Kingston Whig-Standard
`VERY UNLIKELY THAT THIS WILL BE STOPPED'
As Canada's Bill C-15 passes into law under recent Royal Assent, residents in the study corridor along the proposed routes for the Alto high-speed train are bracing for the government to begin expropriating land for the massive infrastructure...
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COTTAGE COUNTRY GEARS UP FOR HIGH-SPEED RAIL FIGHT
Summer at the cottage could have a different vibe this year in the lakes around the Kingston area. The study corridor for the proposed southern route of the Alto high-speed rail project covers much of eastern Ontario's most popular cottage...
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TRUMP PRAISES ASTRONAUT JEREMY HANSEN'S COURAGE
Canadian astronaut and Royal Military College graduate Jeremy Hansen and U.S. President Donald Trump had a brief conversation Tuesday not long after the Artemis 2 spacecraft made its way around the far side of the moon and back into radio communication...
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`YOU LOSE BIODIVERSITY'
The gravel road down to MABERLY the ponds was covered by a sheet of ice. It doesn't tell a passerby much about the area now, but it's another story when it's covered by fresh snow. "When you come down this road after the first snowfall, you can see...
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TRAIN OF THOUGHT
City council is to consider providing $400,000 to cover outstanding bills at the Kingston Area Taxi Licensing Commission. The commission, which city council voted to disband and move its services in-house late last year, needs the money to cover...
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SUSPENDED DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF GETS 25% RAISE
The Kingston Police Services Board remains tight-lipped when it comes to explaining why the city's deputy police chief, Matthew Funnell, was suspended with pay in 2024 and continued to be paid throughout 2025 along with his pre-retirement, which...
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Habitat Restore opens doors in Napanee
Countless people were lined up outside the new Restore outlet in Napanee on Saturday morning, waiting patiently for its grand opening. When staff and volunteers welcomed the waiting customers through the doors at 10 a.m., it didn't take long to fill...
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`THIS DRUG PROVIDES SO MUCH HOPE'
When Gord Downie stepped out on stage 10 years ago to perform the first show of his final tour with The Tragically Hip, he was wearing a bright pink leather suit. It was July 22, 2016. Only two months earlier, Dr. James Perry, Downie's...
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WATERSHED WORRIES
The Salmon River roared down the Forest Mills Falls. It's a small waterfalls, but thanks to recent rain and spring meltwater, it provided a good show. Standing on the road above the falls, Susan Moore of Friends of the Salmon River has to raise her...
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RARE, PRECIOUS AND 70 YEARS STRONG
A Kingston couple says a lot of “give and take” has been their secret to a long and happy marriage. Gertrude, 91, and Otto Schmalz, 94, celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on March 24. Other than dressing up for the occasion, the couple said...
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FEEDING THE NEED
Kingston Burger Company was at Belle Park on the weekend feeding the unhoused in partnership with the food distribution network Feed the People. The menu offered the restaurant's signature smash burgers from noon to 2 p.m. on Sunday. Feed the People...
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`NOT YOUR MOTHER'S MAMMOGRAM'
In a bright, welcoming clinical space in Kingston's east end, a local radiologist is using her passion for women's health screening to help more people access life-saving imaging services. Dr. Doris Jabs bursts with enthusiasm as she conducts a tour...
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NEW MUSICAL CENTRED AROUND HIP SONGS COMING TO KINGSTON
A new musical featuring songs by The Tragically Hip is coming to Kingston this fall. It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken will have a 21-show run at Kingston's Grand Theatre from Oct. 22 to Nov. 8, the Thousand Islands Playhouse announced Thursday....
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`NOBODY IN OUR FAMILY IS SLEEPING'
Standing on the icy driveway in front of her stone farmhouse, Sharon Patton holds a few photographs of her family. Faded colour and grainy blackand-white images of stern-looking men with long beards and women and children in their Sunday best sitting...
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STREET PARTIES CLOSE ABERDEEN
If St. Patrick's Day should fall on a weekday, it's a tradition to celebrate on the closest Saturday, donning green and raising a glass to the saint falsely credited for running all snakes out of Ireland — a strictly fictional folk tale. This past...
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`WE CANNOT `A-FORD' THIS'
Secondary students from LCVI and Kingston Secondary School took to the streets Thursday to protest Premier Doug Ford's decision to reduce grant amounts from the Ontario Student Assistant Program (OSAP) starting this fall as well as lift the province's...
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RATS AND ROUGHHOUSING?
An ongoing labour dispute playing out at construction sites in Kingston, including the display of a giant, inflatable rat, is devolving into threats and violence, according to those embroiled in the battle. For more than three weeks, members with...
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UNEASY STREET
The Sydenham Road shelter operated by Doors of Compassion, has been open to patrons for less than a month and already some neighbours are raising concerns about recent activity. According to the general manager of the Cataraqui Cemetery and Funeral...
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ALT-NO
Almost 150 Stone Mills Township residents and supporters demonstrate against the proposed Alto highspeed train in Camden East on Sunday, March 8, 2026. The proposed high-speed rail system has become controversial in communities where its proposed...
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`DEVASTATION IS THE WORD THAT COMES TO MIND'
Standing on the ice along the shoreline of her Varty Lake property, Heather Coulson Levy ponders what the addition of a high-speed rail track would look like at Varty Lake, a 600-hectare water body ringed by permanent and seasonal houses. In the...
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THE APPLIANCE STORE THAT COULD
In 1932, Fred Warren Black was selling vacuums door-to-door in the Kingston area when he decided to open a hardware store on lower Princess Street, offering things like hardware, home-repair items, paint supplies and vacuums. Soon after, Black opened...
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'IT WAS SURREAL'
Alex Heike and Jeffery Zhao are still recovering and debating whether to ever ride on a coach bus again after the one they were aboard last week rolled onto its side along Highway 401 during bad weather. On the evening of Feb. 22, their Rider Express...
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WINNERS GATHER TO COLLECT PRIZES, SHARE STORIES AT DREAM HOME
Dreams came true on Saturday in Kingston as the local Kinsmen club welcomed the winners of its recent Kinsmen Dream Home lottery to the home to receive their prizes. Most of the 19 prize winners were at the home on Buckthorn Drive on Saturday,...
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`PARENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW'
When Janza Findlay first was told that a student at Loughborough Public School said they were going to bring a gun to school, she was shocked. The school, which is 20 minutes north of Kingston, teaches kids from kindergarten to Grade 8. Not only was...
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UNION TARGETS KINGSTON DEVELOPER
Those driving down Andersen Drive near Rona in Kingston's west end may have to take a second glance at what's parked outside of a high-rise construction site. An inflatable rat that stands more than 10 feet tall and features pointy teeth, red eyes,...
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WHAT GOES DOWN MUST GO UP
A pair of tobogganers walk up the hill at Fort Henry during a snowy afternoon in Kingston on Wednesday. Another snowstorm pelted the region overnight Tuesday as the snowy winter continues.
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`WE'VE BEEN DREAMING OF THIS MOMENT FOR SO LONG'
An Ontario couple is fulfilling their dream of moving to Kingston thanks to the local Kinsmen Club and its annual dream home draw. The 35th Kinsmen Dream Home Lottery announced its winners at Slush Puppie Place on Friday and the top prize went to...
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`THE HORSES ARE KEEPING JOHN ALIVE'
On a mid-morning in February when a brutally cold stretch had run its course, John Macmillan returned to the barn on his Odessa farm after a week when the weather made it too treacherous to leave the house. He shuffled in, advancing no more than a...
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GOLDEN GAME
Shoppers take time to watch the women's gold medal hockey game between Canada and the United States at a viewing area at the Cataraqui Centre in Kingston on Thursday. Team Canada lost the game 2-1.
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`I CAN'T THANK THEM ENOUGH'
A Kingston man is thankful to be alive following life-saving actions from members of the community. On June 19, 2025, Tim Keeling was on his way to Orangeville with his wife, when the unexpected happened. While stopped at an intersection in Kingston,...
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NEW SYDENHAM ROAD SHELTER OPENS TO PUBLIC
Doors of Compassion, the notfor-profit Christian group running Kingston's newest shelter on Sydenham Road, invited the public for a tour of its space on the afternoon of Feb. 12. The shelter operators, which are based out of Durham, are poised to...
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LASALLE CAUSEWAY'S TEMPORARY SOLUTION COSTING TAXPAYERS $10.5 MILLION, DOCUMENTS SHOW
The cost of maintaining, installing and removing the temporary modular bridge at the site of the Lasalle Causeway is costing Canadian taxpayers $10.5 million, the Whig-standard has learned. The estimated cost includes the inspection and use of the...
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HITTING A BRICK WALL
A Kingston firefighter walks past a vehicle damaged by falling bricks after it collided with a building at the Blackburn Mews in Kingston on Thursday.
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Little local support for highspeed rail, MP Reid says
A high-speed rail line would likely result in widespread expropriation, warned the member of Parliament for a riding that would be split by either of the proposed routes. Since Alto, the Crown corporation developing the project, launched its public...
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BIRD WATCH
A male northern cardinal watches his mate from a tree along Front Road in Kingston on Monday.
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`THEY COULD BE LIKE ME'
Art Veryard is turning the pages of a brown photo album, seated in his east-end Kingston home. The album doesn't contain many photographs, but rather the pages, diagrams, and hand-traced illustrations that Veryard put together in March 1981 as a high...
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`HE CARED ABOUT YOU'
Former Kingston Canadians coach Jim Morrison died on Tuesday at the age 94. Morrison coached the Canadians from 1975 to 1982. In his six seasons behind the Kingston bench, the team never missed the playoffs. In Morrison's second season as the...
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SUSPENDED DEPUTY CHIEF OF POLICE TO RETIRE
A high-ranking member of the Kingston Police force, who was suspended in December 2024, has begun his pre-retirement despite being on leave. According to a news release from the Kingston Police Services Board, Deputy Chief Matt Funnel has confirmed...
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THAT'S THE SPIRIT
Kingston Canadian Film Festival's official mascot, Conrad the Raccoon, is perched in Springer Market Square on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. The film festival is a partner of Spirit of Winter: Enchanted in Kingston, which is taking place downtown throughout...
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THE LAST DAYS OF DARBAR
“Hi, Darbar,” Ashok Kar says into the phone. “No, only takeout and it will take about two hours,” he replied a few seconds later. Before he has time to return the cordless phone to the clip on his hip, it rings again. “You'll have to order ahead as...
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CITY TO MULL $350,000 FOR HIP CONCERT ANNIVERSARY
The city is planning to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Tragically Hip's final concert. City staff are to seek council approval to spend up to $350,000 from the working reserve fund to mark the anniversary. In 2016, the band played the concert...
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SUPPORTIVE HOUSING WORKS: RYANDALE
Residents at the city's new supportive housing homes will be well on their way to getting out of homelessness and the agency that is to operate two of them said it has a track record of success with these kinds of residences. City council purchased...
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SCHOOLS CLOSED AS SNOWSTORM WALLOPS REGION
The City of Kingston's public works department is asking local residents to be patient as they work to clear away snow from a major snowstorm that hit the region on Sunday night and led to the closure of most regional schools, and many area...
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BOARDS UP
A skater glides across the ice of the rink in Springer Market Square, which has had boards installed ahead of four days of events in Kingston on Friday. Friday featured public skating, while the weekend features a historic hockey game, a skate with the...
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JEWELRY STORE ROBBED AT MALL
Kingston Police rushed to a smashand-grab theft at the Michael Hill jewelry store inside Cataraqui Centre at approximately noon on Wednesday. According to police, a lone male entered the mall, went to the store, smashed a display case, grabbed an...
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LIGHT SHOW
While not quite a bright as the Monday night, the Aurora Borealis can be seen just north of the city, like the view here on Smith Road at 9:20 p.m. in Kingston on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. Shortly after, the clouds rolled in with the regions next snow...
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`A VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW'
More than 30 demonstrators gathered in front of Kingston City Hall on Saturday for a rally in protest of the United States' invasion of Venezuela. The rally was organized by El Salvadorian-canadian Ignacio Melgar as a call for diplomatic solutions and...
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`IT'S HEARTBREAKING'
For Kashechewan First Nations resident Victor Stephen, evacuating his community and arriving in a city such as Kingston isn't something new for the 43-year-old. For him, it's an ordeal that he has had to deal with since he was at least 12 years...
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COUNCIL REJECTS MOVE TO STOP HOUSING PLAN
City council reaffirmed its support for a supportive housing plan that includes converting detached family houses into group homes. Despite objections from neighbours about the potential impact on the local community, council voted down a motion that...
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NO MORE TOYING AROUND
After 160 days on the market, 1020 Midland Ave., more commonly known as Toys “R” Us, has been sold. The commercial retail property was listed for $1 with no exact sale price. Store employees were notified of the sale on Jan. 8, but weren't told how...
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`THIS WILL ONLY MAKE US STRONGER'
The family of a home destroyed by fire in South Frontenac Township last Saturday is overwhelmed with gratitude for the support from the community since the life-changing tragedy. South Frontenac Fire and Rescue was dispatched to a home at 4699 Latimer...
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A WOK TO REMEMBER
When Don Lee and Yan Yi Zhao announced Friday that they were retiring and closing their downtown Kingston restaurant of more than 40 years, The Silver Wok, in about a week, the couple was unprepared for their customers' reaction to the news. “We...
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IT'S A GIRL!
It was, indeed, a happy new year for a Kingston family, which welcomed its newest addition on New Year's Day with the birth of Kingston's first baby of 2026. Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) announced the birth of Audrey Masse, born at 10:37...
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KINGSTON MAYOR REFLECTS ON 2025
Many of the issues that city council has grappled with for years were still around in 2025 and they were joined by a bunch of new problems. Speaking in a year-end interview, Mayor Bryan Paterson said the last 12 months seemed to bring a near...
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MONTREAL MYSTERY
Editor's note: The final in a threepart series in which Whig sports reporter Gare Joyce explores whether Kingston's Bill Taugher, a member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame, did in fact play one game for the Montreal Canadiens. 100 years...
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BEST SPORTS PICS OF 2025
It wasn't by design, but I photographed a lot of sports in 2025: Two national championships on ball diamonds in Kingston and Napanee, a couple of provincial high school championships, the annual CORK regatta. There was even an appearance by the...
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A YEAR IN PHOTOS
A woman and her dog stand on the shoreline in Bath, On. as weather rolls in on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. See more of Meghan Balogh's favourite photos of 2025 on
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`A MISSED OPPORTUNITY'
The proposed closures of several Southeast Public Health (SEPH) satellite offices dominated the latest meeting of the unit's board of health on Wednesday, as the board continues to navigate the three public health unit merger that officially came into...
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Growing up giving: Trenton's `Pint-sized Gord'
As young fundraisers go, Quinte West's Bentley Davidson is ahead by a century. Since a viral photo him dressed as Tragically Hip singer Gord Downie went viral nine years ago, Bentley, also known as “Pint Sized Gord,” has kept raising money for...
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SAFETY TALK
Monica Brown, owner of The Rocking Horse toy store on Princess Street, talks with Kingston Police Community Volunteers on Saturday as the community volunteers visited downtown businesses to discuss CAMSAFE, an initiative by Kingston Police to monitor...
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RINK-ING IN THE NEW YEAR
Under bright but cold morning skies, skaters glide across the newly opened ice rink in Springer Market Square in Kingston, Ont. on Friday, Dec. 12, 2025.
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`IT'S THE RIGHT TIME'
From a very young age, Scott Fraser knew he wanted to be a police officer. As a child, he said he looked up to his grandfather, who wore his Ontario Provincial Police uniform proudly. From the time he could walk and talk, Fraser said, he knew being a...
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NEW CHIEF NO STRANGER TO CITY OF KINGSTON
The Kingston Police Services Board has hired a new chief of police. Adam Macintosh, who spent the last 25 years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia, will be moving to Kingston in the new year, succeeding Scott Fraser, who is...
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ELVIS HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING...
Elvis Stojko, Olympic Silver medalist and seven-times Canadian men's champion, combines his love of kung fu and skating as he performs to Metallica's Nothing Else Matters during the first act of the Stars on Ice 2025 Holiday Tour show at Slush Puppie...
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SIGN OF THE CRIMES
Petty crime is on the rise in Kingston. There once was a time when just the presence of security cameras acted as a deterrent for thieves, with many scared to have their faces captured on film when attempting to commit a crime. In those days, thieves...
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AREA STORE OWNER PRAISES `BRAVE' STAFF
What started out as a normal workday for staff at the Cigar Chief in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory quickly turned into a violent scuffle that none of them want to experience again. On Monday, just before 5 p.m., a man and a woman walked into the Airport...
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LOCAL STORE OWNER CALLS INCIDENT WITH HOMELESS MAN A MISUNDERSTANDING
A Kingston woman who owns IMODE, a clothing store in the city's downtown, said she wants to clear the air after a video that involved her and a homeless man went viral online. The video, which was taken by a passerby, shows the store owner, Sherry...
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HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL GIVES STUDENTS A CHANCE TO ROCK
After more than nine weeks of rehearsals, Shannon Perugino, co-director of Holy Cross Secondary School's annual musical, is now seeing the payoff for those long hours — this week's performances of the School of Rock. “(The students) practice their...
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`IT'S THE END OF THE BOOK'
Sister Frances O'brien walks briskly down a hallway in the Providence Motherhouse. She's heading towards the chapel — a bright, clean, welcoming space where members of the community and the apostolic congregation worship together every week. It's a...
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COOL VIEW
A woman and her dog stand on the shoreline in Bath as weather rolls in recently. Milder temperatures are expected to give way to colder temperatures and possible snow in the coming days.
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THE MAIN ATTRACTION
Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus greet and wave to spectators gathered along both sides of the parade route down Princess Street during the 21st Nighttime Santa Parade on Saturday in downtown Kingston. The couple then headed over to be the special guests at...
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`THINGS ARE MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION'
It's been nearly seven months since Bradley Gleeson, a correctional officer at Joyceville Institution, took his own life due to what his family and friends allege was extensive harassment on the job. A correctional officer for 16 years at that point,...
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KINGSTON REGION MARKS REMEMBRANCE DAY
Hundreds gathered at memorial services across the Kingston region on Tuesday to mark the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year, annually celebrated across Canada as Remembrance Day. The day is an opportunity for the...
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SANTA CLAUS BRINGS TRADITION AND WINTER WEATHER TO AMHERSTVIEW
The Amherstview Lions Club Santa Claus Parade pushed through snow, ice pellets and freezing rain on Sunday for a small but spirited crowd. The colder temperature and face-stinging precipitation couldn't deter the many floats and waving fans standing...
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HOCKEY, HIP HELP HOMELESS
What do hockey and The Tragically Hip have in common? Both are working to support those experiencing homelessness in Kingston through an annual charity hockey tournament. Hockey Helps the Homeless Kingston hosts its third charity hockey tournament at...
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