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OPP investigating mysterious explosion sound in Victoria Harbour

Sep 21, 2021 , , , , by shlf

The Southern Georgian Bay OPP and Tay Township fire department are investigating what sounded like a loud explosion in Victoria Harbour, at about 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 6.

Residents around Maple Street, Park Street and George Street reported hearing an explosion, along with a bright, bluish light in the area of the Community Centre and Industrial Park. 

Responding officers patrolled the area without locating a scene or cause of the sound. 

Investigators were contacted after a building on the corner of Maple Street and Park Street was found to have incurred damage to its roof overnight.

Officers from the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshall are attending the scene to assist police with the ongoing investigation.

Anyone with knowledge or video footage of the incident is asked to contact the OPP at , or call Crime Stoppers at . 

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Southern Ontario police see surge in carjackings, chases and more

Sep 17, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Police and residents from Hamilton to Peel Region, Toronto and as far north as Wasaga Beach have been raising concerns about a recent uptick in armed carjackings, high-speed chases through city streets, stunt driving and general disregard of some modified-vehicle enthusiasts for restrictions on gathering sizes, forcing Ontario’s premier to threaten throwing the book at rule breakers in recent weeks.

Peel Regional Police, York Regional Police, Toronto Police Service and the OPP are joining forces to address the disconcerting trend. During Friday’s Peel police board meeting, Chief Nishan Duraiappah said recent driving fatalities, speeding and street racing “is a significant problem.”

The joint operation was announced just two days after a 20-year-old man from Brampton was charged with allegedly stealing a luxury vehicle and taking police on a high-speed chase through Vaughan and Peel Region.

“On top of that are these violent robberies (organized carjackings) and theft of vehicles that we’ve seen,” Duraiappah said at Friday’s meeting. “There has been a significant increase, particularly during the pandemic, right across the GTA, for these types of thefts.”

According to Peel police, since March there has been a large increase of high-end vehicle thefts, with suspects often using weapons and threatening violence.

Jotvinder Sodhi and other members of the Homeowners Welfare Association and Concerned Residents of Brampton raised concerns about armed carjackings, deadly collisions, speeding and stunt driving in a deputation to the Peel board.

“People are being killed and injured every day on our roads,” Sodhi told the Star Monday. “This is a problem for the entire GTA.”

Sodhi said public concern has been elevated since the horrific death of elementary teacher and her three young daughters.

“We need better response and police presence on the roads,” Sodhi said. “Youth engagement is also something that we have to work on.”

Brady Robertson, 20, of Caledon, has since been charged with four counts of dangerous driving causing death and impaired driving causing death in connection with the collision that killed Ciasullo.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said Sodhi raised some legitimate concerns, adding that whether it’s street racing or brazen car thefts, “we have to stem that.”

As of Sept. 14, Toronto police have laid 714 charges for stunt driving, which includes excessive speeding.

Nicole Saltz, a 34-year-old writer, has lived on the third floor of a highrise overlooking the Don Valley Parkway at Broadview and Danforth Aves. for eight years has never had a problem with traffic noise from the DVP before. However, this year there have been loud motorcycles and cars speeding by every night into the early morning.

“If they stop at 4 a.m., that’s a good night,” she said.

Saltz has tracked down people involved in racing events on social media and says the late-night DVP speeding is organized. She and her neighbours have started a Facebook group to track the incidents and have complained to the police, but she said the force told her officers have limited ability to catch the offenders in part because police are prohibited from engaging in high-speed chases for safety reasons.

“Someone’s not doing their job. And it’s to the detriment” of law-abiding residents, she said. “Not to be a drama queen, but it really is ruining my life in a lot of ways. It’s horrible.”

Ontario Provincial Police were on the scene on the weekend in Wasaga Beach where hundreds of modified cars descended this weekend for stunt driving, racing and more at an unsanctioned car rally. Dangerous driving, lack of physical distancing and disregard for public-gathering limits led the OPP to start turning motorists away from the beach town on Saturday night.

The OPP said in a statement Monday that “all available resources” were needed to maintain public safety during what the police service called “an unsanctioned car take-over event.” In all, police issued 172 provincial offence notices and laid charged including stunt and careless driving and speeding.

Some vehicles were seized and 11 tickets were issued the Reopening Ontario Act, which limits outdoor gathering sizes.

The event follows on the heels of a car rally in Ancaster drawing hundreds of people, who had to be dispersed with the help of police forces from across the GTA.

With files from the Star’s Ben Spurr and Wendy Gillis, and Shane MacDonald, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Barrie Advance.

Jason Miller is a Toronto-based reporter for the Star covering crime and justice in the Peel Region. His reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative. Reach him on email: or follow him on Twitter:

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MADD Canada launches Ontario raffle as part of annual Red Ribbon campaign

Sep 15, 2021 , , , , by shlf

This year, MADD Canada’s campaign will look a bit different for Ontarians, but it still has the same goal: to promote sober driving as residents head into the holiday season.

As part of the campaign, MADD Canada has partnered with Ascend Fundraising Solutions to launch a 50/50 draw beginning Nov. 2, through which Ontarians can buy tickets to support the organization, and for a chance to win a minimum $2,000 jackpot.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to affect our ability to host in-person awareness and fundraising events, MADD Canada is piloting new and creative ways to engage people,” MADD Canada chief operating officer Dawn Regan said. “We are very pleased to offer this new initiative that gives Ontarians a chance to win a great prize, while at the same time supporting our vital work to reduce impaired driving, save lives and prevent injuries.”

Ontarians can purchase tickets at . The raffle will run until Dec. 10, with a winner drawn on Dec 11.

As well, an early bird draw for $500 in American Express gift cards will close on Nov. 17 and the winner will be announced the following day.

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Who gets the COVID-19 vaccine first? Federal panel suggests long-term care and people over 80

Aug 27, 2021 , , , , by shlf

OTTAWA—Residents and staff of long-term-care homes and Canadians over 80 should get the first shots of limited early supplies of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to revised recommendations issued by a federal advisory panel.

The national advisory committee on immunization, an external body, narrowed its preliminary advice to provinces because it is now clear Canada will get a limited supply of 6 million doses — enough to inoculate just 3 million people — in the first three months of 2021.

It recommends priority access should go to people living or working in long-term-care homes for seniors; to elderly Canadians over 70, starting with those over 80 (and working downward in five-year increments); followed by health-care workers and personal support workers in direct contact with patients; then by adults in Indigenous communities where infection can have disproportionate consequences.

The final call will be made by each province and territory which is responsible for health care, including the delivery of vaccines.

Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said the four “key population” categories “were informed by an assumption that we’d get 6 million doses” and it will allow provinces to plan the “sequencing” of a vaccine rollout.

“As a ballpark, these four groups of people, as things are rolled out, should be covered by the initial doses,” she said.

Health Canada has not yet approved any vaccine for distribution, but says it could authorize Pfizer/BioNTech’s candidate within the next week, with approval for Moderna’s vaccine candidate expected soon too.

Pfizer is closest to regulatory approval in Canada, and so provincial governments are scrambling to get ready to put in place the “ultracold” chain of supply for handling the vaccines.

At Queen’s Park, Premier Doug Ford named the rest of the members of his vaccine distribution task force led by retired Gen. Rick Hillier, welcomed them, and again complained his government still is awaiting “answers” from Ottawa.

“We still need answers. The answers of what type of vaccine we’re getting and when we’re getting it. And along with how much are we getting? And that’s going to make, I know, Gen. Hillier’s job a little easier, even though it will be the most largest and complicated logistical distribution of anything we’ve seen in this country in many, many years.

“And it’s our job to make sure to distribute it in a timely fashion, and when I say timely, I mean almost immediately, and it’s who is getting it first and where we’re going to deliver it, and what locations.”

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu said the federal government continues to have “extremely collaborative” negotiations with premiers over how the limited initial shipments of vaccines should be divvied up.

But Hajdu refused to say what position the Liberal government is taking in those negotiations, or to state whether allotments should be determined by each province’s share of the population, or by some other measurement, for example by its share of high-risk individuals, or by the state of the COVID-19 outbreak in each province. The federal government will also hold back a supply for populations it is responsible for including military members and their families and for unforeseen emergency purposes.

Hajdu said the Trudeau government will “support” the provinces in whatever they need to distribute vaccines, and will ramp up its communications and advertising in social media and traditional media to encourage public confidence in immunization.

Both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccine candidates employ novel messenger RNA technology, using bits of the genetic code of the coronavirus, to trigger an immune response in people who get the vaccine. Both are a two-dose vaccination, with the prime or first injection followed by a second dose from 21 to 28 days later.

Both companies have reported preliminary results from phase three clinical trials that show a high degree of efficacy — up to 95 per cent effective — with minimal side effects.

Each requires specialized freezers for storage and handling; Pfizer’s vaccine needs “ultracold” minus 80C freezers and has stringent requirements to be used within days of thawing, whereas Moderna’s needs cold minus 20C freezers, and is stable for up to 30 days in a regular refrigerator.

Canada had initially ordered 20 million doses from Pfizer with an option to buy up to 56 million additional doses; and 20 million doses from Moderna, with options to purchase 36 million more.

On Friday, after headlines splashed that Pfizer had revised downward its anticipated production schedule for 2020, federal Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand announced Canada had exercised its option to purchase an additional 20 million doses from Moderna, for a total of 40 million.

In a statement to the Star, Pfizer said it had publicly flagged its revised 2020 production schedule in early November and does not expect the changes to reduce the amount of vaccine supply destined for Canada.

Christina Antoniou, Pfizer Canada’s director of corporate affairs, said, “based on current projections we expect to produce globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.”

The challenge of scaling up production of a new vaccine, including the raw material supply chain took longer than expected, as did the later-than-expected outcome of the clinical trial which required the company “to focus additional efforts on clinical trial production,” said Antoniou.

She said modifications to Pfizer’s full-scale production lines in the U.S. and Europe are now complete and “finished doses are being made at a rapid pace.”

“We are continuing to work with urgency in collaboration with multiple stakeholders, including Health Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada and Provincial/Territorial public health decision makers, to bring the vaccine to Canada, pending regulatory approval, and to support the government’s COVID-19 vaccine immunization plan in Canada.”

Hajdu criticized Conservative MP Derek Sloan for sponsoring a petition by an anti-vaccine group Vaccine Choice Canada that she said is “full of misinformation.”

“It’s full of unscientific information and it is extremely fear-driven. And it’s unfortunate to see politicians utilize their power to provide misinformation to Canadians when what Canadians need is clear, concise, science-based evidence, evidence-based information.

“Vaccine hesitancy is real,” said Hajdu.

Asked what percentage of the Canadian population should ultimately be vaccinated for a campaign to be successful, Tam could not say.

“Nobody actually knows the level of vaccine coverage to achieve what might be called community immunity or herd immunity. We have an assumption that you would probably need about 60 to 70 per cent of people to be vaccinated, but we do not know that actually for sure.”

Canadians generally have a high uptake for childhood vaccinations “in the 80 per cent plus range.”

Ottawa has purchased enough vaccine doses “for all Canadians who want to be vaccinated to receive the vaccine. So that is the actual goal, as many Canadians as fast as possible for safe and effective vaccine.”

Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter:

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Collingwood YMCA asks town for help with COVID reopening costs

Aug 27, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Collingwood’s YMCA is ready to open its doors.

First, though, it needs a little financial help.

The YMCA of Simcoe-Muskoka has asked the Town of Collingwood for $25,000 to assist with restarting costs for the local facility, following what will be a nearly eight-month closure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The money would be used to purchase protective barriers, air purifiers, hand-sanitizing stations, and cleaning and PPE supplies.

The request also includes $5,300 for the Y’s financial assistance program for members who are unable to pay full membership fees.

The Y has been closed since mid-March, and is scheduled to reopen on Nov. 13. It has not been collecting membership fees during that time.

Anyone headed into the building, regardless of whether it’s to take part in a program, or just work out, will be required to book in advance.

Local manager Nilusha Premasinghe told councillors the members have been given 30 days advance notice of the Y reopening, and have been given the option to put membership fees on hold, or to cancel, if they’re not comfortable in returning to the facility at this time.

The Y had more than 4,800 members prior to the onset of the pandemic, with about 875 members receiving some form of financial support.

Rob Armstrong, the CEO of the YMCA of Simcoe-Muskoka, said the financial losses for the local facility from being closed for more than six months is expected to be about $1 million.

While the Y was closed to members since mid-March, there have still been ongoing costs of about $25,000 a month to maintain the building, he said.

Most of the facility’s 57 staff have been on lay-off.

A survey of the facility’s members indicated 45 per cent would be willing to return to the Y within three weeks of opening. Armstrong said the return rate at other reopened Ys across the country has been around 20 per cent.

“We recognize we’re not in a unique situation from the perspective of a reduced income, however, as a charitable organization with a limited fiscal risk threshold, we are working hard to minimize the impacts of reopening will have on our organization,” Armstrong said.

In September, the Y made a similar request of Wasaga Beach council for funding to assist with reopening costs, as well as up to $900,000 to assist with operating costs over the next two years. That council has not yet made a decision on the request.

The Y has also announced the permanent closure of the facilities in Barrie, Orillia, and Parry Sound due to the pandemic.

The request was referred to municipal staff to review and consider how the request fits with the $2.5-million emergency fund established earlier in the year to address pandemic issues. CAO Sonya Skinner said as the provincial emergency order has expired, so has the recovery fund; she said council may need to consider re-establishing the fund if it intends to access it to assist the Y.


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Police said no foul play involved in the drowning death of missing Bradford teen, Siem Zerezghi

Aug 25, 2021 , , , , by shlf

South Simcoe Police have confirmed the body found in a pond Oct. 30 was Siem Zerezghi, the missing teenager from Bradford. 

Siem’s death was due to drowning, Chief Andrew Fletcher said at a news conference held at the Bradford Leisure Centre at 471 West Park Ave. Nov. 2. 

“This was not the ending we had hoped for,” Fletcher said.

Siem was missing since Oct. 24, and was last seen at around 7:45 a.m. in his neighbourhood in the area of Professor Day and Northgate drives. 

During a “large scale” search that involved SSP’s ATVs and drone, and policing partners including York Regional and Ontario Provincial police, searchers found some of Siem’s items near a pond about 100 m away from his home at 8th Line and Professor Day. 

“Every possible resource was utilized for this investigation,” Fletcher said. 

Fletcher said Siem’s jacket and one of his flip flops were found in mud on the bank near the pond. 

OPP Marine Unit was called in to search the pond and found Siem’s body. 

Following an autopsy, police said there is no foul play involved in Siem’s death. 

Fletcher said he doesn’t believe Siem knew how to swim.

The reason for Siem going to the pond that day is still under investigation. Police said they know Siem would often walk to his aunt’s house nearby, but he did not go there the day he went missing. 

“We haven’t been able to determine why he left that morning,” Fletcher said. 

Siem was a very private, quiet person who did not tell people about his plans, Fletcher said.

That morning, Siem’s father was at work. 

Based on the information police have, they are unable to determine his movements the day he went missing, Fletcher said, adding the investigation continues as they try to obtain more video footage. 

Many members of the community who took to Facebook wrote their concerns, questioning why an Amber Alert was not issued the day of Siem’s disappearance. 

Fletcher said they were not permitted to use an Amber Alert, which is only used for people who go “missing in suspicious circumstances early on in the investigation and it’s usually in the case where we have an abduction or a child removed from a home, we have a vehicle or a person, we have something to go on. That was not the criteria for this investigation.”

Fletcher said his team and policing partners involved in the search for Siem will be grieving the outcome, but are “thankful” to have found his body, as it provides the family and investigators with some closure. 

Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor Rob Keffer also attended the news conference and said the support from the community was “heartwarming”. 

“This certainly isn’t the outcome we were wanting but we are here to support one another, Siem’s loved ones and family get through this very trying time,” Keffer said. 

“I am very proud of my community for the support they have showed.”

On Nov. 1, the community gathered at the library and held a candlelit walk in Siem’s memory. Siem’s family also attended. The walk was organized by a member of the community. 

A , also created by a member of the community, was created to support the family. More than $30,000 has been raised so far. 

On Oct. 29, .

“Please Siem, your family loves you, miss you. Please come home, Siem,” his eldest sister, Ruta, 21, said.

Siem also had a twin sister. 

The family and community were hopeful for Siem’s return. Many stores across Bradford hung posters of him when he was missing. 

Police said the family is “understandably” devastated at this time, and ask for their privacy, while feeling grateful for the outpouring of support from the community. 

SSP asks anyone with information to contact the force at , or , or Crime Stoppers at . You can also submit information online at .

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BEHIND THE CRIMES: Dad launches Project Angel to remember loved ones including his own children

Aug 23, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Imagine for a moment, coming home late one evening and expecting your children to be waiting for you. You enter the darkened house and they are nowhere to be found. They were at a friend’s house earlier that day. Were they late? Or were they just playing games? As any parent would be, you’re annoyed and maybe even a little angry that your kids would do this.

Don’t they know how emotional, how terrifying it is for a parent to come home and their children not there?

For Marcel and Jeannine Babineau, in the fall of 1984, it turned out it wasn’t a game at all. They had returned home from an evening hockey game, they discovered their two middle children, 11-year-old Daniel and Monique, nine, weren’t home. In fact, they were nowhere to be found.

“We looked around the house for them, checked with the neighbours, and nobody had seen them,” said Marcel.

“They found them both that night, behind the two portables at the school, strangled.”

Ray Holden, chief of the Orangeville Police Service at the time, delivered the news to the family after Daniel and Monique had been identified.

Marcel said the first feeling the news left them with was being lost.

“It was a shock,” he said. “First to realize that this was real, that it really happened, then to the siblings left behind. Our oldest was 13, and the youngest had just turned eight.”

The murders of the Babineau children sent ripples of fear throughout the community.

“Everyone was afraid,” recalled Holden. “Everyone thought it was going to be someone from out of town – no one in town could do that. Mothers were walking their children to school, even from three to four houses away, afraid of them being abducted.”

In a short period of time, with its population of less than 20,000 people, the word Orangeville was in headlines across Canada.

Part of what led the case to receive so much attention was due to an expert witnesses, a psychiatrist named Thomas Radecki, who blamed the act on the game Dungeons and Dragons. During the 1980s and early ’90s, the popular role-playing game generated much controversy, and was claimed to be behind a number of deaths.

As Orangeville Police worked with OPP investigators to sort through more than 600 interviews, suspicion began to arise around a local ninth grader.

In the days that followed the murders, the teen would pass the police station on his way to and from school.

“He’d pass by, and was always looking in, really interested in what was taking place as far as the investigation was concerned,” said Holden.

A week later, they had a signed confession.

“If affected all of our staff because it was two children that were murdered, and as it turned out, it was a youngster who committed the murder,” said Holden.

The case and trial marked the first time the Young Offenders Act would be used since being passed in April 1984.

“The worst a perpetrator could receive under the act was three years and that really bothered everyone,” said Holden.

In March 1985, the teen was ruled not criminally responsible due to insanity during a private plea bargain. He was sent to a psychiatric care facility in Oakville, to remain there until the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario deemed him no longer a risk to himself or others.

Though he would not have to face the weight of his actions by remaining in Orangeville, the Babineaus and community were left to find their way through the horror he had left behind.

“It had a very big impact,” said Marcel. “The population was very small and everybody kind of knew each other. So it affected everyone.”

And so, the family moved forward with their lives, demonstrating strength and resilience.

Nearly four decades later, Marcel is still an active and recognized member of the community.

“The way I was brought up was to help others,” he said. “We were raised to care for each other. I can’t say it’s been easy; it took a long time.”

Eventually, he launched Project Angel, which was responsible for the placement of a wooden statue of an angel at Forest Lawn Cemetery, as well as the restoration of the Soldiers War Memorial.

“It wasn’t just to remember Monique and Daniel; it’s a memory of all the loved ones,” explained Marcel.

The carving has been temporarily removed for restoration, but will be returned to its space in Forest Lawn, where Marcel hopes it will continue to bring comfort to those who have lost loved ones.

“I never had a chance to say goodbye to them. I feel them every day, and it’s an inspiration,” he said. “After (nearly) 40 years, either you deal with it or you don’t. I have kind of a saying, just like a car battery, unless the negative and positive work together the car’s not going to start.”

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Heather Scoffield: Ingenuity and government aid will help. Politicizing public health guidance won’t

Aug 19, 2021 , , , , by shlf

From its perch along the edge of the Rideau River, is making the most of a bad situation without making it worse.

The restaurant has invested heavily in heat lamps and coverings on its patios, of course, and customers can also rent a private fire pit, order up hot dogs, marshmallows and hot chocolate (with or without Baileys), and have a night out on the town — all within public health guidelines for orange-zone Ottawa. Live music too.

Take that, sub-zero temperatures!

Ingenuity will certainly go a long way in helping businesses on the edge weather the pandemic. Chelsea Skillen, manager at The Bridge Public House, believes it will work for them. But bold ideas won’t go far enough for many firms involved in food services, accommodation and tourism, now that the second wave shows signs of spiralling.

Premiers are getting an earful about the closures at hand, often from the very entrepreneurs who helped elect them. And they’re bending, adding dollops of politics to the public health recommendations that were supposed to rule the day. We’re seeing it in Ontario and Manitoba this week, and we’ve seen it in Quebec too — premiers who steer away from stringency only to have to walk back their lenient guidelines because they just aren’t strict enough to keep the virus at bay.

It’s short-sighted and disruptive, and it doesn’t have to be this way.

Fragile companies that are the lifeblood of our communities need more than ingenuity to get through to the other side of this crisis, but they certainly don’t need a counterproductive watering-down of public-health rules for the sake of politics.

There are many, many supports in place to sop up the hurt.

Hundreds of billions of dollars in government funding have been earmarked for individuals and businesses alike, structured so that they can scale back their economic activity to a safer level if need be.

on Friday that 54 per cent of businesses were drawing down on the Canada Emergency Business Account, and a third were using the federal wage subsidy to pay their employees. Those numbers were from August, when COVID-19 was in remission. Since then, the programs have been extended and enriched, meant to help the firms that have not been able to move online or crack the code of operating safely in the second wave.

The commercial rent subsidy has been completely overhauled, and there are now top-ups coming into place targeted specifically at areas heading toward lockdown.

On top of all that, the federal government has issued about $20 billion to the provinces so they can gear up for the second wave.

The point of it all was specifically so that premiers would not have to give in to pressure from companies to stay open and could focus instead on controlling the virus — which would in turn allow companies to reopen sooner rather than later.

But some of the provinces have been slow to spend the federal money. The rapid testing and contact tracing that was supposed to help businesses stay open are not in full swing, tied up in red tape and inadequate investment. And there are holes in some of the government funding that mean some companies are slipping through the cracks.

So it’s no surprise there is pressure on governments to be more lenient. But the responsible answer is to spend the money and fill the holes, not to waffle on public health restrictions as Premier Doug Ford has done this week.

At the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, chief economist Trevin Stratton says additional federal support targeted very narrowly at the hospitality sector would be affordable and smart. He also points to franchisees who can’t qualify for rent subsidies because they are part of a chain, despite operating like a small business.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business sees new companies without a track record left behind, as well as tiny firms often involving just one or a few people.

And struggling firms can’t really take on any more debt, having already overloaded on that, the Statistics Canada report suggests — which means more loans are not the best answer.

Those holes can be readily filled by flexible governments willing to lend a hand. Some firms will fail, but most of them should be able to scrape by if they have a clear idea of what to expect from governments and public health authorities, and if government support is sufficient and predictable.

Winter will be grim, says Stratton, and companies on the edge will need all the help they can get — plus a recognition that their own ingenuity and dedication to respecting public health guidelines can make customers safer.

Luck helps too, says Skillen at The Bridge Public House. They’re on four acres of land in the heart of the city and have a dedicated customer base that’s all in for eating outdoors, even in the cold.

“We’re going day by day, rolling with the punches.”

Heather Scoffield is the Star’s Ottawa bureau chief and an economics columnist. Follow her on Twitter:

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Orillia OPP takes aim at internet luring

Aug 17, 2021 , , , , by shlf

Orillia’s OPP detachment commander is encouraged that area youth are reporting instances of internet luring, saying their efforts are sparking investigations and leading to arrests.

Insp. Veronica Eaton raised the issue while cataloguing the range of crimes investigated by police during a November meeting of the city’s police services board.

“As much as it’s a sad story that that’s happening, it is a good news story that those young people know to report it and that it’s wrong,” Eaton told the board’s members. “I’m trying to see the positive out of that one.”

Eaton’s statistical report painted a picture of the crimes investigated within the area patrolled by the local detachment from July through September.

Over that time, police responded to 47 sexual assaults with 40 per cent of cases cleared, 10 of them by charges.

Four victims declined to move forward with an investigation and seven of the cases remain under investigation, Eaton said.

In the remaining cases police did not have enough evidence to proceed with a charge, she added. Diving deeper into the data, Eaton said the incidents included internet luring for sexual purposes.

One charge was laid in July in relation to the offence, while two more in August and September remain under investigation.   

“We did have a few occurrences where people were trying to lure minors over the internet that ultimately got reported to police,” Eaton said.

Police over the same three-month period responded to more than 240 reports of domestic violence that ranged “from verbal to criminal in nature,” Eaton said.

Slightly less than 30 per cent of those cases involved a criminal act, she added.

One abduction was reported over the same period.

“That was in relation to human trafficking and we did apprehend the person responsible for that,” Eaton said.

Police also investigated 107 assault cases over the same period, 76 of which were cleared by charges.

“Five of those cases were actually (involving someone) assaulting a police officer,” she said.

Orillia OPP responded to five robberies during the three-month period, with police laying a charge in one case and continuing to investigate the others.


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LIVE VIDEO: Ontario Premier Doug Ford provides daily update on COVID-19 November 16

Aug 12, 2021 , , , , by shlf

In a news conference at Queen’s Park, Ontario Premier Doug Ford and provincial cabinet ministers Christine Elliott (health), Vic Fedeli (economic development), Lisa Thompson (government and consumer services), and Peter Bethlenfalvy (president of the Treasury Board) provide an update on their government’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) pandemic.