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The word “woke” — which has now lost any real or useful meaning since its origins in African American vernacular English — has become commonplace in right-wing campaigns and is being applied (seemingly quite effectively) to target anything and everything.

In B.C., the leader of the insurgent Conservative Party of BC, John Rustad, has raged against “woke ideology,” targeting trans people and sexuality and gender orientation education resources in schools (also known as SOGI 123).

When Rustad made comparisons between SOGI and residential schools last year, he was criticized and asked to apologize by politicians across the spectrum.

MLA Ravi Parmar, from the governing BC NDP, called Rustad’s comparisons “disgraceful” in a now-deleted tweet.

On a CBC Early Edition panel, Green MLA Adam Olsen denounced Rustad’s comments as “astonishing” and “inappropriate.”

And Elenore Sturko, then MLA for the Opposition party BC United who recently joined the B.C. Conservatives, called Rustad’s comments “incredibly insulting” at the time.

And then Bruce Banman, the B.C. Conservative MLA for Abbotsford South, summed up the criticism of Rustad’s comments as symptoms of a “hypersensitive, woke, far-left cancel culture” that he and his colleagues are trying to correct.

On a separate occasion, it appears that Paul Ratchford, a Conservative Party of BC candidate for Vancouver-Point Grey, referred to his now party member colleague Sturko as a “woke lesbian, social justice warrior.”

Old-growth forests that were environmental and Indigenous rights battlegrounds over clearcut logging in the 1980s and 1990s during British Columbia’s “war in the woods” are set to receive permanent protections in a land and forest management agreement.

The B.C. government says an agreement Tuesday with two Vancouver Island First Nations will protect about 760 square kilometres of Crown land in Clayoquot Sound by establishing 10 new conservancies in areas that include old-growth forests and unique ecosystems.

The partnership involves reconfiguring the tree farm licence in the Clayoquot Sound area to protect the old-growth zones while supporting other forest industry tenures held by area First Nations, said Forests Minister Bruce Ralston in a statement.

Statements from the Clayoquot Sound’s Ahoushat and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations say the conservancies will preserve old-growth forests on Meares Island and the Kennedy Lake area, sites of protests that led to hundreds of arrests.

“We have successfully reached a first phase implementation of the land-use vision,” Tyson Atleo, Ahousaht First Nation hereditary representative, said in an interview. “We will see (Tree Farm Licence 54) on Meares Island actively become real legislated protected areas for the first time in history.”

Plans for clearcut logging on Meares Island, about one kilometre northeast of Tofino and the site of some of the world’s largest western red cedars, touched off environmental and Indigenous protests in the 1980s. They eventually resulted in a court injunction that halted logging, saying Indigenous land claim issues should be resolved.

About a decade later, more than 800 people were arrested in the Clayoquot Sound area of Kennedy Lake near Ucluelet as protesters descended to demonstrate against more logging activities.

The forest company eventually left the area after losing an estimated $200 million in contracts related to timber sales.

It was a heated day in Canada’s House of Commons when elected Speaker Greg Fergus ejected Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre from the chamber on April 30. Fergus removed Poilievre after he repeatedly refused to withdraw his remark that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was pushing “wacko” drug policies.

That day Conservative MP Rachael Thomas posted on the social media site X in support of her boss.

“Drug use in parks, hospitals and public spaces is whacko. Drug deaths are up by 380 per cent in B.C. Pierre Poilievre called out Trudeau for his dangerous drug policies today in the House of Commons,” Thomas wrote. “How did partisan hack Greg Fergus respond?! He kicked Pierre Poilievre out of the chamber.”

THE CLAIM: Drug deaths are up by 380 per cent in B.C. The Tyee is supported by readers like you Join us and grow independent media in Canada

Thomas’s 380 per cent increase compares the number of B.C. drug deaths in 2015 with the 2023 total.

FACT CHECK: Over a similar period, drug deaths are up by 198 per cent in Alberta.*

What Thomas neglected to mention is that overdose deaths have risen by 588 per cent in her home riding of Lethbridge, Alberta, over a similar period (2016 compared with 2023).

Donald Sutherland, the prolific film and television actor whose long career stretched from “M.A.S.H.” to “The Hunger Games,” has died. He was 88.

Kiefer Sutherland, the actor’s son, confirmed his father’s death Thursday. No further details were immediately available.

“I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film,” Kiefer Sutherland said on X. “Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that.”

The tall and gaunt Canadian actor with a grin that could be sweet or diabolical was known for offbeat characters like Hawkeye Piece in Robert Altman’s “M.A.S.H.,” the hippie tank commander in “Kelly’s Heroes” and the stoned professor in “Animal House.”

Before transitioning into a long career as a respected character actor, Sutherland epitomized the unpredictable, antiestablishment cinema of the 1970s .

Over the decades, Sutherland showed his range in more buttoned-down — but still eccentric — parts in Robert Redford’s “Ordinary People” and Oliver Stone’s “JFK.”

More, recently, he starred in the “Hunger Games” films and the HBO limited series “The Undoing.” He never retired and worked regularly up until his death.

“I love to work. I passionately love to work,” Sutherland told Charlie Rose in 1998. “I love to feel my hand fit into the glove of some other character. I feel a huge freedom — time stops for me. I’m not as crazy as I used to be, but I’m still a little crazy.”

A Kelowna mom is speaking out and hoping to engage parents after she found out her child had been a target of racism and bullying at a local middle school.

Ashley, whose last name has been left out to protect the privacy of her child, said the issue first came to light when her kid acted out at home by ripping up her Mother's Day card in a burst of anger.

Questioning the outburst, Ashley who has a child of colour, soon learned that they had been called racial slurs such as 'monkey' by classmates.

She added that her child said they've heard other students also being called racial slurs.

The concerned mom took the issue to the school's principal to address the situation where she was offered an apology and told the school has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to bullying and racism.

There’s so much to love about summer in British Columbia: greenery, beaches, fresh produce. And most notably, peaches, the best fruit there is.

Admittedly, the stone fruit is widely available all through the year nowadays, thanks to imports from places as far-flung as Chile, Argentina, California and New Zealand. But it’s only irresistible from mid-July to early September, when B.C.’s 600-odd growers gift us with 4.6 million kilograms of velvety, sun-softened, fragrant and fully superior peaches.

Give me a peach in October, and I turn into J. Alfred Prufrock, who famously asked, “Do I dare to eat a peach?”

Give me a peach in July, when I know it’s a fresh Okanagan Redhaven, Glohaven or Cresthaven, picked in Penticton and bursting with flavour? I’ll eat the whole thing before asking myself if I’m hungry.

As I’ve written previously, B.C. fruit is not only downright delicious; it’s practically overabundant most summers.

Blink, and a bucket of blueberries seems to materialize in your house; the same goes for peaches, piled high in their biodegradable, pulp berry baskets and bought for a pittance wherever fresh produce is sold.

Not this summer, though.

Vancouver’s oldest board game shop is closing on July 31.

Kitsilano’s Drexoll Games shared the news with its community via Facebook at the end of May, stating: “The sole reason for our closure is that although we survived the pandemic, and renewed our five-year lease in 2021 with enthusiasm, the building was subsequently sold, and the new owners of our building at 2880 West 4th served us an eviction notice under the Demolition Clause in our lease. It has not been a very fun plot twist. We have sought other options over the last 10 months, but are unable to find a similar space and location at rates that would allow us to continue our business.”

The Pride flag won’t fly at Mission city hall again this year.

A motion from Coun. Ken Herar on Monday (June 17) to amend the city’s flag policy didn’t have a seconder, meaning there was no discussion or vote on the matter. Coun. Jag Gill was absent from the meeting.

The amendment would allow the Pride flag to fly at city hall during the annual Fraser Valley Pride Celebration.

The matter was raised by Herar before, but this time he was optimistic. Herar says he initially wasn't going to bring the motion back but checked with the Fraser Valley Youth Society (FVYS), which organizes the annual Pride event. The society supported bringing the motion forward.

“I was really hopeful that there would at least be a discussion on this matter,” Herar said.

Mission Mayor Paul Horn says he didn’t second the motion because it was already discussed exhaustively in the past.

“There really isn't anything new to discuss,” Horn said.

Horn says the city has been supporting Pride in other ways, including hosting the Fraser Valley Pride Festival, creating space for the Fraser Valley Youth Society, and flying the flag where more people go.

“I think that the whole idea of supporting Pride has been to increase diversity in our community – to expect people to leave space for others,” Horn said.

According to Horn, raising the flag on government flagpoles tends to create polarization, not increase understanding.

Earlier this month, the City of Mission changed its logo on social media for Pride month to reflect the Progress Pride Flag. The city also had a Pride-themed social media logo last June. Horn says it wasn’t a council decision.

“That's a different thing than the flag policy … the logo is not our official coat of arms or official flag,” Horn said.

Nineteen people this year have been forced to transfer out of Providence Health Care facilities to access medical assistance in dying (MAID), a scenario advocates say proves the attempted fix by the province isn't good enough.

Nine of those patients were transferred out of Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital, four from Mount Saint Joseph Hospital, four from May's Place Hospice and two from St. John Hospice.

Those figures were provided by Providence Health to CBC News Tuesday.

The Catholic health-care provider that oversees St. Paul's Hospital is being sued by the family of a Vancouver woman over its policy banning MAID in its facilities. If a patient requests MAID, they must be transferred to a different health facility, typically run by Vancouver Coastal Health.

Influencers with the extremist racist group Diagolon spend hours making livestreams, trying to spread their message of hatred against immigrants and minorities through the online world on sites like Rumble and X.

Some prominent members have become fixated on hatred of South Asian people, celebrating violent videos showing people in India being hit by trains and complaining about the number of South Asian members of Parliament.

Now they’re planning a real-life foray, including stops in Vancouver and Kamloops, part of a venture they’ve named the “road rage terror tour” according to an ad on X.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association says it will be filing a complaint with the Vancouver Police Department over its officers' treatment and arrest of pro-Palestinian demonstrators last month.

Around 100 of those demonstrators gathered at a section of railway lines in East Vancouver on May 31 to lay 303 sets of children's clothing on the tracks. The group says it was holding vigil for the thousands of Palestinian children who have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its retaliation to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.

The Vancouver Police Department says it moved in to clear the group that afternoon because they had been obstructing the Canadian National Railway lines for several hours. Video posted to social media from scene shows how chaos soon broke out between the two groups, with officers taking numerous people to the ground to handcuff them.

In the end, police arrested 14 people for mischief and obstruction.

VPD Media Relations Officer Tania Visintin told Black Press Media they gave the demonstrators ample time to leave and that "no force would have been required had the protesters just complied." She said the demonstrators were "pushing and shoving" and that their "hostile dynamics " dictated the level of force used by police.

The demonstrators, on the other hand, say the officers were unnecessarily violent and that community members were punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed, choked and strangled. The group says dozens of them left with injuries, including a pregnant woman.

“While all we did was stand, officers did not use any de-escalation," community member Sukhi Gill recalled at a press conference outside the VPD headquarters on Tuesday (June 18).

Police say they have identified a suspect in a recent violent assault of a sex worker in the Downtown Eastside.

After midnight on June 10, a man picked up a woman near East Hastings Street and Campbell Avenue before assaulting her with a weapon, according to a news release from the Vancouver Police Department (VPD). Police say he later pushed her out of the car — an older-model, dark-coloured sedan — near Oppenheimer Park, and she's currently recovering from her injuries.

The VPD said Friday that they had located the man the night before and seized his vehicle. Police previously described the suspect as white, 40 to 50 years old, 300 pounds, with a receding hairline. They say he was wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants.

The VPD didn't name the suspect, as charges have not been laid.

Police say the investigation is continuing and are encouraging sex workers in the area to remain vigilant.