A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper
Posted September 4th, 2021 on Niagara At Large
This past Friday September 3rd, I finally lost it with all of the bad news coming our way and I called Ontario’s Premier a “Fat F—“ in the headline of a story about Ford’s decision to keep the provincial legislature closed until October – right through a time when our province is heading into a fourth deadly wave of COVID-19.
As a professional journalist who was fortunate enough to earn a Master’s Degree in Journalism at the University of Western Ontario, then work at The St. Catharines Standard, starting in 1979 for two good decades, I admit that I probably should not have used the F-bomb, and if I did back then, my good editors would have taken the word out before whatever story I wrote was going to print.
So the professional journalist in me says; ‘Doug, using the F-bomb to describe Doug Ford, was not a good idea in any piece you post here.”
Back in 2018, before the last Ontario election, signs like this popped up in Toronto, where Doug Ford played a bully on the city’s council for years. But apparently not enough of us took the warning seriously because he won a majority government in June of that year. Will we heed the warning come next provincial election in 2022.
On the other hand, this Premier of Ontario – an enemy of our democracy and of our environment and so many other services people need for a healthy life – kind of deserves the F-bomb dropped on him.
So I don’t feel sorry about that. The only thing I may feel sorry about is that the use of that word may have offended some of Niagara At Large’s good readers, and may have got NAL kicked off of FACEBOOK, which I find interesting since Facebook hosts everything from dangerous misinformation about the COVID-19 epidemic to venues for online sex.
In the meantime, I continue to go slightly crazy reading all of the news about the pandemic, climate catastrophies, the federal election in Canada and on and on, when I have had so many people tell me that they can’t stand reading or watching the news anymore.
My dilemma is that if I stop following the news, I can’t really do this online news and commentary site.
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
Niagara At Large 
I certainly understand and share your frustration. I, too, feel completely overwhelmed with all the news that I view, hear and read. Maybe, because being in lockdown has narrowed my variety of activities or maybe because I feel this need to remain well informed, my frustration level over people who have power and refuse to help those in need with sound advice and direction is at its peak. Thank you for your commentaries but especially the ones that succinctly capture the despicable Doug Ford.
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Doug hold no regret for your F Bomb on Ford.
Us voters are only human and how much can we endure.
Ford certainly is not concerned about , farmland, wetlands,climate change and the list goes on as he flip flops and tries to
sneak through any paving over he can with no regard for future generations. In the beginning I foolishly thought he was a good decision maker for the sake of Canada but soon realized not the case.
F Bomb may be wrong to some but also necessary in the Ford case..
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I think many sane people are at the end of their tether and ready to use some pretty strong language out of sheer frustration. Every time we turn on the TV we are assaulted with some form of lunacy or depressing disaster, 90% of it caused by human selfishness and stupidity. Unfortunately, to keep informed we are obligated to watch these slow train wrecks. Lately, even in daily encounters we have to face people who use their own playbooks and it seems we can’t do a @#*@ thing about it!
Few seem to have ethics any more but to respond in kind due to exasperation is frowned upon and considered beneath us. Meanwhile the crazies out there carry on with impunity.
To be politically correct it seems @*#@ is the safest exclamation to use to make a point. While we shouldn’t lower our standards to theirs I often wonder just what will work against such people. The inmates are running the asylum.
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Doug, so many of us share your sentiment, and quietly have uttered the F-bomb at the man I have often called a Mini-me Trump. But, because our training has taught us to be objective, we have refrained from printing it on-line. As for Facebook, it’s censuring of posts is often totally irresponsible and irrelevant. Feel with you.
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Ford has set our environmental protections and legislations under the guise of acts named as Covid initiatives. He has lessened our ability to appeal, stripped the NPCA ( Conservation Authorities) of citizens on boards that possess a lifetime of experience and knowledge including professional knowledge. He is making it easy for developers whom have been traced to being buddies with close ties to Ford. I am sickened. He cares nothing about our water resource systems including wetlands, waterways, lakes, end even aquifers and all these systems interact as one whole ecosystem.
Another issue: while Ford negotiated the vaccine passport,,, on August 31,2021 by daughter and I sat in the St. Catharines hospital emergency room for six hours and in walks a positive Covid youth and his caregiver: yet staff sat him down amongst a crowded room of vulnerable elderly, pregnant woman and babies/children for at least 2 1/2 hoy. A few people observed this but being Canadian no one jumped up and video or spoke aloud. I asked the emergency doctor and she said protocol is constantly changing in emergency and this needs to be reported to “patient relations.” Note: in all the hours that we sat in that Emergency lobby did one person come in to clean any thing – not even a door handle! No spacing in chairs to social distance. I attempted to phone but got an answer machine and requested a phone call back but received a no caller ID call. Hence, I will write and email. This Delta virus is airborne and not just droplets….. we should feel safer.
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