Cortes Currents

Unedited audio of the Awakeneers singing Clicking

UNedited audio of Rick & Amy Bockner and friends singing Love one Another

Unedited audio of Denise Wolda singing 'Feel the Island' at Lovefest 2026

Unedited audio of Greg Osoba reciting the Well

Unedited audio of Daniel Lapp, Adam Dovray and Adrian Dolan's performance at Lovefest 2026

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - I believe I've covered every Love Fest to date, but I invariably bake out between four and five o'clock, which means I've never been there for the big-name acts. So this year, I decided to do things a little differently. I was there at the opening as usual, but left early and returned at five o'clock. In terms of interviews, Benji Coey, Amy Robertson, and Andrea Bloc...

Jemma Hicken/ Folk U Radio - Thanks for joining us on July 31st, 2026 for the 5th week of our Village Commons Music Series, a simultaneously live and live-broadcast show, happening on Fridays from 1 - 2:30pm on the new Pavilion stage. Stand-in host Jemma Hicken was joined by Rue McDonald, Heather Wolf, and Elizabeth Hodgins, who played an in-the-round show and swapped songs and stories. Listen in...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There’s a new gallery in Mansons Landing every weekend this summer. Lee Gass and his wife, Lucretia “Lu” Schanfarber, are Quadra Island residents who are well known on Cortes. They have owned the house where the Lee Gass Gallery is located for decades. The sculptures inside are made of bronze, stone, and wood, but they also tell the story of Gass’s life. A series of...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Despite the fact polls consistently show roughly two thirds of the Albertan electorate want to remain in Canada, Premier Danielle Smith - a former fossil fuel lobbyist whose government not too long ago imposed an outright ban on new renewable energy projects for 7 months - is concerned about her province's separatist movement. She and Prime Minister Mark Carney agree...

Jemma Hicken/ Folk U Radio - Thanks for joining us on July 24th, 2026 for the 4th week of our Village Commons Music Series, a simultaneously live and live-broadcast show, happening on Fridays from 1 - 2:30pm on the new Pavilion stage. Stand-in host Jemma Hicken was joined by the Awakeneers, who delivered a folk-forward set filled with stunning harmonies, jokes, and existential questions. They chat...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The first tenants have been living at Rainbow Ridge for a month, and Cortes Island’s affordable housing complex is now offering tours of the site. There were fifteen of us on Saturday, July 24. Most were curious neighbours, but a couple of people asked about rental rates, and there were also a couple of tourists. One summer resident, who does not have a washer or dry...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Tzeporah Berman: The Problem With Ramping Up Fossil Fuel Production & Expanding Energy Consumption According to the Stockholm Resilience Centre, "Human activities have pushed Earth beyond its Safe Operating Space. The planet's natural resilience is weakening: Global warming is accelerating, (and) ecosystems are showing clear signs of degradation." In the second of fo...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - More than thirty years have passed since Tzeporah Berman catapulted into public view as an organizer of the Clayoquot Sound logging blockade. She is the Co-founder and International Program Director at Stand.earth, the Founder and Steering Committee Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, and serves as a member of the Advisory Group for Influenc...

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - The last of 4 interviews with Fire Chief Eli McKenty

De Clarke / Cortes Currents - the third interview with Fire Chief Eli McKenty

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - the second of four broadcasts taken from an interview with f=Fire Chief Eli McKenty

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Thanks for joining us on July 17, 2026 for the third week of our Village Commons Music Series, a simultaneously live and live-broadcast show, happening on Fridays from 1 - 2:30pm on the new Pavilion stage. This week it poured with rain! The SCCA generously lent the Manson’s Hall deck so we could all stay dry and cozy. Host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by Owy...

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - A couple of weeks ago, Cortes Currents ran a story about an emergency preparedness workshop offered on Cortes Island by SRD staffer Sarah Rosen. In the course of that workshop, volunteer firefighter Mike Brown and Fire Chief Eli McKenty made some comments about wildfire risk on the island, which they saw as the biggest potential emergency islanders face. In early July,...

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Thanks for joining us on July 10, 2026 for another week of the Village Commons Music Series, a simultaneously live and live-broadcast show, happening on Fridays from 1 - 2:30pm on the new Pavilion stage. Host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by Ann Vriend (AV) from Edmonton. The Village Commons Music Series is produced by Jemma Hicken, Sean Coyote, and Bryan McK...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There are a lot of would-be customers who were not connected to CityWest for various reasons. In Tiber Bay and Red Granite Road, for example, the problem was allegedly that the route was across solid rock. I do not know why some of the customers in the southern tip of Cortes (like Siskin Lane and South Point Road) were not connected, only that there were a large numb...

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - And the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition by three local artists: Melanie Boyle, Karen McDarmid, and Jane Newman. They have just opened a joint show called The Shape of Solace. It opened a few days ago, drawing a crowd of over 100 people, and will continue through July twenty-sixth. Gallery hours are Fridays from six to nine PM and Saturday...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - I was the only male among eighteen female writers at a retreat called Tapping the Stream. One of the things that set this program apart was the relaxed atmosphere in which widely recognized writers mixed with would-be authors. Personally, I might have totally frozen up had I known more about the company I was with. (That came as a series of surprises, which continues...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - While lineups appear to have virtually disappeared since Island Nagalis took over the BC Ferries Cortes–Quadra run, there are often three-ferry waits at midday for people sailing between Quadra Island and Campbell River.

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - The new West Coast Pipeline will closely follow the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) route. BC has been promised billions of dollars through a new prosperity agreement, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has stepped back from Canada’s emissions targets because they are too divisive. In this morning’s broadcast, two experts provide their insights into these matters...