Author Archives: dougdraper

By Mark Taliano 

Resource-rich Honduras, once considered the “bread basket of Central America”, is now a failed state.

Bertha Isabel Caceres Flores Ienca, an indigenous leader in Hornduras is on the presiding govenment’s number one ‘kill list’. Photo courtesy of Mark Taliano.

More than half of the population lives in poverty, and the country boasts the world’s highest murder rate.  The title “Murder Capital of the World” is well earned, especially since impunity for murder is the rule rather than the exception. 

In 1989, local farmers supplied 90 per cent of its food requirements, with 20,000 farmers making their living through the production of rice. Now, there are 1,300 rice farmers,  and the best land is inaccessible. 

Thanks to the World Bank and IMF loans —- bundled with destructive neoliberal economic policies — the best farmland now supports lucrative monoculture plantations of African Palm, harvested to serve global demand for its oil.  The local economy, however, is asymmetrical, so most Hondurans do not benefit from agri-business profits. Instead, sustainable farming operations, unable to compete, are destroyed, the economy suffers, and poverty rates skyrocket. 

Of all the Central American countries, Honduras is most open to free trade; it is also one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere. And the current plight of Honduras is for the most part by design. Continue reading →

A Brief from Niagara At Large

Below are statements from Ontario’s premier and the leaders of the opposition provincial parties upon hearing of the death of Nelson Mandela

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Mandela’s life will continue to serve as a beacon for change.

Nelson Mandela

“There are few people who have done more to inspire the world than Nelson Mandela, and I am deeply saddened to learn of his death,” Wynne said in a statement.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Mandela’s life will continue to serve as a beacon for change.

“There are few people who have done more to inspire the world than Nelson Mandela, and I am deeply saddened to learn of his death,” Wynne said in a statement. Continue reading →

A Comment by Doug Draper 

One of my last heroes in North American politics – Bobby Kennedy – was one of the first white leaders of any stature to show the courage t go to South Africa and decry the plague of apartheid that Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail fighting  against.

Bobby Kennedy, driving for progressive politics shortly before he was gunned down in June, 1968

Bobby Kennedy, then a U.S. senator for New York, spoke at the Cape Town University in June of 1966, almost three years after his brother, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and two years before he was assassinated running for president. And the following lines from his speech in Cape Town, South Africa are immortalized for all time.

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped,” said Kennedy. “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large Brief By Doug Draper

“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter. … But I can rest only for a moment, for with this freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”

Nelson Mandela

These were among the final words from Nelson Mandela’s moving autobiography ‘ Long Walk To Freedom’. 

Unfortunately, Nelson Mandela’s long walk ended this December 5^th at age 95.

Along with the likes of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and a very few others over the past 100 years, he was one of the greatest  beacons of light for peace and freedom in our time. Continue reading →

A Dispatch home from the Atlantic shores by Doug Draper

Cape Cod, Massachusetts – After being so immersed in the madness of what is going on in politics in our dear old Canada over the last many months, it was time for an escape to my home away from home on Cape Cod.

This sign graced the front door of a very popular shop on Cape Cod as this dispatch was posted, proving , once again, that you can run but you could not hide from the madness of Rob Ford. Photo courtesy of Claudia Farber.

So Mary and I packed our suitcases and my guitar and headed off to the Old Sea Pines Inn on Cape to join our annual gathering of friends for American Thanksgiving. We passed Rochester, Syracuse, Utica and Albany New York, and finally crossed the border in to Massachusetts and I’m thinking; ‘Well thank God. That’s it for a week. No more crap about the Canadian senate or the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on the cancellation of plans to build gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga, or the Rob and Doug Ford clown show in Toronto ’ Continue reading →

This post courtesy of the Niagara, Ontario-based activist group Marineland Animal Defense, also known as M.A.D.

NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO – The Ministry of the Environment has now issued the captive animal facility Marineland Canada in Niagara Falls, ON, permits to continue burials on site at the facility.

Another demonstration in front of the Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Photo courtesy of Marineland Animal Defense

 The announcement comes almost one year since the Ministry of the Environment was alerted that the park had been burying animals on site without permits. An investigation ensued and Marineland Canada was ordered to stop burials, until a full investigation and report of the environmental impacts could be made. 

The burials will now continue with a legal permit and a 35 point conditional list that Marineland must meet. 

In response to the new permits Marineland Canada claimed that their on site burials allows captive animals to “return to the natural ecosystem of the park.” It is absurd to claim that wild caught dolphins, Orcas and belugas – from Iceland, Russia and beyond – are part of a local ecosytem, or that any part of this process is in any way “natural.” Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The fight for freedom in Honduras, where many citizens feel caged and shackled, is an uneven contest between the haves and the have-nots.

Tear gas in the streets of Honduras during this November’s elections there.

The despotic National party is allied with the usual suspects:  military, police, private security, paramilitary police, corporations, rich oligarchies … and paid assassins.

The United States, an ally of the transnational corporations that are pillaging this country,  has six military bases of occupation, as well as a network of destabilizing influences: a constellation of intersecting trajectories that  support the dictatorship of Juan Orlando  Hernandez, a consequence of the illegal 2009 military coup that overthrew the democratic government of Manuel Zelaya. Continue reading →

By John Nicol

(A brief foreword by Doug Draper – I only recently came across this story about the death of former St. Catharines Standard publisher Henry Burgoyne and the once great independent newspaper he and his family owned and operated in this Niagara region.

It was nice to read a few kind words about my years as an environment reporter at the Standard, but even sadder to be reminded of what we once had and have lost since corporate chains assumed ownership of the newspaper and virtually gutted the will and resources  it once had to deliver in-depth reporting and analysis on a wide range of issues of interest and concern to the people of this region.

With the permission of the Toronto-based Canadian Journalism Project, a foundation dedicated to advancing the cause of good journalism which originally posted this story on its website on March 1, 2011, I am posting it here for the first time as a reminder of what we once had and what we, as a community, have to work together to get back in terms of locally based, independent media organizations with the will and resources to play a watchdog role on the powers that be here, without fear or favour.)

St. Catharines Standard publisher Henry Burgoyne at the helm of the newspaper during some good years.

Henry Bartlett Burgoyne, the last of the family-owned daily newspaper publishers in Ontario, died Feb. 7 (2011) of cancer. He was 61.

Murray Thomson, his long-time managing editor at The Standard in St. Catharines, said the recipe Burgoyne developed for running a newspaper is one all journalists, in all countries, should aspire to.

“When he gave me the job in 1980, he said there would be a fence around the newsroom,” said Thomson, now 82. “He didn’t want us to be influenced by advertisers or the powerful.

“There is no school for publishers, but he understood who the reader was, and he wanted us to be as honest with them as possible. It was not so much about making money as serving the community well.” Continue reading →

By Karl Dockstader

(Niagara At Large is pleased too post this commentary from a member of the Native community on the ongoing debate over a limited deer hunt in Niagara, Ontario’s Short Hills Provincial Park.)

Dear Hunters: We don’t want you…

Niagara area residents gather at a meeting hall this past September to debate plans for another deer hunt in Short Hills Provincial Park. Photo by Doug Draper

The message rings loud and clear. A growing contingency of opposition is making a point to be loud and proud of their opposition to the “massacre” of deer in the Shorthills.If you discount the idiots and racists and politicians who could have done something if they didn’t just pile on at the last minute there is a fair argument against the hunt. The deer are our friends. We love them. They have as much of a right to be here as we do. Continue reading →

(A brief update on this post – This November 28th, the governing Liberals and the opposition Conservative Party voted against this bill to cap  CEO salaries in the public sector, defeating it by a wide margin of votes.)

This Release from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Queen’s Park – New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath introduced a Private Member’s Bill this November 7^th that if passed, would cap the salaries of Ontario’s highest-paid public employees to ensure that scarce public dollars are spent on front line services not lavish paychecks.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath wants to put a lid on Public Sector CEO salaries

“When a public sector CEO takes home more in a year than the average family earns in two decades, people feel like their money isn’t being respected,” Horwath said. “I’m hoping Ontario can move forward with a simple plan: put a hard cap on the salaries of public sector executives at twice the salary of the Premier.”

The new legislation would cap publicly-paid executive salaries at double the salary of Ontario’s Premier. The Premier’s current salary is $209,000. According to the 2012 Sunshine List, over 180 executives made a salary more than two times as high as the Premier, and 25 executives made more than three times the Premier’s salary. Continue reading →

A Brief Reminder from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

This past Wednesday, I visited the Earth House, one of my favourite stores on Cape Cod and picked up a bumper sticker that reads as follows; “We could have saved the earth but we were too damned cheap – Kurt Vonnegut.”

It is a sad thought, projecting into the future, and it should be our pledge as citizens of the world and the communities we live in to make sure that this Kurt Vonnegut line becomes as false as all of those predictions that every computer in the world was going to crash at the dawn of this century.

What can we do as individuals and communities to lighten the load on the ecology of the planet? The answers to that question could easily fill volumes but you may find a few of them at the Eco Fest taking  in Welland, Ontario this coming Saturday, November 30^th. For more details on this event, check out the poster below.

Click on this poster to enlarge it on your screen

 (Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)

By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

A fear expressed by many residents living around Niagara, Ontario’s Short Hills Provincial Park that a deer hunt the province has allowed in the park would spill onto their properties has already been realized during the third and fourth days of the hunt.

Robin Zavitz and her daughter Tayler comfort dying deer that MNR officer finally puts out of its misery. Photo by Dan Wilson

According to a number of eyewitnesses, a deer that was wounded in the stomach area by an arrow fired by a native hunter ran onto the Short Hills area property of Craig and Robin Zavitz this November 23th and the hunter, contrary to rules set down by the province, pursued the deer onto the property. 

The hunter retreated back into the park when he was spotted and told to leave by a member of the Zavitz family and the wounded deer, after staggering back to a spot within the park and collapsing, was finally put out of its misery with a gunshot to the head. The gunshot was administered by an officer of an Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources that had assured area residents months ago that the deer hunt – scheduled for November 21^st through 24^th and from November 28^th through December 1 would take place well back from more than 100 homes and farms ringing the park in the Niagara municipalities of Thorold, Pelham and St. Catharines. 

“This is an absolute nightmare,” Robin Zavitz told Niagara At Large just two hours after her family had to chase at least two more hunters off her Pelham property along the southern edge of the park, less than 24 hours after the deer killing incident,  this November 24^th.   .

“The peace and tranquility of our property is gone during this hunt,” she said. “I wore a surveyors (reflective orange-coloured) vest when I went out this morning on my own property and that is crazy.” Continue reading →

From the Office of Tim Hudak

NIAGARA FALLS, November 22^nd, 2013 – Only the Ontario PCs are solidly committed to building the new hospital in Niagara Falls that fits the bill of even the government’s appointed expert, says PC Leader Tim Hudak.

Inside Council Chambers at Niagara Falls City Hall, from left to right are Bart Maves, Ontario PC Candidate – Niagara Falls, Tim Hudak, Ontario PC Leader, Christine Elliott, Ontario PC Deputy Leader & Health Critic, Jim Diodati, Niagara Falls Mayor.

Joining the Leader this November 22^nd at Niagara Falls City Hall is the city’s Mayor Jim Diodati, Ontario PC Deputy Leader and Health Critic Christine Elliott, and local Ontario PC by-election candidate Bart Maves.

 “Our motion in the Legislature this week is for the House to finally commit to the Lyons Creek hospital location in Niagara Falls,” says Hudak. “This is where the hospital needs to be.

 “The debate in the House Monday will clearly show we stand on the side of Niagara residents in getting this hospital built — both now, and at this superior site.

 “The NDP’s position is putting this new hospital in huge jeopardy by selling the unrealistic notion that you can have it all – that you can have a new hospital and still keep the four others. Continue reading →

From the Office of the Ontario New Democratic Party

Queen’s Park –The MPP for Welland, Cindy Forster, announced a motion tabled in the legislature this Thursday, November 21^nd to replace the aging hospital in Niagara Falls with a new one and to protect local Niagara regional hospitals.

The NDP is calling on the Ontario government to ensure that hospitals like this one in the Niagara, Ontario community of Welland are kept open after any possibly new one is built and opened in Niagara Falls. NAL file photo.

 “We are pushing this government to build a new hospital to replace the aging hospital in Niagara Falls but not at the expense of every other hospital in the Niagara region,” Forster said.

“The Liberals and Tim Hudak want the people of Niagara to believe that they need to lose their local hospital to get a new one in Niagara Falls.  We disagree. What we need is to drop their failed privatization plan for building hospitals at sky high rates and use our public dollars wisely to make sure the aging Niagara Falls hospital is replaced with a new one, while healthcare in the region is protected.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It’s back and just as controversial as it was when the first one was permitted last January.

Deer in Short Hills Provincial Park. Photo courtesy of Dan Wilson

 The first day of the latest aboriginal deer hunt in Short Hills Provincial Park in Niagara, Ontario took place this November 21 and will continue through the dates of November 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th, and again for another four day stretch running November 28^th through December 1^st, with animal advocacy groups and other residents vowing to stage protests around the perimeter of the park.

The decision by the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Ontario Parks to permit these hunts, which allow native hunters to use a bow and arrows only and not rifles, has continued to draw opposition from many who do not believe any hunting should be allowed in an area that is supposed to be a nature preserve. Continue reading →

By Gail Benjafield

Once again a local choir that raises funds for good causes is holding its annual fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation this December 2^nd, 2013.

Please Click on this Poster to enlarge the image for easier reading, then go back to the rest of Gail’s post..

The choir, led by St. Catharines, Ontario native Laura Thomas, is made up of women singers from Niagara, Hamilton and beyond.  Thomas is the long-time deputy director of the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, involved with several choirs, leader of the Dundas Valley Orchestra, and much more.  While she has moved from St. Catharines to the quiet Niagara hamlet of Tintern, she is still very much a St. Catharines booster.

Last season, WomEnchant not only raised funds for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, but for several churches, including the B.M.E. church, home church of famed Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman.  As both the 100^th anniversary since Tubman’s death was in early March and Women’s Day coincided, the fit was obvious. Salem Chapel was filled with local enthusiasts and representatives from Federal, Provincial, and Municipal offices. Continue reading →

By Andy Petrowski 

(A Short Note From NAL – We will be offeering some comments of our own  on this controversial deer hunt  this November 22^nd. The next hunt, sanctioned by the Ontario government, begins in Short Hills Provincial Parkthis November 21, 22, 23, 24 weekend and continues the following weekend.)

Signs like this ringed a public meeting this September over hunting deer this November in Niagara, Ontario’s Short Hills Provincial Park. Photo by Doug Draper

As one of the Niagara Regional Councillors who voted unanimously on behalf of the Region of Niagara, along with the three bordering municipalities of St. Catharines, Thorold, and Pelham, to call on the Provincial Government to stop the unsafe native deer harvest in Short Hills Provincial Park (the smallest Provincial Park in Ontario), I am appalled that (St. Catharines MPP and Environment) Minister Jim Bradley and his Liberal caucus members, including Premier Kathleen Wynne, have not intervened by now and at least suspended this potential massacre subject to a proper safety review. Continue reading →

A Submission from Avaaz, a global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere.

(A Brief Foreword from NAL publisher Doug Draper – Once a country proud of its reputation as a world leader when it comes to environmental protection, Canada, in the name of the current Stephen Harper gvernment and many Canadians who support his government’s tar sands agenda, probably wouldn’t care that Canada’s standing in that role is hitting rock bottom among developed countries.

Severe weather deaths in the Phillipines as that countries climate change commissioner begs Canada and the rest of the world to end world to ‘end the madness’ around carbon emissions of the tar sands nature.

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Warsaw, Poland earlier this November – one that hardly got any coverage in the Canadian media because so many of our mainstream news eyes were focused on the Rob and Doug Ford clown show – A European report ranked Canada near the bottom of 58 nations, with only Iran, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia dangling behind us, addressing greenhouse gases. Ain’t you proud? Maybe some of you are and maybe you don’t care. It certainly seems that way based on what little outcry there seems to be among Canadian citizens around climate change and other environmental issues these days.

At any rate, let’s get back to the Avaaz submission and some hope that it may appeal to some to get more publicly engaged in enviroonmental issues for the sake of our future and the future of future generations, if we can place our immediate gratifications aside long enough to care about future generations.)

The horror of what’s happened in the Philippines is unimaginable. Ten thousand people wiped away by a 25ft wall of water driven by 300km/h winds. A city of 200,000 people looks like a nuclear bomb hit it. It’s the worst storm on record, but it’s just the beginning, unless we act. Continue reading →

A Submission from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath 

(A Brief Foreward Note to this submission from NAL – It remains to be seen what Ontario’s Liberal government will now do and whether the passage of this motion will save horse racing track in Fort Erie, Ontario and mean the re-opening of the clot machine casino he slot machine casino operating next to the track. It also remains to be seen how many Ontario residents want to go there – that is back to the horse track and slot machines.)

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath

Queen’s Park, November 20^th, 2013 – New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath showed leadership in the Legislature this November 20^th  for horse racing communities across the province. She brought forward an Opposition Day motion calling on the government to halt its failed OLG modernization plan and to save horse racing jobs in rural Ontario by reinstating a fully accountable slots-at-racetracks program. 

The NDP motion passed. 

“The Liberals have made a mess of OLG modernization plans which were introduced without any consultation and have devastated communities across Ontario. Their plan isn’t working and now it’s time for the government to listen,” said Horwath. Continue reading →

A Reflection and Commentary by Doug Draper

One of Woody Allen’s earlier films – I think it was Manhattan – someone asks him if he had any projects on the go at the moment.

“Yes,” he replied. “I’m working on a non-fiction version of the Warren Commission Report.” 

U.S. President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie arrive in Dallas, Texas on that fateful day of November 22nd, 1963

The Warren Commission Report, as I’m sure many of you know, was named after Earl Warren, who was chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court into the 1960s, and details a government-ordered investigation into the circumstances surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which occurred while he was riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, 50 years ago this Friday, November 22^nd.

If you were born in the early to mid-1950s, as I was, or earlier than that, chances are you remember exactly where you were and who you were with when you learned that Kennedy was shot and killed on that fall day in 1963. I will never forget the stricken look on the face of the teacher who came into the class shortly after noon hour, at the school I attended in Welland, Ontario, that Kennedy was gunned down and to go home and be with our families.

It might seem strange now for younger Canadians to believe that there could be that kind of emotion for the death of an American president, but Kennedy was very well liked in Canada by almost everyone but then Canadian prime minister John Diefenbaker, who disliked Kennedy about as much as Kennedy disliked him Continue reading →

A News Brief from Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

Good news for those who believe in civil disobedience around issues like climate change and countries like Canada and Russia that want to go on screwing our climate around with more mining and drilling for tar sands crud.

Paul Ruzychi, a Niagara, Ontario native and Greenpeace activist, charged with piracy while in a Russian jail. He may finally be released on bail.

Paul Ruzycki, one of 30 Greenpeace activists and journalists on a boat called the Arctic Sunrise, arrested while protesting Russia’s interest in drilling for oil on waters in the Artic, has been released on bail, according to news from the CBC.

That means Paul may be home in Port Coblrone, Ontario in time for Christmas and let’s hope he meets with any members of the media willing to discuss what this Greenpeace mission was really all about.  . Continue reading →

A Commentary by John Bacher 

The Strategic Plan exercise of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is scheduled to end with two significant dates. This is a December 6^6h deadline for public comments to be followed by a decision of the NPCA board of directors on December 18^th. It is scheduled to be held in the boardroom of the NPCA on the top floor of 250 Thorold Road at 7 pm.

The St. John’s Conservation Area in the Niagara community of Thorold, Ontario, one of the conservation areas the Niagara Peninsula Conservatino Authority may ‘dispose’ of under its soon-to-be-approved ‘Strategic Plan’ for the future. Photo by Mike Dickman

It is always important for citizens to take part in decisions of government agencies that have an impact on the environment. However, this consultation has some unique and disturbing features.  Rather than tweaking a fundamentally flawed strategic plan, the basic process, driven by characters such as  lawyers for developers Victor Muratori and Edward Lustig, both who served on committees that helped churn out the report, needs to be abandoned.  This needs to be clearly spelled out in submissions in the  weeks ahead. Continue reading →

From the Office of Welland, Ontario Riding MPP Cindy Forster 

Today in Question Period, NDP MPP Cindy Forster asked the provincial government why they have yet to address funding shortfalls for Special Education in Niagara, or yet agreed to meet with the District School Board of Niagara on the issue.

Cindy Forster, representing the Niagara, Ontario riding of Welland.

“The District School Board of Niagara has called on the Education Minister and the Premier to visit the School Board in hopes for action on a decade long chronic underfunding of Special Education funding from the province. The School Board estimates that they are being underfunded to the tune of Nine-Million-Dollars per year”. 

Trustees from DSBN have charged that the province has ignored repeated calls to address the issue and that inequitable distribution of funding has left DSBN with the second lowest amount among school boards across Ontario. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano and Raul Burbano

Living conditions in Honduras have gone from bad to worse since the democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya was ousted by a military coup in 2009.

Canada’s Prime Minister shakes hands two years ago on a trade deal with Honduras President Porfirio Lobo. Maybe great for the one per cent, but what is in it fr the majority of peoples in both countries, struggling to make ends meet.

The rupture of democratic governance has set Honduras back decades.  A study by the Washington-based “Center For Economic And Policy Research” notes “In the two years after the coup, Honduras has had the most rapid rise in inequality in Latin America, and now stands as the country with the most unequal distribution of income in the region.” From 2010-2012 the extreme poverty rate has increased by 26 percent. Continue reading →

With respect to a piece posted in Niagara At Large this past Friday, November 15^t under the headline ‘Niagara, Ontario Area MPP Asked To Push For Minimum Wage Hike’, I apologize for using the words ‘so-called” in front of the word “activists” to describe the people in an accompanying photo here with Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster.

area activists call on Welland, Ontario riding MPP Cindy Forster, second to left, to send their message for a higher minimum wage in Ontario to Queen’s Park.

This is by no means an excuse, but I used “so-called in my comments under a media release circulated by Forster’s office after learning that a petition activists presented to the MPP, calling on the provincial government to raise Ontario’s minimum wage barely had more than 300 names on it. 

I stand by my view that a petition with that few names on it from a Niagara region with a chronically high unemployment problem and where too many of the jobs that are left wages at the minimum level, leaving people struggling below the poverty level, is sad. 

Far more of us should be petition the provincial government to replace a minimum wage that has been frozen now for more than three years with a livable one.

I have, by the way, removed the words ‘so called’ from the November 15th post.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)

A Submission from the Office of Welland, Ontario Riding MPP Cindy Forster 

Welland, Ontario, November 14^th,,  2013 – Antipoverty activists met with the Ontario NDP’s Welland Riding MPP this November 14^th to aks her to help rais the minimum wage in Ontario to $14 an hour.

area activists call on Welland, Ontario riding MPP Cindy Forster, second to left, to send their message for a higher minimum wage in Ontario to Queen’s Park.

Forster vowed to bring petitions collected by the group to Queen’s Park.

Ontario’s Liberal government froze the province’s minimum wage at $10.25 an hour in 2010.

That leaves a full-time minimum wage earner living nearly 20 per cent below the poverty line, according to research done by the group behind the Campaign to Raise the Minimum Wage. Continue reading →

A Submission from Greening Niagara (formerly Climate Action Niagara)

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this notice of an environment festival organized by one of the region’s not-for-profit eco-advocacy organizations.)

St. Catharines, Ontario. November 15th, 2013 – Greening Niagara invites the Niagara community to join them on November 30^th, from 9 am to 3 pm, for the 5^th annual Eco Fest Niagara event. The event will be held at the Welland Community Wellness Complex, 145 Lincoln Street, Welland and will prominently feature eco-themed TED Talks.

A Ted Talk is a conference that brings together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less. The central idea of this seminar is to spread ideas, and more specifically ideas related to environmental sustainability in the Niagara region. Continue reading →

A Notice from the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – The Renown author is Diane Francis, whose latest book entertains the notion of Canada merging with the United States. Oh, but wait a minute. Isn’t the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce hosting this event the same chamber that is encouraging residents on the Canadian side of the Niagara, Ontario/Buffalo, Niagara County border to spend a little less time travelling across the border for cheaper gas, milk, etc. … Interesting.)

Diane France, author of a new book advocating a Canadian “merger” with the U.S., speaks to Niagara, Ontario chamber of commerce body encouraging the rest of us to spend less time shopping in the U.S.

Niagara. Ontario – On Friday, December 6, the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce will host the next instalment of the Niagara Business Leadership Series, featuring author and journalist Diane Francis as the keynote speaker. The luncheon, sponsored by Horizon Utilities Corporation, will take place at White Oaks Conference Resort & Spa in Niagara-on-the-Lake and feature a discussion of Ms. Francis’ new book Merger of the Century.

“Ms. Francis has a long history of making bold and eye-opening suppositions – and her latest book certainly follows suit,” says CEO of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce, Walter Sendzik. “Her ability to apply business problem-solving acumen to political and economic issues is unique, but also completely logical.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

“What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness, said the Philippines’ climate change commissioner Yeb Sano during an emotional plea for action at a United Nations conference in Poland this November 11^th.

The climate change champion from the Philippines, Yeb Sano, pleading for global action.

“We can fix this,” Sano added “We can stop this madness. Right now, right here.”

I watched this address from Yeb Sano on some U.S. cable channels after viewing the latest news on CNN and CBC, showing the utterly horrific devastation in the communities across the Philippine Islands following a typhoon that goes down the severest wind storm of its kind on record – making Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy almost seem like pesky gusts of wind by comparison. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

Foolish me. Until a few months ago, I assumed that our so-called “honrouable” friggin governments  to Canada’s Senate had to give up their day jobs, as MPs and MPPs do, to serve in what is supposed to be a full-time job that comes with a $130,000-plus annual salary and gold-plated benefits. 

Then reports began circulating in the mainstream press this past summer that the  now-suspended senator Pamela Wallin continued, far after her Harper appointment to this joke of a regal body, sitting on the boards of a number of private sector corporations, including ones with financial tentacles that spread well into so many sectors of the business world. All of this leaving at least some of us with any brains to wonder, is there any chance there could be conflicts of interest here if she, as a member of a ‘Red Chamber’ for offering “sober second thoughts” on bills pass by our elected parliament, is able to offer a single sober though that does not constitute a conflict for her other corporate masters.

Now we find out, thanks to some good investigative work by Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper, published this past Saturday, November 9^th, that Wallin was one of about half of the roughly 102 senators sitting in the senate before of the suspension of her, Duffy and Brazeau, who have been working overtime to pick what they can from private corporate pockets. Continue reading →

 A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

This Remembrance Day – Monday, November 11^th – is extra special because it falls on the eve of the 100^th anniversary of the Great War or the ‘war to end all wars’ as it was so naively called until a few decades later when the equally devastating Second World War served to place the 20^th Century as one of the bloodiest centuries in human history.

A monument to those who fought and died in the First World War, near my childhood home in Chippawa Park in Welland, Ontario – a monument my childhood friends and I always found haunting as we passed by it.

This coming year, Canada will be joining the United States and many other countries in Europe, Asia and around the world in observing the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of that so-called great war, now known as the First World War.

It will be interesting to see how our current government in Ottawa – a Harper government that seems bent on steering Canada toward more of a military culture that underlies policy in the United States – attempts to orchestrate this occasion. Will the government use it as an opportunity to glorify a military many of its leaders, including Harper and tough-talking’ sidekicks like Peter MacKay (former the minister of national defense and now the law-and-order guy /who never served in the military, to glorify all thngs military or will it mourn this war as the senseless slaughterhouse that it was?

Lest we forget, this was a Harper Conservative Party that went on record, while it was in opposition, saying it would have joined former U.S. president Bush’s ‘coalition of the willing’ and sent young Canadians to fight and die in Iraq – a war a majority of Americans now say their country never should have waged in.

I remember studying the First World War in high school and being asked to write essays on the causes or reasons for the war that cost the lives of more than 16 million people, including 59,000 Canadians – young men who were someone’s son, grandson and brother and sister, who were literally ordered from their muddy, rat-infested trenches to run into ‘no-man’s land’ and almost certain oblivion. They were, to the generals who orchestrated the battles, nothing more than gun fodder in a war of attrition in which whoever had the most soldiers still standing won. 

But if you wrote an essay like that or argued that this war mostly came about through squabbles between a handful of European crown leaders, some of them in-bred, over who rules or what colony and using the globe like a Monopoly board, you’d end with a report card marked with an E or an F. 

The only thing that did seem clear was that the First World War and the treaty that ended it set the stage for the rise of Nazism and the Second World War, and the end of that war gave rise to a Cold War and a nuclear arms race that threatened to vaporize all life on this planet.

Imagine what we, as a human race, might have done differently with all of those trillions of dollars spent on weapons of mass destruction. We might have used that wealth and all of the scientific and technological know-how it paid for to eradicate poverty and hunger on this planet, or to perfect solar energy systems that by now would have made the burning of fossil fuels unnecessary. Indeed, we may have used some of that know how to finally come up with a cure for cancer. 

I believe that these are the kinds of things we should be thinking about on Remembrance Day as we pay respect to those who fought and died in past wars. I believe we should also make it our mission in life to finally end war as a means of addressing disputes between one another.

Earlier this year, I came across a bumper sticker that read; ‘I’m already against the next war.’ Perhaps we should all put that one on the bumpers of our car and make it our resolution as citizens and voters to live by it.

(Niagara At Large invites you to join in the conversation by sharing your views on the content of this post below. For reasons of transparency and promoting civil dialogue, NAL only posts comments from individuals who share their first and last name with their views.)

A Brief Note by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

When the late, great Peter Stokes died this summer, we at Niagara At Large were proud to pay tribute to him in an August 7^th post here. And we were waiting and wondering, when is this man, who might justifiably be called the father of restoration architecture in Canada and one of this country’s most passionate advocates for preserving what is left of our  manmade heritage, going to get his just due in the national media.

The lpassing of the ate, great restoration architect Peter Stokes finally gets national recognition.

 Well it finally happened. This wonderful humble person and full-fledged citizen of our communities, who spent some three decades of his vital life living in Niagara, Ontario before moving to Port Hope, Ontario where he died this summer at age 87, has been honoured this past Saturday, November 9^th with a full-page obituary and tribute to his life in what I still consider to be Canada’s truest national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. Continue reading →

From the Office of Ontario Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller

The following is a significant statement by Gord Miller and one that anyone who cares about preserving what is left of the wildlife around us from urban sprawl, pollution and other stresses on our environment should take seriously enough to get engaged in what is going on at the municipal and provincial levels of government.)

The eastern wolf, one of Ontario’s most majestic carnivoers, is in danger of disappearing forwever do to our encroachment on their habitat and to many of us not wanting them around.

Toronto, November 6th, 2013 – In a special report to the legislature, Laying Siege to the Last Line of Defence, Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner warns that new regulation changes under the Endangered Species Act, 2007 (ESA) threaten the protection of the province’s species at risk.

The ESA prohibits the harming, harassing or killing of endangered and threatened species, or the destruction of their habitat. Now, the regulation exempts proponents of many activities from the requirement to have a permit “By eliminating the permit process, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) has shed its ability to say ‘no’ to a proposed activity, no matter how harmful it may be to an imperilled species,” says Commissioner Miller. “And since proponents don’t have to file any monitoring reports with the ministry, MNR will be blind to the effectiveness of its new rules.” Continue reading →

A Commentary by Karl Dockstader

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Karl Dockstader submitted this commentary to NAL, declaring right up front that he works in the fledgling renewable energy industry in Niagara, Ontario. His commentary was driven by his view that Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak has been spinning falsehoods about the costs and promise wind and other renewable energy alternatives, all in an effort to pander to a vocal minority of people who support the status quo in the energy production field and/or do not want wind turbines, solar or other renewable energy facilities near their backyard.)

An Umbrella solar panel system at work generating energy for the grid

 In a recent webcast to the Niagara, Ontario online news site Bullet News Niagara, Tim Hudak, the leader of the province’s opposition Progressive Conservative Party continued to pillage and plunder the pockets of an emerging green energy business sector in his home region.

This usual rant found Mr. Hudak, once again, on the hunt to take out environmentally friendly energy in the name of lowering our energy bills. Continue reading →

NAL Hudak South Niagara Hospital

Submitted by the Office of Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak 

NIAGARA FALLS, November 7^th, 2013 – Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak met today with Niagara Health Services Interim President and CEO Sue Matthews to support the need for the Wynne Liberals to commit to building a new hospital in South Niagara.

A billboard unveiled earlier this year by Niagara Falls city officials at the proposed site for a new south Niagara hospital.

“The Premier’s unwillingness to even acknowledge this hospital’s need is incomprehensible,” says Hudak. “Only recently did she finally admit the ‘idea’ of a new hospital is only now being ‘looked at.’

“This hospital is vitally needed now.” Continue reading →

A Submission from the Niagara Health System

Niagara, Ontario, Thursday, November 7^th -Today, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) publicly released a new website about health system performance which can be found at www.OurHealthSystem.ca.

The Niagara Health System’s recently opened super hospital in the Niagara community west St. Catharines, Ontario receives high grades from Canadian health body.

The Niagara Health System (NHS) is very pleased to report that we are performing better than the Canadian average in the three hospital-specific indicators:

• Better than the Canadian average for Hospital Standardized Mortality Ratio (HSMR). Our HSMR continues to see steady improvement, outpacing improvements within Ontario and Canada, and bringing NHS in line with the rest of the industry;
• Better than the Canadian average for readmission rates;
• Better than the Canadian average for cost of stay.  Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

For as many years as I can remember, I’ve written stories and columns honouring our veterans and those who died in past wars for Remembrance Day or Veterans Day as they call it across the border in the United States.

But this year, in these days leading up to Remembrance Day this November 11th, I have been struck by at least two things on the Canadian side of the border.

First, I have not found a single veteran left from the Second World War in the usual places, in front of malls and beer or LCBO stores, asking us to contribute a buck or two for a poppy. It’s been almost seven decades now since members of what has been dubbed “the greatest generation” fought and died in that war and it is understandable, yet so sad, that there are few if any – most of who are left in their late 80s and 90s – are not out there with boxes of poppies any more. Continue reading →

A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Over the past couple of decades, I’ve been asked a number of times by various news organizations I have worked for in the Niagara region to do a story on what is happening at our local food banks.

At the Food Bank. Report says growing numbers of Canadian children rely on food banks for basic nourishment needs. What’s going on in this country?

Each and every time, the story has been pretty much the same. Increasing numbers of people from all walks of life are becoming dependent on these charitable services to put food on their tables. They include seniors struggling to get by on fixed pensions, university and college students financially underwater due to soaring tuition and other school-related costs, single parents unable to find a jobs with a livable enough wage to provide for their children, and blue and white collar workers who have seen their jobs outsourced or downsized.

“You won’t believe who is coming for help these days,” I have had food bank volunteers tell me as they work to obtain enough donated food to meet the growing need. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com

One of North America’s most notorious toxic waste sites – the Hyde Park dump located near the brink of the Niagara River Gorge in Niagara County, New York – has been removed from the U.S. Government priority list of Superfund sites.

This aerial shot, courtesy of the EPA, shows the mutli-acre Hyde Park hazardous waste dump in the lower right corner and the Niagara River in the upper left corner. Click on the image to blow it up for a better view.

Word that the Hyde Park site –often described as a toxic time bomb when it first came to public attention more than three decades ago – might be removed from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund National Priority List has been circulating for more than half a year now and has raised concern among environmental officials in Canada and among residents on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border.The main concern is that this site, where some 80,000 tonnes of dioxin and other chemical poisons remain buried, will no longer get the remedial attention required from keeping it from once again leaking these poisons to the Niagara River and Lake Ontario. 

However, Gloria Sosa, an EPA remedial project manager, told Niagara At Large in a phone interview from her New York City office that there is “no way” her agency or other parties, including the site’s owner, the Occidental (former Hooker) Chemical Corporation, will “walk away” from U.S. court-ordered responsibilities to monitor, repair or replace the containment structures put in place to keep the dump from leaking. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

If you are paying the least bit of attention, you may already know that this November 1^st, the RCMP filed documents in an Ontario court that Stephen Harper-appointed Senator Pamela Wallin defrauded Canada’s Senate and through that equally discarded body, Canadian taxpayers who are covering the cost of this ongoing pig fest of a mess.

Canadian Senator Pamela Wallin can rant on about how badly persecuted she is being persecuted all she wants. But why should we, the taxpayers, pay for it? Enough is enough, already. Abolish the Senate.

But here is the real sucker punch in the gut for for the rest of us. Even though Wallin has reportedly repaid a total of $152,908 in what federal audits deemed to be improper expense claims on her part, the cost to Canadian taxpayers, so far, of auditing her books since Prime Minister Stephen Harper so proudly appointed her to the Red Chamber some three or four years ago is $390,000.

What value are we, the taxpayers of Canada, getting for that Mr. Harper? More than two bucks of our hard-fought tax dollars going to audit the expenses one of your errant senate appointees for every dollar they pay back? What private company would put up with that? They may want to fire you as a CEO rather than putting up with any more of a net draining of dollars down the toilet like that. Continue reading →

A News Brief by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

There are all too few citizens who stand up  – often against Goliath odds – for preserving what is left of our historic landscape and heritage in this greater Niagara Region.

Heritage crusader Pamela Minns

One of them – most certainly – is Pamela Minns, a residents of the Niagara, Ontario community of Thorold, who will be receiving, this coming November 8^th, an award for her volunteer work in this area from the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario.

In a year in which this region lost long-time heritage preservation activists like Peter Stokes, an architect who lived many of his years in Niagara-on-the-Lake and became nationally renown for his work on Upper Canada Village and other history-rich sites, and lost others the year before like Jane Truckenbrodt, a Crystal Beach resident who fought to keep the now-gone and iconic Crystal Beach amusement park and to keep the classic Point Abino Lighthouse from being left to crumble, thank goodness we still have fellow travelers like Pamela Minns around. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The current trajectories of Canada’s predominant political economies are increasingly dysfunctional, due in no small part to the fact that we have become, in many respects, a petro state, rather than the much vaunted “Energy Superpower” that we were promised.

A petro state, as defined by Bruce Campbell, executive director of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) in an article entitled, “Norway manages its oil wealth much better than Canada does” is “dependent on petroleum for 50% or more of export revenues, 25% or more of GDP, and 25% or more on government revenues”. 

While Alberta is not a sovereign nation, it does qualify for “petro-state” status under these criterion.  So does Norway.  But the differences between the two polities ends there. Continue reading →

A Media Release from the Greater Niagara (Ontario) Chamber Of Commerce

Niagara, Ontario, November 1^st, 2013 – The Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce has announced its support of tying future increases of Ontario’s minimum wage to an economic indicator. The proposed approach aims to effectively depoliticize the minimum wage setting process and it represents a more predictable mechanism for any potential increases moving forward.

Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce CEO Water Sendzik

“The current method of determining the minimum wage is more harmful for economic growth and development,” explains Walter Sendzik, CEO of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce. “Developing a more predictable and stable framework for this process will enable businesses to better plan for rising labour costs without political interference.”

Currently, Ontario’s minimum wage is set in an unclear and inconsistent way. Over the past two decades, the approach to minimum wage has been lengthy freezes followed by sudden and substantial increases. This approach results in sharp increases to labour costs over a short timeframe resulting in negative consequences for employment and economic growth. The proposed approach supported by the Greater Niagara Chamber is to peg minimum wage increases to an economic indicator that measures inflation, such as the Consumer Price Index. Continue reading →

A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug DraperIf you are wondering – and I hope at least a few of you are – why you haven’t found any new posts on Niagara At Large over the past couple of days, the wind storm that swept Niagara and other regions of Ontario didn’t make staying on line all that easy.

Stormy skies loom over Lake Erie in this photo taken by Fort Erie resident Paul Kassay earlier this November. Point Abino and its iconic lighthouse are visible in the distance.

Sustained winds gusting to speeds as high as 100 kilometres an hour blew through the region for the better half of 24 hours this Thursday, October 31 and the first day of November, snapping tree branches and knocking down power lines in some communities.

Tragically, a Port Colborne woman in her late 50s was killed during the storm when a large tree fell and crushed the car she was driving. Although her identity was not released at the time of this posting, our hearts go out to members of her family.

The death of one of our fellow Niagarians in this – the latest of a number of severe storms that seem to be hitting us in higher frequencies – certainly puts things in perspective as far as other damage or interruption of services the winds caused. Spending time this weekend cleaning up branches on my lawn is a very small thing by comparison.

Weather permitting, Niagara At Large will be back in full swing this coming Monday, November 4^th.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)

A Submission from the Ontario New Democratic Party

QUEEN’S PARK, October 29, 2013  – Today in Question Period Taras Natyshak, NDP horse racing advocate and MPP for Essex, called on the government to make the findings of their horse racing track audits public.

“The Premier charges that the Slots at Racetracks Program was not accountable, but she is the one who is keeping racetrack audits top secret,” said Natyshak.  “Not-for-profit track operators like the Fort Erie Race Track have opened their books because they have nothing to hide. Now they are the ones getting cut out of the Liberal plan because of their honesty.”

The Minister of Rural Affairs ignored the question and defended his government’s decision to cut Fort Erie Race Track out of the Liberal plan for horse racing in Ontario. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

“I really have no interest in it, other than it’s disruptive of what we’re trying to do economically, jobs growth and long-term perspective. I’m actually an advocate for the abolishment of the senate, I always have been, and I think just in this day and age to have a none elected legislative body is an anachronism.”

Harper government Finance Minister Jim Faherty says nix the Senate.

I never thought the day would come when I am in full agreement of the above statement, delivered to the news media in an inpromptu interview on Parliament Hill by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s finance minister, Jim Flaherty.

I’ve had serious problems with Flaherty going back to his days in the Ontario Mike Harris government as one cabinet minister who seemed to give almost zero thought to taking a meat axe to almost any social program that offered some relief to people at the lower end of the job and income spectrum. But here I believe he is bang on. Continue reading →

This submission from the Niagara Health System, the amalgated board for most of the hospital services in Niagara, Ontario

October 29, 2013 – Calling 9-1-1 for immediate diagnosis and treatment for stroke is critical, yet only 51 per cent of Niagara residents make that call upon experiencing the signs and symptoms of stroke. Too many people delay seeking medical attention, potentially missing a crucial window of time for stroke care that could improve chances of survival and recovery.

Niagara Health System (NHS) District Stroke Centre is marking World Stroke Day today by reminding the community of the importance of calling 9-1-1 as soon as the signs and symptoms of stroke appear.

“At the very onset of symptoms, call 9-1-1 to improve your chances of survival and recovery,” says Dr. Donald Chew, Neurologist and Medical Director of the stroke centre. “Patients who delay coming to a designated stroke centre may disqualify themselves from receiving clot busting, life-saving medication known as t-PA.” Continue reading →

A Submission to NAL from the Office of Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak

October 27, 2013

Dear Ms. Horwath,

Ontario PC Leader and Niagara area MPP Tim Hudak, and the province’s NDP Leader and Hamilton area MPP Andrea Horwath

I write to you today in hopes that you will agree that it is time to put Ontario on the right track and restore Ontario’s faith in their elected leaders. I concluded some time ago that, given the Liberals’ pattern of self-interest-only decisions, we need to change the team that leads this province.

I remain somewhat astounded, though, that you and your party don’t grasp that continuing to prop up the Wynne government by being at its beck and call is doing Ontario no favours. Continue reading →

A News Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

At least one party is applauding an announcement by the Ontario government this October 25^th to strengthen animal protection rules in the province.

Animal activists demonstrate in front of Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario. File photo by Doug Draper

Marincland Canada, the owner and operator of a huge amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario that showcases whales, deer and other marine and land animals, said in a prepared statement released short after Community Safety Minister Madeleine Meilleur’s announcement that Marineland “weclomes … her decision to seek independent scientific advice in the establishment of appropriate standards of care for marine mammals.”

Marineland’s statement went on to say that “the well-being of our animals and mammals has, and always will be, our first priority. Our dolphins, whales, sea lions, walruses, deer and bears are what attract the tens of millions who have watched our shows and visited our attraction. Like us, our visitors want to ensure those animals and mammals they love are well cared for and we are confident the establishment of transparent standards of care will provide that assurance and in the process ensure the long-term and ongoing success of Marineland.” Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

As I continued following the so-called Senate scandal unfolding in Ottawa in recent days, the title of an old album by the Avant garde rocker Frank Zappa and his Mothers of Invention band came to mind.

Weasels ripping at flesh on the Zappa album cover. Now we have them here, in Ottawa, and none of us who still give a damn about this country are the winners.

That album is called ‘Weasels Ripped My Flesh’ and I can’t help but conclude that this is what we are witnessing here – weasels ripping at each other’s flesh.

Forget about all of the armchair speculation about who is right and who is wrong, or who is telling the truth here – the prime minister’s office or the likes of Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Pamela Wallin – who, as of the posting of this commentary – were still fighting against their expulsion from the Senate without pay 

Watching all of this finger pointing and  spitting and scratching at the eyes in our Canada’s national capital reminds me of that raft of movies Hollywood began cranking out in the 1960s and 70s – films like Bonnie and Clyde and the Wild Bunch – where there are no real heroes or good buys and bad guys. Where ever you turn the behaviour and the words coming out of the mouths of the characters are disturbing. Continue reading →

A billborad already up for a new hospital off Lyons Creek and Montrose Roads in a west corner of Niagara Falls, to serve the resident of south Niagara. Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak was there, pushing the Liberal government to build it there, as soon as possible. Photo by Doug Draper

This Post from the Office of Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak 

(Ontario Conservative Leader visited the site this October 24th that was apparently chosen by a majority of south Niagara, Ontario mayors for where a new hospital for serving the southern tier of the region may go. He and his Conservative candidate for the Niagara Falls riding Bart Maves, used the visit to push the province’s Liberal government to approve this site and move foward with the new hospital)

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario, October 24^th, 2013 – With a new hospital in South Niagara making zero headway with the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals, PC Leader Tim Hudak says it is obvious only an Ontario PC government will get the “vitally-needed” facility built. Continue reading →

Submitted to NAL from the Office of Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster

Queens Park, Ontario –Cindy Forster, MPP for the Niagara area riding of Welland, was on hand at Queens Park this October 23rd as Robert Saracino of Port Colborne was presented with the Senior Achievement Award along with 19 other recipients from across Ontario.

Port Colborne, Ontario’s former mayor and regional councillor receives Ontario seniors honours

Forster, whose riding includes the City of Port Colborne and was one of many people who nominated Saracino for the award stated; “I have personally known Bob for many years. A politician for over 38 years (most of those years as mayor of Port Colborne and, up to three years ago, a Niagara regional councillor for that city) he has always gone that extra mile when it comes to the people of Port Colborne. The well being of his fellow residents has always been paramount for Bob in so many different areas, but especially seniors.” 

He continues to work tirelessly for the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 56 in Port and to Northland Pointe Residents he’s known as Uncle Bob for his work at that facility. Continue reading →

A Submission from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

(Since the recent news that the Liberal government may now let the horse racing track in the Niagara, Ontario municipality of Fort Erie fall by the wayside, Horwath and her New Democrats have focused in on this issue like a laser beam.

The NDP has issued at least three media releases on the issue in the past few weeks and NDP Leader was recently at the Fort Erie Race track to view the final race of the season and to host a media briefing At the time of this posting, the NDP’s infrastructure critic, Percy Hatfield, the MPP for the Windsor , Ontario area, was scheduled this October 23^rd to arrive in Fort Erie for a meeting with the general manager of the town’s economic development and tourism corporation, Jim Thibert, and host another media briefing.

It is hard, through all of this, not to conclude that Horwath and her party feel they have a chance to win a seat in the Niagara Falls riding which includes Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake, and even more now that the riding’s Liberal MPP, Kim Craitor, resigned his seat earlier this fall. Hudak’s Conservatives already have a candidate to run in the riding in the next election, whenever that comes. That candidate is Bart Maves, a Niagara Falls regional councillor who was an MPP in the area when the Mike Harris Conservatives came to power in the 1990s. The Liberals and NDP have yet to nominate candidates to run in a riding that is now wide open.)

Queen’s Park, October 22, 2013 – In Question Period this October 22^nd, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea kept the pressure on the Liberal government to save horse racing jobs in Fort Erie Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

In its October 16^th Throne Speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives made a brief reference to the need for Senate reform.

Never mind Senate reform. Empty the chamber out, please!

Senate reform, as in shifting from an appointed Senate to an elected one, for example? Please spare us.

Now may be the best opportunity that we, the Canadian people, have had since the confederation of this great nation to press our federal representatives to table and vote in favour of a motion to abolish the Senate. Continue reading →

Submitted to Niagara At Large by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

(A brief note from NAL – To the extent that Niagara, Ontario and our neighbours across the Niagara River in Western New York have rail trains carrying hazardous materials through our regions and communities, this is something we should all be concerned about.

By the way, if Canada’s Harper government feels that deregulating safe practices in the rail transporation industry is okay and we subsequently suffer a disaster like this, why should we trust this same government around responsible federal safety and monitoring rules for the piping toxic goo from the Alberta tar sands through our Great Lakes region.)

OTTAWA, October 22, 2013 —A study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) points the finger at corporate negligence and regulatory failure as root causes of the Lac-Mégantic disaster.

A train disaster that cost lives and ravaged a community

According to the study, by CCPA Executive Director Bruce Campbell, the evidence to date suggests a flawed regulatory system and cost-cutting corporate behavior that jeopardized public safety and the environment, with the chain of responsibility extending to the highest levels of corporate management and government policy-making. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“Regional transit service launched in Niagara.”

Niagara Regional Chair Gary Burroughs, Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey, Grimsy Regional Councillor Debbie Zimmerman and St. Catharines Regional Councillor Tim Ribgy, at ribbon cutting for Regional Transit service two years ago, and among the few on regional council who support a fuller regional transit system. File photo by Doug Draper

That was the headline, in big bold letters, burned across the top of the front page of a newsletter Niagara, Ontario’s regional government circulated to virtually every home and business two years ago this past September following the launch of a three-year pilot for improving inter-municipal transit services in this region 

“Regional Council has embarked on a new inter-municipal transit pilot project launched this fall, bring cost-effective and convenient transit services for tourists and commuters across Niagara,” stated Niagara Regional Chair Gary Burroughs on the back page of the same newsletter. “This new service will offer new routes between municipalities, and further enhance Niagara’s public transit option.”

Those of us in Niagara, including this columnist, who has believed for at least a couple of decades now that we need public transit services that are more available to all of this region’s residents, welcomed this news. Yet this pilot stab at building, by baby steps, a true regional transit system – now into its third and final year – may lead to a ‘nay’ vote by enough regional councillors to literally throw any hope for a future for a full-blown inter-municipal transit system in Niagara under the bus. Continue reading →

An orca – wrongly dubbed as ‘killer whales’ by we humans – stares through tank windows at some SeaWorld keepers. An image from the film Blackfish

NAL blackfish film event,

A Brief Comment and Advance by Doug Draper

Marineland may be closed for the season, but the debate over keeping marine mammals in amusement parks like this one in Niagara Falls, Ontario is not.

Blackfish – a critically acclaimed documentary film that should make us all think twice about opening our wallets and paying the ticket price to view whales and other marine mammals in commercial parks like Marineland and SeaWorld – drew hundreds of Niagara area people for a one-evening viewing in St. Catharines earlier this fall.It also hit the screens for a week or two in Dipson theatres in the Bufalo, New York area.

The producers of the film allowed it to be shown in St. Catharines as the feature attraction of a fundraising event for three former Marineland employees and one animal activist from Niagara who have each been sued for more than a million dollars by Marineland for allegedly damaging its reputation in ways that can potentially discourage people from wanting to shell out some of their dollars to visit the park.

And now any of you who have cable television in your home can view Blackfish for the first time on CNN this coming Thursday, October 24^th at 9 p.m. Continue reading →

From Maude Barlow, Chairperson, Council of Canadians

Prime Minister Harper has just signed the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and Canadians who care about our freshwater heritage should be deeply concerned for three reasons.

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow

First, the massive increase in beef and pork exports that have been negotiated will put a terrible strain on our water supplies. Beef producers can now export close to 70,000 tonnes of beef to Europe and an undisclosed but higher amount of pork. Meat production is highly water intensive. It takes over 15 million litres of water to produce one tonne of beef, for example. Already Alberta’s dwindling water supplies are over-taxed by a beef industry that is rapidly expanding and expected to double its water footprint by 2025, according to an assessment done before this deal was signed. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Yes, I know. It may seem odd to some that a columnist like me, so often tagged as an old leftie, is saying the focus should be on growing jobs and the economy in this region.

Yet as the father of a 22-year-old daughter who wonders, along with many of her young friends, if there is any future for them in this region following their graduation from college and university, I can’t ignore this region’s unemployment rates, which remain among the highest in this province and country, and what little that too many of our municipal politicians are doing to promote jobs and economic growth, and keep young people here. Never mind attracting young, talented people to this area of the world to build a healthy and prosperous future.

We are now just a year away from the next municipal elections in Niagara, Ontario and across this province, and we who have an opportunity to vote in those elections have got to start paying closer attention- PLEASE – if we have not paid enough attention up to now.

We need to take a hard look – a much harder look – at those now sitting on our regional and local municipal councils, and ferret out those who are actively and sincerely fighting for a better, healthier, more economically and environmentally sustainable future for this region, versus those who are not. Continue reading →

Submitted to NAL by the Niagara-based Binational Economic & Tourism Alliance

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this advance piece on an event that, for more than a decade, has showcased some of the great architectural and heritage gems we in Niagara, Ontario and Erie and Niagara Counties, New York share and continue to preserve for generations of residents and visitors to this Greater Niagara Region.

NAL would have posted this advance to you earlier but only received it this October 18^th. Here is hoping you can still fit a visit to some of these rich sites into your weekend schedule. It will be worth it.)

The recently revitalized and century old Hotel Lafayette is on the Open Doors map this weekend. Check out the intricate Art Deco interior features that takes you back to the days when America was exploding forth as one of the world’s greatest cultural and economic centres. Photo by Doug Draper

Now in its 11th year, Binational Doors Open Niagara celebrates the best of Niagara’s Binational architecture, heritage and design by providing residents and visitors with FREE ACCESS to our treasured landmarks.

Between Friday, October 18 and Sunday, October 20, 2013, 28 sites from communities throughout the Niagara Region in Southern Ontario and Erie and Niagara Counties in Western New York are yours to enjoy—times and dates vary by facility so please check on each.

Cross-Border Niagara hosts the only Binational Doors Open event in North America, and this year will focus on “20th Century Neighbourhoods of Niagara”– buildings erected in the late 1800s and early 1900s that resulted in the historic neighbourhoods that we continue to recognize, and see going through revitalization efforts  today. Examples of these are our downtowns, waterfronts and industrial areas. Continue reading →

From the Office of Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak

QUEEN’S PARK October, 18^th, 2013 – While waiting to see if the Liberals’ upcoming fall economic statement actually has any plan for Premier Kathleen Wynne to rein in gold-plated government pensions, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak today laid out what must be done with one of the fastest-growing costs in the provincial budget.

Ontario Opposition and Conservative Party Leader Tim Hudak

“It is patently unfair for Ontario’s taxpayers, many of whom have no pension whatsoever, to have to keep pumping billions into under-funded and overly-generous pension plans for government workers,” said Hudak.

“The problem is huge.  According to one study, the province’s hydro bureaucracies employ 10,000 people who will be entitled to a taxpayer-backed pension of $100,000 a year or more.

“Trouble is, these Crown corporations had pension shortfalls of nearly $5 billion,” Hudak said.  “It’s irresponsible to keep handing out $100,000 pensions to new government hires when the fund is already billions in the red.” Continue reading →

A Submission from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government

NIAGARA REGION, Oct. 18, 2013 – In support of Waste Reduction Week, Oct. 21 – 27, Niagara Region is giving residents the chance to find out what happens to all the waste materials that are collected at the curb each week.

File image courtesy of Niagara Region

On Tuesday, Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. the Region will offer a free guided tour of the Niagara Road 12 landfill in West Lincoln highlighting the technologies and operations of a modern engineered landfill. A bus will depart Niagara Region Headquarters at 10 a.m. and will return to Headquarters at noon. Niagara Region Headquarters is located at 2201 St. David’s Rd. in Thorold. Residents interested in joining the tour at Niagara Road 12 can meet the tour at the site, 7015 Concession Rd. 7, West Lincoln, at 10:30 a.m. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Okay, so let’s try to get this straight

Canada’s Reform/Conservative Party prime minister, Stephen Harper, always looks so self-satisfied, even when people he has appointed to the senate screw Canadian taxpayers out of hard-earned money.

We have got a Conservative (former Reform Party) government in Canada that always preached about keeping government out of the face of private business.

And now this same Conservative government, led by former Reform Party disciple Stephen Harper, suddenly wants to back its hind end into the faces of private corporations like Rogers, Cogeco, dairy farmers and any other numbers of one it can pick on to win some cheap votes in the next election 

If you were unfortunate enough, as I was,  to suffer your way through the Harper government’s latest speech from the Throne this Wednesday, October 16^th, read by some grey heard old fart who is supposed to represent the Queen, you must have heard some of the ideas around screwing private company’s agendas in an attempt to win our votes. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

I don’t remember receiving an email inviting Niagara At Large to cover this event, this past Wednesday, October 16^th, featuring a talk from the Ontario Liberal government’s hand-picked supervisor of the Niagara Health System, on the future of health care in Niagara.

The Ontario Liberal Government’s hand-picked interum supervisor for the Niagara Health System talks the future in ways that may not be all that friendly to what is left of Canada’s publically funded health care system. File photo by Doug Draper

This talk, hosted by the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce at a morning meeting of its private business friends in north Niagara, was delivered by Kevin Smith, who took over the Niagara Health System – the organization the former Ontario Mike Harris/Tim Hudak government set up more than a decade ago to amalgamate hospital services across this region – more than two years go from the disgraced former NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer.

According to an account o Smith’s address to the Greater Niagara Chamber honchoes published by the Sun Median paper chain’s St. Catharines Standard, he said he sees a “sea change” in health delivery services that ‘could mean like ambulatory clinics, physiotherapy and antibiotic infusions could be provided within the community.’ Continue reading →