Monthly Archives: September 2022

WLC Responds to National Day of Mourning September 19th The Federal Government recently announced that Monday, September 19th will be a statutory holiday and “Official Day of Mourning.” While this may be a day of mourning for some, for our W̱SÁNEĆ Community, the death of a monarch underscores the ongoing harmful experiences of colonialism that continue to impact our people to this day.  As such, the majority of our staff have decided to work on Monday, and as they do every work day, further projects that strengthen W̱SÁNEĆ communities, culture and rights. Other staff members challenged with daycare closures and [...]

Noisy Children in Classroom Music to Teachers’ Ears BRENTWOOD, B.C. (CP) A steadily rising noise level was a measure of success for a four-week summer course for Indian children at Tsartlip school, near this community 15 miles north of Victoria.    The sound of voices was music to the ears of the three teachers and six teen-age volunteers working on the program, because the first day the children did not make a sound, one teacher said.    About 50 children participated in the program designed to accustom pre-schoolers, and some school-age children who have been doing poorly, to a classroom, to get [...]

Chief seeks new direction for Tsartlip Don Tom wants his First Nation to move away from ‘managing poverty’ and become more sustainable.    Growing up on the Tsartlip reserve in Brentwood Bay, Don Tom’s first audiences were his big family.  At one Christmas gathering, his father Chris Tom recalled, the youngest Tom boy stood on a chair and gave a particularly dramatic speech.    The years of theater camps, school plays and improv performances that followed might have been unusual for the trades-focused family, but they prepared Tom for his most important public role.    Tom, 31, was elected Chief of the Tsartlip [...]