Student Cancer Relay underway

Canandian Cancer Society Unit Manager Barb Spencer, offers a word of support to event organiser Kayla Reinert.

Following a special lunchtime meeting of North Bay City Council Friday, students at Nipissing University got the green light to go ahead with their ‘Relay for Life’ event.

As goodwill gesture the student organisers sent notices of the event to the Cedar Heights Road residents Monday, which in turn were met with strong objections and calls to the city for breaking noise by-laws.

In a mea culpa move the students put in a request for exemption which lead to the meeting and them pleading for leniency for tonight’s’ event and promising to adhere to all city rules moving forward.

Council members debated the merits of the event and the reality that they could face every other organisation coming to council for an eleventh hour exception for their events if they granted Nipissing’s request. It was a tie vote with Councillors Koziol, Chirico, and Mendicino in favour of council granting a noise bylaw exemption, while on a matter of principle Councillors Vaillancourt, Anthony and Graham voted against the motion. Leaving Mayor Victor Fedeli to cast the deciding vote, in the end council granted the exemption for the students to run their event in aid of cancer research.

The event goes until 7 am Saturday morning.