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 August:
1. After two years of no fair, the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition returned in full force in August, with long lines and record-breaking crowds excited for the midway, the entertainment, the food and the games of chance.
2. Several months after the fact, a manslaughter charge was laid against an 84-year-old resident of a local senior-living facility. Police say the charge was the result of a physical altercation that left a 91-year-old resident dead.
3. The search for missing Indigenous man Kacey Yellowhead was conducted after the Indigenous man went missing on Aug. 2, with police and family members scouring the city trying to find him. Sadly, his body was discovered late in the month and identified by police in early September.
4. As nomination closed, 59 candidates filed to run in October’s municipal election, including five seeking the mayor’s chair. The total was down slightly from the 2018 election. Ken Boshcoff, who would go on to win the mayor’s race, was the highest-profile candidate to submit nomination papers.
5. Like the CLE, RibFest returned to normal with huge crowds flocking to the tasty event to sample the offerings of the professional (and local) ribbers brought in for the weekend. The pandemic reduced RibFest to a drive-through event in 2021.
6. A homicide suspect was arrested following a brief standoff. The accused was wanted in connection with the murder of Charlie Joseph Finlayson on McMillan Street and led to the arrest of Justin Randy Dave Coaster, 32.
7. Mayor Bill Mauro, who had already said he wouldn’t seek a second term, announced he was going to step down from the job a few weeks earlier in order to take a job in the private sector.
8. Damage to the restored horses on the famed 107-year-old Chippewa Park carousel led to it being shut down a few weeks earlier than planned.
9. More than a century after it was sunk, divers discovered the wreckage of the James P. Donaldson near the Welcome Islands. In 1921 it became the second vessel acquired by Paterson Steamship Lines.
10. A federal riding boundary change that would merge the Kenora riding into Thunder Bay-Rainy River was announced, drawing criticism from those opposed to the idea. The plan would also create a massive northern riding, Kiiwetinoong-Muhkegowuk, which would stretch from the Manitoba border to Timmins.
