Here's a look back at this year's top 10 news stories from February, as composed by tbnewswatch.com editor Leith Dunick:
1. Mayor Keith Hobbs launched a lawsuit against lawyer Sandy Zeitzeff, after a YouTube video of the two was made public in November 2016. Hobbs said the video, which includes a marriage proposal and clowns, was published with the sole purpose of damaging his credibility. Zaitzeff is facing charges of sexual assault.
2. Long-serving MPP and Minister of Northern Development and Mines Michael Gravelle announced he was stepping aside temporarily in order to complete treatment for depression. Gravelle said he’d been struggling with uneasiness for several months. He’d remain off the job for five months.
3. Elementary teachers walked off the job at three senior elementary schools to picket outside the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board, calling for fairness in hiring practices and experience to take priority when filling vacancies. The board then locked out the teachers at the three schools the following day.
4. City council voted to implement a number of recommendations from the 2016 inquest into the death of seven Indigenous youth between 2000 and 2011. Among the recommendations was funding youth programming, orientation for students coming from remote communities and a youth detoxification centre.
5. Randal Wabasse was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the 2014 death of Adam Nicodemus Beaver, who was beaten to death in the hallway of his Cumberland Street apartment. Wabasse pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
6. It was a double tragedy for residents of Nibinamik First Nation. Days after renowned Indigenous artist Moses Amik Beaver died in custody at the Thunder Bay District Jail, his sister, Mary Wabasse, was killed in a Highway 102 collision. Several members of Wabasse’s family were also injured in the crash. Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler said the deaths devastated the community and left plenty of unanswered questions. The province later promised to hold an inquest into Beaver’s death.
7. City administration revealed its plan to address municipally relevant recommendations resulting City council finally approved a plan to replace a crumbling wall on High Street. The wall had been assessed by city engineers as the municipality’s worse structure among all of its assets. The $2.3-million project closed a section of the busy street for several months.
8. The bodies of two missing snowmobilers were pulled from waters at the mouth of Lake Nipigon. Rocky Bay First Nation residents Gerard Thompson, 51, and Nathaniel Thompson, 45, were last seen on the afternoon of Feb. 16.
9. A controversial public-art piece took a hit – literally – in the early hours of Jan. The city’s culture and events page said a newly installed Algoma Street statue was knocked over by a motorist. It suffered minimal damage, but was taken away for repairs and later reinstalled.
10. Thunder Bay had an asteroid named in its honour by the International Astronomical Union. Formerly known as 1942 TB, the newly named space rock’s new moniker is 11780 Thunder Bay. The asteroid resides between Mars and Jupiter and has a diameter of about five kilometres.
