Author Archives: dougdraper

Paving Paradise – Gutting Planning Rules Sacrifices Natural Heritage to Urban Sprawl

“They paved paradise, put up a parking lot. …”– Joni Mitchell, from Big Yellow Taxi, 1969 

A Brief Introduction by Doug Draper, February 2nd, 2020  – 

Here we now are in the second decade of the 21^st Century, with a potentially catastrophic climate emergency facing us down, and we still have individuals in decision-making positions and developers, stuck in the last century and ready to pave over even more of what’s left of Niagara’s natural heritage.

Among the more precious places that these dinosaurs in the development industry and public office are looking to wreak havoc on now are Waverly Woods in Fort Erie and Thundering Waters in Niagara Falls.

I wrote and posted the following Foreword piece in July of 2019 to a commentary I wrote while I was still working as an environment reporter at The St. Catharines Standard in the 1980s and 90s.

That commentary, on the costly , destructive impact of run-away, urban sprawl on our communities and on our environment is unfortunately still relevant, thanks to those dinosaurs in the development industry and who we still, tragically, still have in public office who opt for unsustainable growth over a healthy, sustainable future for present and future generations.

How sad and disturbing it is that commentary I wrote more than two decades ago is still relevant today.

Here it all is –

A Foreword by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted February 2nd, 2020 on Niagara At Large

To repeat one of those mangled phrases made famous by the late New York Yankees baseball legend Yogi Berra; “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford pitches for “business” at almost any cost to the environment.

It is a phrase that seems fitting in Ontario these days as the province’s current premier, Doug Ford, and his Tory government take us back a couple of decades to the dark years of Ford’s old friend and mentor, former Tory premier Mike Harris, when cutting and gutting policies and programs for protecting what is left of our natural heritage to unleashing low -density urban sprawl was the rule of the day. 

Doug Ford, then still leader of the opposition Ontario PC Party, in Niagara Falls, already pledging  to make Ontario “open for business” in the weeks leading up to the June, 2018 provincial election. Continue reading →

“I don’t think you have a room full of people (from across Niagara) here because they believe that the wetlands are going to be preserved.” – Carolynn Ioannoni, one of the all too few Niagara Falls city councillors opposed to the controversial Thundering Waters development project, speaking to representatives for the developers at a public meeting this January 30th

It was standing room only at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls, Ontario for a public meeting on conroversial plans to urbanize the Thundering Waters Forest

A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher       Doug Draper

Posted January 31st, 2020 on Niagara At Large

It was a heated public meeting, to say the least.

Niagara citizens making their statement at a public meeting over plans to contaminate a Thundering Waters Forest rich with wetlands with urban sprawl.

The big room in Niagara Falls’ Gale Centre was full – there were more than 200 people and there was standing room only – and you could cut the anger and the lack of any further patience for the proposal at hand with a knife.

And the overriding message that this large gathering of Niagara citizens – young people and old, and parents and their grandparents concerned for their children’s future – had for a China-based developer called GR (CAN) Investments, and for Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and those on his city council who have shamelessly rode shotgun for this foreign development group could not have been more clear.

That message, to the China-based developer and to Diodati and the majority on his council, was this – ‘How much of we don’t want you setting a foot inside Thundering Waters Forest with our buzz saws and bulldozers do you not understand?”

Diodati, not so surprisingly, was not in that room this January 30^th to hear it. Continue reading →

Creating a ‘Geopark’ designation in Niagara for Recognizing and Protecting our Geological Heritage

A Free Public Discussion – On Monday, February 3^rd, 2020 at 6:30 P.M at the Main (downtown) Branch of the Welland Public Library

An Invite from Jocelyn Baker and the Brock University United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Posted January 31st, 2020 on Niagara At Large

You are invited by the Brock University United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair, Community Sustainability: From Local to Global to a Community Sustainability Science.

Café Series

The winter 2020 series aims to present the different United Nations designations that are already existing or are coming to the Niagara region. These cafes are a great opportunity to learn about the various designations and the benefits that they can bring to our community. Continue reading →

‘All of this plastic pollution is ending up in the food that we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.’

Plastic waste washed up along the shores of the Great Lakes

A Statement from Vito Buonsante, Plastics Program Manager at Environmental Defence, on the federal government’s Draft Science Assessment of Plastic Pollution

Posted January 31, 2020 on Niagara A Large

A poster circulated in 2019 by the Alliance for the Great Lakes. a lakes-wide citizens group that has been fighting plastic and other forms of pollution in the Great Lakes now for years.

Toronto, Onario – The federal government’s Draft Science Assessment of Plastic Pollution confirms what we already know: plastic pollution is everywhere and that urgent action is needed to stop it.

Plastics are harming wildlife and possibly human health. According to the assessment’s findings, 29,000 tonnes of plastics escape into the environment in Canada annually.

All of this plastic pollution is ending up in the food that we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. Meanwhile, wildlife are getting entangled in it or are ingesting it, causing injury or even death. Continue reading →

St. Catharines MPP demands action to fix  shortage of PSWs (personal support workers) in long-term care homes

A Statement from St. Catharines NDP MPP Jennie Stevens

Posted January 30^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens

St. Catharines, Ontario  — NDP MPP Jennie Stevens (St. Catharines) has released a statement in response to a new report from the Ontario Health Coalition revealing that over the last decade, the number of support hours provided to residents in long-term care has gone down despite an increase in demand due to a shortage of trained personal support workers (PSWs).

“Residents in long-term care are not getting the level of care they deserve, while thousands more are left to languish on wait lists, often stuck on gurneys in overcrowded hospital hallways and emergency rooms. Continue reading →

Breaking News from the World Health Organization

Posted January 30th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – This brief media advisory was posted on the afternoon of Thursday, January 30^th, 2020.)

Following the advice of the Emergency Committee today, WHO Director-General has declared the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

In China, more than 7700 cases have been confirmed, and 170 people have died.

There are 82 additional cases confirmed in 18 countries (including three, to date, in Canada).

NIAGARA AT LARGE encourages you to join the conversation by sharing your views on this post in the space following the Bernie Sanders quote below.

A Reminder that we only post comments by individuals who also share their first and last names.

For More News And Commentary From Niagara At Large – An independent, alternative voice for our greater bi-national Niagara Region – become a regular visitor and subscriber to NAL at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com .

“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders

Four Years On, It’s Time for the China Developers and their Enablers to Take a Walk

Attend the Open House on this Controversial Development Proprosal, this Thursday, January 30^th at 5 p.m., at the Gale Centre in Niagara Falls, Ontario

ACommentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher            Doug Draper

Posted January 29th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Four year!

Some four years have passed since residents across Niagara began fighting a foreign corporation and its  local enablers to save a gem of an ecosystem in our Niagara River watershed  from urban sprawl. 

Indeed, it was almost four years ago to this day, on January 27^th, 2016, that more than 200 residents  –  many of them young people feeling passionate about protecting what is left life-sustaining resources of this region for their future, packed the big meeting room at the Balls Falls Conservation Centre in Niagara.

A peak at the rich biodiversity inside the Thundering Waters Forest.

They came to protest plans by China investors to intrude on areas in and around wetlands, woodlands and wild grasses in Niagara Falls’ 484-acre Thundering Waters Forest, located  in the southwest end of Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The China-based investors were, and still are  proposing to build what they called a ‘PARADISE’ community  (now rebranded  ‘RIVERFRONT’) with the support of Niagara area decision makers, including Niagara Falls’ Mayor, Jim Diodati. Continue reading →

Province Appoints Hodgson to Serve as Chair of Niagara’s Source Protection Committee for Water

A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted January 29th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Then Lincoln regional councillor Bill Hodgson aslo voted ‘NO’

Members of the old  cabal tried to crush him but he’s back.

Bill Hodgson, a former Niagara regional councillor who disappeared from the board of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority three years ago and in the wake of his efforts to have an independent audit done on NPCA operations, is back.

The Ontario’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation Parks has just appointed him to serve for a two-year term as Chair of the Niagara Source Protection Committee – a committee that works hand-in-hand with the NPCA to monitor and protect local sources of water in the Niagara watershed.

News of Bill Hodgson’s appointment came this January 28^th in an NPCA media release that Niagara At Large is including below. Continue reading →

What is Left of our Natural Heritage is this Region of Ours is Worth Far More than $1.5 Billion to This and to Future Generations

A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted January 27^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

It would mean an investment of $1.5 billion into the Niagara region, claim the representatives of the China-based GR (CAN) Investment firm that have been pressing for more than four years now to build a residential and commercial complex within the perimeters of 484 acres of lands many of us in Niagara, Ontario have come to know as the Thundering Waters Forest.

It would, they go on to claim, create hundreds of jobs (perhaps as many as a thousand) in its construction, and thousands more once it is built.

An important  question that all of us, including our decision makers in Niagara, should consider is this.

How much is a place like Thundering Waters – a green area rich with trees and other vegetation, and with some of the small percentage of provincially significant wetlands we have left in our region – worth?

The Thundering Waters lands in Niagara Falls, Ontario, inside the orange lines to the left in this aerial photo, with the Niagara River, spilling over the Falls, in the upper right.

I am betting that a majority of people living in this region believe that it is worth far more the way it is – as a priceless piece of our natural heritage – than $1.5 billion and however many of those jobs they are dangling out there will be offered to Canadians. Continue reading →

Wife of First Case, Now Confirmed Positive, has been in Self-Isolation

News from the Ontario Government

Posted January 27th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Ontario’s Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. David Williams

TORONTO, Ontario  — Today (this January 27th), Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health, confirmed  that the wife of the province’s first case of Wuhan novel coronavirus has tested positive for the virus at Ontario’s public health laboratory. Since arriving in Toronto with her husband, this individual has been in self-isolation.

“We are working alongside Toronto Public Health, who has been in regular contact with the individual during their self-isolation period,” said Dr. Williams.

“Given the fact that she has been in self-isolation, the risk to Ontarians remains low.”

Map of cases of the virus across Canada and the United States as of January 26th, 2020. As of this January 27th, add one more case to he map of Ontario

A Footnote from Doug Draper, Niagara At Large – NAL will continue posting news on any f significant developments releated to this extremely serious health issue. Continue reading →

‘Niagara Region’s waste audit results show approximately 50 per cent of what residents put in their garbage is organic waste and 14 per cent is recyclables which could have otherwise been diverted using the Blue Box, Grey Box or Green Bin.’

News from Niagara’s Regional Government

Posted January 27^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Niagara, Ontario – Niagara Region is changing the price of garbage tags from $2.00 per tag to $2.50 effective Feb. 1, 2020. This is to move towards full cost recovery of garbage collection and part of our continued effort to increase the diversion of  recyclable and organic materials, which are currently being placed in the garbage stream.

Each year Niagara Region staff  look at the costs of garbage collection, including the costs associated with collecting and disposing of an additional garbage bag or container. The price charged for the garbage tag is meant to cover the cost of the collection of that additional garbage bag (or container). Continue reading →

“Sadly, Jewish communities in Canada and around the world continue to face threats of violence, xenophobia, and rising anti-Semitism. As a country, through our words and actions, we need to address the resurgence of anti-Semitism at home and abroad.” – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

A Statement by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Posted January 27^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today (this January 27^th) issued the following statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day:

“The Holocaust was one of the darkest chapters in human history. Today, we remember and pay tribute to the more than six million Jews who were senselessly murdered during the Holocaust, and the countless other victims of Nazi atrocities.

“We also honour the survivors and share their stories of courage, hope, and perseverance against unspeakable evil, and recognize the heroes who risked their lives to save others.

Child survivors a the Auschwitz death camp when it was liberated in January 2020.

“Governor General, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, is in Poland today to attend  the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Burkina and highlight Canada’s continued commitment to preserve the memories of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. Today’s  visit follows her trip to Jerusalem to attend the Fifth World Holocaust Forum, “Remembering the Holocaust: Fighting Antisemitism.” Continue reading →

NPCA Enforcement Actions Come Days Before City of Niagara Falls Hosts Open House Meeting on Controversial Thundering Waters Development Project

A banner place across one of the entrances to Thundering Waters by concerned citizens in 2017. File photo

A Foreword by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper, followed by posts from the citizens group A Better Niagara and Niagara environmentalist Owen Bjorgan

Posted January 26th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

From Doug Draper –

Let me say right up front that over the past week or so,  Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) field staff appear to have taken actions that were both necessary and highly commendable to protect significant features of our natural heritage within the Niagara watershed.

One of the many frogs making their home in wetlands, designated as provincially significant, in Thundering Waters in Niagara Falls, Ontario. File Photo courtesy of Owen Bjorgan

And for that, staff at the NPCA, responsible for enforcing government legislated conservation and environmental protection rules, and for investigating possible violations of them, deserve credit from all of us who want to see what is left of our natural heritage protected and preserved for generations to come.

The actions taken by NPCA staff over the last number of days include the issuance of a stop work order, followed by the issuance of a notice of violation to the China-based development firm GR (CAN) Investment Co. Ltd for allegedly disturbing or damaging provincially significant wetlands (PSWs) and/or protected buffer zones around them. Continue reading →

Extensive Protocols in Place to Detect and Contain Cases

January 25, 2020 5:55 P.M.

From the Ontario Ministry of Health

Posted January 25th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

TORONTO — Today, Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, announced Ontario’s first presumptive confirmed case of Wuhan novel coronavirus in Toronto.

On Thursday, January 23, 2020, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre admitted a patient brought in by paramedics who presented with fever and respiratory symptoms. The patient was screened, recent travel history to Wuhan, China, was confirmed and the patient was immediately put under isolation. The hospital and paramedic service took all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of staff and other patients. Continue reading →

Niagara Centre Liberal MP Vance Badawey

“We owe it to ourselves and to future generations to protect and preserve (our) waterways, ensuring that we continue to be responsible stewards of the environmental, economic, and social impacts the Great Lakes have on our daily lives.”                             – Niagara Centre MP Vance Badawey

A News Release from the Niagara Centre Constituency Office of Federal Liberal MP Vance Badawey

Posted January 24^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

A view of Lakes Erie and Ontario from space. We are down there, somewhere between them, and it is our job to protest, restore and preserve what is left of the natural features vital to the health of these fresh waters and our lives.

Welland, Ontario – Across the country, Canadians are leading grassroots action to protect the environment, tackle plastic pollution, conserve nature, and protect our waterways. These initiatives are creating good local jobs and improving the environment for the next generation.

This January 24th, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, launched the annual call for proposals for eight environmental funding programs. These programs will contribute to community-based projects that will have positive and measurable impacts on the environment and Canadians. Continue reading →

“It’s a respiratory infection with a virus apparently new to humans, which has shown capacity for person-to-person transmission through direct contact with respiratory secretions.” – Eduardo Fernandez, Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, Brock University

News from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario

Posted January 24^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Niagara, Ontario – As reported cases of the Novel coronavirus in China and other east-Asian nations fuel global fears, a Brock University expert says specific factors could influence further transmission. Continue reading →

“There are very few really stark black and white stories.”

The Veteran PBS Journalist Died This January 23^rd at age 85 – R.I.P.

A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

January 24^th, 2020 at Niagara At Large

Jim Lehrer, the consummate journalist, the way he looked during the Watergate years in the 1970s. He was often quoted saying that he never wanted the story to be about him – something you don’t hear from many ‘celebrity news show hosts’ today.

Long before the  relentless parade of circus barkers we have posing as journalists and polluting the cable networks and airwaves today, there were towering figures in broadcast news like American anchors Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor, and Canada’s own Barbara Frum and Peter Gzowski.

And there was one of the very first pioneers of news on public television, Jim Lehrer.

Jim Lehrer, who died this January 22^nd at age 85, also grew to prominence in his field when there was still a generally agreed to set of facts, and long before politicians and others frightened by the truth and opposed to serious scrutiny began branding  journalists as “enemies of the people” and purveyors of “fake news.” Continue reading →

The Ford Government’s Cuts  Are Just Making It Worse

A  Commentary by Linda McKellar, a retired hospital nurse living in Niagara, Ontario

Posted January 23rd, 2020 on Niagara At Large

(The following commentary by Linda McKellar is a response to a January 22nd, 2020 news release from Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates.

In the  news release, posted on Niagara At Large earlier this January 23^rd, Gates  raises concerns and admonishes Ontario’s Ford government over what he characterizes as “shocking overcrowding” conditions in Ontario hospitals, including those at the Greater Niagara General Hospital (GNGH) site in his home riding. Gates was reacting to overcrowding statistics cited in a recent CBC news report.

Now here is Linda McKellar’s response from the perspective of someone who spent many years working in Niagara hospitals.)

Why was Wayne Gates shocked?

I’ve been retired (from hospital nursing) for ten years and it had already gone on for a decade even then! Do people have their heads in a box?

Members of the Niagara citizens group the Yellow Shirt Brigade, from left, Merilyn Athoe, Joy Russell and Linda McKellar, the author of this commentary, in front of a sign protesting plans in progress a decade ago to gut the hospital in the Niagara, Ontario municipality of Fort Erie. File photo by Doug Draper

I presented this case to Andrea Horwath in a speech at a public hearing ten years ago. To her credit, she was the only provincial politician there and I know she did bring it up at Queen’s Park.

Hallway medicine was always bad but with Ford’s cuts (to health care and related progams and services)  it can only get worse.

If you don’t have enough of something already, why would you reduce it even more? Continue reading →

The History Lab, a partnership between academic historians and community organizations, will be holding its third annual Honouring International Holocaust Remembrance Day event on Monday, Jan. 27 at the Niagara Artists Centre in St. Catharines from 6 to 8 p.m.

Memorial ceremonies marking the end of the Holocaust and the end of the Second World War will be held around the world.

A News Release from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario

Posted January 23^rd, 2020 on Niagara At Large

St. Catharines resident Jack Veffer will be talking about his experiences as a child survivor of the Holocaust at a special event to mark the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, Jan. 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Niagara Artists Centre in St. Catharines. The event is organized by Brock Associate Professor of History Elizabeth Vlossak, The History Lab, and community partners.

Born in Amsterdam in 1940, Jack Veffer and his brother Maurice survived the Holocaust by fleeing to Switzerland with a neighbour.

His parents and much of his extended family died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

“The road to recovery has been long and painful,” says Veffer. “We survivors all have a sacred mission to bear witness as long as we can. It might help rid humanity of racism and provide the healing the world so badly needs.

“Knowledge is the bulwark against racism and antisemitism.”

With only around 5,000 Holocaust survivors still alive in Canada, the opportunity for younger generations to learn from eye-witnesses is dwindling. Continue reading →

‘For 181 days between January to June of 2019, the Greater Niagara General Hospital Site was over 100% capacity for 176 days.’

(And that is just one hospital site. What about the other hospitals  in Niagara and neighbouring regions?)

News from the Constituency Office of Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates

Posted January 23^rd, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates

QUEEN’S PARK, Ontario – Wayne Gates, NDP MPP for Niagara Falls, responded to a report from CBC news that over the course of 181 days in 2019, the GNGH Niagara Falls Site was over 100% capacity for 176 days.

“I’m shocked but not surprised to see that number – residents have been letting this government know for years that this hospital is chronically overcrowded and underserviced,” said Gates. “These stats should be a slap in the face to the government, Ford’s government has the ability to provide that care – so what are they waiting for? What other stats do they need to see before they act?” Continue reading →

A Statement from Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority Board Chair Brenda Johnson Regarding Board Expenses

Posted January 23^rd, 2020 at Niagara At Large

NPCA’s new board Chair, Hamilton City Councillor Brenda Johnson

Niagara, Ontario – In a continued effort to be transparent regarding NPCA board member expenses, Chair Brenda Johnson would like to publicly disclose she has voluntarily donated her NPCA per diem to the Glanbrook Conservation Committee to support their volunteer work at Binbrook Conservation Area, in Hamilton.

The Glanbrook Conservation Committee is a group of volunteers working to improve the habitat for wildlife in what was previously Glanbrook Township, now the City of Hamilton.

The group includes, naturalists, environmentalists, bird watchers, hikers, canoeists, as well as fishermen and hunters. They have been active in the community for over 25 years, accomplishing many projects at Binbrook C.A. such as maintaining the Tyneside Trail, installing blue bird boxes, fish habitat cribs, invasive species identification and removal, the annual Spring Fishing Derby and many more conservation related initiatives. Continue reading →

Greta Thunberg, at a 2019 climate action rally in Vancouver B.C. in

The Now 17-Year-Old Swedish Activist and Winner of the 2019 International Children’s Peace Prize, Who Last Year Triggered A Global Climate Action Movement, Laid It On The Line for International Leaders this January 21^st at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

“Planting trees is good, of course,” she said, “but it’s nowhere near enough. … Let’s be clear. We don’t need a ‘low carbon economy.’ We don’t need to ‘lower emissions.’ Our emissions have to stop if we are to have a chance to stay below the 1.5-degree target. … We must forget about net zero. We need real zero.”

“Our house is still on fire,” added the young climate activist, in conclusion. “Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour. And we are telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else.”

A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted January 22^nd, 2020 in Niagara At Large

“We are telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else.”

Greta Thunberg made the cover of Time Magazine this December 2019 as its “Person of the Year’ during a year she played a leadership role in building a world-wide movement for climate action.

Those were among the final words that Greta Thunberg, who was named Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ this past December 2019, and who has emerged as a hero to countless millions around the world, including this veteran environment writer, for her clarion call for climate action, to an audience, generations older than her, at the World Economic Forum this January 2020 in Davos, Switzerland.

You will act, she told them, if you love your children above all else.

I have often whispered the same words as I have thought about so many people who are members of my Baby Boomer Generation, and about generations younger than older than mine, who have children and, in some cases, grandchildren of their own, yet continue wanting to delay action on addressing the climate crisis, or continue to deny that there is anything humans are doing that is driving us, ever more rapidly, to the point of no return. Continue reading →

“I think much of the discussion concerning plastics in the environment has been focused on the oceans and we are quickly understanding that plastic pollution is also an important issue closer to home in the Great Lakes.” – Professor of Geography and Tourism Studies Michael Pisaric, Brock University

News from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario

Posted January 22nd, 2020 on Niagara At Large

A collection of plastics picked up on Sunset Beach in St. Catharines in October, 2019. Photo courtesy of Brock University

Niagara, Ontario – A day at the beach doesn’t often involve lab work, but for a group of Brock University fourth-year Geography students tasked with assessing plastic waste on the shores of Lake Ontario last fall, it was just that.

Back in October (2019), students from Professor of Geography and Tourism Studies Michael Pisaric’s GEOG 4P26 class visited Sunset Beach in north St. Catharines to measure the quantity of plastics turning up in the sand.

Students measured out plots on the beach and sifted through the sand to collect as many tiny pieces of plastic as they could. They compiled their findings in lab reports for the end of the Fall Term.

The results are now in, and they’re alarming.

Continue reading →

A Free Event in St. Catharines, Ontario, with Holocaust Survivor and Book Author Jack Veffer

On Monday, January 27^th, 2020 at the Niagara Artists Centre on 354 St. Paul Street in Downtown St. Catharines

An Invite from St. Catharines/Niagara resident and community activist Desmond Sequeira

Posted January 22nd, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Dear Fellow-Advocates for Systemic Social Justice and Everyone,

With the completely unacceptable rise of anti-Semitism in North America, I  encourage you to attend this event.

Thanks, Des

NIAGARA AT LARGE encourages you to join the conversation by sharing your views on this post in the space following the Bernie Sanders quote below.

A Reminder that we only post comments by individuals who also share their first and last names.

For More News And Commentary From Niagara At Large – An independent, alternative voice for our greater bi-national Niagara Region – become a regular visitor and subscriber to NAL at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com .

“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders

Poverty Reduction Network in Niagara Celebrates Griffiths Performance Physiotherapy

“We are pleased to pay a living wage to our staff and to show that we value them. We hope to inspire businesses around us to get on board with paying a living wage and to also give back to our community.”                                                                                         – Amanda Griffiths, Clinic Director and Co-owner of Griffiths Performance Physiotherapy.

News from the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network

Posted January 22^nd, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Niagara Poverty Reduction Network’s past Chair Glen Walker (right) presents living wage certificate to Griffiths Performance Physiotherapy owners in Niagara Falls

The Niagara Poverty Reduction Network is pleased to announce that Griffiths Performance Physiotherapy has become a certified living wage employer at the Champion level. 

Griffiths Performance Physiotherapy is a family-run business based in Niagara Falls and currently employs two full time staff, one part time staff and one contractor. They provide a variety of physiotherapy services for treatment of pain and injury recovery.

We are pleased to pay a living wage to our staff and to show that we value them. We hope to inspi“re businesses around us to get on board with paying a living wage and to also give back to our community” says Amanda Griffiths, Clinic Director and Co-owner of Griffiths Performance Physiotherapy. Continue reading →

Some of the Trump Juggernaut’s Most Recent Attacks on Water Protection Rules Post Risks for 36 Million Americans and Canadians Living in the Great Lakes Basin

A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted January 20^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Since the celebration of the first Earth Day 50 years ago this coming spring, Canadians and Americans have both had their share of weak federal, provincial and state governments when it comes to doing what is right to protect the water and air we collectively share and count on for our health and prosperity.

Yet none – I believe it is safe to say- come close to matching the current administration of U.S. President Donald Trump when it comes to the hyper level of abandon and psycho-like relish it employs as it eviscerates so many of environmental protections that generations of citizens, scientists and government agencies have worked so hard, with their counterparts in Canada and other regions of the world, to put in place.

Trump is moving to rip apart water protection rules that would protect wetlands like this one, which many citizens in Niaara and other regions of Ontario are fighting to save in Thundering Waters Forest in Niagara Falls.

According to some of the latest reports in major American media outlets, Trump and his all-too-many supporters and followers are now hard at work – outside any consultation they should be doing with knowledgeable scientists in what is left of what was a world-class Environmental Protection Agency before they began hollowing out it – rolling back policies and programs for protecting wetlands and other critical bodies of water. Continue reading →

Racism Remains a Cancer to Contend with  in Both Countries

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – from the iconic address that the late American Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered during the Civil Rights Movement’s historic March on Washington in August of 1963

A Brief Commentary by  Doug Draper on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States

Posted January 20^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

When the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. became a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 195os, many Black people in his own country were forced to endure segregated schools, washrooms and water fountains, had to sit at the back of the bus and had a difficult, if not impossible time exercising their right to vote in elections.

Today, more than 50 years after his assassination, much progress has been made in eliminating those and other racial barriers. Continue reading →

“Thousands of our residents are in shelters or emergency hotel accommodations, unable to find affordable housing. We have heard stories of people in our community forced to sleep under bridges.”

News from Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch, St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens and Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates

Niagara MPPs Jeff Burch, Wayne Gates and Jennie Stevens

Posted January 20th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

QUEEN’S PARK – NDP Official Opposition MPPs Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre), Jennie Stevens (St. Catharines), and Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls) have issued an open letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The letter, posted below, highlights the devastating impact of the unfair funding formula under the Community Homelessness Prevention Initiative (CHPI) that fails to provide the resources needed for Niagara.

The MPPs are calling for a new funding model that matches local demand for homelessness services and ensures equitable allocation.

Open Letter to  Steve Clark, Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing –

Dear Minister Clark:  

We are sending you this letter on behalf of the people of Niagara. Niagara is facing a critical issue of housing and homelessness. Continue reading →

“All residents and visitors are invited to shape the Thorold Business Improvement Area’s vision because our Downtown is for everyone.”                                                                                               – Serge Carpino, Thorold Business Imrovement Area (BIA) Chair

News from Thorold’s Business Improvement Area

Posted January 20^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Thorold’s downtown, featured in national heritage magazines and winner of a prestigious Prince of Wales heritage prize.

Thorold, Ontario – People with ideas to improve business in Downtown Thorold can have a part in shaping the community by participating in a 2020 survey to help form a flourishing future in downtown Thorold. 

The public survey sponsored by the Thorold Business Improvement Area along with other community stakeholders including Thorold Tourism and the Thorold Public Library will be open to all people in an online format.  Continue reading →

Niagara’s Conservation Authority Needs Leadership that Takes the Science of Climate Change Seriously

A News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted January 17^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

When West Lincoln Mayor Dave Bylsma made what turned out to be hisill-fated  pitch to fellow members of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s board of directors this January 15th to serve for a second one-year term as the board’s Chair, he finished by motioning an arm in the direction of the entrance to the NPCA’s Ball’s Falls Conservation Centre.

Some of the protesters who greeted NPCA board members, including David Bylsma, outside the Conservation Authority’s Annual General Meeting this January 15th.

It was there, at the Conservation Centre’s entrance way, where a number of citizens staged a protest earlier on, urging him to step down.

Welland resident Robert Milenkoff joined in call for David Bylsma’s resignation from NPCA board’s Chair post. Photo by Doug Draper

“I have held every member of this board and every staff member in the highest respect,” said Bylsma as he was about to make his arm gesture.

“I do not deserve that,” he said, his voice slightly quivering.  “I have been a good Chair.”

Talk that he should not be Chair, Byslma may or may not know, was always there, looming in the background, going back a full year ago, when a majority of fellow board embers first appointed him to that position. 

It lingered with people who, rightly or wrongly, also wanted to give him a chance … give him the benefit of the doubt, , in spite of whatever off the rail views he may hold on the issue of climate change.

But the calls caught fire during the first week of this New Year when  For Our Kids  Niagara – a recently organized group made up mostly of young parents concerned about their children’s future – circulated an open letter highlighting one of Bylsma’s other roles as president of the Christian Heritage Party, a fringe political organization that characterizes climate change as a “phony crisis” and accuses  United Nations science bodies and individuals  like former U.S. vice-president Al Gore, who won a Nobel Prize for his part in raising public awareness about climate change, of engaging in dangerous propaganda. Continue reading →

Ontario Environment Minister Jeff Yurek (left) with Premier Doug Ford at his back. File photo

“Ontario Helping to Build Healthier, Safer Communities Faster” – Claims Doug Ford Tories

“Reducing delays and duplication through proposed changes to Class Environmental Assessments”

News from the Ford Government’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks

Posted January 16th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper – 

During a conference with mainstream media outlets in Niagara this January 16th, Ford’s Environment Minister Jeff Yurek announced that the government is now moving to make changes to Ontario’s Environmental Assessment process – to environmental protection legislation  that took citizen groups have past governments many years to enact for the betterment of our air, waters and lands – in order to “exempt  projects” from a thorough review.

The full range of projects the government has in mind, and how  and who would do the exempting is not entirely clear, except to stress, as Ford’s Environment Minister did in his announcement, that “this is an example of how our government is looking at smarter, more modern ways of doing business to remove unnecessary costs and delays for important public services and infrastructure projects.” Continue reading →

NPCA’s Board of Directors Holds Its 2020 Annual General Meeting at Balls Fall’s Conservation Centre

January 15th Meeting is First for Chandra Sharma as NPCA’s new CAO, and first for Board Members Brenda Johnson of Hamilton and Bruce Mackenzie of Grimsby in their new roles as Chair and Vice-Chair, Respectively

A News Release from the Niagara PeninsulaConservation Authority 

Posted Jauary 15th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA) held its Annual General Meeting of 2020 at its Ball’s Falls Centre for Conservation.

Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s new CAO Chandra Sharma, left), and the new Chair of the NPCA’s board of directors, at the table during the Conservaton Authority’s 2020 Annual General Meeting this January 15th. An NPCA photo

The Business portion of the meeting was called to order by CAO, Chandra Sharma, who conducted the election of officers for 2020. Ward 11 Councillor for the City of Hamilton, Brenda Johnson, was elected as Chair, and Board Member for Grimsby, Mr. Bruce Mackenzie was elected as Vice-Chair. Continue reading →

Kennedy Will Be Niagara College’s Sixth President, Succeeding Long-Time President Dan Patterson

A News Release from Niagara College in Niagara, Ontario

Posted January 10th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Niagara, Ontario – The Niagara College Board of Governors announced this January 10th  that it has selected Sean Kennedy, an experienced post-secondary leader with 20 years of experience leading teams in several areas of higher education, as Niagara College’s sixth president.

Niagara College has a new President, the Sixth in its history- Sean Kennedy

Currently Niagara College’s senior vice president, International, Kennedy has been a part of the College’s senior leadership team since 2006.

“Sean is student-focused, and embodies the Niagara College DNA – the welcoming, passionate and trailblazing qualities that set Niagara College apart and form the foundation of its success,” said John F.T. Scott, chair of the Niagara College Board of Governors. Continue reading →

If They Were Shot Down Deliberately or Accidentally, Then Someone South of the Border has Blood on his Hands

Trump plays the strong man this January 8th, 2020 in his showdown with Iran. Look at the  holy man, Mike Pence, on the right who has been helping Trump lie his way through this. Is that what he learned in church?

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted January 9th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Three of the 63 Canadians, Bahareh Hajesfandiari, his wife Mehdi Sadeghi and their daughter Anisa, who perished when a Ukrainian jetliner went down in Iran.

There may be at least a few out there who look at this and ask why is he commenting on this mess in Iran again, when he should be focusing on issues closer to home.

Fair enough.

Yet when I was out and about in Niagara this January 8th, stopping off at a few stores, one of our public libraries and at an auto-care centre, getting a minor repair done to my car, just about everyone I crossed paths with had what has been going down with the U.S. Trump administration and Iran on the top of their minds.

Many went out of their way to express their concern and even some of the anger they were feeling about circumstances that a number of experts on foreign affairs fear could lead to a catastrophic war.

A field of burning debris, leftover from down jet that carried 176 people, including 63Canadians, to their death in Iran

And one part of this whole affair people I crossed paths with mentioned the most was the crash of the Ukrainian jetliner in the early morning hours (Middle East time) inside the borders of Iran that ended the lives of all 176 people aboard, including 63 Canadian men, women and children. Continue reading →

‘Directly adjacent to downtown St Catharines, the former GM manufacturing site is an embarrassment to the city (and)  a dangerous situation that must be cleaned up immediately.’            – Citizens Coalition Spokesperson Dennis Van Meer

The abandoned General Motors site off Ontario Street in St. Catharines, Niagara – a rotting eyesore near residential neighbourhoods and the city’s downtown

Sign the Petitiion and Attend a Public Meeting this coming Saturday, January 11th at 3 p.m. at the Mahtay Café in downtown St. Catharines

A Call-Out from the Coalition for a Better St. Catharines, a city-based citizens group in Niagara

Posted January 8th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

A look inside the abandoned industrial mess near downtown St. Catharines

On Saturday, January 11, the Coalition for a Better St. Catharines (CBSC), an ad hoc group of concerned citizens, will hold a public meeting to provide community members with an update on the status of the former General Motors (GM) property on Ontario Street and efforts to make the site safe and secure.

The meeting will begin at 3:00 pm and will be held in the Community Room of the Mahtay Café (on 241 St. Paul Street in downtown St. Catharines).

Though demolition of the buildings on the GM site began more than four years ago, the demolition and clean-up plan was never completed.

In its current state, the site is a safety and health hazard. Broken fences and deteriorating sheets of plywood have allowed people to shelter in unsafe structures, exposing them and the surrounding neighbourhood to potential health hazards from mold and toxic materials such as asbestos. Continue reading →

Ontario assistant deputy Health Minister Lynn Guerriero named President of Niagara Health

“There has been a lot of positive change at Niagara Health over the last several years, and Ms. Guerriero’s unique experiences and collaborative leadership style will be instrumental in building on this momentum,”                                                                    – Dr. Tom Stewart, CEO of Niagara Health & President and CEO of St. Joseph’s Health System.

A News Release from Niagara Health, the amalgamated hospital system in Niagara, Ontario

Posted January 8^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large 

Lynn Guerriero is Niagara Health’s new president

Lynn Guerriero, an accomplished executive leader in the Ontario health system, will assume the role of President of Niagara Health effective Tuesday, February 18, 2020. This appointment follows a national search that attracted strong candidates and led to Lynn’s unanimous selection due to her unique set of skills, passion and vision for high-quality healthcare in Niagara.  

 Ms. Guerriero comes to Niagara with more than 30 years of leadership, management and clinical experience within a variety of healthcare provider settings, including multi-site acute care, rehabilitation and community care. She also has extensive senior leadership experience providing hands-on implementation and oversight of provincial programs, agencies and sectors of the health system. Continue reading →

“The cuts (that Ontario’s Ford government has) imposed and proposed will affect our students not just for one, but for generations and that’s why we’re standing up against it now.”     – Shannon Smith, Ontario   Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) District 22 T/OT President

A News Release from Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO), District 22 in Niagara followed by a response from Niagara West MPP and Ontario Ford government representative Sam Oosterhoff

Posted January 8th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Fonthill, Ontario –  Teachers and Education Workers represented by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF/FEESO) at the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) will participate in a one-day strike on Wednesday, January 8, 2020.

Niagara secondary school teachers participating in an earlier one-day strike action, this past December 2019. file photo by Doug Draper

This comes after other select school boards across Ontario participated in the same job actions on December 11 & December 18, 2019.   Continue reading →

The lower Great Lakes system – Lakes Erie and Ontario, connected by the Niagara River – from space

Buffalo Area Congressman Calls Rollback of EPA Clean Water Standards a Threat to the Environmental and Economic Health of Communities with the Potential to Destroy Years of Progress in Western New York

EPA’s Own Science Advisory Board Warns the Plans Lack Evidence and “Departs from Established Science”

A News Release from the Buffalo, New York Office of U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins

Posted January 7th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Buffalo, New York – US. Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) is sounding the alarm on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) efforts to rollback safeguards for clean water.  Higgins isn’t alone; the President’s own EPA Science Advisory Board is expressing concern.

From left, Buffalo Riverkeepers executive director Jill Jedlicka, U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins and Campaign for the Environment associate executive director Brian Smith sound alarm bells over possible impact of Trump administration gutting of clean water standards on Great Lakes watershed. Photo courtesy of Congressman Higgins’ Buffalo constituency office

In a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Rep. Higgins, a member of the Congressional Great Lakes Task Force, warned of the dire consequences of the EPA’s actions to communities like Western New York, writing “Rollback of these rules actively threatens efforts to revitalize waterways like the Buffalo River and endangers Western New York and other Great Lakes communities that depend on the health of their natural resources.” Continue reading →

“The GNCC feels that this forward-thinking program will result in benefits for both local communities and immigrants. The former will be able to fill labour market gaps and grow their populations and their economies, while immigrants will be drawn to communities where their skills are in demand and where they will be welcomed.”                                                                – The Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce (GNCC)

A News Release from the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Posted January 7th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Niagara, Ontario – In his mandate letter, Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau instructed Immigration Minister (Marcos) Mendicino to begin work on a program that would give local communities, chambers of commerce and labour councils a say in the selection of immigrants, helping them match newcomers with labour needs.

The GNCC has suggested such a program in the past, anticipating that allowing communities to target immigrants for skills and professions would help solve local labour shortages and allow businesses and local economies to grow. Continue reading →

“Under pressure from rising prices for labour, energy, and other essentials, not to mention increased municipal tax burdens from local governments with substantial infrastructure backlogs, this cut offers relief to small businesses.”                                                      – the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

A News Release from the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Posted January 7^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Queen’s Park follows through with tax cut for province’s small businesses

Niagara, Ontario –  In welcome news, the Government of Ontario has announced that, effective January 1st of this year, it will reduce the small business Corporate Income Tax by 8.7 per cent, to a new rate of 3.2 per cent.

Small businesses are the backbone of Ontario’s economy. Almost all of Niagara’s businesses are small- or medium-sized enterprises, and nearly four in five (33,947 out of a total of 42,692 registered businesses) employ fewer than five people. Continue reading →

‘Why would Donald Trump want Canada to come to his side? After all, he called us a “national security threat” as an excuse to put tariffs on our goods, something that cost thousands of jobs.’

A Comment by Linda McKellar, Fort Erie, Ontario, with a Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large  reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted January 6^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

A Foreword by Doug Draper –

One of the wisest decisions that former Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien made during his 10 years in the office from 1993 to 2003 was not to join U.S. Bush-Cheney administration’s so-called “coalition of the willing” in a 2003 invasion of Iraq for a war that dragged on for years and cost thousnds of young Americans and countless thousands of Iraqis, including untold numbers of civilians, their lives.

Baghdad, Iraq lights up with thundering explosions as the Bush-Cheney administration launches its invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. One Iraqi woman told a British newspaper at the time that during the bombing; “My family would gather in one room, waiting for death.”

Everyone but a hopeless few, including major American media outlets that functioned like p.r. flaks for the Pentagon in the lead-up to that war, later admitted that the war was a costly mistake – based on false or fabricated information – that all sides are continuing to pay a heavy price for until this day. Continue reading →

Wednesday, January 8^th at 8 p.m. at the St. Catharines Central Library in downtown St. Catharines, Ontario

An Invite to All from the Niagara District Council of Women

Posted January 6^th, 2020 on Niagara At Large

At 8 p.m. on Wednesday  January 8th,  the Niagara District Council of Women   is holding an public forum  on ‘ Youth and Mental Health Changing Perspectives-Providing Services’  at the St. Catharines Central Library .

Our panel includes the advocacy  team, ‘Change the Perspective’, whose members  experienced   mental health challenges as youth,  and as adults are   successfully  living with mental illness.   Continue reading →

Just What Trump and his Evangelical Followers Seem to Want

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

Posted January 4^th, 2020

“We took action to stop war, not to start one.”  – U.S. President Donald Trump

Really?

I’m already betting that this statement from Trump, made after he and what are left of the nutbars and sycophants in his administration took out Iran’s top general at an airport in Baghdad, Iraq this January 2^nd,  will go down in history alongside such infamous lines as former U.S. President George W. Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” only a few years in to a War in Iraq that is arguably dragging on to this day.

Then there is this one, stated by so many that no one seems to remember who said it first.

Laying dead in the muddy trenches of World War One. They were all “going to be home for Christmas.”

It was that oft-repeated line that reportedly comforted so many at the head of what turned out to be one of the most devastating wars in history, World War One – “The war will be over by Christmas.”

When I first heard a clip of Trump uttering the words; “We took action to stop war, not to start one,” I was immediately reminded of a scene in the 1964, satirical, anti-war film ‘Dr. Strangelove’ when Peter Sellers, playing the U.S. president, came across one of his generals involved in a fist-a-cuffs with a Russian ambassador in a military command centre – “Gentlemen, you can’t fight here. This is the war room.”

For sober-minded sanity, I turn to some words spoken this January 3^rd by U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders who, in the early 2000s, was one of the few members of the U.S. Senate and Congress to oppose his country’s invasion of Iraq.

“That war (the one that the Bush-Cheney administration authored in Iraq) was the worst foreign-policy blunder in the modern history of the United States,” said Sanders. “I’m going to do everything I can to prevent a war with Iran, because if you think the war in Iraq was a disaster, my guess is that war in Iran would be even worse… So let’s work together and prevent that war, and if people want to criticize me for that, go for it, that’s OK, I don’t apologize to anybody.”

U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders

Amen!

And let’s pray that Canada is not foolish enough to get involved in any war ventures with a U.S.  president who has clearly shown a lack of regard for past allies like Canada and other democratic countries  as he cuddles up to totalitarian thugs in haunts like North Korea, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

The November, 2020 U.S. election cannot come soon enough.

For more on “Mission Accomplished” and by now former U.S. president George W. Bush’s later “regrets” after thousands of young Americans were already dead and wounded and countless tens-of-thousands, if not hundreds-0f-thousands Iraqi civilians had died, click on the screen below –

NIAGARA AT LARGE encourages you to join the conversation by sharing your views on this post in the space following the Bernie Sanders quote below.

A Reminder that we only post comments by individuals who also share their first and last names.

For More News And Commentary From Niagara At Large – An independent, alternative voice for our greater bi-national Niagara Region – become a regular visitor and subscriber to NAL at http://www.niagaraatlarge.com .

“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” – the late French poet, journalist and novelist Anatole France

A Brief One for the Animals by Doug Draper

Posted January 3^rd, 2020 on Niagara At Large

One of the first road signs that greets you wen you cross the border from upstate New York State to Massachusetts

If you drive due east from Niagara, Ontario and Buffalo, across the whole 300-some-odd- mile distance of the New York State Thruway, the first town you enter when you cross the border from New York to Massachusetts is West Stockbridge.

Nestled in the picture-perfect Berkshire Hills, this quaint little New England town hosts a population of about 1,600 people and up to March of 2017, one remarkable feline named Felix, known affectionately by town folk as “everyone’s pet cat.”

My wife Mary and I met Felix, or rather he met us, one sunny afternoon in June of 2016 after we stopped to take a short walk through the town before continuing our drive back  home to Niagara after visiting friends on Cape Cod.

Felix, walking the sidewalks of his home town of West Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 2016, file photo, Doug Draper

We had just left a nice old bookstore and were about to cross a bridge spanning a river flowing through the town when we looked down and there, walking just a few feet in front of us and looking back from time to time, as if to see if we were still coming, was this yellow-haired cat with long, lanky legs and not much more than a stub for a tail

This photo of Felix, looking down the main street of his town of West Stockbridge was posted on social media. He was one remarkable cat.

He kept walking a few paces in front of us as if he was the town’s ambassador, proudly taking us on a tour, and if we stopped for a moment to look in a shop window, he would wait patiently until the three of us would walk on together again. That was the way it was until we arrived at a store on the main street to get some of those great sandwiches we heard they make there for our trip home.

Inside the store, I asked about the cat, and someone said with a big smile; “Oh, you just met our town cat Felix. He loves to show people around.” Continue reading →

Payrolls for chief corporate officers are so massive they account for at least 40% of some companies’ losses

A Special Report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Posted January 2nd, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Ottawa, Ontario — Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs made 227 times more than the average worker made in 2018, surpassing all previous records, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). That’s up from 197 times average worker pay in 2017.

“Put another way, by 10:09 a.m. on January 2, the average top CEOs will have made as much money as the average Canadian worker will make all year. That’s the earliest time on record in the 13 years we’ve been tracking these numbers,” said report author and CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald.  Continue reading →

In this New Year 0f 2020 and this New Decade, Let’s All Resolve to be ‘Doves with Claws’

A New Year Message from Doug Draper

Posted January 1^st, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Looking back at the decade that has just past, I think it is fair to say that it was a mixed bag of good people doing, or at least trying to do good things, and of bullies and creeps working around the clock to force feed the rest of us on whatever they had stewing in their cauldrons of poison.

There have been all too many bullies and creeps – what I have sometimes likened to the flying monkeys in the haunted forests of Oz Land – working their black magic on the international and national stage, and yes, even right here in our Niagara region.

There is one of those flying monkeys now, taking away poor Toto

Thanks to just enough Niagara residents going to the polls in the October 2018 municipal elections, and thanks to the emergency of a new region-wide citizens watchdog group called A Better Niagara that helped galvanize fellow citizens to vote), a critical mass of bullies and creeps were swept from elected office at the local and regional levels of municipal government.

Yet not all of the bullies and creeps are gone, and courtesy of a system of crass partisan appointments that is begging for reform, some of these bullies and creeps have already popped up in other positions, on boards and commissions and so on, so we have to remain vigilant. Continue reading →

(Here’s a Plan. When You’ve Sunk to Subterranean Depths in Public Approval, Just Continue Doing More of the Same.)

A New Year’s Day Message from Ontario’s Premier, Doug Ford

Posted January 1s, 2020 on Niagara At Large

Ontario’s “For the People” Premier Doug Ford promises to continue building on what he has been doing for us (or to us) already.

Today (this January 1st, 2020), Ontario Premier Doug Ford issued the following statement marking New Year’s Day:

“A new year offers us a fresh opportunity to build on our previous successes, set new goals, and embrace a bright and hopeful future for ourselves and our loved ones. We look ahead with hope to the months and days ahead where we can make new memories and focus on the things that matter.

As we head into 2020, our government will continue to work for the people of Ontario by delivering on our Plan to Build Ontario Together. We are committed to  making life more affordable, preparing people for jobs, creating a more competitive business environment, connecting people to places, building healthier and safer communities, and making government smarter.

 From my family to yours, I want to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!”

The Ford government’s cratering public approval ratings across Ontario, as depicted this past year (201) by non-other than the politically conservative Toronto Sun

NIAGARA AT LARGE encourages you to join the conversation by sharing your views on this post in the space following the Bernie Sanders quote below.

A Reminder that we only post comments by individuals who also share their first and last names.

For More News And Commentary From Niagara At Large – An independent, alternative voice for our greater bi-national Niagara Region – become a regular visitor and subscriber to NAL at www.niagaraatlarge.com .

“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders

 Cindy Forster Was A Leader in Fighting to Get to the Bottom of What Cabal Members were up to at the old NPCA

Now retired Niagara Centre MPP Cindy Forster

“It’s unfortunate that you overlook my responsibility as an elected Member of Provincial Parliament to ensure the voices in my community are heard.”            – from a January 2017 open letter from then Niagara Centre MPP Cindy Forster to then-Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board of directors chair Sandy Annunziata, responding to a statement he issued that, in part, criticized Forster  for raising the concerns of her constituents about  the NPCA board of the day  going soft on conservation and environmental protection

A Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher           Doug Draper

Posted December 31st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Earlier this passing December, following the release of the explosive report by Ontario’s Ombudsman Paul Dube, detailing all of the nefarious conduct around what Dube called the “inside job” that won Carmen D’Angelo Niagara Region’s chief administrative job in October, 2016, I wrote and posted a commentary of thanks to the only eight regional councillors who demonstrated the care and courage to vote against D’Angelo’s hiring.

The screen in Niagara Region’s council chambers, showing the only eight councillors who voted “No” to hiring Carmen D’Angelo to the Region’s CAO post in October 2016

That commentary received thousands of hits (more than I will ever know because it was cast out over other peoples’ Facebook pages) and that was heartening to me given that tracking records on the dashboard of this NAL site confirm what I have often heard from fellow journalists – that negative news and commentary about politicians usually gets more traffic than news and commentary of a more positive nature.

My December 14th commentary about the eight regional councillors who cast that brave vote against hiring D’Angelo (and just four the record, those councillors were Pelham’s Dave Augustyn, Thorold’s Henry D’Angela and Ted Luciani, St. Catharines Kelly Edgar,  Brian Heit and Debbie MacGregor, Welland’s George Marshall and Lincoln’s Bill Hodgson) also received quite a bit of positive feedback from readers, including one I wish to give a little special attention to here.

Cindy Forster with Jeff Burch who she supported to fill her seat for the Ontario NDP, as he has, in the Niagara Centre riding

That reader was Cindy Forster who wrote of the December 14th commentary – “Thanks Doug. Always good to refresh the memories of the voting public. Unfortunately we lost a few good regional councillors who voted no (but were later) caught up in the election sweep (in the fall of 2018) to clean house!”

After Cindy Forster posted her comment on NAL’s Facebook page (which, by the way, I don’t go to that often because, truth be known, I have a lot of problems with culture of Facebook), it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to refresh peoples’ memories about the principled leadership and courage she demonstrated in all of this too, before she retired as Niagara Centre’s NDP MPP in the spring of 2018. Continue reading →

“The reality is a thermometer is not conservative or liberal and it’s certainly not NDP or Green either. It doesn’t give us a different answer depending on how we vote. The climate system is changing. Humans are responsible. The impacts are increasingly serious and even dangerous, no matter who we vote for or where we fall in the political spectrum.”                                  – Scientist Katherine Hayhoe, Director of the Climate Science Centre at Texas Tech University

A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper followed by links to must-hear CBC Radio interview with climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe

Posted December 30^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

As we begin the third decade of the 21^st Century, we are facing what thousands of scientists around the world are now calling a “climate emergency” that may determine whether, decades from now, there will even be people left to record who among us showed the wisdom and courage to address this existential threat to life on our planet, and who did not.

Now is the time for us to decide which side of history we want to be on and how future generations will remember us.

Will we want to be remembered as someone who cared enough to stand up for the future or as someone who chose to do  little or nothing?

Do we want to be remembered among those who continued to claim that climate change is a hoax or that it has little or nothing to do with anything we humans do – even when the weight of scientific evidence that the climate crisis we are already experiencing is largely human induced, and when we are already experiencing a higher frequency of damage and destruction related to violent swings in weather.

Severe climate-related disasters, like the one shown happening to Lake Erie shoreline residents in the CBC report (broadcast this past November 2019) below, are becoming ever more frequent, whether we are talking about destructive floods, winds, fires, droughts and food crop failures, crashes in plant, animal and fish populations, and on and on. To watch the CBC report, click on the arrow in the middle of the screen –

When we look at the costly damage climate change is already doing, and at the very real possibility of the larger-scale destruction that lies ahead, we can no longer afford the lack of serious leadership we are seeing in politicians and consider the lack of serious leadership like Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and in too many others now serving at the federal, provincial and municipal level in Canada, and in other countries around the world. Continue reading →

The Days of Aging Boomers like Donald Trump and Doug Ford Ravaging the World are Rapidly Fading

A Brief Commentary by Niagara at Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted December 28^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

As Bob Dylan once sang to a then youthful generation of Baby Boomers that since has gone so sour – “The times they are a changin’.”

As the song goes  in a message to the Boomer’s parents – “Your old road is rapidly aging. Please get outta’ the new one if you can’t lend a hand.”

Today these ‘get-out-of-the-way’ lyrics are  suited, not to their parents, but to the same generation of aging Boomers – to the likes of Doug Ford and Donald Trump, and to all of the mostly white members of the Boomer population who support them.

An aging white Republican congressman holds up a smowball on the floor of Congress during an unusually cold day in Washington, D.C. to make a joke about climate change

They are aimed squarely in the direction of that aging Boomer and to all who laugh with him  as he stands there making joke about “global warming” while holding a snowball during a freak late-spring snowfall,  even in the face of a climate emergency that threatens  to wipe out life as we know it on this planet if we don’t act to turn it around now. 

There is real cause for hope though.

Fortunately, Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden, who was chosen Time Magazine’s 2019 ‘Person of the Year’, and countless millions of her young supporters around the world are stepping up to do what older generations are failing or refusing to do.

There is the hope for the future.

And here is a screen you can click on to view a few highlights from 2019 and Greta Thunberg’s ongoing campaign for her generation’s future – 

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“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders

Parents and children are looking at larger classes, fewer course offerings for older students, and mandatory online learning.

More than 200 students join at Holy Cross Secondary School join in an April 4th, 2019 province-wide walkout to protest cuts the Ford government is making to their education.

A Message from Ricardo Tranjan, Senior Researcher, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Ontario)

Posted December 27^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Over the past year, the Ontario government has announced a number of budget changes affecting schools and school boards across the province.

Parents are increasingly concerned about how the resulting cuts — both current and future — will harm their children’s education. This is understandable. Parents and children are looking at larger classes, fewer course offerings for older students, and mandatory online learning. The end result, according to the Financial Accountability Office, will be the elimination of 10,000 teaching positions across the province by 2023-24.

Teachers in St. Catharines, engaged in one of some of the one-day walk-outs teachers across Ontario participated in this fall, as Ford cuts to schools loom. Photos by Doug Draper

These changes have been met with significant and sustained opposition, and for good reason: parents and educators want accessible, high-quality public education that meets the needs of all students. Continue reading →

In its 14 years, the event has raised more than $9.5 million, which all stays in Niagara.

News from Niagara Health (formerly known as the Niagara Health System)

Posted December 27th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara, Ontario – On May 25, 2019, more than 14,000 people participated in the 14th Annual Rankin Cancer Run, raising more than $1 million for cancer care in Niagara. This inspiring community event fundraises for our local cancer support organizations, including the Walker Family Cancer Centre.

From let to right, Janice Giesbrecht (Chief of Oncology at Niagara Health, Louise Rivett (Rankin Cancer Run Volunteer Committee Member), Roger Ali (Niagara Health Foundation President & CEO) and Chris Green (Niagara Health Foundation).

In its 14 years, the event has raised more than $9.5 million, which all stays in Niagara. This year Rankin Cancer Run has donated $650,000 to Niagara Health Foundation bringing the event’s total contributions to over $6 million. Continue reading →

We’ll be back in a few days –  following the all-to- usual Boxing Day madness – with more News and Commentary for anyone who cares

A Holiday Season Message from Doug Draper

Posted December 24^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

One of my favourite off-beat X-Mass trees,made out of lobster traps, and displayed each year near the wharf in Provincetown, Massachusetts in Cape Cod. The Pilgrim’s Monument towers in the background here to mark the 1620 landing of the Mayflower.

I will be taking a few days off now to spend time with members of my families and friends, and to remember all those beloved ones, including some of my family’s furry feline friends, who are no longer here.

I hope you have time to do the same and are trying to do your best to stay free of so much of the stress and depression that can overcome people at this time of the year.

If you have a job where you have to work on key days of the Holiday season, I wish you the very best to and for some downtime that you can spend with members of your family and friends. Continue reading →