Good Morning it is Thursday June 2nd, I’m Karim Mosna with your daily news brief. A mainly cloudy day today, high 24.
It’s election day in Ontario. If you are eligible to vote, bring your voter information card and a piece of valid ID to the polling station indicated on the card. If you have recently moved and are not on the voters list, then you can present any piece of ID showing your name and current residential address to register and vote. You can find out information on your voting location and more on the elections ontario website. The polls are open from 9am to 9pm.
Kingston Police and The OPP are warning against increased reports of the “emergency/grandparent scam” in the Kingston area where scammers claim to be a grandchild or a loved one and make a frantic call asking for help. Kingston Police note often the caller requests bail money and has the victim place it in a shoe box, the scammer would then hire a courier company to deliver it to someone involved in the scam. Police say cash is never requested for bail, and to never send money by courier to someone you don’t know or trust.
Kingston Health Sciences Centre is now allowing up to 3 approved family visitors per patient, with 2 by the bedside. Unvaccinated visitors are permitted, but would need to complete a negative rapid antigen test and pass screening upon arrival. All visitors must remain masked at all times. According to the KHSC the policy update is due to a continued downward trend of COVID-19 cases in the KFL&A area.
Just over a year has passed since the remains of 215 indigenous children buried at a former residential school in British Columbia were recovered. Since this tragedy, monthly gatherings have formed at the waterfront in Kingston. Individuals sat in front of a sacred fire for a “letting go” ceremony. Indigenous Community Development Coordinator with The Kingston Community Health Centres Grandmother Kathy Brant says, “We don’t hang on to how they passed, we need to hang on to the positiveness that they brought by being recovered, ‘letting go’ of the tragedy and embracing what they gave us.”
Brant says people are now listening. “The indigenous people who survived those schools have been talking about it since they came home..People knew they were there, no one listened until now.” The monthly gatherings are expected to continue.
Quick note on the roads: Albert Street from Brock to Birch will be closed until 3 today for sewer construction.
That’s your daily news brief, I’m Karim Mosna. If you have any news tips, please email me news@cfrc.ca.