Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Well here we finally are. It is Thursday, February 13^th and it is finally up to voters across the provincial Riding of Niagara Falls to decide who is going to be their next MPP.

Niagara Falls Tory candidate Bart Maves with the party’s leader, Tim Hudak, at one of many media events over the past several months.

The riding, which includes Niagara Falls and the neighbouring towns of Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake has been hotly contested by all three major parties – the Liberals, which held it for 10 years until Kim Craitor suddenly decided to get out of provincial politics last year, the Conservatives and NDP – and no one has worked longer and harder to win the riding than Tory candidate Bart Maves and the party’s leader Tim Hudak. 

While all three candidates – Liberal Joyce Morocco, NDP Wayne Gates, both Niagara Falls city councillors, and Maves, a regional councillor for Niagara Falls who was the riding’s MPP for two terms during Tory Premier Mike Harris’s years – were officially nominated by their Falls riding associations only a few weeks ago, Maves has been the presumed candidate for the Tories for the better part of a year now. What’s more, Hudak, whose old hometown is Fort Erie, has hardly let a week go by over the past three or four months where he hasn’t been out there, working the riding with Maves. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper 

The latest federal budget – tabled by Canada’s Conservative government this February 11^th – is a good one for a Niagara Region that suffers one of the highest employment rates in the country, says Niagara Falls Conservative MP Rob Nicholson.

Niagara Falls MP and Canadian Defense Minister Rob Nicholson

In an interview with Niagara At Large less than an hour after Canada’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabled the government’s 2014 budget – Nicholson, who is also the country’s Defense Minister, told NAL that the budget sets us “on the right track” for a more prosperous future. 

Asked by NAL about the high level of youth unemployment in Niagara – hovering around 17 per cent – Nicholson said young people will see their job prospects improve “when the economics is being properly managed.” 

There will be more federal money for improving and building infrastructure in the budget, but Nicholson said he does not no yet where that infrastructure money might be spent in Niagara. Continue reading →

 – Deb Matthews: “Joyce’s Health Care Record Speaks for Itself”

Niagara Falls, Ontario – This Monday, February 10^th, during a visit at the Niagara Falls Community Health Centre, Ontario Liberal MPP Deb Matthews praised Joyce Morocco’s commitment to local health care, stating that her skills and experience were best suited to represent her community’s best interests, and ensure the new hospital is built in Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls Riding Liberal candidate Joyce Morocco

“I’m going to fight to ensure we get a new, state-of-the-art hospital here in Niagara Falls. As a mother, grandmother, and local city councillor, I know this is what our community needs,” said Morocco.  “As Welland politicians are stepping up their efforts to move our hospital, I’m the only candidate who can be counted on to actually get the hospital build right here in Niagara Falls.” Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

Was it really 50 years ago, or to put it an even scarier way for we aging baby boomers facing the last chapters of our lives, half century!

The Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show, February, 1964

When you start talking like this, of course, it reminds one of the early days when we’d roll our eyes while are grandparents retold stories about the first time they heard an Al Jolson record or what it was like living through the Great Depression.

Yet here this aging baby boomer goes anyway with memories of that Sunday night, 50 years ago this February, when I joined my family and more than 73 million others across North America to watch performances from this young group of mop tops from Liverpool, England on the Ed Sullivan Show. 

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” announced old stone-face Ed above an eruption of screams from those who were lucky enough to get a ticket to be part of his studio audience that night, “The Beatles.”

The next thing my brother Dave and I heard as we fixed our eyes on the black and white screen in our family’s home in Welland was the one, two, three count-in by Paul McCartney and the first chords of a song that has so often since become a trivial pursuit question – What was the first song The Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan show that night.? Just for a little fun, I will leave it to our readers to take a stab at that one, if they would like to,  in the comment area  below. 

As my brother and I watched The Beatles perform that night, we also heard our parents in the background say things that so many parents across the country were saying, like; “Oh God, look at their hair” and my all-time favourite; “A year from now, no one will even remember who they were? Continue reading →

“And in the end, the love you take
Is equal to the love you make.”

Among the final lyrics from one of The Beatles’ final albums as the 1960s, a decade they dominated as a musical and cultural force drew to a close.

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

While making one of my frequent trips to Record Theatre in Buffalo, New York a few months ago, they were selling a bumper striker there that read, in so many words; “The Beatles didn’t need a website.”

The first Canada edition of a Beatle album released in this country in 1964 – very rare now if you have one

 They sure didn’t. They didn’t need marketing from the likes of Disney or any other too-big-to-fail corporation either – corporations that continue to poop out musically challenged inflatables like Britney Spears and on up to Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber and the like.  Soulless, lip-syncing robots that are so impoverished around putting out good music that they need  wardrobe malfunctions, grinding their butt into other on-stage robots’ groins or alternation, along with smiling mug shots with the cops to help them and their corporate handlers shovel  out whatever shit they offer up on CD or iPod or whatever. 

It was, believe it or not, 50 years ago, this February 9th, that The Bealtes made their debut in North America, and let me say this. ….

Continue reading →

 –         Hukak’s Tory Canadidates Refused To Reply

Submitted by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance

Electricity prices have been a big issue in the two current provincial by-elections.  So we asked the candidates from the four major parties whether they were prepared to oppose Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG’s) request for a 30% price increase for nuclear power and whether they would strike a deal for lower-cost water power imports from Quebec instead.

Candidates from two parties – the NDP and Greens – said yes.  The Liberal Party candidates said they would leave it to the Ontario Energy Board to decide whether to grant OPG a price increase and that “the Ontario government has laid out a plan to consider opportunities for clean imports from other jurisdictions, but only when the scenario is right for Ontario ratepayers.”

The Progressive Conservative candidates refused to reply, despite campaigning on the need to bring down electricity costs and blaming green power sources for price increases, while ignoring the fact that it is nuclear energy that is far and away the largest contributor to recent price rises. Continue reading →

A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

This February 7^th, it was announced that the more than century old Fort Erie Horse Racing Track has been thrown anther lifeline for the 2014 season.

And of course, in a hotly contested Niagara Falls, Ontario riding by-election that includes the Town of Fort Erie and has all three major parties wanting to take credit for putting the track on life support, Niagara At Large has received media releases from the Liberal, Conservative and NDP candidates wanting to take some of the credit, or at least reminding of us why they support the track’s future.

NAL is publishing these media releases below and we will then invite you to weigh in on this news and on which party, if any, deserves credit. We will now run these releases in order of the Liberal government candidate Joyce Morocco first, opposition Tory party candidate Bart Maves second,  and third party NDP candidate Wayne  Gates. 

Morocco Welcomes FortErieRacetrack Announcement

 Fort Erie,  Ontario,  Liberal candidate Joyce Morocco made the following statement about the 2014 racing season at the Fort Erie race track: 

“I am absolutely delighted with today’s news that the Fort Erie Racetrack will have a 2014 racing season and that good local jobs have been protected.   As I’ve said this all along, Premier Kathleen Wynne was crystal clear that there was a sustainable future for the track and the hundreds of local jobs. Continue reading →

Two thumbs up from Niagara At Large 

Stand up to oppression, stand up to intolerance, stand up to discrimination – stand up to homophobia.

Google is featuring the following rainbow of colours with its brand name during the Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

(Niagara At Large invites 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 Mark Taliano

Canada is in denial of her true self.  We have been co-opted by a globalized corporatocracy. 

This chosen self-negation is exacting a heavy toll.  We have arguably lost our democracy, and much of our sovereignty, in addition to cultural pluralism, biodiversity, and economic self-determination. 

The facilitator of this “corporate coup” is a toxic mental landscape.

Transnational corporations and their political lobbyists wilfully co-opt the language of human rights as a subterfuge for retrograde supranational agreements that deny democracy, as well as economic and cultural self-determination.   We are daily bombarded with false terms such as “free trade” and “private sector” to the point where we internalize (subliminally?) incorrect meanings. Continue reading →

Submitted by Brock University in Niagara, Ontario

February 5^th, 2014 – The news coming out of the World Health Organization (WHO) this week is bleak: cancer around the globe is growing “at an alarming pace.”

Brock Universtiy microbiologist Dr. Ana Sanchez

The bulk of this – 60 per cent – is occurring in low-income countries.

We all know the common contributors: smoking; unhealthy diet; a sedentary lifestyle; stress.

But… parasites?

“It’s been estimated that up to 20 per cent of all cancers are caused by infectious agents, including some parasites,” says Brock University medical microbiologist Dr. Ana Sanchez. Continue reading →

Submitted by Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission 

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – With so much pressure for more lower-density, urban sprawl along the Niagara River corridor, including weakening wetland protection designations in the watershed f the upper Niagara River, it is good to learn that an international group as prestigious the Audubon Society has recognized a golf course the Niagara Parks Commission owns and operates along the upper river as a healthy enough environment to also serve as a wildlife sanctuary.

Congratulations to the NPC, with a mandate going back more than a century to protect and preserve green space along the Ontario side of the Niagara River , for earning this international designation.)

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario, February 5^th, 2014 – The Niagara Parks Commission’s (NPC) Legends on the Niagara Golf Complex has achieved

Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission receives inernational recognition for environmental and wildlife habitat stewardship at its Legends On The Niagara golf complex. Photo courtesy of NPC

designation as a “Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary,” through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses. Golf Course Superintendent, Tom Newton led the effort to obtain this prestigious designation on the property and is also being recognized for Environmental Stewardship by Audubon International. Continue reading →

– Think tank calls on feds to alleviate income inequality, not make it worse

Submitted by the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre for Policy Altneratives

OTTAWA, February 5^th, 2014 — The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) warns a so-called “do-nothing” federal budget is anything but, and is likely to worsen Canada’s slowing economy.

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ senior economist David Macdonald

The CCPA’s 2014 Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) shows what the federal government could do if it decided to seriously address Canadians’ largest social, economic, and environmental concerns. It delivers a plan that would lift 855,000 Canadians out of poverty, reduce income inequality, boost the economy, lower unemployment to 5.4%—and still balance the budget one year later than the federal government plan.

“The labour market is much weaker than the federal government would like us to believe. In fact, only one in five of those who came off unemployment rolls since September 2009 found a job, and four of five gave up looking,” says David Macdonald, CCPA Senior Economist. “It is time for the federal government to act to drive down income inequality and create the new jobs Canadians need.” Continue reading →

Morocco Welcomes Airbus Expansion Announcement

(A Brief Foreword from NAL publisher Doug Draper – This announcement, which is good if it means any number of new, decent-paying jobs in a Niagara that has experience the loss of countless of thousands of well-paying manufacturing jobs over the past few decades, was made by Ontario’s Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne in the middle of a hotly contested by-election in the Niagara, Ontario riding involving Liberal candidate Joyce Morocco, NDP candidate Wayne Gates and Tory candidate Bart Maves)

Submitted by the Niagara Falls Riding campaign for Liberal candidate Joyce Morrocco

Airbus expands operations in Niagara

Fort Erie, Ontario –  Liberal candidate Joyce Morocco welcomed news that a local Fort Erie company, Airbus Helicopters Canada, will be expanding and creating 40 new, well paying jobs, which is a strong vote of confidence for the 235 people already employed at the company.

 “Airbus Helicopter is the world’s largest helicopter manufacturer, and I am thrilled they have chosen our Fort Erie location for an expansion. This will create jobs and substantial economic opportunities in our community,” said Joyce Morocco. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

When I picked up The Globe and Mail this past February 3^rd and saw the headline at the top of the front page reading; ‘Obama won’t speed Keystone decision’, the first word that crossed my mind was ‘good’.

Canada’s Tar Sands atrocity. Let’s hope Obama has the fortitude to say No to it

“Barack Obama is refusing to give Ottawa the quick answer it wants on the Keystone XL pipeline,” the Globe story goes on to say. And that’s Obama’s continued stance on it despite a report, released by the U.S. State Department this January31st, that appears to conclude that piping diluted bitumen from Canada’s tar sands to refineries in Texas would have little or no net impact on the environment.

The report is fanning the hopes of Keystone supporters with its ranking of the pipeline as a less risky way of transporting tar sands goo from Alberta to Texas than trucks or trains. That’s assuming that Obama says yes to his country having anything more to do with the outfall from these filthy tar sands operations in the first place. Continue reading →

– Horwath says Niagara Falls by-election a chance to send a jobs champion to Queen’s Park

A Submission from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario, February 3^rd, 2014 – Andrea Horwath, Leader of Ontario’s New Democrats, was joined by New Democrat MPPs from across Ontario to meet with job creators in Niagara region, and to emphasize the clear choice facing voters in the coming by-election for a new MPP for Niagara Falls Riding. Horwath and members of her caucus visited Spencer ARL Niagara, while other caucus members toured the Wine Visitor and Education Centre.“In this election voters have a clear choice: they can elect a Hudak Conservative who will stand on the sidelines with plans to drive down wages and deregulate hydro rates, or they can send a jobs champion who will work with local businesses to create jobs in Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake,” said Horwath. “My team and I are here to back Wayne Gates and to listen to local job creators about how we can grow Niagara’s economy and help put people to work.” Continue reading →

A Submission from Wayne Gates, the NDP candidate in the Niagara Falls riding

(This is the response of Wayne Gates, a Niasgara Falls city councillor and the NDP candidate in the by-election in Niagara Falls, to a recent call from Niagara regional chair Gary Burroughs and his council for daily Go Train service to Niagara. Niagara At Large has recently posted the response to the Region’s call for daily Go Train service from Joyce Morocco, the Liberal candidate in the Niagara Falls riding. We have yet to receive a response from PC candidate Bart Maves.)

Dear Mr. Burroughs,

Wyane Gates, Niagara Falls councillor and NDP candidate in the Niagara Falls Riding.

Thank you for your letter of January 30, 2014. I fully support the Niagara Region’s call for daily GO Train service to Niagara Falls. You will recall that as a Niagara Falls City Councillor I welcomed GO Trains to Niagara Falls back in the summer of 2011 with you, Mayor Jim Diodati of Niagara Falls, and other local leaders.

My support for daily GO Train service to Niagara Falls has never wavered.  I have always said that I believe this vital transit link will benefit the people of our region and the riding of Niagara Falls.  Daily GO Train service to Niagara Falls will promote year-round tourism, alleviate traffic congestion and make commuting easier for Niagara families.  Daily GO Trains to Niagara Falls will make a positive contribution to our local economy. Continue reading →

Niagara, Ontario’s Brian Narhi wins one of Ontario’s mst prestigious awards

Submitted by Marty Mako and Gail Benjafield on behalf of The St. Catharines Heritage Committee

Feburary 3^rd, 2014 – St. Catharines, Ontario is proud to have one of our own receive this,  the prestigious Ontario Lieutenant Governor’s Award,  to be presented later this month in Toronto.

The Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Awards are presented for outstanding contributions to the identification, preservation, protection and promotion of Ontario’s heritage.

The St. Catharines Heritage Committee, spearheaded by member Marty Mako, enthusiastically supported the nomination of co-chair Brian Narhi, followed by city council’s endorsement of the nomination. Other members gathered together recommendations from various community groups for which Brian has volunteered to support the committee’s nomination, said member Gail Benjafield. Continue reading →

(A Foreword by Niagara At large publisher Doug Draper –  Niagara, Ontario’s regional chair, Garry Burroughs of Niagara’s 12 local municipalities appealed to all three candidates running in the Niagara Falls Riding by-election – NDP candidate Wayne Gates, Liberal candidate Joyce Morocco and PC candidate Bart Maves – to support their call for full GO train transit services in Niagara. 

The first out of the gate to respond to this call was Liberal candidate Joyce Morocco. NAL will post the call to candidates from regional leaders followed by Morocco’s response below. If the other candidates respond at some later hour or date, we will post those as well.) 

GO Trains on the By-election Track – Niagara’s heads of council appeal to candidates for support of important initiative

Niagara Region – January 31, 2014 — Niagara’s 13 heads of council want to know where the Niagara Falls by-election candidates stand on expanding GO Train service to Niagara.

Niagara Falls Riding Liberal candidate Joyce Morocco is first out of gate t embrace Niagara Region’s call for full Go Train service in region

A letter signed by the mayors of Niagara’s 12 municipalities and Regional Chair was sent to Niagara Falls by-election candidates Bart Maves (Progressive Conservative), Joyce Morocco (Liberal), Wayne Gates (New Democratic Party) and Clarke Bitter (Green) today, appealing to them for their public support to expand daily commuter GO Train service to Niagara.

“This is an important issue for the region, and voters deserve to know where each of the parties stand on an important economic development and lifestyle issue for Niagara,” said Regional Chair Gary Burroughs. “We need to ensure we have the political will at all levels in Niagara to support the unanimous resolution from Regional Council to bring daily commuter GO Trains to Niagara Falls, with stops in Grimsby and St. Catharines.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, Publisher, Niagara At Large

Well, at least it is a wee bit more something for workers at the lowest end of the wage scale across Ontario.

Following a four-year freeze, the provincial government is finally moving to raise it from $10.25 to $11.00 an hour effective this coming June 1^st.

Anti-poverty critics are already quite rightfully saying that this 75-cents-per-hour increase hardly comes close to lift people, including growing numbers of our fellow citizens who find themselves stuck raising a family on minimum-wage jobs, out of poverty. You’d have to raise the minimum hourly rate to about $14 just to raise a person’s nose above a poverty line in Ontario of about $19,000 a year.

Then again, Ontario’s Liberal premier, Kathleen Wynne, is in a very tough position at this moment. Leading a minority government that could be defeated at any time, she finds herself setting what will most likely be the highest minimum wage of any province in Canada (unless Manitoba or Nova Scotia, or some other higher minimum-wage provinces moves ahead of $11.00 per hour by this June), inviting businesses and Ontario’s opposition Tory party of accusing her of giving a sucker punch to the province’s job and economy. Continue reading →

Submitted to NAL by the office of Niagara Regional Chair Gary Burroughs

Niagara Region , January 28, 2014 – Niagara’s 12 mayors and Regional Chair are united in their call for the provincial government to expand daily commuter GO train service to the Niagara Peninsula.

Recent Statistics Canada figures show the Niagara area’s 8.8% unemployment rate is the highest in the country and it will require bold, transformational decisions to ensure a solid foundation is in place for the growth and renewal of Niagara’s evolving economy. Niagara Regional Council unanimously passed a motion in June 2011 supporting the expansion of a daily GO commuter rail line to Niagara Falls, with stops in Grimsby and St. Catharines. Continue reading →

Submitted by the Campaign for Niagara Falls PC Canadidate Bart Maves 

To Joyce Morocco, Liberal Candidate, and Wayne Gates, NDP Candidate, January 29^th, 2014

Dear Ms. Morocco and Mr. Gates,

It has been two weeks since the beginning of the by-election and Niagara Falls residents have yet to hear directly in an open and public forum from your Leaders about their failed record and unrealistic plans that will only lead to more debt and higher taxes.

Ontario PC candidate for Niagara Falls, Bart Maves

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak has always stood up for the Niagara Region. He has shown leadership by talking to residents directly about his plan to create jobs and to make the necessary investments to improve health care for Niagara Falls. In fact, over the past three months, he has held 6 town hall meetings to listen to the concerns of Niagara residents.

 While attending those town halls, I heard directly from families who are struggling because of deliberate decisions by the Liberals and NDP that have threatened the livelihoods of everyone relying on the Fort Erie Race Track. I have heard far too many troubling stories about our families being hurt because we have the highest hydro rates in Canada. Residents also spoke quite passionately about the need to improve health care. Continue reading →

Submitted by the Niagara Falls Riding campaign of NDP candidate Wayne Gates

Niagara Falls, Ontario, January 28^th, 2014 – Andrea Horwath, Leader of Ontario’s New Democrats was in Niagara Falls, joined by NDP Candidates Wayne Gates, to highlight the need to create jobs.

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath and her party’s NDP candidate in the Niagara Falls riding, Wayne Gates

Horwath called today for a strong focus on creating local jobs in the construction of the new Niagara Falls hospital. “Niagara residents are tired of the endless talk and just want to see shovels in the ground,” Horwath said. “A leader like Wayne Gates can be trusted to ensure that the new hospital gets built and creates as many local jobs as possible. You simply can’t trust the other parties to stand up for jobs.”

 Horwath cited the need for strong provincial rules to ensure local skilled workers in the construction trades get jobs from the multi-year project and that, as much as possible, local engineers, architects, and other design professionals are employed in all aspects of the project’s development. Continue reading →

“Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing.Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago.”

 A Brief Note of Remembrance by NAL publisher Doug Draper

Those of us who have continued to love and admire him as a folk music icon and a humanitarian, knew that train, craped in black, would not be much longer in coming for him.

Folk singer/activist Pete Seeger dies at 94

After all, by the time he stood and sang with Bruce Springsteen on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial five years ago during the inauguration of America’s first black president, he was turning 90, and that tall, thin frame of his was looking frail. So was the sound his voice, which always encouraged his audience to sing along, and now had them singing almost all of the lines to such self-penned anthems as ‘If I Had A Hammer’, ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ and ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone’. 

Yet waves of sadness and ‘Oh noes’ still washed over me and, I am sure, over many countless millions of others around the world when we learned that late this Monday, January 27^th, Pete Seeger had passed away at age 94. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper Unless you are a Canadian who completely avoids following the news, you probably know by now that one of Canada’s more famous human exports – rock legend Neil Young  was interviewed this past second week of January, making remarks considered blasphemous by many in a country that, by this point, might just as well be written off as Harper Land.

Canadian rock legend Neil Young slams the tar sands.

Those remarks focused on the Canadian/petroleum industry/Harper government’s tar sands enterprise or so-called ‘oil sands’, as the beaten-down mainstream media has been instructed by their corporate advertisers to call this strip-mined , God-forbidden wasteland that was once a rich diversity of life in lush boreal forests. 

Since that interview with Neil Young, the Harper government’s  cronies and its friends in the global petroleum syndicate and a mainstream media that has been beaten back from using the word “tar” to describe these so-called oil sands, slammed Young for comparing these forever gutted lands to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb dropped on that Japanese city, and for saying that the cancer rates among Native peoples living downwind are significantly higher than any national average in what we like to think is a Canada that is part of a developed world where environmental protection for all of our citizens is held in at least a bit of regard.

What Young has done is show some moral fortitude and courage to do an interview with CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi (which NAL will provide a video/audio link to here) and do a cross-country tour to raise funds for Native people fighting against the expansion of this tar sands abomination. He has also helped stimulate a  desperately needed debate on where Canada is going as a developed nation of this world with our energy and environmental programs. Continue reading →

From Allan Adam, A Chief of the First Nations fighting expansion of Canada’s Tar Sands 

Dear friends across Canada,

 My name is Allan Adam and I’m the Chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.

Canadian First Nations Chief Allan Adams at a recent media conference with rock artist Neil Young on the bad road Canada is going down with the tar sands.

The government and Big Oil CEOs are slamming Neil Young for speaking out on the Tar Sands and the poison they are sending to my people. But if you join Neil and me, together we can create a wave of protection for my home.

The government just approved a giant Shell company project on our land in Alberta, even though it admits it will likely wreak havoc on the land and water my people depend on — and infringe on our treaty rights. But with Neil getting people talking, the government and Big Oil are worried Canadians will start to question the unchecked expansion of the Tar Sands that line their pockets.

The Prime Minister won’t budge unless he thinks he could lose support from voters. Let’s show him Canadians of all political leanings want respect for our rights and the land. Click below and Avaaz will deliver all our voices directly to the government. Sign now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/neil_young_vs_big_oil_d/?bRUUpdb&v=34676 Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The current trajectories of Canada’s predominant political economies are increasingly dysfunctional, due in no small part to the fact that we have become, in many respects, a petro state, rather than the much vaunted “Energy Superpower” that we were promised.

A petro-state, as defined by Bruce Campbell, executive director of the CanadianCenter for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) is “dependent on petroleum for 50 per cent or more of export revenues, 25 per cent or more of GDP, and 25 per cent or more on government revenues.”

While Alberta is not a sovereign nation, it does qualify for “petro-state” status under these criterion. So does Norway. But the differences between the two polities ends there. While Norway manages its resource wealth extraordinarily well, Alberta — and Canada, by extension — does not.

One significant difference is savings. Norway has a savings fund, known as a “Sovereign Wealth Fund” which is worth about $656 billion for a population of under 5-million people. Continue reading →

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – Now it is official with the nomination of  Niagara Falls city councillor and CAW Local 199 president Wayne Gates to run as the NDP candidate in a Niagara Falls Riding by-election that could say a lot about the outcome of a general election in the province, expected as soon as this coming spring.

Wayne Gates speaks at rally for saving hospital services in South Niagara. File photo

Gates will be running against fellow Niagara Falls city councillor and Liberal candidate Joyce Morocco and Niagara Falls regional councillor and former Conservative MPP Bart Maves, who will once again hold the banner for the Tories in this riding.

The voters of this riding will go to the polls this coming February 13^th. In the meantime, here is some news from the NDP camp on Gates’ nomination.)

Submitted by the NDP campaign for Wayne Gates

Niagara Falls, Ontario – In a hall packed with supporters Niagara Falls city councillor Wayne Gates earned the NDP nomination for Niagara Falls riding in a by-election to be held on February 13th.  Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath spoke to the enthusiastic crowd: Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large News Brief from Doug Draper 

The future of the Georgia Pacific paper mill in Thorold and more than 100 decent-paying jobs in this region are in jeopardy as the American corporation in charge decides to “idle” the mill.

Niagara, Ontario’s Welland Riding MPP Malcolm Allen Calls For Saving Thorold manufacturing mill

Although Georgia Pacific spokespersons insist that “idling” does not necessarily mean permanent closure, those working there have heard this kind of corporate rhetoric many times before with respect to now gone plants in this region, and they fear for jobs that have paid well enough to support their families. 

The Georgia Pacific mill in Thorold South (known in the past as Beaverwood Fibre) is largely a producer of drywall used in the building industry, and there have been some rumbling in the past that the corporation may move all its manufacturing operations down to the southern United States where wages and other costs of doing business are cheaper- something that is relatively easy for any corporation to do given free trade agreements allowing them to hop off to regions where workers can be exploited for the least cost. 

Since word spread this Friday, January 17^th, Malcolm Allen, the NDP’s federal representative for the Welland Riding that includes Thorold, and the riding’s provincial NDP representative, Cindy Forster, fired off media releases calling on senior levels of government to save this mill.

Niagara At Large is including both of these media releases below.

STATEMENT BY MP MALCOLM ALLEN ON THE IDLING OF GEORGIA PACIFIC PAPER PLANT 

Thorold, Ontario, January 17, 2014

Georgia Pacific’s decision to idle its paper plant operations in Thorold, Ontario is another devastating blow to the economy of the Niagara region. The plant produces paper used in the production of gypsum, but has been hurt by the poor economy and decline in the housing market. In December, Statistics Canada reported that Niagara had an unemployment rate of 8.8%, the highest of all other major metropolitan markets across Canada. Now, the difficult decision by Georgia Pacific will add 96 hourly and 16 salaried employees to the unemployment lines.

The people of Niagara are forced to watch in frustration as plants close and jobs vanish, with no help in sight from the federal Conservative government.  Georgia Pacific’s decision to idle the plant is a direct result of market conditions and increased competiveness. The Conservative government‘s reliance on corporate tax cut does nothing to address these underlying issues.

My heart goes out to the workers and families affected by this decision. I will continue to call on the government to address the crisis of the rising unemployment in Niagara and ensure that viable and well-paying jobs are protected.

Welland MPP Cindy Forster issues statement about Georgia Pacific plant idling 

THOROLD – Welland MPP Cindy Forster issued the following statement today about the announcement by Georgia Pacific that it plans to idle operations at its Thorold plant in March 2014.

“I just received the news about the Georgia Pacific plan to halt operations at its Thorold plant, affecting over 100 workers. My concerns are with the workers and their families. I hope for a quick resolution that provides long term security for the plant and workers. I will be closely monitoring this issue as it develops. Ensuring the continued operation of the facility and preventing future job losses is my top priority.”

(Niagara At Large invites 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 Brief Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

Niagara At Large is under construction with an aim to taking it to a higher plateau as a regional news source, and will not be fully back online until Monday, February 3^rd of this year.

That does not mean we won’t accept comments from readers for current and past posts on this site or post important advisories from citizen and other groups around events they may be holding or pressing issues that need to be told. Continue reading →

A Brief Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

There has been a plan in place for at least a few years to build a new West Lincoln Memorial Hospital to replace the aging one in the Grimsby/Lincoln area for an estimated cost of some $137 million. But that that plan has been held dormant for lack of a green light from the province’s Liberal government. 

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews slams the province’s Tory leader Tim Hudak, on his open letter to her for funding a new hospital in his riding.

Before, during and continued on through the present time, the province has opened a major new hospital complex in west St. Catharines and has upgraded hospital services in the Hamilton area, questioning the need for a smaller, more rural hospital like a new West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in between. 

Meanwhile, and just a few days ago, the same Liberal government that has so far given no response to a green light on  that new West Lincoln hospital plan has said yes to spending more than $26 million on planning for another new hospital in the Niagara community of Niagara Falls – a hospital that Tim Hudak, leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party, has fought for as his party seeks to regain a seat in the Niagara Falls riding. Continue reading →

A Media Advisory from Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario

The Niagara Social Justice Forum returns to Brock University this month for a full day of workshops and information sharing on themes of local and global activism in times of austerity.

Brock University’s iconic tower complex overlooking the Niagara Escarpment in St. Catharines, Ontario. File phot

The seventh instalment of this one-day community event takes place this coming Saturday, January 25^th. 2014.
 
Hosted by Brock’s Social Justice and Equity Studies program, the day is an open forum for individuals and groups working for social change in Niagara to connect. This year’s event includes an info fair over the noon hour featuring more than 20 community groups.
 
The event is free, accessible and open to everyone. Participants are asked to register in advance online. (A link for registering is available at the end of this post.) Continue reading →

 –    Vance Badawey Calls For Need For ‘Local Patient Care’ In South Niagara Coommunities

A Report from Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey following the January 13^th announcement from Ontario’s Health Minister for building another new hospital in Niagara.

Port Colborne, Ontario Mayor Vance Badawey, a long-time voice for coming up against the Niagara Health System to keep acute care health services in South Niagara.

The Honourable Deb Matthews, (Ontario’s) Minister of Health and Long Term Care announced today that the Niagara Health System will receive a $ 26.2 million planning grant as the next important step toward a new South Niagara hospital. 

The Minister also announced that Niagara’s community-based Board of Directors for the Niagara Health System has taken on its full responsibilities. The Board has also recommended that Dr. Smith continue in a leadership capacity to finish the job he started, and the NHS has entered into a management services agreement with St. Joseph’s Health System, keeping Dr. Smith on as CEO.  

Having remained relatively silent on the issue of a new “South Niagara Hospital”, I now feel compelled to point out some issues in regards to servicing the citizens of South Niagara and maintaining a service level that is appropriate and compatible with available services at the new site in St. Catharine’s.  Continue reading →

From Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

Well I know I just said we are putting Niagara At Large on pause until Monday, February 3^rd while we upgrade this news and commentary site, but we can’t ignore this breaking news.

This billboard was erected earlier last year for a new hospital in the southwest end of Niagara Falls. File photo by Doug Draper

According to reports this January 13^th from the Hamilton Spectator  and from the province’s Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties, the government Liberals are providing the Niagara Health System with $26 million to develop plans for a new hospital in Niagara Falls that is intended to serve that community, along with the south Niagara communities of Welland, Fort Erie, Port Colborne and Wainfleet

The Liberal government has also announced that Kevin Smith, who has served as a supervisor for the Niagara Health System for more than two years, will continue on as the NHS’s CEO. Continue reading →

A Note to Readers and Supporters from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

Niagara At Large is pushing the pause on posting news and commentary for the next three weeks while we do some retooling of the site. We will be back, with a renewed vigor, on Monday, February 3^rd.

In the meantime, and while we do more to enhance the tools we use to reach a larger readership for this site, we will be reflecting on where Niagara At Large has been and where we want to go to fulfill a goal of being a more inclusive source of news and analysis for readers across our greater Niagara, cross-border community and for younger people who face a challenging present and future these days. 

At the risk of inviting some to comment below that Niagara At Large should simply go away, we invite you to use the space below to give your ideas on what you would like to see in an online news and commentary site for this Greater Niagara Region.

During this pause period, we will continue to post comments of value to previous posts on this site and we encourage all of our sources to continue emailing in news tips and media releases as we have every intention of remaining the loop on what is happening in and to all of us who live in this region of ours. 

This year – 2014 – is a particularly important one as far governance is concerned as we face a provincial byelection in a Niagara Falls riding that includes Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake and that may set the tone for a provincial election we may also face later in the year, should the Tim Hudak’s Conservatives and Andrea Horwath’s NDP decide to vote down the minority Liberal government. 

This is also a year in which we, who live and pay taxes in Niagara, Ontario, should pay as close attention as possible to municipal politics and those we have sitting around council tables now, since we have municipal elections this coming fall. The results of those elections will have a major impact on the future of this region for many years to come. 

(Niagara At Large invites 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 Doug Draper

Joyce Morocco, a city councillor in Niagara Falls, Ontario, has been nominated by members of her Liberal Party to run in a byelection that could set the tone for an Ontario election, expected as soon as this coming spring.

Ontario Liberal candidate will run in Niagara Falls Riding byelection. At her side is veteran Liberal St. Catharines MPP and cabinet minister Jim Bradley. Photo by Doug Draper

Morocco was acclaimed to run for the Liberal at a meeting in Niagara Falls this past January 9^th, and will face Conservative candidate and Niagara Falls regional councillor Bart Maves, a former MPP in the riding that includes Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake during the Mike Harris years of a decade ago, and possibly Niagara Falls city councillor and CAW local 199 president Wayne Gates, who has announced his interest in running for the NDP. Continue reading →

–         When Are We, The People, Going To Pay Attention? Where Is Our Outrage? 

A Brief Foreword by Doug Draper 

Excuse me for my suggestive language but I am getting sick and frigging tired of how much Stephen Harper and his federal Conservatives and the zombie supporters of this empty suit say they are doing about looking after Canada’s economy – and most importantly, at the ground level for most Canadians, creating decent paying jobs.

Harper, who admitted this past year that he doesn’t have a clue what is going on in his own PMO office when it comes to Senate shenanigan, etc., is this country’s leading executive – even though he runs away from that responsibility when things aren’t going his way – is presiding over more devastating job loses, and a lack of job opportunities for our young people. 

At the same time, we are watching the Canadian dollar continue to fall against the American currency which is a sure sign that foreign investors have reduced their faith in Canada as a place t invest and do business. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper 

It was one of those media releases that hardly had to lunge at your throat, if you’d spent any time following the issue, for a “wow” reaction.

Bay Beach in the Fort Erie, Ontario community of Crystal Beach, the way it has continued to look on a warm summer day.

 The wow flashed through like lightning  as soon as I read the headline; “Bay Beach Project Canceled”  in a New Years Eve release posted on the website for the town of Fort, Erie, Ontario. 

The project referred to was a public/private partnership between the town and a private concern called the Molinaro Group to build a more than 10-storey-high condo tower in front of a beach, in the old Crystal Beach area of Fort Erie – a Crystal Beach that remains a home to historic old buildings, mostly one or two storeys high, and one few remaining open beaches for the residents of this region along the Fort Erie shoreline. Continue reading →

–    But Only On The United States Side Of The Border

A Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

When it comes to exotic species from other parts of the world that may do catastrophic damage to the life-sustaining waters of our Great Lakes for tens-of-millions of us Canadians and Americans who live around them, the Asian Carp has got to be near the top of the list.

These super aggressive flying fish are just a few jumps away from entering the Great Lakes and ravaging a foodchain that sustains these fresh waterbodies for tens of millions of us living around them.

This monster fish, imported by some idiots in the lower end of the Mississippi River more than a decade go for reasons that make even less sense now than they did then, has made its way to the most upper reaches of the Mississippi River watershed, almost just a walk away from Lake Michigan in the Chicago area, and God help us if it breaches whatever barriers U.S. officials have put in place to keep them out of our Great Lakes. 

You wouldn’t know it from Canadian environmental agencies – agencies whose scientists’ research we, the Canadian people pay for. Those scientists have been muzzled by the current Canadian government f Stephen Harper (or whoever runs the prime minister’s office, since Harper recently, around the Senate scandal, that he hardly has a clue what is going on in his office) from talking to the press about any threat to our Great Lakes, which just happen to be the world’s largest basins of fresh, life-sustaining water. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Wayne Gates, a long-time union leader in Niagara, Ontario and a municipal councillor for the City of Niagara Falls, has announced his plans to seek the candidacy for the Ontario New Democrats in an upcoming byelection in the Niagara Falls Riding.

Wyane Gates, Niagara Falls councillor and local CAW president, seeks Ontario NDP candidacy in Niagara Falls Riding.

“I am seeking nomination (to run for the NDP) and I want to show that if I am elected, I will fight for everyone across the riding,” Gates told Niagara At Large after announcing his intentions this January 7^th at three locations in a riding that takes in residents in southern Ontario municipalities of Fort Erie, Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. 

If Gates wins the candidacy at a nomination meeting the party has yet to schedule and that, as of this January 8^th, there are no other individuals in the running, he will be campaigning in a byelection to replace the former Liberal MPP for the riding, Kim Craitor who, after 10 years, resigned suddenly last September for what he would only say at the time were personal health and family reasons. Continue reading →

NIAGARA REGION, Jan. 8, 2014 – The Extreme Cold Weather Alert called on Jan. 6, 2014, has been lifted as of Jan. 8, 2014, as temperatures are no longer forecast to fall below  minus15 degrees Celsius.

For more information on when an Extreme Cold Weather Alert is issued and lifted visit http://www.niagararegion.ca (search:

(Niagara At Large invites 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.)

– We Need A Conservation Plan That Serves The Long-Term Interests Of ALL Niagara Residents

By John Bacher

One evening this past December, 2013 at the Nature Interpretation Center of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, there was another of the epic battles which have been held for the past two years under the guise of a ‘Strategic Plan’ review.

A trail through the Wainfleet Bog, one of the great conservation areas in Niagara, Ontario under the jurisdiction of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority. .File photo from NPCA.

Usually the monthly board meetings of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority or NPCA, for short, held in offices in Welland on Thorold Road next to Centennial High School, receive little public attention. Yet about 30 concerned conservationists came out to this one, the anticipation of which caused the relocation of the meeting to the NPCA’s Ball’s Falls site.

While most of the skirmishes over the NPCA’s Strategic Plan – have been held behind closed doors (with the minions of developers harassing NPCA staff and the minutes of those meetings never published), this stage of the drama was held in public although, predictably, no press was present. Continue reading →

– Buffalo, New York Area Congressman Announces Completion of Phase I Pre-Inspection Pilot Project at U.S. / Canada Border – Phase II to Begin Soon at Peace Bridge

A Submission from the Office of Western New York Congressman Brian Higgins

Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) announced (this January 6th) the completion of the first phase of a pilot project to streamline traffic and the flow of goods across the border between the United States and Canada.  Phase II will begin soon at the Peace Bridge.

Efforts continue to improve traffic flow over the Peace Bridge – one of the busiest Canada/U.S border crossings.

“The success of phase one provides evidence that through this coordinated bi-national partnership we can more efficiently move people and vehicles across our shared border,” said Congressman Higgins. “We look forward to the beginning of this process at the Peace Bridge and the significant value it will bring to the interconnected economies of our Country generally and the Western New York region specifically.” Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large News Brief 

(A Note To NAL Subscribers – Please ignore the last posting of this piece and accept this revised one. The proper date for this public forum is JANUARY 9^th. Sorry for the typo on this one.)

It is one of the more contentious issues we, as a society, continue to face today.

To what extent should we as individuals and our loved ones, if we are no longer capable of making the call, have final say over ending our life if we feel that life is causing unbearable suffering or no longer offers any measure of quality or dignity? What are our choices? Should the laws be changed? 

This Thursday, January 9^th, the St. Catharines & District Council of Women will host a free public meeting on this difficult topic at the St. Catharines Centennial’s main downtown branch off James Street in the library’s Mills Memorial Room at 8 p.m. The keynote speaker at this meeting will be Dianne Woodruff, a volunteer with the Canada-based charity group Dying with Dignity. Continue reading →

From Niagara, Ontario’s regional government

(In addition to the information contained in the Alert posted below, Niagara At Large urges all pet owners to make sure their dogs and cats, and any other pets them may have are kept in a warm place and are not left outside for any longer than it takes, let’s say, for dogs to relieve themselves.)

NIAGARA REGION, Monday,  January  6, 2014 – With temperatures expected to drop below -15 C, an Extreme Cold Weather Alert has been called by Niagara Region Public Health.

The Extreme Cold Weather Alert is intended to mobilize outreach workers and community agencies, recommend precautions for the general public during extreme cold weather, and offer information on the location of shelters and additional resources.

During extreme cold, those most at risk include: infants under one year of age, individuals 65 years of age or older, the homeless, outdoor workers, sport enthusiasts (skiers, ice skaters), people living in homes that are poorly insulated or without heat, and people living in homes without power (usually due to other weather-related events such as a winter storm). Continue reading →

A Brief from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

Those of you who have been visiting Niagara At Large for the past couple of years may already know that I cannot resist, as a frustrated musician, posting the odd bit news on the music world.

The Everly Brothers, with Phil at left, in action on blending those trademark voices.

 And this time it is sad news. 

Phil Everly, one half of the legendary Everly Brothers who influenced everyone from The Beatles to the Beach Boys and beyond with their magical vocal harmonies, died this 2014 New Year at age 74. 

In the mid-to-late 1950s and into the 60s, Phil Everly and his brother Don cast the dye when it came to mixing vocal harmonies into what was then a young rock revolution that, at the time, celebrated solo vocalists like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano 

For years now, the federal government has been muzzling, de-funding, and laying off scientists, librarians, archivists, statisticians, and researchers in its efforts to vacate government involvement in core research, and to shift its focus to industry’s-specific needs.

There are three granting councils that allocate federal funding for research in Canada: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council (NSERC), and the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). In constant dollars, from 2007through 2013, base funding for SSHR has decreased by 10.1 per cent; funding for NSERC has decreased by 6.4 per cent; and funding for CIHR has decreased by 7.5 per cent. Meanwhile, NSERC funding aimed at “company-specific” problems has increased (between 2001 and 2012) by 1,178 per cent, while success rates for CIHR grants has dropped by 61 per cent. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Once again, NAL is pleased to run another in a series of posts about the banking system from a long-time crusader for investigative journalism in Canada, Nick Fillmore. You can check out his great blog site at nickfillmore.blogspot.com , but please don’t go there until you read this post on Niagara At Large.)

Back in 2006, into 2007, too-big-to-fail superbanks, complacent governments and boosterish business media ignored the few economists who predicted there would be a financial crisis. Today, governments lack the will or the legal weapons to control the greed endemic to elite bank culture.
Given the persistence of that culture in big banks, I am not at all optimistic that we will avoid another, even more serious, financial collapse in the not-so-distant future.

To prepare for that day — and perhaps avoid it altogether — we need to reduce the power of big banks, weakening their grip on society’s financial resources, and challenging their support for destructive, neo-liberal economic policies. Continue reading →

From Niagara, Ontario’s regional government

(Niagara At Large is posting this alert on weather conditions we are facing here for our readers’ information. The only thing that NAL would add to the advice listed below is please keep any loving pets that may be part of your family out of the cold too, except for that quick walk you and a dog friend may have to take.)

NIAGARA REGION, Jan. 2, 2014 – With temperatures at or below -15 C, an Extreme Cold Weather Alert has been called by Niagara Region Public Health.

The Extreme Cold Weather Alert is intended to mobilize outreach workers and community agencies, recommend precautions for the general public during extreme cold weather, and offer information on the location of shelters and additional resources.

During extreme cold, those most at risk include infants under one year of age, individuals 65 years of age or older, the homeless, outdoor workers, sport enthusiasts (skiers, ice skaters), people living in homes that are poorly insulated or without heat, and people living in homes without power (usually due to other weather-related events such as a winter storm). Continue reading →

By NAL publisher Doug Draper

To borrow from the words in the title of an old book by the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy, he was a ‘profile in courage’.

Peter Kormos, then an MPP for the Niagara, Ontario riding of Welland, speaking on the steps of Queen’s Park to a gathering of citizens, worried about their jobs and their future.

He was also a profile in integrity and in principles he acted on, without compromise, for the 99 per cent of us who are getting screwed by the upper one per cent.

At a time when politicians across this province, country and continent are about as popular as cockroaches in a kitchen, Peter Kormos was a rare exception which explains why so many countless thousands of people across this region and country mourned his loss when he died so suddenly last March 2013 at age 60. Continue reading →

By Karl Dockstader

Fort Erie, Ontario – Saturday January 4th at noon at the Peace Bridge entrances supporters the Peace Bridge entrances to celebrate the one year anniversary of the original Peaceful Awareness Rally that occurred at the height of last year’s Idle No More movement. While the adrenaline rush has leveled off a little, the urgency to continue to raise awareness hasn’t.

Photo courtesy of Phil Davis

“We are in what I like to call the ember stage,” said Leigh Hill, Turtle Clan Mohawk, and one of the organizers, on the December 21st edition of the “Let’s Talk Native” with John Kane show, “We were ablaze last year and now we are calm, maybe even ashes, but the metaphor is about phoenixs rising from the ashes.” 

Organizers are asking participants to gather on both sides of where the “border crossed us.” There will be volunteers to organize people at the Busti Avenue entrance to the Peace Bridge on one side of the bridge at Noon and Mather’s Arch at the other side also at Noon. Continue reading →

A Brief News Commentary by Doug Draper 

After more than confinement in Russian jails, members of the ‘Greenpeace 30’, including Paul Ruzychi of Niagara, Ontario,  and Alexandre Paul of Montreal, Quebec, finally arrived home this December 27^th.

Greenpeace activists and Port Colborne, Ontario native Paul Ruzychi while still in a Russian jail. He finally arrived home this December 28th.

This is joyous news for them and for their families who staged public rallies for them as the activists faced up to 15 years in prison on phoney charges of piracy and hooliganism after their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, was raided by arimed Russiona officers on the high seas this past fall.The 30 Greenpeace activists and journalists entered Arctic waters north of the Russian coast to protest that country’s installation of drilling rigs. A few of the activists were scaling one of the rigs when the armed officers arrived and the arrests began. Continue reading →

(A  Brief update to the post below. Striking Red Cross workers returned to work without a contract in the days following Christmas on the hope that a satisfactory one can be achieved through arbitration.)

By Gary Screaton Page

Did I miss it? Or, is this another example of real stories alluding our local press? 

What is going on with Red Cross home care services? I’ve read nothing about Red Cross Personal Support Workers being on strike. Actually that isn’t quite correct. I’ve heard from Red Cross when they tell my wife the worker is not coming to help her where I’m not always able to do so. I just haven’t read anything about the situation from the press. 

When Home Care doesn’t come, many seniors who need care don’t get it. When workers go on strike for better pay and working conditions we usually hear about their doing so. However, when the government may be paying the shot, we apparently don’t quite get the full story in the local news. Continue reading →

A News Brief by Doug Draper 

She was a living, breathing archive for the history of this Niagara region.

Niagara historian Esther Summers

Esther Summers, a member f a proud farming family in this region and has served as the official historian for the municipality of Thorold in Niagara since 1983, died this December 26^th, 2013 at age 101. 

I had the pleasure of meeting Esther Summers only a few times some 15 years ago to mine her wealth of information for feature articles I was writing for the local media on Thorold’s history. All I had to ask her was; ‘What about the old hamlets of Beaverdams or Decew or St. Johns?’, and she would share with me, in colourful detail, the history of those communities, going back hundreds of years to the arrival of the earliest European settlers in this region. And she would do it withoug consulting a single piece of paper. Continue reading →

By Chris Wojnarowski

Much has been said of late about Niagara Region, its structure, optimizing services, hospitals, water rates, and that scary monster, the “One Niagara” Godzilla Monster, destined to eat small communities.

Buzz phrases like “efficiency”, “parochialism” and “stubborn rural politicians” are being thrown around as a way to polarize the debate and guilt people into agreeing with the “smarter” bureaucrat.

When did parochialism stop meaning accountability to local needs? Are we being asked to believe that merging Grimsby with Fort Erie is no more difficult than slapping together some adjacent ‘burbs and yelling “bingo”?

SHAME

Ever since the hatching of the regional system in the 1970s, voters from Southern Niagara have been looking at their options when they realized they were removed from decision making process. As they see a “deer caught in the head-lights” lack of vision from their elected officials, they feel in their gut that the rights of their families acquired over generations are being eroded away. In a self-fulfilling spiral of rural abandonment and systemic impoverishment created by the power elites, they have been gradually forced to vote with their feet.

It should never have come to this. Political expediency and willful disrespect for rural and working-class communities has seldom been more blatant than in Niagara.

As Fig 1 shows, prior to the forming of Niagara Region out of the Lincoln and Welland Counties, there were two distinct and sustainable communities that co-existed since the 1800s. In the South, there was one logical hub, captured in the motto “Where Rails and Water Meet”. It was a bustling city with incredible geographic gifts and a great skilled workforce. Located smack-dab in the middle of Welland County, it was an engine of growth. For 100 years it was a major commercial depot on the T H & B Railway, running from Hamilton to Fort Erie & Buffalo. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Once again, NAL is proud to run the third in a five-part series of posst from a long-time crusader for investigative journalism in Canada, Nick Fillmore. You can check out his great blog site at nickfillmore.blogspot.com , but please don’t go there until you read his article on this important subject here and join the discussion at the very bottom with comments of your own on the issue for our growing community of NAL readers.) 

The next major threat to Canadian and international financial systems is very likely to come from reckless investors gambling with derivatives, the dangerous betting vehicles that contributed to the 2008 collapse of financial services firm Lehman Brothers and the start of the Great Recession.

Used properly, simple derivatives (literally: a financial asset that “derives” its value from that of an underlying asset) can reduce the risk of some financial transactions. To use a simple example, they can help bakers guarantee what price they’ll have to pay for wheat two years from now. (Click here for an explanation on how derivatives work.)

But big-money gamblers can invest in any of a number of highly risky, extremely complicated kinds of derivatives for purely speculative purposes. When this happens, derivatives are just a form of very dangerous, virtually no-limit, betting. Continue reading →

A Brief Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

Once again, it is that holly jolly time of the season that ramps up the stress and blood pressure and leaves many asking for days after – especially when they get their next credit or debit card statement – why?

I know what some of you may be thinking – ‘So that’s what Draper looks like.’ No. That’s my family’s Christmas frog who also wishes you a merry one.

Why? Because beyond whatever ultimate fulfillment we may get out of gift giving and getting, it is a critical time for us to blow out all the gaskets when it comes to our personal budgets and do our part to pump up the retail sector and economy at large. 

I always find it a little curious that the rest of the year we are bombarded with stories in the mainstream media about people spending more than they take in and going further and further into debt, then at Christmas it becomes our religious duty to spend, spend, spend like that gang of drunken’ sailors we keep hearing about when it comes to government spending. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

For some time now, opponents to equitable, universal health care have been smearing proponents of Canada’s “signature” social program, Medicare, by using a corporate “communications” strategy known as “FUD,” which stands for Fear Uncertainty Doubt.

In the U.S, the dynamic played out fairly recently, with the launch of Michael Moore’s film,Sicko. According to Wendell Potter, an American insurance industry whistleblower, the insurance industry, horrified by the poignancy of the documentary, targeted Michael Moore with a “FUD” attack.

Potter explains that the CIGNA insurance company tried to undermine Moore by portraying him as a communist, or a socialist, and as someone who was trying to undermine the American Dream. Continue reading →

A Brief by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

He was one of the most colourful and one of the more engaging and controversial individuals on the Niagara, Ontario political scene in the 1980s and 90s.

Former Niagara, Ontaro MPP Frank Sheehan

Love him not, Frank Sheehan, who passed away this December at age 79, passionately fought for the conservative values he believed in, whether the rest of us agreed with them or not. 

Frank Sheehan first made the political scene, big time, in the Niagara, Ontario region in the early 1990s as a founder and leading voice for an Ontario group that adovcated cutting taxes  for virtually everyone who pays taxes across the province.

Frank Sheehan went on, in the mid-1990s, to become the MPP for the new provincial Tory government of Mike Harris- a government that totally embraced cutting taxes and what it saw as wasted spending, and slashing away at what it moving away from what many Ontario citizens, at the time , saw as gold-plated union salaries and benefits. Continue reading →

From the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

(Niagara At Large is posting this media release from the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority as it deals with a newly approved plan to focus on protecting the quality of waters in lakes, rivers and creeks upstream from the taps that deliver what we all hope is drinkable water to our homes.) 

Niagara, Ontario, December 18^th, 2013 – The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is pleased to announce that the Province of Ontario has approved the Niagara Peninsula Source Protection Plan to strengthen local source-to-tap drinking water protection.

The plan was developed by the Niagara Peninsula Source Protection Committee comprised of local stakeholders in collaboration with its municipal and community partners. Implementation is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2014.

The Twelve Mile Creek system in Niagara, Ontario – part of a vital source water system that feeds the taps in our homes. Photo courtesy of Dan Wilson

“The Niagara Peninsula Source Protection Committee has done a tremendous job developing a plan that will safeguard local drinking water supplies. I thank them for their efforts, insights and leadership as we move forward into the implementation phase next fall,” remarked Jim Bradley, Minister of the Environment.

Clean and abundant water depends on healthy watersheds and the Niagara Peninsula Source Protection Plan will be particularly important to the numerous rural residents who do not have access to treated water. The development of local Source Protection Plans is part of the Ontario government’s strategy to invest in people, build modern infrastructure and support a dynamic and innovative business climate. Continue reading →

A Comment by Will MacKenzie

(A Brief Foreword by NAL publisher Doug Draper – Niagara, Ontario’s regional council recently agreed to placing a referendum question on the October, 2014 ballots for the next municipal elections, asking voters if they would favour one ‘City of Niagara’ over the current two-tier system of 12 local municipalities and regional government we have in Niagara. The following comment is a thoughtful response to that.)

Former Ontario premier Mike Harris and Harris MPPs like Tim Hudak, forced municipal amalgamation down the throats of many communities, including Flamborough, across the province with very mixed results.

Before voting in such a referendum on amalgamation, I strongly urge all residents of the Niagara Region to look very closely.

A number of years ago, the former Conservative government of Mike Harris forced amalgamation on a number of cities/municipalities across the province. From what I have seen, most have been absolute disasters! Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

For Andy Petrowski, an outspoken and quite-often controversial member of Niagara, Ontario’s regional council from the City of St. Catharines, it seems like two out of seven ain’t bad.

Niagara, Ontario’s regional headquarters

 “Not a bad outcome: two of my seven questions (funding transit and “One Niagara) are approved for a referendum on next fall’s (2014) municipal ballot,” said Petrowski in a mass email following this past Thursday, December

Those two questions, approved by a majority of regional councillors to possibly appear on ballots in the October, 2014 municipal elections across Niagara will allow voters to give their yes or no on the two following referendum questions: 

“Should the twelve municipalities of Niagara amalgamate to form a new “City of Niagara”?,” and, “Should the Region of Niagara fund region-wide transit service?” Continue reading →

A Submission from Avaaz, a global web movement dedicated to, as its mission statement declares, “bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere.”

A Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – One sure way of putting an end to amusement parks like Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario of keeping whales and other marine mammals in captivity is to ban import and export of these mammals across international borders.

A Beluga whale in the wild – Can we deal with it or do we need them catured and kept it tanks in amusement parks for our fun?

That is the purpose of a petition, which you can find a link to later on this post, being circulated around the world now by the global web citizens group Avaaz,  calling on Canada’s federal and Ontario governments to impose a moratorium on the import and export of marine mammals.

Two decades ago, Canada’s Department of Oceans and Fisheries banned the live capture of beluga whales in all or most Canadian waters, believing this practice threatened the survival  of a species that by the 1980s, was listed as threatened or endangered in many waters within Canadian boundaries. Continue reading →

By Will MacKenzie 

When I first heard about the cutbacks (announced this past December 11^th 2013) , I wondered if Canada Post was doing what the hospitals do when the government says it is going to cut funding for hospitals – announce dismissals of front-line workers so the taxpayers will get up-in-arms and scream at the politicians. The hope being, of course, that the politicians will shy away from the public outcry and reinstate the funding.

Canadians may soon see the last of door-to-door postal delivery

Is Canada Post management threatening to get rid of door-to-door delivery in the hope that we, the taxpayers, will scream at our MPs, who in turn will scream at the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (Harper & Flaherty) in the hopes the government will give Canada Post money to maintain delivery?

We live in a semi-rural area outside Hamilton. At least half of the people in our little subdivision are retired. Some are well into their 80s. The main road is about 6/10ths of a kilometre from our house. There is a Canada Post mailbox there — where we can drop outgoing mail. In the winter, it is almost impossible to drop mail because the city plows bury the box. What will happen if they put the group mailboxes there? Continue reading →

A Submission The Representatives of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York

(If you are interested in the history of our Greater Niagara Region, you may want to be there. More than a few people who have made history in this region are laying at rest at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York, including the first lady of architecture in North America, whose legacy will be honoured on the 100^th anniversary of her death this coming  Wednesday, December, 18^th  at 10:30 a.m., at this heritage cemetery)

A North American pioneer inarchitecture, Lousie Bethune, being honoured in her home town of Buffalo, New York

Buffalo, New York – On Wednesday, December 18 – the 100^th anniversary of the death of architect Louise Bethune, FAIA – the American Institute of Architects New York State (AIANYS); American Institute of Architects, Buffalo/WNY Chapter; The Buffalo Architecture Foundation and Forest Lawn will dedicate a memorial marker on Bethune’s grave in Section 10 of Forest Lawn at a special ceremony beginning at 10:30 a.m. Elizabeth Chu Richter, FAIA, 2014 First Vice President/2015 President-Elect of the American Institute of Architects, will be in Buffalo to take part in the ceremony, which will also include placement of a wreath. Continue reading →