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Ann Marie Fennell (Crawford) Obituary

Ann Marie Fennell

Ann Marie Fennell, passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by her family, August 8th, 2026 at the age of 57. Stoic, resilient, and incredibly brave, Ann faced cancer with a strength that inspired everyone she touched.

Ann was born September 24th, 1968 in Hamilton, Ontario. She was the youngest of four siblings. As a young girl, she loved learning, and spent her summers with her family in New Brunswick. Throughout her work life, she wore many hats: police trainee, server, medical secretary, Sears manager, and eventually curated a home daycare. She successfully ran her business for 20 years, where she had a hand in raising many, many neighbourhood kids. This also allowed her to be home with her children, a decision she was always very confident and proud of. As a mom, Ann thrived. She created memories around the dinner table, the pool, the bonfire, the cottage, road trips, her kids' schools, and so much more. She had a unique and close bond with each of her girls, so much so that in their adulthood, she’d spend hours on the phone receiving back to back calls from her daughters.

She will be remembered for her outgoing, fearless, kind, and fun personality. Ann had a gift for bringing people together. Whether it was a holiday party, a family celebration, a pool day, or a simple card night, she loved creating opportunities to gather with good music and tasty food. With her unforgettable playlists, impressive dinners, delicious margaritas, and warm, welcoming home, she made everyone feel cared for and seen. Ann loved planning an adventure as much as she enjoyed experiencing them. In recent years she loved exploring Mexico, camping with her husband, swimming with her daughters (and all their friends), laughing at her two cats, going for walks with her best friend, and surprise visits to see her “grand fur babies”.

Her legacy will live on through those she loved and shaped. She will be lovingly remembered by her love and life partner, her husband Rob Fennell. Together, they raised four beautiful daughters Casey Maxwell (Scott), Katrina Hajnal (Kyle), Camryn Fennell (Justin) and Kailee Fennell (Maddy). Ann was predeceased by her parents Joan and Harry Crawford and she will be deeply missed by her three siblings, Stephen, Susan, and David and her extended family, friends and fur babies who filled her world with joy and love.

In honour of Ann, there will be a celebration of life in the backyard of her home located at 95 Padfield Drive in Bowmanville on Saturday, September 26th, 2026, beginning at 4:00pm. The family welcomes you to stop by and share a story as we gather to remember Ann Fennell and all the great memories that we will cherish forever.

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Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 10, 2026) - Happy Belly Food Group Inc. (CSE: HBFG) (OTCQB: HBFGF) ("Happy Belly" or the "Company"), a leading consolidator of emerging restaurant brands, is pleased to announce the grand opening of its newest Heal Wellness ("Heal") location located at 370 Taunton Road East, Unit 7, in Taunton Gardens, Whitby, Ontario, this Saturday, July 11th, 2026. This location will see Heal join anchor tenants such as LA Fitness & Farm Boy. Heal Wellness is a fast-growing quick-service restaurant ("QSR") brand specializing in fresh smoothie bowls, açaí bowls, smoothies, and other better-for-you menu offerings built around clean ingredients and an active lifestyle.

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Heal Wellness continues to gain momentum as consumer demand for functional, wellness-focused QSR concepts grows across both urban and suburban markets. With its strong brand positioning, scalable format, and expanding franchise pipeline, Heal is well positioned to deepen its footprint across Ontario and other key Canadian regions.

"Opening Heal in Whitby marks another milestone in our Ontario expansion strategy," said Sean Black, Chief Executive Officer of Happy Belly Food Group. "Whitby represents a strong, community-oriented market with attractive demographic fundamentals, continued residential growth, and consistent daily traffic driven by families, professionals, students, commuters, and health-conscious consumers. Located in the heart of Durham Region, Whitby benefits from established neighborhoods, growing new communities, strong commuter connectivity, active retail corridors, and access to major transportation routes serving the broader GTA. The market's mix of residential density, schools, fitness, service, grocery, and restaurant uses supports steady visitation throughout the day and aligns well with Heal's functional, grab-and-go offering. These characteristics make Whitby an ideal location for Heal and support our confidence in the brand's sustainable, long-term unit performance."

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"Heal Wellness continues to expand rapidly across Canada and into the United States, solidifying its position as a leading acai and smoothie bowl brand," said Sean Black. "With 44 locations now open and more than 164 in development, Heal remains a key driver of growth within Happy Belly's broader portfolio of 686 contractually committed retail franchise locations across multiple emerging brands in various stages of development, construction, and operation. We continue to build a predictable and disciplined growth engine designed to create long-term shareholder value."

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The Town of Whitby has directed staff to look at how it can “proactively position itself” to attract defence contractors, defence-related manufacturers, advanced manufacturers and companies within the Canadian defence and security supply chain as the country and its NATO allies prepare to invest trillions in national security projects in the coming years,

The big boost in defence spending and procurement is expected to create “substantial opportunities” for manufacturers, technology companies, engineering firms, logistics providers and other businesses within the supply chain and Whitby wants a piece of the action, a report delivered to council this week declared.

The expansion of Canada’s defence-industrial capacity represents not only a national security imperative but also an important economic-development opportunity for Ontario communities capable of attracting defence contractors and advanced manufacturers, council heard, with the “uncertainty” of the country’s current relationship with the United States also cited as an incentive to “combat tariffs, protect the local economy and keep jobs.”

Councillor Niki Lundquist, however, cautioned her colleagues Monday to pump the brakes just a little and consult with the community before getting too deep into what one of her constituents called a “war machine.”

Lundquist, who said she understands the need for jobs, but if defence contracts are something the town is “actively pursuing,” there should at least be community consultation on the subject.

“We should ensure the community is aware because of the nature of the industry as this is not a neutral position,” she said. “That is not an unreasonable request.”

“There are many members of the community who have strong views on this and I think they should be able to weigh in.”

Whitby Mayor Elizabeth Roy noted that several businesses in the town already have defence contracts – “it’s already here” before council unanimously approved a motion to direct staff to prepare an interim report for examining how the town can attract more military-related business.

The goal of the report is to identify the types of defence-sector businesses that could reasonably be attracted to Whitby, including but not limited to:

Officials in neighbouring Oshawa have been very vocal about offering its expertise for its own share of the future opportunities and affirmed earlier this year its commitment to working with provincial and federal partners, industry, and post‑secondary institutions to “turn policy into tangible capability.”

“Oshawa is uniquely positioned to support and accelerate the province’s defence industrial objectives through our Integrated National Defence Innovation Corridor,” Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter said, citing an initiative launched in 2025 that connects defence manufacturing, distribution, R &D, training and border security in an integrated corridor.

Ontario Tech University’s Automotive Centre of Excellence in Oshawa recently received a $5-million federal investment to expand its capabilities into a Canadian defence technology hub, creating an important potential research, testing, innovation and commercialization partner for businesses throughout Durham Region.

Canada announced it will invest $81 billion over five years to support its defence commitments, including reaching NATO’s five per cent of GDP spending target by 2035.

Queen’s Park responded by declaring its intention to develop its first-ever Ontario Defence Industrial Strategy to ensure the province’s workers and businesses are proactively positioned to support Canada and its allies in securing defence, scaling up production and capturing long-term economic benefits, including job creation and economic growth.

The province is targeting 43,000 new jobs over the next ten years to meet national defence targets by retooling factories and re-skilling workers in trade-disrupted sectors, dispersing high-value skills to the broader economy, and helping businesses pivot to defence production for dual use applications.

Ontario projects that meeting its objectives would contribute more than $6 billion to the province’s GDP and $400 million in annual tax revenue by 2035.

Under the terms of the new NATO Defence Investment Pledge, governments are permitted to invest 1.5 per cent of their five per cent commitment into infrastructure projects, such as cyber defence, supply chain resilience, military base construction, logistics and defence innovation that would have spillover benefits for Ontario’s broader economy.

The remaining 3.5 per cent, equivalent to approximately $150 billion annually, would go toward core defence spending, including equipment, personnel and munitions, allowing Canadian companies to bid on large-scale defence projects that will be supported by loans to EU member states of up to $244 billion.

Ontario projects that meeting its objectives would contribute more than $6 billion to the province’s GDP and $400 million in annual tax revenue by 2035.

Oshawa, Whitby and the rest of Durham Region want to be well positioned to take on a major share of that business.

The municipal election is just around the corner.

Candidates vying for your vote on Oct. 26 are canvassing neighbourhoods, weighing in on local issues, listing their priorities and sharing their platforms at events and on social media.

Election signs peppered throughout the community promote individual candidates. They also serve as a reminder to voters of their choices on the ballot.

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But making an informed choice isn’t always easy.

Not feeling informed enough is often why many say they didn’t vote.

And that number is on the rise.

Municipal election voter turnout

The average voter turnout in Ontario’s 2022 municipal election was less than 33 per cent — down from 38.3 per cent in 2018.

Voting is a civic duty that is vital to the health of local democracy.

“Strong civic participation not only ensures that municipal priorities and spending better align with the wants and needs of residents, voter turnout correlates with social cohesion, greater involvement in volunteering and other civic activities and better public health outcomes,” said Lee Ann Waterman, Metroland’s vice-president of editorial and group publisher of the company’s community brands. “Getting informed and getting out to vote is an investment in a thriving community,”

That’s why, in addition to providing you with comprehensive municipal election coverage, we’ve partnered with the Toronto Star and Vox Pop Labs to launch Vote Compass.

Vote Compass compares voters’ views

This free, easy-to-use tool brings together the expertise of journalists, academics, data analysts and a custom AI system to provide voters in Ontario’s 50 largest municipalities, including in Ajax, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering and Whitby, an opportunity to compare their views with those of local candidates looking to represent them.

Through a series of policy statements, you’ll weigh in on issues local to your community. Vote Compass will show you how your position aligns with the candidates vying for your support.