Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day.
Former inmate relays trauma during Prisoners’ Justice Day
More than 30 people gathered on the lawn of the Sudbury Jail today to honour the people who died unnatural or violent deaths while incarcerated. Prisoners’ Justice Day is an annual observance hosted by The John Howard Society of Sudbury, Canadian Mental Health Association (Sudbury/Manitoulin), the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northeastern Ontario. It featured speeches, prayers, moments of silence and song. It was also clear from speaker Aurora Stone, a woman with lived experience who now works in peer engagement for Reseau ACCESS Network, that the day should not only honour those who have been lost, but also those who are still suffering and dying. Stone was incarcerated in Hamilton’s Barton Street Jail – formerly known as the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre – for approximately one year beginning in 2015. She told those attending today’s event there were five unnatural deaths in the jail when she was incarcerated. Read more here.
Transitional housing complex approved at $14.4M
A 40-unit transitional housing complex on Lorraine Street with clinical supports to help ease the chronically homeless into permanent community housing will soon become a reality. Ratified by a subsequent city council meeting, the city’s finance and administration committee meeting of council members issued a decisive 9-2 vote in favour of the project on Tuesday. “I’m very proud to be part of this council and very proud of the work we are doing,” Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh said of this and the supervised consumption site the city pushed forward despite a lack of operational funding from the provincial government. Read the full story.
Sudbury pays tribute to veterans of the Afghanistan conflict
A special remembrance service to honour Afghanistan veterans and hosted by the War Pensioners of Canada (WPC) was held at the Cooperative Funeral Home on Lasalle Boulevard in Sudbury Tuesday. The event was to officially surrender the colours (flags) of the Sudbury branch to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, since local WPC membership has declined significantly. The event also paid tribute to the Canadian Forces members who died, or were wounded or who served in the Afghanistan mission. A wreath-laying ceremony was performed at the memorial standing outside the funeral home. Claudette Roberge, mother of deceased Warrant Officer Gaetan Roberge, took part in the wreath-laying. She was joined by Irish Regiment soldier Cpl. Bill Kerr, an Afghanistan veteran. As Sudbury piper Derek Young played a lament, the names of the Afghanistan war dead were read aloud by Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe and Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes. It was a solemn event. The ceremony also featured a rifle salute by members of the Charles C. Golden ‘Silver Star’ ceremonial rifle team. Learn more here.
Delay creditor plan vote, Laurentian faculty union asks members
The union representing professors at Laurentian University is asking members who are creditors of the insolvent university to hold off on voting on the plan of arrangement. Laurentian’s creditors will vote on the “plan of arrangement,” in which the university lays out how it plans to pay them back, on Sept. 14. Provided the plan of arrangement is approved, the university expects to seek a court motion to exit insolvency on Oct. 5. A plan of arrangement is essentially a plan put forward by an insolvent organization to pay out its creditors, and it must be approved by these creditors. Among LU’s creditors are current and former employees of the university, including those who were terminated in 2021 as a result of Laurentian’s insolvency. An Aug. 4 memo distributed to members of the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) said electronic ballots will be distributed this month for members to vote on the plan of arrangement, and voting will take place over several weeks. However, the union said several issues related to the plan of arrangement remain outstanding and must be addressed “before we can recommend a ‘Yes’ vote.” For the full story, visit Sudbury.com's home page.
Memory Lane: What are your memories of shopping at Eaton’s?
On Aug. 24, 1999, Eaton's department store in downtown Sudbury announced its final sale. It was going out of business. The store was part of a mighty chain that had been a part of Canadian families' lives for more than a century. It was where Canada shopped for shoes, clothes, jewelry, hockey skates, furniture and even food. The company, started by a conservative Scotch-Irish immigrant, was bankrupt. After years of economic challenges, Eaton's had racked up $300 million of debt and sought bankruptcy protection in 1997. The next year, the company lost $72 million, and in the first quarter of 1999, it lost $37.7 million. There had not been a business genius in the family since his great-grandfather died, Fred Eaton, who served as Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from 1991 to 1994, told the media at the time. Uniquely Canadian, Eaton's once had 200 stores from coast to coast in major cities and in smaller ones, such as Gander, Stratford, Midland and Mission. Read the full story.
Science North’s new outdoor exhibit showcases SNOLAB research
If you’ve been to Science North recently, you may have noticed a large stainless steel sphere taking up residence outside Sudbury’s science centre. The piece on display is the inner vessel of a dark matter experiment called MiniCLEAN, installed at SNOLAB. SNOLAB is a world-class science facility located deep underground in the operational Vale Creighton nickel mine, situated near Lively. MiniCLEAN stands for (mini Cryogenic Low-Energy Astrophysics with Nobel liquids) and the inner vessel was installed at SNOLAB between 2013 and 2019. It was a research and development component of a global program to test new technologies for dark matter searches. Read the full story on Sudbury.com's home page.
Tuesday weather:
Thursday will bring a mix of sun and cloud. Clearing late in the afternoon. Wind north 20 km/h gusting to 40. High 22. UV index 6 or high. Thursday night will be clear with a low of 9 C.
