Author: islandword

by Danny Zanbilowicz When and how did this become a crisis? “There have always been deaths from drug overdoses, and one is too many,” says Dr. Charmaine Enns, a Medical Health Officer with Island Health. ”We normally experience four to five deaths a year from overdoses for all of the north island. The rate rose slightly in 2014, and again in 2015, but it skyrocketed last year and continues to increase this year, in spite of everything we are doing.” According to statistics released by the BC Coroners Service, from January 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017 there were...

by Danny Zanbilowicz The Comox Valley Regional District has been in a power struggle with a development company based in Nanaimo- 3L Developments Inc, which wants to turn land it owns near the confluence of the Browns and Puntledge Rivers, mostly covered with trees, and a popular recreational area which includes Stotan Falls, into a subdivision of around 741 homes and 10,000 square meters of commercial space. The company’s plans would blow open the Regional Growth Strategy, which is meant to control and channel development in a way that is consistent with community values of sustainability. It has become well...

by Danny Zanbilowicz The federal government has promised that it will soon legalize marijuana in Canada. The current time line is for legislation to be in place next summer. In the meantime, the transition to legalization is proving confusing, murky, and frustrating to legislators, citizens, and cannabis activists. The Village of Cumberland’s recent exercise is a case in point. On Monday March 27 Village council members voted three to two to not accept any of the four submitted applications to run a marijuana dispensary in downtown Cumberland, ending, for now, months of work on the part of the applicants,...

by Serena Patterson I have always been a romantic about Iowa. I blame this on a number of things, including my father’s profession. Rural pastors in that part of the world are so revered that it is commonplace for their children to mistake them for God. In my pre-adolescent years I breathed in the benevolence of my dad’s congregation like sweet, clover-scented air, and I played under the attentive gaze of adoring old women who dispensed lemonade, peppermints, reprimands and local history lessons from front porches. I also blame the understated beauty of the place. I looked out my...