The British Columbia Historical Federation?s Annual Conference is being held in Victoria, B.C., from May 10-13, 2007. This conference is being co-hosted by the Victoria Historical Society and the Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria and will be held at the Harbour Towers Hotel & Suites, 345 Quebec Street.

The multifaceted programme of presentations and tours will appeal to history buffs and heritage enthusiasts. The programme begins on Thursday with a one-day Symposium, ?Heritage and Tourism: Compatibility or Conflict?? followed by an opening reception at the Maritime Museum of B.C. Beginning on Friday, presentations will be offered on Victoria?s Aboriginal and Chinese heritage, the Hudson?s Bay Company and the military, Victoria?s heritage architecture, and local coal baron Robert Dunsmuir. Tours showcasing Victoria?s Chinatown, Craigdarroch Castle, Fort Rodd Hill and the Naden Military Museum, two pioneer cemeteries, downtown heritage architecture, and the historic Uplands subdivision will also take place. There will be a special reception and award presentation by the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia at Government House. There also will be a book sale with a large selection of books on B.C. history and heritage.

Prompt registration is recommended as some events have limited capacity and an early bird discount is offered until March 15th. Registrations post-marked no later than April 15th will be accepted. Registration forms and detailed programme descriptions can be downloaded from the BCHF website at

http://bchistory.ca/conf.html

For further information, please contact joyus@shaw.ca or phone 250-598-7844.

The Victoria Historical Society's meeting on Thursday, March 22, 2007, features speaker Jean Barman, history professor and author, who will speak on her book Stanley Park's Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch and Brockton Point. The meeting will be at the James Bay New Horizons Centre, 234 Menzies Street at 7:30 pm. Visitors are welcome.

The Victoria History Society's February 2007 meeting on Thursday, February 22, features speakers Ken Roueche, author, and Susan Woods, radio show host and magazine editor, who will speak on "Exploring Fairfield's Past". The meeting will be at the James Bay New Horizons Centre, 234 Menzies Street at 7:30pm. Visitors are welcome.

Sunday, March 18, 2007
2:00 -4:00 p.m., Newcombe Conference Hall
Royal British Columbia Museum
675 Belleville Street, Victoria

?Sleep on, dear son, in a soldier?s grave? Yvonne Van Ruskenveld, of the Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria, will talk about the veterans of the Great War who are commemorated in Ross Bay Cemetery.

Ross Bay Cemetery, established in 1873, contains the graves of many who served during World War I and died here at home, but it also has many inscriptions on family grave markers to sons who died overseas. Yvonne will talk about these different types of memorials and the stories of some of the individuals, such as Lieut. Blayney Scott who earned both the MC and the DFC, Gunner John Wilkinson who was gassed at Passchendaele but returned home to die, and Captain Despard Pemberton, who was shot down in France and is buried there.

For more information about this event contact Ann ten Cate, Outreach Coordinator, BC Archives, (250) 387-2970 or Ron Greene, Secretary of the Friends of the BC Archives at (250) 598-1835. This event is free for Friends of the Archives, $5.00 for non-members, payable at the door. Call in advance for information about handicap access.

The Friends of the BC Archives lecture for February 18, 2007 is titled "CENSORED! UNSUITABLE FOR BRITISH COLUMBIANS!" With those words, the B.C. Censor of Moving Pictures excercised his authority to control what British Columbians viewed in their movie theatres. Film historian Stan Fox has recently used the records of the Censor, held at the B.C. Archives, to determine exactly what was "unsuitable" for British Columbians between 1914 and 1963. Stan will be showing clips from the films that were censored, minus the offending film frames (which actually ended up pasted to sheets of paper in GR-0490.) It promises to be an amusing and lighthearted look at the evolution of film censorship in British Columbia.

Stan Fox has spent a long career in the realm of film and television production. He was Director and Producer in the Film Department at CBC Vancouver, Director of the Vancouver Film Festival, Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Film at York University, Toronto, and Director of Adult Programmes at TV Ontario. He has served on numerous film and television festival juries, and is presently an independent media producer in Victoria, B.C.