Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Quadra Singers first in-person concert since the beginning of the pandemic was at the Quadra Community Centre on December 10th and 11th.

“We had almost sold out concerts, both nights. Our tickets went on sale and in Quathiaski Cove’s ‘Inspirations.’ We had pretty well sold out both nights,” said Valerie van Veen.

The theme was Christmas, but the choir’s interim conductor, Dr John Hooper, had a surprise for the audience.

Prior to his retirement, Dr. Hooper Director of the School of Music at the Concordia University of Edmonton. Based in Courtenay, he is currently the Music Director for Island Voices – an auditioned chamber choir with singers from throughout an area stretching from Denman to Quadra Islands, as well as Vancouver Island. Hooper is an accomplished musician, composer and wrote a piece of music called ‘the COVID Corona Caras.’

“it is wonderful piece of music about about about COVID and really a lot of fun to sing, but he expressed a little bit of concern that maybe some people wouldn't find it appropriate to sing about COVID,” explained van Vleen.

The performance seemed to end with ‘Deck the Halls.” Only, as the audience prepared to go home, they noticed the choir was not moving. People realized something else was coming. Then a soprano started singing the Gaelic blessing.

“The choir had trouble getting through it, because there were a few tears. It is such an exquisite piece of music and so sensitive,” said van Vleen.

This was followed by the COVID Corona Caras.

Dr Hooper warned the choir the audience would react one of three ways and the most profound reaction will be that they will be stunned.

That was happened both nights: “We had dead silence and it was so sober and mourning that, all that beautiful music to be capped by that beautiful blessing was rewarded with that emotional reaction.”

Van Vleen said the choir subsequently received a number of emails, thanking them for the amazing experience.

The Quadra Singers is a non-auditioned choir, open to anyone from the age 16 and up who wishes to join. They have been presenting two concerts every year for about 30 years.

Photo credit: Robin Beaton on Flute at the Dec 10/11 concerts - Photo courtesy Valerie van Vleen

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - In the fourth of a series about real youth, Mark Vonesch explains how youth to pick the issues that are shaping their future.

“One of the things that I love about working with young people, especially when they're talking about issues, that they care about, the changes they want to see in the world, young people are impatient. They don't easily take no for an answer. They're not afraid of speaking up,” he explained. “When we asked them what issues you care about, what are the changes you want to see happen in the world? It gives me a lot of hope because a lot of the issues that our world's facing today, climate change and food security and housing. Those are things that young people want dealt with and they want solutions to these problems now. So it's a powerful thing for me to like see youth step up as leaders and speak up about issues they care about.”

In 2019, the Cortes Community Health Association and Island Health sponsored three films that were made at Linnaea farm.

The youth chose three issues.

In ‘Plastic Kills,’ a ‘plastic monster’ slowly killed off the film group, as a metaphor for the way that plastic is polluting the world and being dumped into the oceans.

‘Free Bike’ is about a young kid who sees a nice bike at the free store, says ‘wow, what a good find’ and then pedals off. Only it turns out the bike belonged to a customer, who then chases after him.

In ‘Get Outside’ a group of Cortes Island teens recognize the power and importance of being connected to nature, for people’s wellbeing.

Vonesch says the magic happens when you find the issues youth are genuinely passionate about and help them create a video that will make people think about it.

One of the issues that he’s heard them talk a lot about is the housing crisis.

Vonesch said he hears youth asking, “Are they gonna be able to afford to buy a place when they're 20?”

Some people think youth are apathetic, they don’t care what’s going on in the world around them.

“My experience is that they actually do understand pretty deeply the most pressing issue issues that we face and they've got solutions,” said Vonesch.

Photo of young filmmakers courtesy Reel Youth

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A CityWest construction crew will be on Cortes Island for the first four to six months of 2022, to hook individual homes for high-speed Internet.

“Now that we've been issued a permit from the ministry of transport (MOTI), we have a green light to proceed with the provincial government's mandate of connecting Cortes Islanders under the ERI grant program,” said Eric Geall, Operations Manager for West Connect Infrastructure (WCI).

He said Cortesians should receive high speed internet sometime between next summer and the end of 2023. There are too many variables to be more specific.

Geall’s 18-person-WCI-crew is currently working in Haida Gwaii, but expect to finish on January 4th and arrive on Cortes on the 6th or 7th.

As they are bringing some fairly large pieces of equipment and do not want to disrupt traffic or ‘take over two ferries at once,’ they will stagger that mobilization.

They will be staying at the Cortes Island Motel and other local accommodation.

Most Cortes residents have filled out the online forms, or been engaged in one way or the other, thanks to CityWest Regional Manager Dino Tsakonas.

Taskonas will continue to be the local contact.

Geall explained, “We'll be working with individual landowners on an individual basis to make sure that the installs are performed timely and efficiently and leave everything looking nice at the end of the day.”

They will also employ a number of local subcontractors. (Geall could not say who, as the contracts have not yet been awarded, but described the applicants as ‘eager.’)

Work will start at the Klahoose First Nation village, where the crew will install a seven millimetre conduit into every single home. After that they will proceed to what is left of the Klahoose plant, Squirrel Cove and Seaford.

“We will at that point be inspected by MOTI,” said Geall. “MOTI has everything lined up to issue the Whaletown and Manson's permits once there's a comfort level between our construction crew, and how they leave the roads post construction.”

Geall asks that people follow directions as they drive through construction areas, as his crew will literally be working on the shoulder.

“Just slow down, give a wave, know what's going on there, big orange reels and we'll try and get in and out of there as quickly and federally as possible,” he said.

After they have finished, the crew will probably move on to Denman and Hornby Islands.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District Board is writing Premier Horgan, to protest the government’s new ‘reactive,’ and ‘emotionally driven’ forestry policies.

This letter appears to have largely been composed by Campbell River Director Charlie Cornfield, with some additions by SRD Chair Brad Unger.

If the authors had stuck to the idea that local government should be involved in the process, or taken a less confrontational approach, this letter would have received more support.

Instead, the decision to send it carried by a 7 to 6 vote.

Photo credit: cropped image taken from YouTube Video of meetings showing (top to bottom) Regional Director Brenda Leigh; Mayor Martin Davis ; Regional Director Noba Anderson's screen with her 'hand' raised.

Allen Perkins/Nuevo Malibu - The new Narrator reports to the TURDIS -- the time-traveling Port-a-Potty -- to discover that earthling crew members Clell Landis and Doctor Shay Watt? have been

imprisoned by (fanfare) The Grand Galloping Goof in a Google Pixel phone. The Goof insists that Mack the hologram take the TURDIS back to 1943 to witness the dawn of the psychedelic era.

At the Sandoz labs in Switzerland, Mack, Narrator and the Goof

watch chemist Albert Hofmann ingest a whopping dose of LSD, then follow him home on his legendary bicycle ride. Thanks to the Internal Monologue Contrivance devised by Mack, we are able to hear Hofmann's inner trip. Summoned to Hofmann's house, the chemist's doctor assures the panicked Hofmann that he's fine except for incredibly dilated pupils. Hofmann settles down and enjoys the trip. The Goof then insists on going to California in 1970 to observe the jailbreak of acid guru Timothy Leary.

Disguised as an actual Port-a-Potty on the roof of a prison, the crew watches Leary attempt to shimmy to freedom on a telephone wire. When the Goof insists on getting closer to the action, he knocks Leary off the wire onto a guard below. Mack has to reset the TURDIS to make things right. Finally satisfied, the Goof releases Doctor Watt? and Landis. Mack and Narrator journey to San Juan Capristrano to fetch them.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - In the twelve years since it was founded, the Quadra Island Cat Rescue has helped more than 1200 cats and kittens.

“We've helped them in many ways. First of all we try and find homes for as many cats and kittens that come into our care as possible. Of course, our mandate is to spay and neuter every cat that comes into our possession,” explained Valerie van Vleen. “That's why we're a charity and we're always raising funds to fund that.”

They also help out Quadra residents who cannot afford to spay or neuter their pet.

When there is an abundance of kittens, they drive them down to a trusted adoption agency in Victoria “where we know they're going to be properly, cared for spayed, neutered, and properly adopted.”

In addition, Quadra Island Cat Rescue maintains about five feral colonies on the island.

“All of those cats have been trapped and they spayed or neutered so that they are not hopefully reproducing anymore,” said Van Vleen. “So they will just live out their lives in the wild.”

She traced the origins of Quadra’s feral cats back to the wave of Europeans that started arriving in the 1880s.

“We began as a mining and fishing and lumber community, long before Campbell River existed, by the way,” she said. “All those camps usually had their barn cat or their logging camp cat to keep the mouse and rat population down.”

A former Granite Bay resident is said to have had close to a hundred feral cats.

There were a lot of cats running around the island in 2009, when Janet Massey put an add in the paper to see if anyone else was interested in trying to help these cats.

Van Vleen was one of the core of volunteers who responded.

“There's a small core of us who who had been working ever since to try and alleviate the cat problem on Quadra, “she explained.

They do not have a shelter and focus on finding people who will look after the cats.

There are many ways that a Quadra Island resident can out (or even someone from Read or Cortes Islands):

Both of Quadra Island’s True Value stores offer Spirit Points to customers. These are donations to specific causes and the Quadra Island Cat Rescues number is 280.

On a similar vein, Canadian Tire reward points can be turned into gift cards for Quadra Island Cat Rescue

Any unopened cat food can be donated to Quadra Island Cat Rescue.

If somebody wants to know where to donate, in cash or kind, they could phone our cat line 250-285-CATS (250-285-3387).

“Anybody who would be interested in looking after a cat or kitten for a period of time, or maybe even finding out whether this is the cat or kitten that they want to give a forever home to, then we have fostering and of course adopting. We are very careful about adopting out our cats. We want to make sure that, of course they are going to be treated well, and that they will be continually cared for. So we have an adoption form that is on our website at Quadra.com that can be completed. And then once that is completed, then we can begin a process of trying to make a match for a forever home,” said Van Vleen.

“We are a registered charity. Please email if you wish to make a direct donation, email, [email protected] to find out more about making a direct donation.

Links to Quadra Cat Rescue

 www.quadracats.com 

·       email [email protected]

·       Quadra Cat Rescue Facebook page

·       call 250-285-CATS (2287)

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Cortes Currents - Learn more about Windows!!!! the first art journal published by the Dark Island Arts Collective when Juliann Nelson and Beatrix Baxter join host Manda Aufochs Gillespie this Friday at 1 p.m. on CKTZ 89.5FM or livestream on cortesradio.ca.

Windows features over 30 local contributors shared photography, paintings, sculpture, carvings, poetry, creative writing, and deep thinking to create this 76-page, brilliantly coloured volume. It is an exploration into loneliness and isolation; a meditation on art practice and meaning-making; it is a peek into the creative lives and intimate feelings of your neighbours and friends.

come listen in to excerpts, the story behind the creation, and how art is essential in these times.

Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 and Mondays at 6:30 @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.

Call Friday to 250-935-0200 with your questions or send in advance to [email protected].

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) has no authority over TELUS’ proposed 63 metre high cell tower site in Mansons Landing.

This is in the former Paukeanum Indian Reserve No. 3, which has been governed by the Tla’amin First Nation ever since the Tla’amin Final Agreement with the governments of BC and went into effect on April 5, 2016.

Cortes Island Regional Director Noba Anderson confirmed “The Regional District doesn't have any land use authority here, and therefore is not going to be involved in any way. As your elected representative to the regional district, I really don't have a voice here either. The Federal government does not approve siting of these towers. There is sort of an arbitration process if everything else fails, but if the Tla'amin Nation, chief and council would like the tower erected on their lands, then that's really between them and TELUS.”

This matter was discussed at the December 8th meeting of the SRD Board, where CAO David Leitch informed the board that TELUS is locating towers on many First Nations lands throughout BC and Canada.

“If it is on First Nations land, you have no authority,” he said.

As no one lives within 190 metres of the proposed site, which is three times greater than the height of the tower, TELUS will not send out written notices.

On December 1, TELUS placed a notice of their intention in the Birds Eye, which serves Quadra Island.

Anyone with concerns was invited to contact Brian Gregg of SitePath Consulting by email or surface mail, prior to January 31, 2022.

Anderson added, “Comments really need to be written to both Telus and Tla’amin."

Late last Spring, Gregg emailed Cortes Currents that TELUS is responding to longstanding requests for enhanced connectivity:

“This is important not only for convenience but also for public safety since the majority of calls to emergency service responders are now placed via wireless devices. Sadly, we have been advised that a number of community members on the Discovery Islands have died or been hurt in recent years and they were unable to call for help. Wireless service can help with this safety issue.”

He also said that 5G is the current evolution on wireless networks around the globe, but in a rural area like Cortes will be similar to 4G/LTE in many respects.

“In every case, TELUS' installations will comply with Health Canada's Safety Code 6,” wrote Greg.

Photo credit: Apple iPhone SE 2020 by Aaron Yoo via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - Fairy Creek Update with Kathy Code

Photo from Fairy Creek Blockade Facebook page

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - (Episode 5) the takeaway: what our interviewees brought home with them

Photo from Fairy Creek Blockade Facebook Page