Latest news with #Kingston
The Independent
a day ago
- Climate
- The Independent
Warning over dangers of rivers, lakes and waterways as temperatures soar
Warnings are being issued over the risks surrounding rivers, lakes and waterways as temperatures are set to reach heatwave levels in parts of the country. Temperatures are rising this week and are forecast to peak at 33C on Saturday. London Fire Brigade (LFB) has attended more than 280 water-related incidents this year so far, an increase of about 15% compared with the same period in 2024, it said. They have included incidents such as sinking and capsized boats, individuals trapped in mud or caught by the tide, and people and animals in distress in the water. Fifteen incidents resulted in people drowning in London, the fire brigade said. As part of a national push during Drowning Prevention Week, LFB is increasing engagement with communities to raise awareness of water safety risks. During a visit to Kingston Fire Station, Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey met local firefighters and observed a live demonstration of the brigade's river flume tank. The tank includes a hydraulic flume with a range of features such as bridges, rocks and weirs to demonstrate how water behaves in rivers. Since its introduction at Twickenham Fire Station last year, the tank has been used across London to show schools, youth groups, communities and stakeholders how even experienced swimmers can quickly get into difficulty in open water. Pam Oparaocha, assistant commissioner for prevention and protection, said: 'We're working closely with MPs, schools and local communities to help people understand the serious water safety risks as summer approaches. 'With warm weather and school holidays on the horizon, we want people, especially young people, to enjoy our waterways safely, and that starts with education. 'Strong currents, underwater hazards and cold water shock can be deadly. It's important to know the risks and to familiarise yourself with lifesaving equipment like throwlines, which are available along many of London's waterways. There's a wealth of guidance on our website to help people stay safe this summer.' Jules Pipe, deputy mayor for the fire service, said: 'London's rivers, lakes and waterways can look very appealing when the temperatures rise, however, they can contain hidden dangers. 'The mayor and I are working to improve the capital's waterways for everyone to enjoy, and I urge everyone to heed London Fire Brigade's advice to stay safe in and around water. 'As the hot weather continues and with the summer holidays looming, this timely work with young people will help save lives and build a safer London for everyone.'
CBC
a day ago
- Health
- CBC
Kingston prison's supervised drug site has had just 1 visitor
More than a year-and-a-half after it opened, a site at a Kingston, Ont., prison where inmates can consume smuggled drugs under medical supervision has only had one user. The overdose prevention service (OPS) at the Collins Bay Institution was set up as a place where prisoners could inject, snort or swallow substances, all with a nurse on standby. It opened on Nov. 28, 2023, becoming the first of its kind in Ontario and only the third in Canada. (Two more OPS sites have opened since). Five people who applied have been approved to use the site so far, but just one has actually done so, and that inmate has only used it a handful of times, beginning in April, CBC has learned. "There's always going to be a bit of a level of distrust, especially with a novel program such as this and a fundamental change to how we are supporting somebody living with addictions," said Matthew Secord, manager of health and rehabilitation at Collins Bay. Secord described the first visit as "a surreal moment," adding it takes "quite a bit of bravery and courage" to try something new — especially inside a prison. As of March 31, 2025, the cost of running the site — which includes salaries plus operational and maintenance costs — has come to $517,000, according to a spokesperson with Correctional Service Canada (CSC). Inmate says visits attract unwanted attention A man who spent more than a year incarcerated at Collins Bay's minimum security section said he's not surprised the site has seen so little use because it means exposing yourself, and potentially your supplier. CBC has agreed not to identify the inmate, who served his time before the consumption site opened, because he believes speaking out could cause problems with his employment. "If you're a drug dealer in prison, you're not going to sell drugs to a guy who's going to go to the guards because ... they're gonna know who you are, and they're gonna pay attention to you," the man explained. That can result in cell searches or being labelled a gang member, he said, describing some correctional officers as "pure haters" who want to punish inmates beyond their sentences. The goal for nearly everyone behind bars is to get out, the former prisoner said, so a prisoner would be foolish to do anything that could risk delaying their chance at parole — especially open drug use. Fewer needles found in cells An "amnesty zone" exists around the consumption site, meaning approved inmates are able to head to the prison's health-care wing and if drugs are found on them, they can't be charged, explained Secord, the head of health services. Once a prisoner arrives, they're provided with clean supplies and given 10 minutes to consume their substance. They're then required to stay for 30 minutes under observation in case of any negative effects. The sites are an initiative supported by both harm reduction advocates and the union representing correctional officers, which sees it as a way to limit the number of needles inside cells and ensure medical staff, not its members, are the ones responding to overdoses. CSC said visits to a consumption site, like all other medical information, are confidential and will only be shared in limited circumstances such as a life-threatening situation. "Participants ... will not be disciplined for using the service, which includes questions about potential impacts on an offender's conditional release, but they may face disciplinary measures if caught with illicit drugs outside of it," wrote spokesperson Mike Shrider in an email. Operating hours an issue Even with that assurance, the worry persists among prisoners, according to Lynne Leonard, who recently retired as a professor with the University of Ottawa's School of Epidemiology and Public Health. Between 2019 and March 2025, she visited four of the five OPS sites across the country — including Collins Bay — spending hours at each speaking confidentially with everyone from the warden to inmates, before writing up recommendations as part of an independent evaluation. Leonard said one of the most stubborn obstacles she encountered was the fear among inmates that visiting an OPS would be reported to the parole board. While that was a requirement in the past, it isn't any longer, the evaluator said, adding she called on CSC to make that distinction clear to inmates in both her 2020 and 2025 reports. Another common complaint is the operating hours for the sites. While they're open during the day, Leonard said prisoners don't want to be under the influence of narcotics during programming, work or meetings with parole officers. Instead, they'd prefer to take drugs during their free time after supper. The evaluator said she's been told by CSC staff that the hours come down to finances and staffing, explaining it can be hard enough to find nurses to work in a prison, let alone someone willing to work until 10 p.m. A move to crystal meth There's also been a change in the inmates' drug of choice. While fentanyl was popular when OPS sites were first opening up, that's no longer the case. "It's now shifted to crystal meth ... resulting in the fact that you can get fentanyl for a candy bar now because nobody wants it, because it's associated with overdoses," Leonard said. Meth is typically smoked, a drug-consumption method that isn't allowed at OPS locations. The drug can also come with "frightening psychotic episodes," she explained. Still, the most obvious and enduring barrier is the pressure that comes from walking through a prison to visit one of the sites. Leonard said beyond concerns about parole or a crackdown by correctional officers, inmates who use an OPS face a more immediate risk — being "muscled" by others eager for their drugs and willing to use violence to get them. "It's not confidential by any means, and that's part of the issue," she said of visiting the site. "Confidentiality is a huge, huge issue." Trying to attract inmates Twenty-three overdoses or suspected overdoses were reported at Collins Bay between 2022 and 2023, according to CSC. Since the OPS opened, that number had dropped to zero, Secord said, explaining the trend toward crystal meth has likely been a major factor. Like Leonard, he identified operating hours, the attention a visit to the site draws, and the change in the drug of choice as barriers to its use. If there's a recommendation to allow smoking substances including meth at the OPS, that option could be discussed in the future, he added. Meanwhile, Secord said staff at Collins Bay will continue to work with its inmate committee and health liaisons to highlight what the site has to offer. Leonard said everyone wants the OPS model to work, but some problems will be easier to solve than others. During her evaluations, she's heard suggestions that the sites should move out of the health services section of prisons, or that they should be placed on a range of cells specifically for inmates who are using substances. The former inmate said the focus should be on rehab, not drug use, and argued CSC will always have a hard time convincing prisoners that using an OPS won't hurt their hopes of release. "I think inmates have to be assured that it's genuine for their own health, their own life," he explained. "You have to entice them and to make them feel that this is not gonna harm me."
CBC
a day ago
- Politics
- CBC
Kingston's Indian Road could get new name
Social Sharing Indian Road in Kingston, Ont., could soon get a new name. Kingston's city council voted 7-3 Tuesday evening to rename the 800-metre residential street northwest of the downtown core, as well as two parkettes that share its name. According to Coun. Gregory Ridge's motion to change the name, "Indian" is an outdated term that contravenes a city bylaw forbidding names that are "discriminatory, offensive, or derogatory." The term is still used in federal legislation to identify some Indigenous peoples under the Indian Act. But Daniel Shipp, a resident of the street, told council that doesn't justify its continued use as a street name. "In my opinion, the street name is not only offensive and derogatory … it's very much out of step with our municipal street naming policy," Shipp said. Coun. Jeff McLaren, whose district includes the road, said the people who developed the area decades ago chose the name to recognize the contributions of Indigenous people in Canada, and pointed to the nearby Mohawk Place and Algonquin Terrace as other examples. McLaren argued that the city should take a step back and consult residents, Indigenous organizations and First Nations to determine if the name change should go ahead. Earlier in the meeting, he read a petition with 40 signatures from residents of Indian Road who are against the name change. McLaren called the decision to change the name without further consultation "paternalistic," but his motion to reconsider the name change failed 7-3. He did get two changes passed: one to verify and acknowledge the original intent of the street name, and a second to expand consultation. City staff will now consult Indigenous groups and others affected by the name change, and will also assess the burden on residents who may have to change their addresses. The matter is expected to return to council in the first half of 2026.
CBC
2 days ago
- Science
- CBC
How do you make a campus more sustainable? These universities did it with GoPros and selling leftovers
Social Sharing Using GoPros to monitor tree seedlings and tackling campus food insecurity through leftovers are among the initiatives that helped propel two Canadian universities into the top 10 in a U.K. ranking of efforts at post-secondary schools worldwide to meet United Nations goals for a sustainable planet. Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., and the University of Alberta are among the top 10 institutions in the world when it comes to advancing UN goals such as ending poverty and protecting the planet, according to Times Higher Education's 2025 Impact Rankings. The 17 sustainable development goals, established by the UN in 2015 as a call to action to tackle pervasive global issues and ensure prosperity across the globe, range from ending world hunger to taking climate action and ensuring access to health and education. The goals were unanimously adopted by member countries at the time, but the UN warned last year that less than one-fifth of the targets are on track to be achieved by the deadline in 2030. Times Higher Education's Impact Rankings is the only ranking system that looks at how universities are helping to address these UN goals through research and education, as well as campus and community programs, according to the publication. "Universities are actually uniquely positioned to help solve the sustainable development goals," Ellie Bothwell, rankings editor at Times Higher Education, told CBC News. Not only can they drive research efforts to find solutions and teach the next generation of problem-solvers, she said, but universities also collaborate heavily with surrounding communities locally, nationally and on campus. "They're sort of mini-cities in a way themselves." The rankings, released Tuesday, assessed more than 2,500 universities from 130 countries and territories for their sustainability progress, including 24 from Canada. Queen's University was the highest-scoring Canadian university, tying for sixth place overall with Arizona State University. Programs reducing food waste and insecurity on campus and research into green supercomputers and lowering emissions are among the factors keeping them ahead of the pack, Queen's says. The University of Alberta also made it to the top 10, at eighth place. Seven Canadian universities were ranked in the global top 50, the most for any country after Australia, which netted nine. "Canadian universities perform really strongly," Bothwell said. "Lots of [Canadian universities] were among the first to sort of commit to be carbon neutral or to publish really quite detailed sustainability reports on their own emissions. So, yeah, we see Canada among those leading the way on this." To be included in the rankings, which have been conducted since 2019, universities submit data each year on their progress toward the goals. Their progress in advancing a specific goal, such as ending poverty, for example, is scored using factors such as the number of research publications universities put out on that topic, courses and campus programs addressing it, and partnerships with governments, non-governmental organizations and other post-secondary institutions. Canadian universities scored high in several individual categories. The University of Alberta was ranked first in the industry, innovation and infrastructure goal along with 11 other universities, while the University of Victoria came in second for advancing sustainable cities and communities. How Canadian universities are pursuing sustainability At Queen's University, the goals are considered in every department, said principal and vice-chancellor Patrick Deane. "Whatever we do here needs to be green. It needs to be properly responsive to the sustainable goals," he told CBC News. "[It's] critically important for the health of societies, the health of individuals and the health of the planet that we make progress on all of these. So it's a matter of urgency." Queen's University is the only Canadian institution to have been in the top 10 of the rankings for five years straight, and jumped two places this year compared to last year's ranking. It's a "vindication for the work" it has been doing, Deane said. In the individual goals, Queen's University was ranked second in two: peace, justice and strong institutions; and furthering sustainable oceans. Queen's came first globally for addressing the goal of zero hunger. One of the programs highlighting the university's commitment to addressing food insecurity, according to Deane, is its Providing Equal Access, Changing Hunger (PEACH) Market, started in 2022, where leftover food from Queen's hospitality services is then sold on a pay-what-you-can model. Queen's is also developing a software-automated aeroponic vertical farm, a type of farming that uses less land and water. Deane said that as researchers look to expand supercomputing and artificial intelligence capacity in Canada, Queen's is also working on more environmentally friendly and efficient supercomputers to cut the ecological cost of energy-hungry AI. The rankings have made the university "much more deliberate about this work," he said. "And I think that's what's required if we're going to get where we need to be on these goals." At the University of Alberta, graduate student Sarun Khadka found that GoPros could monitor tree seedlings as accurately as humans, potentially making monitoring more "efficient and accessible," a spokesperson told CBC News. Other examples of how the university is addressing the sustainability goals include a new course to help future urban planners find practical tools for climate adaptation and a new interdisciplinary research centre focused on water safety. Universities in Asia saw advances in sustainable development in the latest ranking, Bothwell said, with a university from South Korea (Kyungpook National University) and one from Indonesia (Universitas Airlangga) entering the top 10 for the first time. U.S. has 1 university in top 50 "Asian universities now lead 10 out of the 17 individual ... rankings, up from five last year," Bothwell said. "That's something that's been really pleasing to see." The U.S., despite being known as a research powerhouse, had only one university in the global top 50, compared to three in last year's ranking. "It's striking that there are relatively low numbers of U.S. universities, given the size of the sector," Bothwell said. The U.S. formally withdrew its support of the goals earlier this year, with Edward Heartney, a minister-counsellor at the U.S. mission to the United Nations, stating at a March meeting of the General Assembly that the U.S. "rejects and denounces" the shared UN goals. With global progress toward the goals already slowed by widespread disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic and global conflicts, and the United Nations warning that progress on more than one-third of the goals had " stalled or regressed" as of 2024, it's an uphill battle, but one Bothwell says post-secondary institutions are still fighting. "There is certainly skepticism about whether nations will be able to reach the goals," Bothwell said. "I would say though that I think that universities are showing amazing resilience and momentum and continuing to make an impact, striving to keep progress going even when maybe nationally the governments aren't focusing as much on this as they could."
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Kingston, Ont. police charge suspect after stabbing outside shelter
Police in Kingston, Ont. say a suspect has been charged after a stabbing near a local shelter last week. The incident happened June 13 at around 10:40 p.m. outside the shelter on Adelaide Street near Cowdy Street, police said. 'Through the course of investigation, it was determined that the victim, who had arrived at the property approximately five minutes before the incident, was standing outside speaking with other individuals when the accused approached him from the rear and assaulted him with an edged weapon,' Kingston police said in a news release. The victim was treated in hospital for serious injuries. Police say the suspect and the victim knew each other, but the suspect had already left by the time police arrived that night. The 45-year-old suspect was arrested on Princess Street two days later. The accused is charged with aggravated assault and possession of a dangerous weapon. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact D/Cst. Cerutti at jcerutti@ You can also provide tips anonymously by calling the Kingston Police general number 613-549-4660 ext. 0 and asking to remain anonymous.
