2.10% 1 yr = 1.30% 2 yr = 1.45% 3 yr = 1.65% Doug Wedman
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o c d o R
4 yr = 1.70% 5 yr = 2.10%
and Draperies
CASHABLE = .85% Subject to rate change, minimum deposit.
y
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BREAKING NEWS: peninsulanewsreview.com
North Saanich psychotherapist pushes for alternative treatment
Tonya Alton takes a break at Island View Beach in Central Saanich. Alton has moved nearly 10 times since March after what she says was a wrongful eviction. (Kendra Crighton/News Staff)
Kendra Crighton News Staff
When Laurie Brooks was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in less than a year, the anxiety and depression that she thought she had dealt with came rushing back. Brooks, who lives in Abbotsford, is one of four Canadian cancer patients who were recently granted an exemption from the Canadian Ministry of Health, allowing her to use psilocybin as a treatment for end-of-life distress. Therapsil, a Victoria-based coalition of health care practitioners helped her get there. The non-profit has been advocating for the therapeutic use of psilocybin – a drug naturally found in magic mushrooms which has a similar effect to LSD and other psychedelic drugs – in small doses for patients in palliative care. Dr. Bruce Tobin, a psychotherapist who lives in North Saanich, is the founder of the non-profit and became interested in the effects of psilocybin over a decade ago. Tobin began to realize that while conventional therapy worked for some there was a wide range of people suffering from conditions such as clinical depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder and often addiction, who could not be treated through traditional therapy. Continued A7
Local woman represents new face of homelessness Kendra Crighton News Staff
Tonya Alton looked down at the fuel gauge in her small Nissan Micra and her stomach dropped. She was running on fumes and no sleep, having driven into Greater Victoria from up-Island in hopes of finding a place to stay after a brief stint in a hostel. Feeling like she was ready to drop, Alton knew she shouldn’t be driving and pulled into a familiar spot as the morning sun started to breach. As she wrapped herself in a table cloth, she was struck with the irony of the situation that she was now sleeping outside, near a trail that leads to the suite Alton was evicted from near Elk Lake at the end of March. That thrust her into a never-ending cycle of displacement. Since then, Alton has moved nearly 10 times to various short-term shelters, causing major stress and anxiety. Alton says she’s fallen through the cracks, and calls herself the new face of homelessness in the age of the
pandemic after what she claims was a wrongful eviction. Her story starts before coronavirus was in every headline. In January, Alton rented the small bachelor suite and was offered a job with Destination Greater Victoria as a visitor information counsellor. She later realized the start date of March 16 would not allow enough time for her to afford the next month’s rent and kept searching for work. As news of the virus began to spread, the job she was offered was no longer available as tourism dried up when borders were closed. Alton stayed in touch with her landlords via email, updating them often about her situation and providing proof of her job search but being honest about her financial trouble. Her landlord’s response was to harsh but polite. “It’s not personal,” reads the email she received on March 13, just a few weeks before the province’s ban on evictions came into effect, “but consider this your final notice.” “I was so compliant, it was unbeliev-
able. I was shocked. First of all, that Alton was offered a job cleaning and I was going to be thrust out. I’d hear disinfecting three construction sites about the virus pandemic, people are but was laid off after only a month. dying. I was so scared and then I had While she wishes she still had a job, all my family and friends giving me the lay-off allowed her to apply for all different information – it was so and receive the Canada Emergency stressful,” she says as her voice starts Response Benefit (CERB), which she’s been living on ever since. to break. According to Marielle Continued A5 Tounsi, public affairs officer with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, if an eviction notice was issued before March 30, renters must make an application for dispute resolution to the Residential Tenancy Branch. But if the renter Your Good did not dispute the notice, Value Salon that would be considered SENIOR SP E accepting the eviction. CuTs $20 • CIAL ON MONDAYS shampoo an Alton says she could d seT $20 barely afford to feed her- perms • Tanning • Co maniCure • self, let alone pay the $100 pediCure • ge lours • Foils l polish • W axing fee to file a dispute. She 106-236 0 B e a co n Ave • 250-6 left the suite willingly. 56-3622 Just after her eviction,
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