Capital Daily for Wednesday, June 10

Developer Reliance Properties is seeking approval to convert the old BC Power Commission building at 780 Blanshard — a yellowish art-deco structure — into a hotel. While the region needs more hotel space, the conversion would come at a significant cost to Victoria's arts community.

Upward of 200 artists from four galleries and five non-profit arts organizations currently call the building home. If the developer gets the go-ahead, all of them would need to find new locations. Logan Ford, executive director of the Vancouver Island Visual Arts Society (VIVAS), said the situation is urgent and solutions have been hard to come by.

James Douglas Prentice, who goes by the moniker "Captain Painfully Obvious," entered guilty pleas on one count of sexual assault and two counts of sexual interference of a person under 14 at the Port Alberni Law Courts. The offences took place in Tofino in July 1991.

Prentice's legal team first entered an intention to plead guilty in June 2024, according to court documents. The presiding judge accepted the plea for one count of sexual assault. Prentice's legal team confirmed his intention to plead guilty to all three counts in September 2025. Proceedings are ongoing. Prentice is not currently in custody and is awaiting a psychiatric evaluation scheduled for June 17.

Family members of Prentice told Capital Daily that the 1991 case is one of at least seven alleged instances of child sexual assault committed by him, including against children under the age of six. Prentice is known in Victoria for his activism, including with the Extinction Rebellion Movement and the Fairy Creek blockades, and he founded the No Shit, Sherlock! Political Action Committee. He also competed on Season 8 of Dragon's Den.