Islanders rally around Charlottetown Farmers’ Market vendors after Christmas Day fire
CBC
When a fire broke out at the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market in the early hours of Christmas Day, John Bell was among the first on scene.
The firefighter with the City of Charlottetown said the blaze hit close to home.
“That's like a staple of the community," Bell told CBC News. "Everyone knows the farmers’ market. It's a pretty popular spot — especially it's the heart and soul of the artisan community, the vendors, all the local proprietors here in town.
“You see the structure on fire… it hits you in the gut, so to speak. It is heartbreaking.”
A week later, Bell was back supporting the market, this time as one of hundreds of people who turned out for a pop-up event at the P.E.I. Farm Centre on Wednesday.
The event brought together many of the vendors who have been displaced by the fire.
“When I found out that they were having a pop-up market here in town, it was a proud moment for me to see everyone come together and support the vendors and the community at large,” Bell said.
“It's been a hard week for Charlottetown, and to see something like this kind of helps raise everyone's spirits a little bit.”
The farm centre was packed with people on Wednesday, with many others outside struggling to find parking as the lot quickly filled up.
Donation boxes were set up to support not only the rebuilding of the farmers’ market, but also victims of a separate fire at an apartment building on Green Street that happened just days later. Two people died and three others were taken to hospital after that early morning fire on Dec. 28.
“I'm crying for the first time since this happened. People have been dropping 20s and 50s, not just in our box, but in the box for the Green Street fire,” said Pat Murray, volunteer co-ordinator with the farmers’ market.
“I've lived in five different provinces, nine different areas of Canada, and I've never seen community on this level that I see here.”
An online fundraiser has also been set up to help cover repair costs to the farmers’ market building at 100 Belvedere Ave. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than $40,000 had been raised.
Barb MacLeod was among those attending the pop-up. She’s been shopping at the Charlottetown market for more than three decades.
As both the provincial and federal governments hone in on mining opportunities in northern Ontario, supporting local industries and building safer highways are top of mind for regional leaders this year.
Tucked inside Toronto’s leafy, quiet and private residential neighbourhoods are facades that tell the story of another time in the city’s urban planning history.
Ontario’s two main opposition parties will try to turn the page on what was a difficult year, with one rebuilding after an underwhelming leadership vote result and another searching for a new person to take the party helm.
This year, two things will happen to Canada's fiscal watchdog: Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques will be replaced or made permanent, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will publish its review of the office.
As the era of bilateral bad blood between Canada and the U.S. drags on, some snowbirds are facing a choice this January: Go south to warmer climes, or boycott a country that has gone from friend to somewhat of a foe.
RCMP are warning people of slippery conditions on the Trans-Canada Highway after a transport truck slid off the road in the area of Clarenville, N.L.
Sidney Crosby is remembering fellow Nova Scotian Lowell MacDonald, a former NHLer who died Sunday, as an inspiration to his career.
Moncton artist Alan Spinney doesn't usually paint on a five-by-five inch canvas, but he and his wife have started doing that for a new mini-art gallery.
Residents of Pimicikamak Cree Nation are celebrating and relieved now that power and electricity are being restored to the community.
Two people are dead after an early-morning highway collision on New Year’s Day, the Saskatoon Fire Department said Thursday morning.
A small group of Haitian Canadians celebrated the island nation's Independence Day at a B.C. church on Thursday by serving soup that symbolizes freedom.
The crowd of spectators was much larger than the number of people lined up to go into the icy waters of the Charlottetown harbour for Thursday's polar bear dip.
In a park just outside city hall, along one of the main routes through Williams Lake, B.C., sits a memorial to Cheryl Folden, a woman described as a former drug dealer who died after a lifetime of struggling with addiction, abuse and homelessness in the province's Cariboo region.