STRATFORD TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 2024 LOCAL HOUSING DEVELOPMENT Neighbours cite traffic concerns A3 PANOVSKI RE-TRIAL Widow testifies about shooting A3 CORY SMITH OPINION Notley blasts Nenshi plan to divorce from federalNDP A5 The winter festival Bes welcomed roughly NADA Beh : 76,000 visitors last Feds working eae to evacuate y' Canadians from Lebanon AG BILL ATWOOD Destination Stratford has gotten WORLD a boost for what is now one of its y biggest events of the year. Russia The Federal Economic Develop- summons U.S. ment Agency for Southern Ontario Ginpaesadee’ (FedDev Ontario) just announced an investment of $200,000 for the tourism agency’s Lights On Strat- ford festival. This funding will be used to purchase equipment Lights On Stratford gets federal funding boost The Dandelion was the most but we would like to acknowledge that we really need more for arts d cul i: and lights, as well help fund some ica 3 lations b y both domestic and internation- al artists, executive director Zac Gribble said. “The upper levels .. . investing in arts and culture is critically im- portant. We’re very thankful for the funding that we’ve received, Dad mourns teen JONATHAN JUHA The dad of an 18-year-old high ATHLETES schooler identified his son as the OF THE YEAR person killed in a Friday night ho- micide. Stratford District Abdul Hashim told The Free Press his son, Abdul, was stabbed secondary in the parking lot of the public school Bi housing complex where they lived at 1057 Southdale Rd. E., just east of Millbank Drive. PM40063982 “I’m confused and lost,” said Hashim, who immigrated to Can- ada in 2015 with his family from Myanmar, in Southeast Asia. Hashim said he knew few details ill rom multiple levels of government, especiallyina city with suchacriticallyimportant visitor economy, which really relies on arts and culture,” Gribble said. Lights On Stratford, which runs from mid-December to mid-Jan- uary each year, started during the son as two 17-year-olds charged with murder police charged two 17-year-old ys with second-degree murder. Their names can’t be published under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. They're in custody, police said. Hashim said he was in his house around 10 p.m. with his other chil- dren when he heard screams out- side. “When I came out, he was already in the ambulance.” The incident is one of two “sus- picious” Friday night deaths police are investigating. The second happened around midnight, police said, in the area Tharncliffe w di STRATFORD, ONTARIO popular attraction at last season's Lights on Stratford festival. r17TLE BIG CREATIVE PHOTO THE BEACON HERALD POSTMEDIA PICKING THE MOMENT Stratford's Zach Evans and his girlfriend, Kelsey Charko, spent part of Monday afternoon picking strawberries at Walch Family Strawberries on Highway 7, just outside of the city. The 2024 season started early but is coming toa close after last week’s heat and rain-soaking thunderstorms. Limited quantities remain, and those wishing to pick their own berries can still do so. Walch will post updates on its Facebook and Instagram pages. | Families, community /members ‘decry sudden loss of Ontario Science Centre | | | PAOLA LORIGGIO | CANADIAN PRESS | TORONTO Familiesandcommunity | members decried the loss of a be- | loved institution Sunday after the | Ontario Science Centre abruptly and permanently shut its doors last week amid concerns over the state of its roof. | The provincial government already had plans to move the 5-year-old science centre from its current location to Ontario Place when it announced the sudden closure on Friday — a move it said was meant to protect the health and safety of visitors and staff. The province said it received an engineering report this week that found a number of roof panels “in a distressed, high-risk condition” that could fail under the weight of snow this winter. A crowd of parents, children, | educators and other community | members gathered in a west To- ronto park Sunday to call on the | province to restore the centre in its current location instead. Children blew whistles and hoisted homemade signs declar- ing their love for the facility as the crowd chanted “Save our science centre.” | _ Katarina Gligorijevic and Colin | Geddes had planned to take their son Sasha to the centre on Friday buthad an unexpected scheduling | conflict, meaning the eight-year- | oldwasn’t able to visit one lasttime | before it closed. | The science centre was “one of first year of the pandemic when | local people employed in the arts, like lighting designers and prop builders, were temporarily out of work, Gribble said. In that first | year, the festival ran four light in- | stallations, and welcomed around 30,000 visitors, the majority of which were local. SEE FUNDING ON A& Two 17-year-olds are charged with second-degree murder. dead, police said. | schooled and loved to spend hours Resid h dale Road | lookingat the fi ion, his par- a woman 7 Li} 2 $1.00 plus tax about the around the death of his son, who attended Laurier secondary school. London where officers found ith life-th ing injuries. The woman was taken to hospital, where she was later pronounced the teenager’s death and described a chaotic scene as a fight unfolded | in the complex. | SEE CHARGES ON AZ ents said. “The abruptness of the closure felt extremely unnecessary and | cruel,” Gligorijevic said, SEE CENTRE ON AZ