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Light and Dark at This Year’s Salt Spring Film Festival

Last year was my first Salt Spring Film Festival, and I was impressed by everything–the stellar quality of the films and the whole vibe of eating delicious food from the Intermission Cafe at group tables in the middle of a Social Justice Bazaar. I had just moved to the island, and it felt very welcoming and reassuring that so many people were into documentary films, one of my passions. I was, however, surprised that almost everyone watching the films seemed older than me, and I’m no spring chicken. I wished the films could be seen by a younger, more diverse audience, and thankfully that is something that programming and marketing coordinator Steve Martindale says the Salt Spring Film Festival Society has been striving to do, including with this year’s slate of 43 films–including two Oscar nominees–for the festival happening February 28 to March 2 at GISS. The festival, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, originated as a showcase for films …
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Obituary: Tamar Griggs

Tamar Griggs December 4, 1941 - December 27, 2024 Tamar was born Dec 4, 1941 in Tacoma, WA to Johanna Frieda Clement and Chauncey Leavenworth Griggs. She passed away from natural causes at her home on Salt Spring Island on the morning of Dec 27, 2024. She is now reunited with her cherished sister, Naomi Griggs. Tamar lived with a sparkle in her eyes, endless curiosity, a deep love for her family, the Salt Spring community, and hundreds of creative projects that she pursued with passion through her final days. In the early 1970s, Tamar taught children’s workshops about whale conservation. She compiled a collection of their poetry and paintings about whales, which was published as a book titled “There’s A Sound In The Sea”. The Smithsonian Institute created a traveling exhibition with the book for the UN Marine Mammal Conference. In 1980 Tamar earned a Bachelor of Education from Simon Fraser University, with a double minor in Biology and English. After enriching pe…
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ASK Salt Spring Welcomes our Firefighters

January 17 Nineteen joined this ASK Salt Spring gathering welcoming Fire Chief Jamie Holmes and acting Assistant Fire Chief Warren Nuyens. After our Territorial Acknowledgement, we learned what “excited and delighted” our guests. Warren began by sharing his pleasure with his role interacting with our community on exciting fire prevention projects, including FireSmart and the high school Cadet Camp. This Cadet Camp offers our seniors an opportunity to see some of the exciting parts of firefighting, even including trusting equipment enough to enter a smoke-filled room and rappelling down a three-story building. We later learned that this long-running program has encouraged a number of cadets to enter firefighting as a career. These cadets include women who, as high schoolers, learn that they have the abilities and physical requirements to be career firefighters. Jamie spoke of his understanding of his responsibility as the leader while also empowering his firefighters to u…
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Obituary: In Loving Memory of Hans Dobner

Hans Dobner 1928 – 2024 Hans came into the world in Loeben, Austria. At that time, Austria was still struggling with the devastating aftermath of World War I. For a brief time, he found himself in a boarding school isolated from those he loved. Though it was a difficult time for him, and always found joy in the beauty of creation. Hans was 11 years old when Austria found itself embroiled in another world war with young Hans remembering looking at the terror of his father‘s face when the news came over the radio that another world war was declared. By 1945 Hans was old enough to be recruited and found himself in the frightening role of a soldier in the war in March 1945. His troop was ordered to travel to Augsburg, Germany, where they were to have training on the guns and shoot enemy planes at close range, obviously putting the lives of those young men in great peril. However, the train to take the young recruits to Augsburg was forced to stop at Munich because the city…
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BC Transit: Service Change

SALT SPRING ISLAND – BC Transit and the Capital Regional District are informing customers of a service change, effective February 3, 2025. As part of this service change, minor changes are being made to the trip times on certain trips to help with service reliability due to construction delays on Fulford-Ganges Road. The following routes will be impacted: Route 1 Ganges Local Route 2 Fulford Harbour Route 5 Fernwood Route 7 Cusheon Lake Please see the online Rider’s Guide for full details. For more information about trip planning, schedules and to sign up for customer alerts, please visit bctransit.com/salt-spring-island.
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B.C. Provides Economic Assessment of Trump’s Tariff Threat

As B.C. continues to fight against threatened United States tariffs of 25% on all Canadian imports, the Province has done a preliminary assessment of potential impacts to the B.C. economy of a trade war with the United States. In president-elect Donald Trump’s tariffs scenario, B.C. could see a cumulative loss of $69 billion in economic activity between 2025 and 2028. The Province’s real GDP is projected to potentially decline by 0.6% year over year in both 2025 and 2026. Job losses are estimated at 124,000 by 2028 with the largest declines in natural-resource sector export industries and associated manufacturing. Losses would also be felt in the transportation and retail sectors. The unemployment rate could increase to 6.7% in 2025 and 7.1% in 2026, and corporate profits could see an annual decline in the range of $3.6 billion to $6.1 billion. Tariffs imposed by the United States, along with potential retaliatory measures, could impact many of the Province’s key reven…
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  • - January 17, 2025

Linda's List for Jan.16: Colder Weather Ahead; Homemade Pesticides

After the warm winter so far, below freezing temperatures are now in the forecast for our first bit of colder weather this winter. Starting Friday this week and continuing for a few days, forecasts range from one or two degrees below freezing overnight for the Victoria area to -4 to -5oC overnight further up Vancouver Island, for Vancouver and other Lower Mainland areas. At higher elevations or further inland, overnight temperatures tend to be lower so some of you may have lower temperatures overnight in your garden. It doesn’t look like severe or prolonged cold is likely for now, so preparations this week should just ensure that everything is well mulched and possibly that the least hardy vegetables are covered. But first, you might want to harvest a batch of carrots and other roots, leeks, a cabbage, lots of leafy greens, to store in the refrigerator for use in over the next few weeks. Root crops and cabbages, in particular, keep well for weeks in the fridge if you have the s…
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Want to Join Face-to-Face Conversations About Our Most Divisive Salt Spring Issues?

January 10 Twenty-two joined us to welcome the Restorative Justice team to facilitate explorations of our difficult conversations in a safe and productive space. This is the first of a series of such Restorative Justice/ASK Salt Spring conversations scheduled for the second Friday of each month, 11-1, in the SIMS classroom. Leading our conversation this week was Laura Dafoe. She was joined by two new and enthusiastic Restorative Justice volunteers, Emma and Fig. Sadly missing was program coordinator Jessica Terezakis who is supporting her family in a recent health challenge. While many of us know about the meaningful work done by our local Restorative Justice team, you may want to check out their website as well as the ASK Salt Spring report about their recent time with us. Laura also suggested we read Peter Block’s book, The Abundant Community, offering the following questions: - Invitation to Connection: What can we do to create a stronger sense of belonging within …
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Camping Reservations Open in Several BC Parks Campgrounds

Campsites in many BC Parks can be reserved to prepare for the 2025 spring camping season. Campsites can be reserved four months ahead of the desired arrival date. Reservations for the May 2025 long weekend open this week for many BC Parks campgrounds that accept reservations. This year, 60 new campsites located in three BC Parks are being added to the reservation service. This includes: 30 new campsites with power hookups in Fintry Park near Kelowna; 17 new walk-in sites at Rolley Lake Park near Mission; and 13 new sites (eight park-beside for tent camping and five walk-in) at China Beach Campground in Juan de Fuca Park near Victoria. The campgrounds have several facility upgrades to improve the visitor experience. At Fintry Park, new flush toilets, upgraded services centres with a dishwashing station, a potable water tap and garbage/recycling containers are part of the $1.5-million campground upgrades. The new $2-million walk-in campground at Rolley Lake Park ha…
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  • - January 13, 2025

Thumbs Up for Hitchhiking on SSI

More than 30 years ago, I wrote a column “Don’t Tell Mom, But I Picked Up a Hitchhiker” when I was a cub reporter at a small town newspaper in Michigan about my first time giving a stranger a ride. By then, hitchhiking already felt like something from a bygone era. In most places, the free-spirited 1970s—where Sissy Hankshaw, the protagonist in the Tom Robbins novel “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” could excel as a hitchhiker due to her outsized thumbs—had been replaced by a more fearful society replete with tales of stranger danger. As a result, it came as a welcome surprise to learn before my first visit to BC in 1997 that we didn’t need a car to Salt Spring because hitchhiking was commonplace. The whole visit, including camping in Mouat Park, felt like stepping back in time. Discovering how safe and easy it was to hitchhike on SSI was liberating. Since moving to the island last year, I’ve returned the favour by giving about a dozen rides to hitchhikers, some of whom h…
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