Warning! Fake Inspectors

The Northwestern Health unit is warning restaurant owners to be on the watch for fake public health inspectors.

The fake inspectors contact restaurant owners by phone asking for detailed business and personal information and threatening them with fines if they don't comply.

Medical Officer of Health Doctor James Arthurs says two restaurants were recently targets in the Kenora and Rainy River districts.

He says Health Unit inspectors usually arrive unannounced and carry photo ID's.

Drownings to be Reviewed

The province's acting Chief Coroner says there will be a review of all drowning deaths in Ontario that have occurred this summer.

Doctor Bert Lauwers says the purpose is to identify common factors that may have played a role in the deaths.

Once complete, Lauwers says the results of this review will be released to the public later in the year.

There have been three drowning-related deaths in the Rainy River district.

Inquests Planned

The deaths of two men in northwestern Ontario last year will be subjects of coroner's inquests later this fall.

A September inquest in Fort Frances will examine the death of 21-year-old Dylan Wreggitt of Atikokan.

He died while in custody at the Rainy River District Jail last August.

Another inquest into the death of 30-year-old Levi Schaeffer will be held in Thunder Bay in October.

Schaeffer died in an altercation with Provincial Police in the Osnaburgh Lake area last June.

E.R Cash Defended

Health Minister Deb Matthews is defending the decision to spend 100-million dollars this year to help cut wait times in E-R's.

Conservative Lisa MacLeod says the money would be better spent creating long-term care beds to free up space in congested hospitals.

Matthews says she understands the program isn't perfect, but she says it's a good start.

One-point-nine million dollars earmarked for the Northwestern Health Integration Network is all going to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.

Atikokan Bass Classic Nears

(CKDR Photo)

Atikokan will be the next stop on this summer's tournament tour for area anglers.

The Atikokan Bass Classic gets under in two weeks time with a full field of 110 angler teams competing.

Chair Jim Johnson says the push right now is for volunteers to help set up a week from today.

"The big tent is going up and everybody knows that's a big job, " says Johnson. "The more hands that are there, the easy it will be to put it up. Then Saturday and Sunday we'll be filling it up with tables and chairs which is a labourious job. Again, the more people that we have out to help will make the job that much smaller."

Person interested in helping out can register at Bass Classic's office, by calling 597-2757 or on its website http://www.atikokanbassclassic.com/.

Boys Scouts 100th Celebrated in International Falls

Boys Scouts in the International Falls area will gather tomorrow to help celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of scouting in the United States.

Troop 145 committee member Tammy Riley says they're invited current and former scouts to watch a Centennial Celebration Show originating from the National Scout Jamboree in Fort A-P Hill in Virginia.

"We're going to gather at Faith United Church for the webcast," says Riley. "We also want to consider it an opportunity for past and present scout to gather so we're going to consider it as a reunion also."

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night.

Interested community members on both sides of the border are invited.

Abzac Sold

A local manufacturing company has been sold.

Abzac's Fort Frances operation will be taken over by South Carolina-based Sonoco by the end of October.

The plant makes cardboard cores for paper mills and employees 13 people.

Kenora Shooting Report Issued

A Kenora OPP officer has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the June shooting of a woman in that city, but the Special Investigation's Unit is questioning why it took Provincial Police almost two hours to report the incident.

39-year-old Helen Proulx was shot twice in the torso after brandishing a knife at a female officer.

S.I.U. director Ian Scott found no reasonable grounds to believe the officer acted inappropriately.

Witnesses told the S.I.U. Proulx was intoxicated and in a despondent emotional state at the time and failed to comply with the officer's repeated requests to drop the knife

But in his report, Scott expressed concernd with the delay in reporting the shooting to the S.I.U., a contravention under the Police Services Act, and that some officers at the scene were told by an association lawyer not to make notes.

He's asked the OPP Commissioner to investigate.

Teenager Charged with Murder

A 16-year-old boy from Fort Hope First Nation, north of Sioux Lookout, is facing a murder charge.

Ontario Provincial Police say it follows the stabbing death of a 17-year-old boy in that community last week.

The accused will be appear in a Thunder Bay court August 3.

Police to Crackdown on Careless Drivers

A rise in the number of fatal motor vehicle accidents across the province has prompted Provincial Police to be on a close watch for motorists who break the law this August long weekend.

Sergeant Shelly Garr says there have been twelve fatalities in northwestern Ontario this year, compared with eighteen in all of 2009.

"We're always concerned with the number of motor vehicle collisions on our highways," says Garr. "We're always looking for the big three risk factors and will continue to do so this long weekend. We'll be looking for aggressive driving, failing to wear seatbelts and impaired driving."

None of the fatalities have been in Rainy River district, but twenty-six people have been injured in accidents in the district this year.

Staff Changes Before Police Probe

The Ontario Realty Corporation reportedly fired some staff and restructured a department just before a police raid as part of a corruption probe.

The restructuring took place in May and June that saw some staff, including a vice-president , let go.

The Corporation won't say what, if any, link its purge has to the police probe of procurement in three ministries which went public July 15 with search warrants executed at government buildings in Toronto.

Class Action Suit Proceeds

A lawyer says tens of thousands of people across Canada could be part of a sweeping class-action lawsuit from developmentally disabled people alleging decades of abuse at an Ontario institution.

An Ontario Superior Court judge gave the green light for the one-billion-dollar class action suit involving former residents of Huronia Regional Centre and their family members.

The institution opened in 1876 as the Orillia Asylum for Idiots, and closed in March 2009.

Computer Glitch Hits WFN Contest

The World Fishing Network has repaired a computer clitch that impacted Fort Frances' bid to become the Ultimate Fishing Town in Canada.

Wednesday morning, Fort Frances appeared with two separate bids to WFN contest, but residents could not post supporting submissions to the original bid.

The problem has since been corrected.

Low Forest Fire Hazard Prevails

Recent wet weather has dropped the fire hazard to low across much of northwestern Ontario.

Ten fires are burning in the district, including nine in the far north, but are being allowed to burn out.

There are no active fires in the Rainy River district

Meanwhile, twenty firefighters, three aircraft and three Ministry of Natural Resources officers are in Leaf Rapids, Manitoba to help in the fire fight there.

Suspected Drug Kingpin Arrested

A southern Ontario man, police believe is behind a large prescription pill trafficking ring in northern Ontario is now in custody.

37-year-old Jabir Khan was arrested in North York and sent to Thunder Bay to face trafficking charges.

Police believe he's helped in the illegal distribution of Oxycodone to First Nation communities around the region.

During a two-year investigation, police seized more than 360-thousand dollars in Oxycodone tablets and another 60-thousand in cash.

Two other men from Toronto and Thunder Bay and a woman from Toronto have also been charged.

Swimmer Warnings to be Posted

The Northwestern Health Unit is planning to post permanent signs at area beaches to warn swimmers of the potential of bacteria in the waters.

It now issues warnings only after water tests confirms its presence.

But Medical Officer of Health Doctor James Arthurs says the situation often changes by the time it get those results back from a lab in Thunder Bay.

"The potential exposure of the public to high bacterial counts may occur actually before we get the tests back," says Dr. Arthurs, "and because of the run off of our rivers, the water may have actually cleared by the time we get an adverse report and have closed the beach."

Arthurs sees the signage more as a preventative measure than a suggestion to swimmers they enter at their own risk.

Sunny Cove Funding

The town of Fort Frances has been awarded funding for upgrades to Sunny Cove Camp.

The $100-thousand is from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

The money is to cover the cost of plumbing, electrical and structural renovations done to the camp.

The town had pegged costs coming in at about $134-thousand.

Trillium Money to Atikokan

Two Atikokan organizations will benefit from funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

The Beaten Path Nordic Ski Club is getting almost $15-thousand to purchase an all-terrain vehicle to maintain cross-country ski trails in the Atikokan-Quetico area.

The town of Atikokan will use another $15-thousand to install insulation, siding and new windows in the Mount Fairweather ski chalet.

Board Office on the Move

A move of the Rainy River District School Board administration office is to begin at the end of this week.

Education Director Heather Campbell says the offices will be temporarily located in the main floor of the existing Robert Moore School.

"We are moving the board office (to the existing school) to prepare for the renovations to our offices," says Campbell.

The offices will be closed Friday, reopening in the new location Monday August 9.

Bike Rodeo in Atikokan

The second of two bicycle rodeos in the Rainy River district this week happens in Atikokan today.

The event at North Star Community School begins at 1:30 p.m. and is open to kids aged 4 to 12.

There are also now plans to hold a bike rodeo in Fort Frances at Boston Pizza on August 5 and later this month as part of childrens' camps at the Memorial Sports Centre.