Two weeks after the NFL’s Super Bowl, The Circle Education is organizing the “other” Souper Bowl.
The Souper Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 25 is a fun, artsy and hearty fundraiser at the Salt Spring Wild Cider House Kitchen. This “football-less” event brings islanders together for a late lunch of soup and delicious sides while supporting The Circle Education’s Pass it On Boys program.
The Pass it on Boys participants will serve a vegetarian soup in unique handmade bowls — donated by Julie MacKinnon, owner of the Hey Julie School of Clay, and made by her friends and students — which you can take home after the event. Enjoy the soup, prepared and donated by the Salt Spring Wild Cider House Kitchen, with artisan bread from Francis Bread and soft cheeses from the Salt Spring Island Cheese Company.
All the proceeds of this fundraiser go to the Pass it On Boys program, an after-school cross-peer group mentorship program (Grades 8 to 12) that supports social/emotional well-being and healthy relationships by creating a trusted space for sharing, learning and practising important life skills.
Pass It On Boys is a unique offering that embraces an optimistic view of behaviour; helping boys and young men to develop goals, aspirations and a sense of self and agency based on what men need to become healthy, responsible and nurturing in their families and communities.
The Hey Julie School of Clay is a ceramics school on Salt Spring Island offering drop-in studio time, memberships and workshops for adults and children.
The Feb. 25 Souper Bowl event, with food, live music, door prizes and a unique ceramic bowl, runs from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tickets cost $60 per person and can be ordered through revenue-can.keela.co/souper-bowl or by sending an e-transfer to info@thecircleeducation.org.
In the past couple years there has been a lot of crowing on this island about the so-called “rooster wars,” with the majority of this community laughing at the issue and rolling their eyes.
Must be nice when the biggest problem you face is a couple roosters, right?
While calling something a silly name might make for an attention-grabbing headline, it also minimizes the seriousness of the situation and frames the people involved as insignificant.
This isn’t about the benefits of roosters — the pros and cons have been written about far and wide, both on this island as well as by agriculture and food security experts. The issue has evolved into a widespread one about what you can and cannot do with property you bought, according to the zoning laws governing that property. The issue should really be framed as “Should the CRD be allowed to strong-arm you, even though what you’re doing is legal?” Makes for a less catchy headline but it’s also something this community would likely understand and empathize with better.
The situation is frustrating all around. Rooster owners are frustrated that they bought property where farming is allowed, and confirmed this by checking with the Islands Trust prior to purchase. They’re frustrated that they’ve done everything in their power to minimize noise by spending thousands of dollars (and hours!) moving coops, soundproofing, switching noisier roosters for quieter ones, and it’s still not enough.
Their neighbours are frustrated because they feel their lives have been turned upside down by early morning rooster noises with no end in sight. They’ve made it their mission in life to get rid of those roosters, dedicating a significant amount of their time to recording rooster noises (at least 52 from one neighbour alone so far) and calling the CRD with noise complaints every chance they get.
And the CRD is frustrated because they’re being called repetitively to the same property over and over again with the same complaint. They want this issue to end, full stop, and no matter the cost. To make this happen they’ve issued ticket after ticket to some families, and have been bringing officers over from Victoria to deal with these complaints.
The frustration has leaked from a neighbourhood spat to the poultry community at large — with legal ramifications beyond Salt Spring that will impact small-scale farming and food security for decades to come.
Last year the CRD allowed a different Salt Spring farmer to dispute their rooster noise tickets. When the case was brought before the court, the judge threw out the tickets and warned the CRD to tread carefully as they were on a slippery slope of infringing on the farmers’ rights. The farming family at the centre of this current storm hasn’t been afforded the same due process. The CRD has instead served them and summoned them to court, without the option to dispute. The court case brings with it a scary outcome: upwards of $10,000 in fines as well as a precedent-setting abuse of power that could end small-scale farming across the Southern Gulf Islands, should your neighbour not like what you are doing.
In a phone call last week the bylaw officer said that, unless farms are on ALR (agricultural land reserve) land, they could be subject to noise complaints by neighbours and face fines. To put that into perspective, a quarter of all of Salt Spring Island’s farms are not on ALR land. That means that, if the CRD wins this case, they can strip 25 per cent of all farms of their ability to breed chickens in a self-sufficient manner, as well as greatly reduce their capacity to sell eggs, as roosters are a necessary tool to keep a flock healthy and protected.
To be clear, the neighbours are not suing this family over their roosters. This case is being brought against this farming family by the CRD. The CRD are acting like schoolyard bullies because they want this issue to go away, no matter the expense — and no one else is willing to get involved.
The CRD lawyers have instructed Local Community Commission members to not speak about this issue in any manner or take any action until the case is wrapped up in court. The Islands Trust has no jurisdiction over bylaws. At every turn the CRD has been silencing (quite literally in the case of the roosters involved!) the agricultural community on this island, leaving nowhere to turn and no course of action to take.
When someone buys a piece of land with the dream to farm, raise livestock and contribute to their community in a meaningful way — arguably the most meaningful way, by providing fresh, local, healthy food — they don’t do so lightly. Small-scale farming is not a short-term dream, and it’s certainly not a financially rewarding one. Many of the farms that will potentially be impacted, if not completely shuttered, by the outcome of this court case have been feeding this community for decades. Small-scale poultry farms have already been closing due to skyrocketing feed prices, avian flu and more. Not only do these farmers feed our local community, but tourists flock to the Southern Gulf Islands for farm tours, farm stands and locally produced food. Why would anyone interested in starting a small-scale poultry farm come to the Gulf Islands with this level of oppression by the CRD and muddy, contradicting bylaws?
At this point, the CRD has made it impossible for any action to be taken until the current case is concluded in court. Realizing the gravity of the situation should this case be won by the CRD, this farming family is desperately looking for legal counsel. They have been quoted a $25,000 retainer, which is far beyond their ability to afford.
If you would like to help this family in our farming community, a GoFundMe campaign, “Funds needed for legal defense of farmers rights,” has been created to help them pay for legal services, and any donation is appreciated more than you could know. A Change.org petition has also been started with almost 1,000 signatures; please consider signing “Protect Food Security in the Southern Gulf Islands — Stop the CRD crackdown on Roosters.” The Salt Spring Island Poultry Club is also helping with fundraising for this family and is donating $5,000 of their funds.
The above piece was written and submitted on behalf of the Salt Spring Island Poultry Club and edited by Serene Giles.
Dorothy passed away at the Lady Minto Hospital’s Extended Care Unit just before her 94th birthday. She was born in Kénogami, Quebec, to parents Edmund Helleur and Elizabeth Gibaut, both emigrants of Jersey, Channel Islands. The youngest of four children and the family’s surprise baby, she was known to all as “Daddy’s Dot”. With few children in Kénogami her own age, Dorothy spent much of her early years trailing after her older sisters Marjorie and Eileen and brother Donald. As a very adventurous child, she was always looking to see what was over the next hill, a personality trait that carried her well through her escapades with her daughters in Brownies and Guides, and frequent cross-country camping and horse-back riding adventures.
A graduate of The Montreal General Hospital School of Nursing in 1951, Dorothy returned to Kénogami to begin her career. While working there, she met her husband-to-be, Oakley Bush (a mining engineer), when he came to the hospital looking for covert information on a patient involved in a motorcycle accident with his own horse, Calabar. They were married in Jacksonville, Florida in November of 1953.
Oakley brought Calabar into their marriage and while their family grew, so too did their menagerie. For most of their early married life, they lived on a small acreage in St. Bruno, Quebec, a village on Montreal’s South Shore. While her husband travelled for his sales position with Alcan Aluminum, Dorothy managed the home, four children, a large garden, three to four horses, dozens of chickens, ducks, turkeys, and the ever-present dogs and cats. When the children reached school age, Dorothy upgraded her nursing degree through Sir George Williams University’s night classes and returned to work as a school nurse. After the family moved to Alexandria, Ontario in 1976, she joined the staff of the Alexandria Community Nursing Home.
When Oakley died in 2005, Dorothy’s travel adventures brought her to Salt Spring Island where her sister Marjorie had settled. The island’s trails, country lanes, hills and vales, beaches and seascapes provided the perfect soft place for Dot’s free spirit to ultimately settle.
Dorothy loved to sing and sing she did! She was an active member of the Mount Bruno United Church and later, of the Church-on-the-Hill in Alexandria. She played active roles in their UCWs and, of course, sang in their choirs. Dorothy found her place of community in Salt Spring Island United Church and its choir, and joined the senior choir, The Lost Chords, as well. She retired her music folders on her 90th birthday at a church tea in her honour but her Soprano voice continued to be heard throughout the halls of the ECU.
Dorothy is predeceased by her husband Oakley and eldest daughter Heather. She will be greatly missed by her children Holly (J. Tinie van Schoor, deceased), Wendy (Doug Brown) and Glenn (Caroline Calmes), and lovingly remembered by her grandchildren Colin van Schoor (Kailyn Burke), Nicole Calmes Bush and great-grandchildren Wyatt, Maya and Finn van Schoor.
As the Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) Improv team gears up for its first post-Covid national competition, students are focusing on fundraising to get there.
Eight creative, courageous and entertaining high school students — and their supporters — will work to raise $15,000 in just five weeks, according to team coach Jason Donaldson, in support of their March 26 trip to Ottawa for the Canadian Improv Games’ national tournament.
The team recently took home the first-place trophy at the Vancouver Island regional tournament, earning them a berth at the Canada-wide event.
Donaldson said the trip — notably the eighth time GISS Improv students have represented the Southern Gulf Islands at the nation’s capital — is more than just the competition; there’s also a big learning component.
“It’s a phenomenal opportunity for these kids,” said Donaldson. “They will get improv workshops with some of the best trainers on the continent during the day, and watch and perform with the best teams from here to Newfoundland in the evening — not to mention touring our national galleries, museums and Parliament Hill as well.”
The event takes place at the National Arts Centre from March 26 to 30, putting GISS students alongside the top 20 improv teams in Canada. GISS Improv team member Melody Silva said the opportunity to see how other teams approach the event would be invaluable.
“I’m really looking forward to meeting people from all across the country,” said Silva, “and having the chance to compete again.”
GISS students earned gold in 2019 and 2017, and silver in 2018; while the pandemic put a damper on the games, Donaldson said the new group of students making up the GISS Improv team is eager to hit the stage and is reaching out to the community. Barbecue fundraisers, bake sales and entertaining shows will be held to raise funds, and the groups now accepting donations online at fundrazr.com/82M578.
All funds raised in coming weeks will be used to help cover the costs of flights, hotels, food and ground transportation.
The signs are scattered across the island: the word STUDIO, simple silhouettes of sheep, a number and an arrow.
For 33 years now, the Salt Spring Island Studio Tour has welcomed visitors with a self-guided journey of discovery — a chance to interact with a curated selection of people and spaces, an opportunity to visit with the intentional artists that make our island their home — from fresh faces to long-time community creatives. Sitting down with Mudpuppy Studios’ Francine Hampson-Reid, we mused about the significance of celebrating milestones — even oddball numbers like ‘33’.
“Well, 30 happened during COVID,” she laughs. “So it sort of slipped by; we all get pretty busy from Easter to Thanksgiving.”
Michael Papp of the Salt Spring Shine distillery.
The Studio Tour’s 2023 season featured 18 stops, from glassworks and photography to wine and farm goods — one of the busiest years on record, according to Hampson-Reid, a participating artist and also the tour’s coordinator, and certainly the most action since COVID shuttered so many studios to visitors.
Those visitors returned, cautiously — first from the island, then from B.C., then from the rest of Canada, and eventually the world. Indeed, for three decades, through winter storms or smoky summers, they come — and come back — for the Studio Tour’s unique year-round proposition: participants choose what interests them, then stop by to visit with the artists and artisans who have made it their passion.
“It’s great that the public get to choose what they’re going to see each day — because you can’t do it all, it’s just too much,” says Hampson-Reid. “Some will take an afternoon and do what I call the ‘Liquid Tour’ — the wineries, cideries, and the distillery. And if you have an interest in clay, maybe you’ll go see all the pottery studios. Or maybe it’s woodworking, or printmaking, you can visit those. Maybe you just want to take an afternoon and visit the sheep!”
The Studio Tour requires 80 per cent of the artisan’s work to be done on Salt Spring Island
All the studios are juried; Hampson-Reid says a team from the board of directors chooses the best of the applications each year, within a narrow set of rules. The Studio Tour requires 80 per cent of the artisan’s work to be done on Salt Spring Island, for example, and mandates a certain number of “open hours” be set in advance. The requirements are intentional, meant to keep the offerings local, and protect the integrity of the tour.
“Right from the beginning, the core organizers sat down and established the ground rules,” says Hampson-Reid. “And they haven’t really changed much in 30 years, because it works very well. It works for artists and studios, and it works for visitors.”
A miniature pygmy goat greets visitors at Sunset Farm.
When they began in 1990, there were 10 participating studios on the self-guided tour; there have been as many as 34, Hampson-Reid says — although it crowded the printed map a little.
“We have one member on the tour that’s been on it since day one,” says Hampson-Reid. “She said in the beginning, there were just a few bed and breakfasts, five or 10.”
Those were operating like a hotel at the time, she told her, with checkout in the morning. But many of the people who “came from away” didn’t want to end their visits so soon — there were evening ferries, after all, and they wanted to squeeze every minute out of their vacation.
“And at the time all you could do on Salt Spring on Sunday was drive around in the woods!” laughs Hampson-Reid. “So the bed and breakfast people asked if she could be open on Sunday, so the people could come visit her little shop?”
The answer? “She said ‘absolutely not!’” laughs Hampson-Reid. “’I’m a farmer and it’s the only day off I ever get!’”
Lavender in bloom at Sacred Mountain Lavender Farm.
But she ultimately relented, and the rest, as they say, is history — and a trend began. “She said it’s the best decision she ever made,” smiles Hampson-Reid. “Her studio was pretty far from Ganges — and Ganges was the centre of the universe, everything was in Ganges. All of a sudden, her studio became a location people would drive up north to.”
There aren’t any other tours like Salt Spring’s, Hampson-Reid says; for 12 months of the year, the studios are open for visitors — sometimes by appointment, sometimes with regular hours. Even if you’re here for a weekend in the middle of November, there’s something to see, she says.
“All the studio tours I’ve run into elsewhere are maybe a two-week period, or maybe a long weekend,” says Hampson-Reid. “Having the whole year gives visitors the opportunity to come in the winter — maybe they’re a musician, coming to play at ArtSpring, and they can do a studio tour on their day off.”
Stop No. 10 on the Salt Spring Studio Tour.
From October until the end of December, organizers for the Salt Spring Studio Tour are busy, as hopeful tour members send in their applications; in January, the map production begins. Ultimately there are 50,000 maps printed — Hampson-Reid says they try to have them on all the ferries before Easter — and as soon as the maps are ready, the new signs go up.
“So when you see those sheep signs with a number on them, it will correspond to numbers on the new map that year,” says Hampson-Reid. “We have a team that goes out in the community and changes all the signs every spring.”
The tour is something of a transition for many newer artists — a stage in their careers after they’ve decided they want to run their own business, but before they’re ready to rent a storefront in Ganges or Fulford. It’s a chance to see if they can keep up with the business end of being an artist — collecting and submitting tax, having proper insurance.
“You show up when it’s business hours, you open the door, you take credit cards,” says Hampson-Red. “Some this year even have electric car plug-ins! You have to be prepared to operate as a business, so if you’re not prepared to go there, well this isn’t for you.”
For her part, Hampson-Reid says the discovery of the Studio Tour transformed her journey as a working artist.
Studio Tour board members Francine Hampson-Reid, Carol Miller and Sandy Robley.
“Part of the business of craft is marketing your work,” she says. “Before Salt Spring, I’d never lived in a place that had the marketing so established. I remember I’d thought that it would be great because I could live on Salt Spring and market in Vancouver and Victoria. But I sell everything I make right here! I don’t have to go and find customers and buyers and collectors. They come to me.”
Functional pottery, jewellery, garden art and more are found at Quail Run Pottery and Fused Glass.
And the art scene on Salt Spring, she says, is no longer a secret, if it ever was; it’s possibly the largest artist colony in Canada, and ranks high on every world-wide list of such things. Add to that being on all sorts of “10 best” lists, and it’s little wonder being on the Studio Tour can take a bite out of an artist’s “creating time,” particular in the summer. Hampson-Reid works with salt-fired pottery, a technique of firing clay developed in the Germany in the 1600s, she says, now being done worldwide but still relatively rare. There’s fewer than 10 kilns like hers on Vancouver Island, she believes, and she has the only one on Salt Spring.
“But it’s more interactive than turning on a button and coming back tomorrow,” she laughs. “When we’re loading and firing, it’s a three-day process where we live outside with the kilns. You can’t be interrupted halfway because it might dry too fast!”
Her solution — and one she’s seen repeated among others on the tour — has been to make her complicated work in the winter, and simpler things in the summer, so she can take the time to really get to know visitors. After a long winter of solitary work, she says she finds herself looking forward to the interaction; most people haven’t seen a kiln like hers, she says, so she’ll try to teach them about how it’s done.
Products made by Ciderworks, No. 4 on the Salt Spring Studio Tour.
“It excites people, to know why something turns out the way it does, like they’ve discovered something,” says Hampson-Reid. “And it’s exciting for me to have the opportunity to teach people about it. But you’ve got to make yourself available, because the people are coming to Salt Spring looking for you.”
Imagining the Studio Tour’s future — say, another 33 years from now — Hampson-Reid says she doesn’t think there will be too many changes. They recently added a QR code to the map, and despite some discussion about switching to an online or phone-based version, the realities of cell phone coverage on the farther-flung parts of Salt Spring Island are such that the paper map is likely here to stay.
And, she says, something to hold in your hands is part of the experience of connection, getting in touch with one another through the creation of art.
“There’s so much art occurring on this island we don’t even know about,” says Hampson-Reid. “They’re just in their studio doing their work, doing their thing. Thanks to the tour, I get to meet and talk to all these people from all over the world.”
Francine Hampson-Reid and John Reid and the kiln at Mudpuppy Studios.
The Capital Regional District (CRD) Board has approved a bylaw that will increase the borrowing authority through the Land Assembly, Housing and Land Banking service to $85 million. The bylaw was adopted after receiving elector assent through a regional Alternative Approval Process (AAP).
“I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who showed interest in the AAP. This approach has allowed us to secure approval from electors in a more cost-effective manner compared to a referendum, while still offering individual residents the option to formally register opposition directly with the CRD,” said Colin Plant, CRD Board chair. “With the successful completion of the AAP, we are pleased to be able to adopt this bylaw, which is part of the CRD’s commitment to increase the supply of affordable, inclusive and adequate housing in the region.”
The CRD and the Capital Region Housing Corporation (CRHC) are advancing initiatives to address increased housing needs that will have the most benefit for the region. These initiatives include:
Continuing to review redevelopment opportunities of existing CRHC buildings to increase density.
• An Acquisition Strategy, which aims to increase and/or preserve the supply of affordable rental housing within the urban areas of the region.
• A Rural Housing Program, which aims to increase, preserve, and broaden the supply of affordable housing in rural and remote communities.
•A Complex Care Housing initiative, which aims to increase the supply of housing with supports for people with complex needs and support complementary to the provincial Complex-Care Housing service.
The increase in borrowing capacity and these initiatives will position the CRD to lead and respond quickly to partnership opportunities. The CRD will not incur any debt until funding is approved for a specific project or through an annual planning approval process.
“The housing crisis is real for residents of the region, which is why the CRD has identified housing affordability as one of its top strategic priorities,” said Capital Region Housing Corporation (CRHC) Chair Zac de Vries. “Increasing our borrowing capacity in this manner signals our capacity to invest into potential partnerships, demonstrates an enhanced commitment to addressing housing need, and will provide staff the ability to pursue prospective partners with the opportunity to leverage and layer funds to achieve a greater impact than would otherwise be possible.”
The CRHC is the largest non-profit housing provider on Vancouver Island, providing homes for more than 4,000 residents through over 2,000 housing units across 52 buildings. The CRHC continues to pursue opportunities to help meet our community’s current and future housing needs, offering units that range from shelter-rate housing to below-market affordable housing units.
The ability of the CRD to demonstrate a willingness to invest into prospective partnerships will significantly advance exploratory discussions.
Scientists with B.C.’s Ministry of Forests have set late April — or early May — for a targeted aerial spraying effort, hoping to keep an invasive insect species from establishing a foothold in the province.
Last seen in the 1990s, spongy moths were detected again on Salt Spring Island in 2021; monitoring efforts the following year revealed a growing population of the insects which — while caterpillars — are voracious defoliators, according to Canadian Food Inspection Agency biologist Dave Holden.
Holden and members of the Spongy Moth Technical Advisory Committee hosted an online information session Wednesday, Feb. 7, outlining the problems the moths bring and answering questions about the province’s eradication program — and how it will unfold on Salt Spring.
The spongy moth is the common name for Lymantria dispar, renamed from “gypsy moth” by the Entomological Societies of both Canada and the United States in 2022. The name references the insect’s “spongy” egg masses, often found in the branches of the same deciduous trees the hatched insects will devour — and which have been known to cause rashes when handled.
Recently, the egg masses have been found more often in human-made shelters — including under vehicles and even in bird houses, which has helped them spread from Ontario into B.C.
“It’s a perfect hitchhiker,” said Holden. “Often the egg masses are laid in concealed areas, sometimes in the wheel wells of cars.”
The spongy egg masses are roughly the size of a quarter and are difficult to spot, Holden said, and it’s generally understood that moths now found in B.C. came from established populations in Ontario in late 2020 — catching a ride behind vehicle bumpers and under RVs.
“With Covid restrictions, we saw a huge number of introductions into B.C., because [snowbirds] weren’t moving south, because the borders were shut down,” said Holden. “They were travelling to the west. That’s what we’re trying to ‘mop up.’”
Infestation impacts seen in Ontario range from the destruction of individual trees to defoliation “across the landscape,” according to Holden, who said they generally attack deciduous trees — oak being their “favourite,” he said — followed by alders, birches, arbutus, apple and pear trees. One of the biggest concerns for scientists are the vulnerable Garry oak ecosystems both on Salt Spring and Vancouver Island; but when they build up in an area, according to Holden, the conifers are eaten next. And while deciduous trees are often resilient enough to come back after a year or two, he added, a defoliated conifer usually doesn’t survive.
“I’ve seen when they’re super hungry, they’ll actually eat the bark off the tree,” said Holden. “But typically they’ll eat down to the mid-rib of a leaf.”
This past summer’s efforts to slow the infestation through a high-density trapping program on Salt Spring were successful, according to acting provincial forest entomologist Timothy Ebata, and as a result of data gathered the area to be sprayed is relatively small — a 48-hectare patch roughly centred on Elizabeth Drive, which will be treated from the air over three early mornings, likely in late April or early May.
The exact date, he said, would be determined by population growth modelling based on measured air temperatures — picking the precise moment when the insects will be at their most vulnerable.
“We were able to get the boundary down to this basically bare minimum,” said Ebata. “We have really good intelligence in terms of where we think the epicentre of this infestation is.”
The spraying will be conducted by relatively low-flying aircraft — usually fixed-wing, according to Ebata, but sometimes a helicopter — using a GPS-controlled system. The pilots will fly in a line, he said, and the equipment turns on and off as boundaries are crossed, recording the whole event as a digital file to be reviewed later.
Ebata said despite the 300-metre “drift area” buffer zone allowed by their permit, his experience was that even the overspray tended to stay within 100 metres of the treatment boundary. Spraying will not occur at all if winds exceed 8 km/hr.
“It’s very precise,” said Ebata. “On the ground, we monitor the deposition of the product using ‘spray cards’ that are placed before the treatment, and then examined after.”
In addition to public outreach efforts like postcards and newspaper ads, Ebata said there would be signs placed in the neighbourhood well in advance of the spraying days.
Unlike ground-based spraying, such as took place near Lee’s Hill in 2007, aerial applications are advantageous partly because they require a lower concentration of the bacteria-based insecticide preferred by the province’s Spongy Moth Technical Advisory Committee — Foray 48B, an Organic Materials Review Institute listed product certified in 2018 for use in organic production.
The program this spring will use about four litres of product per hectare, said Ebata, “about a coffee cup’s amount over a typical city lot.”
“It has no known toxic effects on any organisms other than lepidopterans,” said Ebata — the order of winged insects that includes butterflies and moths. “That’s because the mode of action of the bacterium is very unique to alkaline environments — alkaline guts, especially.”
That does mean other caterpillars within spray areas can be affected, according to invertebrate conservation biologist Jennifer Heron, but most species present are non-native or not at risk — such as the European Skipper or cabbage white butterflies, she said — and pollinators like bees, wasps and beetles aren’t affected by the bacteria at all.
Ebata did say there had been some human health effects reported from people directly hit by sprays — described as similar to seasonal allergies, he said, such as runny noses and itchy eyes, which can be avoided by not being outside in the targeted area for the hour or two it takes for the spray to dissipate.
“We’re working very hard to get the word out,” said Ebata. “If you think you’re sensitive to aerosolized products and you want to avoid the treatment, you should stay indoors with the doors, windows and vents closed to completely avoid contact.”
Ebata reiterated there were no toxic or detrimental effects of ingesting the product, and that groundwater would be unaffected; once it lands on a hard surface, it dries within 10 minutes, he said, and will fully break down within seven days — sooner, he added, if it rains.
Salt Spring poultry enthusiasts worried they might run afoul of the island’s decades-old noise bylaws crowded into a meeting Thursday night, hoping for immediate support from members of the Local Community Commission (LCC).
But after hearing a delegation from the Salt Spring Island Poultry Club extolling the advantages of keeping chickens and the rural lifestyle generally — and situations where sometimes-noisy roosters are important specifically — commissioners told the group the LCC had been advised by the Capital Regional District (CRD) legal team to avoid all but general discussion of noise bylaw infractions, due to a legal case currently underway.
“I would prefer we not go into in-depth discussion of the matter tonight, just because I understand there is a court case pending and it’s important that we not take action that will be seen as interfering,” said LCC chair Earl Rook. “What I can say as chair is that the LCC has no authority specifically for bylaws and for bylaw enforcement. But we do act as an elected body of the community.”
Commissioners explained the LCC’s role could be to bring a sense of the entire community’s desires regarding bylaws — such as the noise bylaw — to the CRD Board, who Rook said had been receptive.
“Thus far the board takes us seriously,” said Rook. “If we have a well-considered recommendation on any topic that’s well thought-out, we can carry that to them and ask them to take action.”
Any such advocacy, Rook explained, would necessarily be preceded by a Notice of Motion, allowing members of the public plenty of time to weigh in before the LCC acted on their behalf.
“That way it’s published, people in the community get to see it, talk about it, think about it, give us some feedback,” said Rook. “And at that point, at the next meeting, we would discuss it amongst ourselves in public and take a vote on it.”
Commissioners agreed it would be most appropriate to take up the broad issue at the LCC’s first meeting in April, by which time the specific litigation currently in process — addressing several noise bylaw infractions at a single Salt Spring Island property — may be resolved.
“Given the understanding that March is when this will be before the courts,” said commissioner Brian Webster, “and out of respect for that process, I’m grudgingly willing to defer giving notice of motion and undertaking that discussion.”
The meeting Thursday, Feb. 8 was the first LCC regular meeting to take place in the evening hours; commissioners had held town hall-style events previously, but without staff and legal notice those gatherings were relatively informal; during a town hall the LCC can listen but may not advance commission business.
The next LCC meeting will be at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15 at SIMS.
When ArtSpring launched its 2023/24 season in September, executive and artistic director Howard Jang described to audiences that ArtSpring, entering its 25th anniversary year, had a vision to be “not just a place, but an idea.”
With that, the seed was planted that ArtSpring could evolve beyond being a physical building or a performance space, and into a creative mindset, a distinctive spark, or a branded experience that would see ArtSpring engagements in different locations, with differently sized audiences, new partners and even pushing boundaries through different technologies.
For the first time, ArtSpring is experimenting with a new concept to its traditional programming with a special five-day off-site series, hosted in a private residence for limited gatherings of only 25 people per show.
From Tuesday, Feb. 20 to Saturday, Feb. 24, Toronto-based singer and pianist Jane Miller, and Brian Quirt, artistic director of the Nightswimming theatre company, will host These Are The Songs That I Sing When I’m Sad, an intimate, interactive and ultimately joyous evening at The Stonehouse, a former B&B and remarkable Salt Spring property overlooking the ocean from on high. The Friday evening show is already sold out.
Part musicianship, part theatre, part conversation, Sad Songs explores the songs people turn to when they’re sad; the songs they play to soothe their blues or lift them up out of the depths.
From break-up songs to reflective melancholy, Miller sings and tells stories about songs that played a role in her own life and invites the audience to share the songs that they sing (or play or listen to) when they are sad. Those planning to attend may want to come with some favourites to contribute to an idea box of requests.
From Johnny Cash to James Taylor, Sinéad O’Connor to Joni Mitchell, The Smiths to U2 to Billy Holiday, each evening promises to be an evocative medley that connects to memories and the heart. After each performance, a playlist of songs performed or mentioned during the show is published online.
Sad Songs, despite its name, includes a good deal of laughter. It is a rare opportunity to hear a superb singer up close and personal as she delves into the link between deep emotions and the musical elements that make sad songs so impactful and addictive.
Tickets are on sale at tickets.artspring.ca or at the box office, which is open Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Please note that Theatre Angel tickets are not offered for this performance.
The Stonehouse is located at 641 Fulford-Ganges Rd.
Salt Spring gets to celebrate Black History Month with a musical powerhouse thanks to the efforts of some Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) students.
The high school’s Students for Racial Equity (SFRE) group has arranged for the Marcus Mosely Trio to visit the island on Feb. 20-21, with a presentation and workshop taking place at GISS, and the trio’s Songs of Freedom concert at ArtSpring on Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 7:30 p.m. Proceeds from the ArtSpring event will help SFRE organize more activities.
Mosely and fellow musicians Bill Sample and Darlene Cooper have had long and distinguished music and choral careers.
The idea to mark Black History Month this way originated with SFRE member and Grade 12 student Cole Thompson. When he and peer Claire Whitelaw were members of the Gulf Islands School of Performing Arts program last year, they participated in a community-wide choral workshop led by Mosely and hosted by Viva Chorale! Choir. Thompson thought the workshop had broad educational value and was supported by other SFRE club members in proposing a visit by Mosely.
“I was thinking about how educational that workshop was on a few different levels, because obviously, there’s the music aspect to it, but also just the history — all the meanings behind all of these songs, and the story of gospel in general, how that connects to the civil rights movement later on . . . it combines the music aspect along with the history, so it’s combining a couple of things that people might be interested in,” he said.
Whitelaw gave one example of a song’s origins gleaned from last year’s workshop. Up Above My Head, she explained, is about enslaved people who were hidden under floorboards in homes or in carriages as they were escaping. It refers to the singing heard above their heads while they were hiding, and also connects to angels singing in Heaven.
“So songs that we have heard out of context being put into context is really educational,” she said.
The Marcus Mosely Trio will give a presentation to a crowd of 200 at GISS on Feb. 20. Then 60 students will spend additional time in a workshop where the songs they learn will be performed the next day for Salt Spring Elementary School students in what they’re calling a Songs of Hope concert.
Whitelaw and Thompson stressed that youth participating in the workshop don’t need prior experience with music.
“The way [Mosely] teaches the songs is really accessible to people, because you don’t need to know how to read music, and you don’t need to have very much technique. You just need to listen to him and repeat back, basically,” said Whitelaw.
Thompson added that “a lot of the specific gospel techniques are new to a lot of people even in choir, so a lot of what you’re learning there is going to be new regardless, which kind of levels the playing field.”
Abby Bouchard is a SFRE member whose Social Studies 8 class members will be among the 200 hearing the trio’s presentation. Her class taught by Marla Renn did a deep dive into the history of the African slave trade this year, which Bouchard found super interesting.
“I think our Socials class this year was really important and really got a lot heavier than the classes I had previously experienced. We really dove into the slave trade and enslaved peoples more than anything else we did . . . it was a lot of learning to do to take it to another level from the level that we were taught in elementary schools.”
Bouchard’s research project for that class was to make a wooden puzzle that showed the trans-Atlantic slave-trading routes.
Shari Hambrook is the teacher connected to the SFRE group. She is also excited about next week’s activities, and notes that 40 vouchers for free tickets for the Mosely Trio concert have been made available for SD64 parents thanks to generous sponsorship from the District Parents’ Advisory Council. However, voucher requests must be made and tickets acquired from the ArtSpring box office by 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16. This link takes people to the applicable site. Concert tickets are otherwise available through ArtSpring.
Hambrook said the Salt Spring Historical Society and Archives is also contributing to events with a display about Black history on Salt Spring set up at both GISS and ArtSpring.
SFRE students also worked hard to submit a successful grant application to the Salt Spring Island Foundation. School District 64 has also supported the events.
SFRE originated in 2020 as an anti-racism collective in response to a racist incident that occurred at GISS. Thompson said the group is expanding activities to focus on education among the student populace.
The next GISS educational event is a school-wide “P is for Privilege” Zoom session offered by Montreal-based Overture With the Arts next month.
