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For inf ti Minister defends Ontario Science Centre closure as necessary for health and safety THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO Ontario Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma is defend- iwvas BUerY, ing the decision to abruptly close difficult the Ontario Science Centre, saying isi it was done for health and safety decision. I reasons. am saddened Surma said Monday she had it. fi i] every intention of keeping the by it, just like science centre open inits east To- anyone else. ronto location until a new one the government is planning to build onthe atOntarioPlace of: wt nave totake that opens in 2028, seriously,” Surma s: “It’s terrible,” she said Monday at an unrelated appearance. “It’s horrible. It was a very difficult de- cision. I am saddened byit,justlike anyone else.” But, she said, engineers who identified some roof panels at tisk of collapse told government officials that the roof shouldbe re- placedinits entirety, which would take two to five years. “One must remember that this was a warning, a health and safety warning, and as a representative Widow testifies to shock, fear, helplessness after her husband is shot dead JANE SIMS ST. THOMAS Eva Willer Frigo’s voice began to break with emotion as soon as she took her oath to tell the truth. She would spend the next few hours in a courtroom returnin; to moments she would gladly for- get about what she saw the dayher usband was shot to death at a Hu- ron County wildlife preserve while theyrode their horses and trained cost ee their field dogs. re was a shot,” she said, a, oe “And Don was on the ground. “The 56-year-old lene of Cale- io filea complaint, goto ‘ww.mediacouncil.ca or call toll ee 1-844-877-1163. INDEX A4 CLASSIFIEDS B6 OMIC. AS OPINION AS LOCAL A2,A3,A4 SPORTS B1, B2, B3 CANADA A4, A6 Lia | Canada Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are funded by the Government of Canada TODAY IN HISTORY In 1580, the “German Book of Concord” was published, containing all the official confessions of the Lutheran Church. English translations of the entire work were not available before 1851. In 1630, the table fork was introduced to North America. In 1744, the first Methodist conference convened in London. This new society within Anglicanism imposed strict disciplines upon its members, formally separating from the Established Church in 1795. In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte delivered a farewell address before beginning his exile ‘on the South Atlantic island of St. Helena. In 1858, B.C’s first newspaper, “The Victoria of the “Little Big Horn” in Montana; 263 soldiers, including Custer, died in the engagement with several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. The U.S. military concluded Custer made several mistakes that led to the massacre. mato Frigo coms her Ronny Money at the Superior Court retrial of Bo- ris Panovski, 80, who has'pleaded not guilty to first-degree murderin the shooting death of Frigo and not guilty to the attempted murder of Willer Frigo at the Hullett provin- cial wildlife area on Sept. 13, 2014. Willer Frigo was the only eye- witness to what happened when she and Frigo, 70, were outrunning his field dog, named Ben, after the annual field dog trials at the con- servation area were long finished. twas clear the events have deep- ly scarred her. With her during her testimony was her service do Remy, an 11-year-old Dutch shep- herd who has been hercompanion and support since the shooting. obs ae is arguing: Panovski, a “There is noah more import- safe until Oct. 31, when risk of the weight of snow on the roof starts, the employees need time to de- commission the building and move all of the exhibits out before then. When it opened in 1969, the | Ontario Science Centre was the world’s first interactive science | centre, but years of limited capital | investments have left the building with multiple deficiencies. engineering report the gov- ernment recently received found that there are a number of roof | anels “in a distressed, high-risk | condition” that could fail under ant than the health and safety of the weight of snow this winter. people, of workers and of chil- n.” Opposition politicians and sci- ence centre supporters have crit- icized the abruptness of the clo- sure, which was announced and put in effect on Friday afternoon, saying people should have been allowed through the building one last time. Surma said even though the engineers said the building was That type of roofing panel, prev- alent on the science centre build- | ings, has been found to be failing | in other jurisdictions, prompting | Ontario officials to take a closer look, they said. Infrastructure Ontario said it will look for a temporary science centre location until the new one | at a redeveloped Ontario Place | opens. The ‘Canadian Press so ahs ae ee Ben and Willer Frigo’s d Willer E ie ended up training Joe herself when Frigo’s horse didn’t co-operate. When she fin- ished, they both went out with Ben and took the same route asearlier, with Frigo riding ahead and Willer Frigo following as a scout. They rode back through the nearby parking lot. “There was a car backed-in to our left,” Willer Frigo said. She only saw the side of the car. She said it had heavily tinted win- dows and square lights. She said she “wanted to say it was blue” but she has trouble remembering the colour, She-remembered seeing: ish that a pamphlet on the da: “sunset-coloured.” They turned left'to-head:down the road, when she heard the first shot. Willer Frigo said she didn’t know from whereithad come, but “ohyeah, Iheardtheshot,” she said under questioning by assistant Crown attorney Elizabeth Brown. “It was loud.” She heard her husband say ,“My hen came a sec- ond shot and “I A a paces on my head, my head.” T] face,” Willer Frigo sai She swung her al around and saw a man in the bush. “He was running back toward the car and I was running (on her horse) to get away.” Both of them were moving, but she saw his side profile. “He was high ee breeder, had a long-standing grudge against Frigo, who bought achampion dog from Panovski - originally named Panovski Silver - before 2005. Frigo changed the dog’s name to Belfield Silver and the dogwenton to be achampion. Panovski had ajury trial in God- erich in 2018, appealed the deci- sion in 2021 and the new trial was ordered to be held in St. Thomas last summer. Justice Mare Garson is hearing the case without a jury. Willer Frigo said she and Frigo met through the field dog world. She said she and her father Joseph were active in the community from. the time she was a child. She lived in Mexico from 2002to 2005 and her father died in 2006. After his death, she and Frigo be- gan their relationship and they were married in 2011. They lived on a farm in Caledon where they had cattle, horses, dogs, chickens and lambs. They maintained their passion for the field dog hobby. She also knew Panovski, but hadn’t seen him since her father’s funeral. Willer Frigo was shown a photo of her husband with Belfield Silver. The champion dog died in 2012. “He was a good dog,” she said. In September 2014, the Frigos loaded all six of their horses and two dogs and drove to Hullett for the annual trials. They arrived on Thursday, two days before the shooting, stayed in theirtrailerthe first night and in Blyth on Friday, before they competed Saturday morning with their dog Ben. Imost everyone went home, but the Frigos decided to stay longer, the clothes.” She thought she sawa patch with the letter M attached to the cloth- ing. “He had a shotgun,” she said. Willer Frigo said the man hada brush cut and she could see a hint of grey in his sideburns. And, he was fit and clean-shaven, she said. Willer Frigo recalled she told po- lice she thought he was in his 40s. Brown asked her to describe her emotional state at that mo- ment. “Obviously, I was scared. Pissed off. Helpless,” she sad then aused and closed her eye Willer Frigo said she didn’ ‘twant toleave her husband. Sherodeover a hill, then came back to see if she could get some information about want to say it was all in beige, ball cap... Everything was matching,” Willer Frigo said. “He had a shotgun....From wh: could see it was the same colouras - | Don Frigo (left); oe Panovski. the car. “I wanted to hide and then I | wanted to know what he was do- | ing and when he Sag going tocome after me,” she s; The car came bat of the lot and | turned left. She couldn’t get the | plate number, but “Don was on | the ground at the side of the road,” Willer Frigo said. ae pulled up beside Don. An- er gun came out and shot Don sn she said. “It came out of the | passenger window.” The car left and Willer Frigo said she went to her husband. “He wasn’ acmictins and I didn’twantto | really l oln fee ayer managed to grab the reins of her husband’s horse, pickup the dogand ride back to the ‘campground. “I didn’t know what was going on,” she said. Willer Frigo said she has little | memory of what happened next. She was taken to hospital where | doctors extracted buckshot from | herjaw, removing part of the bone | and one of her teeth. | In the days after, she sat with a | police sketch artist and tried to i | describe the camo pattern and the car. Willer Frigo said she has spent years before the first trial “looking | over my shoulder.” “I didn’t know if it was Boris anovski or not. I guess I was a basket case,” she said. “My whole | life was turned upside-down.” In cross-examination, defence lawyer Margaret Barnes asked if the police asked Willer Frigo ifher | Teachers, families not consulted: Geddes CENTRE FROM Al “To not give the thousands of kids in the city who love the sci- encecentrea chance to goone last .. it was just totally unnec- essary and totally unreasonable,” she said. “This feels like notjust an Geddes noted neither teachers nor families were consulted, add- ingmany educators plan theircur- riculum around the centre. Arushi Nath, a Grade 9 student in Toronto, said her family has had membership at the centre since she was born, and going there on weekends “felt like coming home.” “It’s where I learned it’s OK for women and everyone to be pas- sionate about science,” said Nath, Tt’s where Ilearned it’s OK for women and everyone to be passionate about science. who credits the centre with fuel- ling her curiosit The teen started creating in- creasingly complex experiments over time and ended up taking the top prize at the Canada-Wide Sci- ence Fair in both 2022 and 2023 for her projects on detecting and deflecting asteroids. Closing the centre, she sai amounts to “robbing children of | their scientific curiosity and child- hood dreams.” Asahigh school science teacher, Howard Buckstein may not take | his own students on field trips to the.centre, but he said it plays an important role in science educa- tion. “We know that sitting in class with a book or with a laptop is just not getting the job done for | way too many kids, but the kind of education in science that hap- | pens at the science centre is ideal for neurodivergent kids who need to explore the world in their own way,” he said. Shuttering the centre is a huge loss both for science and for To- ronto’s architecture, he said. “When apiece ofour architectural historyis lost, there’s no replacing it,” he said. Data also raised concerns about the plans for a new science centre, saying if the province was serious about building a good re- placement, it would have done so before closing the original. The science centre’s fate has be- husband | crime. “I think I said no, obvious- ly,” she said. Barnes asked about a dinner in Blyth with their field trial friends | and Willer Frigo agreed her hus- band left the dinner table for half | an hour to take a phone call. | “I just remember he tilted my | head back and kissed me on the forehead,” she said, tearfully. When pressed for more details | about everything that happened, | Willer Frigo pushed back. “It’s | really hard to say, because I don’t want to remember,” she said. Cross-examinationcontinueson | ‘uesday. jsims@postmedia.com I, with provincial eats legislators and local politicians joining Sun- day's rally. Both NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie urged the Progressive Conservative government to re- verse its decision to move the cen- tre and instead repair the existing facility. Abusiness case released lastyear by the government found the cur- rent buildingis facing $369 million in deferred and critical mainte- nance needs over the next 20 years. The business case said that mov- ing the science centre instead of | years. A large part of those savings come from the smaller size of the new planned facility, thou; cials say there will be more exhibit space. The facility was the world’s first interactive science centre when it opened in 1969, but years of limit- ed capital investments have left it with several deficiencies. The centre’s newhome ata rede- veloped Ontario Place on the city’s | waterfront isn’t slated to be open until 2028. The province has said alternative centre’s closure, and those with memberships will receive refunds. | The Canadian Press