Author Archives: dougdraper

A Submission from the Niagara Health System

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

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

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

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

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

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

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

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

A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

A News Brief by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

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

Heritage crusader Pamela Minns

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

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

By Mark Taliano

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

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

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

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

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

Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce CEO Water Sendzik

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Submission from the Ontario New Democratic Party

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

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

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

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

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

Harper government Finance Minister Jim Faherty says nix the Senate.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 27, 2013

Dear Ms. Horwath,

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

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

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

A News Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

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

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

This Post from the Office of Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Submission from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

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

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

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

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

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A train disaster that cost lives and ravaged a community

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

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“Regional transit service launched in Niagara.”

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

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

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

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

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

NAL blackfish film event,

A Brief Comment and Advance by Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

From Maude Barlow, Chairperson, Council of Canadians

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

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow

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

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the Office of Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak

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

Ontario Opposition and Conservative Party Leader Tim Hudak

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

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

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

A Submission from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government

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

File image courtesy of Niagara Region

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

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Okay, so let’s try to get this straight

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

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

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

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

A Brief Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

By Doug Draper

We humans like to think of ourselves as members of the most intelligent species on the planet.

A young Lois Gibbs, with her children in her Love Canal home kitchen, fighting for hundreds of families in her neighbourhood to be compensated for the destruction of the neighbourhood and their homes.

And yet when it comes to warnings received – even from the most eminent of scientists – about things we are doing to our natural world that could bite back at us in ways that do grave harm to ourselves and our communities, it too often seems to take a disaster before we act.

Such was the case with the unregulated dumping of tens-of-thousands of tons of some of the world’s most toxic manmade chemicals in leaky holes in the ground, near the shores of the Niagara River in Niagara County, New York. It wasn’t until the plight of a neigbourhood built over one of those dumps – a neighborhood called Love Canal – made international headlines 35 years ago this year – that the first steps were taken too address these migrating poisons that threatened to destroy a source of freshwater for tens of millions of Americans and Canadians downstream around Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Continue reading →

A Submsission from the Fort Erie Museum in Niagara, Ontario 

Ridgeway in Fort Erie, Ontario  –  All eyes were on Ridgeway in 1866 and Fort Erie Museum Services brings a new look to the Battle of Ridgeway through an dynamic exhibit located right on the battlefield.  This exhibit traces the origin of the conflict to its result – the creation of Canada. Visitors to the battlefield will gain insight into what happened and appreciate the sacrifices made here almost 150 years ago.  

To mark this occasion the museum is hosting a free, special event on October 26 from 2-4 p.m. at the battlefield Activities for all ages will provide a hands-on look at 1866.  A working telegraph will demonstrate the power of instant messaging.  Participants can try their hand at being a war artist, like Alexander Von Erichsen who followed the Fenians and painted the invasion. Many of his watercolour images from the museum collection are included in the exhibit.  Members of the Queen’s Own Rifles and the Welland Field Artillery will be on site. Continue reading →

Submitted to NAL from the Office of Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath

Fort Erie, Ontario, October 1 – New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath was in Niagara today to attend the last races of the season at Fort Erie Race Track. She was joined by NDP horse racing advocate Taras Natyshak. From a grandstand packed with horse racing fans, Horwath rejected Kathleen Wynne’s view that there’s no future for the Fort Erie Race Track.

“Fort Erie Race Track is a big part of Ontario’s history and an important part of the local economy. We can’t let it disappear,” said Horwath. “By promising ‘a different kind of future’ for the Fort Erie Race Track, the Premier is gambling with the economic future of Fort Erie and the entire region. And by turning her back on horse racing at the historic Fort Erie Race Track Kathleen Wynne is turning her back on the people of Niagara.” Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

The accompanying image is one an NAL reader circulated as “something to be thankful for” this Canadian Thanksgiving.

You can click on this image to blow it up on your screen.

Indeed, this courageous teenager from Pakistan, known around the world as Malala, was my personal pick for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the organization that will be awarded the 2013 prize, is certainly a worthy recipient for its efforts to rid the world of these horrible weapons which, as recently as a few months ago, caused the agonizing deaths of hundreds of men, women and children in Syria.

But Malala, who was shot and nearly killed by Talaban zealots a year ago this October for standing up for the right for women in oppressed countries to get any education, is struggling for the kind of thing that gets at the root cause of poverty and conflict in the world. Here is hoping she will be a recipient of the prize in the near future.

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

A Brief Comment from Doug Draper, publisher, Niagara At Large

One of our regular  readers sent a link to one of Rex Murphy’s most recent columns on the depravity of Dalton McGuinty and what is left of his Ontario Liberal government mess.

Save for Mike Harris, this has got to be the worst prick Ontario has had for a premier in half a century.

A few days back, following the release of a report from the office  the Auditor-General of Ontario, concluding that the Liberal McGuinty government’s crass political move to pull the plug on plans to construct gas-powered energy plant in two Liberal ridings in Mississauga and Oakville could cost the province’s taxpayers more than a billion dollars,  this publisher posted a commentary on this pornography.

I also made it clear, just as Rex Murphy has since, that I am so jaded on politics in this province that I question whether the provincial Conservatives and NDP, as much as they are piling on over this scandal, would have done anything much different had they been in power. Such is the cynicism I am sorry to say most of my fellow citizens seem to express about polticians and politics in general these days. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

Canada’s relationship with First Nations peoples is a rapidly accelerating failure, borne of its contempt for international and national law, and an overarching moral weakness,  outgrowths of its atrophied sense of self.

Chief Tecumseh and many of his warriors gave their lives during the War of 1812, making it possible for a limited number of British troops beat o a U.S. invasion of Canada. They hoped for a better deal for their people for their sacrifice – they never really got it.

Selective historical amnesia (and the rewriting of history) urges us to forget that Tecumseh’s Confederation, allied with the British, successfully prevented the US from annexing Canada during the War of 1812.

Manufactured amnesia urges us, as well, to minimize the importance of King George III’s Royal Proclamation of 1763 which proclaims the honour of the Crown to protect the aboriginal rights of its allies for “as long as the sun shines, the rivers flow, and the grass grows….”

Internationally, we are also at cross-purposes with the United Nations, a core agency of world peace.  According to the United Nations Declaration Of  The Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), developments that might impact First Nations territories require the free, prior, informed, (and accommodated) consent(FPIC) of the First Nations involved. Continue reading →

A Brief Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

It looks like the Fort Erie Race Track – a venue for horse racing for more than a century – is dead. 

There will be those in animal activist circles who see this as a good thing, but many others see it as a tragedy for the Town of Fort Erie, Ontario, for those who work at this old track and for those who breed and care for horses around the horse track industry. 

There is no doubt about it, wherever you stand on whether horses should be there for people to ride and race on or whether they should run free, this is another great blow to a Town of Fort Erie that has already seen the province pull the plug on a Slots venue for gambling, on a tourist centre and other private company jobs within the past two or three years. Continue reading →

The U.S. Coast Guard ship lost 100 years ago this fall off the Niagara, Ontario shores of Lake Erie.

Submitted by Paul Kassay

This year is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the United States Coast Guard Light Vessel 82, just off the Lake Erie shores of  Point Abino in the Niagara municipality of Fort Erie, Ontario. Six  U.S. Coast Guard sailors perished in that terrible gale that struck the Great lakes on November 10^th , 1913. and lasting for days.

More than 240 sailors from both Canada and the United States perished in that hundred-year-old storm overall.

In September of 2012, a plaque was dedicated to honour the six sailors that  drowned a few miles off the Crystal Beach shore.  Both U.S. and Canadian coast guards were in attendance with five vessels in the water at the Waterfront Park in the Fort Erie community of Crystal Beach. About 200 people attended the solemn ceremony in a cross-border remembrance. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large publisherDoug Draper

I woke up this October 9^th promising myself that I would stay away from the pornography around Ontario’s Liberal government pulling the plug on two gas-fired energy plants in Oakville and Mississauga – an act we should all now know has cost all of us who live and pay taxes in this province up to a billion or more dollars.

Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak on the attack

But when Ontario’s Conservative opposition leader, Tim Hudak, who expressed just as much interested as we now know the Liberals did in the months leading up to the last October 2011 provincial election in cutting the chord on these plants, now says that if his party wins the next election and he becomes premier, he will launch a “judicial inquiry” into this whole mess, it is hard for this commentator to stand down.

Hudak, a Niagara, Ontario area MPP who is probably facing his last battle as Conservative leader if he doesn’t lead his party to what it feels it is its just reward this time, can almost always be counted on to be the first to circle in for the kill if he thinks he smells some Liberal blood in the water. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

There was a question that was more often asked in our society when a person whose responsibility it was to serve the public violated that responsibility – ‘When is (he or she) going to do the honourable thing and resign’.

Thanks to Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and company, shamed Senator Mike Duffy just keeps on chomping it up from the public trough.

Apparently at this point in our history, where so many in the community have come to almost expected that those serving in government may debase themselves and the office they serve in, words and phrases like “honourable,” “integrity,” and “doing the decent thing” are almost no longer part of any dialogue when it comes to government-sanctioned scalawags in our midst. Continue reading →

NAL more on gas plants,

More Gas From Queen’s Park On Cost Of Gas-Fired Plants

A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

In the months leading up to the last Ontario election in the fall of 2011, large numbers of residents living in the Greater Toronto Area communities of Mississauga and Oakville were expressing their anger at the then Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty over proposals to locate two gas-fired energy plants in their communities.

Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne can never seem to get past the costly mess her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, made of unplugging two gas-fired energy plant proposals in the Greater Toronto Area.

The opposition Conservatives and NDP plugged in to this opposition by each saying, in so many words, that they would make those proposals go away if they won the next provincial election. McGuinty beat them to the punch by pulling the plugs on those power plant proposals at a cost to Ontario taxpayers, as we now know from an Auditor General’s report released this October 8^th, of $675 million and counting.Of course, there is no reason to believe that the cost to Ontario taxpayers would be any less if the Conservatives or NDP prevailed in the last election and followed through on their pledge to unplug these two proposals. Continue reading →

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

Ontario’s Ministry of Environment has given its blessing to a plan going back at least five years and put forward between Rankin Construction and the Regional Municipality of Niagara to build five wind-generating turbines, rising about as high as the length of a football field, on private lands near the Lake Erie shores of Wainfleet.

These five turbines, which their private landowners said ‘yes’ to some five years ago and which would generate enough energy to keep all the electrical equipment working in fired up in 2,500 modern-day homes, have become another battleground in Ontario for those who wish to oppose anything that is described as a “green” or “renewable energy” project on the grounds that anything around wind or even solar is going to soak energy consumers across the province in the pocketbooks and may even be dangerous to our health. Continue reading →

From Brock University, St. Catharines Campus, Niagara, Ontario

Brock University will host its annual “General Brock Commemoration” this Friday, Oct. 11^th to honour the institution’s namesake Maj.-Gen. Sir Isaac Brock who died on Oct. 13, 1812 during the Battle of Queenston Heights in the War of 1812.

General Isaac Brock to be commemorated at Brock University in Niagara, Ontario. You are invited to join in the commemorations.

 
The public event begins at 11 a.m. with guests from the Friends of Fort George 41st Regiment of Foot Fife and Drum Corps, Lincoln and Welland Regiment, Second Lincoln Militia and Old Fort Erie Iroquois re-enactors.
 
The uniformed re-enactors will march along University Road, under the Canadian Tire bridge, up to the front of Schmon Tower where the service will begin with the lowering of the Tower flags.
 
An informal reception will be held in Isaac’s Bar & Grill on campus after the ceremony. Hot cider will be served. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, publisher, Niagara At Large

As we continue to ramp up Niagara At Large following a forced shutdown due to the flooding of our home base this summer, we thought it might also be a good time to revive an on feature here that we call ‘Signs of Our Times’.

Photo by Doug Draper

We launched ‘Signs of Our Times’ three years ago as a periodic post on NAL for focusing on real signs or billboards in our region that say something about the times we live in or the some of the issues facing us as communities. For some reason that we don’t think had anything to do with a lack of interest, Signs of Our Times fell by the wayside. But here we are  re-introducing it with a billboard that was unveiled with some fanfare in the Niagara, Ontario city of Niagara Falls this past spring.

It is a billboard that this NAL publisher finally got around to visiting a few weeks  back on a  corner of Montrose and Lyons Creek Roads, near the QEW in the southwest end of Niagara Falls – a billboard that boldly declares that this will be the site of a new hospital for Niagara Falls and the southern tier municipalities of Fort Erie, Welland, Port Colborne and Wainfleet. Continue reading →

From the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is pleased to present the 39th Annual Ball’s Falls Thanksgiving Festival, a long standing Niagara tradition. The event will run daily October 11 through 14, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Find great art and crafts and other fun for people of all ages the Fall colours at annual Thanksgiving Festival, File photo courtesy of NPCA

Bruce Timms, Chairman of the NPCA remarks “the Ball’s Falls Thanksgiving Festival is considered a favourite tradition for families and visitors who come from far and wide to partake in the festivities. In addition to the many items available for purchase, everyone can enjoy the magnificent beauty of Ball’s Falls, set amidst the majestic Niagara Escarpment and Twenty Valley” Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper, followed by a post from Greenpeace and a petition to the Russian Embassy that you can sign

“John Lennon’s Imagine played mightily in the background (and) from the moment the word ‘Greenpeace’ was first uttered in public, we had it – or we thought we did. Ban the bomb and save the redwoods! Nukes harm trees! At least it was a good start.”

–         From the book ‘The Greenpeace to Amchitika’ by one of Greenpeace’s founding members,  Robert Hunter, recalling the founding of Greenpeace on the west coast of Canada at the dawn of the 1970s.

Paul Ruzychi, a Niagara, Ontario native and Greenpeace activist, charged with piracy while in a Russian jail.

Okay, Russia, enough is enough. When armed officers from your Coast Guard arrested 30 Greenpeace activists and crew members, including Paul Ruzycki, a native of the Niagara, Ontario town of Port Colborne, this past September and threw them in jail that was disturbing enough.

But charging them, as your courts proceed to do this October 4, with piracy – a crime of violence that carries a maximum jail term of up to 15 years in your country – is outrageous. Even your Russian President, Vladimir Putin, was recently quoted saying: “I don’t know the details of what went on, but it’s completely obvious they aren’t pirates.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper 

So at least some of us want to move away from our so very car-dependent culture. We are looking for other options for getting around.

Ontario’s  CarShare president Jason Hammond in Niagara for the lauch of the first care, we as a community, can share with each other. Photo by Doug Draper

Well, then let’s give two thumbs up to Community CarShare and important partners like the City of St. Catharines, the Quartek Group, a progressive-minded architects, engineers and planning company, and others, for launching an alternative to our car dominated culture – even if it involves cars.

This October 3^rd, Community CarShare and its partners, include this Niagara, Ontario city of St. Catharines and important private partners like Quartek, launched the first CarShare program in all of this region. It is a program that allows people to share cars, if and when they need it, without having to go through the expense of owning one. It is, in so many ways, a way out of a car-dependent culture that holds anyone who still owns a car hostage to the high costs of owning, maintaining and insuring a car. Continue reading →

NAL progress Matthews,

From the Office of Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews

(A brief note from Niagara At Large – Well, a few days back we ran a post from Ontario’s opposition Conservative Party charging that the decade of Liberal Party government in the province has added up to “10 lost years.” So in fairness, here is a post from one of the Liberal government’s veteran cabinet ministers celebrating the past 10 years. We leave it to our readers to judge the merits of the points made in these posts.)

October 3, 2013 – When I was elected as part of the Liberal team in 2003, the people of Ontario were suffering from years of reckless decisions by PC and NDP governments.

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews

Across the province, people were dealing with blackouts, long hospital wait times and over-crowded schools. Relationships with our important labour partners were toxic and subway lines were being bulldozed over.

That was 10 years ago. Since then, through the leadership of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, the Ontario Liberal government has turned this province around. Continue reading →

A Commentary  by Doug Draper, Publisher, Niagara At Large

As I was about to cross the Canada-U.S. border this September 30 to pick up my wife at the Buffalo Airport, a CBC radio host was interviewing a Canadian newspaper columnist who believes that a merging of the two countries would be a great idea.

In her just-released book titled ‘Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country’, National Post business columnist Diane Francis argued that such a merger would make Canada and the United States more competitive in a world of rising economic giants like India and China.

All I could do as I listened to Francis, who is a dual (Canadian/ U.S.) citizen, is say; ‘Surely you are kidding? This has got to be a gimmick to sell books.’ Continue reading →

From the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Queen’s Park, October 2, 2013  – During Question Period today, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, called on the government to protect jobs at the Fort Erie Race Track.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath

“For the second time in just over a year, workers at the Fort Erie Race Track got pink slips instead of assurances from this government throwing families and local businesses in Niagara into turmoil once again.” said Horwath.

“This government talks a good talk but will it pony up and provide stable long term funding for the horse racing industry instead of gambling with the economic future of Fort Erie and all of rural Ontario?” Continue reading →

A News Advance from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Populations of bees are crashing across North America and some who see them only as insects with stingers may not mind that so much.

But bees are also the world’s greatest pollinators of blossoming flowers and in regions like Niagara, where fruit orchards play such an important role in our economy, a crash in their numbers could prove catastrophic for a key industry. … not to leave out the impact it could have on our food supply.  Continue reading →

By Sue Corcoran

All the headlines agree. This has been an especially difficult year for Bangladesh.

A river ambulance, supported with funds from Niagara Volunteers for Bangladesh, responds to emergencies in remote areas of the country.

 A series of deadly factory accidents culminated in the worst industrial disaster on record in May, when a garment factory in Savar collapsed killing more than 1,100 people. Also, this past spring, Cyclone Mahasen struck the southern coast of Bangladesh with heavy rain and fierce winds that forced the evacuation of more than a million people. But the people of Bangladesh know adversity only too well and are resilient.

Niagara Volunteers for Bangladesh (NVfB) is an all-volunteer group founded in 2004 to work in partnership with established, local, grassroots NGOs, in Bangladesh, to lessen the hardships of extreme poverty. These partnerships have been very powerful in ensuring our efforts to reach the most impoverished and destitute. Continue reading →

By Elizabeth Chitty

This Friday, October 4^th, in the Niagara, Ontario city of St. Catharines, there will be an opportunity to pay heed to the national disgrace of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

We will gather at 10 a.m. Friday outside Rex Stimers Arena, facing Geneva Street in St. Catharines, and walk to Centennial Park via Gale Crescent to gather at the totem pole for drumming, singing and to share stories and the names of ‘Sisters in Spirit’. And all are welcome as I write this as an ally of aboriginal people who encourages other allies to join us and raise awareness of this appalling issue. Continue reading →

From the Office of Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

QUEEN’S PARK – October 1, 2013 – While the Liberals will undoubtedly conjure the celebratory illusion that their 10 years in power Wednesday will not mark a lost decade, the Ontario PC Caucus will today shine the light that will lead Ontario out of its economic darkness.

Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says we in Niagara, Ontario and rest of province have had 10 lost years under the Liberals.

“The way out of this black hole is to face the fact that the debt and deficit under the Liberals are already out of control,” says PC Finance Critic Vic Fedeli. “The reality is that a half million men and women wake up every day without a job to go to. And that’s just wrong.”

“All this has to change, and we will change it,” says Fedeli. “As Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak has said: it won’t be easy, but it can be done, and it will be worth it.” Continue reading →

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

It was a no brainer four months ago when Niagara area MPP Cindy Forster pressed Ontario’s Liberal government to pass a bill that would ban tanning beds for people 18 years old and younger, and it is a no brainer now.

Niagara students David Nguyen, left, and Sarah Lukaszczyk and Karen Babcock, to the right, present MPP Cindy Forster this past spring with more than 2,500 post cards, signed by young people in support of a tanning bed ban in Ontario.

So what is Premier Kathleen Wynne and her government waiting for ? What is the hold up when five other Canadian provinces have already approved such a ban and when public health experts across North America have been warning for years that the amount of UV exposure from these tanning systems increases the risk of skin cancer and raises that risk for younger people by as much as 75 per cent? Continue reading →

By Dr. Randy Malamud, Regents’ Professor of English at Georgia State University and chair of the department

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – With the September 27 screening of Blackfish in Niagara, Ontario in support of four individuals sued by Marineland, NAL has received permission to post  this insightful piece featured on the independent news and commentary site TruthOut this September 28. We thank Randy for granting that permission and hope its posting here enriches the discussion and debate around capturing and keeping marine mammals in captivity for reasons of commercial proft and amusement.)

In  Blackfish, Gabriella Cowperthwaite’s sleeper hit documentary about a tragedy at Orlando’s SeaWorld, audiences are tempted (or at least I was) to empathize with Tilikum, the orca who killed his trainer Dawn Brancheau during a 2010 performance. The whale had been abused for decades in the service of mindless human entertainment masquerading as environmental education. (“SeaWorld artfully combines education and entertainment in a way that connects people to the sea and sea life like nowhere else,” their webpage boasts.)

I felt a kind of poetic justice in the whale’s eventual revolt against the handler, who must have epitomized, for him, the humiliating institutions of captive animal displays where he had had the misfortune to spend his life.

He was a “killer whale,” and he killed – what part of this was unexpected?

To continue reading  this commentary by Randy Malamud please click on  http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18954-a-tale-of-a-whale  , then after you have read this piece return to Niagara At Large at www.niagaratlarge.com and leave your views on Randy’s commentary here so we can keep the discussion on this issue going.

By John Bacher

 “Way down upon the Maumee River, Far, far, away, There’s where  my heart is turning ever, That’s where the algal stays, Up and down old Lake Erie, Sadly I roam, Still longing for clean beaches, Without slimy foam, Old Lake Eire  is sad and dreary, Everywhere I roam,  Oh,   how my heart grows so weary, Making me moan and groan …”

The fish are dying in Lake Erie, alright. This one swamped up along the shore, surrounded by algae we humans are, most indeed, responsible for. Lake Erie dying for the second time in half a century? When are we ever going to learn.

“All around the beach I wandered, When I was young, Then may happy days I squandered, Many songs I sung, When I was playing with my brother, Happy was I, Now the green algae is piling  higher, Making the fish die. …”

Words  by John Bacher to the tune of ‘Way Down Upon The Swanee River

It may seem strange to those in Niagara, Ontario and the Buffalo/Erie County, New York area  that way down upon the Maumee River far, far away in Ohio  there is an impact on our region from the phosphorous loadings of the American corn belt. Continue reading →

Ontario NDP Health Critic France Gelinas

A Statement from the Office of Ontario NDP Health Critic France Gelina 

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – Some of us who choose to pay attention may recall that this is the same Ontario eHealth agency that blew away about a billion dollars in consultant contracts to create a provincial health records registry I don’t believe is fully functional to this day.)

September 27^th, 2013 – “ Ontario’s precious healthcare dollars should be invested in helping people get healthy and stay healthy. Not golden parachutes for eHealth Executives. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Ontario’s Liberal government ought to stop talking about expanding Go Transit services into the Niagara region and start doing it by getting a regular Go Train service on the rails, says Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster.

Cindy Forster, representing the Niagara, Ontario riding of Welland in the provincial legislature, calls for more train transit servces between this region and the Greater Toronto Area. .

During Question Period in the Ontario Legislature this September 25^th, Forster called on the Liberal government to get going on a promise it has previously made to move toward regular, daily Go Train service between communities in Niagara and the Greater Toronto Area.

“It’s bad enough that VIA Rail service (a federally funded rail transit system) has been slashed,” said Forster, “but it’s even harder for Niagara families to understand why this government keeps wavering on expansion of Go Train service. …. The Liberal government,” she added, “is so focused on sticking Ontarians with the bill for more transit promised in the GTA, that it seems to have forgotten that commuters depend on buses and trains to get them to work in regions like Niagara.” Continue reading →

NAL Final Reminder Blackfish,

From NAL publisher Doug Draper

This Friday evening at 7 p.m., you have the opportunity to view an exclusive screening of Blackfish – a crtically acclaimed, Oscar contender of a film that dramatizes the plight of whales being exploited for peoples’ entertainment at amusement parks – at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School on 101 Glen Morris Drive, below the Niagara Escarpment and  off Glenridge Avenue in St. Catharines, Ontario.

An Orca – a species of whale dubbed so wrongly and unfortunately as “killer whales” – does what it was trained to do at an amusement park somewhere in North America.

And by buying a ticket to attend this special event, which will include expert speakers on marine mammals, you will be supporting four advocates for the freedom of marine mammals, including three former employees from the Marineland Park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, who have been slapped with million dollar lawsuits for speaking out about the park in ways the park’s owners and operators allege were damaging to its interests.

You can purchase tickets to this event for $15 at the door or for $10 in advance at the Rise Above Restaurant on 120 St. Paul Street in downtown St. Catharines.

You can also find out more about the film, the purpose for this event and click on a link for a trailer for Blackfish by visiting a story NAL posted here about a week ago. Find that story by clicking on https://niagaraatlarge.com/2013/09/15/critically-acclaimed-documentary-to-premiere-in-niagara-ontario-in-support-of-defendants-slapped-with-marineland-lawsuits/ .

 (Niagara At Large invites all of those who dare to share their first and last name with their views on this issue to share a comment in the space below.)

By Dan Wilson

So it appears we’re going to have another Native deer hunt in Short Hills. That will be the second one this year, only this time the park will be closed for all four weekends in November, up from two weekends back in January.

Ontario parks officers and Native representatives face off with opponents of a deer hunt in Sjhort Hills Provincial Park in Niagara, Ontario. Photo by Dan Wilson

The announcement came from the Ministry of Natural Resources on September 19^th  at White Meadows Farms in Pelham, where the MNR staged an impromptu open house to answer the public’s questions.

A few representatives of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy also attended to clear up any misconceptions people might have about the “harvest” and why we (anyone not Native to Canada) need to respect the Natives’ culture. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

For years now, the federal government has been censuring, muzzling, de-funding, and laying off scientists, librarians, archivists, statisticians, and researchers in its efforts vacate government involvement in core research, and to shift its focus to industry-specific needs.

Scientists forced to rally for science in Harper’s Canada.

There are three granting councils that allocate federal funding for research in Canada: the  Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council (NSERC), and the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR).  In constant dollars, from 2007-2013, base funding for SSHR has decreased by 10.1%; funding for NSERC has decreased by 6.4%; and funding for CIHR has decreased by 7.5%. Meanwhile, NSERC funding aimed at “company-specific” problems has increased (between 2001-2012) by 1178%, while success rates for CIHR grants has dropped by 61 per cent. Continue reading →

News and Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Less than six months after we learned of the death of Peter Kormos, one of Niagara, Ontario’s and this province’s political icons, we are suddenly struk by the news that Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor is resigning from politics.

Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor, speaking out at a rally to save hospitals in south Niagara, a move that might not have won many brownie points with his own Liberal government. File photo by Doug Draper

Not that Kim Craitor, just a few days away from celebrating his 67^th birthday, has taken the final exit, as Peter Kormos so unfortunately did when he was found dead at his Welland home late this past March. Kim is still very much in this world for himself and his family. But he has suddenly announced, this September 24^th afternoon, that he is leaving public office just the same.

In a brief written statement, and I’ve been told that Craitor was not doing interviews this day as much as he has always been available for interviews in the past, he said that “while it is never a good time to leave, after ten very productive and rewarding years, now I need to put my health and family first.” One of Craitor’s close friends and helpers told NHL that when it comes down to it, Craitor has given it his all and feels physically and mentally burned out. Continue reading →

By Daniel K. Wilson

(A Brief Foreword from Niagara At Large Doug Draper – I first met Dan Wilson close to two decades ago while still covering environmental issues for the late, great, independent St. Catharines Standard.

Dan was one of the earlier individuals in this Niagara, Ontario region who worked to raise awareness about the wrongness of imprisoning magnificent ocean mammals like orca whales and dolphins in cement tanks in amusement parks like Marineland in Niagara Falls. For his efforts he was later sued by Marineland – a lawsuit that was later dropped, but not before Canadian scientist and CBC Nature of Things host David Suzuki spoke her to raise funds for Dan’s defense.

 What is also true of Dan, and what I learned much later, is that he is also a very talented nature photographer and Niagara At Large has been fortunate to feature some of his photos here during the first couple of years this site has been doing its best to offer something new and independent in this region of the world.

This October you can enjoy some of Dan’s fine photography on display at the Pelham Public Library, located at 43 Pelham Square in the town of Fonthill. For further information on the library and its location and hours click on www.pelhamlibrary.on.ca/ .

 Now I leave it to Dan to discuss this exhibit of his work in his words.)

Dan calls this photo ‘Angry Bull Tree’. 

I see faces everywhere; always have. When I was a little kid I did what other little kids did: I looked up in the sky searching for faces and animals hiding in the clouds. But being a creative and somewhat obsessive little guy I didn’t stop there. I would look for faces in floor tiles, on trees or floating around in my cereal bowl.

And I still do. I can spend hours at Little Cove near Tobermory scouring the beach in search of boulders that seem to be staring back up at me, or carefully inspecting every frozen puddle I come across in Short Hill Provincial Park hoping to find something that catches my eye. Continue reading →