COVER ARTICLE—Rats, Races, and New Beginnings

by Corey Matsumoto

Welcome to our first publication of 2008. We enjoyed our time off in January but have been anxious to get on with a whole new year of publishing quality informative articles from the Powell River community.

You may have read in our July, 2007, issue (you can download past issues from our website) that we are intent on creating a magazine that is entirely locally produced and printed. We have been successful in keeping Immanence Magazine a fully local publication until the December/January issue, when we were forced to print about 85% of the print run out of town (gasp!) because of local printer breakdowns. This is a temporary setback. As you read this, we are working hard to acquire our own production machine, to ensure that locally printed media return to Powell River.

February 7th marks the beginning of a new cycle of the Chinese lunar calendar as the Year of the Rat returns at the head of the 12-year cycle. This symbolises new beginnings, and hope to all who wish for positive change in their lives and communities.

On this note, please participate in this month’s civic by-election by educating yourself about all six of the candidates and casting your vote on February 23rd. It’s your town, your future, and ultimately your responsibility to participate as members of the Powell River community. Help steer our city towards positive change and a prosperous future!

COMMUNITY

EDITORIAL—The Aloha Spirit as Activism

by Jana Pierce-van Loon

My mother, who has stepped in as editor of this fine rag you hold in your hot little paws, asked me for an editorial on my oft-seen but little thought-of email signature, “Love IS the Movement”. I was, to put it lightly, flabbergasted. “Um, ok,” I said hesitantly, unwilling to admit that I hadn’t given it much thought when I’d assigned it as my signature – it had just sounded cool!

But as most things in my life, this was serendipitous; for, while thinking on what the heck to write (and past deadline!), I discovered a valuable lesson.

I have been an activist my whole life. It was born into me, and it will leave me only by death or lobotomy. Combined with that activism is a deep river of rage, thick and juicy in its depths, red like the floes of magma beneath the earth’s flimsy crust, ready to burst forth at a moment’s notice.

And no wonder. I have much to be angry about. My parents’ generation, the hippies of Free Love and maybe just a little too much LSD, my predecessors in the Great Fight, did a bang-up job. We owe them quite a bit. They paved the road for the activists of today, much as the suffragettes and activists before them paved their path. The hippies had the right idea, folks! Love IS the movement. Much as they may be cast aside, dismissed derisively by young idiots who don’t know what their apathy is losing them, without them our world would be a lot worse.

I am proud of people like my mom, people of my mom’s generation, who fought the good fight in a time of civil rights infringement, injustice, and phony wars. Wait, that sounds familiar...I wonder why.

However, I am also angry with them. They gave up the ghost much too quickly. As they entered their twenties and thirties, other things began to matter more. A home. A mortgage. A family. A car, a dog, 2.5 kids and the colonial. Regular baths. A business suit. The Free Love generation fought for their youth and then most of them settled down, calmed down, and gave up, expecting the next generation to carry on the fight.

Hey, guys? IT DIDN’T WORK. My generation is a generation of Easy Mac meals, video games, convenience, and worst of all–APATHY. Honestly I don’t know whom my anger is directed at more–the generation before us who gave up too soon, confident their brood would carry out their great far-reaching plans, or my generation–a pile of snot-nosed, sniveling, spoiled brats who wouldn’t know hard work or sacrifice if it bit them on the arse.

Not that I’m an exception. I play WoW with the rest of them and work in fashion retail, for goddess’ sakes! A lot of days I can barely bring myself even to glance at the truthout.org articles in my inbox or to act as Hawaii State Chair of the Pagan Unity Campaign.

It’s not my mom’s fault. Goddess knows she tried. I don’t blame our parents. But our families got too caught up in personal banes of existence really to notice where this world was headed until we looked up in the last year or two and said a hearty “Oh, Fornication Under Consent of the King!”

Where have we been all these years? Not my mom–she’s a member of this and that, still carrying the torch. Where have we been–Generation Z? Yes, Z. (My parents’ generation is actually two generations previous to ours – my parents are older than many others’ my age.)

What shall that Z stand for in the coming years? Zonked, zoned, zany, zealous? Shall we be remembered as the Generation That Did Jack Shite, or will we leave a better legacy?

I’d like to see our Generation Z become the Omega Generation. Omega’s the last letter in the ancient Greek alphabet. It symbolises the ending of old things, and the beginning of new ones. As the Tarot’s Death card symbolises great change, so does Omega.

After Omega, the next letter is again Alpha, for leadership and new beginnings. Why should our legacy be non-existent or shameful? Let us put to rest old paradigms, old ideas, institutions, structures, and let the generation after us bring forth a new dawn–one we can all be happy with.

Reflecting on these truths, I realise that, to bring about this change my soul wants so desperately, I must let go of my anger. Bursts of anger can be useful, but in the long run, anger is self-destructive and harmful to others. In truth we do create our own reality to a certain extent. If all you can do is complain or rage about the world around you, then all you do is make it worse.

This time, we must approach activism in the spirit of love. We must make love our movement, and forgiveness the new “f word” of our generation. We must reach that calm area within us, however small, and learn to sit in perfect love and trust with the world. Only then may we change anything.

We must love our fellow human beings. Empathy is key here–not sympathy. True fellow feeling, reached by walking for two moons in another person’s moccasins. Then you’ll know how that person feels. Might not make you a better person, but it’ll help.

Above all, we must hold the Aloha Spirit. That doesn’t mean wearing colorful shirts and sporting a slick tan with your Maui Jim sunglasses. The Aloha Spirit is a deep-held, deeply-rooted cultural ethos in Hawai’i. It takes more than just reading about it to understand–one must experience it. However, here are the basics.

The alo in Aloha means presence, front, or share. The ha means the sacred breath, or soul. Breath is associated with soul in Hawai’ian mythology; ha is an expression of that sacredness. The Hawai’ian language is geared to awaken spiritual awareness and expression of the Aloha Spirit. Make sure to say fully, savoring the word like a fine wine, “Ah-LOH-ha!” Let it fill you, and let the experience of Aloha leave you–not breathless, but breathing wholeheartedly.

Aloha is a word that comes from two words. Someone has formed an acrostic poem with its letters, assigning five values to Aloha: Akahai, Lokahi, ‘Olu’olu, Ha’aha’a, and Ahonui.

Akahai means careful offering. The value here is kindness. Lokahi means to obtain oneness, or harmony. ‘Olu’olu means cool, refreshing and translates to a pleasant or agreeable nature. Ha’aha’a means low and reflects self-effacing modesty. Ahonui means great breath, for patience. This way Aloha helps us remember its overall meaning.

The Hawai’ians have suffered, but with grace, and continue to embody the Aloha Spirit, their divine heritage.

The Aloha Spirit is ineffable, like the beauty in a sunset, and must be felt to be understood. Does it come from the Gods Themselves? We’ll never know for sure.

Change–true, lasting, wondrous change–will never happen if we continue in anger and apathy. We must let that darkness go, and let love do the work. Hold the Aloha Spirit in your heart as you pick up litter, hold a seminar on the importance of recycling, teach your kids (or grandkids) how to compost, work for positive social change, work to overthrow oppressive systems, work for educational reform.

Do not despair, for there is hope. Hope lives only in love–Aloha, metta, lovingkindness, compassion–whatever word you use, the meaning is the same. Hold it in your heart and let it carry you, let it carry the movement onwards, for it is the only legacy that will remain once we are gone.

It is the only thing that ever has.

CIVIC ELECTION—Candidates

Katheran Milne
www.katheran.com

As I intend for Powell River to be my home for the rest of my life, I would like to participate in the process of building our community into a self-reliant, fully sustainable community of the future. I believe that we need to move forward from the status quo and proactively advance in innovative ways. It’s time to try something different and find a fresh new path into what I see as a tumultuous and unpredictable future of global conflict, economies and resource wars. Every journey begins with the first step, and running for Council is my first step, to being actively engaged in taking responsibility for the future of my community.

My positions are: keep ALR land intact, build the library, yes to North Harbour or it will be gone, no extension for waste dumping in our watershed, no to LNG and private hydro production on our rivers and live within our budgets!

John F. Kennedy said: “There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” There is no time to spare to stop the selling off and gambling away of our community’s future and resources. As a civilisation, none of us has the luxury of remaining uninvolved, disengaged or self serving. We are all in this together. If I am elected, I promise my best efforts to set a viable, exciting and hopeful course to the future, for our community.

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Debbie Dee deedaydebbie@gmail.com

I have lived in Powell River since 1973. This is the best place on earth to live, raise a family, have a career and retire.

I am committed to the continued positive development of our city. Strong bonds are being built in many areas for the benefit of future generations.

What I have heard most in the community since my decision to participate is that varied groups feel no one is listening. I want to hear your best inclusive solution to the issues you feel most strongly about.

I maintain that seeking the positive in any situation is the best course of action. By raising public awareness of an issue, we increase the input for solution. Then, we formulate input into an inclusive outcome recognising all voices.

Spending is necessary for maintenance. We cannot allow our city to fall into disrepair because we are unable to reach an agreement. All groups must recognize the need to find a compatible solution.

Cooperative effort makes a community strong. Whether we use the bus, the library, recreation facilities, soccer fields or harbours, these amenities make our city a community where we can all enjoy our respective ways of life.

The study and implementation of green issues is now an urgent necessity. Once again, Powell River has an opportunity to be a leader in vision and application for our province. It is our responsibility to come together in open discussion and truly to listen to one another for the benefit of our city.

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Aaron Pinch www.buildingourcommunity.ca

Born in Vancouver, Aaron Pinch moved to Powell River in 1993. Ten years later, he opened Powell River Microsystems on Marine Avenue.

I grew up in Powell River. Like many local youth, I had to leave for post-secondary education. When I decided to return to Powell River in 2003, many people questioned my thinking. My reasons were simple: lifestyle, affordability and opportunity.

Powell River has changed. We can’t rely on the mill to provide primary financial support for our community anymore. While the mill will be an important economic component for some time yet, our time as a mill town is ending.

We must plan and grow our city carefully to ensure taxes are adequate to maintain the many services we love and enjoy, such as our parks-and-recreation complex. Higher taxes should not be an issue year after year for homeowners and business operators. However, without growth, increasing taxes will create a burden with a negative impact on the entire city. Municipal, regional-district and Tla’Amin (Sliammon) First-Nations governments must work together in partnerships to benefit the entire region. Cooperation and partnership are key to the success of the region in the long term. Partnership fosters economic development and growth, providing employment and educational opportunities for the region’s youth, Let’s develop education programs that encourage our youth to stay here and attract more youth to attend our expanding university. While many may be happy with Powell River as a retirement community, only a population of all ages will ensure future prosperity.

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Dale Forsberg www.members.shaw.ca/forsberg.dale (online soon).

I have been nominated for the open council position and have entered alongside five other extraordinary people of our community. The first question that comes up is, “Why are you running for council?” The first response is, “I must be ‘loco.’”

I’ve been a resident of Powell River since 1987 when Susan and I came to the harbour “for one summer” to run a fish-and-chip shop. I was a commercial-diving instructor and the founder of the Canada Sea Life College–a totally afloat sea school designed to convert landsmen to seamen. As an oceanic educator, I am acutely aware of the relationship between the land and the sea. I’ve had the unique opportunity to swim most of the coastline underwater around the Queen Charlotte Islands and from the Alaska border to Victoria.

Here in Powell River, Susan and I built the Lilian Rose, the famous pink houseboat in the Westview Harbour. We resided there 14 years before moving ashore. Now, as a landsman and home owner, I am also engaged in the preservation and sensible operation of this community. I am running for council primarily to encourage the residents and younger generation to take an active interest in the issues of the day. I’ll be a liaison between the city and the voters. As a working person who has seen the insides of more than a thousand homes in this area, I can clearly identify with the problems and address the issues with wisdom and common “sea sense”. I believe I am the best choice for your voice! Vote! Write me at daleforcouncil@gmail.com.

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Patricia Jean Aldworth www.ourpowellriver.com

President, Townsite Ratepayers; Catalyst Stakeholders Committee Juris Doctor, Georgetown Law School; BA, Political Science, UCLA A lawyer and mediator, I have 20 years’ government service as a policy, research and legislative expert in BC, Oregon, and Washington, D.C. Please check my website for details.

I’m running for office because I believe that open, accountable, and transparent government is essential to healthy democracy. Our City needs councillors who take the term ‘fiscal responsibility’ seriously and decide cautiously how to spend taxpayers’ dollars. If elected, I would ceaselessly promote citizens’ rights to participate, and report on our fiscal situation. Rising property taxes, a direct result of the rising City budget, will test how much people can bear, this year and for years to come. The City needs to go back to basics before it faces bankruptcy: safe streets, quality of life, open government. There is no place in this vision for the ‘corporatization’ of government and out-of-control spending. I oppose an application to exclude land from the provincial agricultural reserve. The Powell River area is essentially an island, dependent on food being shipped in. We need agricultural land for farms, to decrease our dependency on imported food.

I oppose Catalyst’s application to expand its landfill, which should be closed permanently as MacMillan-Bloedel planned back in 1994.

I support a new library because it is infrastructure that serves all the people – not just special interests. The issue should be put to voters by referendum as part of the November election ballot.

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Barb Rees www.vote4barb.blogspot.com

I strive to make a difference in the world whether with MS-Carnation campaigns, Toastmasters, Youth Ambassadors, or the Festival of Writers. Strengths I bring to council are leadership, organization, compassion, and a heart invested in Powell River.

My best friend is my husband Dave. We took my book RV Canada on a Dime and a Dream across Canada in 2007 while promoting Powell River everywhere ..as the best place to live! Enhanced literacy programs and a new library would be so beneficial to everyone. Students with strong writing and communication skills become stronger citizens.

I’ll lobby for our young people, the future of Powell River, to be heard in council. We have far-sighted training programs in Brooks, but clubs like YAC and SEA need more credence.

This is no time to drop the North Harbour project into the depths of the ocean. It’s in desperate need of upgrading, not just for boaters but for our coastal community. Contrary to rumour, it will be funded by moorage rates and taxpayers. Let’s get this project done before it’s too late, so tourists see the pride we take in the Pearl on the Sunshine Coast.

At 61, I have first-hand understanding of the effects aging and disabilities have on families. Those dealing with mobility, vision, hearing, mental or dexterity problems need extra support. When you vote for me you can be assured I will make a difference, with a fresh view on Powell River’s challenges. Let me be your eyes and ears. Contact: 604-485-2732, dreambg1@shaw.ca

WRITING

ART—Art Jams at Local Loco's Cafe

by Skye Morrison

I find inspiration in unexpected places.

During a lull in motivation, I may wander into my sewing room, and there on the floor lies a scrap of Indian fabric from an old skirt. Struck by the intricate design, I hurry back to my painting to glue it onto the canvas. That fabric may take me somewhere I could never imagine with paint alone.

While strumming my guitar, I may sing out some words that suddenly come to mind, and notice the words are reminiscent of my current painting. Later, I will add these lyrics of text onto the painted image, and in doing so add a new depth and an interactive quality to the piece.

Another time I may go into the kitchen to make myself a snack, only to be enchanted by the colors in the fruit bowl.

If all else fails, I crank my stereo and dance. Movement and breathing always seem to get the creative juices flowing.

I am realizing more and more that it is all connected. Ideas echo and evolve through past, present, and future; regardless of medium or culture.

Why do we insist on borders between “art” and “craft”, 2D and 3D, profession and play? Are there really lines there? Are they patrolled by critics, skeptics, and snobs? What if we cross over without “proper training”? What if we unconventionally merge two opposing sides?

Are these artistic expressions not all birthed of the love to create?

I believe that multiple mediums can coexist in harmony. Better yet, I believe that the product of such encounters can be stylistically original, and profoundly inspiring.

Let the arts mingle! They are symbiotic and interwoven; infinitely dimensional.

Whether you are a closet knitter, or a concert violinist, or an emerging painter, bring your art out to play.

So, I invite you to join me at Local Loco’s on every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month from 7–10pm.

MUSIC

HEALTH—It's About Thyme

by Tamara Mctee—Chartered Herbalist

Thyme is famous for its use in savory culinary dishes. Often used with roasted chicken, and an excellent addition to winter soups and stews, in the kitchen this herb combines nicely with bay leaf and parsley. Not only an essential spice in your kitchen, thyme is also an primary herb for the medicine cabinet. It contains high amounts of two volatile oils, thymol and carvacrol, making thyme is an antispasmodic, antiseptic and a digestive.

Thyme has many aromatherapeutic uses. Burning essential oil of thyme will help cleanse the air. A combination of the essential oils thyme, mint and rosemary infused into the air can sooth headaches and migraines. Try mixing it with lavender essential oil to relieve insomnia.

Adding essential oil of thyme to a household spray bottle of water can help fight mold. A few drops in a small dish of olive oil can be used as an external rub to relieve muscular pain and rheumatism. Add some thyme essential oil to a plain cream as a handy antiseptic medium for your medicine cabinet.

There are many ways to use an infusion of thyme externally. A bath of thyme can sooth sore breasts in women and sore eyes in children. It’s a good external disinfectant for wounds, abscesses and burns. This tea can help heal bruises; a compress can be used to soothe a toothache. Thyme makes a good gargle for mouth ulcers when mixed with sage and raspberry leaves.

The Romans used to burn dried thyme to ward off “venomous creatures”, and in the Scottish Highlands, wild thyme tea was said to prevent nightmares. All myths aside, small doses of thyme tea taken before bed can prevent bedwetting in children.

There are two main types of thyme, common and garden, thymus vulgaris and thymus serpyllum in Latin. Thyme grows best in dry grasslands and chalky soil. It is most potent when harvested in the summertime; yet in our mild climate thyme can survive all winter long, and is best when harvested fresh. If a weak infusion is wanted, use one teaspoon of crushed herb per cup of boiling water and allow to steep, covered, for ten minutes. For a stronger infusion, steep one tablespoon of crushed herb per one cup of water and allow to steep, covered, for ten to twenty minutes. Thyme has a very strong flavor; so, when making a tea for children, use the weaker infusion It is nice to add a little bit of honey to sweeten the brew.

Thyme, taken internally, has many uses. Thyme tea is known as a specific cure for whooping cough. It is excellent for all types of respiratory infections, and soothing to irritable coughs/ Thyme acts as an expectorant, while reducing spasms at the same time.

Breastfeeding moms can take a strong dose of thyme tea a few times a day to have the medicinal effects of this remedy transferred to a congested infant via the breast milk. Pregnant women should avoid taking large amounts of thyme; keep its use to a minimum. This herb can be as a tea if there is a prolonged labor.

Thyme can be used for treating childhood asthma and diarrhea. It makes a great after-dinner tea, aiding digestion while strengthening the whole system. Thyme is an overall tonic for the body, It will give the nervous system a boost when one is feeling lethargic and dealing with depression.

From the kitchen to the medicine chest...time to give thyme a try.

FOOD

SUSTAINABILITY—Sustainability Charters ‘R’ Us

by Eva van Loon

Saturday, January 19, the City, Sliammon, and the Regional District hosted a first meeting on a “Sustainability Charter” for Powell River.

In recent years, municipalities in UK, Australia and North America have embraced this manifestation of people’s urgent need to “Do something!” about eco-crisis. Any definable community, from UCLA to five-star resorts, can devise a Sustainability Charter.

Will this cutting-edge document become law? Not necessarily, but Charters do have fresh moral force. Good people follow moral guidelines, right? We’ll expect our Council to follow the spirit of our Sustainability Charter in all things.

Before wrangling over the ‘correct’ definition of sustainability, or the need for a ‘Precautionary Principle’, let’s listen to the rising buzz of planetary conversation. Consider this (read the full article on our website):

“A ‘perfect storm’ of complementary crises may be emerging…involving… peak oil, accelerating climate change, serious economic disruption, loss of democracy, significant resource depletion (including fresh water and arable land), international instability and terrorism, increasingly disruptive technology developments and wild-card events such as pandemics….

“Small unexpected developments could turn any of these challenges…major catastrophes within a very short time ... or change the game entirely. If we could be certain what the future would bring,… perhaps we could discover or develop the best approach…. But we can’t. We just can’t be sure. And that’s the rub.

“Now here’s the surprise: In these circumstances of profound uncertainty, the fact that we disagree about our collective future and how to handle it could be our most important asset.
“The idea of such conversations–which we’re calling Phoenix Conversations–isn’t to plan, so much as it is to become more fluent and flexible in navigating an unknown, unknowable future together…. [W]hen we interact with such scenarios together in a safe, passionate, respectful atmosphere…we discover more about who each other is, and where it might be productive to think or work together further.”

Did Powell River just have its first Phoenix Conversation? A stunning 1.5% of the population turned up at 9 a.m. I counted 300 people. Many stayed all day.

There’d been a dispiriting current of negativity at recent public meetings. People haven’t been happy with the state of communication with city council. So many issues–new provincial slaughtering regulations, new waste-treatment facilities, a proposed LNG plant that could blow us all to kingdom come–it was the joint-venture-partnership’s plans that had almost everyone up in arms. At several meetings, concerned, even angry, citizens nearly wore out the response microphones and the local Raging Grannies gaggle sang themselves hoarse on pointed satirical verses.

The partnership’s response was an invitation to the entire community to give up its Saturday to discuss something we’d never heard of—a Sustainability Charter.

To turn the usual storm of protest into a stream of cool, exciting ideas, the hosts planned a different kind of meeting. Did you notice? No audience microphones–someone figured out that the presence of those skinny phallic opportunities for public participation are equally open to grandstanding, electioneering, and showcasing special interests. This process doesn’t have room for that.

Next, to avoid question period dragging on and disgruntled people saying, “Just another useless meeting!” a mediator controlled questions. Two Suzuki-Foundation speakers had to leave early by plane; so most audience questions focused on those issues—the big picture.

The outstanding speakers were drawn from the broad community spectrum: our mill, law enforcement, our university college, politics, and eco-philanthropy, book-ended by First Nations. Speaker modeled high degrees of positive language.

Notes from the sessions and meeting coverage is on www.powellriver.ca, but some of what was said is worth hard copy.
Roy Francis said his idea of a sustainable forest was one where the trees are still standing. (Wonderful to meet someone else who thinks the term “wilderness management” is an oxymoron—or a joke!)

Dr. King of what is soon to be Malaspina Regional University advised us to build a Charter that is “shared, inspirational, aspirational, integrated, inclusive, and ethical”, quoting Wendell Berry: “What I stand for is what I stand on.”

Former premier Dr. Mike Harcourt warned that writing the Sustainability Charter is only 10% of the solution–we still have to plan for Murphy’s Law, the unlimited potential of people to screw up.
Corporal Dennis Blanch suggested that how well our young people are doing determines how–and how many–people will be drawn to live in our community.

Lyn Brown of the Catalyst mill affirmed the company’s commitment to “good governance”, by means of focusing on five attributes: making lighter papers, which use less resources; recycling; an ethical ‘chain of custody’ of resources, using renewable energy, and producing carbon-neutral products. Her company claims “one of the strongest environmental pedigrees in the marketplace.” (We are left to judge what that signifies about the average “pedigree”—nice word—in the marketplace.)

Dr. Peter Robinson, Suzuki Foundation, warned that “the loudest voice should not be the prevailing one” in drafting a Sustainability Charter. It’s not about preserving the status quo or special-interest groups. We must ask, “What is the scale of our self-reliance?”

His fellow, Dave Waldron, added the most positive note: Enjoy the learning adventure–foster emergent creativity as you entertain the long-term, big-picture view of the solutions to the problem. Be informed by science, recognise that most if not all resources are finite, balance the short-term against the long-tern, and take the comprehensive rather than the detailed view in drafting our Charter.

Someone (pardon my lousy notes!) said there are two ways to do things: the hard way, and the harder way. So far, First Nations have had to do things the harder way; this must change if we are to act as one community.

Regional First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo had the last word, reminding us that Black Elk said the chief proposition of the universe is relationality. We should be careful how we treat one another, he advised. Be kind, he said, adding that in his language the same word was used for love and for pain. We can no longer afford the “history of disconnect” from which his own generation sprang. We must remember that all living things need our respect, and all things are living things. “Teach me, and I’ll forget; show me, and I’ll remember; but include me, and I’ll understand.” Atleo suggested that we had begun to move to something to much better, that we were engaged in a brilliant conversation which includes the notion of accepting responsibility for what is happening–not blame, but responsibility. The other brilliant part of the day’s conversation, he said, was the absence of a roadmap. That emptiness ensures an opportunity for inclusivity.

Wow! Time for lunch.

While the hosts provided standard growlies, the partners of feisty Local Loco’s Music and Arts Café, discovering that the menu did not conform to 50-mile or even 100-mile diets, starred with a little “guerilla catering”. In the lobby they served all-local lunch: salmon with blackberry sauce, fresh greens, yam-potato mash, Van Es cheese, bread, and dessert. Yum! Powell River is delicious!

We cycled through afternoon discussion groups on the social, economic, cultural, and environmental aspects of a Sustainability Charter. Groups would have been better housed in quieter rooms, as the large turnout created considerable noise. An amazing variety of ideas was generated. Volunteers are to continue the discussion until we join the growing number of communities with Sustainability Charters.

Was that our first Phoenix Conversation? I came away feeling Powell River is determined to survive, happily, whatever the world may throw at us in the way of poverty, disease and disaster in the future. We’ll survive! We’ll flourish. We cherish this place on Earth.
A great feeling. A great start to Powell River’s Second Century. Next?

LEGAL EYES—Leaving the Sinking Ship

by Eva van Loon

Last month, Lakota Indians visited Washington to inform the powers that be, politely, that they are seceding from the USA.

Seceding. As in leaving. No longer a part of.

The Lakota, it appears, want to be themselves. Their aboriginal selves.

Imagine Sliammon telling Ottawa politely that they are withdrawing from Confederation?

It gives a legally trained mind the willies.

In Canada, more so than in the US, many laws and regulations have been specifically designed to address First Nations’ concerns, affecting everything from wills to tax to custody. Would all that be swept away for a First Nation that opted out? If several First Nations opted out, would that defeat the SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership) with the US?

The legal mind boggles.

The Lakota are famous resistors. The last Sioux to surrender, they were victims of the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890, and involved in the 71-day stand-off there in the seventies. Courted by Marxists during their fight against uranium mining on their lands in 1980, their best known spokesman, Russell Means, himself a lawyer, analysed Marxism, capitalism, leftism, and all the other isms as but verses of the same cultural song, whose essence is this: “that same old European conflict between being and gaining…. Material gain is an indicator of false status among traditional people, while it is ‘proof that the system works’ to Europeans…. You cannot judge the real nature of a European revolutionary doctrine on the basis of the changes it proposes to make within the European power structure and society. You can only judge it by the effects it will have on non-European peoples. This is because every revolution in European history has served to reinforce Europe’s tendencies and abilities to export destruction to other peoples, other cultures and the environment itself.”

Non-European peoples do not, and should not want to, take over European powers, Means said. To do so would perpetuate a system headed for inevitable disaster. The numbers of industrialisation can’t work, whatever ism we follow. Industrialisation means extinction.

Check the date on this speech—28 years ago. (Read it in full on our website.) Some hippies were then still back on the land, reading tattered copies of The Last Whole Earth Catalog in their outhouses, as the world seemed to have second thoughts about nuclear power, plastics, bras, ties, pantyhose, and the whole upwardly mobile rat race.

The Lakota apparently agree with the pundits that the good ship US Dollar is likely to sink soon to the bottom of the very sea it polluted. Huge crews of the middle class, chained to the ship by their impossible mortgages, McJobs, and their gas-guzzling commutes, can do little but hold their breath as long as possible as the economy founders.

True to their philosophy of resistance, the Lakota have chosen the Year of the Rat to leave the self-destructing ship of the economy behind. Will others follow?

What was that Chinese curse again? May you live in interesting times. Rats! We got ‘em.

COMMUNICATION—Possessive Compulsive Disorder

by Eva van Loon

Are you speaking Englese or English?

Listen to yourself for a few sentences. Notice how often the words my, your, his, her, its, our, and their pop up. Every sentence? Every common noun? You’re speaking Englese.

If we could wear out words as we do cars, Englese speakers would have driven all the possessive pronouns into the ground by now. Consider these examples (Standard English equivalents provided in brackets):

You’ve got your lame ducks, your dead ducks, and your fuddleducks.
(There are lame ducks, dead ducks, and fuddleducks.)

Everyone’s got their opinion.
(Everyone has an opinion.)

A person loses their self-respect in your situation of homelessness.
(A person loses self-respect in a situation of homelessness.)

We offer our every client their solution tailored to their problem.
(We offer every client a solution tailored to the problem.)

Notice that in each case, the switch from Englese to English is easily made either (1) by skipping the pesky possessive altogether or (2) by putting an article there, instead. Since English has only three articles (the, a, an), that’s an easy choice.

All but the first of the Englese sentences use a construction that has developed in just a couple of decades. The Grammar Gremlin is joggling my arm to remind me that, in Standard English, that new construction is wrong, wrong, wrong! Can you spot the problem?

Almost all of us use this Englese.construction. I’ve heard it in films set in a time when no one would have used it (fire the Continuity person!) and even caught even the Grammar Gremlin, who would defend Standard English to the death, slipping into it aloud. However, I’m going to make you, dear Reader, wait until next issue for the answer. A single column hasn’t room to entertain a social theory about how this change in language use came about so quickly.

What drives this compulsion to attach every common noun to ownership by somebody? Grammar Gremlin, who dabbles in social theory, suggests the illness is a natural outcome of a highly materialist society. It’s not the Earth but our Earth, not the future but our future. We own everything. Standard English prefers a stance above all that possessiveness, a more neutral tone—ironic, when one considers that English came from England, which once boasted more colonial “possessions” than any other country.

Suffice it to say that, 90% of the time, when you feel those traitorous words their or your coming through your throat, you can successfully switch to perfect Standard English by dropping the possessive or using an/a/the article. And bingo! You’re cured of Possessive-Compulsive Disorder (and made the Grammar Gremlin happy).

ESOTERICA—Green Tara: Mother of Enlightened Activity

by Morag Greyheart

The Tara Goddess figure has many shapes and forms, spanning both Hinduism and Buddhism. Hindus regard Tara as a Mother Goddess, appearing beside other Goddesses of the Hindu pantheon. The Boddhisattva Tara is seen as the Mother of All Buddhas–hence containing the wisdom of all the Buddhas. Tara also shares her qualities with Kuan Yin, the white ceramic mother-goddess figure often found in Chinese shops. Thus, over much of the planet, Tara depicts the commonly held idea of a loving, accepting Great Mother.

There is a certain color magick with working with Tara, as she appears in several different colors, each one meaning a different direction in one’s meditation. Green Tara is the Mother of Enlightened Activity. White Tara is known for compassion, long life, healing and serenity. Red Tara is a fierce aspect associated with magnetizing all good things. Black Tara is for power. Yellow Tara is for wealth and prosperity. Blue Tara helps one transform anger. There are 21 Taras, and their praises—too much for one column.

Green Tara is a young, vigorous goddess of activity. She is fierce yet compassionate saviouress. She helps Her followers overcome dangers, fears, and anxieties, with an ability to overcome the most difficult of situations. It is said that Green Tara acts quickly to help those who call Her.

In Her iconography, Green Tara is pictured at ease while ready for anything. Her left leg is folded in the contemplative position, while her right leg is outstretched, so that she may leap up at a moment’s notice. One hand makes the refuge-granting mudra (hand position) while the other makes a boon-granting mudra. Both hands hold the flowers that represent purity and power–blue lotus.

Tara has been popular because of Her approachability – besides embodying the qualities of compassion and mercy, Tara can be accessed without intervention from a lama or monk, making Her a perfect Mother Goddess Figure for all people, and for daily life. She is a way to understanding metta, or compassion and lovingkindness, the path of ever-evolving Buddhism. You don’t need a guru to set your feet on Tara’s path: just start meditating.

To meditate upon Green Tara, sit in the lotus position if that is comfortable, or any position easy to maintain. Chant Tara’s mantra to yourself, using a mala (rosary) if you like. Her mantra is this: om tare tuttare ture svaha. (You could also say the mantra for Chenrezig, the white deity symbolizing unconditional love or compassion: om mani padme om.) Visualize Green Tara sitting before you. Imagine Her compassion, Her mercy, Her enlightened activity filling you. Meditate until you feel at peace, and ready to stop.

ESOTERICA—I Smell a Rat—Chinese New Year begins February 7th

by Michelle Lea McCann

We all know what that statement conjures up. Get ready: the year of the Earth Rat begins February 7, lasting until Feb 25/09. If you were born in the years 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, or 2020—you’re a Rat!

Don’t be offended! Mythology relates that King Buddha decreed that whichever animal first made it back to China would be the first animal on that Zodiacal wheel. Ratty won first place.

In Western astrology there are twelve signs, six representing masculine energy and six the feminine, with one’s sun sign influenced by the moon and planets. By contrast, Chinese astrology cycles five elements, Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Wood, with its twelve animal signs. The sense of Yin represents the feminine and positive; Yang the masculine and negative.

This historically proven astrological system of lunar rather than solar cycles seems more complicated because it is based on eons of observation of the cycles of the moon rather than the arbitrary, linear, straight-arrow line called Greenwich Mean Time. To me, this is an example of how the West tends to complicate the natural and simplify the complicated. Chinese ways are often thought of by misguided westerners to be superstitious as opposed to scientific double-blind studies in MIT basements, seeking to prove over and over that something is not “the” truth.

The yearly cycles of the Chinese system’s twelve animals, multiplied by the five elements, takes 60 years to complete, ending with the Metal Boar. It starts over with the same animal, King Buddha’s little Earth Rat.

The Chinese New year begins every year during Aquarius, the Western equivalent sign. The exact dates vary. If you’re an Aquarius in the Western system, you are a cusper in the Chinese system and embody the energy of the year (and animal) before as well as your own. And so beginnings follow endings. In numerology, too, the year 2007 was a 9 (endings); 2008 is 2+8=10 (beginnings).

Each new Chinese year is associated with one of the five elements. This year’s Earth Rat is serendipitous. Let’s face it: we could use Ratty’s resourceful, fearless ingenuity. Earth Rat sees no such thing as an obstacle or misfortune–just opportunity! Quick and clever Ratty never says die! Rat’s a superhero, barely seen and rarely caught! Rats are industrious, inventive, resourceful, creative, solution-oriented creatures, although they are mavericks who can be a little weird. (As Hunter Thompson said, “When the goin’ gets weird, the weird turn pro!”) Not surprisingly, Rats make better bosses than employees. Missing nothing, able to overcome any obstacle, the Rat always makes something out of nothing. Pragmatic opportunists, Rats maintain the long view, seeing the big picture. Loyal Ratty is very family-oriented and works tirelessly to obtain abundance and joy for kin and self. Rats’ tenacity gets them to the top, where they enjoy the fruits of their labours while sharing openly. Rats know there is an infinite supply of all that is needed because they have been there, done that, and have the key to success in their pocket (and a copy or three hidden in more than one place). The cunning, quiet, dirty little Rat’s survival instincts are second only to humans !

Happy New Year! Be sure too hang out with your Ratty friends this earthy year!

ESOTERICA

Word Up

Friedrich Koenig’s steam-powered press (circa 1810) was the first non-manpowered printing press, quadrupling efficiency to 1100 prints per hour. This began the long process of making newspapers available to a mass audience, which in turn helped spread literacy.

by Corey Matsumoto

This month is dedicated to the written word. Poetry, fiction, song lyrics, letters (and yes, even opinion letters and informative articles) are all forms of self-expression that help define our culture. The inaugural Youth Peace-Poetry contest, affiliated with the International Peace Poem Project based in Hawai’i and hosted by the Powell River Live Poets’ Guild, was held last month at local schools, encouraging our youth to express their thoughts on peace in wonderfully abstract ways. You’ll find winning entries featured in this issue, along with winning pieces from the fifth annual Powell River Festival of Writers.

We’re proud to announce this 10th issue of Immanence, marking a full year of publication. It’s also the first issue off our new printer, thus heralding the return of locally produced and printed independent media to Powell River. Owning our own printer reduces our printing costs to the cost of paper and consumables only. This allows us to reduce further the cost of the ads that keep Immanence going. Providing affordable advertising for local business has been an underlying goal since the magazine’s inception a year ago, and now month-long exposure can be had for as little as $40. That is indeed something to celebrate.
Look for exciting changes in the design of our June, 2008, issue as we usher in a second year of publication with a brand new look incorporating my new-found knowledge of eco-design. Designing to reducing our consumption of consumables (ie. toner) will not only save us money, but will reduce our carbon footprint.

Thank you for enjoying Immanence. We look forward to bringing you another year of intriguing, informative content.

OPEN SOURCE—News and Views as You See it

ART

MUSIC

ENGLESE 100—Bring on the Clones

by Eva van Loon

Everyone has their dream. Right? Or wrong?

In “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” I suggested America’s materialism, its obsession with possessions, likely kicked off the constant use of their and other possessives to the point where Englese, the language most of us normally speak, usually uses their to refer to a single person.

The above sentence sounds fine in Englese. It’s spoken on CBC a dozen times a day—so it must be right! Strict SE (Standard English) speakers, however, would complain, “That, my dear sir, is a number error, a variety of pronoun-reference error. Everyone is singular, while their is plural. Where did the extra people suddenly come from? What’s with the clones?”

Naturally the Grammar Gremlin, in its daily struggle to remain untainted by Englese, goes “Bzzt! Bzzt!” whenever the their clones appear on tax-supported public media.
I promised to divulge a hitherto secret theory about how this phenomenon came about. Cherchez la femme. Without Women’s Liberation, the clones never would have happened.

Understand that SE grammar books in the Sixties corrected that sentence to read Everyone has his dream.

Some of us girl hippies fretted over the constant use of the masculine gender. We felt left out. When given the brush-off with a supercilious, “Of course the masculine pronoun includes the feminine, silly!” we became more affronted rather than less. Somehow, his didn’t seem to fit feminine dreams, or anything feminine, for that matter. Would you say Everyone has his sexual preferences, for example? Hardly!

The trouble with grammar books is that they invariably tell you only how to do it right according to SE standards. They never tell you how to make the switch from Englese to SE, because they’re blind to the existence of Englese. The best of them might suggest, in the case of our sentence, to change it thus: Everyone has his or her dream.

Problem solved, right? Wrong! As if we will spout this awkward but inclusive new phrase, hizzorhurr, instead of the quicker and easier their, just to avoid insulting a few old hippy broads and bra-burning feminists!
If SE would only take off its blinkers and step back from possession obsession! The solutions are easy once you drop the focus on gender-political correctness:

Everyone has a dream.(Skip the possessive.)
All people have (their) dreams.(Pluralise the whole thing.)
Each has one’s own dream.(If you must possess, use one, the pronoun surprise.)

Is this cloning of pronouns important? You bet! Englese may be flourishing in our speech, but we are expected to write, most of the time, in SE. Once the number error creeps into official language tools–like laws, for example–vagueness and confusion sneak inside the door right on the number error’s tail.

So why not clean out the obsession with possession in speech as well? Whenever you feel that naughty pronoun their sneaking up your throat, quick! Swat it! Switch it!
Aahh! Grammar Gremlin happy now.

Englese won’t mind—a living language just keeps on growing those clones.

HEALTH

FOOD

ENVIRONMENT—Carbon tax may be more brown than green

by Eva van Loon

Clap your hands, children—our provincial government is the first in Canada to install a carbon tax! We’re the greenest place in the country!

And who’s going to pay the carbon tax? Why, we responsible citizens, of course! Don’t we always?

As a recent caller to CBC put it in his response to the BC budget, “I’m overwhelmed with choices now—the choice not to drive to my job, not to heat my house, not to attend my child’s hockey game, not to go on vacation….”

Can someone tell me why we keep on electing people whose chief expertise seems to be kneejerk reaction?

Okay: we’re faced with the gravest crisis in human history, a.k.a. climate change. Which started with the society we are part of. So what do entire jurisdictions of this society do about it first? Outlaw the incandescent lightbulb in favor of ugly fluorescent twisty-things whose light gives a lot of us headaches and sore eyes and whose innards contain dangerous mercury. Lovely—for the twisty-thing manufacturers. A free ride for them.

Is that really a green initiative? Or just corporate slime? How can we know? Then there’s biodiesel (which I admit to falling for). Plant oil can replace dinosaur-era plant oil—what a discovery! There’s a use for all that used French-fry–oops, pardon me, freedom-fries—oil. Your car, too, can smell like a fast-food junkie while using diddly-squat gasoline. Driving as usual. Business as usual—except that somebody’s food supply is now being usurped to keep you and a zillion other drivers on the road, because all the used veggie oil on the planet won’t support the North American addiction to cars; so we’ll just have to take over somebody’s corn field to grow fresh oil to feed our habit.

Is that a truly green initiative? Or just corporate slime?

Back to carbon tax, the latest playground of the stock-market junkies. Who pays? We do. The little people. Follow the money and what do you find? It hangs out in corporate pockets and flows into the pockets of people who bet on carbon-tax futures. How do I know? I get those slimy offers in my email, several times a week.

Every time you follow the money, you wind up on the positive side of a corporate balance sheet. Some say that’s the rule of divining politics: follow the money, and you will know all there is to know about an issue. It’s an endless, useless scandal.

Spring is a time of re-birth, traditionally, something we never needed more, and at all levels. We need to re-invent everything, from our personal lives to our communities to the way we run our country’s politics, if we want to survive—never mind flourish. Is there anyone out there who thinks next spring would be a better time than this spring?

Why doesn’t our tender greenleaf spring budget sprout an original idea or two? Like tax credit for the mill worker who walks to work? Like first-forty-thousand-free for stay-at-home working parents? Like grants to help people buy homes that double as workplaces? Like free public transit? Like ferry rates for us that are no more than gas would cost us across the straits? Like a government-paid slaughterer to service our local farmers? Like a grant to explore ways we could turn our mill and our forest industry around? Like anything that will help us be more ourselves and have a quality life?

Harper was heard to say a few weeks ago that for the “troubled” forest industry he would seek out “new markets”. Now, we know this man has actually been out of the country quite a bit and even had his picture taken in a Chinese get-up—but was he awake at any time during these trips? Does he not understand what is happening on the planet? Does he not get it, that the old ways are headed for oblivion? The forest industry is mot merely “troubled”, Stupid—it’s moribund. Business-as-usual kneejerk reactions are not going to work any more. If we love the forest industry—and we do!—we need financial help to figure out a new way to run it without wiping ourselves off the face of the earth.

Let’s send Harper this quote from Stan Goff, thinker, author, veteran, anti-war activist, and feminist:

“The physical reality is that sustainable growth is an oxymoron. A soft energy landing from the last two hundred years of development will require massive conservation, especially by the overdeveloped countries, and that can only happen in a nongrowth (and therefore noncapitalist) society. The choice is now becoming either capitalism or humanity.”

Isn’t that what our “Phoenix Conversation” regarding the Sustainability Charter was all about? Engendering something beyond the old polarities that can’t work for us any more?

Rebirth does not happen out of a frenzy of reactivity. The only positive result of reactivity is postponement of the inevitable. Is that what our community wants? Or are we truly interested in a sustainable existence on this coast?

If we are up for this challenge, courage is required. Rebirth happens only for the pro-active, for the people willing to sit patiently, and think for themselves, and imagine…a new and better community, a new and better world.

LEGAL EYES—Got the Blues Over Losing the Green

by Eva van Loon

The morning after Powell River’s November hurricane, I stared in disbelief at the brand new laminate floor in my house in Cranberry, as its tenants hopped around in three inches of water.

The unprecedented run-off had topped the two-feet-high pony wall on the bottom storey of the house and flooded the place. Since the house is built on flat land, no home designer would have expected this.

A lot of water ran around the property, looking for a non-existent streambed. Shortly, hardworking City staff arrived to mess around with the sewers and drainage on the two streets. You’re not the only one, they informed me. It’s happening more and more all over town. What can we do, with all that clear-cutting uphill?

You can’t see any lumbering activity from my house; in fact, it’s comfortingly close to big swaths of intact forest. But cutting is planned. The so called Community Forest is just a stone’s throw away, and in other areas trees are wearing ominous ribbons.

The City guys suggested home insurance would take care of this loss. But homeowner, beware! The floor was ripped out and tiled, the walls dried out and refinished, and ruined items replaced, on my dime. Why? Because the “nuisance” of flood waters didn’t emanate from my own land, but from other land. My pipes didn’t back up—someone else’s negligence caused the loss.

As my law partner used to quip, Insurance companies exist NOT to pay you.
Great. That leaves the homeowner with the expensive prospect of starting a Supreme Court lawsuit against anyone and everyone whose negligence might have caused this flood. The City. The logging companies. The province. The neighbors. The Community Forest, perhaps. Fun—for lawyers! The thought of proving that negligence—taking pictures, tramping through the woods and ex-woods, the expert witnesses to be paid—is crushing. It’s easier just to cough up the four thousand.

Again, the little person carries the cost of corporatism. The law’s only remedy? a lawsuit likely to bankrupt the victim.

As I rented blowers and hauled tile, I thought about what the City guys said. I thought about another town tragedy, the rape of Lombardy Avenue a few years ago, affecting run-off in Townsite. Isn’t it obvious? What are we humans—stupid? Just because we’re shorter than the trees surely doesn’t mean we can’t see what’s happening!

Clearly, all the uplands from our community, from Lund to Saltery Bay, are watershed. Clearly, forest is to be preserved first and foremost. Forest is what we are and what we depend on!

When are we going to stop singing the blues about being the Town that Used to Cut Down Trees? Let’s become the Community That Lives Well in the Forest.

Wanted: politicians and lawyers with heart and brains who’ll figure out how to draw down enough legal power to create an effective, cheap system for the little person and the local community to seek redress from any entity whose negligence contributes to this mess.
A way can be found, and it should be a refrain in our nascent Sustainability Charter. Ask your council and MLAs for that new song.

ESOTERICA

City Threatens Lawsuits, Abuse of Power

By Mark Brown, Vancouver BC

To force anyone to retract statements of opinion is a serious abuse of power. This abuse, having closed door meetings, refusing an  elected official entry into said meeting and not having any elected officials at this newly elected councillor’s swearing-in ceremony is a clear indication of a council that is not transparent or open. I agree with councilor Aldworth’s letter, “Welcome to City Council” and like to add that I am one of those who have said things regarding all levels of government in the “cut and thrust of political debate.”

Win Brown is my father ( I dare not state how I feel about his original online statement for, I too, cannot afford to fight a lawsuit) and I am appalled at the actions of this council. To bully a retiree on fixed income for doing his civic duty by trying to holding politicians accountable is sad. Voting is not the only way to express one’s opinion on the actions of politicians. Writing letters and holding marches and rallies are a few other actions at our disposal.

Would this council sue those involved in such actions because they may shed a little negative light on the goings-on in Powell River? I hope this abuse is made a huge election topic and the councillors responsible for these threats of lawsuits are voted out. I for one will not retract this statement, for this is my opinion and I am entitled to it.

Corwin Fox Returns to Local Loco’s April 11th for an intimate acoustic show

Fusing elements of folk, bluegrass and hip hop, Corwin Fox has created his own evolving style of folk music that seems best classified as ‘neo-folk’ A quick look at his music collection reveals some obvious reference points like Bob Dylan, Ron Sexsmith, the Beach Boys and Bob Marley, but if you look a little closer, you’ll find more obscure artists such as Jim O’Rourke, Dead Prez, XTC, and John Zorn. No matter where it comes from, Fox’s unique style of highly contagious personal and political folk songs will have you singing along before you even realise it.

Over a decade ago this eco-activist (and father of two) was playing in what was likely the most banned punk band to come from Ottawa’s Canterbury School for the Arts. From there, Corwin Fox went on to play in countless bands, tour the country numerous times with Ottawa prog-popsters Big Fish Eat Little Fish, write several scores for the Counternotes theatre group and compose an original score for the CBC documentary Don’t Pass Me By.

The years 2000 to 2002 saw Corwin marry and head back to school, studying recording engineering at Fanshawe College. There, he met Christiaan Anderson and Dean Watson with whom he soon formed the art-rock band, Balls Falls and the label Coqi Records. In 2001 he won EMI Music Publishing Canada’s award for best song for “Doctor God” from the Balls Falls album. Corwin’s debut solo album, Can You Sleep? was Coqi’s first release and was followed up in 2002 by Compassionate Relay which contained the classic tracks “Bring Me Back”, “We Love the Beehive Burners” (theme song for an air-quality activist group) and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (named after Roald Dahl’s children’s book).

A move to Victoria allowed Fox time to regroup and have a second child, though not slowing for a minute. While touring up and down the west coast, Fox found time to record and produce albums for The Overlanders (teachers who put Canadian history into song) and David Roy Parsons; write and record with at least three bands (including the Colorado-based bluegrass band Raised on Rhubarb); collaborate with long-time friend Jordy Walker (Big Fish Eat Little Fish), and even fly back to Ottawa to shoot his first music video for “Face the Sun” on a brisk -30C day. After two months of rotation on MuchMusic, that video ranked in the Indie Music Video Festival’s Top Ten and went on to be showcased across North America and Europe.

If that wasn’t enough, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” decided to take on three (and counting) simultaneous recording projects. The first of these, Dream Water Rain Music-a deeply personal and highly political album-is a direct extension of 2002’s Compassionate Relay. Initially released in conjunction with an extensive Australian tour, Dream Water Rain Music sold out of its first pressing in late 2004.
Dream Water Rain Music marks Fox’s third and most ambitious solo album in four years, highlighting yet another extensive cast of characters such as Richard Parry (Arcard Fire), Daniel Lapp (Lappelectro), Tobin Frank (Spirit of the West) and Wynn Gogol (Harry Manx), as well as countless other musical guests and MCs.

With his distinctive knack for ironic juxtaposition and his playful sense of humour, Fox takes another deep cut at Big Business, government practices and environmental politics, all while warming us with his deeply concerned and heart-felt words of compassion and wisdom.

Live, Fox’s performances can range from extremely intimate acoustic shows with occasional guests to full band onslaught. But whereever he travels, Corwin keeps his crafty songwriting and distinct pop sensibility tucked neatly away with his guitar and baritone uke.

Cremé de la Cremé

By Lyra Bloom

Lately, we’ve been getting into nut milks. Nuts are a wonderful source of protein, of course, but they’re also a great source of other nutrients, including vitamin E, calcium and magnesium, a powerhouse of cancer-fighting phytochemicals, and they’re a source of healthy cholesterol-lowering dietary fats. And they’re MUCH healthier for you than dairy. (What’s wrong with dairy? See the sidebar below.)
Now, you can get your nut milk pre-packaged at the market; but it tastes so much better to make fresh, whole nut milk yourself. There are no extra ingredients or preservatives, it’s more cost-effective in the long run, and it cuts down on packaging and trash. Plus, it’s fun, and the taste is so much richer!

Recently, I decided to try making a cashew cream. Cashews are among the creamiest of nuts, and I’ve been seeing more and more recipes that take advantage of that. (Come back next month, when I show you how to make a dairy-free mac & cheese that is light years beyond Kraft Dinner!)

Visit Lyra’s blog for many more tasty recipes:
www.glutenfreehippie.blogspot.com

Why are Canadians (and Americans!) becoming so obese?

It could be the cheese.

Consider this: milk is full of healthy hormones designed to promote incredibly rapid growth and weight gain in infants. Cow’s milk is designed to turn a 100-pound calf into a 1,000 pound cow in less than a year-and cows use pretty much the same hormones as humans do. That doesn’t even begin to address the issue of artificial hormones-which makes it even worse!

Adults simply aren’t designed to drink milk. Most adult humans are “lactose-intolerant”-our bodies stop producing the enzyme to digest milk sometime during childhood. That should tell us something.

What happens if adults keep drinking milk and eating dairy products? Weight gain. There’s also evidence that dairy hormones promote growth in breast, colon, and prostate cancers.

Yuck. Are there good alternatives? You bet!

Recipe:
Jasmin Green Tea with Cashew Cream

Ingredients:
1 Tb. Jasmine green tea
Zest strips from half a lemon
1 cup raw cashews
1 cup water splash of vanilla maple syrup

Cut the lemon rind off in strips with a sharp paring knife (with as little pith as possible) - I find the acidity of lemon juice detracts from the subtle nuances of the tea, but this gives you the fragrant aromatics and essential oils of the lemon without the tart bite.

Preheat the teapot by adding some boiling water, and drain. (This is called “scalding”) Fill a tea ball, and put it in the teapot along with the lemon zest. Pour in the hot water and let steep for 3-5 minutes. Remove the tea ball; leaving the zest in is fine.

While the tea is brewing, add the cashews, water, and vanilla to a high-powered blender. Let it go until it’s not gritty anymore, about 3 minutes. When it’s creamy, you’ve got cashew cream, missus!

When making up the tea for yourself, you could just add a mere dollop of cream... or you could make it half-tea-half-cream. Sweeten with maple syrup to taste.

Restraint is overrated. Nuts are good for you!

Down in the Dirt at Groundworks

Groundworks volunteers have broken some major ground

By David Parkinson

To date, we have built a tool shed and fence, prepped the fruit-tree holes, put in paths, and built garden-bed frames.

Now we are laying out the garden, transferring our paper plan to the ground. Once this is complete, we can use the materials that have been donated and collected (seaweed, straw, manure and topsoil) to build up the soil for planting. We’ll also finish the physical infrastructure, such as the compost bins and the prep table and maybe some benches.

This season, the garden will be a work in progress, just like every garden!

The youth are currently out on work-experience placement in the community, busy entering the “real” work force. Some of us top up our hours by coming back to the garden to finish up the remaining tasks.

How can you get involved?

We are going to have regular garden work parties every Friday from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.; so you’re invited to come early, bring a lunch and then dig in!

We could use some more garden tools, such as garden forks, rakes, pitchforks, trowels, etc. We are also looking for strawberry plants. Any extras you have from your spring gardening can be dropped off at the Community Resource Centre.

Thanks to the following people and organisations who have helped us out: Julie Bellian, Diana Wood, David Parkinson, Heinz Becker, Len Menard, Adams Concrete, Rona, Therapeutic Riding, Tanglewood Cedar products, Goat Lake Forest products, Rainbow Valley Feed and Supplies, The Garden Tour committee, Kiwanis Club Of Powell River, Work And Play, and Rachel Hilleran.

Get in touch with us by calling 604-414-4868 or email groundworks.project@gmail.com.

Down in the Dirt at Groundworks

Groundworks volunteers have broken some major ground

By Keith MacNiven

To date, we have built a tool shed and fence, prepped the fruit-tree holes, put in paths, and built garden-bed frames.

Now we are laying out the garden, transferring our paper plan to the ground. Once this is complete, we can use the materials that have been donated and collected (seaweed, straw, manure and topsoil) to build up the soil for planting. We’ll also finish the physical infrastructure, such as the compost bins and the prep table and maybe some benches.

This season, the garden will be a work in progress, just like every garden!

The youth are currently out on work-experience placement in the community, busy entering the “real” work force. Some of us top up our hours by coming back to the garden to finish up the remaining tasks.

How can you get involved?

We are going to have regular garden work parties every Friday from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.; so you’re invited to come early, bring a lunch and then dig in!

We could use some more garden tools, such as garden forks, rakes, pitchforks, trowels, etc. We are also looking for strawberry plants. Any extras you have from your spring gardening can be dropped off at the Community Resource Centre.

Thanks to the following people and organisations who have helped us out: Julie Bellian, Diana Wood, David Parkinson, Heinz Becker, Len Menard, Adams Concrete, Rona, Therapeutic Riding, Tanglewood Cedar products, Goat Lake Forest products, Rainbow Valley Feed and Supplies, The Garden Tour committee, Kiwanis Club Of Powell River, Work And Play, and Rachel Hilleran.

Get in touch with us by calling 604-414-4868 or email groundworks.project@gmail.com.

Draconian Legal Action Lacks Teeth

By Lyla Smith

I write to appreciate our local paper’s (Powell River Peak) fine and objective coverage of recent events at city hall. At a time when western
governments choose to send the pride of our youth to foreign lands to fight and die for democracy, it is truly a horror that we still have to fight so hard to maintain it at home.

What will be the cost to the taxpayer in legal fees for council’s harassment of its citizens? Perhaps council could save itself and the people a lot of future pain by publishing a clear list of what it considers fair and legal comment on its actions. For all I know, these very words I write now will be deemed outside the law.

Whether or not I agree with Ms. Aldworth, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Hopkins is truly beside the point. Fair criticism of elected officials is a pillar of our freedoms of speech and the press. And anyway, the only way a charge of libel or slander can have any legal teeth is if the  offending statements are untrue. Let’s have a full airing of the issues at hand. Let Mr. Alsgaard et al. open up and share all the facts of
the matters in question.

Until this draconian legal action on the part of the city arose, my opinion was wholly unresolved. Now I’m reminded of the bard: Methinks thou dost protest too much. Until all the laundry is aired, methinks I smell a rat!

ENGLESE 100—An Awful Lotta Offal

By Eva van Loon

Once upon a time there was a slender little English preposition named Of. She had no business starting her name with a capital letter, naturally, since prepositions never do that, even in titles, but she was a restless, rebellious little thing who sneaked into all sorts Of linguistic crannies where she had no business. Being so small, she figured she could get away with stunts the bigger prepositions, like her mother from, her uncles under and above, and especially fat old Aunty between, could never have pulled off.

Defying her tutor, the Grammar Gremlin, was Of’s favourite game. One day halfway through the last century Of found a costume in a back room that made the sound uh but looked like the letter a. She tried it on and found it had velcro straps that easily attached to passing big words, particularly nouns.

“Lotta!” Of crowed. “Buncha! Groupa! Lotsa! Alla! Fulla!” Impaired verbs were fun to swing with, too: “Woulda! Coulda! Shoulda!” Even the odd kinky pronoun could be persuaded, as in “Who’da thunk it?”

What a mischief Of is! Look what she’s doing- bolding all her preposition family members. She’d blacken all fifty-four of their names if I tempted her by putting them into this story.

She had found her freedom, and swung happily through noun and verb society, high and low, at the opera and in the pubs, blithely ignoring Grammar Gremlin, who struggled after her as she partied, shouting, “Of! Of, I say! Say your full name, you little-! And will you please put something on!”

Too late! Even as Grammar Gremlin raged, awash in a tide of hippyisms, Of exchanged the fateful Look with a dreamboat preposition. There he stood, invincible on his double fs, so like Of and yet…so thrillingly different. She sidled up to him. “My name rhymes with love,” she suggested softly.

“Mine rhymes with scoff,” he replied sternly, lantern-jawed with those matching bars across his fs. “And boff, cough, doff, prof, toff, trough, and sometimes Geoff, not to mention, in German, Hof, and, in virtually all languages, effoff.”

Swept off her f by his erudition, Of threw herself into his crossbars-or woulda, had she not realised at the last moment the extreme attractiveness of Off’s rump. Oh, my goodness! Now there was a great place to attach oneself! Of slipped around to the back of Off and whispered, “We could make such beautiful phonemes together!”

“How awful!” screeched Grammar Gremlin.

“Baby!” Off seized the moment and her handy f-bar at the same instant. “This thing is bigger than both of us!”

“Noooooooo!” wailed Grammar Gremlin. “This isn’t English-it’s…it’s…it’s offal!”

“Poor little old English,” laughed Of heartlessly, and Off laughed with her. They danced the night away in the Englese Pub and he caught her up every time in those strong f-bars.

“Awful,” they sang in a new harmony. “It’s just awful. Don’t fall offa alla this offal.”

Grammar Gremlin had a nervous breakdown in the washroom, sobbing into the sink. “They don’t understand! Prepositions must never, ever, ever marry prepositions! The language will die! It’s bad genetics!”

Only your faithful reporter listened to Grammar Gremlin, out of pity for someone who could not appreciate the writing on the pub’s bathroom wall.

Watch out for those naughty prepositions! Especially Of, who’s always ready for dirty dancing.

Elke Robitaille

Powell-River-born singer-songwriter Elke Robitaille is hitting the road again. Along with her husband, bass player JP Downer, she will travel from coast to coast of the United States and Canada from May to September, 2008.

The Elke Robitaille Duo recently completed a 4-month entertainment contract with Princess Cruises on the Diamond Princess, on its Hawaiian-islands cruise. The Duo gave over 100 performances in the Diamond’s Wheelhouse Bar. After well and truly earning their sea-legs, these musicians are ready to get their show back on the road.

The summer tour will start in Elke’s home town of Powell River, BC at Local Loco’s. A tour kick-off show is scheduled for April 25th. From there, Elke and JP will make their way East across the United States and then travel back West across Canada. Shows will be scheduled to take place in about 45 states and nine provinces, at a variety of venues from cafes, pubs, and lounges to farmers’ markets and street festivals. The duo are no strangers to life on the road. They have already completed one tour of Canada where they played in five Provinces and 25 cities. They have also performed extensively on the West Coast of both countries, from British Columbia down to California. Elke has also taken her solo acoustic act to Nashville and New York.

The Elke Robitaille Duo hope this four-month tour will give them exposure to a broader audience from coast to coast. They will be promoting Elke’s sophomore acoustic album, Naive, as well as her debut album, Doors, fortified with an array of brand new merchandise including t-shirts, tanks and stickers.

For more information about the tour including show dates, venue information, and travel blogs, please visit:

www.elkemusic.com or www.myspace.com/elkemusic.

Embraced by Love: Pearl essence on our shores

Groundworks volunteers have broken some major ground

By David Parkinson

To date, we have built a tool shed and fence, prepped the fruit-tree holes, put in paths, and built garden-bed frames.

Now we are laying out the garden, transferring our paper plan to the ground. Once this is complete, we can use the materials that have been donated and collected (seaweed, straw, manure and topsoil) to build up the soil for planting. We’ll also finish the physical infrastructure, such as the compost bins and the prep table and maybe some benches.

This season, the garden will be a work in progress, just like every garden!

The youth are currently out on work-experience placement in the community, busy entering the “real” work force. Some of us top up our hours by coming back to the garden to finish up the remaining tasks.

How can you get involved?

We are going to have regular garden work parties every Friday from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.; so you’re invited to come early, bring a lunch and then dig in!

We could use some more garden tools, such as garden forks, rakes, pitchforks, trowels, etc. We are also looking for strawberry plants. Any extras you have from your spring gardening can be dropped off at the Community Resource Centre.

Thanks to the following people and organisations who have helped us out: Julie Bellian, Diana Wood, David Parkinson, Heinz Becker, Len Menard, Adams Concrete, Rona, Therapeutic Riding, Tanglewood Cedar products, Goat Lake Forest products, Rainbow Valley Feed and Supplies, The Garden Tour committee, Kiwanis Club Of Powell River, Work And Play, and Rachel Hilleran.

Get in touch with us by calling 604-414-4868 or email groundworks.project@gmail.com.

Firm Dirt, Earth as Goddess: Revering Gaia

By Morag Grayheart

Gaia, the beautiful, rose up,
Broad bosomed, she that is the steadfast base
Of all things. And fair Gaia first bore
The starry Heaven, equal to herself,
To cover her on all sides and to be
A home forever for the blessed Gods.
-Hesiod

Since Her conception, people have been screwing with Gaia, the Greek Earth goddess and grassroots-slang term for our terra firma. Gaia had offspring by the hundreds-She gave birth to all creation, after all-populating the annals of Greek myth with Titans, furies, nymphs, and giants. (The Olympian gods came later, from the Titans. But that’s another story.)

Gaia was a huge figure in Greek religion, though few stories exist about Her. Gaia is not anthromorphised (given human form) as some other Greek deities are-She is considered a spirit or energy of the Earth more than a lady wearing a purple dress and flowers, telling Captain Planet how best to beat the bad guys. Anthromorphised deities are more likely to have a lot of stories about them. The more like humans they are, the more trouble they get into.

The parlance of our times refers to Earth as Gaia, wrongly quoting Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis: “Earth is a single, living entity.” The Gaia Hypothesis doesn’t state this, but “that all living things have a regulatory effect on the Earth’s environment that promotes life overall.”1 All processes and relationships among living and non-living things on this earth form a system so complicated it can be thought of as a single organism.

Gaia is still very important-as concept and deity. Like it or not, we’ve only one Earth. Whether you think of the dirt you sink your toes into while enjoying morning coffee in your front yard as a primordial Greek goddess, or as just the rock we live on, the fact is, we have to take care of Her. It’s like your parents-they raise you; then you take care of them in their old age. That’s how life works-how it must work with Gaia. She’s the reason we’re here--so step it up and move Her out of that third-rate nursing home.

This coming Earth/Mothers’ Day (which is EVERY day, no matter what those lying, misogynist Gregorian Calendars say), thank Gaia for being your mother. Plant a tree, pick up litter, recycle, compost, ride your bike to work, don’t mow your lawn-whatever you can to help the Earth. Do one small thing daily in devotion to Gaia-and maybe there’ll be something left for our grandkids to savor on this planet.

Granada Restaurant

By Wolffy

3 1/2 Stars (Out of 5)

For a quarter-century, Gus, Joyce, and Orion Lenis have put Greek food, real-cheese pizza, and affordable steak dinners on their cloth-draped tables, well apportioned with cloth napkins, comfortable chairs, a paper map of Greece for every place, and the sounds of singers like Nana Mouskouri rounding out the ambience of hanging plants and Greek vistas painted on the walls.

The Granada is a pleasant, approachable, affordable restaurant which really works at pleasing its clientele. On my night, the Lenis, both on duty at 9:30 p.m. on a Sunday, seemed to be literally the only restaurateurs in town still on the job. For a hungry traveler off the ferry, their spring $9.99 sirloin special, with lots of mushrooms, plenty of just-cooked-enough veggies, and tasty grains of rice-not to mention the irresistible garlic toast-was a godsend. The steak actually was cooked medium rare, as requested. With a decent glass of Argentine wine and Joyce’s reminiscences about how the freezing winter of ’91 cracked their Greek statue in the water feature on the front patio, I had a fine time.

The cream-of-broccoli soup, pleasantly peppered, brimmed with vegetables and certainly needed no crackers-I ate it all and looked for more. The mango dessert, although admittedly from out of town, was superb. A Greek coffee would have been a first-class accompaniment, but a fresh pot of the regular stuff was brewed up just for me.

Dinner, a glass of wine, dessert, and coffee came to $27 before tip.

The Lenis also offer take-out, delivery and catering. The 14 kinds of pizza, in three sizes, are well priced, especially if taking advantage of the two-pizza offer- some say Granada pizza is the best in Powell River. A special all-you-can-eat arrangement for in-house groups of ten or more must be one of the best dining deals in town. This hardworking restaurant can be very busy; so call ahead if you’re coming at a popular time.

Location: 6249 Marine Ave (Townsite)
Phone: 604 483-3333

HEALTH - The Dirt on Phonics

By Eva van Loon -Cognition Therapist

R U hooked on phonics? Then don’t expect miracles.

R U hooked on phonemics? You’re on the right road, the shorter, more natural one. Trouble is, it’s still a narrow track-not much phonemics around.

Remember that program that took the concerned-parent world by storm about two decades ago, Hooked on Phonics? If it worked for you or your kids, the chances are that your visual-processing function in the brain was working well.

It didn’t work? Chances are the brain you were working with suffers from today’s most common learning problem, auditory-processing deficit. Any kind of phonics is a waste of time for that brain. Stop torturing yourselves. As an article in the Wikipedia says about the most popular phonics program ever, “The program is better for some groups than for others. Among the criticisms, adult native English-speaking illiterates would recognize most of the words because they have large vocabularies. But children or non-native speakers, who know the meanings of fewer words, could be left clueless.” Duh!

Clueless is a good word for the phonics approach to reading. Why? Because phonics teaches students to relate letters to the sounds of English. Seems okay, doesn’t it? But reflect a moment: how did you learn to speak English? From the way it sounds, naturally! Your brain learned to recognise the sounds of English so as reproduce them.

Enter phonemics. Instead of teaching your brain to relate letters to sounds, phonemics teaches your brain to relate sounds to letters, or combinations of letters.

This is a good thing, because English is maddeningly illogical. Take this example: phonics sets the letters ea in front of the brain and says, “These letters make the sound ee.”

This is an idiotic statement. Letters don’t make sounds-sounds make letters. So phonemics turns that silliness upside down: “Hear this sound, ee? When you hear ee, most often it is spelled ea. Usually, you’re safe to spell it ea. Remember there are other ways to spell the sound ee.”

There are, in fact, nine ways to spell the sound ee in English. No wonder students go mad, trying to apply logic to the “rules” of English spelling. Logic doesn’t work, no matter how many rules you memorise.

English, bless its historically wayward heart, is not a WYSIWYG language like Spanish or French or Hawaiian. What You See Is not What You Get in English. A word could be spelled in the Latin fashion, after English’s Daddy, or in the Anglo-Saxon fashion, after English’s Mommy, or in the Hindi, Dutch, Malay, or a host of other fashions, after English’s children. You just don’t know, unless you already know because your visual processor told you so.

This is why teaching English, which despite its bumps and warts has become the chief language of the planet, is the ubiquitously useful job in the world today. For some reason, probably the ex-British Empire, the world has decided to speak and write English, in one form or another, preferably Standard English, which, in spite of its reputation, is-let’s admit it-an unholy mess. ESL (English as a Second Language) programs have made some progress with teaching English from sounds to letters, by combining phonemics with visual memorization skills.

I love English. I write novels and poetry, glorying in its richesse of vocabulary (that I shall never fully know if I live a hundred years) and delighting in its multicoloured history, its unparalleled variety, and its still youthful vigor. English may be a mess, but it’s wonderful-worth speaking, writing and reading well.

What tears me apart is our breathtaking loss in literacy in just the past quarter century. For whatever reason-TV, fast food, harried lifestyles, electro-magnetic radiation, computer screens, video games, poisoned environment-today’s youth are dangerously illiterate. Should the power go off, their toolbox of survival skills is next to empty. I am far from the first educator to say this, but this must be repeated to sound the urgent alarm: if we fail to save this rising generation from illiteracy, there is little hope for the survival not only of our crazy but beloved English, but of our entire culture.

Hooked on phonics? We’re out of time. Take the phonemic short cut-now!

Houses and Cusps

This 18th century Icelandic manuscript drawing shows the twelve astrological houses with signs for the locations of the planets, the Sun, and the Moon.

By Michelle Lea McCann

Last issue, we explored key appointments to each sign in astrology: the masculine and feminine polarities, the elemental aspects of each sign, and each sign’s specific quality. This issue addresses the twelve houses and the significance of cusps.

As the zodiacal wheel goes around the earth in one year, the date the sun enters each sign may vary a little to allow for the north and southern hemispheres. You may have noticed these discrepancies listed in periodicals. To know exactly what date the suns enters a sign, one should consult an ephemeris, which is an astrologer’s almanac listing the exact planetary positions for each day of that year.

For 2008, the sun enters Aries, March 20; Taurus, April 19; Gemini, May 20; Cancer, June 20; Leo, July 22; Virgo, August 22; Libra, Sept 22; Scorpio, October 22; Sagittarius, November 22; Capricorn, December 21; Aquarius, January 20; and Pisces, February 19.

A cusper may embody characteristics of the sign prior to the cusp (Latin for point) or after, by about five days. A cusper may feel strongly influenced one way or the other and, depending on the position of the moon and other planets, behave as one or the other sign. For example, I was born January 26th; so I am a wild and crazy Aquarius-with the sobriety of a Capricorn! In other words, I may feel guilty for my Aquarian antics but my Virgo-cusp-Libra moon has me feeling either way…half of the time…maybe. It’s all so very simple, it’s complicated! Some astrologers say a cusp can be up to ten days either way, a big slice of the thirty degrees in each sign, or house.

The twelve houses of Astrology are existential arenas that form a map of one’s personality. The houses are also subject to the cusp influence.

Here’s how the houses stack up. The first house is the house of the Self, the most powerful of all, symbolizing you-your mannerisms, style, disposition and temperament. The natural ruler of the first house is the first sign, Aries. The second house, of possessions, is naturally ruled by Taurus. The third house is one of communication and Gemini is the natural ruler. The fourth house, ruled by Cancer, represents home. The fifth house represents creativity, its natural ruler being Leo. Virgo rules the sixth house, of service; the seventh house, partnership, claims Libra as natural ruler. Scorpio naturally rules the eighth house, representing death and regeneration. The ninth house, of mental exploration, is naturally ruled by Sagittarius. Capricorn rules the tenth house, of career or public standing. Aquarius rules the eleventh house, representative of friends, hopes and wishes. Finally, the twelfth house, ruled by Pisces, is associated with secrets, institutions and self-undoing.

The ascendant or rising sign is the astrological sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the exact minute of your birth. It falls between the first and second house like a doorman. The ascendant is the outer world’s probable first impression of you. It is a perfect blend of the sun sign and the self.

Without the exact time of birth, it’s hard to get a true natal chart. A psychic astrologer may be the only way to discover your ascendant. A skilled, seasoned astrologer may be able to find it by way of rectification, determining birth hour by using the hours at which major life-events occurred as guide points. The ascendant was once considered to be the most important part of a person’s chart, as the mask of outward appearances, the part most easily and naturally shown to others.

Next month we will explore the ascendants and the characteristics of each.

Love and Light to all.

Inner Pollution Solution - Taking care of our body’s environment

By Lesley Thorsell

What can we do for our own body’s environment? How do we clear the toxins and debris away so that our immune system stays strong and healthy?

These are questions that people seem to ask themselves, especially in the spring when it feels like a time to cleanse and renew, as nature does.

The first obvious choice is to do a cleanse-buy a prepared one like Firstcleanse or drink purified water and teas made from nettle, burdock root, dandelion leaves, elderberries and hot lemon.

• Drink green tea regularly-highly antioxidant.
• Check your PH-if there is one thing you do for yourself this year, get some PH strips and see if your body is acid or alkaline (check out ph-ion.com).
• If your body is acidic, cut back on processed and packaged food. Reduce white flour, sugar, alcohol and coffee.
• Increase use of lemons, grapefruit, onions and garlic: these all have an alkalizing effect. The juices from green vegetables are also highly alkalizing. Alkaline water is now available, for more information search Kangen Water.
• Drink wheatgrass. It is a powerhouse detoxifier and has 70% chlorophyll. It transports valuable nutrients to every cell of your body and removes waste while rebuilding immune system.
• Alkalizing your body regulates metabolism, increases athletic performance, builds stamina and delivers pure energy. Disease and arthritis CANNOT survive in an alkaline environment.
• Find your mojo! Enjoying what you do, exploring your passion, practising yoga, laughing, and being with people you love also increases your ALKALINITY!
• Step into an infrared sauna regularly- detoxifies, softens skin, reduces stress and increases weight loss.
• Soak in Epsom salt baths to help release toxins.
• Dry-brush before going into shower-use a natural bristle brush in a circular motion towards heart - great for lymphatic drainage and increased blood flow.
• Buy local and organic-organic produce has as much as 300% more nutrients than non-organic-plus, you are not ingesting pesticides.
• Eat raw-70% raw and 30% cooked is a great goal to get enzymes to aid in digestion
• Exercise-oxygenate your body to move toxins and accelerate lymphatic processes.
• Munch on some seaweed-organic is best-to remove heavy metal.
• Your body also needs essential fatty acids. Flax, borage, evening primrose, grape seed and hemp oil all help to construct cell membrane and strengthen immune cells. Hemp oil, Flax and Udo’s oil are this writer’s choice.

I guarantee that if you try one or all of these suggestions you will feel younger and energized.
Happy Spring cleaning!

Ouch! Stinging Nettles—Naughty or Nice?

By Tamara McIntee – Chartered Herbalist

Stinging nettles, Urtica dioica in Latin, grow like a weed, often in wasteland areas. They have heart-shaped leaves covered with coarse stinging hairs. This useful plant grows abundantly on Texada Island, among other places.

You may remember stinging nettles from the Sleeping Beauty story. They surrounded her castle to keep the prince away. There is much more to nettles than their sting, however. This plant was cultivated in ancient Greece and Rome. At first possibly used to keep out intruders, it was then discovered to be a tasty food and useful medicinal plant. This herb was used to treat gout, rheumatism, snake bites and poisonous insect bites. In harvesting this plant nothing was wasted; even the stalks were used to make fabric.

When collecting fresh nettles, you may want to use yellow rubber gloves to avoid the sting. Be careful! Their sting will go right through clothing. If perchance you do get stung, a poultice made with fresh yellow dock leaves can help alleviate the pain.

Stinging nettles should be collected only in the spring while they are still young and tender. Once they are old and tough, wait until they go to seed-then the seeds can be collected and used as an aphrodisiac.

There are several ways to preserve nettles. They can be hung to dry, dried on screens or dried in brown paper bags. Test to see that they are completely dry by breaking the stalk in half: if it snaps crisply, they’re dry; if the stalk still bends, they need more time. Once dried they can be stored in air-tight glass jars away from the light.

Another way to preserve this herb is by blanching; then storing the shrunken herb in zip-lock freezer bags. Stinging nettles can also be put through a juicer, and the juice can be frozen in ice cube trays. The dried nettle leaves are good for one year, but after their time expires they can still be used as a nutrient-rich garden tea or mulch.

Drinking an infusion of stinging nettles can strengthen and support the whole body. Use this wonderful plant as a tonic for extended periods of time. Nettles are an excellent tonic for female problems. The minerals in this herb are easily assimilated by the body. Urtica dioica is a good source of iron, calcium, vitamin A, chlorophyll and vitamin K. (Vitamin K is used to treat and prevent hemorrhaging, including excessive menstruation, post-childbirth hemorrhage and nosebleeds.)

Alternating regular doses of stinging-nettle tea and red-raspberry-leaf tea is an excellent choice for pregnant women. Nursing moms can use this herb to help enrich and increase milk flow and restore energy. Menopausal women can use this herb to reduce water retention. Stinging-nettle tea also can help alleviate the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome.

Stinging nettle has a wide range of uses. It can help reduce allergy and hayfever symptoms. The juice of nettles taken twice daily can be used in cases of hives. When combined with burdock root and oregon-grape root, this mixture can help with eczema and even dandruff.
A good way to boost your immune system is to infuse the fresh nettles in honey. Simmer over a double boiler, covered, for about 40 minutes. Strain with cheesecloth or a metal sieve, and store in the fridge. This makes a great healthy treat for the kids. When cooking nettles as a vegetable, steam them as you would spinach-the left-over water makes a lovely hair rinse!

Remember: now is a perfect time to harvest and stock up on stinging nettles for the year to come.

Visit www.immanence.ca for Tamara’s recipes for Stinging Nettle Lasagna and Nettle Miso Soup for Kids.
Get fresh nettles at Mitchell Brothers

Peak Soil - The answer to Peak Oil

By Roger Doiron

You don’t have to be a peak oil news junkie to know that something’s up with the global oil supply. [Recently], prices went above $104 for the first time on the announcement from OPEC nations that they were quite satisfied with the amount of available supply (and the price that supply is fetching), rebuffing President Bush’s request to open the spigot a little wider.

Reasonable people can disagree on the causes and the implications of rising oil prices, but there seems to be a gathering consensus that the era of easy and cheap oil is over. If you don’t want to take my word on that, then take it from an oil executive.

What few people grasp is the connection between oil and the food supply. Put simply, the food and farm economies of industrialized countries run on the stuff. Oil and its derivatives are used to power farm equipment, to create synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, to run food processing equipment, and to transport food from field to fork, a journey of 1500 miles for the average forkful.

It has been estimated that our highly-industrialized food system in the US requires 10 calories of fossil fuel energy to create 1 calorie of food energy. Needless to say, that equation just doesn’t compute in the long run.

Meanwhile, as we’re depleting one natural resource, we’re busy creating an abundance of another: people. The UN estimates that the global population will approach 9 billion (up from the current 6.6 billion) by the year 2050. Last year, an article in the British paper The Guardian pointed out the enormity of the challenge we face in feeding 9 billion people. In order to do this, we will need to produce more food over the course of the next 50 years than we have produced in the past 10,000 years combined.

So, what’s the solution? The answer to peak oil is peak soil. The more people who have their hands in it and have a little of it under their fingernails, the better placed we will be to feed our communities and, indeed, the world.

There are different things you can do to be part of the solution. If you are a gardener already, keep up the good work this spring and try to scale up your growing, if your time and space allow. More importantly, try to bring some non-gardeners into the fold this year, perhaps by organizing a backyard or community gathering on Kitchen Garden Day (August 24). If you’re not a gardener, this is the year to start.

If you can’t garden because of where you live, make as direct a connection as you can with someone in your area who’s growing and selling food whether it’s through regular purchases at a farmer’s market or membership in a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm. Your support helps protect that farmland from development and helps keep that farmer farming.

We can’t change what President Bush or OPEC will do today, but we can change our own actions and that’s a good place to start.

Roger Doiron is the Founding Director of Kitchen Gardeners International (www.kitchengardeners.org), a Maine-based nonprofit network of 5100 gardeners from 90 countrieswho are taking a (dirty) hands-on approach to “relocalizing” the food supply.

Ploughshares into Swords: Poisonous Grounds

By Eva van Loon

Colossal blunder.

That’s the kindest phrase that comes to mind about the City’s having a Victoria law firm send nasty letters to three citizens about alleged libels of Council.

It’s not simply the prospect of good classic defenses to defamation: truth, privilege, or fair comment.
It’s not the damn-the-torpedoes-full-steam-ahead attitude of those letters, which ignore the issue of whether municipalities can sue citizens with their own money.

It’s not even the prospect of enriching lawyers, at the expense of the defendants and citizens.
It’s much worse.

Six weeks after that wonderful community meeting over a sustainability charter-what I called a “phoenix conversation” for Powell River-when City reps declared Council prepared for a new public openness, this threatening act by Council confirms the worst fears and suspicions of many. It hints at a quasi-military mindset prepared to wage legal battle to preserve what the public perceives as allegiance to corporatism and outside interests, rather than till the soil of community fairly and squarely alongside the citizenry.

Those we’ll-sue-you-for-saying-that letters were an exertion of raw power. Mr. Brown’s apology, wrung from him as surely as if he’d been physically threatened, sends tears of humiliation down our public face. We are exposed as naked, weak, stripped of the civic power we had assumed to be our birthright. It doesn’t take much fear-mongering to destroy free speech.

Litigation seldom, if ever, serves as a tool for growth. It often serves as a poison-tipped weapon-or at the least, a klaxon herald of war. Litigation is not good for children and other living things and should be relegated to weapons of last resort, like nuclear bombs and depleted uranium. Virtually any settlement does less damage than a lawsuit.

Naturally few litigation lawyers can make a living without litigating. Once one realises that the true mark of success in a lawsuit is winning costs against the opposing party, a scorched-earth policy is the obvious choice. There is little incentive within any law firm to use the ploughshares of alternate dispute resolution rather than bomb the other side to pieces, cut off their heads with the sharpest legal sword available, and display the heads along the road to the mythical Palace of Justice.

I have known cases where innocent, wronged parties were so vigorously engaged in legal battle that the very grounds of their lives, literally and figuratively, were left blasted and poisoned forever.

Don’t worry about my being sued-as one of BC’s first holistic lawyers, I fall into the category of most-broke professionals. Holistic law, a real movement by real lawyers since 1989, is still small enough to be safely belittled. The invariable reply to my self-description as a holistic lawyer has been, “Holistic law? Isn’t that an oxymoron?”

The public has long ago sensed the toxic soul of litigation. It’s no surprise that some research shows litigation lawyers to be some of the unhappiest people alive. It’s true enough. I saw it. I lived it. I see friends die doing it, soldiers to an empty god.

This suggests a solution to the dilemma. Why, pray tell, did Council use an outside law firm? Why is at least one of the defendants choosing an out-of-town law firm? Why are outsider legal-beagles collecting our money for messing with our town?

Because that’s the way it’s done, Stupid, the voices of legal wisdom sneer. All local lawyers would have conflicts. In small towns, everybody knows everybody. Besides, real experts are in the Big City.

No doubt. But consider the obverse of this truism. If local law firms had been consulted on these alleged libels, in today’s techno-wonder world its lawyers could just as readily have popped out an up-to-the-minute opinion as the “experts”. The Law Society of British Columbia itself holds to the fiction that any lawyer anywhere in the province is no better than the next. And you can run a Vancouver lawsuit from here, if you have to.

Conflicts or no, a local firm would have local expertise. A local lawyer might have said, “Sue Mr. Brown? Are you nuts? Can you imagine how that would play?”

So easily this tempest-in-a-teapot could have ended, with a meeting, a handshake and a glass of blackberry tea. We’d have our ploughshares back, and our town could once again wear its expression of friendly faith in sustainability, partnership, and open government.

As Tony Blair famously said, “Will someone save these people from themselves?”

Poetry

I have a hand full of marbles

...like so many beautiful moments
their own stories horrible with grandeur
I remember being exhausted, smoking,
looking for a house at night with a pool
and a girl I have never loved
absurd and strange the night was, full of stars
my friends and I walked for miles to find that house
through fields and fields of fireflies
melting into the sky and shadowing the moon
the luscious landscape
I wish I could show you,
the girl did not want to come with us so,
we went back to the abandoned building where
we made graffiti and slept on the cold floor,
in the morning going to school by hitch hiking,,,
if we did not get a lift
we would have spent the day with the captured baby lion
which had been moaning and growling all night
we did not sleep that well
and got out of there unharmed and alive…
-Ian Henderson

Walk

I walk at peace
with these living patterns
guided by silence
and this walking stick
I reach up
rasp saffron from the sun
and sprinkle it on this path
so the LNG will stay away
and I can still find tomorrow
-Michael Poitras

The Finished Poem

Each opening of the cabinet
they face me again,
last year’s investments,
honey in my shaped jars

I can’t bear to open
or melt them again;
just heft them and fondle
their confined curves

I marvel at crystals
sweet flakes of insight
forgetting they ever
ran fluid in flowers

no need to open,
no melting it down
merely speak their names
to re-enact the afternoons,
the muzzed hour of the bee,
the mother-hungry blooming
-Kaimana Wolff

The Meaning of Kitchen

Until the spatula
couples with a ladle
   until yeast raises the lids
and recent history
bubbles on a back burner,
   until the long spills
   of appleskin and birdshell
   conspire in a compost bucket
I am not really here yet,
   not caught up with my skin
-Kaimana Wolff

Speak up Against Logging at Eagle River!

by Leslie Thorsell

As I was enjoying magnificent pictures of Eagle River and Stillwater bluffs at Friends of Eagle River’s meeting in February, a slide came up of Horseshoe Lake and River. My breathing stopped momentarily–I couldn’t believe my eyes. Could this be the same Horseshoe Lake where I had spent time swimming in this paradise and lying in the sun in awe of the pristine surroundings? I remembered  conversations with tourists who were paddling the canoe route, talking about how lucky we were to live here. Now in front of me the
forest was gone, along with its inhabitants. All that was left were some anorexic trees strewn across the stream. Island Timberland, BC’s pine beetle, had struck again.

Since the deregulation in 2004, BC’s forests have been an open market, being logged seven days a week. Port Alberni can attest to that: their mayor sat on the “hump” one afternoon and counted 96 logging trucks in one day, all raw-log exports with no local benefit to the community–quite the opposite. Island Timberlands appears to be acting irresponsibly as a sustainable company or employer, cutting trees down faster than they are replanting, and will have no need for employees once the product is gone. I was told by an employee of Island Timberlands that the plan is to cut down every old-growth tree left standing within five years, so as to halt any
controversy. Ninety per cent of old-growth forest has already been cut down and it seems that 100% of our natural heritage is to be sacrificed. Eagle River is next on the agenda.

It is up to us as a community–environmentalists, business owners, teenagers, anyone with a voice who sees the importance of leaving this area natural and protected for the wide variety of fish and animal species–to speak up now. Time is running out.

What will we have left when Island Timberlands has felled the last tree? Well, we have Willingdon Beach and possibly Millennium Park. Don’t expect any trees in that park though–they belong to Island Timberlands and they all bear a dollar sign.

Please email Darshan Sihota of Island Timberlands and let him know you want to see the Eagle River Wildlife and Recreation Corridor and Stillwater Bluffs protected for our community: dsihota@ Islandtimberlands.com. Also please contact the Regional District, which has an opportunity to establish a bylaw to protect these lands similar to a bylaw passed in Qualicum on November 22, 2007. It places “a moratorium on the sale and transfer of all lands currently zoned as Forest or Resource Land and a moratorium on development approvals within those forest lands.”

The last section of logging in Eagle River is scheduled for April 1/08, April fool’s day. Don’t be a fool and let this opportunity escape you.

Stripped Bare - Dirty work at the crossroads

By Sherriff

Just off the Powell River Ferry everything seems normal. I am still not comfortable with the new view over to Hardy Island and Scotch Fir Point going up the big hill. It was always a tunnel through the big trees and seemed, well, safe. Now the trees are completely gone on the ocean side and the full drop down the side of the mountain is exposed and a bit scary.

Ten minutes later, just past where Pete’s toilet with the rubber boots sticking out of the bowl rests on the side of the road, the brake lights ahead
go on and the traffic slows.

On the side of the road is yet another clear-cut. The signs announce the Powell River Canoe Route. There ahead is the reason for the slow-down. It has nothing to do with traffic, but everyone is braking, slowing, and trying to get a better look.

A long banner is being held up by a lot of ladies on the side of the road. The ladies are naked. They look like the ladies in the Dove commercials.
Not twenty years old, or even in their thirties, but middle-to old-aged ladies. I need to know just what would induce seven ladies and two men to strip down in the cold air of March 21st on the side of the road. This isn’t expected in Powell River!

Their banner says “Stripped Bare by Island Timberlands!” Ah, a statement about the clear-cut behind them and all the other clear-cuts in their
region. Even now when lumber is almost worthless on the market, they say the stripping of the trees in the Powell River area continues at full speed.

They tell of the destruction of the Canoe Route, of Horseshoe Creek buried in fallen trees by Island Timberland’s poor logging, and the Provincial
Government’s slack regulations about how much of a buffer zone should be left around creeks. (Apparently no buffer is required on creeks that
don’t have salmon as the other fish and creatures have no value in British Columbia.)

These ladies have written letters, presented petitions, begged their regional and municipal councils, made calls to forestry, fisheries, and
the provincial government, and gotten no-where.

They have tried to get media attention; but this is happening in almost every town in the province, and none of the big newspapers is interested.

They are told nothing can be done. This is business. We can’t stop business. So they made a big sign. Then they stripped bare on a very cold day
on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. The next logging area is a watershed. It is also the last wild Coho creek in the Georgia Basin. It’s hilly and everyone feels the silt will run down into the creek and kill the fish food and then the fish themselves.

The Good Food Box - Powell River’s produce buyers’ club

Good Food Boxes contain affordable, quality produce

By David Parkinson

Did you know that Powell River has a monthly-produce-buyers’ club? In operation for a few years now, this program is run out of the United Church with help from the local Overwaitea store and serves 100-150 households per month in and around Powell River and Sliammon. The Good Food Box is similar to programs in many other cities, where members of the community to pool their money in order to make a bulk order; then distribute the food to families and individuals in the community. Best of all, it’s a locally-run, self-sustaining project.

Tanya McDonald and Kimberley Murphy- Heggeler, the volunteer coordinators, spend many hours each month collecting people’s contributions, working with the produce manager at Overwaitea (which helps the Good Food Box program by generously offering a deep discount on the incoming produce, bringing the cost close to wholesale), arranging for volunteers, and making sure that everyone gets the food on the second Wednesday of each month. I’ve been participating for about a year now, by showing up in the morning on the second Wednesday at the United Church in Powell River to help unload the produce, weigh and bag portions, and then pack up all the boxes. There are usually ten to twenty volunteers, and not only is it a fun social occasion, but there’s even lunch served afterwards.

At the beginning of each month, participants pay $12 per box, which contains produce that you might pay $15 or $16 for at the store. Each produce box contains a good assortment of staples: carrots, onions, potatoes, apples, oranges, bananas, lettuce, and other healthy vegetables and fruits.

Some families purchase more than one box, stretching the savings further. Single people can split a box among them. You can pick up your Good Food Box at the United Church, at Family Place in the Town Centre Mall, and at a few other locations around Powell River. If you’re interested in finding out more or getting involved, contact Kimberley at prgoodfoodbox@shaw.ca.

Clear as Mud

April 22 is Earth Day. Billions of dollars have been spent by the corporate world over the decades to program us to believe that living in a disposable world is convenient. If you think about the purchases you have made over the years, you might realize that you’ve made many companies rich by purchasing trash over, and over, and over again without a second thought. It’s time to rethink for ourselves.

by Eva van Loon

Spring’s a season of thanks as well as getting down in the dirt for the biz of
growing fresh crops. At Immanence we want to thank our enthusiastic readers, downloaders and contributors for helping us through the magazine’s first winter. It isn’t easy for small mags to stay in the black dirt of solvency, but with community response and a lot of volunteerism, we made it, and are happy to announce that not only has Immanence recently given birth to a litter of fresh ideas but it is now very close to owning its own printer to act as nanny for those frisky new notions. If all goes well, our May issue will announce the return of locally printed independent media to Powell  River.

It has come to our attention (again) that some of our fellow citizens believe Immanence takes  positions. Some folks believe the magazine is anti-mill, or anti-this-or-that.

The idea of Immanence in our community might be, as people used to say, as clear as mud.

Let’s get a grip: if our mill quit operating, it would be a disaster for everyone in Powell River, not to mention the end of a happy era. Who wants that? Nobody.

Immanence is not about throwing rocks, slinging mud, investigative reporting, or taking sides.  Immanence has one policy only: open source. You write it; we’ll print it, as long as it isn’t  libellous, pornographic, vulgar, or downright wrong. Oh, yes—the Grammar Gremlin hangs out here and insists on making copy as good as it can be, which means free editing service for you, dear reader and (hopefully) contributor.

Think of Immanence as one of our treasured creeks, with their clear, purling waters, the overarching forest, the salmon valiantly returning home, the water-loving plants and variegated stones. These streams indeed “pervade and sustain our universe”—what would this land be  without them?

As streams speak for the soul of the forests, so Immanence offers to voice the soul of the community. Speak up!

Creeks are impaired and even ruined for all species by running machinery through them, dumping garbage or unsuitable soil into them, or causing erosion by cutting too close to their ecosystems.
Similarly, a magazine designed as an organ of articulation for the community can be starved by obduracy, wounded by misconceptions, strangled by narrow concerns.

Humanity has not, so far, proven itself the wisest species on the planet. By all accounts, our kind, and all others on account of us, are in the greatest crisis of our existence. Was there ever a time when we needed a voice more? When we needed the courage to speak our inmost beliefs and  dreams?

The open-source policy means a space for everyone and anyone to try out ideas safely. It means freedom from politicising. It means freedom to speak without fear of retribution. It means connection, collaboration, cohesion, communion. Think of how water flows into itself, and out again, clear molecule by molecule.

Immanence is a throat to speak what is inherent and indwelling in you. Keep our waters clear of
mud, so that we can manifest the part of you that pervades and sustains the universe.

COMMUNICATION—Sharp Grammar Knife, Please

by Eva van Loon

Twins with the surname of Eye
will not let a sentence pass by
without Hurren Eye or Himmen
(Quick, check: men or women?)–
it’s enough to make English profs cry!

Oh, no! Another instance of language doing kinky things to itself!

Englese, that devilishly inventive tongue that seems to think it has a better way to say anything, has come up with a set of pronoun twins joined at the hip—or maybe it’s the head. Surgery needed if Standard English is preferred!

Hurren Eye should sit down for a good gabfest.
There’s nothing between Himmen Eye.

Who the heck are these Eye people? Nobody had ever heard of them forty years ago.

When I was a kid there were a few people who said me when they should have said I. Example: Me want a burger. Cringe! Baby stuff, right? What is this? Sesame Street?

Some teachers with far too much edjumacation went to great pains to explain that Standard English, although very successful in knocking the stuffing out of case endings for most words, still suffers from a bad case of case when it comes to the soft underbelly where the pronouns tend to gather. The pronouns are still clinging to case as if they were French, or Spanish, or even—gasp!—German.

English still has three leftover cases for those pesky pronouns: nominative, possessive, and objective. Think I, my, me, or he, his, him, or she, her, her and you’ve got it. The thing is, in Standard English you can’t mix and match. You can’t pick I from the nominative and him from the objective and jam them into the same phrase—that’s…well, kinky.

That’s exactly what people did. That group of folks wandering around muttering, “Me want burger,” had an effect. Nobody wants to sound like that—I sounds much better. So I had to serve everybody—all the time. It’s the tiredest pronoun in the West, but that didn’t prevent it from giving birth to twins: Hurren Eye and Himmen Eye. Hang in there for NextGen Englese: Themmen Eye.

If you want to speak Standard English, it’s not enough just to pick elegant, jaded I all the time. I can’t do it all and doesn’t appreciate having to cluster on the leatherette sofa in your brain with these tawdry case-nuts. Designate your sofas clearly, like directors’ chairs with the names on the back: I goes with she, he, we, and they; me goes with him, her, us, and them.

In Standard English, She and I should sit down for a good gabfest.
There’s nothing between him and me.

FOOD SUPPLY

LEGAL EYES—Tax That Ass!

by Eva van Loon

You’ve read the letter from the BCCLA to the City of Powell River, about apologizing for the infamous letters from our City’s big-city lawyers threatening the “Powell River Three” (www.bccla.org)?

Were you also amazed that a law firm described as “acting in local government legal matters throughout the province’ and founded by a lawyer who taught municipal law and even wrote the text on it, would write letters that, the BCCLA thinks, fly in the face of case law and quote a case not even on all fours?

To me, misleading case-law citation always smacks of intimidation. To the BCCLA, the law firm’s action transgresses the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which underlies cherished foundations of our culture, like the freedom to think what you like and say what you want—within reason.

The client of the law firm that threatened the Powell River Three is really you and me, as represented by the City–the very client now being sued by the BCCLA for those letters. Yes, you got that: in effect, we are being sued by the BCCLA for actions of our elected representatives.

That delicious little case (mmmm! Supreme Court of Canada, here we come!) could eat up a lot of precious revenue in legal fees and make Powell River the national poster child for impaired understanding of democratic rights like free speech.

Why are we forced to fight a Charter case? Alternatively, why would the Three have to sue for intimidation? Why not a complaint to the Law Society of British Columbia by the the City about its lawyers (if anybody thinks LSBC would listen)? The City should not have to pay out taxpayers’ money for these letters if they are as dumb as the BCCLA implies they are.

The City could sue the lawyers for writing those letters. Malpractice cases are a lot more fun than intimidation cases—easier, too. Already one hapless victim has surrendered in public–what greater proof of damage to public process and trust is needed?

Dumb or not, this big-city law firm utterly failed Powell River as a community. Now there’s greater division in PR than before—and greater cost to the City, whose pockets are, after all, our own. To judge from the BCCLA letter, these lawyers are unversed in the case law—or prepared to use any weapon against the unarmed, whereas the law should be a tool for justice. Despite their outstanding credentials, they seem to have no grasp of the damage their action visited on our community.

Do you want to pay your property taxes knowing that more than a grand goes for those three poisonous letters sent to your neighbors? NOT!

Tax the legal bill, councillors. Please. Insist the City tax the bill. It’s hard to imagine a Registrar denying the City a reduction in fees. Ask for costs, too.

(Was that gobbledygook, dear readers? You may be surprised to know that, in BC one can tax, or contest, a lawyer’s bill (Supreme Court Rule 57). If the Registrar agrees it’s over the top, the bill will be reduced. Costs of this taxation can also be awarded.)
Even if the City can’t wipe up this mess with a taxation, a malpractice suit, or a complaint to LSBC, at least our reps will have shown diligence in rectifying the colossal blunder into which this law firm happily led our City.

Such attempts might forestall another possible chapter in the nightmare—discovering the City has retained this very firm to defend our interests in the Charter case!

Then it’s time to put on the kangaroo and donkey suits and bounce around in front of City Hall.

As in most cases, the law itself is not the ass.

ESOTERICA