* TS Annual General Meeting: Wednesday, Feb. 28, 7 p.m. at Harbourside Cohousing.

North Korea & the USA: Empty Rhetoric or Nuclear Threat

Noted peace activists Mary-Wynne Ashford and Jonathan Down will be at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church on Nov. 30 to share their thoughts on the heightened risks of nuclear confrontation in our time, the progress of a bold new international “no nukes” treaty and the various ways the public can express their concerns.

The two Victoria-area physicians will be introduced by Sooke’s Christa Rossner, who was involved in the nuclear weapons abolition movement with Dr. Ashford for many years. Admission is free, however donations are welcome to support the vital work of the organizations with which Drs Ashford and Down are affiliated.

“The United States and North Korea have been hurling escalating threats of nuclear attacks at each other. Now the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved its doomsday clock forward to two-and-a-half minutes to midnight, the closest it has ever come to the apocalypse,” says Dr. Ashford, former president of the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a global federation of physicians that won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. 

A nuclear exchange could cause the deaths and suffering of millions of people, lead to a forced “nuclear winter” and irradiate massive tracts of land, rendering it unsustainable for millennia. The World Health Organization rates nuclear weapons as the highest of all potential dangers to human health.

“Unfortunately, many young people who have grown up since the end of the Cold War in 1991 are unaware of the horrific consequences of a nuclear war and thus are not alarmed by the present situation,” explains Dr. Ashford. “We’ll suggest some actions that can be taken and brainstorm with the audience about other ideas.”

As the alarming brinkmanship continues in Washington and Pyongyang, Dr. Down will share the good news that a new generation of physicians and young activists (many under the age of 30) have banded together as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). This umbrella group of nearly 500 organizations in more than 100 countries will be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize on Dec. 10 in Oslo for its advocacy work, which includes creating a new Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons. The award will be accepted by Setsuko Thurlow, a (now) Canadian survivor of the Hiroshima bombing.

Drs. Down and Ashford belong to various international networks of medical professionals committed to the principle that doctors have an obligation to prevent what they cannot treat. International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, founded by Helen Caldicott in 1980, continues to share the medical and scientific facts about nuclear war with policy makers and the public while also advocating for the elimination of nuclear weapons from the world’s arsenals.

About the speakers

Dr. Jonathan Down is a paediatrician based at the Queen Alexandra Centre for Children’s Health in Victoria and an adjunct professor at both UBC and the University of Victoria. He is President-elect of Physicians for Global Survival (the Canadian affiliate of IPPNW) and a charter member of the Vancouver Island Peace and Disarmament Network.

Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford has been a teacher, physician, professor and activist for IPPNW for over 30 years. She met Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia and has spoken with leaders in China, France, England, Pakistan, India, the USA and even North Korea. Dr. Ashford, former president of both IPPNW and PGS, authored Enough Blood Shed with Guy Dauncey.

“There were things to be done in disarmament that were clear to me. Whether or not I could really make a difference, leaving them undone was a resignation to despair. At the very least, the individual can challenge the silence of assumed consensus. By breaking the silence, by refusing to collude with evil and insanity, one resists the darkness.” ~ Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford

Rethinking Traffic As Usual

Monday, November 20, 7 to 9 pm; Edward Milne Community School, 6218 Sooke Road

Our 2018 Speaker Series’ continues this Monday night in the library at Edward Milne Community School with Eric Doherty, a Registered Transportation Planner with Victoria consultancy firm Ecopath Planning and a founding member of the Better Transit Alliance of Greater Victoria.

Doherty will look at the big picture of regional transportation in adding further context to a perennial hot topic addressed this year in both the provincial election campaign and the ongoing #DividedBy14 campaign launched by the Sooke Juan de Fuca Working Group of local business owners.

Once Doherty has completed his talk, the floor will be open for discussion about the realities and potential of transportation and transit services as we make our way (mostly by automobile) to and fro on the South Island. The challenges are clear, but what are our options now and in the future?

Doherty’s talk will serve as a prelude to the expected release of a long-awaited BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure report on continuing upgrades to our winding road home (which is blocked in part for an annual average of four hours per week due to accidents, according to local emergency response authorities).

Mayor Tait announced recently that BC Transit representatives will be scheduling a once-every-five-year public forum in Sooke next year to field community views and opinions.

As a planner, Doherty specializes in practical approaches to reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, while improving the livability of communities. He integrates diverse experience from community and regional planning, environmental consulting and engineering.

Transportation is the second-largest contributor to climate pollution in Canada. Carbon emissions from transportation increased 32 percent between 1990 and 2014 nationally. In Sooke, auto traffic produces more than two-thirds of the municipality’s total GHG emissions annually according to Province of BC statistics.

Business as usual is not an option, argues Doherty. The good news is that there are examples of other population centres (like Zurich, Switzerland, for example) that have transformed their transportation systems remarkably quickly and created healthier, more livable communities.

Admission, as ever, is free or by small donation.

Monday, October 23, 7 to 9 pm @ Edward Milne Community School, 6218 Sooke Rd

Dr. Trevor Hancock is a professor and senior scholar at the University of Victoria‘s School of Public Health and Social Policy as well as a regular columnist with the Victoria Times Colonist.  He’ll be our guest speaker in the EMCS library on Oct. 23 at 7 pm. Admission is free or by small donation. 

Recognizing that we are entering the Anthropocene, a new, human-induced geological epoch, Dr. Hancock launched the Conversations for a One Planet Region initiative a year ago. The Conversations explore how we on the south Island might find a way to reduce our ecological footprint to the equivalent of one planet – a reduction of about 80 percent – while continuing to enjoy a long life of good quality with a low level of inequality.

“This will mean, among other things, re-designing our energy, transportation, urban development and food systems, indeed our whole economy and way of life, taking into account the intergenerational wellbeing of our children,” explains Dr. Hancock.

Part of this involves changing the way we chart progress, using alternative scales such as the Happy Planet Index, created in 2006 by the UK’s New Economics Foundation to measure the factors that lead to genuine (as opposed to strictly material) happiness.

A series of One Planet Region Conversations have been held over the last year and momentum is growing through collaborative work with such local organizations as Creatively United, Cities for Everyone, Greater Victoria Acting Together, the Better Transit Alliance – Greater Victoria, BC Sustainable Energy Association: Victoria Chapter and the Social Environmental Alliance – SEA.

Now Transition Sooke is getting involved by bringing Dr. Hancock’s One Planet Region vision to a Sooke audience for the first time. He’ll be introduced by Royal Roads University faculty member Paivi Abernethy, one of our board members at Transition Sooke and a member of the One Planet Region team.

One Planet Region website: https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/oneplanetconversations/home/about.

Dr. Hancock’s introduction to Times Colonist readers: http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/trevor-hancock-imagining-victoria-as-a-one-planet-region-1.2319533

The 24-hour countdown is on to Sooke Ecohome Tour 2017.  TICKETS will be available tomorrow at the Stick in the Mud Cafe in downtown Sooke from 10 am to 2 pm via our Christa and Jo. This year you can also pay your small admission fee at our host locations (circled on the map below) during tour hours, 11 am to 3 pm.  Full tour prices: $5 per person/$10 per carload/free to pedestrians and cyclists. All attendees will be asked to sign an insurance waiver. Thank you and ENJOY! 

PDF of our map brochure. ecohome-tour-2017 2

And here’s the flipside of the accordion-fold Ecohome ticket brochure (which has been printed in b&w ‘cuz that’s how this spendthrift volunteer non-profit rolls 😜). Our thanks to Sooke designer Zach Ogilvie as well as Tamara and crew at Sooke Copy Centre. #shoplocal 

Busy times here as we make plans for what shapes up as an eventful October by our  standards. It begins on Sat., Oct. 14 with our second Sooke Ecohome Tour — this time featuring three residences in Sooke and three more (two of them in construction) in East Sooke. This year’s mix ranges from a tiny home studio in a beautiful forested wilderness setting to a solar-panelled Sooke centre residence and a pair of in-progress new-builds near East Sooke Provincial Park — one a Net Zero aerie, the other a sea-level econest sited above a working farm with rammed earth walls and radiant flooring. Two other properties are back by popular demand from our 2016 debut tour.  As is our norm, we’re offering nice-price tickets ($5 per person/$10 for a carload) that will again be available on event-day only at the Stick in the Mud Coffee House in downtown Sooke and at participating venues. Visit our Facebook event page for regular updates.

Following what shapes up as a wonderful Awareness Film Night season debut on Wed., Oct. 18 featuring an upcycled clothing faire, Sookies will be happy to learn that the second Sooke Repair Cafe is being hosted by our Zero Waste Sooke working group on Sat., Oct. 21 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Sooke Community Hall. Like our debut in May, the family friendly event welcomes everyone in town to bring items for repair by our crack 😉  team of volunteer fixers. Anything that is broken is fair game — lamps, hair dryers, clothing, electronic appliances, furniture, bikes, toys and crockery included.  “We were all totally pumped and excited by the first cafe,” says ZWS coordinator Wendy O’Connor. “We want to again show how much fun repairing things can be and how easy it often is.” Those who walk away with a repaired item are invited to bang a gong (literally) as they leave and drop a  donation in the tip jar.

Our periodic speakers series gets underway again with the One Planet Region‘s Trevor Hancock at Edward Milne Community School at 7 p.m. on Mon., Oct. 23. The University of Victoria professor and regular Times Colonist columnist will introduce Sooke residents to an inspiring south Island vision based on the Happy Planet Index and the alarming fact that collectively (North Americans especially) are burning through an unsustainable 1.5 planets worth of energy annually.
“Only if we can imagine it and show it is feasible will we be able to engage people in what should be an inspiring quest — to create a “One Planet” region with a high quality of life,” says Hancock. Admission is free or by small donation.

Reporting in during these hazy, smokey (a little less so today, hooray) days of summer … 

3. Planning has begun for our second Ecohome Tour on Saturday, Oct. 14th. We’re lining up a range of repeat attractions from last year and new stops, including two in East Sooke — a Forest Adam tiny home and the latest EcoNest project from Keary Conwright. Our organizing team welcomes suggestions via return email for other stops in the region as we build up an inventory of homes we can showcase in the years ahead. According to our loose definition, an ecohome (new or retrofit) uses building techniques and/or technology to create energy savings and a substantially lower carbon footprint in both construction and ongoing operation. Insulation and airtightness, passive solar orientation, thermal mass building materials, renewable energy sources (solar, heat pump, biomass), rainwater harvesting, greywater collection and recycled building materials are considerations.

6. Banning the plastic bag is one thing, but simply remembering to bring a canvas bag with you when shopping is just as critical. With that in mind, we’re putting an order in with Sooke Signs for a set of bright, eye-catching Bring Your Own Bag signs (designed by our town’s Zach Ogilvie) for use near the entrances of our major downtown shopping spots. Big thanks to the good folks at Village Foods, Western Foods, Home Hardware and Pharmasave for their enthusiasm and support. The intention, of course, is to remind shoppers to grab bags from the backseat before they walk into the store rather than remembering them only when they’re asked if they want paper or plastic at check-out.

Transition Sooke is honoured to present a first-time visit to Sooke by Starhawk, the renowned author, activist and permaculture designer who was again recently cited as one of the 100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People by Watkins Mind Body Spirit – Magazine.

We’ll welcome her to the Sooke Community Hall on Monday, May 8 for a talk that will start at 6:30 p.m. Tickets at $15 each are available through Eventbrite.  (Note: We’ve relocated the evening from the Sooke Harbour House to ensure that all who wish to attend can do so.)

The night’s theme as Starhawk describes it: “In challenging times, people seek structure and belonging. How do we build a movement that offers both while also leading toward a world of justice, balance and liberation?” She will address this critical question by showing how we can respond to the urgent challenges of our day in sane, sustainable, compassionate fashion.

Starhawk brings social justice, care of the earth and spirituality to a vision of how our societies can function for the benefit of all. She is the author of thirteen books on such topics as Goddess religion, earth-based spirituality, group dynamics and social permaculture, among them The Spiral Dance, The Earth Path, The Pagan Book of Living and Dying, and the novels The Fifth Sacred Thing and its follow-up City of Refuge.

Her documentaries (with director Donna Read Cooper) include Permaculture: The Growing Edge and the National Film Board of Canada‘s Goddess Trilogy.

Through her organization Earth Activist Training (EAT), Starhawk directs courses in permaculture and regenerative design grounded in earth-based spirituality and with a focus on organizing and activism. She’s making time for a Sooke getaway in the midst of an O.U.R. Ecovillage permaculture design certificate course she is leading over the next fortnight at Shawnigan Lake.

Learn more at our Facebook event page, and follow Starhawk on Twitter and Facebook.

Thanks to Transition Sooke‘s Jo Phillips (founder and host of Awareness Film Night) along with Stephen Hindrichs and Lee Hindrichs for their work in organizing this special evening.

Our working group Zero Waste Sooke is organizing a community spring clean of roadsides, ditches, green spaces and playgrounds on the morning and early afternoon of Earth Day 2017 — Saturday, April 22.  Please email info@zerowastesooke.ca if you’d like to volunteer for an hour or more as part a neighbourhood litter-busting team. Gloves and bags will be supplied.

This is a family friendly event and kids can get busy with special litter scavenger hunts created in the spirit of this year’s Earth Day theme, namely “Earth Play,” a call for everyone to unplug and enjoy outdoor activities. A fantastic way to show that, as individuals and as a community, we care about our home and native environment. H/T to the District of Sooke and the CRD for funding support.

Learn more at the ZWS Facebook page.

* Volunteers and neighbourhood captains in the Sooke region are wanted for a Zero Waste Sooke street clean-up on Earth Day ~ Saturday, April 22. Gloves and bags will be supplied, and local pick-up spots will be arranged. Please let us know via email if you can help! PS Our thanks to Mayor Tait and councillors Berger, Logins and Reay for approving a ZWS community grant request last week that will partially cover our costs for the clean-up as well as two Sooke Repair Cafes this year and a summer workshop by the Victoria Compost Education Centre.

* After 13 years in print, the Rural Observer has gone digital in style starting with this month’s edition. Editor Terri Alcock invites her Sooke region readers to subscribe online and receive interactive e-book versions. Annual ($20) or lifetime ($100) memberships with the Juan de Fuca Rural Publication Society will help keep the new issues flowing. An essential read and service for all who care about this region’s rural character and natural beauty.

* Juan de Fuca Forest Watch meets again on Tuesday (March 28), 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Ed Macgregor Park bandshell. “Lots to discuss, including timely reports of local forestry operations, proposed campaigns and more,” notes Darren Alexander. “Please consider bringing a guest or two. Pitch in $5 and we’ll order pizza.”

* Awareness Film Night and Sooke Region Food CHI present the 7th annual Farm and Film Gala on Wednesday, April 12th. Doors at EMCS open at 6:30 for “stocking up, browsing and noshing in the theatre foyer,” says AFN’s Jo Phillips. The feature presentation Seed:The Untold Story will start at 7:45 and the evening will conclude with gift basket draws at 9:20.

* All are welcome to local food potlucks every Sunday evening hosted by Everything Edible Landscaping‘s Jonathan Francoeur and friends at 6411 Sooke Road. “Bring some food or come ready to learn what you can make for next time,” says Jonathan. “Dine and dash, or stay and socialize.”

* Site C campaigners Janet and Steve Gray from Kairos Canada invite participants to one or more of their ‘No Site C Banner Waves’ in the Greater Victoria region. “We only go out in nice weather. Hope to see you soon!” Learn more here.

* Lights on: Instant BC Hydro rebates at Sooke Home Hardware and elsewhere for select LED bulbs, lighting fixtures and controls until April 13.

* Save the Date: Creatively United for the Planet Festival, April 22 at the Royal BC Museum 

* Bookmark these pages for ongoing coverage of the BC Election on May 9 (just 47 days from now)

* Victoria Times Colonist
* The Tyee
* Vancouver Sun
* CFAX Radio
* In-Sights
* Integrity BC
* Victoria Vision

Other essential links:

* Elections BC
* John Horgan, NDP
* Cathy Noel, Liberal
* Brendan Ralfs, Green

Finally, some highlights from our Facebook page, offered for those immune to the debatable charms of social media …

– Staying sane in (confirmation bias) insane times

– More evidence of why former federal Environment Minister David Anderson told a Sooke audience last week that global warming is the defining issue of our day

– Good neighbours: Companion planting guide (shared from the Sooke Food CHI FB page)

– The art of public engagement: A set of storyboards from the recent Local BC Government Leadership Academy

– Short film: “If you do nothing else with this life, cultivate gratitude”