Category Archives: Uncategorized

“Today and every day, we as Ontarians and as Canadians must recommit to ensuring that an atrocity such as the Holocaust never be repeated.”                                                                                    – Ontario NDP and Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath

Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath released the following statement, to mark Yom HaShoah

Posted May 2^nd, 2019 on Niagara At Large

In the Toronto area two years ago, a Jewish place of rest is targetted by hate-mongers, leaving a tell-tale nazi swastika behind.

“On Yom HaShoah, Ontario’s New Democrats honour the memory of the six million Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust. We remember that these six million people were killed systematically, simply for being Jewish, and that this number includes Jewish refugees turned away at the Canadian border.

We also remember other victims targeted by the Nazis, including Roma people, people of diverse sexual and gender identities, people with disabilities and people killed for their political beliefs. Continue reading →

In the Wake of the Catastrophic Flooding Now Raving Communities in the Province, Your Cuts to Environmental Protection Programs Borderlines on Criminal Negligence

By Doug Draper

My Open Letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford

Posted April 29^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Ontario Premier Doug Ford surveying the damage and destruction from record flooding in regions of Ontario this April.

 “It just rips your heart apart,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford after speaking to victims in flood-ravaged communities in the Ottawa River area this past April 26th. “These folks can’t go through this every single year.”

They can’t go through this every single year?

Perhaps a better word to use, rather than ‘can’t’, Mr. Premier, is ‘shouldn’t’ because, as the years go on, they might go through it every single year.

Indeed, most , if not all of us not only might, but will go through climate-related disasters like the catastrophic flooding that has been occurring in the Ottawa River and other areas of Ontario, not to mention in Quebec and provinces further east, if political leaders like you don’t take action to address climate change and the destruction it causes. Continue reading →

Doug Ford Cuts Per-Student Funding

Government announcement another blow to students, teachers, education workers and parents

A Statement from Ontario’s NDP/Official Opposition Party

Posted April 26th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

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

Three weeks after thousands of secondary school students across Niagara joined tens of thousands of their peers across Ontario in a province-wide walkout to protest Ford government cuts to education, the cuts just keep on coming.

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

And look forward to more cuts to come. In Doug Ford’s Ontario, we may end up with online courses and home schooling for everyone folks.)

QUEEN’S PARK — Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP Education critic, released the following statement in response to the Ford Conservatives’ Grants for Student Needs (GSN) funding allocation: Continue reading →

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

Posted April 26^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

BEAMSVILLE – Ontario’s government for the people has announced new measures to give municipalities the tools they need to target drivers who threaten the safety of children crossing roads to get to and from their school bus.

Ford government MPP Sam Oosterhoff makes announcement this April 25th with school bus operators behind him

The proposed regulations will allow for more efficient enforcement and prosecution by allowing evidence from these cameras to be used in court without the requirement of an additional witness. Continue reading →

A Confession from Doug Draper, a proud member of the media and “enemy of the people”

Posted April 25^th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Every once in a while – but not very often, Thank God – someone will ask me if I go to church, and if not, why.

And rather than lying like some people do, I like to give the inquiring individual an honest answer and say ‘no’ to the first part of the question.

Then I usually use the latest example of self-righteous, in-your-face hypocrisy I have read about or witnessed on the television news (which is usually something I’ve read or witnessed that day) to answer the second part.

Trump receives prayer blessings from Christian evangelicals

So if some inquiring (or is that ‘Enquiring’) person were to ask me that question today, I would start with the usual “no” and finish with a tweet that has just been sent out by an individual who does for the reputation of a Christian preachers what the Koch brothers do for the reputation of people of wealth or what Donald Trump does for the reputation of politicians, or what Mark Zuckerberg does these days for the reputation of social media. Continue reading →

“Brock University has again ignored the recommendations of their own expert consultants as well as the wishes of the community and announced yet another poorly-conceived plan that threatens the future existence of Rodman Hall Art Centre.” – from a petition drafted by Liz Hayden and otherNiagara citizens concerned about the future of one of the region’s iconic heritage sites, Rodman Hall in St. Catharines, Ontario

Rodman Hall, a heritage treasure in St. Catharines, Ontario

Posted April 24th, 2019 on Niagara At Large

Rodman Hall Art Centre was created by and for the residents of the city and region in order to preserve this unique historical site, provide professional art experiences to the community and maintain the public Carolinian gardens overlooking Twelve Mile Creek and the downtown. Continue reading →

Greta Thunberg makes her plea for action on climate change to a European Union assembly earler this April, 2019

“We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past, and you will ignore us again. We have run out of excuses, and we are running out of time. We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people. Thank you.”

– the final words from an address Greta Thunberg, a then 15-year-old Swedish student and climate activist, delivered at a United Nations Summit on Climate Change this  December, 2018

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted April 23^rd, 2019 on Niagara At Large

This April 22^nd, CBC Radio’s morning program, The Current, played the voices of one young person after another, ages f five or six years old and into their teens, raising concerns about a future over ever more frequent and severe climate-related disasters, and expressing a call for last-chance action to prevent such a nightmare

As I listened to the voices of these young people, I heard kids who sounded no older than six or seven who made infinitely more sense than Ontario Premier Doug Ford when he goes off on one of his Homer Simpson rants about climate change. Continue reading →