Niagara At Large

By Mark Taliano

Words impact people and help to win elections.  The word “conservative”, for example, denotes “conservation”, and evokes images of environmental conservation, economic, prudence and so on. 

This word does not, however, describe our current federal regime, as it dismantles environmental protections, deregulates markets, subsidizes transnational corporations, bails out banks, and weakens the public sector at every turn.  The word that does, however, describe our current federal regime, is “neoliberal”.  Beneath the surface, the Harper regime, with its Reform party roots, is actually a “neoliberal” government. Continue reading →

 A Short Note from Doug Draper

“How do you mend a broken heart …”

Some who read Niagara At Large for heavier commentary on our greater Niagara region and beyond, may wonder why I take a few moments to remember Robin Gibb, who died of cancer this May 20 at age 62.

Yet sometimes it is nice to stop and pay tribute to people who have brought the world some joy through music, and we have been losing too many of them lately, including Levon Helm of The Band earlier this spring and only a few days ago one of the greatest singers from the 1970s Disco era Donna Summer. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Believe it or not, Canada used to be a world leader when it came to environmental protection.

Many Canadians under the age of 40 may have a hard time believing that, given how much our country’s environmental protection services have been hollowed out over most of their adult lives. But back in the 1970s and 80s, Canada was truly a beacon on the green front.

This wack job of a Canadian Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, might just as well be walking around with tomb stones in his eyes, as the old Steppenwolf song goes. Canada’s Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper lets this moron go around calling environmentalists enemies of our country. How nuts can you get.

Not any more.

One government after another, beginning with the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney and continuing with the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, chipped away at the budgets of Environment Canada and its sister agencies. Their services were sliced and diced to a point where they are barely a shadow of what they were when, a mere three decades ago, their scientists – our Canadian scientists, I must emphasis were doing leading edge research on a number of fronts, including toxic pollution in the Great Lakes that played a major role in motivating governments in both Canada and the United States to launch cleanup programs for savng treasured water bodies like the Niagara River from near ecological death. Continue reading →

 A Foreword by Doug Draper

We’ve got this great lady – Maude Barlow - from the not-for-profit citizens group Council of Canadians speaking out for the future of our Great Lakes  as possibly our last great advocate for protecting and preserving these waterbodies.

Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow

 Yes we know that Nicholson and Dykstra and the rest of them from the Harper neo-con bunch we  now unfortunately have dictating policy in this country feel anyone akin to a  Maude Barlow or David Suzuki is “commie” or  an enemy of the state. According to them,  Barlow and  company are out to destroy Canaada as they and their tar sand friends want to shape it.

But there may still be enough Canadians around to say ‘Thank God we have Canadians like Maude Barlow.’

In that spirt, Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following piece by Maude Barlow and her (we should say our) Council of Canadians here.

Here is the post Niagara At Large is pleased to post (hope we don’t get arrested) prepared by The Ottawa-based Council of Canadians. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

I almost bought one of those “Disco Sucks” t-shirts back in the 1970s, But not quite.

Those shirts had become a cliché so quickly during the hyper buck-making market that consumed the counter culture” of the 1960s (if there ever was such a thing as a counter culture of the sixties) that it was looking like the ‘Disco Sucks’ crowd was just as interested in cashing in as the people who were making the Disco music they claimed to despise so much. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Jeffrey McGuire – you might just as well get used to that name – is going to be this Niagara, Ontario region’s new chief of police.

That is the word being pushed out this May 16 from the region’s mainstream media with not much more than two-thumbs up from Thorold, Ontario regional councillor and NRP police board chair Henry D’Angela saying the board “is delighted” McGuire accepted the position.

John Pruyn, a Thorold, Ontario amputee, former Revenue Canada employee and hobby farmer, is dragged away by police during the G20 summit in June of 2010 for sitting under a tree on the grounds of Queen’s Park, and detained for more than 24 hours in a makeshift cage. McGuire made no apologies for the actions of police but neither he or anyone else in policing authority apologized to John Pruyn after dragging him off and caging him with no charges laid and no explanation.

“The board is particularly impressed with chief-designate McGuire’s combination of strong operaiont and investigative experience, coupled with his outstanding trak record in working with diverse communities, and his skills in conflict resolution,” added D’Angela who has absolutely no background in policing.

On the subject of “conflict resolution,” McQuire  was among the first mouthpieces for the Toronto police two years ago this June who was quick to support the policing conduct during the G20 Summit proceedings in that city. Later, everyone from the civil liberty lawyers to Ontario’s ombudsman Andre Marin characterized many of police actions as an assault on democratic rights in this country.  Continue reading →

NAL transit jenn,

One Of Niagara At Large’s Great Friends Is Urging You To Meet The Commuter Challenge

A Short Foreword by Niagara At Large Publisher Doug Draper

Let me just say this before I leave it to a young and enthusiastic fellow Niagara resident and public transit supporter Jennifer Sinclair to say the rest.

Click on this image to draw it up to full screen for your view.

The following is about all of us getting out of our cars, if we can, and find some other way of getting back and forth to work, and so on. If we can’t do that, then  maybe we ought to examine why. Do we live in a sprawled out, low-density neighbourhood away from the cores of our towns or cities, or what?

Those of us who do live in those lower density, way-out-of-the core subdivisions may not regret the decision to live there. But at the same time, we have no real right to complain about the higher costs of gasoline and car/truck insurance.  If that’s our lifestyle, then we have little or no right to complain. Continue reading →