Big local wins in arts & sports

Breakout artist AP Dhillon won the inaugural South Asian Music Recording of the Year Juno last night in Vancouver. In 2023 Dhillon became the first Punjabi musician to perform at the annual Canadian music awards ceremony. He's since amassed several international hits and billions of streams, and his album The Brownprint debuted in the top three in Apple's Canadian charts last year.

Dhillon spent his teenage and college years locally, attending Camosun and working at a local Best Buy before breaking out as a musician. He maintained a home in Colwood, which was targeted last year in an arson that made international headlines.

He was also nominated last night for Breakthrough Artist of the Year, and for Songwriter of the Year along with his collaborators.

Salt Spring icon Raffi wins Children's Album of the Year

The Egypt-born Armenian-Canadian Raffi Cavoukian has been one of the biggest English-language children's-music songwriters for some 50 years, with hits such as “Baby Beluga.” He and the Good Lovelies won last night for Penny Penguin.

Raffi & Good Lovelies wins Children's Album of the Year | Juno Awards 2025

He has lived on Salt Spring for the past nearly 17 years, though last fall he put his longtime home there up for sale.

A number of other Island artists were nominated last night but won't be bringing any hardware back over on the ferry, including:

• Crossover metal band Spiritbox
• Indigenous blues artists Blue Moon Marquee
• David Gogo, a veteran bluesman from Nanaimo
• Mother Mother, based on Quadra Island
• Eric Bearclaw, a guitarist from Cedar
• Christine Jensen, a jazz saxophonist born in Nanaimo
• Victorian Tuli Porcher, a fiddler/cellist in Inn Echo 
• Victorian Dougal McLean, a multi-instrumentalist with Vancouver indie band Peach Pit
• John Simon Fallon of Sooke, lead guitarist with Edmonton's Striker

From start to end, this month has been packed with success and celebration by local teams at all levels.

It wrapped this weekend with the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Victoria Cougars winning the Stanley Cup.

Weekend also brought present-day hockey success

The Victoria Royals have gone up 2-0 in the opening round of the playoffs. The Royals finished on top of the BC Division of the WHL for the second time ever and the first in nearly a decade. They'll visit the Tri-Cities in Eastern Washington for three games, then return for two more if needed. 

Tri-City Americans at Victoria Royals – Game 2 | 2025 WHL Playoffs Highlights

On Friday the Colwood-based Victoria Grizzlies secured home ice for the BCHL playoffs, which begin this week. The Grizzlies remain 4th in the conference and will host Coquitlam.

Canada Rugby secures bronze in Hong Kong

The Langford-based Sevens women were blown out by New Zealand in the semifinal. But they beat France 21-17 on Sunday to come away with a medal and move up to 4th in the season standings. They'll be in Singapore this weekend for the next HSBC SVNS Series tourney, and in LA in May for the world championship.

Canada claim THIRD 🥉| Canada v France | HSBC SVNS Hong Kong 2025 | Women's Match Highlights

Vikes finally win national basketball crown 

After years on the cusp, UVic won the U SPORTS national championship—and did it despite losing reigning league MVP Diego Maffia of Oak Bay to injury, and despite losing the conference semifinal to Calgary. That was the only exception to an otherwise undefeated season. 

The UVic swim teams finished #7 at the national championships in Toronto on March 6-8. The Vikes’ one medal was in the men's 4x200 Free Relay—its first in 25 years in that event. The team secured bronze after coming up 4th in recent years. 

Women's rugby secured silver in Canada West, and was awarded three all-star spots.

UVic wasn’t the only South Island school to score some hoops success this month. Three of the eight BC high school tourneys were taken by local teams.

Local girls take 1A and 2A titles

Victorians opened the month by taking the crown in both of BC's lower-tier leagues (league tiers are based on school population). Pacific Christian were single-A champs, while St. Michaels won double-A.

Saanich school had BC’s best boys basketball team—again

Spectrum school successfully defended its title in the 4A league (the highest high school tier) in Langley. The Thunder beat Dover Bay 81-66 in the first all-Island championship game in nearly 50 years. [Langley Advance Times]

Spectrum school's champions, via SD61 (Instagram)

Oak Bay loses out due to tournament format

Spectrum and Dover were BC's top boys 4A teams as the regular season wound down. But their upper echelon also included Oak Bay—a team nowhere to be found at the final tourney. The Island region only gets two spots, and BC has no wild card berths. Just before Oak Bay's elimination, its coach Chris Franklin told The Province he has “no complaints,” arguing that it's most valuable for the tourney to represent all of BC.