Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Thursday morning.
City declares gender-based/intimate partner violence an epidemic
With gender-based/intimate partner violence on the rise since the pandemic started, Greater Sudbury city council declared it an epidemic during their Nov. 7 meeting. “Horrific recent events in Sault Ste. Marie have added urgency to the need to act now,” Mayor Paul Lefebvre said during the Nov. 7 city council meeting. “The troubling reality is that gender-based and intimate-partner violence is experienced every day across the province.” Greater Sudbury Police Service responded to 12,812 related calls for service between 2019-22, Lefebvre related, noting that intimate partner violence has been on the rise since the start of the pandemic. “As much as these statistics are very shocking, research shows that these statistics are underestimated,” Lefebvre said. Gender-based and intimate partner violence impacts all facets of life, he said, including education and employment, food security, housing stability and health status. Affected children are more likely to experience negative health outcomes.
City cleared to buy five acres of vacant Minnow Lake land
Approximately five acres of land in Sudbury’s Minnow Lake neighbourhood has been cleared for purchase by the City of Greater Sudbury. The planning committee of city council greenlit the proposal during the closed portion of their Nov. 6 meeting, and their decision was ratified by city council as a whole the following night. The land is located north of Bancroft Drive and west of First Avenue, and is being purchased from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. Meeting chair and Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier told Sudbury.com the purchase includes 5.21 acres of land, with 67 feet of frontage on Bancroft Drive and 498 feet of frontage on First Avenue. It joins adjacent land the city already owns in creating a larger parcel of available property.
Save Thornloe Cheese committee formed
A committee has been formed to help keep Thornloe Cheese from closing its doors for good. It's simply named Save Thornloe Cheese. "We are going to need the entire community's support to make sure that we are able to fight this! says Robin Flewwelling, owner of a dairy farm in Earlton. "The more voices speak up against the closure, the stronger our chance to get our favourite squeaky curds back on the shelf will be." Residents are being asked to show their support at #SaveThornloeCheese. A petition is at a number of area stores and an online petition is in the works. You can email support here. This committee has been organized by the Temiskmaing Dairy Producer Committee. Members are Anna Regele, Dominic Levielle, Sam Loranger, Josh Jackson, Darren Jibb, and Flewwelling.
Supreme Court hears province’s Robinson Huron Treaty appeal
The Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund (RHTLF) faced the province of Ontario in court once again this week, this time in front of the nine judges of the Supreme Court of Canada. Gimaa Angus Toulouse, a RHTLF trustee and chief of Sagamok Anishinabek, told Sudbury.com the hearings focussed on treaty interpretation, or more specifically, what body should be tasked with interpreting the treaty: the courts or the Province of Ontario. The road to the Supreme Court goes back to 2014, when the RHTLF filed an annuities statement of claim with the courts over what they said was an overlooked clause in the original treaty. Under the original 1850 treaty, the Crown promised to pay a perpetual annuity of £600 ($2,400) to members of signatory First Nations, which in 1850 worked out to approximately $1.60 per person. However, the Crown provided an additional incentive for the Anishnawbek communities to sign the treaty, an “augmentation clause”. This clause meant if further wealth was generated in the territory in future years, the Crown was obligated to increase the annuity.
Two friends share $100K Lotto Max prize
Two friends from Sudbury are glad they said yes to Encore after winning $100,000 in the Oct. 10 Lotto Max draw. Suzanne Joly of Hanmer and Catherin Schler-Hendel of Sudbury matched the last six of seven Encore numbers in exact order to win the cash. The winning ticket was purchased at Kwik Way on Cote Boulevard in Hanmer.
Laurentian faculty says it wasn’t given time to review plan
Saying it was not given enough time to review the final document, the Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) plans to challenge the operational transformation plan approved by LU’s board of governors on Nov. 1. The union representing faculty at the university said it was only given the final copy of the document, which now awaits approval by the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, on October 26. LUFA president Fabrice Colin contends this was not enough time for the union’s executive to review the document effectively before it went before the board of governors at a special meeting the following week. He said three of the LUFA executive members were out of town that weekend, two of them at a Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) meeting. Colin said he hopes this matter can be resolved “informally,” and the union’s concerns can be addressed, without the need to file a challenge through the grievance process, which would be used because the plan affects his members’ collective agreement.
