Fort Frances Times Online Edition - October 2, 2019

The history of Indian Residential School (IRS) and the effect they had on indigenous people was recently illustrated to over 300 of the district's students.

In light of concerns surrounding wood allocations being disrupted by a restarted mill in Fort Frances, proponents have assured the public wood supply wouldn't be an issue.

“I have never said, nor advised any of my clients, that one mill or one town should be favoured at the expense of another,” said Mike Willick, Fort Frances's forest tenure consultant.

The local law association had one of its major concerns heard during a talk with the visiting attorney general last week.

Members of the Rainy River Law Association had the opportunity to sit down with Attorney General of Ontario Doug Downey during his visit to Fort Frances on Friday.

A group of residents at Front Street Manor have turned their hands to carpentry to add another personal touch to their living spaces.

The residents have been working under the guidance of Joe Galbraith, who helped to organize the project.

“I just kind of put something up on the board and over the winter I pretty much let everyone kind of sign up on their own,” he said.

The 2018-2019 Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) results have been released.

School and system leaders of the Rainy River District School Board have met to analyze and interpret the results.

In recognition of “Orange Shirt Day” across the country, the United Native Friendship Centre (UNFC) held a ceremony to pay honour to and remember those affected by residential schools.

The ceremony was held at the Circle of Life building on Mowat Avenue on Monday, where members of the public were invited to hear the story of the original orange shirt that gave rise to the movement.

Times' feature writer Rick Neilson recently attended the 50th birthday celebration held for Kim Jo Bliss.

Part of Rick's article appeared in the Focus on Farming piece published last week as space allowed.

What follows is a series of additional comments made by and about Kim Jo by many of her friends who attended the party.

Kenora will be the future home of a brand new kind of justice.

Kenora-Rainy River MPP Greg Rickford was joined by Ontario attorney general Doug Downey in Kenora on Thursday, where they announced a Kenora Justice Centre that is meant to address the over-representation of Indigenous people in the local criminal justice system.

With the upcoming closure of the Fort Frances Daycare Centre, the Fort Frances Senior Centre board of management is exploring the possibility of relocating to that facility.

At the Senior Fair on June 6, we took the opportunity to survey the participants. A total of 78 people responded.

The Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre (FFPLTC) continues to be a busy, interactive, ever-changing community hub.

This past summer saw a change in our staff as people moved on in new directions in their lives.

As a result, we are pleased to welcome and introduce our new staff members.

Bill and Peggy Johnson, Richard Byrnes, George Glowasky and Tanis Williamson of Fort Frances were among the Rainy River District Mutual Aid Association cash calendar draw for the week of Sept. 22-28.

Also winning $30 for that week were Rob Armstrong (Pinewood), Ted Menzie (Thunder Bay), and Roger Tremblay (Schreiber).

Hockey is a sport for everyone and the Fort Frances Girls'/Women's Hockey Association is hosting an Esso Fun Days program this Saturday.

Esso Fun Days will run from 9-11 a.m. at the '52 Canadians Arena is a free program for girls interested in trying out the sport for the first time in a relaxed, fun, on-ice environment.

The black-and-gold could be seeing a lot more gold this season if its first race of the NorWOSSA season was any indication of what's to come.

The Muskie cross-country running team shone brightly with many great performances at the season-opening SSSAA Time Trials in Thunder Bay last Wednesday.

A great start to the NorWOSSA season has the Muskie junior girls' basketball team soaring high.

The Muskies won both of their games last week as they improved to a league best 3-0.

Fort High rolled to a 53-33 romp over the Sioux Lookout Warriors in their home-opener last Tuesday and followed that up by downing the host Dryden Eagles 36-32 on Thursday.

Volleyball at the junior level is constantly a game of learning and adapting and the Muskie boys' squad is learning what it is going to take to be successful this season.

It was an impressive end to the year for local motocross racers at the Superior Dirt Riders' sixth-and-final stop in Atikokan on Saturday.

Dylan Tessier of Devlin had the best showing in topping the MX3 Beginner race while Alex Kreger of Emo was 11th.

Landon Flinders of Fort Frances took second in the 85cc age seven-11 category.

For the second year in a row, Jason Cain and Dan Tucker took home the title at the annual Rainy Lake Fall Bass Classic held Saturday at La Belle's Birch Point Camp on Northwest Bay.

The Fort Frances natives reeled in a three-fish total of 13.42 pounds, which also include the big fish of the day (5.06).

The Fort Frances Lakers are learning what it takes to win on a nightly basis in the SIJHL.

Sometimes the lessons are tough, as the Lakers found out over the weekend as they dropped a pair of games, by the identical 4-3 score on Friday and Saturday night, to the Dryden GM Ice Dogs as they swept the home-and-home series.

Records are meant to be broken and a few of them fell in the Muskie football team's rout of the Churchill Bulldogs here on Friday afternoon.

Muskie quarterback Brady Meeks was outstanding, setting new single game Currie Division ('A') records in both passing yards and touchdowns thrown in his squad's 66-19 thrashing in their Winnipeg High School Football League home-opener.

The Muskie senior girls' basketball team was late arriving and didn't get enough warm-up time in ahead of their NorWOSSA league game last Thursday in Dryden.

Add in the fact that the game clock wasn't working properly and it all led to one whole headache as the Muskies (2-1) lost their first game of the year 38-36 to the Eagles in overtime.

Much like the other three Muskie court sport teams, the senior boys' volleyball squad had a busy week last week with a pair of NorWOSSA games but they also travelled and played at the annual Kenora Invitational Tournament over the weekend.

The best and brightest that the local fastball leagues had to offer this season were celebrated over the weekend at separate awards banquets.

The Rainy River District Women's Fastball League held their awards night on Friday night at the Back Alley Bar in Emo, where Renegades' pitcher Karma Andy took home the MVP award.

Around 300 students from five district schools joined together in a march from the Indian Residential School Monument off Hwy. 11 on Rainy River First Nations (RRFN) to the pow-wow grounds up the Trans-Canada Highway yesterday morning during an Orange Shirt Day Awareness Walk. Students held up signs to honour those who were forced to attend residential schools. See story, more photos A5.

Mike Tkachyk, left, Troy Parks, Richard Ottertail, Karen Erwin and Joe Galbraith stand with some of the projects that the group worked on over the summer at Front Street Manor. Galbraith oversaw the group and lent his experience to helping residents plan their projects, as well as doing all of the cutting with his equipment. Galbraith said he plans to run the group again in the future.

Kendra Trenchard, above left, posed with her prize-winning pumpkin Saturday at the Rainy River Giant Pumpkin Festival. The eight-year-old's pumpkin weighed in at 399 lbs. which put her in second place for the junior category, and the second largest pumpkin overall at the festival.

Indian Residential School Working Group Member Mookii Morisson spoke about what reconciliation means to district students during one of the eight workshops held yesterday morning at the Rainy River First Nation (RRFN) pow-wow grounds.

Rainy River Giant Pumpkin Festival organizer Val Moor noted the weight of the final pumpkin to be weighed as a crowd gathered around it during the festival on Saturday. The pumpkin, grown by Jim Mills, weighed in at 714 pounds, making it the grand-prize winner for the festival this year.

Potential buyers took down their notes as local yearling and calf cattle were brought through the Stratton Sales barn during the sale on Saturday. The recent fire at the barn meant that room for cattle at the sale was tight, but Kim Jo Bliss noted that they still moved 1,268 head of cattle for a sales total of $1,437,177.

Staff and students at St. Michael's School took to the field on Thursday for their annual Terry Fox walk. According to the Terry Fox Foundation, millions of students across Canada participate in a Terry Fox Run each year, which helps to raise awareness and funding for cancer research efforts.

Donald Young School students who attended the Indian Residential School (IRS) Awareness Walk, hosted by the IRS Working Group at Rainy River First Nation, held up signs that read “Every Child Matters" and "The True Spirit Cannot Be Broken” in regards to IRS yesterday morning. Four other schools joined them for the awareness walk, which totalled over 300 students.

Local author Jack Hedman spoke to district students yesterday morning about “Dire Needs-Dire Straits,” the book he wrote on residential school survivors, following the Orange Shirt Day Awareness Walk. Students cycled through eight workshops where they learned about different aspects of residential school and indigenous culture.

-Sam Odrowski photo

Sean Huziak was Johnny-on-the-spot as he kicked home one of his six extra-points on the day during the Muskie football team's 66-19 thrashing of the Churchill Bulldogs on Friday afternoon here. Huziak went six of nine on extra-point attempts while the versatile athlete also rushed for 261 yards on 12 carries to help the Muskies improve to 2-1 in the six-team Currie Division ('A').

Fort Frances Lakers' defenceman Michael Chapman skated the puck out from a crowd of bodies behind his own net during the third period of his team's 4-3 loss to the Dryden GM Ice Dogs on Friday night at the Ice For Kids Arena. Chapman had a great game in dishing out three assists in a losing cause.

Quarterback Brady Meeks had the moves like Jagger as he jumped to evade the oncoming tackle from his Churchill Bulldogs' opponent during the second half of the Muskie football team's 66-19 romp in their Winnipeg High School Football League home-opener on Friday afternoon here.

Dan Tucker, left, and Jason Cain of Fort Frances claimed their second straight Rainy Lake Fall Bass Classic title together on Saturday at La Belle's Birch Point Camp on Northwest Bay. Their three-fish total of 13.42 pounds topped the 46-team field this year.

Aaron Scheibler (99), Wyatt Richards (42), and Carson Noga (14) had their eyes set on the loose ball after their Churchill Bulldogs' opponent fumbled during the first half of the Muskie football team's 66-19 rout in their WHSFL home-opener on Friday afternoon here. The Muskie defence forced five fumbles during the game.

Heaven States, right, Grace Smith, and Joyce Wu all teamed up to outnumber their Sioux Lookout Warriors' opponent defensively during the first half of the Muskie girls' basketball team's 53-33 win in their home-opener last Tuesday afternoon at Fort High. Tatum Glowasky scored a team-high 18 points to pace the Muskies' offence in that one.

Chandler Borger spiked the ball with great force past the attempted block of a pair of Sioux Lookout Warriors' opponents during the first set of the Muskie senior boys' volleyball team's 2-1 win in their NorWOSSA home-opener last Tuesday afternoon at Fort High.

Kade Oster got ready to bump the ball back towards the Sioux Lookout Warriors' side of the court during the second set of the Muskie junior boys' volleyball team's 2-1 loss in their NorWOSSA home-opener last Tuesday afternoon at Fort High.

TORONTO — A set of proposed taxes on foreign technology companies that do business in Canada would have little to no immediate effect on subscribers to foreign digital services like Netflix, experts say.

Employee activism and outside pressure have pushed big tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google promising to slash their carbon emissions. But there’s another thing these tech giants aren’t cutting: Their growing business ties to the oil and gas industry.