July/August 2015

July-August 2015 Focus.pdf

4 Leslie Campbell | A LIFE-SAVER
Will Victoria take responsibility to provide safe consumption services?

10 Ray Grigg | CANADA’S SHAME
If Vladimir Putin is politically “troublesome,”
Stephan Harper is his environmental equivalent.

12 David Broadland and Daniel Palmer | INVESTIGATIONS into INVESTIGATIONS
News of a secret investigation involving Saanich’s interim CAO Andy Laidlaw may throw the District into more turmoil.

18 Briony Penn | WAR IN THE WOODS II?
Eight planned cutblocks in the Walbran are raising the temperature among those concerned about BC’s old-growth forests.

22 Katherine Palmer Gordon | GETTING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report calls for a massive shift in how Canada conducts itself in relation to Aboriginal people.

26 Aaren Madden | WHERE THE WHALES COME IN
Marika Swan finds personal guidance and artistic inspiration in her people’s spiritual connection to whales.

40 Monica Prendergast | A DELICIOUS SUMMER THEATRE MENU
Shakespeare, queer, the Goose, the Fringe and more.

42 Amy Reiswig | BUILDING A HOUSE TOGETHER
Two books expand the conversation on how, together, indigenous and settler people can create a new story.

44 Gene Miller | AGGRESSIVE RECYCLING BEATS AGGRESSIVE PANHANDLING
Contemporary circumstances, including shrinking governments, demand that we, the human family, be socially innovative.

46 Trudy Duivenvoorden Mitic | THE AGE OF IRRESPONSIBILITY
What’s happening on our roads is a microcosm of what seems to be ailing society in general.