Friday - June 20, 2025 - No timeline for Trutch Avenue renaming

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Good morning!

Having been recruited to help start the Fraser Valley Current before The Current even existed, Grace is irreplaceable in a huge number of ways. She and I have one of those 1+1=3 working relationships. And much of what she does is behind the scenes. She edits every one of my stories and improves them not just by catching dumb typos, but by suggesting structural and stylistic improvements that make them infinitely more readable.

Her departure at the end of next week will force me—and Overstory Media, which owns our publication—to figure out what comes next. There's no simple solution. Journalists are in surprisingly short supply these days. And none come with Grace’s local knowledge. But as we consider the next steps, it's gratifying to read the generous emails from readers who recognize her contributions over the last four years. I'm not sure what we'll do after Grace is gone, but I'm proud of the stories we have crafted together. It has been a delight.

– Tyler

The Fraser Valley Current is an Overstory Media publication. Click here to subscribe to our sister publication, the Georgia Straight.

Traffic & Weather

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🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

News

Good Medicine for language

If you want to learn a language, you can take a class, consult a dictionary, or download an app. Or, maybe, you can sing.

For the minds and voices behind Good Medicine Songs, music can be both fun and a tool for reconciliation that can help revitalize the Fraser Valley’s original language.

In May, a group of Chilliwack students joined Good Medicine Songs—a collaboration between musicians, Stó:lō elders, and Halq'eméylem educators—to perform and record a bilingual song called “Step In the Right Direction” at Shxwhá:y Cultural Centre. The performance was the culmination of months of work at three different Chilliwack schools and released to coincide with the 48th annual Chilliwack Indigenous Awards.

• Today, Tyler talks with Stó:lō singer Jonny Williams about Good Medicine Songs and his efforts to keep his language strong.

• You can watch the video for “Step In The Right Direction” here. You can view videos about the song’s lyrics here. And you can find how to properly pronounce the song’s Halq'eméylem words—and learn about the sounds made by Halq'eméylem letter combinations—here.

Related

Need to Know

🕊 A commercial pigeon farm in Chilliwack had to cull its birds after the Canada Food Inspection Agency found some were infected with a rare disease [CTV]

💧 Wildfires are sending more heavy metals and other contaminants into the Fraser River, a new study has found [BIV]

✊ Rogers employees in Abbotsford are on strike for higher wages, with workers saying they are paid 9% less than workers in Vancouver [Abbotsford News]

🗻 Sasquatch Mountain Resort has been fined $120,000 for not properly maintaining its sewage system [Castanet]

🔥 A fire broke out at a garbage and recycling facility in Chilliwack early Thursday [Chilliwack Progress]

👙 Harrison Hot Springs’ lagoon has now re-opened after it was closed due to e. coli [Harrison Hot Springs]

🗨 A former client of Langley’s Volken Academy has started an online petition to encourage others to share their experiences [Langley Advance Times]

🐟 Endangered fish like the Salish sucker are thriving in Chilliwack’s urban parks [Chilliwack Progress]

🪑 IKEA is bringing a planning and order service to Abbotsford later this year [Abbotsford News]

🗳 Langley RCMP are looking for a missing woman who was last seen in late May [Fraser Valley Today]

🌐 Launch your tech career with KPU’s Front-End Development for Interactive Applications Diploma. Gain in-demand skills by building real projects that blend coding and design!*

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ScotFestBC - a weekend of pipes and competition

If pipes touch your soul you have to catch ScotFestBC June 20 and 21 – a weekend of marching pipe bands, caber tossing, dance, whisky workshops, music, culture, and more than a little fun. Check it out at Coquitlam’s Town Centre Park.

The Agenda

No timeline for Trutch Avenue renaming

Four years ago, Chilliwack council agreed to find a new name for its street named after a racist British Columbia official. But despite the decision, the city still has no timeline for when the street might be renamed.

Joseph Trutch was BC’s former Lieutenant Governor in the late 1800s. He was also BC’s Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works before his appointment, and was responsible for significantly reducing the size of Indigenous reserves in the Fraser Valley and throughout British Columbia. He is immortalized in infrastructure throughout the province, although municipalities have begun striking his name from local streets. Vancouver officially renamed its Trutch Street to šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmasəm (Musqueamview) Street in a ceremony in 2022, this week, four years after deciding to remove Trutch from the street.

Trutch remains in Chilliwack however. A Chilliwack spokesperson said the city has no updates on the renaming process, and no expected timeline for when a new name might be revealed. The Current reported in 2023 that the city had changed its street naming policy, and that the municipality was consulting with local First Nations.

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🗓 Things to do

Repair café: The Mission Library hosts a repair café from 10:30am to 1:30pm on Saturday. Bring your broken items to have a volunteer fix them, or teach you how to do it yourself. Details online.

Bird blitz: The Manning Park Bird Blitz begins today. Register to search for birds for the day, or book a weekend of camping and bird-watching. Details and registration online.

Podcast party: Aaron Pete hosts a live recording, along with food and drinks, to celebrate the 200th episode of his Bigger Than Me podcast next Friday at Cowork Chilliwack. Tickets online.

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