Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Thursday morning.
Video: City plow driver targeted her property, homeowner says
The city has started an investigation after a city sidewalk plow was videotaped crashing into a free little library outside of a Levack house and leaving the broken box lying in the roadway. The video, which resident Chantelle Gorham posted to social media pages where it’s gaining traction, shows a sidewalk plow slam into a free little library and continue forward, leaving it broken in the street. In photographs of its aftermath included in the video, Gorham includes images of two pillars outside her house, which she said were damaged by the plow. Gorham said the video was filmed at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday. As an outspoken critic of the city’s snow-clearing efforts, Gorham alleges the incident was a deliberate attack. “It would be easy to jump to a conclusion, but without a proper investigation it’s inappropriate for me to come to a conclusion,” city general manager of Growth and Infrastructure Tony Cecutti told Sudbury.com.
Online fundraiser for mom of teens involved in fatal crash
A GoFundMe has been started for the mother of two teens involved in a fatal Jan. 18 crash. Krayvn Collins-Bouchard, 16, was killed in the crash on Highway 535. The GoFundMe page, which as of Wednesday morning had raised more than $17,000 of its $25,000 goal in just five days, said that Krayvn’s older brother, Koven Collins-Bouchard, 17, was also in the vehicle, and is in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. “We are all praying for Koven’s life,” said the fundraising page, which said that his mother, Shirley-Anne Collins, is by his side, “doing her best with so much to deal with mentally with the loss of one son and the other trying to hang on.” “This is a single mother who lives, sleeps and breathes for her children and this tragedy has shattered her life,” said the fundraising page.
Speakeasy, complete with secret entrance, opening soon downtown
Offering a blast from the past harking back to an era it’s unlikely anyone’s old enough to remember first-hand, a prohibition-era-style speakeasy is opening downtown. The Night Owl speakeasy will be accessed on a reservation-only basis via two entry points. The back door will feature a phone booth patrons can use to ring a bartender who can let them in, and a second entrance is being kept a secret, to be experienced. The speakeasy will be accompanied by a new Books and Beans café in the basement of 158 Elgin Street. With its owners currently waiting on a liquor license, the speakeasy is not exactly the same as an illegal prohibition-era venue, but keeps up its appearances throughout the basement space.
Miners with lung disease still face uphill compensation battle
Miners in Northern Ontario who’ve been diagnosed with workplace-related chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) say they’ve faced an uphill battle trying to get compensation from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). That’s according to the work of Sherry Mongeau, a researcher with the School of Rural and Northern Health at Laurentian University, who presented the results of her doctoral thesis on Jan 20 during the 2023 edition of CROSHCon. The annual research showcase is hosted by the Sudbury-based Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health (CROSH). This year’s theme was “Resetting the Dial on Workplace Climate.” "It gives a deeper understanding of previously identified issues of living with COPD and suggests why individuals act in the way they do,” Mongeau said of her study. “It brings awareness that the main challenges for occupational COPD are workplace hazards, a lack of early detection, and the constraints toward recognizing COPD as an occupational disease.”
Covergalls CEO: CSA is right, ill-fitting PPE endangers women
A recent report said Canadian women are not getting the best experience with PPE (personal protective equipment) in the Canadian workplace. The report, published by the Canadian Standards Association, concluded that poorly designed and poorly fitting PPE can have serious negative impacts for women. The 119-page study was released in November and the Sudbury-based Covergalls Workwear company is the only private designer/manufacturer of women's industrial clothing mentioned in the document. Covergalls provides custom-fitted coveralls and clothing for women in the mining industry. Alicia Woods, the CEO and founder of Covergalls, said she was pleased to see the report and said it was about time the issue was more clearly defined. "I launched Covergalls in 2012, right? So that was like a decade ago. It has really been a struggle and a challenge to educate individuals, companies, organizations that there was really a need for this," said Woods. The CSA study found that 59 per cent of women in the workplace in Canada use the wrong-sized PPE at least some of the time; that 28 per cent of women do not wear all their required PPE because of issues with the fit; and that 38 per cent of women use a "workaround" to make their PPE fit better.
Swamps and snakes lead to a career for Sagamok woman
Chevaun Toulouse of Sagamok Anishnawbek has spent her life in swamps. Whether snatching snakes or catching turtles, it was on the land, chasing reptiles and amphibians, that she found her happiness. She also found her career. She hopes to one day bring everything she has learned back to her community, but also, to bring her community to every other part of Ontario, especially the Great Lakes region. Now a mother to a two-year-old, Toulouse is a full-time biology and Indigenous environmental science student at Trent University and three years ago, she began working as a researcher for a new series Great Lakes Untamed. It was a chance to enlighten others on Indigenous ways of being and land stewardship, but also, to be six months pregnant, lugging gear to Pelee Island, turning up rocks in search of a snake, the Blue Racer. A large non-venomous snake, the Blue Racer (in Ojibwe, Giizhgwaanzo Ggwejkazhwe-Gnebigoons) is endangered and found only in one part of Canada, Pelee Island, the southernmost tip of the country. When she speaks of her time with the project, there is abject glee in her voice.
High of -8 and mainly cloudy today
Expect a mainly cloudy day for Thursday with a high of -8. The wind will be northerly at 30 km/h before lightening in the early afternoon. The temperature will be steady at -8, with a wind chill near -18. The UV index today is one, or low. Tonight, the skies will clear and the temperature will dip to -19.
