It’s amazing how quickly life can change in the blink of an eye. One minute, you’re cruising across a frozen lake on a snowmachine with a group of friends; the next, you’re in frigid water fighting for your life. That’s precisely what happened to five snowmobilers from the Twin Cities […]
Editorials
Fort Frances and district residents, businesses, and service clubs once again have shown their overwhelming generosity—donating almost $35,000 towards three causes in less than a week. A week ago Sunday, the annual “Community Chest” benefit dinner at La Place Rendez-Vous raised just over $14,000 to help local families facing medical […]
Government ministers and MPs were lining up to praise it. Opposition members and special interest groups were quick to slam it. Ahh, yes, it’s federal budget time. Rookie Finance minister John Manley yesterday afternoon unveiled the largest increase in spending (11.1 percent) in more than 20 years and, as expected, […]
Given the uproar surrounding Dr. Pete Sarsfield’s determination to take district businesses to court—using taxpayers’ money—to force them to comply with his ban on smoking in all enclosed public places, this isn’t the best time for the Northwestern Health Unit to be going to district municipalities seeking a five percent […]
The contrails from the fiery demise of space shuttle Columbia in the clear blue sky over Texas on Saturday morning had barely faded away when the chorus began of the need to keep the space program going despite the tragedy. That’s very true, of course. After all, we don’t stop […]
Fur is what brought the first voyageurs to this area some 300 years ago, but it was the lure of the forest—and the seemingly boundless timber resources—that laid the foundation for this town to be officially born in 1903. It is very fitting, then, as Fort Frances celebrates its centennial […]
There have been a deluge of letters to the editor of late over Dr. Pete Sarsfield’s ongoing efforts to ban smoking in all enclosed public places as well as whether Wal-Mart will proceed with building a store here. But where’s the outcry over an equally serious, if not moreso, problem […]
Although it appears funding for two separate studies on the feasibility of delivering broadband access to rural municipalities and First Nations of Rainy River District won’t be forthcoming because of a push towards one regional effort, it is important that senior levels of governments understand the value of the Internet. […]
Fort Frances residents, of course, didn’t just ring in a New Year at midnight last Tuesday night. We also ushered in the start of our town’s centennial celebrations. And what a start it was! Although not officially a centennial event, the “Polar Plunge” on Sand Bay certainly attracted an enthusiastic […]
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, […]
Almost 60 percent of the 180-plus who responded to last week’s Web poll still did not consider themselves in the Christmas spirit—with the big day now just a week away. But you certainly wouldn’t know that by looking around town. As one letter writer on this page already has observed, […]
The biggest knock on Parliament’s ratification yesterday of the Kyoto Protocol, led by the governing Liberal party together with the NDP and Bloc Quebecois, certainly isn’t the notion that nothing should be done to clean up our environment for future generations. Rather, it’s the Chrétien government’s vagueness over just how […]
