Year in review: A look back at top Windsor-Essex news stories of 2024

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There was tragedy, triumph, and lots of controversy.

From protests and legal battles to a housing crisis and drug epidemic, the Windsor Star was there to cover all the stories that shocked, inspired, and changed the landscape of Windsor-Essex.  

Here are some of the most notable front-page stories the Windsor Star covered in 2024: 

Jan. 1: SafePoint, Windsor’s downtown drug consumption and treatment services site, pauses operations due to the absence of provincial funding.

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Jan. 4: Companies building the Gordie Howe International Bridge announce opening of the long-awaited border crossing has been delayed 10 months to the fall of 2025, and the cost has increased from $5.7 billion to $6.4 billion. COVID-19 disruptions are blamed.

Jan. 9: The Star reports that the first homes have begun popping up on the Caldwell First Nation reserve, more than two centuries after members were driven from their ancestral land. The property was acquired following a $105-million land-claim settlement in 2010, and was officially designated a reserve in November 2020.

Jan. 22: Windsor city council votes to cling to rigid zoning rules, refusing to allow fourplexes on any residential lot as-of-right, putting in jeopardy the city’s eligibility for up to $40 million in federal housing grants, plus potentially $30 million more if it meets targets. Permitting up to four units on every lot currently zoned residential is considered a minimum ticket to entry for the federal funding. 

Jan. 23: London’s Bubba Pollock pleads guilty to criminal harassment after taking a selfie with a dying man in a room at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in June 2023. Police and prosecutors said the target of the stunt was the patient’s daughter, Britt Leroux, who only knew of Pollock from heated social media exchanges over area Pride events. Pollock had posted his opposition to Pride events. 

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Jan. 30: Jacob Fehr, 24, is sentenced to nine years in prison for killing Carrie Steeman, 50, and her daughter Jacqueline Steeman, 30, in a head-on drunk driving crash March 18, 2022, in Leamington. The prosecutor says it’s the harshest penalty ever imposed in Windsor-Essex for an impaired driving criminal conviction. 

Jan. 31: The federal government sends Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens a letter stating the city is no longer eligible for up to $70 million to build more affordable housing, after city council refused to change its zoning bylaw to allow fourplexes on any residential lot. 

Feb. 13: Windsor police arrest Sushil Kumar Jain, 81, the former president of the South Asian Centre of Windsor for allegedly stealing $362,739 from the local charity over the last 12 years. 

March 4: Federal officials announce that Tecumseh has been approved for $4.38 million over three years through Canadian government’s $4-billion Housing Accelerator Fund. The news comes weeks after Ottawa rejected Windsor’s application over its refusal to allow fourplexes as-of-right.  

March 4: Ohio-based developer Fairmount Properties announces it is taking legal action against the City of Windsor, seeking a court order to quash a city council decision to terminate an agreement between Windsor and Fairmount to redevelop the city-owned former Grace Hospital site into a $142-million “Global Village.

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March 11: Premier Doug Ford visits Kingsville, where he announces $50 million in upgrades, including a new interchange, for the busy intersection at Banwell Road and E.C. Row Expressway. Ford also announces work has begun on the long-awaited Highway 3 expansion.

March 13: The Windsor Star reports that Essex County’s mental health crisis has become so severe, with desperate parents surrendering children to the Children’s Aid Society, that the agency is renting a house for “abandoned youth,” and housing children in hotels and even its downtown office building.

March 13: Windsor police announce they have arrested a 14-year-old boy in connection to a vicious assault against a teenage boy with autism. A group of youths attacked the boy at a bus stop outside Devonshire Mall several days earlier.

March 25: Caldwell First Nation signs a memorandum of understanding with Parks Canada to help manage Windsor’s planned Ojibway National Urban Park.

March 29: More than 6,000 local residents appear on the province’s annual Sunshine List, disclosing public sector workers who made $100,000 or more, including 1,000 people from Windsor Regional Hospital. Hospital CEO David Musyj is the region’s highest paid public sector employee, with 2023 earnings of $433,027 plus $13,369 in taxable benefits.

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April 8: The Great North American Eclipse submerges parts of Essex County into afternoon darkness for the first time in about 250 years. Essex County was the first place in Canada to fall under the shadow of the historic cosmic phenomenon.

April 9: The Star reports that fired top city engineer Chris Nepszy, alleging “top-down culture of corruption,” has filed a $1.55-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

April 13: Curlers play the final bonspiel at the city-owned Roseland Golf and Curling Club before the clubhouse is closed. Windsor city council voted to end curling after 45 years and relocate it to the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex.

April 14: In a chaotic meeting that was abruptly shut down after 15 minutes, Greater Essex County District School Board trustees picked an amended name for the new Kingsville school — Erie Migration District School. Controversy surrounded the naming with student protests, a student-led petition, and Kingsville trustee Julia Burgess consulting the OPP about personal protection after receiving threats. Burgess had advanced the name Erie Migration Academy at a February meeting over two others narrowed down by a public consultation process.

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April 16:  The federal government releases its 2024 budget, with $36.1 million earmarked over five years for Parks Canada to create the Ojibway National Urban Park in Windsor. 

April 25: More than 300,000 people descend on the Windsor-Detroit region with the start of NFL draft in downtown Detroit, selling out hotels in Windsor.

May 13: A group of pro-Palestinian protesters set up a “Liberation Zone” encampment on the University of Windsor campus, making several demands, including the university’s financial divestment from organizations that benefit or support Israel.

May 13: City council unanimously approves the $3.2-million Strengthen the Core plan unveiled in April. The seven-part strategy outlines ways to get more people living, working and visiting downtown Windsor.

May 17: Windsor Regional Hospital announces CEO David Musyj has been seconded to serve as president and CEO of London Health Sciences Centre amid a travel spending controversy in London. Vice-president and chief nursing executive Karen Riddell takes over as interim CEO of Windsor Regional, making her the first woman and first nurse to take on the role.

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May 17: It’s the 30th anniversary of the opening of Ontario’s first casino – in Windsor. Now known as Caesars Windsor, it has consistently remained the region’s top visitor draw since people lined up around the block to get a first look on May 17, 1994.

May 31: St. Clair College president Patti France, who became the first woman, first St. Clair graduate, and first internal appointee to hold the job in 2015, attends her last day of school before retiring at the end of a 35-year career at the school.

June 7: Ford Motor Company unveils the revived 111-year-old Michigan Central Station in Detroit’s Corktown following a six-year, US$950-million project that included renovations at the nearby Albert Kahn-designed Book Depository, construction of an eight-acre park and other projects.

June 10: Windsor city council votes to erect an eight-foot fence around the western section of Sand Point Beach following two deaths at the popular summer sport. Yogesh Bajgai, 25, and Rohit Dheer, 22, drowned there on May 23.

June 10: A divided city council narrowly approves spending $15,455,000 on an ice rink just north of city hall. That amount is roughly $6 million more than council previously approved for the project, and more than $11 million higher than what was originally projected two years prior.

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June 12: Greater Essex County District School Board trustees unanimously approve a budget with $6.4-million deficit, saving key social worker positions but risking provincial intervention.

June 18: The University of Windsor makes the controversial and heavily criticized decision to shut down its University Players theatre program, for an annual savings of about $580,000, to help address this year’s $5.6-million shortfall.

June 19: Essex County councillors vote to give themselves hefty pay raises retroactive to Jan. 1, resulting in a $292,056 shortfall in this year’s already-approved budget.

June 20: The community of Harrow is rocked with grief after officers responding to a call in the 1200 block of County Road 13 found the bodies of a mother, father, and two young children. The grief is later amplified when it’s discovered that Steven Walsh, 42, shot his wife, Carly Walsh, 41, and their children Madison 13, and Hunter, 8, in a murder-suicide.

June 29: The Municipality of Leamington kicks off three days of festivities in celebration of its 150th anniversary.

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July 5: Melanie Coulter, CEO of the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society, is fired with no public explanation following 15 years in the job. The Star later reports that the humane society’s decision to fire Coulter, who implemented many successful animal-welfare initiatives, came after it hired a lawyer to probe employee complaints.

July 10: The University of Windsor announces it signed deals with pro-Palestinian protesters, ending the “Liberation Zone” campus encampment, by committing to multiple demands including expanding research ties with Palestinian universities and disclosing public investments. The deals prove extremely controversial with UWindsor coming under fire from Jewish advocacy groups and other organizations across North America.

July 24: Dignitaries from both sides of the border meet atop the Gordie Howe International Bridge to celebrate the most significant milestone yet – the joining of the Canadian and American sides of the 853-metre span. During the event, Canada’s Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser tells reporters that the bridge might open ahead of schedule.

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Aug. 15: The Star reports that the population in Windsor and Essex County increased by nearly as many people in 2023 as it had in the previous two decades combined. Over the past two years, the local population grew by 41,877 compared with the 35,333 people added to the census rolls between 2002 and 2021.

Aug. 20: The provincial government announces strict rules on supervised drug consumption sites and a ban on any more from opening, officially killing any hopes of reviving Windsor’s SafePoint.

Sept. 5: Nearly 4,200 Ontario convenience stores, including 80 to 100 in Windsor-Essex, begin selling beer, wine and ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages in the province’s largest expansion of booze sales since the end of Prohibition in 1927.

Sept. 6: MP Brian Masse (NDP — Windsor West) calls for a reversal of the State of Michigan’s move to allow transportation of hazardous materials across the Ambassador Bridge, sparking a public outcry on the Windsor side of the border.

Sept. 6: A 57-year-old man is killed during a confrontation in the 700 bock of Goyeau Avenue with Windsor police, during which two officers fired their weapons.

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Sept. 14: The Star reports that several large donors are abandoning UWindsor over its controversial deals with pro-Palestinian protesters. Among them is business magnate and philanthropist Barry Zekelman, who withdraw a $1-million gift and future support. The Star would report the following week that several more donors are following suit, including the Windsor Law Class of 1981 Scholarship, the university’s largest alumni donor group.

Sept. 16: The Solcz Family Foundation pledges a $15-million donation to the new hospital to be built at County Road 42 and 9th Concession, offering up the largest private donation in Windsor-Essex history.

Sept. 16: Premier Doug Ford says construction on Essex County’s new acute care hospital will likely begin in 2025, ahead of the current planned start date in 2026. But inflation means the $2 billion price tag will also increase.

Sept. 17: Mayor Drew Dilkens states that without any reductions in current spending, next year’s taxes will increase 12.9 per cent — almost $62.3 million— though city council later whittles the increase down.

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Sept. 20: The Star reports that corrections officers at South West Detention Centre thwarted a jailbreak attempt after an inmate allegedly disguised himself with one of their uniforms and headed for the exit.

Sept. 20: The federal government announces a “historic” $76 million in new funding for freshwater restoration on the Great Lakes, including multiple projects in the local region.

Sept. 23: UWindsor president Robert Gordon, at the centre of recent controversies including the deals with pro-Palestinian protesters and a budgetary decision to kill the University Players drama program, announces his early retirement. Gordon retires at the end of the current academic year, despite a recent appointment to a second six-year term.

Sept. 23: Over the opposition of Mayor Michael Prue, Amherstburg town council votes to move forward with restoration proposals for the two-century-old Belle Vue National Historic Site. The municipality will continue negotiations with Amico Properties and the Loop family from Kingsville concerning their interest to transform the rundown manor into a hotel. 

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Sept. 27: Stellantis announces it is reintroducing production of the Chrysler Voyager at Windsor Assembly Plant as a more affordable entry-level model in the U.S. market along with the more upscale Windsor-built Pacifica.

Sept. 27: It is announced that Walpole Island First Nation is teaming up with renewable energy giant Boralex to build a new battery storage facility in Lakeshore, at a cost of $180 million to $200 million, which is expected to create up to 150 local construction jobs.

Oct. 1: The Star reports that new members of the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society have learned their paid memberships won’t grant them voting rights at annual general meetings, contrary to what they were told when signing up.

Oct. 4: The Star reports on the online outrage sparked by a well-attended gathering at Windsor’s Ahlul Bayt Mosque earlier in the week to celebrate the slain leader of Hezbollah — listed by Canada and other countries as a terrorist group.

Oct. 5: Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announces the city has exceeded its housing starts target for the year, securing $3.48 million from Ontario’s Building Faster Fund, plus nearly $700,000 in bonus funding if it reaches 110 per cent of its target. The city had recorded 1,179 housing starts as of mid-September, eclipsing the 1,083-unit target set by Queen’s Park.

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Oct. 15: Greater Essex County District School Board trustees vote to remove the speakers’ list from their meetings. The decision to remove the list, which allows the public to address the board on issues outside its agenda, follows concerns over disruptive behaviour during recent meetings.

Oct. 16: City of Windsor administration tells council they’ve whittled the 2025 tax hike down to 7.4 per cent, from the nearly 13 per cent the Mayor Drew Dilkens previously warned about.

Oct. 20: Tragedy strikes at the Detroit Free Press Marathon when a 57-year-old runner dies after he collapsed on the Windsor side of the cross-border route.

Oct. 25: The Star reports that the University of Windsor is projecting an operating budget deficit next year of more than $30 million, which is at least double is current-year shortfall. UWindsor blames plummeting international student enrolment. The university’s deficit for the 2024/25 fiscal year was projected at $5.6 million over the summer, before skyrocketing to between $10 million and $15 million.

Nov. 4: Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens announces the city is suing the federal government for costs stemming from the 2022 Ambassador Bridge blockade by protesters angry about COVID-19 mandates. Ottawa had reimbursed Windsor for about $6.1 million in expenses, but Dilkens said that left the city on the hook for $900,491.

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Nov. 5: Greater Essex County District School Board trustees approve a plan to cut 63 full-time positions, eliminate the popular RISE (Reaching Individual Success and Excellence) program, and cancel the international baccalaureate program. The move comes after the provincial government instructed the board to eliminate its $6.4 million deficit by the 2026-27 school year.

Nov. 13: Less than two weeks after a dozen mayors, including Windsor’s Drew Dilkens, signed a letter to the premier calling for stronger mandatory mental health care, the head of Windsor’s main provider of mental health and addiction services speaks out against involuntary treatment. Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare president and CEO Bill Marra releases a strongly worded open letter to the Windsor-Essex community stating involuntary treatment is “often not considered a best practice model in mental-health care.”

Nov. 15: The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) goes on strike over wages and working conditions, just as the holiday shopping and delivery season is about to kick into high gear.

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Nov 19: The Windsor-Essex public school board votes to fill a vacant trustee position by appointing an applicant, with board chair Gale Hatfield saying the board has no money to pay for a byelection. Trustee Sarah Cipkar resigned Nov. 5 ahead of a board meeting that cut almost 63 full-time positions and eliminated the international baccalaureate and special education RISE programs. Local businessman Larry Horwitz, who has a daughter in the pre-baccalaureate program, had called on the board to hold a byelection for which he said he would run. 

Nov. 18: Windsor couple Donna Whyte, 68, and Paul Gilbert, 63, together nearly 25 years, are killed when an out-of-control SUV struck them as they walked on Walker Road near Edna Street. The driver had to be rescued from the SUV, which flipped on its side.

Nov. 20: The Windsor Police Services Board approves a 2025 draft budget with a 7.1 per cent increase over 2024’s $106.6 million budget.

Nov. 21: Home Deport celebrates the 100th birthday of David Frank, the company’s oldest employee, who has worked at Windsor’s Division Road store for 23 years.

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Nov. 22: The Williams family of Kingsville says they are canceling their annual Christmas light show at 24 Marshwoods Blvd. — and moving out of town — after council passed a bylaw governing large holiday displays. The annual display, which featured 65,000 lights , raised more than $45,000 for local charities. But some neighbours found the show intrusive and felt it had outgrown the property.

Nov. 25: Windsor city council unanimously approves spending $10.5 million to replace the Charles Brooks Memorial Peace Fountain with a replica of the monument that sat in the water at Reaume Park for more than four decades.

Nov. 26: LaSalle council approves $200-million development plan from the D’Amore Group and Petretta Construction that will include more than 250,000 square feet of retail on 25 acres.

Nov. 26: Several Ontario municipalities that rely on provincial police services, including some in Essex County, are blindsided with skyrocketing law enforcement bills with no consultation. The Town of Essex will see a 20 per cent surge in policing costs for 2025. The Township of Pelee is facing an increase in OPP costs of 107 per cent.

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Nov. 26: The City of Windsor and Fairmount Properties LLC announce they “have jointly elected to amicably end all business and legal matters” surrounding the city-owned former Grace Hospital site. The city refuses to reveal how much the months-long legal battle cost taxpayers. The Ohio-based developer was suing the city to quash a council decision to terminate an agreement between two sides to redevelop the site.

Nov. 29: Windsor man Brett Iler, 30, is found guilty of careless driving in a multi-vehicle crash that killed two people west of Chatham two years ago. The crash on May 27, 2022, killed Jamiee Doyle, 28, and Nigel Sedge, 29.

Dec. 10: The Star reports that the University of Windsor has started dismissing and demoting some staff along with pay reductions and salary freezes, affecting 26 people to date, in an effort to trim down a projected $30-million budget deficit.

Dec. 13: An outbreak of a highly contagious and deadly dog virus — canine parvovirus — is detected near the downtown and soon spreads across Windsor.

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