This is where cold hard facts give way to the hottest of takes, mostly mine I suppose. I’m the editor, Marshall Jones.

Want to include yours? Listen, this isn’t the comment section, this isn’t social media. Discussion and debate requires context and a wee bit of bravery — we need your name and where you’re writing from. Include it in your account or email me anytime.

I’ve never met Randy Millis, but I’ve gotten dozens of emails from him over the years, news tips or photos, never asked for much.

Randy‘s fallen on hard times. He’s a diabetic, he’s in a wheelchair and recently found himself on the streets of Kelowna, living in a shelter.

I don’t want to be obtuse here, he’s in a desperate situation and looking for help, but he hasn’t stopped taking notice of his city. He’s got a blog. He’s a good writer, has an eye for detail, a unique perspective on a situation many of us will never understand.

I hope he won’t mind me sharing a bit, it’s worth reading.

“A few weeks ago I was housed.

Now I’m carrying most of what I own in reusable bags, trying to figure out bathrooms, bus schedules, insulin supplies, charging cables, where to sit without being moved along, and whether I can physically keep doing this for very long.

Kelowna’s North End sometimes feels like several different cities stacked on top of each other.

Morning commuters pedal through the North End. A few blocks away are shelters, breweries, coffee shops, warehouses, emergency calls and housing uncertainty. Sometimes it feels like a city arguing with itself.

Warehouse shelters beside breweries. Cyclists in expensive commuter gear riding past ambulance calls. People carrying Narcan kits walking by wine tastings and patio string lights.

Exhausted shelter residents sitting a few blocks away from people discussing neighbourhood safety over tasting flights and charcuterie boards.

Paramedics respond near a North End shelter. The call itself is not the story. The story is how ordinary these moments have become alongside breweries, coffee shops, warehouses and daily life.

…

That’s another thing people misunderstand.

When you lose housing, you don’t instantly stop being yourself.

You still notice strange public art. You still flirt with people you meet on buses. You still talk about movies and music and photography. You still laugh. You still try to help friends buy phones. You still try to contribute something meaningful to the people around you.

You just do all of it while carrying a constant background calculation about survival.

And honestly, I don’t know what happens next.

I’m trying to stay optimistic. I’m trying to keep writing. I’m trying to document things accurately without turning people into caricatures or tragedy props.

Because the truth is more complicated than that.

It’s not just despair here.

It’s exhaustion, absurdity, humanity, conflict, care, confusion, hunger, warmth, trauma, dark humour, physical pain, and people trying very hard not to completely fall apart.”

Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday.

She came in and asked if it were okay that she used an Artificially Intelligent assistant. She held out her phone.

“It’s just going to listen to our conversation and provide me a summary and transcript for our files.”

“Cool,” I said.

Quite unlike my last appointment, she could pay attention to me, not her keyboard to make notes. The pace at which AI is intervening in our lives is astonishing, I see it more and more every day. I still don’t see it as a panacea for modern problems — the doctor’s approach is the correct one for now.

It’s still terribly unreliable and requires plenty of human intervention but soaks up many of the meaningless tasks in a day — if you let it.

When the iPhone came out, I was nothing but excited about the possibilities for the hardware, software and future of the device. I didn’t really pause then to consider the societal impacts, subjectively good and bad.

Like smartphones, social media and the internet (to say nothing of life changing inventions of the past like automobiles, telephones, radio and television, AI will equip our societies with another double-edged tool we can’t possibly yet see how we will use.

Are you seeing AI become more useful? Are you excited about it? Terrified by the potential consequences? Somewhere in between, I suppose.

Tell me about it. Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

BC Conservatives are finally voting for a leader.

It’s been a long, drawn-out, at times dirty campaign. Often leadership races are a boon for a party. It’s a lot of attention, ideas, personalities and media for whoever emerges as leader to turn into momentum for an election.

I don’t know what you saw from this race, but the enlightening has been frightening.

The fringe elements of what was a fringe party just a couple years ago, feel quite comfortable. Even the so-called moderates have taken some extreme positions on conservative hot button issues like SOGI and Indigenous rights.

Has it been MAGAfied?

It looks like they are abandoning any pretext of being a home for centrist-right voters. But that appears to be what they want.

How about you? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

iN RESPONSE

Is West Kelowna safer after McDougall Creek wildfire? Sort of

There are many good points in the article. Thanks for that.
I want to add a few points.

We have seen massive wildfires in the southern interior started by human-caused grass fires intentionally or in error. One of the biggest ones that comes to mind is the Barrier Wildfire, which was caused by a cigarette dropped in dry grass. Another is the Elephant Hill wildfire from Cache Creek north, which was started in the grass in someone’s backyard. Fire smarting would have prevented these fires, perhaps. At least, it would have delayed these types of wildfires.

We know that nature needs the removal of older forests to provide space for their seeds to germinate and create new forests that grow and provide habitats for many species as part of conservation and biodiversity. Nature’s process of ecosystem refreshment usually starts with old trees emitting pheromones to attract the beetles, which kill the trees. The trees dry out, get struck by lightning, and are consumed by the flames fanned by the wind. Nature is chaotic and traumatic in this process.

Forest management offers to do the same service for conservation without the trauma by harvesting older or damaged trees and replanting the areas. The wildfire fuel is removed. Young green trees are generally more fire-resistant. We see that work in many places. Most obvious for those who travel the Coquihalla, where you see the older pine trees attacked by the mountain pine beetle. The trees turned red, and then gray. Many areas were harvested to provide employment and produce forest products. These areas were planted to become a lovely forest habitat.

Strategic forest management with input from First Nations, the Ministry of Forests, and the forest industry reduces wildfire and flooding risk.

People need to support active forest management.

— Brian Lapointe via iNFOnews.ca

Man who set fire to Osoyoos RCMP detachment will try to prove he’s not psychotic

This is the downside to an NCRMD (Not Criminally Responsible by reason of Mental Disorder) argument by the defence or finding by the Court. The public often perceives it as the person dodging responsibility for their actions. However, it is a big hurdle to have this finding accepted, and often leads to the person serving longer than they otherwise would have if they had simply been sentenced to whatever time was appropriate. This is not so in every case, but it certainly does happen.

— William Mastop via iNFOnews.ca

Penticton councillor on trial for sex crimes calls Crown’s questions ‘moronic’

Well.. its hard to know what to say…. Mr. Miller seems intent on making every possible mistake a defendant can make when testifying on his own behalf. By all means levy insults at the Crown and comment on your perception of the intelligence of their questions. When the court finds you to to be evasive, obstructive and self serving well…. that won’t be a surprise either but well done in your spirited argument! These responses are everything a defence lawyer would caution against but Mr. Miller seems to have a lifetime of putting his own immediate desires first.

— William Mastop via iNFOnews.ca

Manitoba premier calls on Alberta to pause its fall separation vote for ‘year or two’

She believes the decision overstates the duty to consult, noting she feels it should only be required in relation to major projects. So separation from Canada isn’t a major project? The woman is delusional.

— Bonnie Derry via iNFOnews.ca

iN NUMBERS: People in Southern Interior changing eating habits because of food prices

And when is there going to be an investigation into price fixing/gouging in the food grocery business?

— Bonnie Derry via iNFOnews.ca

Disclaimer: Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on this page are solely those of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of the editor, iNFOnews.ca, iNFOTEL MULTIMEDIA, its partners, principals or advertisers.