Stanley Q Woodvine wanted to bring back a lost tradition to the recycling depot he uses – Free Hot Dog Day. First though, he needed to find a Barbecue. Woodvine has been without a home since 2004. He maintains a blog and has a sizable twitter following, and for a number of years excerpts from […]

Joseph Kakwinokanasum is a Cree-Austrian storyteller and writer from the James Smith Cree Reserve.  He also goes by the moniker Starblanket Storyteller. Kakwinokanasum is preparing for the release of his first novel, My Indian Summer, which comes out later this September. It’s a journey decades in the making. The Starblanket Storyteller spoke to People First […]

When talking about housing affordability, a lot of conversations centre on the issue of supply. Yushu Zhu of Simon Fraser University thinks that we need to focus on How we build housing, rather than just how much housing we build. Zhu argues that the way we analyze dwellings can be too focused on economics, and […]

Scientists often use animals to help us learn about ourselves. One important thing to keep in mind when studying lab rats, is, well the fact that they’re in a lab – and not their natural environment. What’s the impact of that? Kelly Lambert is a professor of Behavioural neuroscience at the University of Richmond, and […]

M-J Milloy is a research scientist at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use and an epidemiologist by training. He was part of a team that did research into how and whether drug users avoided harm reduction measures during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The researchers compared results across a number of North […]

Excerpts from Nanaimo’s event to mark International Overdose Awareness Day, held in Maffeo Sutton Park August 31 2022. Speakers include Sarah Lovegrove, MP Lisa Marie Barron, MLA Sheila Malcolmson, Lenae Silva, and Aimee Chalifoux.

After 25 years at the negotiating table, the Wei Wai Kum First Nation and the province of British Columbia have reached an incremental agreement to transfer more than 2200 hectares of territorial land to Wei Wai Kum. The land is west of Campbell River, and the provincial government calls the agreement an early benefit as […]

The mental health of psychologists has long been a taboo topic according to a group of researchers including Stephen Lewis, a professor at the University of Guelph. Lewis was part of a team that recently published a study into the mental health of more than two thousand psychology faculty and graduate students. The study found […]

In a community where most of the land is privately owned, how can people ensure the ecosystem is preserved for future generations? That’s the question facing the Gabriola Land and Trails Trust. Their answer is to take a community oriented approach to protecting the natural landscape. The land trust’s Nature Stewards program is asking folks […]

Community safety programs are sprouting  in many cities and towns across Canada. In Winnipeg’s Osborne Village, the SABE Peace Walkers look to take an indigenous led, relationship based de-escalation approach to provide incidental support and safe walks to the community. All of the SABE Peace Walkers are provincially licensed in security, and trained in crisis […]