“Bear Bangers” sounds like either a book by Chuck Tingle or maybe an Ursine Street Gang; Yogi and Boo-boo defending their turf.
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Basically a really loud blank. Some of them use a proprietary “launcher”, others are a shell that fits in a 12 gauge flare launcher.
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“I don’t think Ranger would like this, Yogi”.
“Relax, Boo-Boo my little friend. Ranger isn’t going to know…”
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“It’s a food product, essentially” https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/megyn-kelly-explains-her-description-of-pepper-spray-as-a-food-product-essentially/100649
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I’m sure your experience is more relevant or recent than mine; I grew up in B.C. bear country, but haven’t been there in many years. However, I have never heard of B.C. forbidding bear spray in provincial parks. Your advice about interaction with bears is otherwise consistent with my understanding of best practice, however it is worth noting that many bear attacks are predatory so smelling like a human is also an issue. Here is a link to a B.C. Parks page where they present their recommendations for appropriate safe behaviours, and includes the use of bear spray: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/misc/bears/
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Yeah, environment makes all the difference. The work I’ve done for high-end custom fabrication shops (so we’re talking about companies that basically build machines that constitute most, if not all of an assembly line for a product or component–stuff like magnet winders, automatic-fed assembly machines, just intricate stuff like that) people tend to be very positive about PPE because those are project-based and require high skill.
The place where I got a lot of resistance were things were largely in the automotive and RV sector, and it was a different environment. There are a lot of factors, but the main ones were that these were largely people that weren’t yet good enough to get a job doing anything intricate, and it was unlikely that they would because these were all rate-bonus companies meaning that they reward people working faster, which means those people will do anything–including completely fabricating safety test results, to make sure they got an extra 50 or 100 dollars on their check. Serious stuff too. I’m talking bad welds on RV frame cross members, and spindles welded onto axle tubes with almost zero penetration.
It was the lure of money for speed, and the overall “cowboy” attitude of those places that created the attitude, I think.
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Apparently they’ve changed policy since I was last at Bowron Lakes:
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/misc/bears/bearbowr.html
They used to outright ban any kind of aggressive deterrent. But apparently are now encouraging pepper spray.
But yes, in anycase you want to avoid food conditioning the bears, and they’re not going to treat humans as prey during the times of year this park is open.
I’d actually be much more wary of moose. One year a bull moose ran through camp, stomping on a backpack and completely destroying a day’s food. The next year we came down a portage trail and at the end of it was a cow with a calf grazing in the marshy launch area. Needless to say we quietly backed up the trail and had lunch on the other side of the portage. When we came back about an hour later they had left.
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Bowron Lakes, I believe my cousine has done that ring…she lives in Bella Coola and is a very avid hiker. Ya, bull moose=crazy depending on the time of year 
…but, lately, at least, grizzly bears have been bad. Five fatalities this year that I know of, and I don’t pay particular attention to the subject
Americans always make a fuss about Australian fauna being dangerous, but to be honest, nothing in Australia scares me as much as bears would.
Oz critters will mostly only hurt you if you’re stupid enough to poke at them; American critters will rip right through the side of your tent to get at your snacks.
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Emus are terrifying. I don’t care what you say, that’s a dinosaur and it wants my blood.
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This is true.
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Your venomous spiders and snakes, they would scare me. You can’t see 'em until it’s too late. And GWS? I’ll stay on the beach, please
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