Niagara At Large

By Doug Draper

 Bob Gale, a Niagara business many on the Ontario side of the Niagara River may know as the owner of Gale’s Gas Bars, may not seem the most likely guy to get recognized nationally as a whistleblower for the public good.

Niagara business leader and former Niagara Parks Commission board member Bob Gale blew the whistle on the lack of competative bidding on the Maid of the Mist contract. File photo by Doug Draper.

But he most certainly has by The Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform (FAIR), a nationally supported charity group that includes among its members David Kilgour, one of the longest-serving federal MPs from Alberta,  Bob Stenhouse, a highly decorated member of the RCMP who found his future on the line a decade ago for blowing the whistle on the ineffectiveness of federal investigations into outlaw motorcycle gangs.

FAIR has appointed Gale to join Kilgour, Stenhouse and others on its advisory board in the wake of his revelations, in the wake of his service on the board of the Niagara Parks Commission, that the commission was not placing a contract for the Maid of the Mist ride out for competitive bidding in a way that might ultimately benefit a taxpaying public that is the ultimate custodian of lands along the Canadian side of the Niagara River corridor.

Since Gale blew the whistle on the Maid of the Mist business and ultimately parted ways with the NPC’s board, the provincial government has directed the commission to put the contract for that iconic ride out for competitive bidding. The commission has also opened its board meetings to the public for the first time in its 124-history as a steward of one of Canada’s natural gems. Keep reading →

From Alliana Kane, Acting Events Manager, Port Colborne Economic and Tourism Development Corp.

Festivals and Events Ontario has once again recognized Port Colborne’s Canal Days Marine Heritage Festival as one of Ontario’s finest by naming the event to the list of Ontario’s Top 100 festivals.

Port Colborne's Canal Days 2009 looking down the Welland Canal along a crowded West Street. File photo by Doug Draper.

The Top 100 is a designation created by Festivals & Events Ontario, and sponsored by VIA Rail Canada, which represents excellence for the province’s festivals and events industry. Winners were selected through a nomination process that included a predetermined set of criteria; Canal Days edged out over 3000 other festivals in Ontario, to obtain Top 100 status.

Festivals & Events Ontario is a professional association for the festivals and events industry in Ontario providing a network for festival and special event organizers to share information and resources. The association is involved with collaborative advocacy, policy development, marketing and the provision of educational opportunities for members.

“I am extremely proud that Festivals &  Events Ontario has recognized Port Colborne’s signature event, Canal Days,” Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey said.

Keep reading →

The City of Welland and Brock University signed a memorandum of understanding this March 10 that provides a foundation for the city and Niagara-based university to work together on future projects.

Onlookers applaud after Welland Mayor Damian Goulbourne and Brock University President Jack Livingstone sign 'memorandum of understanding' to work cooperatively on future projects. Photo courtesy of Brock University

“In signing the document … at Welland City Hall,” according to a media release circulated  by the university, “Brock President Jack Lightstone and Welland Mayor Damian Goulbourne also announced the partnership’s first initiative and a significant step forward.
“The University is agreeing in principle to a long term-lease of space to locate the Brock University Human Performance Centre in the Welland International Flatwater Centre. The Brock Centre will operate non-academic, revenue-generating activities that support the work of Brock’s Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. Keep reading →

By Dianne Giliforte

Get ready Niagara Falls!! Coming soon to your community – NOISE and POLLUTION.

Dick Juloksy owns a farm for race horses near the site for the proposed NASCAR speedway and is opposed to the plan. Photo courtesy of CARS

An application to establish a Motorsports Park at the intersection of Sodom Road and the QEW has been submitted to the Region. If this is not what you envisioned when you moved to your quiet rural abode or the quaint community of Chippawa, then start making your own noise now and make it loud and clear, since some politicians are hard of hearing.

Take a look at the travesty in Fort Erie and be afraid, be very afraid. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

The Niagara-based Preservation of Agricultural Lands, one of the oldest citizens groups dedicated to conservation in the province, has launched an appeal before the Ontario Municipal Board of a plan to build a NASCAR speedway facility on rural lands in Fort Erie.

PALS is concerned that decisions by the Town of Fort Erie and Niagara’s regional government that allow such a massive facility on more than 800 acres of agricultural lands outside the town’s urban boundaries literally paves the way for the loss of more of what remains of our rural lands to this kind of development.

Fort Erie’s town council sees the proposal by a consortium called Canadian Motor Speedway as a great economic and tourist opportunity for the municipality, drawing tens-of-thousands of racing fans to the region each and every time races are held. But not everyone in the town embraces the idea – at least not for lands outside Fort Erie’s urban boundaries. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

“There is only one word to describe our health system and it is chaos,” said Pat Scholfield of Port Colborne toward the beginning of a public hearing the Ontario Health Coalition held this March 9 in Welland, Ontario on the state of services in smaller hospitals across the province.

This sign loomed at public hearings over hospitals, though no Welland city councillors made a presentation at the hearings.

More than 250 people from across the Niagara region attended these bipartisan hearings – a series of which is taking place across the province – to address concerns people have over the loss of services at smaller and rural hospitals in Ontario.

The Niagara hearing featured presentations by more than two dozen individuals and groups, including two mayors (Vance Badeway of Port Colborne and Doug Martin of Fort Erie), the president of the Canadian Auto Workers’ Local 199, Wayne Gates, doctors, nurses, paramedics and others

Almost to a person, those who spoke at these hearings expressed concern for diminishing services at the hands of government bodies unresponsive to them. Some, including Badeway, also spoke of building new health system for their communities despite what is being lost through the province’s status quo. Keep reading →

By John Kennedy, grandfather of the late Reilly Anzovino, on behalf of his wife Phyllis, daughter Denise and the rest of Reilly’s family and friends

To Whom It May Concern … And it won’t be (Ontario’s premier) Dalton McGuinty or (the province’s health minister) Deb Matthews that’s for sure.

Reilly's grandfather, John Kennedy, her aunt Marnie Kennedy, mother Denise Kennedy and her brother Kain look on as Sue Salzer reads a message from the family to a public hearing in Niagara on our diminishing hospital services. Photo by Doug Draper.

First of all, thank you to everyone that is working passionately at getting our Fort Erie hospital or what they call “small town facilities” secured. Please forgive me if I sound a little bitter but I woke up this morning again…. a grieving grandfather who has lost his beautiful, sparkling granddaughter Reilly! My granddaughter, who I hugged not knowingly (for) the last time on Christmas Eve.

We all watched Reilly in amazement like we always did, tell us about school and her future plans….. and how happy she was to see her friends and family for Christmas Break. (It was) a visit that was cut short because, and I will try to be nice… of maybe, the McGuinty government’s negligent thinking and paying out millions to restructure our small town health care. … 40,000 people (in Fort Erie when, during the summer, the Buffalo area and other U.S. summer cottagers come in) is apparently considered a small town now?? Keep reading →

By Hillary Beney and Nikki Caperchiono

(Two close friends of Reilly Anzovino, a Fort Erie, Ontario teen who died following a tragic traffic accident in her hometown this past Boxing Day, could barely contain their tears as they asked tearful listeners at a public hearting in Welland this March 9 if Reilly might still be alive today had the province not shut down the emergency rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne.)Reilly was not only an amazing daughter and sister, but also the best friend anyone could have asked for.

Denise Kennedy, mother of Reilly looks on as two of Reilly's close friends hold back tears after delivering a message during a public hearing on hospital services in Niagara, as Sue Salzer, a Fort Erie advocate for hospital services in south Niagara looks on.

When she walked into a room, her angelic smile and beauty took over. She was artistic, beautiful, funny, clumsy, smart, passionate and outgoing.

She was the best prom date (anyone) could have asked for. She brought laughter into the lives of everyone she knew. We have all felt as though Reilly had a greater purpose in life, this may just be it.

On December 26th, Reilly passed away in a tragic car accident. Each and every one of us can remember the exact moment when we received the news and the overwhelming rush of heartbreak and disbelief.

What happened that night forever changed our lives and our outlook on this community? We believe that this irrational decision to close down emergency rooms within the area played a big role in the death of Reilly.

The closure of the emergency rooms forced the ambulance to travel a greater distance and ultimately cost Reilly valuable time. In those critical moments we lost the girl who would buy you lunch, when you ran out of money, lend you her clothes if you had nothing to wear and run to your house, in a heartbeat when you needed her just because you had a bad day. Keep reading →

By Linda McKellar

(from a presentation Linda McKeller delivered during public hearings hosted this March 9 by the Ontario Health Coalition in Welland Ontario, as part of a series the not-for-profit, province-wide coalition is holding in regions across Ontario on concerns over service cuts to our hospitals.)

I have been asked to give a presentation representing the point of view of a group who have been reluctant to speak out due to fear of repercussions – the front line nurses.

Retired Niagara nurse Linda McKellar testifies at public hearing about diminishing hospital services in Niagara. Photo courtesy of Donna Frankson.

By way of introduction, I was a nurse for 40 years, the last 25 in Welland ER (emergency room), so I feel I can speak accurately about the conditions.

Conditions in the entire hospital have gotten progressively worse. The staff attitude has become one of despair and frustration and public opinion of services has gone down the toilet. This started with cutbacks and closures under the Conservatives and now continues under the Liberals. Care has suffered horribly.

These initiatives didn’t work then and they won’t work now. Keep reading →

(From an address Dr. William Hogg presented to public hearings hosted this March 9 by the Ontario Health Coalition in Welland Ontario, as part of a series tof public hearings he not-for-profit, province-wide coalition is holding in regions across Ontario on concerns over service cuts to our hospitals.)

By William Hogg, MD

Hello everyone.

Dr. William Hogg, a retired Fort Erie physician, speaks on concerns over cuts to Niagara's hospital services at public hearings in Welland, Ontario.

I’m a retired doctor who has done acute emergency work – and taught it on both sides of the border.

Today I’ll try to translate a tiny part of the grievous loss of Ms Reilly Anzovino into a plea and rationale for local Medicare repair. In June of last year, concerned about the Niagara Health System’s depredations, I sent a series of short notes to NHS – warning of deaths to come. SURELY to come – should the small town Emergency Departments in our region’s southern tier be shut down?

NHS did not acknowledge my early warnings. It did not care enough to act humanely for any of the critically injured or sick people in our area. | NHS just ploughed ahead unwisely. Both emergency rooms WERE closed. And deaths HAVE happened – unwarranted and wrongful deaths! Now – the kinds of deaths I predicted and warned of happen during so-called ‘TIME-critical’ emergencies.

They can come on in a split second. They can happen anywhere. At home. On a country road. In ambulances. If a ‘far away’ hospital IS reached, disability or death may still occur – even there. Keep reading →

In his first address to an annual meeting as leader of Ontario’s Conservative Party Leader,  Tim Hudak – a Fort Erie native and Niagara area MPP – vowed to “modernize” his party, “once again lead as the province with the strongest economy, best hospitals, best schools and best jobs in Canada,” and “leave behind the failed policies of the McGuinty Liberal government.”

Ontario Conservative leader and Niagara area MPP Tim Hudak delivers keynote address at party's annual meeting in Ottawa this March.

In a continued spirit of publishing, for the record, statements by significant others on matters of importance to the residents of our

 region, Niagara At Large is providing Tim Hudak’s first address, as Conservative leader, to the party’s annual meeting below.

Please feel free, at the end of the text for this speech, to join the discussion and debate where we as a binational region of this province should be going by sharing your views in the comment boxes below.

We encourage your views and believe they are as vital to the process of building healthier communities as those of anyone holding an elected or non-elected office in government today. We also welcome the opportunity to review for publicaltion addresses on matters of interest and conern from other residents and community leaders in our region. Keep reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following media release from Ontario’s colleges with quotes from Niagara College president Dan Patterson, praising the throne speech delivered this March 8 by the provincial government of Dalton McGuinty. NAL posts it, without edits, with a few questions we are not sure have been answered through the throne speech, including – What is the government specifically going to do to take the burden off our college and university students around the costs for tuition and the outrageous prices charged for text books? Or is most of this provincial initiative all about packing our colleges and university – many of them built through donations by generations of Ontarions in our communties with more foreign students, at even higher tuition rates, so they can go back to their countries with the skills and knowledge they learned here to fuel the futures of their countries’ economies? Again, what is there in the McGuinty throne speech that will make it more affordable for young people in Ontario to receive a college or university education?)

March 8, 2010 – Ontario’s colleges, including Niagara College, are praising the important commitments made by the Ontario government today to produce more college and university graduates.

“Greater numbers of people will get the higher education and training they need to achieve success,” said Anne Sado, the chair of the colleges’ committee of presidents, “This is an important commitment to people’s futures and to producing a stronger workforce in this new knowledge economy.” Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

If we need one more reminder that the party is over for all the relentless binging aging baby boomers like me have been on for everything from pet rocks to big, bloated vanity homes for just two boomers with no kids, consider the news last week that General Motors is at long last closing the curtains of its show rooms on the Hummer.

Seems GM could not find another buyer on the planet for this gargantuan, gas-sucking pig of a vehicle – not even from auto manufacturers in China – and had no choice this March but to shut the “brand” down.

And thank whatever god you and I pray to for that!

There are possibly few more conspicuous symbols of the ‘no-holds-barred, let’s-live for-today’ drive to consume almost anything and everything we boomers can grab on to, regardless of the consequences, than the Hummer.

There was something very obvious about the Hummer and many of the larger Sport Utility Vehicles (more infamously known as SUVs) that spoke to a culture – pre-soaring oil prices and 2008 economic meltdown – that said; ‘We who drive this car couldn’t give a damn about energy conservation, air quality or anything else. … If we happen to get in a collision and you are driving a smaller car, we’ll just brush you off the grill and move on.” Keep reading →

By Dan Wilson

Bob Timmons, an artist, vegan and animal rights activist, spoke about ocean life at the Niagara Action for Animals Vegan Potluck Friday night in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Bob Timmons, artist and advocate for marine life, speaks in Niagara. Photo by Dan Wilson.

Timmons, who is based in Toronto, was in town to raise awareness of the plight of sea animals, including sharks, which are being slaughtered by the millions for the shark fin trade.

According to Timmons, 90 million sharks are fished every year, with 80 per cent of the shark fins going to Hong Kong. Many shark species are on the verge of extinction because of over-fishing and shark fining, the practice of catching sharks, cutting off their fins and throwing them back in the water to drown. Keep reading →

By Larry Beahan

Buffalo’s own Senator Antoine Thompson, Chair of the New York State Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, proposes that the State borrow $5 billion to pay for clean water, clean air and, in the process, create green jobs. Sometimes you need to borrow money.

Waters both Buffalo area and Niagara, Ontario residents share could benefit from a 'Green Bond' being proposed by Western New York Senator Antoine Thompson. Photo by Doug Draper

My friend Chuck’s grandfather arrived in New York City from Russia with no money at all. He borrowed $5 from relatives, rented a push cart, peddled bananas and wound up a successful real-estate developer. New York State’s finances now resemble those of my friend’s forbearer on his arrival here. And since that time we have badly polluted the air and water of our State.

The $1.76-billion-dollar 1996 Clean Water Clean Air Bond Act paid for a lot of wastewater treatment, separate storm sewer systems and aquatic habitat restoration but it is now exhausted. The Environmental Protection Fund, supplied by the real-estate transfer tax, has protected open space, bought parks, revitalized waterfronts and closed dumps all over the State.

But in these difficult times the Governor has used his power to sweep it clean of cash. He has used the money to plug holes in the leaking dike that is the New York State budget. Problem Number One is that our economy is stalled. There are not enough jobs to go around. People who are out of work don’t pay taxes and without tax revenues we cannot attack Problem Number Two, our polluted environment.

This $5 billion will buy us an enormous push cart, a push cart of green jobs, a push cart full of clean water, clean air, and reclaimed land. To bring it right home, Woodlawn Beach State Park has a magnificent wide sandy beach and it is close to where a lot of Western New Yorker’s live. Keep reading →

 By Doug Draper

If there are as many people across the region of Niagara, Ontario as I suspect there are who are concerned about the future of our hospital services, Welland’s Lion’s Club should be packed to the rafters this coming Tuesday, March 9, for a public hearing on the future of our hospitals.

The Welland hospital site is just one of the hospitals with services under stress thanks to the provincial government's 'hospital improvement plans'. Photo by Doug Draper

For years now, this reporter and columnist has been flooded with emails, phone calls and people just wandering up to me at a gathering in the community, expressing their upset over where the Niagara Health System and provincial government are going with our local hospital services.

‘What can we do’, many have asked me after one of I can’t remember how many columns I’ve written over the past six or more year on the growing mismanagement of our hospital services. ‘Where can we go to complain?’

Well, here is one answer for you. Make every effort to drop whatever else you think you have to do this coming Tuesday, March 9 and show up sometime between 3 and 6:30 p.m. at a public hearing being held on our hospital services by the not-for-profit, Toronto-based citizens organization, the Ontario Health Coalition. Keep reading →

By Bob Korol

Dear Honourable Members of the Legislature,

It has been brought to my attention that the Ontario government is considering re-designating 827 acres of good quality agricultural lands to site a proposed motorway, aka a NASCAR race track. 

I wish to express most strongly my opposition to the proposal for several reasons. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

When it comes to the Niagara Regional Police Service and its plans for building a new police headquarters, any semblance of openness and transparency too often flies out the window for Niagara, Ontario’s regional council.

The Niagara Regional Police Service's existing headquarters in downtown St. Catharines. Photo by Doug Draper

For about the umpteenth time over the past two or three years, the doors to the regional government’s council chambers were closed to members of the media and general public this March 4 – this time for more than four hours. The doors were shut for so long that Cogeco’s Cable 10 media crew, which dutifully trains the eyes of their cameras on regional council proceedings for the public, finally packed up their gear and went home.

The optics of those doors remaining closed until members of the public finally get fed up and leave on Thursday council meeting nights are not good for a regional government that otherwise has a pretty decent record for openness.

And to swing those doors shut almost every time there is a discussion or debate over a police headquarters that would amount to one of the largest capital investment of our money the regional government is perched to make in its 40-year history is unacceptable.

The region has been drawing a curtain of secrecy around this issue for far too long now and it is about time members of the public began contacting their mayors and directly elected regional councillors and demanding some disclosure. Keep reading →

By Rob Nicholson,
Niagara Falls, Ontario MP and Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General

Canadians lose faith in the criminal justice system when they feel that the punishment does not fit the crime. They have told us they want criminals – particularly violent offenders or those involved in gangs and organized crime – to serve a sentence that is proportionate to the severity of their crimes.

Niagara Falls MPP and Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson

I am pleased to write that we have met those expectations in the Truth in Sentencing Act, which came into force Monday, February 22. This piece of legislation strictly limits the amount of credit granted for time served in custody prior to sentencing, thereby ensuring offenders will serve sentences that are more appropriate.

In the past, courts often applied a credit of two-to-one for time served in pre-trial custody when sentencing criminals.  In some circumstances, certain offenders even received three-for-one credit.

This awarding of extra credit lead not only to the perception that sentences were too lenient – it also lead to the reality that, all too often, criminals were being released back on our streets far too soon.

Like the majority of Canadians, our Government believed that this situation was unacceptable. So, we acted on it.  Keep reading →

By Doug Draper 

(Less than an hour after the commentary below was posted, there was  word that Canada’s Harper government is backing away from making any changes to the lyrics of the country’s anthem, which begs a question – If this government can’t get its act together on what to do about one line in our national song, how well is it going to go on running the country?)

 Okay, so Canada’s federal parliament finally got back to work this March 3 after a long proroguing (or ‘shutdown’ for those who might not be all that familiar with the infamous ‘p’ word) and we are still working our way through one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Residents in this  Niagara region, and I include neighbouring communities and counties on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border in this, are experiencing some of the highest unemployment rates on the continent.

So what is one of the most talked about stories coming out of the first couple of days of Canada’s parliament getting back to business with a Throne speech and critical budget announcements from the government? Some of you may have guessed it – the lyrics to Canada’s national anthem! Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

 One of Buffalo’s fine art centers is showcasing work by one of North America’s most acclaimed 20th century artists –an artist that just happens to bear this center’s name.

'Gateway to September' - one of many works by 20th century artist Charles Burchfield on exhibit during a special showing of his art at the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo, New York

The Burchfield Penny Art Center at the Buffalo State College campus off that city’s Elmwood Avenue (along a stretch of Elmwood located along across the road from on of the other great Buffalo art venues, Albright-Knox) will be hosting the first major retrospective of work by American artist Charles E. Burchfield in an exhibition entitled – - ‘Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield.

It is an exhibition that will run at this 44-year-old art center  from March 7 to May 23 of 2010, before it moves on to the world-renown Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City this summer. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

Beyond the sandy dunes lining the northeastern shores of the Cape Cod community of Provincetown, Massachusetts, is one of the most fertile areas for marin

Humpback whale off coast of Cape Cod's Provincetown. This Photos and others below courtesy of the Dollphin Fleet of Provincetown.

e life in the coastal waters of the North Atlantic.

This 842-square miles of ocean – known since its designation by an act of U.S. Congress in 1992 as the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary – is still thankfully host to Humpback, Minke, Finback and other species of whales, and to sharks, seals, porpoises and tuna. On a good day of sailing on these waters, a person may enjoy the spectacle of dozens, if not hundreds of dolphins dancing in the boat’s wake.

Thanks to the Dolphin Fleet of Provincetown – a company of boats that, in concert with marine experts like Carole Carlson and others from the Center for Coastal Studies, my family and others have enjoyed the experience of viewing these wondrous beings in their natural habitat now for more than 30 years. I can still remember taking my daughter Sarah out on one of these excursions a good 15 years ago when she was only five-years old, and watching her eyes turn wide as boat cut off its engines and all we could hear was the sound of water lapping against the bow as a female Humpback and her calf glided by.

Since then, this is the only way our daughter has experienced these great creatures. She has never expressed any desire to go to SeaWorld or Marineland, and my wife Mary and I have never had any desire to take her there. And I don’t mind telling you, I am proud of that as the tired old debate of whether whales and other marines mammals comes up again. Keep reading →

By Daryl Barnhart

Residents can now stay up to date on their Regional government by subscribing to the monthly e-newsletter, ‘Our Niagara e-news’.

‘Our Niagara e-news’ focuses on programs and services offered by Regional government, as well as highlighting important decisions made by Regional council.

“We aim to provide our residents with news they will find useful,” says Niagara Region Chief Administrative Officer Mike Trojan. “Public awareness of the services provided by the Niagara Region is an important goal for council. This e-newsletter is just one of the many ways we are trying to meet this objective.” Keep reading →

By Doug Draper 

A friend to the left and Reilly in pink along the shores of Lake Erie

The mother of Reilly Anzovino – the Fort Erie teen who died following an ambulance trip from a traffic accident scene in her hometown to a hospital emergency room in Welland – hopes that an inquest into the circumstances around her death will lead to better health care for all Niagara residents.

Reilly’s mother, Denise Kennedy, was responding to news this March 2 that Ontario’s chief coroner, Dr. Andrew McCallum, will hold an inquest into the 18-year old’s death in the early morning minutes of this past December 27, following a traffic accident on Hwy. 3 before midnight on Boxing Day.

“Although nothing will bring Reilly back,” Denise told Niagara At Large on behalf of herself, Reilly’s father, Tim Anzovino, and other members of the family, “we hope that this inquest will bring recommendations and changes to the health care of our community. …. “I think it is important to have recommendations that are unbiased and made by a competent expert,” she added. Keep reading →

(As part of Niagara At Large’s mission to provide more information than the mainstream media on issues of concern to residents in our greater binational Niagara region, we offer the following for-the-record exchange between Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty and NDP leader Andrea Horwath on the issue of hospital services in Niagara)

Ms. Andrea Horwath: This is over to the Premier as well. Ontarians are soon going to have some answers about the terrible tragedy that took place on December 27 in the Niagara region. The coroner’s inquest into the death of Reilly Anzovino will determine whether this young woman’s tragic death may have been prevented had the emergency room of Fort Erie not been forced to shut its doors last year.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath

In the face of growing health care cuts, Ontarians are looking to the government for assurance. If the coroner’s jury determines that the ER closures in Port Colborne and Fort Erie contributed to Reilly Anzovino’s death, will the Premier commit to reopening them?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the outcome that my colleague is speculating about.

Let me just say, on behalf of the government, we welcome this review by the coroner’s office. We look forward to receiving the jury’s recommendations, and we look forward to acting on those in any way that serves the interests of the people of Ontario. Keep reading →

(The following column was submitted to Niagara At Large by the Ontario New Democratic Party for possible posting and NAL is offering it to our readers as it speaks to concerns raised by many residents across this region about the management of our hospital services. NAL welcomes submissions by all political parties and all of you out there , our readers,  on matters of interest and concern to our binational Niagara region.)

By France Gelinas, Ontario’s NDP health critic  Imagine you or a loved one falls ill but because you do not live in an urban centre, the required health care services cannot be found anywhere close to home. This is increasingly the situation that Ontarians in rural and Northern communities face when trying to access health care services. All Ontarians are entitled to equitable access to health care, yet this equity is being threatened today.

Ontario NDP health critic France Gelinas

Hospital and community health services in Ontario’s rural and Northern communities are being shut down or threatened with closure.  The various levels of bureaucracy and government are failing to listen to the people most impacted by these changes.

People living in rural or Northern Ontario know that the inability to access needed health care is not only unjust, but has devastating, and spiraling, consequences to the health of their families and communities as a whole. The reality is that the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care and the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs) have failed to recognize the specific needs of these communities.

Residents in communities like Fort Erie, Port Colborne and Burk’s Falls—and the many surrounding municipalities—know this first hand. All three have lost health care services in the past six months. When residents have posed basic questions about; future access to these health services, travel between communities in the winter months, the capacity of existing paramedic services, and the likeliness of retaining health care workers when their places of employment disappear—silence has been the response of government and officials. Keep reading →

By William Hogg

Right here, in the Niagara area, in our very midst, we have one of the finest symphony orchestras in the world. And it performs in perhaps the best sounding concert hall in the world.

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on its home stage at Kleinhans Music Hall

That latter fact is little known. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s Internet site more modestly states that the Orchestra’s permanent home is Kleinhans Music Hall, designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen, the famous Finnish father and son team.

The Kleinhans Music Hall is a National Historic Site with an international reputation as one of the finest concert halls in the United States. The posting then goes on to say, the music hall ‘is known for its unique combination of graceful structural beauty and extraordinary acoustics and is known worldwide as a major contribution to twentieth-century architecture.

The design of Kleinhans resembles the body of a string instrument, as does the main auditorium. Eliel Saarinen’s aim was to create “an architectural atmosphere…so as to tune the performers and the public alike into a proper mood of performance and receptiveness, respectively.” Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

Fort Erie’s mayor Doug Martin says he’s prepared to stake his political future on supporting a controversial high-rise tower for his town’s historic Crystal Beach district, and he has proved it.

Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin displays images of condo development he's willing to stake his political future on. Photo by Doug Draper

At the end of another marathon meeting before his council this March 1 on the pros and cons of a developer’s plans to erect a 12-storey condominium in front of a publicly owned stretch of the Lake Erie shore, known as Bay Beach to many Niagara, Ontario and Western New York residents who enjoy it during the summer months, Martin stood true to his words.

The mayor – having listened to close to two hours of delegations speaking for and against the council plan – broke a three-to-three tie on his council to support the passage of a bylaw allowing the height restrictions in Crystal Beach (where most of the cottages and buildings presently there are one or two stories) accommodate a building as high as 12 storeys.

“I believe this is the right thing to do,” Martin told Niagara At Large while the marathon meeting was still looming. “It is about Crystal Beach. It is about rejuvenation. It is about laying the foundation for our children to built on.” Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

Some breaking news here this March 2.

Reilly Anzovino

Dr. Andrew McCallum, Ontario’s chief coroner, has announced that he will hold a public inquest into the death of Reilly Anzovino, a Fort Erie teen who died from injuries in a car accident in her home town when she was ambulanced to emergency services at a hospital in Welland.

Many south Niagara residents and politicians, including Niagara Falls Liberal MPP Kim Craitor, Welland NDP MPP Peter Kormos and Niagara area MPP and Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak, called on the chief coroner to hold an inquest following Reilly’s death. All, including Reilly’s parents in their own letter to the coroner, wonder if Reilly might still be alive today if the emergency rooms at the Fort Erie and Port Colborne hospitals had not been closed by the Niagara Health System and Local Integrated Health Network as cost cutting measures last year.

Read on for the text of the chief coroner’s announcement, and Niagara At Large will provide more news and commentary on this development as information comes in. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

A few years ago, when Ontario’s environmental commissioner Gord Miller appeared as a keynote speaker at an annual fundraising dinner for the Mel Swart Lake Gibson Conservation Park in the Thorold community of Niagara, Ontario, he proved once again what a fearless voice he was for environmental protection and this province’s people.

Ontario government is pulling plug on Gord Miller's stint as province's top environmental watchdog

 During the course of his speech, he made several references to a lack of priority and resources the Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty was devoting to a host of environmental issues from energy conservation to the protection of our land and water resources. At one point, he went so far as to say that the budget for the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources had been cut so much, its field officers could hardly afford fuel for their trucks. All the while Miller (also a former Ontario Ministry of Environment scientist) was saying these things, Jim Bradley, a St. Catharines MPP and a minister in McGuinty’s cabinet, was sitting there at the head table taking all this in.

When I approached Bradley later, he didn’t give an impression that he minded Miller’s criticism so much and even suggested that he had some respect for the man. But that was a few years ago and still some time away from a 2011 provincial election in which McGuinty, by all accounts, plans to run in and win a third term as premier.

With that election looming ever nearer, we learned late this February that McGuinty and his gang have decided to let their contracts with Miller and with an equally fearless public watchdog – Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin – expire at the end of this March. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

When so many of us were out there the last couple of days of this February, shoveling our way out of our driveways, chipping ice off our windshields and navigating our way through snow and slush  and potholes just to get to a grocery store, we may have missed the possibility that this storm also delivered some winter wonder beauty.

The American Falls at Niagara Falls dressed up in snow and ice and coloured lights. Photo by Dan Wilson. More photos below.

And yes, I’ll admit it.

our way out of our driveways, chipping ice off our windshields and steering our way through snow and slush just to get to a grocery store, it may have been hard to consider the possibility that this storm also delivered some winter wonder beauty.

And yes, I’ll admit it. I missed far too much of the beauty as I found myself out there, using a few words I wouldn’t necessarily repeat here as I was digging my way out of the driveway. ‘Spring can’t come soon enough,’ I thought as I kept shoveling the snow away.

Fortunately, not everyone took such down-and-out approach to this latest blast of winter. Niagara resident Dan Wilson did something I’d like to think I would do if I weren’t feeling so grump about another dumping of snow. He picked up his camera and went out to Niagara Falls and took some pictures that captured the beauty of the occasion.

Fortunately, he shared them with Niagara At Large. And before the snow melts and we face another spring, we’d like to share a few of his photos with you. Keep reading →

Niagara At Large is pleased to feature another in a series of ‘Signs of our Times’ on signs you might spot and share a photo of that make sense, make no sense, or just plain depict the sign of our times in our communities.

If you visit the front page of Niagara At Large and scroll down a few more stories, you will see one entry in this series already on signs by governments, bragging about spending our tax money on projects they should be spending our tax money on.

This sign was submitted to Niagara At Large with the caption - 'needs no further explanation'.

This one was submitted by Merilyn Anthoe, a Fort Erie resident and member of the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a citizens group dedicated to fighting for fair and accessible hospital services in southern Niagara. She submitted it as a photo that needs no further comment, which it probably doesn’t for Canadians and Americans living all year or part of the year on the Ontario side of Lake Erie in Niagara. Keep reading →

 By Dan Wilson

Who’s to blame?

An orca - amusement parks like Marineland and SeaWorld choose to write them off as "killer whales" - in the ocean where it belongs. Photo courtesy of Web Free Pictures at www.webfreepictures.com

Last week’s death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was both tragic and preventable, and should come as no surprise. This isn’t the first time a captive orca has attacked or killed a trainer, nor is it the first time Tilikum has killed a human being.

In 1991, he and two other orcas – Nootka IV and Haida II – participated in the drowning death of Keltie Byrne, a 20-year-old University of Victoria marine biology student and part-time trainer at Victoria’s Sealand of the Pacific marine park. Byrne had slipped and fallen into the orca pool. Tilikum grabbed her with his teeth and dragged her around the pool, holding her underwater for some time.

At one point Keltie, a champion swimmer, broke free and tried to climb out of the tank but all three whales took turns pulling her back in. The girl died as Tilikum held her underwater in his mouth. Sealand closed the next year and the whales were sold off to other marine parks.

Over the years, SeaWorld trainers in the United States have sustained numerous injuries while performing with orcas, including bites during feedings, ruptured kidneys, lacerated livers, fractured bones, and near drowning. People have even been injured at our own Marineland of Canada in Niagara Falls. In 1986, an orca dragged a trainer around the pool by his leg after he fell into the water during a stunt and an 11-year-old girl required four stitches to close a wound on her thumb after a beluga bit her during a petting session in 2000.

In a 2004 report to the United States Marine Mammal Commission (MMC), the University of California found that captive animals had injured more than half (52%) of marine mammal workers.

So why are people still permitted to interact with large, wild, potentially dangerous animals? Keep reading →

By William Hogg, MD

Most people in Niagara see the Niagara Health System as an ogre.
 
Health care delivery here is bad. The lay-administrators of Niagara Health System (NHS), who should be focused on balancing finances properly, have stuck their noses into medical matters and thoroughly botched them.

Emergency department closures in the southern tier of Niagara are just part of the fiasco. But they are enough to gain the bureaucrats a new and sinister slogan to play with: NHS = DOA!!!
 
Not a happy thought. And so recently borne out by the untimely death of an exceptionally promising young girl, Reilly Anzovino. Keep reading →

 By Doug Draper

Niagara At Large is launching a new off-and-on-and-whenever-we happen-get-a-good-submission’ series that speaks to the good, bad and ugly across our binational Niagara region called “Signs Of Our Times.”

Signs of the Times photo by Bob Liddycoat

And when we say signs, we are talking about real signs up on poles, a billboard, on a picket line or displayed on a lawn or wall somewhere that you happen to spot in your communities and can share an image of with Niagara At Large. Send us a digital image of the sign; along with a bit of commentary on why you feel whatever message the sign conveys ranges from something that may be great for our communities, to something that is sad, disgusting or absurd.

We are starting this ‘Sign Of The Times’ series with an image of a cluster of signs captured by Bob Liddycoat, now a Wainfleet, Ontario resident and old journalism colleague of mine, taken on Ormond Street in his old hometown of Thorold, Ontario. You may have viewed them already on the right, up-hand side of this column. In Bob’s note on this one, he mentioned “three billboards from three levels of government telling us what a wonderful job they’re doing – all at our expense. …

“And if this is just one stretch of one street in one town in Canada,” added  Bob, “imagine what they’re wasting across the country.”

What are they wasting, indeed! Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin calls it a “win-win” for the town and the residents of Fort Erie’s Crystal Beach area.

This image was produced by Crystal Beach area residents as an expression of their concern of what might happen to this historic cottage community if Fort Erie's council passes a plan for a condo tower in the community. Fort Erie's mayor, Doug Martin, insists the plan is a 'win-win' for everyone.

Many residents in Crystal Beach insist it will destroy the character of a quaint little lakeshore community that has a good deal of historical significance attached to it. A history that goes back to the time when it was a summer haven for the better half the last hundred year for residents in Southern Ontario and Western New York, when the grand old amusement park of Crystal Beach was still – up to more than decade ago before it closed – sending visitors on some of the best roller coaster rides in North America.

Many residents also argue that it will diminish access to one of the last remaining beaches along Lakes Ontario in Niagara – the popular Bay Beach are that the Town of Fort Erie purchased at a cost of slightly more than $2 million in 2001.

The “it” this commentary is referring to is a controversial proposal by the Molinaro Goup – a consortium of developers from the greater Toronto area – to build a 12-story condo tower on property in front of the beach, breaching a height restriction now on the bylaw books for the age-old cottage community of Crystal Beach of two-and-a-half storeys. And it is a conflict that may very well reach a crescendo this coming Monday, March 1, when Fort Erie’s council votes on matters that could make the first high-rise condo tower in Crystal Beach a reality – setting a precedent for possibly many more high-rise condos along the shores of Lake Erie to come. Martin believes this new development will make Bay Beach even more accessible to the public and may even make more beaches along the lakeshore open for public use.

“The entire (Bay Beach) will be open to the public,” the mayor stressed, adding that he can’t understand whom others believe the beach will become less inviting to the general public than it has since the town purchased it.

“There is overwhelming opposition to the Bay Beach project,” insists Marcia Carlyn, a Crystal Beach resident in a recent call for fellow residents to attend the March 1 meeting of Fort Erie’s town council at 6 p.m. and express their views. Keep reading →

 By Doug Draper

When it comes to government, there is a good deal to criticize. And certainly I’ve done my share of criticizing.

At the same time, there are moments when governments work to fulfill their potential when it comes to acting for the common good.

The recently restored Welland Mills in Thorold - one of the largest flour mills in the lower Great Lakes when it was built in the first half of the 19th century - is one of numerous historical assets Niagara has to offer its residents and visitors to the region. Photo by Doug Draper.

I believe I saw one such moment this February 24 when a majority of members on Niagara, Ontario regional government’s Integrated Community Planning Committee voted in favour of a milestone plan for developing and promoting culture – Niagara’s arts and entertainment, our history, and natural and manmade heritage – as a more enriching part of the quality of life for those of us who live for, and as an economic tour de force for those who may want to visit our region.

“Nine-per-cent of the employment in our region is in this (cultural) sector and we have taken it for granted,” said Patrick Robson, the regional government’s commissioner of integrated community planning. “We have taken (our region’s culture) for granted and this is a watershed moment.”

We have taken it for granted, indeed. But thanks to Judy Casselman, a regional councillor for St. Catharines, who began spearheading the development of a culture plan for all of Niagara more than four years ago, we are on the verge of finally getting our act together as a region when it comes to supporting and promoting cultural activities.

“This has been a long journey,” said Casselman of all of the public consultation, meetings with cultural groups across Niagara and others that finally resulted in the plan coming together. “We are breaking new ground and breaking new ground is never easy. … (But) I think that this is going to be amazing, contributing to our quality of life in Niagara.” Keep reading →

 By Doug Draper

Great news this February 24 for students at Niagara College and 23 other colleges across the province.

The flag of Niagara College will continue to fly above its campuses with students walking in and out of their classrooms thanks to the end of a strike stand-off with the province's college teachers union.

Late this day, the Ontario Labour Relations Board has finally confirmed that a slight majority of college teachers across the province – 51.45 per cent – has accepted an offer by the province’s college presidents. This close vote in favour of the offer averts a strike that could have wreaked havoc for some 450,000 students – just as they are working to complete an academic year so many of them and their parents have sacrificed so much for in time and money.

The confirmation that a slight majority of college teachers – a total of about 54 per cent of them at Niagara College alone – has accepted this offer that gives the most senior teachers in the province’s college system the highest annual pay (more than $102,000 a year by 2011) of any college teachers in the country, is a tribute to slightly more than half of our province’s college teachers who showed some grounding in the realities most of the rest of us in the world out here are  facing today.

As for the union representatives for Ontario Public Services Employees Union – the union that continued playing a game of brinkmanship with the academic year of our province’s college students, even when it was clear, this January, that they had the thinnest of mandates to strike – I would suggest that those responsible college teachers out there take another look at them to the point of replacing them with representatives that show more respect for the concerns of students and the general public – many on fixed and lower incomes – who are struggling through their taxes to pay for our post-secondary schools and the good work they are doing.

These OPSEU representatives – so arrogant and self-righteous during this latest, so-unnecessary stand off with a college presidents’ group that has offered them a 5.9 per cent increase in teacher’s salaries over the next three years – should be run out off  their  bully pulpits on a rail. Keep reading →

By Randy Busbridge

There is a special place in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Aireal shot of sprawling Parks Canada site along the shores of Lake Ontario in Niagara-on-the-Lake should be an eco-park, residents group says. Photo courtesy of Harmony Residents Group.

At the western edge of the Old Town lies a 270-acre property owned by Parks Canada. The site contains a magnificent Carolinian forest – one of the last on the shores of Lake Ontario. It contains beautiful creeks and estuaries. It includes an important War of 1812 battlefield: the site of the Battle of Fort George. It is the place that United Empire Loyalist John Secord, one of the first settlers of the area, called home. It is now the home of numerous birds, fish, amphibians and mammals.

Although it has been decades since a full and formal Species at Risk inventory has been conducted and published, we do know that it is home to the rare Red-Shouldered Hawk and at least one threatened plant species. Despite its ownership, historical importance and scientific significance, this property is not a park, and is not open to the public. Instead, the site has suffered through over a century of neglect and abuse.

Parts of the property have been variously used for a dump site, for sewage lagoons, and for an army rifle range and training site – showing a spectacular lack of appreciation for both our heritage and the environment. Despite this failure of stewardship, the property is serenely beautiful.

As anyone who has ignored the No Trespassing sign will attest – from dog walkers to senior citizens who grew up in the town – the property inspires feelings of reverence and awe.

This special place should be an eco-park – a natural heritage park that focuses on both our heritage and the environment. Keep reading →

By Fiona McMurran

Thanks to the hard work of individual citizens and organizations, as well as some local politicians, Niagara’s fight for accessible hospital services for all residents in the region has been recognized all across the province.

And yet the McGuinty government still doesn’t seem to be listening. So the Ontario Health Coalition, a non-profit group that speaks for Ontario residents, is giving concerned Niagara residents another opportunity to have our voices heard.

You may recall that last spring David Caplan, then-Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, responded to growing anger expressed by citizens across the province about the cuts to services and, in particular, the closures of emergency departments and hospitals in small, rural and northern communities, by creating a Rural and Northern Healthcare Panel to look into the provision of healthcare services in remote, small-town and rural Ontario.

There was rejoicing amongst those of us here in Niagara who had been giving much time and energy to the fight to keep hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne open, and to oppose the Niagara Health System’s Hospital Improvement Plan, which calls for the cutting of major departments at the Welland General and the Greater Niagara General, and the integration of these departments into the new hospital complex the Niagara Health System is building in west St. Catharines. Keep reading →

 By Doug Draper

 This coming March 1, the council of Fort Erie may very well support a plan to build a multi-storey condo tower that would be completely out of place in the historic, lakeside town of Crystal Beach, and would cast a shadow on the future on one of the last open beaches for the public in the Niagara region.

Bay Beach in Crystal Beach, Fort Erie may soon be lost as one of the last open access, public beaches in all of Niagara.

That beach is Bay Beach, usually packed with mostly young people and families having a wonderful time walking the sands and wading the waters of Lake Erie in the summertime. But a Toronto area development consortium, called the Molinary Group, thinks it has a better idea for the lands in front of this beach – to build a multi-storey condo tower for the rich and privileged.

And most of Fort Erie’s council, seems perched to swallow the plan, hook, line and sinker. 

For the rest of us – those of us who live in this region and are blessed to live near two of the greatest freshwater lakes in the world –this plan just about seals the fate on any stretches of the Lake Erie or Ontario shorelines we or any visitors to this region have free access to.

That means we can just about forget about any opportunity a bunch of kids, a young family or any of the rest of us have to get out of a car in Niagara and take a simple walk along the beach. And that should be a concern to all of us including, these Fort Erie councillors and councillors in our regional government who claim they favour public access to the shores of our lakes and river. It should even matter to those in business – particularly the tourist industry – that want to draw visitors to this region. Just ttry telling people who may want to visit or move here that despite the fact we are surrounded by all this beautiful lake water tsouth and north of us, there is barely a place left to take a simple walk along a beach without either paying at some toll gate for it, or being shooed away by private property owners lining the shoreline.

Keep reading below for my further take on this, followed by the transcript of a  plea Wayne Redekop,  a Fort Erie resident and former mayor of Fort Erie, made to the town’s council to keep Bay Beach open this February 22. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

As the parents of ReillyAnzovino – the Fort Erie teen who died following car crash this December – continue their call for a provincial inquest to determine if Reilly would still be alive today if emergency rooms had not been closed at hospitals in Fort Erie and Niagara Falls, they have joined others in south Niagara in establishing a bursary in her memory.

The bursary, announced this February 22 at a Fort Erie council meeting by the Yellow Shirt Brigade, a citizens group fighting for fair access to emergency and other hospital services in Niagara’s southern tier, will provide financial assistance to deserving students entering Niagara College’s Paramedic Program.

Reilly  died shortly after arriving at the Welland Hospital’s emergency department following a late night accident on a stretch of Hwy. 3 in her hometown of Fort Erie the day after this Christmas.

“We, as a family, would like to take this opportunity to say that having a Bursary fund set up for students wishing to pursue the Paramedic course at Niagara College is a great legacy for our daughter and sister Reilly Kennedy Anzovino,” said Reilly’s parents, Tim Anzovino and Denise Kennedy, and their son Kain Anzovino, in a statement they shared with Niagara At Large. Keep reading →

By Larry Beahan

The Vancouver Winter Olympics are underway but during the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, all that Buffalonians could talk about was speed skating and Buffalo’s own Catherine “”Kit” Klein.

Buffalo Olympic champion Kit Klein

Now the Buffalo Sabres tend to be the focus of more attention of local fans than Olympic hockey, while nearby Holiday Valley and Kissing Bridge draw our attention to skiing.

Outdoor ice-skating on the huge wading pool at Buffalo’s Humboldt Park (now Martin Luther King Park) and on Delaware Park Lake used to be a very important part of the Buffalo winter scene.  Every kid had ice skates.

Kit Klein was one of them – a kid who grew up a few blocks from Humboldt Park and loved skating. She was a natural athlete. At School 62 where, she said, phys-ed consisted of opening the window to let in fresh air, she set the 8th grade world record for the broad jump – seven feet and two inches.  She went on to Masten Park High School (now City Honors) where she captained the girls’ basketball and baseball teams. The school still cherishes Kit Klein memorabilia in its museum.

Late in high school, she got serious about skating. If there was no ice in Buffalo she bicycled over the brand new Peace Bridge to practice in a Fort Erie hockey arena. After graduation, she worked full time as a stenographer. She had no trainer but she skated hard.   In 1931, 12,000 spectators gathered in Delaware Park to watch Kit Klein defend her 440 and 660 yard City of Buffalo speed skating championships.

She leapt from there to world fame by winning the gold medal in the 1,500 meters  at the 1932 Lake Placid Winter Olympics. That was the year when women’s speed skating was first introduced as a demonstration Olympic event. In 1933, she won the US national and then the North American women’s speed skating crowns. Keep reading →

 (Bob Timmons, the Toronto area’s “artist for the ocean” and advocate for all creatures on this planet,  visited Niagara Friday, March 5 to speak on the disgusting practice of hunting down sharks for shark fin soup and other ocean conservation issues.  What follows is  an article Bob Timmons has prepared exclusively for Niagara At Large on the destructive practice we humans have of hunting down the last of this planet’s sharks .)
By Bob Timmons

 Back in 2007, I watched a movie called “Sharkwater” and it exposed me
 to a whole new world that was hidden.

A Tiger Shark, photo courtesy of Amanda Cotton

 This new world was the barbaric shark-fining industry that puts out thousands of miles of long lines to catch sharks, after which they remove their fins and dump the living body back into the ocean to die. Approximately 90 million or more sharks are killed
 in this manner every year.

The most targeted sharks do not have offspring yearly and can take up to 20 to 25years to become sexually mature. At this rate, the sharks are endangered and not sustainable for this type of industry. The fining  industry does not only take one type of shark. They take anything they can get from the endangered whale shark and basking shark, and from more than 200 other
shark species. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

I can still remember them marching by  so proudly, wearing their neatly tailored uniforms with all those metals pinned on their chests.

Canadian troops land in Plymouth, England on their way to the killing fields of the First World War. Photo courtesy of Great War Primary Document Archive: Photos of the Great War - www.gwpda.org/photos.

I was barely seven years old as I watched them march by in a parade to mark Welland’s 1958 Centennial celebrations and most of them were probably in their late 50s and early 60s. And to my youthful eyes, they all seemed so old then.

They were veterans of World War I – ‘the Great War’, as so many then called it – and they were actually a good deal younger at the time I was watching them march by than our remaining World War II veterans are today.

And now they are all gone. With the death this February 18 of Canada’s last World War I veteran John Babcock, who was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario in 1900 and died at his home in Spokane, Washington, we have lost the last living Canadian who wore a uniform during five of the bloodiest, most nightmarish years in more than two thousand years of recorded human history.

Other than the fascination I think many young boys (I can’t pretend to speak for young girls) have for wars and possibly joining the army, I have opposed wars all of my adult life. Other than agreeing that it was a good idea to finally blast our way in and put an end to that Nazi plague lead  by one of history’s maddest mass murders Adolf Hitler, I can hardly accept the possibility that we can’t resolve conflicts between one another in some other way.

As a reporter for more than 30 years, I ‘ve joined fellow staff at the old St. Catharines Standard, The Thorold News, Niagara This Week and other newsrooms where I’ve worked in covering Remembrance Days and other anniversaries of conflicts our veterans have fought it. And what almost always strikes me is this.  Very few of the veterans I’ve met have any taste for more war or the conflicts we continue to get ourselves entangled in today. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

For any and all of us hoping for a bit of good news about jobs in our binational region, it seems like a great report.

Whether you heard or viewed it on the radio or the television news, or read about it in a local newspaper, the news this February 18 that General Motors – as dismal as sales and profits have been for it over the past few years – will actually be creating 470 new jobs in its struggling Tonawanda plant may be greeted as a sign that the worst of times for work in North America’s auto industry may be over.

But is it? How much of this announcement of new jobs is false gold?

After all, these new jobs will pay about half the $30 an hour older generations of assembly line workers are being paid in this plant and others GM operates in the United States where the United Auto Workers in that country have reluctantly agreed to a two-tier wage system to keep even more jobs from being shipped off to other parts of the world where wages are ridiculously low.

To what extent should this job announcement – greeted with a headline on the front page of the February 19 edition of The Buffalo News that reads ‘GM begins rebirth with engine plant here’ – be a cause for celebration?

Terry White, a long-time GM worker in Niagara, Ontario and plant chair for the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 199, has some mixed feelings. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

In a week in which the state of Niagara’s hospital services has taken quite the ripping in Ontario’s legislative assembly, the head of the body responsible for operating most of the hospitals across the region capped it off with what she called some ‘long-awaited…great news’.

The $1.5-billion plus new hospital complex the NHS is building on the fringes of west St. Catharines rather than somewhere in the centre of the region.

The $1.5 billion-plus hospital complex for Niagara in the outskirts of west St. Catharines under construction. Niagara Health System CEO Debbie Sevenpifer, in a February 19 memorandum “to all Niagara Health System employees, physicians and volunteers,” announced that the province’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has managed to scare up an additional $14 million in funding for the NHS’s current fiscal year.

“This is great news for the Niagara Health System and long-awaited,” said Sevenpifer in the memorandum she circulated a day after a two-day debate in the provincial legislature over hospital cuts and their impacts on residents in Niagara and surrounding regions that you can find related stories on, including hansard from those provincial debates, by clicking on www.niagaraatlarge.com.

Sevenpifer went on to say that the $14 million infusion of funds from the province, which is basically just a drop in the bucket compared to the tens-of-millions of dollars in debt load the NHS is carrying and the more than $1.5 billion it will have us paying for a new hospital complex in the wrong location, “is a gold medal day for the Niagara Health System.

Celebrate?” A “golden medal day?”

What kind of twilight zone or alternative universe is Sevenpifer and her minions living in? Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

Niagara’s Brock University has launched a website lovers of history and all of us who should know more about our history should treasure on both sides of our Canada-U.S. border.

War of 1812 military button. Courtesy of Lundys Lane Historical Museum.

It is a website featuring more than 1,000 items and 22,000 images from the War of 1812 and it is fitting that a university bearing the name of one of that conflict’s most iconic generals – Isaac Brock for the British side – is showcasing it over an internet site you can access at www.1812history.com.

This website, launched this February 18, “aims to provide a snapshot of the time period in an effort to give a wide-ranging overview of daily social, economic and political lives (of people during the War of 1812),” according to a media release the university circulated on the occasion of the launch. “Items like newspapers, business ledgers, letters, clothing, household objects and articles from the war are included on the site.” Keep reading →

 By Doug Draper

Opposition parties in the Ontario legislature hammered the province’s Liberal government once again this February 18 over hospital costs in Niagara and the possibility that they may have contributed to the death of Fort Erie teen Reilly Anzovino.

Reilly Anzovino

Reilly died following a car accident on Hwy. 3 in the late hours of this past Boxing Day,  enroute or very shortly after arrival by ambulance to the Welland hospital site.

Concerns that she may have lived if ambulance paramedics could have taken her to the Fort Erie or Port Colborne hospital sites instead of Welland are so pervasive that members of all three major political parties in the province – Liberal MPP Kim Craitor from the Niagara Falls/Fort Erie area, NDP MPP Peter Kormos from the Welland/Port Colborne area and Tim Hudak, a Niagara area MPP who is now leader of the province’s Conservative Party, have called for a public inquest.

A plea for a public inquest was also made this past January by Reilly’s parents, Tim Anzovino and Denise Kennedy, and that, along with other related stories on health care and hospital cuts in Niagara, can be found by clicking on www.niagaraatlarge.com. Niagara At Large will also reprise the letter Reilly’s parents sent to Ontario’s chief coroner, asking for an inquest, at the end of this post.

But before that, Niagara At Large is once again publishing hansard from the Ontario legislature this February 18, with oppositions critics slamming the McGuinty government, once again, for gutting hospital services in the southern tier of Niagara and calling on the government to hold an inquiry into the circumstances around Reilly’s death.

You can read the debate, featuring Hudak, McGuinty, Liberal health minister Deborah Matthews, Tory health critic Christine Elliott and others by clicking on ‘keep reading’ at the end of this sentence. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

Opposition critics, including Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak and NDP leader Andrea Horwath, hammered at Premier Dalton McGuinty and his health minister, Deborah Matthews, in the provincial legislature this February 17 over cuts to health care and the unelected Local Health Integration Networks the province set up to help manage hospital services.

Ontario Conservative leader and Niagara area MPP Tim Hudak slams McGuinty on hospital cuts, LHIN appointements.

The cutting of hospital services, including the closing of emergency rooms at hospitals in Port Colborne and Fort Erie, were raised during the heated debate. Tory health critic Christine Elliot also took aim at Juanita Gledhill, head of the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for the Niagara and Hamilton areas, questioning her qualifications for the job and describing her as a Liberal Party donor who has a background of working with Liberal members. According to a fact sheet circulated by the Tories, more than $176 million health care dollars have been dolled out to unelected LHIN bodies across the province over the past three years.

More than 40 Liberal appointees sitting on these boards have shown up on the annual Sunshine list for bureaucrats across the province making annual salaries of more than $100,000.

For related stories on the challenges and controversies around hospital services in the Niagara region today, click on www.niagaraatlarge.com. In the meantime, Niagara At Large is posting the hansard for the Feb. 16 in the legislature for the record. You can read it by clicking on keep reading at the end of this sentence, then feel free to share your views in the comment boxes below.

Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

A year ago last June, Hillary Clinton walked halfway across the Rainbow Bridge from the American side of the Niagara River to announce that, at long last, the United States was ready to work with Canada to renegotiate the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Hillary Clinton, America's Secretary of State, on the Rainbow Bridge between Niagara Falls U.S. and Canada last June, announcing plans to renegotiate the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. Photo by Doug Draper.

On that 13th day of June – celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Canada-U.S. Boundary Waters Treaty as one of the precedent-setting international agreements for protecting the health of shared natural resources in the world – Canadian and U.S. environmentalists around the Great Lakes applauded. They had been urging their respective governments to update the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (first signed in 1972 and last amended in 1987) for years to better address the kinds of pollutants and their sources, the alien species like zebra mussels and Asian carp, and other threats that could ravage these great reservoirs of fresh water today and for generations to come .

But eight months after America’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, made the announcement to renegotiate this groundbreaking treaty to protect and preserve the world’s largest resource of fresh water, it looks like the tens-of-millions of U.S. and Canadian residents living around the lakes might be shut out from the talks. Keep reading →

 By John Bacher

One of the great tragedies in the effort to construct an 821-acre ‘Canadian Motorway Speedway’ on agriculturally zoned and designated lands in Fort Erie is that the scheme rips through the heart of one of the most intact areas of Carolinian forest in all of Canada.

It also rips through the heart of the planning laws that seek to protect it. 

Dave and Sandy Mitchell of Fort Erie enjoy some rural peace, while they can, near their home, less than a mile away from the proposed Nascar speedway in Fort Erie.

The area east of the Welland Canal and between the Niagara River in our region has the largest remaining concentration of the most biologically diverse woodlands in Canada – our equivalent of tropical rainforests. This precious mosaic of farmland and forests, repaired from past ecological abuse through the influence of one of Fort Erie’s greatest residents, the pioneer forester Edmund Zavitz, is now threatened by a bizarre “NASCAR-like” motorway complex – a complex that includes an associated mix of shopping centres, and a camp ground for speedway worshippers. Keep reading →

 By Doug Draper

“Another day older and deeper in debt.”

That lyric from an old American folk tune could just as well serve as a theme for the Niagara Health System – the body created by the province a decade ago to manage the affairs of most of the hospitals in the region.

NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer speaks at a recent forum on the hospital system's financial challenges. Photo by Doug Draper.

Much has been made of the fact that the NHS is swimming in red ink that includes an annual operating budget of somewhere between $10 and $20 million, and a $100-million plus capital deficit that is expected to swell to $129 million within the next two years, according to the NHS’s own projections.

And much should be made of the NHS’s deficits because they are driving a controversial “hospital improvement plan” it was directed two years ago by another provincially appointed body – the Niagara and Hamilton areas’ Local Health Integration Network – to find ways of getting out of the red by consolidating more and more of our hospital services, including emergency and maternity services, into ever few of our hospitals.

It is a plan that is already having an impact, and many would argue not a good one, on people living in Niagara’s southern tier.  And within the next two or three years, it could significantly impact the accessibility of hospital services for a majority of residents in the region, including larger municipalities like Welland and Niagara Falls. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

“I suppose you are wondering why I’m interested in black history,” said Wilma Morrison who just happened to be the only black person in the room as she spoke this February 15 to a gathering of members of the Welland Historical Society and their guests in commemoration of Black History Month.

Niagara historian Wilma Morrison. Photo by Doug Draper

Morrison – one of Niagara’s foremost scholars of black history in this region – went on to say one of the great shames is that our schools are not teaching children more about the history of blacks in the region and of other people who’ve settled here, for that matter.

“I think that if we take the time to learn more about each other and what each other has worked to contribute to the community, it will bring us closer together,” said Morrison, who spent years working to amass a library of black history in Niagara (known as the Norval Johnson Heritage Library after a longstanding member of the black community in Niagara Falls) that last year was donated to the St. Catharines Public Library for access to the public at large.

Morrison said she and others approached high school teachers in Niagara over the past few years to ask them if they would consider teaching their students about black history in the region and “right up front, they told us they don’t have time. … You don’t have time to teach Canadian history,” she responded. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

 Why would anyone want to sit down on the cold pavement, locked up in a steel cage in downtown St. Catharines in the middle of February?

Tayler Staneff is caged while from left, behind her is Sarat Colling, Chris Shaperon and Kimberly Costello. On the cage is a fur coat that is the product of 15 foxes. Photo by Doug Draper

“We’re just trying to put out a message,” said Talyer Staneff as she talked to me through the mesh of that cage with animal make-up she had on.

“A lot of people who buy and wear fur coats probably don’t know how much suffering animals have to go through for them to get them.”

As I talked to her, an old fur coat hung over one corner of the cage, made from the pelts of 15 foxes. Staneff was one of more than 20 animal rights activists in Niagara who participated this February 13th in Canada’s 21st national anti-fur day, not that any federal and provincial government we’ve had in power over that time – Conservative, Liberal or NDP – has done much to recognized it.

What Kimberly Costello, a member of Niagara Action For Animals (NAFA) and one of the organizers of the demonstration had to say should leave Canadians wondering how our country could continue have such backward laws on protecting animals compared to the United States and European Union that at least bans the import of garments made from dog and cat fur, and has placed stronger restrictions on the sale of fur garments and the killing of animals for fur.

 “We are just out here to educate people,” said Costello, adding that the location, which happened to be in front of a store called Henry’s Furs in St. Catharines, which just happened to be closed during the protest, “is just symbolic.” Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

It’s a municipal election year and Niagara region’s council is on the verge of passing a budget for the year that would keep any increase on its portion of municipal taxes down to around zero.

A zero tax increase in an election year? Is that just a coincidence?

Some would say of course not.

They might say these councillors can now go out at election time and say; ‘Hey, look what we did this year. We kept the regional portion of your municipal taxes down to zero.’ Even if zero this year comes back to haunt us an big jump in taxes next year.

Others might say; ‘Hey, give the council a break. They are doing this because they are aware of all the joblessness out here, along with the all of the people struggling to get by on low and fixed incomes. They are feeling our pain.’

It is more likely that the decision the council approved this February 11 to beat down any increase on a regional budget for 2010 has something to do with all of the above. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

Niagara’s regional council has granted the proponents of pans for a mammoth NASCAR speedway complex some of the key approvals they need to build the speedway outside the town of Fort Erie’s urban boundaries.

One of the posters Fort Erie area residents have made up to protest NASCAR speedway project.

The council gave its blessings to amendments to the region’s policy plan and the town’s official plan – amendments that allow for such development on rural lands – despite a plea this February 11 from a citizens group to spend more time studying the impacts the speedway could have on the lives or nearby residents and farms before making any decisions.

“Amending the official plan at this point only results in hastily thrusting opponents, local governments and proponents into the expense and time commitments of an Ontario Municipal Board hearing,” Sandy Vant, head of CARS (Citizens Against Racing Speedway) warned the regional council. Keep reading →

By David Serafino

It’s important to take a position on the Crystal Beach Gateway Project.

Why? Because it means you can influence change.

An image of how the Port Dalhousie heritage district in St. Catharines, Ontario will look if and when 'Port Place' is built.

It is not essential that you do, but ideally, a democratic society hears all opinions. Opinions matter to varying degrees, but an informed opinion matters most. I don’t have one. At least not yet. At present, I choose to maintain objectivity through ignorance.

However, my experience in a similar situation has provided me with insights that I wish to share with the Crystal Beach community. Comparisons have been drawn between the Gateway and the condo development in Port Dalhousie. Port Place includes a 17 storey, 80 unit residential building, a 450 seat theatre, a 70 room boutique hotel and a public courtyard. I don’t know the features or layout of the Gateway but I do know that, like Port Place, it’s overlooking the beach.

When it comes time to take a position, I will begin by informing myself on the benefits and detriments of the project. I will ask this question first: ‘Does the project represent good planning and is it in the public interest?’ Keep reading →

 
By Doug Draper

In a February 8 statement to his own council, Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey renewed his council’s call for an investigation into management of the Niagara Health System responsible for operating the majority of hospitals across the region.

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey

Badawey also urged Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and his health minister, Deb Matthews, “to give Niagara their full attention (on concerns over hospital services) immediately.”

“If not,” said Badawey in his statement, “(the premier and health minister) are ignoring their responsibility to ensure that the people of Niagara receive the highest quality of health care we deserve. … Throughout the past year,” added the mayor, who is moving forward with plans to develop a South Niagara Health Care Corporation to make up for the loss of emergency rooms and other cuts the NHS and provincially appointed Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) have made to hospital services in the region’s southern tier, the city of Port Colborne has worked extremely hard to do its part.

“We now demand that the province do theirs. It is time the premier and minister of health extend their attention to the affordability of delivering health care services within the region of Niagara in 2010.”

For the record, and by clicking keep reading, we are publishing a full text of Badawey’s statement. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

In case you haven’t heard or read it already, a vote this February 10 on a contract offer Ontario’s colleges have made to their teachers is so close to call it could take several more days before the final results are known.

This parking lot of Niagara College's Welland campus could be empty soon if college teachers' union follows through on its strike threat.

That means that more than four-hundred thousand full- and part-time students at Niagara College and more than 20 other colleges across the province are left worrying about whether there will be a teachers strike that disrupts their studies as they should be working toward their final exams and the end of this academic year for possibly another 10 days or so.

The February 10 vote by some 9,000 college teachers across Ontario was reportedly so close that slightly more than 51 per cent of the teachers – by a margin of 210 votes – said “yes” to the college presidents’ offer. Apparently there are about 300 “mail-in votes” left to be counted by the Ontario Labour Relations Board which must hire the most sluggish people in the world to recount votes because we are told it may take the OLRB another week and a half to let the students and public at large in on the final count.

The whole thing is disgusting for the young people and their families investing well over $3,000 a year now for tuition and for over-priced text books (often foisted on them by college teachers who author them with information anyone can find on the internet or in any well-stocked library) to pay the freight, including the salaries and benefits of college teachers who are already among the best paid in all of Canada. Keep reading →

By Doug Draper

The stories and images that continue flowing out of Haiti remain heartbreaking as the people of this impoverished country continue suffering from one of the worst earthquakes that has visited our planet in the last 200 years.

A young child, one of many cared for at Grace Children's Hospital in Haiti, is comforted following the earthquake in that beleaguered country. Photo courtesy of International Child Care.

Since the Jan. 12 earthquake, the outpouring of support from people across the greater Niagara region, and from our fellow citizens across the rest of Canada and the United States has been heartwarming. In a world torn with strike, it proves that we still have the capacity to reach out across borders and oceans to help those in need.

But as the weeks go by since the ground shook and so much of Haiti was reduced to rubble, we know what happens. The attention of the world moves on to other things, whether it be the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, our countries’ continued challenges around a tanked economy and job losses or whatever else, while the suffering in that country goes on and on.

Let’s hope this is not the case at Grace Children’s Hospital in Port-au-Prince – a facility that residents in this region and others have worked so hard over the years to fund and operate as a centre for Haitian children in need of medical health. Keep reading →

 (This article, shared with Niagara At Large from a leading resident in Port Dalhousie, may give those fighting a similar high-tower condo project in the Crystal Beach area some idea of the odds they are up against.)

By Carlos Garcia

Ontario’s dismal record of failing to preserve our heritage is about to get worse – much worse.

Port Dalhousie, from across the harbour, as it looks today, but apparently not for much longer.

The landmark Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) decision to allow a 20-storey height condo tower in Port Dalhousie’s low-rise Heritage Conservation District (HCD) means every one of over 90 HCDs in the province is now vulnerable to towers and inappropriate development.

The volunteer community organization PROUD Port Dalhousie’s epic struggle to preserve the heritage of Port Dalhousie included: City and Regional Council meetings, OMB pre-hearings, a failed OMB mediation, and a 71-day marathon OMB Hearing. The City of St. Catharines and PROUD put forward a very strong OMB case, supported by leading expert witnesses and provisions of  the Provincial Policy Statement and City’s Official Plan, Zoning By-Law (3-storey height limit) and Heritage Guidelines.

Despite this Herculean effort, OMB Vice-Chair Susan Campbell claimed to strike a balance between the Planning and Heritage Acts and approved the proposal in almost its entirety (the OMB had NEVER before approved a tower in a designated HCD). PROUD then requested a review of the decision arguing that, contrary to Campbell’s ruling, the HCD Plan had the elevated status of the 2005 revision to the Heritage Act and, accordingly, Council “shall not …pass a by-law for any purpose that is contrary to the objectives set out in that plan”. Keep reading →

 From Doug Draper

 I was checking out at the service desk of a retail store some three or four weeks ago when the cashier, who has been reading my columns years, asked me what I was writing about that week.

A Student Centre? This campus of Niagara College may have no students at all taking classes on it if the college teachers' union moves forward with a strike in the days ahead. Photo by Doug Draper

“Well, I’m writing about the possibility of a college teachers’ strike,” I said, “and I’m calling the piece – ‘College teachers who strike this time should be fired.’”

At that point, a young girl who was also working at the service desk turned around and told me that she is a student at Niagara College, and that about the last thing she and her fellow students need right now is a teachers’ strike. All three of us – the cashier, the young girl and I – got carried away in a discussion about this until I turned around and noticed a man behind me, weighed down with a couple of fairly heavy items, waiting to check out. I immediately apologized to him for keeping him waiting.

“That’s okay,” he said. “I have a son in college and we are worried about this too.”

Worried indeed!

These are far from the only folks I’ve talked to in recent weeks who feel the same way. Keep reading →

By Wayne Gates

Over the past six years, the provincial government has increased spending on health care in the Niagara Region by 42 per cent.

CAW Local 199 President Wayne Gates

The question today is where did it go?  It obviously didn’t improve quality! 

This increase has instead produced closures of beds, programs, and operating and emergency rooms. It has resulted in staff layoffs and buyouts. It is leading to the closure of the GNGH’s maternity ward. How can the Honeymoon Capital of the world not have a maternity ward?

Here are a few troubling facts:

·  Our emergency room wait times far exceed the provincial average.

·  Surgeries are being delayed and even cancelled. Witness last week when local surgeons complained about the postponement of serious cancer surgeries. Keep reading →

By Sue Salzer
 
A report given by Kevin Smith to the regional government of Niagara points out glaring problems that have been created by the Niagara Health System.
 
Smith , who represents the administration of the Regional Ambulance Service (EMS) , reports overwhelming wait-times for paramedics to off-load patients at the Niagara Falls Hospital emergency department. The amount of time before paramedics can release their patient to Hospital personnel has almost doubled since the closures of the Emergency Rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne. Hours of wait  time have increased from around 130 hours to current times of approximately 240 hours per month.
 
The ambulances, two paramedics and the unfortunate patients are delayed an average of  eight  hours daily before they can be released to the care of hospital personnel. This is neither a wise nor necessary use of our ambulance resources and personnel. Keep reading →