The Week: Local virus super-spreader event avoided! Comox doc wants Island bubble

The Week: Local virus super-spreader event avoided! Comox doc wants Island bubble

by | Nov 12, 2020

Coronavirus or holiday lights? Upcoming holidays will test our resolve  |  George Le Masurier photo

The Week: Local virus super-spreader event avoided! Comox doc wants Island bubble

By

Just when you thought the COVID virus pandemic couldn’t consume more of your life, this week happened. Infections surged around the world. Metro Vancouver became a Canadian hotspot along with Quebec and Ontario.

Right here at home, a Comox doctor and a Victoria newspaper called for a bubble around Vancouver Island to maintain our relatively virus-safe environment.

But, did you know that the Comox Valley narrowly avoided becoming the epicentre of a COVID virus super-spreader event? Probably not, and for that you can thank the quick action of North Island Medical Health Officer Dr. Charmaine Enns and her team.

The Comox Valley Economic Development Society recently put up a public website inviting people to purchase tickets to a three-day Seafood Festival Nov. 20-22 at Crown Isle Resort in Courtenay.

And the website touted its line-up of featured chefs, many of whom would be coming from the Lower Mainland.

The website promotion was oblivious to BC Medical Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry recently imposed special restrictions on the Lower Mainland due to a surge in new infections centered in the Metro Vancouver area. Her new advisory strongly suggested against all non-essential travel in or out of the region.

Chefs coming from a high infection area to prepare food for guests — who might also be coming from off-island — should have raised red flags for somebody.

When Decafnation contacted the North Island public health office on Monday, Nov. 9, we discovered that the festival organizers had not reached out to ensure they were complying with the current public health orders.

But Dr. Enns put her team to work. Within hours we received a response from Charlene MacKinnon, Senior Environmental Health Officer.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention, our team is not aware of the event. We are currently in the process of looking into the matter,” MacKinnon wrote to Decafnation. “As Dr. Enns mentioned we will make sure that the event meets the current orders and health recommendations.”

By late Tuesday, the Economic Development Society had changed their website. It now promises to feature only Vancouver Island chefs, although it makes no mention of refusing attendance to off-Island people.

However, the website continues to promote the appearance of Patrick McMurray, a world champion oyster shucker from Toronto, Ontario, where new COVID cases hit 1,575 on Nov. 12, a single-day record high for the third day in a row.

Neither Deana Simpkin, chair of the society’s board of directors, or Executive Director John Watson, responded to multiple requests for comments on the festival’s planning. It usually takes place in mid-summer.

Who knows what might have happened if public health officials hadn’t stepped in. It might have been fine, or it could have been a disaster. But it shows how we all need to be vigilant in our lives and businesses because one careless moment, one irresponsible act could affect thousands of other people.

 

CITY COUNCIL SPEAKS, BUT NOT THE MAYOR

Decafnation also reached out to several Courtenay City Councillors to gauge their perspective on the potential virus-spreading event in their city.

Melanie McCollum, who sits on the Economic Development Society board of directors, said she only found out about the event from a hotel manager two weeks ago.

“I fail to see the logic of proceeding with this event, but I can assure you that input from the CVEDS board has not been part of the process of moving forward,” she told Decafnation. “I don’t know who this event is being marketed to, or how many people they are hoping will attend. I don’t understand the rationale for going ahead.”

Doug Hillian pointed out that neither the city or the regional district has been asked to support or endorse the festival.

“While I would see such an event as questionable in current circumstances and would not attend myself, it appears to have been framed as a series of dining experiences with restaurant-specific safety plans in place,” he said. “You may be aware that the Fall Fair operated this past summer with reduced numbers as per health guidelines and with regional district support.”

Wendy Morin has previously voiced disagreement about holding the Seafood Festival during the pandemic.

“I think this is the wrong time to be having the Seafood Festival, even with adaptations for smaller numbers. I have concerns generally about promoting visitors to come here this winter,” she said. “Apparently there is a campaign going on inviting snowbirds. Other communities that rely on tourism such as Ucluelet and Tofino are telling visitors to cancel accommodation reservations. It is the responsible thing to do, especially with our soaring Covid cases recently.”

Mayor Bob Wells said he wasn’t aware of the event when first contacted by Decafnation, but has not offered a comment.

 

BUILD A COVID WALL, ER, BUBBLE

Should Vancouver Island put up a COVID-wall, figuratively speaking? A Comox doctor thinks so.

Dr. Alex Nataros, with the Port Augusta Family Practice, has suggested creating a bubble around Vancouver Island to protect our low COVID infection rate. In a letter to Dr. Charmaine Enns, Nataros writes:

“In light of markedly increased rates of COVID-19 … in the Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health regions, which stand in stark contrast with the low rates we have preserved in the Island Health region, as well as clear violations of Public Health guidelines including well documented Oct. 31, 2020 public celebrations in downtown Vancouver, I would respectfully ask that, as our North Island Medical Health Officer, you consider advocating for an Island Health regional COVID-19 ‘bubble.’

“As PHO Dr. Bonnie Henry announced … you now have the scope and authority for more region-specific guidelines. I hope that you and our Public Health officers continue your excellent work to date, and move forward with the leadership our region needs.”

Thinking along those same lines, the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper said this in a recent editorial:

“Local hospitality associations like Tourism Vancouver Island are encouraging Canadians from across the country to visit Vancouver Island this winter. The British Columbia Hotel Association likewise is inviting snowbirds to vacation here instead of heading south …

“Beyond our climate, the unspoken part of the tourist industry’s campaign is apparent: Come here to escape the epidemic. Surely this is not a message we should be comfortable with … As winter approaches, with the threat of a flu season pending, that job is only half done … Permitting an influx of holiday-makers from across Canada at this time, with no controls or protocols that would limit spread of the virus, cannot be in our best interests.”

We concur with both of those sentiments. And keep your oyster chefs in Vancouver.

 

THE BRILLIANCE OF ANTI-MASKERS

Finally, we’ll end with a COVID story you won’t believe. And we are not making this up.

New Westminster police have charged Mak Parhar, a 47-year-old BC resident, under the Quarantine Act for repeated violations; specifically, three counts of failing to self-isolate for 14 days upon returning to Canada.

Parhar, a well-known BC anti-mask proponent, was arrested when he returned from South Carolina, where he had attended a flat earth conference.

This article’s reference to Courtenay Mayor Bob Wells was updated Friday morning.

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Rob Thompson: SD 71 trustee candidate looks at the future of education post-pandemic

Rob Thompson: SD 71 trustee candidate looks at the future of education post-pandemic

by | Nov 11, 2020

Rob Thompson, candidate for the Area C position on the Comox Valley School Board  |  Submitted photo

Rob Thompson: SD 71 trustee candidate looks at the future of education post-pandemic

By

BY ROB THOMPSON

At this stage, we should be preparing for worst-case scenario. Covid-Coronavirus is showing no signs of dissipating soon. The remainder of this item is offered with absolute respect and is in no way intended to make light of the situation. People are passing away from this disease.

That said, the pandemic eventually will loosen its grasp on our lives and our economy, and we will have fiscal liabilities remaining at every level of government – Federal, Provincial, Municipal. One way of offsetting at least some of these deficits will be to use the most cost-effective methods for the delivery of services.

Online-virtual education at Kindergarten-Grade 12 level seems set to be one of these cost-effective services.

I did an MA in Leadership at Royal Roads on the cusp of this century, completing a thesis in implementing online education (k-12). I was then hired by RRU to, over the next decade-plus. instruct cohorts of administrators, both domestic and international, in which technologies-programs at the time best suited K-12 learners – and to instruct teachers, both domestic and international, in how best to utilize the technologies selected to engage K-12 learners to maximum effect.

My situation was therefore balanced positively, as I was working with K-12 administrators and teachers at the same time I was working with secondary school students themselves day-to-day.

I am in the process of completing my Education Doctorate, with a thesis on the topic of what K-12 learners in this current (2020) decade bring to the table in terms of preferences, skills, knowledge and attributes. The majority proportion of these students seem well prepared to maximize their learning in online-virtual environments, quite possibly reducing the need for as many face-to-face learning sessions and therefore reducing the need for as many face-to-face spaces.

I don’t claim to know everything about these complex areas of education.

Nor do I know everything about every one of the learners in the K-12 pipeline. They are your daughters and your sons: you know them better than anyone. So we will need you to step up and engage in the conversation. If elected as a Trustee for SD71, I will invite you to participate in this conversation.

There is nothing to say there is not a ‘sweet spot’ (a mix of online-virtual and face-to-face learning experiences) that extends each child’s learning to the maximum possible for that child.

With that in mind, space is space. Space can be used by any number of processes. Down island, the kilns of a no longer functioning mill have been converted to both work and office spaces for small businesses. Imagine a scenario where fewer face-to-face learning experiences mean consolidation of existing ‘schools’ into fewer buildings – leaving the remaining buildings for, well, housing, or offices, or other necessary, potential revenue-creating activities.

Education for every child remains my priority – and my focus should I be elected Trustee.

That includes the possibilities that might become available for our indigenous children. Imagine the possibilities of an indigenous child from our community joining an online-virtual environment shared by other indigenous children located internationally, with all of that access to countless centuries of ‘ways of knowing’ and techniques of knowledge dissemination.

All of this is possible. Vote for me, and let’s fire up the conversation.

 

AREA C VOTERS TO ELECT NEW SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE

Due to the resignation of the formerly elected Area C representative, voters will go to the polls on Saturday, Dec. 12 to choose a new school board trustee. The six candidates are:

Randi Baldwin, Kandice Bielert, Monica Parkin, Terence Pruden, Cristi May Sacht and Robert Thompson.

All candidates are welcome to submit articles for publication on this website.

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Seniors advocates call for longer and more frequent visits to care homes

Seniors advocates call for longer and more frequent visits to care homes

by | Nov 9, 2020

Decafnation file photo

Seniors advocates call for longer and more frequent visits to care homes

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The COVID virus has negatively impacted many lives, from those out of work to parents struggling to find child care when schools were closed to business owners who shuttered their doors. But none more than our seniors who have been locked away in assisted living and long-term care facilities.

And while the pandemic’s mortality rate has been higher among seniors than other age groups, life and death have not been their only struggle.

Over the last nine months, 151 seniors in British Columbia died from the COVID virus, but 4,500 seniors also died from other causes. And almost all of them died alone.

MP Rachel Blaney

In an online meeting, last week about seniors advocacy arranged and hosted by North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney, more than 80 participants heard BC Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie call to lift the restrictions that have prevented family member visitations.

“You have to ask, what is the purpose here?” Mackenzie said.

In a report also released last week, Mackenzie said that a survey of 13,000 care facility residents about their experiences during the pandemic showed seniors would have preferred to see their families and taken the risk of contracting the virus.

Before the pandemic, most seniors were visited by family members for an hour or more several times per week and some daily. These family visitors performed essential care for residents, such as grooming, assistance with feeding and staying mobile.

But that all came to a halt as the virus spread quickly through long-term care and assisted living facilities in the early stages of the pandemic. During the first four months, family members could not visit their loved ones at all.

Under current visitation policies, the majority of family visits are only once a week or less, and more than half are for less than 30 minutes. And recreation activities at the homes had also ground to a halt and even now remain limited.

“When we initiated visit restrictions back in March, most of us, myself included, supported the measure,” Mackenzie said about her survey and report. “However, I did not foresee that nine months later we would be where we are today, with prolonged separations for some family members and only brief impersonal visits for many more.”

Mackenzie said the restrictions have created a nine-month suspension of individual liberties.

But she and Laura Tamblyn Watts, the CEO of Canage, a national seniors advocacy organization, also noted that the measures taken by BC Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry in early March improved the province’s outcomes, which they agreed were the best in Canada. Ontario and Quebec had 10-times the infection and death rate as BC.

 

NATIONAL STANDARDS NEEDED

Noting that BC had the best response to COVID, MP Blaney said that shows that Canada needs a national strategy for seniors.

Blaney worked on a 2018 committee report as the NDP Critic for Seniors Issues at the time that made 29 recommendations, including reviewing Guaranteed Income Supplement rates and creating a National Seniors Strategy, most of which have not been acted upon by the federal government.

“Recognizing that the provinces and territories are responsible for delivering many aspects of support and care for seniors, a properly resourced National Seniors Strategy would provide national standards, and a platform for sharing best-practices,” she told Decafnation after the online meeting. “We know we have an ageing population. It’s crazy that we don’t have a national plan and vision for providing our seniors with the dignity and care we all deserve.”

Seniors Advocate Mackenzie said the federal government has to champion a Canada-wide coordinated approach. She said other countries with a system similar to ours, such as Australia, have a strong national regulator.

Mackenzie suggested that governments could attach strings to seniors program funding as an incentive for the owners of private care homes to “do the right things”

“It’s the way we fund them (that’s the problem),” she said. “We should say, spend these dollars on X and spend these dollars on Y, instead of handing them an envelope of money.”

For example, Mackenzie said, some funding should be specified to pay the care staff more, not just to hire more staff.

A wide variety of other topics were covered during the two-hour meeting, most of which have been discussed previously.

“We have a growing population of seniors across Canada, but especially in our riding,” Blaney told Decafnation. “In 2017, I did a series of town halls around our riding to hear from seniors and many of the issues they raised are the same ones that are getting national attention now because of the pandemic.

“As we heard (during the online meeting), some great work is being done to show a path forward. Now we need to follow it.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

SURVEY SHOWS SENIORS NEED MORE VISITS

Before the pandemic, 55% of families were visiting long-term care and assisted living residents for an hour or more several times per week and even daily;

Prior to COVID-19, the majority of visitors were performing essential care for residents, such as personal care, grooming, assistance with feeding and mobilization;

Most family members were not aware of the possibility of essential visits during the first four months of visit restrictions, and almost half of the people who did apply for an essential visit were refused;

Under the current visitation policy, the majority of visits are only once a week or less, and half the visits in long-term care are 30 minutes or less;

30% of current visits are outside only;

Currently, 65% of visits are observed by staff for some or all of the time;

Only 21% of visits are in the privacy of the resident’s room (75% of long-term care residents and almost 100% of assisted living residents live in private rooms);

70% of visitors are not allowed to touch their loved one;

Most visitors are washing their hands, wearing a mask, having their temperature checked, and answering health questions prior to each visit; and

Most family members and residents support some visit restrictions during the pandemic, although they believe visits should be more frequent and that at least one more visitor for each resident should be permitted.

— BC Seniors Advocate office

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Obituary: Fr. Charles Brandt, first Catholic hermit priest in several hundred years

Obituary: Fr. Charles Brandt, first Catholic hermit priest in several hundred years

by | Oct 30, 2020

Fr. Charles in his studio at The Hermitage  |  George Le Masurier photo

Obituary: Fr. Charles Brandt, first Catholic hermit priest in several hundred years

By
Written by Bruce Witzel

Rev. Charles Brandt noted conservationist, hermit monk, and priest of the Diocese of Victoria, died in the early hours of Sunday, October 25. A spiritual guide and inspiration to many beyond the Catholic Church, Charles was in the North Island Hospital in Comox Valley at the time of his death from pneumonia. He was in his 97th year.

Father Brandt lived for nearly five decades at his forested hermitage next to Oyster River. In 2019, those 27 acres were put into a permanent land conservancy and Charles has bequeathed the property to the Comox Valley Regional District for use as a public park. An active contemplative person of prayer who has concern for the Sacred Commons will live in the hermitage to follow in Charles’ footsteps.

Brandt was the sole surviving member of a unique hermit community originally established in 1964 near the Tsolum River in Merville, B.C. Bishop Remi De Roo ordained Brandt in 1966 as the first hermit priest in several hundred years within the Roman Catholic Church. This
eremitical tradition had fallen into disuse in western churches after the Reformation and was reconstituted through later reforms of the Second Vatican Council 1962-65, in which a young Remi De Roo participated.

Brandt was in communication with world-famous Trappist monk and author, Thomas Merton, about joining the community on Vancouver Island in 1968 at the time of Merton's death. Brandt had originally entered monastic life as a Trappist at New Melleray, Iowa.

Brandt earned his keep as an art and paper conservationist by setting up a special lab at his hermitage. He gained world renown for restoring many historical books like The Nuremberg Chronicles printed in 1493, many older bibles, and one of the original books of The Audubon Series.

He taught Christian meditation practice at the hermitage and led other retreats, inspiring many people over the decades. He occasionally filled in as a parish priest in The Comox Valley and Campbell River. 

Father Brandt rose at 3 AM to meditate, read psalms and practice daily liturgy. During early hours, he often meandered into nature to observe birds and wildlife and to take photographs. In his book Self and Environment, he describes this walking meditation as a time when “Every atom of my being is present to every atom in the universe, and they to it.”

In later years, Brandt was much celebrated in public ways which included media profiles and reports on his pioneer environmental work. He is credited with heading up the effort that saved the Tsolum River from industrial degradation.

His stature as a spiritual teacher as well as his whole legendary reputation as someone who integrated spirituality with ecology will live on after him in the lives and efforts of the many people he directly inspired.

Fr. Charles is survived by his sister-in-law, Wanda Brandt, and numerous nephews, nieces and their children and grandchildren in the Kansas City area and around the United States. He was predeceased by his parents, Anna (nee Bridges) and Alvin Brandt, brothers Frank and Chet, and sisters Frances, Mary and Ella.

Donations in remembrance of Charles can be made to St. Andrews Cathedral in Victoria, the Tsolum River Restoration Society, Comox Valley Nature Society, the Oyster River Enhancement Society or the Brandt Oyster River Hermitage Society.

FURTHER READING: A Long and Winding Journey

 

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Comox Valley hears “Voices from the Sacrifice Zone’

By Gavin MacRae was a long rap sheet, but speakers from the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment detailed the dangers of fracking to people in the Peace region of BC, this Sunday at the Florence Filberg...

Five anti-fracking activists speak at CV forum

Anti-fracking activists tell Comox Valley audience that the LNG life cycle is worse for the environment than coal, and that BC project serve only export markets that soon may not exist

DFO allows herring fishery, despite wide protest

Conservancy Hornby Island has criticized a decision by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to allow the March herring fishery to go ahead. It undercuts efforts to protect Killer Whales and chinook salmon stocks.

Strathcona groundwater motion headed to AVICC vote

The Strathcona Regional District has asked the province to cease licensing groundwater for commercial water bottling and bulk water exports. It hopes all municipalities in BC will join the movement.

The Week: Readers alarmed by reduced North Island hospital services send our stories viral

The Week: Readers alarmed by reduced North Island hospital services send our stories viral

by | Oct 28, 2020

An orange day-lily (Latin name: hemerocallis fulva)  |  George Le Masurier photo

The Week: Readers alarmed by reduced North Island hospital services send our stories viral

By

Decafnation readers sent last week’s articles viral about the resignation of the Comox Valley Hospital’s remaining two pathologists and the troubling story of Shirley Brown, whose cancer diagnosis was delayed almost two months because of the shortage of pathologists at the Campbell River Hospital.

And it would have been even longer except that Shirley’s husband is Dr. Paul Brown, a 40-year physician who knew the system and who to call.

As Shirley’s story showed, it’s not just that long periods of uncertainty cause unnecessary anxiety and stress, although that’s bad enough, but delays can cause significant unfavourable modification in how doctors are able to treat their patients.

There is no doubt that a shortage of healthcare services available on the North Island can and will have tragic consequences.

People all over Vancouver Island are reading these stories because they realize that what happened to Shirley Brown could also happen to them. And that sad scenario becomes more likely as Island Health continues to take health care services from our hospitals and give them to private doctor corporations in Victoria.

Now that the NDP appears to have won a majority government, will our two North Island MLAs have the decency (backbone?) to intervene on behalf of their constituents?

— This week’s top story reports on a recent two-day workshop where regional district directors initiated discussions about the future of the Comox Valley Economic Development Society. Although directors haven’t yet taken an official vote to start exploring other — read: better — options, this movement is long overdue.

Part of the problem is evident in the list of economic strategies that regional directors want CVEDS to consider for their 2021 work plan. The list includes topics such as child care, arts and culture, the green retrofit industry, communal workspaces and more.

For too long, social and environmental values have been foreign to the old CVEDS mindset.

The shift in emphasis has upset many of the CVEDS own board of directors and especially because the regional directors have taken such an active role in setting CVEDS priorities. Three CVEDS directors have resigned recently — Bruce Turner, Justin Rigsby and Brian Yip.

But the CVRD has always had the contractual authority to set CVEDS’ priorities and direct its work plan. Previous regional directors just never chose to exercise it.

Perhaps if the CVRD had provided more meaningful oversight a long time ago, and if the CVEDS board had been more in tune with shifting community values, and if the staff had not soured some relationships within various business sectors, then maybe the political rancour over reforming the organization might not have needed to reach this point.

— Not had enough politics? How about throwing your hat in the ring for the Comox Valley school board? There’s a position open in Electoral Area C after Ian Hargreaves recently resigned in a huff.

You have until Nov. 6 to pick up a nomination package at the school board offices in Courtenay.

— Did British Columbia voters really elect an NDP majority government? The election night tally seems to indicate so, and everyone assumes the mail-in ballots will follow that trend.

But there are 11,500 uncounted mail-ballots in the Courtenay-Comox riding and the NDP leads the BC Liberals by about 3,000. That feels like an insurmountable margin. But it’s not yet guaranteed.

Decafnation asked a few people how they saw the preliminary results. We pointed out that the NDP appears to have gained an additional 10 percent of the total vote in the Courtenay-Comox riding, while the BC Liberals lost about six percent and the Greens gained about three percent.

BC Liberal Party candidate Brennan Day hinted that he would have a lot to say about the general tone of this campaign from Vancouver. But he was “going to reserve comment until the votes are counted.”

Dave Mills, the manager of organizing programs at the Dogwood Initiative, believes that COVID dominated voters’ perspectives. “It governed … the perception of what issues generally are most important – how the pandemic is managed.”

Mills thinks that the voters who had the capacity and felt confident enough to turn out at the polls on Election Day would be the same people “who appreciate Horgan’s centrist vision.”

Delores Broten, editor and publisher of The Watershed Sentinel, said she was waiting for the final count, “but overall, I think Bonnie Henry just got elected.”

And she credited the local Green Party for the scramble they went through to do as well as they did in a month. Candidate Gillian Anderson wasn’t even nominated until a week into the short campaign.

“So if I were the greens I would not be disappointed,” she said. “Maybe also ask the question the other way around: What happened to crushing the Greens so they would lose all their seats and just go away? They came second in several ridings which I don’t think has happened before.”

— Speaking of Dr. Bonnie Henry, we’re thankful for the new guidelines to keep household gatherings down to a Safe Six, and that she expects people to wear masks in all public places. Henry stopped short of making mask-wearing a mandate. But based on our local experience, it might become necessary.

Every day, we see people in stores without masks. Just this week, the front door greeter at a prominent grocery store in the Comox business district offered a mask to a male shopper. He not only refused but did so emphatically.

— Finally, a Decafnation reader wrote to us about the large, beautiful Brugmansia suaveolens plant displayed at the main Comox intersection.

“One reason the plant is banned (in many cities) is because, in small amounts, it’s hallucinogenic(!) – that is, people are reckless enough to eat it to try to get high. Perhaps wise not to mention that and encourage anyone!”

Holy Moly, if we let that get out, all the stoners from Eastern Canada will be camping on Comox Avenue in their VW buses. Shades of The Great Mushroom Rush of 1985 on Headquarters Road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PANDEMIC GUIDELINES

While physical distancing isn’t required within your household or your “safe six,” the B.C. Centre for Disease Control has guidelines to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19:

General

Keep a safe physical distance.
Gather in well-ventilated areas.
Clean surfaces that people often touch. 
Wash hands frequently and do not touch your face.
Limit time together indoors.
Go outdoors as much as possible.
Do not serve food buffet style.
Masks

Dr. Bonnie Henry has made no recommendation about the use of masks at private gatherings. 
But she said this week that she expects people towear masks in all indoor public places.

 

 

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LATEST UPDATE: Father Charles Brandt funeral service this Friday in Campbell River

LATEST UPDATE: Father Charles Brandt funeral service this Friday in Campbell River

by | Oct 26, 2020

Father Charles Brandt in January of 2019 at The Hermitage. Photo was taken just weeks before his 97th birthday.  |  George Le Masurier photo

LATEST UPDATE: Father Charles Brandt funeral service this Friday in Campbell River

By

Father Charles Brandt, who lived as a hermit on a 27-acre property along the Oyster River, died early Sunday morning. He was 97.

The funeral mass for Fr. Charles will be at noon this Friday, Oct. 30 at St Patrick’s church in Campbell River.

The worship space accommodates 50 people only as they seat folks with the appropriate spacing. The service may be streamed to the large room downstairs, again with social distancing in place. Attendance will be by reservation only by callingl the church office 250-287-3498. They will need contact info with name, address, phone and email.

Fr. Charles has lived on the property since 1970. He had recently finalized a conservation covenant with the Comox Valley Land Trust and the Comox Valley Regional District that will forever protect the land from development.

You can read more about Fr. Charles in this Decafnation story published on Jan. 31, 2019.

Father Charles Brandt: a long and winding journey 

A long-time friend of Fr. Charles, Bruce Witzel of Victoria Lake near Port Alice, has posted two video links on his blog, including an interview with Fr. Charles about his life.

Witzel grew up in the Comox Valley. His father was Mac Witzel who was one of the first Catholics to welcome and assist Charles when he moved to the Valley.

The shoes of the fisherman: Requiescat in pacem, Fr. Charles Brandt

This article has been updated many times to add more information as it became available, and also to correct the year when Fr. Charles moved onto the Oyster River property from 1965 to 1970. We have changed Alice Arm, to Port Alice to more accurately depict Bruce Witzel residence.

 

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Comox Valley local government elections ramping up for Oct. 15 vote

Comox Valley voters will elect new councilors, mayors, regional district representatives, school board members and Island Trust reps on Oct. 15. Find out who’s running for what … and why. Decafnation returns to shine more light on local government issues and candidates