As the climate changes, the Christmas 

counts may prove more and more important, 

showing population trends that could tie into 

other environmental changes—from survival 

of native trees during increasing summer 

droughts, to species’ populations over time. 

Nightingale, a retired university administrator, 

now spends most of her time 

volunteering to raise awareness about local 

native species. On one pivotal moment, 

she and other volunteers were mist-netting 

and banding birds at Rocky Point, then fitting 

them with geo-locators. “We were handling 

a fox sparrow that had come back for the 

fifth consecutive year,” she explains. She 

loves the idea of a bird so tied to its roots and 

home that it could pass through the same 10- 

metre spot every fall. “Learning the birds, 

even a little bit, really improves observational 

skills, [provides] a feeling of connection and 

the changing of the seasons. It’s addictive,” 

she admits. 

Others have felt the same. Joan “JoAnn” 

Outerbridge’s estate supplied the RPBO with 

a five-year grant to continue banding and 

monitoring work. Nightingale and other 

volunteers lead monthly birding walks at 

Outerbridge Park in Saanich. Still, says 

Nightingale, the society is hard pressed to 


NIGHTINGALE, who ignores the occasional insinuation that as a women 

she is unfit for the stresses of a “Big Year,” wants to be a role model for 

other women who have an interest in the natural world. 

A long-eared owl, the 266th species 

Nightingale sighted on her year-long quest 

find enough funding for their research. “We 

have some amazing resources, and [the public] 

can visit Pedder Bay, Swan Lake and Goldstream 

with us. But I would like to see some professional 

fundraisers donate their skills to help 

RPBO achieve its goals.” Though Nightingale 

isn’t a formal fundraiser for RPBO or VNHS, 

she donates all speaking fees she receives. 

Nightingale is happy to have support from 

a female donor’s legacy; her interactions with 

the male world of birding haven’t always 

been as positive. “I’m trying to make this 

normal for a woman to do,” she says. 

Birding has a history entwined with more 

than a passion for simple perception. James 

Audubon shot and killed every bird he painted, 

and bird-watching’s roots in hunting, of 

which the modern variation would be “listing,” 

has lured mostly men. Nightingale, who 

ignores the occasional insinuation that as a 

women she is unfit for the stresses of a “Big 

Year,” wants to be a role model for other 

women who have an interest in the natural 

world. “It’s like going into a hunting community,” 

she tells me, “but I go out to enjoy the 

day. I haven’t been driven by the numbers 

as much.” 

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALAN AND ELAINE WILSON 

Still, the lure of a long-eared owl or a whitewinged 

crossbill can take her far out of many 

people’s comfort zones. Returning from Winter 

Harbour, her van struck a rough patch in the 

logging road and tore the underbody. She 

jacked the vehicle up, alone, and cut off the 

hanging pipes before continuing home. 

By December 31, after a month of rain and 

terrific wind storms, Nightingale had seen 

268 species of songbirds, waterfowl and 

raptors, including more than a few rarities. 

This number sets a new record for Vancouver 

Island, and she recognizes that she’s become 

one of the top birders on the island. 

So do her cohorts. This spring, nominated 

by the RPBO board, she will receive a Governor 

General’s Caring Canadian Award for her 

volunteer work. 

“One of my life regrets as an adult was that 

I had never learned the names of the birds 

and the constellations,” Nightingale tells me 

during our meeting in a crowded Tim Horton’s, 

where she meets with birders or waits for 

calls of sightings. 

Her words make me remember an old 

Madeleine L’Engle children’s book I loved, 

in which a wise creature says to the protagonist: 

You don’t have to know how many 

stars there are; you just have to know them 

by name. Nightingale’s quest, though its roots 

may lie in the colonial past, echoes this sentiment. 

Out in the weather of Balaclava Island, 

near Port Hardy, amidst the frosts of Sooke, 

or telling me about a Black-throated sparrow 

sighting while we sip coffee, her passion 

centres around the journey and the names 

more than the final numbers. 

Ann Nightingale often leads the Rocky 

Point Observatory Bird Tours on the second 

Sunday of each month, 9 am, at Outerbridge 

Park in Saanich. Everyone is welcome. See 

www.rpbo.org 

Maleea Acker is the author 

of Gardens Aflame: Garry Oak 

Meadows of BC’s South Coast 

(New Star, 2012). She is 

currently completing a PhD 

in Human Geography, focusing 

on the intersections between 

the social sciences and poetry. 

Outerbridge Park 

Monthly Bird Walks 

House finches 

Female (l) and male 

Rocky Point Bird Observatory hosts monthly 

bird walks at Saanich’s Outerbridge Park 

on the 2nd Sunday of each month at 9 am. 

Novice and experienced birders are all 

welcome. Meet at the parking lot off Royal 

Oak Drive (near Blenkinsop Rd). 

You can find more 

information at: 

www.rpbo.org 

This notice made possible by Marlene Russo, lawyer and mediator 

Gail K. Perkins Inc. 

Ruby Gail Alicia 

“When personal service and affordable value 

are your expectations” 

Please visit our website at 

www.gkperkins.ca 

for more information about our services: 

• Bookkeeping 

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Victoria, BC, V8X 1X2 

250-590-3991 • gail@gkperkins.ca 

Image courtesy of Alan and Elaine Wilson 

Photo by Gary Utley 


45

finding balance 

Snuggle up with koselighet 

TRUDY DUIVENVOORDEN MITIC 

The yarn that keeps us knitted together, especially through winter. 

On a recent moonless night 

when the wind was once 

again mitt-slapping rain 

against the house, I was curled 

up on the couch with an article 

about life in Norway’s far north. 

Winter hits cold and hard in these 

small tundra towns: Even the sun 

shrinks away to just a thin, indifferent 

glimmer on the horizon. 

You’d think the people who live 

here would be more prone to 

seasonal depression, but that 

doesn’t seem to be the case. 

“Why would we be?” they ask 

quizzically, explaining that the 

close-knit nature of their communities 

and love for the outdoors 

keep them well buoyed through 

the long winters. Norwegians, it 

turns out, believe there’s no such 

thing as bad weather, only bad 

clothing choices. And they fully 

embrace the notion of koselighet, 

a word the author then tries and 

fails to define in English. 

I straighten up. I recognize that 

word. I know it in Dutch: gezelligheid, 

a term that also evades 

translation but is the essence of 

social interaction, intimate settings 

and personal serenity. Think of love, camaraderie, contentment, 

comfort and joy all rolled up into one abstract word. Think of that 

shivery-cozy feeling that comes when the moment is perfect and wellbeing 

overflows. 

For years my siblings and I have been searching for that one English 

word that can explain this hallowed notion to family newcomers— 

you know, those nice boys and girls who eventually become husbands 

and wives. But we failed of course, so they all had to plunge in and 

grasp it holistically, as did the children who followed. Now they all 

love gezelligheid too. 

In Norway, koselighet is the yarn that keeps northern communities 

knitted together, especially through winter. A companionable 

evening that involves candles, fine music, a crackling fire, a glass of 

wine and simple good food certainly invokes the inner warmth of 

koselighet. So do fuzzy socks and lap blankets, mugs of hot chocolate 

or cider after coming in from the cold, and feet up on the coffee 

table. Offering slippers to your guests is very koselig. Fussing and 

stressing over any of this is decidedly not. You see the pattern. 

Thankfully our winter is not nearly as long and cold as it is in the 

north, but that’s not to suggest we don’t have our own challenges. 

There’s the incessant rain that ironically tends to keep us more house 

ILLUSTRATION: APRIL CAVERHILL 

bound than a snowy landscape 

would. The protracted parade of 

dimly lit days that fade early into 

darkness certainly wears on the 

mood as well. But never mind: 

koselighet/gezelligheid can be our 

tonic too. 

Friends gathering over a big pot 

of chili, a stack of great novels, 

and your best-loved scarf all have 

the kernel of koselig. A walk along 

the ocean or up Mount Work with 

your pal and a backpack carrying 

tea for two—mmm, so gezellig. 

Glowing candles and strings of 

warm lights, whether for welcoming 

friends or enjoying contented alone 

time, are definitely koselig. So is 

a favourite mug in your hands, a 

group walk in the rain wearing 

proper gear, and the return back 

home to warmth and dryness. 

Gratitude for shelter is steeped in 

gezelligheid. Complaining about 

the weather is not. 

My Dutch-Canadian dictionary’s 

attempt to translate gezellig comes 

up with “snugness.” Snugness is 

a very good winter word. We snug 

up our homes with light and heat, 

and feel snug in our beds with extra 

blankets on top. Before heading outdoors we snug up our scarves and 

boot laces and the drawstrings on winter jackets. We meet for 

lunch and subconsciously all lean in a little closer. We snuggle with 

children over a bedtime storybook, which somehow feels far more 

gezellig in winter than in summer. 

Dream of spring if you must, to get through these last weeks, but 

also see winter in its proper light. Note the softer hues of the landscape, 

the splendour of the moon (and it has been grand these past 

few months) and the serenity of life slowed down just a notch. Winter 

can be a beautiful thing. 

It’s not too late to start embracing mindful koselighet. The Norwegians 

would suggest candles and slippers after skating with friends. The 

Dutch would propose that it all begins with coffee. Clearly there is a 

whole other way to do winter. 

Trudy has always been a winter person. Slippers, 

long underwear and hot apple cider are a few of her 

favourite things. 


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