Island Insider

“It’s hard to process that for first time in my life, I don’t know what I’m going to be doing in the fall, or even next month in June,” said Carihi Secondary School graduate Kailen Crosson about COVID-19's impact on her future.

“This theft, however, is in a category of its own, and is especially low. This was an epic loser move,” Cpl. Sean Bulford, Quadra Island RCMP detachment commander, on the robbery of a memorial plaque from the Quadra Legion's cenotaph during a recent spike in property thefts.

The B.C. government's announcement that classes will resume on a voluntary, part-time basis June 1 got a range of reactions from Quadra Island parents, with some outright rejecting the idea and others expressing relief. 

In the early stages of the pandemic, isolated islanders were fearful about potential food shortages from being at the end of a very long supply chain. But as the weather improved and dramatic food shortages due to COVID-19 didn’t materialize, the mood has shifted. People are more excited about the opportunity to increase food production locally.

Rural children and teens in the North Island region of Vancouver Island are facing increased mental health risks due to COVID-19's isolation protocols.

B.C. tourism operators being crushed by COVID-19 are hopeful but confused about how the critical summer season will unfold after the province unveiled its plan to reopen the economy on Wednesday.

Grocery store workers on isolated islands off B.C.'s West Coast are keeping their communities fed often with personal costs to themselves.

Some B.C. seafood processors have less immunity to COVID-19 impacts than others.

Seniors on a fixed low income, particularly in rural and remote areas, are falling through the cracks when it comes to federal response funding during the COVID-19 pandemic, NDP party whip Rachel Blaney said.

Island Health announced Tuesday it will now test for COVID-19 in anyone with symptoms of cold, flu or the novel coronavirus, even if their symptoms are mild.

“It’s just reinforced, in my mind, that we’ve got an invisible enemy and that our village must stay on guard and keep doing what we’re doing," says Quadra Island We Wai Kai councillor Ted Lewis about his nation's shutdowns to protect members during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seniors are the most likely age group to be extremely worried about their health and social isolation during COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new Statistics Canada survey But the older residents on Quadra and Cortes, rural islands located off B.C.’s west coast may be bucking that trend.

Social-distancing measures during the pandemic can put women into even tighter quarters with their abuser, further limiting their ability to reach out for help, said Diane Palmer, of the Campbell River and North Island Transition Society.

While the future of classroom instruction is still uncertain, some rural parents are finding the changes in education to be enriching and liberating for their kids and families.

“Quite frankly, in my view, the climate crisis is, in orders of magnitude, a greater threat,” Suzuki said. “The COVID crisis is a crisis for human beings, but the climate crisis is a crisis for life on the planet.”