* Tues., May 15, 7 pm, Sooke Region Museum, 2070 Phillips Rd. With bear season heating up, Wild Wise Sooke‘s Debbie Read and her new sidekick Samantha Webb from the Wild ARC will host an information/volunteer recruitment night. No charge. On a related Wild Wise note, please complete this online survey on local bear-habituation issues being conducted by Royal Roads University students.

* Wed. May 16, 5:30 to 8 pm, downstairs in the Community Hall. Library 2018 preview! Drop-in to see the blueprints, meet the architect and say hello to current library staff as we all rub hands gleefully in anticipation of the new Sooke branch of the Vancouver Island Regional Public Library system. (Check the Sooke PocketNews story, which includes links to earlier episodes in this happy saga.)

* Wed. May 16, 4 to 7 pm, SEAPARC. District of Sooke open house and opportunity to offer feedback re: the proposed Demamiel Creek Pedestrian Crossing.

* Wed. May 16, 6:30 pm, Sooke Library. Regular meeting of Zero Waste Sooke. All welcome to drop-in and join the discussion as this TS working group led by Bernie Klassen continues to shape Sooke’s future as a model zero-waste community. Time for a plastic bag ban and drinking water fountains in Sooke? Can we expand and promote the BYOB campaign? Your ideas and energy are essential.

* Fri., May 18, 8:30 to 4 pm, Prestige Hotel. The Sooke Region Communities Health Network‘s Age Friendly Committee presents “Aging With Grace,” a day-long summit focused on health, housing, transportation, seniors activities, lifelong learning and more, all with a Sooke twist. Speakers lined up by SRCHN’s coordinator Christine Bossi will include Mary Dunn, Andrew Moore, Carol Pinalski, Janet Raynor-Thorn, Doni Eve and Rick Robinson. Free admission, lunch included. Limited seating. Register ASAP by calling SEAPARC at (250) 642-8000. (This is the latest in a series of follow-ups to the 2016 Community Health Summit, from which our Sooke Region Multi-Belief Initiative arose).

* Wed., May 23, 6:30 pm, Sooke Library. Timothy Snyder‘s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century will be discussed by the Transition Sooke Book Club. All welcome to join Paula Johanson, the regulars and new faces for what’s guaranteed to be a lively, far-ranging discussion about a slim book that started life as a Facebook post and has rapidly evolved into an essential guide for those alarmed by the rising tide of nationalism, closed borders and authoritarian governments.

* Wed. June 13, 7 pm, EMCS Community Theatre. Awareness Film Night‘s 2017/18 season finale will be the rousing short documentary Water Warriors. It details how indigenous and non-native locals in a small New Brunswick town dared to challenge the oil and gas industry. AFN’s Jo Phillips is working on further plans for the night, which will include either another film, a panel discussion or both. Thank you once more, Jo, for delivering timely, thought-provoking alternatives to mainstream media.

Recently featured on our Facebook page and Twitter feed … 

~ Starhawk interviewed by Transition Network founder Rob Hopkins.

~ Globe & Mail infographic tracks the projected impact of increased west coast oil tanker traffic + Naomi Klein weighs in + this Paul McKay article from the Energy Mix. <clip> “Despite new ultimatums from Ottawa, Alberta and Kinder Morgan, take a deep breath, Premier John Horgan. Hold your ground. Follow the molecules, not the money. When the bitumen bubble inevitably bursts, it will be obvious that your most abrasive opponents were full of sound and fury, signifying nothing in the way of scientific honesty, international ethics or even viable exports.”

~ Author Sarah Cox on what’s wrong with Site C (from The Tyee). (PS Want to get involved with Sooke Citizens for the Peace? Send us an email and we’ll put you in the loop with this group arising from our March Justice for the Peace night with Ken Boon and friends.)

~ Updated: Our Pesticide Education Group’s webpage, including a recent response from a Monsanto Canada spokesman that reads in part: “As a retired landscaper who used these products (Roundup) for over 25 years at levels the table cosumer will never experience, and now as an employee of Monsanto Canada, I sleep well at night knowing glyphosate is still ranked as less toxic than coffee, red meat or wood dust.”

~ Kudos to Dogwood Sooke’s Roland Alcock for winning Sooke council approval on a proposal that the District of Sooke join the climate accountability movement by seeking reparations for the costs of climate-change mitigation from 20 of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies + hat tip to council for sending an SOS (Save Our Salmon) resolution re: fish farms to the Association of Vancouver Island & Coastal Communities convention last month, where it passed and will now be voted on by UBCM delegates in the fall before being forwarded to the BC government. In the meantime, however …  😦

~ “Death knell for net metering” BC Hydro sets new guidelines for surplus solar

~ CBC Radio Ideas episode featuring On Tyranny author Timothy Snyder

~ “Researchers discover trees have a ‘heartbeat,’ it’s just so slow we’ve never noticed before” + “The secret life of plants, no really” (Macleans) + encourage government action in the campaign to preserve Muir Creek.

~ Anticipation 🙂