Coastal erosion is unearthing ancestral bones on this B.C. Gulf Island
Coastal erosion is unearthing ancestral bones on this B.C. Gulf Island
A walk past a cemetery can conjure many emotions – sadness, fear and finality. But rarely does it conjure the idea of actually seeing a deceased loved one again.
On British Columbia's Gabriola Island, however, coastal erosion is unearthing more than just memories.
"I come here and I go, 'What am I going to do about this?' says Jared Hooper, chair of the Gabriola Cemetery Commission.
The cemetery sits atop of a 10-metre cliff on South Road and faces Mudge Island to the west. The land was donated in 1882 by Magnus Edgar, an early settler who is also buried there along with his family.
"It’s a lovely peaceful cemetery,” he says. "Except for the problems we are having with bank slipping away."
Hooper's job is to watch over the island's only cemetery – a cemetery that's slowly sliding off a cliff and into the ocean.
"You can't stop it," he says. "You might as well let nature take its course."
Some of the island's earliest pioneers are buried on the bluff, with graves dating back to 1882.
Approximately 15 of those settlers are buried on what's called a midden, a refuse dump for domestic waste that was used by Snuneymuxw inhabitants centuries ago.
“That midden is full of broken clam shells and artifacts,” Hooper adds.
Geologists have told the cemetery that the lower area of the cemetery near the water is much softer because of the midden.
"It’s sliding seaward over harder layers lower down that go right down to the beach," says Hooper.
With the bank eroding by about 20 to 25 centimetres per year, and the caskets long since decomposed, the problem calls for some out-of-the-box thinking.
"I've got that wire basket hanging over the edge so they don't just fall down to the beach," Hooper says. "You can throw a million dollars at it and it’ll fall down in a number of years."
Leg bones exposed on a bluff on Gabriola Island, B.C. (CTV News)
He's slowly collecting the bones until full skeletons can be relocated up the hill and these unsettled settlers can settle once again.
"These bones, they are going to be coming out of the bank for who knows, 20, 30, 40 more years?"
Hooper has connected with some of the living relatives of the settlers buried on the island and they are OK with relocating the remains once the time comes, he says.
For those plotting their own burials on the island, there's still plenty of room in the back, Hooper says.
"We've got lots of room left for cremations – maybe 100 spots or more."
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in CTV W5's 'What Happened to Ben,' on CTVNews.ca and W5's official YouTube channel.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump's calls for protests ahead of his anticipated indictment in New York have generated mostly muted reactions from supporters, with even some of his most ardent loyalists dismissing the idea as a waste of time or a law enforcement trap.
In an effort to keep the foreign interference story at the forefront, and to do an apparent endrun around the Liberal filibuster blocking one study from going ahead, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is forcing MPs to debate and then vote on a motion instructing an opposition-dominated House committee to strike its own review.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
Some of the world's largest central banks came together on Sunday to stop a banking crisis from spreading as Swiss authorities persuaded UBS Group AG to buy rival Credit Suisse Group AG in a historic deal.
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to meet with Vladimir Putin in a political boost for the isolated Russian president after the International Criminal Court charged him with war crimes in Ukraine.
Vancouver firefighters were called to the Downtown Eastside Sunday evening after a fire destroyed multiple tents in an encampment and spread to a building near Main and East Hastings streets.
An international student was swarmed and beaten by a group of people who ripped off his turban and dragged him across the sidewalk by his hair in Kelowna, B.C., Friday evening, according to a local politician.
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
Ontario employers who withhold foreign workers’ passports or work permits could face steeper penalties under new labour laws, with maximum fines setting them back up to $200,000.
March 20 marks the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere, and, after a long, grey winter, Torontonians can soon look forward to warmer temperatures and sunnier days.
The Town of Strathmore and Siksika Nation hosted the first Lead By Example Powwow this weekend in honour of a young Indigenous man who was shot to death four years ago.
Autopsies confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death for two constables responding to a domestic dispute Thursday, the Edmonton Police Service says.
Officials are still looking for victims after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last week, killing at least one person. At a press conference Monday morning, spokespersons for the Montreal police and Montreal fire department said six people are still missing. They come from various locations in Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.
Quebec provincial police (SQ) announced Monday morning that a third person has died in connection with the tragedy in Amqui, in the Lower St. Lawrence region, where a driver drove his pickup truck into pedestrians a week ago.
The University of Prince Edward Island Faculty Association says its staff has gone on strike after what it says are failed attempts to enter additional negotiations with the university's administration.
The student union president at Cape Breton University said food insecurity has become a concern for many students and the on-campus food bank cannot keep up with demand.
One person has been confirmed dead and six people remain missing as police continue to search for victims after a fire swept through a building in Old Montreal on Thursday.
A community is in mourning after a 10-year-old girl was killed earlier this week when flames tore through her family’s camping trailer southeast of Brantford.
St. Patrick's day street parties in Waterloo, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau making an announcement in Guelph, and a woman charged with defrauding doulas round out the most-read stories of the week.
Travel nurses go from place to place, all over the world, filling in wherever help is needed. To assist with current shortages, some are in Saskatchewan.
Pile O Bones hosted their 18th annual tattoo convention at the Turvey Centre on the weekend where artists from around the country were able to highlight their talent.
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
An Ontario woman has launched a lawsuit seeking $500,000 from Tim Hortons after she suffered major burns from an alleged ‘superheated’ tea. The company has denied all allegations and said she was ‘the author of her own misfortune.'
Leg bones exposed on a bluff on Gabriola Island, B.C. (CTV News)
