Good morning, Greater Sudbury.
Here are some stories to start your day.
Man posing as Sudbury murder victim's 'relative' tried to steal donations:
This past winter, Renée Sweeney's closest living relative — her younger sister Kim Sweeney — created car decals honouring the memory of the 23-year-old Laurentian University music student who was murdered 21 years ago. She placed the stickers at several local businesses, asking for donations to the MS Society, Pet Save or SPCA Sudbury. Unfortunately, someone recently tried to take advantage of Kim Sweeney's charitable efforts. In early May, a man posing as Kim's brother-in-law went to a local business and tried to collect donations people had given in exchange for the memorial stickers. Kim said she doesn't want to reveal the name of this business. Full story here.
Flooding closes Hwy. 535 in St. Charles:
Flooding has closed Highway 535 between St. Charles and Noelville, the Sudbury Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police said Thursday. The Ministry of Transportation is on scene and repairs are underway. The OPP will provide further information and updates of the road advisory as it becomes available. There is signage alterting of the road closure at Highway 17 in Hagar, Highway 69 in the French River and Highway 64 in Noelville. Visit the MTO website at ontario.ca/511, twitter@511Ontario or call 511 traveller's information.
HighLife cannabis store finally gets 'green' light to open:
After 45 days of waiting, the second cannabis store in Greater Sudbury has received approval from the province to open. The HighLife store, owned by Anton Lucic, will be located on Marcus Drive. Lucic is expected to make a formal announcement today on how quickly he will be able to open. With approval for HighLife, 24 of the 25 cannabis stores approved in Ontario. Lucic has said in earlier interviews he has hired more than 40 staff for his store. HighLife will carry about 350 lines of cannabis products. More on this story here.
Sudbury woman wins $50,000 on scratch ticket:
Sarah Martel of Sudbury is celebrating after winning a $50,000 prize with INSTANT $2,000,000 SUPREME. “I was in a hurry the day I purchased my winning ticket,” said Martel while at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to pick up her winnings. “I had to pick up a birthday cake, so I scratched my ticket quickly – I didn’t even realize I won until I scanned it using the Ticket Checker!” she laughed. Sarah plans on using her winnings to help purchase a house, pay some bills and take a trip. The winning ticket was purchased at the Real Canadian Superstore on Lasalle Boulevard in Sudbury.
Canadian drug makers hit with $1.1B suit for pushing opioids despite risks:
A $1.1B class action lawsuit filed this week against Canadian drug makers this week claims the firms enriched themselves on the backs of thousands of vulnerable patients, killing tens of thousands of people. The suit, still untested in court, alleges companies illegally and deceptively promoting highly addictive opioids, ignoring the risks despite having data showing the drugs were leading to untold levels of addiction and death. Almost two dozen companies are named in the suit, including some of the biggest pharmaceutical names in the country: Apotex, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson and Johnson and the Jean Coutu Group. Filed on behalf of patients who became addicted to prescribed opioids, also seeks a declaration that the companies were negligent in how they researched, developed and marketed opioids starting in the 1990s. They have killed more than 20,000 Canadians over the past 20 years and about 4,000 new deaths occur annually in Canada. In the United States, opioids kill more people than car crashes. Full story can be found here.
Vale, remediation company lauded for innovative Sudbury tailings rehab project:
Sudbury nickel miner Vale and an industrial waste management company have come up with an award-winning organic solution toward covering mine tailings near the smelter in Sudbury. A remediation project conceived by Terrapure Organics Solutions, through a collaboration with the Brazilian mining giant, was lauded as the Project of the Year at the Environmental Leader & Energy Manager Conference in Denver, May 14. This is the third consecutive year Burlington-headquartered Terrapure has been honoured with an Environmental Leader Award. Terrapure has been working with Vale since 2012 on a program to apply municipally treated biosolids to reclaim and vegetate the mining company's Central Tailings area. This program was the first of kind in Ontario. Tailings are the ore waste rock generated from mining. More on this story can be found here.
Currently no active wildland fires in Northeastern Ontario:
The province's Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services division has started issuing fire situation updates for the season. However, the fire hazard is low to moderate across the region, and the Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services team is actually currently deployed to assist with sandbagging efforts in areas experiencing flooding. As of the early evening of May 15, there were no active wildland fires in the region, said the fire situation update. Four new fires were discovered this week in the northeast, all of which are currently out. For up to date forest fire hazard conditions in your area, see the interactive fire map at Ontario.ca/forestfire.
Friday Weather:
Damp and dreary weather from Thursday will carry into Friday. Mainly cloudy today with a 40 per cent chance of drizzle early in the morning. Friday's high will be 12. Skies expected to clear up by the evening with some fog patches developing near midnight. Overnight low will drop to 2. For current weather conditions, short-term and long-term forecasts visit Sudbury.com's weather page at www.sudbury.com/weather.
