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bilko@rgcmail.com Vol.21 No.9
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
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Attempted murder charges for Port Colborne man The VOICE
On Thursday, May 18, detectives from the Niagara Regional Police Service’s (NRPS) Homicide Unit arrested 29-year-old Corey Richardson, of Port Colborne, for allegedly shooting two Niagara Regional Police officers from the Welland detachment on Oct. 10, 2015. Richardson has been charged with two counts of attempted murder using a firearm along with single counts of pointing a firearm, possession of a prohibited weapon, careless storage of firearm, careless storage of a restricted weapon, and possession of prohibited devices. The shootings took place in the hallway outside Richardson’s unit at Canboro Gardens Apartments on Canboro Rd. in Fenwick, on the Saturday evening of Thanksgiving weekend, 2015. The original
police report stated that officers arrived on-scene and encountered Richardson in the hallway of the multi-unit building, at which point he barricaded himself in his apartment. Out of fear that the distraught man had a gun, the report indicated that officers began evacuating the other apartments. While officers tried to negotiate with Richardson, he came out of his apartment, firing multiple shots. After Constable Neal Ridley and Constable Jake Braun were struck by the barrage of bullets, other NRPS officers returned fire, incapacitating Richardson and leaving him in critical condition. All involved were transported to hospital. The officers were treated for their injuries and released. An investigation into the incident by Ontario’s Special InvesSee CHARGES Page 14
Eyes on the city Endurance by observation, minus seeing BY SAMUEL PICCOLO
Special to the VOICE
M
study looking at both Canada and Saudi Arabia. “We can’t just turn around and say, ‘Well then, we need to reforest Saudi Arabia.’ Their climate is not conducive to that,” he explained. “That’s where we all came up with the idea that if you take out ten trees you have to plant twenty trees. That doesn’t mean you have to plant them in your back-
ANY YEARS FROM now, when I face the firing squad or the bumper of a self-driving bus or the cancer or however it is I am fated to meet my end, I will remember the distant day when my parents took me to the city for the first time. I was about seven or so and had finally managed to badger them into taking me to the Hockey Hall of Fame. This visit was made over the Christmas holidays, and as we crossed the Skyway our car shuddered in the thrashing wind and made me too frightened to take a long look down to the bay, where floes of ice were beginning to stitch themselves together for the season. My father maneuvered us through the traffic and parked on the second level of a garage, and before leaving we stopped in the stairwell to secure our hats and scarves and minimize our exposed skin. My mother bent down, then, and spoke to me softly. “You will see many homeless people today. And as hard as it is, you just have to keep walking. We can try to help some, but…,” her voice trailed off.
See TREES Page 13
See COLUMN SIX back page
HOLD ON TIGHT Carnival time in Fenwick. Story on page 10. DAVE BURKET PHOTO
Region considering two-for-one tree planting policy BY NATE SMELLE
The VOICE
Fonthill’s Dr. Uwe Brand and a team of nine students from his environmental assessment class at Brock University, recently planted their idea for a region-wide two-for-one tree planting policy on members of Regional Council. Delivering the presentation to Regional Council earlier this spring with Brand were Master’s students Kristen Shaver and Alyssa Davis.
“This policy is one very simple step that we know is accomplishable,” said Shaver. “It is a small step, but it would make a huge difference.” Recognizing that more needs to be done to mitigate the effects of climate change, Brand said the students began brainstorming ways they could make a difference. Learning of the tree planting policy put in place by the Town of Pelham when Brand was a mem-
ber of Council, the students thought of how such a policy would provide Niagara with more trees if adopted by the Region. “You always hear about global climate change and anthropogenic carbon dioxide production, but no one really mentions how much is produced and taken up by other sources,” said Brand. Annually, trees in Canada sequester anywhere from 5,100 to 114,000 Mt (megatonnes) of carbon dioxide. Canada emits an estimated
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Fenwick apartment shoot-out occurred in 2015 BY NATE SMELLE
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7,600 Mt each year — 730 Mt through anthropogenic, or human-originated, sources, 6,600 Mt from natural processes such as soil degassing and 315 Mt from wildfires. A tree planting policy that replaces every tree cut down with two more could help mitigate the effects of global climate change. To gain a better understanding of Canada’s potential to be a leader in the fight against man-made climate change, Brand said his class did a comparative
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