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

Wednesday, July 17^th at 7 P.M. at the Victoria Avenue Public Library in Niagara Falls

From Karen Fraser, CEO, Niagara Falls Riding, Green Party of Canada

Posted July 15^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

On Wednesday July 17th at 7 PM, the Green Party of Canada, Provincial and Federal Niagara Falls Riding Associations will be hosting both federal and provincial Annual General Meetings (AGM) as well as the Nomination Meeting for our 2019 Federal Green Candidate.

* The meeting will be held at the Victoria Ave. Public Library  LaMarsh Room, 4848 Victoria Ave, Niagara Falls, Ontario L2E 4C5. Continue reading →

U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)Warns of Significant Harmful Algal Bloom, Which Are Toxic to People & Animals, in Lake Erie

“As climate change increases the threat of algal blooms, our efforts (to address (the harmful effects of this problem in the Lake Erie basin) must escalate proportionately.”                                           – Brian Higgins, U.S. Congressman

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

Posted July 14^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large 

Buffalo, New York area Congressman Brian Higgins

In a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) is calling for swift action in response to new warning about toxic algae threatening the health of the Great Lakes and the communities around them.

Higgins letter calls on the EPA to accelerate efforts to combat Harmful Algal Blooms, writing, “Such a bloom may impact the health of the entire lake, including the eastern basin near my district in Buffalo, New York. As climate change increases the threat of algal blooms, our efforts must escalate proportionately.”

The green algae mass, seen from space as it grows in the western end of Lake Erie, and working its way to the lake’s eastern end off the shores of Buffalo and Niagara.

This week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a warning predicting a harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie. Continue reading →

“Together, we must create a safer, more peaceful world, where the media freedom so central to healthy democracies and strong societies can flourish.”                                                                               – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Somali-Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh, another light for peace and love put out by war and hate

A Statement by the Prime Minister on the terrorist attack in Somalia that killed Somali-Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh, July 14, 2019 Ottawa, Ontario

Posted July 14^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today (this July 14^th) issued the following statement on the terrorist attack in Somalia:

“On behalf of all Canadians, I offer my deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Hodan Nalayeh, a Somali-Canadian journalist who, together with her husband Farid, was killed in the terrorist attack in Kismayo, Somalia. Our thoughts are also with those who were injured or lost loved ones. Continue reading →

A Brief Look at the History and the Current Status of Efforts to Protect  and Preserve this Watershed for Generations to Come.

And a Few Words on How You Can Stay Informed on the Restoration Work as it Continues

By Doug Draper

Posted July 12th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

The waters of the American and Horseshoe Falls spill to the lower Niagara River

It hardly needs to be said that the Niagara River and the numerous tributaries  draining  into it play a vital role in the quality of life, including the health and economic prosperity of people and communities on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border.

Yet we have not always shown this sprawling watershed the respect and the care it needs to continue playing that priceless role. 

By the middle decades of the last century, growing numbers of citizens and civic leaders on both sides of the border began sounding alarm bells about discharges of pollution to the Niagara River that, according to a report from one Maid of the Mist captain at the time, made the water below the Horseshoe and American Falls smell like “airplane glue”. Continue reading →

“President Trump’s damaging attacks on clean water stand in stark contrast to any claims of protecting the Great Lakes. The visible toxic algae blooms and green slime plaguing Lake Erie and other waterways in recent years are visual evidence that the Trump administration’s anti-environmental policies are moving the Midwest backwards not forwards.”                                                                                                     – Howard A. Learner, Executive Director, Environmental Law & Policy Center based in the U.S. Midwest

The following is from the Environmental Law & Policy Center, a public advocacy organization in the United States with a long history of addresses  issues affecting the health of  the Great Lakes

Posted July 12^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Environmental Law & Policy Center Rejects President Trump’s Claims of Protecting the Environment    

“The Trump administration’s anti-environmental policies are moving the Midwest backwards not forwards”

Statement By Howard A. Learner, Executive Director, Environmental Law & Policy Center, in response to President Trump’s remarks (this July 8^th, attempting to defend his environmental record at a White House gathering:

“President Trump’s damaging attacks on clean water stand in stark contrast to any claims of protecting the Great Lakes. The visible toxic algae blooms and green slime plaguing Lake Erie and other waterways in recent years are visual evidence that the Trump administration’s anti-environmental policies are moving the Midwest backwards not forwards.” Continue reading →

“They paved paradise, put up a parking lot. …”

– Joni Mitchell, from Big Yellow Taxi, 1969 

How much more of our natural heritage are we going to cover over with low-density sprawl like this?

A Foreword by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted July 11th, 2019 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.”

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

Under a mantra of “open for business” (as if all our province and the regions in it are is venues for doing business), the Ford government has been changing rules and regulations in ways that make it easier for the greediest and most irresponsible and backward-thinking members of the development industry to have a hay day with lands that should otherwise be protected and preserved for farming and for supporting a health and rich diversity of life (including ours) on this planet.

Like Harris before him, Ford’s “open for  business” mantra is, among other things, a way of selling us on the idea that we have to make a choice between economic growth and environmental protection or that when it comes to our wetlands, for example, we have to continue accepting a balance between urban growth and what few wetlands or meadows or forests we have left. Continue reading →