Police have launched a homicide investigation after a Peterborough woman died following reports of multiple gun shots early Friday morning (June 2).

At around 2:30 a.m. on Friday, officers were called to the area of Wolfe Street and Aylmer Street about reports of the gun shots.

After arriving, officers located a victim who was taken to Peterborough Regional Health Centre and later pronounced dead. Police have not released any information about the victim’s identity or the nature of her injuries.

There will continue to be a large police presence in the area for the investigation, and police are asking people to stay away from the area if they do not need to be there.

Anyone with information or video from the area is asked to call Detective Constable Lacey White at 705-876-1122 ext. 266, the Peterborough Police Crime Line at 705-876-1122 est. 555 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at stopcrimehere.ca.

The homicide investigation is in its early stages, and police say they will provide updates when more information is available.

The Peterborough Petes are one game away from the Memorial Cup final after defeating the host Kamloops Blazers in a 5-4 comeback overtime win on Thursday night (June 1) at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops, B.C.

On the verge of elimination early in the tournament after losing their first two round robin games, including a 10-2 blowout loss to the Blazers on Sunday, the Petes secured a 4-2 win against the top-seed Quebec Remparts in the third and final round robin on Tuesday night to set the stage for Thursday’s tie-breaker game.

At first, Thursday’s game looked like it may be a repeat of the Petes’ Sunday loss to the Blazers. Although Connor Lockhart of the Petes opened the scoring, the Blazers had scored three times by the end of the first period and added another goal early in the second period, leaving the Petes trailing 4-1.

However, the Petes evened the score by the end of the second period with three successive goals by Brennan Othmann, Sam Mayer, and Brian Zanetti.

The third period was scoreless, moving the game into overtime when J.R. Avon scored the winning goal for the Petes, with an assist by Owen Beck. Goalie Michael Simpson stopped 43 of 47 shots by the Blazers for the win.

With Thursday night’s win, the Petes advance to Friday night’s semi-final game against the Seattle Thunderbirds. The winner of that game will face the Quebec Remparts in the Memorial Cup final on Sunday.

Puck drop for Friday night’s game is scheduled for 10 p.m. EDT. Fans can catch the games on TSN, Freq 90.5, Oldies 96.7, and Classic Rock 107.9.

The Municipality of Port Hope officially unveiled its first-ever rainbow crosswalk in celebration of Pride Month at a special ceremony outside of Town Hall on Thursday morning (June 1).

Port Hope mayor Olena Hankivsky, councillors, staff, and members of the community gathered at the Queen Street crosswalk for an official ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“The new rainbow crosswalk is a permanent symbol in our community that reinforces the municipality’s commitment to advance work around equity, diversity, and inclusion,” Hankivsky said.

“The vibrant symbol sends a clear message that all people are welcome in Port Hope,” Hankivsky added. “This council will continue to foster an inclusive, equitable and diverse community, where people feel safe, respected, and welcome to express themselves. Our new crosswalk is a signal to all that we are prepared to ‘walk the walk'”.

During the ceremony, the Progress Pride Flag was again raised at town hall as it has been for the last several years. The flag will fly throughout June in recognition of Pride Month and in support of the 2SLGBTQI+ community.

Originally designed by Gilbert Baker for San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Celebration in 1979 with eight colours, the Pride flag was later simplified to include six colours (red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony, and violet for spirit). The updated Progress Pride Flag was designed in 2018 by American designer Daniel Quasar.

Quasar added a five-coloured chevron to the traditional Pride flag’s six colours, with the black and brown of the chevron representing marginalized people of colour and the white, pink, and light blue of the chevron reflecting the colours of the Transgender Pride Flag designed by Monica Helms in 1999.

Pride events are taking place in both Port Hope and across Northumberland County during the month of June.

For events in Port Hope, visit porthope.ca/events. For Pride events in Northumberland County, visit northumberland.ca/pridemonth.

Peterborough’s downtown has a new outdoor venue for performing arts as the Jalynn Bennett Amphitheatre officially opened on Wednesday (May 31) in the centre of Trent University’s Catharine Parr Traill College.

The spirit of the venue is to bolster the relationship between the university and the City of Peterborough through increased collaborations and programming that brings local performers to the new stage.

With Traill College the only remaining original downtown college of Trent University, the amphitheatre’s location symbolizes the original founding vision of Trent as a space for community building beyond the classroom.

At Wednesday’s grand opening celebration attended by around 100 people, Traill College principal Dr. Michael Eamon expanded on the significance of this symbolism and the history of Trent and the Traill campus.

“Almost 60 years ago, this is where Trent began, and it began because you the community wanted an institution of higher education — you the community wanted somewhere for students, your children, to learn and stay at Trent University,” Eamon said. “Trent University became a space and community is so core to Traill. We are downtown, and it’s this idea that we are still serving the community from being within the community.”

With seating for 140 people, professional lighting, and carefully directed sound inspired by ancient Greek designs that contain acoustics, the new venue is nestled between Traill College’s Ron Thom-designed Wallis Hall and Bagnani Hall designed by Lett Architects.

Continuing the tradition of the college, which features three centuries of architecture, the amphitheatre will be an important bridge between the city and the university and their respective arts and culture groups for years to come and aid in the preservation and continuity of the city’s creative community.

Usage fees for using the site will also be waived for student, amateur, and non-profit groups who wish to make use of the venue.

“This is a space that’s on the university land but really it is a space for the entire Peterborough community,” said Trent University chancellor Stephen Stohn. “As Peterborough grows and thrives, Trent grows and thrives. And I think the reverse is true: as Trent grows and thrives so does Peterborough — we’re joined at the hip.”

The amphitheatre is named after the late Jalynn Bennett, former chair of the Trent University board of governors, whose estate granted $1.13 million to the university in 2018 for “bold” projects. The venue’s construction was also funded through the Federal Department of Heritage and a Canada Cultural Spaces Fund to the tune of $560,000.

The City of Peterborough also provided a grant of $50,000 for the project. In recognition of the city’s contribution, deputy mayor Gary Baldwin — who started his academic career at Trent in 1976 and whose mother worked at Traill as a secretary for former college principal Nancy Sherouse — spoke about the amphitheatre’s opening.

“The City of Peterborough is delighted to partner with Trent to bring this facility to our community,” Baldwin said. “I look forward to learning about how Trent students use this facility for their work and their studies. This project meets a longstanding community need for an outdoor stage in our downtown.”

The project also received support from innumerable community groups and partners, including Theatre Trent, the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Public Energy Performing Arts, and the Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival. Individual donors include Denis and Diana Desjardins, Gregory Piasetzki, and Laura Woods.

During the ceremony, Eamon recognized that the area formerly intended to be called the “President’s Booth” has been renamed “Joe’s Place” in honour of Anne Koenig’s donation in honour of her father, Canadian filmmaker and philanthropist Joseph Koening.

Alongside speeches recognizing the long lists of donors and community partners, the ceremony included performances by local musical and theatre artists including Mary-Kate Edwards, Anthony Varahidis, Meghan Murphy, and Kate Suhr as well as 4th Line Theatre’s Kim Blackwell and the drum and vocal group Unity.

Edwards, who is an alumna of Trent and has recently moved to Montreal, provided an opening soundtrack for the ceremony by performing songs from her EP Blueberry Pie while audience members settled into their seats before the official opening remarks.

Unity, a drum and vocal group made of Brenda Maracle-O’Toole, Barb Rivett, and Heather Shpuniarsky, performed “Oklahoma Southern Sunny Song” which was appropriate given the sun and heat on Wednesday afternoon. Classically trained vocalist Anthony Varahidis performed a short set that included Bruce Cockburn’s “Lovers In a Dangerous Time”, Chris Isaac’s “Wicked Game”, and “Good Mother” by Jann Arden.

In honour of the location, Kim Blackwell and Megan Murphy of 4th Line Theatre performed a selection of scenes from the play The Moodie Traill written by Tim Etherington, Caron Garside, Susan Spicer, and Robert Winslow. The play is based on the lives of sisters Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill and their experiences coming to settle in the Peterborough area in the 1830s.

Following the performance, Eamon explained the significance of naming the college — which was Trent’s all-female college until 1969 — after Traill.

“Catharine had one foot firmly in the arts and literature one foot firmly in the sciences and botany,” Eamon said. “What a wonderful symbol (Traill College is for) Trent University. It’s just a microcosm of the entire university here at Trent.”

“We all know that Susanna Moodie was the grumpier one so I’m happy this is Catharine Parr Traill College, not Moodie College,” he joked.

Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony and remarks by Stohn, Megan Murphy and Kate Suhr featured a story and spoken-word piece about the origins of the name of their ongoing performance collaboration The Verandah Society, which they launched during the pandemic to perform to small audiences from porches, backyards, and verandahs in the tradition of Irish storytellers.

The Verandah Society is named after a story written by Murphy’s great uncle Clare Galvin in his 1993 book My Town My Memories, where he describes growing up in Peterborough in the 1930s when it was common for neighbours to spend their summer evenings on their verandahs.

“A verandah doesn’t have to be an actual verandah to have the spirit of a verandah,” Murphy said. “This amphitheatre is a space intended to bring people together to share stories and to nibble on packed lunches and study for their exams and to bring community together and, yes, it’s intended to give meaning to our lives. It is an amphitheatre space with the heart of a verandah, a forward-facing endeavour to encourage the age-old human need to connect.”

The event concluded with a rousing rendition of “Stand By Me” with all the performing artists and featuring Eamon on lead vocals, offering a reflection on the fact that Traill College is still a part of Trent, and that through this initiative Trent is still very much a part of Peterborough — both standing by each other thanks to those who stood by Traill.

With the Jalynn Bennett Amphitheatre now officially open, the venue will be hosting a wide array of theatrical productions, musical performances, and cultural experiences this summer.

A list of upcoming performances, ticket information, and more will be available at trentu.ca/amphitheatre.

The Canadian Canoe Museum has launched a new fundraising campaign as it prepares to move the world’s largest and most significant collection of paddled watercraft across the City of Peterborough, from the museum’s current landlocked location on Monaghan Road to its new waterfront home under construction on Ashburnham Drive by the shores of Little Lake.

To build excitement for the museum’s expected fall reopening at its new two-storey 65,000-square-foot facility and to invite public support for the extraordinary journey of the museum’s historic collection to take place over the summer, the “Move the Collection: The Final Portage” campaign is being led by avid paddling enthusiasts and local community leaders Mike Judson and Neil Morton.

As a symbolic gesture of the forthcoming move of the collection, during The Final Portage campaign Judson and Morton will portage an iconic red canvas canoe throughout the city starting from the museum’s Monaghan Road location. The two men will eventually carry the symbolic canoe all the way to the museum’s new home, where the entire collection of more than 600 canoes, kayaks, and paddled watercraft will be accessible to visitors for the first time in the museum’s history.

“Moving a collection of this size and scale in the span of months is no small feat for our team and supporters,” explains the museum’s executive director Carolyn Hyslop in a media release. “This move represents a pivotal moment in our museum’s history.”

“By relocating to the waterfront, we will not only enhance the accessibility and visibility of this extraordinary collection but also create a transformative experience for our visitors. We are inviting donors and sponsors to be a part of this monumental move and help us bring the legacy of paddled watercraft to a wider audience.”

Not only is it rare for a museum to build a new facility in a new location, but it’s also rare for a museum to move its entire collection to a new location. Moving The Canadian Canoe Museum’s collection, declared a cultural asset of national significance by the Senate in 2013, requires a significant amount of preparation and care. The collection includes paddled watercraft ranging up to 53 feet long and weighing up to 1,500 pounds, hundreds of small artifacts, and a library and archive.

While the actual physical relocation of The Canadian Canoe Museum’s collection is scheduled to take place over the summer, with McWilliams Moving and Storage partnering with the museum as the lead sponsor and official mover of the collection, the museum has already spent more than two years carefully preparing the collection by diligently cleaning and packing each artifact to ensure the utmost care during the move.

The museum’s Monaghan Road location has been closed since last September so that museum staff can remove the artifacts that have been on exhibit there for the past two decades.

During The Final Portage campaign, the museum will be releasing a series of videos and behind-the-scenes content this summer and fall featuring Judson and Morton portaging the canoe past recognizable landmarks in Peterborough, allowing the public to follow the fundraising campaign’s progress while building excitement for the museum’s fall reopening. The first video (included below) is available at canoemuseum.ca/final-portage.

VIDEO: Move the Collection: The Final Portage

“Canoeing is one of my great passions in life, and seeing this national treasure move to the water’s edge in this community I adore is a dream,” Morton says. “It’s fantastic to be a part of The Final Portage campaign and this historic moment with my fellow lead portager Mike Judson as we help carry this to the finish line.”

The Canadian Canoe Museum’s new purpose-built home at 2077 Ashburnham Drive is located on a five-acre site surrounded by public parks with stunning west-facing views of Little Lake and a connection to the Trans Canada Trail.

With an array of indoor and outdoor spaces and water access, the new location will allow the museum to deliver on its mission in inspiring new ways and become a vibrant community space for outdoor activities, including the museum’s canoeing and outdoor programs and events.

“Supporting initiatives like the museum’s historic move is an investment in preserving our shared heritage and cultural legacy,” Hyslop explains. “By contributing to this endeavour, we actively steward invaluable artifacts and ensure their accessibility to future generations.”

“Institutions like ours serve as gateways to knowledge, inspiration, and understanding, and it is through your support that we enable the continued celebration and exploration of our collective history. Together, we can make a lasting impact and shape a vibrant cultural landscape for years to come.”

McWilliams Moving and Storage, a full-service moving company in Peterborough, has joined The Final Portage campaign as the lead sponsor and official mover of the museum’s collection. With their extensive experience and commitment to excellence, they will ensure that each piece is moved safely and with care.

“McWilliams Moving and Storage has been part of The Canadian Canoe Museum family since its inception with the first portage of museum artifacts from Dorset, Ontario, to Peterborough over two decades ago,” says president Dan McWilliams.

“We are honoured to continue this tradition as the official movers of The Canadian Canoe Museum to complete the final portage to a new architectural and cultural landmark in the city of Peterborough. Having the opportunity to pack and transport these pieces of Canadian heritage allows us to be part of the journey and story of this national icon in our great city.”

“The McWilliams team’s dedication to preserving the integrity of each artifact aligns perfectly with our mission to steward and showcase the rich history of paddled watercraft,” Hyslop adds. “We are incredibly grateful for their support and expertise throughout this process. We are excited to see other sponsors and donors support the move similarly.”

Businesses interested in sponsorship opportunities for The Final Portage can email the museum’s philanthropy associate Rose Terry at rose.terry@canoemuseum.ca.

Canadians from across the country and beyond who want to support the final portage of The Canadian Canoe Museum’s collection to its new home at the water’s edge can make a donation at canoemuseum.ca/final-portage.

For more information about the new museum, visit canoemuseum.ca/new-museum.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be the official media sponsor of The Canadian Canoe Museum’s Move the Collection: The Final Portage Campaign.