Battlefords News-Optimist

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken down yet another popular event in the Battlefords. The annual July 1 Canada Day fireworks in North Battleford are not going ahead.

The case against an Onion Lake man facing child porn charges was adjourned again due to the COVID-19 pandemic. James Gabriel Buffalo, 33, is charged with possession of, and accessing child pornography.

Sentencing for a man convicted earlier this year in a Saskatoon court on attempted murder was postponed again. Cory Smockum, 38, was supposed to be sentenced in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench on June 17 but the sentencing was adjourned.

The COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t stop the Wayne Pruden Memorial Golf Tournament — a virtual tournament, that is. Battlefords Union Hospital Foundation announced it wrapped up the 2020 Virtual Wayne Pruden Memorial Golf Tournament on June 12 .

On June 14, shortly after midnight, La Ronge RCMP were dispatched to the report of an unconscious male located on Queen Street in Lac La Ronge First Nation.

To no one’s surprise the opposition New Democrats have blasted Monday’s provincial budget, dismissing it as a “placeholder pre-election budget that presents no recovery plan” in a statement.

There are 18 new cases of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan to report on June 15, 2020, bringing the provincial total to 683. Thirteen of the new cases are in the Far North.

As expected Saskatchewan will run a large deficit this coming year due to COVID-19. The province is posting a $2.4 billion deficit forecast in its 2020-21 budget that was tabled Monday. The revenue forecast for Saskatchewan is $13.6 billion, down $1.

A Saskatoon man who already spent more than two years in prison had his robbery conviction overturned by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal June 12.

As the popularity of electric vehicles grows across the country, Saskatchewan’s northeastern towns plan to build charging stations to attract the tourists that drive them.