Blog

‘A lifeboat in the ocean’: Nurses on life inside a downtown Vancouver hospital

Nurses share feelings of uncertainty, fear, hopefulness and solidarity as they deal with COVID-19.

As a registered nurse in the emergency department at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, Zoe Manarangi Bake-Paterson wonders whether she’ll be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. There’s palpable stress in the department, she says, as she and her colleagues prepare for a surge of cases that may or may not arrive.…

Canada’s emissions count jumped 15 million tonnes in 2018, report shows

The latest national inventory report was filed with the United Nations Wednesday, April 15

Canada’s emissions from road traffic, manufacturing and fossil-fuel production have almost entirely erased any progress this country made cutting greenhouse gas emissions since 2005. The latest national inventory report was filed with the United Nations Wednesday, showing 2018 emissions at 729 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and its equivalents.…

Today, April 15, is the first national ‘Take out Day’ in Canada

Shelve your home-cooked dinner plans and support Whistler restaurants tonight

If food delivery or take out isn’t on your list today, you might want to reconsider for Canada’s first National Takeout Day. Canadian restaurant owners and chefs will be kicking off the country’s first “Takeout Day” on Wednesdays with a live nation-wide party today at 5 p.m.…

LETTER: Hire Canadians to work on farms

I sympathize with local farm operators and would really like to support them (see Pique, March 27, “Farm workers to be exempted from COVID-19 travel ban”). Now, more than ever, farming is an essential service in our province and country. However, the article suggested that farms need foreign workers to operate and I do not believe this to be true currently.…

Pemberton community working to ensure students get lunch amidst classroom upheaval

School district puts plan in place to help kids in village and surrounding communities access food

The COVID-19 pandemic might have put an end to regular, in-school classroom learning for the rest of the year, but Pemberton has banded together to make sure its students-and their counterparts in neighbouring communities-are still getting lunches. During the Sea to Sky School Board meeting-via Zoom-last Wednesday, April 8, Phillip Clarke, director of instruction, learning services, was overcome with emotion describing the various businesses and organizations that have been working hard to make that happen.…

Do as we say, not as we do? Trudeau, Scheer forced to defend family trips

OTTAWA — Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer are fighting off criticism that they’re asking Canadians to do more to stop the spread of COVID-19 than they’re willing to do themselves. Both men were forced Tuesday to defend trips they took with their families that appear to flout the physical distancing measures they’ve spent weeks imploring people to uphold.…

LETTER: Immediate action needed to support Whistler businesses

I can’t help but try to analyze what I see as a big disconnect going on between the Government of Canada, the provincial government and the real estate market in Canada. We have been asked, not told, by both levels of governments to close our retail stores, restaurants, coffee shops, spas, hair salons and all other non-essential services in order to help curb the spread of COVID-19.…

Survey: Almost half of Canadians struggled to buy necessities during pandemic

A nationwide survey has revealed more than half of Canadian adults have struggled to purchase basic necessities in the wake of COVID-19 panic-buying sweeping the nation.…

Compared to U.S., Canada’s COVID-19 response a case study in political civility

WASHINGTON — In the time of the novel coronavirus, Canada and the United States seem to be playing to type: the friendly apologizers of the Great White North coming together against a common enemy, America’s combative revolutionaries threatening to tear each other apart. While state governors and federal authorities outbid each other for precious protective gear, Alberta has promised its surplus masks, gloves and ventilators to provinces like B.C. and Quebec, two of Premier Jason Kenney’s favourite political targets.…

Whistler’s next MTB generation shines

Three riders won gold at Crankworx

Three young Whistler mountain bikers came home with gold from last month’s Crankworx Rotorua festival. First, despite being just 12, Benjamin de Vall won the boys’ 13-and-14 Crankworx Rotorua Downhill by 1.25 seconds over his nearest competitor.…

Whistler Children’s Festival cancelled

Arts Whistler calls off July event due to COVID-19

Arts Whistler has cancelled the Whistler Children’s Festival, which was set to take place in July. “As a result of the continuing uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Arts Whistler has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Whistler Children’s Festival, scheduled for July 10 – 12, 2020,” a release reads.…

Isolation bad for humans wired to be social, neuroscientist says

If you’re feeling a little bit slower these days, you might be able to blame it on biology. That’s because isolation is bad for the brain, says University of Victoria neuroscientist Olav Krigolson.…

Ottawa follows B.C. cue on mandatory quarantine plan

Those who do not present a plan will have to quarantine inside a hotel

The federal government is taking a cue from B.C. and requiring all travellers entering its borders to have a quarantine plan in place. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday (April 14) any asymptomatic travellers who cannot present a plan upon entering the country will be required to quarantine inside a hotel.…

Health Canada approves Spartan Bioscience’s portable COVID-19 test

OTTAWA — Rapid COVID-19 testing devices are on the way to remote and Indigenous communities where access and timely results have been hindered by distance and limited resources, officials said Monday after a new test kit was approved over the weekend. Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said the hand-held DNA analyzer from Ottawa’s Spartan Bioscience will offer rapid test results for health services in rural and remote areas that otherwise must send their samples to laboratories in larger centres.…

The pandemic pendulum

Moderating emotional sways in our troubled time

There’s a rapid fall as the pendulum drops from the right on its descent to the middle; it stays suspended for a time at the bottom of its arc before seizing momentum and rising left again. The pendulum of life, the one that normally swings from challenge to opportunity, from season to season, has shifted to overdrive.…