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After a long pandemic break, OFSAA sports are back for soccer and track B1
Vol. 117 – No. 14
TEMISKAMING
SPEAKER WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022
www.northernontario.ca
Tragedy in Latchford
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Two die in mishap on Montreal River Sue Nielsen Speaker Reporter
LATCHFORD — Tragedy gripped the tightly knit community of Latchford last week after two men died in a boating mishap on the lower Montreal River. The Temiskaming Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has identified the two deceased men following the incident on May 24 at 11:30 a.m. The police say the deceased individuals are George Brunton, 90, and Robert (Bob) Hachey, 74, both residents of Latchford. A police diver from the Underwater Search and Rescue Unit, based out of Gravenhurst, located the two men on Wednesday, May 25, a day after they went missing in the icy waters near the Latchford Dam. Both men were described as avid fishermen and loved boating on Bay Lake together. Brunton served in the Canadian Navy as a seaman during the Korean War. Hachey was known as the friendly attendant at the Latchford landfill site. Hachey’s daughter Carole Hachey, who lives in Hamilton, drove immediately to Latchford upon hearing the news. “It was the longest drive of my life,” she said. “My dad loved everyone and he would give the shirt off his back to help others, and he often did. There is something to be said for saying I love you at the end of phone calls. My dad and I always did that. I knew he loved me and he knew I loved him. This is very difficult.”
Members of the OPP Underwater Search and Rescue Unit from Gravenhurst were on the scene of a capsized pontoon boat at the Latchford Dam May 25. A police diver was receiving assistance getting his gear on as the search for two missing men played out on the Montreal River. The bodies were found and the capsized boat was pulled from the Montreal River later that day. (Staff photo by Sue Nielsen) In a previous interview with The Temiskaming Speaker for the 2021 Remembrance Day tabloid, Brunton said, “I love it here in Latchford. I have been here 25 years and Bay Lake is my lake. I love water, boats and ships.”
Darlene Wroe
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS The pontoon boat from which the men were fishing became tangled up in a large yellow safety boom extending across open water near the dam just before noon hour on May 24.
An eyewitness, who didn’t want his name published, told The Speaker that he observed the men waving from their boat for assistance after the boat became stuck on the safety boom line. Two men then arrived in a boat
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that had been docked at nearby Bay Lake to assist the boaters in distress. The men tied a rope to the pontoon boat and attempted to tow it to safety. The boat was observed Continued on 2a
Sponsor still needed for ski club fundraiser
Speaker Reporter
ENGLEHART - Englehart council has concluded that it cannot act as a sponsor for the fundraising venture by the Englehart Nordic Ski Club. The town has also concluded that it must terminate an agreement with the ski club in which it had taken ownership of the club’s trail groomer. The ownership originally had been changed so that the groomer could be insured under the town’s plan. The ski club has been looking into selling the groomer and using some of those proceeds toward purchasing a newer used groomer for which it is fundraising. The ski club, which operates at the Kap-Kig-Iwan Provincial Park, had recently asked the town for its assistance in its fundraising efforts by being a sponsor and by providing tax receipts to people who donate. However, the town has concluded that it cannot. If it were to sponsor the Nordic Ski Club in that way, it would not be able to deny sponsoring any other area group which made the request, even if it were a group whose goals the town was not in agreement.
“The law says we can’t,” Councillor Doug Metson commented at the town’s May 25 council meeting. “We can’t pick and choose who we could allow,” explained town chief administrative officer Malorie Robinson. If the town provided tax receipts for the ski club, any organization could expect the same support, clerk/deputy treasurer Hailey Clarke explained. The town has agreed that it will continue to try to help the ski club find a different sponsor. Mayor Nina Wallace explained that the regulations guiding use of charitable tax receipts was changed in 2012. The town had been able to sponsor the rehabilitation of the 701 Steam Locomotive because the locomotive belongs to the town, she noted. In a later email comment to The Speaker, ski club representative Liz Robitaille emphasized the importance of the project to raise funds to purchase a newer groomer. “The winter operations of the Englehart Nordic Ski Club grooming trails for cross-country and skate skiers as well as our snowshoe trails is a great outdoor winter experience and is very important to the citizens of Englehart and surrounding communities.” She added “a dependable groomer has been crucial to providing this winter activity for the past 40-plus years.”
COVID trends heading “in the right direction” Diane Johnston Speaker Reporter
TEMISKAMING SHORES – All signs in Temiskaming and Ontario as a whole are pointing to the decline of COVID-19’s sixth wave, says the district’s acting medical officer of health. The public must continue to be careful, “but certainly trends are moving in the right direction,” said Dr. Glenn Corneil in a phone interview earlier this week. Outbreaks were declared over at Northview Nursing Home in Englehart and Extendicare Tri-Town in Haileybury earlier this week. As of noon yesterday (May 31), the only active outbreak continuing in South Temiskaming was at Temiskaming Lodge in Haileybury. The district did record two deaths linked to COVID-19 in the past week, bringing the total to date to 25. Twenty-one have occurred since the beginning of the year. In its latest update, the Timiskaming
Health Unit reported three patients had been admitted to hospitals in the district due to COVID, including one in intensive care. As in the general population, the impact of COVID-19 on staffing at the district’s hospitals has also eased. Corneil said the number of staff off work because of the virus is “way down, compared to the peak.” Traffic at vaccination clinics has slowed, but he said that was to be expected, given the timing of booster shots. He said public health is waiting on direction from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization as to any vaccination of the very youngest segment of the population, from six months of age to five. In Quebec, the province has opened eligibility for a fourth dose, also known as a second booster shot, to anyone aged 18 and older. In Ontario, a fourth shot is available to the general population aged 60 and older. Corneil said he’s heard no indication of
expanded eligibility before the fall. MONKEYPOX Meanwhile, the health unit is being kept up to date on the monkeypox virus, the first cases of which were found in Canada in May. “It’s on our radar, and we’ve been communicating with the field so it’s on their radar,” Corneil said. The virus is still categorized as “quite rare,” he said, and the risk to the general population is low. Public Health Ontario reports that the first human case of the monkeypox virus was identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1970. Most human infections continue to be reported from the DRC, but it’s now considered to be endemic in several countries in central and western Africa. As of last week, some 230 cases had been reported in countries where the virus is not endemic. No deaths had been reported. At that time, 25 cases had been reported in Quebec and one in Ontario.
While it can be transmitted by respiratory means, Corneil said it tends to spread through physical contact. He said public health is informing health care providers about the symptoms they should be looking for, testing procedures, and what personal protective equipment should be used. REVIEW The health unit is also in the process of reviewing all its programs as part of public health’s pandemic recovery plan. Just as hospitals face a surgical backlog, Corneil said public health must also catch up with work that had been put on hold as a result of the pandemic. Some public health jurisdictions, for example, have found a decline in routine childhood vaccinations. Corneil said that hasn’t been the case in Temiskaming where, working with primary care, numbers have been “robust,” he said. But it is looking at all its work to prioritize programs, he said.