Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - The Campbell River RCMP may have gunned down an innocent man when they killed Jared Lowndes on July 8, 2021.

A really old warrant, from a case already resolved

The Independent Investigation Office informed Cortes Currents they could not discuss the warrant RCMP were attempting to enforce, when they killed Lowndes.

The National Police Federation said they were pursuing him for an outstanding warrant for weapons offences.

“The warrant was really old, an outstanding warrant for his DNA, and he was standing on sovereignty, saying they had no right to it,” explained Fay Blaney, the great aunt of Lowndes daughters Phoenix and Patience.

She is also a close friend of Lowndes mother, Laura Hamilton, and has agreed to be the family spokesperson

Blaney added that the case requiring Lowndes DNA had been dismissed. It arose out of a domestic dispute with his common-law wife. She planted a gun in his possessions and called the police. There was no need for his DNA after Lowndes’ common-law wife confessed. He was acquitted.

So why did he run?

“He’s Indigenous. He was by himself and knew what they would do. I mean, they did what he thought they would do,” said Blaney.

More in podcast

Photo credit: the street-side shrine to Jared Lowndes in Campbell River - photo courtesy friends of the Lowndes family

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - Chief Kevin Peacey of the Klahoose First Nation presents Klahoose Success and Strong Leadership and answers neighbours questions. Then Colin Funk gives a brief update on the Cortes Economic Development Association and Carrie Saxifrage gives an update on the Community Forest. This was part of the Making it on Cortes forum, providing resources and a network for neighbours making a life and a livelihood on Cortes.

Anastasia Avvakumovah/ CKTZ News - There are currently four confirmed active cases of COVID-19 on North Vancouver Island, at least three of them situated in the Greater Campbell River region.

British Columbia government’s news channels reported a total of 29 cases in the Vancouver Island Health Authority by the afternoon of Thursday July 15. Of these, one is known to be in critical care and two are hospitalized; others are recovering in self-isolation.

In an effort to track the COVID-19 variants of concern (VoC), which are responsible for a large proportion of new infections across the province, the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) states that, “B.C. has transitioned to whole-genome sequencing on all positive cases to provide gold-standard analysis to detect variants of concern and fingerprint details to support outbreak responses.” Approximately 14% of the positive cases in BC are of the Delta variant, which originated in India and has become a predominant and fast-spreading variant of the virus in several countries, including the UK. However, Alpha and Gamma variants continue to account for the largest numbers of cases in BC, at 25% and 40% of sequenced positive specimens, respectively.

The government is also monitoring what is called “vaccine breakthrough cases.” These are cases of COVID-19 infection in people who have been fully vaccinated. Some of these individuals may also have asymptomatic infections. Yet the above-mentioned Delta variant has been shown to cause cold-like symptoms such as a headache and runny nose even in some individuals who have received both doses of the vaccine. Research is ongoing.

As of July 15, “79.4% (3,681,088 3.7 mill) of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 48.6% (2,253,818) 2.3 mill received their second dose.” The numbers for immunizations in eligible British Columbia adults is 80.5% and 51.9% for their first and second dose, respectively.

In a summary released on July 2, the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) was reporting optimistically that “case rates are low and continue to decline in all health authorities, now approaching levels last observed in August 2020; test positivity continues to decline, ~1% provincially.”

Cumulative cases for Greater Campbell River for the period of January 2020 to June 2021 were officially reported as 199; the three new infections added in July so far put the total-to-date at 202. Within the Vancouver Island Health Authority, the total-to-date of all reported cases of COVID-19 is 5,184 with a recovery rate of 98.8%.

Photo credit: Local Health Area map of COVID 19 cases during the epi-week ending on Saturday July 10, 2021. Cases remain active for 14 days - map courtesy BC Centre for Disease Control

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News -There are many questions surrounding the death of Jared Lowndes, a 38-year-old indigenous man, at the hands of the Campbell River RCMP.

“Our investigation will determine what actually happened. Just because it is on social doesn’t mean it is, or isn’t, factual. We’ll do our best to determine what happened and if appropriate, before we complete our investigation, we will consider releasing some facts,” said Ron MacDonald, Chief Civilian Director of the Independent Investigations Office (IIO).

What the RCMP & IIO said

According to the RCMP press release:

“Just before 9 a.m. on July 8th, a member from the Campbell River RCMP attempted to stop a vehicle in relation to an outstanding warrant. It is reported that the vehicle failed to stop and fled the area. The member notified dispatch and its description was provided to other police officers in the area.”

“A short time later the suspect vehicle was located in a parking lot in the 2000 block of the South Island Highway in Campbell River. A police officer boxed in the vehicle and then a confrontation occurred between the suspect and the police officer, who had a Police Service Dog. During the interaction the Police Service Dog was stabbed and killed, and the suspect was shot and was pronounced deceased on scene. The Police Dog Handler was also treated for a knife wound. No other persons were injured.”

– BC RCMP notify the IIO BC of a fatal incident in Campbell River

Local media added a couple of other details

Lowndres was allegedly shot six times, three of which were in his face.

He had a puppy in his car, and may have been protecting it when the police dog jumped through his window.

That last scenario is at least partially true, for shortly before his death Lowndres wrote, “My daughter, dog and I are now broke, and homeless, left to wander until our car breaks down.”

Unfortunately McDonald could not confirm any of these facts because the investigation is still ongoing, there were still witnesses to be interviewed, and his department did not want to influence their testimony.

He did say there were “several officers in the area” when the shooting occurred.

Anastasia Avvakumova/ CKTZ News - The lagoon at Manson’s Landing is yet another location on Cortes, which experienced alarming rates of marine creature die-off in the wake of the recent heat wave — the sand dollar population being hit the hardest, with losses as high as 95 per cent.

“My guts tell me, everything I see tells me that climate change is hitting us, and it's just going to speed up. We're going to see more of these events, I am sure of it. And it is going to change things -- it already is.”

Deb Cowper is a local marine biologist who led the Manson’s Lagoon Gumboot Walk for the third year in a row this past Saturday, July 11. She described the extensive devastation she witnessed, as compared to conditions just two and a half weeks earlier on June 23, when she led another outing at the lagoon for a group of students from the Cortes Island School.

“Intertidal critters are some of the toughest beasties going, they have to cope with drying out on a regular basis, they have to deal with lots of temperature changes and … salinity changes, as well as all of us trampling and bringing our boats and so on. So they are a really tough group of critters anyway. But when we were experiencing those extreme temperatures, it wasn't really surprising that we were going to exceed their threshold, their comfort zone.”

Cowper reported that “one of the most striking differences was in the sand dollar beds.” On June 23rd, she had noticed a much higher concentration of them than in previous years. Yet sadly on July 11, there were few healthy living specimens left.

In her 20 years of studying local intertidal pools, Cowper has never seen anything like this. “Climate change is ... a reality, and it's a crisis.” In her opinion, hope for the future lies in pressuring the government to take action. “It's time you stepped up, and we actually made a difference in Canada and lead the way in the world.”

Photo credit: Sand dollar Photo by Jake Beman on Unsplash

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Campbell River may be erecting billboards for only two of its three pillar industries: aquaculture and forestry – but not tourism.

With fish farms being phased out in the Discovery Islands by 2022 and the provincial government moving to curtail old growth logging, city counsil felt a need to show its support for these two sectors.

At their June 14th meeting, City Council decided to erect three 8×16 foot billboards, promoting all all three sectors at the Southern entrances to the city.

In response, the Tourism Advisory Committee (TAC) wrote:

“While we may all realize that forestry and aquaculture are important components of our economy, unfortunately, many visitors do not support these industries. Signs at the borders of our city, expressing love toward logging and fish farming will likely alienate many visitors with opposing views and could do significant damage to our reputation as a tourism destination. Conversely, these signs would do little to benefit forestry and aquaculture since they would only be viewed by locals and tourists. If Council’s intention is to fight for these important local industries, then the message should be directed toward decision makers in Victoria and Ottawa, not toward visitors to Campbell River.”

At their July 12 meeting, council decided to move ahead with billboards supporting forestry and aquaculture.

When he made the motion, Mayor Adams said the tourism committee has the the option of opting in, but the city should proceed anyway.

There was only one dissenting vote, Director Claire Moglove wanted to see if there was messaging that all three sectors could agree on.

Mayor Adams was expressing the majority view, when he said he did not want the debate to drag on any longer.

Photo Credit: 2019 Annual Report, City of Campbell River

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Using interviews, video footage and written accounts, CKTZ News has drawn up a Fairy Creek chronology.

“We don’t have a lot of old growth to lose. We’re down to about 2% of our productive old growth, of what we once had. Vancouver was once covered in trees that had the girth of a good third of my house. Those forests are gone. We’re now down to forests with large trees and forests with very large trees,” Rainforest Flying Squad spokesperson Carol Tootle told CKTZ News.

She and about 30 activists from Victoria assembled at Fairy Creek on August 9th, 2020, after hearing it was the last intact watershed on Vancouver Island.

They informed the Pacheedaht First Nation before throwing up the first logging blockade.

“It’s about stopping the logging in the tree farm license that Teal Jones owns and is licensed to log that area. They are currently taking legal action to stop us from protecting the old growth that they want to destroy,” explained Pacheedaht Elder Bill Jones, in a video.

He spoke of the ancient forests like Fairy Creek as holy places, where his people used to go for prayer and meditation.

The day that video was released, Teal Jones obtained an injunction requiring the protestors to step aside at Fairy Creek.

On April 12th, 2021 alleged Hereditary Chief Frank Queesto Jones and Chief Coun. Jeff Jones of the Pacheedaht First Nation issued a joint press release asking the protesters to leave.

“We do not welcome or support unsolicited involvement or interference by others in our territory, including third-party activism. Pacheedaht needs to be left in peace to engage in our community-led stewardship planning process, so that we can determine our own way forward as a strong and independent Nation.”

The Hereditary Chief’s involvement was significant, as the Chief Counsellor’s legal authority is limited to the reserve.

Elder Jones responded, “Frank Jones claiming himself as a heredity chief is false. He is not eligible to make the claim for the Jones family line, and is not informed by the hereditary system amongst our peoples. In fact, the Jones family is not originally from the territory, and have no chief rights to the San Juan valley.”

He said the Peter(s) family are the governing authority responsible for this valley and 18-year-old Victor Peter, who wants to preserve the forests, is the Hereditary Chief of the Pacheedaht Nation.”

Peter confirmed this.

On May 18th, the RCMP moved in to enforce the injunction. In what would soon become an almost daily routine, they arrested five protesters.

There is more in the podcast.

Roy L hales/ CKTZ News - Marine tourism operator Mike Moore is one of the most recent of what appears to be a steady stream of Cortes Island residents visiting Fairy Creek and the logging blockades.

He stopped there on July 4th, during a cruise around Vancouver Island.

Moore has not sailed on the west coast of the island since he left the Coast Guard, 25 years ago. He was shocked by the amount of clear cutting that has been carried out. There were no longer any deep green valleys until his boat passed the Broken Islands Group.

He proceeded to identify stands where logging protests are occurring, “Oh, that must be the Walbran, that must be the Carmanagh, then back to cutting everywhere. It was really educational to see that contrast. It really lends poignancy to why Fairy Creek and those old growth trees need to be protected, because there is so little of it left.”

In Duncan, Moore caught the ‘Community Action Bus’ to Fairy Creek.

After they reached Cowichan Lake, a truck flying ‘Forests feed our families” flags pulled out in front of this bus and slowed down to 30 kph. A ‘cat and mouse game’ ensued. The truck would immediately move to the centre of the road whenever the bus, or any of the other vehicles in the growing line-up of vehicles behind it, attempted to pass. So the bus periodically pulled over to let the rest of the traffic through. The truck waited, then resumed its intimidation tactics when the bus started driving again.

Moore was told this was the first time this had occurred.

“In those situations, it can be very difficult to remain calm and relaxed, and our bus driver did a very good job of that,” he observed.

They skipped a scheduled stop at a giant Sitka Spruce and so arrived at Fairy Creek ‘only a tiny bit late.’

(A Quadra Island resident was also on the bus, and CKTZ News received independent verification of the ‘cat and mouse’ episode.)

Moore was impressed by the size and orderliness of the camp. He walked 7 kilometres up a logging road to a place called Rivercamp and was told the protests and interactions with the police were taking place another 7 kilometres beyond that.

As a result of the wildfire danger during this hot, dry weather, the main camp moved into a gravel pit. No drugs, alcohol or fires are allowed.

Visitors are met by a welcoming committee, which explains the mission of the blockade. This is not just to save the old first growth cedars up high on the ridges.

“The blockade is about all first growth forest in BC needing to be saved for its genetic diversity, capacity to house ecosystems and sequester carbon. we’ve been at it a long time, we shouldn’t be cutting the principle in the bank account of forest reserve. We should be cutting the interest, the second growth and what we have reinvested into the forestry. It is time to stop first growth forestry,” Moore explained.

There is a First Nations presence at Fairy Creek. He observed cleansing ceremonies and Indigenous people talking about colonialism and their history.

Prior to his visit. Moore was concerned about reports that the Pacheedaht First Nation council and elected Chief did not want the protesters there.

He had also heard the hereditary Chief welcomed them.

This is Victor Peter, who many recognize as the Hereditary Chief of the Pacheedaht Nation.

Elder Bill Jones, who descends from this family and has become the protester’s spiritual leader, endorses Peter’s claim.

In a recent press release, he stated, “The Peter(s) family, as far as our oral history allows, has always been here. They are the governing authority and are responsible for this valley.”

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Join Host Manda Aufochs Gillespie and Howard Eaton in discussion about the Amazing, Neuroplastic Brain.

What if learning disabilities were not lifelong and cognitive degeneration avoidable?

Join neighbour Howard Eaton of the famed Eaton Arrowsmith school.

Eaton will share his lifetime of experience in the field of brain plasticity, including: proving learning disabilities don't have to be lifelong, and other research into learning disabilities from the school he founded: Eaton Arrowsmith at UBC; the connection between aerobic exercise and Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF); mindfulness and importance of developing attention for neuroplatic change; targeted cognitive challenges such as learning languages or novel skills such as chess that work on spatial awareness and reasoning; how the brain ages; recent studies using fMRI and cognitive assessments and large scale brain network studies; brain injuries and cognitive rehabilitation.

Photo credit: A human brain Photo by Rev314159 via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2,0 License)

Roy L Hales/ CKTZ News - Cortes and Quadra Islands will receive a significant chunk of the $394,000 FireSmart Economic Recovery Grant the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) just received.

Where the FireSmart funds are going

According to Shaun Koopman, SRD Protective Services Coordinator, “So for Cortes Island this is about $180,000 of wildfire risk reduction.”

This money will be used for renovations at:

the Linnaea Farm Education Centre and Gorge Hall, which serve as emergency support service facilities in the advent of an evacuation.

the Whaletown Fire Hall

In collaboration with the Cortes Forestry General Partnership, the grant will also fund a 4-hectare Wildfire Fuel Treatment on Cortes Island through activities such as pruning, thinning and removing ladder fuels to reduce both the amount and continuity of burnable vegetation.

About $60,000 is for renovations at Camp Homewood’s residential quarters and Quadra Island Bible Church - both of which are designated as evacuation centres, should the need arise.

Full community assessment reports are to be prepared for the Klahoose and We Wai Kai First Nations.

“We will be looking at all their critical infrastructure and community buildings, There is a template that you fill out for them and then submit that template to the province for further funding,” said Koopman.

The rest of the grant funding goes to the Villages of Gold River, Tahsis and Zeballos as well as Ehattesaht/Chinehkint, Ka:’yu:’k’t’h’/Che:k:tles7et’h’, and Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations.

>>> Building renovations on Cortes & Quadra

Koopman went on to describe the renovations that will be carried out at each Cortes and Quadra location.

Camp Homewood - replacing the cedar shake roof with a metal roof

Gorge Hall - fixing gaps on the building; putting up fireproof siding in the lower part of the building; installing multi-pane windows; putting a fire proof partition around the generator

Linnaea Farm Educational Building - replacing the wooden deck and stairs with a metal deck and stairs; installing a fireproof base along the structure of the building

Quadra Island Bible Church - closing in the sides of the building with fire resistant materials

Whaletown Fire Hall - removing some of the outbuildings and a mobile trailor

He said that the SRD has Memorandum of Understandings in place with each of these Cortes and Quadra non-profit owned facilities, to support Emergency Support Services during a disaster.

Koopman explained, ”For many years, these organizations have been incredible supporters of our regional emergency program through hosting training sessions and engaging in numerous emergency planning conversations. It feels great to be able to provide them with meaningful funding to decrease the wildfire vulnerability of their facilities.”

Photo: Renovations at Gorge Hall - Courtesy SRD