Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Tuesday morning.
GSPS responds to ‘every call’ related to intimate-partner violence
Following two local declarations classifying gender-based and intimate partner violence to be an epidemic, Greater Sudbury Police Service shed some light on how they’ve been handling it. Perhaps the most puzzling question has been, why is intimate partner violence on the rise? Between 2012 and 2022, the low point was 2014, when 2,190 incidents were recorded. The high point was 2020, when 3,377 incidents were recorded, with the two subsequent years finding numbers drop slightly, to 3,293 in 2021 and 3,227 in 2022. The 10-year average is 3,036 incidents, which Greater Sudbury exceeded in 2018 (3,132), and 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Sudbury's Tracy Fleury wins gold at world curling playdowns
Riding one of the strongest seasons in recent curling history, Canada skip Rachel Homan had every reason to be confident entering the final at the world women's curling championship. On Sunday night, she again showed no fear and it paid off with her first world title since 2017. Homan made a game-turning split for three points in the ninth end and forced Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland to concede in the 10th for a 7-5 victory. "I believed in my team and my team believed in me," Homan said. Homan and her top-ranked side of third Tracy Fleury (a resident of Sudbury, who works in Laurentian University's finance department), second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes ran the table at the national championship and picked up where they left off against the 13-team field at Centre 200.
Sudbury man re-releases pro-union anthem from 2009-10 Vale strike
In 2008, Mickey O’Brien was hired on at Vale, following the mining tradition of his father and grandfather before him. Immediately after passing his probationary period, he became a union steward with Steelworkers Local 6500. Then he found himself on strike. This wasn’t just any strike, though. It was the nearly year-long 2009-10 Local 6500 strike against Vale (then still known as Vale Inco), which was to become the longest in Canadian history. The labour dispute surpassed even the nine-month-long 1978-79 Inco strike, which ended the year before O’Brien was born. It was a formative time for O’Brien, then still a young man, as he launched himself into union activism.
Reaction mixed as Ontario pledges $5M to retain forest fire workers
The Ontario government has taken a multi-million-dollar step to address concerns in the ministry’s Aviation, Forest Fire, and Emergency Services (AFFES) program ahead of the 2024 wildfire season. During a press conference in the Legislature on Thursday afternoon, Minister Graydon Smith (MNRF) announced a $5-million investment to attract, retain and recognize wildland firefighting staff. The decision comes after the province witnessed more than 700 wildland fires burn more than 440,000 hectares last season, nearly tripling the 10-year average of total hectares burned. OPSEU, the union that represents workers in Ontario’s wildfire program, estimated they were down 50 crews, or 30 per cent of their entire fleet, in 2023. In an effort to solve their retention and attraction issues, the government's investment includes a one-time payment of up to $5,000 to employees in front-line fire, aviation and critical support positions for 2024.
Short season on Ontario southern ice road makes First Nation life unpredictable
This winter marked the shortest ice road season anyone can remember on Temagami First Nation. There were just 11 days when the road – a roughly seven-kilometre stretch of packed snow and ice connecting the island First Nation to the mainland – was open. That meant delayed projects, tougher access to groceries and health-care and an increasingly unpredictable season for the community's roughly 250 people as the First Nation grapples with how to adapt to a future shaped by global warming. "Everyone I've talked to cannot remember a shorter season," David McKenzie, the First Nation's executive director, said in an interview this week. "We're pretty sure it's the shortest ever." The warmest winter on record in Canada has spelled widespread issues for First Nations in northern Ontario connected to a network of winter roads built over frozen land, rivers and lakes.
Sudbury Cyclones winding for 2024 season
The Sudbury Cyclones are proud to announce the signing of 11 more players, including four defenders, three midfielders, two attackers, and two goalkeepers to the roster for the upcoming 2024 season. It was a year ago in April that Sudbury Wolves Sports and Entertainment (SWSE) announced the return of what it called elite men’s soccer in Greater Sudbury with the announcement the Sudbury Cyclones would join League1 Ontario (L1O) for the 2024 season. The team’s play schedule hasn’t been unveiled yet, but the team has signed a number of players, including defenders Ethan Mendes, Jaden Timmis, David Setters and Rohan Henry, midfielders Lucas Spirkoski, Stan Pankiewicz, Luke Harrop, Hayden Lloyd, Brandon Moxam and Cedric Devos, attackers Timi Aliu and Douvoy Bromfield, and goalkeepers Josh Bondoc and Luca Cidade. Of those names, Moxam is a Sudbury native. After his university career, Moxam played professional soccer in Spain for Albriex Niigata Barcelona. Earlier this year, SWSE announced Dayna Corelli as general manager of the Cyclones and Connor Vande Weghe as the sporting director.
