Ten must-read features from Hamilton Spectator reporters in 2021
Hamilton Spectator reporters spent the year investigating the city's biggest issues, worst crimes and most intriguing stories.
Here are some must-read features from 2021:
Anyone familiar with the landscape of Hamilton might notice that the city is moving up, up, up. Spectator reporter Teviah Moro takes a look at the unprecedented" highrise boom, where developments are happening as well as two projects: Harry Stinson's Beasley Park Lofts and Jeff Paikin's Stoney Creek waterfront towers.
A former MPP opens up about caring for her husband with Alzheimer
Bruce Wood stood in his kitchen holding the hand of his wife, former Milton MP Lisa Raitt. His once broad shoulders are stooped. He no longer plays golf, builds cabinets or uses a phone. The 61-year-old former Hamilton Port Authority CEO has young-onset Alzheimer's disease. Raitt, Jon Wells writes, is losing him - and loving him.
A Mother's Day photo inside the home of LeBron James gave his 84-million Instagram followers a glimpse of the NBA star's life - also a glimpse of a painting by local artist Kareem-Anthony Ferreira. Ferreira told only a few close friends about the LeBron connection, then The Spec's Scott Radley wrote about it.
Trigger: Inside Hamilton's Mob War
When Angelo Musitano was gunned down in his Waterdown driveway, it triggered a Mob war in Hamilton. After the conclusion of the court case against the only person ever arrested and charged in Musitano's murder and the murder of innocent bystander Mila Barberi, Nicole O'Reilly looks into never-before heard details of the homicides, the complex police investigation into the killers and the sophisticated inner workings of the Mafia.
Glued locks, smeared feces, fish carcasses and unheeded cries for help
Month after month, Marilyn Mitton filed complaints to CityHousing and Hamilton police about persistent and horrific harassment from Wayne Bell, a resident of the downtown highrise where she lived, a man she briefly dated. Two weeks after her last of more than a dozen complaints to the housing provider, she was murdered and her apartment was set on fire. Sebastian Bron reports on the paper trail of evidence she left behind.
Three young men planned to rob a drug dealer of $800 worth of cocaine. A Hamilton teen ended up stabbed to death. Dawson Farr, the 18-year-old who carried the knife in self-defence, was found not guilty of manslaughter. The Spectator's Nicole O'Reilly reports on the deadly encounter.
She was the first woman to lead a cardiac surgery department in Canada. Dr. Irene Cybulsky was then subjected to stereotypes, bias and discrimination at Hamilton Health Sciences. The Spec's Joanna Frketich looks back on her tenure and what HHS plans to do about it.
Life and death after high school
Thirty years after their school bus rumbled through the city to track meets, Jon Wells wrote about the 1991 Sir Allan MacNab track team. It is just one group of students, from one school in a middle income neighbourhood. Where are they now? Some where they never quite expected. And some who burned brightest are gone too soon.
In 2006, a group of women from Six Nations crossed into a Caledonia construction site and set up a teepee. The occupation of the planned Douglas Creek Estates subdivision on Argyle Street started a chain reaction that would lead 15 years later to the ongoing standoff at 1492 Land Back Lane. J.P. Antonacci looks into the McKenzie Meadows occupation and the question of what comes next.
Film hubs, funding firsts and flops
You may know serial entrepreneur Joe Accardi for his high-profile restaurant fails or his real estate investment firm Forge and Foster - but what about his investments in film and TV production, tiny cottages, co-living or trendy crowdfunding experiments? The Spectator's Matthew Van Dongen and Sebastian Bron introduce you to the man who - along with partners - snapped up $83-million in property since 2020.
Jeremy Kemeny is a Hamilton-based web editor at The Spectator. Reach him via email: jkemeny@thespec.com