The Hamilton Spectator
Bad blood
Tension hung in the air as Tammy Allin stood behind the boards of a Burlington arena last summer, coaching her teenage daughter's lacrosse team. Just a few feet away stood a woman who sold Allin and other parents fake tickets for Taylor Swift shows in...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Special Olympics take the court
Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky's aunt Ellen couldn't read or tell the time — but she knew what time to tune into the radio each day to hear how Wayne's team did. Ellen Gretzky had Down syndrome, and the Gretzky family's love for her is in part what...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
FROM N.Y.C. TO HAMILTON
It's a census year in Canada, so let the record show that our population is the richer by at least one Crash Test Dummy, Hamilton having reclaimed him from New York City. We find Brad Roberts deposited here, in the bank of our creative human capital,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
SWAMPED AND WASHED OUT
A brief but powerful deluge prompted Hamilton police to close roads and help drivers in Upper Stoney Creek and Glanbrook due to flooding Tuesday afternoon. Environment Canada warned of stormy conditions throughout the day that could bring 110 km/h...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Apartments, commercial space planned for the Gore Park gap
Developers are pursuing a new plan to fill a gap in the Gore Park streetscape where heritage buildings crumbled to the ground nearly two years ago. The Hughson Business Space Corporation aims to make its pitch for a 12storey rental building with...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Burlington woman scammed of roughly $360,000, family says
Krystal Battistel had never known her mother to be so erratic, especially not with money. But according to Battistel, her 75yearold mother, Karen Wales, spent months unknowingly liaising with people Battistel flatly refers to as “scammers.” Over...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Lifeline on front lines of women's homelessness
Elizabeth Schaub sits on the steps of YWCA Hamilton and waits with a clutch of other women for beds at an overnight dropin program on a muggy summer's day. Carole Anne's Place, a lifeline on MacNab Street South for women and genderdiverse people...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
They drive 1,400 kilometres for Ticats games
To find the quaint town of North East, Md. (population 4,000 or so), start in Baltimore and then head the direction the place suggests. Once the map says you've reached the topright corner of Maryland — just minutes before crossing into Delaware —...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
HAZE AND SMOKE ON THE WATER
Smoke from forest fires burning through northwestern Ontario blanketed Hamilton, causing some of the city's worst air quality conditions in the past decade. Wafting over Steeltown by early Wednesday, the thick smoke shuttered the city's pools, large...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
180 YEARS OF The Spectator
SINCE 1846, this newspaper has told the stories of our city. Stories, big and small, that inform, delight, inspire and shock. Stories that hold those in power to account. Stories that make a difference. Today, 180 years later, we continue to bring you...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Where's the perch?
Where have all the perch gone? It's a pressing question in Port Dover, where the sweettasting Lake Erie fish is harder to find than a free patch of beach sand on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The Beach House and two other restaurants run by F.W....
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Embracing Simcoe's seasonal farm workers
Taj Coley could not hide his smile. For a few hours in a park west of Simcoe, the seasonal farm worker channelled his days as a Jamaica Premier League soccer player, scoring eight goals to lead his team from Sandy Shore Farms to the semifinals of a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Goalie making hockey history
Thwack. Thump. Thwack. Thump. It's Monday afternoon and 27 C outside. But in this Etobicoke arena, where an emptied bucket of pucks litters the ice, it could be any time, any season. But this netminder — who blocks one shot after another with...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Business owner `beyond frustrated'
It may be tough to see through the scaffolding spanning the entrance, but Lorena Bachetti Rallis wants everyone to know Steve's Open Kitchen is most certainly open for business. For the better part of a year, a web of metal bars has crisscrossed the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A WILD SUMMER AWAITS
Alpacas, rabbits and goats … oh my! Those are just some of the many animals on display at Ancaster's Triple C Farm. The familyrun farm filled with rescue animals sits on a quiet, rural street at 500 Carluke Rd. W. and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`I think Hamilton will be a regular stop'
There's no question that Shai GilgeousAlexander was the star of the show over the past few days in Hamilton. Two international basketball games featuring our national men's team — with him at the centre of that — gave local fans a chance to see their...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
LTC bed crisis separates couple for years
It took four “cruel” years for David WaltonBall to be reunited with his wife after they ended up living in homes across the Mountain from one another. When the couple — who have been married for more than six decades — moved into retirement living at...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
HEARTBREAKING END
Canadian fans look on in dejection during secondhalf FIFA World Cup round of 16 soccer action as their team loses, 30, to Morocco, in Houston, Saturday. It was Canada's first time making it to the round of 16.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Art Crawl at a crossroads
It's a beautiful latespring evening on James Street North — the kind of weather that feels like fresh citrus tastes. Sunlight dapples the busy sidewalks. Tree branches sway lazily in the breeze. Colourful bunting and strings of lights hang from...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Mural honours Hamilton's NBA MVP
His baby daughter was just a month old when he got the call asking if he'd be interested in painting a giant mural of Shai GilgeousAlexander at TD Coliseum. Little Etta still hadn't figured out her sleeping schedule, so Kareem-Anthony Ferreira was...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
IT'S GOING TO BE A SUPIE SUMMER
Hamilton's Supie program returns to Hamilton's parks this summer at “full operations” for the first time since the COVID19 pandemic. From June 29 until Aug. 28, the cityrun Supie recreational pro gram offers free, staffsupervised dropin...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
GEARING UP FOR CANADA DAY
Top left, a furry friend looks out at a display of Canadian flags on Hamilton Mountain's Chesley Street. Top right, a Canadian flag hangs on Chesley Street. Could there be a more Canadian scene than a flag mounted on a hockey street drilled into a...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Lewis Mallard is back, with big plans
The quack is back. Lewis Mallard, the psychedelic folk artist known for wandering the city in his giant, iconic duck suit, has landed back in Hamilton after a few years away from the city. But Mallard will be doing more than painting murals and...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Pickleball bounced from Ancaster courts after noise complaints
Passersby wouldn't notice walking by, but a tennis — and formerly pickleball — court at an Ancaster park has lost some paint. The city removed the pickleball lines from the James Smith Park tennis court near Garner Road this week, following a notice...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`This has been going on for a long time'
A rural Flamborough resort community has reportedly been operating without the benefit of clean, safe tap water for nearly a month. For fulltime Fernbrook Resort resident Mary Kovacs, who said she's been buying cases of water to keep up with...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WATCHING THE BEAUTIFUL GAME
Hundreds of soccer fans take in the CanadaSwitzerland World Cup match on the videoboard at Hamilton Stadium Wednesday afternoon. Andy Lama with his sevenyearold son Drinchen and daughter Rigel, 3, wrapped themselves in a Canadian flag. Switzerland...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`It was a magical place'
Elliott Raphael had never even heard of a stocking stuffer until a customer at his Concession Street discount store pointed out that his shop was full of them. SoLow Sales, once housed inside the building that now hosts the Hamilton Mountain Zarky's,...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
AN EXHIBIT MADE IN HAMILTON
One person's trash is another person's treasure. But if you look hard enough, you can sometimes find fascinating pieces of history. Such is the case with the new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, “Made in Hamilton: The Glen Faulman...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
POTHOLE PATROL: Why your street might be waiting
If there's one thing Hamiltonians from across the city can agree on, it's a general disdain for potholes. The roadway nuisances come in a variety of sizes: from a small crack that's not noticeable to a crater that results in some serious damage to...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Fire chief to ask for 64 new firefighters in 2027 budget
The city's fire chief is asking to hire 22 new firefighters now — and expects to request another 42 next year — to deal with both skyrocketing overtime costs and increased demand in Hamilton's fastgrowing suburbs. Meanwhile, the head of Hamilton's...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Fire displaces family, leaves eight pets dead
A couple and their four grandchildren have been displaced after a fire tore through their home in north Hamilton on Wednesday night. While none of the family were home at the time, their two dogs and six cats were found dead in the blaze. Hamilton...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Cootes Paradise showing some signs of recovery
For Claire Webber and her family, one of the biggest perks of their home in Westdale Village is its proximity to Cootes Paradise. Webber, who lives on the north side of the neighbourhood with her spouse and two young children, is no stranger to the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A NEW KIND OF MUSIC LESSON
At Adelaide Hoodless Elementary School, Raquel McIntosh's music lessons look much different now that she teaches from a mobile music cart. Here, she gives instruction to a group of Grade 7 and 8 students. For more on the program, see
Read Full Story (Page 1)
ROOFTOP WORLD CUP FEVER
Randy Davies lines up among the players he and his daughter created on the roof of the family's Sirente Drive garage this week to recognize the World Cup. Davies said he and his daughter searched local thrift stores for all the jerseys and some of the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Housing coalition dreams big with 5,000unit goal
The puzzle pieces of supportive housing and urban renewal continue to fall into place along what used to be a suffering stretch of east Hamilton streetscape. Indwell's fourstorey, 32unit building is rising on the Ottawa Street North lot at Cannon...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Bryan Hayward admits to drugging, raping and sharing videos of seven victims
Bryan Hayward has admitted to drugging, raping and sharing videos he recorded of the graphic sexual assaults of seven women, some who were repeatedly targeted over months or years. Among the videos discovered by police, 22 were shared through his...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Hamilton's home prices have dropped significantly. Who is being hit the hardest?
When Heather and Bryan Fontez bought their first home in central Hamilton back in October 2020, they hoped their investment would one day pay off. Despite rising prices and bidding wars, the Toronto couple managed to buy a “really lovely”...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Amateur radio connects ship with world
From a small radio room in the bowels of the HMCS Haida, visitors can now connect with the world. The link was made possible by a new amateur radio station on board the decommissioned warship, set up by the Friends of HMCS Haida with the help of Parks...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Learning and building memories
On a sunny June morning, Grade 8 students at Hess Street Elementary School in central Hamilton puttered around a makeshift parkinglot shop, measuring, marking, cutting. “I'm making a library for my Barbie house,” said 14yearold Adrina Jalalian. A...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
An extraordinarily costly bail breach
It has been a year since Lucy Li's mom was ordered to pay a staggering $1 million because of her daughter's “very selfish” bail breach. And with just days left before a May 2026 deadline, Hong Wei (Winnie) Liao paid in full, The Spectator has...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`If I were mayor ...'
If I were mayor, my plan would be to paint the city and feed it at the same time. The oneline version: every vacant lot in Hamilton becomes a garden and every blank wall becomes a canvas. We can call it The Living Canvas, and it would make Hamilton...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
PADDOCK TO PLATE
Drew Spoelstra at his Binbrook farm on Guyatt Road where he raises beef cattle, dairy cows and Clydesdale horses. On June 13, visitors are invited there for breakfast and a behindthescenes look at where their food comes from. Learn about Breakfast on...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Should city consider biweekly pickup?
Hamilton is now one of the last big cities in the province still picking up curbside trash every week, a new report shows. So with trash piling up in the city's last landfill, is it time to make the historically unpopular switch to biweekly...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Farmers challenge penalty for axed trees
An Ancaster farming couple faces potential court fines in excess of $100,000 after the city charged them for cutting down 64 trees at their Book Road East property. The City of Hamilton separately charged Wendell and Faye Leytham in 2024 under the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
One worker, 334 megapacks, 240,000 homes
At the height of construction, there were more than 300 people working at Hagersville Battery Energy Storage Park, a 300megawatt battery farm outside the town of Hagersville in Haldimand County. Today there is just one. The sole boots on the ground...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`Fix the problem, don't move it'
For the uninitiated, Hamilton's Industrial Sector D — with its metallic air, dusty streets, roaring trucks and auto yards — can be an unforgiving landscape, but nestled next to the steel mills are blocks of modest homes. And the workingclass area...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
From ping pong to pro football
Among the unlikeliest origin stories for a future Hamilton TigerCat is the one that involves a giant German ping pong star who'd barely seen an American football game until stumbling on a Super Bowl on his TV in the middle of the night. “I wouldn't...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WALKING WITH THE WEENIES
Yinze Xu walks her four dachshund pups, Limo, Vienna, Slipper and Louie, along Old Ancaster Road. The forecast calls for mainly sunny skies into the weekend, with daily highs around 20 C. For more details see the weather map,
Read Full Story (Page 1)
PICKETING ON UPPER PARADISE
More than 130 employees at Lynwood Charlton Centre are on strike as part of a provincewide push to boost funding in the sector. The local social services workers hit the picket lines for a second consecutive day Tuesday, joining some 4,000 people...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
TD Coliseum reopening a score for core restaurants
Downtown restaurateurs already seeing positive impacts from Hamilton's newly renovated TD Coliseum say they're anticipating a further bump from two new professional hockey teams. “It's been better than we'd even guessed,” said Matt Kershaw, executive...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
What happens when police seize a crime gun?
Acting Sgt. Kevin McComb carefully raises his service pistol and fires into a long metal container. It is filled with water that churns when the motor is activated, the water's resistance slowing the bullets' path so they stop about threequarters...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`NO JUDGMENT. JUST LOVE'
She needs to do laundry. So, she locks her cat in another room, takes her naloxone from her nightstand, and calls the National Overdose Response Service (NORS). Jodi, in Hamilton, answers. “I need to clean and declutter, so I need to focus,” the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
FEEDING THE LITTLE ONES
A mother robin feeds her three chicks in a lilac bush in the Lilac Dell at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Daytime highs will remain cool into the weekend, but should rise into next week.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`We will continue to ask questions'
It's been about six weeks since a Hamilton teen fell to his death at the former Westinghouse factory owned by McMaster University, where he studied. Many questions remain, and Flynn Pavlovsky's parents continue to search for answers. “If they...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Could a downtown police substation make people feel safer?
A new downtown police substation is one among several ideas being pitched to Chief Frank Bergen to help make people feel safer in Hamilton's core. The proposal has been raised with Hamilton's top cop more than once in the aftermath of a downtown...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
When courts become a weapon
When Naz Sayani decided to leave her husband, she wanted the abuse she had endured for decades to end. And she wanted justice. Yet despite going to police and securing court rulings in her favour, she says the abuse has continued — this time through...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Cancer care's missing middle
Leah DiFelice found out she had breast cancer when her test results were sent to her electronically while she was driving one of her kids to the dentist. “Finding out through an email notification that you have cancer at 37 was so devastating to me,”...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`The whole team has a heart'
They've never lived in Montreal and they don't speak French — but Hamilton natives Tom Alvey and Tracey Huxford are passionate fans of the Habs. “Just to see these guys out there, playing with their hearts. It's so much fun,” said Tracey, 56. “It's...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
POWERED BY STUDENTS
Forge FC remained undefeated this Canadian Premier League season with a 10 win over Supra du Quebec in front of 15,122 students at the School Day Game at Hamilton Stadium. Dan Nimick scored the game's only goal early in the second half. The win puts...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Residents voice safety concerns after teen's shooting at downtown tower
Fights. Weapons on belts and in backpacks. Needles in elevators and hallways. People sleeping in garbage disposal rooms and using “stairwells as toilets.” Residents say they warned City-Housing Hamilton (CHH) about these and other safety concerns...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Young, armed, deadly
Two Hamilton teens were killed in shootings just six days apart. Nabil Askafe was only 16. He was gunned down in the entranceway to Jackson Square on April 24, allegedly shot by a 14yearold boy who he got into an argument with while walking to the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
In the core, fear has become part of daytoday life
Standing on the corner of King and James streets on a recent afternoon, the hum of traffic and rush of footsteps all around her, personal support worker Ann Recollet watches one of Hamilton's busiest intersections in motion. Next to her, people wait...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WITH ONE LUMP OR TWO?
The owners of a new sugar refinery at Pier 15 hope, over time, it will become the largest such facility in Canada. Sucro Can Canada officials and local politicians celebrated the completion of the new plant, which was billed as a job creator that will...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`Hamilton hum' causing sleepless nights
The humming has become a part of Megan Hull's life. Since moving to a house around Main Street and Sherman Avenue in 2012, the central Hamilton resident can't remember a time when she hasn't heard the “weird background noise.” It's loudest in the...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
WHERE DID THE BEACH GO?
High water levels in Lake Ontario translate into almost zero beach along Hamilton Beach this week. The city is urging residents, particularly near the lake, to protect their homes and property against the risk of flooding. Find more information inside on
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`We were through a war'
It wasn't the graphic evidence of a man being gunned down in a shisha bar bathroom that got to the juror. Nor the immense responsibility of deciding the fate of the two accused. The breaking point for 80yearold Ralph Corning was the first night he...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Case reveals child aid system `in crisis'
In April 2022, supervisors at the Halton Children's Aid Society met to discuss the “current struggles” Becky Hamber and Brandy Cooney were having with the two Indigenous brothers who had been living in the couple's Burlington home for five years — an...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
UNKNOWN NO LONGER
He may have been killed more than a century ago during the First World War, but Earnest Welby Smith has no final resting place. Pte. Smith, a 28yearold labourer from Norfolk County, went missing on Aug. 15, 1917, one of 1,200 Canadian soldiers whose...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
A TOXIC CLIMATE
Editor's note: This story contains descriptions of harassment, including graphic language and threats of violence. A seemingly endless stream of threatening, racist and misogynistic messages — including a suggestion she should be “gang raped” —...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`We stick to what we're really good at'
“If it's not broke, don't fix it.” The classic saying applies to many things and situations, but it is not often directed at an eatery or business. But when it comes to Hutch's on the Beach, it might just be the secret sauce for the Hamilton...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
`I had nice memories in my head'
As the lenses cover her eyes, the conference room vanishes and Donna Nowacki is afloat on a troutfilled lake, casting a line. After years spent cottaging on Lake Erie, the Brantford senior is familiar with the pull of an oar and the tug of a hooked...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Overdose calls double following closure of safe consumption site
Hamilton public health issued a drug alert as paramedics continue to respond to “persistent high numbers” of overdoses. The alert on March 6 about the increasingly toxic drug supply coincided with the secondhighest month of opioidrelated overdoses...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Family and friends say final goodbye to teen killed in Jackson Square shooting
Amid tears and embraces, a casket draped in a traditional blackandgold burial cloth moved through the Hamilton Mountain Mosque on Monday, where family and friends bid farewell to 16yearold Nabil Askafe. About 300 people attended the afternoon...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
From Baghdad survivor to 4.0 graduate
Thirteen years ago, he was a kid singer in the Middle East with a song promoting school that earned more than 60 million views on YouTube. In June, Abdullah Al Azzawi will graduate from McMaster University's rigorous life sciences program with a 4.0...
Read Full Story (Page 1)
From `people place' to pressure point
Two acres in the sky, the lungs of a new Hamilton. That was the vision for the plaza atop Jackson Square when the landmark downtown complex opened in August 1972. Perched above the shopping concourse of the $100million blockspanning development and...
Read Full Story (Page 1)