CBC Sudbury's top stories of 2015 were anything but ordinary

Morning North7:21Top CBC Sudbury web stories of 2015

Our web writer, Wendy Bird, joined us for a chat about the most popular web stories at the CBC Sudbury website for 2015.

CBC Sudbury's top stories of 2015 area collection of diverse stories everything from epic selfiesto the discovery ofdecades-old plane wreckage, to a teenager named Isis.

What the stories all had in common, however,was their ability to get CBC News readers talking about and sharing some interesting issues that touch a chord in almost everyone.

Read on to find out what our web analytics told us were our top 10 stories of the year:

10) Anti-thumb-sucking device controversy

Earlier this year, aNorth Bay, Ont., dentist was handed a warningafter a four-year-old patient nearly died.

The Health Professions Appeal and Review Board's decision didnot name the dentist.

"Dr. H," as he's referred to, was standing in for a colleague on leave when he saw theboy in August2012.

The childcame to the officewith his mother, who reported that her sonhad a thumb-sucking problem.

After discussing it with the boy's mother, Dr. Hdecided to affixan anti-thumb-sucking device into the top of the child's mouth.

A version of the device is known as a "hay rake" a spiky, pronged devicethat makes thumb-sucking unpleasant.

The report from the board doesn't specify what kind of antithumb-sucking device was used in this case.

According to the report, a dentalhygienistinstalled the device on Sept. 18. The dentist then "reviewed intraoralphotographs of the patient's mouth and the placement of the appliance" before he signed off on the work.

But less than two days after the device was put in the boy was taken to the emergency room at the North Bay Regional Health Centre.

According to hospital staff, "the patient was significantly dehydrated ... and [in an] altered mental state. The patient required intravenousresuscitationfor failure to thrive."

Thehospitalreport says the boy had not been eating ordrinking, had not been sleepingand had been throwing up.

The dentist andhygienistsaid they were toldnothing about the lack of sleep or vomiting.

According to the report, "special arrangements were made ... so that [thehygienist] could attend [the hospital]and remove the appliance from the patient's mouth, which she did in the early afternoon [of the same day]."

The boy was released from hospital two days later.

9)Alberta RCMP investigate $24K missing from GoFundMe trust

RCMPinvestigatedafter donations to help the widow and two children of a dead Sudbury man were taken from an online crowdfunding account.

Truck driverRoger Blanger died in a car crash on July 28. Within days, a friend from Alberta offered to set up the GoFundMe.com campaign to raise money for the family the 29-year-old man left behind, Blanger's sister said.

A link to the online trust appeared in Blanger's obituary and, within a week, 176 people had donated to the memorial fund.

The family began to grow suspicious, RoxanneBlangersaid,as time passed and the account administratorhad not transferred the funds to Blanger's wife, Justine. When the family spoke with staff at GoFundMe, they learned that the money was missing from the account.

Roxanne Blanger said the company told them that the money was withdrawn in 22 installments.

GoFundMe has since frozen the account and the Blanger family are asking those who donated to it to ask for a refund through their credit card companies.

"It proves the point that it is too easy for people to take advantage of other people who are grieving," Roxanne Blanger said. "There needs to be more safeguards in place when people set up these kinds of accounts."

Nickel Belt MP on train derailment

10 years ago

Duration 4:14

NDP MP Claude Gravelle discusses the latest derailment in Gogama, Ont., the second in the area in the last few weeks

8)Gogama derailment shows feds need to act on train safety, MPPs say

Earlier this year, as crews continued to tackle a fire set off after 35 CN Rail cars carrying oil went off the tracks just outside of Gogama, Ont., the province's transportation minister and his caucus colleague went after the federal government for its rail safety record.

Two different CN oil tanker trainsnear Gogama derailed within a three week period. More than one million litres of crude oil were spilled and caught on fire. No one was injured.

"The federal government, responsible for rail safety, must do more to protect our communities and the environment," tweetedGlenn Thibeault, Liberal MPPforSudburyand parliamentary assistant to Ontario's environment minister.

"The rail cars involved are new models, compliant with the latest federal regulations.Yet they still failed to prevent this incident," Thibeault said in a statement.

Nickel Belt New Democrat MP Claude Gravelle said he didn't want to get into that debate while visiting Gogama.

"Well, that's a different discussion for a different day, but there certainly are some concerns about pipelines. But thereare concerns about rail cars. What's the safest? Accidents are accidents."

7) A stakeout to remember or not

Police in Timmins, Ont., who had staked out a perimeter around aCanadian Tire store for much of the dayfollowing a break-in that hadtargeted weapons, saidthe suspect wasnot in the store and likely hadn't been there since soon after the break-in.

Police asked the public to take precautions as theybelieve firearms were stolen during the break-in.

The incident began after policeresponded to a call about 4:30 a.m. regarding a break-in at the Canadian Tire on Riverside Drive.

For hours, barricades were in placeas police converged on the area, though it now appears the suspect escaped early in the morning.

6) Vale smelter leak

An emergency situationat Vale'sCopper Cliff smelter in Sudbury, Ont., was declared earlier this year,after two gases combined to form a toxic mist during a cleaning at an acid cooling tower.

The gases werenitrous oxide and nitrous dioxide, a combination with the potential to cause respiratory issues.No other injuries werereported. Erik White of CBC News tweeted the highest reading of nitrous oxide outside of the smelter wasbelow the limit.

However, Vale, the mining company responsible for the incident, said there were four minor injuries reported last night due to exposure to the acid but were unrelated to this morning's repairs.

The emergency was called in an abundance of caution before being downgraded to a Level 1emergency, officials said.

A girl named Isis wins her Facebook battle

10 years ago

Duration 2:03

Ontario teen Isis King faces bullying, and Facebook ban over her name

5) My name is Isis get over it

A high-school student from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is fed up with harassment she's received about her birth name, which hit a new low when she got barred from using it on Facebook.

Her name is Isis King and she's been taking undeserved flak because of the similarities her first name has to the extremist groupIslamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

King said some people have told her they find her name offensive, that it's horrible or that she shouldn't have it at all.

Some of this has come from people at her high school, but she's also been served with a heavy dose of online abuse.

"They'll call me a terrorist, or a freak, and say I don't belong and stuff like that," King told CBC News in an interview.

4)Plane that crashed in 1992 found in northern Ontario

The family of the couple who went missing after their plane crashed in northern Ontario more than 23 years ago is relieved the wreckage has finally been found.

James Bay OPP said the wreckage is from the single-engine plane reported missing on April 28, 1992. It wasfound in a remote area near the town ofKapuskasing.

At the time,the plane's occupants Paul and SuzanneJoanis were travelling to Hearst, Ont.,from Toronto'sButtonvilleAirport after a business trip, said Achilles Joanis, Paul Joanis's brother.

"It was a bad night wet rain, windy and everything and he didn't make it to Hearst," he said. "TheKapuskasingairport had the contact on him and the last place was about the area they found [the wreckage]."

3)Woman upset someone mowed her lawn without asking

A woman in the Sudbury, Ont. area was shocked earlier this yearwhen she came home to find someone had mowed her front yard without her permission destroying her wildflowers.

Ashley Kerckhoff says she had received a complaint from the city about the length of her grass a few weeks earlier.She told CBC News thatat the time, shemade a compromise with bylaw officers to cut the grass around her flower beds, where "damsel flies, dragon flies, butterflies, bees, [and] all different insects [were] just buzzing around."

Kerckhoff said city officials told her they did not cut her lawn, and she won't speculate on who did.

"I was furious. No one has the right to decide where in my yard should be lawn and where should be garden," she said.

"I get if I lived in a subdivision with small lots that butted up against each other, but we have a 30-footbuffer of bush between us and our only neighbour. So our lawns don't meet."

RAW: Train derails near Gogama, Ont.

10 years ago

Duration 0:58

Several tanker cars caught fire after a Canadian National Railway train carrying crude oil derailed in northern Ontario

2)Train carrying crude oil derails near Gogama, Ont.

Several tanker cars caught fire after a Canadian National Railway train carrying crude oil derailed in northern Ontario, prompting officials to advise nearby residents to stay indoors and avoid consuming water from local sources.

CN said its crew reported the derailment to emergency services in the wee hours of March 7. Police said the train was 30 to 40 cars in length and 10 cars went off the track four kilometres northwest ofGogama, Ont. There were no reports of injuries.

Some of the rail cars that caught fireentered theMattagamiRiver System, CN and police said. This was the second derailment near Gogama in as many months.

1) Brothers save bald eagle, take epic selfie

It's not every day that you get to take a picture with a bald eagle, but two brothers in Sudbury did just that after rescuing the bird from a hunting trap on day in late November.

Neil Fletcher's brother Michaelposted a picture on Facebook of the pairgrinning in a selfie with the unmistakable white-headed bird "Canada's largest bird of prey", according to Canadian Geographic.

Neil Fletcher told CBC News he and hisbrother were out hunting when theynoticed severalravens circlingnearby.

As the pair got closer, theydiscovered abald eagle with its foot stuck in a hunting trap.