Flag set on fire while Brantford restaurant prepared free meals When staff at a Brantford, Ont., restaurant agreed to give two people free meals, they never could have imagined what happened next. It began on Wednesday afternoon when the pair walked into Mercasa Little Italy Eatery & Catering on Henry Street. “They asked our staff for a meal because they said they didn’t have any money,” said Tom Mercante, the restaurant’s owner. “My staff graciously started preparing this meal for them, and, unfortunately, as they were preparing this, serving our customers, one of the individuals proceeded to light the Italian flag on fire.” The flag typically hangs inside the restaurant, just above the front door. Brantford is home to a large Italian community. Beyond the obvious connection the flag represents, it held even more significance to Mercante. Not only was it a variation on the traditional flag, he had brought home from Italy. “It’s very, very disrespectful. Very disrespectful … to me, my family and the entire community. Very disrespectful,” Mercante said. Once they noticed the fire, staff jumped into action. They tore the flag down and took it outside to stomp out the flames. Mercante said even when the fire was out, the pair’s strange behaviour continued. “They waited in the restaurant here in the front foyer — actually watched all the chaos between my staff and all the patrons. Waited until they got their free lunch and then just casually proceeded to leave.” The free meal was part of a program called “Pass the Puck Forward.” Paying customers can make a donation for a miniature hockey puck, and then those pucks are used by others to buy food. Five restaurants in Brantford are part of the program: Pace’s Take Out & Catering, Mercasa, Maria’s West, Sweet Bakery and Altitude Coffee Roasters. Mercante said this incident has not changed his view on the initiative. “We’ll always do what’s right. We’ll always help the community,” he said. “A one-off instance like this is not going to change how we do things.” Police investigation “We are launching a full-out investigation,” Det. Const. Jet Khagura of the Brantford Police Service told CTV News. “We will be conducting canvassing in the area.” For now, it’s not clear why the fire was started. “I wish I knew,” Mercante said. “There was no negative interaction, so we can’t chalk it up to that. I mean, it went from a place of compassion from all our staff to have that complete opposite end of the spectrum reaction is something that we just can’t wrap our heads around right now.” Police are trying to determine what motive, if any, prompted the act. “It’s still in the preliminary stages of the investigation, but we are looking at all avenues of being possibilities regarding this incident,” Khagura said. Mercante just wants to make sure everyone feels safe. “It’s very, very upsetting. It’s terrifying to think that this could have been a lot worse for the building, for my staff, for the patrons,” he said. On Friday, Brantford Police announced the arrest of a 34-year-old man. He was charged with arson and mischief. 25 per cent of vehicles stopped during Six Nations inspection taken off the road Several commercial motor vehicles were taken out of service on Six Nations of the Grand River territory. Six Nations Police teamed up with the Ministry of Transportation to conduct inspections on Monday. Police said 17 vehicles were stopped, and nearly 25 per cent of those vehicles were taken off the road. That number adds up to 4.25 vehicles. Some of the defects found included a five-axel trailer operating with its airline disconnected (meaning the trailer did not have brakes), brakes exceeding the prescribed adjustment limits, loose steering fasteners, a loose pitman arm connection and an improperly secured heavy vehicle loaded onto a trailer. A commercial motor vehicle is any vehicle used for business purposes, such as a transport truck or a delivery van. Guelph man and his dog uncover possible 5,000-year-old artifact in Speed River Beneath a boulder in the Speed River, Guelph resident Steve Welch found what may be the oldest object he has ever pulled from the water. Welch was searching the river with his dog, Pepper, when he uncovered a stone spear point he believes is more than 5,000 years old. The discovery has taken his year-long hunt for artifacts to a new level - and turned a hobby into what Welch jokingly calls a curse. The Guelph native began his artifact hunting YouTube series The Curse of the Speed River last year, after Welch started spending more time exploring the river with Pepper. “I live really close to the Speed River near downtown Guelph, and so I just walk down there a lot and I started finding stuff,” Welch said. “I got Pepper, my dog, and she loves the river and she can’t stay out of the river… we’ll spend hours in the river and then you just find stuff… I kept finding cooler and cooler items.” What began with pieces of old cooking and hunting tools from the 1800s has grown into a full-fledged search for artifacts. Then came the spear point. “There was a large boulder in the middle of the river, you’d only see it if you’re in the river. Under the boulder, I kind of scooped up some stuff to see what was there, and this is what came up… the spear point. I knew exactly what it was right off the bat,” he explained. Welch said he believes the object is more than 5,000 years old and may have originated in the Niagara Region. He said he had used online research and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help identify some of the objects he finds. “It’s amazing what you can do with modern technology. I look at it, I try and guess what it is and then I just kind of look it up with [AI],” he explained. ”I upload pictures, measurements, dimensions, where it was found, what was going on in that part of the river back 100 years, and sometimes it’s dead on, and sometimes it’s completely wrong,” he said. Several archaeologists who have worked throughout southwestern Ontario later reached out to Welch about the spear point and offered their assessments of the object. Welch said some of the finds have been difficult to identify, prompting him to teach himself new techniques to clean and restore them. “I figured out this process called electrolytic reduction… and it is a very slow process, but you can use electricity to get the rust off of things that actually restore them right down to their original form,” Welch said. He said none of the objects he has recovered, including what Welch has now coined as the “Speed River Spear Point”, are for sale. Instead, he said he would consider loaning or donating the items to Guelph museums. While the hunt has become an increasingly consuming hobby, Welch said he hasn’t lost sight of what, or who, rather, motivated him to begin the search in the first place. “I credit my dog for helping me in many, many ways, and one of them is just a love of life. She gets me into places that I wouldn’t normally go. I wouldn’t be going in the river as much if it wasn’t for her… I enjoy it, but she gets me down there daily,” he confessed. “I joke that she can sniff out iron artifacts, and you see her in the water and she’s sniffing around, so she actually helps me find things.” Welch said he wants to encourage people to appreciate and protect the natural environment around recovered artifacts. “My goal is to expose people to the amazing environment we live in, the local environment… the more people know the environment, the more likely it’s going to be protected, preserved and respected,” he said. The name of Welch’s project is a nod to The Curse of Oak Island, another source of inspiration for his growing passion. But the “curse” has taken on a meaning of its own. “I had to ask myself, is there a curse, what is this curse?” Welch said. “The curse is that you can’t stop. Once you find something like this, you’re not going to stop. That’s all I can think about… that’s the curse.” Cambridge mayoral candidate under investigation for pothole repair video A man who wants to be Cambridge’s next mayor is under investigation for a potential bylaw violation. Ryan Bolender is a first-time candidate who owns a construction company. He is one of six people vying to become Cambridge’s next mayor. In a video posted to social media, Bolender could be seen filling in a pothole that he said was in front of a home where a woman with mobility challenges lives. “She went on a fairly significant rant about the city and how they’ve been unresponsive to a service complaint about the condition of the road at the end of her driveway,” he said. Bolender then posted the video as part of his mayoral campaign. “It was to highlight the issues of service delivery and accessibility that are very key for residents that are discussing issues at the municipal level,” he explained. While he said the woman was happy with his work, the city took a very different view: the incident is now under investigation. Although the city did not provide any information to CTV News about the case, Bolender said he was told he was being investigated for a potential bylaw infraction and violation of campaign rules. Bolender was asked to take the video down, and it was removed within 24 hours after it was first posted. “A double-edged sword” Although Anna Esselment, a professor of political science at the University of Waterloo, said the video may make Bolender more recognizable, it might not necessarily be positive. “You have a number of people who might question whether there is an understanding of what it is a citizen should or should not do, or if someone who’s trying to be mayor - at the very base level, that person is responsible for upholding the laws of the city and the bylaws of the city,” Esselment said. “You have to think of [campaign videos] as onions, and how the layer can be unfolded and what would it be that opponents or others could see as the problem with it. Sometimes it can be a double-edged sword.” Who else is running for mayor? Tony Chaves, Scott Hamilton, Ihtsham Haq, Jan Liggett and Ken Roche are also in the running to become Cambridge’s mayor. Two other candidates who had initially submitted their names have already withdrawn from the race. A full list of candidates is available online. CTV News Kitchener has reached out to local candidates in Cambridge to hear what their priorities are. The candidates’ answers will be published in the coming weeks as the election draws closer. Election day is Monday, Oct. 26. One person dead after three-vehicle collision in Waterloo A 78-year-old Waterloo man has died following a three-vehicle collision in Waterloo on Tuesday morning. Waterloo Regional Police said its traffic services unit is investigating the fatal crash, which happened at about 10:50 a.m. at the intersection of Fischer-Hallman Road North and Columbia Street West. Initial information indicated three vehicles were involved in the collision, including a grey Nissan, a white Ford pickup truck and a black Cadillac. The driver of the Nissan, a 78-year-old Waterloo man, was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries and was later pronounced dead. The driver of the Ford, a 62-year-old Waterloo man, was also taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The driver of the Cadillac, a 63-year-old Waterloo woman, did not suffer any physical injuries. The intersection was closed for several hours while officers investigated. The investigation remains ongoing.
