Snow Day

Public elementary schools are closed across Ontario today as elementary teachers stage a province wide strike…on top of that – It is a snow day today in Kingston…all of Frontenac County, all of Lennox and Addington County and Prince Edward County.  Tri-Board Student Transportation says no school transportation will be operating.  Buses are operating in Hastings County.

East of Kingston….Student Transportation of Eastern Ontario has cancelled all school transportation for today.

 

Elementary Teachers Strikes

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario is holding its first provincewide strike today.  A second province wide walkout is planned for Tuesday of next week along with more rotating strikes.

Elementary schools in the Limestone District School Board are closed today and tomorrow as well as on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

Elementary schools in the Hastings – Prince Edward District Board and Upper Canada District Board are closed today and will be closed on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

 

Queen’s – Coronavirus Party

Queen’s Principal Patrick Deane says Board of Trustees student trustee Tyler Macintyre has announced his immediate resignation from the board after attending a coronavirus themed party.  Pictures of students wearing medical masks and drinking Corona bear were featured in the Queens Journal student newspaper.

Macintyre apologized and has now resigned from the Board of Trustees.

The Queen’s principal says the party was in bad taste and showed great insensitivity by the students who attended the party.

 

Top Employers

The Empire Life Insurance Company and Queen’s University have both been recognized as top employers in Canada by Forbes Media.

Employees chose the top 300 companies to work for in Canada in an independent survey conducted for Forbes.

Queen’s and Empire Life were both selected by employees.

Empire Life VP and Chief Human Resources Officer David Keneford says the most recent employee survey indicated 89% of employees say they are proud to work for the company, and 86% would recommend Empire Life as a good place to work.

 

Joyceville – Bust

An inmate is facing charges after correctional officers found packages containing contraband in the Assessment Unit at Joyceville Institution.

The correctional service says several packages were discovered while processing the inmate’s personal effects last Wednesday.  The contraband included 14 grams of THC.

Corrections says the institutional value of the contraband totaled 14 thousand dollars.

 

Amazon – Most Romantic

Kingston has been ranked 19th in the Amazon Canada’s 11th annual list of Canada’s Most Romantic Cities.

Fort McMurray, Alberta, Toronto and Yellowknife topped the list.

The rankings are based on Amazon sales of romance novels, romantic comedies, relationship books, jewelry and sexual wellness products.

 

Sailing Honours

CORK has won an award from Sail Canada.

Sail Canada has chosen the International Laser Class 4.7 Youth World Championships and Laser Radial Youth World Championships held in Kingston in the summer as the recipient of the 2019 Chisholm Trophy for Excellence in Race Management.