Too Pee, Or Not Too Pee

September 3, 2026

Too Pee or Not to Pee

It was a Saturday, and waiting to be re-cycled by Mike, I chanced to see an octogenarian lady looking, looking as it turned out for a place to pee.

So, I escorted her to a hidden outhouse which was padlocked to prevent a B&E to pee. For me to pee I would venture into the woods, but this would not do to poo so, a toilet thought occurred and it was directed to ye old school house which might not be barred and within its bowels might possible, contain said toilet. It did! Although no sign on our farm market grounds informs the people where they might pee – (a pause for a toilet tune) T is for time, O is for overtime, I, is for incontinence, L is for leak, E is for Emergency, T is Too Late!

I keep seeing signs to keep Denman Weird, but where are the weird porto potties when one needs to urgently urinate? Running is an unnatural act, except to the bathroom, but where to run?

Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization replied, ‘I think it would be a good idea.’ Having recently returned from the civilized nation of Japan where there are lovely lavatories opened everywhere, 24 hours a day, I believe being civilized would be a ‘good idea’. The alternative is we can give up smoking, drinking, sex, rich food and AI and be healthy right up to the time we need to pee!

This disease is not limited to Denman, it is rampart in all of the B&C. ‘As old age is the only disease you don’t look forward to being cured of’, let us be a forerunner of providing prudent potties inviting us to leisurely partake in the act of relieving us on the seat of ease. Cheers!

Bob Morley

Letter to the Editor -Harvey Abramson

September 3, 2026

trump paper: a new name for toilet paper

In retaliation for the attempt to rename Lake Ontario here is a new

name for toilet paper: trump paper. The name “trump” conveniently

contains the word “rump” as a reminder of what “trump paper” is used

for.

Harvey Abramson

Denman Island, BC

Canada

Phoenix Riting! – September 3rd, 2026

September 3, 2026

Hi community, it’s been a minute… I’ve had a very busy summer at the market. As often happens over the years, I’ve heard comments, received a bit of side-eye, and I have thoughts in the aftermath.

What I do isn’t exactly mainstream, I admit. Doing card readings and astrology is the very definition of woo to those who don’t understand what it is. Complicate that with the many practitioners who love to play up the woo and act like they are elevated all-knowing seers who know everything about you, who promise to guide you through the maze of occult visionary knowledge that only they can navigate, and it’s understandable why I am so often side-eyed.

But here’s the thing. When I do a reading it isn’t about me. I am not a psychic. I don’t read people’s minds, auras, pasts or futures. I am barely able to read facial expressions in fact, and it’s taken many years to puzzle those out.

I look at the pictures and symbols, and I find a story that weaves them together and makes sense of them. The pictures on the cards, the symbols on the chart tell a lucid and meaningful story. My skill lies in translating that story into words that make sense to you.

It’s a process similar to the one behind the creation of a song, or a novel, or a theatre piece. I do it because it is fun, I love it. It is incredibly rewarding to witness and experience the connection that the story makes with my audience of one.

I’ve come to believe that the universe and everything in it is composed of intelligence and meaning, just as much as it is matter and energy. I have learned to engage with that intelligence, to tease out meaning and to translate the story. The magic is not in me. It’s in everything. Everything is alive, in us, around us, above and below us. It’s a living, breathing, interactive universe.

I don’t see myself as a fortuneteller. I find the label off-putting. I don’t tell fortunes. I tell stories. I am a storyteller. It’s not my doing that the stories turn out to be true. I can’t take credit for that. I am tapping into a rich vein that has been mined by creatives, mystics and intellectuals since we first began noticing the stars overhead and seeing the living stories that play out among them and noticing the connection to our human relationships and experiences.

My point is, I won’t read your mind. I don’t know anything about how to find a missing person, or how to speak to your spirit guides, though I could probably make something up and who knows, maybe it would turn out to be true.

What I offer is validation. The one thing nearly every one of my clients says, in one form or another, is, “There are no surprises here. I already knew this.” That is the most surprising thing. We do already know what we need to know. But we don’t know that we know it. We have been trained out of trusting our own sense of the world.

But the world is available, right there, in the random fall of the cards, in the vast ponderous movements of the planets, talking to us, validating what we know about ourselves and our choices. It never fails to astonish me. I do what I do because I love the sense of awe, of meaning, of profound connection to something vast, strange and deeply personal, that cares, that speaks intimately to each soul that quests.

It’s something that society tries hard to train us out of. But reality is alive, talking to us all the time, and it won’t go away just because we don’t believe in it. I love reading for skeptics; they are the most fun. They walk away puzzled, unchanged for the most part, saying variations of, “I don’t believe in this stuff, but that was exactly right.” And perhaps some of them are given food for thought, enough to open up a crack to wonder, even awe.

Reality is strange, and extremely responsive to consciousness. I believe that what I do is, yes, weird, because the nature of existence is weird. Or maybe it only seems weird because we are trained to believe in some sort of linear, mechanistic illusion of ‘normal’ that has no connection to reality.

I find this deeply comforting.

That’s what I think. What do you think? Email me at phoenixonhornby@gmail.com

Unsedated And Undeterred

September 3, 2026

Unsedated And Undeterred

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE

AUG 28, 2026

Reading by Tim Foley:

The empire shall not dull your kindness.

The cruelty of the bank boys
shall not drain the brightness from your eyes.

You are not like the others.
The dollar-drilled and Pentagon-pilled.
The ones whose youthful rebelliousness
prolapses out their assholes
the second they have a kid
and buy a minivan
and inherit that property in Gentrificationville.
The ones who stop caring
because things didn’t turn out as they’d hoped
and because that protest they went to didn’t work,
and because online leftists are annoying,
and because that mountain of corpses
on their chest at night
keeps getting heavier and heavier.

No.
You shall not turn out like those ones.

You shall retain your tenderness.
Protect it like a baby hummingbird in your hands.

You shall not let them numb you,
as hard as they might try.

You shall feel.
Feel it all.
The awe and elation.
The disappointment and decay.
The stars and the Starlink satellites.
The stunning seagulls in the sunset
and the screams in Sudan.

You shall not deprive yourself
of one second of this treasured existence.

You remain unsedated and undeterred.

You stride through this glorious madhouse
with your chest cave splayed wide open
to the world.

___________________

The best way to make sure you see everything I publish is to get on my free mailing list. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Click here for links for my social media, books, merch, and audio/video versions of each article. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

Feature image via Adobe Stock.

Fly Me to the Moon

September 3, 2026

facebook.com/markprior.images

two Phils

September 3, 2026

#1749

September 3, 2026

Farm to Jar Club

August 27, 2026

Farm to Jar Club

Erika Bland, for Farm to Family

Calling all Community Food Enthusiasts! This summer, we are launching a new community-based food preservation initiative: the Farm to Jar Club!

Coordinated by wonderful island chef Sophia Katsanikakis, this project focuses on mentorship and community building through food and is being developed as an ongoing collective effort focused on seasonal food preservation, food security, practical skills-sharing, and community resilience. The vision is to bring people together throughout the growing season to preserve local food through activities such as canning, freezing, fermenting, dehydrating, pickling, sauce-making, broth-making, storage preparation, and more.

This initiative is intended to create opportunities for: skill-sharing and intergenerational learning; community preparedness and food security; seasonal workshops and collaborative preservation days; organizing around local food production and storage; and building stronger connections between growers, foragers, cooks, and community members.

A key part of this initiative will be supporting the work of Farm to Family Meals Service Society by helping preserve locally grown and harvested food for use in our meal programs. By organizing preservation work collectively, we hope to make better use of seasonal abundance, reduce food waste, strengthen local food systems, and increase access to nutritious community meals year-round.

A few of us have met and begun developing a seasonal food activities calendar that outlines a plan for possible foods, preservation activities, and priorities throughout the year. Topics and activities include: canning and pressure canning; fermentation and pickling; drying and dehydrating; freezing and storage; wild harvesting and mushroom preservation; batch cooking and meal preparation; planning the harvest; and food safety and preservation practices.

The idea is that people can organize meet-ups and participate when they are able, not necessarily commit to attending every event. For instance, some people will want to pickle things, some will want to make fruit leather, but maybe not both. That’s okay. I hope this can be a community of folks interested in preserving local foods of all kinds, and that we can support one another in doing so.

Farm to Family is currently developing an online community space through the website at www.farmtofamilybc.ca. The goal is to create a shared platform where participants will be able to sign in, communicate with one another, share recipes and preservation resources, coordinate seasonal activities, track projects and inventories, and build an accessible archive of community knowledge over time. We hope this online space will help support ongoing collaboration and make it easier for members to stay connected between preservation days and seasonal gatherings. We would love to see a collaborative recipe book and seasonal food calendar come out of this!

As part of this initiative, we also hope to create opportunities for knowledgeable community members to share food preservation skills through small workshops and demonstrations. We recognize the immense value of lived experience and local knowledge, and we would like to offer small honoraria whenever possible to individuals willing to lead a session, teach a preservation technique, or help mentor others in the community. Our hope is that this project can become a space for both learning and preserving knowledge across generations.

Our first Farm to Jar session was a huge success. We processed around 10 kilos of zucchini into zucchini relish, and made different flavours of sauerkraut. Participants took a small jar home and the rest is in the pantry to be used for Farm to Family Meal programs. Thank you to Judy Armstrong who led the session with her incredible relish recipe and to Lake Farm and everyone who kindly donated zucchinis from their garden. Our next session will be held on Wednesday, September 2nd at 2:30 in the Community Hall kitchen. We will be processing apples and blackberries into apple sauce and pie filling.

At this stage, we are reaching out to gauge interest, gather ideas, and begin building a core group of participants who would like to help shape the project. Some of us have already begun meeting and brainstorming! If this sounds like something you would like to be involved in, whether occasionally or regularly, we would love to hear from you. Anyone with curiosity around or experience in food preservation, gardening, farming, cooking, foraging, community organizing, or simply an interest in learning and participating, is welcome.

More details about scheduling and seasonal activities will come together as the group develops. For more information, or to express interest in participating, please contact the Farm to Jar Coordinator:

Sophia Katsanikakis, Farm to Family Meals Service Society | f2jcoordinator@gmail.com | 778 585 5698

This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program.

It’s Almost Here!

August 27, 2026

It’s Almost Here!

What’s almost here? This year’s chance to Show What You Grow at the annual Blackberry Faire, sponsored by the Denman Island Garden Society.

Who’s eligible to enter? Denman and Hornby Islanders of all ages.

When is it, and where? Sunday, September 6, at the Denman Community Hall and the ORCA.

What can you show? Just about anything you’ve grown: if there isn’t a category for your entry, judges can create one at their discretion. Choose from vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs, harvest baskets, largest/weirdest vegetable, homemade preserves, and baking. Please refer to the Show What You Grow flyer for complete details. Prizes will be awarded in each category, and this year there will be a Grand Prize as well. Enter as many categories as you like, but all entries must be grown or hand-made by the entrant.

Kids 12 and under can submit entries in baking, flowers, decorated or special vegetable, and fall-themed art depicting a farm or garden in any medium, including three-dimensional. Spoiler alert: all kids’ entries are guaranteed a prize.

A hand-made scarecrow competition will be held in the ORCA, with winners decided by popular vote. (Ballots will be provided.) All scarecrows must free-standing, but there is no limit on size, materials used, or the number of creators for each. There’s still time, so raid the back of your closet and scour the Free Store for inspiration.

How do you go about it? Bring all your entries, including scarecrows, to the hall between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. on September 6. Vegetables, fruits and edibles will be placed on standardized plates (provided), but please bring your own containers for herbs and flowers. Each entry will be given a tag for your name, but the tag will then be sealed to make all entries anonymous until after the judging. Don’t forget to pick up your entries – and your prizes – between 1:30 and 3:00 p.m.!

Except for scarecrows, judges will score entries on several attributes, comparing the total against an ideal of 100 points. For fruits, tomatoes, preserves and baked goods, taste will account for about half the score.

Volunteers are still needed to help with setting up, receiving and organizing entries, judging, cleanup, and decorating the hall on Saturday afternoon. If you can help, or have fall-themed natural or hand-made decorations to share, please contact Shirley Ward at billandshirley.379@gmail.com.

Canada does not have regulations for ship recycling — and that’s a problem

August 27, 2026

Mary-Reynolds-Apr-30-2026-1024x576 — Photo: Mary Reynolds

August 18, 2026

Canada does not have regulations for ship recycling — and that’s a problem

By Fernanda Lima/David Suzuki Foundation

Maritime transportation plays a major role in moving goods and creating jobs worldwide, with over 80 per cent of global trade relying on the sector. In 2023, the maritime sector accounted for almost two per cent of the Canadian economy. But what happens when ships used for transportation and services reach the end of their lives?

The average lifespan of a ship is 20 to 30 years. When ships are retired from service, they are sent to be scrapped and their parts to be recycled, a process called “shipbreaking.” To be efficient, the recycling process should embrace the “cradle to grave” concept. That means that almost all materials and equipment used in the manufacturing process are reused in other forms, producing an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient outcome. Although this should be good news in the circular economy context, Canada does not have specific regulations for shipbreaking, which means ships can be dismantled without addressing human safety concerns and environmental risks.

End-of-life ships can contain various amounts of toxic materials in their structure, and those need to be properly identified and disposed of during the scrapping process. When shipbreaking occurs in coastal areas — a process called “beaching” — instead of proper, enclosed facilities, the toxic waste contaminates the environment and exposes workers to hazardous substances. In fact, some of these toxic materials are well known: asbestos, PCBs and heavy metals such as lead, mercury, copper, cadmium and zinc. All these contaminants can be found in the ship’s paints, coating, insulation, batteries and electrical components.

In 2025, the Canadian government released an update on the significant demand for ship recycling regulations across the country, particularly on the West Coast, where nearly 900 vessels currently wait to be recycled. In the Howe Sound bioregion, for example, the negative impacts of derelict vessels on small beaches of Gambier Island and the Sunshine Coast have already been observed. Without proper destinations, these ships either break free or sink, threatening marine ecosystems.

Since 2020, Union Bay, north of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, has been used as a facility for shipbreaking. Ironically, the small bay is classified as an “ecologically and biologically significant area” because of its proximity to Baynes Sound, which is a particularly important staging area for thousands of migratory birds during the spring herring spawn. The region also comprises half of B.C.’s commercial shellfish production.

The Union Bay site is owned by Union Bay Industries, which previously used it to sort logs. During recent years, several vessels have been brought for dismantling. Such activities have raised concerns from local communities and First Nations about site contamination from effluent runoff in the marine environment and lack of proper waste management.

Although Canada does have some regulations shared across different levels of government that manage shipping — Transport Canada is responsible for activities at sea, for example — none specifically target shipbreaking. Cases like Union Bay highlight the regulatory gaps that arise from the lack of a coordinated cross-governmental approach. The current patchwork regulations burden small communities with managing shipbreaking pollution in their backyards even though they have limited power to prevent or control the activities.

International frameworks such as the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, which came into force in June of 2025, aim to target both ship construction and dismantling phases to guarantee ships are designed and built for safe recycling without impact on performance. Even though the convention has been strongly criticized for not banning beaching practices for example, it is a first step towards addressing shipbreaking activities in domestic waters.

Canada took part in the development of the convention, although it has not ratified it. It is time to do it now.