The annual Dragon Boat Festival is fundraiser for an awesome cause---but one team got more than they bargained for as teams paddled off Renforth Wharf raising money for the the St Joseph's Hospital Foundation.
Jenn Martin captained the Radio River Racers and she was on hand to see the unexpected mishap. She explains the wind conditions whipped up whitecaps on the river to the point that one boat ended up tipping over and all 21 team members went into the drink. It took 7 boats to fish everyone out.
Everyone was wearing life jackets and properly briefed on safety procedures so no one was hurt. Only one other dragon boat has tipped in the history of the festival and that was in Fredericton several years ago.
Twelve people are temporarily homeless and one person seriously injured after a pre-dawn fire today gutted part of a large two-storey house containing several apartments in downtown Fredericton.
There was significant heat, smoke or water damage throughout the wood-frame structure. One woman was rescued unconscious from a ground-floor apartment and hospitalized.
The fire at 379 Charlotte Street was reported shortly after 5 a.m. when tenants were awakened by a smoke detector. There was no immediate word on the cause.
A few years back the Liberal government of the day made a big show of the poverty reduction plan put together in Saint John.
Since then precious little has happened on that front to the chagrin of many provincial anti-poverty activists.
Jean Claude Basque of the Common Front for Social Justice says if anything more people are struggling since the plan was created.
An announcement in Fredericton tomorrow may mean the government is starting to take notice.
A series of public discussions leading to the renewal of the poverty reduction plan will be announced.
Premier David Alward and Healthy and Inclusive Communities Minister Dorothy Shephard will be there.
If you are game for a road trip, a new exhibit at the Fundy Discovery Aquarium in St. Andrew's may be a fun adventure for the family.
A new exhibit features the lined seahorse which is sometimes found off the coast of Nova Scotia but mostly along the southern US coast and into the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
The seahorse swim upright and their tail holds onto blades of sea grass, coral and other objects. Their colour and markings make them vary greatly and since they have no stomach they are constantly eating.
The aquarium is fundraising for the new creatures to assist with their upkeep. Donations can be made at the Aquarium or on their website.
For more information, click here
The exhibit opens today.
The Chesley Drive on-ramp on the Saint John Harbour Bridge will be closed from Monday to Friday for repairs.
Traffic will be directed to the Somerset Street / Route 1 interchange via Hilyard Street.
Peel Plaza is officially up and running now with the public able to book tours and take a look at the facilities.
Saint John MP Rodney Weston tells CHSJ News he's suitably impressed with the facility and with the force as a whole.
Weston said Saint John has a long tradition of policing in the community and the new facility is a mark of respect for the hard work they do.
Public Safety Minister Robery Trevors is expressing the government's support for the Safer Communities And Neighborhoods program, which many have feared was set for the chopping block.
Trevors announced more funding has been put behind the program, which allows citizens to anonymously report houses where crime is taking place and get tenants on the road to eviction.
The SCAN program had come under review earlier this summer after a tenant claimed she was evicted based on hearsay evidence but that was concluded to have been an isolated incident.
