Kingston Police are investigating a shooting that occurred on Fraser Street early Tuesday morning.
Officers were called to the area a little after 3 a.m.
Police have said the shots were fired at a window, but no one was hit. They are are still investigating. There have been no arrests yet.
More to come.
Starting in the fall, students at Marie-Rivier Catholic Secondary School will be exposed to a new educational program.
At a ceremony at the French-language school on Dalton Avenue to announce the initiative Tuesday morning, school and school board staff of the Conseil des ecoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE) unveiled the UniverSTEM Excellence Centre of Ontario educational program.
The UniverSTEM vocation represents a renewed and dynamic vision of education, focusing on the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics into everyday learning situations as well as the educational pursuits of students,” a news release from CECCE said.
The program started in the United States and was then developed in schools in Australia, China, the United Kingdom and South Korea.
Danielle Chatelain, superintendent of the school board, said before the ceremony that the program is a specific way of teaching that helps students solve concrete issues through different experimental learning processes.
“We want them to learn through science, mathematics, technology and engineering,” she said.
UniverSTEM is fairly new to Canada, Chatelain said.
“Not very many schools adopt this program, so we’re happy to bring this to Kingston and bring our partners on board,” she said.
The STEM program will allow students to have an experiential learning experience by applying STEM disciplines to other subjects that are taught.
“In addition to preparing students for the future, where most jobs do not yet exist, students will be engaged in an experiential and stimulating world through this new pedagogy where they will be asked to express their creativity and ingenuity,” the news release said.
More than 250 students in grades 7 to 12 at the school will be exposed to the program.
“Everybody is excited about it,” Rejean Sirois, director of education, said. “It’s a francophone community, it’s a small community here, and it’s a big project.”
The ceremony heard speeches from Sirois, area school board trustee Michael Charron and school principal Alexandra Labelle among others. The school band Infusion performed two songs.
Marie-Rivier Catholic Secondary School band Infusion performs at the launch of the UniverSTEM program at the school on Tuesday. (Ian MacAlpine/The Whig-Standard)
Labelle was asked after the ceremony how the program would assist the students in their education.
“It will help them access the new jobs of the future because with mathematics, science and technology, they can go anywhere.”
As part of STEM, the school is partnering with the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, the engineering faculty at the University of Ottawa, and college La Cite of Ottawa to develop a health and wellness program in conjunction with the STEM vocation.
As well, the Centre Culturel Frontenac will help develop Marie-Rivier’s arts and culture programs, and a radio initiation program will be implemented by Radio Jeaunesse (Youth Radio).
The school is also developing a hockey skills program partnering with the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs, two local minor hockey associations and Hockey Canada.
Marie-Rivier Catholic Secondary School Kingston staff, school board staff, students and partners at the launch of the UniverSTEM program at the school on Tuesday. (Ian MacAlpine/The Whig-Standard)
A 41-year-old man who apparently crossed over into drug psychosis 13 months ago under the influence of crystal meth and launched brutal unexpected attacks on three people, one of them a complete stranger, will have plenty of time to think about the high cost of his addiction.
Corey N. Rose was given enhanced credit Monday on 410 days he’d already spent in pretrial custody and was sentenced to a further 11 years, three months and 15 days in penitentiary, deemed altogether the equivalent of a 13-year prison term.
But the price he’s paying pales next to the cost to his victims.
Rose pleaded guilty in December to three charges of attempted murder arising out of a one-day spree of gratuitous violence on Dec. 14, 2017.
A woman whose skull he fractured while hitting her in the head with the claw end of a hammer can no longer do her job, assistant Crown attorney Janet O’Brien told Superior Court Justice Kenneth Pedlar. She now requires a walker to get around because of balance issues, and O’Brien said she has difficulty remembering things.
Likewise, O’Brien told the judge, another of Rose’s victims, a man who had previously had some cognitive issues but was able to live largely independently, is now entirely dependent, according to his uncle, after being bludgeoned in his sleep by Rose with the same hammer and later being struck by a car.
The driver of a Kingston Transit Access bus, who successfully fended off a knife attack by Rose later the same day, wasn’t seriously injured physically, O’Brien told the judge. But she showed video of Rose’s blitz on the driver from the bus’s on-board cameras and told Justice Pedlar, “it wasn’t for lack of trying.” She said, “You can see from the video that [Rose] tried repeatedly to stab him in the abdomen and the head.
In his victim impact statement, which was read into the record by O’Brien, the 60-year-old bus driver pulled no punches, referring to Rose several times as a “goof.”
He made it clear that he’s contemplated the randomness of what happened; how it could have been one of his co-workers instead of him; how the outcome, if it had been, might have been different. And while he wrote in his impact statement that he’s grateful no one else’s family was devastated by a senseless death, he also expressed anger that Rose would try to take a life so arbitrarily. He told the judge in his impact statement that he now has post-traumatic stress disorder.
“You are not tough by any stretch,” he wrote, addressing his words to Rose. “Tough is working your way through life.”
He also told Rose,“Consider this: I’m 60 years old and I disarmed you, roughed you up and threw you off the bus.” Then he encouraged Rose to contemplate where he’s now going and the capabilities and proclivities of the people who will soon be his very close neighbours.
Rose, for his part, told the judge he’s “taking steps” to “fix” his addiction to drugs. “I’d like to apologize to each of the victims for the pain and suffering I’ve caused them,” he told Justice Pedlar, “and I hope they’re able to get on with their lives.”
Justice Pedlar was told, at the time of Rose’s plea, that he was visiting at a house on Cowdy Street in the early morning of Dec. 14, 2017, when the violence started. Police were later told he’d been using drugs heavily and had been aggressive for weeks, telling some of his acquaintances he was hearing voices.
Shortly after 11 a.m. that day, according to witnesses, one of the women was in the bathroom, washing clothes in the bathtub, and Rose was in there ostensibly helping her.
When she emerged, however, police were told, she was walking oddly. Then, she and Rose were in the kitchen when others in the house heard a noise and, upon investigation, found the woman on the floor with blood pooling around her head. One of the other women saw a hammer sitting on top of a nearby dresser that appeared to have blood and hair on the claw end.
Witnesses later reported that Rose, meanwhile, was bouncing around, waving his arms up and down in the hallway. He was ordered to leave and, according to witnesses, he put on his balaclava and went.
About 45 minutes later, the access bus driver was sitting in his bus in front of an Elmwood Street address waiting for a scheduled pickup when Rose tapped on his door. The bus driver opened it to see what he wanted, and, Justice Pedlar was told, Rose announced he wanted to go to London. When the driver, who transports people with disabilities and in wheelchairs, told him he wasn’t going to London, Rose crouched down, pulled a large hunting knife from his right side and lunged at him, stabbing downward. The driver deflected the strike and grappled with Rose, who continued trying to stab him until the driver knocked the knife out of his grip, punched him several times in the head and face and pushed him off the bus, at which point Rose ran off, westward.
He was arrested a little over an hour later after Kingston Police received a call from a Sherwood Drive resident who had taken pity on a confused man she’d found walking back and forth in a T-shirt on a very cold day in some nearby woods. She took him home, gave him coffee and a sandwich and offered him a hot shower. But Rose’s strange behaviour eventually spooked her and she called Kingston Police to get him out of her home.
Justice Pedlar was told the officer who responded immediately noticed that the unwanted guest had a fresh injury above his left eye and that his clothes matched those the bus driver had described his assailant wearing — and Rose was arrested.
It wasn’t until five days later, on Dec. 19, that police investigators learned there had been a second hammer attack. The victim had been taken to hospital on Dec. 14 after he was struck by a car on Division Street near Joseph Street, shortly before 2 p.m. He had a skull fracture and had told medical personnel he’d been hit with a hammer. But it wasn’t until days later that all the pieces came together and it was learned he’d been at the same address where the female was bludgeoned and that several people reported seeing his head wound that day before he was hit by the car. He later told police he’d been sleeping in the bedroom when a man he didn’t know hit him in the head with a hammer. He also recalled seeing the injured woman lying on the kitchen floor before he left the house.
Rose’s lawyer, Clyde Smith, told Justice Pedlar his client “has had a hand-to-mouth existence, sir. He’s lived on the streets five times.”
Rose started out, according to Smith, smoking marijuana in his mid-teens but eventually moved on to cocaine, his drug of choice until he was 30. Then he had a knee problem that introduced him to Percocet and its ilk, but Smith suggested it was grief over the death of his father that finally nudged Rose into methamphetamine use.
In sentencing him, Justice Pedlar said the impact of addiction on our culture is “absolutely staggering.” He told the lawyers, “I’m about six months away from 39 years on the bench and the most tragic cases I’ve dealt with have had drug addiction at their core.”
syanagisawa@postmedia.com
The lawyer for a Kingston man says his client’s life will never be the same after he was arrested and interrogated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in relation to a national security investigation last week.
“He’s not going to have a normal life now,” Mohamed El Rashidy said of his 20-year-old client, Hussam Eddin Alzahabi. “He’s not stupid. He doesn’t feel welcome anywhere he goes. I can’t put him in a bubble. I’m sure he’s seeing what I’m seeing in terms of racist comments and threats. …
“He’s stuck, both with the trauma and his life being completely on hold. He’s done nothing wrong, but he can’t go back to life prior to these events.”
Alzahabi and a 16-year-old boy were arrested last Thursday afternoon after the RCMP executed search warrants at homes on Macdonnell Street and Kingsdale Avenue. Explosives and elements of explosives were seized from one of the homes, and the RCMP said there was a credible bombing attack plan, but a time and place for it hadn’t been established.
The teen, who can’t be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was charged with knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity and with counselling someone to use an explosive or other lethal device to cause death or serious bodily injury. Alzahabi was released without charges.
Alzahabi is now “as free as you or I, in terms of where he stands in the legal system,” El Rashidy of Mississauga’s Rashidy and Associates said. “He’s not involved in anything illegal. The actions of police made that very clear.”
When asked about an update on the investigation, Cpl. Louise Savard of the RCMP said they “have no other information available at this time.” At a news conference on Friday afternoon, Supt. Peter Lambertucci, officer in charge of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) Ottawa for the RCMP, said they were still investigating.
Alzahabi and his father weren’t home at the time their home was searched, El Rashidy said. He explained that Alzahabi’s “mom took the brunt of it,” as RCMP officers blew off the door with their rifles drawn. Officers seized all electronic devices and storage devices that could store data. El Rashidy emphasized that he isn’t criticizing how the RCMP did their job, but it was a traumatic incident for the family.
The Alzahabi family came to Canada as refugees about two years ago after fleeing war-torn Damascus for Kuwait. Their home in Syria has been destroyed. The family was sponsored to come to Kingston by four local churches.
El Rashidy said first thing that he had to explain to his client while he was in custody who the RCMP actually is. The lawyer described the interrogation as a “really rough time” that his client soon won’t forget.
Alzahabi now understands that his conversations and activities were misunderstood, El Rashidy said. The lawyer added that the whole situation is very nuanced and will be able to be explained more clearly once the judicial process unfolds.
“The RCMP releasing [Alzahabi] after all the political pressure and the social atmosphere, that shows some integrity and respect on their part,” El Rashidy said. “I appreciate that because many police forces do not show that kind of backbone to stand up for what is right.
“They had one perspective, one view, then conducted further investigation and interrogation. They got more information and they were honest enough to say, ‘OK, we’ve changed our point of view.’ … Isn’t that how we want things to be? They could have doubled down and buried the kid.”
El Rashidy challenges anyone who is questioning Alzahabi’s innocence.
“Let’s call it like it is: you don’t release a person in a potential bomb plot if you think he is a part of it,” El Rashidy said. “He has been released. Why are people still talking about him like he is the anti-Christ? I don’t understand. …
“To be frank, when I take a step back and try to assess it, it doesn’t look to me like it has anything to do with the charges. This just has to do with hatred towards him because of who he is.”
El Rashidy said he’s tried to guard his client from the hatred online, and Alzahabi has put on a brave face, but those close to him have admitted the 20-year-old is struggling.
“He’s a really good kid. He’s really positive,” El Rashidy said. “I get more information from people around him. They hear him at night waking up screaming. He’s having nightmares and he’s struggling, but he’s a typical 20-year-old. He’s trying to tough it out and act like it is all good.”
Bob Benzen, a Conservative member of Parliament for the riding of Calgary Heritage, paid a visit to Kingston on Tuesday to meet with local small business owners.
Benzen has been an MP for about 18 months, after winning a byelection in 2017 in former prime minister Stephen Harper’s riding.
He was accompanied by federal Kingston and the Islands Conservative candidate Ruslan Yakoviychuk at the meeting at the Travelodge at 2360 Princess St. to discuss issues important to them.
“It’s a good opportunity to see different regions of the country, compare notes and to see if we’re moving in the right direction,” he said.
Afterward he spoke with the Whig-Standard before meeting with Mayor Bryan Paterson at City Hall.
“I came to listen to the people of Kingston.” he said during an interview at the Whig-Standard office. “Coming from Calgary with a background in oil and gas, I know what we’ve been going through in Calgary for the last four years and it’s been pretty tough.
“The oil prices have really decimated the oil industry in Calgary.”
Before jumping into federal politics, Benzen owned and operated Copyseis, a data storage, reproduction and management company serving the oil and gas industry.
He and other Conservative MPs and Leader Andrew Scheer are on a fact-finding mission across the country, speaking to small businesses owners and listening to what they are saying.
“We’re just trying to make sure we understand the pulse of the community and bring that together so we have the pulse of the nation,” Benzen said.
The fact-finding tour will help them develop their platform for the election, Benzen said.
Yakoviychuk appreciated Benzen’s visit on Tuesday.
“I think he’s showing the Conservative party is paying attention to Kingston and the Islands, and my job is to make sure everybody visits Kingston,” he said. “I want to make sure our message from here gets to Ottawa.”
The federal government needs to support small business, Benzen said.
“They are worried about too much regulation smothering businesses and how small businesses are really the growth of our economy,” he said.
He’s also worried about Canada’s debt and if it’s getting out of control. Benzen believes the debt will be around for a long time.
“Are we going to be able to afford the health care we want, the education we want, if we have this big debt bomb,?” he asked.
He was asked if he’s heard complaints on his tour about the carbon tax.
“What I’ve heard is how we’re going to be competitive,” he said.
Benzen said business owners are concerned about how Canadians can compete with businesses south of the border when Canada has a carbon tax and the United States does not.
“How are we going to be competitive to sell our products into their market place?” he asked.
He said he was pleased the Liberal government lowered the small business tax to nine per cent.
“That was a Conservative platform that we were doing and they matched that,” he said.
Benzen said there are too many Canadians living paycheque to paycheque.
“We have to lay the foundation where we have good jobs and good businesses and carbon tax is going to play into that,” he said.
If such industrialized nations as China, India and Russia don’t have a carbon tax, Canada shouldn’t, either, if it wants to remain competitive, he said.
Benzen is calling for more oil and gas infrastructure to be built.
“Canada needs to have a growth strategy,. We need to grow our economy. If we don’t grow our economy, how are we going to pay off our debt? How are we going to have a health-care system and an education system, and how are we going to fund our old age retirement?”
He said Canada is losing $15 billion every year by not having a pipeline in place.
“That’s money we’re never getting back,” he said.
Benzen said the world needs energy and Canada has lots of it.
“Energy is what fuels our economy and gives us growth,” he said.
A dispute between a homeowner and his tenant escalated when, police said, the homeowner pointed a firearm at a man who rented a room in his house.
On Monday, Kingston Police responded to a call that the accused, a 54-year-old local man, had pointed a firearm at the victim inside the home.
According to a news release from Kingston Police, the victim and the homeowner had been having “ongoing issues.” The firearm was pointed after the homeowner allegedly moved belongings of the victim’s out of the home, resulting in an argument between the two.
Police found a loaded firearm in the residence and arrested and charged the accused with assault with a weapon, pointing a firearm, using a firearm to commit an indictable offence, weapons dangerous to public peace, and improper storage of a firearm.
A man walking down Princess Street this past Friday night was violently attacked by a man who approached him from behind, yelling.
At approximately 10 p.m. that night, the accused began to strike the victim in the face while the victim tried to shield himself. The accused man eventually fled.
The incident was reported to police on Monday and the accused was arrested.
A 47-year-old local man has been charged with assault, breach of undertaking and two counts of breach of probation.
A 51-year-old man has been charged with aggravated assault after a man was attacked inside a business on Montreal Street.
The accused was belligerent and berated employees at the establishment before being asked to leave by the male victim, who was punched repeatedly in the face.
Kingston Police were called to a fight in progress and arrived in the midst of the assault.
The accused was charged with aggravated assault, taken to police headquarters and held for a bail hearing the following day.
A man stranded on a floating chunk of ice in Lake Ontario was rescued by Canadian Forces personnel off the shores of Amherst Island on Sunday.
Officers with the Loyalist detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police, as well as members of the Loyalist Township Emergency Services, responded to a call from the man, who was trapped on a piece of ice that had broken free from lake ice and was floating south from the island. He was unable to access dry land.
Canadian Forces Base Trenton rescue operations dispatched a helicopter to rescue the stranded floe passenger.
The man was uninjured.
The OPP is reminding people to be safe when venturing out onto the ice by following some precautions:
• Check the weather. Do not go out on warm or stormy days.
• Do not travel on ice if you have consumed alcohol or drugs.
• Do not travel on ice alone or in the dark. Always have a buddy with you.
• Always let someone know your destination and time of return.
• Children should be accompanied by an adult when out on the ice.
• Carry a small survival kit on your person, including ice picks, rope, a lighter, waterproof matches, magnesium fire starter, pocket knife, compass, and whistle.
The agency that runs the city’s specialized transit programs is asking for a budget increase of more than $431,000 in order to keep up with the rising demand for services.
On the second night of city budget meetings, representatives from Kingston Access Services, which provides transit services to passengers with physical and cognitive impairment, told council that a budget increase is needed to keep up with a predicted 6.4 per cent increase in passenger demand.
When the $431,000 budget increase was originally submitted, the agency was asked to revise it to lower the increase.
The revised budget included a $328,000 increase, but on Tuesday night Trevor Fray, the agency’s executive director, asked council to consider approving the additional $103,000 included in the original higher budget increase.
The higher budget increase would boost the agency’s total budget to just more than $3 million.
Fray said increased demand and higher than expected fuel costs in 2018 have strained the service’s ability to provide accessible rides. The agency has seen an average of 6.6 per cent increase in the number of rides it has provided over the past four years.
In addition, the distance passengers travel with the agency increased between 2016 and 2018 by 6.2 per cent.
“It doesn’t sound like a lot, but 6.2 per cent a year adds up,” Fray said.
In 2018, KAS provided rides to more than 81,500 passengers. The agency expects to serve close to 86,000 passengers in 2019.
In 2019, Fray said he expects a 6.4 per cent increase in ride requests.
Between 2016 and 2018, the increase number of riders, and the longer trips, increased the total number of kilometres the agency’s buses travelled by 21 per cent.
The anticipated fuel costs for 2019 are 22 cents per litre higher than what was budgeted in 2018. Fuel costs last year were more than $52,000 more than planned.
In 2018, the agency had approximately 2,200 unaccommodated trip requests. Without the extra $103,000, Fray said that number would jump to 6,000 in 2019.
Kingston Access Services was one of 10 external agencies to address council about their 2019 budget requests.
Kingston Police, the largest external agency funded by the city, proposed a 2019 budget of almost $38.3 million, an increase of about $950,000 or 2.55 per cent.
The Kingston Economic Development Corporation requested $1.4 million in city funding, a 1.5 per cent increase from 2018.
Frontenac Paramedic Services, which receives about 40 per cent of its funding from the city, has requested a $544,000 increase, which would bring the city’s contribution to land ambulance services to more than $7.5 million.
About 87 per cent of the 21,000 calls Frontenac Paramedics respond to annually are within the city of Kingston.
City councillors are to continue budget deliberations on Wednesday night.
Gale Chevalier, deputy chief of operations for Frontenac Paramedic Services, speaks to Kingston city council on Tuesday. (Elliot Ferguson/The Whig-Standard)
Big proposed budget increases for city-funded services administered by the County of Frontenac gave some city councillors pause.
On Tuesday night, at the second of three budget meetings for city council, Frontenac County officials briefed city councillors about proposed budgets for Fairmount Home and Frontenac Paramedic Services.
The budget proposals include a 5.21 per cent budget increase for Fairmount Home and a 7.74 per cent budget increase for Frontenac Paramedic Services.
Kingston city council has committed to capping its overall budget increase at 2.5 per cent, including one per cent earmarked for infrastructure.
“I think the concern is, with our external agencies and partners we ask for a target of closer to 2.5 per cent so that we can hit our target of 2.5 per cent. Right now, these numbers are double and triple that,” Mayor Bryan Paterson said.
“In the budget deliberations that you have at the county over the next month, do you expect those numbers to change? Will they go down? Will they go up?”
Frontenac County is to hold its budget session in the first week of February.
“I’ve given up guessing where our council will go, particularly a new council,” county chief administrative officer Kelly Pender replied. “I assure you, they will be reviewing this budget line by line.
“A number of these decisions are driven by an aging population in the city of Kingston and increasing resources that council has committed to.”
In both cases, increases in wages and benefits accounted for the lion’s share of the budget increases.
At Fairmount Home, increased costs for salaries and benefits added more than $414,000 to the proposed budget.
In response to increasingly complex care requirements for residents, the costs of which are outpacing provincial government funding, county council has approved additional staff in the past couple of years.
“Our staff, residents and family members appreciate the additional staffing,” Lisa Hirvi, administrator of Fairmount Home, said. “It is certainly a step in the right direction and affords us the ability to provide better care to our residents.”
In total, the 5.21 per cent budget increase translates into an extra $150,000 in the city’s $3 million portion of funding for Fairmount Home.
Additional staffing proposals are expected to be part of the county’s budget process next month.
The FPS budget included more than $688,000 more for salaries and benefits.
“There are a number of challenges that we are facing. The Kingston and Frontenac areas have an aging population,” said Gale Chevalier, deputy chief of operations, who added that 54 per cent of ambulance calls are for patients who are 60 or older.
“As the number of patients in this age demographic increases, so will our call volume.”
From 2017 to 2018, FPS call volume increased by 8.24 per cent.
About 85 per cent of the service’s calls are within the city limits.
The proposed 7.74 per cent increase translates into an extra $544,000 to the city’s $7.5 million contribution to the paramedic service.
City council is expected to wrap up its budget deliberations on Wednesday night.
Kingston Police have released photos of three masked men who they say fired multiple rounds at an apartment window early Tuesday morning.
Officers were called to the area a little after 3:20 a.m. after “several” shots were fired, Det. Sgt. Jay Finn of the Kingston Police’s Major Crimes Unit said.
Finn said they’ve learned that before the shooting, a group of three men wearing ski masks had entered the apartment block at 73 Fraser St. and tried to enter a unit. The men pounded on the door and were demanding money. One of the men was carrying a silver handgun and another a camouflaged shotgun.
When they weren’t able to enter a unit, they left but then fired several rounds at one of the unit’s windows. They were seen driving away from the scene in two separate vehicles: a light-coloured car and a dark SUV.
There were two adults and two children in the apartment at the time of the incident, Finn said. At least one round went through a young child’s bedroom window. No one was physically injured during the shooting.
The suspects have not been identified and the firearm has not been recovered.
Anyone with information about the vehicles or the three men is asked to contact either Det. Scott Huffman by calling 613-549-4660, ext. 6322, or email shuffman@kingstonpolice.ca, or Det. Jim Veltman at 613-549-4660, ext. 6300, or email jveltman@kingstonpolice.ca.
Tips can be provided anonymously by calling 613-549-4660 and asking to remain so or by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
A Scarborough man could be using public transportation for the next week after being caught stunt driving on Highway 401 in a snowstorm by Ontario Provincial Police.
The OPP said in a news release that at about 11:10 a.m., an officer conducting speed enforcement on Highway 401 near Napanee captured a vehicle on radar being driven east at 152 km/h in the 100 km/h zone.
The driver was pulled over and the vehicle was seized.
OPP have charged a 22-year-old man from Scarborough with stunt driving and careless driving. His vehicle and licence were seized for seven days and he was given a summons to appear in Provincial Offences Court on March 7.
A Seeley’s Bay man is facing criminal charges after the Ontario Provincial Police responded to a collision Sunday night.
The OPP said in a news release that just before 9:30 p.m., emergency services were called to a single-vehicle collision on Battersea Road. After investigating and speaking to the driver of the vehicle, they determined he was likely impaired by alcohol.
The man was arrested for the offence and refused to provide a breath sample.
The OPP have charged 54-year-old Cassel Miles with impaired driving and for refusing to provide a breath sample. His driver’s licence was suspended for 90 days and his motor vehicle was towed and impounded for seven. He was released on a promise to appear in court in Kingston on Feb. 28.
EDMONTON — Women’s hockey star and Kingston native Jayna Hefford, along with head coaches Ken Hitchcock and George Kingston, have been named to the Order of Hockey in Canada.
Hefford, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, was a key part of Canada’s women’s team from 1997 to 2014. She remains the team’s second-highest scorer with 291 points (157 goals, 134 assists) over her 267-game career.
Hefford helped Canada to four Olympic gold medals and seven world titles over her international career. She is currently serving as commissioner of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League after a stellar career at the club level.
Hitchcock, meanwhile, was an assistant coach on Canada’s men’s national team for three Olympic gold medals, and was also an assistant for the junior team that won gold in 1998. He also won a World Cup title in 2004, and served as head coach at a pair of world championships, in 2008 and 2011.
He guided the Dallas Stars to a Stanley Cup title in 1999 and currently serves as the head coach of his hometown Edmonton Oilers. He earned the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach in 2011-12, and was twice named WHL coach of the year twice during his time with the Kamloops Blazers.
Kingston, from Biggar, Sask., led the University of Calgary to six Canada West championships before making the move to the international level. Hew as an assistant coach with Canada at the 1983 world championship and 1984 Olympics.
He was chairman of the 1988 Olympic tournament in Calgary before building Canada’s silver medal-winning entry at the 1994 Games as general manager.
The first-ever head coach of the San Jose Sharks, Kingston also made NHL stops as an assistant with Calgary, Minnesota, Atlanta and Florida.
The Order was started by Hockey Canada in 2012 to honour individuals for their contributions to the growth and development of hockey in Canada.
Kirsty Duncan, federal minister of science and sport, was at Queen’s University to announce $141 million in research grants for nearly 3,000 Canadian researchers, more than 90 of them from Queen’s. The announcement was made at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre on Wednesday. (Meghan Balogh/The Whig-Standard)
Canada’s minister of science and sport was at Queen’s University to announce $141 million in research support money in social sciences and humanities research.
The money — awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) — will back the research of nearly 3,000 Canadian scholars, university faculty, and graduate and post-doctoral students at 79 different Canadian institutions.
More than $4.6 million of that money will support 92 Queen’s University researchers.
Science and Sport Minister Kirsty Duncan spoke to media and assembled Queen’s University researchers at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre on Wednesday.
“Since our government came to office in 2015, we have worked hard to return research to its rightful place,” Duncan said.
Duncan said that investing in social sciences and humanities research is important for the quality of life of Canadians.
“As a former researcher, I know the important role that social sciences and humanities research play in building a healthier, stronger and more prosperous Canada.”
Two of the 92 Queen’s researchers awarded grants were highlighted at the media event on Wednesday morning.
Christine Moon’s research will focus on medical assistance in dying and what that means to racialized Canadians. She is among the 2,300 doctoral and post-doctoral students receiving an award.
“Through my research study, I will investigate how the introduction of [medical assistance in dying] shapes questions of death and dying in Canada,” Moon said. “My goal is to complicate the whiteness of national discourses surrounding assisted dying, while exploring the absences, erasures and insertions of racialized voices.”
Lee Airton received an insight development grant to research gender and sexual diversity in kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms.
Airton’s research looks at how gender expression is being defined and constructed in Ontario public school boards.
Airton is delighted by the increase in funding for Canadian researchers.
“That has a tremendous impact on our ability to grow our careers and to contribute,” Airton said. “Without that funding, a lot of the work that we do simply wouldn’t make its way into the public sphere and make change. I’m tremendously encouraged.”
The $141 million investment is part of a larger commitment by the federal government to provide a record amount of funding for Canadian research.
The Liberal government dedicated $4 billion to research over five years in its 2018 budget, and Duncan described the investment as “historic,” describing it as a 25 per cent increase for granting councils.
“We just made the largest investment in research in Canada’s history,” Duncan said.
“We know when you invest in research this leads to a better environment, better health, better quality of life.”
Duncan said the previous Conservative government “gutted research,” taking away funding and muzzling scientists.
The Liberal government, she said, remedied this from the beginning by reinstating the long-form census and reappointing a chief science adviser, a position that was eliminated by the Conservatives.
“Research provides the evidence we need to have sound policy-making,” Duncan said. “Research really matters, and this has been a priority for our government since Day 1.”
Duncan closed her comments by addressing the researchers in the room and those watching a live-stream of the event.
“We value the important contributions you are making to improve the lives of Canadians, to push the boundaries of knowledge,” she said. “Know that your important research provides the evidence for sound policy-making. Research matters. Your research matters.”
Ted Hewitt, president of the SSHRC, praised the increase in funding for Canadian researchers.
“The grant recipients that we are celebrating today all share something in common: a thirst for learning, and a desire to better understand the world to make it a better place,” Hewitt said. “With the benefit of the government of Canada’s new investments announced today by Minister Duncan, the odds have increased dramatically that these outstanding students, scholars and researchers will actually achieve that goal.”
Although tasked with setting the budget for 2019, many city councillors were looking at much bigger issues and much further down the road.
The final night of budget discussions Wednesday, councillors were asked to finalize a proposed $388 million operating budget and a proposed $52 million capital budget and stay within a 2.5 per cent property tax increase.
In the end, city council approved a $379.6 million operating budget and a $50 million capital budget.
King’s Town Coun. Rob Hutchison put forward a motion to direct staff to come up with $25 million of capital projects that could be deferred and the money used to build new housing during the next four years.
King’s Town Coun. Rob Hutchison puts forward a proposal to defer $25 million in capital projects in the next four years and commit the money to building affordable housing during 2019 budget discussions in Kingston, Ont. on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019.Elliot Ferguson/The Whig-Standard/Postmedia Network
Loyalist-Cataraqui Coun. Simon Chapelle had debt on his mind and put forward a motion directing staff to come up with a detailed plan to pay down the city’s debt within 15 years.
In both cases, Mayor Bryan Paterson ruled that the motions could be put forward at later meetings but they were out of order Wednesday night because they were not part of the discussion for the 2019 budget.
Sydenham Coun. Peter Stroud was able to make a small change when council voted 10-2 to double of the amount of money the city is to spend on low volume roads, from $250,000 to $500,000.
Stroud originally put a motion forward to double the amount of money the city budgeted for road and sidewalk repair and rehabilitation from $3.175 million to $6.3 million. For the last few years the city has spent about $3 million on road rehabilitation.
When council was told these changes would add 1.5 per cent to the property tax rate, Stroud withdrew the larger road repair request but left the low volume road budget increase. The low volume road work is being funded from the municipal capital reserve fund.
Pittsburgh Coun. Ryan Boehme cautioned council not to lean too heavily on reserve funds, lest they not be there when really needed.
While it was widely supported, some around council were concerned that it budget time was not the right time to make pitches for specific projects.
I’m sure every councillor sitting around the horseshoe has some protect they would like done,” Lakeside Coun. Wayne Hill said. “I don’t think it is the place and time to put forward this type of motion.”
Earlier in the meeting, Paterson had asked council to pass the budget and use the strategic planning process to get specific priorities and projects on the city’s to-do list.
Mayor Bryan Paterson was kept busy keeping council focussed on passing the 2019 budget rather than addressing longer-term challenges, including housing and debt repayment, during budget discussion in Kingston, Ont. on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019.Elliot Ferguson/The Whig-Standard/Postmedia Network
The potential of cuts to provincial funding cast a shadow on the final night of Kingston’s city budget discussions.
Council was in the midst of its third night of budget presentations at press time Wednesday night, but rumoured changes to the Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Works funding, the potential elimination of full-day kindergarten, and the elimination of the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) provided “uncertainty” to many of the big-ticket budget items.
The city’s operating budget is to be funded by about $249 million in property tax revenue and about $140 million in non-tax revenue.
Council has committed to capping its overall budget increase at 2.5 per cent, including one per cent earmarked for infrastructure.
Wednesday night’s meeting included budget presentations from department heads, including acting chief administrative officer Lanie Hurdle, who presented a $41 million budget for the community services department that included a 1.84 per cent increase.
Hurdle cautioned council that the potential for changes in the way the provincial government funds social support programs could mean more people will be accessing city-funded support programs.
There is the potential for an increase in city-funded caseload and cuts to provincial transfers to the city to support those programs.
“I think it’s going to be very challenging,” Hurdle said.
The proposed community services budget included more than $17 million for housing and social services and more than $8 million for parks and leisure services.
The proposed capital budget for community services was more than $14 million, half of that going to parks and leisure services for renovations to existing parks and creation of new parks.
City chief financial officer and treasurer Desiree Kennedy presented a proposed corporate and emergency services budget of almost $35 million that included a 1.56 per cent increase.
Kingston Fire and Rescue is seeking a modest 1.05 per cent increase in its almost $25 million 2019 budget.
The fire department is also looking for almost $2.4 million in new capital costs, including communication and dispatch technology, firefighting equipment and renovations to the Woodbine fire hall to accommodate a new Frontenac Paramedic Services station.
Kingston fire chief Shawn Armstrong speaks to city council during budget discussions in Kingston, Ont. on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019.Elliot Ferguson/The Whig-Standard/Postmedia Network
Kennedy also presented a proposed $7.7 million operating budget that includes a 5.3 per cent increase for the finance technology and administration department.
That department also has a proposed $5.7 million capital budget, much of it related to information technology and the airport expansion.
On Tuesday night, council heard budget presentations from city-funded external agencies.
Among the groups that addressed city council was Frontenac County, which administers Fairmount Home and the Frontenac Paramedic Services (FPS).
The county budgets for this agencies included a 7.74 per cent budget increase for FPS and a 5.2 per cent budget increase for Fairmount Home.
Kingston Access Services, which runs the city’s specialized transit programs for passengers with physical and cognitive impairment, asked council for a budget increase to meet an expected 6.4 per cent increase in demand.
The agency’s original request was for a $431,000 increase that would bring its budget to more than $3 million.
Senior city staff requested the agency ask for a lower amount, so the budget was changed to include a $328,000 increase.
But on Tuesday night, the agency’s executive director, Trevor Fray, told council that the higher amount was needed to avoid a tripling in the number of unfulfilled ride requests.
City council agreed to add an extra $50,000 to the agency’s budget to help it meet demand.
The final draft of the 2019 budget is to be put before city council in mid-February for approval.
A youth in the United Kingdom has been accused by local police of being the source of a series of threats that put schools in the Kingston area into lockdown in early December.
Kingston Police said Thursday the investigation by them and police forces in the United Kingdom and United States determined that the youth made the threats online and by telephone.
There are no plans in place to extradite the youth.
A warrant for the youth’s arrest is to be issued, and should they travel to Canada they would be arrested.
The youth could face seven counts of public mischief and seven counts of uttering threats.
Like in Canada, young people charged or suspected of committing a crime in the United Kingdom cannot be identified.
Kingston Police at Marie-Rivier Catholic Secondary School while in lockdown in Kingston on Dec. 6, 2018. (Elliot Ferguson/The Whig-Standard)
A Royal Military College officer cadet has been charged with a number of sexual assault-related offences.
Navy Cadet Cody Carter has been charged by the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service (CFNIS) with three counts of sexual assault and two counts of assault.
The charges relate to incidents reported to have occurred between September 2015 and May 2017 in various locations in Ontario and Quebec.
The complainant is another member of the Canadian Forces, a news release from National Defence said.
The complainant reported the alleged assaults in January to the Military Police detachment at Canadian Forces Base Kingston. The file was transferred to the CFNIS, which immediately assumed investigative responsibility. A majority of CFNIA investigations revolve around sex-based offences and that unit has the expertise to investigate sexual assault complaints, the release said.
The charges against Carter have not been proven in court. His next appearance will be at Provincial Court on Wednesday, Feb. 27.
A local man has been charged by police with assault and forcible confinement after a woman went to pick up her child for her scheduled custody time and was attacked.
The woman went to her ex-common law spouse’s residence to pick up the child on Tuesday at about 6 p.m. She reported that while she was in the residence, the man became hostile. He grabbed her by the throat and prevented her from leaving, police said. He then threatened to break her arm, before telling her to leave. The woman left with the child and police were contacted at a later time.
On Wednesday at about 8:15 a.m., officers met the man at his Calvin Park residence. He was arrested without incident.
A 38-year-old local man was charged with assault, forcible confinement, and uttering threats. He was held in police custody to attend a bail court later on in the day.
Ontario’s economy will continue to grow but at a slower pace than the past few years, and one of the reasons for that is a sign of things to come.
Speaking at a Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce luncheon Thursday afternoon, Pierre Cleroux, vice-president of research and chief economist with the Business Development Bank of Canada, said rising interest rates and a growing labour shortage are having an impact.
“The shortage of labour is having an impact on growth,” Cleroux said. “You see a lot of companies that are not growing as much, they are refusing contracts, they are refusing new clients just because they don’t have the manpower.”
Ontario’s economy grew on average 2.5 per cent during the past four years and the BDC expects it to grow at around two per cent for the next few years.
The shortage of labour is due largely to the first cohorts of baby boomers retiring, a trend that is only going to accelerate as that generation ages out of the workplace.
In their place, there are not enough young people and immigrants entering the workforce to replace them.
“In the year 2000, the labour force in Ontario increased by 228,000 that year. That means that the people retiring and young people joining the workforce, the difference was plus 228,000. Last year, the labour force increased by 68,000,” Cleroux said.
“There’s a lot more people leaving the workforce to retire. The economy created more than 70,000 jobs. We created last year more jobs than the labour force increased,” he added. “That is the reason why the unemployment rate is low. That is the reason why we have a shortage of labour.”
Cities like Kingston may also be particularly susceptible to the labour shortage as they can struggle to attract immigrant workers, who are increasingly being seen as a way to fill gaps in the labour supply.
“The problem is everywhere, but the problem is even bigger outside the three major cities in Canada,” Cleroux said.
“We find across the country the biggest shortages of labour are in smaller communities, smaller cities. Immigrants arrive in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and stay there. It is much more difficult to convince them to move to Kingston or other places.”
Cleroux encouraged the city and its economic development agency to actively try to attract immigrants to Kingston.
Ontario’s unemployment rate is 5.6 per cent, the lowest it has been in many years.
Cleroux said he expects the rise in interest rates will impact growth as money becomes more expensive to borrow and debt payments become more expensive, which will slow the housing market and consumer spending.
The expected interest rate hikes are needed, in part, to give the Bank of Canada room to act if the economy starts to struggle.
“There are a lot of questions about the next recession,” Cleroux said. “What we are seeing, what we believe, is that the Ontario economy will continue to grow but at a slower pace.”
Lower oil prices are impacting the economies in Albert and Saskatchewan, but Cleroux said the economies in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia are near capacity.
The Ministry of the Environment was called in to clean up Highway 401 after a transport truck carrying diesel fuel became involved with vehicles from an earlier collision.
The OPP said in a news release that on Wednesday at about 1:50 p.m., emergency services were called to two collisions that had occurred in the eastbound lanes of Highway 401 just west of Wymans Road overpass near Salmon River.
The first collision involved a cube van and a transport truck. The weather was so poor at the time that another transport truck also became involved. The collision caused diesel fuel to spill on to the highway.
The OPP have laid no charge, but an investigation by the Ministry of the Environment is continuing.
The ministry was still on scene Thursday afternoon to clean up the spill. The collisions and cleanup have forced one lane to close in the area.
A 17-year-old boy from Corbyville has been charged by Ontario Provincial Police after they captured him speeding during a snowstorm.
The OPP captured the teen driving at 152 km/h in the posted 100 km/h zone near Napanee on Tuesday at about 7:50 p.m.
The teen was charged with stunt driving. The vehicle he was driving and his licence were seized for seven days and he was given a summons to appear in Provincial Offences Court on March 7.
The 15th annual Kingston’s FebFest is back with a month’s worth of outdoor celebration of Kingston and Canadian culture and sport, starting this weekend.
What was once a weekend festival has grown into a full month of activities in downtown Kingston.
“Market Square is all ready to go,” Jan MacDonald, senior projects manager marketing with Downtown Kingston, said. “We’ve added a bunch of things happening at different times throughout the month, like the theme skates. We’ve also increased our programming for Family Day this year.”
That includes a “Can you build a snowman?” challenge in Confederation Park and a marshmallow roast in the square.
The themed skating nights will be taking place on Tuesday evenings.
“We will be programming music to the theme, so on Feb 5, our first one is called a Jersey skate,” MacDonald said. “So, we’re encouraging people to wear their favourite sports jersey, doesn’t have to be hockey. There’s a different theme every Tuesday night.”
With the recent cold and snowy weather Kingston has received, MacDonald is hoping people will take advantage of the weekend activities.
“It’s looks really good,” MacDonald said. “I don’t like to look [at the forecast] more than two days ahead.”
There’s a little something for everyone. For the outdoor adventurers there is the Winter Park in Boucher Park, along with ice slides, ice sculptures, ice skating and a celebration of on ice sports in Springer Market Square.
“There are larger [ice slides] for bigger people [in Boucher Park] and one baby slide, that’s really cute, for little ones,” Macdonald said. “[Thursday] we set up the Muskoka chairs and the fire pits, getting them all ready [in Market Square].”
For those who like to stay warm indoors, there are tasty treats with the Feb Fest – Toast to Tapas.
“Our indoor activity is Toast to Tapas and the first week is beer week,” MacDonald said. “All of the restaurants involved will use beer as part the tapa that they create.
Toast to Tapas runs from 3-6 p.m. every day.
“It is $8.95 for the tapa or $12 for tapa and local beverage,” MacDonald added. “The restaurants participating this week are Atomica, Santur Brewing Company, the Public House and Cajun on King, which is upstairs from the Public House. You can get your Toast to Tapas passport at any of those restaurants or visitor information centre.”
There is no limit to the number of times people can get their passports stamped, and if they hand them in at the end of the month, they’ll be entered in a draw for $500 worth gift certificates to downtown restaurants.
Other outside daytime activities include; horse drawn wagon rides throughout the downtown, winter activities and ice slides at Winter Park in Boucher Park, along with a professional ice sculptor and snow carver who will be carving his fantastic ice sculptures in Springer Market Square.
“He’s going to be doing some live sculpting,” MacDonald said.
In the evenings, there will be a number of activities including, Friday/Saturday nights DJ Skate Night, where there will be a live local DJ playing music for the skaters in at the downtown rink from 6-9 p.m.
Highlights for this Saturday include ‘Imagination on Ice’ with four-time world champion skater, Canadian Kurt Browning, who will be taking centre stage with a number of representatives from the local skating clubs
“He’s such a crowd favourite that we’re really happy to have him back again,” MacDonald said. “[Browning] will be doing two numbers with [the kids] and the show is about 45-50 minutes long.”
As well, the Kingston Frontenacs will be playing the Guelph Storm at the Leon’s Centre at 7 p.m.
On Sunday, the main activities downtown will be the Learn to Skate on the main rink and the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics Ontario at Crawford Dock, lower Brock Street.
“At 10 a.m. that morning we have the first of our Learn to Skate,” MacDonald said. “The Learn to Skate is aimed at the 16 [years and older], like new Canadians and/or people who haven’t skated before. So the rink is closed so people can come and we have professionals on site who will teach you have to skate, if you’ve never skated before as an adult.”
At 11 a.m. join the crowds to watch and cheer on the new and returning brave souls who will be jumping into the frigid waters of Lake Ontario in support of the Special Olympics Ontario.
For the full schedule of all the activities, go to www.downtownkingston.ca/events/2019/feb-fest/schedule/.
jmckay@postmedia.com
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