Roundup: Fisherman drowns, two arrested after gunfire, boater charged after multiple fake distress signals, global COVID count jumps
As concerns about food security grown, urban farming is enjoying a resurgence in Halifax. Photo: Bruce Murray
Plus: Home grown — the increasing popularity of urban chicken-keeping
Police say a 73-year-old Massachusetts man drowned while fishing in Cape Breton’s Margaree River on Tuesday.
“Two men were standing in the water fishing when they lost their footing,” RCMP spokesman Chris Marshall says in an email. He adds that members of the Margaree Forks Volunteer Fire Department pulled the men from the water, and attempted to revive the deceased with CPR. A 63-year-old man was treated at the scene for exposure.
Two arrested after gunfire
Two Pictou County man face charges after a heated argument led to gunfire.
Police say that on Sept. 30, two Hedgeville men were arguing outside a home, when one pulled out a gun and shot it into the air, sending his adversary fleeing. Mounties arrived a short time later and arrested both men.
The first man, a 33-year-old, is set to appear in court on Dec. 19 to face firearm charges. And 38-year-old Brandon Joseph Ward faces six counts of failing to comply with conditions of a release order. He appeared in provincial court on Oct. 3.
Home grown
Jackie Allen was thinking about potential new uses for a disused backyard playhouse, when she decided to give chicken-keeping a try.
“I did the math and I’m not really saving too, too much money,” she says. “We can afford to buy eggs. It’s about being self-sufficient. It’s about going outside in your yard to get your eggs, rather than getting in a car and driving. It’s like a basic primal feeling of taking care of yourself.”
Now with seven young chickens, Allen is part of a growing backyard-chicken trend in Halifax, an urban farming renaissance coming decades after the practice fell out of favour following the “victory gardens” heyday of the world wars.
Janet Whitman has the story for Unravel Halifax.
The boater who cried wolf
Police say that on Sept. 15 someone repeatedly triggered the emergency beacon on a boat in a Lunenburg County harbour.
“The woman refused to disembark her vessel and entered the cabin below,” says an RCMP press release. “The woman’s vessel was then secured to a dock and RCMP officers again attempted to contact the woman. The woman would not engage with officers, nor would she leave the cabin area of the vessel.”
A few hours later, a heavily armed emergency response team removed her.
Forty-eight-year-old Heather Noel Bast of East River Point appears in court this month to face four charges of transmitting false radio communications and four charges of sending false distress signals.
Keith Corcoran has the story for LighthouseNow.
COVID count jumps
The World Health Organization’s tally of new COVID-19 cases has more than doubled, as it reports 500,682 confirmed new cases around the globe in the last 24 hours. So far, COVID is known to have killed at least 6,528,557 people, including 45,218 in Canada and 544 Nova Scotians.
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