Eric Plummer

1 month ago | castanet.net | Darren Handschuh |Sandra Thomas |Michelle Gamage |Eric Plummer

Gibsons Mayor Silas White describes a meeting with BC Premier David Eby regarding the state of BC Ferries as “encouraging.”White, Bowen Island Mayor Andrew Leonard and Randene Neill, MLA for Powell River–Sunshine Coast, met with Eby online Thursday, to discuss the ongoing deterioration of ferry service on BC Ferries Routes 3 (Langdale–Horseshoe Bay) and 8 (Snug Cove–Horseshoe Bay).

1 month ago | castanet.net | Darren Handschuh |Michelle Gamage |Eric Plummer |Graeme Wood

The call for help went out, and dozens of people have answered. Universal Ostrich Farm in Edgewood has been fighting a Canadian Food Inspection Agency order to cull the entire ostrich herd of 399 animals. The farm has lost its court battles to save the big birds and CFIA could carry out the slaughter any day. The cull was ordered when several cases of the avian bird flu were found at the farm last year, but proponents said the herd is now avian free and there is no need to kill healthy birds.

1 month ago | castanet.net | Michelle Gamage |Eric Plummer |Graeme Wood |Elana Shepert

Students at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo are busy in the kitchen assembling the world's largest Nanaimo bar. The sweet treat will be unveiled to the public at noon on Saturday, and is expected to be 21.3 meters long, 0.9 meters wide and weigh nearly 500 kilograms. Aron Weber, chair of the professional baking and pastry arts program with VIU, says students got the idea a few years ago when they were brainstorming ways to generate publicity and excitement for a business.

1 month ago | castanet.net | Nicholas Johansen |Michelle Gamage |Eric Plummer |Graeme Wood

A grassroots organization is warning that the presence of Vancouver police is deterring people who use drugs from accessing harm reduction services in the Downtown Eastside, or DTES. Vancouver Police Department officers are “parking and lingering directly outside” of supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites and drug user community organizations, according to a press release from Police Oversight with Evidence and Research, or POWER.

1 month ago | cheknews.ca | Eric Plummer |Nora O'Malley

Tofino, B.C. – After engaging in a practice that once sustained their ancestors over a century ago, dealing with a whale that washed up on Long Beach has been a massive learning experience for Tla-o-qui-aht members. “It takes a whole community to get this done,” said Gisele Martin, after her and other members of the First Nation harvested parts of the deceased grey whale, or maaʔak, on May 10.