Mayor Court Expected To Testify At Defamation Trial

The city's former Finance Commissioner, Andrew Beckett will be back on the witness stand this morning at the defamation trial of former Common Councillor John Ferguson.

Mayor Ivan Court is also expected to testify at some point. It has been revealed the city's pension plan needed a return on its investments of 8 per cent to break even which wasn't a problem in the late 1990's when it enjoyed double digit returns.

Mayor Court tells CHSJ News the plan went from an 18 million dollar surplus to a 31 million dollar deficit when the assumed rate of return was lowered by the Superintendent of Pensions at the time.
 

At the beginning of the year 2000, the city's pension plan had a surplus of 29 million dollars. It now has an estimated deficit of 190 million dollars plus.

Bullying Victim Decides to Leave Town

It's a sad update to a bullying story we told you about earlier this month. 15 year old Brendan Annis used to enjoy classes at Leo Hayes High School, but now he's been bullied so severely that he's moving out of the province. Annis was stalked and harassed by his peers after he decided to break up with his girlfriend. His dad, Fred Annis, tells us

His dad, Fred Annis, tells CHSJ News it was a tough call to make, but they hope a change of scene will help Brenden get back on track with school and into a healthier state of mind. 

Brenden's parents removed the teen from school for several weeks, but as soon as he came back the bullies started it up again. Dianne Wilkins, the superintendent of school district 18, telling us earlier this month that they'd hired an external investigator to review the situation. 

According to the family, the school didn't get back to them when promised that they would work to find a solution.

Fire Chief Will be Sadly Missed

A beloved East Side fire chief being fondly remembered by friends, family, and former-co-workers.

Simonds Fire Chief Ralph Gordon Kane passed away on Thursday. Fire captain Bill Peacock says he knew Kane for 20 years, and that whoever fills his shoes is going to have to do a lot of walking.

Peacock says that if the measure of a man is what you're willing to do for others, Kane's stock would have been invaluable.

Kane joined the Simonds fire department in 1980. A reception will be held at the Simonds Fire Hall on Tuesday afternoon following Kane's funeral at 12:05.

Increase In Response Time Will Not Raise Fire Insurance Rates

The local firefighters union claims that due to the recent budget cuts, response times will be going up by 2 to 3 minutes and will cause an increase to fire insurance rates.

But the VP of TD Insurance Henry Blumenthal tells CHSJ News a bump in the response time by a few minutes will not affect your rate.

He says the main criteria for fire rates is based on distance, not response time.

He adds it would take a huge increase in the response time for rates to be affected.