Suspected human remains have been found in an Ennismore home that was destroyed by fire early Tuesday morning (December 19).

At around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Peterborough County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) received a call about a fire at a home on Deerfield Crescent.

When officers arrived at the home, it was already fully engulfed in flames and firefighters with the Selwyn Fire Department were battling the fire.

Investigators from the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office were called in to investigate the source of the fire.

The following day, Ontario Fire Marshal investigators located what they believe to be human remains within the collapsed structure. The remains have been sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences to assist with identification.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

After almost 10 months without one, the Peterborough Police Service now has a new deputy chief, drawn from the ranks.

Police services board chair Mary ten Doeschate announced on Thursday (December 21) that Jamie Hartnett has been appointed to the position.

According to a media release, Hartnett joined the service in 2001 and has held positions in all ranks and divisions since that time, most recently as acting staff inspector.

“During his recent assignment as acting staff inspector, through his leadership and initiative, deputy designate Hartnett has demonstrated to the board that he is the best choice for the role of deputy chief and will support the board and Chief Betts in an effective and collaborative way as the Peterborough Police Service continues to work towards enhancing community relationships, public safety and the modernization of our police service,” reads the release.

Peterborough had been without a deputy police chief since March 1, when previous deputy chief Tim Farquharson departed the police service to become the new chief of the Port Hope Police Service. A month earlier, Farquharson had announced he was leaving the Peterborough Police Service after 36 years.

Farquharson’s departure came less than a month after Stuart Betts took on the role of chief, replacing Scott Gilbert who had unexpectedly retired in February 2021. Farquharson had previously been serving as acting chief until Betts was hired.

Hartnett will officially assume his new role on January 9.

“I am pleased to extend my congratulations to deputy chief designate Jamie Hartnett on his appointment, as well as my appreciation to the Peterborough Police Services Board for their continued support,” said Chief Betts in a statement.

“As a chief who is still relatively new to the organization, having joined in January 2023, the appointment of a deputy chief from within the organization will assist me to leverage organizational knowledge and history, while building a new and exciting future.”

“I have had the opportunity to work closely with deputy designate Hartnett this past year, and we will continue to work closely together to support the men and women of the Peterborough Police Service as well as the community.”

Kawartha Lakes residents who rely on the mobile app Pingstreet to keep apprised of all-things municipal will need to adapt new habits in 2024.

Pingstreet is no longer available for download and, as of January 6, 2024, the municipality said it will not have access to technical support from the developer.

Residents currently use the location-based app as a way to stay informed about local news, current events, and waste collection.

“If you already have the application on your mobile device, you will be able to use it until June 7, 2024,” the municipality stated in a news release. “After this date, the application will be taken offline.”

According to the news release, the app is being discontinued because the developer has decided the product is at the end of its life.

“They came to this decision based on market demand and evolving mobile app technology requirements,” the municipality noted.

Pingstreet was developed by Waterloo-based eSolutionsGroup, which has also developed many municipal websites in Ontario, including the City of Kawartha Lakes website. eSolutionsGroup was acquired by Australian-based multinational technical professional services firm GHD in 2014 and began operating under the GHD Digital brand last year.

“We know that our mobile app is an important way for residents to get the information they need,” states the news release. “The municipality is re-tendering its four websites in 2024, at which time we will explore our options for a new mobile app.”

In the meantime, Kawartha Lakes said it will use other communication channels to provide residents with relevant information. Residents can visit the municipality’s website at www.kawarthalakes.ca to subscribe for news updates via email, and can check for updates on the municipality’s social media sites.

Kawartha Lakes also encourages residents to check its website for municipal information that used to be available through Pingstreet, including important waste updates. Information about waste collection, recycling, and landfills locations and hours are also available in the 2024 Municipal Calendar.

The municipality also uses the separate mobile Recycle Coach app, which is available on the web as well as from the Apple App Store and Google Play. The app provides a personalized waste and recycling schedule, notifications about collection changes and more, as well as a “what goes where” tool for sorting waste and recycling.

For event information, the municipality suggests Pingstreet users visit the events calendar on the website, where residents can also subscribe for email updates about different types of events.

If you happen to pass Rachelle Richard Mack while she’s lying in a field, waist deep in a lake, or wandering through the woods at all hours of the night, don’t be alarmed. She’s just trying to capture the perfect shot.

“I love changing my perspective and trying to take pictures that you wouldn’t normally see,” says Mack.

While it’s true there’s no limit to where the call of the birds, path of sunlight, or splash of a frog will take the nature and wildlife photographer, most of the time Mack can be found with the flora and fauna of Lake Scugog where she lives.

Mack moved to Viewlake, just west of Janetville on the boundary of Kawartha Lakes and Durham Region, almost 25 years ago. Having been raised on a hobby farm in Port Elgin, she was already accustomed to life in the country, but living on the water was all new for her.

That’s hard to imagine now that Mack spends nearly every day of the summer paddling in her kayak with her Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera in hand.

Earlier this year, Mack shared some of these photos of life on the lake at her very first solo show, called “Shore Life on Lake Scugog,” held at the Kawartha Art Gallery in Lindsay.

“I’m out there taking pictures every single day,” Mack says. “It helps me reconnect with nature and I feel like it gives me purpose to take photos.”

Just as now she can’t even go to the store without taking her camera, Mack grew up taking photos of anything she could on the hobby farm. That passion encouraged her to major in media arts in university, before briefly working in production and then in schools as a media specialist for 13 years.

Shortly before moving to Viewlake, Mack was in the “right place at the right time” and found herself as a high school teacher for the next 20 years of her career.

When Mack retired just before the pandemic, she was the departmental head of technology at Clarington Central Secondary School in Bowmanville, where she taught graphic design, yearbook, video production, and even introduced a photography program.

It was while teaching these high school students that she really began honing her photography skills and became increasingly inspired by the property she lives on.

“Growing up in Port Elgin, we had amazing sunsets on Lake Huron and now, living on (Lake Scugog), I face west so it’s another amazing sunset,” Mack says. “I think that’s partly how I kept up with photography. I just always had to take a picture of the sky because it’s so gorgeous.”

Over time, she incorporated different plants and animals into her sunset photos, and though she had explored travel, architecture, and event photography, she discovered that nature was where she is “happiest” and wanted to make it the focus of her art.

Today, her work often features the animals that she has befriended while living on the lake, from chipmunks to frogs and birds. One of them, Sid the Heron, has become quite as a regular feature on kawarthaNOW’s social media channels.

“He’s quite popular,” says Mack. “My son swears (Sid) loves me because I can get within the nose of a kayak length to him now, especially near the end of the season, when he’s really used to me.”

That’s high praise, given that Mack named the Blue Heron (which, despite his name, she has been unable to identify as male or female) after punk-rock musician Sid Vicious because of its temperamental and territorial behaviour when it comes to other herons on the lake.

After photographing Sid the Heron for years, Mack is now able to get within a close enough distance to capture shots without disturbing the bird.

“You have to be respectful of their space and distance,” she says. “I don’t want to mess up their hunting or anything that’s going on, so you have to be respectful. You have to be ethical, no matter what you’re doing.”

A key proponent to respecting the animals while still capturing those award-winning shots is to remain patient, no matter what that entails. One time, Mack waited for more than an hour in the rain, camera in place with protective covering, waiting for a snail to pop its antennae out.

“You can’t be afraid to do things — I’m not afraid to get down there with them,” she says, adding that on her bucket list is to take photos of a bear, a moose, and an owl out in the wild.

“Get low, change your perspective and the way you look at things. You don’t know what’s going to happen when you do.”

Patience and perspective are two of the “four Ps” which Mack thinks about when she’s trying to capture her photos, alongside practice and planning.

“You really have to spend some time learning it because so many people are just standing and taking a picture,” says Mack. “That makes the difference. I don’t take a picture — I make a picture.”

Planning her photos and their composition is often what gets Mack amazing captures. But occasionally, she gets lucky with the unexpected, like the chipmunk that ran by with a peanut in its mouth while Mack was photographing blades of grass — one of her favourite photos.

“I try to control most things I can, but then sometimes it’s the unexpected stuff that is pretty cool and gets you some neat results,” says Mack.

Reverting to her role as a teacher, Mack has started offering four-week photography workshops to beginners in the community. There, she teaches them how to use their camera, and what it means to change the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture of their device.

But, of course, the difference between just taking a photo and making a photo has nothing to do with the camera functions.

“The worst thing anyone could ever say to me is ‘That’s a great picture — you must have a really good camera’,” she says. “It’s not about the equipment. You have to know how to use your stuff, but it really doesn’t make matter if it doesn’t work for your composition.”

A key element of composition, according to Mack, is one of the four Ps: perspective.

“One of the things I teach in my classes is to think about how would a three-year-old look at the world,” she explains. “They look underneath things. They look upside down. They tilt their heads. They’re looking at the world differently, and we tend to not let ourselves do that as adults.”

Clearly, her advice is not something to take for granted, since her work has been admired by a large audience, featured and winning contests for publications including Our Canada, Nature Canada, and Reader’s Digest.

Most recently, Mack was awarded the second-place prize in Cottage Life magazine’s 2023 photography contest for capturing a grasshopper who looks like he’s smiling.

Though she says that this year was a “strong year” for a lot of her photos, she is already eager for next year, when she will be showcasing at the SPARK Photo Festival in Peterborough.

Mack has teamed up with fellow Kawarthas-based photographers Linda Kassil, Maris Lubbock, and Cindy Bartoli to form a group called Serenity Seekers. Their exhibit, “For the Love of Nature,” will be showing for all of April at Peterborough’s Cork and Bean.

Until then, Mack can likely be found in the most unlikely of places, aiming to get those perfect shots.

To see Mack’s latest photos, follow her on Instagram at @rachelle_richard_photography.

In a move to take a stand against discrimination, the City of Kawartha Lakes has joined the Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities.

Kawartha Lakes Mayor Doug Elmslie said it’s important to be a part of the Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities, an initiative that fosters diversity, equality, and inclusivity across Canadian municipalities.

“Kawartha Lakes is committed to the fight against racism and discrimination,” said Elmslie in a news release.

“We hope that our commitment will inspire other municipalities to follow suit and collaborate in promoting inclusive communities and equality for all,” Elmslie added. “We eagerly look forward to sharing updates on the initiatives and events organized by our municipality with the coalition.”

Earlier in December, the Canadian Commission for United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) congratulated Kawartha Lakes on joining the coalition.

Uniting with 110 municipalities across Canada including Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes is part of the International Coalition of Inclusive and Sustainable Cities, an initiative launched by UNESCO in 2004.

VIDEO: Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities

As a member, Kawartha Lakes now has access to a network of Canadian municipalities that can help to identify tools, best practices, and resources for combating discrimination, the municipality noted.

“This will contribute to our role as policy maker and guarantor of human rights,” reads the news release.

Earlier this year during a Kawartha Lakes committee meeting, Christine Briggs, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility partner, shared a report requesting council give authorization for the mayor to sign the declaration to join UNESCO’s Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities.

The Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities said its member communities advance initiatives to improve their practices to promote social inclusion, establish policies to eradicate all forms of racism and discrimination, and promote human rights and diversity.

“Because it values and respects all its members, an inclusive municipality builds a society without fences, where everyone has an equal chance at participating in its economic, political, social, cultural, and recreational life, and to thrive there,” the coalition noted on its website.

Coalition members can share their experiences and undertake initiatives together to eliminate all forms of discrimination.

Learn more about the Coalition of Inclusive Municipalities on the Canadian Commission for UNESCO’s website.

A 24-year-old Milton man is dead after his vehicle hit a tree in Selwyn Township early Tuesday afternoon (December 19).

Just before 12:30 p.m., Peterborough County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and emergency crews responded to the scene of a single-vehicle collision on Pinehill Road south of Bridgenorth.

A vehicle had been driving westbound on Pinehill Road when the driver failed to negotiate a sharp turn. The vehicle left the roadway and landed on its side, striking a tree.

The driver had to be extricated from the vehicle by the fire department. Although he was treated at the scene, his injuries were so severe they resulted in his death. The driver, a 24-year-old man from Milton, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Pinehill Road was closed between 5th Line of Selwyn and Steinkrauss Drive for more than seven hours while police investigated and documented the scene.

Anyone who may have witnessed or has video/dash camera footage of the collision and has not spoken with police is asked to contact the Peterborough County OPP Detachment at 1-888-310-1122.

Publicly reliving a horrific day that “will be seared into my mind for the rest of my life,” Haley Scriver stood at a speaker’s podium on Tuesday morning (December 19) to formally announce a fundraising initiative aimed at raising money for mental health services and supports.

Roter’s Reach Mental Health Awareness is a not-for-profit venture founded in memory of Eric Roter, 32, who, on September 25, 2023, took his own life — 13 years after he was first diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Scriver, who is Eric’s sister, was supported at the announcement by her brother Sam, her parents William and Joanne Roter, and several extended family members and friends.

While the purpose of the gathering, held at Century 21 United on George Street South in Peterborough, was to launch the campaign — more information is available at rotersreach.ca where donations can also be made — it also served as a platform for the family’s stinging indictment of a number of agencies and a “lack of resources” that Eric so desperately needed to navigate his mental illness.

“It (bipolar disorder) shouldn’t have been a terminal diagnosis but, for the lack of systems in place for Eric, it was,” said Scriver.

“If, when I called the crisis lines, they gave me a solution other than to wait for the police to intervene.”

“If, when I called the police, they had mental health workers to care for him rather than beating him and leaving him in a cold room.”

“If, when I called the Lindsay jail to ensure they were properly caring for his bipolar disorder, they recognized and treated his illness instead of sticking him in general population and not sticking to his medication plan.”

“If, when the chaos of Eric’s mental illness, that brought fear and anger into the lives of his friends and family, they chose to reach out instead of (showing) their lack of understanding.”

“If, when I called the hospital (Peterborough Regional Health Centre) the hour before he died and told them he was too depressed to call himself, that he needs help, they took action instead of mandating Eric would have to call himself.”

“If only.”

Covering the period from May to September of this year, Scriver provided a very detailed timeline of Eric’s downward spiral, and how, in the family’s opinion, those in a position to help did little if anything. Prior, she said, Eric took medications “that caused fogginess and mild depression, among other symptoms.”

“He stayed in that state for years before deciding it might be OK to try and go off them (his medications),” she said.

In July 2022, Eric and Kortney Hilderbrandt married, living in the home they bought together in 2015. Eric’s business, Roter’s Reach Property Maintenance, kept him busy and provided a stabilizing sense of purpose. But, come this past spring, the severity of Eric’s mental illness had shown itself more clearly.

“When Eric was visibly manic, ten of his closest family and friends got together and asked Eric to go to the hospital (PRHC),” recalled Scriver.

“We hoped they would keep him for a few days to level out and get him back on the right medications safely. Reluctantly, Eric agreed to go to the hospital. They ended up prescribing him a low dose of the medication he was previously taking and, at this stage, did nothing to slow the mania. Eric being released and not being admitted fueled his mania, proving to him that he was not manic and that his family was against him by bringing him there (PRHC).”

Noting Eric’s mania “was incredibly obvious — he was behaving erratically with fast, uneven speech and put himself in life-threatening situations,” Scriver said a call to police requesting wellness checks was denied.

“We were told there was nothing they could do. This was devastating news for a family doing all it could to keep their brother, their son, their husband, safe. Unfortunately, the wellness checks being called for by a desperate family led Eric to become extremely mistrusting and angry. He needed to get away from us.”

That he did, says Scriver, stealing their parents’ car and, without a valid driver’s licence, driving to Toronto where he engaged in “risky behaviour” and stayed “at high-end hotels.” For two weeks, Eric spent “all the money he could gain access to, draining accounts for their home as his wife (Kortney) scrambled with the banks to restrict his access.”

Desperate, the family filed a Form 2, which allows police to apprehend and transport someone to a doctor for examination. Toronto police followed up. It didn’t go well.

“Eric was met with aggressive behaviour, cuffed and thrown down, injuring both of his wrists. He was taken to CAMH (The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) where they assessed him and decided to keep him for observation. To our horror, they released him after two nights and did not proceed with the Form 1 (that allows a doctor to keep someone in hospital for psychiatric care).”

Scriver says Eric was released from CAMH “clearly in a manic state,” adding the family had urged the facility to contact them if and when he was released. That call never came and Eric was on Toronto’s streets for another week, returning home after he had injured himself and was out of money.

“Kortney had installed cameras at their home and on the property and was advised to call police if he (Eric) showed up, and he did,” says Scriver.

“So she did as she was told and called police. Eric was there, gathering his belongings, but seeing the presence of police infuriated him. Triggered by his previous encounters with police, and by his family for calling them, Eric acted out.”

“He ended up vandalizing his and Kort’s home where they had built their life together. This was devastating for all of us, not only because of the destruction but because it truly showed how far Eric was from himself.”

Noting “What Eric needed was treatment, not incarceration,” he was sent to the Lindsay Correctional Centre despite the family’s strong show of support and love at his bail hearing.

“This was a brutal time. Eric would call many times a day, begging to be released. He wasn’t medicated the first week he was in jail and was not given the proper dosage for the rest of his stay. After 30 days, my family agreed we would need to handle this on our own if we wanted anything to get better. My parents took Eric out (of jail) under their surety.”

Released from jail, with family and friends that cared deeply for him in his corner, Eric was “angry, visibly traumatized and still manic.” A follow-up appointment at PRHC saw him declared “mentally unwell” and he was kept in the psychiatric ward for five days.

“Eric was much less manic (when he was assessed) than the previous times we had brought him in, so this was infuriating but, at the same time, a relief. Now he would be assessed and put on the correct medication, but only after all the damage, chaos, jail time, financial impact, the absolute despair of my family and, most importantly, the damage to Eric’s psyche.”

With a follow-up appointment scheduled for six weeks later, Eric was released from PRHC, now taking injections as well as oral medication.

At a family dinner on the Saturday prior to the day Eric took his own life, Scriver says she “could see the pain my brother was in.”

“He could hardly speak. He just kept repeating that he had screwed up his life. I was terrified. I asked if he was suicidal. He said no. I told him I love him as much as my son and my husband. I promised I would help him.”

On Monday — September 25, 2023 — Scriver and her father took Eric to an appointment with her financial advisor in a bid to straighten out the debt he had incurred. When alone with her brother, she noticed he was staring at her.

“Like any sister, I asked ‘What?’ He said he was sorry and that he loved me. At this point, alarm bells were going off. I knew something was wrong. I called Kortney. She said we needed to get him to the hospital and I agreed wholeheartedly.”

“I called the hospital and asked for the psych ward. I told them my brother was unable to speak for himself and needed immediate medical attention. They told me I couldn’t speak for him unless I was with him or he called to give permission. I then asked if there were doctors available for him. They said the psychiatrists were fully booked.”

“I then called my dad to talk about getting Eric to the hospital. Eric answered the phone. I cried and pleaded to let me take him to the hospital. I said ‘I’m just so worried about you.’ He calmly replied “I know.'”

The greatest fear of Scriver and her family was soon realized.

“Within an hour, my brother ran from my father’s vehicle while he was inside a store. He ran to the 115 (Highway 115 in Peterborough) and waited for a transport truck. My father looked for my brother in the parking lot for 45 minutes, refusing to believe the emergency vehicles passing with their wailing sirens had anything to do with why Eric was missing.”

Saying she doesn’t think of her brother’s death as suicide — “My brother would never do that to me or anyone that he loved” — Scriver says she doesn’t feel guilty or regretful. Anger? Indeed.

“I’m angry at the systems in place that did not help my brother once; the multiple opportunities for intervention. If PRHC, Toronto police, Peterborough police, Lindsay Correctional, or CAMH heard the cries of a loving family, or recognized the mental illness consuming my brother, I wouldn’t be standing here. I’d be getting ready to celebrate my brother’s 33rd birthday, which is tomorrow (December 20).”

“I’m so much more than angry or heartbroken that I lost my brother. I feel fear. Fear for my two-year-old son if he’s ever to face mental health issues. I can’t fathom people battling mental health issues alone.”

“If you’re looking for an answer or recommendation of what I would specifically change, or where my family plans to put the money raised to its optimal use, I can’t give that to you now. The problem is too big. What I can tell you is my family and I are forever changed by this nightmare, and I will never stop advocating for my brother.”

For more information about Roter’s Reach Mental Health Awareness, including upcoming events, and to support the not-for-profit association by purchasing merchandise or making a donation, visit rotersreach.ca.