By David Lacasse

A 51 year-old Sudbury man is facing charges in two different cities after a search warrant was executed today.

In the residence, police found files containing child pornography.

Steve O’Link has been charged with Possession and Accessing Child Pornography.

He is also facing charges in Hamilton for Sexual Assault, stemming from an incident in July.

By Angela Gemmill

The Luncheon of Hope was a sell-out again this year, with 600 people packing into the Caruso Club to hear a two-time cancer survivor tell her story.

This year’s guest speaker was Canadian journalist and author, Libby Znaimer, who has been cancer-free for three years after beating both breast and pancreatic cancer.

She says newly diagnosed patients feel bombarded with information.

As a journalist, Znaimer says she asked so many questions when she was first diagnosed that her oncologist in Toronto made a comment about it.

She says she wanted to know everything about her illnesses.

Znaimer credits cancer research for saving her life, since scientists discovered she had a mutated gene link to breast cancer.

The same gene can cause pancreatic cancer

The treatment she had for the breast cancer was also very effective at working on the pancreatic cancer cells.

The luncheon raised 45-thousand dollars for the Northern Cancer Research Foundation, which will go towards cancer research and chemotherapy/radiation clinics for breast cancer patients in Sudbury.

(Journalist & Author Libby Znaimer at the 13th annual Luncheon of Hope in Sudbury)

By Angela Gemmill

A sea of over two-thousand runners and walkers wearing pink.

That’s what organizers of the CIBC Run For the Cure in Sudbury want to see Sunday morning at Cambrian College.

Local Spokesperson Stephanie Deschenes says the event is a celebration for survivors and their families, not a downer.

She says there’s still time to sign up and new runners and walkers are always welcome.

Sudbury native, Olympic gold-medalist, Tessa Bonhomme, is again the honourary chair and despite her Battle of the Blades schedule, will be in town for the run.

If she wins the CBC contest where hockey players are paired with figure skaters, her winnings will go to the Sudbury site of the Run For the Cure for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Deschenes says there will be one key person missing: Myra Gerow who’d led a team every year since the Sudbury run started 14 years ago.

Myra died this past summer.

Deschenes says Myra’s spirit is a driving force for so many who are participating, volunteering  and organizing this year’s event.

The goal is to raise 360-thousand dollars, which will all go towards cancer research.

Opening Ceremonies start at 9am with the five-kilometre run taking off at 10am.

(Myra Gerow, CIBC Run For the Cure Team Leader for 13 years in Sudbury, passed July 2011)

By Angela Gemmill

Today is the final day to cast a ballot in advance of next Thursday’s provincial election in Ontario.

In the Sudbury riding there are six Advance Poll locations, while Nickel Belt riding has four locally.

They are all open until 8o’clock tonight.

After that all ballots will have to be cast on Election Day, October 6th.

For advance poll locations go to www.elections.on.ca

By Angela Gemmill

Now that the Greater Sudbury Transit System has installed an automated call-out system for its visually impaired passengers, the Ontario Human Rights Commission has settled a human rights case.

Complaints against Sudbury, Thunder Bay and Hamilton were filed in July 2009 because at the time these communities did not provide accessibility for the blind.

Since then all three have made steps to provide transit services for the visually impaired.

The OHRC settled all three cases yesterday.

Under the Ontario Human Rights Code persons with vision disabilities have a right to equal treatment for municipal services.

In Sudbury, all transit buses are 100 percent accessible and include both audio and visual automated next stop announcements.

By Angela Gemmill

An NHL hockey legend received an honourary doctorate from Huntington University during convocation ceremonies yesterday in Copper Cliff.

The affiliate school at Laurentian, recognized Frank Mahovlich, a South Porcupine native, for his contributions to Canadian sports and politics.

Mahovlich, also known as ‘The Big M’, is also a Canadian Senator and has been awarded the Order of Canada and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The battle to represent the Sudbury Belt riding at Queens Park will be decided in the October 6th election.

Listed below are the names and party affiliations of four candidates representating the main parties along with features on each of them.

Rick Bartolucci (LIB)

Paul Loewenberg (NDP)

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Pat Rogerson (Green)



By Angela Gemmill

Five Home builders in Greater Sudbury are testing out the market for energy efficient technology incorporated into new construction.

They’re part of the Technology Adoption Pilot (TAP) project by EnerQuality Corporation, to try out ‘next generation’ products in one or two of their homes being built.

EnerQuality President Corey McBurney says this opens the door to all builders constructing their homes with these technologies and keeping the momentum underway for greener, more efficient homes being built everyday.

He says these nine pilot homes (Discovery Homes) are built to higher standards than the legal Ontario Building Code standard.

These pilot homes include technologies like triple-glazed windows, tank-less water heaters, heat recovery ventilators, infloor heating, drain water recovery units, and are solar ready.

One of the Discovery homes, by Monkhouse Homes was on display to the media this morning on Bayside Crescent in Minnow Lake.

McBurney says these participating builders which he calls ‘industry leaders’ will go forward and hopefully include these technologies in their other homes and ultimately 100% of the homes in the future will feature these efficiencies.

The new energy efficient technologies are meant to provide long-term cost savings for the new homeowers.

(Phil Monkhouse of Monkhouse Homes explaining one of the energy efficient features of the Discovery Home on Bayside Crescent in Minnow Lake)

By Angela Gemmill

Tonight is the final night to give input on the state of municipal arenas in Greater Sudbury.

City officials will be at Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School from 4-8pm to get feedback from residents and hear recommendations for future plans.

The information gathered will be included in the Arena Renewal Strategy to be presented to council later this fall.

By Angela Gemmill

Thirteen-hundred cartons of cigarettes, worth 29-thousand-dollars were seized by the RCMP in Sudbury, with the help of Timmins Police.

A Timmins man (Josclyn Desrochers) was arrested and charged with possession of illegal tobacco products.

RCMP in Sudbury stopped a vehicle on September 12th and found 118 cartons of the cigarettes.

Timmins Police found the remainder in a storage unit in that city.