“On a perfect sunny morning in July 2022 I boarded the ferry heading south to Port Hardy. As I sailed away from the port of Prince Rupert I said good bye to a community I had called home for ten years and where I had been a Provincial Court judge for seven. I was now moving to the Court’s Vancouver Island Region. 

The sailing to Vancouver Island along the inside passage is 18 hours. After the mad scramble to pack and move, there was nothing to do but stare out at the steep shores of the Great Bear rainforest and reflect on my many travels in the north.”

Judge Dwight Stewart describes some of his adventures travelling to and from court in northern BC.  

End of the road

“Everything in geography is relative. To the Haida, what we consider the mainland is just an island across the Hecate Strait. 

By car, Prince Rupert is 720 km from the regional centre of Prince George and 1500 km from Vancouver. It’s further west of Vancouver than it is north, and flown in a straight line it’s 750 km.

In many ways, Rupert is not the end of the road, but a gateway. Its beautiful century-old courthouse serves the entire north coast of BC. People travel by boat from coastal communities north of Bella Bella; from Gitgaat (Hartley Bay), Kitkatla, Metlakatla, and Lax Kw’alaams.   

Image

For the communities on Haida Gwaii, Daajing Giids (formerly Queen Charlotte City), Skidegate, Port Clements, Masset and Old Massett, the Rupert court team comes to them about once a month. Most trips you travel by float plane. Fifty minutes across the water at very low altitude to stay below the clouds – close enough to see the whales! I did that flight about sixty times and it always left me in awe at the beauty of the Tree Knob islands, Cape Fife and Tow Hill. I could check the waves at North Beach and look down to see surfers in the break before we landed in Masset.

On the road

In my first year as a judge, I sat mostly in Smithers and Burns Lake. I’d sometimes “commute” home from Burns Lake or Smithers after a day in court. Otherwise, I’d drive home for the weekend and Sunday afternoon, I’d be on the road again heading back.

Ask a northerner how far it is to anywhere and they answer in time not distance.   “Depends on how fast you drive,” or “depends on the weather.” Rupert to Terrace is “an hour and a half,” (140 km) Rupert to Smithers is “4 to 4’n’a’half” (350 km), Burns Lake is “about 6” (490 km), and George (718 km) is “8 and a bit.”

I came to know every turn, every creek, river and bridge, of that road from Rupert to Burns Lake. The drive to Terrace beside the Skeena River was never the same. Depending on the time of year, the time of day, the direction of travel, the tide, and the often mercurial weather, the Skeena has seemingly infinite moods, colours, and shades. Wherever I was coming from, once the Skeena was on my left and I was driving towards the dying light, I knew I was heading home.

However beautiful that road is to me, it’s also known by a different name: the Highway of Tears. So many Indigenous families and communities must look out, wondering about the lives of sisters, daughters and mothers they have lost. I also thought of the people I’d remanded or sentenced to be taken by the sheriffs down this long, lonely road to the corrections centre in Prince George.

On the wild side

You see a lot of wildlife on Highway 16. 

Image

Bears, (black (brown) and grizzly), wolves, and moose are routine.  I’m fortunate to have seen both a wolverine and a lynx (on separate trips to Gitlaxt’aamiks (formerly New Aiyansh). Twice, I saw the elusive Kermode or “spirit bear.” One on her own, the other, a cub, with a brown sibling and mother.

Some of my most memorable animal encounters occurred on the Skeena. Every spring the Skeena and Nass explode with life during the eulachon run. Eulachon are bait fish, (like herring or anchovies), long, thin and perfectly silver. They are prized for their nutrient rich oil. Valued amongst First Nations, eulachon grease was heavily traded (in bentwood boxes) between coastal and interior nations. The same route I travelled was used for thousands of years as one of the many “grease-trail” trade routes across the coastal mountains.

During the eulachon run, the rivers fill with eagles, seals and sea lions. During one run I paddled the Skeena and sat on my board to rest and enjoy the “show”. A herd or “raft” of about a dozen sea lion cows breached about 80 feet away. Just as I wondered why there were no bulls, three breached between the cows and me. Weighing over 2,000 pounds, with their heads and shoulders a few feet above the water, they roared, and I panicked to get myself to shore.

I admit there were times the travel and nights away took their toll. In late October 2015, driving to Terrace, I hit black ice at Rainbow Summit, slid right, slid left, overcorrected, and spun over 180 degrees.  Out of control, heading backwards into the darkness, I had “the moment,” thinking the worst. Remarkably, it was a rock face that saved me from launching into the forest, and while my car was totalled, I was not seriously hurt. With no cell service, I walked towards the Skeena, then hitch-hiked to Terrace.   

Unorthodox accommodation

For the first year of Covid, all non-essential travel to Haida Gwaii was banned. During this time the people of Haida Gwaii only accessed the courts virtually. It was fascinating to work with the Council of Nations and decide when it was safe for them to have us come back. 

In March 2021, a scaled-down court team was issued permits to return. We were only allowed one brief attendance to the grocery store, were not permitted to eat in any restaurant, and asked to avoid any close interactions with “locals”. 

Image

Most of the rental accommodations were closed. Not a worry. More than once, I’d been unable to fly home due to weather, and unable to find another place to stay. For years I’d kept a thermarest and blanket there so I always had somewhere to sleep until the weather cleared. So … until things opened again, I’d just camp! Each morning, I woke early, made coffee, went to North Beach to surf, rinsed off in the Sangan River, and came back for court. That was amongst my favorite weeks spent on Haida Gwaii. We were all so happy to be back!

I know that for many, a visit to Haida Gwaii may well be a “once in a lifetime” or “bucket-list” opportunity. All told, in ten years, I spent 40 weeks there. I know how fortunate that makes me. Haida Gwaii, its people, the place and its waters have a special and enduring hold over me.

Once around the earth

In my ten years in Prince Rupert, the earth made ten trips around the sun. 

In my first five years as a judge, I spent 307 nights away from home and drove 40,910 kms. To put that in perspective, it’s just slightly more than the circumference of the earth (40,075 km). 

I always knew I had it good. My colleagues in Prince George were almost always driving somewhere. Someone commuting from North Van to Surrey drives over 16,000 kms per year and spends more time on the road than I ever did. The weeks when I was home in Prince Rupert, my “commute” was less than a kilometer. I could walk home for lunch. 

On the road less travelled

I’m so fortunate that leaving Prince Rupert did not bring an end to my travels. I drive to court locations up and down Vancouver Island along the Salish Sea or through breathtaking parks. If ten years on the Island pass as quickly as my ten years in Prince Rupert, there won’t be nearly enough time to see it all.”   

Photo credits: Judge Dwight Stewart, except for top photo