Category Archives: Signs of our Times

A group of Niagara, Ontario citizens lobbying for better hospital services in the region showed up at a recent meeting of the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network with copies of a report the LHIN’s provincially appointed board preferred not to discuss – at least during the open session of the meeting.

Standing in front of the LHIN’s sign this August 31 and holding copies of Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin’s report titled; “The LHIN Spin” are Fiona McMurran of Welland, Pat Scholfield of Port Colborne, Merilyn Athoe, Joy Russell and Anne Kranics from the Fort Erie area and Sue Hotte of Lincoln.
 
The five activists for hospital care all attended the LHIN board meeting with their copies of the report. “The board,” said Athoe later, “made no mention of the damning report but we all carried (it in to the open portion of the meeting) just in case they needed to refer to it.”

The activists remained there until the board completed the public portion of its agenda and continued its meeting behind closed doors. Continue reading →

Could an endangered species of toads stop plans by a corporate conglomerate to erect a multi-storey condo on Bay Beach in the fabled Crystal Beach community of Fort Erie, Ontario.

The Fowler's Toad At Bay Beach, Fort Erie. Created by Paul Kassay

That is what Paul Kassay, a longtime advocate for preserving and enhancing the Crystal Beach area, hopes the Fowler’s toad will do for Bay Beach as many residents and people who own property there on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border prepare to fight those corporate developers and their own Town of Fort Erie at Ontario Municipal Board hearings, and at the ballot box during this October’s municipal elections. Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

(Please tell your friends and supporters of Niagara At Large to click on www.niagaraatlarge.com to read this article. That is the best way right now that you can support the future of this site.)

The Niagara Health System may be about as popular as the proverbial skunk at the garden party for many residents living in the region’s southern tier.

Another 'sign of our times'.

 But the NHS, the organization created a decade ago to manage most of Niagara, Ontario’s hospitals, has at least one booster there – a Fort Erie branch of the Royal Bank of Canada! The bank is now sporting a sign that reads; ‘RBC Supports The Niagara Health System’.

And as offensive as it may be to some Fort Erie residents, angered by the cuts the NHS has made to their hospital, the bank’s support shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. RBC Capital Markets is among those financial institutions, along with TD Securities Inc., BMO Capital Markets and others, that stands to profit from NHS’s decision to build a brand new, super hospital in the north end of Niagara, where many of the region’s hospital services, including first-of-a-kind cancer treatment and cardiac centres, will ultimately go. Continue 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. Continue reading →