Daily Archives: July 1, 2010

By Doug Draper

High jobless rates, talk of ever deeper recession, cuts to education and health care, oil gushing from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, rising casualty rates for our troops in Afghanistan, and the seemingly never ending fear of another terrorist attack.

These days it takes courage to read through a newspaper or turn on the television news. No wonder so many people want to lose themselves in soccer, Lady Gaga and Dancing with the Stars? And now here we are, with Canada Day and the Fourth of July upon us, and like many of you, I have put out my Canadian flags and the stars and stripes in honour of my many American friends, even while wondering what is left to celebrate.

Certainly there is little reason to celebrate our governments that spend more time bowing to the Bay Streets and Wall Streets, and to the BPs, Exxons, ITTs and other tans-continental corporations than they do representing us.

At the recent G20 summit in Toronto, Canada’s prime minister and America’s president were holed up inside a heavily-policed, fenced-off security zone – what was sometimes referred to in the press as “the cage” – with a handful of other leaders and about 10,000 faceless bureaucrats they called delegates. In there, and without any scrutiny from the media or members of the public, they worked secretly away, ratifying agreements that could impact on the lives of the rest of us – or what the chairman of BP recently called “the small people” – for decades to come. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

One of Ontario’s largest unions has joined Niagara area municipalities in calling for an investigation into the cutting and gutting the Niagara Health System’s board is doing to hospital services in the region.

The Niagara Health System's Welland hospital site was the target of more bed closings recently as services are 'restructured' at hospital sites across the region. Photo by Doug Draper

“The Niagara community has lost confidence in the (Niagara Health System’s) hospital administration and in an unworkable ‘hospital improvement plan’, said Warren Thomas, president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) in a recent letter to the province’s health minister, Deborah Matthews, as he called on her to appoint an investigator to conduct a public review of the NHS.

Thomas, whose union represents about 650 health care professions working at what is left of the seven hospital sites the NHS operates across the region, went on to remind the minister that during independent public forums in Niagara and other Ontario regions this past March, residents here “presented personal evidence alleging they or their family members failed to receive appropriate care, including preventable death. In addition to the Coroner’s Inquest (still pending) into the death of Niagara teen Reilly Anzovino, the NHS admits there is an additional investigation into the death of a papteitn from septic shock resulting from an infected leg wound.” Continue reading →

The Welland Canal Advocate, a Niagara-based group of citizens with a website dedicated to preserving and promoting more public awareness and support for the Welland Canal corridors, is holding a special event this July to raise funds for repairing recently vandalized canal corridor murals.

One of the murals gracing the Welland Canal corridor in Thorold. Photo by Doug Draper

The murals, located on the west side of the Welland Canal Flight Locks climbing the Niagara Escarpment in Thorold, Ontario, were damaged by vandals late this June and shortly before they were about to be officially unveiled by city officials and volunteers working on the mural project.

The project has already seen a number of large works of art covering walls of commercial buildings along the canal for the enjoyment of residents and countless thousands of visitors to the region who include a tour along the Welland Canal as part of their trip.

The Welland Canal Advocate is holding the fundraising event on Sunday, July 25, beginning with a hike from the Lock 7 Viewing Centre in Thorold along the Welland Canals Trail where some of the murals can already be viewed. Following the hike, there will be a barbeque and refreshments in Memorial Park on Carlton Street South in Thorold. Continue reading →

Publisher’s Note – The City of Thorold, Ontario may be known to many as a tired old Welland Canal community of  faded, rusting paper mills and other industry.

But Thorold is also a community rich in beautifully built heritage buildings and homes and Hiertage Thorold LACAC – Local Arichtectural Conservation Advisory Committee – has been one of the most active volunteer groups of its kind in the region to have as many of these properties as possible designated as provincially significant heritage sites.

Heritage Thorold celebrated two more heritage designations of historic homes in the community this June 26 and the following article by heritage advocate Pamela Minns provides some information about them.

Communities on both sides of the Niagara River in our greater binational region have a rich inventory of heritage sites of interest to residents and visitors alike, and Niagara At Large would be pleased to post articles on them. You can contact our publisher, Doug Draper, at drapers@vaxxine.com for further information on posting articles and photos of noteworthy heritage properties on this site.

By Pamela Minns

Each time we approach the matter of designating yet another important property in Thorold, I am amazed at the historical significance of these properties and the quality of the architecture we have in this city. Continue reading →