Leslie Campbell

These lovely fall days are perfect for a walk in the woods. If you fancy some poetry with your dose of nature, register now for our popular event, the Forest Poet-Tree Walk. Check out our full schedule to register for all events and buy tickets. Scroll down for author Q&A's with Isabella Wang and Linda K. Thompson. Both Isabella and Linda will be reading their poems at the Forest-Poet Tree Walk. About this event Unique to the Victoria Festival of Authors, the fourth annual Forest Poet-Tree Walk places you in a West Coast landscape. This poetry reading under the trees unfolds at Mary Lake Nature Sanctuary in the Highlands. Surrounded by fir and arbutus, passing alongside creeks and the lakeshore, this is an immersive sensory experience. Led by Yvonne Blomer and Beth Kope, the poets Dallas Hunt, Linda K. Thompson, Isabella Wang, and Terence Youngwill offer their own explorations of landscape and memory. Their poems will illuminate, lament, and celebrate the natural world. Be prepared to walk, be prepared for any weather, be prepared to find the magic in the forest. Be aware that the audience may well include flickers, a heron, an otter, or mink. Captioning available for livestreamed event. Sat, 2 October 2021 at 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT at Mary Lake Nature Sanctuary, 1772 Millstream Road Check out all of our events to buy tickets and register. Buy tickets now!

2021 Pacific Baroque Festival Makes Triumphant Return September 8-13 Live Music Returns to Victoria with a Festival of Chaconnes and Passacaglias Victoria, BC - After a lengthy delay, the 17th annual Pacific Baroque Festival, presented in partnership with EMV: Pacific Baroque Series and the Victoria Conservatory of Music, will be held once again in Victoria this September. ‘From the Ground Up: Chaconnes and Passacaglias,’ features a dazzling series of concerts that highlight this uniquely virtuosic Baroque music, including stunning works by Claudio Monteverdi, François Couperin, Dietrich Buxtehude, and Georg Philipp Telemann. “We are so grateful to finally be able to present this wonderful series of concerts,” says Brian Groos, Managing Director of The Pacific Baroque Festival. “This music is beautiful and profound; an experience that will be enhanced when hearing these musicians play it in a live performance.” To interpret this captivating line-up, Festival Artistic Director Marc Destrubé will lead an ensemble of the west coast’s leading early music artists including violinist Kathryn Wiebe, cellist Natalie Mackie, harpsichordist Christina Hutten, and member of the Order of Canada, soprano Suzie Leblanc. The Festival opens with a recital by celebrated organist Mark McDonald. “This year’s theme is based on Chaconnes and Passacaglias. These are both types of pieces that use an approach called a ‘ground bass,’ or a repeating bass line,” explains Destrubé. “It’s like a modern-day chord progression in a pop song. This year’s Pacific Baroque Festival gives us the opportunity to explore the many ways in which composers such as J.S. Bach and Arcangelo Corelli used the universal appeal of the chaconne and passacaglia. These forms suggest that the wheels of life just keep on turning, which is the perfect sonic balm for these unsettled times.” The Festival will feature performances at the Alix Goolden Performance Hall and Christ Church Cathedral, with limited seating and Covid safety protocols in place. EVENT LISTINGS: ‘The Master’s Masters: Teachers of the Young Bach’ Wednesday, September 8 at 8:00 PM Christ Church Cathedral (Quadra Street at Rockland Avenue) Mark McDonald (Organ) The pieces in the Andreas Bach Book and the so-called Möller manuscript, two significant collections compiled by J. S. Bach’s eldest brother and keyboard teacher Johann Ernst Bach, are a treasure trove of the greatest composers of the day and shed light on the early musical education of the young J. S. Among the many great names in the collections – Pachelbel, Froberger, Lully, Albinoni – are two of Bach’s greatest influences, the celebrated organists Dieterich Buxtehude and Georg Böhm whom Bach would seek out in his early years as a budding musician. Take a musical journey through the sound world of the young Bach, whose own early works in the collection, like the great Passacaglia in C minor, show his ascension from studious pupil to master in his own right. ‘Italian Passion’ Thursday, September 9 at 8:00 PM Alix Goolden Performance Hall, 907 Pandora Ave Marc Destrubé (Violin); Kathryn Wiebe (Violin); Natalie Mackie (Viola da gamba); Christina Hutton (Harpsichord and Organ); Suzie LeBlanc (Soprano) Explore the brilliant music of the violin virtuosos of 17th and 18th century Italy. Early Italian composers were masters in defining genres, from Monteverdi’s operas to Frescobaldi’s toccatas to Corelli’s sonatas. This concert highlights the versatility of Italian expression over an ever-steady ground bass. ‘German Depth’ Friday, September 10 at 11:00 AM Alix Goolden Performance Hall, 907 Pandora Ave Marc Destrubé (Violin); Kathryn Wiebe (Violin); Natalie Mackie (Viola da gamba); Christina Hutton (Harpsichord and Organ); Suzie LeBlanc (Soprano) The music of 17th century Germany was highly influenced by the Protestant Reformation. With a new approach to writing for the church, composers explored the depths of their own beliefs through music. Drawing from new musical ideas and forms that emerged in other regions, such as the chaconne and passacaglia, the brilliant composers of our German Depth concert skillfully adapted them to their more profound local tastes. ‘French Elegance’ Saturday, September 11 at 8:00 PM Alix Goolden Performance Hall, 907 Pandora Ave Marc Destrubé (Violin); Kathryn Wiebe (Violin); Natalie Mackie (Viola da gamba); Christina Hutton (Harpsichord and Organ); Suzie LeBlanc (Soprano) In the Palace of Versailles, the Sun King, Louis XIV, presided over a court widely known for its extravagance. He celebrated the arts and employed many musicians to perform ballets, operas, and at official ceremonies for the entertainment of foreign guests. French Elegance is a programme of music from this period, exuding the glory of France as exemplified by the mighty chaconne. ‘Choral Evensong’ Monday, September 13 at 5:00 PM Christ Church Cathedral (Quadra Street at Rockland Avenue) (Voluntary Offerings) The Pacific Baroque Festival concludes with the annual tradition of Choral Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral. This year’s Service of reflection and prayer will feature the music of England’s Henry Purcell and Lübeck’s Dieterich Buxtehude.” LISTING INFORMATION 2021 Pacific Baroque Festival – From the Ground Up: Chaconnes & Passacaglias Dates: September 8 – 13, 2021 Tickets: $25 + fees for all ages Box Office: www.pacbaroque.com/2021-pacific-baroque-festival

SINCE THE FIRST DAY OF ARRESTS at the Fairy Creek old-growth defence blockades, the RCMP have been employing vast “exclusion zones.” On July 20 a BC Supreme Court judge ruled those exclusion zones are not legal, according to a lawyer for the Rainforest Flying Squad. Justice Douglas Thompson told lawyer Matthew Nefstead that the RCMP may arrest and remove people who violate an injunction order, but may not deny access to everyone simply based on the possibility that someone may violate the order in the future. Justice Thompson agreed that the order issued April 1 by Justice Frits Verhoeven was clear in its protection of public access and the right to participate in lawful protest, and that important liberties were being compromised by the RCMP’s enforcement actions. Chief among these actions are the RCMP’s checkpoints and geographically extensive exclusion zones—which have ranged up to 10 kilometres—which have limited the public from getting anywhere near the forest defenders’ logging blockades. This has meant the public could not show support or engage in civil disobedience by standing on the road. The exclusion zones also meant that media representatives were limited to having to be escorted in by RCMP members, at times the RCMP chose, in order to get close to the blockades and arrests. Those representatives had to prove to the RCMP they were credentialed. (Media access was the subject of another court application, which was also ruled on favourably by Justice Thompson, who stated the RCMP must: “keep in mind the media’s special role in a free and democratic society, and the necessity of avoiding undue and unnecessary interference with the journalistic function.”) Will RCMP gates at Fairy Creek blockades come down soon? Justice Thompson was responding to an application last week from Elders for Ancient Trees to amend or clarify the injunction the BC Supreme Court granted to logging company Teal Cedar Ltd on April 1. Thompson’s oral judgments today, on applications for access by the Elders and by the coalition of media groups, will be followed in the coming weeks by written reasons. “This is a major victory for the public and anyone who wants to express their disapproval of the destruction of some of the last irreplaceable old growth in the region,” said Susan Gage, a spokesperson for Elders for Ancient Trees. The application was prompted in part when a bus carrying 15 elders was forced to back down a logging road three kilometres in the rain after they were turned away from reaching a logging blockade in the Fairy Creek area on June 15. “We hope the RCMP will respond immediately to this court order and remove their blockades and checkpoints,” stated Gage. FOCUS contacted the RCMP for comment but did not hear back by publishing time. Saul Arbess, another elder involved in the application, noted that in past forest defence actions, such as at Clayoquot and Walbran, RCMP behaviour has been more respectful of people’s right to protest. “Each morning, supporters would be allowed to attend the blockade. The police would come and read the injunction to everyone and then ask, ‘Will you step aside?’ Those who did not want to be arrested would step off the road; those willing to be arrested would remain on it and be removed and arrested by the officers.” But in the Fairy Creek blockades, as in Wetsuwet’en, it’s very different, noted Arbess. Huge exclusion zones enforced with blockades and checkpoints established by the RCMP, block access to everyone on long stretches of logging roads—all on public land. Even tourists have been unable to get through. Lawyer Matthew Nefstead, who represented the elders group, told media it seems clear based on the wording of the injunction and oral reasons by Justice Frits Verhoeven that the intent of the injunction was to ensure access to the area for the public and for peaceful protest while also clearing the way for ­industry. The judge stated: “The protestors are free to protest, demonstrate, and attempt to influence the government in any lawful way they may choose.” Instead, Nefstead said, the exclusion zones prevented people who wanted to visit the area to participate in lawful protest, with no intent to violate the injunction, from being allowed to enter. These people were able to walk through an exclusion zone set up 10-12 kilometres from Waterfall blockade camp in late May. The RCMP chose not to arrest anyone that day. Lawyer Noah Ross told FOCUS in May that “Exclusion zones are only legal in certain limited circumstances in which there are serious public safety risks. It’s explicitly not allowed by the injunction,” said Ross. “It appears that the RCMP are once again willing to enforce exclusion zones that are not legally justified in order to make their job easier. They’re willing to overlook people’s civil rights in order to give industry access to their logs,” Ross stated. “It’s not legally justified.” This opinion was confirmed by the BC Supreme Court Even with the restrictive exclusion zones, well over 440 people have been arrested at the Fairy Creek blockades trying to prevent clearcutting of old-growth forests. With the new ruling against the zones, it seems likely more citizens will be able to show support and risk arrest in doing so. (In other legal news, arrestees may now face criminal contempt of court charges rather than just civil.) Leslie Campbell is the editor of FOCUS. She has visited Fairy Creek blockades three times, including in late May when she and hundreds of others—were able to walk past an RCMP checkpoint due to the sheer numbers and Pacheedaht elder Bill Jone’s advocacy. That story is here.