Accessible travel
Another not-so-wonderful BC Ferries experience [“Additional sailings ease ferry traffic,” December 17, 2014].
We stop at the ticket booth, ask for elevator access, are given a placard to place on the dash, instructed to park in the wheelchair lane and put our flashers on when boarding. Upon boarding, we end up fairly close to an elevator. My friend unloads my wheelchair and we proceed to the elevator, where we see a small sign: “Sorry, this unit is temporarily out of service.”
Well-meaning passersby see my predicament and tell me there’s another elevator, and I then explain (as I’ve had to many times before) that I can’t get to the other elevator because my wheelchair won’t fit through all the closely parked cars. Once again, me and others with disabilities are trapped on the vehicle deck—unable to access washrooms or any other services—forced to stay in our vehicles, listening to BC Ferries announce “This vessel is equipped for people with disabilities…”
Feeling annoyed and in need of a washroom, I grab my cane, and my friend and I make our way up the stairs to the passenger deck. We go to the Chief Steward’s office, voice our complaint and ask questions such as: Why did they park us in front of an elevator that doesn’t work? Do crew members not know it’s out of service? They apologize profusely, then one of the ferry workers says, “But in our [BC Ferries] defence, we didn’t know the elevator was broken until yesterday.” I then enquire about their communication methods—if they can’t communicate something as simple as this in a 24-hour period, what would happen in an emergency?
My friend asks about compensation, seeing as we didn’t get the services we paid for (elevator access, washrooms, et cetera). There’s a moment of silence, then one of the workers hands us a BC Ferries business card with a Victoria address and toll free number: it’s cold comfort.
As we return to our vehicle I wonder what would happen if, next time, we drove on without paying? Would crew members not be alerted until the next day?
Kaia Sherritt
Abbotsford Street
Fruit flies
Blackberry Festival will be here come mid-August. It might be helpful to draw this to readers’ attention: The season is early this year and blackberries are already ripening. It is my guess that they will be mostly finished before Blackberry Festival, even given the best of conditions.
Add to this the fact that the SWD (Spotted Wing Drosophila Fruit Fly) is very early and very bad this year [“Fruit fly invasion,” July 16, 2014]. Many cherry crops have been just a disaster. So, almost certainly, SWD are going to get into the blackberries soon, in fact have probably already started. Once their larvae get eating inside the blackberry, it quickly becomes a sour pulpy mess. By mid-August I doubt that there will be many blackberries around that are fit for use.
Therefore, it would be wise for people who pick for the Blackberry Festival to start picking as soon as they can and freeze the berries until needed.
Blackberry Festival is a lot of people’s favourite event. It is a pity we are facing this challenge. But with some forethought, we can make the best of it.
Margaret Cooper
Massett Court
