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Karen Robinet

Karen Robinet

Sarnia Observer

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ROBINET: 2025: In a nutshell

previous day 8

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Thrills and ch-ch-chills!

ROBINET: Thrills and ch-ch-chills!
18.12.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: So this is Christmas

ROBINET: So this is Christmas
10.12.2025 7

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Real estate buying spree needs to stop

ROBINET: Real estate buying spree needs to stop

There’s no question that affordable housing is a big issue, a hot button topic in Chatham-Kent these days, and for good reason.

04.12.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Keep shining, Chatham-Kent

For almost eight years I commuted to my job as a reporter/editor at The Observer in Sarnia, and throughout that time I never ceased to be amazed at...

27.11.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: It’s not all about the money

Well, boys and girls, it’s that time of year again, when Christmas is just around the corner and we’re all...

20.11.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Municipally idle thoughts

So, way back in October 2023, architect ROA Studio Inc. submitted a building condition report on the Civic Centre and Fire Station No. 1, which pulled...

12.11.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Homeward bound, the long way!

Having spent a week in Manitoba, it was time for Donald and I to take the long drive back to Chatham-Kent and we were coming back the Canadian way,...

07.11.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Canada all the way

Well, boys and girls I had apparently forgotten how long (very long!) it takes to drive from Chatham to Winnipeg the Canadian way, but given the...

27.10.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Is it fall yet?

24.10.2025 4

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Chatham-Kent hub both under and on budget

Earlier this month, the municipality announced the recommended construction bid for the proposed Chatham-Kent Community Hub had come in under the...

22.10.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Chatham-Kent hub both under and on budget

17.10.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Too easy to blame the homeless

You don’t have to look far in Chatham-Kent to hear or see a lot of chatter about the homeless population these days.

08.10.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: ‘Neither rain, nor snow’

Remember the old creed: “Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.”

30.09.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Remembering a good man

The year was 1973 and I and all my fellow newly and soon-to-be teenaged girlfriends were seated in a cinema in Cambridge, tears streaming down our...

25.09.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: A few little hub bits

Well boys and girls, I didn’t expect my next column about the proposed community hub to involve the integrity commissioner (IC), but here we are.

17.09.2025 5

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Please sir, we want some more

12.09.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: What’s a picture worth?

As I write this week’s missive, I am surrounded by the photographic evidence of five generations of my family in varying states of decomposition and...

05.09.2025 9

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

Summer’s last splash: Holding on as the season slips away

From splash pads to beach trips, one columnist shares the joy of summer adventures with family

04.09.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Queen of the kitchen

It’s been a busy time for yours truly, having been forced to drop everything for the past week or so to address the voluminous cherry tomato plants...

19.08.2025 9

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: History on repeat

15.08.2025 10

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: My, how things have changed

08.08.2025 9

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Problem solved, not solved

For residents and business owners near the site of the former tent encampment at Rotary Park in downtown Chatham, it’s a good news story.

31.07.2025 5

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Problem solved, not solved

For residents and business owners near the site of the former tent encampment at Rotary Park in downtown Chatham, it’s a good news story.

23.07.2025 9

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Have I got a project for me!

I recently hit the one-year anniversary of my most recent career change – retirement – and I have to say that things have not necessarily gone to...

16.07.2025 7

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: It’s funny ‘cause it’s true

11.07.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: CK’s most wonderful time of the year

Well first off, and filed under the category of “there’s no news like old news,” I have to report that contrary to last week’s note on the...

08.07.2025 10

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Updating the cultural update

26.06.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Back in the U.S., at least briefly

I don’t know about you, but until recently it had been a good long while since I had set foot in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

20.06.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Love is love, period

13.06.2025 10

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: All in for Dresden

06.06.2025 4

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: And now, back to the hub

It’s been a good few weeks now since the May 12 council meeting where the proposed Chatham-Kent Community Hub project was bustled along to its next...

27.05.2025 10

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Family time abroad

When last we spoke of my sister Roseanne and I on distant shores, we were in Sheffield, England, where we watched one of my all-time favourite...

22.05.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Let’s keep it classy in Chatham-Kent

I’ve covered hundreds of council meetings in numerous municipalities over the years, but never have I covered one where there were as many police...

13.05.2025 4

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: The future is now

06.05.2025 9

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: I’m a dictator now

Well, boys and girls, as I write this, I’m on a train headed from Sheffield, England to London with my sister Roseanne.

30.04.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: It ain’t over ’til it’s over

Well, May 12 is the next red-letter date on the Chatham-Kent Community Hub calendar, as council is expected to vote on the next step, which is sending...

22.04.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Why I was forced to read a book

Before we go any further, please don’t forget to get out and vote on Monday, April 28.

16.04.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Federal election most critical of our time

It’s the dawn of a new global era thanks to the uncertainties, vagaries and chaotic dismantling of the United States of America as we have always...

08.04.2025 10

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Chatham-Kent’s great divide

You could be excused for thinking that the greatest divide we have to deal with in Chatham-Kent is that which exists between urban and rural...

01.04.2025 10

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: What’s really real anymore?

“The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) have identified foreign interference as a...

26.03.2025 5

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: What’s new with the hub?

It’s been a minute since I’ve written about the proposed Chatham-Kent Community Hub, and I started wondering if something had slipped past me.

19.03.2025 4

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: The worth of water

The first time I went up north, I cynically observed there was nothing past Toronto other than water, rocks and trees.

11.03.2025 20

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: On the lighter side

04.03.2025 10

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Canadians are doing the things

26.02.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: In defence of ‘pressing’ on

20.02.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: Community can save us

12.02.2025 3

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: We’ve come a long way. Let’s keep going

05.02.2025 2

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: We are all Team Canada

30.01.2025 8

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet

ROBINET: CK should be stronger together

Many moons ago, yours truly was a cub reporter at my very first newspaper gig with the New Hamburg Independent.

24.01.2025 4

Sarnia Observer

Karen Robinet