Author Archives: dougdraper

NAL Marineland demo

Annual Labour Day Demonstration To Go Ahead In Front Of Marineland Despite Court Actions

A Message from Marineland Animal Defense

(Niagara At Large is posting the following message from the Niagara, Ontario-based citizen activist group Marineland Animal Defense or M.A.D., for short, to supporters of its campaign to end the keeping of whales and other mammals at Marineland’s Niagara Falls amusement park.)

Hey all,

Activists demonstrate in front of Marineland in summer of 2012. File photo by Doug Draper

We have two demonstrations fast upon us.

First off, we return to site tomorrow with our first announced demonstration since the Judge Lococo ruling. It’s a bit of an annual tradition to demonstrate outside the park on Labour Day and we will be out from 12-3pm tomorrow providing that alternative message and raising awareness. If you can spare some time – please join us. For folks confused or afraid about demonstrating on site after the court order was handed down please read our FAQ’s and know that our marshals are there to help make a safe, legal and peaceful demonstration for everyone. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

As busy as I am preparing for a re-launch of Niagara At Large on September 9^th, I cannot let the 50^th anniversary of one momentous event pass without comment.

Martin Luther King at the March on Washington, August, 1963

On August 28^th, 1963, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. and delivered one of the most stirring and history changing speeches of the last hundred years.

Before more than a quarter of a million people – black, brown and white, of all religious and non-religious persuasions – who had gathered around a reflective pond that stretched all the way back to the Washington Monument where the White House was just a short walk away, King let loose with one of the greatest of all the great speeches he delivered during a civil rights crusade that ended for him when he was assassinated in the spring of 1968. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Anyone with a heart for innocent beings would have to view it as act that was despicable and disturbing.

Cinamon, recovering in a St. Catharines animal hospital. Photo courtesy of the Lincoln County Humane Society

Despicable that someone would shoot a defenseless cat with arrows from a crossbow four times. And disturbing to think that whatever sick person or persons committed this depraved act is still at large and may very well focus their madness on another cat or dog or a person next time.

“I am very disturbed by this,” Kevin Strooband, executive director of the Niagara, Ontario-based Lincoln County Humane Society said during a call Niagara At Large made to him this August 27. “There is no excuse for shooting an animal of this nature and to shoot her four times? You have to have a pretty twisted mind.” Continue reading →

From NAL publisher Doug Draper

Due to a severe flooding storm that has done costly damage to our home base, Niagara At Large will not be in a position to officially re-launch this independent news and commentary site for our greater Niagara region until September 9^th.

One of more than three weeks of garbage pickups in front of our homebase in Thorold, Ontario. More than 200 plastic bags of destroyed possessions and counting.

In the meantime, we will continue to post appropriately signed comments from readers to posts on the site and will, from time to time, include a piece on issues we believe to be of interest and concern to the public at large.

I also wish to stress this again to so many of you out there who understand the value and the need for strong and independent news organizations that strive to be watchdogs for us in a free and democratic society. Many of us know that this greater Niagara region is a great and promising place to live, and we also know it continues to face many challenges economically and from the standpoint of the services needed to fulfill a goal we can all achieve together – of being a leading model around the world for healthy, livable communities. Continue reading →

A Message to Niagara At Large readers from Ontario Environment Minister and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley

(A brief foreward from  NAL publisher Doug Draper – For people like me who have been following environmental issues for many years, this message from Jim Bradley may hardly begin to answer the need for governments at all levels, and the communities of people they represent to take the human causes of climate change seriously enough to move foreward with real action.

Ontario Environment Minister and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley talks climate change.

But let’s give Jim Bradley credit for this. No other Ontario environment minister before him has gone this far in accepting climate change and our collective complicity in fueling the devastating weather-related events that arise from it as a fact. And we have yet to see any sincere effort to address this issue at the federal government level. 

So should Bradley and his government be doing more? Damn right they should. And it is up to the rest of us to put more pressure on Bradley and his government, and on governments across this country to do more. As Bradley says in the final line of his message, we have to tackle this – what many scientists are now saying is the most serious environmental threat we face in the 21^st century – together.)

Here in Ontario, we know that climate change is a significant issue. We vividly remember the recent flood in Toronto and watched in sympathy as our friends in Calgary suffered from a devastating flood. It’s clear that weather patterns are changing and that storms are getting stronger and more frequent. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

(Yes, I know I keep reminding you. Niagara At Large will not be officially re-launched until this September 9^th due to serious flooding this summer at our home base. But it is hard not pull myself away from the cleanup and  wade in on the odd issue, including this one. And I do so here with apologies to pigs of the four-legged kind.)

The premier for Saskatchewan where disgraced Canadian senator Pamela Wallin apparently still has a home for the purposes of claiming travel expenses to and from Ottawa has it right.

Canada’s senate doing what it does best. Feeding from the public trough.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, a Conservative Party affiliate just as Wallin is and was when Prime Minister Stephen Harger appointed her to the senate in 2009, recently said he has traded his view in that Canada’s senate should be reformed for a firm belief that it should be abolished.

And Wall is right. This costly, unaccountable body of appointed political hacks and relic from a post-medieval  past serves no valuable purpose in a 21^st century democracy. A “house of sober second thought,” as some like to call it. I defy anyone out there to name even half a dozen thoughts this pompous body of political has-beens has advanced in the last year that might improve the lives of this country and its people. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

It is three in the morning of August 8^th, almost three weeks ago to the night when violent torrents of rain flooded basements in Niagara, Ontario communities like Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and mine in Thorold.

And I can’t sleep. Call it shell shock or my case of post traumatic stress disorder or whatever you want, but when you turn on the weather channel and are told that there is a possibility of more “severe weather” coming our way, there is no way I can sleep. I am up, moving whatever survived from the July flood to higher ground and watching for a backup of waste water in the drains in my basement.

You may wonder if I am not being a little too worried, but when you also hear reports of at least three tornadoes this Wednesday, August 7^th in regions east of Lake Huron and north of Lake Ontario, and when you have the skies flashing with lightning  as I write this, I would suggest that you can’t be too complacent about the possibilities for more damage to the homestead these days. Continue reading →

A Few Brief Thoughts from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

I know I have said that Niagara At Large will not be re-launching until the first week of September while some serious damage from this July’s flooding rains is cleaned up at our home base, but I can’t not post something on this sad news.

One of Canada’s most passionate advocates for heritage preservation and one of the country’s greatest restoration architects, Peter Stokes

Peter Stokes, renown for his work as a restoration architect across Canada and a longtime resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake, has passed away.

A truly passionate and fearless advocate for protecting and preserving heritage buildings and related properties in this region, province and country, Peter Stokes never let any level of government or any developer shut him up if he felt there was a danger that a valuable part of a community’s history might be bulldozed down for some soulless substitute of a building.

I first had the honour of meeting this great and humble pillor of integrity in 1979 when, as a reporter fresh out of journalism school and working for the once great St. Catharines Standard, he had the courage to question plans to build an extension to the historic Prince of Wales Hotel along Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He called the designs for the extension “fake” and “Disneyesque,” as they attempted to replicate – not too successfully, in his view a building design from a century earlier. He argued that it would be better to find a modern building design that was “sympathetic” to the historic hotel. Continue reading →

A Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

The late American satirist/comedian Lenny Bruce once warned that it is not a good idea to “get fresh with the telephone company” because if you do “they’ll leave you with a couple of cans and a string.”

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to an old Bell image like this? Especially if you have to pay your bill. Screw Bell if it continues to outsource jobs to sweatshops overseas.

That was back in the days – some half five or so decades ago – when the Bell telephone company held us all in a vice grip if we wanted to own or use a phone, and was a virtual monopoly across North America. It was also a time when we in Canada embraced Alexander Graham Bell, who spent some years of his life living in a place near Niagara, Ontario and was allegedly was the founder of the telephone while in this country.

Whatever the case for Bell and his consummating his phone invention here as opposed to the U.S., where he also migrated from his native Scotland, Bell, I remember growing up in the 1960s and on with a Bell Canada telephone company that had never shrieked away from capitalizing on Bell’s invention in Canada. It was always part of the mythology when my parents and all of their friends and neighbours across the country got their bills from Bell, which was a virtual monopoly back then and isn’t far away from that today, thanks to successive federal governments that give telecommunications corporations, in particular, a license to plunder Canadian consumers without a chance for competition from the U.S. or elsewhere. Continue reading →

From NAL publisher Doug Draper

Before the flood, if I may cop the title of a wonderful old album featuring Bob Dylan and The Band, Niagara At Large was working to reach higher plateaus as an independent, alternative news and commentary voice in the Greater Niagara Region – a region that embraces residents in Niagara, Ontario and our friends and neighbours in Buffalo and the rest of Erie and Niagara counties, New York.

Wish I was back here, in front of the Cape Cod home of the late writer Norman Mailer, instead of doing cleanup in a flooded basement. Not the most flattering photo of yours truly and yes, I know I need to lose weight. I’ll do that while we get Niagara At Large back in service.

Things were progressing and I was feeling optimistic about reaching those plateaus in the days leading up to a violent storm on Friday, July 19 that washed damaging flood waters in to the home where my family lives and the spaces where NAL had its computers and other resources for producing this site. Unfortunately, it will take at least two more weeks to clean up the mess and a couple more to recover and get back on track.

Therefore, Niagara At Large will not be re-launching this site (we deliberately avoid using the baggage-laden word blog) fully until Labour Day, September 2^nd. And when we do, it will be done with a will to reconstitute the original mission of NAL as this region’s most engaging forum for analysis and alternative views on the issues that matter to people in our binational region and countries, and as a virtual town hall for a civil discussion of those issues. Continue reading →

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Due to flooding rains this late July, Niagara At Large office space and computer hardware have been swamped with water. It may therefore take three or four weeks until this site is back on line.

Thank you for any patience our many loyal readers may share with us during this difficult period.

Just a final word to say that Sun Media, the owner of the three daily newspapers in Niagara, Ontario has made more crippling cuts to its newsroom resources at the St. Catharines Standard. That newspaper has virtually been stripped of resources beyond any that would allow it to do a decent job of covering much more than crime and traffic accident stories in this region – so tragic for what was once one of the great local community papers in the province and country.

All the more reason why the rest of us have to work together to build new media for news and commentary in our greater Niagara region. Only we can do it!!!

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

The late Richard Nixon, the only president of the United States who resigned from that most lofty office in disgrace following the Watergate scandals of the early 1970s, became infamous for having an “enemies list.” It was a list Nixon put together of people who dared to openly criticize\ his policies and it was used to spy on these people and commit other abuses of power that ultimately led to his  demise.

 Now we find out, thanks to information leaked to mainstream news outlets like The Globe and Mail and CBC that Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, is building his own lists of “enemy stakeholders” and is instructing his recently-sworn-in members of cabinet to do the same. The purpose of these lists, at least on the surface, according to the memo Harper sent out to his ministers and their staff, is to accumulate an inventory of individuals and groups across Canada his government may choose “to engage or avoid” in advancing its agenda.

 So this is where we’re now at my fellow Canadians – in a country that, up to recently, has had a pretty good record of respecting and taking into consideration the views of any and all citizens, including expert staff within our government ministries, who care to share their views in the course of deciding how best we should address the many challenging issues that face our country today. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Once again, NAL is pleased to welcome Nick Fillmore as a contributor to this site. Nick is a veteran Canadian journalists with distinguished careers at CBC and other national news venues. He was also a mentor to many like me as I was finding my way as a journalist a number of years ago. After you read this post, I encourage you to visit Nick’s news and commentary site at nickfillmore.blogspot.com .)

A travelling tribute  to the men and women who lost their lives in Afghanistan will arrive in your province or territory at some point during the next year or two. The memorial, featuring plaques of the 161 Canadians killed, will be welcomed by their families and friends, but some of us will react much differently.

Now former Harper National Defense Minister Peter MacKay visits memorial to Canadian dead during Afghan war earlier this July

Former Minister of National Defence Minister Peter MacKay  unveiled the temporary display in Ottawa on July 9^th.  It will be open to the public and remain on Parliament Hill through Remembrance Day, before heading off on a two-year journey across the country to visit provincial legislatures and then on to Washington.

The memorial appears to be straight-forward but, in reality, it carries with it a heavy dose of hypocrisy regarding the Conservatives’ real objective of the tour and their treatment of military veterans. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano 

Canada’s headlong rush to the extreme right of the political spectrum is multi-causal. 

While the economic theory of neoliberalism/neoconservatism has been transferring wealth and power upwards in Canada (and throughout much of the world) for over 30 years now, Canada’s current acceleration towards a dystopian cliff can be partly explained by religion.  

Canada’s current embrace of Republican-style politics and economic theory has thrust us into the arms of Christian Fundamentalism, which has a strong political constituency in the United States’ Republican party, and now, in the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).  Continue reading →

A Submission from the office of health critic for the Ontario New Democratic Party, France Gelinas

(A brief foreword from Niagara At Large – We are losing count at NAL of how many times Ontario’s Ombudman Andre Marin, an independent watchdog for the province’s taxpayers, has urged the government to give his office some powers to look into the affairs of hospital and health boards, schools, universities and municipalities.

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin

In the case of hospitals alone, Niagara, Ontario residents may have had this watchdog office look into the affairs of the former Niagara Health System CEO Debbie Sevenpifer and her wrecking crew of a board, had the ombudsman the legal powers to do so before decisions were made to build a major new hospital for Niagara in the north end of the region, in west St. Catharines, and shut down services in other Niagara hospitals.

So this is no small issue and it is high time that Ontario’s premier Kathleen Wynne does what her predecessor Dalton McGuinty failed or refused to do and give the Ombudsman’s office these powers. You should contact your MPP and urge them to make sure this is done.)

Sudbury, Ontario – NDP MPP France Gélinas renewed New Democrats call for Ombudsman oversight after Andre Marin once again sounded alarm bells about his lack of power to respond to thousands of citizen complaints about hospitals, schools, universities and municipalities. Continue reading →

A Notice from Fiona McMurran

 For the information of Niagara At Large readers who live in the region, I’d like to pass on the following message I received this July 5 from Welland Riding MP Malcolm Allen as a follow-up to the meeting he convened in February on the cancellation of VIA services to Niagara.

“It has come to our attention that VIA Rail management has been invited to the Niagara Region to discuss the “business decision behind the recent changes in service delivery in South-Western Ontario,” said Allen’s message. “In the past you have expressed an interest in the VIA Rail issue and the reinstatement of service to the Niagara Region. We felt it pertinent to inform you of this meeting and apprise you of the opportunity to continue to express the need for there to be reliable, effective train service to the Niagara Region. Continue reading →

 A Message from Hans Voss, Executive Director of the non-profit, advocacy group Michigan Land Use Institute

(A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – A growing number of advocacy groups throughout the Great Lakes region are raising concerns about a plan by the petroleum corporation Enbridge to pipe tar sands material from Albert through the Great Lakes region to a destination in the northeastern United States. And there should be little wonder why.

Enbridge hardly has a sterling record when it comes to maintenance and preventing leaks from its pipelines and it is now talking about piping a crude oil product through a Great Lakes region – check out the map of the pipeline route below – that hosts one fifth of the world’s fresh water for tens of millions of citizens on both sides of the border and a fishery worth billions of dollars. A serious leak of petroleum-based material into these waters could be catastrophic, not only for towns and cities around the lakes, but for communities downstream along the St. Lawrence River.

So now the Michigan Land Use Institute is joinng the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Greenpeace Canada, Toronto-based Environmental Defense, Ontario’s New Democratic Party and others in demanding that federal, provincial and state governments to reconsider this plan. Please read the following message from Michigan Land Use Insistute director  Hans Vass and consider getting engaged, if you are not already, in this important issue.)

Greetings!

Michigan Land Use Institute director Hans Vass

MLUI has hopped into the middle of a what I think is one of the most pressing, if not the most pressing, issues confronting the future of the Great Lakes: the risk posed by 60-year-old oil pipelines submerged beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Now the company that owns them may increase the pipelines’ capacity, potentially carrying dangerous tar sands oil from Canada.

While MLUI already has a lot going on toward advancing our goals on clean energy, food and farming, and smart growth, we felt like we had a real obligation to get involved.

So we partnered with an active group of northwest Michigan citizens to organize a big rally on Sunday July 14 at noon at the Mackinac Bridge to raise awareness about the risk to the Great Lakes and start a major citizen campaign to call upon leaders to reduce the risk of a pipeline break.

If you are motivated to get involved, you can help in a number of ways.     

• Join us on Sunday.
• Sign this online petition.
• Or, you can consider helping out financially.

We have no budget for this work. With the rally coming up this weekend, and as we look out over the remainder of the year, it is clear that in order to make a difference we need to raise considerable funds.

The pipeling route, including the Line 9 section in Ontario, running through the Great Lakes region to the shores of Maine

We are encouraging people to donate to this event by going online at www.mlui.org/donate, making a contribution that suits you, and marking “Rally” in the notes field. It’s that simple. And then, we’re off–to the rally on Sunday, to the media who cover it, and to the world of people who care about this precious, and globally unique water resource.

Thanks a lot for your consideration of this special opportunity!

~Hans Voss, Executive Director

The Michigan Land Use Institute is a nonprofit advocacy organization that protects the environment, strengthens the economy, and builds community. The organization collaborates with citizens, government, businesses, and organizations to innovate models for resilience and prosperity. Learn more about this organization by clicking on http://www.mlui.org/ .

(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.)

An Address to the United Nations by Malala Yousafzai

”Dear brothers and sisters, we want schools and education for every child’s bright future. We will continue our journey to our destination of peace and education. No one can stop us. We will speak up for our rights and we will bring change to our voice. We believe in the power and the strength of our words. Our words can change the whole world because we are all together, united for the cause of education. And if we want to achieve our goal, then let us empower ourselves with the weapon of knowledge and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.”

Malala

(A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – With those words and many stirring others Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani teenager who was shot through the head by religious extremists last year for simply wanting to go to school, this young women told the world through the United Nations assembly in New York City this July 12 that there must be a better way for some half the world’s population –many or most of them women who seem to be the targets of religious extremists, not only in other regions of the world like Pakistan, but here in North America.

I know that this is not a local story in the mainstream media sense, but this courageous young woman is speaking to the humanity in all of us, and her address on this July 12 to the United Nations may be as important as any civil right addresses delivered by others like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. So please read this speech and share your views at the end of it.)

Malala Yousafzai’s Address To The United Nations, July 12, 2013

Honourable UN Secretary General Mr Ban  Ki-moon, respected president of the General Assembly  Vuk Jeremic,  honourable UN envoy for global education  Mr Gordon Brown, respected elders and my dear brothers and sisters: Assalamu alaikum. Continue reading →

 A Submission from Niagara’s Regional Government 

(A short foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – As someone who has covered news in Niagara, Ontario for more than three decades now I have often found it rather sad and disturbing that few residents of this region seem to take an active interest in the regional government’s budget and how so many Niagara residents’ property tax dollars are spent at that level for such vital services as police, roads, water and wastewater treatment, garbage collection, seniors’ care, public health care, affordable housing, and on and on.

You can find many people demonstrating the interest in the budgets of local municipal governments, and that is good, but you look up in the gallery during a meeting on the regional budget, and you are lucky to find more than three or four residents there.

Given the services regional government is responsible for and the need to control costs around them, that apparent lack of interest has got to change. So please check out the following call for you to participate in a survey and online interactive discussion on its spending, and consider participating in it.

And get involved  because it is good for our collective future. Not because, as mentioned below in the Region’s media release, you might be eligable to win an iPad mini. How sad winning a prize for getting involved in civics even has to enter the picture.) 

NIAGARA REGION, July 11, 2013 – Niagara Region launches a user-friendly, online survey to get residents’ feedback on the proposed 2 per cent increase for the 2014 budget, which would equal approximately $37 for an average home assessed at $231,756.

Niagara, Ontario’s regional headquarters.

Residents are encouraged to visit  www.niagararegion.ca to watch a 60 second video and then respond to a few brief questions about the proposed 2014 budget. Residents can then enter to win an iPad Mini.)”We’ve heard from residents that they want to understand how we are spending their tax dollars and the value they are receiving for each dollar,” said Regional Chair Gary Burroughs. “Since we manage an overall budget of almost $1 billion and provide services that impact residents daily, it is important that our budget process is transparent and that the public is engaged in that process,” concludes Burroughs.

Niagara Region staff will also be in the community collecting feedback. Residents can watch for our booth at community events and locations near them for a chance to fill out the survey and enter the contest in person. For a list of events and locations, visit www.niagararegion.ca.

This is the first step in a series of engagement opportunities that Niagara Region will offer on the 2014 budget. There will be hands-on community feedback sessions that are open to the public in late August along with a series for Budget Review Committee of the Whole meetings which are all open to the public. For a complete list of engagement opportunities, please visit the Region’s website at http://www.niagararegion.ca.

(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.)

Submitted by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance

(If we can get past the diehard climate change deniers and flat earth society, Niagara At Large is posting this piece because it appears we need to move foreword and deal with the causes and impacts of severe weather and climate change.)

Watching streets fill with water and the lights blink out across the city, you have to wonder – are we really prepared for the coming climate storm?

Downed Toronto area hydro lines from the Hurricane Sandy storm that swept through much of the northeastern United States and regions in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic provinces in October, 2012.

More than 170,000 Toronto and Mississauga residents lost power for anything from a few hours to a day or more after Monday night’s torrential downpour. This was largely a result of the province’s continued reliance on a highly centralized electricity system that, for example, routes power from distant nuclear stations into Toronto via just two major connection points. If one of these points goes down – such as the damaged Manby Transformer Station in the city’s west end this week – big areas of the city can quickly find themselves sitting in the dark. Continue reading →

NIAGARA REGION, July 11, 2013 – Robert Mahony is the 2013 recipient of the T. Roy Adams Humanitarian Award for his contribution to improving the lives of others.

Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Chair Gary Burroughs with humanitarian award recipient Robert Mahony (middle) and St. Catharines Regional Councillor Tim Rigby at right.

“The annual T. Roy Adams Humanitarian Award is a wonderful opportunity to recognize true commitment and dedication to volunteerism and humanitarianism in the Niagara region of Ontario.

”Mr. Mahony has made a lasting impact on his community over the years and truly exemplifies the honourable qualities as remembered of the late Roy Adams,” said Regional Chair Gary Burroughs. Continue reading →

News from the City of Port Colborne in Niagara, Ontario

(One of the Greater Niagara Area’s most popular summer events, Canal Days, will take place along the canal and lakeside waters of Port Colborne, Ontario from August 2 through August 5. NAL is pleased to post this on the event and find out more about other activities that will be featured through the four days by clicking on the link at the end of this post.)

Canal Days in Port Colborne. File photo by Doug Draper

Port Colborne, Ontario, July 11, 2013  – Sailing into Port Colborne for the 35^th annual Canal Days Marine Heritage Festival is the Empire Sandy. At 200 feet in length, with 11,000 square feet of sail, the Empire Sandy offers passengers the unique experience of sailing aboard an authentic Tall Ship. Wide expansive decks and spacious wood paneled lounges set the tone for a comfortable yet exhilarating experience.

Festival attendees will have a number of opportunities to sail on the Sandy. On Friday, August 2 enjoy a sunset cruise on Lake Erie. Throughout the weekend, morning and afternoon cruises are available, along with a dinner cruise on Saturday evening and a fireworks cruise on Sunday evening.

Making its first journey to Port Colborne is the tall ship Schooner Liana’s Ransom, a Class B tall ship replica of an 18^th century privateer schooner. Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Liana’s Ransom moved on to warmer waters in the British Virgin Islands.  This gaff-rigged, square topsail schooner is typical of the types of ships that commonly sailed in the 1700’s and early 1800’s and carries 70 passengers.

The tail ship Empire Sandy will be sailing to Canal Days.

 The vessel boasts a one-of-a-kind experience for any passenger as it is fully outfitted with authentic feat that was used 300 years ago. A sail aboard Liana’s Ransom is guaranteed to be a memorable one as the schooner is armed with four black powder cannons and guests can experience activities such as steering the ship, hoisting the sails and firing the cannons as part of their Canal Days cruise.  Throughout the weekend, morning and afternoon and evening cruises are available for $20. 

Advance tickets for both the Empire Sandy and Schooner Liana’s Ransom are available through the Roselawn Box Office at 905-834-7572. Tickets for the morning and afternoon cruises may be purchased daily at the ticket tent on West Street. Tickets for the evening cruises are also available during the festival but must be purchased at City Hall. Tickets available during the festival are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Returning to the festival is the historic fireboat, the E.M. Cotter from the City of Buffalo, and the Canadian Coast Guard Research Vessel Limnos.  Both vessels will be available for deck tours.

For more information visit  http://portcolborne.ca/page/canal_days .

About City of Port Colborne

Located on the south coast of the scenic Niagara region, Niagara’s Port of Call has found the perfect balance – successful industrial and commercial sectors, comfortable and scenic residential areas, and an energized festival and entertainment scene that includes live theatre, white sand beaches, culinary favourites, the community’s world class Sugarloaf Marina, fishing, golfing, trails, recreation and unique shopping districts along the historic Welland Canal – truly a community that adds to the overall Niagara Experience.

(Niagara At Large always invites you to share your comments below. Please note that we only post comments from individuals who also share their first and past name with their views.)

A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

 When Canada’s l premiers gather in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario later this  July for their annual ‘Council of the Confederation meeting, they won’t be alone.

Canadian activist Maude Barlow will be leading speaker at citizens summit in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. File photo courtesy of Council of Canadians

Along with the usual swarm of media and whoever else might want to show up in one of the country’s oldest towns for a glance at the provincial leaders, a host of citizen activists from across the country, including Council of Canadian leader Maude Barlow, will be gathering at Niagara-on-the-Lake’s St. Marks Anglican Church to hold a “shadow summit.”

 The shadow summit, to take on Wednesday, July 24 and Thursday, July 25 at that historic church venue, is being organized by Barlow’s organization, along with the Ontario and Canadian Health Coalition, and you can register to attend it and participate in a mass rally that will follow the summit’s keynote speeches and workshops. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore

(A brief note from Niagara At Large – NAL is proud to welcome veteran Canadian journalist Nick Filmore as a contributor of news and commentary to our site.)

Highly-regarded former Toronto Mayor David Miller says he is “very excited” about becoming the new President and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund-Canada in September.

A corporate suit sits while our earth’s ice caps melt.

“They’ve made such a difference,” Miller told The Toronto Star, “and to be part of an organization that knows how to make real change is a unique opportunity.”

But there are questions about whether the WWF is effective in its work and, moreover, why the WWF and other members of the global environmental movement have made such little progress combatting the most serious threat to earth – climate change.  

The magnitude of the crisis facing humankind cannot be overstated. More than 400,000 people are dying each year, and, a confidential report from the United Nations said that three years ago corporations caused $2.2-trillion damage to the environment. Continue reading →

A Submission to NAL from Catharine Ens, a veteran advocate for animals in Niagara, Ontario.

 Marine mammals have evolved over millions of years and are an integral part of a complex and diverse marine biology on our earth.

Animal activists demonstrate in front of Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

 To claim they are given ‘the perfect environment’ in an amusement park like Marineland elicits the question – ‘Can the ideal environment of these sophisticated mammals really be imitated within the confines of a concrete tank? How can their natural existence be duplicated when, in the wild, (depending upon species) these animals can travel up to a hundred miles each day, swim speeds at speeds of more than 30 miles per hour,  and dive thousands of feet below the surface of their ocean environment.

There is considerable evidence to show that marine mammals have shorter life expectancies in captivity than they do in the wild. So if facilities like Marineland are claiming ‘conservation’ as a defense for captivity, it is simply an excuse; profit from ‘entertainment’ is more likely the motivator. Continue reading →

A Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

A record downpour of rain in the City of Toronto this July 8 – a month’s worth in two hours and all but incapacitating an economic engine of Canada one of the largest metropolitan areas in North America with gushing flood waters for a critical number of hours.

Late this June, there was the devastating flooding in the Calgary, Alberta area that caused billions of dollar’s worth of property damage – not to mention incalculable losses of irreplaceable personal affects. All of this following a spring that saw an unprecedented number of what meteorologists call “severe weather events” – flooding, the fiercest bran of tornadoes, golf-ball size hail storms, extreme heat, including 70 and 80 degree F. temperatures in Alaska, of all places, and on and on – across this continent.

Of course, there was the trillion-dollar travesty of Hurricane Sandy last fall and two years ago this April, Niagara experienced near hurricane-force winds that felled thousands of trees, did hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property damage and killed two people. Continue reading →

Submitted by the West Lincoln Action Group

 (A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Those who support ‘green energy in Ontario, and I am among them, may object all we want. But thanks to the way the province’s recently departed premier Dalton McGuinty went about shoving green energy up everyone’s nose, what may have been most noble, progressive efforts to establish wind and solar systems as a significant source of energy in Ontario have likely been compromised for years to come.

Former Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty didn’t seem to mind shoving wind farms in to rural communities that didn’t seem to want them without giving them a say in the matter. But he also didn’t mind spending hundreds of millions of dollars of our tax money moving plans for gas-powered energy plants out of two of his party ridings in Oakville and Mississauga due to a ‘not-in-my-backyard backlash that had nothing to do with the economic or environmental impacts or needs of those plants.

While other regions of the world, including economic power houses like Germany, move forward with sustainable wind and solar energy projects, Ontario has lost it thanks to an arrogant premier who alienated so many that might support such a push had he not taken away their right as communities to play a role in deciding where and how these systems should be installed.

With that, NAL is posting the following message from the West Lincoln Action Group, a citizens organization with members in the Niagara and Haldimand, Ontario regions, for your information. You may also wish to join the discussion by leaving a comment below. 

Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment has  approved the HAF Wind Energy Project involving five Industrial Wind Turbines being erected in the Caistor Centre area of West Lincoln Township.  On behalf of and with the support of the West Lincoln Glanbrook Wind Action Group, we are launching an Appeal for an Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) Hearing to overturn this Approval (REA).

The Appeal Process, articulated in the Green Energy Act, allows us to challenge why the MOE approved an Industrial intrusion in an environmentally sensitive and active Agricultural Area which is also densely populated in contrast to most Agricultural areas of the Province.  We have at least 244 homes of families and retirees within 2 km. of the 5 proposed Industrial Wind Turbines.

Scientific studies show that a significant number of these people, and others beyond two kilometres, will experience annoyance or sickness and many will not be able to remain in their homes.  These results will not only impact our health care system, but will have a financial assessment impact to our Township resulting from property devaluation of 25 per cent to 50 per cent, and some properties may not sell at any price.

The unreasonable subsidies to Wind Proponents everywhere overpower any possible benefits to consumers, especially industries.  We are all paying for the subsidies in our Taxes and Electricity Bills, and will continue to pay for the next 20 years, or more.  Without subsidies these wind power generator projects would not exist.

People are beginning to understand that the whole IWT fiasco will cost MORE than all the other government wasted events put together – the Samsung deal, two halted Gas Plants, ORNGE, Hydro One, and E-Health, etc.  There is no financial justification for what the Green Energy Act has undemocratically dumped on rural Ontario.  We do not need the electricity these IWT’s generate at off-peak hours with the need for a back-up system when the wind dies.  We pay again to have others take this surplus energy.  Ontario’s Auditor General’s 2011 Annual Report, page 112, states that, since 2006 (when IWT’s started generating power) Ontario has been a net exporter of electricity.  From 2005 – 2011, Ontario lost $1.8 billion on exported electricity, (roughly estimated at a cost of $4,000 per household, and growing).

We have engaged the services of this province’s champion of the anti-wind fight, Mr. Eric Gillespie. This week, through his efforts, Ostrander Point won their ERT Appeal against the MOE.   He has proven that these contracts can be cancelled.  We strongly believe there are sufficient reasons for the same outcome here in West Lincoln.

For more information visit the West Lincoln Action Group’s website at www.wlwag.com .

Niagara At Large is also posting the following piece here by members of the West Lincoln-Glanbrook Action Group                                                                                              

WEST LINCOLN WIND PROJECT APPEALED – July 6, 2013 

In Response to the recent Ministry of the Environment (MOE) approval of the controversial HAF Wind Energy Project for five Industrial Wind Turbines in the Caistor Centre area of West Lincoln Township two local residents have launched an appeal on behalf of and with the support of the West Lincoln Glanbrook Wind Action Group (WLGWAG).

The appeal will be heard by the Environmental Review Tribunal. 

The appellants Anne L. Fairfield and Edward Engel who stand to be surrounded and impacted by these forty-seven storey high industrial wind machines stated that they have no choice but to exercise their appeal rights as permitted under the Green Energy Act. They wish to challenge why the MOE approved an Industrial intrusion in an environmentally sensitive and active Agricultural Area which is also densely populated in contrast to most Agricultural areas of the Province. We have at least 244 homes of families and retirees within two kilometres of the five proposed Industrial Wind Turbines Scientific studies they say have shown that a significant number of these people, and others beyond two kilometres., will experience annoyance or sickness and many will not be able to remain in their homes. These results will not only impact our health care system, but will have a financial assessment impact to our Township resulting from property devaluation of 25 to 50 per cent, and some properties may not sell at any price. 

Further they state that the unreasonable subsidies to Wind Proponents everywhere overpower any possible benefits to consumers, especially industries. We are all paying for the subsidies in our Taxes and Electricity Bills, and will continue to pay for the next 20 years, or more. Without subsidies these wind power generator projects would not exist.

Thankfully they believe people are beginning to understand that the whole IWT fiasco will cost MORE than all the other government wasted events put together – the Samsung deal, two halted Gas Plants, ORNGE, Hydro One, and E-Health, etc. Ed stated that there is no financial justification for what the Green Energy Act has undemocratically

dumped on rural Ontario. “It’s ludicrous to be paying other jurisdictions to take the surplus electricity that IWT’s generate during off-peak hours plus the additional cost of the back-up generators for when the wind doesn’t blow.”

 Ontario’s Auditor General’s 2011 Annual Report, page 112, states that, since 2006 (when IWT’s started generating power) Ontario has been a net exporter of electricity. From 2005 – 2011, Ontario lost $1.8 billion on exported electricity, (roughly estimated at a cost of $4,000 per household).

Anne stated that for the appeal they had engaged the services of this province’s champion anti-wind lawyer, Eric Gillespie. She noted this past week Gillespie won a major battle at the Environmental Review Tribunal in a similar appeal of the Ostrander Point wind project where for the first time anti-wind opponents won their appeal and stopped an MOE approved wind project. Ed stated that Gillespie has proven that these contracts can be cancelled and Ed and Anne strongly believe there is sufficient evidence for the same outcome here in West Lincoln.

(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.)

From Chris West and the Save Via Rail Group

(Niagara At Large posted news a year or so ago of the decision by Canada’s Harper government to cut funding to passenger rail services across the country, including to and from regions like Niagara, Ontario.

 Good to know that there are still citizens out there fighting for a return of these services, even in the face of a federal government that cares more about selling oil made from tar crud than it does about supporting more environmentally friendly means of transportation.

Here is a piece you might want to check out and join in following the call to push a federal government, unfriendly to public transit, into the 21^st century.)

Appeal to Gary Schellenberger, MP, Harper Conservative for the riding of Perth Wellington

 When asked to get involved in the VIA issue, many felt the sole issue was ridership. Ridership is an important issue by itself and is enough reason for us to be involved.

In the ensuing months, we have discovered the VIA issue is a VERY HOT issue with the public. This has been demonstrated by phenominal media support, event support, and the emotional comments made in the media and on the current online petition. Continue reading →

Submitted by The Shaw Festival

 Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario – The sights and sounds of love come alive in The Shaw’s production of the Tony-award-winning musical The Light in the Piazza.

Photo courtesy of the Shaw Festival and the images creator, Emily Cooper.

Director Jay Turvey reunites with the creative team from last season’s Trouble in Tahiti and brings the beauty and romantic enchantment of Florence to the Court House Theatre stage. Beginning previews tonight, this lush musical was written by Craig Lucas, with music and lyrics by Adam Guettel and based on the novella by Elizabeth Spencer.

Margaret (Patty Jamieson) and her daughter Clara (Jacqueline Thair) leave their secrets behind in North Carolina touring the Italian city of Florence in the early 1950s. As Margaret revels in the beauty and ambience of the city, Clara has a chance encounter with a handsome young local named Fabrizio (Jeff Irving). The two quickly fall in love; a whirlwind courtship ensues with marriage on the horizon. While a young woman discovers the first pangs of love, a mother is forced to reconsider, not only her daughter’s future, but her own deep seated hopes and regrets as well.

The score was called “the most intensely romantic … since West Side Story” (New York Times) and the story “doesn’t want theatre-goers to feel good; it wants them to feel deeply.  And it does.” (New Yorker) 

Winner of six Tony Awards, composer-lyricist Adam Guettel also wrote the musical Floyd Collins, which the Shaw Festival produced to huge acclaim in 2004. Guettel is also the grandson of esteemed theatrical composer Richard Rodgers. Continue reading →

A Media Release from the Ontario Clean Air Alliance

Do you want to heat your home with gas pumped out of shale rock in Pennsylvania with a noxious mix of water, sand and chemicals, or would you rather save money by making your home more energy efficient?

Do we in Ontario wanted the gas from fracking operations so many residents in Pennsylvania, as is depicted here, are fighting to stop in their communities? Would we want these fracking operations to set up here?

The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has to decide this question soon in response to an application from Enbridge Inc. to expand its natural gas pipeline system in the Greater Toronto Area. Enbridge is proposing to spend $623 million on a system to bring more shale gas north. As a gas user, you will pay for the costs of this pipeline on your monthly natural gas bill.

But there is an alternative to Enbridge’s plan. By increasing spending on energy efficiency and gas alternatives like geothermal heating and cooling or solar water heating, we can simultaneously save money and reduce the need to drill thousands of wells to produce gas in a process that is a serious threat to groundwater supplies and healthy communities. Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

There was a time, not that many years ago, when a number of Niagara, Ontario’s most popular beaches were posted closed to swimming all summer long.

Bay Beach, in the old Crystal Beach area of Fort Erie, Ontario, along the shores of Lake Erie

 Not that field staff for Niagara Region’s health department was actually out at these beaches, physically barring people from going in the water. The postings were a warning that the waters were swamped with such high levels of infectious bacteria that people shouldn’t swim in them. 

Now, according to a new report called Niagara’s Beaches: Hidden Gems and prepared for the Region by Brock University’s Niagara Community Observatory, there is reason for “cautious optimism” that the quality of waters at 26 of the more popular public beaches in Niagara have improved to a point where people can feel safe bathing in them. Continue reading →

(A Foreword from Niagara At Large – Unfortunately, one of the most serious problems facing some of our children in this country today, along with poverty and hunger, is physical and sexual abuse. Fortunately in this region, we have an organization in Niagara, Ontario called the Child Advocacy Centre Niagara, celebrating its fifth anniversary this 2013, here to help address it. NAL is therefore pleased to post this CACN story.)

Submitted To NAL by Antonietta Petrella

The Child Advocacy Centre for Niagara, Ontario, located in the Niagara community of St. Catharines.

For children and youth who are victims of child abuse, there is a safe place in the Niagara Region where they can speak to trained professionals.  

Child Advocacy Centre Niagara (CACN) is a safe place to tell your secrets for children and youth who have been physically abused, sexually abused, become the targets of internet luring or were the unwilling witness of violence. Approaching its five year anniversary this fall, CACN has served more than 1,400 children and youth, and their families, from across the Niagara Region, helping them to cope with the life altering impact of child abuse. Continue reading →

A Note from Jane Elder, a founding member of Great Lakes United

(A brief foreword from NAL – Since news circulated late this June of the demise of Great Lakes United, a decades-old coalition of Canadian and U.S. citizens dedicated to protecting the health of these precious waterbodies, John Jackson, one of the organization’s longtime senior members, has received numerous  expressions of sadness and concern from individuals all around the lakes.

A great blue heron, one of the many magnificent species of wildlife living in our Great Lakes region, surveys the lake waters. Photo courtesy of the Great Lakes division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Niagara At Large received permission to post one of these notes from Jane Elder, which Jackson feels captures the spirit of much of the reaction he has received in recent days. Elder’s note speaks to the great void the closing of GLU will leave when it comes to a truly binational citizens voice for lakes. It also to a hope that  present and future generations of citizens will find some way to fill that void for the sake of keeping pressure on governments in both countries to address the many environmental challenges the continue Great Lakes face.

Now here is Jane Elder’s note.) Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, publisher, Niagara At Large

When I returned to my home and native land of Canada following a trip to the land of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts this spring, there seemed little to feel proud and patriotic about back here.

Tall ships from U.S. and Canada gather in Port Dalhousie Harbour in St. Catharines, Ontario for Canada Day weekend. Photo by Doug Draper

There was the ongoing federal Senate scandal featuring Duffy, Wallin and company, the continued outrage over hundreds of millions of our tax dollars former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals flushed down the crapper to cancel two controversial plans to build gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga, the ongoing vaudeville act of Rob and Doug Ford in Toronto, just to mention some of the highlights or low points, if you will. And I am losing track f how many mayors have been forced to leave office in disgrace in Quebec. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

Canada’s Conservative/Reform Party Prime Minister Stephen Harper has once again shown us what Canadian rights he thinks should be respected by police and which ones shouldn’t.

Canada’s top sheriff Stephen Harper throws his RCMP posse under the wagon wheels in cheap bid to please gun owners

In a statement Canada’s answer to the American Tea Party released this past Friday, June 28, Harper criticized officers for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for removing easy to locate guns from homes abandoned by people during the recent tragic flooding in the Calgary, Alberta area, and he exhorted the officers to return these guns to their owners “as soon as possible.” 

“We (meaning Harper and his larger contingent of trained party seals, I guess) believe the RCMP  should focus on more important tasks such as protecting lives and private property,” the statement from the prime minister’s office said. 

Contrast this with Harper’s reaction to actions taken by members of police forces across Canada, including the RCMP, three years ago this June when the G-20 Summit was held in Toronto, and more than 1,000 Canadian citizens, including some of the greater Niagara area, were arrested and detained for a day or more without any charges ever being laid, and in what Ontario’s Ombudsman Andre Marin later described as time where Canada’s respect for civil liberties gave way to martial law. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society. Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it’s not going to protect you from the coming storm. And ultimately, we will be judged as a people, and as a society, and as a country on where we go from here.”

–         U.S. President Barack Obama, from a speech he delivered on climate change on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. this June 25, 2013.

We don’t have any more time for the flat earth thinkers, indeed! Nor for some of the same scientists who claimed that smoking had nothing to do with lung cancer now saying that some of our earthly activities have nothing to do with climate change.

U.S. President Barack Obama finally aims fire at climate change

Nor, quite thankfully, does U.S. President Barack Obama or anyone else who has been paying attention to more recent, excessively frequent severe weather pattners and who now accepts the possibility that there is such a thing as climate change and that our relentless burning of fossil fuels may have something to do with it.

One government that refuses to accept it, of course, is the Reform/Conservative/Tar Sands Party of Stephen Harper of Canada and his fellow knuckle draggers who have continued to view any evidence, presented by Nobel and other award winning scientists around the world, that we have a growing problem here of global proportions. To Harper and company, any possibility that human activities or that their precious interests in the tar sands and the corporate pirates profitting from them have anything to do with climate change is a commie joke. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The Great Lakes and the tens-of-millions of people living around them in Ontario, New York and several other U.S. states have lost an old friend.

Our Lower Great Lakes from space. Click on this and you will find our Greater Niagara Region. Who will be a watchdog for these vital waterbodies now?

Great Lakes United – a binational coalition of public and private groups with headquarters in Buffalo, New York and Montreal Quebec – is no more. Niagara At Large has received word that its board has decided to pack the three decade old group in, apparently because it could no longer count on financial and whatever other support it needed to survive.

That is sad news for those of us with an interested in protecting the health of these vital freshwater bodies, just as it may be good news for some governments and vital polluters, because in its heyday, some two decades ago, Great Lakes United played a significant role in raising public awareness about threats to the lakes and in keeping governments on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border on their toes. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano 

There is an increasingly polarized but submerged dynamic in Canada which revolves around   pipelines, resource extraction, First Nations, and climate change.  Sometimes the tensions rise to the surface and more awareness is created.

This is what is happening right now in Ontario, Canada, in areas traversed by the “Line 9” pipeline.

Enbridge Inc. currently uses a 38 year old pipeline (Line 9) to transport petroleum from Montreal to Sarnia. Thirty-eight year old pipelines are not thick: this one is ¼ inch thick, and it measures 30 inches in diameter.  Replacement pipes are ½ inch thick. Continue reading →

NAL Pride Kathleen Wynne,

As Toronto Celebrates Pride Week, Ontario’s First Openly Gay Premier Celebrates Province As A ‘Place Of ‘Fairness And Opportunity’

(A Brief Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper – If someone were to say two decades ago that today Ontario  would not only have a female premier, but the first openly gay premier in Canada, I may have said; ‘Maybe British Columbia or Quebece, but small c-conservative Ontario? I don’t think so. Well, here we are and NAL is posting the following message, circulated this last week of June 2013, for our readers thoughts and comments)

An Open Letter from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

When I ran for the leadership of this party, some people asked if Ontario was ready for an openly gay Premier. I said that the people of Ontario judge each other on their merits and their ideas, not according to race or religion or sexual identity.

And now, as communities across the province celebrate Pride, I know I was right.

For the past few months, I’ve travelled this great province and met all kinds of people. They want great jobs and vibrant communities. They care about their kids’ education and the needs of their aging parents. They’re interested in new ideas and strong leadership.

We are lucky to live in a province where diversity, acceptance and equality are defining principles. Where everyone is respected and has a chance to do their best.

So as we celebrate Pride, we celebrate Ontario as place of fairness and opportunity. And we dedicate ourselves to protecting those fundamental values for the sake of future generations.

Please share this message so the people of Ontario know that they are my source of pride.

Kathleen

Another NAL footnote – You can click on the following link for information on events for Pride Week in Toronto, including that city’s, super popular (for gays and straights alike)  33^rd annual Pride Parade on Sunday, June 20 – http://www.toronto.com/search/?q=pride13 .

(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 NAL publisher Doug Draper

“I got to say; Goodbye; goodbye.”-  From John Lennon’s song, Mother.

 Due to a death in the family, Niagara At Large will not be adding any new posts to this independent site for news and commentary for a few days.

A beach on Cape Cod, one of the first places my mother wanted us to vacation as a family, all those years ago. I’d like to think she is back there in spirit, walking along one of those beaches now. Photo by Doug Draper

Yes, I know. It was only a week ago that I promised to charge up Niagara At Large with post after post of engaging information for our growing NAL visitors to discuss and debate following a month that I was more or less off. But there are many things in life and death that we have no control over, and my family happened upon one of them this Friday, June 21 – the first day of summer, as it turned out, that is usually an occasion for celebration for this lover of sunnier days when the livin’ is a little more easy.

I thank all of you, once again, for your patience since I know that news sites on the web can often die if you don’t, as they say, ‘keep feeding the beast’ on a more or less daily basis.

In the meantime, give any living parents and grandparents a hug if you want to, while you still can.

(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 Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

With the G-8 Summit hosted this third week of June, 2013 in Ireland, it is hard not to recall the G-20 summit Canada’s Harper government, with the blessing of Ontario’s McGuinty Liberals, hosted in Toronto, Ontario a mere three years ago this June.

John Pruyn, being dragged way by riot police after having his artifical leg removed. The Welland Ontario federal government worker and part-time farmer was locked in a makeshift jail, then released without any charges or explanation for his detention, a day later. He had been sitting on the grass near Queen’s Park in Toronto, listening to citizen activists offer talks on jobs, environmental protection and other issues before being dragged away.

I imagine that few people would remember what transnational business transpired inside the heavily fortified walls and fences of that summit, which officially took place on June 26 and 27, and yet had a heavy presence in the city of Toronto, Ontario for the better part of a week. But few will forget the epic clashes that between police and demonstrators and others, including citizens that had absolutely nothing to do with those demonstrations – clashes that included hundreds of arbitrary arrests in what Ontario’s independent, provincially appointed Ombudsman Andre Marin later described as a “sad legacy” of “ugly scenes” where Canada’s respect for civil liberties gave way to “martial law.”

It remains, in my view, one of the most disgraceful assaults on free expression and democracy in Canada in the six decades since my birth and life in this country, and it was particularly disappointing that so many Canadian citizens, not to mention politicians, reacted by saying that’ you don’t have to worry’ about a massive police assault ‘if you have done nothing wrong,’ and that the people who went to what were mostly peaceful rallies and were hauled off to makeshift jails ‘must have deserved it. …. They should have stayed home.’ Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

This past winter, during Black History Month in February, and during March, which has come to be recognized as Women’s History Month, residents across Niagara recognized one of its great heroines.

This stamp, part of a series for honouring famous Canadian women, was issued by Canada Post in 1992. It reads; ‘Laura Secord, Lengendary Patriot’ and depicts her on her June 1813 walk into history.

Her name was Harriet Tubman, a former slave who was born in the United States but made her home base in the Niagara, Ontario community of St. Catharines for some of the turbulent years leading up to the American Civil as she played a leading role as an abolitionist and in guiding slaves northward to freedom through the ‘underground railway’.

This June, it is time to celebrate another woman who played a dynamic role in this region’s history, and her name is Laura Secord.

Not that Laura, who was also born in the United States, in a beautiful community called Great Barrington in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts before moving in the late 1700s to what was then Upper Canada and her eventual home in Queenston, has ever been that far away from the thoughts of anyone who was born and raised in Niagara. Her courageous walk, beginning in the late hours of June 22, 1813 and covering some 20 miles or 32 kilometres from Queenston to the Decew area of Thorold to warn British troops and their Mohawk allies of a coming attack from American forces. Continue reading →

A Brief from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

 If you are one of the countless number of residents or visitors to Niagara, Ontario who has enjoyed some of this region’s conservation areas and the bounty of natural riches they offer, one of the people we can thank is Doug Elliott.

Niagara conservationist pioneer Doug Elliot. Photo courtesy of Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

Not that Doug Elliot, from all of the humility that came through in the short time I had a chance to get to know him , was ever in it for the thanks of others. For this Welland, Ontario resident, it most always seemed to be about preserving natural spaces for which he felt such reverence for present and future generations.

Doug Elliot, a founding member of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, established in 1959 as one of numerous stewards hip agencies of its kind across the province, passed away this June 10 at age 88 – a year after receiving a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal for his decades of selfless efforts to protect and preserve something of our natural heritage here. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano 

Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best ones.  Unfortunately, though, Canada’s extreme concentration of corporate power often precludes the solutions from ever seeing the light of day.

The first step towards resolution of this problem is nomenclature. We need to free corporate-fashioned words from their false meanings.

Here are some examples.  Trade deals, including the so-called “free trade” deals which have crippled North American manufacturing , are more accurately described as “corporate empowerment” deals. Invariably, these deals empower transnational companies to relocate where wages are low (or in the case of prison labour, non-existent), where collective bargaining doesn’t exist, and where unions are impotent or non-existent. Continue reading →

Submitted by Willy Noiles

The Niagara Injured Workers Centre will host a public hearing June 18 as part of a series of province-wide hearings based on the 100^th anniversary of the tabling of Sir William Meredith’s report on workmen’s compensation.

Organizers of Meredith 100 will be holding hearings over the next few months to find out how the workers’ compensation system is working, with Niagara as the first stop.

In October 1913, Meredith published his final report in which he outlined the fundamental principles he believed should form a fair and just workmen’s compensation system. Meredith outlined six principles, which have become known as Meredith’s Principles—no fault, non-adversarial, compensation for as long as the disability lasts, employer pays, collective liability and an independent public agency.

McMaster University’s Labour Studies Professor Robert Storey will be traveling across Ontario to learn how changes made to the workers’ compensation system over the last 20 years have altered Meredith’s principles. Continue reading →

NIAGARA REGION – June 18– Niagara, Ontario’s regional government is making $50,000 available to help students from low-income families access post-secondary education.

Niagara Regional Chair Gary Burroughs

Applications for the 2013/2014 academic year are now being accepted.

 Full bursaries of up to $500 will be available to eligible students entering a college or university program leading to a certificate, diploma or degree. Applicants must be 18 – 34 years old by Aug. 30, 2013.

 Partial bursaries of up to $250 will be available to students beginning a short-term academic upgrading, apprenticeship, trade or skills-based training program. Continue reading →

As she promised, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne wants to criss cross the province this spring and summer, meeting with residents and hearing their concerns.

Here are her Niagara stops as submitted to Niagara At Large by the premier’s office, posted for your information. Continue reading →

A Brief Foreword by Doug Draper

Ontario’s Liberal government may believe that a public apology and that directing those once exposed to extraordinarily high levels of an Agent Orange-related chemical to file any claims they may have for health impacts to the province’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) may be enough.

NDP Ontario House Leader Gilles Bisson insists promised must accept more liability for former hydro workers exposed to Agent Orange.

However, and in the wake of the release this June 13^th of a government-sponsored report concluding that hundreds of former Ontario Hydro workers, including workers in the greater Niagara region, were exposed to levels of this chemical hundreds of times above concentrations that would be considered safe, critics say the province is attempting to lessen liability here rather than open a door for compensation to those exposed and their families.

Ontario Hydro workers and who knows how many others in the vicinity of sprawying operationers were exposed to this chemical – known technically as 2,4,5-T which produces a byproduct toxin called dioxin – from the 1940 through to the late 1970s, when it was used as a vegetation defoliant around hydro lines before it was banned from further use in 1980. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Countless hundreds, if not thousands of former Ontario Hydro workers, including possibly many who live and worked here in the greater Niagara region, were exposed to unsafe levels of one of the world’s most toxic chemicals  a potentially lethal dioxin-related agent known as 2,4,5-T  until use of the chemical was ultimately banned in the province in 1980.

This chemical – deployed for wiping out plant life in a powerful Vietnam War-era defoliant Agent Orange – was sprayed here in Niagara and elsewhere across Ontario to kill back vegetation on Ontario Hydro properties. It was sometimes sprayed, according to a report released this June 13 by an expert paneal reporting to the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources, in concentrations hundreds of times above what scientists would now consider safe levels.

That means that there were likely former Ontario Hydro workers and possibly others here in the greater Niagara region exposed to unsafe levels of this chemical. And if that is the case, Niagara At Large would like to hear from you or members of your family for the purposes of letting you share your story on this site. If you are one who was exposed to this poison, email Niagara At Large at drapers@vaxxine.com .

In a conference call Niagara At Large participated in with Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak this June 13, we asked about this. Hudak responded that he had not yet had time to read the full report, although he knew it was coming down. However, he added, that if the evidence shows former Ontario Hydro workers and possibly others were exposed to unsafe levels of Agent Orange related chemicals, then the province should give some consideration to compensating them and ensuring they receive full benefits for any health effects. Continue reading →

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

The memory of my last evening walk on a Cape Cod beach this spring is washing away like footprints in the sand, and I’m back in my native region of the world only to discover – to my dismay, but not too much surprise – that little of what I left here this May has changed.

Last peaceful walk on a beach before the scandals and madness of a world inland from here washes back in. Photo by Doug Draper

Mike Duffy, along with Pamela Wallin and other shameless swine, are still feeding from a trough in a senate that should be abolished, and the Harper government goes on and on supporting all of this. All while high-priced accountants charge Canadian taxpayers more to audit the e papers of these senators than they allegedly pocketed through some crafty reporting of their expenses.

At the provincial level, the gas-plant scandal goes on even as former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty breaks yet another promise to go on serving as an MPP for his Ottawa area riding until the next election. McGuinty announced this June 12 that he is now, which is not so surprising considering the rising number of questions over news that his staff did its best to delete email related to a scandal that has so far cost Ontario taxpayers more than $580 million.

On the Niagara regional front, look forward to the possibility that a critical mass of regional councillors will deem the pilot regional transit system, launched two years ago this coming . That will leave Niagara as the only region of its size or larger in southern Ontario, with no regional transit system – a fact that will further discourage young people from living and working here, businesses from moving here and inter-regional services like GoTrain or Metrolinx from providing further services here.

So given those and so many other issues we face, it is time for Niagara At Large to get back to work as the only truly independent, alternative online voice in the greater Niagara region outside of one or two sites on the American side of the Niagara River.

I have received numerous emails from people over the past four weeks wondering when NAL would get back to work and I have been surprised by the many hundreds of people who have continued to visit the site and comment on aging posts over that same period of time. It encourages me to believe that there is a place for a news and commentary site like this – a site that offers something far more than the usual fair of crime, traffic accident and building fire stories highlighted by mainstream media chains in Niagara.

So thanks for your patience over the past four weeks as we recharge ourselves here and we promise we will be back with some journalism free of the corporate chains that enslave so many others that pass themselves off as sources of news today.

We will have more to say about Niagara At Large’s pledge to remain an independent, non-partisan voice for ordinary people and social justice for all when we return this coming June 18.

We look forward to meeting you back here on this site then.

(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 by Doug Draper 

Regardless of how you feel about Ontario’s relatively new premier Kathleen Wynne and her efforts to recast a Liberal government sullied by Dalton McGuinty, let’s at least give her credit for wanting to be more available to we, the province’s people.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

For about the third or fourth time, Wynne will do a full hour of open line questions with whoever calls on CBC Radio’s Ontario Today, on the radio at 99.1 FM this Thursday, June 13 at noon. She is the first premier I know of who has run this kind of gauntlet in many, many years, and as I already said, she deserves at least a bit of credit for that.

The last time I heard an exchange between Wynne and callers on this program, the back and forth, however adversarial, was far more civil than what you get during question period in the Ontario legilislature. 

If you have a question or a beef with the premier and her government you might want to consider calling in this program. The toll-free number anywhere in Ontario is 1-888-817-8995. You can also send a question or comment to CBC’s Ontario Today via email at ontariotoday@cbc.ca .

(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 Submission to Niagara At Large from one fine communications manager, John Hassell, for the not-for-profit environmental organization Ontario Nature

(A short note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper on this one from John and Ontario Nature – Between this news and all of the garbage around Canada’s senators Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, and the clown show the Ford brothers are operating in Canada’s largest city of Toronto, I am almost sorry to be home from a vacation in a relatively sane region on the continent in the New England region of Cape Cod Massachusetts.

This image of Woodland Caribou, an endangered species in Ontario and across Canada, is from a David Suzuki Foundation site. We trust that Dr. Suzuki will not mind us coping the image to get this upsetting information out about an Ontario government that is willing to weaken already weak endangered species regulations to gut even more wild space in the province.

 This latest news about the gutting of even more of the protections we have left for endangered species in this province of Ontario, Canada, where regulations for protecting species on the worldwide endangered list are already among the weakest in the developed world, is particularly discouraging. I had hoped that the new Liberal premier of this province, Kathleen Wynne, would be a little more of an environmentalist than her God-awful predecessor Dalton McGuinty. But maybe not.

I know there are arguments from developers and exploiters of natural resources for gutting environmental protection laws, but how far do we go in that direction. Don’t we give a shit about saving anything for our children or our grandchildren? Or does everything have to be about raping whoever or whatever for a buck?)

Toronto, May 31, 2013 – The provincial Cabinet announced today May 31^st) its approval of sweeping exemptions for industry under the Endangered Species Act, 2007 (ESA).  Environmental organizations are incensed at the government’s abdication of its responsibility to protect and recover Ontario’s endangered plants and animals. Continue reading →

A Submission from the Ontario Health Coalition

(A short preface from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – This is a worthy cause but I think many in Niagara, Ontario know where we are at now. The NHS opened its super hospital at a north Niagara site in west St. Catharines, and many services at other hospitals in central and south Niagara have been shut down and consolidated into this site.

Chidlren at a rally this past winter in Welland, Ontario for saving services at Welland and other suth Niagara hospitals. The services were sucked into the north Niagara, west St. Catharines, Niagara Health System new health centre anyway. Maybe children like this should have been rallying for south Niagara hospital services a decade ago? File photo by Doug Draper

I often wonder where the Ontario Health Coalition was when Niagara area doctors and nurses, and other citizens in this community  wanted this new west St. Catharines hospital to be located at a more central site in the region. Perhaps it was still hoping that we could go on sustaining hospital services at small sites throughout the province at a cost that is virtually unsustainable. There seemed to be a denial on the coalition’s part that some consolidation of services is the only way to make hospitals work in an age of rising medical staff and technology costs, and that the only alternative might be to at least make sure any new hospital is located in a central, accessible site for people in regions like Niagara.

Having said that, there may be some merit in attending the Ontario Health Coalition’s rally on the grounds of Queen’s Park this June. I don’t know. – Doug Draper, NAL.)           

 Toronto, Ontario –What: Day of Action at Queen’s Park Main Legislative Building. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

Monopoly capitalism is a particularly virulent strain of economics which is ascendant in today’s poltical environment of corporate empowerment deals that are robbing us of our economic and political self-determination as a nation.

An icon of this economy is the Monsanto company, which might better be named “Mon Satan”.

Monsanto’s roots are pesticides, with one of its most infamous products being Agent Orange — proclaimed to be “safe” for humans, which ultimately killed or disabled about 900,000 people in Vietnam. Continue reading →

A Submission from the Ontario Clean Air Alliance

Toronto, May 28 – The Pickering A Nuclear Station in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario  is the highest cost nuclear plant in North America while the Pickering B Station is the 5^th highest cost.

Ontario’s aging Pickering nuclear power plant, located along the north shores of Lake Ontario in the Greater Toronto Area, is sucking more than its share out of our wallets..

The good news is that the operating licences for the aging Pickering reactors expire in 2014 and 2015. Phasing out these high-cost reactors would reduce our electricity bills by $850 million per year or 5%.

But despite these potential savings, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is seeking permission from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and Premier Kathleen Wynne to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to extend the operating lives of these aging high-cost reactors for another four to six years. Continue reading →

OTTAWA – This May 27 in the House of Commons, New Democrat MP Malcolm Allen (Welland, Ontario) asked the Minister of Labour to take action to help laid-off employees of Vertis Communications receive the protection they deserve.

Niagara, Ontario area federal representative Malcolm Allen continues fight for justice for former Vertis plant workers

“100 workers at Vertis Communications found themselves out of work this January when the company simply closed its doors and declared bankruptcy…in the United States.” said Allen. “It should have declared bankruptcy in this country but it did not. If it had done so, the Wage Earner Protection Program (WEPP) would have covered these workers to the tune of $3,640.00 for each and every individual worker.”

Since the beginning of the year, former workers of Vertis Communications have been left out in the cold – denied pensions and severance pay owed to them because of Vertis’s bankruptcy. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

I am just getting back from a visit to friends in the Cape Cod/Boston area and one of the major stories dominating the cable news on MSNBC and other cable news channels down there in the U.S.A. is the clown show run by Rob and Doug Ford in Canada’s preeminate city of Toronto.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper enjoys time with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. What a pair.

Once again, these two idiots are making national and now international news as one or the other of the Ford brothers are accused of being possible crack addicts, former hash traffickers, and so on and so forth

Up to now, one might put up with the stupidity of Rob Ford – the mayor as opposed to Doug Ford who sits on the city’s council – for moving to close city libraries and for not knowing who Margaret Atwood, a Pulitzer Prise winning author from Toronto,   is if he passed her on the street. One might even be able to put up with allegations that he has been thrown out of public events in his city for behaving badly or in ways that suggested to some that he was stoned or drunk. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large remains officially at rest for some recharging and retooling until about the beginning of this June. However, we want to take a moment to post this one.

If you are in to high-flying aerobatics as I’ve been (going back to the days when Canada’s Golden Hawks – does anyone remember them? – reigned as the greatest jet-flying team in the world – the Canadian Forces’ world-renown Snowbirds will be doing a gig over the great Falls of Niagara this Wednesday, May 29 at 6 p.m.

More importantly, this Snowbirds show is taking place as one more way of celebrating the 125^th anniversary of Queen Victoria Park, a key piece of the Niagara River corridor Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission was created to protect and preserve for generations to come.

Queen Victoria Park – overlooking the American Falls from the parks corridor in Niagara, Ontario. Celebrate its 125th anniversary. It is a promise to protect at least some of what green space is left along the Niagara River corridor for future generations.

Over the past 125 years and since the creation of Queen’s Victoria Park k – considered by many to be the heart of the  Parks Commission’s lands along the Ontario side of the Niagara River, countless awful decisions have been made around the development of lands in this  province and country. They stand in stark contrast to a decision made by past generations to preserve green space along the shores of this awesome river. Indeed, it is one of the most courageous decisions made for the public good in a world where  shoreline properties are more typically sold off to those private investors with the deepest pockets. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

There is that old line – “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

Canada’s Senate at work – nothing more than pigs ripping Canadian taxpayers off. Contact your MP and demand to get rid of it.

Allow me to alter that line to say – “If it looks like a pig, rolls in the mud like a pig and snorts like a pig, then it is probably a pig.” And that just about sums up the unelected, unaccountable barn of Liberal and Conservative appointed party hacks that make up Canada’s senate.

And the worst of the lot at the moment – the poster pig, if I might say so – is Mike Duffy, a former Canadian broadcast journalist who was a Tory hack then and a Tory hack now, who delivered up a pile of pig manure over where he lives in Canada and his Senate expense, and has now had the $90,000 in expenses he finally said he would pay back to us covered by none other than Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The Ontario Liberal government’s decision two years ago to cancel plans for gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga is enough of a “scandal” to justify the same kind of judicial inquiry that has been investigating and charging politicians in Quebec over corrupt dealings involving public contracts, said Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak during a telephone conference for the media that Niagara At Large participated in this May 16.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

“I think we need a judicial inquiry into this gas plant scandal,” said Hudak, who leads Ontario’s official opposition party, during the teleconference.

“Perjury and destroying public documents is a criminal offense,” Hudak said before adding that “maybe the threat of having jail cell doors shut behind them” will cause the reigning Liberals in Ontario to be more forthcoming about who exactly was responsible and how much of the province’s tax money – possibly above and beyond the $585 million already disclosed – on closing these plant projects down. Continue reading →

A Submission from the Office of U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – This is arguably good news from U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins, who represents the Buffalo/Western New York area.

Another toll or any other burden imposed on cross-border travellers in the Niagara,Ontario/Western New York regions would have further hurt the economies of communities on both sides of the border.)

Rep. Higgins Wins Approval of Amendment to Block Northern Border Toll Study

Congressman Leads Effort in House of Representatives to Stop Land Border Crossing Fee

U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins from the Buffalo/Western New York region.

May 15, 2013 – Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) won approval for an amendment blocking the U. S. Department of Homeland Security’s plan to study a new land crossing fee at our borders.  Higgins introduced the amendment during today’s House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security hearing to markup H.R. 1417, the Border Security results Act of 2013

“This is a huge victory for Western New York and other communities across the Northern Border that rely on the seamless flow of people and goods between the U.S. and Canada to support our economies,” said Higgins.  “The fee would have put an unfair burden on residents who frequently travel across the border and the cost of the proposed study would have taken resources, already stretched thin, away from significantly more critical security needs.”  Continue reading →

A Submission from the not-for-profit group Wipe Out Poverty in Niagara

On Wednesday, May 22, 2013, the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network (NPRN) will be hosting the Wipe Out Poverty in Niagara Call to Action Launch at the Welland Community Wellness Complex from 8:30am – 10am. You are invited to be a part of the community action working together to wipe out poverty across Niagara.

Join us and take a closer look at the growing poverty issues in the Niagara Region and discuss the options we have as a community to cultivate change and wipe it out. There are four things we know about poverty in Niagara that guide the way we address it and the steps we take to reduce it: Poverty is a complex problem with interlocking causes and effects and solutions must also be interlocking, comprehensive, and preventative. We absolutely must address income to address poverty. Poverty is an individual experience and the whole community’s problem. Poverty comes with a price tag. These four facts help to frame the call to action that will be shared May 22. Continue reading →

A Submission from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government

(A brief foreword from Niagara At Large – If you are among those in this region who believes we, the people, should have access to our Great Lakes shorelines, and that they should not just be the monopoly of shoreline developers, you may wish to attned this meeting or at least offer feedback to Niagara’s regional government on this issue.)

Residents are invited to attend Region’s Lakefront Enhancement workshop

Bay Beach in the Crystal Beach area of Fort Erie, Ontario where a high-rise condo is going up that some fear will compromise public access to the beach.

NIAGARA REGION, May 15, 2013 – Media and the public are invited to attend the Lakefront Enhancement Strategy public workshop. The workshop will provide information on how the strategy is being developed and provide opportunities for the public to provide input.

Continue reading →

A Submission from the Office Of Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak

(A short foreword from Niagara At Large – You follow what is such a senseless murder of an Ancaster, Ontario man and you are left with the hollow question – Why?!!! What did they kill this husband and father for? The truck he was selling? Whatever money he had in his wallet?

One individual has already been apprehended and charged with murder. Let’s hope whoever else was involved in this is apprehended as soon as possible so that they do not have time to move on and commit this nightmare on another innocent family.

NAL is running this particular piece because many people in the Niagara area, including Tim Hudak’s riding, became involved in the efforts to search for him and hopefully find him alive until his burned body was discovered this May 13^th.)

Murdered Ancaster, Ontario resident Tim Bosma in file photo with daughter.

On the murder of Tim Bosma, Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak, May 15, 2013 

I want to express my sorrow, and revulsion, at the murder of Tim Bosma of Ancaster.

Tim’s close-knit family had many friends in my nearby riding of Niagara-West Glanbrook. Uncounted numbers of my constituents volunteered to help in the search, which now has come to a terrible conclusion. Continue reading →