Call to ensure the safety of your home while you’re away.
2X1.5
HOMEGUARD
PROCESS
The Home Guardsman Ex-Police officer, Ex-Military
Campbell RiveR miRRoR 778-235-4931 www.thehomeguard.ca dashwood-jones@shaw.ca
Lawrence, The Home Guardsman
First issue 1971
View our eEditions online FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2016
‘It’s only begun’
Newsstand 85¢
www.campbellrivermirror.com
James Quatell on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Lindsay Chung Campbell RiveR miRRoR
W
hen the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its final 3,231-page report Dec. 15 in Ottawa, We Wai Kai Elder James Quatell welcomed the announcement — not as the end of a six-year process, but as the beginning of a new era of action. Quatell has the “truth” part of the Truth and Reconciliation down — he knows his truth, and he shares it with people who ask. He is a product of the residential school system, having been taken away from his family in Campbell River when he was 10. He spent four years at St. Michael’s Indian Residential School in Alert Bay and returned at the age of 14, feeling like a stranger in his community and feeling ashamed of his First Nations culture. But now, Quatell is eager to work on the “reconciliation” aspect — and he feels that this can be done by continuing to share his story and his truth. Quatell left St. Michael’s in 1962, but it took him until 1994 to start sharing his story. He remembers that this came as a result of his community. The We Wai Kai nation built its own canoe here and paddled to Bella Bella. After leaving Campbell River, their first stop heading north was Alert Bay, and although Quatell had been there
many times since 1962, this was the first time he visited the community in the band’s traditional canoe. As they pulled in, they were invited onto the beach, and Quatell remembers this as one of his proudest moments. That pride quickly faded when he saw the St. Michael’s building right behind the beach where the ceremony took place. This moment ended up being the beginning of Quatell dealing with his past. “I was sitting in our canoe, there was like a surge that started from the bottom of my feet and worked all the way up my body, I could feel it, and it pushed my spirit up to that building again,” he said. “My inner voice was pointing at that building: ‘I’m going to deal with you; you’re not going to have that power over me no more.’” The next day, when they continued their journey, Quatell remembers sitting in the galley of a big seiner and one of the men asked him what he was thinking about. Quatell said he was thinking about where he would be if he was at home, which would be at a meeting. When the man asked Quatell what he did at the meetings, he said they sit around a table and talk. “He said ‘well, what’s wrong with here?’ so we had a meeting on our boat and talked,” recalled Quatell. “That was the first time I
Continued on Pg. 3
Mike Davies/CaMpbell RiveR MiRRoR
What was supposed to be the expansion plan for Laichwiltach Family Life Society’s daycare at the corner of Cedar Street and 4th Avenue is now a charred pile of rubble after a devastating fire on Boxing Day. The cause of the fire may never be known due to the extent of the damage.
Holidays hard on fire department Mike davies Campbell RiveR miRRoR
Campbell River Fire and Rescue has been busier than normal this holiday season – and all year, in fact – according to Fire Chief Ian Baikie. The recent snowy weather has led to a “significant increase in call volumes,” surrounding motor vehicle incidents, Baikie says, many of which were more severe in nature than they would otherwise be had the recent weather not changed the dynamic on the roads – or if the
Tyee Chev 7x2.5 PROCESS
ON UNTIL
public was more careful. “People just need to take it easy. They have to realize that when the roads are like this, you just can’t do what you usually can,” Baikie says. When it’s actually snowing, visibility is lessened, Baikie says, and when lower visibility is combined with other factors like slippery roads, improper tires for the conditions, and speed, it can have tragic results. “You can’t brake in the same distance. You can’t travel the same speed and have your vehicle react the same way,” Baikie says. “Peo-
ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT!
ple need to realize this and drive accordingly.” Between the increase in traffic incidents and an increase in fire responses, Baikie says they have had their hands full recently. When not attending motor vehicle incidents after the dump of snow, they were responding to fire calls like a fully-engulfed vacant trailer owned by the Laichwiltach Family Life Society on Boxing Day and what they thought was a chimney fire on Pengelley Road, but which ended up being a smoulderContinued on Pg. 5
TYEE
CHEVROLET | BUICK | GMC 570 – 13th Avenue
250.287.9511
TOWARDS THE PURCHASE OR LEASE ON ANY 2015 OR 2016 CHEVROLET, BUICK AND GMC See dealer for details.
tyeechev.ca DL#10790