Today
marks the 24th annual World AIDS Day, a day marked around the globe for
people to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people
living with the chronic disease and to commemorate people who died.
Julie
Dingwell is the executive director at AIDS Saint John, and she tells Tide news today is a chance to pause and reflect on how we're dealing
with the epidemic. She says there's still a lot of discrimination in
Saint John and around the world towards people with HIV. She says it's
that discrimination that sometimes discourages people from getting
testing out of fear of being shunned.
Dingwell
says AIDS is no longer a death sentence here in Canada, but a chronic
manageable condition. She stresses it's still a global pandemic, and our
government needs to step up. Dingwell says just recently parliament
voted down bill C-398 which would've let Canadian drug manufactures send
medicine to Africa to help fight HIV. Only 2 batches of medicine have
been sent to one country since 2008, she says.
Carrie Underwood tickets must be a very popular Christmas gift is greater Saint John.
The show sold out in less than two hours this morning.
The American Idol winner will thrill local fans when her show hits Harbour Station on April 2nd.
It's her second appearance in the City.
Saint John Fire Department putting out a fire at a vacant building at 16 Saint Andrews street in uptown.
Platoon
Chief Eric Garland tells Tide news they received the call just before 6
am. He says the fire was on the second floor and caused extensive
damage to the roof and right side of the house. Garland says it took 45
minutes to get the fire under control and the building suffered
considerable damage.
Garland says the building appeared to be under renovations.
The tennis centre and trails in Sussex getting a big boost.
Fundy Royal MP Rob Moore announcing $30,000 from the government will be put into updating the rec facilities.
The
updates mean washrooms in the tennis centre and signage for walking
trails. The signs will be location specific, meaning they'll include GPS
coordinates which will help locate people faster in an emergency.
The
funds are part of the Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund which
helps projects that look to improve existing community infrastructure.
Here's a trail that's sweeter than Harbour Passage.
The
Gingerbread Trail is a new fundraiser in Saint John, which will see 21
businesses across uptown build their own gingerbread house to be
displayed and raffled off before Christmas. All proceeds from the
fundraiser go straight to kids at The Joshua Group and non-profit group
Gala Ballet Productions.
Gala
Ballet board member Darlene Baker tells Tide news they encourage the
shop owners to make the houses from scratch and use the "Land of Sweets"
theme from their upcoming production of The Nutcracker.
She says
the business are really excited about creating the sweet houses, and
there's a prize for the best one. The Nutcracker is playing at the
Imperial Theatre December 8th & 9th.
Tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5, with the draw happening on December 22nd.
To see a map of the trail,
click here.
