THUNDER BAY — TBNewswatch is taking a look back at the top stories, month-by-month, of 2022. Here are 10 of the stories that made headlines in April:
1. The majority of the Thunder Bay Police Services Board resigned. With the board surrounded by controversy amid accusations of racism and harassment filed against senior police leadership, Kristen Oliver, Roydon Pelletier and Michael Power announced they were quitting.
2. David Hui and Musab Saboon were found guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the shooting death of Lee Chiodo. Justice Danial Newton said the killing was a considered act, and that Hui volunteered to shoot the victim after acquiring the gun. Chiodo died in February 2019, near 108th Avenue.
3. After years of delays, the East-West Tie Transmission Line was completed. The 450-kilometre line will provide 230 kilovolts of electricity between Wawa and Thunder Bay and cost more than $700 million to complete.
4. Long-time Liberal MPP and cabinet minister Michael Gravelle announced he was battling cancer for a second time. It would ultimately lead to his decision later in the month to announce he would not seek another term at Queen’s Park. He was first elected in 1995.
5. Cody Echum pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2020 death of Austin Robinson, after initially being charged with second-degree murder in the killing.
6. A contractor was selected to built the city’s new correctional complex, a project that could cost upward of $1 billion to complete. Ellis Don was awarded the contract and work bean later in the year.
7. Avalon Advanced Materials said it found a global financing partner in Essar to built a $500-million lithium refinery in the city, schedule to open at a yet-to-be-determined site in Thunder Bay.
8. Denis Bernard was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the 2020 death of Paul Vivier.
9. Thunder Bay was selected to host the 2024 Ontario Winter Games, an event that’s expected to draw up to 3,500 participants. The city last hosted the event in 1974.
10. A time capsule, buried in the cornerstone at the burned down Finnish Labour Temple, was unsealed. The small copper box, placed in 1909, contained a Finnish-language newspaper, Tyokansa, and a copy of a speech made by Moses Hahl, the paper’s senior editor.
