Good morning, Greater Sudbury! Here are a few stories to start your day on this Friday morning.
Robert Steven Wright’s new case headed to Crown pre-trial
For the first time since Robert Steven Wright was charged with criminal harassment, forcible confinement and two counts of sexual assault from incidents in North Bay predating his Sudbury murder conviction, he did not attend his May 1 court appearance. Having signed a designation, Wright’s lawyer Joseph Wilkinson, as well as Wilkinson’s representatives, can now appear in court on behalf of Wright. Wright’s partner and parents were in court, appearing virtually. Aditi Iyer, representative for Wilkinson and therefore Wright, told Justice Erin Jane Lainevool that a Crown pre-trial had been arranged for May 15. The Crown pre-trial allows the accused and their lawyer to speak to the Crown outside of a courtroom setting. It is usually held after disclosure to allow for fulsome discussion, and the main goal is for the accused to learn what evidence may be raised at trial, or, if desired, for them to resolve their case with a guilty plea and a sentencing recommendation.
Arson triple homicide: Defence admits guilt, but not of murder
Joseph Wilkinson, defence lawyer for a man on trial for his alleged role in a 2021 arson and triple homicide, began his closing submissions in an unusual way, inviting the jury to find his client, Liam Stinson guilty. However, not guilty of the three counts of first-degree murder, which Stinson is charged with, but of the lesser manslaughter and arson. The Crown, in their submissions, begs to differ with the defence’s interpretation of events. For the jury, it will come down to whether they believed Stinson planned to kill before telling two people, known in Sudbury.com’s coverage as Witness 1 and Witness 2, to start an April 11, 2021, fire in exchange for drugs, or, did he simply “encourage” them to set the fire, without those involved knowing anyone was home when they fire-bombed a Bruce Avenue townhouse that night. Beginning his closing submissions after the Crown, Wilkinson began with a simple statement:
City moves to protect 30% of its lands and lakes
The City of Greater Sudbury is working toward the conservation of approximately 109,000 hectares of land and water by 2030, as part of a broader national initiative. Conserving 30 per cent of Greater Sudbury’s almost 4,000-square-kilometre land base shouldn’t be too difficult, said Franco Mariotti, the chair of the Mayor’s Task Force on 30x30 working group, during Tuesday’s meeting at Tom Davies Square. Approximately 40,000 hectares of land (36.7 per cent of their goal) is already protected within such things as provincial parks, LU greenspace and Conservation Sudbury property, he said. “This is already existing, there’s no debate about it, they’re already protected,” he said, adding that the 69,000-hectare balance of land may be attained by incorporating existing Crown, municipal and institutional lands. The 30x30 movement stems from a commitment the Government of Canada made during the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in 2022.
Committee yields 54 calls for action to spur economic development
Last year’s Future-Ready Development Services Ad-Hoc Committee of city council yielded 54 calls for action intended to help spur economic development in Greater Sudbury. “Lots of calls for action, and staff is collaborative, and community members have been collaborative as we take it to the next steps,” Mayor Paul Lefebvre told Sudbury.com after Wednesday’s meeting. “Now, it’s communicating all these changes and calls for action for the public,” he added. “This is a new way of doing things, and I look forward to ongoing discussions and ongoing results.” City performance and change manager Renee Higgins and mayor’s office public policy and communications co-ordinator Raili Lakanen presented these calls for action during Wednesday’s meeting, and staff were asked to draft responses to each of them by September. Staff have already adopted or are working to adopt many of the calls for action, city Planning Services Director Kris Longston told the committee.
Women & Girls: Assisted dying pioneer tells her patients’ stories
“You’ve got to tell my story.” It was not a request. It was July, 2018, almost 18 months after Dr. Jean Marmoreo had first helped a person die. Yolanda, a scientific researcher who’d lived with a rare lung condition for 30 years, uttered these words to Dr. Jean, as she prefers to be known, in the last minutes of her life before her assisted death. “When I actually went to provide for Yolanda, she looked me in the eye, and said ‘You are going to tell my story’,” recalls Marmoreo, a Toronto family physician of 50 years and a Member of the Order of Canada, in a recent interview with Sudbury.com. Shortlisted for the 2022 Writers’ Trust Balsillie Prize for Public Policy, Marmoreo’s best-selling book, “The Last Doctor: Lessons in Living from the Front Lines of Medical Assistance in Dying,” is the featured book for this year’s Celebrate Women event in Sudbury. Marmoreo, who co-authored the book with journalist Johanna Schneller, is the guest author at the May 7 event, which raises funds for CFUW Sudbury, YWCA Sudbury and LEAF Sudbury.
Sudbury’s Bart Day awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship
The Rotary Club of Sudbury Sunrisers paid tribute to the community-mindedness of a local businessman May 2, in particular for his support of the Elgin Street Mission. Rotarians gathered for lunch at the Mission and to bestow a Paul Harris Fellowship on Bart Day, of the Day Group and William Day Construction. The Paul Harris Fellowship is one of the Rotary Club’s highest honours, and is recognized around the world for community service. This follows Day Group’s support for a significant fundraising campaign for the Elgin Street Mission held in December 2023. The annual Mission 31 Project sees teams of Rotarians and business colleagues set up teams to serve dinner at the Mission for all 31 days. This raised $21,000 for the Mission. In addition to that, Rotary volunteers also spent three days in early December helping at grocery check-outs and asking shoppers to purchase pre-packaged bags of food to be delivered to the Elgin St. Mission. The event raised an additional $12,000 towards the cause. At the end of both campaigns, Day Group made a substantial matching donation of $31,000 in support of the Elgin St. Mission, said a news release.
