Father Charles Brandt honoured by Canadian Museum of Nature with lifetime achievement award

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Party platforms expected next week for BC election

The BC Liberal Party and the BC Greens are promising to release their party's platforms by next week. BC Green Leader Sonia Furstenau admits her party may not run candidates in every riding, but she is promising a platform that takes into account all areas of the province.

"We will be starting to introduce planks in our platform later this week. Of course, we have been focussed this week, in getting our candidates introduced."—BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau.

Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson is promising to present his platform next week which will include details about his party's daycare plan.

"Unlike the NDP who are just chattering around the edges and reannouncing old projects, we're going to come forward with a bold plan to get BC back on its feet. And what we have to do is convince Islanders that we have their interests at heart."—BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson.

The Liberals won just one seat out of 14 on Vancouver Island in the last provincial election. The NDP won 10 and all three green party members represent Vancouver Island ridings.

Orange Shirt Day, a “day of learning and remembering”

Today is Orange Shirt Day, a day to commemorate indigenous children who attended residential schools. The Director of Instruction of Indigenous Learning for the Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District says the message to students is it is not a celebration. Ted Cadwallader says it is a day of learning and remembering.

"I'll say it this way, our School district is on the path of understanding how to operate better on this territory that we exist on."—Ted Cadwallader for SD-68.

Orange Shirt Day started in Williams Lake in 2013. The day honours the story of Phyllis Jack Webstad. In 1973, when she was six years old, she had a new orange shirt taken from her on her first day at a residential school. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation will live stream a 90-minute presentation titled Every Child Matters: Reconciliation Through Education. Residential school survivors, Indigenous musicians and dancers, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit leaders will appear throughout the day, starting at 9 a.m.. It can be seen on the NCTR Facebook page.

Nature Inspiration Awards highlights two on Vancouver Island

A Courtenay area Hermit Priest and a Parksville innovator are among this year's winners and nominees for national Nature Inspiration Awards. 97-year-old Father Charles Brandt of Oyster River is being honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Museum of Nature. He was instrumental in the rebirth of the Tsolum River, which was poisoned by runoff from an abandoned copper mine near Mt. Washington. Father Charles is the only hermit priest in Canada, ordained by the Roman Catholic Church.

Parksville's ULAT is in the running for an award in the Small to Medium Business Category. The company was the first wool-dryer ball manufacturer in the world. The dryer balls provide an environmentally safe alternative to single-use dryer sheets.