What should have been a routine home improvement project led to a very memorable day for Thunder Bay, Ont., resident Julie Colquhoun and her family.
The Marlborough Street resident was having a fence installed in the back of the house — the family recently got a golden retriever puppy — when a member of the work crew found something unexpected while drilling a hole for a fence post: sticks of dynamite.
“He was hand digging it and stopped when he saw it,” Colquhoun told CBC News on Thursday. “When they looked further into it, they thought that they had seen a burlap sack that was full of it.”
No detonators or caps were found and there were no injuries.
The work crew’s supervisor came to Colquhoun’s door to tell her what was happening. Officers with Thunder Bay police and Ontario Provincial Police, as well as firefighters and paramedics, were dispatched.
In a media release Wednesday, city police said the call came in at about 9:45 a.m.ET and the area was initially cordoned off. It was reopened that afternoon.
I was terrified thinking of my kids. We’ve been here since 2006 and my kids grew up running over that area, and what could have happened.– Julie Colquhoun, Thunder Bay, Ont., resident
“We didn’t end up having to evacuate,” Colquhoun said. “I think they told all of the people on our block what was going on and to stay out of the backyards.
“Fairly quickly, they saw how old it was, and had assessed it, that whatever the explosive agent in the dynamite was had sort of seeped out over the years,” she said. “So the risk was quite low.”
But prior to that, when Colquhoun first heard about the discovery, she went through a “mix of emotions.”
“My immediate reaction was, ‘What’s the danger, what’s the risk right now?’ I was terrified thinking of my kids. We’ve been here since 2006 and my kids grew up running over that area, and what could have happened.
“You go to worst-case scenario sort of things when you’re thinking about it.”
Colquhoun also said the spot where the dynamite was found was previously the site of a garage, which had a concrete pad. The garage was removed about eight years ago, but no dynamite was discovered then.
Colquhoun praised the first responders, however, noting the constant communication and speed of the response.
A backhoe was brought in and a large area along the property line was dug up. In total, two buckets full of dynamite sticks were recovered and removed.
An OPP officer digs a hole in a back lane behind Marlborough Street, where decades-old sticks of dynamite were found by a work crew while building a fence on Wednesday at a Thunder Bay home. All the dynamite was removed without incident. (Marc Doucette/CBC)
“The city took away all of the soil that they had taken out because it was contaminated,” she said. “They were pouring diesel at each layer, because I guess that counteracts the explosive properties that may have been in the dynamite had it been active.
“The city took all of that contaminated soil away and brought back in new soil and gravel to fill the holes.”
As to how the dynamite ended up there in the first place, Colquhoun has heard a few possibilities.
One story goes that a box of dynamite fell off a truck in the 1960s, and not all of it was recovered. Another possibility is neighbourhood kids — somehow getting a hold of the dynamite back then — buried it and forgot about it.
Colquhoun also said her house was built in the late 1950s or early ’60s, so there’s some question as to whether the dynamite was somehow buried during the construction.
In any case, the dynamite has been removed, but the incident caused a delay in the fence construction.
“I just wanted a fence and out of that comes this experience,” Colquhoun said. “I’m so grateful that it was inactive, or not explosive, and that the fence fellow was safe and nothing happened, and nobody got hurt.
MONTREAL – One expert says entry-level pay under the tentative deal between Air Canada and its pilots could be a stumbling block ahead of a union vote on the agreement.
Under their current contract, pilots earn far less in their first four years at the company before enjoying a big wage increase starting in year five.
The Air Line Pilots Association had been pushing to scrap the so-called “fixed rate” provision entirely.
But according to a copy of the contract summary obtained by The Canadian Press, the proposed deal announced Sunday would merely cut the four-year period of lower pay to two years.
John Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University, says as many as 2,000 of Air Canada’s roughly 5,200 active pilots may earn entry-level wages following a recent hiring surge.
After the airline averted a strike this week, Gradek says the failure to ditch the pay grade restrictions could prompt pushback from rank-and-file flight crew and jeopardize the deal, which is up for a vote next month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
ROME (AP) — Salvatore “Totò” Schillaci, the Italy striker who was top scorer at its home World Cup in 1990, has died. He was 59.
Schillaci had been hospitalized in Palermo following treatment for colon cancer.
The Palermo Civico hospital said in a statement that Schillacci died on Wednesday morning after being admitted 11 days ago.
Schillaci scored six goals for Italy during the 1990 World Cup. He came on as a substitute during Italy’s opener against Austria, scored in a 1-0 victory, and went on to earn the Golden Boot awarded to the tournament’s top scorer. He only scored one other goal for Italy in his career.
Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina announced that a minute of silence would be held in memory of Schillaci before all games in the country for the rest of the week.
“The uncontrollable celebrations, in which his face was the symbol of shared joy, will remain forever part of Italian soccer (history),” Gravina said. “Totò was a great player, a symbol of tenacious desire and redemption. … His soccer was full of passion. And that fearless spirit made everyone appreciate him and will make him immortal.”
Schillaci also won the Golden Ball award at the 1990 World Cup as the tournament’s top player ahead of Lothar Matthaus and Diego Maradona.
Schillaci played for Messina, Juventus, Inter Milan and Japanese team Jubilo Iwata during his club career.
“You made an entire nation dream during the Magical Nights of Italia ’90,” Inter said on its social media channels.
West Germany won the 1990 World Cup, beating Argentina in the final, while Italy beat England for third place with a winning penalty kick from Schillaci.
Roberto Baggio, who scored Italy’s opening goal in the third-place match, wrote on Instagram, “Ciao my dear friend.”
Having been born and raised in Palermo, the Palermo soccer team announced that it would hold a public viewing of Schillaci at its Renzo Barbera stadium ahead of the funeral, the Gazzetta dello Sport reported.
French soccer player Wissam Ben Yedder will stay free ahead of his trial on charges of sexual assault while intoxicated, one of his lawyers told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Marie Roumiantseva said Ben Yedder will remain under strict judicial supervision after a woman filed a lawsuit for sexual assault earlier this month.
The 34-year-old Ben Yedder, a prolific striker in the French league, was briefly detained then released after the alleged incident in his car on the French Riviera. Ben Yedder had been stopped by police after he first refused to do so. He was then put in a jail cell.
After he was summoned to appear in court on Oct. 15 and placed under judicial supervision, the Nice prosecutor’s office appealed the decision not to remand the player in custody. The investigative chamber of the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence did not grant this request and kept Ben Yedder under judicial supervision.
Ben Yedder attended a hearing Tuesday during which he offered to go to rehab. He has admitted he drove while under the influence of alcohol but has denied any sexual assault.
In a separate legal case last year, Ben Yedder was charged with “rape, attempted rape and sexual assault” over another alleged incident in the south of France.
Ben Yedder has been without a club since his contract with Monaco expired at the end of last season.
