Peterborough-area residents and businesses with security cameras who want to partner with police to keep communities safe can now register their cameras with the CamSafe program.

The program is a volunteer CCTV and security video registry that lets Peterborough police know where cameras are located and who to contact to request video footage.

“It’s what we’re calling Community Watch 2.0,” says acting police chief Tim Farquharson in a media release. “We all have a part to play in keeping our community safe. This program requires community participation which helps provide a stronger defence against crime including theft, arson, vandalism, and fraud.”

Those living in the City of Peterborough, Village of Lakefield, and Township of Cavan-Monaghan who have CCTV, video cameras, and doorbell cams can volunteer to create a account with the secure CamSafe registry and upload information about the cameras they have.

Police can use the registry to find out where cameras may be located in a neighbourhood and then contact the owner to ask if they can send the video to an officer.

“If there is an incident an officer can then use the secure mapping feature to see where there are cameras and then reach out to the owner to ask if they have footage available,” says Paul Notman, IT manager with the Peterborough Police Service.

VIDEO: CamSafe Program – Peterborough Police Service

Describing it as being “much like a phonebook,” police emphasize CamSafe is only a registry of camera locations and information and does not provide police with access to cameras or to footage. The registry is secure and only police have access to the information in the registry. People can delete their camera information or accounts at any time.

“The more cameras listed on the registry means potentially more information available to officers as well as time saved in the legwork required to search out active and enabled sources of video footage,” Notman says.

CamSafe was originally launched by the Belleville Police Service in 2021 in partnership with Belleville companies Alarm Systems and Floating Point and has since expanded to include other communities.

For more information about CamSafe and to register, visit www.peterboroughpolice.com/camsafe.

For the fifth time in the past 17 months, the reopening of the Bobcaygeon Swing Bridge has been delayed.

Parks Canada advised in August the bridge rehabilitation project was scheduled to be completed this fall, but has now advised it will remain closed through the end of the 2022 calendar year.

“Mechanical components and hydraulic equipment manufactured for the bridge that were expected to arrive on site this fall have been delayed, moving back the completion date,” reads a media release from Parks Canada.

The project to rehabilitate the bridge, which began in October 2020, was originally scheduled to be completed in May 2021. Delays with the fabrication and delivery of hydraulic and mechanical components, and the discovery that some components of the bridge were in worse condition than originally anticipated, changed the expected completion date to summer 2021.

In July 2021, Parks Canada announced the bridge would not reopen that summer since key mechanical components involved in rotating the bridge needed to be refabricated as they did not meet safety and quality standards. The refabricated components were to be installed in October 2021 following the closing of the navigation season, with the bridge expected to reopen for vehicle use in December 2021.

In December 2021, Parks Canada announced a new consultant has been brought onto the project to review and finalize the design and the refabrication of required components for the bridge. After the review of the project, the contractor advised Parks Canada the reopening of the bridge needed to be delayed to spring 2022 due to issues mainly associated with the mechanical component refabrication.

In February 2022, Parks Canada announced the reopening of bridge had been delayed until fall 2022 as the refabrication of the mechanical components for the bridge had been slower than expected. Mechanical components and hydraulic equipment manufactured for the bridge were expected to arrive on site in September. In April, June, and August 2022, Parks Canada advised the bridge reopening continued be on track for fall 2022.

Work completed to date includes the disassembly and media blasting of the bridge steel structure, replacement and painting of the new steel structure, delivery and installation of various mechanical components, installation of the wooden decking on the pedestrian walkway, partial completion of the wooden decking on the vehicular travel path, trenching for new hydraulic and electrical lines, and concrete removals on the bridge abutments.

The remaining tasks include completing concrete works on the bridge abutments, installing the remaining mechanical components, the vehicular bridge deck, hydraulic and electrical components, and paving.

With the latest delay, Parks Canada did not provide an estimated reopening date.

Until the bridge reopens, the enhanced pedestrian access over the upper gates of Lock 32 and its access paths will remain in place.

“Parks Canada continues to work with the contractor, stressing the importance of completing the project,” reads the media release. “We appreciate your patience while we undertake these important investments into the infrastructure in Bobcaygeon.”

A short parody film made by Peterborough’s Matt Snell won the Best Canadian Film award at the Canadian International Comedy Film Festival in Winnipeg on October 8.

Written and directed by Snell, “Schnitzelback” also stars Snell as a man who has created a tribute polka band to celebrate his love of rock group Nickelback.

The 39-year-old Snell, who has a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and is a writer and content marketing specialist for Peterborough’s Birchbark Media, made the film in Peterborough in 2020 with help from a group of friends who call themselves Cathedral Hill Productions.

“In 2016, four of us were moved by the Halloween spirit to make a horror movie,” Snell says. “We did it on a lark — no one had much experience, and it was already October. We jokingly called ourselves Cathedral Hill Productions, after the (Peterborough) neighbourhood we lived in and because the pompous sound of it contrasted with the schlock we were making.”

That first short film, about a couple and their unusual relationship with a pumpkin, was called “Pumpkineater.” Other short films created by Cathedral Hill Productions include “Santa Sees Something” (2017), “Havesters” (2017), “Vote for Ferd” (2018), “LHP: Understanding Lower Half Possession” (2019), and “RaRa My Lifestyle” (2021).

All the films can be viewed at the Cathedral Hill Productions website at cathedralhillproductions.com.

As for “Schnitzelback”, Snell and his friends had to make adjustments to accommodate the restrictions of the pandemic.

“When COVID hit, I thought we’d have to suspend our series,” Snell says. “But that didn’t feel right, so we found a way to make a movie safely with the limitations. I think it turned out to be the funniest one we’ve done yet.”

Snell and his wife Rebecca Reeves flew to Winnipeg for the festival.

“It’s been a very quiet, anxious couple of years,” he says. “To be in a room full of people laughing along with us was exactly what we needed. I can’t wait to put out the next one out this Halloween.”

The Canadian International Comedy Film Festival award is not the first for Cathedral Hill Productions. “RaRa My Lifestyle”, a self-referential short about an amateur filmmaker who aspires to make the great Canadian horror film, was an Awards of Excellence winner at the 2021 Canada Shorts Film Festival.

Snell has also received a grant from the Electric City Culture Council in Peterborough, which he says will go towards a film to be released in 2023.

VIDEO: “Schnitzelback” – Cathedral Hill Productions

Peterborough police were called to Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School at around 11:50 a.m. on Friday (October 21) after a concerned citizen reported what appeared to be a firearm in a vehicle with several students outside the school.

To ensure the safety of the students, a “hold and secure” was implemented, which requires students to stay in place.

After police arrived at the school, officers and staff were able to locate the students in question. School officials seized two replica handguns: a water gun and a wooden prop gun.

Investigation revealed the items were in the process of being donated to the school’s drama program.

No criminal charges are expected, and students returned to class when the “hold and secure” was lifted at around 12:20 p.m.

“Peterborough Police Service thank our partners at the school for the timely handling of the incident,” reads a media release.

Peterborough’s Cody & James Chartered Professional Accountants has turned shredded paper into cash, raising $3,500 for Brock Mission’s homeless shelters.

During September, Cody & James CPAs encouraged the community to bring in boxes of material to be shredded in exchange for a suggested donation of $15 per box to Brock Mission.

According to senior partners Suzanne Cody and Gwyneth James, the firm accepted more than 1,400 gallons of shredding material.

The resulting funds raised are move than double the amount raised in 2019, the last time the event was held due to the pandemic.

“The fundraiser was developed by Cody & James CPAs as a way to give back to our community in way that focuses on the current need within our community,” reads a media release.

“The team chose the Brock Mission as this year’s recipient in recognition of the crucial work it provides for the Peterborough homeless population.”

Governor general Mary Simon will deliver the keynote address at a conference at Trent University on Saturday (October 22).

Entitled “Northern Nationalisms, Arctic Mythologies, and the Weight of History,” the conference is being held in honour of eminent Arctic historian and former Trent University professor Dr. Shelagh Grant.

As well as teaching history and Canadian studies at Trent University for 17 years, Grant was the first historian and first woman to receive the Northern Science Award in 1996, and was active on various Inuit policy advisory committees, editorial boards. and northern scholarship committees.

Grant, who died in July 2020 of esophageal cancer at the age of 82, was part of the original team involved in the founding of The Canadian Canoe Museum. In August, Grant’s family donated $250,000 for the new museum currently being constructed beside Beavermead Park in Peterborough.

Saturday’s national conference will bring together established and emerging scholars to explore various themes in the study of the Canadian North.

Canada’s first Indigenous governor general, Mary Simon was born in 1947 in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik (Quebec), to Nancy May (Angnatuk-Askew), her Inuk mother, and Bob Mardon May, her father, who moved to the Arctic to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company. Simon gained national and international recognition for her work on Arctic and Indigenous issues and for her efforts in advocating for Inuit rights, youth, education, and culture.

The governor general will speak at 12:15 p.m. in the Great Hall at Champlain College.