For years, residents and visitors to Sudbury, Ont., knew they were approaching the Nickel City when they saw the Inco Superstack.

“For us, it’s a beacon in our community,” Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre told Global News. “You see Superstacks, you’re near home, right? You’re almost there because you can see it from pretty far away.”

But the skyline of Sudbury is undergoing a drastic change as plans are underway by current owner Vale Base Metals (VBM) to tear down the structure, as well as its neighbouring copper sister.

The company has made the Superstack and its little copper sister obsolete by finding more environmentally friendly way of dealing with emissions.

Before the arrival of the chimney, which residents refer to as “the Smokestack,” Sudbury was known as an environmental disaster, as spewing toxins made vegetation and wildlife in the area disappear.

“Vegetation could not survive,” Lefebvre said. “And certainly in the Copper Cliff area (where the mine is located) was really bad.”

Then came the Superstack in 1972.

Standing more than 1,250 Ft. high, it was, for a short time, the largest freestanding structure in the Western Hemisphere until it was surpassed by the CN Tower. Until it disappears, it will remain the largest chimney in Canada.

“If you look at the history of why it was built, it was just to get the sulphur to go further instead of having it landing right beside the community,” Lefebvre said.

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He noted that while that was a major innovation for its time, things have continued to evolve. In 2010, VBM, which acquired Inco in 2006, first announced the Clean AER Project, which would see the towering chimneys replaced with environmentally friendly and efficient methods of dealing with nickel extraction.

“The Superstack and Copperstack have been iconic landmarks in Greater Sudbury for decades,” said Gord Gilpin, director of Ontario operations for VBM.

“While we appreciate that the city’s landscape will look different after these structures are dismantled, our business has evolved and improved over time and this project is part of that evolution. We are modernizing our facilities and reducing our environmental footprint and, in so doing, laying the groundwork to ensure that our next century of mining in Sudbury is as successful as our first 100 years.”

The company says the move will eliminate 100,000 metric tonnes of sulphur dioxide emissions each year (equivalent to 1,000 railway tanker cars of sulphuric acid). It will also see the end of the Superstack and its copper counterpart, as they were decommissioned in 2020, and have been dormant ever since.

The company is just about finished with the demolition of the smaller Copperstack and is expected to turn its attention to the Superstack this summer.

“It’s a massive undertaking of how they’re going to do this,” Lefebvre said. “They had to prep for it the last five years and here we are, we’re on the cusp of it.”

The company says it will take about five years to pull down the towers and while some have argued that the towers should remain as a tribute to the city’s mining history and effort to clean up, the mayor said that is not a realistic option.

“There are some folks in the community that think we should keep it, but again, it’s not ours, right?” he said. “It’s the company’s and it’s a liability, because if they just leave it there, the whole thing will rust and the inside will, then it becomes a liability.”

Lefebvre also noted that the structure sits atop an active nickel mine, so there is no way it could ever be an attraction for people to visit and would be something that would need to be admired from afar.

While he is sad to see it go, the mayor noted that it is a weird twist that a place that once held such a bleak landscape would hold such an important stake in the world’s environment.

“The irony of all this is now Sudbury, that was one of the most polluted places back in the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, is now obviously contributing enormously with our critical minerals to our environment,” he said. “All electric vehicles and all battery, it needs nickel and we are the ones providing that across our entirety in the world.”

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TORONTO – Every five games the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen has had to step up.

Sometimes it works, and sometimes, like Toronto’s 7-1 loss to the lowly Chicago White Sox on Friday, it does not. Spencer Turnbull, who served as the so-called opener in the bullpen day, said it’s been a team-first mentality for his fellow relievers.

“It’s a stay ready, next man up kind of thing,” said Turnbull (1-1) after giving up four runs on five hits and two walks over two innings. “Everybody’s pulling their own weight. We all want to win. We want to do whatever we can to contribute.

“Just being able to stay flexible and be able to do whatever is needed. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do my job tonight, and I’ll flush that one but hopefully, I’m sure moving forward, it’ll be better.”

It was a double bullpen game, with both teams trotting out a handful of relief pitchers with no starters available.

Mason Fluharty followed Turnbull to the mound for the Blue Jays (40-35). He gave up three runs on two hits and two walks, before Braydon Fisher, Nick Sandlin, Chad Green, Brendon Little and Jeff Hoffman combined for six scoreless innings.

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Toronto’s bullpen entered the game with a 3.61 earned-run average, 11th-best in Major League Baseball and seventh in the American League.

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“I thought they did a good job from the fourth inning on,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “(Fisher) was great, giving us two innings there and I think everyone did their part in a game like that.

“But you want to try to avoid that, for sure. It’s a fine line between planning for the next day and trying to keep the game that you’re competing in at bay.”

Grant Taylor pitched one scoreless inning for the White Sox (23-53) before giving way to long reliever Tyler Alexander (4-7), who worked four without giving up a run. Dan Altavilla, Wikelman Gonzalez and Tyler Gilbert also came out of the visitors bullpen at Rogers Centre, with Gonzalez allowing a run.

The Blue Jays have had to rely on relievers with veteran pitcher Max Scherzer (thumb) on the injured list since his first start of the season. Eric Lauer (3-1) began to get starts instead of Schneider doing bullpen days, but then Bowden Francis (shoulder) was put on the IL on June 15.

Relievers have started 13 games for Toronto so far this season.

Scherzer had a bullpen session scheduled for Saturday after two promising rehab starts with triple-A Buffalo. It appears that the surefire Hall of Famer will likely start against the Cleveland Guardians at some point next week.

Turnbull said he’s not sure what his role will be when Scherzer comes back.

“We haven’t really had a ton of discussions about that,” he said. “I’m just trying to stay flexible and just do whatever they ask. I just want to do whatever I can to help the team.

“If Scherzer’s ready to come back, that’s awesome. He’s one of the best ever to do it, so he’ll help the team a lot when he gets up here.”

Francis (2-8) had a cortisone injection on Tuesday and will continue to rest.

Jose Berrios (2-3) gets the start on Saturday afternoon as Toronto continues its three-game series against the White Sox. Chicago will counter with Aaron Civale (1-3).

Schneider said that Fisher and Sandlin likely won’t be available in Saturday’s game, but the rest of Toronto’s bullpen should be good to go.

“I think you can be aggressive in games like today when you have Jose and (Sunday starter Chris Bassitt) going before an off day,” said Schneider. “We’re going to rely on those guys to do their part.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2025.

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Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said Friday he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the chances of naming India’s Lawrence Bishnoi gang as a terrorist group after meeting with Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree.

Brown said he and representatives of Peel police met with the federal minister Wednesday after he asked police whether adding the Bishnoi gang to Ottawa’s list of terrorist organizations would help with enforcement.

British Columbia Premier David Eby sent a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this week asking him to designate the Bishnoi gang as a terrorist organization — something the government did with seven other transnational criminal organizations earlier this year.

Brown said Peel police told him a terrorist designation “would be helpful” and that the gang is involved in “serious criminal activity.”

“We’re talking about extortions and murders in our region. I think (Anandasangaree) took it seriously. I’m cautiously optimistic that he’s going to make this designation,” Brown said.

Asked about Eby’s request Wednesday, Anandasangaree said national security officials “continuously” review whether criminal organizations meet the legal threshold to be named as terrorist groups.

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David Taylor, Anandasangaree’s spokesman, said the minister has “noted the concerns” of Brown and Eby.

“The Minister will seriously consider any recommendation (security and intelligence services) provide him concerning listing a particular group,” Taylor said in an emailed reply.

RCMP have alleged that Indian diplomats shared information about Sikh separatists in Canada with the Indian government and that top Indian officials then passed the information to the Bishnoi gang.

Brown said the gang has become more brazen in Brampton and local police have spotted vehicles with Bishnoi-affiliated decals in the Ontario city.

“They have over 700 shooters worldwide. They meet every threshold that is required to be designated as a terrorist organization,” Brown said. “And if we can give police this tool to allow them to better combat this threat in Canada, I think that, you know, is a no-brainer.”

The Criminal Code defines terrorist activity as a violent act that is, in whole or in part, committed for political, ideological or religious purposes and is meant to intimidate a segment of the public.

Lawrence Bishnoi has been in an Indian prison since 2015 and has more than two dozen criminal cases pending against him. He has been accused of orchestrating violent acts of extortion while incarcerated, using a cellphone.

The National Investigation Agency, India’s counterterrorism agency, said in 2023 that Bishnoi ran his “terror group from jails in different states” in India and through an associate in Canada.

Once a group is listed as a terrorist entity in Canada, any property owned by the group can be frozen by the government and law enforcement can deploy additional tools to probe crimes associated with financing, travel and recruitment.

“If there was someone who came by with a decal on their car or on their jacket that was of Lawrence Bishnoi, and we have seen that, it would give the police tools to embark on an immediate investigation,” Brown said.

“So sometimes the judicial process, because you’re seeking warrants or authorization, doesn’t move as fast as required to deal with the agility of these criminal networks.”

Canada currently lists 86 groups as terrorist entities.

The most recent additions came in February when seven Mexican, Central and South American-based drug cartels were listed as terrorist organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel.

This designation came in the early days of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Canada and Mexico, which he justified in part by claiming neither country was doing enough to address illegal border crossings and fentanyl trafficking.

&copy 2025 The Canadian Press