Zoe Ducklow

The Capital Regional District has issued a boil water advisory for the Wilderness Mountain Water Service Area in East Sooke. (Katja Just - Pixabay.com)

B.C. commercial groundwater users have to register, start paying for water

New rules take effect March 2022 and will effect about 20,000 well users

The Capital Regional District has issued a boil water advisory for the Wilderness Mountain Water Service Area in East Sooke. (Katja Just - Pixabay.com)
Moms Stop the Harm have tied ribbons around lamp posts with pictures of loved ones who have died from drug overdoses. The ribbons are both a memorial and call for action. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)

Purple ribbons put spotlight on opioid crisis grief, as B.C. families plead for more support

Lack of support is driving deaths, because people waiting for help turn to toxic supply

Moms Stop the Harm have tied ribbons around lamp posts with pictures of loved ones who have died from drug overdoses. The ribbons are both a memorial and call for action. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)
RCMP officers wait for protesters in tripods, sleeping dragons and coffins to voluntarily remove themselves earlier this summer in a remote part of southwest Vancouver Island. (Black Press Media file photo)

B.C. old growth protesters accuse RCMP of aggression after use of pepper spray

‘They’re trying to make it scary to be out there,’ says lawyer for protesters

RCMP officers wait for protesters in tripods, sleeping dragons and coffins to voluntarily remove themselves earlier this summer in a remote part of southwest Vancouver Island. (Black Press Media file photo)
Jacquie Bartlett with a photo of her mother before things went awry. (Zoe Ducklow/New Staff)

‘Please tell someone:’ B.C. woman whose mother was murdered begs abuse survivors to get help

‘I didn’t believe this could happen to my mom either, but it did’

Jacquie Bartlett with a photo of her mother before things went awry. (Zoe Ducklow/New Staff)
A protester lies in a sleeping dragon hold at the Waterfall blockade in June in the Fairy Creek Watershed, while police confer in the background. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)

Logging company calls for criminal charges against B.C. old growth protesters

Mass civil disobedience at the Fairy Creek blockades undermining the rule of law, Teal Cedar claims

A protester lies in a sleeping dragon hold at the Waterfall blockade in June in the Fairy Creek Watershed, while police confer in the background. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)
Captain James Cook statue splashes into Victoria’s Inner Harbour, after being removed from its upper causeway pedestal on July 1. (@CJusticeVic/Twitter)

Cast in bronze, then into Victoria’s Inner Harbour: So who was James Cook?

Likeness of British maritime explorer commissioned in 1976, forcibly removed on July 1

Captain James Cook statue splashes into Victoria’s Inner Harbour, after being removed from its upper causeway pedestal on July 1. (@CJusticeVic/Twitter)
Athena and Venus, ready to ride. (Zoe Ducklow - Sooke News Mirror)

Goggling double-dog motorcycle sidecar brings smiles to B.C. commuters

Athena and Venus are all teeth and smiles from their Harley-Davidson sidecar

Athena and Venus, ready to ride. (Zoe Ducklow - Sooke News Mirror)
Willow, Rowan and Monkey (camp names) wrestled through the complex issues of civil disobedience and protesting logging when each of them feels very pro forestry — except for old-growth. They’d just come back from a night operation of building hard blocks at a blockade. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)

Behind the line at Fairy Creek: Inside B.C.’s old growth forest battleground

There’s surprising activity happening behind the lines at the Fairy Creek old-growth protest sites

Willow, Rowan and Monkey (camp names) wrestled through the complex issues of civil disobedience and protesting logging when each of them feels very pro forestry — except for old-growth. They’d just come back from a night operation of building hard blocks at a blockade. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)
Andreea Pirvu, 26, sat on a tripod for about four hours on Wednesday. Sgt. Elenore Sturko said Pirvu started getting drowsy from the heat, which is one reason why they chose not to extract. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)
Andreea Pirvu, 26, sat on a tripod for about four hours on Wednesday. Sgt. Elenore Sturko said Pirvu started getting drowsy from the heat, which is one reason why they chose not to extract. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)
Ayana Benning, 5, and her brother Tulsie Benning, 4, marched up with their signs and parents to join the celebration at Braden Main forest service road, where the police exclusion line was breached May 29. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)

RCMP arrest all but one at Fairy Creek blockade, protesters take it back next day

Crowds of supporters and a car of elders breached the police line

Ayana Benning, 5, and her brother Tulsie Benning, 4, marched up with their signs and parents to join the celebration at Braden Main forest service road, where the police exclusion line was breached May 29. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)
Seniors went to Fairy Creek to relieve young people who have been protesting logging in the area. (Submitted/Marnie Recker)

Seniors overwhelm RCMP barrier past Fairy Creek blockade

About 100 elderly hikers swarmed the RCMP exclusion zone, no arrests were made

Seniors went to Fairy Creek to relieve young people who have been protesting logging in the area. (Submitted/Marnie Recker)
On Saturday a group of protestors peacefully walked past an RCMP checkpoint at Caycuse. Several were later arrested. (Tristan Crosby/Submitted)

More than two dozen arrested in B.C. old-growth logging protests

Since enforcement began, 59 people arrested at various encampments

On Saturday a group of protestors peacefully walked past an RCMP checkpoint at Caycuse. Several were later arrested. (Tristan Crosby/Submitted)
Al Kowalko shows off the province’s first electric school bus, running kids to three elementary and two secondary schools on the West Shore. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)

B.C.’s first electric school bus making the rounds in Victoria suburbs

No emissions, no fuel costs and less maintenance will offset the $750K upfront expense

Al Kowalko shows off the province’s first electric school bus, running kids to three elementary and two secondary schools on the West Shore. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)
Val Napoleon, who earned her own law degree after becoming a grandmother, is instrumental in supporting the resurgence of Indigenous legal order in Canada. (UVic photo services)

Indigenous law being steadily rebuilt in Canada, says B.C. university professor

‘We don’t have to argue that Indigenous people have law anymore’

Val Napoleon, who earned her own law degree after becoming a grandmother, is instrumental in supporting the resurgence of Indigenous legal order in Canada. (UVic photo services)
Tina Starkey with her seven-month-old puppy Sugar on the E&N Trail in Esquimalt. Starkey now carries a small personal alarm device, her thumb on the button. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)

Random encounters leave B.C. woman concerned for her safety, and she’s not alone

Sharing her growing fear of walking in public opens a floodgate of advice and similar concerns

Tina Starkey with her seven-month-old puppy Sugar on the E&N Trail in Esquimalt. Starkey now carries a small personal alarm device, her thumb on the button. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)
Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke NDP MP Randall Garrison (Black Press Media file photo)

B.C. MP says law needed to thwart shadow pandemic of intimate partner violence

Randall Garrison calls for coercive and controlling behaviour to be criminalized

Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke NDP MP Randall Garrison (Black Press Media file photo)
A native-to-B.C. wild queen bee (bombus melanopygus for those in the know) feeds on a periwinkle flower. (Submitted/Sarah Johnson, Native Bee Society of BC)

B.C.’s wild bees need messy gardens to survive

The year-long nesting period makes habitat a primary concern for wild bees

A native-to-B.C. wild queen bee (bombus melanopygus for those in the know) feeds on a periwinkle flower. (Submitted/Sarah Johnson, Native Bee Society of BC)
Rainbow trouts thrashing with life as they’re about to be transferred to the largest lake of their lives, even though it’s pretty small. These rainbows have a blue tinge because they matched the blue of their hatchery pen, but soon they’ll take on the green-browns of their new home at Lookout Lake. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)

VIDEO: B.C. lake stocked with hatchery trout to delight of a seniors fishing club

The Cherish Trout Scouts made plans to come back fishing soon

Rainbow trouts thrashing with life as they’re about to be transferred to the largest lake of their lives, even though it’s pretty small. These rainbows have a blue tinge because they matched the blue of their hatchery pen, but soon they’ll take on the green-browns of their new home at Lookout Lake. (Zoe Ducklow/News Staff)
Protesters occupied a road leading to Fairy Creek Watershed near Port Renfrew. (Submitted photo)

B.C. First Nation says logging activist interference not welcome at Fairy Creek

Vancouver Island’s Pacheedaht concerned about increasing polarization over forestry activities

Protesters occupied a road leading to Fairy Creek Watershed near Port Renfrew. (Submitted photo)
B.C. beekeepers will face extra supply challenges this year thanks to COVID-19 supply chain disruptions. (Black Press Media file photo)

B.C. bee supply threatened this year by wasps, COVID

No, bees aren’t getting COVID, it’s the supply chain that’s been disrupted

B.C. beekeepers will face extra supply challenges this year thanks to COVID-19 supply chain disruptions. (Black Press Media file photo)