Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is investigating a shooting inside Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg on Friday night (October 27) that left one man dead.

According to the SIU, the incident happened around 11 p.m. in the hospital’s emergency department, when Cobourg Police Service received a call for reports of gun shots inside the Northumberland Hills Hospital.

A short time later, two police officers encountered a 70-year-old man inside the emergency room of the hospital. The SIU have not indicated whether the man was carrying a firearm.

There was an interaction and both police officers discharged their firearms. The man was struck and later pronounced dead at the scene.

The body of a 76-year-old woman, later identified as the man’s wife, was also located at the scene. She had suffered a head wound. The SIU have not indicated whether the woman had been shot by her husband.

Due to the investigation, the hospital’s emergency department was temporarily closed, redirecting incoming patients to other hospitals in the area, but the emergency department has since returned to normal operations.

“Our staff and physicians are trained to deal with weapon-related situations,” says Linda Davis, the hospital’s president and CEO, in a statement. “While we hope that we never need to use this training, it proved very beneficial tonight. I want to thank our staff and our local police services for their fast and professional response.”

Davis says the hospital’s employee assistance provider was on site providing support to staff.

“Due to the ongoing investigation we are unable to comment on the specifics of what occurred in our Emergency Department last night,” Davis says. “What I can tell you is that the scene is secure and all current patients, caregivers, staff and police personnel are safe.”

The SIU — an arm’s length agency that investigates reports involving police where there has been death or serious injury — has assigned six investigators and two forensic investigators to investigate this incident.

The SIU is urging anyone who may have information about this investigation to contact the lead investigator at 1-800-787-8529. The unit is also urging anyone who may have any video evidence related to this incident to upload that video through the SIU website at www.siu.on.ca.

It was a defining moment in the history of war when the United States of America dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan on August 6, 1945 (and another bomb on Nagasaki three days later), with the two bombs killing at least 129,000 people.

But many Canadians are unaware of the critical role their own country played in the development of the atomic bomb, including mining and refining the uranium used in the Hiroshima bomb. Many Canadians are also unaware that the Sahtu Dene indigenous people in the Northwest Territories, where the uranium was mined, were used as manual labourers to transport the radioactive ore.

This little-known fact led Peterborough filmmaker Peter Blow in 1999 to produce Village of the Widows, a one-hour documentary study of how the Sahtu Dene people have been affected by the mining and transport of the uranium ore used in the atomic bomb.

Evans Contemporary (#2 Banker’s Common, located through Passage des Arts beside 383 Water St. in downtown Peterborough) will be screening the film at 7 p.m. on Thursday, October 26th. Following the free screening, Blow will be available for a Q&A session, along with Japanese photographer Mamoru Tsukada, whose exhibition The Exhausted Sky (which includes images from the Hiroshima nuclear attack) is currently on display at Evans Contemporary.

First broadcast on Canada’s Vision TV network, Blow’s documentary was nominated for Best Political Documentary and was the winner of the VISION 2000 Humanitarian Award at Hot Docs. It was also second prize winner of the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation Award at First Peoples of the Americas Festival in Montreal, and received honourable mentions at Columbus and Yorkton.

On the far eastern shore of Great Bear Lake in the Northwst Territories, about 300 miles north of Yellowknife, lies Port Radium. During World War II, uranium-bearing ore was mined there and transported thousands of kilometres south by river and rail for processing at a uranium milling and refining facility located in Port Hope. From there, it went to the Manhattan Project for eventual use in “Little Boy”, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Port Radium, which has first opened in 1929 as a radium mine, was reopened again as a uranium mine in 1941 to supply the Manhattan Project with uranium ore. The mine, owned and operated by the Eldorado Gold Mining Company until the company was purchased by the Canadian government, employed around 30 Dene men from Déline, a community of about 550 people across the lake on the ore transport route.

The workers, who were never informed of the hazards of radiation and never took any precautions, carried burlap sacks of radioactive uranium ore for transportation to the refining facility. Over the years, the community lost so many of its men to cancer it became known as the Village of Widows. Almost half of the labourers who worked at the mine died from cancer.

In addition, tons of tailings from the mine were dumped directly into the lake and used as landfill, raising concerns about the impact of the mine on the environment and the continued health of the Dene people.

Village of the Widows chronicles the Sahtu Dene’s struggle to come to terms with the mine’s legacy and its lasting impact on their traditional homeland, and concludes with a group of Dene residents travelling from Deline to Hiroshima to meet Japanese bomb survivors.

Blow, who studied at the London International Film School, has worked on well over 100 broadcast television documentaries. He’s been directing documentaries since 1985 and has won several awards, including Best Experimental Award at the 2015 Toronto International Short Film Festival for his 2014 fantasy comedy Ophelia Goes Floating. He also taught film analysis and appreciation at Centennial College from 2011 to 2014.

Blow is currently working with Malcolm Byard and Rob Viscardis on Last Beer at the Pig’s Ear, a documentary about the historic Pig’s Ear Tavern which closed in April 2017.

VIDEO: Village of the Widows promo

For all the joy, vibrancy and recognition that Peterborough’s live music community has brought the city over the decades, there exists one undeniable truth: that community faces unprecedented challenges threatening its very existence.

Look no further than the recent closures of long-standing Peterborough music venues for proof of the severity of the growing assault on all things musically live and local.

Earlier this month, The Spill in downtown Peterborough closed its doors — a huge setback in particular for young musicians who always found a most welcome home for their developing talent at the George Street North café.

Combine that with April’s closure of the Pig’s Ear Tavern and the subsequent near sale of the building housing The Black Horse Pub (it remains on the market), and it’s clear that 2017 hasn’t been kind to those who make all, or part, of their living bringing music to the people.

But while the loss of venues has been well publicized, it’s what we haven’t known that provides hope the live music community will not only survive roadblocks to its existence but will thrive in spite of them. Anchoring that optimism is Music Peterborough, until recently a mostly whispered initiative that aims to “celebrate and promote” Peterborough’s significance and role in the provincial, national, and international music scene.

On Sunday, October 29th from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte Street, 705-749-1146), the collective behind Music Peterborough will host its first public event in the form of a public consultation, the goal of which is “to initiate conversation on the needs of our music scene, and seek innovative ways to both promote our music cluster and advocate on behalf of those working in and alongside it.”

Everyone — including musicians, tourism and economic development stakeholders, and local music fans — is welcome to participate in what Music Peterborough chair Donald Fraser predicts will be “a rather formal informal event.”

“We’re absolutely doing our homework,” says Fraser of the motivation behind hosting the consultation.

“I think it would be presumptuous to start offering any type of programming or setting any type of direction without talking to the stakeholders — the people involved. We’re trying to get the lay of the land.”

To that end, the event will see participants provided the opportunity to sit in at moderated tables grouped by theme and provide their input on the needs of the local live music community. Themes include education, networking, funding, promotion, and advocacy.

While terming the loss of live music venues “a real concern” (the loss of The Spill is “a massive blow to young musicians”), Fraser makes it clear there are numerous other challenges long overdue for a hard look and solutions.

“I had one guy message me saying if shows started at eight o’clock rather than 10 o’clock, he’d be there,” Fraser says. “That’s the type of thing we need to hear.

“I was having a conversation with a relative. We were talking about fair pay for musicians. He’s an architect. I said, ‘Imagine someone saying ‘Can you drop by and maybe just do a couple of sketches?’ It wouldn’t happen. People think that because musicians enjoy their work, that means they shouldn’t be paid. That drives me nuts. In a perfect world, we should do what we love but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be compensated.”

Formed almost five years ago, Music Peterborough’s mandate makes clear the initiative is no one-trick pony:

• Promote Peterborough as a destination for music tourism.
• Promote Peterborough musicians on a global platform.
• Provide advocacy and access to professional development resources for musicians.
• Strengthen Peterborough as a destination for recording, rehearsing and other professional development activities.
• Stimulate economic growth by promoting Peterborough’s venues, festivals and other activities related to live music.

When it comes to music, “artists are a funny bunch,” Fraser says.

“They are lousy at advocating for themselves. That’s one of the reasons musicians often get paid so terribly. They are not thinking about themselves and their impact, but rather just doing what they do because they love it — living that day-to-day life of art and music.

“Arts and music are huge economic drivers in Peterborough. If the artists aren’t recognizing this, they should be. If the municipality and people who are involved in economic development aren’t recognizing this, they should be. It’s time to go from having this loose collective of musicians who are eking out a living, to bringing them together and recognizing their worth to the community and to themselves.”

Fraser points to the current serious health challenge faced by Rick Young of Rick and Gailie fame, which has forced the duo to take a lengthy sabbatical from performing — their prime source of income.

“It makes you realize it’s an awfully precarious lifestyle. If something happens, there’s no safety net. This is one of the things that need to be addressed. In most offices, you break a leg or you have a heart attack, you go on sick leave; there’s no sick leave for musicians. It’s about legitimizing music as a career.”

Describing himself as “a very bad musician, which makes me a very big lover of good music,” Fraser’s involvement in Music Peterborough came about innocently enough. A pub sit-down here, a sidewalk conversation there, and eventually the invitation to chair the group.

“One of my first tasks is to make myself obsolete and set up a board of directors made up of people from the music scene,” says Fraser. “I turn to the people on the committee and try to draw information from them.”

Along with Fraser and downtown Peterborough city councillor Diane Therrien, the interim committee includes three well-known local musicians: Mary-Kate Edwards, Al Black, and Melissa Payne.

“They are musicians that were picked carefully. Mary Kate is very young, Alis on the other end of the spectrum, and Melissa is right in the middle.”

“I want questions asked by the people who are probably asking those questions already,” Fraser adds when referring to the public consultation. “I’ve been very careful, and (committee members) have been very careful, in not saying what it is we need, but discovering a way to find out what the great needs are.”

To that end, one of the table themes at the public consultation will be governance — “What Music Peterborough should look like — and, from there, the development of “a working board that can go on” and work towards fulfilling its mandate.

“There’s a creativity that’s unique to the artistic process in helping launch new programs and projects,” Fraser says. “There’s an excitement, a palpable energy. I really enjoy the process but I also recognize that a big part of that is pulling the right people together and empowering them and watching that excitement grow.”

Despite the threats to the live music community’s existence, Fraser is careful to note it’s not all doom and gloom. After all, the sector has always faced challenges in one form or another. It’s not time to throw out the baby with the bath water.

“The economic landscape of Ontario, of Canada, of North America, is increasingly stark. We see that across every sector but that doesn’t mean the entire (live music) sector is falling apart. I work closely with Trent University. I see the cuts that happen at learning institutions across the province and across the country. That doesn’t mean we should shut down learning institutions. It means we have to find creative new ways to move forward.”

“The ability to network, the ability to share resources — there have been all sorts of ideas floated, like where you pay a cover at one place and can go to several others. There are ways that offer increased compensation for being a venue for live music.”

While many point to Austin, Texas as the supreme example of how live music’s value should be respected and mined in terms of a community’s overall well-being, Fraser references a city much closer to home: Stratford, and its long recognition of the economic impact of live theatre. Peterborough, he adds, is very well positioned for a similar result.

“Peterborough already has a stellar reputation for both producing incredible musicians and also being a drawing card for musicians across Canada. For the longest time, Peterborough was that stop you always hit. If you were going from west to east or east to west, we had everyone come through.

“Bring the music here, bring the people here, and give it the infrastructure that also allows our local musicians to shine. In two years, programs will hopefully start being launched with partners. In five years, I would really hope that the Peterborough live music scene has been bettered by bringing all of the stakeholders together.”

For more information about the public consultation, visit Music Peterborough on Facebook.

The Impact 32 Expert Auction is back for another year, raising funds to build much-needed permanent docks for Bobcaygeon.

Last year’s auction raised over $25,000, and organizers hope this year’s auction will raise even more.

“Auctioneer Shaun Evans has a great line up on the auction block again,” says Carly Poole, founding member of Impact 32, a volunteer steering committee of local business owners and community organizers that support the economic development and community beautification of Bobcaygeon.

“Everything from traditional services like personal, home and vehicle to experiences like an in-home improv party or guesting on the morning show on Country 105.”

The Expert Auction — a variation of a regular auction where you bid on time offered by local experts rather than items — takes place on Saturday, November 4th from 6:30 to 11 p.m. at Lakeview Arts Barn (2300 Pigeon Lake Rd., Bobcaygeon).

Here are some of the items on the auction block:

• High Seas Adventure with Captain Frank from Happy Days Houseboats
• Hair style, professional makeup application, manicure, and luxury products from Cosmopolitan Salon and Spa
• 60-minute Happy Hour Improv Workshop with Second City’s Dave Pearse and Jennine Profeta
• Co-host the Morning Show at Country 105
• Personalized day on the water experience with Buckeye Marine
• Bake like the pros including tips and tricks at Bobcaygeon Bakery
• Personal shopping experience with gift card from Bigley’s Shoes & Clothing
• Brew your own batch of beer from start to finish at Old Dog Brewery
• Kawartha Lakes Honey’s Bee Yard and Honey House tour
• Six local expert yoga instructors from Passport to Prana providing one free class each
• Learn to renew and restore furniture from Good Pickins and Town and Country Decorating Centre.

The evening will also feature a silent auction with items donated by local businesses, along with donated prizes, games, live entertainment, and more.

Some of the auction items and prizes include a hand-knitted shawl from Julie Anderson of Bird’s Wool Shopper, a dozen tarts and a $100 gift certificate from Bobcaygeon Bakery, hand-made pottery from Peace of Earth, sculptures from Garden Art by Sandy, his and her heated jackets from Jermyn Lumber, Leaf tickets from Darling Insurance, and cheesecakes from Cake by the Lake.

Tickets are $45 each ($400 for a table of 10) and include canapes, a dessert buffet, and a cash bar.

Tickets are available now in Bobcaygeon at My Favourite Things (10 King St. E., 705-738-9090), Kawartha Coffee Co. (49 Bolton St., 705-738-1500), Darling Insurance (7 Main St., 705-738-2042), and LiveWell (58 Duke St., 705-738-4554).