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This week, I went down to the harbour to tour HMCS Nanaimo as the coastal defence vessel made its final visit to the city before being transferred to the East Coast.

The crew of the ship were welcoming and happy to talk about their lives in the Navy with me as well as show off their ship to other visitors over two days.

I even got to go off the tour’s path and inside the ship to see the galley where Leading Seaman Trey Pennington, who grew up in Parksville, works. It was his day off but he still came up to talk with me about why he joined the navy and some of the challenges of living and working at sea.

Come with me as we board HMCS Nanaimo one last time and meet some of its crew.

Thank you for reading,

Mick Sweetman

HMCS Nanaimo bids final farewell to namesake city

HMCS Nanaimo to be transferred to the Atlantic later this year after years of service patrolling the West Coast.

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— Dr. Richard Heyman, supporter of The Discourse Nanaimo.

Council corner

Council recording ban faces legal threat

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) has sent a warning letter to the City of Nanaimo for amendments to the Council Procedure Bylaw and Respectful Spaces Bylaw that ban recording public meetings or taking photographs or video in any city facility or recreational area.

“There is no reasonable justification to enact a blanket ban on the recording of public council meetings,” said constitutional lawyer Andre Memauri in a press release. “The free engagement of residents with their municipal government is a fundamental component of democracy.”

Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog told The Discourse that he was surprised to get the letter and disappointed in the description of the bylaws and has passed the letter to the city’s lawyers. 

“In a world with serious problems, where we have serious things to debate, people emphasizing a bylaw that is simply there to protect privacy as somehow an infringement of democratic freedoms is just silly,” he said.

Krog said he has no qualms enforcing the bylaw if needed and that recordings of council meetings were previously edited with commentary and used for misinformation, but since the bylaw was changed, “it hasn’t been an issue and democracy hasn’t collapsed.”

The JCCF wrote that “the scope of the Respectful Spaces Bylaw is particularly troubling” as “the language of the bylaw is so unclear that it could be understood to apply to everyday activities, such as taking a family photo in the park or filming their child’s soccer game in a public park.”

“Does anyone think it's appropriate to have adult strangers taking pictures of children in bathing costumes at the public pool?” Krog asked rhetorically. 

As previously reported in The Discourse, civil liberties advocates criticized the changes to the bylaws at the time and two city councillors — Hilary Eastmure and Sheryl Armstrong — raised concerns about the possibility of it infringing on residents Charter rights and voted against it. 

Since the bylaw was amended, local reporters have had to request permission to record council meetings and take photos and one man was removed from council chambers by RCMP officers after refusing to stop recording a council meeting without permission from the mayor. 

The letter from the JCCF reads that if council “fails to reverse these unconstitutional prohibitions within a reasonable period of time, legal proceedings may follow.”

City appeals B.C. Supreme Court ruling

In other legal news, the City of Nanaimo has filed an appeal after the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed a request for a judicial review to a Human Rights Tribunal decision in 2023 that found the city discriminated against its former chief financial officer.  

On the schedule

The next city council meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 7 at 7 p.m. in the Vancouver Island Conference Centre’s Shaw Auditorium.

On the agenda are appointments to city committees, allocations of funds to build raised crosswalks, motions about development cost charges, banning the sale of invasive plants, development permits, zoning changes and changes to the off-street parking bylaw that would eliminate minimum parking requirements downtown.

On the Island

🌊  As this year’s annual B.C. bat count kicks off, the flying mammals remain at risk of white-nose syndrome. Dave Flawse brings you a behind the scenes look at the annual count and how citizen scientists are monitoring a fungal disease that is decimating bat populations across North America.

🌊 Students from Quw'utsun Secondary School and Le'lum'uy'lh Daycare Centre learn how to care for local plants at the Hulitun Spulhxun/Tumuhw native plant nursery. Cowichan Valley reporter Eric Richards has the story.

In other news

👉 A new tool from Island Health shows estimated wait times for the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and other facilities on Vancouver Island. You can see how long you may have to wait at https://www.islandhealth.ca/find-care.

Island Health uses an average of wait times of the hour, on that day of the week, based on the previous eight weeks. An acute event, such as a heat wave, that sent more people to the emergency room than usual would not be reflected in the wait times. CHEK News has the story.

👉 A new outreach program by Royal Canadian Legion Branch 256 will feature guest lectures for veterans, seniors and people with disabilities. A lecture on Sunday will feature members of the Nanaimo Photography Club and the Nanaimo Astronomy Club who will speak about skygazing on August 3. The Nanaimo News Bulletin has the story.

 👉 Gabriola Island's Centre Stage is requesting permission to remove trees on its property to build private roads in preparation for a potential subdivision of the property. A past application for a subdivision was deferred by Islands Trust due to concerns of Snuneymuxw burial sites on the hillside. The Gabriola Sounder has the story. 

👉 The record of the world’s largest Nanaimo bar has been broken, with a 1,200-pound bar being made by Northwest Fudge Factory in Levack, Ontario, beating the record set by Vancouver Island University students in May by 100 pounds. CHLY 101.7FM has the story. 

👉 The ridges along Nanaimo Lakes will have new residents as 30 Vancouver Island marmots will be released into the wild by the Marmot Recovery Foundation after being raised by the Calgary and Toronto Zoos' breeding programs. Last year, a record 381 endangered marmots were counted in the wild on Vancouver Island. Nanaimo News Now has the story.

Have your say

📢 The province is seeking input on a new model for WorkBC that would see the program offer three different employment services streams, online services, centres and employment readiness services. The province is seeking “input from job seekers, community members, service providers, and employers to help inform our service design to ensure it meets the diverse needs of people living in British Columbia.” The survey will be open until July 31 at 4 p.m.

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