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This week I spoke with Shanon Sinn, author of The Haunting of Vancouver Island, about some of the local ghost stories and haunted buildings in Nanaimo.

Whether you believe in ghosts or are skeptical about the supernatural, Nanaimo has a fascinating history full of tragedy, violence and injustice that these spooky stories help us remember. 

“Ghost stories are teachers of history,” Sinn told me. “They give us snapshots of what was going on in these different places. There's a reason that we remember these incidents for that reason, so we can learn a little bit more about our history.”

You can read my story about some of Nanaimo’s ghostly spaces below. 

Thank you for reading,

Mick Sweetman

Haunted Nanaimo: Spooky spots in the city

From haunted firehalls to Gallows Point, Nanaimo has a history of otherworldly presences. 

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Council corner

The City of Nanaimo received $442,752 in federal funding from Health Canada’s Emergency Treatment Fund to strengthen its overdose response capabilities and better support people who are unsheltered.

The funding will be used to buy three new vehicles for community safety officers and outfit them with medical equipment and computers as well as survival supplies. This will allow the officers to provide more assistance while waiting for first responders to arrive. 

The city is seeking new members for its Art in Public Spaces Working Group, which will provide council with advice on the city’s public arts program. The deadline for applications is Jan. 25, 2026 by 11:59 p.m.

Council’s Governance and Priorities Committee will meet on Friday in the Vancouver Island Conference Centre’s Shaw Auditorium. The agenda for the meeting includes a report from Island Health on the Overdose Prevention Site at 250 Albert St. and the unregulated drug crisis in the city. 

A report on a parking bylaw review, which outlines actions related to vehicle, bicycle and accessible parking, will be also discussed.

Finally, a report on a manufactured home community relocation assistance policy will guide landowners, residents and city staff in the case that a manufactured home community is displaced due to development of higher-density housing being built on the property. The report will be presented to the committee. 

In other news

👉Residents of properties with unpermitted homes under a do-not-occupy order on Gabriola Island are still concerned after Regional District of Nanaimo staff clarified that there are no demolition orders for the properties but that owners need to apply for a combination of demolition and building permits for the structures on the properties. 

The RDN says  it is willing to work through the building permit process to ensure all structures meet the building code and use Islands Trust regulations.

Islands Trust agreed to intervene after 100 people packed a Gabriola Local Trust Committee meeting on Oct. 9 in support of the residents. 

“The RDN has been threatening to demolish homes that have been standing for 15 years housing senior citizens, families, residents of Gabriola,” Kelsey Rush told the Gabriola Sounder. “It’s just so far outside what is reasonable enforcement.”

👉 Gabriola Island’s GERTIE bus has gone electric, with the delivery of the first of two buses. The buses will seat 18 people and are able to circle the Island five times on one charge with solar panels on the roof of the old fire hall being used to help charge them. The Gabriola Sounder has the story.

👉 VIU nursing students are gathering new or gently used sports equipment to “support youth and families that may not have the means or access to join recreation or sports because of the high cost of equipment,” Hannah van Spaendonk told NanaimoNewsNOW. The main collection day is Wednesday, Oct. 29 in the VIU lower parking lot near the Trades Discovery Centre on Wakesiah Ave. 

👉 Nanaimo’s coal mining history will be the theme of a haunted house at Beban Park’s red show office barn. Enter a mineshaft to experience the horrors of mining in a fictional town’s mine. Money raised will be donated to the Vancouver Island Exhibition. The Nanaimo News Bulletin digs down into the story. 

👉 The VIU Mariners women’s soccer team won gold in the provincial championship and will be heading to compete in the Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association championships in Red Deer, Alta. in November. The VIU volleyball teams also opened their season with a set of wins over Camosun College on the weekend.

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