The Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper reported on February 12, 2003 that construction of a new road near the drydock opened in 1887 at CFB Esquimalt was halted when workers uncovered human remains. The remains are believed to be First Nations and an archaeological investigation is being conducted. The site is under guard. For more on this story, refer to the Canada.com Times-Colonist site (http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/).

Celebrate Heritage Week in British Columbia, February 17 to 23, 2003. National Heritage Day is Monday, February 17. Communities and institutions are holding heritage fairs, displays, tours, performances, special commercial district promotions, school programs, and proclamations. Find out more about Heritage Week through the Heritage Society of British Columbia's Web site (http://www.islandnet.com/%7Ehsbc/heritage_week.htm). The theme for 2003 is 'The Heritage of Our Town.' Source: archives-bc mailing list, February 11, 2003.

January 27, 2003, VICTORIA--Chetwynd, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, Hudson?s Hope, Pouce Coupe, Tumbler Ridge, and the entire northern-eastern region of British Columbia will be the centre of attention for a Royal BC Museum research and public education initiative. Entitled, Living Landscapes: Peace River?Northern Rockies, the two-year project (2003-2005) will focus on increasing the information about the diverse human and natural history stories of northern-eastern British Columbia. ... The Royal BC Museum is calling for proposals for research projects from the new region. The museum has a budget of $100,000.00 and would like to find local partners to develop at least 15 research and educational projects. In consultation with a widely representative community-based advisory group, projects proposals will be evaluated for recommendations to receive partial funding from the Royal BC Museum. The deadline for submitting a proposal is 12:00 noon (PST), April 30, 2003. For application information, visit the Royal BC Museum Living Landscapes website at: or contact program manager, Brian Apland at (250) 387-2469.

Call for Papers: International Conference on the History of Drugs and Alcohol, May 13-16, 2004, Huron University College, London, Ontario, Canada. Source: H-CANADA posting, 6 Feb 2003 The International Conference on Drugs and Alcohol in History (ICDAH) will be an assembly of established researchers and new scholars examining drugs and alcohol history from a variety of historical perspectives. Themes include but are not limited to the production, regulation (including temperance movements), consumption, economics, culture and medicalization of alcohol and drugs. The geographic scope of the conference is unlimited. The conference will consist of paper presentations, panel discussions and poster sessions. Deadline for submissions is 1 August, 2003. Proposals for each paper should include an abstract of no more than 500 words, and a brief curriculum vitae. Proposals for panels, sessions, papers and posters should be sent to one of the conference co-chairs: Dr. Greg Marquis History and Politics Dept. University of New Brunswick P.0. Box 5050, Saint John, NB, Canada E2L 4L5 ph: (506) 648-5600 gmarquis@unbsj.ca and Dr. Dan Malleck Community Health Sciences Brock University 500 Glenridge Ave St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1 (905) 688-5550 ext 3106 dan.malleck@brocku.ca

"Tracking Canada's Past is an innovative history-teaching project at Simon Fraser University. We are building a geographically distributed learning community in which teachers, students, and volunteer mentors from a limited number of selected cities and towns across Canada collaborate on research projects that join people and events in their communities to themes of national importance. The mentors will help students and teachers make historical sense of the unique resources in their local environment, including historic sites and community archives. They are asked to help, guide, and challenge the students with whom they work. We are starting our second year in January and are inviting volunteers who have a special interest in history methodology or in teaching Canadian history to act as on-line mentors to high school students studying the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Many more schools have expressed an interest in joining our project this year; having a strong body of volunteer mentors is crucial to our being able to accommodate them all. Tracking Canada?s Past is scheduled to run for a ten-week period during the coming semester and we estimate the time involved will be not more than an hour or two per week. Volunteers need convenient access to the Internet. The software program we use, Knowledge Forum, uses standard Internet browsers and is available to all volunteers on-line. Volunteers will also receive a 60-page resource book to guide their participation as mentors and they will have further support from the staff in our lab at Simon Fraser. Source: Archives Association of BC Newsletter, vol. 13, no. 1 (Winter 2003), Web: http://aabc.bc.ca/aabc/newsletter/13_1/tracking_canadas_past.htm