Winter Carnival hands out money to local charities

The organizing committee for Kenora's Winter Carnival says it paid out over

94 hundred dollars to eight different charities as part of the Charity Challenge.

Its A Dog's Life was the big winner, collecting over 38 hundred dollars.

The animal welfare charity sold 29 hundred buttons, which was the most of
any charity registered in the challenge.

The Lake of the Woods Hospital was the runner up and earned just over
12 hundred dollars in the Charity Challenge.

Hospital board seeking new members

Lake of the Woods District Hospital is having a tough time signing up new members.

The hospital board wants to get as many memberships as possible by the end of this month for the corporate elections taking place in June.

Under the hospital by-laws, you have to be a member for at least 60 days to be eligible to run for a position on the board.

The hospital advertised widely last month trying to drum up interest in the corporate memberships, but so far very few people have expressed interest.

The corporate memberships cost just five dollars.

March Break Weather Woes

Today might not be the best day to begin your March Break.

A blizzard warning has been issued for southern Manitoba, and

the Kenora area is expected to get about 10 centimeters of snow

overnight.

Bill Laidlaw from Signal Weather Services says things will likely

stay dry until later this afternoon.

The good news is the system should pass by tomorrow, and sunshine is expected again for Sunday and Monday.

Schaeffer Inquest Wraps up Today

An inquest has heard that a Peterborough man had started to turn his life around just three years before being shot and killed by police on a remote lake in northwestern Ontario.

Levi Schaeffer was 30 years old when he was killed by officers investigating a stolen boat on Osnaburgh Lake near Pickle Lake.

The inquest has heard that Schaeffer was wielding a knife and a can of bear spray while charging at Constable Kris Wood who shot him twice.

Schaeffer's mother, Ruth, testified he was diagnosed with panic and personality disorders.

Wood has testified he had no other option to deal with Schaeffer and that he feared for his life.

The inquest is to wrap up today.

Ontario Court of Appeal Orders Judicial Inquiry into local jury rolls

The Ontario Appeal Court has ordered a judicial inquiry into whether the jury roll in northwestern Ontario represents the community.

The court decision comes from concerns about aboriginal representation on juries in two coroners' inquests.

The families of Jacy Pierre, who died of an overdose in jail, and Reggie Bushie, went to the court after they couldn't get answers from officials on the roll used for the inquest juries.

The juries are taken from a roll compiled by the sheriff from municipal assessment lists but aboriginals living on reserves are not on the list.

Terry Waboose, of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, says the decision confirms the extent of stonewalling from government they have faced.

Municipal Cultural Policy Being Developed

The City of Kenora is getting some funding from the provincial government to

help draft a municipal cultural plan.

The first stage in the process took place last night with a workshop involving interested local residents.

Economic Development Officer for the city, Jennifer Findlay says the timing for such a policy seems to be right.

Findlay says the Municipal Cultural Plan will not only include an inventory of local groups involved in the arts and heritage, but also include some goals to work towards.

Canadian Arrow finalizes the purchase of more claims in Kenora area

While there has been a boom in gold exploration activities in northwestern Ontario recently, other metals haven't been as fortunate.

Canadian Arrow says it was forced to curtail its plans for the Kenbridge nickel property southeast of Kenora for the past three years due to the economic downturn.

Company spokesperson, Kim Tyler says things are slowly starting to rebound.

Tyler says Canadian Arrow has just completed the aquisition of the Denmark Lake group of claims, next to its Kenbridge site and is hoping they will be able to resume exploration in the not too distant future.

Two more Drug Busts for the OPP's Traffic Unit

For the third time in three days the OPP have seized a quantity of drugs during routine traffic stops near Kenora.

Wednesday evening around 8:30, a vehicle was stopped on Highway 17 east of Kenora and about seven thousand dollars worth of marijuana was seized.

In a second incident, just after 2:00 Thursday morning, officers stopped another vehicle on the Kenora By-Pass and seized over 22 thousand dollars worth of drugs, including 1.3 pounds of marijuana, a couple of ounces of cocaine and some codeine pills.

Co-incidentally, all three men who were arrested were from Dryden.

They all face charges of trafficking in a narcotic.

MNR Employee presented the Kallemeyn Award

The Lake of the Woods Water Quality Forum has wrapped up for another year, and a local MNR employee has been singled out for his work.

Tom Mosindy was presented the Larry Kallemeyn Award this week.

Executive Director of the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation Todd Sellars says Mosindy was honored largely for his work on the lake trout fishery.

The two day water quality conference wrapped up yesteday in International Falls.

Midget Thistles prepare for Branch Playdowns

The third season for the Kenora triple "a" midget Thistles begins this evening.

The Thistles are taking on Thunder Bay Kings in the best of three northwest branch playdowns.

Coach Brian Olson says the team is looking forward to the challenge.

Game one of the best of three series take place at the Thistle Rink tonight

at 7:30.

Game two is tomorrow night and game three, if necessary will take place Sunday afternoon.