Peterborough mayor Diane Therrien’s f-bomb laden tweet in response to Saturday’s incident at the Peterborough police station has gone viral.

On Tuesday (August 16), Therrien commented on the incident, which saw a group of around 30 followers of self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada” Romana Didulo arrive at the police station with the intent of “arresting” police officers — only to see three of their group get arrested and police seeking two other suspects in an assault on a counter-protester.

“I hate giving airtime/spotlight to these imbeciles,” Therrien wrote in part on her personal Twitter account. “Here is my comment: fuck off, you fuckwads.”

By Wednesday afternoon, that tweet had received almost 16,000 likes, over 2,500 retweets, and over 1,800 quote retweets, with “Mayor of Peterborough” trending on Twitter in Canada and the story appearing on the home page of Reddit. As well as local media, the National Post, CTV News, the Toronto Sun, BlogTO, and more have reported on the tweet. She was also interviewed by guest host Susan Bonner on CBC Radio’s As It Happens.

This is not the first time Therrien’s tweets have attracted national attention. In April 2021, when Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston MPP Randy Hillier and People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier travelled to Peterborough to attend an anti-lockdown rally while Ontario was under a stay-at-home order, Therrien tagged both politicians in a photo of herself with the caption “Stay TF home” — with TF a common abbreviation for “the fuck.”

People have been asking me to comment on the events of the past weekend in #ptbo. I hate giving airtime/spotlight to these imbeciles. Here is my comment: fuck off, you fuckwads. ???????

— Diane Therrien (@DianeNTherrien) August 16, 2022

As with Tuesday’s tweet, the “Stay TF Home” tweet resulted in a range of reactions either supporting Therrien or criticizing her for her choice of language. It led in part to former Peterborough mayor Paul Ayotte filing a complaint against Therrien for contravening the City of Peterborough’s code of conduct and the city’s social media policy. The city’s integrity commissioner later exonerated Therrien in a 24-page report.

On Wednesday afternoon, Therrien was invited on The Dean Blundell Show on YouTube to speak about the reasons for Tuesday’s tweet and the reaction to it. Caryma Sa’d, who covered the Saturday incident in Peterborough on social media, was also a guest.

“There were some people who were so offended by that — the same people who fly the ‘Fuck Trudeau’ flags,” Therrien said, referring to her Stay TF home tweet from last year.

“I have a master’s degree. I can talk to you in a scholarly fashion when I need to, but this is not a group of scholars we’re dealing with,” she added, referring to the participants in Saturday’s incident. “It’s been over two years of this kind of protest … these people come to Peterborough, or Ottawa, or wherever it may be, with the explicit stated intent to cause disruption, to cause harm to people, to disrupt our downtown, to arrest our police officers, to prevent people from living their normal daily life.”

“These people exist in this delusional world, exacerbated by this sense of entitlement, because they’re not used to be called out for their bullshit. Frankly, not enough politicians call them out on their bullshit. We’re all somehow afraid to drop an f-bomb.”

“It’s lunacy that these people would come to Peterborough to try to arrest our police officers and then be upset that there are consequences for their actions,” Therrien said. “That’s a long way of saying that’s where the tweet came from. I did not anticipate this level of interest in it.”

“You’re front page news,” Blundell replied. “You know when they play the breaking news sounder? It’s like you expect something major to come. It was like ‘Breaking news! Peterborough mayor insults an entire group of idiots.'”

“Peterborough is such a fabulous community of progressive people,” Therrien said. “Progressive people are in Peterborough but we get dragged down by these dimwits who are pushing these wild conspiracy theories and this ideology that they’re somehow oppressed when they’re not.”

“So it’s not only embarrassing, it’s infuriating because again it does damage to the city, not just our reputation but to our businesses, to families that want to come downtown but feel unsafe because they know that these people are going to be maybe blockading the street or doing whatever insane behaviour they’re doing.”

Asked about when she realized what was happening on Saturday, Therrien said she was aware of the planned protest as a member of the police services board, and was receiving updates from the police while she had family visiting her on the weekend.

“My assistant Deborah … she said ‘People are asking you to comment’, and I don’t think this tweet was what she had in mind. But she also knows me well enough to know that this was the likely scenario.”

Therrien also talked about the negative reaction to her tweets, with Blundell referring to the “hypocrisy” of Tom Marazzo, an organizer of the so-called Freedom Convoy who ran as the Ontario Party candidate for Peterborough-Kawartha in the last provincial election, who called Therrien an “unhinged bully” on Twitter because of the language in her tweet.

I absolutely don’t agree with what these people did. I think their leader is a lunatic. What is as concerning to me is the conduct of the unhinged bully who gets away with despicable, hypocritical behaviour and is never challenged by the municipal council. They protect her.

— Tom Marazzo (@TomMarazzo) August 17, 2022

“They don’t like women generally, and especially women that have an opinion, and that’s how it manifests,” Therrien said, something that S’ad agreed with.

“Fundamentally they are authoritarian and regressive, and that shines through whenever there is push back,” S’ad said.

“I think it’s very telling that the three progressive women councillors in Peterborough — myself included, councillor (Kim) Zippell, councillor (Kemi) Akapo — none of us are running for re-election,” Therrien said. “We have no support from our male colleagues for the most part and that’s a broader trend that we’re seeing throughout Canada. Young women want to be involved, but it’s an immense load to carry, and you feel largely alone while you are doing it and you don’t have support.”

Apart from the negative reaction to her tweet, which included a man calling her a “whore” in an email, Therrien said people have been mainly supportive.

“People have been super supportive of this tweet and saying ‘Thank you for being authentic’ and ‘Thank you for caring about the community’, and ‘Thank you for being an honest politician’, and the fact that is such a foreign concept is problematic.”

Oh, the irony of the trolls. ?????? pic.twitter.com/yYm314kdob

— Diane Therrien (@DianeNTherrien) August 17, 2022

Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for southern Peterborough County and southern Kawartha Lakes for Tuesday night (August 16).

Environment Canada meteorologists are tracking a cluster of severe thunderstorms capable of producing heavy rain. This quasi-stationary cluster of severe thunderstorms is located from Lake Scugog to Fairmount.

Impacted locations include Lake Scugog, Nestleton, Scugog Point, Bethany, Tapley, and Millbrook. Locally heavy rainfall amounts of 50 mm within one hour are possible.

Environment Canada issues severe thunderstorm warnings when imminent or occurring thunderstorms are likely to produce or are producing one or more of the following: large hail, damaging winds, or torrential rainfall.

Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads.

Lightning kills and injures Canadians every year. Remember, when thunder roars, go indoors!

Police have recovered the body of a boater who went missing Saturday afternoon (August 13) on Peter Lake, located around three kilometres east of Coe Hill in Wollaston Township in Hastings County.

Shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, members of the Bancroft Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and Wollaston Fire Department responded to a report that a canoe had capsized on Peter Lake, with one person missing.

A local resident had unsuccessfully attempted to rescue the boater before the arrival of police and fire, who continued to search the area but were unable to locate the boater.

The OPP’s underwater search and recover unit joined the search and, just before 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, found the body of the missing boater.

Police have identified the victim as 39-year-old Sovann Chhay of Ottawa.

Police are continuing their investigation and a post-mortem examination is being conducted.

Peterborough police are investigating after a Bowmanville man and his pregnant girlfriend were threatened by another man, who showed them a gun during a dispute in the parking lot of Loblaw’s Real Canadian Superstore at Lansdowne and High streets in Peterborough.

The incident happened at around 1 p.m. on Saturday (August 13), after Hunter Jones and his girlfriend — who is nine months pregnant — pulled into a parking spot designated for expecting mothers or parents with young children.

“This man started yelling out of his van’s window at me, ‘I don’t see no kids, come closer to my van’,” Jones wrote on social media. “He approached me saying ‘You don’t know where I’m from, I’ll fuck you up’.”

After Jones’ girlfriend also got out of the car, the man continued to threaten the couple, displaying his “prison tattoo” according to Jones.

“He than continued to open the glove box to show me his concealed weapon,” writes Jones, who reported the incident to Peterborough police.

Jones’ girlfriend captured part of the incident on video, when the man can be heard telling Jones “I know what your licence plate is … I’ll find out where the fuck you live,” as he walks to his minivan, which had plate number BVMY794 according to Jones.

Here is the video of the man with the weapon. Who got in my face with threats and intimidation. Plate number and all. He cowered back when my pregnant girlfriend began filming. pic.twitter.com/kvHOV1zm7D

— Hunter Jones (@HDNJ) August 14, 2022

Anyone with information is asked to call the Peterborough Police Crime Line at 705-876-1122 x555 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.stopcrimehere.ca.

Do you and your co-workers or friends have what it takes to pull a 44,000-pound fire truck further and faster than anyone else?

That’s the challenge of the local Alzheimer Society’s “Pulling for Dementia” Fire Truck Pull, which is returning for the first time since the pandemic began.

Excitement is building for the sixth annual fundraiser, which takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 21st at the Peterborough Airport. All proceeds from the event will support the programs and services of the Alzheimer Society of Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland and Haliburton. (Update: due to the forecast for rain on Wednesday afternoon, the event will now conclude at noon rather than 2:30 p.m.)

VIDEO: Alzheimer Society Fire Truck Pull

“The fifth annual event was very successful,” notes the organization’s donor relations coordinator Ryan Arnold, referring to the 2019 fundraiser which raised around $40,000. “It was an amazing day, full of fun with great energy. I sent an email letting our past teams know that it’s coming back, and got a bunch of responses back saying ‘We’re in!’ and ‘Can’t wait!’, so there’s already a lot of excitement.”

While the challenge of the event is to see which team can pull an 44,000-pound fire truck the furthest distance in the least amount of time, that’s not the only bragging right a team can earn.

At the 2019 event, the Minds in Motion Cobourg team — comprised of people living with dementia and their family members — wasn’t the physically strongest team but raised, they were the team that raised the most funds for the event, pulling in $16,000.

Teams are comprised of either 10 men, 12 women, or 12 men and women. Each team must raise at least $1,000 before the event to participate in the fire truck pull. For the first time, individuals can also register for the event this year for a minimum donation of $100. But don’t worry — you won’t be expected to pull the fire truck by yourself.

“Some people might be interested but don’t have the 10 or 12 people to form a team,” Arnold explains. “As we get closer to the event, we’ll build out a team of registered individuals. If we still don’t have enough for a full team, we’ll place some of our staff on the team so they will get a chance to pull.”

Teams and individuals can register now at firetruckpull.ca.

Also new this year is the location of the event at the Peterborough Airport, a switch from the Memorial Centre parking lot that will be unavailable in the fall due to the start of construction of the new twin-pad arena in neighbouring Morrow Park.

“We have a big space there — it’s going to work out really well,” says Arnold, noting both the City of Peterborough and The Loomex Group (which manages the airport) answered “Of course” when asked if they could accommodate the event.

What isn’t new this year but is welcomed wholeheartedly is the return participation of Rev. Ken Fast, a Cobourg-based Lutheran minister who is again serving as honorary chair for the event.

Dubbed “the world’s strongest priest,” Rev. Fast holds several Guinness World Records for feats of strength, including his pulling of a 188.83-ton Globemaster III airplane, several fire trucks and, if that’s not enough, a house.

“A lot of people have claimed, especially my competitors, that I cheat — that I have divine intervention,” noted Fast in a 2016 interview with kawarthaNOW prior to that year’s fire truck pull event. “But I work hard at it and I was gifted with some ability.”

As has been the case for past pulls, the majority of the teams will be comprised of office workers and corporate staff taking advantage of what Arnold terms “a great team-building exercise.” Up for grabs, besides some serious bragging rights, is a trophy for fastest pull time.

Of note, says Arnold, every cent brought in stays in with the local Alzheimer Society, going directly into programs and services. To date, close to $150,000 has been raised through the event since its inception. However, there’s another benefit, notes Arnold.

“We find, with all our events, we get an uptick in awareness,” he says. “We see an increase in referrals. We see more people reaching out. The money raised is great, but the media attention is huge. It’s all about letting people know we’re here.”

With close to 11,000 people in the society’s catchment area who are living with Alzheimer’s and forms of dementia, heightened awareness is vital.

“Everyone has a story, a connection to Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia, especially in our community where we have an older population,” notes Arnold. “Our rate of dementia is one of the highest in Ontario and it’s continuing to grow.”

“It’s really important that we continue to fundraise and raise awareness, and that we need to be able to provide the supports and services required deal with that rapid growth. Every day there’s new research, new developments, and new supports. A lot of people look at a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s as the end, but there’s a whole life to live.”

The Alzheimer Society of Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland and Haliburton provides services supportive services at no charge to families and individuals affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, throughout all four counties including the communities of Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Lindsay, Haliburton, Minden, Cobourg, Port Hope, Campbellford, Havelock, and Millbrook. The society also provides a range of public education services within the communities its serves, as well as educational opportunities to those living with dementia and those supporting persons with dementia including family members, caregivers and professionals.

For more information on the society and the services it provides locally, visit alzheimer.ca/en/pklnh or call 705-748-5131.

This branded editorial was created in partnership with the Alzheimer Society of Peterborough, Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland and Haliburton. If your business or organization is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.

Both of the health units in the Kawarthas region have issued opioid alerts on Monday (August 15). Peterborough Public Health has issued a drug poisoning alert and the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge (HKPR) District Health Unit has issued an opioid overdose alert.

On Friday and Saturday, Peterborough Public Health detected a higher-than-usual number of opioid-related paramedic calls for service, with a total of nine drug poisonings treated by paramedics and the emergency department at Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

“This is presumed to be the result of a product that may contain benzodiazepines,” Peterborough Public Health states in a media release. “A benzo-related overdose may last for hours and make it hard to wake up an individual. This high number of paramedic calls for service has prompted Peterborough Public Health to issue a public warning in the hopes of preventing further harms to the community.”

Peterborough Public Health is reminding the public that street drugs may be cut or mixed with toxic substances, and that using even a small amount of drug can be fatal.

The HKPR District Health Unit has issued an opioid overdose alert for the City of Kawartha Lakes and Northumberland County due to a “disturbing” rise in the number of overdoses being recorded.

“With the significant spike in overdoses in recent days, this alert is meant to inform the community to take precautions,” says Kate Hall, a health promoter with the health unit, in a media release. “Contributing factors for these local overdoses may include people using alone or a potentially contaminated or poisoned drug supply that is leading to more severe overdose reactions.”

Both health units are encouraging people who use drugs to do the following:

• Don’t use drugs alone. In Peterborough, drug users can visit the Consumption Treatment Services site at 220 Simcoe Street, which is open from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
• If you do use drugs alone, ask someone to check on you or call the National Overdose Response Service at 1-888-688-6677.
• If using with a friend, do not use at the exact same time.
• Test your drug by using a small amount first.
• Avoid mixing drugs.
• Carry a naloxone kit. Keep it visible and close by. You can get a naloxone kit at most pharmacies and needle exchange sites.

Signs of an opioid overdose include cold and clammy skin, blue or purple fingernails or lips, a limp body, an inability to wake the person up, deep snoring or gurgling sounds, slow or erratic or stopped breathing, and very small pupils.

If you witness an overdose, call 9-1-1 and administer naloxone if available. Continue to check for breathing and stay with the person until help arrives.

Under Canada’s Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act, anyone who seeks medical help for themselves or for someone else who has overdosed will not be charged for possessing or using drugs for personal use.

Residents of Peterborough and Peterborough County can anonymously report drug poisonings and other bad drug reactions using the Peterborough Public Health’s drug reporting tool. Residents of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton can anonymously report drug-related incidents using a similar online submission form.