Public Health Sudbury: Arenas, community centres to be used for mass vaccination
Public Health Sudbury and Districts (PHSD) has identified 40 possible sites across the local health jurisdiction where local residents can be assigned to receive their COVID-19 vaccines. The PHSD Vaccine Playbook, released in January, identified several sites that are being considered as venues where citizens can be gathered to receive their shots in mass vaccination events. Greater Sudbury venues that have been confirmed include the Carmichael, Centennial, Dr. Edgar Leclair and Gerry McCrory arenas. Read our full story here.
Former Sudbury Catholic board teacher’s licence revoked for ‘sexually abusive conduct’
A former Sudbury Catholic District School Board teacher is one of 28 Ontario teachers whose licences were revoked following a retroactive look by the Ontario College of Teachers through hundreds of discipline cases. The Toronto Star reports that these discipline cases involved everything from sexually charged text messages to viewing child pornography to touching female students in gym class. The report said that in years gone by, these resulted in a suspension by Ontario’s teacher regulator and that they take boundary counselling, or the teacher being transferred to another school. But the Ontario College of Teachers revoked the licences of 28 members in December following a new Ontario law mandating that any educator disciplined for sexually abusive conduct or child pornography receive a lifetime ban from teaching. The Toronto Star article published information on each of the cases, drawn from the Ontario College of Teachers discipline decisions. One of the teachers whose licence has now been revoked is Craig James Lusk, a Sudbury Catholic District School Board teacher who was suspended in 2017 for what the college described as “sexually abusive conduct.” According to the Ontario College of Teachers, as of 2020, Lusk was no longer a practising teacher.
Haché: I have ‘every confidence’ LU can make changes to ‘not only survive, but thrive’
Laurentian University president Robert Haché has written a column on what has happened over the last couple of weeks since the university declared it is insolvent, and has filed for creditor's protection. "It has been a few weeks of upheaval for Laurentian University. For Sudbury. For Northern Ontario," he wrote. Haché said there are a large number of stakeholders working together to ensure the future of Laurentian. "I have every confidence that Laurentian can come together as a community to achieve the necessary changes for our university to not only survive, but thrive," he wrote. Read his full column here.
Rainbow board has already asked schools to plan virtual grads for class of 2021
With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, the Rainbow District School Board said it has already asked its schools to plan virtual Grade 8 and 12 graduation ceremonies for the class of 2021. Speaking at the Feb. 16 Rainbow board meeting, director of education Norm Blaseg said that last year, the board held out hope it would be able to hold in-person grads, but ended up holding virtual ceremonies for the class of 2020 last fall. “This year we are accepting the reality a little earlier and not postponing the inevitable,” he said, adding that awards will also be presented virtually. Learn more here.
Weapons calls up 100% in 2020, says city’s top cop
Greater Sudbury Police responded to 56 weapons complaints in 2020, double the amount over the previous year, said Chief Paul Pedersen. Pedersen provided an update to the city’s Police Services Board members on Feb. 16, comparing numbers in 2020 over the previous year’s numbers. In 2020, there were 163 reports filed from 112 different incidents, up 42 per cent over 2019, when there were 121 reports filed from 85 different incidents. The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a lot of unknown and uncertainty for many community members, and with that came increased emotional and financial stress, said Pedersen. Read our full story here.
North Bay man who died after apartment COVID outbreak was loving family man, retired OPP officer
The daughter of a man who passed Tuesday morning after contracting COVID at the Lancelot Apartments in North Bay has warm praise for the nurses who showed compassion during her dad's final hours. Doug Arthur, 75, felt like he had a cold and started feeling weak a couple of days before an outbreak at Lancelot Apartments on Lakeshore was announced, his daughter Andrea Maville told BayToday. He was tested in the building, but as the day wore on he started feeling worse and worse. "He was starting to get really short of breath and feeling really tired," Maville recalls. An ambulance was called and he was rushed to hospital. Later that night the Health Unit called and told Doug and his wife Jean that both had tested positive. He remained in the hospital from this past Sunday until his death. He had a preliminary positive result for a COVID-19 Variant of Concern. Read the full story here.
Friday weather:
Friday will be mainly cloudy with a 60 per cent chance of flurries. Wind up to 15 km/h. High of -6 C with a windchill of -16 C in the morning and -8 C in the afternoon. UV index 2 or low. Friday night will be cloudy with a low of -13 C.
