A YEAR NOT SOON FORGOTTEN
COVID changed life as we knew it
In 2020, everything changed.
A global pandemic didn't just alter — possibly forever — the way we live. It sowed fear. It robbed us of personal freedoms. It took loved ones. It divided us.
But it wasn't all doom and gloom.
Kindness shone in rallies for sick migrant workers. Auto plants and other companies shifted gears to make personal protective equipment for stressed health-care workers. And between the border restrictions and restaurant closures there was some good news, including large automotive and economic investments, breaks in major crime cold cases and the decade's first newborn.
Here are the big local news events covered by the Windsor Star in 2020.
JANUARY
1 Essex County's first baby of the decade is born at Windsor Regional Hospital's Met Campus. Ariah Knelson, born on New Year's Day at 4:07 a.m., arrived three days early to take the honour.
8 Five persons with connections to the University of Windsor are killed when Ukraine International Airline Flight PS752 was shot down minutes after taking off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport. All 176 passengers and crew were killed when the plane was shot down by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards.
20 City council unanimously votes in favour of doubling Transit Windsor's operating budget from $35 million to $70 million over eight years and spending $135 million in capital costs on expanded and increased transit terminals, bus stops and buses.
FEBRUARY
20 The coronavirus starts to have an economic effect in Southwestern Ontario as auto suppliers scrambled to find new sources for parts that are delayed or unavailable from China because of quarantines, plant closures and lost productivity.
20 The Downtown Mission's much-maligned plan to move into Windsor Public Library's vacated central branch on Ouellette Avenue has collapsed. The move was scrapped after the bank supplying the mortgage for the $10-million project withdrew its offer over the mission's flagging finances.
MARCH
13 With concerns about COVID-19 increasing, University of Windsor announces the temporary cancellation of classes as the school pivots to online and virtual classes.
16 Mayor Drew Dilkens goes into self-isolation after cutting short a family trip to Jordan.
16 Windsor Regional Hospital opens its first COVID-19 assessment centre. Anxious people line up out the door, waiting to get tested.
16 The Windsor-essex County Health Unit orders bars and restaurants to end liquor sales and sit down dining to slow the spread of COVID-19.
18 Ottawa and Washington announce travel restrictions at the border, prohibiting “non-essential” travel. 18 Workers are turned away from Windsor Assembly Plant after the Detroit Three announced factories across North America would be idled in the face of COVID-19. 19 The city announces heightened protocols at emergency shelters to protect homeless people during the pandemic.
20 Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Windsor-essex County's medical officer of health, acknowledges the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the Windsor-essex region. A man in his 60s tested positive after returning from a Caribbean cruise.
20 Mayor Drew Dilkens declares a state of emergency, as part of the city's ongoing response to COVID-19, ordering the temporary closure of Devonshire and Tecumseh malls.
23 St. Clair College moves to online teaching.
28 J. Supply Co., Windsor's first legal retail cannabis shop, opens its doors at 545 Ouellette Ave.
30 Dilkens shuts down bus service and all city playgrounds as the pandemic worsens.
31 An 81-year-old man becomes the first person in the region to die from COVID-19. The man, who had underlying chronic conditions, died in Windsor Regional Hospital's ICU.
APRIL
1 A woman gunned down in a car in the 2200 block of Northway Avenue becomes the city's first homicide victim of the year.
2 The City of Windsor rents out all 29 rooms at the icheck Inn Motel to house and isolate a growing number of homeless people with COVID-19.
6 Local pandemic death toll rises to five after a woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s die from COVID-19 complications.
6 Ford Motor Company starts delivering face masks to local front-line agencies after retooling part of its Windsor Engine Plant to produce the protective gear.
16 The local health unit says Country Village Homes in Woodslee has 61 residents and 19 staff who have tested positive for COVID-19 as fears rise over the escalating toll the virus is taking at long-term care and retirement homes.
18 Windsor Regional Hospital starts moving long-term care residents into its field hospital built inside the St. Clair College Sportsplex.
21 A lawyer files Canada's first COVID-19 “price gouging” lawsuit in a Windsor courtroom. The lawsuit was filed in Ontario Superior Court of Justice on behalf of multinational conglomerate 3M against the directors of Caonic Systems Inc., a Waterloo-based firm that 3M alleges was reselling its N95 masks at more than five times the regular listed price.
30 The health unit reports Windsor-essex has seen its deadliest pandemic day to date, with six deaths in a 24-hour period.
30 The health unit announces eight migrant workers have tested positive for COVID-19, an early sign of the coming crisis in Essex County's commercial farming and greenhouse sector.
MAY
4 Transit Windsor starts rolling again after safety protocols were developed and the rate of COVID-19 slowed in the city.
14 Dr. Ahmed recommends people wear masks in public where they cannot ensure physical distancing, weeks after federal and international health officials made the same recommendation.
16 With provincial restrictions lifted, golf courses and marinas open for the first time in the spring.
19 Some local Chrysler and Ford employees return to work after a two-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
19 City council approves the Small Business Action Plan, waiving fees and speeding up approvals for outdoor patios and the takeover of city streets.
25 COVID-19 testing becomes available to anyone in Ontario who wants it. Windsor Regional Hospital swabs 163 people by late afternoon.
26 Dr. Ahmed reveals that about 100 migrant workers have tested positive for COVID-19 in Essex County.
26 The health unit issues an order to protect migrant workers after officially labelling agri-food businesses a high-risk setting for the spread of COVID-19.
29 Random drive-thru COVID-19 testing begins in Essex County. A total of 1,808 people are tested in three days.
30 A man in his 30s becomes the first migrant worker in Essex County to die from COVID-19. He had no pre-existing medical conditions.
JUNE
2 The health unit says 175 workers from 17 farms have tested positive for COVID-19.
15 Outbreaks in the agricultural sector hold Windsor and Essex County back from moving to Stage 2 with most of the rest of Ontario. A frustrated Mayor Drew Dilkens calls on the province to order mandatory testing for all local migrant workers.
16 Mexican officials say their country will not send any more seasonal workers to Canada after the deaths of migrant workers Bonifacio Eugenio Romero, 31, and Rogelio Munoz Santos, 24, in Essex County.
22 Essex County becomes the only region left behind in Stage 1, with Premier Doug Ford blaming local farmers.
24 Organizers of the Windsor International Film Festival announce the 10-day event is cancelled for 2020.
25 Most of Windsor-essex moves to Stage 2, with the exception of Leamington and Kingsville, which are still in the middle of a widespread COVID-19 outbreak among migrant workers.
26 Wearing face coverings in Windsor and Essex County commercial establishments becomes mandatory after an order from the health unit.
JULY
1 The health unit orders Nature Fresh Farms in Leamington to