B.C. may buy Grace Islet home to settle First Nation land dispute

Saltspring Island residents together with First Nations elders took to the water Tuesday to demand a halt to the construction of a luxury home on Grace Islet, in Ganges Harbour, August 2014.

JUSTINE HUNTER, The Globe and Mail, Dec 02 2014

The B.C. government is looking at buying a partially built home on a private island to head off a dispute that has First Nations threatening legal action to protect an ancient burial ground.

Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, confirmed on Monday he has sought Treasury Board approval to give the province the option to purchase Grace Islet, where Edmonton resident Barry Slawsky is in the process of completing his retirement home.

Protesters disrupt construction over First Nations burial ground on islet off Saltspring Island

Saltspring Island residents together with First Nations elders took to the water Tuesday to demand a halt to the construction of a luxury home on Grace Islet, in Ganges Harbour.

 ‘You would never do this to your ancestors,’ chief tells workers

By Sarah Petrescu, Victoria Times Colonist August 27, 2014

The sharp roar of saws and a generator coming from a construction site on Grace Islet Tuesday morning was too much for Tseycum Chief Vern Jacks.

After paddling in the Cowichan Tribes big canoe over to the small island in Ganges Harbour on Saltspring Island, where a luxury home is being built over a First Nations burial ground, he stood on the shore and yelled to the workers: “You would never do this to your ancestors. Think about your kids, your family.”

Cowichan band declares emergency over suicides

Cowichan Chief says sense of hopelessness leads to suicides, alerts

By Dirk Meissner, Canadian Press, May 14, 2012

A pervasive sense of helplessness among a Vancouver Island first nation has spawned suicides and attempted suicides, says the chief of the Cowichan Tribes.
Since January, four people have killed themselves and another 52 so-called suicide alerts have been issued in the community.