Here is a look back at the headlines of January, 2011.
1. Horizon Wind Inc.’s $126-million lawsuit was not put on hold in favour of arbitration, as city officials requested, when a judge ruled it could go ahead and ordered Thunder Bay to cover $15,000 of the company’s legal costs.
The judge’s decision said there was no arbitration clause in the original agreement between the two parties.
2. Mayor Keith Hobbs and MPP Michael Gravelle made up after Hobbs accused the minister of northern development and mines of not fighting hard enough for a ferrochrome processing facility for Thunder Bay.
The plant, to be owned and operated by Cleveland’s Cliffs Natural Resources, would create up to 500 jobs.
3. Former Northern Hardwoods employees said they were being left out in the cold after two regional Buchanan Forest Products companies announced in January they were entering receivership.
As non-secured creditors, the 600 former employees’ claims on $11 million in severance pay dropped to the bottom of the list, well behind major creditors, including Buchanan-owed shell companies.
4. A video of teenagers fighting outside the Silver City cinemas went briefly viral in Thunder Bay when it was posted on Facebook, along with posts bragging about the fight.
The parents of those involved, including the girl who was attacked, got together and worked it out amongst themselves. No charges were laid.
5. Matawa First Nations named Raymond Ferris as its Ring of Fire co-ordinator, brought in to ensure proper consultation on the project, which has sparked plenty of mining interests in Ontario’s Far North. Ferris promised to build a mandate from the people from the ground up.
6. Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs and several members of council caused a stir when they called out outgoing police chief Bob Herman for Thunder Bay Police Service’s lack of representation at weekly city council meetings. Coun.
Trevor Giertuga said police only show up at budget time. Then deputy chief JP Levesque said police do try to make themselves available to council when needed.
7. OPP officials arrested a Sault Ste. Marie man in Thunder Bay who was wanted in connection to a decapitation death in the Sault.
Twenty-six-year-old Ronald Mitchell was returned to his hometown on Jan. 18, charged with first degree murder and indignity to a dead body in the death of Wesley Hallam.
8. Michael Gravelle, to no one’s surprise, earned his fifth nomination to run for the Liberals in Thunder Bay-Superior North in the October election. He was unopposed, and went on to defeat the NDP’s Steve Mantis in the vote.
Meanwhile Fred Gilbert, the longtime Lakehead University president, announced he was seeking the provincial Conservative nomination in Thunder Bay-Atikokan. He would go on to win the nomination, but finished third in the October election.
9. It was learned the owners of Jimi the Dog, who killed another dog at a city-owned off-leash dog park in 2010, would be facing legal action.
The owners of Gus, the chihuahua who died in the incident, were seeking $50,000 for general damages.
The City of Thunder?Bay was also involved in the suit, with the Perrier family claiming improper supervision of the dog-park.
10. Fort William First Nation residents officially voted yes to a $154-million land claim settlement with the provincial and federal governments.
The deal, ratified early in the year, included the transfer of Flatland and?Pie Islands to FWFN. About 98 per cent of the urban reserved voted to accept the deal.
Every morning tbnewswatch.com will publish a new Look Back 2011. Tomorrow we will present the top stories of February 2011.
