Justice of the peace Jack Chiang, a former Whig-Standard columnist and manager, will be given the Kingston Criminal Defence Lawyers Association Phil Baker award on Friday.

“He is a deserving recipient — justices of the peace have a demanding day-to-day routine that’s essential to keeping the wheels of the justice system moving,” Matt Hodgson, a former president of the association, wrote in an email.

“In addition, justices of the peace make very important decisions every day on bail matters — essentially the continued freedom or detention of those charged with a crime. Justice Chiang does so with integrity, compassion and good humour.”

Chiang has been a justice of the peace for 11 years.

The Phil Baker award, created in 1994 with Baker its first recipient, is awarded annually “to a person who, while displaying integrity, compassion and good humour, has made a significant contribution to the administration of criminal justice in the Kingston community. ”

“I am surprised but honoured,” Chiang said. “Phil was a judge for 28 years. His decisions affected the lives of thousands, if not tens of thousands of people. He was a man of modesty and good humour.”

Other recipients on the list of past winners include judges, police officers, other justices of the peace, Crown attorneys, and court staff, in addition to defence lawyers, all of whom significantly contributed to the Kingston criminal justice system and community, a news release said.

imacalpine@postmedia.com

twitter.com/IanMacAlpine

Students and staff will have to wait a bit longer before getting to call the Limestone District School Board’s newest school, Kingston Secondary School, home.

A letter to parents announcing a delay in construction was supposed to go home last Wednesday but was delayed itself due to the threats to multiple schools made over two days late last week.

The letter ended up going home with students on Monday.

“The primary reason for the letter is to make sure that we’re keeping parents, staff and the broader community updated with the timeline for the new school,” Krishna Burra, superintendent of education with the board, said in an interview on Tuesday. “Once we got the messaging from the contractor, as well as the architects [ZAS Architects] that the timeline that we originally established was going to be delayed a little bit, we thought it was important to let the public know.”

Kingston Secondary School will be home to grades 9 to 12 students and staff, most currently attending Kingston Collegiate, as well as the Grade 7 and 8 French immersion students at Module Vanier.

Burra said the board is expecting to receive a more detailed timeline on the completion of the new 171,000-square-foot facility in January from the contractor, Bonfield Construction.

“Work continues on the site. However, unforeseen delays and disruptions have, unfortunately, put the project behind schedule,” Burra said. “Given the size and scale of this large and complex project, setbacks such as this sometimes occur.”

With the opening of the new Kingston Secondary School on Kirkpatrick Street being delayed from the start of the 2019-20 school year, the contingency plan in place is for the students and staff to remain at Kingston Collegiate.

By Tuesday morning, Burra had heard a range of reactions from parents and the community about the delay.

“One [reaction] is obviously disappointment, as there are many students and families that are excited about the prospect of a new building and the new features that will exist in that building,” Burra said. “On the other hand, there is some apprehension that existed, regardless if the school opened in September or in a later part of the year, simply because it is a change.”

Construction on the new school began in November 2017 after the removal of the former Queen Elizabeth Collegiate building had been completed.

During a tour of the new facility in September 2018, the project had been expected to be completed and ready to open in the fall of 2019.

“We are working with the contractor to develop a revised construction schedule,” stated the letter sent home. “We will share that new timeline with you as soon as possible.”

The board does expect the students and staff to be able to move into the new facility during the 2019-20 school year.

In October, the new school principal was announced, with Kingston Collegiate principal Talya McKenna taking on the role.

“She is excited to be moving to the new Kingston Secondary School with her incredible staff, their amazing students and outstanding families within the school community,” stated the Kingston Secondary School Snapshot newsletter on the LDSB website.

The new school colours were selected as black, blue and white. The school sports team nickname, originally selected as the Royals, has recently been changed to the Black Bears.

“Initially, early consultation around the new school mascot/nickname suggested the ‘Royals.’ Concerns, however, came forward from students and community members during the consultation process regarding the name and how it would be visually represented,” Burra said. “The term ‘Royals’ has many negative connotations for some, given its reinforcement of colonial history particularly when combined with Kingston, which was originally known as King’s Town.”

The next step will be to start the process of designing the new logo, with student and staff input.

For more information and updates, go online to limestone.on.ca/cms/One.aspx?portalId=352782&pageId=9442903.

jmckay@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JMcKayPhotoWhig

KINGSTON – Proposed widespread changes to Ontario legislation have some local people concerned.

Last week, the government announced more than 30 proposed changes to legislation related to a dozen government ministries, among them the ministries of health, education, labour, finance, agriculture and rural affairs, environment, northern development and mines and municipal affairs and housing.

The government said the proposed changes are part of an effort to reduce red tape and improve the province’s competitiveness.

Others said the plan could threaten some of the successes citizens and community groups have made in protecting environmental areas and restraining development. 

“It’s very worrisome,” said Vicki Schmolka, who is a co-founder of Building Kingston’s Future and who is involved in numerous appeals to proposed highrise buildings in the downtown area. “The people of Kingston have worked really hard to get the city to follow the law as it currently is. Now, maybe, all of that will come to naught.

“It’s worrisome and we are vulnerable.”

Among the legislation that is to be altered is the Planning Act, changes that the provincial government said would “streamline provincial development approvals” and “shorten the time it takes to build projects that create jobs.”

To put the proposed changes to the Planning Act into place, the city will have to ask permission from the minister of municipal affairs and housing.

“It will be interesting to see how council responds to this,” Schmolka said.

Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson said city staff are reviewing the proposed changes, and any decisions about how to proceed will likely be made in the new year.

The changes are meant to promote business and boost job creation, Conservative MPP Todd Smith said last week when he announced the proposed changes in Belleville. 

“We’ve got a real problem in Ontario with the high cost of doing business here, and a big part of this problem is red tape [because] the Liberals never saw a piece of red tape or regulation they didn’t like, and we’re seeing the consequences of that today smothering businesses,” Smith, the minister of economic development, job creation and trade, said.

“When businesses want to relocate in Ontario, new industry wants to locate, we have the tools to help them locate quicker [and] what’s happening in other jurisdictions, especially south of the border – if a new company wants to move into northern New York, they can have the permits, all of the other papers they need, in about six months, and right now we’re about two years to get that done.”

The proposed changes are part of the multi-year Ontario Open for Business Action Plan, which aims to remove 25 per cent of the regulations the government said is hampering businesses in the province.

Every government ministry is to have a regulation reduction target to meet.

“What we do want to do by bringing in this legislation is ensure we can be quicker, so there are a number of examples that I can’t tell you about right now because we are negotiating with companies where this tool will allow us to be competitive with other jurisdictions that we’re in competition with for that business, that growth and those jobs,” Smith added.

– with files from Postmedia Network

True to form, the cast of the 39th annual Newburgh Christmas Concert put on two bellyachingly funny Christmas shows this past Saturday.

Then, on Sunday, they took their record proceeds and purchased gifts for 185 children in need in Lennox and Addington County.

This year brought in more donations than ever: $19,350, to be used to purchase clothes, toys and necessities for children identified by Family and Children’s Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (FACSFLA) and the Limestone District School Board.

“We were absolutely in tears when we counted the money last night. We couldn’t wrap our head around it,” Mae Whalen, director, said. “Last year we raised just over $18,000 and we couldn’t believe it. We had no expectation of even meeting that again this year. We thought last year was a blip on the system. Apparently it wasn’t.”

Whalen said that at least $10,000 was donated by individuals who attended the concert, and the rest by local businesses.

“I think it’s important to note the amount from people just walking in the door,” she said. “I think that’s really significant. This isn’t all from corporations. It’s pretty mind-blowing to think that folks walking in yesterday gave probably 60 per cent of the funds.”

Whalen said the cast was overwhelmed by the community’s generosity, but they also love how much a part of the community the concert has become over the years.

“I can’t even tell you how many people say that, ‘It isn’t Christmas until we come to the concert.’ To become so much a part of the fabric of people’s holiday is so heartwarming to us. It means so much when people say that to us.”

Fatima Mohammed teaches Eric Rushton how to cook falafel during a cooking workshop at this year’s Multicultural Youth Conference in Kingston on Friday and Saturday. (Meghan Balogh/The Whig-Standard)

More than 30 Kingston youth gathered on the weekend to celebrate and explore multiculturalism in their community.

Staff with Youth 2 Kingston (Y2K) partnered with the Immigration Services Kingston and Area (ISKA) youth group, a group for youth who are newcomers to Kingston, to host its eighth annual Youth Forum on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 7 and 8.

The youth group is involved with and Kingston Immigration Partnership (KIP), and they partnered with the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston and Area for the first day of the event.

On the second day, the event took place at the Kingston Community Health Centres.

The conference this year gave youth the chance to share their own cultures and learn about the cultures of others through discussion, workshops and cooking.

Youth explored language, racism, Islamophobia and violence against women, participated in a soccer tournament and learned how to cook dishes from around the world.

“We do a lot of things in the community, we work with organizations and groups to amplify youth voice and really put young people’s voices into action,” Noor Huda said. She is the network manager of Youth 2 Kingston. “A big thing that they wanted to do this year was share their culture but also learn about other people’s culture, and share that exchange. We had a lot of different workshops on learning and experiencing different cultures.”

The event looks different each year, depending on who is involved and what focus the organizers pursue. This year’s big focus was on learning.

“We host a youth forum every year,” Huda said. “It’s part of the collective work we do. We try every year to host what we call the Youth Forum, where young people can share their voices on different topics that are important to them.”

Jack Toner is a youth network facilitator for Y2K. He tries to connect youth in the community with programming that’s available, and he also provides a youth perspective into programming planning.

Haya Hassouneh and Ally Pajak prepare tabbouleh, a traditional Middle Eastern vegetarian salad, during this year’s Multicultural Youth Conference in Kingston on Friday and Saturday. (Meghan Balogh/The Whig-Standard)

“The point of this weekend is to engage cultures,” he said on Saturday during the cooking workshop, where he and others learned how to make falafel. “The people at ISKA are already very intertwined with each other’s cultures, but for us, we don’t know what’s going on. So it’s been really interesting to figure out how other people do things.”

Giving a voice to youth of all backgrounds is crucial, Huda believes.

“I think it’s always really important to have a space for young people to be heard,” she said. “As people are seeing, young people are forming and changing our society in such a great way, so to amplify that more and give them that space is really important. This is one very clear way to do it.”

Having spaces for young people to share their thoughts, opinions and backgrounds not only provides learning opportunities for youth, but also for the adults in their lives and in their communities.

“We have a lot of adults that come to events that are able to learn from the young people here, and take back what they learn to their organizations or the work that they do,” Huda said. “So it’s been really great for the community.”

mbalogh@postmedia.com

A researcher in Queen’s University’s chemistry department who admitted two months ago to dosing a fellow chemist with a compound principally used to induce cancers in lab animals was given the equivalent of a seven-year prison sentence on Tuesday.

Twenty-six-year-old Zijie Wang pleaded guilty in Kingston’s Ontario Court of Justice in late October to administering a noxious substance to a post-doctoral fellow in his research group with intent to endanger the man’s life or cause bodily harm and a related charge of aggravated assault arising from the same circumstances.

Justice Allan G. Letourneau — after a period of deliberation following sentencing submissions in early November from Wang’s lawyer, Brian Greenspan, and assistant Crown attorney Janet O’Brien — decided the Crown’s recommendation of seven years, minus pretrial custody was the more appropriate term. Accordingly, he gave Wang enhanced credit on the 250 days he’d already spent in pretrial custody, counting it as equivalent to 375 days already served, and sentenced him to a further 2,180 days in prison, or a week and a bit short of six years.

Justice Letourneau, in his reasons for sentence, which he did not read in open court, was not satisfied that Wang “has sincere remorse.”

He concluded that video recordings the victim obtained with a hidden camera on Jan. 29 that captured Wang tampering with a loaf of Italian bread in the victim’s backpack, combined with the Centre of Forensic Science report identifying the contaminant “made the Crown’s case extremely compelling and difficult to successfully defend.”

“In the circumstances,” the judge wrote, “I am satisfied that he pled guilty for those reasons and not because of a remorseful conscience.”

He noted as well that Greenspan had suggested his client has no explanation for his behaviour. “I do not accept that answer,” Justice Letourneau wrote. “There was a reason, or reasons for his calculated and evil attacks on [the victim]. He knows why, but chooses to keep that to himself.”

Wang was initially arrested on Jan. 29, the same day his victim caught him on camera tampering with his food, but four weeks after the poisonings began.

In October, when he entered his pleas, assistant Crown attorney Janet O’Brien told the judge that it all started on Jan. 8 when the victim was sickened by two bites of pastry he’d bought earlier that day at Metro to eat on his lunch break. She said he found the apple-filled pastry strangely bitter and unpleasant and later became nauseated and developed a headache and diarrhea. But he thought it was simply food contamination.

A week later on Jan. 15, she said, he brought in another pastry, which he again left at his desk to have with his lunch. She told Justice Letourneau it tasted fine at first but developed that same unpalatable bitterness toward its middle and he immediately stopped eating and didn’t get sick a second time.

The Monday after that, on Jan. 22, O’Brien said, it happened again, this time with some cinnamon raisin bread the victim had picked up at Loblaws. He’d split the loaf, leaving half in the refrigerator at his apartment and bringing half to work, stored at his desk. When lunch arrived, however, Justice Letourneau was told, the victim noticed the bread had taken on a chemical smell. O’Brien said he asked a fellow researcher to taste it and the man took a bite, spit it out and confirmed that it tasted bad.

O’Brien said there was also tampering with the water in a flask the victim habitually took with him on weekends when he’d drive to Mississauga to see his family. He noticed a chemical smell on Jan. 19 and again on Jan. 26.

By Jan. 29, when he set up the secret camera aimed at his backpack, Justice Letourneau was told, the victim was convinced someone was tampering with his food, but he had no clue about the identity of the contaminant.

Wang, after he was caught, told police it was the first time he’d done anything to his fellow researcher’s food and claimed the substance in the pipette he’d been wielding on camera was only ethanol. His victim had retained samples of his contaminated food and water, however, which Kingston Police submitted for testing at the Centre of Forensic Science.

Seven months later, toward the end of August, a toxicologist’s report revealed that the bitter contaminant was actually N-Nitrosodimethylamine (N-DMA) and N-DMA and diethyl ether, a potent carcinogen that isn’t stocked by any of the Queen’s labs.

In his reasons for decision, Justice Letourneau wrote “it remains a mystery to the court as to how Mr. Wang obtained the N-DMA. Suffice it to say that it would have involved some clandestine effort to make the chemical or acquire it from a source.”

And “each time Mr. Wang poisoned [the victim] with N-DMA, he jeopardized [the victim’s] life,” Justice Letournau writes, noting “that risk was elevated when he poisoned him with both N-DMA and ethanol, which intensifies N-DMA’s toxicity.”

The poisoning victim, meanwhile, lives with the uncertainty of not knowing if or when he might develop cancer. He told Justice Letourneau in November that he’d discovered two lumps on his chest. But as of Wang’s sentencing, their exact nature had not been determined.

Justice Letourneau, in his reasons for sentencing wrote: “We do not know why Mr. Wang poisoned [the victim]. He refuses to tell us why. Whatever the reason[s] for the poisoning, these crimes are inexplicable in the sense that the perniciousness of the crimes is immensely disproportionate to whatever issue[s] Mr. Wang had with [the victim].”

A drug-addicted, homeless downtown regular, whose bad behaviour has been escalating over the past year, has been given the equivalent of a five-month sentence in an effort bring him under control.

Michael K. Profitt, 25, pleaded guilty in Kingston’s Ontario Court of Justice to assaulting two police officers and creating a public disturbance on Princess Street in early September. He was credited with 98 days of pretrial custody and sentenced to a further 52 days and probation for 18 months.

But Justice Allan Letourneau was told those crimes actually flowed from an earlier and more cringe-worthy episode in the Starbucks on the corner of Princess and Wellington streets.

On Sept. 4, assistant Crown attorney John Skoropada said, a female customer of Starbucks was waiting at the rear of the coffee shop to use the washroom.

Profitt approached her there, told her “she was beautiful with her glasses and dark hair,” according to the Crown prosecutor, and invited her to share the washroom with him. Then, more directly, he asked if she wanted to have sex with him there.

Skoropada said Profitt repeatedly gestured for her to enter and kept winking at her.

The woman consequently didn’t enter when the space became available, he told the judge, and Profitt went in alone.

The customer then reported to the manager what had just transpired and the manager, who knew Profitt by sight and first name, went back to deal with him. Justice Letourneau was told he had to wait for some time for Profitt to emerge, and when he did he was asked him to leave.

Profitt objected and continued to loudly voice his disagreement outside the coffee shop, but he did eventually walk away.

The manager, meanwhile, had called Kingston Police to report what had happened and, Skoropada said, two officers, a male and a female, caught up with Profitt walking west on Princess Street.

When they attempted to talk to him, however, Skoropada said, Profitt informed the male officer that he was autistic and they had no right to stop him. He then tried to sidestep them on the sidewalk.

Justice Letourneau was told the male officer informed him that they were investigating a criminal harassment complaint, but Profitt kept insisting he didn’t have to speak to them and at one point announced that he had no ID but he’d just come from the bank and held up $2 to show them.

When they still wouldn’t go away, Skoropada said, Profitt stepped into the male officer and began screaming profanity at him, loudly telling the two of them to “go f— yourselves, you’re nothing but a bunch of pigs.”

Profitt is not physically imposing, but he threatened the male officer, warning him, according to Skoropada: “You’re going to have a painful death. I’m going to rip your skeleton out of your throat.” Eventually, the disruption in the street became too extreme, however, and, Skoropada said, the officers told Profitt he was under arrest.

When they tried to place him in handcuffs, however, he resisted and managed to grab hold of the female officer’s left wrist, which he squeezed and clawed at with his fingernails, breaking the skin in a couple of places before he was pried loose.

Profitt has a psychiatric diagnosis that includes schizophrenia and a “poly-substance abuse disorder.” He relocated to Kingston several years ago to live with his father following convictions in Ottawa for sex offences.

The arrangement didn’t work out, though, and Profitt’s Ottawa lawyer, Stephanie Moore, has travelled to Kingston three times since the summer of 2017 to represent him and argue in court that he’s essentially homeless and isolated here. But he’s accumulating a concerning list of convictions, the most serious to date an attempt to rob a man in front of Novel Idea, half a block from the downtown bus transfer area on a night in early August last year when there were lots of people in the area. Profitt tried to intimidate his intended victim by showing him a knife he had shoved in his waistband. It didn’t work, but Kingston Police later relieved him of a 12-inch kitchen knife and a bag of marijuana.

Earlier this year, he was convicted of threatening strangers while walking through a construction zone on Princess Street in May and was reported later the same day to have been targeting women and girls around Hotel Dieu Hospital with nasty comments.

He was also arrested in July on suspicion of attempting a bizarre robbery at an Ontario Street gas station, utilizing a bandana and a red comb clutched like a knife. The attempted robbery charge was eventually dropped, but Profitt was convicted of threatening the Kingston Police officer who arrested him on the charge.

In sentencing Profitt, Justice Letourneau said, his pre-sentence report indicates “he’s been given opportunities for all kinds of services and he basically isn’t prepared to engage.”

He told the lawyers, “he can’t go on trying to use his limitations or to believe that he can do as he wants because of his issues.”

Profitt told the judge he was agreeable to conditions requiring him to take counselling and prohibiting his use of street drugs. He really doesn’t enjoy being homeless, he said, and “I don’t like being on drugs. I’d rather be sober instead.”

syanagisawa@postmedia.com

A man already wanted by Kingston Police was charged after police say a woman was assaulted twice by the same person.

Kingston Police said in a news release that during the evening of Oct. 5, a woman was visiting a man at his residence located north of the Division and Patrick street intersection. During an argument, the man punched the woman multiple times. The assault was reported five days later by a third party who saw the woman’s injuries. The man was not located and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

On Tuesday at about 9:15 a.m., the woman was at the man’s residence again. Once again the man became angry and assaulted the woman, grabbing her by the throat, headbutting her in the face, and punching her. The woman fled the apartment screaming for help. An employee at a nearby establishment brought the woman inside and called police.

Kingston Police officers who responded to the establishment saw the numerous injuries on the woman’s face and throat. She was transported by Frontenac Paramedic Services to hospital while officers went to the man’s address.

The man was found and arrested without incident.

A 29-year-old local man was charged with assault, and assault causing bodily harm. He spent the night in police custody to attend bail court on Wednesday.

* * *

Victims of domestic violence or sexual assault and witnesses are encouraged by Kingston Police to contact them. The following links also offer support services and resources in the Kingston area for victims of domestic and/or sexual violence:

• Kingston Police: (613-549-4660) www.kingstonpolice.ca

• Kingston Police Path of Strength Smartphone App: www.kingstonpolice.ca/about-us/sections-and-units/sexual-assault-child-abuse-and-victim-services/

• Kingston Interval House: www.kingstonintervalhouse.com

• Kingston Sexual Assault Centre: www.sackingston.com

• Resolve Counselling Services Canada: www.resolvecounselling.org

• Kingston Frontenac Anti-violence Co-ordinating Committee (KFACC): www.kfacc.org

• Victim Services of Kingston and Frontenac: (613-548-4834) www.victimservicesontario.ca

• Addiction and Mental Health Services-Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington: www.amhs-kfla.ca/

• Ministry of the Attorney General-Violence in the Family: www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/family/violence.php

• Ministry of the Attorney General-Victim Services Directory: www.services.findhelp.ca/ovss/

• Ontario Network of Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Treatment Centres: www.sadvtreatmentcentres.ca

— The Whig-Standard

A new phone scam is working its way through Kingston in search of residents’ banking information.

Utilities Kingston issued a warning to local residents about a phone scam from the Ontario Carbon Agency, a fraudulent company that is phoning Kingston homes and asking for personal information.

Kingston resident Trish Whitaker received three calls from the scammers in a one-week period.

“Normally I would have ignored it, but these people are super aggressive,” Whitaker said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Whitaker says the callers had heavy South Asian accents.

The callers told her that she was paying a carbon tax on her “hydroelectricity bill.” They asked her to find a copy of her bill so they could show her the tax amount, and to confirm her account number with Utilities Kingston, saying she is eligible for a rebate on a carbon tax that can be identified on the bill.

“Then she goes on to say quickly that they will give me $30 to cover the first increase and they will deposit this in my bank account,” Whitaker said.

The caller told Whitaker that the Ontario Carbon Agency is “one of the few accredited agencies offering this service.”

She stayed on the phone with the caller the second time she received the call so she could take notes and gather information about what she knew immediately to be a scam.

“There’s two hooks in this scam,” Whitaker said. “Go get your bill … and then, they need my bank and transit numbers.”

Whitaker visited the agency’s website and told the caller that it appeared to be a scam.

“She started yelling at me,” she said.

Some of Whitaker’s neighbours have also received persistent phone calls.

“My neighbour hung up on her, but she called back and said, ‘I was talking to you!’” Whitaker said.

Utilities Kingston posted a notice on its website on Dec. 4 warning its customers “not to give out banking or account information to callers offering low rates on a fictitious monthly carbon tax.”

“Several Utilities Kingston customers have reported that the apparent scammers claim customers can keep the supposed monthly carbon tax payments low by signing up with their company,” the release stated. “The customer is then asked for banking information over the phone.

“The apparent scammers may also claim to have customers’ Utilities Kingston account information. Be assured that Utilities Kingston takes all steps to protect the privacy of customer information.”

Kingston Police Const. Cameron Mack said residents should always be on guard when someone on the phone, by text, or at the door asks for personal information.

“I think that the big thing is don’t feel pressured into providing any personal information to an unsolicited contact,” Mack said. “You have the right to take your time and confirm the validity of whatever it is you’re being contacted about. A common tactic of a fraudster or scammer is to put pressure to act quickly, before you reach out to family or friends and realize it’s a scam. If you’re feeling pressured, that’s a pretty good sign that something isn’t right there.”

Mack encourages people to get off the phone or away from the door to do some research before responding to any solicitors.

“Say that you’ll follow up,” he said. “If someone says they are calling from the Canada Revenue Agency or your bank, do your research, get the correct number from the internet and call them, not from the number they gave you.”

Mack also said that discussing current scams with friends and family gets the word out that they are circulating.

“Frauds are very prevalent. The big thing we try to stress is education and talking about it. If you know about a scam and heard about it, don’t be afraid to talk to your family,” he said. “Sharing that information is the best way to defeat a fraud.”

To report an incident to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, an agency that collects information on fraud and works with police, call 1-888-495-8501.

Utilities Kingston encourages anyone who receives a call or visit from someone claiming to be affiliated with Utilities Kingston to call them and tell them at 613-546-0000.

Those who believe they are victims of fraud through monetary loss should call Kingston Police at 613-549-4660.

mbalogh@postmedia.com

A package containing unauthorized items was discovered by staff on the perimeter of the medium-security unit at Collins Bay Institution on Sunday evening around 7:20 p.m.

According to a news release from Correctional Service Canada, the items seized included 510 grams of tobacco and 32.8 grams of cigar wrappings.

The total estimated institutional value of this seizure is $10,000, a correctional service news release said.

The release did not say how the contraband made its way over the outer walls of the institution.

CSC said it works in partnership with police to take action against those who attempt to introduce contraband into correctional institutions, and the correctional service introduced a complete smoking ban in all federal correctional institutions in 2008.

A telephone tip line (1-866-780-3784) for all federal institutions has been set up to receive additional information about activities relating to security at CSC institutions. Activities may be related to drug use or trafficking that may threaten the safety and security of visitors, inmates and staff members working at the institutions.

imacalpine@postmedia.com

twitter.com/IanMacAlpine

The Community Foundation for Kingston and Area took out its virtual chequebook on Wednesday afternoon at the Ongwanada Resource Centre and awarded 20 grants totalling $197,927.66 to area charities for projects representing various areas of interests.

The foundation awarded first-time grants to the Happy Tails Farm Sanctuary of $5,094 to enable it to offer an inaugural summer education program for youth, and $10,000 to fund a monthly book club for inmates incarcerated at area federal institutions.

“It’s always exciting and fantastic just to see the range and diversity of projects that are funded through the community grants program, Tina Bailey, the foundation’s executive director, said in an interview on Wednesday.

“There are great organizations in our area that have undertaken some really important projects.”

The foundation also funded two projects that support the Truth and Reconciliation process in Kingston, including a $20,361 grant to the Loving Spoonful for the project “Rebuilding Indigenous Culture and Language around Good Food,” and $6,940 to the Kingston Historical Society to create an information panel for visitors to Murney Tower that will share information about historical Indigenous land use in the community.

The foundation has two community grant rounds per year, to which all local charities can apply.

Up to Wednesday, the foundation has invested more than $2 million in 346 unique local organizations and charities through its Community Grants program.

The next application deadline for local charities is Feb. 15, 2019.

Details about the foundation’s Community Grants program and the projects that have been funded can be found on its website at www.cfka.org.

imacalpine@postmedia.com

twitter.com/IanMacAlpine

Community Grants

Organizations receiving funding from the Community Foundation for Kingston and Area:

• Melos Music Society Inc.: $6,240.74 for study and experiencing early music and dance from the Middle East to France, ninth to 19th centuries.
• Kingston Historical Society: $6,940 to study Indigenous land use around the Murney Tower.
• Skeleton Park Arts Festival: $5,830 to start a 12-page biannual newspaper for the Skeleton Park neighbourhood and north end of Kingston.
• Kingston Symphony Association: $6,100 for Discover the Symphony concerts.
• Queen’s University Psychology Clinic: $10,060 for promoting wellness by identifying needs for children and youth.
• Queen’s University-Kingston Health Sciences Centre: $14,808.32 for helping youth with complex mood and anxiety disorders to attend school in an alternative classroom setting.
• Book Club for Inmates: $10,000 for operating monthly book clubs at seven area Correctional Service Canada institutions.
• Learning Disabilities Association Kingston: $7,488 for summer camps for youth with learning disabilities.
• Canadian National Institute for the Blind: $14,478.82 for their Connecting with Technology project.
• Museum of Health Care: $3,905.89 for The Fight against Infectious Disease program.
• Boys & Girls Club of Kingston and Area: $16,900.67 for its Intensive After School Literacy program.
• Winter Warmth program: $18,993.04 to provide clothing and footwear for children in need.
• Easter Seals Ontario: $2,500 to send one child with physical disabilities to camp.
• Happy Tails Farm Sanctuary/Constance Creek Wildlife Refuge: $5,904 for a summer education program.
• Kingston Community Health Centres-Pathways to Education: $4,387 for family and community engagement for children and youth.
• Loving Spoonful: $20,361 for its Rebuilding Indigenous Culture and Language Around Good Food program.
• Kingston Employment and Youth Services: $19,575.64 for its Begin Again Group program.
• Hospice Kingston: $4,547.59 for its Moving Through Grief with Yoga program.
• Outreach St. George’s Kingston – Lunch by George: $4,392 to purchase food supplies for its lunch program for marginalized members of the community.

One of the largest municipal-led projects in recent Loyalist Township history took a significant step forward Tuesday evening.

Township council voted at its meeting to form a steering committee for the estimated $50-million redevelopment of the W.J. Henderson Recreation Centre and new municipal offices at the corner of Speers Boulevard and Amherst Drive. The redevelopment is part of a 239-page, 10-year Parks and Recreation Master Plan. Mayor Ric Bresee called the vote huge for the township.

“We have the Recreation Master Plan that has been worked on for a number of years and prepared with a whole bunch of blue-sky ideas, and this is the start of the process to make this into a reality,” Bresee told the Whig-Standard on Wednesday. He noted that the $50-million price tag is only an estimate of what the cost could be if they went for all of the top-of-the-line options.

The steering committee will be made up of two councillors and Bresee. The new council assembled in October is comprised of four veterans and three rookies. The steering committee should be voted on at the Jan. 9 meeting, Bresee said. He is confident that whoever is chosen to be on the committee will all work well together as they have in the short time they’ve been a council.

The one recommendation that Loyalist council turned down was the construction of a stand-alone Lennox and Addington County-funded daycare facility at the same location. Bresee explained that while the Amherstview Day Care building, located next to Fairfield Public School, does need to be replaced, council turned it down because it would not have fit into the township’s timeline for the redevelopment.

“There’s monies in the county’s budget to [replace the building], but there’s provincial monies that are available for that, and because of that there’s a very definitely timeline pressure for the daycare service,” Bresee said. “That [timeline] was faster than the rest of the project, certainly.”

The recommended plans would have had the daycare building and then the rest of the development built around it. Bresee said there were concerns about putting a daycare right in the middle of a long-term construction zone. They were also concerned about creating logistical issues by moving the daycare away from the school the children would very likely be attending as the grew up.

The new daycare centre would have created additional daycare spots. Hasting-Lennox and Addington MP Mike Bossio expressed disappointment when he learned the daycare was no longer in the plans because he knows there is a shortage in the county.

“There’s such a lack,” Bossio said, adding that he has heard from some families considering moving from their rural homes just to find affordable daycare.

Bresee assured that the plan for a new daycare isn’t dead. Council is still confident the county will go ahead with its daycare plan.

“Assuming they do, they’ll still be adding more spots,” Bresee said. “It’s just a matter of whether it is located on the southern portion of the property … or on the northern portion of the property, which is the Loyalist Township recreation property. They are adjacent properties.”

The new administrative offices in the plans will replace the current ones at 263 Main St. in Odessa that have “significant issues,” Bresee said. He noted that the population has outgrown the 40-plus-year-old building.

“That building is simply not big enough for our purposes anymore,” Bresee said. “We keep on adjusting and repurposing, adjusting and repurposing, to try to make accommodations for the staff, for the public access, and for council itself, and we’ve just run out of new ways to remodel and repurpose.”

An exciting aspect for Bresee and Bossio is the goal of the new town hall having a net-zero carbon footprint.

“So between the energy that we could potentially produce through photovoltaics on the roof and the extraction of heat from other areas of the building, the town hall itself would be a net-zero energy user,” Bresee said. “It would be an amazing statement.”

The plan is for the new location to become a community hub, with a plan to bring in local and Lennox and Addington County services. There was also a motion brought forward to look at other agencies, including the YMCA to see if they were interested in supporting the project.

“We’re going to be exploring all kinds of options as to who’s involved, how it is paid for, and what timing and phasing we do with this project,” Bresee said.

Staff looked to other municipalities’ projects for ideas. Bresee said staff did a tour of the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre and learned about what it took to make that community project come to fruition.

The W.J. Henderson Recreation Centre is about 45 years old and needs significant improvements as well.

“It has some serious challenges with changes in technology, changes in regulation in how those facilities operate, and some huge questions about its energy costs and carbon footprint,” Bresee said. “If we’re going to need to upgrade or just to maintain the level of service, we looked at the cost of that versus the cost of replacement, and they’re not that far different from each other, unfortunately.”

The new rec centre plans to have a splash pad, gymnasium, indoor track, pool, a small therapeutic warm-water pool, multipurpose rooms, a visual arts studio, community kitchen, and a fitness and weight room.

Currently there are only plans to replace the current ice pad and to not add a second. Bresee said that decision was made after a study from 10 years ago, and isn’t set in stone. The study showed that while prime hours were booked solid, off-peak hours were slow.

Bossio said he couldn’t be more proud of the township for putting such a focus on building accessibility and the environment. As for funding from a federal level, he said there would likely be a new stream of funding coming for social infrastructure projects.

While Hastings-Lennox and Addington MPP Daryl Kramp said he supports the project, it is too early for him to be talking provincial funding for the project.

“It’s talk [right now], it’s discussion. Until we actually sit down and put a little bit of pen and paper to the proposal and go through various council motions and discussions on it,” Kramp said. “Then we’ll take things and deal with the priorities that are in front of us.”

As for a construction timeline, Bresee’s personal goal is to have shovels in the ground within the next four years. The public should be looking to community feedback sessions in early 2019.

“I’m looking forward to taking this out to the public,” Bresee said. “Letting them get a good look at the wish list that has been developed and find out what their wishes are.”

scrosier@postmedia.com

twitter.com/StephattheWhig

A 38-year-old man who was found guilty at trial of sexually molesting three preteen girls and whose predations had a “devastating impact on the children and their families,” according to his trial judge, was sentenced late last week to the equivalent of 10 years behind bars.

However, were he not required to adhere to the legal principle of totality that constrains judges from imposing “crushing” consecutive sentences, Superior Court Justice Gary Tranmer told Robert P. Solomon the crimes he committed against the children would have warranted 19 years in penitentiary.

Solomon, who has no prior record, has already spent 934 days — about two and a half years — in custody at Quinte Detention Centre and the Central East Detention Centre in Lindsay and was given the usual enhancement on that time, which means it’s counted as equivalent to 1,401 days already served. Justice Tranmer also credited him with an additional 90 days for what he accepted were harsh and overcrowded conditions during the 361 days Solomon was held in the Napanee jail.

Consequently, four years of his sentence has already elapsed, and he enters the federal prison system with 2,249 days — roughly six years — to serve.

Solomon was found guilty on 14 counts, but assistant Crown attorney Janet O’Brien and Solomon’s lawyer, Mike Mandelcorn, jointly requested that five of those charges be stayed on what’s known as the Kienapple principle, which disallows multiple convictions for a single, discrete criminal action. The crimes he was actually sentenced on, however, include sexual assault, assault, threats, inviting a child to engage in touching for a sexual purpose, possession of child pornography, making child pornography and forcible confinement.

Justice Tranmer noted in his reasons for sentence that each of Solomon’s young victims was, in her own way, particularly vulnerable, and he said Solomon’s “conduct changed them profoundly.”

He was told, through victim impact statements, that all of the girls, who were barely into double digits when Solomon abused them, have engaged since in self-harming behaviours, such as cutting themselves, and have admitted to thoughts of suicide.

He also found it disturbing that Solomon, though unemployed and with limited financial resources at the time, continued to spend money on alcohol. The judge found as well that the 38-year-old used alcohol — administered surreptitiously in at least one case — marijuana, zip-tie restraints, and various threats to compel compliance and subsequent silence from the girls. He threatened the family of one, the judge noted, took pornographic photos of another and threatened to make them public, and a third, he “stripped … of her dignity,” leaving her unable to concentrate at school and costing her two years of her education.

Justice Tranmer also remarked on Solomon’s lack of compassion, describing an episode when he threw razor blades at one of the children after discovering she was trying to cope with her pain by cutting herself.

One of his victims, in an impact statement that was read into the court record by Crown prosecutor O’Brien, wanted Solomon to know that he made her feel that her body was dirty. Another wrote, “What you did to me changed who I was going to be,” and told him, “I hate that I kept your secret.”

The girls’ mothers all attended court and read their impact statements directly to the judge and Solomon.

One spoke of watching her bright, funny little girl turn into “a hurting, anxious, angry, confused young woman.”

Another told Solomon: “What you did is unrepairable,” and “I pray that God has no mercy on your soul, whatever’s left of it.”

A third said: “I hope when you’re in your new home that you have to suffer what my daughter suffered and worse for every tear she cried: I damn you to hell, sir.”

syanagisawa@postmedia.com

CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES: Donors needed. Blood donor clinic at 850 Gardiners Rd., Unit B, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Book your appointment at blood.ca or call 1-888-2DONATE.

WALK ON: A free, drop-in volunteer-led indoor walking program offered at six sites in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington from November to March: Invista Centre and Memorial Centre, Perth Road Public School, Napanee District Secondary School, La Salle Secondary School, and Rideau Heights Community Centre. For the full schedule, go online to www.kflaph.ca/en/clinics-and-classes/Walk-On.aspx or call 613-549-1232, ext. 1180.

SENIORS 50-PLUS YEARS ROCK ‘N’ ROLL FITNESS: Walk, dance, sing and move with us to your favourite rock ‘n’ roll beats on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Stimulate brain, balance, agility, and strength through age-appropriate, stimulating exercises, created to prevent injury. Class starts at 9:30 a.m. Free demos at west-end fitness studio. For more information, call Dee 613-389-6540.

INDOOR ARCHERY: Tuesday and Thursday evenings 7-9 p.m. to April. We offer target archery, fun shoots and the Canbow program for juniors. We welcome ages eight-plus, teens, adults, seniors, novices and pros in all styles of archery. Non-members are welcome to drop in and shoot for a $10 walk-in fee. Personal archery equipment is required for club evenings and walk-ins. For more information or to join, contact us at info@kingstonarcheryclub.org and check us out on the web at kingstonarcheryclub.org where online membership is available.

CHRISTMAS CAKES FOR PARKINSON’S: Christmas cakes are now available at a World of Rentals, 154 Railway St., Kingston. Your choice of fruitcake (two pounds) or cherry cake (1.5 pounds) for $20 each. Phone 613-547-4400 for more information.

BASKETBALL FOR THE AGELESS-SHOOT HOOPS: Inviting all those interested, 60-plus years of age, for recreational coed basketball play. Everyone from novice to weathered players get to play, with no upper age limit. Just for fun and exercise. Join us for a once-a-week, midday workout on Thursdays. For more information, contact basketball@kingston.net.

BEREAVED FAMILIES OF ONTARIO: Join Us for Spousal-Partner Loss Grief Support Group at 6:30 p.m. at 993 Princess St., Unit 14.

VON FOOT CARE: Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 1469 Princess St., Kingston. For more information, call 613-634-0130 ext 2303.

CLOTHING DEPOT: Thursdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Used clothing and small items, reasonably priced at Westbrook United Church, 3526 Princess St.

WOOD CARVING: Thursdays from 6-8 p.m. at Westbrook United Church, 3526 Princess St.

VON EXERCISE CLASSES: Free seniors exercise classes funded by the Ministry of Health at Moscow Community Hall from 1-2 p.m. For more information, call 613-634-0130, ext. 3414.

BRIDGE: 1-4 p.m. at the Amherstview Community Hall with the Interesting Years Club of Amherstview. For more information, call Fran 613-384-0214 and/or Nancy 613-766-4467.

ADVENT CONCERTS: St. George’s Cathedral Advent Concerts, from 12:15 to 12:50 p.m. through Dec. 20. The midday concerts are free, with a voluntary offering collected. The cathedral is at 270 King St. E. (at Johnson Street) in Kingston. Call 613-548-4617 or go online to www.stgeorgescathedral.ca or www.facebook.com/StGeorgeConcerts. Join us for an Advent musical interlude.

CANADIAN CLUB OF KINGSTON LUNCHEON: Speaker: Kayll Lake, professor of astronomy, astrophysics and relativity, Queen’s University, “The Life of a Star.” Non-members welcome, at Cataraqui Golf and Country Club, 961 King St. W., at noon. Membership: $50 single, $90 couple. Luncheons: Members $30, non-members/guests/visitors $38. Email admin.cc@sympatico.ca, call 613-530-2704 or go online to www.canadianclubkingston.org for more information.

ROCKPORT REDEEMER CAFE: 10:30 a.m. at 2 Front St. Topic: Christmas Sharing. Share your Christmas stories, enjoy coffee, treats and homegrown music with Harold and Tom. Everyone welcome.

T.L.T.I. FOUR-WEEK HOLIDAY GROUP FITNESS SESSION: On Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6-7 p.m. Tuesday Body Blast and Thursday Cardio Boxfit at the Lansdowne Community Building with instructor Lori Higgs. Register for one night, two nights or $7 drop-in rate. Four holiday week sessions is $40 for two classes a week, or $25 for one class a week. New year 10-week session will start Jan. 8. For beginners or advanced and both men and women welcome. For more information or to register, call Tara at the township office at 613-659-2415, find us on Facebook “Group Fitness Classes-Lansdowne Community Building” or come early and register that night.

NIGHT BLIND DRAW DOUBLES DARTS: Downstairs at the Napanee branch of the Royal Canadian Legion. Starts at 8 p.m.

LARC’s EARLYON CHILD AND FAMILY CENTRE CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE: Crafts, Cookie decorating, and a visit with Santa at 465 Advance Ave., Napanee. Free, everyone welcome.

LET’S PLAY WITH BABY: 9-11:30 a.m. at Lennox and Addington Resources for Children, 465 Advance Ave., Napanee

BATH PLAYGROUP: 9-11:30 a.m. at Bath United Church.

FLINTON PLAYGROUP: 9:30 a.m. to noon at Flinton Recreation Centre.

HORSESHOE LEAGUE: Play starts at 6 p.m. at the Bath branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, $2 per person. Weather permitting.

DANCE FITNESS: 9:30-10:30 a.m. at the Tamworth branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.

MODERATE EXERCISE GROUP: 3:30 p.m. at the Deseronto Public Library, 358 Main St. Children from ages eight to 14 can come a learn science and do the experiments together. Every week will be something different to discover. For more information, call 613-396-2744.

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS: Call for crafts, times and availability. Until Dec. 22 there will be fun Christmas crafts to participate in at the Deseronto Public Library, 358 Main St. There is limited space for each craft. Call 613-396-2744 for details and registration.

TALL BOY THURSDAYS: Tall boys will be $4.35 all day Thursday at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 623, 120 County Road 4, Millhaven.

A cadet from Royal Military College has been charged by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service following an investigation into a sexual assault that they say occurred last spring on the peninsula.

CFNIS said in a news release that the incident was reported to have occurred last April against another member of the Canadian Forces at the college.

Officer cadet Tyler Johnston has been charged with a single count of sexual assault under the Criminal Code of Canada.

The matter will be going forward through in the civilian justice system rather than a military proceeding. Johnston is scheduled to appear in Kingston court on Jan. 29, 2019.

“The Canadian Forces Military Police seek to investigate and where appropriate lay charges based on factual evidence regardless of location in Canada or abroad,” Lt.-Col. Kevin Cadman, commanding officer of the CFNIS, said in a news release.

“A majority of CFNIS investigations revolve around sexually based offences. The Sexual Offence Response Team provides a nucleus of expertise regarding historical investigative techniques; new trends in law enforcement concerning sexually based offences; and best practices for future investigations.”

A Kingston man has been charged by Ontario Provincial Police after they say a van was driven through one house and into another in Amherstview on Wednesday evening.

OPP said that at approximately 6:15 p.m., officers were called to a report of a vehicle that had collided with two houses on Kildare Avenue. When they arrived, they found that a passenger van had been travelling east on Kildare Avenue when it left the road and struck one house, tearing out the corner of its garage, then continued on and came to rest against the neighbouring house.

OPP said there were no injuries.

Christian Nielissen, a 42-year-old man from Kingston, has been charged with careless driving.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call Napanee OPP at 1-888-310-1122, or to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477(TIPS).

The former fire chief for the Town of Gananoque and the Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands is facing 25 charges, mostly fraud, from Ontario Provincial Police.

Former chief Gerald Bennett, 60, who lives in Elgin, has been charged by the OPP with 15 counts of fraud, six counts of uttering a forged document, three counts of theft and one count of breach of trust. The charges have not been proven in court.

The OPP said in a news release that they received a complaint from the Town of Gananoque and the township  in December 2016 and they began their investigation.

The town’s complaint included allegations of fraud connected to irregularities at the Town of Gananoque, the Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands and the Gananoque Firefighters Association.

On Nov. 8, 2016, the Town of Gananoque announced that Bennett had been relieved of his duties. Prior to that, he’d been placed on paid leave of absence for two months when the township terminated the shared fire chief service agreement with the town.

The news release said an internal investigation had been conducted by a forensic auditor for the two fire departments prior to the OPP’s involvement.

Bennett is scheduled to appear in Brockville court on Jan. 4, 2019.

A local man is facing 21 charges from Kingston Police, including sexual assault and reckless discharge of a firearm, after the force investigated a nightmare-like relationship.

Kingston Police said in a news release that on Tuesday, members of their Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit began investigating a man in relation to numerous incidents of domestic violence, including the suspected use of a firearm and sexual assault.

Police said the investigation revealed the first incident happened over the weekend of Sept. 7-9.

A woman reported that a man had locked her in the basement overnight and, during an argument the next morning, he threw her to the floor in bathroom, police said. When the woman started to cry from the pain, the man choked her until she lost consciousness. When the woman came to and indicated she wanted to call her father, the man threw her seven-week-old puppy against the wall, police said. He then hit the woman in the head with a bong, and pulled her by her hair.

After the violence of that weekend, the woman tried to distance herself from the man. She tried to continue on with her life, but a couple of weeks later he texted her, demanding she leave school or he would come in and get her. When the woman left her school, the man assaulted her.

In November, the woman was walking home along a trail when the man showed up and became angry with her. He then attacked her, biting her in the neck and hand. Police said he then sexually assaulted her.

In December, the man assaulted the woman once again, choking her and smashing her cellphone.  On another day, he pointed a firearm at her before pointing it away and pulling the trigger, firing a round.

On Wednesday, Kingston Police executed a search warrant at the man’s downtown residence. He was found inside and was arrested without incident. During a search of the residence, police found a bullet, a spent blank, brass knuckles and a pellet gun.

Police have charged a 28-year-old man with storing a firearm in a careless manner, pointing a fireman, possession of a weapon dangerous to public peace, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a loaded restricted firearm without a licence, possession of a firearm while prohibited, possession of a prohibited weapon while prohibited, possession of ammunition while prohibited, recklessly discharging a firearm, using a firearm while committing an offence, uttering threats to cause death, three counts of assault, assault with a weapon, two counts of forcible confinement, sexual assault, choking, mischief, and harassment by threatening conduct.

Ontario Provincial Police in Napanee and South Frontenac are looking to identify two men in connection to two separate incidents of theft.

In Napanee, their investigation started on Tuesday when officers responded to a theft complaint at a business there. They are looking now to identify a man captured on security video.

He appears to be Caucasian, in his 30s, with a thin build. At the time of the thef,t he was wearing a dark coat and tuque.

Suspect of theft wanted by Ontario Provincial Police in Sharbot Lake. (Supplied Photo)

Frontenac OPP are asking for the public’s assistance identifying a man captured on video surveillance shoplifting from a Sharbot Lake dollar store. The incident occurred at The Amazing Dollar Store on Saturday sometime after 3 p.m.

The man is described as being Caucasian with short, dark hair with grey on the sides, and a scruffy grey beard. At the time of the theft, the man was wearing a blue jacket, dark blue pants and dark-coloured shoes.

Anyone with information about the men can contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122. To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Frontenac Ontario Provincial Police are warning residents to keep their garage door remotes hidden in their vehicles after a garage was broken into over the weekend.

At 10 a.m. on Monday, officers went to an address in the Battersea area after a resident reported a break and enter to their garage.

OPP said in a news release that the homeowner’s vehicle was parked at the Highway 15 car park in Kingston while they were away for the weekend. The vehicle was broken into and the automatic garage door opener remote was stolen. The homeowner’s garage was then opened by the remote and a generator was stolen.

OPP believe the thief used the vehicle’s ownership and registration papers to determine where the owner lived. A suspect has not been identified.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact the Frontenac OPP at 1-888-310-1122, or to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477(TIPS).

OPP are asking resident to consider the following precautions:

• Carry the remote in a purse or a pocket.
• If the remote is stolen, disable and then reprogram other remotes by following the instructions from the manufacturer.
• If you are unsure about reprogramming, unplug the garage door opener and manually open and close the door. You will need to pull the emergency release cord (generally red) to disconnect the door from the track.
• You will need to re-engage the original lock in the garage door handle to secure the door if operating it manually. Or install a lock on the garage door, usually at the height of the second panel.
• Contact the manufacturer for help with the remote.