It will always be Jimmy Chickens Island
News Item: When Charlee the American bulldog was spooked by Halloween fireworks in Victoria, she took off. Rather, she swam to Mary Tod Island off Oak Bay. I’m pleased to report that she was soon reunited with her owner, but that’s not my story which is about one of my favourite pioneers… Maps show the wooded isle off Oak Bay as Mary Tod Island but to those who know their history it will always be Jimmy Chickens Island. This amazing eccentric and his wife Jenny lived there in their little shack during the rare intervals between enforced stays “inside the precincts of the durance vile on Cormorant Street or the brick mansion on Topaz Avenue” (the city and provincial jails). Jimmy and Jenny, you see, were slaves to demon drink Time and again the aging couple was to be...
Read MoreSir John Franklin Expedition has strong Victoria, B.C. link
So they’ve finally found Sir John Franklin. Well, his ships anyway. 170-plus years after he and all of his 128 men vanished in the Arctic while searching for the legendary Northwest Passage. This is what legends are made of: The most expensive scientific expedition to that time in history, which sailed…into oblivion. Not a single survivor. Not, for years, a single clue! Ever so slowly the puzzle has been unraveled through the efforts, often heroic, of numerous explorers and, in recent years, repeated underwater searches by Parks Canada. All these efforts have been crowned with the confirmed discoveries of Sir John Franklin’s flagship, HMS Erebus, and her sister ship HMS Terror. Vancouver Island has several strong links to the Franklin saga Let’s begin with Herald Rock in Beaver Harbour, ‘twixt Fort Rupert and Port Hardy. It’s named for the...
Read MoreGrace Islet Burial Ground Controversy is same old, same old
UPDATE – May 24, 2019 Two recent news reports, 100 years late though they be, confirm a seismic shift in governmental and museum attitudes towards First Nations cultural treasures. In March The Canadian Press reported that the British Columbia government has introduced new legislation that will “require people to report the discovery of sites or objects of potential heritage value to the government’s archaeology branch. It [will] be mandatory in British Columbia to report the discovery of sites or objects of potential heritage value to the government’s archaeology branch under changes to legislation introduced Wednesday.” According to Forests Minister Doug Donaldson, ‘amendments to the Heritage Conservation Act [will] strengthen the protection of archaeological and historic sites and form part of the government’s commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” He said the proposed...
Read MoreCanadian $10 bill kerfuffle recalls martyred nurse Edith Cavell
Oops. There was a mistake on our new plastic $10 bill. It only took the Royal Canadian Mint eight months to correct, if not admit, that they goofed on their photo of Mount Edith Cavell. According to the Canadian Press, mountain climber Hitesh Doshi spotted the mistake: a mountain that was identified on the RCM’s website as 3363-metre Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park was actually Lectern Peak. After laying the blame on the Canadian Bank Note Co., the Mint assured us that all is now well. So who was Edith Cavell and why did they name a mountain after her? For answer, I’m going to quote myself from my 2005 book, A Place Called Cowichan: A century and a second global conflict have passed since the ‘war to end all wars’. [Duncan’s] Ypres, St. Julien and Festubert...
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