Jump to content

Leslie Campbell

Administrators
  • Posts

    582
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

Leslie Campbell's Achievements

  1. John: Thanks for your insightful perspective. We welcome all informed commentary. Here's a recent report on the issue of decriminalization, which touches on the safe supply issue.
  2. John: The doctor is not confused. Please see the link referenced above and here regarding a 2019 Island Health program for supervised daily opioid injections. The Province introduced this type of strategy, i.e. "Safe drug supply (e.g. hydromorphone in supervised settings)" as part of its overdose prevention services in 2017. But yes, the oxycontin prescriptions were certainly a problem.
  3. 2023 Victoria Book Prize Finalists Announced The Victoria Book Prize Society is pleased to announce the shortlists for the 2023 City of Victoria Book Prize and City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize, featuring an assortment of books for readers of all ages and interests. On your mark, get set, read! The $5,000 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, now in its 20th year, is awarded to a Greater Victoria author for the best book published in the categories of fiction, non-fiction or poetry. The five finalists are: Maleea Acker for Hesitating Once to Feel Glory (Nightwood Editions) Robert Amos for E.J. Hughes: Canadian War Artist (Touchwood Editions) Mary Bomford for Red Dust and Cicada Songs (Caitlin Press) Pauline Holdstock for Confessions with Keith (Biblioasis) Katłįà (Catherine) Lafferty for This House Is Not a Home (Roseway Publishing) The $5,000 City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize, in its 16th year, is awarded to a Greater Victoria author or illustrator for the best children’s book. The three finalists are: Sara Cassidy for Union (Orca Book Publishers) Monique Gray Smith for I Hope / nipakosêyimon (Orca Book Publishers) Julie McLaughlin (illustration) for Little Pine Cone: Wild Fires and the Natural World (Orca Book Publishers) The finalists were selected by an independent jury, comprised of representatives from the local literary arts community, from among books published between April 2022 and March 2023. The winners will be announced at the gala event, hosted by CBC Radio’s Kathryn Marlow, at the Union Club of British Columbia on Wednesday October 11 at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.) Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at victoriabookprizes.ca. Founded in 2004, the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize is a partnership between the City of Victoria and Brian Butler of Butler Brothers Supplies. The City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize recognizes and celebrates exceptional children’s and youth literature in our community. The late Mel Bolen of Bolen Books established the Children’s Book Prize in 2008. Additional sponsors include Munro’s Books, Friesens Corporation, Greater Victoria Public Library, Russell Books, CBC Radio, Island Blue Print, Magnolia Hotel & Spa, Chateau Victoria Hotel & Suites and the Union Club of British Columbia. The Victoria Book Prize Society establishes policy and criteria for the prizes, administers the competition and appoints the juries. For more information: victoriabookprizes.caor victoria.ca/bookprizes.
  4. Monday, September 11, 2023 | For Immediate Release Songhees Nation Invites the Greater Victoria Community to the South Island Powwow Unceded lək̓ʷəŋən territory, VICTORIA, BC – The Songhees Nation is hosting the second annual South Island Powwow with support from the City of Victoria on September 30, 2023. The Powwow will take place on the homelands of the lək̓ʷəŋən people at Royal Athletic Park. September 30 is a federal statutory holiday to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day. The South Island Powwow honours and recognizes survivors of Indian Residential and Day Schools and their families, the Sixties Scoop and the children who never made it home from these institutions. The Powwow also celebrates Indigenous cultures and resiliency and brings people together in celebration to build bridges amongst all Nations. Local First Nations, along with Nations from the Mainland, have been welcomed to participate in the time-honoured Powwow. Last year’s inaugural South Island Powwow attracted 10,000 people during the grand entry, with more people expected to attend this year. “The South Island Powwow has rekindled a piece of Songhees history, while providing a safe space for healing, education, and understanding.” Said Chief Ron Sam of the Songhees Nation. “We invite the public to be present, with an open mind and open heart to witness the resiliency of Indigenous Peoples on this important day of National Truth and Reconciliation.” The second annual South Island Powwow will feature the traditional grand entry of Nations, with Indigenous song and dance with two host drums, Sage Hills and Blackfish, along with guest speakers, and over 80 vendors including multiple food trucks. Admission to the event is free and everyone is welcome. Gates will open at 10 a.m., with two grand entries; noon and 6 p.m. Colours will retire at midnight. “The City of Victoria is honoured to once again be working in partnership with the Songhees Nation to mark this day and celebrate the strength and resilience of Indigenous Peoples,” said Mayor Marianne Alto. “We welcome Songhees Nation's invitation to the whole community to join the City in supporting the South Island Powwow as a meaningful step in our journeys of reconciliation.” For more information, and to sign up for media accreditation for the second annual South Island Powwow visit: songheesnation.ca/south-island-powwow.
  5. To S Ison above: Given the nature of the story and the refusal of those on Our Langford or the previous mayor and council to talk with Focus—indeed two people threatened us with lawsuits—I believe we did the right thing, i.e. not be intimidated into silence or even ignoring a difficult community conflict. We were very careful with this article. We always are, but in this case in particular, we did not want to cause more divisiveness. Judith Lavoie did a great job in my view.
  6. Congratulations to Jimbo on his winning RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, one of the most-watched reality series on TV! The story above (2019) hails from before his international fame. Here’s a recent video of him and the runner-up Kandy Muse.
  7. until
  8. until
  9. until
    Once again, from Dec 1st to Jan 1st, one of our Committee Members, Laura Thomson will be dipping in the ocean to raise funds to support the food program at Soweto Junior School. If you would like to support our advent fundraiser , we are suggesting a donation of a “dollar and dip” so by Christmas your donation would be $25 – enough to feed 2 children for the month. Please feel free to join Laura any morning , on weekdays she will be dipping between 7:45 and 8:00am at Little Ross Bay (at the bottom of St. Charles) , or better still start your own “Christmas dipping” challenge! Click on our DONATE page and make sure to put “Dipping for Dollars” in your email or cheque, if you would like to support the challenge www.supportsowetojuniorschool.org 2nd dipping for dinners.pdf
  10. FOCUS congratulates two of its regular writers—Russ Francis and Stephen Hume—on winning 2022 Jack Webster Awards, announced on November 3, 2022. RUSS FRANCIS won a Webster for Excellence in Environmental Reporting for the second year in a row, this time for his story “Electric Vehicles: Will they Really Drive Us to a Better Planet?” In 2021, Francis won the award for his story “One in 7 deaths of Canadians are due to fossil fuel particles, which also help viruses invade our bodies”. Francis has been a regular contributor to FOCUS for over five years. He previously held staff positions with Monday Magazine and several large dailies, including the Vancouver Sun. His freelance pieces have been published in various publications worldwide. At Monday Magazine, in 2000, he won a Webster award of distinction, with T.K. Demmings and Ross Crockford, for a Victoria city hall story, and won wide praise for helping end a highly questionable city deal with a California developer, through his Arena Deathwatch column. In 2008, he enrolled in UVic’s Master of Public Administration program, subsequently working as a BC government analyst for 10 years in various ministries. He returned to reporting in 2018, concentrating on energy policy and the climate emergency for Focus. Russ Francis In learning of the award, Russ commented: “Congratulations to the other finalists, Nathan Griffiths at the Vancouver Sun and Province, and Jude Isabella at Hakai Magazine. Both excellent! And, of course, thanks to Leslie Campbell and David Broadland at Focus Magazine for their continuing advice and support. Stephen Hume won the Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award for his 5 decades of journalism with publications like the Edmonton Journal and Vancouver Sun. Stephen Hume As the Webster Award tribute notes, “Over a journalistic career spanning half a century (and still going strong), Stephen Hume has been an Arctic Correspondent, Editor-in-Chief, General Manager, published poet and author of seven books, a journalism instructor at Vancouver Island university and for 30-plus years a beloved columnist for The Vancouver Sun and now for Focus on Victoria magazine. Mr. Hume has a deep love for and knowledge about British Columbia—its natural beauty, abundant wildlife, complex history, rich resources, diverse people. He has travelled every region of our vast province, telling stories from small towns and big cities, about everyday folks and powerful leaders. Hume demonstrates mastery of long-form feature writing, weaving many threads of a story together into a multi-layered whole informed by deep historical knowledge and current context. His skill and insight has won him many fans of his columns over the years and numerous journalism awards including, but not limited to the Southam President’s Award for commentary, many national newspaper award citations, and a Webster Award in 2000.” There’s a wonderful video interview with (and tribute to) Stephen, available about 13.5 minutes into the awards ceremony, which can be viewed here. A list of Stephen Hume’s many reports and essays in Focus is here. Other winners included CBC Victoria for Excellence in Health Reporting for “A Crisis in Care: The Family Doctor Shortage in Greater Victoria”, and Victoria’s Andrew MacLeod of the Tyee for his story “FOI Reveals a Problem-Plagued BC $8.9-Million Tech Project”. See the complete list of award finalists, with links to all their articles here. Named for influential reporter and commentator Jack Webster, who worked in print, radio and television, the awards are presented annually by the Webster Foundation whose mission is to foster and celebrate excellence in journalism to protect the public interest for British Columbians. Leslie Campbell is the editor of FOCUS—and pleased and proud to work with Russ and Stephen and other excellent writers dedicated to investigating important regional issues.
  11. Susan Breiddal, a veteran hospice counsellor, offers an intimate, helpful guide to the dying process and grieving. AFTER DEALING WITH THE LOSS of her infant son Dante 30 years ago—on the heals of the deaths of three other family members—Susan Breiddal realized she wanted to be there to help others facing death. With a degree in social work, she had been working in the counselling field for a dozen years, but Dante’s death changed her focus. She joined the Palliative Response Team of Victoria Hospice, working with the dying and bereaved. In so doing, she learned first hand the paradox that in opening ourselves to death, we open to life itself. Susan Breiddal While retired now, Breiddal spent 20 years on the Hospice team. Late last year, her book based on her experiences there—In the Shadow of Angels—was published. In August, we met to discuss her work and the book. Though most communities have hospice societies, Breiddal tells me that Victoria Hospice is unique in the integration of professional “psychosocial” services with those of medicine and nursing. About 20 counsellors are employed; they attend the dying and their families alongside nurses. The counsellor leader sits at the general management table. She credits the donations Victoria Hospice gets as allowing this team approach, one that also makes home deaths, and the care around them, possible. Towards the end of her decades with Hospice, Breiddal decided to tackle her Ph.D. focusing on the motivation and experience of people who work with the dying and their families. Breiddal was inspired in part by the idea of leaving a legacy for her colleagues and those thinking of working in a hospice setting. Her new book blends the theoretical research she did for her thesis with eloquent writing about her life and work. It provides a wealth of insight about palliative care, the work of dying and grieving. People come to hospice work for different reasons. But part of the attraction, what keeps them doing it, Breiddal explains this way in In the Shadow of Angels: “Being called to the realm of death is to be pulled out of the everydayness of life, a willingness to be off-balance, to have our sense of safety and familiarity challenged, to have the comfort of thinking that we know how it is, constantly disrupted. The call is to surrender to uncertainty, change and discomfort.” To be willing to be present and open. As she notes in the book, “Most people only deal with a few deaths during the course of their lives, so they can sometimes forget that we are all going to die. In palliative care, we can never forget: at work, encountering mortality happens continuously, over a long period of time.” In one of the book’s many moving passages, she explains to the questioning brother of a hospice patient, why she loves her job: “It is sad, even heartbreaking at times, but it’s also touching, meeting people. Like you. It’s inspiring. There are so many people who really love other people, who really put out when the going gets tough. It’s kind of a privilege, to be part of such an important time…” Highly accessible to lay readers, In the Shadow of Angels takes us behind the scenes, visiting the homes of people dying with Hospice’s care. Breiddal must have kept a very detailed and rich journal during her years at Hospice, as she is able to paint vivid scenes of a wide variety of “cases” (all anonymous), complete with dialogue and sharing of her private thoughts, emotional reactions and concerns. Through her stories and analysis, we learn while there are commonalities among those facing death, whether it be their own or a loved one’s, each situation is unique. And there is no right way to go through it. Breiddal learned from her patients that they have different needs; that each of us process information differently and at different speeds. She hopes the book and its stories will encourage people to have the conversations among family members that will help them through the process when faced with death. In particular, Breiddal, who is a very involved grandparent these days, is passionate about including children in the process. “They need information at a different pace,” she tells me, “but they have the same range of emotions and need to have a chance to say good-bye and feel involved in the process. They need to trust us to give them accurate information.” She also addresses the oft-heard lament “I don’t want to be a burden.” Caring for someone at their end of life is a very intimate experience, she notes. Sometimes it even involves wiping their bum. But it is not a burden; nor is it undignified, she asserts— it’s just part of life. Taking care of such needs is a loving act, one for which we can and do build capacity. She also notes that some, when they say they don’t want to be a burden, are saying “I don’t want that kind of intimacy.” Listening beyond the words is key. In relating her own discomfort at times during her hospice work, she helps us understand and accept uncertainty, to surrender to the process, to grow through it. In one part of the book she relates how one can grieve—daily, over the course of years—the slower death of a person from dementia. It occurred with her own mother who came to live with Breiddal’s family shortly after she started working in palliative care. At the time she didn’t realize both how difficult that would be for her whole family, as well as how she “was grieving the loss of her mother, day by day” as she descended into the living nightmare of confusion, suspicion and anxiety that often defines Alzheimers. She writes, “I didn’t know then that what I was about to experience—love and goodwill that slowly dissolved into impatience, intolerance, irritation and finally, rage and hatred—was common to other caregivers, and that my confusion and shame about my emotional response was mixed up with my grief.” The things Breiddal now sees that she needed most at that time were: “accurate and complete information about dementia and what to expect as a caregiver,” and “a chance to name and explore my grief…my dark feelings.” IN HER WORK, Breiddal understood it was “important not to hide behind a script.” Instead, she would enter a home or attend the bedside without an agenda, to listen and discover what is needed at that moment. She notes that with a dying person, nature or life helps them know when to accept help and also when they are ready to go. Family members too learn through the dying process when it is time for a person to die. “But you do the same amount of grieving no matter how long it takes,” Breiddal tells me. Family dynamics can pose a challenge, of course. “People may not be on the same page. Often it’s the out of town relatives who fly in and want more to be done. It’s important to listen to the emotion behind what they are saying; often there’s guilt or fear.” Breiddal tells me hospice staff “try to stay focused on what the patient wants. People know when they can’t fight it, that the balance has tipped.” This means hospice counsellors spend a fair amount of time just listening and another chunk educating people. Family members might mistakenly believe that a dying patient not eating means they are choosing not to fight for life. Rather, says Breiddal, it is really them responding in a normal way to the end of life when the body loses its ability to process foods and liquids (the latter can cause swelling or go into the lungs). Another myth is that palliative drugs kill people. The drugs, says Breiddal, are treating the symptoms of the dying process—the pain, primarily—but not hastening death. “The nurses and doctors are very ethical.” In the Shadow of Angels helps us understand the professionalism and deep knowledge and caring involved in counselling the dying and their loved ones. Ongoing education and emotional intelligence are required, as is an ability to problem-solve. As Breiddal notes, sometimes you are walking into a home with dozens of people, all with different needs. Creating a safe, non-threatening environment for them is paramount. Managing one’s own emotions and helping colleagues cope also comes with the role of a palliative counsellor. In the end, for her personally, she tells me, working with the dying has inspired her to live in the moment and to feel gratitude for what she and her loved ones have. Breiddal has three adult children and three young grandchildren. She lives in a large old house in Oak Bay with her husband of 45 years, her daughter, son-in-law and two young grandchildren. Of course, she admits wryly, 20 years of working with those near death is a double-edged sword in that she certainly realizes all the things that can go wrong with a body. But that doesn’t deter her, at age 70, from rock climbing and daily ocean plunges. She also looks for and finds many opportunities to practice kindness. In the Shadow of the Angels can be ordered on Amazon or direct from Susan Breiddal at dr.breiddal@gmail.com (no delivery charges with the latter). https://www.facebook.com/susan.breiddal Leslie Campbell is the editor of focusonvictoria.ca.
  12. Don't forget--if you are interested in the City of Victoria's Missing Middle plan, tonight is the continued public hearing. September 1 at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers or participate virtually.
  13. Don't forget--if you are interested in the City of Victoria's Missing Middle plan, tonight is the continued public hearing. September 1 at 6:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers or participate virtually.
  14. A reader let us know that a memorial for Father Charles Brandt will be held at 2364 Catherwood Rd on Saturday September 10th at 10:30 am. The Brandt Oyster River Hermitage Society would like to extend an invitiation to you to attend. Email: Kathryn Jones: innovativekat@gmail.com
×
×
  • Create New...