Welcome to Lake Flashback. Reporter Lexi Bainas has been combing through old newspapers with the assistance of the Kaatza Station Museum and Archives so we can jog your memory, give you that nostalgic feeling, or just a chuckle, as we take a look at what was making headlines this week around Cowichan Lake in years gone by.
10 years ago:
A mediator was to be appointed by the education minister to lead discussions between School District 79 and the Lake Cowichan Ratepayers, the Lake Cowichan Gazette reported June 6, 2007.
Ratepayers’ chair Rod Peters and Mayor Jack Peake went to Victoria on Thursday morning to meet with [Education Minister] Shirley Bond with Keith Miller as the mediator.
Frustrated Lake residents had been after the school district on several subjects, including the old J.H. Boyd School site.
“We said [to Bond] we think J.H. Boyd should be kept because of an enrolment problem in Lake Cowichan,” said Peters, noting that Palsson School is over capacity and A.B. Greenwell School’s enrolment continues to increase.
“According to Peters, Bond wants mediated discussions to happen as soon as possible, rather than in the fall.”
25 years ago:
“Up, Up, Up” read the headline in The Lake News of June 3, 1992.
What was it all about? Read on.
“The population of the Village has risen to 2,241, Ron Smith, economic development officer, has reported to the Economic Development Committee. The census was taken June 4 last year and information was released recently.
“Population of the area was reported as 5,468. This includes the Village, Areas F and I: 2,836; the Lake Cowichan Indian band: 10; the Ditidaht Indian band: 379. Statistics for the bands were supplied by the federal Department of Indian Affairs.
“The population of the CVRD is 60,560, said Smith.”
40 years ago:
“Teleglobe on strike” screamed the front page headline in early June 1977.
It was only the second strike in the 27-year history of Teleglobe Canada, according to The Lake News. The previous time had been for three days prior to transmission of Olympic Games coverage.
“Management and supervisory personnel remained on the job at Lake Cowichan’s Teleglobe satellite station after the company’s technical workers set up picket lines last week.
“The 14 local members of the Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Union (COTU) walked off the job May 24 after wage negotiations broke down. About 400 members of the technical employees union are off the job at Teleglobe stations across Canada.”
In those days, satellites were still pretty new and exciting so the paper described the scene at Teleglobe.
“The 100 foot diameter Teleglobe antenna, which is adjacent to a similar deep dish antenna owned by Telesat Canada, handles telephone, telex, cable television, and data transmissions to 10 Pacific Rim countries, including Japan, China, Korea, and the Phillipines.”