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Windsor man faces trafficking charges for fentanyl, other drugs
Windsor police seized more than $250,000 in illegal drugs and arrested and charged a Windsor man with several counts of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking. Officers with the Windsor police drugs and guns enforcement unit and emergency services unit arrested the suspect around 1 p.m. on Wednesday on suspicion of drug trafficking. Police said they found 13.6 grams of fentanyl, 3.3 grams of crystal methamphetamine, 1.3 grams of crack cocaine and $1,210 in cash on the man. A subsequent search of the suspect’s West Windsor residence turned up a further 1,021.5 grams of fentanyl, 202.4 grams of crystal methamphetamine, $10,640 in Canadian currency, $570 in U.S. currency, numerous rounds of ammunition, packaging materials and a digital scale, according to police. A replica pellet gun was also seized in the interest of public safety, police said. Police estimate the total value of the illegal drugs seized at $259,070. The 53-year-old man now faces three charges of possession of a Schedule I substance for the purpose of trafficking, namely fentanyl, crystal methamphetamine and crack cocaine. Anyone with further information is asked to call the Windsor Police Service drugs and guns enforcement unit at 519-255-6700, ext. 4361. You can also contact Windsor & Essex County Crime Stoppers anonymously at 519-258-8477 (TIPS) or online at www.catchcrooks.com . If you or someone you know is an affected person in need of support, call Victim Services Windsor Essex County at 519-723-2711 or the victim assistance unit at Windsor police at 519-255-6700, ext. 4879. jkotsis@postmedia.com twitter.com/KotsisStar
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Taking flight: Margaret Atwood ‘mini-book’ gives wings to Pelee Island bird conservation
Canadian author Margaret Atwood, along with hundreds of avian enthusiasts, migrated to Pelee Island over the Mother’s Day weekend in celebration of birds, books and conservation. The annual Springsong Weekend featured a 24-hour bird race — a competition to see who can spot the most bird species for the Botham Cup — a fundraising dinner and an educational talk by a guest birder. “Bird watching is the most practised participatory sport in North America,” Atwood told the Windsor Star in a phone interview. “A wide range of people do it — from really young people to really old people. What they see and record is very helpful for the people tracking bird species.” Atwood and her late partner Graeme Gibson started the three-day event in 2002 to raise funds for the Pelee Island Heritage Centre with Ron Tiessen, the heritage centre’s director. This was the fundraiser’s 23rd year, said Atwood, who has only missed one year — the time there was a “pig in a cellar.” Atwood’s new “mini-book” called Birding with Graeme Gibson was launched at the banquet Saturday, which featured award-winning author Helen Humphreys, whose latest work includes a memoir And a Dog Called Fig and novel Rabbit Foot Bill. “I have a lot of anecdotal stories about going bird watching with Graeme,” Atwood said. “Since he was one of the founders of the Pelee Island Bird Observatory (PIBO), I found it was appropriate.” Each passage follows the pastime Atwood and Gibson shared until his passing in 2019. The limited-edition book recounts three adventures — from subzero weather on remote Amherst Island, Ont., to nearly drowning in the mangrove-lined Caroni River in Trinidad and Tobago, and sloshing through a crocodile-infested swamp near the Bay of Pigs in Cold War-era Cuba. Atwood is the third author of the Birders on Birds chapbook essay series published by Woodbridge Farm Books in Kingsville, in partnership with PIBO. A portion of sales from each book benefit the observatory, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to studying and recording birds on the island. “We are part of a big migration monitoring network,” Atwood said. “We can tell what bird species are going up or down over time.” Rodrigo López, a noted birder from central Mexico, hosted the PIBO Bird Talk at the Pelee Island Winery Pavilion Sunday morning. He spoke of the rose-bellied bunting, a small pink and blue bird that lives on the Pacific edge of the isthmus of Mexico, in an area the size of Algonquin Provincial Park — the bird’s only home in the world. “I live in Mexico half of the year and Rodrigo is a friend of ours,” said Merilyn Simonds, who is the chair of the PIBO board of directors. “I know him as a fantastic birder and that’s why we chose him as the 2024 guest for the weekend.” López’s talk followed a Coffee & Carbs hour at the pavilion, during which PIBO announced that a new bird centre is in development on the island. Simonds did not provide the Star with a specific date for the centre’s opening. “This (the centre) is going to be a focus for bird education and conservation in the Windsor-Essex area,” said Simonds. Pelee Island and Windsor sit at a “pinch point” where two hemispheric flyways converge: the Atlantic Flyway and the Mississippi Flyway. Through the month of May, tens of millions of birds will stop to feed and rest on the island. The Canadian Nature Federation and Bird Studies Canada have designated Pelee Island an important bird area, which they define as “truly outstanding sites of significance nationally or internationally that are exceptionally important for birds.” PIBO has been monitoring migrating birds through bird counts, banding, and nesting research for the past 20 years. “Bird watching just used to be about going out and having fun, but now it’s about how much longer we are going to be able to do this,” Atwood said. Copies of the chapbook essay can be purchased at Juniper Books in Windsor, the River Bookshop in Amherstburg, or at www.thewoodbridgefarm.com .
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It's official, Craig Berube is new head coach of Maple Leafs
The book on the 40th coach in Toronto’s NHL franchise history is that he’s not one to forgive a failed effort easily. Whether Craig Brerube does hold the star power on the Maple Leafs and the rest of the team more accountable than his predecessor, especially in the playoffs, remains to be seen, but first the new man has to get up to speed with his new charges. General manager Brad Treliving confirmed he picked the name atop most lists of candidates after last week’s firing of Sheldon Keefe, hiring the 58-year-old Berube. It’s almost five years to the day Berube won a Stanley Cup by shaking up the St. Louis Blues as a mid-season replacement. Unlike when he accepted his last assignment, Berube inherits a team that finished with more than 100 points the past three years, with NHL goal leader Auston Matthews and two right wingers who were within 100 points this year and last in William Nylander and Mitch Marner. But getting more from the Leafs in clutch post-season moments, particularly Marner and Matthews, will be what fans want to see a year from now. Berube was let go by the Blues this past December as their Cup roster thinned out through age, injuries, trades and free agency. But he’s best recalled for winning a title without a recognized franchise player and steady, but not spectacular goaltending, a game plan based as much on skill players accepting defensive roles as scoring themselves. Berube might have kept the Blues in the Cup hunt had COVID-19 not disrupted the whole NHL the following year. They stayed competitive, but his often heavy-handed approach had run its course by last December when the team lost four straight and dipped below .500. Craig Berube or Todd McLellan will put Leafs on notice says ex-NHLer Kelly Chase https://torontosun.com/sports/maple-leaf-sports-and-entertainment-unveil-latest-steps-in-reimagination-aimed-at-enhancing-arena For all of Keefe’s efforts to pry the most of his Core Four, the three aforementioned players and captain John Tavares, the Leafs as a whole bought into playoff hockey a little too late after getting down 3-1 to Boston. It turned into the sixth time they’d lost a Game 5 or 7 of an opening round series since 2017, the fourth under Keefe. Nicknamed ‘Chief’, with 3,360 NHL penalty minutes in almost 1,200 NHL games, he brings a lot of that pugnacious attitude to the job. “He’s going to ask you to play hard or you won’t play,” former NHLer and Blues’ broadcaster Kelly Chase told the Sun last week when Berube’s name came up as a replacement for Keefe. “And that (controversy) only has to happen a couple of times in the winter for it to be understood by every player come spring. “He’s brutally honest. He went to Alex Steen in our Cup year and said, ‘I want you to take a lesser role, but it’s going to be important’. He played him with Ivan Barbashev and Oskar Sundqvist. People were calling it the third or fourth line, but they were huge. So, he might go to Marner and say, ‘I’m moving you down because this other player is doing better. You want to play more? Play harder.’ ” Treliving will just have to hope Berube can find a level of comfort in Canada’s most intense hockey market compared to the game’s often secondary status in St. Louis. But Berube did start out with the Philadelphia Flyers as their head coach ten years ago (75-58-28 with one playoff appearance in two years) and after his Cup appearance, knows how to survive a large media scrum. Just don’t expect the long and detailed answers Keefe liked to provide in explaining his methods. Part-Indigenous Cree, Berube was born in Calahoo, Alta., a reserve community with less than 200 people. Undrafted, he debuted with the Flyers with two fights and eventually played for both his home province Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. In between, he was a Leaf for 40 games, traded from the Oilers in the Glenn Anderson-Grant Fuhr acquisition and to the Flames when Toronto acquired Doug Gilmour in the record 10-player swap. Craig Berube or Todd McLellan will put Leafs on notice says ex-NHLer Kelly Chase https://torontosun.com/sports/maple-leaf-sports-and-entertainment-unveil-latest-steps-in-reimagination-aimed-at-enhancing-arena “I’m going to wait for an NHL job and see what happens,” Berube told Flyers’ blogger Wayne Fish after being let go in St. Louis and returning to the Philly area to be closer to his three children by his first marriage. “It doesn’t matter where. I’m sure I have a shot. It all boils down to talking to a team, talking to the GM, the ownership. “If they believe in your message, if they like what you’re saying. In the interview process, if it’s a good fit for me and a good fit for them, probably something will get done.” It was believed Treliving met face-to-face with seasoned NHL coach Todd McLellan as part of the interview process. Another well-travelled coach, Gerard Gallant, was in the mix, but Berube was named before Rod Brind’Amour’s future with the Carolina Hurricanes was determined, after their Thursday-night elimination by the New York Rangers. Berube coming to the Leafs, after being briefly courted by New Jersey, shifts the coaching spotlight to vacancies with the Devils, Winnipeg Jets, Seattle Kraken and San Jose Sharks. It remains to be seen if Joel Quenneville gets clearance from the NHL to resume his career after three years on the sidelines. lhornby@postmedia.com X:@sunhornby
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