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KAGAWONG—Billings Township has reported an act of vandalism at the Bridal Veil Falls area to the Manitoulin detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

Bryan Barker, mayor of Billings township, told members of the Manitoulin Police Detachment Board (MPDP) at a meeting last week, “Billings had declared a state of emergency after the significant flooding that overwhelmed the Kagawong River and made the Kagawong trails system extremely dangerous. We have put up barricades at both entrances to the falls (although people who enter off the highway at the top of the falls can still see the falls from a viewing area) but today the barricades were ripped down and someone went down to the falls area.”

Mayor Barker had told The Expositor prior to last week’s meeting, “a resident came in to the township office today (Wednesday of last week) telling the office staff that someone had ripped down the plywood barricade, went down the stairs and went swimming in the area below the falls. We went through the same thing during COVID,” he said, noting that the person who committed the vandalism last week was trespassing and that it is a criminal offence.