Must-see moments of 2024: A superstar surprise, roundabout resident and CKCO studios come down

From a WWE surprise for a Guelph superfan, to the recovery of a lost aviation artifact, to a reporter getting the story right from the goose’s mouth, here are some of our can’t-miss moments from 2024.

WWE superstar surprises Guelph fan who didn’t have an accessible seat

A wrestling fan from Guelph. thought he was down for the count after winning tickets to a “once-in-a-lifetime” WWE event in Toronto.

At first, Mike “O’dah ziibing” Ashkewe couldn’t believe his luck in securing the highly-coveted prize from a Toys “R” Us contest for WWE’s Money in the Bank.

“We’re thrilled,” he told CTV News. “[We were] excited for the event.”

Then, he tried to request accommodation.

“I need accessible seating, I’m in a wheelchair,” he explained. “Then Toys “R” Us said: ‘Hey, yep, that’s cool. We’ve got you covered.”

Ashkewe then reached out to a local cab company who went above and beyond to free up a wheelchair van on short notice.

The next day, everything changed.

Ashkewe was told the venue, Scotiabank Arena, couldn’t accommodate his wheelchair.

“’Unfortunately, accessibility tickets are all sold out,’” he said, reading the email from Toys “R” Us. “’We’re terribly sorry for this. These tickets were secured for us through our vendor partnership quite some time ago. At this time, we can offer you the cash value for the prize, $301.99.’”

Ashkewe was left stunned.

“My heart just sank.”

He was even more disappointed that he would miss seeing his favourite WWE superstar.

“The one I really want to see is Cody Rhodes,” he said. “I’ve been following him for a couple of years.”

CTV News reached out to Toys “R” Us, WWE and MLSE, which owns the Scotiabank Arena, to find out what went wrong.

Then suddenly, during our interview with Ashkewe, we got a phone call.

“This is Chris from WWE, but I’d love to introduce you and Mike to the “American Nightmare” – Cody Rhodes,” said the caller.

Ashkewe, completely stunned, blurted out an expletive.

“I’m so sorry,” Rhodes said over the phone. “The cool thing here is that we do have some tickets that are for you. Not only that, we’re going to pay for your transportation to come to Money in the Bank. We can’t have a fan like you sitting on the sidelines.”

The conversation continued for several more minutes.

“This is going to sound cheesy as f---, but I did not expect the ‘American Nightmare’ to turn this into a Canadian dream,” Ashkewe told the superstar.

The moment brought his wife to tears.

After the call, Ashkewe wrote on social media: “WWE has contacted me directly and apologized profusely for what has happened. I am going to Money in the Bank with all my accessibility needs covered. This is a good ending, whatever happens next is magical and unexpected. THANK ALL of you who posted and helped.”

Mike “O’dah ziibing” Ashkewe on July 4, 2024. (Spencer Turcotte/CTV News)

Sisters finally see the Canadian ‘aviation artifact’ built by their father nearly 90 years ago

There were tears of joy in September when the Airpark hangar garage opened in Guelph, revealing a family heirloom and piece of aviation history.

Roberta Lau and Evelyn Sue Wong saw, for the first time and in person, the plane their father made nearly 90 years ago.

The Pietenpol Sky Scout was built in 1935 by brothers Robert and Tommy Wong. They were teenagers at the time, and it’s believed they found the instructions in a magazine.

“It was in the early 30s. Everyone wanted to fly,” Wong explained.

With their parents’ blessing, the brothers built the aircraft in their Vancouver, B.C. apartment.

“It was a huge experience for the whole family,” said Lau. “Exciting! Bolts, nails all over the place I’m sure, because that’s what they said. It just filled the room.”

Other family members helped with the final assembly, which was done at a nearby Boeing factory.

Robert, who built the plane even before getting a pilot’s licence, took to the skies for several months to build up his flying hours.

Eventually, he had to sell the plane when he moved out east.

Robert and Tommy then went on to become the founders of Central Airways, a flight school and charter business in Toronto, becoming significant figures in Canada’s aviation history.

Robert’s daughters recall how, prior to his death in the late 1980s, he tried to find out what had happened to the plane he built with Tommy, but it was difficult in a pre-social media era. He did, however, find that there was no record of it being in an accident.

“He could only conclude that it might be somewhere, but who knows?” Wong said.

Then, in 2020, a self-described treasure hunter from Stoney Creek, took it upon himself to track down their home-built airplane.

Don MacVicar had already located one aircraft that was once owned by the Wong brothers and, with extra time on his hands during the pandemic, launched an extensive search.

Joining him on that quest was Cam Harrod, an antique aircraft restorer.

It took two years but the pair eventually tracked it down to the Sky Scout in Saskatoon, Sask., where the owner was storing it in a truck trailer.

“The aircraft is kind of the holy grail of the Canadian aviation home-built sort of movement,” Harrod explained.

He then purchased the aircraft and brought it back to Ontario.

“Even though it’s kind of beat up, it’s all original,” Harrod said. “The original paint is on, the original fabric is still on it. It’s a true aviation artifact.”

The aircraft will now reside at the Guelph Airpark, where Harrod plans to restore it – a process that’s expected to take 10 years. The goal is to get the aircraft flying again.

“The airplane is alive when it’s in the air. And I want it to be alive again,” Harrod said.

Roberta Lau and Evelyn Sue Wong see their father's plane for the first time on Sept. 13, 2024. (Krista Simpson/CTV News)

Strange beasts stalking Silver Lake in Waterloo

Some strange new creatures began popping up last April in Waterloo Park.

The City of Waterloo stationed about eight decoy coyotes around Silver Lake to test if they’ll keep geese – and the mess they create – away from popular park locations.

City staff said they took action after receiving a number of complaints about the birds.

“[You] just have to avoid the goose droppings when you’re going for a walk,” one parkgoer told CTV News.

The decoys weren’t meant to make the geese go away entirely, only to keep them off the main paths.

Coyotes are natural predators of Canada geese, Margetts said. The decoys’ tails also moved in the wind, which could act as an additional deterrent.

Shoshanah Jacobs, an integrative biology professor at the University of Guelph, liked the idea but felt the geese would catch on quickly because the visual cue wasn’t paired with a chemical one, such as scent.

“Unless they are in combination and actively enforced with some kind of negative consequence, these cues tend to become less and less important to wildlife,” said Jacobs.

A chemical deterrent would likely keep humans away as well, Jacobs added.

CTV News later went back to the park to see how the decoys were doing – and they were gone. The City of Waterloo said all but two disappeared within weeks of their debut. It’s not clear who took the plastic coyotes, but at only $100 each, the city called it a “low-cost experiment.”

A coyote decoy, aimed at scaring away geese, is seen in Waterloo Park on April 18, 2024. (Chris Thomson/CTV Kitchener)

Goodbye CKCO: Crews complete teardown of CTV Kitchener’s former home

The long-time home of CTV News Kitchener is now nothing more than a memory.

Demolition crews knocked down the last sections of the structure, at 864 King Street West, in November.

While the building has been reduced to rubble, it will continue to live on in the memories of employees.

“I started here in 1977,” said retired reporter David Imrie. “I had 38 glorious years working here.”

That included the era when CKCO journalists wore the iconic red jackets.

Imrie also recalled the heyday of the 1980s, when about 350 people worked out of 864 King Street West.

“It was hustling and bustling, it was 24-hour news operation,” he explained. “I worked some long nights in this building, and some long days.”

The station’s presence extended well beyond the borders of Waterloo Region.

“I travelled to the [United] States and would have people coming up and saying hello to me because they recognized me,” Imrie said.

The King Street West building is also where he met his future wife.

“A young lady came into the building in 1978 for an interview with me,” he recalled. “Little did I know that about two years later I would be walking down the aisle with this young lady. Now we are almost 45 years married.”

The community also has fond memories of the building.

“Over the years I had many opportunities to visit the station and be on shows like Provincewide and on the news, as well as celebrate things like Toy Mountain,” said Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic.

CTV, he added, has always played an integral role in the community.

“You think about all the things that have happened in Kitchener, throughout Canada and around the world over the last 70 years, and you really always captured the reactions of Kitchener residents and told the story from a Kitchener perspective, which has been so, so important,” said Vrbanovic.

In November 2023, CTV Kitchener moved to its new home – where Lulu’s Roadhouse used to stand.

The CKCO/CTV News Kitchener building at 864 King Street West on Nov. 13, 2024. (Dan Lauckner/CTV News)

Meet the man living in the middle of a Kitchener roundabout

In August, drivers going by a Kitchener roundabout may have noticed something unusual – a tent set up on the centre island.

CTV News got in touch with the man living inside the roundabout, who you could call the king of Bleams Road and Manitou Drive. But his real name is Josh.

“King of the castle on top of my mountain top,” Josh screamed, laughing.

His tent had been there for about a month after he recently moved from Port Elgin.

“I figured it wasn’t in a park, so nobody’s going to complain,” said Josh. “And I figured nobody would be walking through there and there’s not a bunch of houses around.”

While many people don’t experience homelessness by choice, Josh choose to live this way.

“I feel better outside, but I wouldn’t go into a shelter anyway because there’s a lot of drug use in there and there’s like bedbug problems and violence problems,” he said. “I’m living an adventure. My life is like a movie.”

Although, he does say there are supports available for those who need them.

“Kitchener is like the best place I've ever been for something like this. Yeah, there really are good people down here and they take good care of you,” Josh said.

He does admit that sleeping within a roundabout does get a little noisy.

“A little bit in the morning. You know, when people put those exhausts that go BANG! I don’t like those ones,” he said.

But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

When it comes to safety concerns, Josh doesn’t have any.

“No, do people ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ the roundabout all the time? Because everyone keeps complaining about it,” he said.

Even so, he’s gotten used to being the centre of attention and the roundabout. His nickname backs that up too.

“They call me Hollywood. They know I’m always up to something,” Josh joked.

Josh ‘Hollywood’ posed near his tent set up at a roundabout near Bleams Road and Manitou Drive in Kitchener, Ont. on August 29, 2024. (Spencer Turcotte/CTV News)