Local

Big Brothers Big Sisters Big Squeeze Event!

When life gives you lemons, you drink lemonade!

Big Brothers Big Sisters is hosting their Big Squeeze event on Wednesday July 26th between 10AM and 2PM. Local businesses and restaurants will be competing to see who has the best lemonade and raise funds to support Big Brothers Big Sisters! Whoever sells the most lemonade in the 4 hour timeframe will be crowned “The Big Squeeze”!

For a full list of participating businesses and restaurants, or if you have a business and want to get involved, visit: https://www.bigsnbc.ca/bigsqueeze

Event - Opera Returns to Prince George with Fraser Lyric Opera!

The art of opera returns to Prince George with a performance called Divas and Divos by Fraser Lyric Opera! This will be their first performance back since 2019! Featuring Fraser Lyric Opera’s artistic producer Melanie Nicol as mezzo-soprano, Jason Cook (who performed with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra in November) as a baritone, along with a group of local students who completed a week long opera camp.

The performance takes place this Saturday July 15th at 7PM at the Knox Performance Space. Tickets available at the door for $25.

For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/fraserlyricopera/

Event - Big Trees of the Inland Temperate Forests of BC

Prince George, BC - Join Conservation North on Wednesday, July 12th at 6:00 pm at the Omineca Arts Centre for an evening with Terry Nelson as he discusses his book Big Trees of the Inland Temperate Forests of British Columbia. 

 

“[Terry’s book] captures perfectly the otherworldly and humbling experience of sharing space with an organism that sprouted centuries before European colonizers reshaped North America. This book reminds us that the measure of our time will be what we choose to defend and leave behind for others.” 

  • Dave Quinn, Kootenay Mountain Culture 

 

Through photographs and writings, this book vividly captures Terry’s adventures into the upper reaches of the Robson Valley in the north, the Cascade Highlands in the west, the Rocky Mountains in the east, and along the Canadian border to the south. 

 

Terry’s work creates a broader public awareness of the importance of primary forests in producing the long-lived giants we all admire: “I hope that the resulting exposure will inspire a continued conservation ethos necessary to support these life sustaining ecological systems and the collective well being of all living things.”

 

Free finger food and refreshments will be provided. See you there!

Prime Time Entertainment PRO WRESTLING - This Weekend!

Primetime Wrestling is a new Northern BC Wrestling league. Stuart Brown and Davy Greenlees are behind the madness looking to bring body-slams into the local scene, AND for a cause!

Friday, March 17 and Saturday, March 18 at the House of Ancestors several matches will take place .

Entry fee (for each event) of a minimum $5 donation will go to the Prince George Crisis Intervention and Prevention Centre. They can be purchased either at the door or the Scrapbook Zone (in-person, or… by phone if you’re coming in from out of town (250) 562-9663)

Canadian Tire is a supporting sponsor making this event possible. DON’T MISS IT!

Doors at 6:45pm, Bell goes DING DING at 7:30pm!!!

Both male and female wrestlers will appear at the event including Northern BC’s The Mauler, Slammer, Wes Barker, Steve Stone, AND A WHOLE LOT MORE, including PG’s own…

PRINCESS DELTA DAWN

(Yes it’s true! And she’ll be available for autographs [eeeeeK])

Support this event to help out the Prince George Crisis Intervention and Prevention Centre and make it the first of many more to come!

Info credit PG Ctizen

Come Record at the CFUR Studio!

Calling all performers!

Are you in a band, have a song you wrote, or just want to hear the dulcet tones of your own voice in high quality? Of course you do- and CFUR has just the place for you to do it! CFUR Radio is offering to the public to use our Studio and equipment to meet your recording needs- Including soundproof room, professional grade microphones, on the spot sound mixing, and even video recording. So bring your instrument, voice, and other equipment needed to perform, and allow us to record it for you in high-def!

Costs are based on a sliding scale so that we can find a price that best suits your musical needs. Please contact programming@cfur.ca for more information on prices and the studio!

Note: No Velociraptors were harmed in the making of this video.

Music: Way to Go by Empire of the Sun

Apollo Suns and Dead Sexy - Performing at The Legion July 22nd at 9:00pm!

Do you like to groove? Do you like to move? Cause this music is unbelievably smooth. Apollo Suns will be performing at The Legion on July 22nd at 9:00pm, with Dead Sexy as the opening act of the night! Tickets are $25 at the door, or you can hop on over to MadLoon.ca for advanced tickets priced at just $20! Doors open at 8:30pm!

Footage shot by BNB Studios at The Park Theatre, 2019.

Come on down and have a rad night of awesome psychadelic jazz rock all the way from Winnipeg! And if you aren’t there, you’re just plain missin’ out, man…

Presented by CFUR Radio, Mad Loon, Creative BC, and the Province of British Columbia

Bringing You a SPOOKY Opportunity...

October 1st is officially the start of spooky season, and we here at CFUR are excited to celebrate! We also know that some of you were a bit bummed about missing out on our last prize draw. So, without further ado…

We are running another prize draw starting today, October 1st! You will have until noon on October 29th to enter and take a chance on winning some spooky new prizes! All you have to do is fill out our survey and enter your contact information at the end. Remember, we can’t tell which answer is attached to who, and if you don’t leave any contact information we won’t be able to contact you (duh!).

So, why not take five minutes out of your day to give us some feedback on our station and enter our new raffle? You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Click here or on the link below to take the survey and enter the raffle! We look forward to hearing from you!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYuJCy4JE9fJs2Shct3jX3vfoNBG05DWrMX_ykpNxNx4-rWw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Reconciliation at the Ballot Box in Cariboo-Prince George, a Letter by Tracy Calogheros

September 12, 2021

Reconciliation at the Ballot Box in Cariboo-Prince George

Tracy Calogheros – CEO The Exploration Place Museum + Science Centre

I was angry.  Really angry.  

“How” my internal voice screamed, “could Elections Canada possibly think that it was acceptable, let alone inclusive, to choose the Prince George Diocese as the headquarters and as a polling station, for thousands of people in the Riding of Cariboo-Prince George, in this federal election?!”  At THIS moment in time, in a riding with a significant Indigenous population, in an election that is supposed to be about bringing Canadians together and providing real opportunities for participation and growth as we try to climb out of this pandemic together, it felt like a slap in the face to every Indigenous person on the land.

As I am wont to do, I spoke up. Expressing my outrage and disgust was met with a variety of responses. As I watched the dumbfounded realization of what I was saying coming across people’s faces, good people, people I have known for decades, I realized that this is actually a spectacular teaching moment and that I was blowing it.  For all that I couldn’t believe it, this had truly, honestly, never occurred to them. So bear with me while I try to do a better job, a more useful and constructive job, on the subject.  

THIS IS A SPECTACULAR EXAMPLE OF SYSTEMIC RACISM IN ACTION and it really is invisible to the dominant society, even when they are on the lookout for it.

We are in this situation not because of any intent on the part of Elections Canada Officials.  Not because any one Party was seeking to disenfranchise the Indigenous population.  Not even because the Diocese was seeking to express any sort of control or influence (though the separation of Church and State is a topic for another time and is one upon which I most definitely have an opinion).  

It happened because there are virtually no Indigenous advisors or staff members informing this system and the chilling effect of being asked to walk through the doors of the organization that is the representative of so much harm to Indigenous people was simply not on the radar screen.  Elections Canada was dealing with a pandemic and a snap election call.  They needed space for people to be able to vote and the schools that normally serve as polling stations were closed due to Covid.  The Diocese had lots of space and was available.

But it is still SYSTEMIC RACISM. And it still causes profound, lasting harm.

Put yourself in the shoes of a young Lheidli T’enneh woman, a first-time voter who was looking for her first contact with Elections Canada.  She was excited to vote.  She had been researching candidates, following the election campaigns, and wanted to speak to someone in person to make sure she was registered and ready for voting day.  And then she is told she will have to come to the Diocese in order to participate.

What should have been an exciting rite of passage, an opportunity to engage in Civil Society and begin to find her own voice, became an exercise in personal compromise. Why should she trust that her vote and her voice meant anything in that space?  How could she believe that her views and her issues mattered to a government who is sending her to the Diocese? We are all lucky that she didn’t just write off non-Indigenous Canada and turn her back on a system that didn’t see her, or recognize her.  My deepest fear is that many, many others will simply shrug and walk away, convinced yet again that all the talk of Reconciliation is just that, talk, and that it obviously means nothing.

This is the danger and the damage of systemic racism.  It’s a difficult idea to understand if you are not one of the people being shut out. I thought I was pretty well-versed on the challenges around Reconciliation and the need to dismantle structures that originated in an era of institutionalized racism and yet here I am, coming to the realization that my own anger was causing harm to the effort.  The people I expressed my anger to were hurt.  People who are hurt get defensive and resentful and the initial harm becomes polarizing instead of being seen as the genuine mistake that it was, with a path forward that recognizes and corrects the error. 

For that I unreservedly apologize.  I will do better.  I’m learning too.

This is important because if we are ever to come together in the partnership that was envisioned by Indigenous Leaders at the times of initial contact, we must hear each other and consider each other.  We need the wisdom of Indigenous experience at our decision-making tables.   That can’t happen if even our elections feel unwelcoming, uncaring, and hypocritical. 

Reconciliation is ultimately about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, even (maybe especially) when it’s inconvenient or uncomfortable to do so.  It means pausing to consider your choices and your assumptions in order to determine if you are unknowingly causing harm.  And it’s about recognizing when you make a mistake, because we all do, and then working to rectify it while mitigating the harm it has done.  It is about friendship and trust and honesty and humility.  When Indigenous people say “All My Relations” they aren’t talking only about their families, they are talking about the Earth, the animals, the intangibles, the spirits, the elements and the non-indigenous people who are here as well.  

So, let’s circle back to the young Indigenous woman I started with. Her experience has now been that she identified a problem that mattered to her.  Her concerns were valid, and were validated, and she was assisted by Elections Canada to be able to participate in the election without having to go to the Diocese. She has been both seen and heard and will, perhaps, be more inclined to speak up in the future if she has a similar experience. In her case, I think this mistake may have empowered her a little and given her a little more trust in a system that has a long way to go.

But now, let’s think about the hundreds, thousands perhaps, of Indigenous people who will not speak up. Who will simply not vote and who will take this as such an affront, such an obvious confirmation of evil intent, that it will reinforce their distrust and further deepen the divide.

It’s important to also consider the non-Indigenous people who will see this as wrong and as an embarrassment, as confirmation that our government is out of touch with contemporary society and Canadian’s values, further disenfranchising them. Keep in mind, the mistake we are talking about is one that was passed through multiple hands and minds before we have gotten to today.  Many people saw contracts, ordered signage, sent mail and packages to the Diocese and yet, no one stopped, or even recognized, the mistake; a mistake that has happened in concert with non-Indigenous Canada’s awakening to the genocide, the horrors, the evil, visited on thousands of children by the Church and Canadian Government in Residential Schools. In Prince George the representative for all of that is the Diocese with Elections Canada standing in for the Government right there beside them. 

We need more understanding and participation in our electoral process not less.  We need more ways for Indigenous people to engage with non-Indigenous Canada on their own terms with dignity and respect.  My angry reaction didn’t help that cause this week but I’m trying to rectify that wrong now.

There is no question that Elections Canada should NEVER have rented the Diocese for anything. But I also believe it was a genuine mistake with no ill intent. Elections Canada needs to apologize, and if possible, ensure that everyone knows that there is an alternative available for this election. They need to provide a promise and a plan to ensure that this sort of mistake can never happen again.  They need to acknowledge the chilling effect that asking Indigenous people, to attend a church or a Diocese, in order to vote in a national (or any) election, has on voter participation.

For those Indigenous voters who are not comfortable with attending at the Diocese to vote, you can ask for an exception to be made that will allow you to vote at a different polling station. That exception is what this lovely young Lheidli woman asked for yesterday and the Elections Canada Poll Captain was wonderful and accommodating and went out of his way to reassure her and to make her feel welcome here at the Exploration Place polling station. 

We are all in this together.  We all need to recognize our blind spots, acknowledge our mistakes and be generous with those made by others.  We need to work together, to have every voice at the table if we expect to tackle the multiple, existential threats to humanity we are all faced with today.

And finally, the most important thing this week is that everyone votes. It really does matter and it really can change the world.

Tune in to CFUR's Newest Show!

CFURadio is proud to present our newest show: The Northern Exchange! Host Nadia Mansour will bring you all the local news you crave, all you have to do is tune in to 88.7fm (or the online livestream) every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am, or 7pm for the rebroadcast.

If you have a story you think is newsworthy, you can get in contact with Nadia through her facebook page (Nadia Mansour) or instagram (_nadiamansour).