Kyle Shorrok was the youngest of the four crew members who died in a crash near Tweed last week, an event that Hydro One said is the most deadly accident in the history of the company. The crash took place on December 14th, which was his birthday. He turned 27 that day.

According to his posts on the James Reid funeral home website, Shorrok was very close with his mother, sisters and grandmother, and with the family of his fiancee, Brittany Robertson. In another cruel twist to this sad circumstance, Kyle and Brittany were to be married on January 17th in the Bahamas.

Tim Trickey was well known in the Land O’Lakes region for his tireless efforts to to start up and maintain a cadet program at North Addington Education Centre for kids from Addington Highlands and North Frontenac. Even after his cancer diagnosis he continued to work with the cadets and as recently as last month, he led them at the Remembrance Day Service in Flinton. He died on December 17 at the age of 51.

Trickey was the co-ordinator for the volunteer ambulance service in Northbrook in the 1990’s and then served with L&A County Emergency Services as a paramedic for over 14 years. He also served on the Central Frontenac Volunteer Fire department.

Tim was married for 30 years to Darlene (nee Kelford). The couple have a son, Jordan, and a late daughter, Natasha. Tim is fondly remembered by his extended family, friends & co-workers.

Tim's family will receive friends at the Milestone Funeral Center, 11928 Hwy 41 Northbrook on Friday from 2-4pm & 7-9pm. A Celebration of Life & Tribute Service will be in the Chapel on Saturday, December 23, 2017 at 1:00pm with visitation 1hr prior to the service. A Gofundme campaign is underway to help Tim’s family.

(TOWNSHIP OF SOUTH FRONTENAC, ON) - On December 4, 2017 at approximately 5:00 p.m., the Frontenac detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) responded to break and enter in progress at a cottage residence on a secluded laneway that runs off of Charlie Green Road in South Frontenac Township.

The cottage owner arrived at his property and confronted the suspect in the residence. The suspect exited through the front door and the owner gave chase and observed the lone male suspect drive away in a light blue Chevy vehicle possibly a Malibu or Impala.

On December 3, 2017, OPP responded to a previous Break and Enter at a cottage residence off Opinicon Road in South Frontenac Township in which the cottage was ransacked with several various electronic items stolen with an estimated value of $1,500.

A trail camera near the Opinicon Road Break and Enter was able to capture an image of the suspect who the police believe is the same individual involved in the Break and Enter off Charlie Green Road.

The male suspect is described as a white male approximately 30 years old, wearing blue jeans, dark boots and wearing a baseball cap with the letters "TRD" on the front.

Police are continuing to investigate into these recent break-ins in our community and are seeking assistance from the public. If anyone has any information they are being asked to contact the Fronte nac OPP Detachment at 1-888-310-1122. Should you wish to remain anonymous, you may call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) where you may be eligible to receive a cash reward.

For more information on how to protect your home and business, visit the OPP website and type SafeGuard in the search field at: https://www.opp.ca/index.php.

Photo of suspect:

Diane Dawber is living the good life these days. She is feeling strong and healthy, enjoying living on Wilmer Road next to Sydenham Lake

But that has not always been the case. In 1990, while she was working as a teacher and living in Amherstview, she had a foot injury, but tried to ignore it and carry on with her life.

“Gradually, the pain spread and we found out I had other injuries which all contributed to the pain,” she said, when interviewed last week at her home.

By the mid 90’s, the pain was pretty much all consuming, and she found it difficult to get around or even to sit.

Things did not improve much, if at all, and in 1996, with 5 other people in similar circumstances, Diane formed a study group.

“It was made up of nurses and teachers with chronic conditions who wanted to figure out how to improve our health,” she said.

The group’s focus was on reading and researching and sharing information. It was a self-help group of a sort but, as Dawber said, it was not about commiserating and sharing coping mechanisms, it was about finding solutions.

“We read books, and followed recommended therapies of all sorts. We tried every diet known to man, we tried environmental clean ups, we tried vitamins and mineral supplements, bio-mechanics, exercise and every strategy we could find.”

In the first six years during which the group met, they calculated that collectively they had spent $250,000 on supplements.

Gradually, through more and more focused research, the group, whose numbers began to increase, began to have success. One by one the original members found their way to better health.

The solution, which is tailored to each individual, has to do with nutrition and “gut bacteria” and the way to determine what will help an individual makes use of the sense of smell.

The group of friends and fellow travellers has become a charitable organisation, which is called Health Pursuits Reading and Research: MEND, which has developed a kit that is available to the public from the website healthpursuitsgroup.com.

The kit includes 56 vitamins and minerals, and instructions. The process is based on two simple premises. One is that individuals are unique, and the second is that our sense of smell can provide valuable information.

“Take one of these, say vitamin D for example,” Diane Dawber said, pulling open a small plastic bottle with a vitamin D pill in it. “If it smells bitter to you, you likely have more vitamin D than your body needs. If it smells sweet, you are low, and if it doesn’t smell at all you are likely OK for vitamin D.”

By using a combination of substances a picture can emerge of what issues are at play for an indvidual, and those can be confirmed by blood or other medical tests.

Over the last few years, Diane has been compiling all the information that was used to put the kits together into book form. The result is a new book, the Nutrient Scent test, which is a resource volume that includes sections on each of the substances in the kit, their interactions, and examples of individual cases.

The back jacket includes this short description of subject matter: “The Nutrient Scent Test provides you with a tool that is relatively inexpensive, easily accessible, and wide-ranging to determine when nutrients are adequate of deficient using your body’s nutritional intelligence.”

For Dawber the book is a culmination of years of effort, and marks the end of a chapter in her life as well. The original group does not meet any more because they are all doing well, and the website and Facebook groups are where meetings take place between people who are working on their own health issues and sharing information between each other.

A celebration event is set for December 11th from 12:30pm to 5pm at the Isabel Turner branch of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library to celebrate the completion of the book and the 15 years of research that went into its creation. The public is welcome to meet all of the original members of that group that began meeting 22 years ago.

“It’s more of a celebration of the fact the book has been completed than anything else, and a chance to inform more people about the Scent Test,” said Dawber.

Mich Cota is a two-spirit Algonquin woman living in Montreal but her roots run deep in this area. Two-Spirit comes from an Ojibwe phrase niizh manidoowag and has become an umbrella term for many Indigenous people across Turtle Island to verbalize fluid sexual orientations and gender identities. When asked about her relation to two-spirit identity, Mich recalled meeting someone at the Silver Lake Pow Wow when she was 13 or so.

“He was really forward and asked me a lot of questions that I didn’t really understand at the time but he explained to me what two-spirit meant. In Montreal and online I’ve met more two-spirit folks. It can mean that someone is both masculine, feminine or neither, or traditionally, one can be different creatures.

"The most visible concepts of two-spirit peoples are queer, transgender, and non-binary aboriginal people. But it also pushes the colonial concept of gender, encompassing intuition, empathy, respect and love for all genders, paying attention to our bodies and our emotions. In my way, I hold myself and express myself. I’ve always been sensitive, and now I see that as an asset. And it’s a quality of being a two-spirit woman."

Mich’s family has been on these lands for generations, but she grew up in Maberly. She graced the stage of the former Sharbot Lake High School Auditorium, in coffee houses, and productions with the North Frontenac Little Theatre. She moved to Perth as a teenager and then went on to pursue a creative career in Montreal, where she has been releasing solo works and albums with her former band Archery Guild.

Kijà / Care is a beautiful journey of self expression. Switching back and forth between Algonquin and English with an electronic tapestry of synthesizers, strings, drums and ethereal voices, this album has the power to transcend not only gender but also time and space. The opening song Kijà / Care is infectious, with the line “Do you see, if we don’t act now, we will lose everything” becoming a mantra. This album serves both as a departure from her earlier work, and also as a natural evolution.

“I’m feeling like I’ve finally tapped into a place in myself that is honest and joyful. I have always wanted to express myself through my ethnicity, and it took me a while to figure out how to navigate that. I first started to write in Algonquin using nature mythologies and applying them to my own life. But I was having trouble overcoming my own victimhood. I wasn’t paying attention to the beauty of Algonquin Culture. I was just looking at the darkness.

“For this album, I started writing in English. I started with the second song on the album Takokì /  Step, singing about how comfortable I felt wearing a dress; How strange it was to be hidden as a young kid. I had named myself Michelle and I told people I was a little girl. But that was overshadowed by people telling me that I lived in a fantasy. I did live in other fantasies, but this one was a reality. Now that I feel the strength of being myself, being a woman, I am also feeling more of the strength and pride in being Algonquin simultaneously.

 “I had a lot of help translating English to Algonquin from Paula Sherman and using some online resources. My method for making Algonquin poetry was not by writing sentences. Instead I put words together and let the spaces between them remain ambiguous for people, both Algonquin speakers and not, to relate to and interpret. I hope these songs will be used like incantations, like prayers, like tools for empowerment, for peaceful moments.”

Mich has been playing many shows, including a performance as part of the First People’s Festival in Montreal this summer. She played an album release show in Montreal around Halloween, and came onto the stage being held up by six white men in a dive bar with low ceilings. The room acted as a container for her expression. She stood on a table in a dance portion of her piece and pushed up against the ceiling with her head, symbolising being held captive by the room, bursting boundaries of what a concert can look like.

“My friend and collaborator Pamela Hart has suggested that I should be playing in art spaces. Performing in a concert setting isn’t difficult, but the audience doesn’t know how to react. My piece is like a meditation, a performance, exhibitionism, what kind of body do you see? What is this body allowed to do?”.

 You can listen and buy the digital download of Mich Cota’s album Kijà / Care online at Kijà / Care - or go to the  following youtube videos from the record Madjashin/Goodbye or Kija/Care

 This week is Transgender Awareness Week. It started with Monday’s Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to mourn and honour the countless deaths by acts of anti-transgender violence.

On the subject of being Trans in Canada, Mich commented “In Canada, things are very scary, but we are fortunate that our existence is legal and not punishable by death. But the impact of ignorance through verbal and emotional abuse can really stunt trans people’s growth and lives. Everyone deserves to live and be themselves. Let’s listen and believe each other. We know who we are.”

Photo by Joel Moyer taken just outside Sharbot Lake

When the Speaker of the whose  asked him to withdrw his accusation,, Hillier said that he would “apologise for having to use that language to describe what the government is doing, but I am not going to withdraw it”.

With that he was asked to leave the house for the day.

When contacted later by the News, Hillier said that what brought him to the tipping point was his frustration that the “government is putting its own convenience over the health of so many people.

The latest events came about after the government announced on Monday night that they were going to limit debate on Bill 174 in order to speed up its passage. The bill, which was introduced the day before the Remembrance Day House recess, has only been before the house for a week and is slated for passage in early December.

One of the major concerns Hillier has with the bill is its omnibus nature. It is titled the “Cannabis, Smoke-free Ontario and Road Safety Statute Law Amendment Act.” Late last week, Hillier made a proposal that the Act be split in three, dealing with Cannabis in one Act, Smoke Free Ontario in another, and Road Safety in a third.

Now that the government is limiting debate on the omnibus bill, he is even more determined to oppose their actions.

“The Cannabis bill alone is a transformative and substantive piece of legislation,” he said “involving the legalization of the consumption of cannabis and setting up a cannabis retail corporation. There are many apparent contradictions in the legislation that need to be worked through in the Act. Instead they are planning to ram it through.”

Combining it with a new Smoke Free Ontario Act brings the rules around vaping into the same legislation as cannabis. Hillier has become an advocate for what he calls the “vaping community” and he describes vaping as “arguably the most effective tobacco harm reduction tool,” and he opposes restrictions that will come in when the new Act is enacted.

“The government is saying we would rather you remain addicted to tobacco than find a way to kick the habit,” and he points to the support he has received in opposing the legislation from followers of the website vapingisntsmoking.ca which has generated 7,000 email to the government opposing the new legislation.

The main objection to the Act is that is lumps vaping in with tobacco, which advocates of vaping see as contrary to what vaping is all about.

“Vape shops will be prohibited from displaying vape devices, components or juices, allowing their customers to handle vape products, or test flavours before purchase. This bill places further restrictions on areas of use, and where exemptions are made, those using vape products are forced to share spaces with those using traditional tobacco products” in an article that was posted on his website last week.

“The PC’s [Progressive Conservatives] have a bill in front of the house to mandate cameras on school buses, to prevent people from blowing by the school buses. They included that bill with this legislation to pressure us into supporting it in order to pressure us into supporting the rest of the legislation. It is a cynical move,” Hillier said.

As far as the Cannabis legislation itself, Hillier is concerned about vague wording and apparent contradictions.

“I don’t smoke or ingest cannabis, but I did in the past, just about everyone who is my age did, and certainly I know people who still do. I think the legalislation is long overdue, but the way they are going about this is going to make it very difficult. With few exceptions, the only place where it will be legal to smoke is in people’s own homes. They may not want to smoke in front of their children or other family members. There are a lot of issues here that are not going to be addressed.”

Hillier said that the standing committee that will consider Bill 174 will only be hearing from 28 people across the province, for five minutes each, between Tuesday and Thursday of next week. People need to get their name before the committee by Monday of next week to have a chance to be one of those 28.

Bill 174 will likely receive third reading about a week later.

Bill 174 can be viewed by going to ontla.on.ca clicking on “bills and lawmaking” and following the links from there.

(note - this article has been changed from a previous version which claimed, in error, that MPP Hillier called the government "god-damned liars", in the house,  which was not the case. He did use salty language in recalling the event after the fact to this reporter, but did never did use the word liars.)

For 18 years, David Craig built conventional homes.

Then, he saw the film Garbage Warrior, a 2007 documentary about Mike Reynolds, who came up with the Earthship style of building. Intrigued, he went to take a course from Reynolds in New Mexico.

When he got back to Canada, he quit his job (“it was a good job,” he said) and began building Earthships. He has two of these completed and sold under his belt.

Craig’s company, Talking Trees Communities, is one of the ‘stakeholders’ in C & T North Frontenac’s One Small Town project.

Craig’s part, and indeed his vision, is to create a community of Earthships.

“Eighty-nine would work, 111 would be nice,” he said.

Currently, Craig is working out of the house beside the liquor store in Plevna that’s serving as the overall project’s headquarters.

“I don’t have any say in this building, I’m just in it,” he said. “It’s all of our offices.”

He’d really rather be out there building Earthships.

“To make the projects viable, we’d need 300 to 500 acres,” he said.

For those unfamiliar with the Earthship design concept, they are based on six principles or human needs:

• thermal/solar heating and cooling
• solar and wind electricity
• self-contained sewage treatment
• building with natural and recycled materials
• water harvesting and long-term storage
• some internal food production capabilities.

Craig’s design is based on Reynolds’ but he’s modified it somewhat. He retains the six principles and recycles tires to create the thermal mass which is a crucial component to the heating/cooling system but he’s scrapped the horseshoe concept which he deemed unnecessary to the functions of the house and added some insulation to the thermal mass.

But it’s essentially still the off-grid, self-sustaining plan Reynolds came up with in the early ’70s.

“The conventional house is a freezing, useless box,” he said. “An Earthship will stay at 15 degrees year ’round.

“Now that’s too cold for most people in the winter so you’ll need an additional heating source but nowhere near as much as you do in a conventional home, regardless of how it’s insulated.”

He said the owner of the home plays a big part in the design in terms of how many solar panels are used, size of the greenhouse and accoutrements as well as actual construction if desired but $150 per square foot is “middle ground” building cost for these homes.

The actual plan for One Small Town is very much still in the planning stages but for Craig location and/or construction of the other components (medical centre, electrical generating plant, aquaculture facility, apiary and wood products) is a non-issue. He’s ready to start building houses as soon as the land is secured and subdivided.

“We (the Earthship component) don’t need the power,” he said.

It’s kind of a shame that Louise Day’s A “Day” in Nature photographic exhibition at Blueroof Farm ended Nov. 12 (it was open each Sunday since Sept. 24). While there were many competent images of animals (including an excellent grab of a Cooper’s hawk and its prey) and Day’s beloved tulips, it was her unique images of frost that broke many molds and rose above standard photographic fare.

Although the frost series pieces all have titles like Fire Frost, Frost Medallion or Spider Frost, Day opted not to have them displayed with the works preferring the viewer see “what you envision or see yourself.”

And in hindsight, that seems to have been an astute decision because these images certainly do invite interpretation.

The enlargements were done on a “special paper” at Kingston Frameworks and then mounted on acrylic or in one case, metal. They presented without frames.

And simply put, they’re magic.

“Frost presents itself so differently and like snowflakes, no two images are ever alike,” Day said.

And, we suspect, neither are the interpretations.

(For example, this reviewer saw alien jungle landscapes and seashores, and the lair for some otherworldly giant spider queen.)

Day said her fascination with frost happened somewhat by chance one day in Verona.

“I saw frost on a sunroom and went up to it, knocked on the door and asked if I could photograph it,” she said.

She’s been doing it ever since.

“I also take ice images along the river,” she said. “You only see these images once — that’s your chance.

“You can skip living where you are and imagine yourself anywhere.

“But I’m not going to forget my tulips.”

Day began photography in 1991, taking lessons from Kim Ondaatje.

“She (Ondaatje) taught me how to see,” Day said.

Day is a member of the Kingston Photographic Club and considers photography a hobby. However she does sell her work and several pieces from A “Day” in Nature are still for sale and if interested in buying one, you can contact Day at 613-374-3333 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Kyle Ainsley started out playing soccer in the Storrington League when he was very young but by the team he was 6 or 7 he had taken up baseball in Battersea, and he has never looked back. Hje has been a pitcher since he started.
Now 20 and an apprentive carpenter working for Bencze Construction in Inverary, he still finds time to pitch fastball with teams in the Kingston League and with the Port Perry Bulls on weekends. He came to the attention of the New york Merchants of Oswego at a tournament when he was pitching for he Bulls and they have invited him to pitch for them at the North American Fastball Association tournament in Fargo, North Dakota starting on August 9th. He will barely have a chance to settle down when he gets back from that tournament before he leaves for Grand Rapids Michigan for the World Under 21 Fastball tournament with the Port Perry Bulls.

What both teams will be counting on is Kyle’s 73 mile per hour fastball. He is also a lefthander, which is another cahllenge for batters. He aversages 10 -13 stikeouts in a 7 inning game, meaning as few as 8 or 9 batters even put the ball in play against him.

He is a pretty good hitter and runner, but when he is pitching, which is about half the time his teams play, it is his ability to shut down the opposing offcence that is prized by his team mates.

“Fastball takes up a lot of my time in the summers,” he said, “but even in the winter I practice quite a bit indoors,” he said, and he added that pitching in the US will be a big event for him because fastball is popular in the US.
“It’s bigger there than it is here, that’s for sure” he said.

For Kyle Ainsly, fastball is destined to remain a major past time over the next few years, whether with his own teams or as an invited player on International teams.

On July 1 of this year, Sharbot Lake Lions Bill and Linda Zwier travelled to Chicago, Ill. But this wasn’t any regular Lions convention.

You see, this year’s gathering of Lions featured a ceremony wherein Bill would be inducted as the Governor of District A3, a large geographic area stretching from Courtice to Storrington, Denbigh to Cherry Valley. It’s an area that contains 50 Lions clubs, seven Lioness clubs, three Leo Clubs and some 1,300 members.

Needless to say, it’s a time commitment but so far, so good for the new Governor.

“I get a lot more emails and phone calls,” he said. “There’s a lot of paperwork and a lot of visiting other clubs for activities and fundraisers.”

But he’s fine with that.

After all, it takes seven years to become Governor, starting out with being club president, then moving up to zone chair, region chair, 2nd vice-Governor, 1st vice-Governor and then Governor.

“Then, after a one-year term as Governor, you become immediate past Governor and then you’re on an honorary committee that finds solutions,” he said.

This is the second time the Sharbot Lake club has provided a District Governor. Dave Hansen filled the post in 1976-1977.

As Governor, Zwier will be able to set priorities aided by his advisory council as Lions International enters its second century.

“I’d like to see us doing more service, as opposed to fundraisers,” he said.

He cites several Lions programs in that, such as vision and hearing screening, environmental programs, youth programs and two new programs — diabetes and pediatric cancer.

“We managed to raise enough to send 11 athletes to the Special Olympics last weekend,” he said.

He’s also big on the vision and hearing screening programs in schools, citing examples of children who were doing poorly in school before screening programs identified a need for glasses or hearing aides.

“And we do a lot of disaster assistance,” he said. “For example, during the Ice Storm, we had $10,000 here in 10 days.”

And while all the Lions programs are important to him, there is one that seems to have a special place in his heart, judging by the way he talks about it — the Lions Foundation Guide Dog program that provides service dogs free of charge to those with vision or hearing impairments, epilepsy, seizures, diabetes or autism.

He tells a story about collecting bottles at the Beer Store one day when two people from B.C. came up and thanked him personally. Their son has autism and they got a dog and training for free.

“That’s what I get out of this,” he said. “It’s not money, it’s things like those two people from B.C.”

Zwier retired five years ago from Home Hardware in Perth. He didn’t have any aspirations of becoming a District Governor at the time (“I joined to serve”) but there is some pride there when he shows off his new blazer with the governor’s patch (as well as the Helen Keller pin and Founder Melvin Jones pin).

But, Linda puts it all into perspective.

“He’s not a put on fancy clothes kind of guy,” she said. “He’s a blue jeans, T-shirt, scramble the eggs kind of guy.”

Bill nods in agreement.