Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Brief One from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Posted March 18^th, 2016

To all of you who are Irish or who wish you were Irish for a day or four this time of year, I raise a mug of Guinness for a Happy St. Patrick’s weekend and first day of spring – this March 20^th – to one and all of us who make up the 99 %.

A few of the countless thousands gathered for a past St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Buffalo, New York. That parade is back this Sunday, March 22nd, starting at noon on Delaware Avenue. Maybe we’ll see you there.

As for the remaining 1 % – all of the tax-dodging billionaires out there – let’s raise our mugs again to not letting them crash the party. They’ve crashed more than enough decent-paying jobs and opportunities for the rest of us to live the middle-class dream already.

And speaking of the billionaires, here is to the only candidate for high office on the continent who has continued to wage a political revolution aimed at making them start paying their fair share and stop out-sourcing millions of good jobs.

That candidate is U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who is now running for President of the United States and speaking of the Irish, here is a letter he sent to then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 36 years ago, when he was the Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, calling for the humane treatment of Irish prisoners in her government’s custody. Continue reading →

“A person who thinks only about building walls… and not of building bridges, is not Christian.”

A Brief One from Doug Draper

Posted February 18^th, 2016 on Niagara At Large

As you no doubt know, Republican presidential hopeful and billionaire businessman Donald Trump has been vowing ad nausea to build a “big, beautiful wall” between his United States and Mexico to keep, in his words, all of the “rapists”, “murderers” and “drug dealers” out.

Trump has also repeatedly raised the idea of banning all Muslims from entering the United States on the grounds that some of them may be terrorists.

This February 18^th, 2016, none other than the head of the Roman Catholic Church – Pope Francis – weighed in on this bluster during a briefing with reporters on his way back to Rome following a six-day visit to Mexico.

“A person,” said the Pope, “who thinks only about building walls… and not of building bridges, is not Christian.”

Trump, being Trump, immediately shot back, saying, he once liked the Pope, but isn’t sure anymore. “A religious leader questioning someone elses faith is disgraceful,” said d the Donald.

Another one of America’s infamous  blowhard, Rush Limbaugh, added this on his syndicated radio show; “Given the Pope’s political leanings, I’m surprised he’s not out campaigning for Bernie Sanders (a Democratic presidential hopeful and self-declared ‘democratic socialist’). Then again,” added Limbaugh in his usual sarcastic style, “maybe Sanders is too right wing for the Pope.”

Click on th video immediately below to watch what the Pope had to sayand then, below that, feel free  to weigh in with your own views, remembering that Niagara At Large only posts comments by individuals who identify themselves by their real first and last names. 

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Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.

“Over 350 Positions Will Be Available In 2016.” – NPC

(A Brief Foreword on this one from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Why am I posting a notice on a Job Fair – something that usually shows up as a paid ad in the classified section of a newspaper – for free on a site like this?

Because Niagara, Ontario has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the province and many other regions of the country at almost 13 per cent, according to Statistics Canada figures, this January 2016, alone.

That’s enough reason, in my view, to post this Job Fair Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission is holding this coming Saturday for February 20^th for seasonal jobs If it helps even a few of our younger citizens find a paying job for the spring and summer months, I’m pleased to post information like this.)

News from Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission

Posted February 13^th, 2016 on Niagara At Large

The Niagara Parks Commission to Host Job Fair – Over 350 positions available in 2016

Niagara Falls, Ontario – The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC), one of the region’s largest employers with over 1,600 full time and seasonal employees, will host its second annual Job Fair on Saturday, February 20, at the Niagara Falls campus of Niagara College. Continue reading →

A Call-Out To All of Us from the Ontario Health Coalition

Posted January 27^th, 2016 on Niagara At Large

Join us on Monday February 1st, 2016 at 12 p.m. at Queen’s Park (main south facing doors) in Toronto to call for improved hospital funding.

One of the Ontario Health Coalition’s recent rallies for improved hospital funding

We’ve had successes and a big show of support in Hamilton, Windsor, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, and Ottawa. Here are some photos from the rallies …on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ontariohealth/.  If you have pictures, please send them in. 

We will be sending (out) the OHC submission on Monday, February 1^st and will post the local coalitions’ submissions on the OHC website by Monday.

 To learn more about the Ontario Health Coalition and its province-wide citizens’ advocacy work visit –http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/ .

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.

Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.

We Are Hewers Of Wood, Rocks, Coal, Asbestos And Tar Sands Goo – And Now We Have A Dollar Soon To Be Worth Little More Than Two American Quarters

“I think the selling of these resources is a sign of the weakness of the whole (Canadian) set-up. … Instead of developing what you’ve got, you seem content to sell it in its raw state.” – the late British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted January 12^th, 2015 on Niagara At Large

As Canada’s ‘petro-lonnie’ sinks below 70 cents U.S. a the cost of vegetables, fruit and other imported products get harder for growing numbers of Canadians to afford, we’ve got a Bank of Canada chief who sits back and says he is not planning to do anything to pump up the dollar and the rest of us are just going to have to deal with the pain.

This same Bank of Canada governor – one Stephen Harper appointed hack named Stephen Poloz who a year ago this past November advised young people coming out of college or university with a huge debt and who can’t find a paying job to work for free – keeps reminding us, as other economists do, that the loonie, or whatever you want to call the metal slug that passes for a dollar in this country, tanks when the price for raw resources – particularly the undistilled goo from the tar sands – Canada sells on the world market tanks too.

Indeed, many economists have warned that Canada’s long history of selling off our raw resources rather than developing them into finished products ourselves makes the country’s economy particularly vulnerable when markets and prices for those resources take a significant fall. Continue reading →

Statement By Prime Minister On Release Of The Final Report Of The Truth And Reconciliation Commission

December 15, 2015, Ottawa, Ontario

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, issued the following statement after receiving the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission:

“The Indian residential school system, one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history, has had a profoundly lasting and damaging impact on Indigenous culture, heritage, and language. As a father and a former teacher, I am overwhelmingly moved by these events.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

“Seven years ago the Government of Canada apologized for this abhorrent system. The apology is no less true, and no less timely, today. The Government of Canada ‘sincerely apologizes and asks forgiveness of the Aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly’.

“Today, on behalf of the Government of Canada, I have the honour of accepting the Commission’s Final Report. It is my deepest hope that this report and its findings will help heal some of the pain caused by the Indian residential school system and begin to restore the trust lost so long ago. Continue reading →

Statement by The Prime Minister Of Canada On The Speech From The Throne

Ottawa, Ontario, December 2015 – The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, issued the following statement this December 4^th. marking the delivery of the Speech from the Throne in the Senate Chamber: “Canadians have told us they want a real and fair chance at success.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

To provide real change, we will deliver a tax cut for the middle class, introduce a new Canada Child Benefit, and create jobs through new investments in public transit, as well as green and social infrastructure.

We will work with the provinces and territories to make post-secondary education more affordable, begin to develop a new Health Accord, and enhance the Canada Pension Plan.“Canadians want to live in a country where a clean environment and a strong economy go hand-in-hand.

We will fight climate change, with the provinces and territories, as Canada works to put a price on carbon and reduce carbon pollution. We will also invest in clean technology and introduce new environmental assessment processes that seek and consider public input, with decisions informed by scientific advice. Continue reading →

 News from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Ottawa, Ontario, October 29^th, 2015 – The new federal government has plenty of room to raise the taxes of Canada’s one percenters, according to a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

The study, released in the wake of a federal election that handed the Liberals a majority government, concludes there is plenty of room for the new government to make good on its election promise to raise the top marginal income tax rate on those earning $200,000 or more to 33%. In fact, the findings suggest there is room to do more higher up the income scale.

How Much Income Could Canada’s Top 1% Pay?, by internationally respected CCPA Research Associate Lars Osberg, shows Canada’s richest now pay a lower tax rate than in the 1990s even though their share of total income has increased dramatically. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Here are a couple of front-page stories in one of Canada’s national newspapers that should have most people in Ontario saying enough is enough with teachers unions and their over-the-top sense of entitlement to our tax dollars.

Ontario’s Education Minister Liz Sanders says it is just about compensating the teachers unions for their negotiating costs

These stories should also cause people like me to be more cautious about giving Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal government the benefit of the doubt when so many others out there say they are the same secretive, arrogant, morally bankrupt bunch that they were when Dalton McGuinty was their leader and, for the better party of 10 years, the province’s premier.

If your head is still spinning from the federal election and you are just catching up to what else is going on, let me give you the gist of the two Globe and Mail stories (I’ll provide links to them below) laying out the information uncovered by reporters for the newspapers. Continue reading →

•  Over 40 Local Artists with Strong Ties to the Buffalo Region Participate

News from the Buffalo History Museum

Buffalo, New, York. October 20, 2015 – For the seventeenth year, Paint the Town, the social celebration of art, history, and community will take place at The Buffalo History Museum.

Buffalo History Museum located in the city’s scenic Delaware Park area. Photo by Doug Draper

The fundraiser will feature both live and silent auctions, and will include a wide range of artworks by over 40 artists with strong ties to the Buffalo region. A “cash and carry” Clothesline Gallery that features smaller unframed works is featured; guests may purchase Western New York inspired art at a set price. Continue reading →

In the wake of an unwanted legal battle with the Harper government, Mississauga, Ontario resident Zunera Ishaq finally gets the right to take the Oath of Canadian citizenship, just in time to vote in the federal election

A Brief Commentary by NAL publisher Doug Draper

I just happened to have CBC’s National News channel on this October 9^th as images were being shown of Zunera Ishaq taking the Oath of Citizenship just minutes after the ceremony actually took place in her adopted hometown of Mississauga, Ontario.

You may very well know by now that Zunera Ishaq is the woman who has been fighting what one can only hope is the outgoing Conservative government of Stephen Harper to where a facial veil, known as a niqab, during the citizenship ceremony. Continue reading →

News from the Niagara Health Coalition

Further to information posted earlier this October 5^th on health coalition candidate debates scheduled in Niagara, Ontario in the days ahead, the Niagara Health Coalition – a regional arm of the Ontario Health Coalition – has a third debate scheduled for the Niagara Centre Riding this Thursday, October 8th.

The Niagara Health System’s Welland Hospital site.

The debate for the Niagara Centre Riding, which spans Welland and parts of Port Colborne, Thorold and Wainfleet, will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Welland Arena on 501 King Street in Welland. The arena is across the street from the Welland Hospital site.

The two other debates scheduled for Niagara, Ontario take place this Wednesday, October 7^th and Thursday October 8^th in the ridings of Niagara Falls and St. Catharines respectively.

The details of where and when for those debates are –

Niagara Falls: Candidates’ Debate on Health Care Issues – All are welcome!

Wednesday October 7, 6:30 p.m., Gale Centre Arena, 4171 4th Avenue, Niagara Falls.  Sponsored by: Niagara Health Coalition and the Retired Teachers of Ontario (RTO/ERO) District 14.

St. Catharines: Candidates’ Debate on Health Care – All are welcome!

Thursday October 8, 6:30 p.m., St. Catharines Library (Mills Room), 54 Church St. St. Catharines. Sponsored by: Niagara Health Coalition and the Retired Teachers of Ontario (RTO/ERO) District 14.

Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from our greater binational Niagara region.

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

News from the Canada/U.S. Chamber of Marine Commerce

Ottawa, Ontario, September 30^th, 2015 — As the debate continues both at home and abroad on carbon offsetting measures, the Chamber of Marine Commerce is urging stakeholders and governments to carefully consider the environmental advantages and the competitive challenges faced by the bi-national Great Lakes-St. Lawrence shipping industry.

Another ship moves through the Welland Canal system in Niagara, Ontario

The call comes as the Ontario government develops details of a new cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and federal government negotiators head to Paris in December for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting.

Stephen Brooks, President of the Chamber of Marine Commerce, said that some past Canadian and U.S. regulations arising from international environmental commitments didn’t properly differentiate between domestic and global shipping. Continue reading →

By John Bacher

From now until October 19^th , the Province of Ontario is engaged in an important public consultation concerning the governance, funding, and roles and responsibilities of Ontario’s Conservation Authorities.

A Trail curling through the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s Balls Falls Conservation Park

This is an important matter since Conservation Authorities, including the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, have a very important role to play given where they exist – in the formerly deforested regions south of the Canadian Shield.

Just as doctors and mental health and other care workers seek to safeguard the health of human populations, Conservation Authorities are responsible for the wellbeing of our watershed-based ecosystems. In comparison however, Conservation Authorities have tiny budgets. Continue reading →

A  Commentary by Doug Draper

Those jet boats roaring up and down the white-cap waters of the Lower Niagara River are making news again.

A citizens group along the lower Niagara River shows their opposition to the river being used by jet boats. File photo

It’s been a long time since I have read or heard much from anyone on either side of the Ontario/New York State border about noise, erosion and other environmental impacts they say us caused by these powerful vessels as they race loads of tourists through the whirling waters of the lower river.

Then this past September 10^th, on the front page of The Buffalo News, was a story about the jet boats, featuring complaints from residents on both sides of the river about noise and damage to docks and other property they say the boats are leaving in their wake. Continue reading →

A Call to Action from the Sierra Club Niagara Group in Western New York

All are invited to attend a CLIMATE RALLY in Buffalo: Rise Up for Climate Justice! 

WHEN: Thursday, Sept. 24 at 5pm; *Festivities at 4pm The same day Pope Francis meets with the U.S. Congress and is expected to call for moral action to address the injustice of human-caused Climate Change as laid out in his recent Encyclical.

WHERE:  Niagara Square in Buffalo, NY  MAP with Metro Rail stations & Bus routes, Click Here

Continue reading →

• The Globe and Mail Would Not Invite Her, But May’s Green Team Has Found Another Way In 

News from the Green Party of Canada

Ottawa, Ontario, September 17^th, 2015 – Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada (Saanich – Gulf Islands), participates in today’s (this Thursday, September 17^th) Globe and Mail Leaders’ Debate using new, real-time video technology in partnership with Twitter Canada.

The Green Party’s Elizabeth May Finds Another Way To Join The Debate with the Conservatives’ Stephen Harper, the NDP’s Tom Mulcair and Liberal’s Justin Trudeau

During the economic themed debate, May will respond to questions posed by the debate moderator in real-time via Twitter. The debate will focus on the economy including energy and housing, taxation and jobs.

Ms. May will take media questions prior to and immediately following the debate. Debate details provided below: Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large  News Brief

Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following for this valuable service operated by students for students at Brock University.

Here is a few lines from the Centre’s website followed by an invitation to meet members of the Centre and consider joining them as a volunteer.

The Student Justice Centre seeks to educate the student body about racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of prejudice, while advocating for equity through campaigns, programming and workshops. 

We provide a safe space on campus where students can be who they are without fear of judgement. Our staff are trained to provide Peer-to-peer support to victims of injustice, including those who have experienced assault, harassment, discrimination, or prejudice.

​Finally, we address food security by operating the only food bank on campus.

For more on the Student Justice Centre and the services it provides click on http://www.brocksjc.com/ .

Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.

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

A Call Out from Canada’s Green Party Executive Director Emily McMillan

Elizabeth May and the Green Party will be excluded from Thursday’s (September 17^th) leaders’ debate, but that is probably what Stephen Harper had in mind when he hand-picked the Globe and Mail to host it.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May

Tell the Globe what you think about their decision to interfere with the democratic process by arbitrarily excluding Elizabeth May. Fill out our online form and add a personal message to be emailed to Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of the Globe and Mail.

Polls show that over 80% of Canadians want Elizabeth May to be included in all the national leaders’ debates. The Globe and Mail didn’t get that message – make sure they get yours. Tell them how you feel: greenparty.ca/tell-them-how-you-feel

Thanks, Emmily McMillan Executive Director Green Party of Canada

Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.

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

News from Canada’s Conservative Party’s campaign office

September 14th, 2015 – Our Conservative government has a strong record of economic and fiscal management.

Canada’s Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper

Our government achieved a balanced budget last year – one full year ahead of schedule.

This is good for our economy and good for Canadian families.

Spending beyond our means, as Justin’s Liberals and Thomas Mulcair’s NDP propose, would lead to permanent deficits, massive tax hikes, and economic chaos. Continue reading →

News from the Toronto-based citizens group the Ontario Clean Air Alliance

September 14^th, 2015 -The lights appear to be coming on for the governments of Ontario and Quebec when it comes to seeing the mutual benefit of increased electricity trade.

Following the joint cabinet meeting held by the two governments last week, Ontario announced that “On energy, the provinces took another significant step in their partnership by signing an MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] that will explore the potential for increased trade in electricity to provide savings to Ontario ratepayers and help meet Ontario’s energy needs through Québec’s clean and renewable electricity supply.” Continue reading →

A Brief Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper

A majority of Canadians may want to see Green Party leader Elizabeth May participating in the coming Thursday, September 17^th leaders debate with Conservative Stephen Harper, NDP Tom Mulcair and Liberal Justin Trudeau.

Canadian Green Party Leader Elizabeth May not included in upcoming leaders’ debate

But despite calls to The Globe & Mail, the media organization hosting the debate, and all of the positive reviews May’s performance received during the first leader’s debate – held on August 6^th and hosted by Maclean’s magazine – it is now almost certain May will be left out of this next one.

Given that, I am doing something I would not normally do for any of the parties – running a message below from the federal Green Party about the Globe-hosted debate which includes a request for people to donate to the party’s campaign. Continue reading →

A Call Out To You From Zoocheck Canada

Reminder that submissions on the proposed marine mammal standards for Ontario are due by September 14th.

For submittal information, consultation notice, sample letter, copy of Zoocheck, CFHS and WAP submission, go to: https://www.zoocheck.com/consultation-on-marine-mammal-standards/

For more information on the animal advocacy group Zoocheck click on www.zoocheck.com .

Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.

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

By Nick Fillmore

September, 2015 – The primary objective of Stephen Harper’s absurdly-named Fair Elections Act  is to prevent hundreds-of-thousands of Canadians from voting for the NDP, Liberals, Greens, etc.

The Conservatives are, in effect, “cheating” the electoral process again, just as blatantly as in the past. They know that a large number of people – students, marginalized people and First Nations – will have a hard time voting because of the changes. And they know those people would not likely vote Conservative. Continue reading →

News from Niagara Parks Commission & Friends of the Niagara Glen

 (Foreword Note from NAL – If you’ve never explored this beautiful piece of Niagara, Ontario nature, here is a good chance to do it with a group that helps keep it lush and prestine.)

 Niagara Falls, Ontario, September, 2015 – The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC), in partnership with the Friends of the Niagara Glen, will be hosting a clean-up event in the Glen on Saturday September 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Overlooking the white waters of the Lower Niagara River from the Niagara Glen located off the Niagara Parkway in Niagara, Ontario.

All are welcome to join the group and come out to help remove litter and graffiti from these magnificent natural areas. All help is appreciated!

The Niagara Glen is an undeniable treasure trove of natural beauty. The rugged terrain masks a much more sensitive side that needs our help. Approximately 490 species of vulnerable plants and animals call the Glen home and an unprecedented number of them are listed as either “at risk” or “rare” in the province; one of the largest concentrations anywhere in Ontario. Continue reading →

The green area highlights the Greenbelt stretching from the Niagara River in Niagara, Ontario around Lake Ontario east of the Greater Toronto Area

News from the Hamilton, Ontario-based group Citizens at City Hall (CATCH)

(Niagara At Large is posting this in part because there are also individuals and groups in Niagara who would like to roll back or dismantle restrictions on building on good growing land inside the Greenbelt zone here.)

Many owners of rural lands want their properties removed from the Greenbelt that was established by the province ten years ago to preserve agricultural lands and natural areas treasured by many urban residents. But urban supporters led by Environment Hamilton may be drowned out or left out in the city’s formal public consultation on the Greenbelt which is taking place exclusively in rural areas not accessible by transit. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

Obviously not everyone was touched by that image of the three-year-old Syrian boy’s body washed up on a Turkish beach around the 1^st of this September.

One of the photos of three-year-old Ala Kurdi that wrenched the hearts of people around the world.

At a campaign stop Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper made in the Niagara, Ontario riding of Welland this September 9^th, one Conservative supporter lashed back at a reporter asking Harper about his response to the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis with the following line; “How many kids drowned in pools in Canada this summer? Do you blame the government for that?”

It’s just my gut impression since I have no scientific data to back it up (not that Harper and his supporters have any respect for science anyway), but it seems like a disproportionate number of people who have so far yelled out creepy remarks like that are supporting Harper’s party. Continue reading →

A Message from the desk of Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn

September, 2015 – As I wrote about in the spring, the Ontario Government is reviewing the Greenbelt Plan, Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, Oak Ridges Moraine Plan, and Niagara Escarpment Plan.

Pelham, Ontario Mayor Dave Augustyn

In April, I wrote to the Expert Advisory Panel overseeing this Review and implored them to increase the protection of the Fonthill Kame. I recently sent another letter to the Panel, and I am hoping that you will too!

The “Fonthill Kame-Delta” is Niagara’s rare, 75-metre-tall, 1,000 hectare landmark that was formed by retreating glaciers 13,000 years ago. As the “hill” in Fonthill and Shorthills and the “ridge” in Ridgeville, the Kame boasts the highest point in the Niagara Region and serves as a significant water recharge area and forms the headwaters of the Twelve Mile Creek. Further, the Kame’s microclimatic and soil conditions create an ideal environment for tender fruit including peaches, sweet and sour cherries, and plums. Continue reading →

A  Message from the Office of the Premier

September 9^th, 2015 – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne released the following statement on the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II:

Queen Elizabeth II now Britian’s longest serving monarch

“Today marks a historic occasion as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II surpasses her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, as the longest-reigning British monarch.

For more than 63 years, Her Majesty has remained steadfast in her responsibilities, serving through times of turbulence and prosperity with strength, integrity and a sense of duty. Today, she is an enduring symbol of stability for the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. On behalf of the government of Ontario, I want to congratulate Her Majesty on this significant milestone and her remarkable reign, and extend our best wishes to her and the Royal Family.”

Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.

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

A Commentary from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“Leadership is not waiting for others to act.”

I received that great line in the form of a comment I received this September from Niagara, Ontario resident Dick Halverson – a great citizen activist in the region who I first met when he was helping to found the Niagara chapter of Habitat for Humanity some two decades ago.

Canadian citizen and journalist Mohamed Fahmy

Dick Halverson used that line in a brief congratulatory note to Town of Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn and his council for launching their own public transit service for the community.

Of course the line can also be used for many of the issues being debated in Canada’s current federal election, including health care, climate change and the Harper government’s grossly poor response to the Syrian refugee crisis unfolding overseas.

Another issue the line can very well apply to is Harper’s continued refusal to make a direct phone call to the president of Egypt to demand the release of Canadian citizen and journalist Mohamed Fahmy who was recently sentenced to three years in jail their on completely bogus charges. Continue reading →

A Foreword by NAL’s Doug Draper

I first saw the following sign – designed by Niagara resident Terry Nicholls who has a real talent when on that computer when it comes to creating signs and posters – at a rally of citizens this past September 7th Labour Day in front of the campaign office of St. Catharines Conservative MP Rick Dykstra.

The hundreds of people participating in the rally were calling on the Harper government Dykstra is apart of to open Canada’s doors to more Syrian refugees, whose plight is being broadcast day after day on major news networks for all the world to see.

Here is Terry Nicholls’ response to the Harper clan’s pathetic response to what leading aid workers around the world are calling a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions.

Print this sign off and pin it on a wall in your house or apartment, and pin under it a hand-written pledge to yourself that you will go to the polls this coming October 19th with the following mission firmly in mind – to defeat the Harper government.

If you have what you think is a good ‘Sign of our Times’ depicting some of the madness we are struggling against in today’s world, email it to Niagara At Large at drapers@vaxxine.com in a jpeg format and we will consider posting it.

Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from the greater bi-national Niagara region.

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

Niagara Park’s Old Fort Erie, overlooking the mouth of the Niagara River and Buffalo, New York skyline. From NPC photo gallery

News from Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission

Fort Erie, Ontario, September 7^th, 2015 – The Niagara Parks Commission’s Old Fort Erie is pleased to announce the return of its popular Murder Mystery evening, taking place on Saturday, September 12 at 7 p.m. Continue reading →

News from Brock University in Niagara, Ontario

September 7^th, 2015 – As Brock University’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts opens a new era in its new urban setting, it is launching a performance series to celebrate the bond between the community and the new arts centre of excellence in downtown St. Catharines.

Brock’s new Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts in downtown St. Catharines, Ontario. Photo courtesy of Brock University

The series Imagining the City – part of the Walker Cultural Leaders Program, 2015/16 – consists of performances, exhibitions, concerts and conferences, all themed around ideas of the urban, and the relationship between the City and the University.

“Our goal is to invite the community to engage with us in a series of celebratory events, 40 or more, that run the course of the academic year,” said Derek Knight, MIWSFPA Director. Continue reading →

News from the St. Catharines & District Council of Women

On Thursday, September 10^th at 8 p.m., the Council of Women will be hosting free and open meeting on Alzheimer’s at the St. Catharines Centennial Library on 54 Church Street in that city’s downtown.

The guest speaker at the meeting is Denise Verreault, Director of the Education, Mind in Motion Program and Co-ordinator for the Alzheimer’s Society of the Niagara Region. Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large News Brief

Word is circulating in the social media that a number of Niagara, Ontario residents will hold a rally this Monday (September 7^th) in response of the growing Syrian refugee crisis and the Canadian government’s demonstrably pathetic response to it.

This sign, bearing the name of Alan Galib, the young Syrian boy in that heart-wrenching set of photos taken on the Turkish beach, mysteriously showed up on the front of St. Cathrines MP Rick Dystra’s campaign office in recent days and is making the rounds in social media.

The Niagara rally comes on the same long weekend similar gatherings are occurring in other cities and towns across Canada and is scheduled to take place in front of the campaign office of St. Catharines federal Conservative canadidate Rick Dykstra at 22 Geneva Street near the heart of St. Catharines’ downtown from 1 to 2 p.m.

It also follows in the wake of a photo flashed around the world last week of the body a three-year-old Syrian boy, washed up on a Turkish beach. The boy drowned along with his five-year-old brother and their mother. An aunt of the boys, living in the Vancouver area, said the family was ultimately hoping to start a new life in Canada. Continue reading →

Excerpts From Pat Carney’s Open Letter With A Few Brief Comments from NAL’s Doug Draper

“Act from your guts and your heart, not the pollsters and campaign. …Otherwise the Conservative Government should be swept out of office by a tsunami wave of anger that your government is so unresponsive to a humanitarian crisis of Biblical proportions.”

Former federal Conservative cabinet minister Pat Carney

Those powerful words and others were contained in an open letter Pat Carney, a former federal Conservative Party MP from British Columbia, a cabinet minister in the 1980s, and a Senator before retiring in 2008, sent to Harper Immigration Minister Chris Alexander this past Wednesday, September 2^nd while the world was first casting eyes on the body of a three-year-old Syrian boy, washed up on a Turkish beach.

Carney – another example of earlier generations of federal Conservatives (like former Prime Minister Joe Clark and the late Flora MacDonald and Joe Reid, a St. Catharines MP who recently passed away) who bear no resemblance to the hornet’s nest of a Conservative Party governing Canada now – said she believes the country, given its size, could probably take in as many as 100,000 Syrian migrants compared to the palty 2,300 the Harper government has allowed in so far. Continue reading →

– Organization Working to Resettle and Integrate Syrian Refugees in Ontario

News from the Government of Ontario

September 4^th, 2015 -Ontario is continuing to support Lifeline Syria’s efforts to resettle and integrate 1,000 Syrian refugees in the Greater Toronto Area over the next two years.

Syrian children and their families wait in refugee camps while they seek a new home away from the death and destruction in their homeland

Lifeline Syria is a community-based initiative that is helping to recruit, train and match private refugee sponsors in Ontario with Syrian refugees approved for resettlement by the federal government.  Sponsors include organizations, individuals, or groups of individuals such as faith-based groups.

In April 2015, Ontario provided $30,000 in seed funding to Lifeline Syria to help kick start their operation. Over the past six months, Ontario has been working closely with Lifeline Syria’s steering committee to further develop its initiative. The province is now providing Lifeline Syria with an additional $300,000 so that it can continue its important work. Continue reading →

A Call For Your Input from the Toronto-based animal advocacy group Zoocheck Canada.

(A Brief Foreword from NAL publisher Doug Draper – Long before I began writing stories about the treatment of marine mammals at the popular Niagara Falls, Ontario amusement park Marineland while covering environmental issues at The St. Catharines Standard in the 1989s and 90s, there have been calls from citizen activists, marine biologists and former marine park employees for effective legislation for protecting these great creatures of the sea where ever they may be held in captivity in Ontario.

Dolphin in captivity. Photo accompanied Zoocheck news release on proposed Ontario marine mammal protection standards

Finally, three years after Canada’s largest circulation newspaper, The Toronto Star, did a series of articles highlighting alleged examples of animal mismanagement at Marineland – allegations the park’s owner John Holer has adamantly dismissed as false – Ontario’s Liberal government unveiled proposed new standards for protecting marine mammals this past July and members of the public have until this coming September 14^th to comment on them. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

For the last three days people around the world have cast teary eyes on images of a little boy, washed up on a Turkish beach like driftwood.

The image that rocked the conscience of the world.

I first saw some of these heart-wrenching images on CNN, the U.S.-based cable news channel that gave extended coverage to the continuing exodus of hundreds-of-thousands of migrants from Syria and other regions of the Middle East and Africa smeared with the blood and torn flesh of their relatives and neighbours – an exodus described by many international aid workers as the worst humanitarian crisis involving refugees since the Second World War.

The CNN report ended with a narrator saying the three-year-old boy Alan Kurdi, his five-year-old brother Ghalib and their mother Rehan all drowned when they, along with their father Abdullah who survived trying to save them, were fleeing their native Syria and were eventually hoping to begin a new life in Canada.

Oh Canada. Once – and I do mean once –this country was (with a few very sorry exceptions like the failure to allow entry to Jewish people fleeing the Nazi-occupied Europe of the 1930s and 40s) a beacon around the world when it came to offering a haven for peoples fleeing war and other life-threatening catastrophes. That was before Canada’s current and hopefully outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the following to a gathering of conservatives in the United States; “When I get done with Canada you won’t recognize it.” Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

In Canada’s Harperland, there is no recession, just a “contraction” – a word Stephen Harper and his trained seals have been using in response to everything from the economic bloodbath in once carbon-rich Alberta and chronically high, double-digit unemployment rates for Canada’s young people to a loonie that has devolved to dodo status against the American greenback.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made the country especially vulnerable to recession or worse by putting so many eggs in the tar sands basket.

Yes, in Harperland the economic data released by Statistics Canada this September 1^st, showing two consecutive quarters of negative growth – a long enough slump to, by any measure used in the developed world, constitute a recession – is nothing more than “a couple of weak months,” added Harper in response to the figures and is “almost exclusively” due to air rushing out of the balloon in one sector. Continue reading →

News from Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn

September 1^st, 2015 –  In early 2015, Town Council and Senior Staff engaged in a strategic planning session to help identify goals and priorities for moving Pelham forward. One of our key priorities from our overarching goals was to “Offer public transportation to Pelham residents.” Why? It’s consistently something that folks of all ages have requested over the years.

Pelham, Ontario Mayor Dave Augustyn

Later in January, the Town applied for funding for the Ministry of Transportation’s “Community Transportation Pilot Grant Program,” which helps municipalities implement or improve public transportation. In March, the MTO approved the maximum — $100,000 – to help cover the majority of the costs to implement transit system in Pelham.

Staff consulted with Pelham Cares; local Senior Housing Facilities and Associations; Pelham Senior Advisory Council; Mayors Youth Advisory Council; existing shuttle services; and Niagara Region and area transportation specialists. The Town also undertook a community consultation and received more than 200 responses with suggestions for routing, timing, pick-up / drop-off locations. Finally, the Town considered the times that we currently provide transit – for Summerfest, for the Thursday night events (Suppermarket, Bandshell, Farmer’s Market), and for Canada Day. Continue reading →

Sign Petition Near Bottom Of This Post To Support Him News from Avaaz, an online global citizen activist network September 1st, 2015 – Environment Canada scientist Tony Turner wrote a political protest song about Stephen Harper – and now he’s been put on leave and is being investigated by the government! Environment Canada scientist Tony Turner on forced leave for singing it like it is about Harper They want to silence free speech and stop the song, “Harperman”, from reaching a bigger audience…but it’s about to backfire big time. Because if everyone receiving this email watches the video after signing at the link below, it will be seen by 3% of Canada – if we all share it with just one other person, 6% of Canada, and so on. Let’s make this viral and timely video a political nightmare for a government trying to silence critics. Click now and help make this huge by signing a petition demanding Tony be reinstated immediately – then watch the video and help “Harperman” take-off across the country by sharing on Facebook, and everywhere else: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/harperman_loc/?bRUUpdb&v=64168 Tony Turner is a popular folk singer, and also a scientist at Environment Canada. When a recording of his “Harperman” political protest song — calling on the country to get rid of the Harper government – was posted on Youtube, he was suspended and put under investigation. Environment Canada says that all employees agree to comply with a value and ethics code that lays out expected behaviour – but the Supreme Court has said that public service workers have a right to free expression — just like the rest of us. Our government has consistently muzzled scientists and public servants whose opinions or research could threaten their policies. And we’ve seen how it views protest, passing Bill C-51 that labels environmental activists as “security threats”. Fortunately, they can’t silence the internet. Click now to stand with Tony and watch the video – and to share it around the country: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/harperman_loc/?bRUUpdb&v=64168 It’s our right to protest, and we shouldn’t be punished for it. Let’s turn this story and “Harperman” into a political nightmare (for Canada’s Harper government)as election season comes into full swing. If you could not access a youtube performance of the Harperman song in the links above try clicking on this – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei50lM6ab1c With hope, Danny, Ari, Emma, Ricken and the Avaaz team SOURCES Public servant being investigated for writing and performing anti-Tory ‘Harperman’ song (National Post) http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/public-servant-being-investigated-for-wri… Federal scientist put on leave over Harperman protest song (CBC) http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/harperman-tony-turner-scientist-investigation-1.3207390

Continue reading →

News from U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins

September 1^st, 2015 – In a letter today, Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26), co-chair of the House of Representatives’ Norther Border Caucus, criticized Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s contention that a proposal to construct a wall on the border of the United States and Canada is “a legitimate issue.”

With Peace Bridge in background, U.S. Congressman Brian Higgins discusses Canana/U.S. border crossing challenges at a 2014 media conference

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press” Sunday morning, Walker said the issue was raised during a town hall meeting.

The U.S. – Canada border is the longest international border in the world at 5,525 miles long. Congressman Higgins’s Western New York District borders Southern Ontario and includes three automobile and two rail crossings between the U.S. and Canada, including the busiest automobile border crossing, the Peace Bridge.

The text of the letter is below: Continue reading →

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

There is an old saying that goes something like – ‘Set the punishment to fit the crime.’

Texting and talking on cellphones while driving is a major cause of deaths on our roads.

With that in mind, it is good that Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation, starting this September 1^st, 2015, is finally increasing fines for texting or talking on a cellphone while driving from a paltry $280 (including a $5 court fee and $50 victim surcharge fee) to $490 plus the same two mandatory fees and the docking of three demerit points.

While this means Ontario now has among the highest, if not the fine for distracted driving of any province or territory in Canada, and New York State where the fine is as high as $450 for a third offence, it is not as high as fines for some of the other driving offences in Ontario that cause fewer deaths and injuries. Continue reading →

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“We are free. … Egypt is free,” cheered countless tens-of-thousands of mostly young Egyptians in the streets of Cairo just four years ago – in February of 2011 – when the country’s corrupt, autocratic strongman Hosni Mobarak was finally forced from power by what looked to the world to be a peaceful uprising of the people.

Canadian Mohamed Fahmy on trial on bogus charges in Egypt

The jubilation was shared by a large group of Niagara residents, some of them of Egyptian descent, rallied on the front steps of city hall in St. Catharines, Ontario for a new dawn of freedom and democracy in the land of ancient kings and pyramids – the “cradle of civilization” as it has come to be called.

Another Canadian of Egyptian descent, Mohamed Fahmy, who covered the uprising for CNN and joined in the celebration when Mobarak stepped down, went on to write a book titled ‘Egyptian Freedom Story.”

So much for any hope of a free and democratic though. Just as a number of governance experts many of us did not want to listen to at the time warned – ‘this George W. Bush notion that you can just take a country that has had a long history of blood-letting totalitarian and transform it into a democracy overnight is fairy tale. It is more realistic to ask the question – ‘If we get rid of the dictator behind door number one, what will we find behind door number two.’

In the case of Egypt and its beleaguered people, what was behind door number two – Mohamd Horsi and his Muslim Brotherhood – has turned out to be just as corrupt and brutal, if not more so, than the scoundrel who was thrown out. And to underscore that dark reality, we had the conviction this August 29^th of three journalists, including Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Peter Greste (the later who his country, Australia, managed to get deported back home a while back) to three years in jail on bogus charges of “aiding a terrorist group.” Continue reading →

A Brief from Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

It is one of the last great festivals of summer in our binational Niagara region.

File photo of Elmwood Arts Festival in Buffalo, New York

The 16^th Annual Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts- so rightfully branded by its organizers as a “celebration of creativity community” and held in the heart of Buffalo, New York’s thriving Elmwood Village – takes place this Saturday, August 29^th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and this Sunday, August 30^th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The festival features hundreds of artists, crafts people, musicians and food vendors to a stretch of Buffalo’s Elmwood Avenue lined with unique cafes and shops and cut off to traffic for the occasion for several blocks between St. James Place and West Ferry Street. Continue reading →

News from the Sierra Club Niagara Group of Western New York

Meeting this Monday, August 31 at 6:00 in the 2nd Alliance room of the Unitarian Universalist Church, Ferry and Elmwood.

Agenda:  RISE UP FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE campaign

The Sierra Club Niagara Group, the Interfaith Climate Justice Community and many other groups have agreed to run a four month campaign leading up to the UN Paris Climate Talks at the end of 2015.

We are still completing the planning but have agreed to hold a CLIMATE JUSTICE rally in Niagara Square on Thursday, September 24, the day that Pope Francis will be speaking to the U.S. Congress. Continue reading →

–    Province Committed to Maintaining Roads and Bridges

New from Ontario’s Mnistry of Transportation

August 28^th, 2015 – Driver and vehicle licence fee increases come into effect on September 1, 2015 in order to help maintain Ontario’s road safety, support key services and improve crucial transportation infrastructure.

Fees for driver licences, renewals, replacements and commercial permits are among those increasing.

These changes support the recommendations of the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services to cover the rising costs of maintaining provincial roads, bridges and highways, enhance cost recovery for the delivery of driver and vehicle licensing services, and to support quality public services Ontarians rely on every day. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress,” said the late great Indian civil rights activist and humanitarian Mahatma Gandhi, “can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

With that, it was disgusting to read that Hybrid Turkeys – an Ontario-based corporation and one of the largest breeders and distributors of turkeys for food on the continent – was fined a mere $5,600 after pleading guilty in an Ontario court this August to one count of animal cruelty committed at one of its turkey farms in the Kitchener, Ontario area.

An alleged victim, crippled and in pain, from an undercover video in the Hybrid Turkeys animal cruelty case.

The animal cruelty case, brought to the court by the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) after an undercover video, produced by an Ottawa-based animal advocacy group Mercy for Animals Canada, allegedly showed employees inside one of the company’s barns kicking and clubbing turkeys to a point of severely maiming them.

The video, which I am providing a link to further down in this post, was broadcast, in part, on CBC’s Marketplace program and is sickening to watch, although not much more sickening than the joke of a  fine the Ontario court meted out and the fact that charges against five employees caught in the abuse of the birds were dropped. Continue reading →

• Apllications Now Open To Local Environmental Stewards

News from Ontario’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change

August 27^th, 2015 – Ontario is calling on community groups to help protect, restore and enhance the Great Lakes by applying for a Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund grant.

Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and beyond from space. Click on the image to enlarge and you may see the Niagara River connecting the two lakes. These are our precious life-sustaining fresh waters to protect and preserve.

Now in its fourth year, the fund provides a grant of up to $25,000 to not-for-profit organizations, schools, First Nations and Métis communities and other local groups for projects that have a direct environmental benefit to the Great Lakes. Past projects and activities supported by the fund have included:

• Planting trees
• Creating rain gardens
• Restoring wetland habitat
• Controlling invasive species
• Cleaning up beaches or shorelines
• Naturalizing stream banks and shorelines.

Applications will be accepted until October 23, 2015. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

If you’ve been following federal politics in Canada, you may have seen the TV ad the Harper government put out earlier this summer.

Mike Duffy (left) and Stephen Harper, who appointed him to Canada’s Senate and welcomed his presence at Conservative Party fundraisers, during better times.

It is the one that begins with a shot of harper at his desk, seemingly working away late into the day on the issues at hand.

“Most of the decisions you have to make in this job are hard ones,” says Harper in a voice over for the ad. “You have to confront issues you never expected,” he continues over an old photo of him shaking hands when then-Senator Mike Duffy, who is now fighting criminal charges in court.

“You can’t be bound by ideology (and) you don’t have the luxury of only making popular choices,” adds what we are given to believe is our hands-on, hard-working prime minister before he gets up and turns off the office lights to the line; “And on a good day you get to go home feeling you lived up to the job.”

Based on testimony coming out at the Duffy trial in recent weeks from Harper’s former chief of staff Nigel Wright and the former legal counsel to the Prime Minister’s Office Ben Perrin, the portrait of Harper painted in this ad is a steaming pile of crap. Continue reading →

A Brief from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

There goes another one of Niagara, Ontario’s iconic, locally owned businesses.

Photo courtesy of Julia Blushak

Niagara Central Hobbies – better known to generations of Niagara residents as ‘The Hobby Shop’ on St. Paul Street in St. Catharines – is closing this Saturday, August 29^th after 68 years in business.

Founded in 1947 by General Motors worker Ray Stewart whose daughter Maria Lounsbury, her husband Ray and other members of the Lounsbury family have kept operating over the years, the Hobby (shop) as I can’t stop calling it was the go-to place for electric trains, model cars and ships and planes and dollhouses, and a vast range of other inventory for anyone interested in arts and crafts. Continue reading →

By John Bacher

The electorate is catching up to the reality of climate change in Canada with a speed that should encourage the most pessimistic about the reality of human sin.

2013 flood in Calgary Alberta area wreaks devastating havoc on people and property.

While Pope Francis, in his recent Encyclical letter “Laudato S,i” recognized that; “the climate is a common good, belonging to us all and meant for all”, many despair of voters sharing  his understanding that it is imperiled “mainly as a result of human activity.” This breakthrough to higher consciousness was witnessed earlier this year in Canada’s most oil rich province when voters elected Rachel Notley to be Alberta’s Premier. Continue reading →

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – Check out the reference to climate change in the third paragraph of this media release.

While the climate change deniers out there continue to oppose any policies or plans that involve shifting away from oil and other carbon-emitting sources of energy, the costs we are all paying for property destruction, escalating insurance premiums and food prices due to an every higher frequency of  severe flooding, drought, wildfires, wind and hail storms and other climate-related disasters are becoming ever more unsustainable.

The Harper government never factors these costs in to its pitch for staying the course on expanding the tar sands expansion.)

News from the Ontario Government

Province to Better Support Individuals and Municipalities Following Natural Disasters

Queen’s Park, August, 2015) – Ontario is making it easier and faster for municipalities and individuals to get financial assistance following natural disasters.

Requests for provincial disaster assistance have doubled in the last five years and are expected to continue to rise due to climate change. As a result, the province is replacing the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program with two new programs that will be more responsive to the needs of individuals and communities following a natural disaster. Continue reading →