http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx News brought to you by Tbnewswatch.com Wed, 19 Jun 2013 21:44:22 GMT 5 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/images/tbnewswatchlogo.JPG http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285743 Despite the alarming findings of a  new study that concludes half of Canada’s First Nation youth live in poverty, a spokeswoman for an Aboriginal women’s group says Canadians continue to ignore the issues. The report, released Wednesday and titled Poverty or Prosperity: Indigenous Children in Canada , was conducted by the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The report, compiled from the 2006 census data, shows that First Nation youth living in poverty is triple the rate of non-First Nation children living in Canada. The situation is the worst in Manitoba and Saskatchewan where two out of three First Nation youth live in poverty. Ontario had a three-way tie with British Columbia and Alberta where First Nation children living in poverty was three times the national average of Canadian children, which is about 17 per cent. Maryanne Matthews, spokeswoman for the Ontario Native Women's Association, said that having that high of a number in a rich country like Canada is appalling and unacceptable. “That should become a priority for all Canadians, not just First Nation organizations,” she said. “We’re all part of Canada. I think there needs to be a change in attitude about the realities of poverty within this country. “We tend to see a lot of sympathy for poverty in third world countries and for those children. There tends to be a blind eye taken to the poverty that exists in our own country. I think we need to be more aware of that as a country as a whole. We need to be more open to talking about it freely.” The report shows that it would cost $580 million to bring First Nation children out of poverty. That amount would mean Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada would have to increase its budget by 11 per cent. The report argues that would be enough to eliminate poverty for First Nation children. Matthews said it will take all governments working together to deal with this issue. “We have yet to see a firm commitment from the government to properly address and rectify the situation,” she said. “We definitely think there needs to be an increase in funding to fix this gap. It’s not easy to just dish out those dollars but more commitment needs to be made to increase funding to where it is possible rather than continuously cutting funding for First Nation organizations.” Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:03:21 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285743 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285785 Police can’t say why investigators chose to keep sexual assault charges against a man confidential. Jeff Paxton was arrested Monday with sexual assault for incidents involving young boys between 1983 and 2004. Police laid four charges on Paxton, who was a camp counselor at Round Lake Bible Camp when the alleged incidents occurred. But police charged him with an additional six counts last year. “That would have been based on a strategy of the investigators at the time,” deputy chief Andy Hay said Wednesday about the decision to not publicly announce those charges. “That would be based on the evidence and I can’t comment at this time.” Paxton was originally investigated in 1997 but no charges were laid. He doesn’t have a criminal record. Hay said some of the information from that initial investigation rekindled the 2011 investigation that led to the charges. “I am happy that we have got this gentleman before the court,” Hay said. A crime scene unit truck and several detectives were at a McBean Street home, located next to a baseball diamond near Hartland Street, Wednesday afternoon that neighbours say belonged to Paxton. He remains in custody and will appear in court for a bail hearing Friday. Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:58:58 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285785 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285772 Although there have been no official changes since Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. suspended its environmental assessment last week, an official with the company is optimistic there will be soon. The Cleveland-based company suspended its work on an environmental assessment for a proposed $3 billion project in the Ring of Fire saying until issues with First Nations and government are resolved it has taken the process as far as it can go. In Thunder Bay Wednesday, senior vice-president of global ferroalloys Bill Boor said it’s time that all parties involved work together to see the project happen. “We’re not leaving ourselves out of this, we’ve all got a responsibility to find solutions and that’s what this is really about,” he said. Boor said individual meetings with First Nations communities or with government always leave him optimistic. “I don’t see differences that we can’t get past,” he said. But so far the difficulty has been getting everyone together to figure out a way forward. In the meantime the company continues to work on technical aspects of the project and hold discussions with First Nations and government. “That’s not always visible to other people,” he said. The delay does leave timelines for the project up in the air though. “It’s anybody’s guess when we’re going to be able to clear them,” he said. “It’s a cloudy time right now to guess on the project.” Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:02:22 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285772 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285735 The region’s hospital is losing a key member of its administrative team.  Officials with the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre confirm with Thunder Bay Television that Scott Potts, the executive vice-president of corporate and diagnostic services, has resigned.  No reason for his departure has been announced. Elsewhere, the Thunder Bay Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association is losing its long-time executive director to retirement.  Maurice Fortin has been with the CMHA for 31 years, 27 of which he was the organization’s first and only executive director.  Fortin will officially leave his post on Dec. 31.   (Thunder Bay Television) Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:59:31 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285735 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285539 The city’s deputy police chief says a sexual assault victim list could climb as high as 100 people. Andy Hay made the statement Tuesday, just hours after police announced the arrest of 46-year-old former bible camp counsellor Jeff Paxton on decades-old alleged offences that date back to 1983, the result of a two-year-old investigation. Police allege the suspect, who was arrested Monday at the Great Northwest Coffee Company, where he’s a part owner, sexually assaulted several boys between the ages of seven and 14, the most recent incident occurring in 2004. But Hay, who spoke as openly about the case as the law would allow, said it’s likely there are a lot more victims out there, given how great a time span over which the alleged offences occurred and the nature of his activities during the period. Paxton was a counsellor at the Round Lake Bible Camp near Nolalu, was invovled in several church groups and also acted as a babysitter at different times.  “We could have a large number of victims come forward,” Hay said. “The suspect has worked in a number of venues where he has access to younger boys. It’s over a 30-year period, so it’s not hard to do the math that there could be anywhere from 50 to 100 or more victims.” At present, Paxton is facing 10 charges and is awaiting a June 21 court date in the Thunder Bay District Jail. Among the charges are four counts of gross indecency, four counts of sexual assault and two counts of invitation to sexual touching. The alleged crimes first came to light in 2011, Hay said, when a single victim came forward. Paxton was charged with three counts of gross indecency in 2012.  Charges couldn’t simply be laid overnight, Hay said. “Investigations in instances like these are very difficult to investigate. You’re dealing with some very sensitive issues that have happened over a very long period of time,” Hay said. “So you’re dealing with a lot of victims with a lot of issues. “There’s a lot of damage that’s been done. The important thing is that we get him before the courts and that we stop the damage that he has (allegedly) been doing and we take it from there.” Hay said it wouldn’t surprise him if more victims from the more recent past emerge, one of the main reasons police decided to be so open in discussing the case – though they have chosen not to reveal the exact number of victims who have come forward to date. A man connected to the initial victim, who asked not to be named publicly to protect the identity of at least one of the victims, said the case was first opened in 1998, but eventually dropped. The man said he convinced the victim two years ago to try again. “His commitment opened the apparent floodgates,” he said, praising the efforts of the two present investigators, while questioning why police dropped the case 16 years ago. Police on Wednesday confirmed a preliminary investigation into Paxton was conducted in 1997 and that they're reviewing it presently.  Police are hoping Tuesday’s revelation and charges will convince more victims, if they’re out there, to contact investigators. Anyone with information about these incidents, or other ones allegedly involving the suspect, are asked to call police at 684-1200 or 623-8477 . Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:16:04 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285539 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285514 The Thunder Bay Police Services Board hopes to meet with city administration and discuss the future of the cab bylaw after receiving a 189 page report from the International Association of Transportation Regulators. Currently city taxi regulations and enforcement are the responsibility Thunder Bay Police Service.  Officers handle everything from inspections to licensing, which eats up resources and time. The police board wants to delegate enforcement away from the police services, but who can handle the enforcement if the police don’t is a question that doesn’t seem to have an answer just yet. Board chair Coun. Joe Virdiramo said he’s hoping that police and the city can figure out a way to share responsibility. “I don’t think it should be left entirely up to the police services board we’re providing a service for the entire community,” Virdiramo said Tuesday morning. Deputy chief Andy Hay said the complexity of enforcing the bylaw means the system isn’t as efficient as it should be. “To be honest we don’t do as good of a job we’d like to be able to do on it based on the resources that are available,” Hay said. The report makes more than 30 recommendations. It also found that wait times and fares for taxis are among the highest in the province. The board is hoping to have a draft report on how to move forward with the city by September. “I don’t want this to drag on.” Virdiramo said. Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:35:31 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285514 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285590 A staggering number of the city’s homeless population suffers from mental health issues, says the head of a local shelter. A recent study in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry found that nearly 93 per cent of Calgary’s homeless population shows at least one symptom of mental illness. Thunder Bay Shelter House executive director Patti Hajdu said although a specific study hasn’t been done in Ontario, numerous reports would echo that number locally. “It would be a safe bet to say that our numbers are somewhere around that range,” she said. The most common issues were substance use, anxiety, affective disorders and psychotic illnesses.  While there’s a misconception that mental health and substance issues lead to homelessness, Hajdu said more and more studies are starting to show that it’s actually the opposite. “I often say that being homeless and doing it stone cold sober would be a very challenging ordeal. There is a lot of untreated chronic pain in this population. There’s a lack of access to resources and a real cycle of poverty that continues on and on,” she said. “As struggles get more and more severe, as the sense of hope disappears peoples’ mental health is exacerbated and so in fact people are depressed and anxious and fearful and sicker.” Along with a growing demand for beds and food, now at 700 meals a day, Shelter House staff are noticing that the complexity of mental health issues are growing as well Hajdu said. Part of the problem is that even when a person does get treatment, once released there’s a lack affordable housing for them to enter, which puts them back on the street or into the shelter. “So we find people relapse very quickly,” Hajdu said. ”It really isn’t a long term solution to have a shelter that continually grows and grows and grows I think that the time has come for the various orders of government to stop arguing about whose responsibility is it and start looking at some solutions as a community.” With little or no income access to treatment also becomes difficult as appointments might be across town. “Even something as much as a bus ticket can be a barrier,” Hajdu said. Non-profits have been left to fill in the gaps left by social agencies. Shelter House has started trying to get services decentralized so that care is brought to the people who need it in the neighbourhood. But those places can only do so much as budgets aren’t growing with the demand for services Hajdu said.     Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:36:58 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285590 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285437 A local developer is moving ahead to build a new apartment building on Melon Street. The majority of council approved an amended proposal at Monday night’s meeting to allow developer Mike Vecchio to move ahead with his building project. Only Red River Coun. Brian McKinnon voted against the proposal. The original plan was to build an apartment building 12 metres high. After hearing council discuss the potential of delaying the project, Vecchio offered to lower the height to 11 metres as well as move the fence line back. “Those are the two things I can do right now because I think it is important that we make a decision tonight,” he told council prior to the vote. “People are desperate to find apartments. We have the lowest vacancy rate ever. When I do have a unit for rent I get hundreds of calls. The supply is terrible it is all over the news. It is the worse that it has ever been.” Council gave those who attended the meeting a chance to speak on the proposal.  The majority opposed the new apartment building by saying it was too tall. Janet Teras and her husband, Ron, spoke on behalf of their neighbourhood. They said that the building will be has high as a telephone pole and would intrude on their privacy. “The proposed buildings would be so close to our residence that it would feel invasive while working or being outside in our backyard,” she said. “I’m an automotive salesperson and I speak to people all day at work. My backyard is my sanctuary. It allows me to get closer to nature and relax with family. With two apartment buildings of this size and height next door, our sense of privacy would be greatly compromised.” After hearing that the building will be lowered about a metre, Ron said it was still too high. McKinnon, whose ward the apartment buildings are in, said he voted against the proposal because there was enough residents who were unhappy with the project. “I sat with them and the contractor as well and at the end of the day I thought there needs to be a supportive voice for the neighbours,” he said. “I thought that was the only way I could do it. I had a sense I was going to lose anyway. As it unfolded there were some compromises made.”   Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:18:13 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285437 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285557 Despite opposition from a neighbour, Luiz Sousa will be able to continue his cabinet-making business from his detached garage. The majority of council approved recommendations at Monday night’s public meeting to change a zoning bylaw to allow Sousa to continue operating his business from his garage on Community Hall Road. The change added cabinet making, considered an industrial-skilled trade, as a permitted home occupation and also increase the size of a permitted home occupation. Sousa had purchased the garage in order to relocate his business to the residential area, but in order to do so he promised to keep the noise down by making sure he had his doors shut. He also agreed to deal with the odorous vapours. Sousa said he put in an air filter after neighbours complained about the smell and is using material that’s water based, not oil based, to reduce the smell. “(My neighbours) told me ‘we know that you’re planning to build a shop and we will shut you down’,” he said. “I continued building the shop knowing that from all the information I got from the other shop that I was in that I was in my legal rights to do it.” Not everyone supported of the plan. Anneli Tremblay and her husband, Paul, attended the meeting and oppose the change. The couple also live on Community Hall Road and told council that Sousa’s shop is disruptive to the neighbourhood. Tremblay admitted that they were the only neighbours with a complaint against Sousa’s business, but argued that they were also the only ones who lived near him. “There’s not one single thing dividing us from him,” Tremblay told council prior to the vote. “That’s the big problem – it is totally wide open.” Paul Tremblay said it didn’t matter if there was one item built or hundreds as it still created noise. “What would be next if this passes? A saw mill across the street, an automotive garage on the other side of me, perhaps some wind turbines behind me,” Tremblay said. “What will happen in the future if I try to sell my house? If I have difficulty selling will the city of Thunder Bay be willing to cover the real-estate fees? He could have built his shop at the back of his property where there’s lots of room to suppress some of that noise and sight lines.” He added that the city’s bylaws don’t appear to mean anything.     Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:20:38 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285557 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285592 The province has missed its chance to save millions of dollars, says a Union Gas manager. Union Gas is investing $26 million to upgrade a section of natural gas pipe near Dawson Road. The upgrade includes replacing 18 kilometres of 10-inch pipe with 12-inch pipe from the main transition line to the central part of the city. The upgrade is expected to help meet some of the city’s heating needs for businesses and residents. The replacement is part of regular maintenance. Although the upgrade is going to help with the communities heating needs, David Sword, district manager of Union Gas for Northwestern Ontario, said it won’t be able to accommodate the coal-fired Thunder Bay Generating Station if it were ever to be converted to gas. “We would have needed a 14- to a 16-inch pipe and we’re not putting that in,” he said. “We’re putting it in to meet our needs and what our project needs are for the local economy. We think that this was a lost opportunity that could have been easily fulfilled doing it all at the same time.” Sword suspected that it would have saved the province about $20 million if they had made their decision about the plant sooner. Ontario stopped the conversion in November claiming it would save hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. He said Union Gas tried to delay the process until a decision was made about the plant but they couldn’t wait any longer to upgrade the nearly decade-old pipes. Sword said if the province decides to convert the plant they would need to put in another pipeline to accommodate it. Iain Angus, co-chair of the Thunder Bay Energy Task Force, said that the decision for Union Gas to move forward with the upgrade won’t have any impact to the decision to convert the plant. He said they knew since the plant was suspended that Union Gas needed to know how big the pipe needed to be. Since the company didn’t have a contract in place with the Ontario Power Authority they went ahead with their original plan. “When we get the decision by the Ontario government to move forward with the conversion and I’m still optimistic that will happen, then OPG will enter into new discussions with Union Gas with the construction of a brand new line,” he said. “It will be at OPG’s cost. We knew all along that this was going to happen.” He added that this wasn’t a deal breaker for whether or not the province will convert the coal-fired station. Wed, 19 Jun 2013 10:39:22 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285592 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285506 No Thunder Bay road managed to crack the Top 10 in the infamous worst roads list this year. The annual Ontario Worst Roads list is assembled by the Canadian Automobile Association via online voting. While Thunder Bay has had roads represented on that list in the past, this year the city’s roadways managed to steer clear of the list’s top 10 worst. But the city wasn’t completely absent from the list. Four local roads found their way in the Top 50: Adelaide Street - 33 Hutton Park Drive - 38 South Water Street - 45 Onion Lake Road - 50 This year’s worst road, according to CAA’s voting, turns out to be Toronto’s Dufferin Street. Timmins’ Kraft Creek Road is the lone Northern Ontario roadway in the top 10, which came in at no.  4. Here is a look at 2013’s top 10 worst roads in Ontario: Dufferin Street (Toronto) Burlington Street East (Hamilton) Finch Avenue West (Toronto) Kraft Creek Road (Timmins) Bayview Avenue (Toronto) Lawrence Avenue East (Toronto) Wharncliffe Road South (London) Bouvier Road (Clarence-Rockland) Carling Avenue (Ottawa) Stanley Avenue (Niagara Falls)   Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:00:36 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285506 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285434 At seven months pregnant, Liane Boyer McLean says she’s disappointed she had to wait hours to learn the active transportation corridor would be pushed back another week. McLean attended the meeting Monday night in order to show support for the proposed corridor along Bay Street. She and more than 15 others waited hours as council went through other business. It wasn’t until after 10 p.m. that council brought up the item. Instead of discussing the item, the majority of council voted to defer the matter by another week. McLean, who cancelled her flight to Toronto so she could attend the meeting, wasn’t pleased to hear that news. “We rebooked my flight for tomorrow so I could be at this meeting,” she said. “Plus finding childcare for my two-year-old-daughter plus I’m seven months pregnant so staying up this late is a bit tough. I don’t know who is at fault. I thought about leaving several times tonight because it is a little late for me. To go through all this again is hard.” McLean believes the route that would make a portion of Bay Street into an active living corridor would be a real benefit to the city. Although she lives in the area, she said she’s supporting it because it would be best for the community. After deferring the matter to next week, a few councillors offered apologies to those who waited. McLean said she appreciated that. At-Large Coun. Rebecca Johnson was the first to apologies. She said she was upset that people waited hours only to be told to come back next week. “I’m totally embarrassed that this is what we’re doing as a council,” she said. The motion to defer was brought up by Mayor Keith Hobbs who said he received his package on the active transportation corridor only a few hours ago. He said he needed time to properly go over the more than 30-page document and felt council should have more time to digest it. McIntyre Coun. Trevor Giertuga voiced his frustration with administration for not providing the material sooner. “We’ve asked administration time and time again not to plop this on our desks the night of,” he said. “I didn’t want to make a decision without actually reading it. We’ve asked for this not to happen before.” Red River Coun. Brian McKinnon agreed that it was important that council took time to look over the proposal carefully. He said he has a few amendments that include at least one more four-way stop on Bay Street and to cut the bike lane from Balsam Street to Bay Street in half. He added that he plans to speak with the people who attended the meeting to make sure they understood what happened. “I’m sure they will be here next Monday,” he said.   Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:45:30 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285434 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285374 The man accused of heading a criminal organization will remain in police custody until at least Wednesday. John Harry Tsekouras was arrested last Wednesday at the Balmoral Street police station and charged with conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to kidnap. The 39-year-old Thunder Bay man was originally charged in April 2012 for his alleged role in a major drug trafficking network. It is alleged that Tsekouras was the head of a criminal organization. The initial charges were the result of a major police investigation dubbed Project Dolphin, a massive police operation that began in 2010 and involved multiple police forces including the Thunder Bay Police Service, RCMP and OPP. Tsekouras appeared via video in bail court at the Ontario Court of Justice Monday to faces the new charges he now faces. He was remanded in custody until Wednesday. On Thursday, city police spokesman Chris Adams told media that new evidence came forward indicating that the accused was involved in a plot to kidnap and murder a specific individual. “These charges are quite serious,” Adams said Thursday. ““The scope of the charges today also include participating in a criminal organization and it is alleged that he’s the director of this criminal organization. This is just a major case and we are pretty confident that the evidence that has been gathered to date.” The intended kidnapping and murder did not occur, and Adams said he could not reveal the country of origin, or any other information, about the intended victim. Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:23:52 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285374 http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285336 A tourism project worth a quarter of a million dollars was unveiled Monday in Centennial Park.  Hydro One and the City of Thunder Bay cut the ribbon on a new scenic lookout next to the Current River. Part of the project also included trail improvements, and interpretive signage about Hydro One's forestry management program. The project was first designated about 13 years years ago, but due to unforeseen challenges it took some time to complete. With the project finished, the city's parks division will be tasked with maintaining the new trails and look-out area. Coun. Andrew Foulds says this is part of the Current River Greenway Master Plan. It will eventually link up with a series of trails along the river. Foulds says having signage that tells the story of the area helps to make the city parks a richer experience.   (Thunder Bay Television) Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:02:59 GMT http://www.tbnewswatch.com/news/Default.aspx?cid=285336