Daily Archives: July 17, 2010

By Doug Draper

Niagara, Ontario’s regional council is giving the body responsible for operating a majority of the hospitals across the region until the end of August to respond to calls from local municipalities and a provincial coalition of citizens for an independent investigation into “serious complaints” and “unresolved issues” members of the public have expressed about the management of those hospitals.

 During its July 15 meeting, the region’s council set the same deadline for a response from the province’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the provincially created Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for Niagara and surrounding Ontario regions and municipalities. The decision to send resolutions by the Ontario Health Coalition and its Niagara Health Coalition chapter, along with similar resolutions approved by Town of Fort Erie and the cities of Port Colborne, Welland and Thorold, to the province for an independent investigation of the operation of hospital services in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Welland, Fort Erie and Port Colborne became the subject of heated debate. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If the city won’t let you promote your ad on the side of its buses, then spread that message across a billboard sign.

The first of a number of ads a Niagara animal advocacy group is posting on billboards across the region. Photo by Doug Draper.

That is what the citizens group Niagara Action For Animals has done with a sign it hopes will get people to think about getting away from eating meat and consider going vegetarian.

NAFA has turned to billboards to promote its ‘go vegan’ message in response to a decision St. Catharines, Ontario’s transit commission made last winter not to allow the message to be displayed on its buses with other advertising, even though the group was prepared to pay for space on the city’s buses. The commission ruled at the time that the ad NAFA wanted to display was too controversial. Continue reading →