VANCOUVER — A North Vancouver resident is inviting people to gather in West Vancouver waters Monday evening to process their frustration and anger after Saturday’s provincial election with a so-called "grief swim."Megan Sheldon, co-founder of Be Ceremonial and a self-described "humanist celebrant and end-of-life doula," posted the invitation on Instagram under the heading “Post-Election Grief Swim.” The post describes a community swim “to process whatever you may be holding or feeling after the BC election.” It lists Monday evening in West Vancouver and directs people to message for details.Peter McCaffrey, president of the Alberta Institute, shared a screenshot of the Instagram post on X Monday with the comment “This can’t be real.”.The caption of the original Instagram post reads, “The sea can hold what we can’t hold alone.” It continues that many people are carrying “grief, frustration, anger, disappointment, or something we don’t have a name for yet” in the wake of the election. Participants are invited to gather as the sun goes down, name what they are carrying, and offer it to the ocean. They may swim, dip their toes, or stand on the shore.Sheldon has organized similar secular gatherings on North Shore beaches for years. She combines elements of her work as a "celebrant" with cold-water swimming. A "celebrant" is a person who designs and leads ceremonies, usually as a non-religious alternative to a clergy member or civil official.Previous locations have included Dundarave Beach in West Vancouver and sites near Whytecliff and Lions Bay. She has described the sessions as a way for people to acknowledge and release what they are holding, sometimes using objects from the beach that are later released into the water.She is also the author of Ritual Without Religion: A Humanist Guide to Creating Secular Ceremonies and co-founder of Be Ceremonial, an online platform for designing rituals. She lives and works in North Vancouver.Ocean temperatures off West Vancouver in late October average about 11 to 12 degrees Celsius. Water at that temperature produces cold shock on entry and raises the risk of hypothermia with longer exposure. Body heat is lost far faster in water than in air. .Vancouver Coastal Health notes hypothermia as a winter-weather risk and ends routine beach water-quality monitoring after September. Sampling for the polar-bear swim and the next regular season begins in May 2027.Adding to the potential risks, Vancouver Coastal Health issued “not suitable for swimming” advisories at several Metro Vancouver beaches after elevated E. coli counts back in August.As previously reported by Western Standard, at that time, Sunset Beach recorded 1,112 E. coli per 100 millilitres, nearly three times the single-sample threshold that triggers an advisory..Trout Lake was also under restriction. High E. coli increases the chance of gastrointestinal illness and skin or eye irritation. The health authority advises people to avoid swallowing water, to stay out with open cuts, and to rinse off after contact with untreated seawater.No current E. coli readings are available for late October.
