Category Archives: Learn How To Join Niagara At Large On Twitter And Facebook By Clicking Here

‘The Ford government has not done its part to protect St. Catharines residents struggling with mental health challenges, as it has failed to provide mental health and addictions services and failed to fund a suicide prevention barrier on Burgoyne Bridge.’ – St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens

A Message from the Constituency Office of St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens

Posted April 9^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens

QUEEN’S PARK — Today in the legislature, the NDP MPP for St. Catharines, Jennie Stevens, said the Ford government has not done its part to protect St. Catharines residents struggling with mental health challenges, as it has failed to provide mental health and addictions services and failed to fund a suicide prevention barrier on Burgoyne Bridge.

For over a year, the city of St. Catharines and the Niagara region have been advocating for a suicide prevention barrier to be installed on the Burgoyne Bridge. Since October, six people lost their lives to suicide at the bridge. Continue reading →

“A living wage reflects what earners need to be paid based on the actual costs of living and being included in the community.”          – Glen Walker, Chair of the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network

“It is my belief that our employees should not have to choose between something they love and affording the costs associated with living in our community. “                                                                – Spirit Athletics owner Rhys Ottaway.

News from the Niagara poverty Reduction Network

Posted April 9^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

The Niagara Poverty Reduction Network is pleased to announce that Spirit Athletics has become a certified living wage employer.

Rhys Ottaway Owner Spirit Athletics, left and Melenie Neamtz Vice Chair Niagara Poverty Reduction Network with living wage certificate

Spirit Athletics opened in 2018 and is owned by Rhys Ottaway. They are an athletic and character development program based out of St. Catharines that offers cheerleading, tumbling, and other fitness activities. They currently employ six part time staff. Continue reading →

Ontario NDP and Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath

“Women in Ontario deserve to receive equal pay for work of equal value, and the NDP will keep fighting until that becomes a reality in this province.”                     – from  Official Opposition Party and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Andrea Horwath releases Statement on Equal Pay Day

Posted April 9^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

QUEEN’S PARK — NDP Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath released the following statement on Equal Pay Day:

“Women’s work is not worth less than the work of the men working beside them, yet they continue to be paid less.

In Ontario, women are paid 71 cents on the dollar for their work compared to their male counterparts. That gap grows for Indigenous women, racialized women and women living with disabilities. Continue reading →

Ontaro’s Ford government’s cuts to medicine programs leave the most vulnerable to fall through the cracks

A News Release from the Constituency Office of Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates

Posted April 8^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates

QUEEN’S PARK — NDP MPP for Niagara Falls Wayne Gates said the Ford government needs to reverse its cuts to government prescription drug programs for children. Gates shared the story of a family being hurt by these cuts in the Legislature on Monday.

“This week I spoke to a new mother with a six-month-old son who requires prescription formula. The formula was covered by a government program, until Doug Ford’s cuts ensured this family would no longer receive coverage,” said Gates.

“Now it will cost this young family $600 a month, because their private insurance does not cover the formula.” Continue reading →

Just When Some of Us Thought Our Long, Dark Journey with a Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority in Chaos Might Finally be Over

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

Posted April 5^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Opening Ontario’s Conservation Authorities up for reform. What does this man have in mind for our Conservation Authority?

Just as some of us thought we have turned a corner for the better at the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority NPCA) with the appointment of a new acting CAO many have respect for, we have the following to look forward to.

Ontario’s Ford government, which isn’t exactly proving to be a friend of environmental conservation, has circulated a news release this April 5^th that it is now going to work on plans to reform the legislation governing the NPCA and more than 30 other Conservation Authorities across the province.

So what on earth is that going to mean for Conservation Authorities we need to restore, protect and restore our region’s precious watershed?

The NPCA’s recently appointed interim CAO Gayle Wood, a respected conservationist, has given many Niagara citizens hope that the Conservation Authority will get back to playing a real role in  protecting and preserving our region’s natural heritage.

All I advise at the moment is that those of us in this region and others who care about environmental conservation and who have fought so hard in recent years to rescue our dysfunctional NPCA from a group of hijackers and get it back on track, had better get engaged and be ready to raise our voices loudly if the Ford government does anything to further weaken or damage these bodies. Continue reading →

Natalie Moore, a Listowel, Ontario high school student whose message of concern triggered a province-wide walkout for quality education

“We do understand that balancing the books is important, but it should never come at the cost of our world-class education system we’ve built in Ontario-” – Natalie Moore, an 18-year-old high school student from Listowel, Ontario who sparked the province-wide, April .4^th student walkout with a message of concern she shared on social media.

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

Posted April 5th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

More than 200 students at Holy Cross Secondary School in St. Catharines join this April 4th’s province-wide walkout to protest the Ford government’s cuts to education.

Niagara, Ontario – If there was any doubt that young people should have a voice in the decisions the Ford government is making that that are affecting their lives, this past Thursday, April 4th they used it.

More than 200 students at Holy Cross Secondary School in St. Catharines joined countless tens of thousands of others at high schools across Niagara and the rest of the province in an afternoon walkout to protest recent moves by the Ontario government of Doug Ford to, among other things, increase class sizes, cut teachers jobs, kill a recently updated sex education curriculum and force students to take at least four mandatory online courses in place of having a real teacher in the classroom.  Continue reading →

Niagara Region’s new Chair, Jim Bradley

“Niagara is more than the sum of its parts, and it is because of our spirit of cooperation and team work that we will always find a way to move beyond our limits. … We should all believe that Niagara’s future is bright and has no limits.” – from Niagara Regional Chair Jim Bradley’s ‘State of the Region’ address, delivered this April 3^rd, 2019 at a luncheon gala hosted by the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted April 4^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

A year ago this spring, when the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce hosted the annual “State of the Region” address in a sprawling banquet room of the Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls where the event, the person who was Niagara’s Regional Chair at the time entered the room wearing the chain of office – one of those gaudy metal livery collars often worn by royals and autocrats as a mark of fealty.

The audience in the big room at the Scotiabank Convention Centre in Niagara Falls this April 3rd, listening to Niagara Regional Chair Jim Bradley deliver his first State of the Region address. The even was hosted by the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce.

He burst in to the room to the noise of some ‘We Are the Champions’-like or Rocky-like theme music blaring from loud speakers, sprinting through the audience on his way to the podium as if he was Bruce Springsteen taking the stage for a big show.

But this was certainly not ‘The Boss’ about the break in to a rousing performance of ‘Born To Run’ or ‘Thunder Road’. Not even close. Continue reading →

Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch

“We need to ask ourselves: Why is it that in this period of heightened awareness, … we cannot ensure that help (for sexual assault victims) is available? We have a social responsibility to all victims and survivors to make sure they can access properly funded services.” – Niagara Centre NDP MPP Jeff Burch

A Share from the Constituency Office of Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch

Posted April 4^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

A Statement delivered by Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch this past Wednesday, April 3^rd in the LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

Mr. Jeff Burch: “Recently, I had the privilege of meeting with Lisa Berketo, the administrative coordinator with the Niagara Region Sexual Assault Centre. She described the dire straits they find themselves in due to a lack of proper sustainable funding. Continue reading →

“Elder Abuse Ontario envisions an Ontario where seniors are free from abuse, have a strong voice and are safe and respected.” from the Vision statement of Elder Abuse Ontario, a province-wide not-for-profit body with a budget that the province’s premier, Doug Ford, and his Tories are now looking at cutting.

‘Ford must stop cut to Elder Abuse Ontario.’                         – Ontario NDP Seniors’ Affairs critic Joel Harden

A News Release from Ontario’s Official Opposition and New Democratic Party

Posted April 3^rd, 2019 on Niagara At Large

QUEEN’S PARK — NDP MPP Joel Harden, critic for Accessibility, Persons with Disabilities and Seniors’ Affairs, today asked the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility, Raymond Cho, to fight Finance Minister Vic Fedeli and Doug Ford on their plan for Elder Abuse Ontario — which a new document shows could see a funding cut of up to 15 per cent.

Harden’s office obtained the document via a freedom of information request. Elder Abuse Ontario protects seniors across the province by training thousands of frontline workers in identifying and preventing elder abuse. It also runs a free safety hotline as a resource for older adults who are victims, or at risk of, abuse. Continue reading →

The Slogan “Yours To Discover” May Go. How about one of Ford’s favourites – “Open For Business” – as a Replacement?

Some Brief Commentary from Niagara At Large reporter and publisher  Doug Draper, with a News Release from Ontario’s Official Opposition and New Democratic Party

Posted April 2nd, 2019 on Niagara At Large

An Ontario licence plate with the time-honoured ‘Yours To Discover’ logo on it.

I posted the following media release from the Ontario NDP, along with a little commentary from me this April 1^st, underneath a  fictional story that I spun as an April Fool’s joke, and I think this news, about a possible significant change to what appears on the licence plates the province issues to vehicle owners after 35 years of the plate reading “Ontario – Yours To Discover” may have got lost in the joke.

The fact is that the news that Ontario’s Ford Government may be looking at changing the slogan on the plate from “Yours To Discover” to possibly “Open For Business” began circulating this past Friday, March 29^th and is no April Fool’s joke. Continue reading →

Dispatch is the first full-service restaurant in Ontario to become a certified living wage employer.

“We are delighted to see the growing number of employers in Niagara who see the benefits of offering a living wage and we hope this group continues to grow,”                                                       – Glen Walker, Chair of the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network.

News from the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network

Posted April 2nd, 2019 on Niagara At Large

The Niagara Poverty Reduction Network is pleased to announce that Dispatch has become a certified living wage employer. Opened in March 2019 by Chef Adam Hynam-Smith and Tamara Jensen, Dispatch is a 40-seat fine dining restaurant located in downtown St. Catharines.

The Niagara Poverty Reduction Network’s Glen Walker, left, with the Dispatch restaurant’s Adam Hynam-Smith and Tamara Jensen

They currently employ six full time and four part time staff.  Dispatch is part of a growing movement to empower hospitality teams to succeed in their careers while enjoying the professional respect they deserve. Continue reading →

Encouraging Job Creation, Investment and Trade in Ontario

“Our government is delivering on our commitment to be open for business.”  – Jeff Yurek, Ontario Minister of Transportation

News from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s “Government for the People”

Posted April 2^nd, 2019 on Niagara At Large

The Ontario government is putting people first by investing $1.3 billion to rebuild and restore highways across the province.

Jeff Yurek, Minister of Transportation announced funding for projects that will help create jobs for Ontario’s construction industry and keep our highways safe and reliable so that Ontario has a transportation network that encourages job creation, investment and trade in every region across the province. Continue reading →

Niagara Centre MP Vance Badawey

“We have been working with our partners to reduce chronic homelessness across the region.  We are taking immediate action to help reduce homelessness by investing $5.2-million in Niagara over the next five years.” – Niagara Centre Liberal MP Vance Badawey

News from the Constituency Offices of Niagara Centre MP Vance badawey and St. Catharines MP Chris Bittle

Posted April 1^st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara, Ontario – Every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home.

Yet every day, vulnerable Canadians experience or are at risk of becoming homeless. The Government of Canada is taking action to help those in need, and make a real impact to reduce homelessness across Canada.

Jean-Yves Duclos, Canada’s Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

Today (this Monday, April 1^st), the Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, launched the Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy. Reaching Home will continue to support communities’ efforts to prevent and reduce homelessness in Canada.

It will also support the goals of the National Housing Strategy, specifically the reduction of chronic homelessness nationally by 50 percent by 2027–2028.

Through Reaching Home, the Government of Canada is reinforcing its community-based approach by delivering funding directly to municipalities and local service providers. Continue reading →

Canada’s NDP Leader  Jagmeet Singh

“Trudeau’s Liberal government wants a patchwork plan that works for their friends at the big pharmaceutical and insurance companies – but leaves too many people out. And with Canadians paying some of the highest drug prices in the world, we need to have the courage to fight for a solution that actually helps everyday people.”

– Jagmeet Singh, Leader, Canada’s NDP

A Statement From Canada’s NDP Leader  Jagmeet Singh

Posted April 1st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Across Canada, people are having to make impossible choices every day – seniors are cutting their pills in half in order to make them last, and families are being forced to choose between paying rent on time or filling their prescriptions. Continue reading →

After 25 Years, Ontario No Longer Has an Official Environmental Watchdog

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

Posted April 1^st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Here we are on the first day of April – just 21 days away from celebrating the 49^th anniversary of the first Earth Day – and what I am about to mention is not an April Fool’s joke.

Dianne Saxe, Ontario’s  last Environmental Commissioner, worked as an independent watchdog for the public. The Ford government claims that chopping Saxe’s office is about saving money, yet the Office cost the province a mere 30 cents per person in Ontario, per year.

This past Friday afternoon (March 29^th), Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner, Dianne Saxe, and her staff turned off the lights in the Environmental Commissioner’s Office (ECO) for the last time because as of this April 1^st, thanks to Premier Doug Ford’s self-described “Government for the People,” that office is officially closed.

The Ford government announced it would be closing the ECO, which has served as an official, independent watchdog on provincial government affairs when it comes to environmental protection, in November of last year.

The announcement came shortly after the Office released a major report titled; Climate Action in Ontario – What’s Next, which included the following summary remarks on the challenge the province faces now –

“Although climate disruption is already starting to hammer Ontario,” states the report, “we continue to emit high levels of greenhouse gas pollution. It is no longer possible for us to have what we all want: both a safe, predictable climate that sustains our lives and economy, and unlimited fossil fuel use.” Continue reading →

New Requirement Follows in the Wake of Ongoing Crackdowns at the U.S./Mexico Border

A News Brief from Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted April 1^st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Starting this May, Canadians crossing into the United States by truck or car will be issued bumper stickers by homeland security officers, stamped with a red maple leaf and reading; “Canadians for Donald Trump.”

The issuance of the bumper sticker, according to a news release from the U.S. government, will come with a warning to everyone who owns a vehicle bearing a Canadian licence plate that if the stickers are not displayed where they can be clearly viewed on the back bumpers of their truck or car by July 4^th of this year, they may be turned around at the border and not allowed to enter the United States. Continue reading →

“Last October, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released (a) special report (that) was a screaming alarm for immediate action. … And yet, months later, governments continue to act as though it is business as usual.”    – Elizabeth May, Leader of Canada’s Green Party

A Call-Out Elizabeth May and the Green Party of Canada

Post April 1st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Dear Friend,

Canadian Green Party Leader Elizabeth May

Last October, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its special report on why the world must reach the Paris target of no more than a 1.5 degree C global average temperature increase – or face the most dire of consequences. It was a screaming alarm for immediate action.

And yet, months later, governments continue to act as though it is business as usual. The report has been massively misinterpreted. Media and politicians keep saying “We have 12 years.” This is not true.

Rather than measure our actions in years, we must adjust our level of urgency to measure the time before the window of opportunity on 1.5 degrees is closed forever. 

We don’t have years; we have months. Continue reading →

Join People Around the World for Earth Hour 2019 this Saturday, March 30^th from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.

A Brief Foreword Note from Doug Draper, reporter/publisher, Niagara At Large

Posted March 30^th, 2019

Earth Hour.

I know what some of you may be thinking. What good is turning off your lights for one hour going to do for the planet.

Well, probably not much, but at least it is a start. It is a chance to at sit around with friends and relatives for an hour and thinks about what you can do as an individual and what all of us can do in our communities to take the action we need to take collectively to spare our future from ever more destructive impacts of climate change. Continue reading →

Announcement Follows Outcry from Province’s New Democratic Party and Others as Deadline Approaches for Re-Funding Treatment Sites

Sites for continued funding include one at Positive Living Niagara on Queenston Street in St. Catharines and at the Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre on Rebecca Street in Hamilton

“Our government takes the opioids crisis very seriously,”               – Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, March 29^th, 2019.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott

A News Release from the Ontario Government

Posted March 29^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Ontario’s Government for the People is putting patients at the centre of our integrated health care system. As part of this commitment the Government of Ontario is ensuring those struggling with drug addiction can connect with full wrap-round supports for treatment and rehabilitation services, by approving 15 Consumption and Treatment Services sites in communities with high need and will continue to accept applications from interested organizations. Continue reading →

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted March 29^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Former Thorold regional councillor Henry D’Angela has been appointed by Niagara Region’s council to service as citizen member on f the Niagara Police Services Board

Niagara, Ontario – Henry D’Angela, a former Niagara regional councillor for Thorold, has been appointed by the Region’s Council to serve for the rest of the 2018 to 2022 council term as a citizen member on the Niagara Police Services Board.

D’Angela (whose last name ends with an ‘a’ and should certainly not be mistaken for the Region’s now former and very controversial CAO Carmen D’Angelo) served on the Police Services Board prior to 2014, when he was on the Region’s council and Gary Burroughs, who also sat on the board, serviced as the council’s Chair.

D’Angela ran and lost in last October’s municipal election to a strong-showing Terry Ugulini in a bid to serve as Thorold’s mayor for a second time during his time in municipal politics that goes back two decades. Continue reading →

“For people struggling with opioid addiction, their loved ones, and for St. Catharines as a community, this safe consumption site has been a literal lifeline. The Ford government needs to stop delaying and make sure it stays open and funded, immediately.” – St. Catharines NDP MPP Jennie Stevens

St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens

A News Release from Ontario’s New Democratic Party

Posted March 28th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

St. Catharines, Ontario  – NDP MPP for St. Catharines Jennie Stevens is calling on the Ford government to confirm that the St. Catharines overdose prevention site will be permitted to stay open. With a deadline set for March 31, only a few days away — frontline health care providers are worried that their life-saving operations will be interrupted.

“The safe consumption site on Queenston Street in St. Catharines has seen hundreds of people using it on a regular basis,” said Stevens in a letter to Doug Ford’s Minister of Health and Long Term Care. “The site has recently reversed more than fifty overdoses since December.” Continue reading →

Toronto City Councillor Mike Layton

“We could be on the hook for an enormous amount of money, into the billions as a city. …. I am a firm believer in the notion that polluters should pay.”                                                                                – Toronto City Councillor Mike Layton, who is tabling a motion at Toronto’s council to go after fossil fuel (oil and gas) industries for the costs of dealing with climate change.

A Commentary from Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

Posted March 27th, 2019

If our provincial and federal governments aren’t going to act aggressively enough to address climate change, municipalities will have to do it.

And one step they can take is to sue the industry’s most responsible for dumping climate-changing carbon into the atmosphere for the costs of the damage caused by the resulting severe weather.

That is a strategy the City of Toronto is reportedly now reviewing and debating in a motion which, if passed, would do just that – leave open the option of targeting oil corporations with lawsuits aimed at recovering the costs of damage caused by the severe weather outcomes of climate change. Continue reading →

There Is No Real Substitute for People Power, After All

A Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted March 26^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

“Oh, we’re off to see the Wizard

The wonderful Wizard of Oz.

We hear he is a whiz of a Wiz

If ever a Wiz there was….”

– From the 1939 movie classic, ‘The Wizard of Oz’

An awful lot of references to scenes from ‘The Godfather’ – a trilogy of movies first released between 1972 and 1990 about an American crime family – have been used by political pundits over the past three or four years to comment on Donald Trump’s campaign for the U.S. presidency and his subsequent two years in the Oval Office.

Given all of the shady and sleazy behaviour of Trump and his entourage, including members of his own family, references to Godfather movies make a lot of sense. But for all the news right now (this March 24^th and 25^th) around the report that U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller has finally completed on Trump, the life lessons I have so often found in another classic movie, ‘The Wizard of Oz’, seem more fitting now, with Mueller playing the role of the “great and powerful Oz.”

I’m putting Robert Mueller in the role of the Wizard because so many of my friends in the U.S. have been hoping that Mueller – a Vietnam War hero and long-time federal prosecutor – would be the one who would finally uncover enough skulduggery committed by Trump and his clan to run him out of office and possibly even put him in jail. Continue reading →

Niagara Centre MPP Reminds Ontario Government of its responsibility ‘to keep province’s teenagers and children safe

A Statement from Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch

Posted March 25^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch

(Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch delivered the following statement about alleged abuses committed in Ontario’s training schools for children and teenagers, against two of his constituents and others, and about the continued pursuit of the alleged victims for justice from the Province of Ontario.

The statement was delivered this March 25^th in the Ontario legislature.)

Mr. Jeff Burch: “I rise today (March 25^th) to speak for my constituents John Parisee and Rick Brown, who are here with us today, and for countless others like them, who survived their time in Ontario’s training schools for children and teenagers. Continue reading →

Kingston is only other Ontario municipality that has so far joined hundreds of other cities and towns around the world in joining the declaration

News from the Hamilton-based citizens watchdog group, Citizens At City Hall

Posted March 25^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

City of Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger authored the motion “that the City of Hamilton declare a climate emergency that threatens our city, region, province, nation, civilization, humanity and the natural world.”

At the urging of the Environment Hamilton citizens group, city councillors have declared a climate emergency joining hundreds of municipal governments in Europe and North America including Vancouver, Halifax and Kingston.

The local action was approved (Monday, March 18th), just days after the worst weather disaster in the southern hemisphere devastated a city almost exactly the same size as Hamilton.

At least hundreds and perhaps thousands are dead in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in the wake of Typhoon Idai that created a new lake 125 km long and 25 km wide just west of the city of Biera. At least 600,000 people were displaced and a week later vast areas were still underwater.

The typhoon hit just before the global student climate strike on March 15 of 1.6 million including 150,000 who marched in Montreal. However both the strike and the typhoon got limited media attention because of the white supremacist mass murder in New Zealand. Continue reading →

Bill Helmeczi, Pathstone Director of Strategic Planning, Standards and Practices

“By bringing clinical staff (at Pathstone’s Mental Health Centre in St. Catharines) together with researchers (at Brock University), I think we can build a dynamic research program that fosters a great deal of benefit as researchers become more aware of the specific challenges we face in dealing with children’s mental health in the region.” – Bill Helmeczi, Pathstone Director of Strategic Planning, Standards and Practices

News from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario

Posted March 25^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

A new partnership between two Niagara organizations will mean a direct connection between the people conducting leading-edge research on child mental health and the caregivers who work with families dealing with related issues.

Pathstone Mental Health and Brock University signed a Memorandum of Understanding Friday, March 22. Pictured front row from left: Bill Helmeczi, Pathstone Director of Strategic Planning, Standards, and Practices, Pathstone CEO Shaun Baylis, Brock President Gervan Fearon and Brock Professor Sid Segalowitz. Back row are Pathstone Board Chair Elco Drost, left, and Brock Board Chair Gary Comerford.

Pathstone Mental Health and Brock University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Friday, March 22 that solidifies a collaboration that will positively impact children suffering with mental health in Niagara and beyond. Continue reading →

“A living wage reflects what earners need to be paid based on the actual costs of living and being included in the community.” – Glen Walker, Chair of the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network

A News Release from the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network

Posted March 25th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

The Niagara Poverty Reduction Network is pleased to announce that Beechwood Doughnuts has become a certified living wage employer.

Tayler Book, President, Beechwood Doughnuts and Glen Walker, Chair, Niagara Poverty Reduction Network with certificate

Beechwood Doughnuts is Niagara’s first and only 100% vegan doughnut shop. Located in the heart of Downtown St. Catharines, Beechwood Doughnuts has proven that plant-based foods can be just as delicious as they are compassionate. They currently employ 10 full time staff and 11 part time staff.

“Ever since we came to the realization that our little doughnut shop was becoming something much larger than we could have ever anticipated, becoming a certified living wage employer was at the forefront of our minds. No matter the industry, all working people deserve a liveable wage. Continue reading →

Jimmy Carter has made  a great  mark of his own on our region of the Great Lakes

Then U.S. President Jimmy Carter in Niagara Falls, New York  in 1980, with Lois Gibbs, president of the then Love Canal Homeowners’ Association, after signing a second emergency declaration, to help Gibbs’ family and hundreds of others evacuate their homes around the Love Canal toxic waste dump.

“There must never in this country be another Love Canal.”   – U.S. President Jimmy Carter, in the spring of 1980, after signing a second federal emergency declaration to assist hundreds of families leave their homes around the leaking Love Canal toxic waste dump in Niagara Falls, New York.

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

Posted March 22nd, 2019 on Niagara At Large

This Friday, March 22^nd, Jimmy Carter, marked a milestone in the history of the U.S. presidency by becoming the longest living person, at age 94 and a half, and after the recently deceased George H. Bush, to have ever held the office.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has left a very positive legacy in our Niagara region.

Maybe all of the good people don’t die young, after all.

Jimmy Carter, a former Georgia government who served as the 39^th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, certainly made his mark on Niagara and on this bi-national region of our Great Lakes during his all-to-short tenure in his nation’s highest office.

In August of 1978, Carter signed the first of two documents, declaring a federal emergency at a neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, New York called Love Canal where, decades earlier, a local chemical industry buried close to 20,000 tonnes of some of the most toxic chemicals known to science – chemicals that were leaking out of the dump and into the yards of surrounding homes, and were also reaching creeks draining to the Niagara River. Continue reading →

Calling it a critically important moment for animal welfare in Ontario, a Brock University professor released her latest findings Wednesday, March 20 that offer unique insight and perspective on the issue.

News from Brock University in St. Catharines

Posted March 22nd, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Brock University  expert on anti-animal cruelty enforcement Kendra Coulter

Niagara, Ontario – Kendra Coulter, Chair of Brock’s Labour Studies Department and Canada’s foremost academic expert on anti-cruelty enforcement, has released a much-anticipated public report entitled: A More Humane and Safer Ontario: The Future of Animal Cruelty Investigations.

For nearly a century, anti-cruelty investigations in Ontario have been handled by charitable organizations.

However, earlier this month, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) announced it would cease its law enforcement work at the end of March.

 “Crimes against animals have been sidelined and de-prioritized by successive governments, and charities have filled in the gap,” says Coulter. “But the era of private enforcement is over and Ontario will finally have public animal cruelty investigations.” Continue reading →

David Adames is Appointed 12^th CEO in Niagara Parks 129-Year History

A News Release from Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission

Posted March 21^st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara Parks new CEO, David Adames

Niagara Falls, Ontaio – David Adames, currently the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Niagara Parks Commission, was today appointed as the 12th CEO to serve the Commission since its inception in 1885, reporting to Niagara Parks Chair, Sandie Bellows.

David brings with him a wealth of business and tourism experience to this most important role. Joining Niagara Parks in 2013, David first served as Senior Director of Business Development, before transitioning into the roles of Chief Operating Officer in 2016 and Acting CEO in October 2018.

David’s background includes time spent as the President and CEO of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, and as the Executive Director at Tourism Hamilton. He currently serves on several tourism boards, including Niagara Falls Tourism, the Tourism Partnership of Niagara and he currently serves as the Chair of the Winter Festival of Lights Board. Continue reading →

A Brief One from Doug Draper

Posted March 21^st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Less than a week after a terrorist and white supremacist who found inspiration in Donald Trump’s words of hate shot to death 50 of New Zealand’s Muslim residents in their places of worship, the Prime Minister of New Zealand has done something Trump and none of his predecessors have had the moral fortitude or courage to do.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stood at a podium this March 21^st and announced a total ban on assault-style guns, high-capacity ammunition clips and other assorted killing equipment.

Click on the screen below and witness a profile in courage –

Now watch Mr. Tough-GuyTrump and his and flaunting Christian vice president Mike Pence grovelling and soaking up the applause at a National Rifle Association conference last year – just a few months after the slaughter of young people at the Parkland high school in Florida, and less than six years after five and six year old children were bullet-drilled to death at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut –

 And Trump claims he cares so much about homeland security and law and order, and originally said he would never take any money from a lobby group like the NRA. Not a drip of shame in this man, and what a coward at the end of the day.

Come to think of it, we have never had a Prime Minister in Canada that has had the courage to do what the PM of New Zealand has done, without compromise, in such a short period of time. Stephen Harper couldn’t even support a gun registry.

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

“Why aren’t we seeing major investments in expanding renewable energy resources?”

From Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada

Posted March 21^st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Canadian Green Party Leader Elizabeth May

Ottawa – Although the Trudeau government continues to insist that it’s committed to decisive action on the climate crisis, Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s 2019 federal budget tells a very different story.

“It just doesn’t add up,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands). “The budget’s total commitment to a suite of energy efficiency and clean economy initiatives is less than $1.5 billion over five years — $300 million a year. Under a year ago, this government spent $4.5 billion to buy a leaky 65-year-old oil pipeline and wants to spend another $10 billion to expand it.” Continue reading →

“Our budget works for Canadians at every stage of their lives.”    – Vance Badawey, Niagara Centre MP

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

Posted March 21st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara Centre MP Vance Badawey

Niagara, Ontario – Our government today delivered a budget to build on our goal, since 2015, to strengthen and grow the middle class, and we want to restore confidence for all Canadians that we’re still on point to build an economy that works for everyone.

“Our budget works for Canadians at every stage of their lives,” said Vance Badawey, Niagara Centre MP.

“I’m especially pleased to see one of my recommendations come through: Budget 2019 proposes a one-time transfer of $2.2 billion to the gas tax fund. This results in additional gas tax money coming directly to Niagara Centre, bypassing red tape from the province, to help bolster direct investment in roads, bridges, and public transit right here in our local towns and cities, starting this summer.” Continue reading →

“Niagara, like many regions across Canada, has fallen into an affordable housing crisis. … While this (federal) government has invested significantly in affordable housing, a multi-pronged approach to the lack of housing stock is needed, including reducing red tape for developers and incentivizing the construction of more affordable units.”

A Budget Analysis from the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce

Posted March 21^st, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara, Ontario – The Government of Canada released (this past March 19^th) the fourth and final budget for this term of office. While not a complete reaction, the GNCC has shared these preliminary thoughts on some key areas of the 2019 budget.

Debt and Deficit

While the 2018-2019 deficit projection has been reduced slightly, deficits are projected at $14.9-billion for 2018-2019 and $19.8-billion for 2019-2020, with a debt of $685.6-billion projected to rise to $761.7-billion by 2023-24. However, debt-to-GDP ratios will fall from 30.8% to 28.6% in the same time period. Continue reading →

Celebrating a Time of Hope and Renewal for our Lives and for our Communities

A Brief One from Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed… Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”
– Henry David Thoreau

We’ve been through a long, cold winter, often full of news in this Niagara region and elsewhere that has disheartened and angered us.

I don’t mind telling you that, more than a few times, what I was witnessing of some of the scoundrels, in this region alone, that had their grubby hands on the levers of power and were so abusing the trust we place in public agencies and institutions, had me feeling so depressed and discouraged, that I almost felt like giving up.

But we can’t give up or we lose everything about a civil society that matters.

And now spring is here – a time for renewal. Let’s all get engaged. Together, we can make better days for our lives and communities happen.

Here is one of my favourite spring time songs from one of my all-time favourite groups, The Rascals – “A Beautiful Morning” from the spring of 1968. To hear it, click on the screen below.  … Enjoy and join  together with your friends and neighbours in a campaign for positive, progressive renewal . 

And keep visiting and supporting alternative news and commentary sites like Niagara At Large.

By the way, we have beautiful green places like this in Niagara. Let’s fight against the stupidity and short-sighted greed of a few out there to save what is left of them. – Doug Draper

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

New Interim CAO Gayle Wood Sets Problem-Plagued Agency on Path to Renewal

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

Posted March 20^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Veteran Conservationist Gayle Wood, appointed interim NPCA CAO only three weeks ago, already making a positive mark on the troubled agency

Spring did not officially begin until 5:58 p.m. this March 20^th, but for member of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s (NPCA) board, its staff, and for members of the public who were there, it began more than six hours earlier at the board’s latest monthly meeting.

For the first time in at least six years, there were smiles on the faces of almost each and every person around the big room at the Ball’s Falls Centre for Conservation where the board meetings are routinely held.

For the first time in just as many years there was a feeling in the air  that everyone, including members of the public and the media who, in recent years, have felt the need to say and to write things critical of the Conservation Authority’s senior staff and board, were welcome to attend.

And much of the reason for the end of what has been a very long and cold winter, and the arrival of spring with a real promise of renewal for this bruised and battered agency can be summed up in two words – Gayle Wood. Continue reading →

“The Ford government must hit “pause,” engage in proper public consultation and make a new priority of actually improving access to public health care services for the people of our province.”

An Analysis by Natalie Mehra, Exective Director of the Ongtario Health Coaltion

Posted March 20^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

It is called “The People’s Health Care Act.”

Ontario Health Coalition Executive Director Natalie Mehra

But the new health care omnibus bill, being rushed at breakneck speed through Ontario’s Legislature by Doug Ford’s majority caucus, does not reflect his promises to “the people” in the election. It does not open a single operating room to speed up surgical wait times, though lack of operating funds means that there are closed ORs in every major hospital in Ontario.

It doesn’t add a single new nursing home space, nor one more nurse, health professional, or doctor. It doesn’t open any of the dozens of hospital wards, closed down as real-dollar funding has been tightened year after year. Yet Ontario has the fewest hospital beds left of any province in the country.

The evidence is abundant that Ontario has a serious health care capacity problem. Cuts and rationing have gone too far. Health funding in this province has dropped to dead last in Canada. In fact, during the election, Ford traversed the province promising an expansion — not a wholesale dismembering — of the health system.

But what is in Ford’s health care omnibus bill is a new “super agency” forged out of 20 existing agencies with widely disparate mandates, histories, levels of effectiveness, and cultures. That alone is a mega-merger which carries a great deal of risk for vital patient care services.

But that’s not all. Written in the new law are vast powers that the Ford government has given itself and its political appointees in the new “super agency” to effect a wholesale restructuring of our local hospitals, long-term care, home care, community care, mental health and so on.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is not listening enough to public concerns about health care reform

Restructuring powers are defined in the legislation as not only “service coordination” but also more ominously, mergers, amalgamations, transfers of all or part of a service, closures of service, and shutdowns of entire service providers. These are not simply voluntary. They can be ordered by decree of the minister or the government’s appointees in the super agency and they also can be coerced through use of the Agency’s funding powers.

Already the attention of every CEO and manager in the health system has turned to restructuring. The reality is that the large and ambitious will seek to expand their “market share” and profits using the new opportunities afforded in this legislation. They were the prime beneficiaries of the hospital mergers and restructuring under the Harris government in the late 1990s. Today, largely as a result of that round of health restructuring, public hospital services were transferred to for-profit long-term care and home care.

The majority of long-term care is privatized and that sector is dominated by the large for-profit chain companies. The Victorian Order of Nurses (VON), a non-profit health organization that provides home nursing care, and local non-profit home care has been decimated.

Large hospital CEOs, having taken over smaller hospitals in forced mergers, have seen their power (and salaries) balloon even while hospital beds and services are cut and privatized. Smaller towns have seen their services gutted. Patient advocates have faced an uphill battle trying to tighten regulatory regimes and improve care levels against the powerful for-profit lobby that pushes, often successfully, for ever more money for profit and deregulation of patient protections and care standards under the guise of “eliminating red tape.”

Concern continues to grow over what will happen to levels of care at hospitals like this one, already possibly on the chopping block in Welland/Niagara

The Provincial Auditor reported in 1999 that the last hospital restructuring that occurred under Premier Mike Harris from 1996 to 2000 cost $3.9 billion to lay off nurses and staff, close down local services, then rebuild them elsewhere. The final “savings” was $800 million. Yes, that is correct: they spent $3.9 billion to cut $800 million.

In Doug Ford’s new round of health care restructuring, years of mergers and takeovers and partnerships and so on are supposed to result, according to the current minister, in 30 to 50 giant health-care conglomerates running virtually all services for up to 15 million Ontarians.

Each conglomerate would be made up of hundreds of mergers, service transfers and takeovers, but also some separate entities: 1,800 service providers are to be pushed into these groupings. Each conglomerate will need a new tier of administration to run the relationship between its various parts. That equals 30 to 50 new administrations plus the mothership “super agency.” The administration of the conglomerates will be owned by the providers themselves in their interest, not public oversight in the public interests. This is worse than what already exists.

Virtually all the democratic protections, paltry as they were in previous legislation, have been stripped out of the new omnibus law.

There are no principles at all to guide restructuring, no mention of equity, no open board meetings for the super agency, no appeals of restructuring decisions, no requirement for public input or democratic process. There is no evaluation system for the vast new restructuring. There was no public consultation prior to this Bill. In fact, the first job of a public health care system is to measure and plan to meet the population’s need for care. But the Ford government’s new health care omnibus bill does not require the super agency (or anyone else) to actually do this.

Given how opaque the whole process has been, it is hard to know whether the Ford government realizes the full scope and implications of what it is doing.

In the coming weeks, we will learn whether they will hold any public hearings at all on the new law. Not only because we have a longstanding process of legislative democracy that should be respected, but also because it is essential to sound policy making, the Ford government must hit “pause,” engage in proper public consultation and make a new priority of actually improving access to public health care services for the people of our province.

~ Protecting Public Medicare for All ~

The Ontario Health Coalition represents more than 400 member organizations and a network of Local Health Coalitions and individual members. Our members include: seniors’ groups; patients’ organizations; unions; nurses and health professionals’ organizations; physicians and physician organizations that support the public health system; non-profit community agencies; student groups; ethnic and cultural organizations; residents’ and family councils; retirees; poverty and equality-seeking groups; women’s organizations, and others.

For more information on the Ontario Health Coaltion and its advocacy work, click on – https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/ .

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

“There have been two billboard unveilings to promote a hospital (in the southwest end of Niagara Falls) that doesn’t have a clear time-line or construction date. This project is too important to the region for it to be a publicity stunt.” – Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates

A News Release from the Constituency Office of Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates

Posted March 19^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara Falls MPP Wayne Gates

Queen’s Park—On Tuesday (March 19th), Niagara Falls NDP MPP Wayne Gates released the following statement calling on the Ford government to commit to a clear and expedited timeline for a new Niagara Falls hospital:

“Niagara families have waited long enough for a new hospital in Niagara Falls. When the mental health and the maternity wards were taken out of the current Niagara Falls Hospital, families were told that they would be replaced in a the new, state-of-the-art hospital. That hasn’t happened — years later and families are still forced to drive across the region for these services.

There have been two billboard unveilings to promote a hospital that doesn’t have a clear time-line or construction date. This project is too important to the region for it to be a publicity stunt. Niagara families deserve to know, once and for all, when a new hospital is coming to Niagara.” Continue reading →

“Today’s (March 19^th’s federal budget) measures don’t fulfill the bold promises of national pharmacare.”

“Budget 2019 continues the federal government’s modest efforts to move forward on greening the economy.”

Much More on what may be Trudeau government’s last budget before the federal election below.

A Critical Analysis  from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a non-profit body for advancing policy ideas

Posted March 19^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Budget 2019 identifies important targets, but falls short of substantial change

This could be the last budget Canada’s Trudeau government tables before it goes to the polls later this year.

Ottawa—Budget 2019, tabled today in the House of Commons, takes steps forward on municipal infrastructure, support for seniors and capping the regressive stock option deduction, but missed the mark on delivering housing affordability and the significant cost-savings that can only be achieved through a universal, single-payer pharmacare system, according to experts from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

“Budget 2019 identifies the right targets, but holds off on making necessary investments: climate change, unaffordable housing and the lack of wage raises are issues that can’t afford to wait,” says CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald.

“Experience over the past four years has shown that progressive promises during an election year do not always translate into action, adequate funding and truly transformational federal policies.” Continue reading →

Show your support by signing the “Protected Places Declaration” Below

From Ontario Nature, a province-wide advocacy group for protecting our natural places

Posted March 19^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

For the past year, we have been campaigning to get the governments of Ontario and Canada to meet an international commitment to protect at least 17 percent of our lands and inland waters by 2020.

This is in accordance with a target set under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. So far, 140 organizations – big and small – have endorsed the Protected Places Declaration. Continue reading →

“Bullies use fear as a tool. They feed off of people’s insecurities and manipulate others to believe they are good.”

“Bullies may use a variety of threats, particularly when they themselves are feeling threatened: they will openly suggest that anyone who stands up to them will have to pay dearly for opposing their wishes.”

“Bullies don’t care about the common good, or a greater good, they care about one thing: themselves and their own personal interests.”

“The good news is, we don’t have to put up with bullies. And a first step to combating them is to recognize their tactics, and call out the strategies they use to intimidate, undermine and fear monger.”                                                                                                      – Betty Disero, Lord Mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Early in the last term of Niagara Regional Council, the Region’s then-chair, Al Caslin, appears in a photo op after a community group came to the council to promote a public campaign against bullying. The group’s message didn’t appear to get through to many members of that council.

(A Brief Foreword from Doug Draper, journalist and publisher, Niagara At Large – March 18th, 2019

I wish to thank a resident in Niagara-on-the-Lake for bringing what I consider to be this very timely and important message from one of Niagara’s political leaders to my attention because I may have missed it.

I say timely because, unfortunately, in the age we now live in, there is far too much of this bad behaviour around. And there are individuals in high places, like the current U.S. president Donald Trump, who personify bullying and embolden others to behave the same way.

As a journalist who covered the last term of Niagara Regional Council under the helm of then-chair Al Caslin, I had a regular front-row seat to this kind of behaviour and, fortunately, most of those on that council who engaged in it were defeated in last October’s municipal elections, or they did us a favour and decided not to run again.

The good news is that the current Regional Council with Jim Bradley sitting in the Chair’s seat and individuals like Betty Disero (who is serving her first term as NOTL’s Lord Mayor and Regional Council member) sitting around the horseshoe, any and all signs of that ugly behaviour is virtually gone. And let’s hope it stays that way.

What a difference an election can make. The new Niagara Regional Council, sworn in last December, and chaired by Jim Bradley (with NOTL Lord Mayor Betty Disero as one of its members), seems a world away from the bad conduct so frequently witnessed on the Caslin council.

That is not to say that there aren’t still many bullies out there among us, in public office, in places of employment, out there on the school yard and, most certainly, on social media where many of us who cared to share our views on a topic have become targets of cyber bullies at one time or another. Continue reading →

Doug Ford’s “Government for the People” is Steamrolling Health Restructuring Law Through in “Outrageously Undemocratic” Process

A Message from the Ontario Health Coaltion, a province-wide citizens group advocating for quality, public health services

Posted March 18^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Are Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his health minister, Christine Elliott (left in photo) now working to deconstruct the system of public health care generations of Canadians fought for and supported going back to Canada’s “father of medicare for all”, Tommy Douglas? Is gutting our health services worth more tax cuts for Ford and Elliott’s rich business friends?

Toronto, Ontario – The Ontario Health Coalition is expresing outrage at the process by which the Ford government is rushing their new sweeping health care restructuring legislation through and is demanding public hearings across Ontario.

In the new law, the Ford government has given itself new powers to order the privatization of health care services, along with mega-mergers, transfers, and closures of local health care services including hospitals, long-term care, home care, community care, mental health and addictions services, community health centres and non-profit family health teams and others, says the OHC.

One of many rallies the Ontario Health Coalition has organized in support of quality, public health care

In context, the planned restructuring covers 1,800 health care service providers and health care services for approximately 15 million Ontarians, according to the Health Minister’s own comments. Continue reading →

Animal rights at centre of upcoming Brock talk – Free to All on Thursday, March 21st from 4 to 7 p.m.

A Brock News Release by Jeannie Mackintosh, from Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario

Posted March 18^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Renowned neuroscientist Lori Marino will speak at Brock on Thursday, March 21.

Niagara, Ontario – Two renowned scholars will be on campus next week to get the Brock and wider Niagara community thinking — and talking — about animals.

Acclaimed neuroscientist Lori Marino and Canadian academic Amy Fitzgerald will speak about marine mammal captivity, and animal advocacy and environmentalism, respectively.

Presented by Brock’s Department of Sociology, the free Thinking About Animals event takes place Thursday, March 21 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Pond Inlet. Everyone is welcome to attend. Continue reading →

Make it a Day of Celebration and of Paying a Bit of Homage to the Hardships that People of all Races, Colours and Creeds Have Been Through – And to the Love we should Share with and for Each Other

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted March 17^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

As a veteran of quite a few St. Patrick’s Day parades and the wild parties that fill the pubs and pour out onto to the streets after the parades, one of thought that has often occurred to me during the height of it all is this.

Celebarting in the streets of Buffalo, New York on the day of a St. Patrick’s Day parade. File photo by Doug Draper

That kind of partying – as joyous as it so obviously seems – can often be a product of a long history of hardship and persecution.

The last few decades have arguably been relatively good ones for the Irish and for North Americans of Irish descent compared to many decades over the past couple of hundreds of years.

For a 50 or 60-year-old Canadian or American of Irish decent, the Irish Rising (also known as the Irish Rebellion) of April, 1916, is only a few generations in the past, and the potato famine of the mid-1800s which reportedly killed more than a million people through disease and starvation, is only four or five generations in the past.

Stories, along with so many of the hard feelings from those and other nightmare times in the history of the Irish people, have been passed on from generation to generation. Continue reading →

CIJA Horrified by Heinous Act of Terror Targeting the Muslim Community In Christchurch, New Zealand

“This is a very dark day for those of us who care about the rule of law, plurality, acceptance, and religious freedom.” – Jeffrey Rosenthal, Co-Chair of the Canadian-based Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs Board

From the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Toronto

Posted March 16, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Women mourn for loved ones in wake of mass shootings.

Toronto, Ontario – Yesterday (March 14^th), forty-nine Muslims were murdered while at prayer at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Upon learning this, Joel Reitman and Jeffrey Rosenthal, Co-Chairs of the National Board of Directors of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), issued the following:

“We condemn this vile act of terrorism targeting the Muslim community in the strongest possible terms and trust those responsible for this crime will be subject to the full force of the law,” said Joel Reitman, Co-Chair of the CIJA Board. Continue reading →

There is No Time Left for Delay and Denial. Our Last Chance to Address the Climate Crisis is Here and Now!

Greta Thunberg, speaking at a United Nations climate conference in Europe last December

“We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules,” says 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, a climate activist from Sweden, “because the rules have to be changed.”

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted March 15th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

At a United Nations conference on climate change last December, a remarkable 16-year-old girl from Sweden named Greta Thunberg, rose to the podium in front of an audience of greying adults and said the following –

“In the year 2078, I will celebrate my 75th birthday,” she said. “If I have children maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you. Maybe they will ask why you didn’t do anything while there still was time to act. You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.”

The year 2078 may be way too late for Greta’s children to ask that question about us, if they are around to ask any questions at all. Continue reading →

‘Back-to-Basics’ Math Curriculum, Renewed Focus on Skilled Trades and Cellphone Ban in the Classroom Coming Soon to Ontario

News from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s ‘Government for the People’

Posted March 15^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Ontario Minister of Education Lisa Thompson Unveils Government’s Vision for ‘Education that Works for You’

Toronto – Students and parents in Ontario can look forward to the implementation of stronger math, STEM, and financial literacy curricula, improved skilled trades opportunities, and a province-wide ban on cellphones in the classroom as part of the Government of Ontario’s sweeping new vision for ‘Education that Works for You,’ Lisa Thompson, Minister of Education, announced today.

“This is our plan to protect a sustainable world-class education system for the students of today and the future,” said Thompson.

“We will make sure our students are leaving school with the skills they need to build good lives, families and careers right here in Ontario, while ensuring the system is both fiscally sustainable and respectful of parents.”

The government’s plan, Education that Works for You,will modernize curriculum, modernize classrooms and empower educators to better prepare students for the realities of today’s modern world.

“Shortly after we came to office we did what the previous government had been afraid to do – and threw the doors open to real, meaningful public and parental input into our education system,” said Thompson. Continue reading →

Niagara-on-the-Lake Lord Mayor Betty Disero

“Bullies use fear as a tool. They feed off of people’s insecurities and manipulate others to believe they are good.”

“Bullies may use a variety of threats, particularly when they themselves are feeling threatened: they will openly suggest that anyone who stands up to them will have to pay dearly for opposing their wishes.”

“Bullies don’t care about the common good, or a greater good, they care about one thing: themselves and their own personal interests.”

“The good news is, we don’t have to put up with bullies. And a first step to combating them is to recognize their tactics, and call out the strategies they use to intimidate, undermine and fear monger.”                                                                                                      – Betty Disero, Lord Mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario

Early in the last term of Niagara Regional Council, the Region’s then-chair, Al Caslin, appears in a photo op after a community group came to the council to promote a public campaign against bullying. The group’s message didn’t appear to get through to many members of that council.

(A Brief Foreword from Doug Draper, journalist and publisher, Niagara At Large – March 15th, 2019

I wish to thank a resident in Niagara-on-the-Lake for bringing what I consider to be this very timely and important message from one of Niagara’s political leaders to my attention because I may have missed it.

I say timely because, unfortunately, in the age we now live in, there is far too much of this bad behaviour around. And there are individuals in high places, like the current U.S. president Donald Trump, who personify bullying and embolden others to behave the same way.

As a journalist who covered the last term of Niagara Regional Council under the helm of then-chair Al Caslin, I had a regular front-row seat to this kind of behaviour and, fortunately, most of those on that council who engaged in it were defeated in last October’s municipal elections, or they did us a favour and decided not to run again.

The good news is that the current Regional Council with Jim Bradley sitting in the Chair’s seat and individuals like Betty Disero (who is serving her first term as NOTL’s Lord Mayor and Regional Council member) sitting around the horseshoe, any and all signs of that ugly behaviour is virtually gone. And let’s hope it stays that way.

What a difference an election can make. The new Niagara Regional Council, sworn in last December, and chaired by Jim Bradley (with NOTL Lord Mayor Betty Disero as one of its members), seems a world away from the bad conduct so frequently witnessed on the Caslin council.

That is not to say that there aren’t still many bullies out there among us, in public office, in places of employment, out there on the school yard and, most certainly, on social media where many of us who cared to share our views on a topic have become targets of cyber bullies at one time or another. Continue reading →

Niagara residents gather at one of many rallies in recent years to save wetlands in Niagara Falls’ Thundering Waters Forest from sprawling development

“Wetlands in the Great Lakes basin improve water quality in a variety of capacities (such as nutrient and sediment sequestration, flood retention, regulation of water temperatures) and provide many social, cultural and economic benefits to society. Yet they continue to face threats and stressors and a significant amount of wetlands have been degraded or lost throughout the region.”                                          –     – an excerpt from the International Joint Commission article   below

By John Wilson, for the Canada/U.S. International Joint Commission’s newsletter, Great Lakes Connection

Posted March 15^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Wetlands provide vital benefits to lakes and other waterways.

They serve as the home for a wide diversity of plants, insects, reptiles, animals and aquatic species, reduce erosion, trap and filter sediment and pollutants, and absorb nutrients that otherwise would flow directly into lakes, rivers and streams.

One of the provincially significant wetlands in the Niagara watershed of the Great Lakes, now at risk due to plans for urban development in the Thundering Waters Forest in Niagara Falls, Ontario

A recent webinar explored challenges and opportunities to achieving a “net habitat gain” for Great Lakes coastal wetlands.

Wetlands in the Great Lakes basin improve water quality in a variety of capacities (such as nutrient and sediment sequestration, flood retention, regulation of water temperatures) and provide many social, cultural and economic benefits to society. Continue reading →

“The current increase in life expectancy and our ever-expanding waistline goes hand in hand with the emergence of common age-related chronic diseases.” – Rebecca MacPherson, Assistant Professor of Health Sciences, Brock University

News from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario

Posted March 15^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Assistant Professor of Health Sciences Rebecca MacPherson was awarded a grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) to purchase equipment for her research on the interactions between metabolism, diet and exercise.

It’s a common notion that people seem to become more forgetful as they get older, leading many to conclude that memory declines with age.

But Brock University Assistant Professor of Psychology Karen Campbell aims to counteract that view by showing that something else is happening in the brain that mimics memory loss.

Meanwhile, Assistant Professor of Health Sciences Rebecca MacPherson is concerned about rising rates of obesity and how diet and exercise — or lack thereof — affects people as they age.

To aid in their investigations, MacPherson and Campbell will be purchasing state-of-the-art equipment thanks to funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF). Continue reading →

“Ontario Shows Leadership on Women’s Issues At the United Nations

Minister Lisa MacLeod joined the Canadian delegation at the Commission on the Status of Women

A News Release from Ontario’s “Government for the People”

Posted March 15^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

The Honourable Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s Minister of Children, Community and Social Services and Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues

New York City — Ontario’s Government for the People is strongly advocating for gender equality with a commitment to end violence against women and sex trafficking.

The Honourable Lisa MacLeod, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services and Minister Responsible for Women’s Issues, joined the Canadian delegation in New York City this week at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to highlight the inequities faced by women and girls at home and abroad.

“I was proud to speak up for equality with my fellow Ministers,” said MacLeod. “We need strong women to support vulnerable women but just as importantly we need strong men to support vulnerable women.” Continue reading →

Top Cop’s departure is just the latest in recent rush of high-office exits in a Niagara where a little less chaos and a little more stability would be nice

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

Posted March 14^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Mark McMullen, whose hiring as Niagara Parks Police Chief was celebrated when it was announced in May of 2017, was suddenly out of the job this past Monday, March 11th.

As if the heads of Niagara residents aren’t already spinning from four months of sudden departures and firings – not to mention some pretty hefty lawsuits – involving top administrators at Niagara Region and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA), now we learn through a report this March 12^th in local newspapers that Mark McMullen, Niagara Park’s Chief of Police, is suddenly gone.

It was only 22 months ago, that Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission circulated a news release, announcing McMullen’s hiring to the top cop job at the Parks Police, one of the oldest (circa 1887) and most respected police forces in all of Canada. Continue reading →

Front-Line Cuts happening in Defiance of Ford’s pledge that only management-level jobs will disappear

A News Release from Ontario’s Official Opposition and New Democratic Party

Posted March 14^th, 2018 on Niagara At Large

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is making service cuts, he claims, to “put more money in (our) pocket.” Ontario residents may have to use some of that pocket money to pay for private health care and other public services that may be lost.

Queen’s Park — With another month to go before Doug Ford’s first budget, which is widely expected to include deep cuts, the NDP says the jobs that have already been cut include front-line staff that deliver health care and critical services.

Doug Ford revealed Wednesday in Cambridge that there will be job losses when he overhauls the health care system and creates his SuperAgency.

Ford’s tall tales indicate that only management-level people will be fired — but the job cuts resulting from a lack of funding from the province have already included: Continue reading →

Ontario Launches Online Consultation for Residents, Businesses and Stakeholders

A News Release from the Constituency Office of Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff

Posted March 14^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff

Niagara, Ontario — Sam Oosterhoff, MPP for Niagara West, is seeking local input on how to improve governance, decision-making and service delivery for regional governments in the Niagara Region.

All people who live or work in the region are invited to share their thoughts through the online consultation. The deadline to submit comments is April 23, 2019.

“We promised the people of Ontario that all levels of government would work harder, smarter and more efficiently,” said Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

“Our government is putting people first by seeking local input on how to improve governance, decision-making and service delivery for regional governments and their member municipalities.” Continue reading →

We Will Be Back With Renewed Vigor In A Matter of Days (and possibly sooner if there is breaking news we can’t ignore)

Read A Little About Our Plans For The Future Below

A Brief Message from Niagara At Large reporter and publisher    Doug Draper

Posted March 6^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Maybe it is the dog days of winter or maybe it is just that quite a few of us out there are slow walking into the March break week, but I am not getting anywhere near the hundred or two media releases and other messages that fill my inbox each day.

That is not unusual this time of year and it tells me that this may be a good time for this reporter to take a little time to  break from posting news and think about where we want to go with Niagara At Large in the weeks and months ahead. Continue reading →

Attend one of the upcoming Town Halls in or near your Community

Protect our local health care services from mega-mergers and privatization. Protect and improve our public health care! NO to cuts & privatization!

Town Hall Meetings brought to you by the Ontario Health Coalition and in Niagara, by its sister group, the Niagara Health Coalition

Posted March 6^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Ontario’s Ford government is proposing massive restructuring to hospitals, long-term care, home care, community care, mental health, etc. 

The new legislation, which has been forged with no public consultation whatsoever, will take away local control of health care services.

A Brief Call-Out from Niagara At Large –

Attend the following Town Hall meetings, hosted by the Ontario Health Coaltion and its local chapters, in Niagara and other communities across the province for a public discussion on what can be done to stop any and all moves by the Ford government to cut and privatize our public health care services.

Here is a list of locations, dates and times for a Town Hall meetings near you. For the sake of saving quality, public health care in Ontario, try to make it your business to show up –  Continue reading →

Ontario Environment Minister Rod Phillips

“Litter-reduction efforts will hinge on fostering a greater sense of personal responsibility for the people of Ontario and, in particular, our youth. … It begins with recognizing that real environmentalism involves more than just the social media of activists and celebrities but is instead founded on the personal decisions each of us make in our day-to-day lives.”                           – Rod Phillips, Ontario Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks

A Call-Out from Ontario’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks

Posted March 6th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Ontario’s government is working for the people to keep our province clean and beautiful for generations to come by taking steps to reduce litter and waste in our communities and increase and improve household recycling, as committed to in our environment plan.

The province is inviting public feedback on proposals to reduce plastic litter and waste in our neighbourhoods and parks, divert and reduce food and organic waste from households and businesses, and increase opportunities for the people of Ontario to participate in waste reduction efforts.

A discussion paper has been posted on the Environment Registry for a 45-day period.

Continue reading →

You are Invited to Town Hall Meetings this March          in St. Catharines, Welland and Grimsby

See Dates, Times and Locations for a Meeting in your area below

Hosted by the Niagara  and Ontario Health Coalitions

Posted March 5th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Join us as we learn more about the People’s Health Act . Discuss what we can do to protect our local health services and to make health care decisions more accountable to us – the people.

Ontario’s Ford government is proposing massive restructuring to hospitals, long-term care, community care, mental health etc. It calls for mega-mergers of health systems, privatization of health services and gives new powers to the Cabinet and the Minister of Health to make changes to the Act on their own. Continue reading →

Stop Private Clinics and Unlawful User Fees and Extra Billing of Patients

A Call-Out from the Ontario Health Coalition, a province-wide citizens group advocating for quality, public health care

Posted March 5^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

The Ontario Health Coalition in partnership with the Provincial Health Coalitions and Canada Health Coalition have been working tirelessly to bring an end to the unlawful extra-billing of patients by private health clinics and stop the privatization of health care services.

Private clinics undermine public health care and equal, universal health care for all Canadians.

We have written an Open Letter to all provincial and federal Health Ministers in Canada calling upon them to uphold the Canada Health Act, stop two-tier user fees, extra billing of patients and stop privatization. Continue reading →

‘Firing of deputy OPP commissioner Brad Blair is latest mess in a cesspool of political interference.’ – Ontario Official Opposition and NPD Leader Andrea Horwath

“His (Brad Blair’s) actions were instrumental in uncovering the extent of Doug Ford’s meddling in the hiring process of the new OPP commissioner, and shining a light on the cesspool of political interference into the OPP.”

News from Ontario’s New Democratic Party

Posted March 5th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Long-time OPP officer Brad Blair’s firing raises call for public inquiry

Queen’s Park — In light of the extremely disturbing news that the government has fired whistleblower and Deputy Director of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Brad Blair, NDP Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath is calling for a full public inquiry into Doug Ford’s meddling in the OPP, and the firing of Blair. 

“Brad Blair is both a whistleblower and a distinguished officer with decades of exemplary service,” said Horwath.

“His actions were instrumental in uncovering the extent of Doug Ford’s meddling in the hiring process of the new OPP commissioner, and shining a light on the cesspool of political interference into the OPP — including Blair’s revelation of Ford’s disgusting, possibly illegal, attempts to procure a luxury super-van off the books, secretly using public money.” Continue reading →