Steph Eva Wood

Flo Ranville sat by the window of a narrow art gallery in Vancouver’s Chinatown, surrounded by a series of photographs of faceless people. Ranville pointed out a photo of a person standing behind a park bench, covering their face with a shawl. Two wooden carvings sit on the bench beside her, a bear holding a salmon and an eagle. Ranville said the woman, who uses the alias 'Betty Boop,' is from a northern Indigenous community. She and her family were ostracized after she was diagnosed with HIV.

Point Louisa is a common clamming spot for harvesters from the Tlingit and Haida tribes, as well as the Filipino community in Juneau. But since last summer, levels of paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) in butter clams at the beach have persistently been above the federal limit.

When Andrew Crist tried the "Blown Away" bike trail on Mount McIntyre a few weeks ago, he worried about running into bears. He yelled a bit on the way down to ward any off. One thing Crist didn't think he had to worry about was nearly being shot by a stranger with a hunting rifle.

Yukon has limited hotel rooms, no shortage of road-weary travellers, and a sense of pride in people's hospitality. That may be why the territory came first place in Canada for host ratings on Airbnb. Whitehorse has an average rating of 4.8 of five stars.

Bessie Kèyishí Cooley has been a Tlingit teacher and translator for many years. "Sometimes you have to dig deep to remember the words they're asking you," she said of teaching adults. "It's just great being able to speak."

We had believed that going to the Downtown Eastside with good intentions would enable us to report with sensitivity and respect for the community. But we were wrong to think it’d be that simple.

"I'm just really excited to be meeting new designers. Doing Vancouver Indigenous Fashion week, having to find new talent is something that I'm looking for — and Adäka definitely has it," said founder of Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, Joleen Mitton.

About 30 kilometres southeast of Bella Bella in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, there is a low-lying clay deposit off quiet Kisameet Bay. The Haiłzaqv people have used the fine, pale-green clay from the deposit to treat stomach disease, diabetes, burns and other ailments for many generations since it was deposited in their territory during the last Ice Age. Now, the Heiltsuk are in negotiations to allow a non-Heiltsuk company to harvest the clay for commercial use.

"A lot of them can't string sentences together the same way anymore but if you put them in a canoe then the muscle memory is still there, and they just get so much pleasure out of that," said Julia Wilson. She said one resident spoke for the first time in months while out on the canoe.

Megan Breen, her fiancé, and their three children are due to be out of their rental home by June 30. But after a year of searching in Whitehorse, she hasn't been able to find an affordable home that can accommodate her family. "When I told the kids we might be living in our motor home in the summer time, they were so happy," she said with a laugh. "My family's done it. My mom, she had five kids and we lived in a fifth wheel. And it was pretty tight."

"In a small community like this, one person dying affects a lot of people. It's important that the kits get out there and people know how to use them so that people don't die before they're able to get out of whatever they're in," said HollyWinter. Holly Winter is offering weekly naloxone training classes for the public and distributing naloxone kits across the territory.

South Africa was the farthest Felicia Tugak had ever been from her home in Baker Lake, Nunavut. "To be honest I didn't ever think I would be selected, because what are the chances for one Inuk person applying, of all Indigenous people across Canada?" Tugak said.

After facing delays in May, Alaska Seaplanes is on track again to make its Juneau-Whitehorse route available this summer. "I don't want to jinx anything, but I'm pretty confident saying it should happen in June at some point," said ​Alaska Seaplanes' general manager Carl Ramseth.

Alaska Seaplanes has run into delays in launching its proposed Juneau–Whitehorse seaplane route. The airline first announced the new route in March. At the time, the company hoped to have scheduled flights between the two cities starting this month.

How big a risk would a Vancouverite take to buy a home in the city they were born and raised in? Vancouver author and comedian Charles Demer imagines an answer to that question. In his novel Property Values, Scott Clark wants to buy out property from his father-in-law, so what does he do? Stage a shooting on the property to drive down the asking price. Naturally.

There were romantic and feel-good vibes at The Fox Cabaret Thursday night (April 26), thanks to the romantic and feel-good indie-folk band Wild Child. The group has become known for their fun, indie-pop influences, while also seamlessly incorporating masterful orchestra sound.

Since 2015, Silverjay has run his own business. He pays binners for scrap metal they have reclaimed from the trash and refines it himself. The collectors earn set rates for their finds while Silverjay sells the finished products — jewellery and silver bars — at the city-sanctioned Downtown Eastside Market. Silverjay’s business is just one example of how vendors and other people in the community collaborate within the market. The trade has become a cornerstone of the neighbourhood’s economy.

“My mom would say, ‘women are too busy and too important to be chiefs,’ which is kind of a joke, but not really,” said Canada Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould. This anecdote summed up the mood of the “Lead, Succeed, and Inspire” event that showcased influential female change-makers, which had many laughs between serious discussions.

A theatre-fan may be surprised to find themselves walking through the doors of The Penthouse Nightclub, under a sign that reads “Less Fake News, More Fake Boobs,” to watch an acclaimed play about two Chicago cops. Yet, the intense two-character play, A Steady Rain, proved it is remarkably well-suited to the intimate, dim theatre on the top floor of the Penthouse on its opening night.

On Saturday, January 27, the UBC loggers’ sports team — also known as the Thunderjacks — hosted their third annual intercollegiate competition. However, many of these loggers didn't fit the lumberjack stereotype people may have in mind — in fact, about half of the competitors were lumberjills. “We have the most diverse team I’ve ever seen,” said Sharman Prior, one of the team’s organizers. “Last year, we had maybe two guys on the team and eight women.”