I am currently working as a full-time reporter editor at Oceanside News. Here is a sample of my work.
‘I lost a brother and a sister in that school in Port Alberni’ — Nanoose elder shares stories from residential school
Sitting in the Parksville Museum courtyard in front of a small crowd, he recalled memories of waking to the sound of a beating drum and his elders singing outside the longhouse. With a soft, slow voice, he remembered being connected to his culture and to his family.
“Oh, that was the most joyous time of my life, when they were building that longhouse,” said Elder Jim Bob from Nanoose First Nations.
His tone darkened and became more serious. “That stayed with me when I went to residential school. That saved me — my culture saved me.”
Blockades remain in effort to stop old-growth logging on Vancouver Island
Provincial government plans to defer old-grow logging in nine areas across British Columbia are not enough to protect ancient forests, according to activist blockaders near Port Renfrew.
“It’s all a two year deferral so they have lands on there where there were no plans at all to actually log in the next two years, but that’s protected now,” said Steve Fischer, sitting on a creek bed, shaded by towering old-growth cedars a short walk from what has been come to be known as River Camp. “It just makes them look good that there is more land protected.”
‘Doctor switched up the meds, psychotic; my Father’s dead from alcohol and narcotics’ — Qualicum rapper shares story behind new single
With a microphone from a dollar store capturing beats bumping out of his computer speakers, he began to vent and record his anger in the form of rap. A broken leg kept Christopher Rissanen (Chris Riss) from expressing his anger the way he wanted — with violence. His first song, a message to his middle school sweetheart who broke his heart, was captured on Windows Sound Recorder and sent out through MSN Messenger.
“The rap music started to fuel my anger. It started to allow me to let out my aggression and I started to love it — I started to develop,” Riss said. He described himself as a demonic, morbid kid when he first got into rap music.
Tyler Hay 