As 2021 draws to a close, CTVNewsKitchener.ca is looking back on some of the stories that made headlines this year.
Here are 10 of our the most read stories from 2021.
/ 91X FM CJLX
Jan 23, 2021 7:00 PM
A mother from Simcoe Ontario says she was fined $880 for dropping off her three children to their grandparents home because they needed babysitting.
Natasha Kohl, said she had dropped off the three children at her in-laws home in Delhi last weekend. Her fiance was unable to help watch the children because he was at work.
When she returned to pick her kids up, they were eating lunch with their uncle and cousins. Once they left the house, Kohl said she was pulled over by a provincial police officer.
“He turned on his lights and pulled us over and my daughter said, ‘Why is he pulling us over?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know,’ so I waited for him to come to the window and that’s when he said they had complaints of high traffic at the grandparents house.
When Ontario declared a state of emergency on Tuesday and also issued a stay-at-home order, some were confused at what they could and couldn t do under the new rules, and how it differentiated from past lockdown restrictions. During a Thursday morning media conference, Waterloo Regional Police Service Police Chief Bryan Larkin stressed that their approach would be empathetic and caring, only targeting those who overtly put others in danger. I do see this as a common sense approach, I do see this as being a good citizen, he said during the virtual conference. On Friday, seven more charges were laid against people who were not complying with regional and provincial COVID-19 rules over the past week. On Sunday, Kitchener city officials confirmed two charges were laid over the weekend, while only one was made in Waterloo.