Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Tuesday morning.
Former Sudbury city worker gets five years for child pornography
A City of Greater Sudbury employee who pleaded guilty to making, possessing and sharing child sexual abuse material (child pornography) was sentenced in a Sudbury courtroom Dec. 4 to five years in prison. James ‘Jamie’ Edward Doucette, 45, pleaded guilty in June to four charges: making child sexual abuse material in 2006; accessing and sharing child sexual abuse material in 2021, and; possession of a restricted rifle magazine. In court today, Crown Attorney Trent Wilson and Defence Attorney Robert Beckett entered a joint submission of five years to Justice Patrick Boucher. As of 2020, Doucette was listed under the Ontario public sector salary disclosure list as being employed by the City of Greater Sudbury as an advanced care paramedic. Originally charged with more than a dozen offences, including sexual assault charges, after he pleaded guilty to four above charges, the other charges were removed.
Vale Base Metals on the hunt for a new CEO
Deshnee Naidoo is stepping down as chief executive officer for Vale Base Metals (VBM), effective next March 31. A search process is underway to find a successor, who will be based in Toronto, the company said in a Dec. 1 news release. Vale Base Metals is a spinoff company of Brazil’s Vale SA that governs its global base metals assets. It is one of the world’s largest producers of nickel, copper and cobalt operations in Sudbury, Thompson, Man, and Voisey’s Bay, Labrador. In a news release, Mark Cutifani, Vale Base Metals’ chairman, thanked for Naidoo for her commitment and dedication. “She was instrumental in guiding the company through the carve out of the business earlier this year, which has positioned the company for value-creating growth in the coming years. For our producing operations and development projects, business improvement continues to be the focus. I look forward to working with Deshnee until the end of March as we guide the business to the next stage of our journey."
An early peek at the proposed Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square
During the same meeting the city’s elected officials OK’d the $65-million Cultural Hub at Tom Davies Square to proceed, staff offered an early indication of what it might look like. Under this plan, a three-storey library and a two-storey art gallery, with an outdoor terrace connecting the two facilities at the second storey, would take shape at Tom Davies Square. The majority of municipal operations currently situated at Tom Davies Square (200 Brady St.) would shift to the upper floors of 199 Larch Street, whose bottom two floors would be filled by the 30,000-square-foot art gallery. 200 Brady St. would house the new 86,000-square-foot main branch library, with 2,000 square feet allotted to the Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association. The two buildings are attached at the main floor and share a second-floor outdoor terrace.
Steelheads reel in travelling Sudbury Wolves
The Sudbury Wolves were on the road on Sunday afternoon for a game against the powerhouse Mississauga Steelheads. Jakub Vondras was the starting goaltender on the road for the Wolves while Jack Ivankovic was in goal for Mississauga. Coming into this game, the Wolves sat below 17th place in the Ontario Hockey League on the Power Play. Mississauga wasted no time in finding the back of the net in this game, when Finn Harding scored his fifth goal of the season just 1:32 into the game. Mississauga would increase their lead to 2-0 just 1:38 later thanks to a goal by Luke Misa, his 11th of the season.
Smith gets the hat trick as Cubs double up on Paper Kings
Greater Sudbury Cubs’ forward Oliver Smith earned a hat trick on Dec. 3 to propel the squad to a 6-3 win over the Espanola Paper Kings at the Regional Recreation Complex in Espanola on Sunday. Greater Sudbury opened the scoring in this Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League matinee. The Cubs’ Brock Houser fired the puck from the point which eventually found its way onto the stick of Smith on the right side, who slammed it into the open side on Espanola starter Jake Marois. “The marker saw Smith score for a fourth straight outing,” the team said. Espanola tied it up at 12:10 of the first after Owen Fergusson forced a turnover in the neutral zone. This gave Lucas Signoretti the chance to dart in alone and tuck in a low backhand for his NOJHL-leading 26th tally of the season.
Prime: Maintaining your friends list is more important as you age
Lately there has been an avalanche of news stories on how loneliness is a silent killer. We are social animals and, yes, once you remove the connections and conversations it has implications. Mental health and physical well-being is very much affected by your social sphere. We often suffer the loss of the daily collegial links once we retire. Sure they say, “We’ll stay in touch,” and you might get invitations to the staff Christmas party, a company BBQ, or even the annual golf tournament the first year of retirement. However, it seems those networks shrink further just as you turn each of the pages of your calendar. Your business email address was your tie to people you often spent more time with than spouse and family. Decades of just those work related dialogues go silent. Who do you talk to now? The golden handshake and you had to relinquish that email address, and even the company phone. Maybe it felt liberating at first blush. However, soon you may pine. Fortunately, there may be a cohort who also exited the work-world at the same time: peers. Ta-da — a support group that meets for monthly breakfasts, or just a coffee date, is born.
