On today’s show, we listen in to the convocation ceremony for Mount Allison University’s arts graduates on Monday afternoon at Convocation Hall in Sackville. About 425 students walked across the stage in two ceremonies on Monday, witnessed by gathered faculty, dignitaries, and family and friends. We’ll hear the voices of multi-faith chaplain Ellie Hummel, university president Robert MacKinnon, 2024 class valedictorian Ellie Smallwood, and honorary degree recipient Alex Fancy.
Plus in briefs: a preview of the agenda for Tantramar council’s meeting tonight at 7pm, and a report from Moncton provincial court, where Sackville’s Tyler Murphy appeared briefly on Monday on charges of manslaughter. … Continue
22-year-old Tyler Murphy was in Moncton provincial court on Monday for a brief appearance.
Murphy is charged with manslaughter in the death of 44-year-old father of four, Shawn Mitton.
Police found Mitton on the evening of March 16, laying on the side of Lorne Street in Sackville, suffering from apparent stab wounds. He was then transported to hospital where he died as a result of his injuries.
Murphy and his brother Dylan were arrested shortly thereafter, and originally charged with second degree murder. Those charges were later withdrawn, and a single charge of manslaughter against Tyler Murphy was laid by the crown on March 27.
On Monday, Murphy’s lawyer Pierette Allain asked the judge for an adjournment while Murphy waits for a second round of disclosure expected from the crown prosecutor’s office. Allain said her client had received some evidence from the prosecution, but was told by crown lawyer Denis Sawyer to expect a second wave of disclosure.
Judge Luc Labonté adjourned the matter until June 10, when he said the court would set a date for a preliminary hearing in the case.
Tyler Murphy will remain in custody and be back in court on June 10.… Continue
Scramble crosswalks allow people to cross in any direction on the walk light, while cars coming from all directions wait. Photo: Tori Weldon
While both of Sackville’s intersections with traffic lights feature scramble crosswalks, in most other parts of the country, they aren’t as common.
“I know that they’re in Toronto, Vancouver, a lot of the larger municipalities have at least one,” says Steven Oliver, Stantec senior planner and smarter mobility Practice Lead for Canada.
Oliver says if you Google-search a scramble crosswalk, you’ll find images of massive intersections with hordes of people crossing.
Sackville has neither a massive amount of traffic nor pedestrians, but, according to Michelle Sherwood, Superintendent of Public Works with Tantramar, we do have the right ratio of vehicles to people to warrant the scramble crossing.
“We typically have through the school year more pedestrians than we do traffic in a small town because a lot of students are walkers” she says. “So in the case of having more pedestrians, a lot of time the scramble crosswalks are implemented because it’s a whole lot safer.”
Though, that wasn’t necessarily the reason they were or are still used in Sackville. Sherwood has worked for the municipality for nearly 30 years. When she started, the traffic lights used to be mechanical, complete with cogs and people could cross in any direction.
“We changed (the downtown traffic lights) back in the 90s, late 90s. And the town was so used to a scrambled walk that council and management of the day decided it was best put it back, for safety,” says Sherwood.… Continue
On today’s show, reporter Tori Weldon takes a deep dive into Sackville’s scramble crosswalks, where pedestrians don’t cross along with vehicle traffic, but wait for a walk signal, and then are able to cross in any direction, even diagonally. Weldon talks to Tantramar superintendent of public works Michelle Sherwood, as well as Stantec senior planner Stephen Oliver, who specializes in mobility planning.
Plus in briefs, the public school year will be a few days shorter than originally planned, and Tantramar council meets tomorrow night for their regular monthly meeting.… Continue
On the 106, just outside Dorchester, NB. Photo: Erica Butler
Dorchester business owners are worried about the extended closure of route 106 announced by the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI) this week.
DTI blocked off Route 106 where it crosses over Two Mile Brook just over one month ago, on April 1st, due to a damaged culvert with a collapsing road around it, caused by runoff from heavy rain. Since then, drivers have been taking an alternate route via Woodlawn Road and King Street.
Debbie Shea owns and operates the Village Square takeout in the heart of Dorchester. “I think it’s crazy,” says Shea, about the three month extension for the estimate fix time, posted by DTI on 511.gnb.ca. “It should be fixed by now.”
Shea says she’s noticed a difference in her business, especially on weekends. She says people don’t want to drive the detour route because it takes longer, and “the road is so bad… Woodlawn is really bad and King Street is bad.”
“It’s a big concern for this little village, for people to come in and enjoy it,” says Shea.
Kara Becker is co-owner of the Peep and Keep Ecotique in Dorchester. She says she’s shocked that “something like a main road can be out for so long.”
“I just cannot believe that it’s going to take until September to fix it,” says Becker, whose shop opened last year, and relies on tourists passing through. “What’s the delay?… Continue
Dr. Mario Levesque, head of Politics and International Relations at Mount Allison University. Image: policychange.ca
A Mount Allison professor is calling out a lack of progress in terms of physical accessibility on university campuses, and pitching a target for his own campus to fix the problem by the time it hits its 200th anniversary in 2039.
Dr. Mario Levesque teaches politics at Mount Allison, and also does research on disability issues. About 10 years ago he started Mount A’s first course focussed on disability, and a year and a half ago he got trained as an accessibility auditor through the Rick Hansen Foundation. He says that Mount Allison has a lot of work to do making the campus physically accessible.
Levesque points to his own building on campus, the Avard Dixon, which has an accessible washroom on the fourth floor, but no elevator. “Four storeys, so that makes it challenging,” he says. And this past fall, Levesque got some first hand experience with that challenge.
“I was on crutches for the bulk of last fall, and my office is on the third floor, and no elevator,” says Levesque. Though the university offered to find him a space to work elsewhere, Levesque says he needed access to his office and everything in it. That meant climbing the stair several times a day with his crutches, which Levesque says is a safety and liability issue. Some days if he wasn’t up for the climb, the professor moved up and down the stairs in a seated position.… Continue
Train crossing the Chignecto Isthmus at high tide near Aulac in November 2015.
Photo taken by Mike Johnson, EMO for Cumberland County.
The legal question of who should pay to protect the roads, railways and wires running across the strip of land connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia won’t be settled until at least March of 2025, according to a timeline put forward by Nova Scotia court of appeal judge David Farrar on Wednesday.
Farrar met virtually with lawyers from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, and the federal government on Wednesday afternoon to set dates for document filings and a hearing on the question.
Lawyers will have until July 5 this year to file the main evidence and documents in the case, and then the provinces will have until September 13 to file their arguments. The government of Canada will have until January 10 to come back with its argument, and the provinces will have until the end of that month to respond after that. Farrar has set aside two days for the hearing itself, on March 11 and 12, 2025.
Nova Scotia kickstarted the constitutional question in July of last year, asking the court of appeal to determine, “whether the infrastructure protecting the interprovincial transportation, trade and communications links across the Chignecto Isthmus is within the exclusive legislative authority of the Parliament of Canada.”
The governments of New Brunswick, PEI and Canada were all granted intervener status by Farrar in September, while Cumberland MLA Elizabeth Smith MCCrossin was denied.… Continue
On today’s show, Dorchester business owners are worried about the extended closure of route 106 which could now last throughout the summer.
The mayor of Tantramar has weighed in on the issue with a letter to Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DTI) Minister Richard Ames, and MLA Megan Mitton continues to question the state of the province’s roads, and tells CHMA that DTI needs an “infusion of investment.”
Plus in briefs: Mount Allison has announced its 2024 honorary degree recipients just in time for convocation on Monday, Thaddeus Holownia launches a new book today, and The Little Pantry makes a move to York Street.… Continue
On today’s show, emergency fire dispatching in Tantramar has been handled by admin staff at the Sackville hospital for decades, but will now move over to the Codiac Regional Policing Authority, at an increased cost of over $50,000. We listen in to the special council meeting where the decision was made.
Plus, the road closure on Route 106 is now expected to continue all summer; the first court decision on who should pay to protect the Chignecto Isthmus won’t come until March 2025; and Dr. Tyson MacCormack will receive Mount Allison’s Paul Paré Medal of Excellence for 2024.… Continue
Football Mountie Daniel Bell on the field. Image: mta.ca
Graduating Mountie football star Daniel Bell says there were a lot of emotions at play when he saw his name appear as the 34th pick of the 2024 CFL draft, the fourth pick of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Bell is the third CFL draftee to come out of the Mount Allison Mounties football program in just two years. He heads to Hamilton for training camp this month along with his Mountie colleague, Reece Martin, who was drafted by the Tiger-Cats last year, but ended up returning to play another year for the Mounties.
Bell and Martin’s teammate, and Sackville native Lucas Cormier was drafted last year to the Ottawa RedBlacks, and made the team’s opening day roster in 2023.
Mounties head coach Peter Fraser and director of athletics Jacques Bellefleur dropped by CHMA studios last week to talk about Bell’s hard work, and the impact that the Mounties recent success in the CFL draft can have for the football program.
CHMA started off asking Coach Fraser how big of a deal it is to get drafted into the Canadian Football League.
CHMA also spoke to Daniel Bell from his home in Saint John, to hear about what comes next for the defensive back:
