Good morning, Nickel City! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Tuesday morning.
Sudbury family helping Ukraine refugees settle in to new home
A couple from Kuznetsovsk, Ukraine is now calling Greater Sudbury home after fleeing the country and escaping the Russian invasion. Svitlana Uzair is Ukrainian, and her husband, Uzair Mahmood, is from Pakistan. It is customary in Pakistan for wives to take their husband’s first name as their married name, they said. They have a two-year-old son, Ali, and all three of them have moved half way across the world, to Sudbury, where they are trying to rebuild their lives. Luckily, Svitlana and Uzair found Roch and Julie Vaillancourt, who have opened their home to the Ukraine refugees. The Vaillancourts are helping Svitlana and Uzair become familiar with the city and to settle into their new lives. “Things are going amazingly well,” said Vaillancourt, several days after Svitlana and Uzair moved into their basement, which has been revamped into a small apartment to give the family privacy. Weeks ago, Vaillancourt was watching the news and saw a story about anothe
‘Inspirational’: Arts community pays tribute to Gary Di Salle
Local musician and educator Gary Di Salle is being remembered by the local arts community after his sudden passing at the age of 66 on May 22. Several local arts organizations have paid tribute to Di Salle on their Facebook pages over the past week, including Northern Lights Festival Boréal, Jazz Sudbury and YES Theatre. During a May 25 press conference in which YES Theatre and Sudbury Theatre Centre announced details of their new collaboration, YES/STC artistic director Alessandro Costantini said the companies’ upcoming season would be dedicated to Di Salle’s memory. Costantini explained Di Salle, a talented guitarist, had lent his talents to every YES Theatre production since 2018. “He just had this infectious brilliance to him, and we're certainly going to really miss him,” Costantini said. “He was such an advocate for the organization. He was always just so warm, and he was very skilled as a musician as well.” Di Salle’s obituary said he was “a gifted musician and inspirational leader in the Sudbury musical community who was loved and appreciated by so many.”
No corruption in case of alleged KED bribery: OPP
The OPP investigation into Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier’s allegation he was offered a bribe to approve a location for a new municipal arena in 2017 has concluded. “Investigators concluded there is no evidence to support the belief that the councillor was influenced to vote in favour of the project in 2017, as that councillor abstained from the vote and did not report any attempted offer of benefit in exchange for his vote,” according to a media release issued by the city. In a Sept. 4, 2021, Facebook post, Montpellier wrote, “Due to an offered financial conflict of interest, I did not vote on the locations.” “Being familiar with my business involvement and participation with Ontario and Michigan casinos, both (a representative from the casino and developer) suggested the opportunity to personally profit by supporting the Kingsway location,” he continued. “This for myself as a city councilor is clearly unethical and cause to abstain.” Montpellier subsequently denied being offered a bribe.
Passport clinic being held in New Sudbury on Saturday
A passport clinic is scheduled to be held at the New Sudbury Public Library from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. Hosted by Sudbury Liberal MP Viviane Lapointe, the clinic is being held on a first come, first served basis, with more information available through the MP’s office at 705-673-7107. The clinic will include public guidance on passport applications and a mail-out option. Additional details on requirements can be found by clicking here. Passport Canada is currently experiencing a high volume of requests, so people are encouraged to allow for approximately 60-90 days for processing if submitting through the clinic. The New Sudbury Public Library is located at 1346 Lasalle Blvd.
Advance voting jumps by 60.3% locally
Eager to hit up the polls early, 15,919 people had already cast their ballots for the June 2 provincial election in the Sudbury and Nickel Belt electoral districts as of Monday. This is a 5,991-person or 60.3 per cent increase over the 9,928 ballots cast in advance of the 2018 provincial election. In 2018, 4,780 people voted at advance polling stations in Sudbury and 5,148 people cast a ballot at advance polling stations in Nickel Belt. Thus far in this year’s provincial election season, 8,744 ballots have already been cast in Sudbury and 7,175 votes have been recorded in Nickel Belt. This accounts for 12.9 per cent of eligible voters in Sudbury and 10.4 per cent of eligible voters in Nickel Belt. In 2018, 7.1 per cent of eligible voters took advantage of advance voting in Sudbury, and 7.7 per cent did so in Nickel Belt.
Transitional housing, consumption site get candidates’ support
Although Greater Sudbury city council has pushed forward with a supervised consumption site and supported transitional housing complex, they did so without the provincial funds required. Prior to the writ dropping for the June 2 provincial election, the incumbent Progressive Conservatives had yet to commit any funding for these facilities, including the medical staff that fall under provincial jurisdictions and typically funded as such. Sudbury.com reached out to Sudbury’s main provincial candidates earlier this week, and received confirmation that the Green, NDP and Liberal parties would provide funding if elected. Progressive Conservative candidate Marc Despatie has yet to return Sudbury.com’s request for comment. Neither he nor Nickel Belt Progressive Conservative candidate Randy Hazlett have returned any interview requests thus far in the election season. Despite the two facilities aimed at targeting the city’s homelessness/opioid crisis falling under provincial jurisdiction, the city’s elected officials determined last year that the efforts were too important to wait on the province to make a reality.
Hedley singer facing new sexual assault charge in Kirkland Lake
Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard, who is currently awaiting a verdict in his sexual assault trial, has been charged in another alleged sexual assault. Hoggard, the frontman for the band Hedley, was charged in March with sexual assault causing bodily harm in an incident alleged to have taken place on June 25, 2016 in Kirkland Lake, Ont. The case was briefly before a court in nearby Haileybury, Ont., last Thursday – just days after Hoggard took the stand in Toronto, where he is charged with sexually assaulting two women, one of whom was 16 at the time. The new charge – which is due back before the court Aug. 4 – could not be reported on at the time due to the risk of tainting the jury hearing the Toronto case. But jurors there have now begun their deliberations, meaning the new charge can be made public. Hedley played the Kirkland Lake Homecoming festival on June 24, 2016. The incidents at the heart of the Toronto trial, meanwhile, took place in the Toronto area in September and November of that year.
Cloudy, slightly less humid day in store
Expect a mainly cloudy day for your Wednesday with a high of 26 and a humidex of 27. There is a 40-per-cent chance of showers in the afternoon. The wind will be out of the west at 20 km/h, gusting to 40 late in the morning. The UV index today is seven, or high. Tonight, the skies will clear and the temperature will drop to 10.
