Made-in-Nanaimo approach frames busking as a downtown safety and security issue
Arts and culture…or safety and security? Nanaimo’s Street Entertainer’s Bylaw was enacted in 2003 to control altercations between panhandlers and street entertainers. Now, a review of that bylaw will be undertaken by the Safer Nanaimo Working Group. Over the past year, entertainers have called for a relaxation of the bylaw and some buskers disagree with the bylaw being reviewed by the Safer Nanaimo Working Group…preferring the activity be seen from the perspective of arts and culture. [source: Nanaimo News Bulletin] (more…)
ACTing on Social Accessibility: A Community Forum will be presented on May 5, at Theatre BC’s Nanaimo Centre Stage. The event is a partnership between Vancouver Island University, the Theatre Department’s Satyr Players Club, and Theatre BC.
Ladysmith artist Luke Marston has created a symbol of truth and healing—a sacred Bentwood Box to be used at the seven national events of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“Canadians are waking up from our long political slumber to realize that there will not be change unless we insist upon it. We have a presidential-style prime minister without the checks and balances of either the US or the Canadian systems. Attack ads run constantly, backbenchers and cabinet ministers alike are muzzled, committees are deadlocked, and civility has disappeared from the House of Commons. In Losing Confidence, Elizabeth May outlines these and other problems of our political system, and offers inspiring solutions to the dilemmas we face.” [Source: mcclelland.com] Losing Confidence is a ringing manifesto for change from the leader of Canada’s Green Party. 
Pat Deegan is a clinical psychologist and also a psychiatric survivor, having first been diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager. During her journey to recovery, she coined the term “personal medicine” which she defines as “the things that give life meaning and make life worth living.”
