2017 IN REVIEW
The year’s major local news events
Jan. 18: A Superior Court judge dismisses Coun. Hilary Payne’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the City of Windsor for malicious prosecution, stemming from a 2006 rooming house fire that seriously injured a woman.
Jan. 21: A busload of women from the Windsor area travel to Washington, D.C., to take part in the Women’s March on Washington, a day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
Jan. 24: Dean Lapierre, the wellknown, longtime president of the Windsor Minor Hockey Association, is investigated by his own organization and the Ontario Minor Hockey Association for calling Canadian women who participated in the Women’s March on Washington “dumb bitches” on social media.
Feb. 1: City council agrees to a $50,000 hike in the 2017 marketing budget for Adventure Bay, spending $200,000 in 2017 promoting the downtown water park to boost attendance numbers, which have shrunk in the last two years.
Feb. 8: The Windsor region posts the largest rebound across Canada in the 2016 census, seeing a population rise of 3.1 per cent between 2011 and 2016.
Feb. 9: A seven-month strike that shuttered 14 libraries across Essex County finally ends after workers voted 70 per cent in favour of a new four-year contract. They had been on strike since June25, 2016.
March 2: A spike in local opioidrelated deaths is announced by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, prompting local emergency services and health-care workers to form a coalition to devise a plan of action to deal with the situation.
March 4: Windsor police step in to prevent violence between rival protesters outside city hall taking sides over Bill M-103, a federal private members’ bill aimed at fighting Islamophobia.
March 8: Twenty per cent of the 294 medically fragile newborns admitted to Windsor’s neonatal intensive care unit in 2016 were suffering withdrawal symptoms because their mothers were taking opioids while pregnant, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit reports.
March 9: A Maidstone tomato processing company that received a controversial $3-million grant from the provincial government in 2014 is charged for mislabelling its products. Thomas Canning and owner William Michael Thomas are accused of labelling regular canned tomato products as organic. March 10: The Windsor area matches its record low monthly unemployment rate after February’s figure dropped 0.3 per cent to 5.1, according to numbers released by Statistics Canada. The last time the rate was this low was in 2001. March 14: Two Good Samaritans, one of them Windsor Star photographer Dan Janisse, save a woman’s life by plucking her from the icy waters of the Puce River Harbour. March 17: Ambassador Bridge officials announce their intention to tear down vacant houses on the east side of Indian Road to make emergency repairs demanded by the federal government.
March 31: The latest edition of the provincial Sunshine List reveals a Windsor Police Service employee earned twice as much as the chief of police in 2016. Rita Pennesi, who juggles the numbers for the city’s police department as its director of financial services, earned $427,272 in salary and benefits in 2016 as a result of a pay equity payout going back seven years. Chief Al Frederick, by comparison, pocketed $214,496 in salary and $11,464 in taxable benefits.
April 3: Former Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network boss Gary Switzer earned a salary in 2016 of $289,900 — despite being fired the previous May.
April 4: Lawyers give closing arguments in the case against the Shores of Erie International Wine Festival — charged with supplying alcohol to an underage girl who died in a car crash — after the trial was nearly derailed by a mistake in naming the charges filed.
April 9: The Detroit Red Wings play their final home game at Joe Louis Arena, which has housed the team since 1979. The club will begin play at the new Little Caesars Arena in the fall.
April 11: New home construction in Windsor is on a tear, new statistics show, with residential starts up 75 per cent over the past year and city hall issuing building permits at a rate not seen in more than a decade.
April 18: As angry protesters chanted outside, embattled Windsor Minor Hockey Association president Dean Lapierre runs the league’s annual general meeting and apologized yet again for Facebook comments about local women travelling to protest in Washington that resulted in his suspension.
April 19: Infamous convicted sex offender Carl Leone, 41, is given six months of day parole, but he won’t be able to live in his hometown of Windsor. April 25: Windsor’s real estate market becomes so hot that sales agents for the majority of listings are restricting bids to one day — a strategy reserved for the nation’s most competitive housing markets in Toronto and Vancouver. April 26: Volkswagen Canada must pay $2.1 billion — the largest commercial settlement in the country’s history — to affected Canadian customers as part of a classaction vehicle emissions lawsuit that started in Windsor.
May 2: High waves whipped up by strong winds on Lake Erie cause localized flooding and shoreline damage as west-southwest winds gusting up to 53 km/h blow throughout the day.
May 18: Windsor kicks off its Memorial Cup celebrations with a party, a Cup welcoming parade and a solemn ceremony at the downtown cenotaph to remember veterans in keeping with the Cup’s raison d’etre.
May 21: Windsor’s Great Canadian Flag Project finally becomes reality as thousands gather at the foot of Ouellette Avenue and Riverside Drive to witness the long-awaited raising of the giant red-and-white maple leaf.
May 28: The Windsor Spitfires win the Memorial Cup at the WFCU Centre, defeating the Erie Otters 4-3. The Spitfires win came after a layoff of several weeks after they were defeated in the first round of the OHL playoffs, but as host city were guaranteed a spot in the tournament.
June 5: Windsor city council decides to fast-track an active transportation study at a cost of between $300,000 and $350,000 and review the issue of bike racks in the city and who will pay for them.
July 25: LaSalle swimming phenomenon Kylie Masse makes history as she completes the 100-metre backstroke in a world record time of 58.10 seconds in Budapest, Hungary.
Aug. 5: An 11-tonne yellow rubber duck arrives at Amherstburg’s Navy Yard Park as part of the Canada 150 and Ontario 150 celebrations, but disappoints hundreds of onlookers as it springs a leak and fails to inflate. The leak is repaired the following day and onlookers are able to see the duck in all its glory. Aug. 21: Hundreds take to Windsor’s waterfront and other vantage points in the area armed with everything from pinhole cardboard contraptions to special-order solar glasses and monstrous telescopes otherwise used to glimpse faraway galaxies to witness a near-total solar eclipse. Aug. 22: Construction of the longawaited new Windsor-Detroit border crossing bridge is set back by a year because of the complex bidding process, meaning it likely won’t be completed until 2023. Aug. 28: City council narrowly votes to spend $3 million on a massive holiday lights display at Jackson Park, although the expenditure would later be reduced to $1.5 million following public outcry. Aug. 29: Roads were swamped, basements were inundated and vehicles were stalled in watery streets as Windsor-Essex endures more rain less than 24 hours after enduring a considerable downpour. Police urge the public not to drive unless absolutely necessary. Thousands of local basements are flooded. Damage would later be pegged at $175 million. Sept. 6: The company that owns the Ambassador Bridge receives federal cabinet approval in Canada to build a new span between Windsor and Detroit. The approval is the final major hurdle Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun needed to clear to construct a new six-lane span to replace the existing one and compete with a yetto-be-built publicly owned bridge.
Sept. 14: Windsor police Chief Al Frederick, credited with making the force more transparent in his five years as top cop, announces his retirement effective Jan. 30.
Sept. 17: Major roads in the city become crowded with people for hours as an appreciative public enjoy the second edition of Open Streets Windsor — an event that officials say is exploding in popularity.
Sept. 17: Windsor plans to piggyback on Detroit’s bid for e-commerce giant Amazon’s multibillion-dollar city investment. Less than two weeks after Amazon’s announcement, dozens of cities are already vying for the opportunity to host a second North American headquarters for the world’s largest internet-based retailer.
Sept. 19: The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel — a primary artery to cross the border for thousands of commuters in Windsor — announces it will be fully closed to traffic for 10 days starting in October and will have frequent closures for months to facilitate the construction of a new ceiling.
Sept. 28: A high-ranking Vatican diplomat recalled from the Holy See’s Washington embassy under a cloud of suspicion is wanted by Windsor police for allegedly uploading and distributing child pornography at a local church.
Oct 4: At a time when the number of overdose cases in the Windsor area has skyrocketed, the province announces it is setting up an emergency task force to tackle the opioid crisis.
Oct. 10: A graffiti artist with a penchant for racist and anti-Islamic graffiti goes on a paint-spraying spree in Windsor over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Oct. 8: Windsor is shaken by a brutal early-morning assault on a 75-year-old woman as she walked along the Ganatchio Trail. Anne Widholm was found battered and unconscious on the trail after the assault. The community would later come out for a solidarity walk in her honour. Windsor resident Habibullah Ahmad, 21, who goes by the first name Daniel, is charged with aggravated assault.
Oct. 16: Faculty from St. Clair College join their colleagues across the province in Day 1 of a strike over the vastly expanded role and precarious employment of parttime instructors and demands for expanded academic freedom and more control of curriculum.
Nov. 6: The City of Windsor announces it has extricated itself and taxpayers from the Canderel Building — the project started in 1999 to ensure Chrysler Canada wouldn’t move its headquarters elsewhere, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.
Nov. 8: Infrastructure Ontario releases a document indicating that Windsor’s mega-hospital — with an expected price tag exceeding $1 billion — will be one of six new health-care projects in the province to move forward by 2021.
Nov 19: More than 10,000 St. Clair College students return to class after Ontario passes back-to-work legislation ending a five-week teachers strike.
Nov. 21: Former Windsor Spitfire and one-time NHL-hopeful Ben Johnson loses his appeal of his sexual assault conviction at the Ontario Court of Appeal in Toronto.
Nov. 26: Windsor’s Shawn Florence, 24, has his life forever altered at the Pine Knob Ski & Snowboard Resort in Clarkston, Mich., after a collision with a fence left him with permanent damage to his spine.
Dec. 4: Officials with the Shores of Erie International Wine Festival announce the event is finished forever after the corporation was fined more than $65,000 for giving alcohol to an underage girl who died in a drunk driving crash.
Dec. 5: Leamington-based cannabis producer Aphria seals a deal to supply medical marijuana to Canada’s biggest pharmacy chain, Shoppers Drug Mart.
Dec. 6: Hiatus House announces it has turned away 223 vulnerable women and children this year as the crisis shelter faces a sharp increase in demand for beds, spurred by intense media focus on sexual assault in Hollywood and Washington.
Dec. 6: St. Clair College announces it lost about $3.6 million in tuition fees with 1,232 students opting to withdraw and take a full refund of their tuition following the fiveweek strike by Ontario’s community college faculty.
Dec. 7: Mayor Drew Dilkens flicks the switch on the Bright Lights Windsor light festival at Jackson Park as thousands of people bathed in the warm glow of hundreds of thousands of lights.
Dec. 12: The province announces it is searching for a ready-to-go marijuana store location in Windsor to be run by the Ontario Cannabis Retail Corp., 2,500 square feet of space at a location that’s already properly zoned for retail; a location that’s near to a Transit Windsor bus route; an existing space instead of new construction; and a location that’s not located close to schools, addiction treatment centres, mental-health facilities and emergency shelters.
Dec 12: The family of Nicole Vetor, a Windsor teen killed on the Herb Gray Parkway earlier in 2017, say they feel the trucker who caused her death got off easy with a $1,200 fine and $300 surcharge.
Dec. 21: The Windsor police services board announces Chief Al Frederick will stay an additional 17 months due to delays in the search for his replacement and the possibility the city force could take over the service in Amherstburg.