Contrary to Trumpelstiltskin’s assertion that many Canadians wish that Canada would become the 51st state of the U.S., there may actually be one or two who are stupid enough or ignorant enough to wish for Canada to be absorbed into a country with endemic violence, racism, the pathological misogyny of the anti-abortion movement, a health care “system” which is of benefit only to the insurance companies which control it, etc. The list of U.S. deficiencies and malignities could go on and on. On the other hand there are many citizens of the U.S. who wish that they could become Canadian and live under Canadian conditions. Rather than Canada becoming the 51st state, perhaps Canada could acquire new provinces by annexing the former states of New York and those grouped under the name of New England, of Washington and Oregon and California and a few other geographically scattered states. What is left then of the U.S. would quickly devolve into Margaret Atwood’s Republic of Gilead, or even into something worse than that.
Finally, perhaps the best response to Trumpelstiltskin’s ravings is to quote from “America”, a poem in Allen Ginsberg’s book “Howl and other poems”: “Go fuck yourself with your atomic bomb.”
There is so much talk about Canada’s sovereignty amidst the 51st state nonsense that Trump is yammering about these days. The reality is that we are not, and have never been an independent nation .
It is a myth that we believe we are an independent country. In fact, we are still a colony under the supervision of the British Crown.
A great demonstration of this reality has just occurred. Our government was just prorogued by the King of England’s, Governor General of Canada this week, when the vaste majority of Canadians wanted a snap election.
If we are serious about true independence, it is time to end our colonial hangover and become the independent Republic of Canada.
A country with a strong constitution and a real Charter of Rights and Freedoms that Canadian governments must respect and adhere to.
By Chris Junck, Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project
Hornby Island Community School students from Miranda Guzzo’s classes made a significant contribution to the habitat restoration project in Helliwell Provincial Park this fall. On October 22, they planted yarrow, woolly sunflower, California brome, Junegrass and blue wildrye in bare patches of soil in the park after piles of dead branches and other forest fire fuels were burned last winter. The native plants were grown for the restoration project by Hornby Island Natural History Centre stewards.
Neil Wilson, one of the stewards, said, “thanks everyone for your work in setting up and pulling off our eighth successful Hornby Island Community School, Natural History Centre, BC Parks, and Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project collaboration. We managed to plant 592 native plant plugs for the Taylor’s checkerspots!”
“Wow – what an awesome effort,” said Hornby Island Community School Principal Lisa Malones.
The long-term project is enhancing Helliwell’s Garry oak and coastal bluff meadow habitat and reducing forest fire fuels. More dead branches and selective trees will be removed and burned this winter, followed by native plant seeding and planting.
The project aims to improve habitat for endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies and other at-risk species. The Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly Recovery Project Team is cautiously optimistic that the work is paying off. Taylor’s checkerspots that were raised at the Greater Vancouver Zoo by Wildlife Preservation Canada staff and released in Helliwell last year reproduced. Their larvae overwintered and emerged in the spring. This is an encouraging sign that the butterflies may re-establish a population in the park.
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 Provincial 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 Climate Change Strategy (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, BC 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:
BC Parks conservation specialist Stephanie Govier provided information about the coastal bluff restoration work and planting instructions. Photo: Bill Hamilton
Hornby Island Community School students, their teacher Miranda Guzzo, parents, Natural History Centre stewards, and BC Parks staff worked quickly to plant areas where brush piles were burned last winter. Photo: Bill Hamilton
The group had dirty hands and big smiles after planting nearly 600 native plant seedling plugs.
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 woolly sunflower, common camas, small-flowered blue-eyed Mary, wild strawberry, sea blush, and yarrow.
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.
Deborah Bishop, Denman Island, B.C.
Menita Prasad, Greater Vancouver Zoo, Aldergrove, B.C.
Eric Gross and Ross Vennesland, Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Delta, B.C.
Crispin Guppy, Entomologist, Whitehorse, Y.T.
Molly Hudson and David Vey, 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.
Erica McClaren and Stephanie Govier, 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 Jay Athwal, Wildlife Preservation Canada, Guelph, ON.
Bonnie Zand, B.C. Conservation Foundation, Fanny Bay, B.C.
Supporters
B.C. Conservation Foundation
B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy
B.C. Ministry of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship
BC Parks
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
Now that the New Year is upon us, it’s not too early to start thinking about this year’s garden. However, we are still in the doldrums between the fall cleanup in the garden and the frantic season that begins with seed starting. Now is a good time to reflect on last year’s successes and failures, make plans for this year’s garden layout, and pore over the tantalizing seed catalogues that arrive in the mail and in garden centres.
Our first DIGS monthly meeting of the year will take place on Wednesday, January 15th from 1 to 3 pm at the Gathering Place at the United Church. Peter Karsten will start us off with a powerpoint presentation entitled Denman Garden Secrets. Those who heard Peter speak at our meeting in April 2024 will know that we are in for a treat.
The garden club welcomes new members, whether you are a beginning gardener or a seasoned expert. You can purchase a membership at any meeting (memberships are $15 per year for an individual or $20 for a family), or you can just come and sit in first to see if it’s for you. Our members enjoy monthly speakers, seed and plant exchanges, field trips, garden visits, and a whole lot of camaraderie and sharing of garden knowledge and lore. DIGS is a great place to make new friends and get inspired to create a standout garden.
There is plenty of time and energy to do heavy work while you are young.Now, this brings us to the vexing question of what do we mean by young and what do we mean by old?On our islands, the concept of age is different than in other places.Because we have so many older people, standards are higher here for claiming to be old.
I tuned sixty last summer and felt I had finally arrived as an adult.I felt sixty was the beginning of old.One of my very fit octogenarian friends was taking a walk with me when I announced that I was now old.She felt that being sixty, I was a mere giddy and unreliable girl.Another octogenarian friend explained that she felt old only begins after the age of seventy five. I have yet to ask my nonagenarian (people in their nineties) friend what she thinks.
Young is also different here.I had a lovely young woman tell me that she really was not a girl despite having just had a baby in her early forties.I explained that on Denman, a girl who is still fertile is considered little better than fetal herself.
Just let us agree that people who are brimming with energy and have few chronic injuries are to be classified as young.It is to these happy few that I wish to talk about mulch.Yes, mulch does attract slugs but that is just an example of the cussedness of life.Mulch is essential to cover the delicate and nutrient-poor soils we have. Mulch also nourishes the soil life, enriching the soil after being digested by innumerable tiny, hungry mouths.You can keep the explosion of slugs down with applications of organic slug bait available at the Hardware Store on Denman.
The largest soil organisms, the worms, dig tunnels in the soil allowing air and water to penetrate the soil readily.They also line these tunnels with their excrement in the form of worm castings.There is a really good experiment to do with children and gardeners.You get a large clear-plastic soda bottle and pour some damp soil in the top, shake it flat.Add some dried leaf matter, sand, clay, manure in layers.Now, add a few garden worms and cover the body of the soda bottle with dark paper.
Leave it in a cool, dark place such as the boot cupboard and take a look at it every two weeks and note the changes.The worms will work like the dickens to eat all the goodies.They will swim to the top and dive to the bottom.After a month or so, the entire contents of the soda bottle will be thoroughly mixed together.
This is what will happen in your garden if you mulch with organic matter such as stable waste, sand for clay gardens, seaweed which is such a boost to our mineral-poor soils,fallen leaves and compost.The worms will breed like mad in the protected soil with such a huge reserve of food.They will mix the soil and the amendments so you don’t have to.
A thick layer of mulch on top of a paper or cardboard layer will kill off any weeds except buttercup which seems to have supernatural powers of endurance.A layer of newspapers six deep should be enough to kill or really slow down most weeds.Paper feed bags and layers of cardboard will certainly kill off most weeds.When the buttercups pop a couple of leaves to the surface, you will find the soil so fluffy that it will be easy to pull these nasty weeds out.Even buttercup will perish if it is placed in a really hot compost pile.
The key to having a very fertile garden is to increase the amount of organic matter in the soil, no matter what sort of soil you are starting with.If you can mulch your garden beds hugely every year, when you are young, when you become old, you can get away with far smaller quantities of mulch which will make your old age much easier. You want to make your gardens look as if they are covered with a feather bed, ten inches tall of compost.It is not too late, nor too cold to do that now.My husband and I just spent part of today mulching our beds.
Another thing to do while you are still young is to build a covered porch for your house.We did and it made our house so much bigger.We have an outdoor bath and a kitchen under the porch.This is an excellent place to bake bread in the summer, take a bath looking at the beautiful sky and trees and to sit outside during a downpour or on a really hot day when you need some shade to be outside.
TRIGGER WARNING: The following contains everything you didn’t care to know about sex.
Canadians are assumed to be boring, well-behaved, nice folks. Far from it, when it comes to adult entertainment, we great white northerners are rather adventurous. In fact, worldwide, we all seem to be on the same page when it comes to our private proclivities.
In Pornhub’s 2024 annual report, for the second time in a row, the top search for Canadians was “MILF.” Some may remember back in 2013, during an interview on Courtenay JetFM, a DJ asked then BC premier Christy Clark, what it was like to be a MILF. Ever the professional, Clark responded, “You know, I take that as a compliment…better a MILF than a cougar.” The term was also the top search in several other countries, including the US, the UK, and Spain.
The number two search for Canada was “hentai.” It seems that we aren’t the only ones intrigued by the kinky Japanese cartoon genre, as it was also the most-searched term in the US, Brazil and the Ukraine. And in third place, Canadians searched for “Asian,” bumping the “lesbian” category to fourth.
Some quirky stats: Canadian searches for “dominant woman” grew by a whopping 886%, “big natural chubby” (+764%) and “really old MILF” (+657%). Not sure what this reveals about us, but Germans have similar tastes.
The report did not have data by province, but did have info for US states. For instance, North Dakota searched “lesbian strap on” the most while South Dakota preferred “hot babes.” And for California, the largest state, “friend’s mom” was the winner.
In the most watched category, lesbian was once again, the top choice for Canadians, with MILF in the second spot. We did stand out globally with our viewing tastes, however. The “small tits” category was watched 82% more in Canada than the world average, and “virtual reality” and “red head” also saw a noticeable uptick in popularity.
With no surprise, the US was top of the list for traffic. The sheer amount of US visits to Pornhub was twice as much as both #2 France and #3 Philippines combined (Canada was #10). The endurance award goes to the Mexicans who spent just over 11 minutes per visit, followed by the Netherlands, the US, and Canada. Poland placed lowest at a mere 8 minutes and 35 seconds. Australians enjoy women loving women as well, where “lesbian” was their most viewed category. In the US and many parts of Africa, “ebony” was number one. Across the pond, Greenland was more into watching lesbians and most of Europe were loving the MILF category. Not too surprising, the French were in love with themselves, as was their neighbour in Italy, and Brazil as well. Meaning, for example, to
put it locally, we Islanders only watch “islander” videos like “Busty Hippy Pleasures Her Neighbour.”
And what about women? Not only are women watching porn, but they’re spending 17 seconds longer compared to the guys. Philippine female visitors topped the list again this year, with 59% of the traffic (versus the men at 41%). Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico all had similar viewing ratios of women over men. This could be explained by the culture of machismo in these countries. Hopefully the women were getting some quality time.
In the US, 29% of Pornhub viewers were women. This has remained consistent year after year. Canada, Australia, the UK and Germany had the same percentage, which once again can be explained by our culture. It’s not all about boinking either, women are much more likely to view videos featuring scissoring, cunnilingus, and solo sex. And just to be clear, scissoring does not involve cutting or running naked with.
So, where does artificial intelligence play in all this? A lot. Millions of people are interacting with AI-designed virtual companions online. One company, Replika, has users creating custom digital girlfriends.
No surprise, the clientele are male, Caucasian, and under age 30. The women are catching on, one announced on social media that she had “married” her Replika AI boyfriend, calling the chatbot the “best husband she has ever had.”
Sex doll vendors such as Joy Love Dolls offer interactive real-life sex-bots by mail order, with not only custom breast size, among other preferences, but also “complete control” of features including movement, heating, and AI-enabled “moans, squeals, and even flirting from your doll, making her a great companion.” At the budget level, you can choose Samantha for around $2,000 or if you dare, in the premium category, Kendra Lust, who’s name says it all, for $6,000. One site optimistically explains that buying a sex doll may be a bit of an investment, but “it’s cheaper than a girlfriend!”
Another company, realdoll, only has a selection of five male dolls (versus 41 female) – Michael, Nate, Lucas, Nick and Johnny – who all look, kind of creepy, like drug-addled serial killers. Or you can create your own model (but you’re stuck with the faces). Not for the faint of heart, these silicone pseudo hunks with custom penis attachments can cost over $8,000.
There’s something not quite right about replacing a real human being with a totally submissive lust machine. Can you hear the talk? “I hear Barry has a new girlfriend, but I’ve never seen her.” “Me, neither.
But, he looks happy.”
Jin Shin Jyutsu offers helpful and harmonizing opportunities to compassionately explore your inner world of Body, Mind, Spirit, Breath & Frequency.We invite you to take an hour for yourself to learn and practice basic Jin (hu-Man) Shin (Creator) Jyutsu (Art) self-care tools to Empower Inner Harmony and Personal Wellness.
Each class is facilitated by Erin O’Brien.She credits her lifelong (30+ years) dedication to self-care Jin Shin Jyutsu physio philosophy with her experience of overcoming chronic fatigue and debilitating arthritis. Daily practice keeps her feeling the Harmony alive in all aspects of becoming on the human journey.
January 20 January 27February 10February 24
6:30 – 7:30 PM in the Community Room at the Denman Island Community School – entrance by the gymnasium.
Each class begins with a gentle invitation to movement/dance/stretch/rest followed by a simple set of instructions for a personalized self-care experience using Jin Shin Jyutsu hands on healing practice. Most of this class will be spent comfortably laying down or sitting while exploring opportunities to unlock self-care insight with Jin Shin Jyutsu instruction.
No previous eastern medicine training required.You can learn more about Jin Shin Jyutsu at this website: https://jinshinjyutsu.ca/windance/
You can register to secure your spot by email to dices.communityprograms@gmail.com or by calling DICES at 250-335-2058.
The cost for each class is $15.
Drop ins Welcome as space allows.
DICES supports this community education opportunity.
Israeli architect Eyal Weizman is a new kind of investigator. He is founding director of Forensic Architecture, which is both a field of study, involving new ways of interrogating violent conflicts, and the name of a research agency. As he says, “We are the people’s forensic agency. We only interrogate militaries, secret services and police forces”. They also investigate the role of corporations and militaries in environmental destruction. (interview with Peter Beinart, 27 November, 24.)
Eyal Weizman
Born in Haifa, Israel, now based in London, Weizman, is Professor of Spacial&VisualCulturesat Goldsmiths, University of London. Forensic Architecture has a dozen offices from Athens, to Rio to Bogota; their researchers use spacial architectural technologies, in service of political studies and prosecution of war crimes all over the world. They also draw from software development, interactive cartographies, remote sensing, satellite image analysis, “situated testimony”, material analysis and crowd-sourcing.
Although their primary focus continues to be Israel-Palestine, one great example of their range is their ½ hour film, Cloud Studies 2022, which shows their ground-breaking work gathering evidence of environmental destruction caused by petro-chemical industries worldwide – work that gets presented in cases brought by legal activists against corporate developers.
Forensic Architecture provides architectural and media evidence to civil society groups, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), and the UN.
Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation (2007), updated 2017, was my first introduction to the work of Weizman and colleagues. In it, he demonstrates the spacial planningaspectsof the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. He shows the long-standing intent to occupy, displace Palestinians and control the land, through detailed examination of the built environment over time. He shows the fortress-like nature of the settlements, their intentional placement on hilltops, their observation towers for the constant surveillance of Palestinians living in the valleys below, and the tragic fact of Zionist ghettoization of its own people in their segregated, walled-off enclaves.
After more than a year of research, Forensic Architecture has just released an 827 page report called: A Cartography of Genocide; A Spacial Analysis of the Israeli Military’s Conduct in Gaza sinceOctober,2023.This report has been provided to South Africa’s legal team to support their case at the ICJ charging Israel with Genocide. Research entailed viewing 100’s of thousands of videos and testimonies coming from Gaza, “evidence flying at you” Weizman told Beinart. He says that they were looking not so much at the incident itself, “which is actually a war crime”, but at relations between statements and actions, between multiple bits of evidence, at “evidence of evidence” on a meta level. He states that you need to look at intent – cultural and political- which has been produced over a period of decades, to look at history and consider how intent was formed. You can’t understand Genocide without understanding the particular
environment, he says, and because we cannot know what is inside the archive of the Israeli military, what is behind their commands, we need to look for patterns. Actions which are systematic and widespread constitute a pattern. Patterns reflected in commands of the military were found by Forensic Architecture in Israeli destruction of:
agriculture
health infrastructure
public institutions &
displacement of Gazans.
Relations between the patterns have a compounding effect, coinciding, working together as a system, multiplying the effects on the population. According to Weizman, each one of the patterns fits a historical pattern, such as weaponizing the denial of humanitarian aid and the use of starvation. Since October, 2023, researchers found that over 70% of Gaza’s agricultural land has been destroyed, together with over 45% of its greenhouses. Those operations deny Gazans the ability to feed themselves. Together with the systematic withholding of food and water, they create conditions of famine. These same patterns were earlier evident in Israeli’s long practice of “putting Gazans on a diet” by calculating the number of calories the population needed just to survive, and restricting the amount of food allowed into Gaza on that basis. They were evident in Israel’s spraying of poisonous herbicides on Gazan farmland which started in 2014, destroying crops and livelihoods, documented by Forensic Architecture in Cloud Studies, 2022. Creating conditions where life is not possible is all part of Genocide.
Why is Forensic Architecture important?
We need the insights provided by research agencies such as Forensic Architecture because we are awash in propaganda disseminated by corporate media. We are at an historic time of recognizing the realities and inequities created and sustained by imperialism, colonialism and corporate capitalism. We need to learn the truth from reliable sources. In their own words: “We are an interdisciplinary agency operating across human rights, journalism, architecture, art and aesthetics, academia and the law. In 2022, the Peabody Awards programme wrote that we had co-created ‘an entire new academic field and emergent media practice’; in 2024, the European Research Council assessed Forensic Architecture as ‘a scientific breakthrough (defined as a revolutionary work that led to deep change in existing paradigms or new methods opening a new stream of research)’… Since 2020, FA has supported the growth of agencies worldwide that practice and apply our methods. The Investigative Commons is both a global network of practitioners, and a physical space in Berlin, within the offices of our sister agency Forensis.” Check them out for yourself at https://forensic-architecure.org .
