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BC and Canada continue to confront Colten Boushie case verdict
Indigenous communities in BC continue to discuss and draw attention to the Colten Boushie verdict, in which a white Saskatchewan farmer was acquitted of all charges in the shooting death of a 22-year-old member of the Red Pheasant First Nation. Vigils were held in Vancouver over the past few days, including a rally today also drawing attention to Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women. According to Travis Lupick at The Georgia Straight, the stats for Indigenous women in BC are not good: with “3.4 percent of B.C.’s population, they account for 10 percent of overdose deaths.”
New group pushes for high speed rail across Cascadia
Seattle Transit Blog has the complete story of a new advocacy group, Cascadia Rail, pushing to build high-speed rail between Vancouver, B.C. and Eugene, and from Seattle to Spokane. The group’s platform and is hard to argue with, calling for a system that would reduce travel times to less than 90 minutes between Seattle and Vancouver, BC or between Portland and Seattle. You can follow Cascadia Rail on Twitter here.
Will Washington legislature be first to ban cancer-causing foam?
Investigate West has a detailed story on the movement to ban perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) which are used in a variety of products, but most notably, in firefighting foams. The chemicals are turning up in rivers and creeks and threatening wildlife and can affect human hormone levels. The Washington state senate recently approved the ban, and the measure now goes to the House.
Rare sperm whale spotted in BC’s Johnstone Straight
According to a report by Bethany Lindsay at CBC, marine biologists confirmed the first sighting of a rare sperm whale (the species made famous in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick) in Johnstone Straight off the north shore of Vancouver Island. The last confirmed sighting in BC was in 1984.
Carrying on the traditions of Indigenous weaving
Portland Mercury reports on the show Interwoven Radiance at Portland Art Museum’s Center for Contemporary Native Art, a collection of contemporary Chilkat and Ravenstail weaving from the Tlingit tribe of southeast Alaska that incorporates both traditional motifs and modern design elements (including DNA strands).
Leni Zumas on the un-natural thing that is motherhood
Portland writer Leni Zumas, author of the new novel Red Clocks, writes for The Cut about her experience of in vitro fertilization, and the weird stigmas our culture has about not doing birth as “naturally” as possible. “I’ve watched friends fall into prolonged despair because they weren’t able to breastfeed. They felt like defects. Failures at the very thing they were built to do. A mother knows. Except when she doesn’t.” You can also read an interview with Zumas at Cascadia Magazine.
That’s all for today from Cascadia Daily’s temporary world headquarters at Matchstick Coffee, Blenz Coffee, Nemesis coffee, etc. in Vancouver, BC. ☕ –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: woman rallying for Indigenous rights in Vancouver by Andrew Engelson