October 2017
Yarmouth residents were at Las Vegas concert, scene of horrific mass shooting
A Yarmouth couple were among the thousands of people attending an outdoor concert in Las Vegas Oct. 1 when it became the scene of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. When it was over, 59 people – including the gunman – were dead and 546 had been injured. Shelly Adams and her boyfriend, Adam Blooi, both from Yarmouth, were there. When the shooting started, they first thought they were hearing fireworks. From there it was a harrowing three hours before they finally felt safe again. “It’s something you see on TV and you think it’s only on TV,” Adams said. “After it’s like, okay, how do you pick up the pieces?” Even while trying to absorb what had happened, though, the Yarmouth couple were thinking of others, noting that there was a great need for blood donors in the wake of the tragedy.
Advocates welcomed province’s plan to help with cost of take-home cancer meds
Cancer care advocates welcomed the Nova Scotia government’s promise of financial help for patients struggling to afford take-home cancer medication. The province was giving cancer patients a cash injection of $846,000, along with another $2 million per year for the next three years under a new provincewide take-home therapies program. “It makes us feel that after three years we’ve finally been listened to,” said Deb Maskens, co-chairwoman of the CanCertainty Coalition. “It has taken thousands of Nova Scotians to sign petitions, to meet with the minister, to go on the media, and the truth is that some of these people are no longer alive to hear this announcement and that is bittersweet.” (The funding had been announced as part of the provincial budget.)
Big turnout for festival marking half-century since Shag Harbour UFO incident
Oct. 4, 2017 marked the 50th anniversary of the Shag Harbour UFO incident, and the annual festival commemorating the 1967 event was a big draw, with a record-setting attendance. An estimated 400 people from as far away as British Columbia turned out for the festival, which saw a stellar lineup of speakers and panelists taking the stage at the Woods Harbour Community Centre. Chris Styles, who has been researching the Shag Harbour incident since 1993, was the keynote speaker. He gave several presentations, including new research findings about the incident that served to deepen the mystery, among them discrepancies in the logbooks of navy ships that were involved in the search in 1967.
Work was moving forward on Shelburne’s new medical clinic
After nearly a decade of ups and downs, construction equipment had rolled onto the site where Shelburne’s new medical clinic was to be built. Rikjak Construction, which had been awarded the tender for the clinic, was about to break ground. “The past year has seen plenty of work on the site, including the demolition and clearing away of the old building,” said Fraser Mooney, a spokesman for the Nova Scotia Health Authority. With construction beginning on the new facility, the Department of Health and Wellness was continuing the conversation with the health authority to plan the clinical services that would be offered at the new clinic, which was expected to open in the fall of 2018.
Fisherman was shocked after his boat was taken and burned
RCMP were calling a boat fire at the Comeauville wharf in Digby County suspicious and the ves- Alex McDonald, a band councillor with the Sipekne’katik First Nation in Indian Brook, here at the wharf in Comeaville, Digby County, next to where his boat normally would have been tied. McDonald arrived at the wharf Oct. 9 to see his vessel was gone. It was later observed by DFO at sea on fire before sinking. DFO officers carry a crate of seized lobsters down to the water at the Digby wharf. The lobsters were all returned to the water around on Oct. 18 as part of a DFO investigation into alleged illegal lobsters. Reservists at work during a demonstration that was part of an open house at the Yarmouth armouries. sel’s owner felt he was targeted because he is an Aboriginal fisherman. Alex McDonald said he had never had any trouble or been given any grief in his years fishing alongside non-natives. He acknowledged there had been tension lately over concerns fish- ermen had about commercial fishing taking place under the guise of the Aboriginal food fishery, but he said, “I wasn’t doing much food fishery. Maybe once a month me and the wife and kids come down. We set a couple of traps, take the lobster home.