The moon is full, and the clock strikes midnight. Two boys awake from deep sleep and go out to explore. They have remained lifelong friends and have been on many adventures before, but this one is a test. To see if the old horror fable was true, to see if an abandoned circus tent left for a century stood in a clearing in the trees. The boys had both questioned the logic in this, for these woods were packed with thousands upon thousands of trees. There was not a clearing in sight. But as the legend goes, when the moon was full and the clock stroke midnight, a funhouse appeared in a clearing in the woods, keeping the horror inside.
Larry:
I quietly push away the covers and swing my legs over the bed frame. The moon shines brightly through my one tiny window in my tiny room. My clothes lie out on the old rocker in the corner. My clothes are all black, as black as night, apart from the classic Yankees logo on my cap. The last thing that I grab is a flashlight from on top of my desk. I close the door quietly, and shuffle down the hallway and past my parents’ bedroom. I can hear my dad snoring heavily, like a tractor trying to start up. I continue downstairs slowly. Every little creak sounds a million times louder than normal. I slip out our front door and I’m off to meet Lawrence. We’re both off to another adventure!
I’m walking through town. Revelstoke looks so different this late. No cheery shoppers going from store to store with all the shops closed, but who would stay open past midnight, am I right? I’m fine with the town. It’s got a population of 6 000, no, 8 000 people. It’s nowhere close to any urban dumps. I love having a ton of woods to go on walks and explore in. Nobody seems to want to visit here, anyway. Apart from skiing, nobody gives a damn about this town. They would much rather visit wine towns like Oliver or Kelowna, or even Osoyoos. What’s the point of visiting a place right on the border of the U.S. Anyway, I’m going to see my friend, Lawrence. We are both excited to see this old circus tent. People claim it to be a fake old fairytale, but we want an adventure. And what better of an adventure than one in the forest?
“Pssst!”
I hear a whisper from an alleyway.
I don’t jump or run away or even hide, I could recognize that “psst!” From a mile away, it’s Lawrence! We’ve been friends for, well… ever since we were toddlers. He dropped his juice-box, and we began a full conversation (with the words that we knew) about the best kinds. I said mango, he argued and said orange. Since then, a decade after hitting it off, I hang out with the little goof most days after school, or what Lawrence calls the ass-wipe of education. We tease each other at least… I’ve lost count of how many times a day.
“Get out here, Lawrence! We’ve got a case to crack”
“Whatever you say, bossss!”
He then slips out from behind a trash can and stepping out into the streetlights. I notice that he is sporting an old brown sweater and matching baggy pants and a toque with a pair of once white sneakers. I asked once why he chose the white ones and he replied with; “They were cheaper than the brown ones but really easy to scuff up.” He also has a backpack, the color is… you guessed it: brown. “How’s a goin,’ Scary.” Lawrence said in a mocking tone. He always called me scary as a replacement for my real name; Larry. “Oh, you want to call me that!? How ‘bout I call you Borence, because Scary is a boring name!” He laughed and said; “Good one, Scary!” in a sarcastic tone. We both whooped with laughter until our sides felt like they might split open. “C’mon Scary,” Lawrence said; “Let us find this old fairytale… I mean scarytale funhouse before the sun comes up.” “Good pun. Ha ha ha.” I said unenthusiastically. The funhouse would turn out to be a scarytale all right. Little did they know what was waiting for them, deep in the heart of the forest, someone else ripped away with laughter.
Russophobia and the Jungian Shadowby Keith Porteous
The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung argued that individuals often project their “shadow”, those aspects of themselves they find difficult to acknowledge, onto others. Rather than confronting their own aggression, fear, or desire for power, people may perceive these qualities as existing primarily in an external enemy. Jung believed this mechanism operates not only in individuals but also within groups and nations, where collective identities can be shaped through the projection of unwanted behavioural traits.
Viewed through this Jungian framework, contemporary Russophobia reflects more than a response to Russia’s policies alone. It also illustrates how political communities construct moral identities by projecting their own historical contradictions onto geopolitical rivals. This interpretation does not deny that states commit aggression or pursue imperial ambitions. Instead, it suggests that the language used to describe adversaries may also reveal unresolved truths within the societies making those accusations.
Throughout modern history, Western powers have participated in colonial expansion, military interventions, and regime-change operations across multiple continents. The United States and its allies have violently intervened with military aggression in numerous countries since the Second World War. A Jungian analysis would suggest that Western societies find it psychologically easier to locate imperialism entirely outside themselves than to confront their own behaviours, as in the current propaganda about the Russian leadership.
Accusations that Russia is inherently expansionist is such an example of projection. Jung emphasized that projections frequently attach themselves to “mirrored” characteristics of another person. Projection exaggerates or selectively emphasizes those characteristics while denying the same tendencies within oneself. Thus, a nation may perceive threatening behaviour from another state while hypocritically overlooking violent patterns in its own conduct. This is currently the basis for Russophobic propaganda.
This dynamic is reinforced by political narratives that divide the world into forces of good and evil. Jung warned against moral absolutism because it enables nations to identify with virtue while assigning vice exclusively to their opponents. Such polarization reduces the capacity for self-criticism and encourages escalating conflict. If one side claims itself to be purely defensive and the other as inherently aggressive, compromise becomes impossible because acknowledging complexity threatens the individual or nation’s moral identity.
Russophobia, from this perspective, may therefore function as more than prejudice against Russia or Russians. It can be understood as part of a broader psychological process in which fear, historical guilt, and anxieties about power are externalized. Political rhetoric portraying Russia as the tyrannical embodiment of violence or imperialism serves to reinforce a positive self-image for Western nations while reducing public attention to their own authoritarian behaviours and military interventions.
The value of Jung’s theory lies not in assigning blame but in encouraging self-reflection. Such awareness does not require moral equivalence between all actions. Instead, it requires intellectual honesty and a willingness to recognize that every political nation possesses a shadow. Rather than assuming that geopolitical conflicts arise solely from the inherent aggression of one side, this perspective invites examination of how historical memory, identity, fear, and projection shape public perceptions.
Ultimately, the Jungian concept of the shadow encourages a deeper understanding of international politics. It reminds us that psychological mechanisms influence collective identities as much as strategic interests do. Recognizing projection does not resolve geopolitical disputes, but it may reduce the tendency to transform political rivals into embodiments of absolute evil. Such recognition is a prerequisite for dialogue, self-criticism, and a more nuanced engagement with the complexities of global affairs.
“Ukraine: Yet Another War Based on Lies” by Keith Porteous, in last week’s Grapevine, omits some relevant truths about the war:
Russia invaded Ukraine
Ukraine defended itself
Porteous portrays Russia and Ukraine as victims of US/NATO imperialism. He repeats the phrase, “This war was intended to…” as though the West started it and is running it. But Russia has responsibility, and Ukraine has agency. This isn’t 1986. Ukraine isn’t part of the USSR; it’s a sovereign nation with a centuries-old identity. And sovereign nations have the right to fight back when attacked. Which brings up these relevant truths:
Russia invaded Ukraine ineptly
Ukraine defended itself effectively
Russia apparently expected an easy victory (the first wave of troops brought their dress uniforms with them, presumably for the victory parade in Kyiv). But Russia has fought this as a 20th-century conflict, and Ukraine is writing the book on 21st century war. “Russia remains intact,” Porteous asserts. Except, Ukrainian drones have destroyed a quarter to a third of Russia’s oil refining capacity, which is that country’s economic lifeblood; Russia is dragging antique weapons out of storage because Ukraine has blown up its modern ones; and Russia’s army has suffered 1.4 million casualties. Even the US State Department—Donald Trump’s State Department, and he supports Russia—now says that Ukraine is winning the war.
Porteous bemoans the corruption and lack of freedom in Ukraine. If true, that’s very sad: it makes Ukraine sound like Russia.
Porteous describes the war as a collapsing imperialist project of the US/NATO. But it’s also an imperialist project of Russia. It may, in fact, help destroy Russia as an empire. Just as the Iran war may help destroy the US as an empire (though that particular imperial suicide is progressing on multiple fronts).
Last week’s issue featured an article which appeared to me to lay the principal blame on the West and NATO for Russia’s invasion and war against Ukraine. I believe this is a faulty reading of the situation. Let’s remember it was Russian troops which invaded Ukraine in 2022, it is Russia which continues to bomb churches, schools and residences all over Ukraine, it is Russia which has abducted thousand of Ukrainian children and removed them to Russia.
Let me remind fair minded Grapevine readers of two bits of crucial history: first, in 1994, in Budapest, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for the recognition by Russia, the USA, and the UK of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Three times now, Russia has abrogated this international agreement—first when Russia took over Crimea in 2014, second, when it supported military action by Russian rebels in the Donbas region, and then in February 2022, when it mounted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In 2005, Mr. Putin described the collapse of the Soviet Union in these words: “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”. This shows exactly what the Russian dictator wants: a return to the good old days of Moscow control over a score of states which have become happily independent and democratic since the implosion of the Communist era. Given Putin’s behaviour, is it any wonder that several other European countries like the Baltic States, as well as Sweden and Finland have joined NATO? They remember Soviet control and do not want to be subject to it again. Nor to see Ukraine suffer the same fate once more.
As for the characterization of Ukraine as a no free speech society, this is false. Yes, there is martial law, after all the country is at war, defending itself. However, there is a free press in Ukraine, as well as criticism of the current Government. Check out the Kyiv Post and the Kyiv Independent online if in doubt. And the people protested vigorously when they felt anti-corruption efforts were not strong enough. Yes, there is corruption—it was endemic during the Communist days, and both Ukraine and Russia have suffered from it, but at least Ukraine is trying to fight it.
It’s in Russia where there is no free speech. Anyone who protests the ‘special military operation’ is jailed or sent to penal colonies. Putin runs a dictatorship and the Russian people have been cowed by him. I’ve been to both Russia and Ukraine many times, and the people in Ukraine are much more willing to criticize their leader, they are positive and resilient, and over a long period have shown their wish to be part of a democratic and free market Europe.
Canada had demonstrated a strong commitment to support Ukraine in resisting Russian aggression. All Canada’s political parties are united in this purpose, including the new NDP Leader Avi Lewis who has been quoted as saying Ukraine should not give up an inch of its territory in any peace negotiations to end this calamitous conflict.
They’re designing park benches
so that homeless people can’t sleep on them
and placing metal spikes beneath overpasses
so they can’t be used as shelter.
Jerry Seinfeld says Palestine doesn’t exist
and that sometimes socks go missing in the dryer,
wocka wocka
ha ha ha
it’s funny because it’s a witty observation
about life’s everyday little goofy goofs.
Fast food wrappers blow in the wind
like the leaves used to do.
Duct-taped gargoyles with garbage bag wings
peer down at the din of civilization
as we march over the sidewalk sleepers
to our Jobs,
stepping over dead bodies
while staring at our phones
and counting the minutes
til we can go home to our sofas
and watch wocka wocka comedians
and shovel SSRIs into our faces
from large plastic bowls
so the crushing beauty of our world
and the knowledge of our mortality
doesn’t topple us like Jenga blocks
and make us weep like open fire hydrants.
In this din they don’t want you to feel.
They don’t want you to think.
They don’t want you to hear.
They keep it all CLANG, CLANG, CLANG,
BUY, BUY, BUY,
WORK, WORK, WORK,
WOCKA, WOCKA, WOCKA,
so that you can’t feel your body.
So that you can’t hear the songs.
There’s bird song
and whale song
and heart song
and lung song.
There’s fire song
and sea song
and wind song
and tree song.
There’s ancestor song
and mountain song
and sun song
and wolf song,
and lots of others I bet;
I can’t hear any of them.
Oh, except thought song,
which blasts through my head
like a sonic homeless deterrent
in a shopping center alleyway,
and,
like them,
I have nowhere else to go.
________________
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Helliwell habitat work reduces fire risk and helps butterflies
By Chris Junck on behalf of the Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project Team
Did you hear chainsaws or see smoke in the Saint John’s Point area of Helliwell Park this spring? If so, don’t worry. It’s part of a multi-year BC Parks project to reduce forest fire fuels and improve habitat for butterflies and other pollinators. Selective removal of branches and a few trees was followed by native plant seeding of sites where piles of tree materials were burned.
The initiative is succeeding. The Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project Team (TCBRPT) is excited to confirm that endangered Taylor’s checkerspots successfully overwintered in the park for the third consecutive year! Larvae were found in Helliwell’s coastal bluff meadows this March by Jennifer Heron, TCBRPT Chair and Provincial Invertebrate Conservation Specialist for the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. The caterpillars are the offspring of butterfly larvae raised by Wildlife Preservation Canada staff at the Greater Vancouver Zoo and released by the project team in Helliwell in previous years. “This is a good news story. It’s a positive sign that Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies are re-establishing a population in the park”, said Heron.
The Taylor’s checkerspot population in Helliwell received a boost with the release of approximately 1,350 zoo reared larvae in late March. During the adult flight period in April and May, more than 15 Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies were observed by local naturalists and TCBRPT biologist Nick Page. Hopefully at least some of them mated and produced eggs that will go through several larval stages before overwintering.
While these are very hopeful signs for Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly recovery in Helliwell Park, their future is not assured. The caterpillars are tiny, delicate and vulnerable. Trampling by park visitors, dogs and bicycles are a key threat to the larvae and the plants they need to survive. Helliwell Park visitors can help the caterpillars by following park rules: leave bikes in the parking lot, stay on marked trails and keep dogs leashed and on trails. If you visit Flora Islet, stay on the shore, and avoid the fragile meadows. This will reduce the possibility of stepping on a caterpillar or their host plants.
Don’t move or pick up Taylor’s checkerspots. Instead, report sightings to Taylors.Checkerspot@gov.bc.ca, or by using the free iNaturalist app (www.inaturalist.org). It is an easy-to-use species identification tool that enables citizen scientists to record and contribute important species data for projects around the globe.
The project team would like to thank the Cowichan Tribes, Halalt, Homalco, K’ómoks, Lake Cowichan, Lyackson, Penelakut, Qualicum, Snaw’Naw’As, Stz’uminus, Tla’amin, We Wai Kai, and We Wai Kum First Nations for allowing us to restore ecosystems in their traditional territories. Several local volunteers from Conservancy Hornby Island, the Hornby Island Natural History Centre, the Hornby Island Parks Committee, and others also contributed to the success of this project.
The recovery project has benefited from funding and in-kind contributions from the BC Parks Licence Plate Program, the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, the Environment Canada Habitat Stewardship Fund, and the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks, B.C. Water, Land and Resource Stewardship (Wildilfe and Ecosystems Branch) Canada Pollinator Partnership and others.
The Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project Team includes biological consultants and representatives from the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks, Denman Conservancy Association, Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team, Greater Vancouver Zoo, Mosaic Forest Management, Wildlife Preservation Canada, and others.
Learn more about the Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly:
All photos by Chris Junck, except the adult butterflies by Jennifer Heron and Nick Page.
Native plant seeds are scattered on sites where piles of tree material were burned during the forest fire fuel reduction project.
Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly larvae were observed in Helliwell Provincial Park this spring. It’s a sign that some of the endangered butterflies released in previous years reproduced, successfully overwintered, and are re-establishing a population in the park.
Conservancy Hornby Island and Hornby Island Natural History Centre members released 100 Taylor’s checkerspot larvae in Helliwell Provincial Park on March 25th. Left to right: Bill Hamilton, Kayt Chambers, Bill Caywood, Neil Wilson, Heron Selkirk, Anita Stjernberg (BC Conservation Foundation), and Jennifer Heron (B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship).
Taylor’s Checkerspot Recovery Project Chair Jennifer Heron demonstrates how to use a paintbrush to gently transfer larvae from their temporary home to food plants (ribwort plantain) in the meadow.
Many park visitors stopped by to ask questions about Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies and the larval release.
Neil Wilson.
Heron Selkirk, Bill Caywood, Kayt Chambers.
The Taylor’s Checkerspot Recovery Project Team and guests released over 1,350 larvae on March 26th and 27th.
Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies were observed in Helliwell in April and May. Photo by Jennifer Heron.
Camas is an important nectar source for Taylor’s checkerspots. Photo by Nick Page.
Historical range was Hornby Island, southeastern Vancouver Island, Puget Trough and to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. In B.C., they were once abundant at 10 sites in the Greater Victoria Area, one site each near Mill Bay and Comox, and sites on Hornby Island (including Helliwell Provincial Park).
They were thought to have been extirpated (became locally extinct) from Canada by 2000 when no Taylor’s checkerspots could be found in their last known sites on Hornby Island despite intensive searches. However, new populations were discovered on Denman Island in 2005 and near Campbell River in 2018.
It is federally listed as Endangered (COSEWIC, SARA Schedule 1), and is on the BC Red list of at-risk species.
Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies need open sunny meadows where they can find suitable host plants (food for larvae and nectar producing flowers for adults), such as native woolly sunflower, common camas, small-flowered blue-eyed Mary, wild strawberry, sea blush, and yarrow, as well as non-native species such as ribwort plantain and common plantain.
Habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation are major factors in the species’ decline. For example, the meadows along the coastal bluffs in Helliwell Provincial Park became less suitable for butterflies due to invasions of non-native plants and encroaching forests.
Habitat enhancement work (weeding, selective limbing +/or removal of conifers, re-planting and seeding with native species) has been ongoing in Helliwell Provincial Park for several years.
The Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project
The Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project is led by Jennifer Heron of the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship and is guided by the Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team’s Invertebrates at Risk Recovery Implementation Group. It is a collaborative effort to restore Taylor’s checkerspot populations in British Columbia through habitat enhancement, captive butterfly rearing and release, monitoring, public outreach, and other activities.
Team Members
Jennifer Heron (Chair), B.C. Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship, Vancouver, B.C.
Erika Bland and Andrew Fyson, Denman Island Conservancy Association, Denman Island, B.C.
Menita Prasad, Greater Vancouver Zoo, Aldergrove, B.C.
Eric Gross, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Delta, B.C.
Crispin Guppy, Entomologist, Vanderhoof, B.C.
David Vey and Rachel Shanner, Mosaic Forest Management, Nanaimo, B.C.
Chris Junck, Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team and B.C. Conservation Foundation, Victoria, B.C.
Suzie Lavallee, University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry, Vancouver, B.C.
Patrick Lilley, Private Consultant, North Vancouver, B.C.
Iain Reid, BC Parks, Black Creek, B.C.
Kristen Miskelly, Satinflower Nurseries, Victoria, B.C.
Derek Moore, Area Supervisor Von Donop Area, BC Parks, Black Creek, B.C.
Nick Page, Raincoast Applied Ecology, Vancouver, B.C.
Hazel Wheeler, Andrea Gielens and Jag Athwal, Wildlife Preservation Canada, Guelph, ON.
Bonnie Zand, Independent Consultant, Fanny Bay, B.C.
Supporters
B.C. Conservation Foundation
B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks
B.C. Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship
BC Parks License Plate Fund
Conservancy Hornby Island
Denman Conservancy Association
Environment Canada Habitat Stewardship Fund
Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team
Greater Vancouver Zoo
Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation
Hornby Island Community School
Hornby Island Co-op
Hornby Island Natural History Centre
Hornby Island Provincial Parks Committee
Mosaic Forest Management
Sea Breeze Lodge
University of British Columbia
Wildlife Preservation Canada
For more information about the Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project, visit: www.goert.ca/activities/taylors-checkerspot/
Or contact:
Project Lead/GOERT Invertebrates at Risk RIG Chair
Jennifer Heron
Provincial Invertebrate Conservation Specialist
B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship
Office: 778-572-2273
Jennifer.Heron@gov.bc.ca
Public Outreach Coordinator
Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project Team
