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Youths’ Extra produce Program helps feed island

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Youths’ Extra produce Program helps feed island

By MARCIA JANSEN

DRIFTWOOD CONTRIBUTOR

October is the month that we celebrate a successful harvest of crops. While lots of people are preparing for lavish Thanksgiving dinners, others are struggling daily to put a nutritious meal on the table.

LEAP Kids, a community-service, project-based education program, has a goal to feed those in need this fall.

Do you have apples that you can’t pick? Too many beetroots, squashes or kale? The LEAP Kkids (Learning Through Experiential Authentic Processes) are happy to take them off your hands or land.

“Every year we take on projects that are pitched to us by members of our community,” said Sarah Etherington, coordinator of the program. “The projects have to benefit the community, or the earth, and it is a bonus if they benefit both. Last year we built a greenhouse for Little Red Preschool, and now the kids voted for a project to recover excess food from farms.”

The project is driven by the kids.

“They do the harvesting, choose recipes, make labels and do all the cooking and fundraising. It is integrated, hands-on, real-world learning, while doing something good for the community. We know that food insecurity is a growing problem locally. For this project we’ve partnered up with Salt Spring Harvest and they will distribute the food to those in need.”

Five different farms have donated excess fruit and vegetables so far.

“We already have a lot of apples, but we take what we can get. This week we will be making apple pies, crumbles and apple sauce for Thanksgiving, but we will continue to make meals, like soups and stews, in the coming months.”

Martin Mongard, youth worker at Salt Spring Island Community Services, pitched the project.

“I was inspired by the time of the year,” said Mongard, who lets the LEAP Kids use the kitchen at the Core Inn for this project. “The orchards are full of fruit, and sometimes it doesn’t get picked because the owners are elderly or they just have too much. It is so sad that all that amazing food is going to waste. That’s when I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if youth, with all their energy, come to help and pick the fruit and use it to make pies and apple sauce.’”

Salt Spring Island Community Services has several food programs to avoid food waste. Second Harvest, for example, collects food that is over its “best before” date, and fruit and vegetables that have a bruise or otherwise don’t sell, from Country Grocer, Thrifty Foods, Natureworks, Barb’s Bakery, the Tuesday Farmers’ Market and local farms.

“We think that Salt Spring Island is so rich with those big properties and huge mansions,” said Mongard. “But a growing amount of people, especially since the pandemic, are struggling to make ends meet and with all kinds of problems, like mental health issues, as a result. That’s why it is so important that those programs are in place, and the LEAP Kids project is a welcome addition.”

Have excess fruit or vegetables in your garden or orchard? Contact Sarah Etherington at sarahetherington826@gmail.com or 250-221-8986.

Life and Yarns of Robert Service comes to stage

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Life and Yarns of Robert Service comes to stage

SUBMITTED BY ARTSPRING

The energy of our season-opener, Wen Wei Dance, is more than matched in Jeffrey Renn’s one-man tribute to the great British-Canadian poet Robert Service.

Embodying not just Service, but friends, family, and yes, a bull, the first instalment of The Life and Yarns of Robert Service sees Renn instantly change between characters and dialects with seamless ease.

ArtSpring is offering another chance to see part one of Service’s glorious youthful tales following the limited capacity seating of the show’s inclusion last season. With part two premiering at the end of November we want to bring you right back into the world of the spectacularly popular poet, an immigrant from Scotland coming to Canada at the time of the Gold Rush.

Renn has carefully crafted this work from Service’s autobiography, The Ploughman of the Moon. Born in the north of England in 1874, and brought up in Scotland, Robert Service showed a keen interest in poetry as a child, writing his first verse on his sixth birthday. Inspired by Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson, Service developed a desire for adventure along with writing, and in 1894 sailed to Canada to become a cowboy in the Yukon wilderness. Following the Gold Rush, Service worked on Vancouver Island, gathering material and experiences that would feed his creative imagination for years.

The wildly inventive Renn performs all the roles through poem, song and story, leaving previous audiences enthralled by his powerhouse performance.

ArtSpring Presents At Your Service – The Life and Yarns of Robert Service part 1 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 14, 15 and 16 at 7:30 p.m.

People should note that proof of at least one vaccination is required for everyone aged 12+ attending this event. Patrons aged 19+ are also required to show a piece of valid government photo ID. Masks must be worn at all times while at ArtSpring.

NDP and Greens should join political forces

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NDP and Greens should join political forces

By GREG SPENDJIAN

Another election has come and gone. Almost nothing will change as a result. It will continue to be all talk and little action for the Liberal party and Conservative party when it comes to the two major issues facing the country, and indeed the world: the calamity of climate change and rising social and economic inequalities.

I have long believed that a different strategy towards the electorate is needed by the more “progressive” parties in the country, the New Democratic Party and the Green Party. Simply put, they should broaden their appeal by joining forces while at the same time seriously reconsidering their strategies.

The Canadian populace has regrettably not bought into the present narratives of either the NDP or the Green party. Amazingly enough it is the very conservative right-wing People’s Party of Canada which attracted serious additional support going from 1.6 to five per cent of the vote this election. The Green party’s portion of the vote dropped from 6.5 to 2.3 per cent, while the NDP increased its share of the vote slightly, from 16 to 17.8 per cent.

The Green party elected two Members of Parliament. I am fully supportive of the attention the Green party brings to the issue of climate change. But they are by and large a one-issue party, or at least are perceived to be so. What impact will the two MPs have? Virtually none I suspect. The climate catastrophe is here and now. We do not have the luxury of waiting for decades for the number of Green MPs to increase enough for them to become politically relevant.

At one point it was argued that if we had some form of “proportional representation” in our elections rather than the “first past the post” system, a stand-alone Green party would increase the number of MPs elected and thereby be able to influence the policy agenda. With Justin Trudeau having reneged on his promise in 2015 to introduce electoral reform, and with that subject not even being raised during this election campaign, electoral reform is for now a dead issue.

The NDP has some useful policy proposals for dealing with equality and social justice issues, but has never fully addressed climate change and other environmental issues. It does not seem to be able to garner enough support on its own to be an alternative to the two main parties. The party does not have enough seats to accomplish anything other than to support the Liberal party in whatever policies the latter chooses to bring to parliament.

One might speculate on the reasons that the NDP and Greens do not join forces. It has been argued that Green party membership does not really “lean left” at all. Some refer to the fact that our very own Elizabeth May worked in Brian Mulroney’s government as evidence that she and the Green party generally would not support anything that smacked of “democratic socialism.”

The Green party platform says nothing about changes being needed to the economic system, which is at the root of our problems. One political commentator even suggested that many of the lost “green” votes this election went to either the Conservative Party or the PPC. The explanation given is that many “greens” see themselves as “libertarians” and want less overall government intervention rather than more. If this is the case, we are in even more serious trouble than I thought.

The NDP in turn has not shown its full commitment to address climate change comprehensively. It has also not offered a full-throated challenge to the workings of the neo-liberal economic framework. The party shies away from even using the term “social democratic” to describe itself, either because its leadership thinks this might cost the party votes, or because the party really does not question the current system.

And yet, I would defy anybody to put forward a coherent argument that the two meta-problems I identified above — climate change and social and economic disparities — are amenable to solution within the existing socio-economic paradigm. Radical alternatives to our current systems of production of goods and services and the distribution of benefits of economic activity need to be invented, tested and broadly adopted. This is the only way for us to move towards a better future, one characterized by social, economic and ecological well-being.

The NDP and the Green party need to have the courage to both re-imagine themselves and to join forces as part of a new political strategy. They should form a new party, one which is radical, green, participatory and social democratic. Such a party would, in my view, stand a better chance of offering and promoting viable and relevant solutions to our biggest problems than the existing stand-alone parties will ever have.

The writer is a Salt Spring resident.

COCKETT, Merryl

Driftwood Obituary
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COCKETT, Merryl

Merryl Cockett

Merryl Cockett, 82, of Salt Spring Island passed away unexpectedly and peacefully on October 7th, 2021. She was born in Manchester, England, in 1938 and moved to Vancouver with her husband, Ivan, and young children in 1966.

Merryl trained and worked as a bespoke tailor in Manchester, and her love for sewing and knitting remained with her throughout her life. In Vancouver, Merryl worked for Singer before becoming a well-known and well-loved fixture of Eaton’s yarn and fabric departments. Merryl and Ivan first fell in love with Salt Spring Island in 1979 when they bought a cottage on Rainbow Road. They fully embraced the island life-style in 1990s when they sold their home in Kerrisdale, and built their new home and life on Creekside Drive, Salt Spring Island.

Merryl prided herself in her involvement with the Lady Minto Hospital Auxiliary. She was responsible for the hospital showcase window display, which meant not just collecting beautiful knitted items, but also knitting many of the items herself. It was a commitment she loved and was a huge part of her life. She also took great pleasure in meeting with good friends in her knitting and fitness groups. She adored traveling, and spending time with family and friends. She also acquired a taste for Scottish country dancing, a pleasure which combined her interests of dance, friends, and travel, and took her oversees. She always enjoyed sitting and having a cup of tea or coffee with a piece of cake.

Merryl was predeceased by Ivan in 2004, and is survived by her daughters Stella (Paul) and Freda (Randell) and her precious grandchildren Hannah and Evan, as well as family and friends both here in Canada and England.

She left us in such a peaceful way, which we think is wonderful, although we wish she had been with us for a few more years.

An event honouring her life will be held pending Covid restriction changes.

ZOLTAY, Sheila

Driftwood Obituary
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ZOLTAY, Sheila

Sheila Zoltay

Sheila Innes was born in Kelso, Scotland to Isabella and Hector Innes. She grew up with her two siblings – her older brother Hector (who lives with his family in Scotland) and her younger sister Isabel who sadly passed away earlier this year. Caring and compassionate by nature, it was inevitable that Sheila pursued and excelled at a career in nursing. Adventure and exploration were always in her heart, likely sparked from the many books she consumed as an avid reader and her curiosity about the world. Not one to let her feet grow roots and combining her passions, she set out for Canada in her twenties. Landing a post in Newfoundland, she worked her way across the country as a RN. On the Westcoast of Canada Sheila met Andy Zoltay, a forestry engineer, who shared her love of photography and adventure. They married and had a son (Hugh Andrew). Sheila and Andy settled on Salt Spring Island for their retirement years. While there, Sheila established the Home Care Health Program for the island, continued to read books on all topics, and dabbled in writing, painting, and astronomy. After Andy died, she remained on Salt Spring Island for several more years before moving to Victoria to be closer to her son.
The world is a little less bright without her in it and she will be missed dearly by her family and friends.

COVID cases drop in Gulf Islands

Driftwood Staff
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COVID cases drop in Gulf Islands

This week’s data from the BC Centre for Disease Control sees new confirmed COVID-19 cases dropping in both the Southern Gulf Islands and the surrounding area as a whole.

The Gulf Islands number went from 10 the previous week to four between Sept. 19 and 25. After a few weeks of successive increases in the southern Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands area, the total number dropped from 420 to 354.

Click on the chart above for the full view.

Listening to the Elders, honouring the ancestors

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Listening to the Elders, honouring the ancestors

By PHIL VERNON, CHRIS MARSHALL AND MAGGIE ZIEGLER 

Special to the DRIFTWOOD  

In January 2018, the Salt Spring Public Library hosted an event for local Indigenous Elders to speak and share their concerns. 

The gathering was part of programming to commemorate the successful campaign of the Salt Spring community and six First Nations to protect the ancient Coast Salish cemetery on Grace Islet, where the property owner was building a house over burial cairns. During the event, the Elders were asked how Salt Spring Islanders could be better allies with the Indigenous peoples of our area.

One of the speakers was WECKINEM Eric Pelkey, a hereditary chief from Tsawout First Nation. He spoke of the importance of involving Elders. 

“I think the biggest help you can give is by bringing our Elders onto the scene and letting them educate you. It was my father who really was the main educator for me, in passing on what he knew from his Elders, in particular from his grandfather Chief Louie Pelkey.

“You need the input of Elders. They know things that we don’t know. I remember there was a development proposed near our Fulford Harbour reserve. So I got together with our Elders, and they told me there’s a bunch of the remains of our ancestors in there, in what they call cairns. I said, ‘We better go out there and have a look.’ And you know to my unpractised eye I couldn’t see anything. But my Elder walked right up and said, ‘There’s one right there, and look, there’s another one right over there. And there’s another one right over there.’

“We’ve come to Salt Spring for reburials many times when the remains of our ancestors were uncovered. And I’d tell my dad about it and he’d say, ‘Son, you’re going to find those forever. Everywhere there’s a shoreline you’re going to find the remains of our people and the evidence of our living there.’

“So what we need is for people who live here to let us know when you find those remains, when they’re uncovered, or even when they’re trying to be hidden. Because you know, for years and years it went on that as soon as somebody found the remains of our people they were told to shut up, hide it, tuck it away somewhere or destroy it.

“We need to have eyes and ears out there, and we need support. Because there is so much destruction going on, and so much of our history is being hidden that we need allies to help us. HÍSWKE SIÁM (Thank you).”

The late Laura Sylvester, Elder and traditional grave worker from Penelakut Tribe was also at the gathering, and spoke of the importance of listening to Elders, and honouring the ancestors. 

“You know,” she said, “when Grace Islet happened, I didn’t know anything about it until I talked to my mother. She was the one that told me about Grace.

“You have to protect all burial sites. It’s so important for Native People, no matter where you’re from, to protect and look after the remains of your ancestors. In my way, I look after mine. No matter how old they are, no matter how long ago they left me, I still look after them, and I do it in an honourable way. I feed my ancestors once a year because where they are they can’t help themselves. So I have to help them, the best way I can. And that’s where my role comes in. Every reserve has got that teaching, every reserve.”

Salt Spring now has a variety of community initiatives working with local First Nations to raise awareness and to support the resurgence of language and cultures and the healing of the land. Among these is the Salt Spring Indigenous Signage Project, funded by the Salt Spring Island Foundation, the CRD, Mouat’s and the Donna Martin Legacy Fund. The group is working with Indigenous leaders and Elders on a series of interpretive panels about their deep history, heritage and continuing presence here.

One aspect of the signage project has been to develop a memorial commemorating the 2011 disturbance of ancient burials during Phase III of the Creek House development in downtown Ganges. At that time, the remains of six individuals were removed and reburied at another location under the care and direction of Indigenous grave workers. After 10 years, a memorial promised by then-architect Jonathan Yardley and then-owner Leon Aptekmann will soon be installed in a quiet area behind the Creek House building. A plaque acknowledging the importance in Coast Salish culture to honour and care for the ancestors will be mounted on a cedar post there. Funding is being provided by Aptekmann, current owner Hardal Management and the SSIF Neighbourhood Small Grants program.

Islanders rally for climate justice

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Islanders rally for climate justice

By ROBIN JENKINSON

Driftwood Contributor

About 80 people came to the United Church Meadow at noon last Friday to rally for climate justice. 

The climate justice movement embeds climate change within social justice and recognizes that the people most negatively impacted by climate change are those least responsible for creating those impacts and the least able to mitigate or adapt to them.

Presentations were made at the rally about Indigenous reconciliation, BIPOC anti-racism, queer community and youth leadership, how to address class inequity, and standing against corporate and government-sanctioned logging in the Fairy Creek area. A booth about affordable housing demonstrated this many-pronged approach.

“Climate vulnerability is rooted in economic power,” Shamana Ali from the BIPOC Community Collective told the crowd.

Transition Salt Spring’s Climate Action Plan 2.0 and One Cool Island strategy, available on their website, shows how it’s all connected. To fix one thing, we need to fix them all.

“The decisions adults make today will affect youth like me for the rest of our lives,” said Azalia Vachon, a Grade 10 student at Gulf Islands Secondary School. “I don’t want to leave this mess for another generation, so we must take action now.”

Supporters are calling for a transformative climate emergency plan that recognizes the interconnected climate, ecological and social crises, and embeds equity, anti-racism and social justice at its core, while also upholding Indigenous rights.

Paper Covers Rock festival runs this weekend

Driftwood Staff
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Paper Covers Rock festival runs this weekend

A new annual readers and writers festival will feature author readings and workshops on Salt Spring on the Oct. 1 to 3 weekend.

Paper Covers Rock was launched by its founder Terri Potratz this spring with online workshops held on March 5, 6 and 7. This weekend’s offerings will shift mainly to in-person events.

Exceptions are two virtual workshops on Oct. 1. Vancouver historian Aaron Chapman will run through an entertaining and informative account of the city sleuthing he achieved for books like Liquor, Lust and the Law and Vancouver After Dark. Western Living & Vancouver Magazine editor-at-large Stacey McLachlan will lead an online workshop on The Art of the Pitch, designed not only for freelance magazine writers but also aspiring novelists who want some general pitch pointers.

At 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1, caregivers and children are welcome for a free reading at the Salt Spring Public Library program room. Jenn Wint, columnist for the Vancouver Mom Book Club, will read a selection of titles from B.C. children’s book authors, including a few book giveaways. Pre-registration is recommended to reserve a seat.

A reading with Cedar Bowers, who was just longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her debut novel Astra, will take place from 3 to 4 p.m. on Friday at the library event room. This is a ticketed event and includes a reading and Q&A.

In-person workshops run throughout Saturday and Sunday, and are limited to 12 participants maximum. In addition to general admission tickets, a pay-what-you-can option is in place for each workshop.

Aislinn Hunter, author of The Certainties, will suggest aspects of craft and creative strategies that can enhance a writer’s engagement with their real-life subject matter. This workshop will especially appeal to poets and non-fiction writers, or fiction writers with an interest in place or historical events.

For memoir writers, Darrel McLeod will walk participants through seven specific techniques for taking their writing to a deeper level with respect to the development of characters, scenes, plot and rich descriptions. McLeod’s latest novel — Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity — is a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize for Nonfiction. This book is the follow-up memoir to Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age.

Local author and professor Natalie Meisner is leading a fun, hands-on workshop for people to create their own short play for audio, podcast, digital or other new formats. This workshop will combine a discussion of key topics in contemporary dramatic writing with focused live creative exercises to help writers sharpen an existing idea or invent a new one.

Cecily Nicholson won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry for Wayside Sang, and is presenting a workshop on Sense of Place. This will include visual, aural and haptic examples from contemporary art to gain new perspective and insight into writing practices.

Alexandria King, local author of The Moon in You, is facilitating healing through writing about memorable moments in one’s life, with breathing exercises and journaling as guidance.

And finally, local comedy writer Thomas John will help sharpen satirical skills as his workshop participants learn about comedic shortcuts and writing styles and come out all the funnier for it.

A free happy hour reception sponsored by Salt Spring Books will take place on Saturday, Oct. 2. This event will be held outdoors, and is subject to weather conditions. All registered festival attendees will receive event details and location via email. The store is also offering discounts as well as signed copies of books by Paper Covers Rock speakers.

Potratz has recently incorporated Paper Covers Rock as a non-profit society in B.C.

See the www.papercoversrock.ca website for more information and to register for events.

Viewpoint: Keep minds Open to Truth

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Viewpoint: Keep minds Open to Truth

By MLA Adam Olsen and MLA Sonia Furstenau

In the four years that we have been Members of the Legislative Assembly, hundreds of British Columbians have reached out to talk about crown/settler-Indigenous relationships.

What we have heard consistently in these conversations is that people are frustrated that they have not been taught about the true history of our country. While there is information available, we hear people feel it is not accessible, and they do not know where to start.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was mandated to “inform all Canadians about what happened in residential schools.” The commission’s work concluded in 2015 and they published 94 Calls to Action. Action 80 was the establishment of a day to “honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process.”

On Sept. 30, it will be the first time in Canadian history that there will be a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a statutory holiday for federally regulated workers, to “recognize and commemorate the legacy of residential schools.” Let’s take this day to pause and open our hearts and minds to who we are, and where we have come from.

On May 27, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir announced that ground-penetrating radar had found the remains of children who passed away while they were students at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The news shook Canadians from coast to coast to coast. Since then, several other Indigenous communities across the country have made similar announcements. There are thousands of Indigenous children that never made it home from school.

Six days after Kukpi7 Casimir’s announcement, on June 3, the federal parliament passed Bill C-5. It took only six days to do what the federal and provincial governments couldn’t do for six years. It is remarkable to see how quickly governments can work when they are motivated.

On Aug. 3, the British Columbia government announced that they would get to work with Indigenous, business and labour stakeholders to engage on how best to commemorate the day in the future. For 2021, they put provisions in place for public sector employees to reduce service levels or close in honour of the day.

We are thankful to all of the people who have reached out to open a dialogue. There is no doubt that over the many years of being public officials, Canadian culture has undergone remarkable changes. It has been mostly positive.

Our provincial and federal governments have a failing grade when it comes to educating Canadians about our true history. Thankfully, that is changing, in part because they are updating the curriculum and in part because we have educators that have taken matters into their own hands to find material that gives their students a deeper, more truthful understanding of the history of our country. Orange Shirt Day has played a critical role in that movement.

It only took six days to get done what was recommended six years ago, largely because Canadians let elected officials know they care and demanded their governments take real action. We will not lose momentum if we keep our minds open to the truth and if our hearts embrace the spirit of reconciliation.

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