VICTORIANEWS VICTORIA COMMUNITY
ARTS
Sendoff for Simon
Ceilidhs abound
Community wishes Victoria’s celebrated Olympic triathlete well before the 2012 Games. Page A3
This weekend’s CeltFest brings Irish-style musical entertainment to the streets and stage in Oak Bay. Page A15
Friday, July 13, 2012
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Songhees chief was committed to community Chief Robert Sam wanted the best for the people under his charge and care Daniel Palmer News staff
W
hen Chief Robert Sam walked into a room, everyone knew it was time to get down to business. “As soon as we saw him drive into the parking lot, someone would shout, ‘Chief’s coming!’ And we’d all scatter to our offices and make sure we were busy,” said Jackie Albany, director of operations for the Songhees Nation. Albany knew Sam as a great mentor and seasoned political negotiator, a man who drafted his own letters and never minced his words. “In negotiations, he just said what the Songhees community needed and that was it, there was no negotiating,” said Albany, who worked closely with Sam for more than two decades. Sam, 76, died on Monday morning at Victoria General Hospital after complications following a stroke. Among his many accomplishments was being the driving force behind federal government negotiations that advanced the Songhees to stage 4 of a complicated treaty process. He was also a founding member of the First Nations Finance Authority, a member of the Association of First Nation Chiefs Committee on Treaties and a board member of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority.
He developed bylaws for his community on property tax, fire protection services and negotiated an education agreement with the Greater Victoria School Board. But it is Sam’s character and deep commitment to the Songhees Nation that is most deeply File photo/Victoria News missed by the Greater Songhees Nation Chief Robert Sam, who died Monday Victoria community. at age 76, is remembered as a ‘tireless champion’ who “He scared the worked hard for his community. heck out of me, but his humour was unbelievably dry and Victoria mayor Alan Lowe, who forged wonderful and he always had a twinkle the first formal relationship with the in his eye,” Esquimalt Mayor Barb Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations Desjardins said at a council meeting on when he took office in 1999, by inviting Monday. both chiefs to city hall. Desjardins said Sam was a “(Chief Sam) said I was the first mayor progressive and tough negotiator who that invited him into my office to meet,” was passionately driven to build a Lowe said. sustainable future for his community. He recalled Sam’s sense of humour. “You always knew that he was going “One time we had a fun challenge to push you to your limits and you just where we would have a race in the always knew what he was thinking. He Inner Harbour. He brought his group of will be sorely missed.” paddlers in a canoe and I had a group of The municipal flags in Esquimalt and paddlers on a dragon boat. Victoria were lowered to half-mast on PLEASE SEE: Monday to commemorate Sam. Chief leaves, Memorial service, Page A10 “We are all heartbroken,” said former
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Terry Wilson, Fernwood’s ‘Bubble Man,’ made it onto the New York Times’ website’s travel section this week.
Funky Fernwood attracts Big Apple media spotlight Roszan Holmen News staff
Victorians think of it as their own local funky ’hood, but Fernwood has hit the world stage. A photo montage and writeup of the community was featured in the New York Times’ travel section, released Sunday. Fernwood “has been the best place to explore the city’s blossoming alternative culture,” wrote freelance writer Erica Gies, based in San Francisco. “It intrigued me because it is different from the perception I’d had previously of Victoria as a bit more conservative and traditional,” she wrote in an email to the News. Included in the web version, but not the hard copy, is a picture of Fernwood’s famous bubbleman, Terry Wilson. “I ran around and bought about the last copy in Victoria,” he said. “Bolen Books was sold out after about an hour and a half.” He gifted his copy to the owner of Stage Small Plates Wine Bar on Gladstone Avenue, which is also featured. But not before he made 30 coloured photocopies. “I’ve been taking them around the neighbourhood,” he said. Wilson got a kick out the whole experience. “I just love that they think we’re a quaint hippy outpost.” Check it out at www.nytimes.com and search under ‘Travel.’ rholmen@vicnews.com