Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Civic Holiday Monday morning.
Here’s the municipal service schedule for the Civic Holiday
In case you forgot, Monday is the Civic Holiday (so enjoy your day!). Here’s how the holiday will impact city services. The following municipal service are impacted by the holiday: no change to household waste collection; landfills and transfer sites will be closed; the Recycling Centre will be open; GOVA Transit will follow holiday routes and schedules; libraries, Citizen Service Centres, Tom Davies Square and the Greater Sudbury Animal Shelter will be closed, and; Greater Sudbury pools and fitness facilities will be closed. 311 and Live Web Chat (311.greatersudbury.ca) will not be available. Call 311 for urgent public works, animal control or COVID-19 enforcement services. Register to submit service requests any time on the Customer Service Portal at 311.greatersudbury.ca or email [email protected].
Sudbury officer cleared in use of anti-riot weapon
A Greater Sudbury Police officer has been cleared by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) for using an anti-riot weapon to stop a man wielding a hatchet. In a July 29 news release, SIU director Joseph Martino said there was “no reasonable grounds to believe that a Greater Sudbury Police Service officer committed a criminal offence in connection with his deployment of an Anti-riot Weapon ENfield (ARWEN) in the course of the arrest of a 42-year-old man in March.” An ARWEN is a form of less-lethal launcher that fires a variety of munitions from a rotary drum magazine, including direct impact batons, chemical irritants and smoke munitions. SIU reported that on March 31, GSPS officers went to the man’s residence to arrest him on an assault charge. “The man refused to present himself without a warrant, and proceeded to threaten the officers through the locked door as they repeatedly asked that he surrender,” the report states. Additional officers, including the GSPS Tactical Unit, were deployed to the residence and police set up containment around the basement apartment, SIU stated, and attempted to negotiate the man’s surrender.
What?! Adam Sandler spotted and Guelph is freaking out
Uncut Gems actor Adam Sandler was spotted at Guelph’s Milestones restaurant on Sunday and Monday. Milestones manager, Brad Clarke, confirmed on his Instagram page Sandler had dined at the restaurant two nights in row. Milestones posted on its Facebook page a selfie with the star. "It was an honour to serve him!" commented Milestones server, Jessica Currie. Siblings Andrew and Abby Piluk drove to the Stone Road restaurant Monday evening just in time as Sandler was leaving the restaurant. The siblings are fans of Sandler and both said Happy Gilmore is one of their favourite movies of his. They shared a fist bump with him and took a photo. “He was just a really nice guy. You know he was open to talking to everybody. He seems like he was having a good time just like everyone else,” said Andrew.
Diversity Day wraps fun in an important message, organizer says
When Bela Ravi, the president of the Multicultural and Folk Arts Association, moved to Sudbury some 25 years ago, she said if she saw a person of East Indian descent, she knew them, and if she didn’t know them, it was because they were new to town. That isn’t the case in 2022, she said during the Diversity Day event at the Grace Hartman Amphitheatre in Bell Park on July 30. Thanks, in part to the federal Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot project, the Nickel City has seen an influx of new cultures and new residents in recent years. With these changing demographics can come some pushback from people uncomfortable with change, which makes sharing a message that Canada, by its very nature and history, is a country that celebrates the differences between people, Ravi said. “The message (of the day) was very good,” Ravi said, offering a reminder that being accepting to diversity isn’t solely about race — it is also about “culture, faith, body shape, disability” and more. The influx of new, non-white faces has resulted in some friction, Ravi said. At the event, she spoke with a person with, just the night before, had been subject to a racist tirade at a convenience store. Early this month, a video featuring a man hurling racist insults at a patron of another convenience store was investigated by police and resulted in charges.
Feds help fund program to link seniors, youth through gardening
Sudbury Shared Harvest was the recent recipient of $57,000 in funding to support the group’s efforts at regenerative planting that also links seniors and youth. This week, Nickel Belt MP Marc Serré and Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe were in Coniston to announce the funding, which was supported jointly by the federal government through FedNor and the New Horizons for Seniors program. At the same time, they spotlighted a couple of New Horizons mini-projects in Coniston: an edible forest garden housed at the Coniston Community Garden and two pollinator gardens at that community’s French and English elementary schools. Jessica Blaauw, the board chair of Sudbury Shared Harvest, explained the initiative is part of the group’s I-GROW initiative. I-GROW stands for International Gardens Regenerating Our World. “Seniors and youth have been working together to plan I-GROW, or the Intergenerational Gardens Regenerating Our World project since early spring,” Blaauw said in a news release. “Regenerative agriculture is more important now than ever and it’s so great to bring people together to get their hands dirty.”
OPP say ATV driver without licence gave officers false name
A 35-year-old Sudbury man is facing a long list of charges after he was stopped by police while driving an off-road vehicle in the French River area July 27. The Nipissing West OPP stopped the man — who was allegedly speeding and not wearing a helmet — on Highway 64 at 6:33 p.m. that evening. Police say the man was a prohibited driver and provided a false name to officers. As a result of an investigation, the man was arrested and charged with seven offences, including giving a false name to police, operating a vehicle while prohibited and speeding. The accused was released on an appearance notice, and is scheduled to appear in Sudbury court Aug. 24.
Cloudy, showers and risk of thunderstorm today
Expect the day to dawn sunny but with increasing cloudiness early in the morning. There is a 60-per-cent chance of showers this afternoon with the risk of a thunderstorm. The wind will be southerly at 30 km/h, gusting to 50 in the morning. Today’s high is 25 with a humidex value of 30. The UV index today is seven, or high. Tonight, the clouds will stick around and there is a 70-per-cent chance of showers, and a low of 11.
