Here’s an update on COVID-19 cases in Ontario as well as in the greater Kawarthas region.
Ontario is reporting 296 new cases today, but this total includes around 80 cases from Toronto last year as a result of a data review and cleaning initiative, so the actual number of cases reported yesterday is around 216.
Most of the cases are in Waterloo (61), Toronto (123, with actual cases reported yesterday around 43), York (37), Peel (20), Hamilton (11), and Ottawa (11). The seven-day average of daily cases has decreased by 11 to 323.
Hospitalizations have increased by 73 to 334, but this increase may be attributed to underreporting by more than 10% of hospitals yesterday. Patients in ICUs have decreased by 9 to 314, and the number of patients on ventilators remains unchanged at 202.
Ontario is reporting 60 new deaths today, but 54 of these deaths are from previous months so the actual increase in deaths from yesterday is 6. There has been 1 new death in a long-term care home, although this may have been a previous death as well.
Almost 13 million vaccine doses have been administered, an increase of 199,535 since yesterday, with over 87% of Ontario’s total population now having received at least one dose. Over 3.1 million people have been fully vaccinated, with 172,672 people receiving their second dose yesterday, representing over 21% of the total population.
COVID-19 cases in Ontario from May 22 – June 21, 2021. The red line is the number of new cases reported daily, and the dotted green line is a five-day rolling average of new cases. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions in Ontario from May 22 – June 21, 2021. The red line is the daily number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, the dotted green line is a five-day rolling average of hospitalizations, and the purple line is the daily number of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)COVID-19 vaccinations in Ontario from May 22 – June 21, 2021. The red line is the cumulative number of daily doses administered and the green line is the cumulative number of people fully vaccinated with two doses of vaccine. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)
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In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 3 new cases to report in Peterborough.
For the first time since March 23, the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit is reporting no new cases in Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland, and Haliburton. There are also no new cases in Hastings Prince Edward.
There are 2 new hospitalizations in Peterborough.
An additional 14 cases have been resolved across the region, including 10 in Peterborough, 2 in Kawartha Lakes, 1 in Hastings Prince Edward, and 1 in Northumberland.
Active cases have decreased across all regional health units — by 4 in Peterborough, by 2 in Kawartha Lakes, by 1 in Northumberland, and by 1 in Hastings Prince Edward — except for Haliburton, where active cases are unchanged.
There are currently 40 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, a decrease of 8 since yesterday, including 20 in Peterborough, 9 in Northumberland, 8 in Kawartha Lakes, 2 in Hastings Prince Edward (1 in Quinte West and 1 in Belleville), and 1 in Haliburton.
Since the pandemic began in the greater Kawarthas region, there have been 1,577 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area (1,536 resolved with 21 deaths), 1,082 in the City of Kawartha Lakes (1,030 resolved with 57 deaths), 943 in Northumberland County (917 resolved with 17 deaths), 122 in Haliburton County (120 resolved with 1 death), and 1,127 in Hastings and Prince Edward counties (1,114 resolved with 11 deaths). The most recent death was reported in Kawartha Lakes on June 5.
Police are looking for 80-year-old Robert Young who went missing from his Millbrook home on June 22, 2021. (Police-supplied photo)
Peterborough police are asking for the public’s assistance in locating 80-year-old Robert Young.
Missing man located
Peterborough police advise Robert Young was located safe and sound on June 22.
Police are concerned for Young’s well-being as he has moderate Alzheimer’s.
Young was last seen driving away from his home in Millbrook around 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning (June 22).
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He was last seen wearing a white ball cap, a beige and white bomber jacket, jeans or cords, and was driving a silver/grey Ford Escape with snow tire rims and license plate ANDH 759.
Young is described as 5’8″ and 155 pounds with blue eyes and short white hair. He is missing part of his index finger and middle finger on his right hand.
Anyone with information is asked to call Peterborough police at 705-876-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or online at www.stopcrimehere.ca.
Missing 80-year-old Robert Young, who has moderate Alzheimer’s, left his Millbrook home around 2 a.m. on June 22, 2021. (Police-supplied photo)
Jennifer Alicia, D.B. McLeod, and Stephanie Pangowish are three of the artists performing at the Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival in Peterborough from June 23 to 27, 2021. (Collage: kawarthaNOW)
The Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF) will offer live, COVID-safe outdoor-performances from Wednesday, June 23rd to Sunday, June 27th on the treaty and traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg and Chippewa Nations, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations, at Trent University in Peterborough.
NIFF is now a drive-in event
Originally scheduled to be performed to small audiences at several outdoor locations on Trent University’s East Bank campus, the festival will now be taking place as a drive-in event in parking lot X to comply with the performing arts restrictions of step one of the Ontario government’s reopening plan. For details, visit indigenousfringefest.ca/news.html.
In this two-part series, we introduce you to the artists performing at NIFF. Part one profiled Sarah Gartshore and Lois Apaquash of Zaagi’idiwin Collective, Tiger Will Mason, and Olga Barrios and Norma Araiza of Vanguardia Dance Projects. This story profiles Jennifer Alicia, D.B. McLeod, and Stephanie Pangowish.
Jennifer Alicia. (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Alicia)
Two-time National Poetry Slam champion Jennifer Alicia has been writing ever since they were young.
“It’s just something that I’ve always done,” Alicia says. “As a child, writing really helped me navigate and process some traumatizing situations in a healthy way.”
But it wasn’t until Alicia attended X University (formerly Ryerson University) that they were introduced to the powers and possibilities of spoken word poetry.
“I began doing my poetry at rallies and activist spaces and I realized that connecting with an audience was something I really enjoyed,” Alicia recalls. “It’s really powerful to share a story and to have folks connect with it.”
Since then, Alicia has become a prolific spoken word and page poet.
A member of both the Toronto Poetry Slam team and Seeds & Stardust collective, they have has performed poetry in cities throughout Turtle Island, debuted their first chapbook Mixed Emotions (published by Moon Jelly House), and was artist-in-residence for the Indigenous Storyteller and Spoken Word program at the prestigious Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
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It was during their residency in Banff that Alicia conceived of their first script, Restor(y)ing Identity, which will be performed live for the first time ever at NIFF.
“I was thinking about home and talking to my family a lot,” Alicia explains. “The more we spoke, I kind of felt this feeling of being unblocked — I don’t know how to explain it, it was as if things started being released in my brain. Suddenly, I remembered hearing this story about my pop.”
Originally hailing from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk (Bay Of Islands, Newfoundland), Alicia comes from a long line of fishers, hunters, and trappers. Based on a true familial tale about Alicia’s grandfather, Restor(y)ing Identity tells the story of a fisherman who encounters a sabawealnu (Mi’kmaw word for merperson) while checking his fishing nets.
“I became obsessed with this story about my pop seeing a mermaid while checking his fishing nets,” Alicia says. “And so Restor(y)ing Identity is based on this familial tale. It talks about the moment my Pop had this interaction with this being. It also touches on the importance of sharing our stories, and what could happen if we don’t share our stories. It’s told from my pop’s perspective and also from my perspective, his granddaughter.”
“I’m really proud to be able to bring this story to the world’s first Indigenous fringe festival — it’s really exciting,” Alicia adds.
D.B. McLeod – Denis with an “E”
D.B. McLeod. (Photo: D.B. McLeod / Twitter)
D.B. McLeod was cornered by her friend and fellow NIFF performer, Stephanie Pangowish, at a social gathering. There, Pangowish convinced McLeod to take a comedy writing workshop hosted by Baroness Von Sketch Show writer and comedian Dawn Whitwell.
“She cornered me and was like, ‘You! You’re funny, you’re doing this with me!’,” McLeod recalls. “And I was a little bit scared of Steph at the time, so I agreed.”
After the workshop, the pair spent eight consecutive Saturdays writing jokes and developing material together. Soon after that, they began performing stand-up.
“It was literally supposed to be a hobby,” says McLeod. “It was just going to be a thing that I did for fun, but it’s sort of evolved into this other thing now.”
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The “other thing” is Manifest Destiny’s Child — the Indigenous women’s stand-up comedy collective, which McLeod and Pangowish helped found, with quite possibly the best name ever.
“There’s so many layers to it,” says McLeod of the collective’s name. “It is really funny because of Destiny’s Child and because it’s just funny to put those three words together.”
More significantly, manifest destiny is a direct reference to the widely held cultural belief of 19th-century American settlers that they were destined to expand across North America — resulting in the occupation and annexation of Indigenous peoples’ lands, wars and conflict, and “Indian removal” — the U.S. government policy of forced displacement of Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands.
“If I think about it in a more political sort of way, we are the children of manifest destiny,” McLeod says. “Our ancestors survived so that we could be here telling jokes about ridiculousness and laughing at white people.”
“It’s about reclamation and again, you know, as the children of manifest destiny, thinking about all of those Indigenous women that have been taken from us or missing or murdered — we’re still here and they’re … you know. With the collective, audiences get eight very different examples of the reality of Indigenous women in this country.”
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McLeod’s comedy show Denis with an “E” — inspired by the alarming number of people who pronounce her name as “Dennis” (evidently, the illiteracy crisis is far worse than anyone could ever have imagined) — makes fun of patriarchy, sexism, fatphobia, colonization, and colonialism.
“I’m part of the last generation of the sixties scoop and that horrifying intergenerational trauma made me really funny,” McLeod says. “My humour is really dark. I have lived this very weird, interesting life, and I have a lot of funny stories that kind of come from that.”
Regrettably, kawarthaNOW was unable to contact stand-up comedian and Manifest Destiny’s Child co-founder Stephanie Pangowish for an interview — the CBC got to her first!
Given the hilarity of her NIFF artist’s bio (below), it’s safe to say that her stand-up comedy NIFF show will side-splitting.
“Stephanie Pangowish is a sassy and assy Anishnaabekwe from Wiikwemkoong on Manitoulin Island and is the co-founder of Canada’s 1st collective of Indigenous women stand-up comedians, Manifest Destiny’s Child.”
“She originally started performing to make her angry mom laugh and avoid the wooden spoon but now uses it to educate Canadians on Indigenous Culture.
“Stephanie has danced at pow wows for the past 10 winters, has watched every movie starring Adam Beach and pretends to have read all books about Indigenous people.”
To learn more about the world’s first and only Indigenous fringe festival and the amazing participating performers, visit NIFF’s website at indigenousfringefest.ca.
Phyllis, a volunteer driver for Community Care Peterborough in Havelock, has driven throughout this pandemic to help clients get to important medical appointments. The not-for-profit organization that provides services to seniors and adults with physical challenges is looking for volunteer drivers who, like Phyllis, are caring and reliable. (Photo: Community Care Peterborough / Facebook)
Community Care Peterborough, which provides services to seniors and adults with physical challenges, is looking for reliable and caring volunteer drivers to help clients get to appointments or activities.
“As the province reopens, we know the demand for driving to in-person appointments will also increase,” says Alicia Vandine, donor relations and communications lead with Community Care Peterborough. in a media release. “Our clients have been managing with virtual appointments but they too are anxiously awaiting for other in-person care services to open up as well.”
Among other trips, volunteers can drive clients to a medical appointment, a local grocery store, or even a hair salon (when they can open again). Volunteer drivers can choose to drive clients short distances in the Peterborough area or long distances to medical appointments in Toronto, Oshawa, and Kingston.
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“The volunteer driver commitment involves picking up a client and dropping them off at their appointment or activity and then later, picking up the same client and returning them to their home,” says Darci Maude, volunteer development coordinator with Community Care Peterborough. “Volunteer drivers receive some reimbursement which is paid to them by the client to help offset the cost of gas and wear and tear on their vehicle.”
Community Care Peterborough is looking for volunteer drivers who live across the city and county of Peterborough. The not-for-profit organization’s local offices — in Apsley, Buckhorn, Chemung, Havelock, Lakefiled, Millbrook, Norwood, and Peterborough — organize each drive, and volunteers can choose which locations for which they want to drive.
Drives are scheduled around each volunteer’s availability. Clients being driven by volunteers must be able to get in and out of a conventional vehicle safely and independently.
“When you volunteer to be a driver, you will be helping people in your local community,” Maude says. “We can only do as many drives for clients as we have drivers. Volunteers are crucial for this program to meet the needs of clients.”
For more information about Community Care Peterborough, volunteering, and to contact a local office, visit www.commcareptbo.org.
Imad Mahfouz (second from right) came to Canada in 2015 with his family (son Abdullah, wife Nerveen, and daughter Zeina) to escape the war in Syria and settled in Peterborough. The family of four obtained their Canadian citizenship in 2020. Imad, who loves cooking, was a restaurateur in Syria and plans to open a restaurant in his new home community of Peterborough. (Photo courtesy of the Mahfouz family)
This #CookWithNCC story is one of a series commissioned by the New Canadians Centre in Peterborough, in which newcomers share their experiences in Canada along with a recipe from their home culture.
For Imad Mahfouz, a Canadian newcomer who has settled with his family in Peterborough, cooking is his passion, talent, and expertise.
The Syrian native owned a restaurant in Damascus before relocating to Canada in 2015 with his wife Nerveen, son Abdullah, and daughter Zeina, to escape the war and find a safer place to live as a family.
Imad developed his love for cooking in his teenage years while helping his mother in the kitchen. After high school, he decided to make his passion for cooking his career by studying at the Hotel and Tourism Training Centre in Damascus.
Imad Mahfouz during a pre-pandemic event in downtown Peterborough. The pandemic has temporarily put on hold Imad’s plans to open a Syrian restaurant in Peterborough. While living in Syria in 1995, he opened his own restaurant called Liwan Alsham. (Photo courtesy of the Mahfouz family)
In 1995, Imad achieved his dream of opening his own restaurant, which he named Liwan Alsham. The restaurant served Middle Eastern dishes such as shawarma, kebabs, flatbreads, and salads like tabouli and fattoush.
He plans to reclaim that dream by opening a Syrian restaurant in Peterborough, although the pandemic has delayed those plans.
In the meantime, he is excited to share Middle Eastern cuisine with his community in Peterborough, including his recipe for the Syrian stuffed-vegetable appetizer yalanji.
“It’s a vegetable recipe everyone loves back home in Syria,” says Imad. “We serve it on every occasion because it is so tasty and easy to eat at any time of the day.”
Although he has had trouble finding all of the ingredients for yalanji in Peterborough, Imad has found them in Middle Eastern grocery stores in the GTA. The recipe takes a long time to make but, according to Imad, if made the correct Syrian way, yalanji is well worth the effort.
“I have shared it with Canadian friends, and they liked it so much,” Imad says.
“They said it’s hard to make because it takes a long time, but they are happy to eat it if I keep making it for them,” Imad laughs. “I think that sharing food is part of settling and getting to know each other’s culture.”
Reproducing and sharing home foods is a great way for Canadian newcomers to construct a collective social identity of being immigrants in a new land. Imad says building relationships with fellow new Canadians facing similar circumstances was a comfort as he and his family worked to settle in their new country.
“It was hard in the beginning as we faced difficulties understanding and speaking the language,” Imad recalls. “After we got to know new Canadian friends who helped us settle down, and we learned more about each other’s cultures, we felt a sense of home and belonging here — especially after getting our Canadian citizenship last year.”
Imad Mahfouz with his family during a pre-pandemic trip to Niagara Falls. After arriving in Peterborough from Syria, the family received help getting settled from the New Canadians Centre Peterborough and now, after six years, feels a sense of home and belonging in Canada. (Photo courtesy of the Mahfouz family)
When Imad, his wife, and two children first arrived in Canada in 2015, they initially stayed in Lindsay before moving the following year to Peterborough, where they received help from the New Canadians Centre.
According to Imad, the organization helped him find a home to rent for his family, improve his English, and register his children in sports, activities, and school.
“They helped us a lot to settle down in Peterborough,” Imad notes. “I now belong to Canada — the country that welcomed me and secured a safe home for my family.”
Nevertheless, the journey to settle into a new home country has not been without its struggles. Imad recalls adjusting to the language barrier and Canadian winters as two major hurdles during his first years in Canada.
After six years in Canada, and now used to the cold winters and more proficient in English, Imad says the friendly people and fantastic community around him make it easy to call Canada home.
However, this past year has been challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Imad tragically losing his father to the virus.
Imad Mahfouz with his daughter Zeina and wife Nerveen (and son Abdullah behind the camera) enjoying Canada’s outdoors. Along with learning English, Canadian winters were a challenge for the Syrian family. The family also suffered a loss during the pandemic, when Imad’s father died in Syria after contracting the virus. (Photo courtesy of the Mahfouz family)
“It has affected everyone,” Imad says. “I wish I could see my family in person. My dad had COVID and passed away, and I couldn’t see him and say goodbye after eight years without seeing him. We are glad we have social media, so at least we can communicate with our family and friends back home.”
While cooking has always been a passion for Imad, it has a special emotional and ethnic meaning for him since relocating to Canada, especially when cooking Syrian dishes. There is personal attachment and positive memories in these recipes. Cooking them here in Canada acts as a form of identity negotiation, since food can connect him back to his memories in Syria while remaining in Canada.
“My beautiful days were in my youth when I used to cook in Syria with my friends in college and then cooking at my restaurant,” Imad recalls. “So now, each time I make a dish and our Canadians friends try it and like it, I feel the same feelings I did in Syria.”
Imad Mahfouz with his daughter Zeina after she graduated from Grade 8. (Photo courtesy of the Mahfouz family)
One dish that seems to represent Imad’s identity as a new Syrian-Canadian is his poutine recipe.
“I discovered poutine here,” Imad notes. “I like it and I make it at home for my family. I make it by mixing Canadian and Syrian food. I put shawarma on top of the poutine with the gravy. My family likes it, and they ask me all the time to make it again.”
A unique Syrian-Canadian dish like Imad’s take on poutine might even make its way onto the menu of the restaurant he plans to open in Peterborough once the pandemic is over.
“I hope everything will get back to normal, and I can share my food from my restaurant with the fantastic community here,” Imad says.
Imad also has plans to open a non-for-profit kitchen to feed people in need, which he also expects to open in the near future.
Until then, Imad shares a bit of Syrian food with the community by sharing his Yalanji recipe — a dish he notes that everyone, including vegetarians, can enjoy.
“I am happy to share a piece of my culture by sharing this recipe with people here in Canada,” says Imad. “It makes me so happy when people like my food.”
The Mahfouz family today: Abdullah, Imad, Nerveen, and Zeina. (Photo courtesy of the Mahfouz family)
Aromas, flavours, ingredients, who we cook for and how we share our recipes — they all tell stories that shape us as a community. On this journey through pantries and kitchens, we hope that you will fill both your plate and your heart.
Share your experience trying out these recipes, or your own story and recipe, on social media using the hashtag #CookWithNCC.
To join the New Canadians Centre on their 40-year journey of welcoming immigrants and refugees, visit nccpeterborough.ca.
Here’s an update on COVID-19 cases in Ontario as well as in the greater Kawarthas region.
Ontario is reporting 270 new cases today — the lowest daily increase since September 16 when 293 cases were reported. Most of the cases are in Toronto (47), Waterloo (44), Peel (42), and York (22). The seven-day average of daily cases has decreased by 25 to 334.
Hospitalizations have decreased by 5 to 261, although more than 10% of hospitals did not submit data for the daily bed census so the actual number of hospitalizations may be higher. Patients in ICUs have fallen by 10 to 323, and patients on ventilators have decreased by 6 to 202. Ontario is reporting 3 new deaths today, with no deaths in long-term care homes.
Almost 12.7 million vaccine doses have been administered, an increase of 118,625 since yesterday, with 86% of Ontario’s total population now having received at least one dose. Over 2.9 million people have been fully vaccinated, with 98,420 people receiving their second dose yesterday, representing over 20% of the total population.
COVID-19 cases in Ontario from May 21 – June 20, 2021. The red line is the number of new cases reported daily, and the dotted green line is a five-day rolling average of new cases. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions in Ontario from May 21 – June 20, 2021. The red line is the daily number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, the dotted green line is a five-day rolling average of hospitalizations, and the purple line is the daily number of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)COVID-19 vaccinations in Ontario from May 21 – June 20, 2021. The red line is the cumulative number of daily doses administered and the green line is the cumulative number of people fully vaccinated with two doses of vaccine. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)
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In the greater Kawarthas region, over the past 2 days, there are 12 new cases to report, including 6 in Peterborough, 5 in Northumberland, and 1 in Kawartha Lakes. There are no new cases in Hastings Prince Edward or Haliburton.
There is 1 new hospitalization in Kawartha Lakes.
An additional 21 cases have been resolved across the region, including 11 in Peterborough, 7 in Kawartha Lakes, 2 in Hastings Prince Edward, and 1 in Northumberland.
Active cases have decreased by 6 in Kawartha Lakes, by 5 in Peterborough, and by 2 in Hastings Prince Edward, and have increased by 4 in Northumberland. Active cases remain the same in Haliburton.
There are currently 48 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, a decrease of 9 over the past 2 days, including 24 in Peterborough, 10 in Kawartha Lakes, 10 in Northumberland, 3 in Hastings Prince Edward (1 in Quinte West and 2 in Belleville), and 1 in Haliburton.
Since the pandemic began in the greater Kawarthas region, there have been 1,571 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area (1,526 resolved with 21 deaths), 1,082 in the City of Kawartha Lakes (1,028 resolved with 57 deaths), 943 in Northumberland County (916 resolved with 17 deaths), 122 in Haliburton County (120 resolved with 1 death), and 1,127 in Hastings and Prince Edward counties (1,113 resolved with 11 deaths). The most recent death was reported in Kawartha Lakes on June 5.
Daisy Ridley, best known as Rey in the latest Star Wars trilogy, won't be wielding a lightsaber in her starring role in the upcoming thriller "The Marsh King's Daughter", which is being filmed at Ken Reid Conservation Area north of Lindsay on June 28 and 29. (Photo: Jonathan Olley / Lucasfilm)
Hollywood is coming to the Ken Reid Conservation Area north of Lindsay this month during filming of the upcoming suspense thriller The Marsh King’s Daughter.
Ken Reid will be closed to the public from the evening of Sunday, June 27th until the morning of Wednesday, June 30th for filming.
The road to the former beach area parking lot will be closed beginning Saturday, June 26th as production crews arrive on site. Visitors to the park on Saturday will be able to park in the main parking lot area, as well as the overflow parking as required.
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“We want to provide as little disruption to our conservation area visitors as possible, so we will be keeping Ken Reid open until Sunday evening, before filming begins for two days,” says Kristie Virgoe, director of stewardship and conservation lands at Kawartha Conservation, in a news release. “We want to make visitors aware that large trucks will be coming into Ken Reid beginning Saturday. Staff will be on site to address any concerns or answer questions from the public.”
This is the first major movie production to film at Ken Reid Conservation Area. Security will be present on site throughout the production, as well as conservation area staff.
The Marsh King’s Daughter is based on the 2017 international bestseller of the same name by American writer Karen Dionne. Directed by Neil Burger (Interview with the Assassin, The Illusionist, Limitless, Divergent, The Upside) from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith, the film will star Daisy Ridley (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, Ophelia) and Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Night Rises, Rogue One, Ready Player One, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Bloodline).
Ben Mendelsohn, pictured in the Netflix original series Bloodline for which he Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor, also stars in the upcoming thriller “The Marsh King’s Daughter”. (Photo: Netflix)
The film tells the story of Helena Petterier (Ridley), a woman who is living a seemingly ordinary life with her husband and young daughter but is hiding a dark secret from her past: her father Jacob Hollbrook (Mendelsohn) is the infamous ‘Marsh King’, a survivalist who kept Helena and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. After Hollbrook escapes from prison, and knowing he will hunt for her and her family, Helena is forced to confront her past and use the very skills her father taught her to keep her family safe.
The Marsh King’s Daughter is filming across Ontario during the summer, with key scenes being filmed at Ken Reid.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming the cast and crew of The Marsh King’s Daughter to Ken Reid Conservation Area and to Kawartha Lakes,” Virgoe says. “Our conservation areas and the entire region offers tremendous potential for the film and television industry. We’re excited to be able to host this production and look forward to the local and regional economic development potential these types of productions can provide.”
Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival in Peterborough from June 23 to 27, 2021. (Supplied photos)
NIFF is now a drive-in event
Originally scheduled to be performed to small audiences at several outdoor locations on Trent University’s East Bank campus, the festival will now be taking place as a drive-in event in parking lot X to comply with the performing arts restrictions of step one of the Ontario government’s reopening plan. For details, visit indigenousfringefest.ca/news.html.
The Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF) will offer live, COVID-safe outdoor-performances from Wednesday, June 23rd to Sunday, June 27th on the treaty and traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg and Chippewa Nations, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations, at Trent University in Peterborough.
A Facebook live event is scheduled to open NIFF — the world’s first Indigenous fringe festival — at 6 p.m. on National Indigenous Peoples Day (Monday, June 21st), with performances beginning on Wednesday evening.
In this two-part series, we introduce you to the artists performing at NIFF. This story profiles Sarah Gartshore and Lois Apaquash of Zaagi’idiwin Collective, Tiger Will Mason, and Olga Barrios and Norma Araiza of Vanguardia Dance Projects.
Note: Due to an unexpected and unfortunate family situation, Zaagi’idiwin Collective will not be performing Streetheart at NIFF this year.
Members of the Zaagi’idiwin Collective: Lois Apaquash, Sarah Gartshore, Darcy Trudeau, Crystal Kimewon, and Bill Sanders. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Gartshore)
“I am a helper,” states Zaagi’idiwin Collective founder Sarah Gartshore. “Everything that I do — whether that’s mothering, being a daughter, community building, theatre, doing outreach, doing mental health supports — whatever role I’m in, I am Oshkabaywis. I’m a helper.”
Gartshore first fell in love with the theatre as an actor. However, much of the material she encountered fell short — most scripts were neither raw nor real enough — so the actor decided to write her own plays.
“But when I wrote my first play, I thought my work was crap and I thought it could never be staged because it didn’t look like any of the shows I had seen or performed in,” Gartshore explains.
However, after seeing a production of ‘The Scrubbing Project’, directed by Muriel Miguel (NIFF mentor and founder of Spiderwoman Theatre in New York Muriel Miguel) and performed by The Turtle Gals Collective, Gartshore was inspired to continue writing.
“What that play did for me was it kind of gave me a wink and a nod,” Gartshore recalls. “It said ‘Your stuff can be staged.’ It made me realize the wildness of my plays is okay.”
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Since then, Gartshore has become a prolific playwright whose work has been featured in major festivals such as Nuit Blanche, Native Earth Performing Arts, and Fringe North. She held a prestigious residency as the Ontario Arts Council’s 2017/18 Playwright-in-Residence.
While Gartshore may be the person putting pen to paper, her plays are necessarily collaborative and inclusive. Interested in processes, most of Gartshore’s work is created through interviews, workshops, and rehearsals with the Zaagi’idiwin Collective, whose members have lived experience with homelessness.
“The people I’m talking about are on the street,” explains Gartshore. “So if I’m not including those people, what am I doing? It’s all about the process for us. It’s about taking care of community — of the people we’re working with.”
Gartshore points out NIFF is taking place during a time of immense for the Indigenous community, referring to the remains of children already found in unmarked graves in a B.C. residential school and the untold remains yet to be found at other residential schools.
“A lot of the content that we deal with is pretty heavy stuff. We need to be very careful with each other when we’re rehearsing. Everyone in the company knows that, even when we’re not in this space of mass grief and trauma.”
“It’s medicine, really,” adds Lois Apaquash, Zaagi’idiwin Collective actor and Gartshore’s mother, of the context in which NIFF will be held. “This is ground-breaking. This is the first Indigenous fringe festival in the world. It’s going to be a great group of people, mentors, and Elders.”
“There’s going to be a lot of knowledge sharing, which is going to be a comfort I think, and we’ll have ceremony as well. So we’re going to have that safety net around us. It’s going to be emotional, there’s no doubt about that. But we need to feel that, and the audience will feel it as well. It’s a real honour.”
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Tiger Will Mason – The Music and Stories of a Modern Mohawk
Tiger Will Mason. (Photo courtesy of NIFF)
Everyone’s heard of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon — the theory that, by six or fewer degrees of social connection, every actor is linked to Kevin Bacon. Evidently, it ought to be called the six degrees of Tiger Will Mason (formerly Andy Mason).
You name it, this artist has done it all. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a big name in showbiz that isn’t somehow connected to Tiger Will Mason.
He’s toured the country multiple times working as a musician, an activist, and a television/film/stage actor. Mason has worked with the likes of Oscar-winning filmmaker Deepa Mehta, actor Graham Green, and numerous notable musicians such as Jackson Browne, Floyd Westerman, and the hit 70s funk-rock band Redbone — to name but a few.
“One of the highlights of my career was opening for the legendary Redbone,” Mason says. “Their big hit, Come and Get Your Love, was used for the opening scene of Guardians of the Galaxy.”
“We ended up going back to the hotel afterwards, singing songs together until about three in the morning — ’til the hotel staff got mad and kicked everybody out,” he laughs.
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Mason has many amazing stories to tell and a gift for telling them. He weaves these stories — detailing a fascinating life of love, loss, activism, and good old rock and roll — into his musical act, to present a beautiful and entertaining fringe show for NIFF audiences.
“I had many great teachers and I carry a little tiny piece of all of my teachers with me both on the stage and in my life,” he says. “I get to stand on the shoulders of giants.”
In many ways, Mason’s NIFF performance closes a circle.
“In the beginning of my career, I was involved with one of the first Indigenous coffeehouses in Canada, and now I get to play the first Indigenous fringe festival in the world,” he says. “It’s perfect.”
Vanguardia Dance Projects – Hybrid Women
Olga Barrios and Norma Araiza of Vanguardia Dance Projects. (Photo courtesy of NIFF)
As independent Latin-American Indigenous dance artists working in Toronto, Olga Barrios and Norma Araiza were tired of adapting their artistic practices to fit into mainstream dance genres or categories. So, in 2008, they decided to create their own collective, and Vanguardia Dance Projects was born.
“Our work is not very mainstream, it’s more independent,” says multi-award-winning artist Olga Barrios. “We didn’t have many opportunities or platforms to present our work. So we created our own platform.”
“We had to create it because, otherwise, we were working alone all the time,” adds professional physical theatre performer and dancer Norma Araiza. “It was very difficult to always be a part of somebody else’s piece or project. I did collaborate with people when I could, but I did my dance career pretty much by myself.”
The drive-in performance location of the Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival at Trent University in Peterborough. (Map courtesy of NIFF)
Since founding the Vanguardia Dance Projects collective, Barrios and Araiza have supported contemporary dance artists’ professional development by providing numerous artistic opportunities such as their biannual festival, and producing or presenting artistic works, workshops, and touring.
Hybrid Women, Vanguardia Dance Project’s NIFF performance, is an experimental dance-theatre-ritual-action. Departing from the pulsating of the body in connection with and in response to nature, the show explores the connections and disconnections between our actions, our rituals, our thoughts, and our political points of view.
“It’s kind of a sensation,” explains Barrios. “It’s sort of surrealistic, in terms of the imagery — it investigates how we become particles of nature and how we live on the planet. It explores those places in between — in between the dream world; in between the beauty, the strength, and the perception of the planet in connection.”
“It’s experimental dance theatre and it’s also a ritual action,” adds Araiza. “It’s a mix that exists between the spaces.”
“I think that this is very, very important for the Indigenous artistic communities to have this festival,” Araisa says. “It’s an amazing opportunity and platform for people, from all over Turtle Island, to express ourselves.”
“This is big,” Barrios adds. “It’s the first time something like this has ever happened. I feel honoured to be able to perform. I just feel blessed, at this moment, that we are able to do it.”
To learn more about the world’s first and only Indigenous fringe festival and the amazing participating performers, visit NIFF’s website at indigenousfringefest.ca.
Here’s an update on COVID-19 cases in Ontario as well as in the greater Kawarthas region.
Ontario reported 318 new cases on Sunday, with most of the cases in Waterloo (51), Peel (49), Toronto (45), Ottawa (26), and Hamilton (20). The seven-day average of daily cases has decreased by 31 to 359.
Hospitalizations have decreased by 70 to 266, although more than 10% of hospitals did not submit data for the daily bed census so the actual number of hospitalizations may be higher. Patients in ICUs have decreased by 2 to 333, and patients on ventilators have fallen by 13 to 208.
Ontario reported 12 new deaths on Sunday, including 1 death in a long-term care home.
More than 12.5 million vaccine doses have been administered, an increase of 184,251 since yesterday, with over 85% of Ontario’s total population now having received at least one dose. Almost 2.9 million people have been fully vaccinated, with 148,978 people receiving their second dose yesterday, representing over 19.5% of the total population.
COVID-19 cases in Ontario from May 20 – June 19, 2021. The red line is the number of new cases reported daily, and the dotted green line is a five-day rolling average of new cases. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)OVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions in Ontario from May 20 – June 19, 2021. The red line is the daily number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, the dotted green line is a five-day rolling average of hospitalizations, and the purple line is the daily number of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)COVID-19 vaccinations in Ontario from May 20 – June 19, 2021. The red line is the cumulative number of daily doses administered and the green line is the cumulative number of people fully vaccinated with two doses of vaccine. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)
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Updated numbers for Sunday are unavailable for the greater Kawarthas region, as none of the health units in the region issue reports on Sunday. Updated numbers for the weekend will be provided in Monday’s update.
There are currently 57 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, an increase of 1 from yesterday, including 29 in Peterborough, 16 in Kawartha Lakes, 6 in Northumberland, 5 in Hastings Prince Edward (2 in Quinte West and 3 in Belleville), and 1 in Haliburton.
Since the pandemic began in the greater Kawarthas region, there have been 1,565 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area (1,515 resolved with 21 deaths), 1,081 in the City of Kawartha Lakes (1,021 resolved with 57 deaths), 938 in Northumberland County (915 resolved with 17 deaths), 122 in Haliburton County (120 resolved with 1 death), and 1,127 in Hastings and Prince Edward counties (1,111 resolved with 11 deaths). The most recent death was reported in Kawartha Lakes on June 5.
Here’s an update on COVID-19 cases in Ontario as well as in the greater Kawarthas region.
Ontario is reporting 355 new cases today, with most of the cases in Toronto (58), Waterloo (54), Peel (45), Hamilton (23), and Porcupine (22). The seven-day average of daily cases has decreased by 21 to 390.
Hospitalizations have decreased by 42 to 336, with ICU patients decreasing by 17 to 335 and patients on ventilators remaining the same at 221. Ontario is reporting 13 new deaths today, with no deaths in long-term care homes.
Almost 12.4 million vaccine doses have been administered, a record increase of 213,236 since yesterday, with almost 84% of Ontario’s total population now having received at least one dose. Over 2.7 million people have been fully vaccinated, with a record increase of 178,061 people receiving their second dose yesterday, representing over 18.5% of the total population.
COVID-19 cases in Ontario from May 19 – June 18, 2021. The red line is the number of new cases reported daily, and the dotted green line is a five-day rolling average of new cases. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)COVID-19 hospitalizations and ICU admissions in Ontario from May 19 – June 18, 2021. The red line is the daily number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, the dotted green line is a five-day rolling average of hospitalizations, and the purple line is the daily number of patients with COVID-19 in ICUs. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)COVID-19 vaccinations in Ontario from May 19 – June 18, 2021. The red line is the cumulative number of daily doses administered and the green line is the cumulative number of people fully vaccinated with two doses of vaccine. (Graphic: kawarthaNOW.com)
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In the greater Kawarthas region, there are 2 new cases to report, including 1 in Kawartha Lakes and 1 in Northumberland.
There are no new cases in Haliburton. Numbers for Peterborough and Hastings Prince Edward are no longer available on weekends; weekend numbers will be provided with Monday’s update.
There is 1 new hospitalization in Kawartha Lakes.
An additional case has been resolved in Northumberland.
Active cases have increased by 1 in Kawartha Lakes and remain the same in Northumberland and Haliburton.
There are currently 57 active cases in the greater Kawarthas region, an increase of 1 from yesterday, including 29 in Peterborough, 16 in Kawartha Lakes, 6 in Northumberland, 5 in Hastings Prince Edward (2 in Quinte West and 3 in Belleville), and 1 in Haliburton.
Since the pandemic began in the greater Kawarthas region, there have been 1,565 confirmed positive cases in the Peterborough area (1,515 resolved with 21 deaths), 1,081 in the City of Kawartha Lakes (1,021 resolved with 57 deaths), 938 in Northumberland County (915 resolved with 17 deaths), 122 in Haliburton County (120 resolved with 1 death), and 1,127 in Hastings and Prince Edward counties (1,111 resolved with 11 deaths). The most recent death was reported in Kawartha Lakes on June 5.
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