Cortes Currents artwork

Cortes Currents

1,486 episodes - English - Latest episode: 1 day ago -

Cortes Currents is a news platform that asks what's current in Cortes and the Discovery Islands. Web articles & radio podcasts: Cortes Island, Quadra Island, Discovery Islands, Campbell River: news, lifestyle, local politics, affordable housing, economy, food security, health, ferries, tourism, history, culture, environmental issues, sustainable forestry, oyster farming, the arts, First Nations, energy, climate change, overshoot

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Episodes

Connected Coast Phase 1

January 31, 2022 06:14 - 6 minutes - 6.18 MB

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - Cortes residents on their travels about the island will have noticed some new roadside sights this January. Several sandwich boards bearing the CityWest logo have appeared in scattered locations, as well as road-work crews with some unusual, specialised heavy equipment. All this activity is part of the initial phase of the Connected Coast project on Cortes Island. The $4.3 million last-mile project is financed in part by the provincial government and operated by...

CityWest: Cortes Island's new phone, TV and Internet provider

January 30, 2022 23:18 - 4 minutes - 9.92 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - CityWest will also be providing phone and TV to Cortes Islanders who choose these services. Regional Manager Dino Tsakonas told De Clarke, of Cortes Currents, when she was visiting the crew burying fibre optic cable in Squirrel Cove last week. This was followed by Regional Director Noba Anderson’s announcement on CKTZ’s Folk U Friday. Tsakonas told me packages are always in the +$20 range. “There's so many different options, it's really hard for me to go ove...

Folk U Radio returns with a Telus Tower update @89.5 Friday

January 29, 2022 12:29 - 1 hour - 269 MB

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - What is happening with the proposed Telus Towers on Cortes Island? What's proposed? What input will islanders have? What exactly is the technology proposed? Will another tower in Manson's fix our island cell problems? What is 5G and how is this different than City West's fiber-optic proposal? Director Noba Anderson, representative of Safe Tech Cortes, reporter Anastasia Avvakumova, and others will join Manda Aufochs Gillespie this Friday on Folk U Radio at 1 ...

What's coming to Rainbow Ridge in 2022?

January 28, 2022 15:10 - 11 minutes - 25.6 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Sandra Wood talks about what the Cortes Community Housing Society achieved in 2021, when the Rainbow Ridge affordable housing project will be shovel ready and what the society will do after it is finished.

Mosaic hopes to start logging on Cortes this fall

January 28, 2022 14:17 - 5 minutes - 13 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Mosaic Forest Management is tentatively considering logging some of their Cortes Island holding after the wildfire season ends this year. The forestry giant laid out their draft three-year plan during a ZOOM call on Thursday night. A company spokesperson emphasized the idea this is very much a draft plan and they want to hear back from Cortes residents. Mosaic owns 1,085 hectares, or just under 9% of the Cortes land base. They have been studying Cortes Fore...

Environmental design: learning to work with the natural water balance

January 27, 2022 16:15 - 16 minutes - 37.3 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - In a previous interview with the Quadra ICAN water security team, Bernie Amell said that development could take place in a manner that respects the natural water balance. Amell is co-owner of the environmental design firm Source2Source and a recognized authority in the design of constructed wetlands for water treatment, and in the restoration of streams and riparian habitats. One of his firm’s projects received a gold medal from the Canadian Society of Landscap...

Vancouover Island's diminishing Tree Harvests

January 25, 2022 23:52 - 12 minutes - 27.7 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - In the second of two broadcasts about more sustainable forestry practices, one of the founders of the Cortes Community Fortes Co-operative talks about the industry’s diminishing harvests in terms that every gardener understands.  “Back in the 1970s it used to be called tree farming, to give the public the idea that you're actually going to be creating crops off of that landscape each year,” said Ellingsen.  Every farmer knows that they need to replace the nutr...

What is a sustainable rate of consumption for forestry?

January 24, 2022 19:59 - 9 minutes - 22.3 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - “Most of what’s left is up in the mountains and the coast range or the Rockies and so not the productive sites anymore. Most of what was easy to get is gone,” said Bruce Ellingsen, one of the founders of the Cortes Community Forest Co-operative, in reference to British Columbia’s old growth trees. In the first of two articles about current forestry practices, Ellingsen looks to nature for models of a more sustainable consumption rate. Landsat satellite data p...

Looking down the throat of a Humpback Whale

January 21, 2022 17:02 - 9 minutes - 22.8 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Dr. Kelsey Gil is  a postdoctoral researcher at UBC’s department of zoology and the lead author of a paper published in Current Biology that literally peaks down the throat of a lunge whale. Lunge feeding whales (humpbacks, blue whales and fin whales) open their mouths as they accelerate towards their prey. Gil explained that if, for example, a human were to do this in a swimming pool, they would have to swallow a volume of water equal to their body size. “So...

MOWI: Closing down a processing plant and removing another fish farm

January 19, 2022 18:13 - 7 minutes - 16.7 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - MOWI Canada West is closing down its processing plant in Surrey and another fish farm has left the Broughton Archipelago. On December 17th MOWI Canada West announced it is closing its fish processing plant in Surrey because of a 30% loss in production volume as a result of the closure of fish farms. Rupinder Dadwan, MOWI’s Human Resources Manager, said, “This is what happens when politics overrides science-based evidence. At the beginning of the pandemic we w...

Retraction regarding cutting some old growth on Quadra Island

January 18, 2022 13:19 - 4 minutes - 9.25 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Last week I published a story about some old growth trees cut down on Quadra Island, then almost immediately became aware there was much more to the story and took it down. There is no question about old growth trees being cut down on woodlot licence W2031. Nor is there any question about the legality of the woodlot licensees action. They have not broken any laws. As one of the licensees emailed, “With regards to your questions about old growth and riparian...

Public Meetings for two Quadra island developments deferred until April

January 17, 2022 17:39 - 17 minutes - 39.4 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Public meetings for two controversial Quadra Island real estate developments have been deferred until this April, 2022, because of concerns about meeting in-person during a pandemic. The public meeting for the proposed Gowland Harbour Views development was scheduled for January 18th, 2022, and the rezoning meeting for Quadra Links Golf Course was to have occurred the following day. With less than a week to go, at the January 12th SRD Board meeting, Quadra Isl...

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip: Why the RCMP must be accouontable

January 17, 2022 14:16 - 10 minutes - 25.1 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - It has been a week since the Federal Court of Canada condemned RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki for her failure to respond to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC). The case revolved around an interim report from 2017, but in her Judgement and Reasons Associate Chief Justice Jocelyne Gagné pointed to numerous other cases where the RCMP had acted in the same high handed manner. “It is in the public interest to have a police oversight institution th...

Helping communities in need during the recent cold snap

January 14, 2022 12:48 - 5 minutes - 12.8 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - At their January 12th meeting, the SRD Board had some good reports about the way individuals and corporations helped out during the recent cold snap. Chair Brad Unger brought the topic up during his update: “The weather throughout our Regional District just last couple of weeks, snow, rain, freezing rain, more snow, power outages everywhere within the Regional District, but nowhere near as it was in Tahsis and Zeballos. No power there for several days; well cl...

2021 as seen by Rachel Blaney, MP for North Island -Powell River

January 13, 2022 14:25 - 24 minutes - 56.3 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Rachel Blaney, Member of Parliament for North Island - Powell River , gave Cortes Currents an overview of the important issues this past year and the effect being our MP has had on her personal life. Some of the issues: - Climate Change - the 2021 election - Government clawbacks on the most vulnerable population - the housing crisis - Fish Farms - First Nations Issues What being an MP has meant to her family - How COVID meant staying home and seeing her fami...

Keeping the grid up on Cortes Island

January 12, 2022 15:49 - 14 minutes - 32.3 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Trying to keep the grid up has been very challenging these past three weeks. BC Hydro crews were constantly on call throughout the region, for more than two weeks, repairing power outages caused by falling trees and snow encrusted power lines. Subzero temperatures meant skyrocketing heating bills. When John Sprungman recently asked why his lights were flickering, a BC Hydro repair technician informed him that Cortes Island is trying to draw more power than the i...

Roadside Camp closes down at Fairy Creek; Elder Bill Jones given environmental award

January 11, 2022 16:39 - 7 minutes - 16.3 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Roadside, one of the last remaining Forest Defender camps at Fairy Creek, officially closed down yesterday. In the end, it was severe weather rather than police actions that brought this about. An unknown number of Indigenous folks remain at a nearby watch camp. The last RCMP press release, posted on Lake Cowichan detachment page more than a month ago (on December 2nd), states 1,188 people have been arrested as they attempted to protect what is sometimes calle...

COVID update for January 7th, 2022

January 08, 2022 16:39 - 4 minutes - 11.3 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - According to the provincial government’s Daily Update, there are now at least 3,906 active COVID cases on Vancouver Island. This statistic is low. The number of people who are believed to have COVID and gone into self isolation, but have not yet been tested, is growing “As many people have noted in the past few weeks, we reached our capacity both from testing, from the lab equipment, from the personnel and the reagents,” said BC Provincial Health Officer Bonnie...

The accelerating pace of Species becoming 'at Risk'

January 06, 2022 16:52 - 9 minutes - 8.29 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently released a survey that showed the total number of marine species at risk within the Salish Sea doubled between 2002 and 2015. While the Discovery Islands are within the study area, the EPA study did not list specific locations. So Cortes Currents asked Max Thaysen, President of the Friends of Cortes Island, about the species of risk in our area. The Friends of Cortes Island identified 33 Species of Risk that li...

Reel Youth's Partners in Education film program launches January 10th.

January 05, 2022 16:39 - 4 minutes - 10.6 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Fifteen youth, aged 8 to 14, signed up for the Reel Youth Partners in Education Film Program, which starts on Monday January 10th. This online program is run by the Powell River School Board but, as might be expected, considering Reel Youth’s strong connection to Cortes Island, 7 of the 15 students are Cortesians. “We have an office on Cortes, which is the office that you're most likely to find us in. Then we've got one in Vancouver and Toronto and Yellowkn...

We're drinking a lot more alcohol during COVID, study says

January 04, 2022 15:12 - 9 minutes - 22.6 MB

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - A new University of Victoria study found that British Columbians drank more alcohol during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic than they have in the past 20 years. The adult population drank the equivalent to 547 cans of beer or 104 bottles of wine in one year The heaviest drinkers were in the Interior, but the second highest levels of consumption were on Vancouver Island. “The story is partly COVID, but it's not just COVID. There's been a spike. On top o...

Team Awesome did it again, Mmmm good!

January 02, 2022 13:32 - 4 minutes - 4.08 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Team Awesome served more than 200 people at this year’s free Christmas Dinner Take-out on Cortes Island. That’s 50% less than last year. Given the sub zero temperatures and slippery snow covered roads, the organizers were surprised that so many showed up. In the thank-you, which Noah Davison and Izabelle Perry posted in the Tideline, “We were so touched by all the neighbours and friends that helped each other pick up and deliver meals. It was such a heartwarm...

The cold snaps impact on the homeless

January 01, 2022 19:51 - 18 minutes - 43.1 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The chill that started just before Christmas has been particularly hard on the house challenged population of Campbell River, Quadra Island and Cortes Island. People are living uninsulated houses, trailers, boats, cabins, cars, or tents. While Campbell River previously had an emergency shelter program between November and March, it was not able to open this year due to COVID restrictions. The City of Campbell River, Strathcona Regional District (SRD) and Ca...

Folk U: The Christmas episode

December 27, 2021 17:27 - 1 hour - 272 MB

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Holiday stories, music, and ... perhaps even call-in caroling.. this week on Folk U Radio: Friday at 1 p.m. as Norleen Lillico joins host Manda Aufochs Gillespie for a festive and fun holiday show. AND we invite neighbours to help make this an extra special holiday show by calling-in to CAROL over the phone. Call 250-935-0200 to participate! Questions? Requests? Email [email protected]. Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 and Mondays at 6:30...

Canada could still reach net zero emissions by 2050, Commissioner says

December 26, 2021 22:02 - 9 minutes - 22.2 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - It has been more than a month since the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, presented a series of devastating reports about Canada’s inept performance in addressing the climate crisis to the House of Commons. Jerry DeMarco said. “there is a need for the federal government to achieve real outcomes on environmental protection and sustainable development—not just words on paper or unfulfilled promises. All too often, Canada’s environmenta...

Cutting 88,000 Old age pensioners off from GIC

December 23, 2021 18:21 - 18 minutes - 43.1 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - According to North Island - Powell River MP Rachel Blaney more than 88,000 seniors are being cut off from the guaranteed income supplement (GIS) they received prior to the pandemic. She said that statistic originated with the parliamentary budget officer. Hundreds of people have called Blaney’s office about this, Including “people from Campbell River, Comox Valley, Powell River, Quadra Island, Port McNeil.” “I wouldn't be surprised if it's every community. Th...

Beach Clean-up finished in the southern Discovery Islands

December 22, 2021 16:00 - 15 minutes - 34.6 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Southern discovery islands beach cleanup is now finished. “The last truck load of debris left our yard this morning. So we're now just into the final stages of cleaning up our own yard as a result of all the little styrofoam balls and things,” said Brianne Quesnel Her company, Spirit of the West Adventures, was awarded a contract to clean up between 200 and 400 kilometres of shoreline in the southern Discovery Islands through the provincial government’s ...

Quadra ICAN asks ‘What will we do when the grid goes down?’

December 21, 2021 15:33 - 16 minutes - 38.7 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - When Jan Zwicky talked about the need to be independent of the grid, she mentioned a 60 second outage at 4 AM last year. Zwicky wasn’t aware there was a problem until she went into the basement three days later. Her freezer, which had been packed with food, was off. Most of the contents were ruined. Zwicky said she is not dependant on a computer and has a back-up system that can keep the lights on, “ But boy, I don't want that freezer to fall apart!” “So I th...

How Reel Youth flourished during COVID

December 20, 2021 17:11 - 14 minutes - 34 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Reel Youth had a year of in-person programming scheduled when the pandemic arrived, in March 2020. Everything had to be cancelled. “We quickly realized that we had to try something new, to innovate,” explained Mark Vonesch. In the fifth of a series about Reel Youth, he and Erica Køhn explain how this local media company flourished. The local media company has made over 250 films since the COVID 19 pandemic started. “We had to figure out a new way to operat...

January 29, 2022: Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island AGM

December 17, 2021 17:00 - 11 minutes - 26.8 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island Society will hold its AGM on January 29th, 2022. It has been close to 12 years since Sabina Leader-Mense and Christine Robinson launched the initiative to purchase 600 acres from Island Timberlands forest holdings. “The forest lands surrounding Carrington Lagoon are so important in terms of providing a wildlife corridor to the northern wilds of Cortes. It just offered itself up and we thought, ‘how could an...

Number of species at risk in Salish Sea doubled, says report

December 16, 2021 21:27 - 12 minutes - 27.6 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A recent report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states “the total number of marine species at risk in the Salish Sea has doubled from 2002 to 2015.” The accompanying map shows they are referring to an area that stretches from the Puget Sound to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and north beyond Cortes and Quadra Islands. “As of December 2015, nearly 20% of all fish species in the Salish Sea ecosystem are designated as either threatened, endangered or...

The Quadra Island Singers in-person concert

December 16, 2021 13:37 - 13 minutes - 30.6 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Quadra Singers first in-person concert since the beginning of the pandemic was at the Quadra Community Centre on December 10th and 11th. “We had almost sold out concerts, both nights. Our tickets went on sale and in Quathiaski Cove’s ‘Inspirations.’ We had pretty well sold out both nights,” said Valerie van Veen. The theme was Christmas, but the choir’s interim conductor, Dr John Hooper, had a surprise for the audience. Prior to his retirement, Dr. Hoop...

Reel Youth #4: Young people care about the issues

December 15, 2021 13:03 - 4 minutes - 10.6 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - In the fourth of a series about real youth, Mark Vonesch explains how youth to pick the issues that are shaping their future. “One of the things that I love about working with young people, especially when they're talking about issues, that they care about, the changes they want to see in the world, young people are impatient. They don't easily take no for an answer. They're not afraid of speaking up,” he explained. “When we asked them what issues you care ...

What CityWest will be on Cortes for the next 4-6 months

December 14, 2021 16:29 - 7 minutes - 17.3 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A CityWest construction crew will be on Cortes Island for the first four to six months of 2022, to hook individual homes for high-speed Internet. “Now that we've been issued a permit from the ministry of transport (MOTI), we have a green light to proceed with the provincial government's mandate of connecting Cortes Islanders under the ERI grant program,” said Eric Geall, Operations Manager for West Connect Infrastructure (WCI). He said Cortesians should receiv...

SRD protests BC’s ‘reactive’ and ‘emotionally driven’ forestry policies

December 14, 2021 14:27 - 9 minutes - 22.4 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District Board is writing Premier Horgan, to protest the government’s new ‘reactive,’ and ‘emotionally driven’ forestry policies. This letter appears to have largely been composed by Campbell River Director Charlie Cornfield, with some additions by SRD Chair Brad Unger. If the authors had stuck to the idea that local government should be involved in the process, or taken a less confrontational approach, this letter would have received...

Nuevo Malibu 11.6: The Grand Galloping Goof Runs Amuck Again

December 13, 2021 20:35 - 23 minutes - 29.5 MB

Allen Perkins/Nuevo Malibu - The new Narrator reports to the TURDIS -- the time-traveling Port-a-Potty -- to discover that earthling crew members Clell Landis and Doctor Shay Watt? have been imprisoned by (fanfare) The Grand Galloping Goof in a Google Pixel phone. The Goof insists that Mack the hologram take the TURDIS back to 1943 to witness the dawn of the psychedelic era. At the Sandoz labs in Switzerland, Mack, Narrator and the Goof watch chemist Albert Hofmann ingest a whopping dose ...

Quadra Island Catr Rescue

December 13, 2021 19:22 - 9 minutes - 20.9 MB

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - In the twelve years since it was founded, the Quadra Island Cat Rescue has helped more than 1200 cats and kittens. “We've helped them in many ways. First of all we try and find homes for as many cats and kittens that come into our care as possible. Of course, our mandate is to spay and neuter every cat that comes into our possession,” explained Valerie van Vleen. “That's why we're a charity and we're always raising funds to fund that.” They also help out Quadr...

Windows: the new Cortes's Art Journal on FolkU [email protected]

December 13, 2021 17:23 - 1 hour - 272 MB

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Cortes Currents - Learn more about Windows!!!! the first art journal published by the Dark Island Arts Collective when Juliann Nelson and Beatrix Baxter join host Manda Aufochs Gillespie this Friday at 1 p.m. on CKTZ 89.5FM or livestream on cortesradio.ca. Windows features over 30 local contributors shared photography, paintings, sculpture, carvings, poetry, creative writing, and deep thinking to create this 76-page, brilliantly coloured volume. It is an exploration ...

Proposed Cortes Island TELUS cell tower on Tla'amin land

December 11, 2021 17:31 - 6 minutes - 15 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) has no authority over TELUS’ proposed 63 metre high cell tower site in Mansons Landing. This is in the former Paukeanum Indian Reserve No. 3, which has been governed by the Tla’amin First Nation ever since the Tla’amin Final Agreement with the governments of BC and went into effect on April 5, 2016. Cortes Island Regional Director Noba Anderson confirmed “The Regional District doesn't have any land use authority here, an...

Fairy Creek Update with Kathy Code

December 10, 2021 21:53 - 24 minutes - 22.3 MB

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - Fairy Creek Update with Kathy Code Photo from Fairy Creek Blockade Facebook page

Cortes at Fairy Creek #5: The Takeaway

December 10, 2021 21:47 - 18 minutes - 17 MB

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - (Episode 5) the takeaway: what our interviewees brought home with them Photo from Fairy Creek Blockade Facebook Page

An opportunity to change how lower mainland dikes impact salmon

December 10, 2021 19:32 - 6 minutes - 15.4 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The recent mega-floods have brought an opportunity to rectify one of the problems that has long plagued salmon runs in the Lower Fraser Valley. Hundreds of miles of outdated flood protection infrastructure has been chopping fish up when they return home to spawn. Now much of it will have to be repaired or replaced. The Watershed Watch Salmon Society sees this as the opportunity to install ‘fish friendly’ flood infrastructure in its place. Lina Azeez Connected W...

Nzuri is a beautiful name for Baskets - and a basket company

December 10, 2021 13:53 - 11 minutes - 26.1 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The first shipment of baskets, for what was to become the Nzuri Basket company, arrived on Cortes Island in August, 2020. Jenny Hartwick didn’t set out to found a company. She brought some baskets home from a trip to Kenya the previous March. They were intended as gifts for friends and family. “It wasn't until we were back in Canada and I'd given away all of my baskets and I had everybody saying to me, ‘Wow, these are amazing can you get more of them?’ that ...

BC gas and oil lobbyists: Behind Victoria's closed doors

December 09, 2021 11:19 - 6 minutes - 6.28 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Wilderness Committee has just finished a survey that shows gas and oil company lobbyists are contacting the BC provincial Government two or three times a day. This is not new, they were also making overtures to the previous BC Liberal regime, but it does raise the question of whether they are shaping the policies that determine the future of all British Columbians. Climate Campaigner Peter McCartney says 14 of 15 of the top fracking companies in the provin...

Folk U: Chinese Traditional Medicine 101

December 08, 2021 19:05 - 1 hour - 271 MB

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Cortes Currents -Learn more about this ancient form of practicing medicine and health. Janine Maila, acupressurist, health practitioner, and teacher of Chinese Medicine joins host Manda Aufochs Gillespie this Friday at 1 p.m. on CKTZ 89.5FM or livestream on cortesradio.ca. Tune in and learn: - what is health from a TCM perspective; - the basics of the five element theory; - Chinese dietetics and how to eat for different constitutions. & more. Folk U Radio is taking...

Cortes Island Evacuation Plan

December 08, 2021 15:45 - 9 minutes - 21.9 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Cortes Island Evacuation Plan is almost finished. “I am just begging every Cortes Islander to pick up and go through the plan before all this happens. So everybody is aware. Too many people wait until the very last minute to try and figure out how things work,” said Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Protective Services Coordinator Shaun Koopman. “Please don't wait till the last minute to educate yourself about evacuations and emergency support services and...

The Origins of Reel Youth

December 05, 2021 19:18 - 10 minutes - 24.3 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A youth filmmaking initiative with international reach has its’ office in Mansons Hall, on Cortes Island. In the second of a series of programs about Reel Youth, Mark Vonesch and Erica Køhn tell the story of how this initiative came into being. “I think I'm most drawn to the work because I see the impact. Filmmaking and storytelling is a beautiful thing, but it is really like providing a program to young people and to communities that leaves them stronger a...

Reel Youth: The Youth and Seniors program

December 05, 2021 16:35 - 20 minutes - 46.4 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - In the third instalment of Cortes Currents Reel Youth series, Mark Voenish and Erica Køhn talk about Youth and Seniors programs. “Our youth and senior film programs, or youth and elder film programs, are probably about 30% - 40% of the work we do. It's one of the most powerful projects that we've done,” said Vonesch. The interviews with Trude Albright Sweeney, Dianne Hanson and Ed Piggott were in a 2015 series devoted to the rich history of Cortes Island and it...

Fairy Creek 4: Politics, Press, Outcomes

December 03, 2021 22:46 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MB

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - Episode 4 of Cortes at Fairy Creek: the complicated politics of logging and land rights in BC, the complicated outcomes; media coverage, legal and political responses Photo credit: Elder Bill Jones talks to a policeman with media looking on. - Photo courtesy Fairy Creek Logging Blockade Facebook page

What Reel Youth is bringing to students on Cortes Island

December 03, 2021 16:59 - 7 minutes - 16.1 MB

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The first of two school programs that Reel Youth hopes to run on Cortes Island during 2022 is already approved. “We have a program launching in January. That's for Partners in Education (PIE) students, mostly middle school youth who are doing a homeschooling course,” said Mark Vonesch, Director of Reel Youth. There are currently 9 Cortes Island enrolled in the PIE program through school District 47 in Powell River. Some are among the 12 students, aged 9 to 14, ...