Category Archives: Uncategorized

News from Sue Hotte, member of the citizen-based Niagara Health Coalition

Get on the bus -Save Welland Hospital Campaign kick off  with mass rally, November. 21st at Queen’s Park

The Save Welland Hospital Campaign is off and running. Its first major action is sending a busload to Queen’s Park, Friday, November 21 to tell the province that Welland residents will not stand for the closure of their hospital.

The Welland Hospital site in Niagara, Ontario is about the only facility approximating a fully functioning hospital for south Niagara residents in the Welland, Port Colborne, Wainfleet and Fort Erie areas. file photo by Doug Draper

“Ontario’s government is forging ahead with the most aggressive plan ever to systematically strip local community hospitals of services and cut or privatize them,” Natalie Mehr, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition told more than 100 people who packed City Hall last week to find out how they can organize to save their hospital.

By joining thousands of citizens gathering at the Ontario Legislature, this kick-off event of the campaign will energize local residents for the work ahead to save the Welland hospital from the province’s planned closure. Continue reading →

From NAL publisher Doug Draper

If you were wondering why traffic has been slow on this news and commentary site in recent weeks, here is the reason.

Doug Draper Sr., a beautiful person with a generous heart. You will always be in ours Dad.

Due to the death of my dear father and namesake – Doug Draper Sr. – this past Saturday, November 8th following a few weeks in hospital, I have had difficulty focusing on one of the things I love doing the most – covering and commenting on news.

Sorry to say that traffic on this site will remain slow while I join my family in coming to terms with my father’s passing and look after his affairs.

To all of Niagara At Large’s faithful readers and supporters out there, and to all of you who have notified me that you have recently discovered this news site, like what you see and say you plan to become a regular visitor, I beg your patience at this time.

We shall resurge here with the usual alternative views you don’t often find any more in the mainstream media.

Thank you, Doug Draper

(NAL always invites our readers to share their views below, just so long as you also share your real first name with them. There are no comments signed ‘flame thrower’, ‘time bomb’ or anything of that nature here. Never!)

Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

Each Remembrance Day, it is important to remember those who fought and died in past conflicts for the freedoms and systems of democracy we are fortunate enough to engage in – if we have the will to do so – in Canada and the United States.

At the same time, I have always believed that every November 11^th – if not every day – is one where we collectively ask the question “Why.”

Why can’t we humans, who pride ourselves in the thought that we are the most intelligent species on the planet – find other, more peaceful ways of resolving our differences other than slaughtering ourselves on battlefields? Continue reading →

News from the St. Catharines and District Council of Women

On Thursday, November 13^th, 2014 this region’s Council of Women will be holding an 8 p.m. public meeting at the St. Catharines Centennial Library on 54 Church Street on continued concerns over the possibility of liquid nuclear waste being trucked across border bridges in Niagara.

Will the Peace Bridge or other Canada/U.S border crossings in the Niagara/Buffalo area be used for trucking liquid nuclear waste?

The meeting, free of charge and open to all members of the public will feature a panel of speakers and address the following: 

• Why is high level , very dangerous liquid nuclear waste being transported from Chalk River , Ontario, to South Carolina?
• What are the dangers and are we prepared?
• How are our US neighbors trying stop this and why?

 On The Panel –

 Barbara Pulst, former Niagara resident now living near the Pickering nuclear station 

Lynda Schneekloth, Chair, Sierra Club Niagara (USA)

Natasha Soto, Community Organizer Clean Air Coalition , Buffalo

Gracia Janes,  VP Environment Provincial Council of Women of Ontario

Sponsored by the 20 Affiliated Member Groups & Individual Members of the St. Catharines and District Council of Women.

(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 Mark Taliano

The tragic shooting of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo on October 22, 2014 at the War Memorial in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada followed by a shoot-out at the House of Commons, and the death of the shooter, Michael Zebaf-Bibeau, serves as a catalyst to advance several hidden government agendas.

The Canadian government wants to spread unreasonable fear of radical, violent Muslim terrorists so that it can better control all Canadians, especially those who choose to exercise their constitutionally enshrined rights. The government is also advancing a population control mechanism so that it can deny and negate domestic constitutional rights, in particular Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 which recognizes and affirms aboriginal and treaty rights. Continue reading →

News from the Niagara, Ontario-based citizens group, Greening Niagara, formerly Climate Change Niagara 

Niagara’s population is becoming active where it relates to the urgency for climate initiatives.  Please review the three events posted below and determine how you’d like to participate.  And please share these invitations widely.

This past winter (2013/14) saw a record number of severe storms and polar vortex temperature drops that, among other things, froze virtually every drop of water roaring over Niagara Falls.

Note that all events are free, and all require an rsvp to help determine refreshments. 

Thursday Nov 6^th   Climate, Engineering and Infrastructure, presenter is Greening Niagara’s Board Member Phil Curtis, arrive early, doors open at 5:30pm.  Hosted by the Professional Engineers of Ontario Continue reading →

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

(A Brief Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper – A reminder that this pipeline works is way through lower Great Lakes connecting channels and watersheds. Should a pipeline break or related accident occur, it could threaten the water supplies of millions of Americans and Canadians, including residents in this greater Niagara region, and damage or destroy vital fisheries and other wildlife habitat in the lower Great Lakes.)

November 3^rd, 2014 – City of Hamilton staff are promising to intervene in the dispute between Enbridge and the National Energy Board over how to protect Hamilton waterways vulnerable to the controversial 39-year-old Line 9 pipeline that the company wants to expand and use to transport unrefined bitumen (from the tar sands in Alberta).

Whether municipal and provincial governments can regulate the explosion of pipeline expansions is already being argued in British Columbia courts and this constitutional issue is likely to spread across eastern Canadian jurisdictions in the path of the latest mega-pipe proposal – the 4600 km “Energy East” facility from Alberta to New Brunswick to export bitumen via the St Lawrence River or through the Bay of Fundy. Continue reading →

A Brief by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

There are certain images we all have burned in to our brain around events that have stirred or shocked us at some point, earlier in our lives.

Frank Mankiewicz wipes away tears as he announces the death of Robert Kennedy in June, 1968

For me, one of those images was of a person named Frank Mankiewicz, a press secretary for U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy, who was running for president, getting up on a car in front of a hospital in Los Angeles in June of 1968 and announcing to the world that Kennedy had died from wounds he was suffering from an assassin’s bullets.

The image of Frank Mankiewicz, wiping tears from his eyes as he made that statement, marked the death of what many of us hoped would lead to a more progressive era in U.S. politics at that time – an era with a leader with the passion, intelligence and determination to end the War in Vietnam and advocate for environmental protection and for victims of poverty and racism 

Frank Mankiewicz, who died late this October at age 90, was far more than that image. He was an accomplished journalist who went on, in the 1970s and 80s, to build his country’ National Public Radio in to a world-class public broadcasting system as its president. His father wrote Citizen Kane and hung around with the likes of Orson Welles. F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Marx Brothers. 

But for better or worse, for a few generations of us who came of age in the last half f the 20^th Century, he may forever be remembered as the person who had to tell the world the sad and shocking news of Robert Kennedy’s death. 

(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 volunteer organizers of Garden Walk Buffalo

(Niagara At Large is always pleased to support this world-class even in our Greater Niagara Region, including Niagara, Ontario and the Western New York area.)

Garden Walk Buffalo has become a major event for the City of Buffalo, New York and showcases its friendly people, inspiring architecture, magnificent waterfront and especially its record number of spectacular gardens.

A gold fish pond in one of the great backyard edens featured at Garden Walk Buffalo. File photo by Doug Draper

Buffalo has received national publicity for hosting the largest free garden walk in the country with visitors coming from all over the country, Canada and even Europe. One objective is to give back to the community by supplying funds to blocks clubs and neighborhood group that want to improve their streets and become part of this wonderful weekend event. Continue reading →

The Niagara Health System’s New Mega-Hospital in the West St. Catharines area of the Niagara region. File photo by Doug Draper

News from the Niagara Health System, an amalgamated body of Niagara, Ontario’s hospital services

October 29^th, 2014 – Niagara Health System is pleased to announce the organization is moving forward with the formation of a Community Advisory Committee to the Board, with an application process beginning today. This move is in support of an important recommendation from Dr. Kevin Smith’s final report as Supervisor, and builds on the organization’s renewed commitment to meaningful community engagement. Simultaneously, NHS is also announcing the beginning of recruitment of a skilled candidate from the community to fill a vacancy on the Board of Directors, which is comprised of volunteer leaders from across the Region.

NHS Board Chair Dr. Barry Wright emphasizes the Board’s interest in hearing from the public. ‘The Board is clear that the future of healthcare requires more input from families and the public-at-large, not less. We agree with Dr. Smith that the organization needs to seek these important opportunities for two-way discussion, and we are excited to see the establishment of the Community Advisory Committee to contribute their feedback on our plans.’ Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Well, it was an interesting municipal election night in Niagara – and for some a scary one a few nights prior to Halloween.

Niagara, Ontario’s regional headquarters

It was also one that saw a greater turnover of faces at the regional council level than we have possibly seen since regional government was established in Niagara more than four decades ago.

Just to give a few examples, Bob Gale, a Niagara Falls businessman, owner of those Gale Gas Bars you may have fueled up at and the guy that blew the whistle, a few years back, at some nefarious practices going on at the Niagara Parks Commission, will be going to regional council as a representative for Niagara Falls.

Mayor Vance Badawey of Port Colborne, who decided to run for a regional council seat this time with a possible eye to the regional chair seat, will not be back. He lost to Port Colborne regional councillor incumbent David Barrick, who is also hand-picked about a year ago by board members of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority for a management position in that public agency. Continue reading →

News from Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission

Niagara Falls, Ontario – In commemoration of the passing of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and Corporal Nathan Cirillo, the Niagara Falls Illumination Board will light Niagara Falls in red on the evening of October 28, 2014, the date of Corporal Nathan Cirillo’s funeral.

The red lighting will take place on the half hour at 7:30; 8:30; 9:30; 10:30 and 11:30 for 15 minute time periods.  The colour red is one of Canada’s national colours and will signify the sacrifice these men have made for Canada.

“We thought it not only fitting to honour Warrant Officer Vincent and Corporal Cirillo in this way, but lighting the falls red will serve to symbolize Canadian unity and the deep patriotism that we are a part of when we stand together,” stated Jim Diodati, Chair of the Illumination Board and Mayor of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Continue reading →

A Note from the citizen-based Port Dalhousie Conservancy

(Niagara At Large is running this note because Carlos Garcia and Bruce Williamson are decent individuals who do not deserve to be slandered and harrassed by some of the neo-con bullies attempting to run progressive thinkers out of political office in this Niagara region.)

Dear friends and supporters of the Port Dalhousie Conservancy,

Carlos Garcia, as most of you know, is running for (St. Catharines) City Council, Port Dalhousie Ward.  Voting day is (this Monday, October 27^th)!
In the last election, Carlos ran for the Region.  He worked very hard but forces opposed to Carlos and what he stands for played a series of “dirty tricks,” the most blatant being the removal of his campaign signs from properties close to all of the city’s polling stations – an illegal activity – but not something that mattered, particularly to some of those in opposition to Carlos. Continue reading →

Debbie Zimmerman, the Niagara regional councillor for Grimsby and former Niagara regional chair, speaks at the launch of a pilot inter-municipal transit system in September, 2011. File photo by Doug Draper

 By Debbie Zimmerman

(The following column by outgoing Regional Councillor and former Niagara regional chair Debbie Zimmerman is being posted on Niagara At Large by permission of its author.)

I always find the intensity with which people will fight to win your vote during an election campaign interesting.

Because when elected, candidates often turn that support into a personal, one-dimensional focus, forgetting the reasons they were elected – to work to ensure your property tax dollars are spent on services for you. Services you use every day like water, sewers, roads, senior and social services, police, ambulance and public health.

Every four years, and next this Monday, October 27th, we get a chance to elect our municipal and regional government. To choose a representative who understands, I am not just a taxpayer, but a resident. Who understands they weren’t elected by you to bring their political party affiliations, their ideologues or one-dimensional agendas to the council chambers.

Local and regional government is about service delivery and not about party platforms. Continue reading →

From the federal parliamentary hansard, Thursday, October 23^rd, 2014

(A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – It took what many of Canada’s federal MPs described as a near-death experience, with bullets ricocheting off the walls inside the Parliament building’s lobby – to get the members of all parties to stand together, in a few moments of solidarity, for the best that Canada can be as a democracy.

Canada’s Green Party Leader Elizabeth May

All party leaders, from Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP Opposition leader Thomas Mulcare and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau stood in the legislature morning after the shooting . All had good things to say but there was something particularly important about the words from the leader of the fourth party in the legislature, the Green Party, which hardly gets any mainstream media attention at all, about trying to keep a cool head and not lose our sense of civility and tolerance over all this. So here, for the record, are the words of Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.)

Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, I thank all my colleagues for giving me this opportunity to speak on this very serious and grave day. We had a horrible day yesterday. I especially want to thank the Prime Minister for his words today, as the Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Liberal Party. Continue reading →

Queen’s Park, October 22, 2014 – Premier Kathleen Wynne issued this statement today following the tragic events that took place in Ottawa:

Ottawa’s National War Memorial where tragedy began to unfold this October 22nd.

“The appalling acts of violence that occurred today at our National War Memorial and on Parliament Hill have shocked our province and our nation.

Details are still forthcoming, but we know this tragedy has resulted in the death of a member of the Canadian Forces and that others are injured. I extend my heartfelt condolences to the friends, family and colleagues of the man who lost his life serving his country today. Together with all Canadians, my thoughts and prayers are with them.

Our thoughts and sympathies also go out to the injured and all those who are suffering in the aftermath of this traumatic event. Continue reading →

Niagara Region, October 23, 2014 – On behalf of all Niagarans, I extend sincere condolences to the family and friends of the Canadian Armed Forces member who was killed in yesterday’s (October 22^nd) attack in Ottawa.

The Peace Tower overlooking Canada’s capital city of Ottawa

I stand with all Canadians in condemning this deplorable act. I and all members of Regional Council applaud the work of the brave men and women of our armed forces, police departments and first responders, who acted swiftly and with resolve to ensure the safety of parliament, public servants and the residents of Ottawa.

Our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with all those affected by these grave events.

(NAL invites you to share your views in the comment boxes below. Remember that we need your full name on this site to post your comment. No pseudonyms allowed.)

A Brief by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

He was an inspiration to countless thousands of us who grew up wanting to get a job in a newsroom in the 1970s.

Ben Bradlee was the prototype of one of the last managing editors of journastic integrity and courage in a now-gone golden age of North American newspapers.

The journalist in me cannot move on without saying at least a few words about Ben Bradlee, who died this October 21^st at age 93 and who was managing editor of the Washington Post when that newspaper broke a long series of stories adding up to what became known as the Watergate scandal that, in 1974, led to Richard Nixon becoming the first president in U.S. history to resign in disgrace.

If you ever saw the 1976 movie ‘All the President’s Men’, which was a fine film in its own right but which also served as a primer for many a fledgling news reporter at the time, there was legendary actor Jason Robards playing Ben Bradlee, along with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford playing reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward respectively, as they re-enacted the true drama of investigative stories that led to the ultimate downfall of a person holding the most powerful office in the world. Continue reading →

By John Bacher 

At an October 6^th meeting of the Grimsby Town Council, councillor David Kadwell got some sense of the difficulties in challenging archaic studies.

Author of this post, conservationist John Bacher, joins others recently on a tour of the Irish Grove Forest in Grimsby. Photo courtesy of Richard Young.

Kadwell attempted to bring a notice of motion to discuss a Class Environmental Assessement on the proposed extension of Livingston Avenue through the 26 acre Irish Grove Forest. If the proposal is approved, one of the last rare Lake Ontario Plain Forests, recognized as Significant in the Niagara Regional Policy Plan, will be cut in two.

The Grimsby councillor’s attempt to rescue the Irish Grove Forest was not popular with his fellow councillors and his notice of motion went nowhere. In this situation, the conservationist councillor found himself in similar circumstances to then newly elected St. Catharines councillor, Mark Elliott, when he discovered the 1965 St. Catharines Transportation Study. Continue reading →

News from the public interest group Canadians for Tax Fairness and its executive director Dennis Howlett

As the country rolls towards a 2015 federal election, we’ve been doing our best to make sure that politicians and voters ask the right questions about achieving tax fairness.

Canada’s Harper Government’s Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay defeinds corporate tax cuts that outstrip those in the U.S.

We’re hitting a nerve.  Recently Kerry-Lynne Findlay Canada’s National Revenue Minister called us “ politically biased” , “ ill-informed” and a “special interest group”.  This was in a letter she wrote to the Charlottetown Guardian in response to a letter from Senator Percy Downe which in turn sparked several more heated exchanges. The Charlottetown Guardian even published a blog I wrote about this war of words.

For the record, we want to work with any politician who believes in a fair and accountable tax system.  That should be all of them, right? We have asked for a meeting with Ms. Findlay, but so far without sucess. Continue reading →

A Brief by Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

There is now only one week to go before eligible voters across the Niagara, Ontario region go to the polls this coming Monday, October 27^th to choose who will lead us at the municipal level for the next four years.

And, I would urgently submit, the stakes could not be hire. Public transit, smarter, more affordable urban growth versus the 20^th century contagion of low-density sprawl, drawing more jobs and young people to want to live and work here, conserving what is left of our watersheds and natural environments, the cost of policing and health and seniors care – the list goes on and on. Continue reading →

By Pamela Minns

This has been an ongoing saga and is a sorry story to come out of a City which is beginning to be noticed by other municipalities in the Region of Niagara, as one which is moving ahead — especially when it comes to our heritage.

A key monument to Thorold’a history, the Keefer Mansion (open today as a restaurant and in) was a home of one of the community’s founding families, involved in the construction of the first Welland Canal and a major grist mill here. Phoro by Doug Draper

“Heritage” is nearly always grouped with “Culture” when it should stand alone, since it is the foundation of our communities; it is what gives us an individuality and uniqueness that creates pride…it draws visitors and tourists, and furthermore, makes them want to return !

The sad part of this whole story is the lack of importance placed on our history, our culture, and our heritage, by the City of Thorold. Allowing Chestnut Hall – a city-owned, designated heritage building – attached to our library, which housed our Museum, to reach the stage where its contents were threatened with water damage, animal invasion and whatever else can occur in a building that has not been maintained and which badly needs attention – BUT with no monies allotted in the City budget year after year ! Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

Barely two weeks after Canada’s Environmental Commissioner Julie Gelfand gave Harper’s Conservative government poor marks for efforts to address current and emerging environmental threats, we see a perfect example of that off one of the country’s most pristine natural coastlines.

The Haida Gwaii region is one of Canada’s great natural gems

This October 17^th through 19^th, all Canadians who care about protecting what is left of our precious wildlife areas held our breath while a disabled Russian ship containing large quantities of heavy oil washed like a cork toward British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii coastline in stormy waters.

Despite knowing that ships carrying such potentially polluting cargo are already plying these waters and that such traffic will multiply if the Harper government gets its way if a so-called Northern Gateway pipeline is run from Alberta’s tar sands to the coast, it took more than half a day for the Canadian Coast Guard to get a tug boat to the crippled ship. Then we learn that the tug was ill-equipped to deal with the crisis with three tow snapping as it attempted to pull the ship away from the coast where a break-up of its hull could mean an environmental disaster. Continue reading →

News from the citizen groups Western New York Drilling Defense, Food & Water Watch, New Yorkers Against Fracking and more.

(A Brief Note from NAL – For those in Niagara, Ontario wondering why the movement to continue a ban on fracking in New York State is important, if this state across the border caves to petro-chemical industry pressures to use high pressure water laced with chemical agents to drill for gas from deep layers of shale here, pressure to do the same may grow in Ontario. All this around legitimate concerns that this practice may be seriously contaminating underground water aquifers, especially in rural areas where people need health underground water supplies the most.)

Global Frackdown 2014 in Buffalo, NY
The Growing Link Between Fracking & Our Health

Saturday, October 18, 2014 – Bidwell Park (off Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, New York – 11 A.M.
RSVP on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/events/1439902756288411

About The Global Frackdown

The first-ever Global Frackdown in September 2012 brought together 200 community actions from over 20 countries to challenge hydraulic fracturing, or fracking—a risky technique that uses millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals to break open shale rock deep underground to release previously unrecoverable deposits of oil and gas. The oil and gas industry has spent millions of dollars on slick PR campaigns and high-profile lobbying efforts to buy the ability to extract fossil fuels from our communities with as little government oversight as possible, all while destroying our water resources and our climate. Continue reading →

News from the Toronto-based citizen Ontario Clean Air Alliance

Enough Excuses – It’s Time For Premier Wynne To Take The Bull By The Horns –

Ontario cannot import low-cost water power from Quebec to replace more costly power from a re-built Darlington Nuclear Station if Darlington continues to operate.  That is the bizarre conclusion of a report issued Tuesday by Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).

A Quebec hydro power dam on the Ottawa River along the border of Ontario and Quebec

 Rather than actually address whether it was feasible to use Quebec power instead of re-building Darlington, the two agencies simply assumed that the province would proceed with the Darlington Re-Build no matter what.  They then found that with Darlington fully operational, there would not be enough capacity on the provincial electricity grid to import more than a fraction of the power needed to replace Darlington.  Not really following the logic?  Neither are we.

And it only gets stranger from there. Continue reading →

New from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – For those who live in Niagara, Ontario and may not know which level of municipal government – the local or regional – is responsible for the disposal and recycling of our household and commercial waste, it is the regional level.

For those who are so much in to a narrow, parochial view of Niagara that says something like; ‘let’s get rid of regional government and/or even if we keep it, let’s continue with this hodge-podge, patchwork of 12 local municipalities, it is instructive to note the following. The transfer of waste management services from local municipalities to the region more than a decade and a half ago, allowed for a collective pooling of municipal tax money that now services all residents in this region – urban and rural – wth one of the best waste disposal and recycling services in Ontario. 

And that is not opinion. It is fact and proven in this region’s track record (do the research yourself if you don’t believe me) when it comes to recycling and otherwise diverting our waste from simply being dumped in a hole in the ground.

Now if we could only get beyond the parochial Neanderthals in this region and do the same thing with public transit.)

Niagara, Ontario’s central recycling centre in Niagara Falls has been rated one of best in Ontario

Waste Reduction Week October  20th to  26th 

Niagara Region, Oct. 14, 2014 – During Waste Reduction Week, Oct. 20 – 26, Niagara Region will hold public tours, information booths and a contest to educate residents about the importance of waste reduction and provide the opportunity to learn what happens to their recycling and waste once it leaves the curb. See details and dates of activities listed below.

Waste Management Information Booth

When:Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Where:Fairview Mall, St. Catharines

Niagara Region waste management staff will be available to provide information and answer questions on reducing, reusing and recycling and waste management in Niagara. Play our waste reduction PLINKO game for a chance to win a prize made from recycled materials (while quantities last). Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

When all of the bees die off, Niagara’s stature as one of North American great fruit-growing regions is over.

It is as simple as that. No bees pollinating orchards and other fruit-bearing plants vital to our food supply and multi-millions of dollars of wealth each year to our regional economy, and that sector of Niagara’s wealth is over.

So why aren’t Niagara’s political leaders and representatives of our region’s farming community not buzzing out loud over the growing scientific evidence that a pesticide called neonicotinoid is killing off our bee pollinators across this region and continent.

The silence among our political leaders and representatives of an agricultural industry in this region that seems stuck in ‘chemicals-can-do-no-wrong’ years of the 1950s (before Rachel Carson wrote a ground-breaking book on synthetic pesticides called Silent Spring) is deafening.

And that is why it is so good that we at least have Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner and independent eco watchdog Gord Miller now urging the province’s government to forget about anything our federal government won’t do and move toward the reduction and eventual banning of this pesticide – just as has already been done in Europe. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from NAL publisher Doug Draper

There are apparently a lot more people living in Niagara than I thought who have contempt for our democratic system of government.

Yet aother example of a recently defaced campaign sign in Niagara.

So much so that the vandalism of candidate signs in this fall’s municipal elections has become a growing gesture of that contempt for our system democracy and for all who have fought and died for it.

I have contacted several candidates running in these municipal elections who are more disturbed than they have ever been in previous elections over the destruction of campaign signs by anonymous vandals who, like the brain-dead cowards they are, tend to do their kicking down of signs between sunset and sunrise. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

In a world filled with too much suffering, fear and conflict, it is always a relief to get some good news before you want to shut the damn news right off.

Malala to receive Nobel Peace Prize for her heroic efforts on behalf of world’s children

A welcome injection of good news came this October 10^th when the Norwegian-based Nobel Committee announced that it had chosen Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India as the 2014 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their brave and tireless efforts to end the oppression of children around the world.

Malala, at age 17, is the youngest person to ever receive this century old prize and as many of you may remember, she was the girl who was shot in the face by cowardly Taliban assassins in her native Pakistan two years ago simply for being a girl wanting to go to school and get an education. Continue reading →

News from the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this as one in a series of news and commentary pieces we are posting on transit prior to this October 27^th municipal elections.

The bottomline is this. Niagara needs to do what other regions across southern Ontario did many years ago and build one seamless, affordable and accessible transit system for the 21^st Century.)

Niagara Region, October 10^th, 2014 – As Niagara residents get ready to head to the polls on October 27, 2014 the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network (NPRN) Transportation Working Group wants to know municipal candidates’ position on a regional integrated transit system.

The NPRN represents 30 plus organizations working collectively to wipe out poverty in Niagara through information sharing, changing attitudes, and compelling Niagara citizens to get involved and take action.

The NPRN Transportation Working Group, one of five of the Network’s working tables, believes that an integrated regional transit system is critical to the health and well-being of Niagara residents and our future economic growth and prosperity. Continue reading →

News from the South Niagara Chapter of the Council of Canadians

This Saturday, October 11^th, 2014, the South Niagara Chapter of the Council of Canadians marks the third annual GLOBAL FRACKDOWN day by inviting you to an information session on fracking at the central St. Catharines Library, 54 Church Street, St. Catharines, in the Rotary Room, beginning at 2:00 p.m.

We’ll be screening Josh Fox’s award-winning documentary, GASLAND, followed by discussion and a presentation by Toban Black, co-editor of the newly-published collection, A Line in the Tar Sands. Struggles for Environmental Justice.

You’ve probably seen pictures of water coming out of a tap and bursting into flames. That’s a result of fracking for shale gas, a technology already used in many parts of Canada. Ontario is all fired up to join the party…and we think you ought to know what’s at stake. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper 

Anyone who has been closely watching the deconstruction of the once-proud Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority over the past two or three years could not be surprised by the following news.

NPCA’s Balls Falls conservation centre.

Staff at the NPCA have, for the first time in the 55-year history of the Conservation Authority, joined a union – the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) confirmed in a media release this October.

“OPSEU welcomes our newest members at the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority,” announced the union in the October 1^st release… “On September 30, the Ontario Labour Relations Board affirmed that members chose OPSEU in a vote held September 3. … OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas is proud these new members chose OPSEU as their representative. “These workers, (said Thomas) play a vital role in maintaining and preserving the natural beauty and habitats in the area, and ensuring that it isn’t lost for future generations.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

For the fifth time in 18 years, Niagara, Ontario’s three daily newspapers – the St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review and Welland Tribune – and a number of its weekly affiliates in the region have been sold to a corporate change.

The facade of the old St. Catharines Standard building in that Ontario city’s downtown, now abandoned. Photo by Doug Draper

An announcement of the latest sale, involving 175 English language newspapers and tabloids owned by the Sun Media/Quebecor conglomerate across Canada, was made by Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and its flagship papers the National Post and Financial Post this October 6^th.

If the sale, reportedly totaling $316 million for all 175 publications, is approved by Canada’s federal government and its media concentration/competition referees, Postmedia will take its place as possibly the largest and most powerful media corporation in the country. Continue reading →

An Editorial by Dr. Anne Bell, Director of Conservation and Education, Ontario Nature

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this editorial and encourages you to read it at a time where we have very few advocates in government left in Niagara for protecting and preserving what is left of our natural heritage. Now that the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority has been large hijacked by left-over Tim Hudak/Harris Conservatives and some of the most backward thinking (circa 1950s) representatives of the agriculture and house bulding/development sectors in the region.

So if you care about protecting and conserving what is left of our natural spaces in Niagara, vote for candidates at the local and regional level you know will pursue that goal and will ensure we appoint board members on the Niagara Peninsula Conservation for the next four years who are determined to pursue that goal to. – NAL publisher Doug Draper.)

Some of our great natural landscape in this province. photo courtesy of Ontario Nature

October, 2014 – The upcoming municipal election represents an important opportunity to ensure that nature and the many benefits it provides are protected in your community. 

Why should this matter to you? For starters, nature is fundamental to your health and happiness. Studies around the world have shown, beyond a doubt, that spending time in natural environments results in greater resilience to stress, increased physical activity, better mental performance and improved immune system functioning. Add to this other demonstrated benefits such as more positive social interaction, more self-acceptance, more self-discipline and a greater sense of purpose in life, and the picture becomes much clearer: access to nature in our communities is vital to our well-being. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The state of Israel brands itself as a peaceful, democratic, civilized oasis, steadfast in the midst of a hostile desert, surrounded by barbarity and threats to its very existence.

None of it is true.

Another day of life in the Gaza strip

Greater Israel is increasingly a rampaging Zionist project that has lost its sense of Judaism, and its democratic, civilized ideals.

It is a militarized, racist, apartheid country that denies and negates the rule of international law at every convenience as it deludes itself and its allies by manipulating the memory of one of history’s most hideous moments: the holocaust.

Memories of the obscenity of the holocaust should teach values of cultural pluralism, empathy and acceptance of the “other”, tolerance and respect for the downtrodden.

Instead, it is being exploited to serve the darker agenda of an ethnocentric, imperial, settler/colonial polity. Continue reading →

(A Brief Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – On the surface, the following public release from Ontario’s Wynne government sounds hopeful for what are left of our family farmers – many of them struggling to survive against the corporate factory food producers – here in Niagara and the rest of the province.

Let’s hope that it brings us foreword with as much support as I have witnessed for local food growers across the border in the Buffalo/Western New York area where well-customered food sellers like the Lexington Co-op on Buffalo’s Elmwood Avenue and the grocery chain Wegmans  run the whole field to promote and sell food grown by local farmers.

There are a few goood advocates for family farmers in Niagara, Ontario  like Welland Riding (federal) MP Malcolm Allen but much more needs to be done. We need governments that care more about saving our ability to grow food here than depend on it from countries that might turn around and cut off our food supply, even if WalMart and other cheap retailers here prefer to ship in that food at tthis time. And we need consumers willing to possibly pay a little more to support those in our own region and country that produce food for us and will continue to do so at the worst of times.

Please read the following release from the province’s governments, then share your views below.)

News from the Ontario Government of Premier Kathleen Wynne

 September 29^th, 2014 – A new tax credit is helping put nutritious, fresh, locally grown food on the plates of those who need it most. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

In a world where countless hundreds of millions of people in Hong Kong, Syria and elsewhere are putting their lives on the line in struggles for free and open elections, we are fortunate to have them here.

These are among many of the campaign signs kicked down in Niagara late this September

Yet elections have become increasingly ugly affairs, even in Ontario where in not so distant times, civility could always be counted on to take charge over the odd hurling of mud pies. 

These days, partisan politics – as in Liberal, Tory and NDP – have infiltrated municipal elections, including the ones we are having now, in ways that are letting loose more mudslinging between candidates. And social media and blog sites, many operated by mainstream media corporations that otherwise claim to be fair and transparent with respect to the content they carry, allow growing number of anonymous flame-throwers to spew poison – more than a bit of it verging on defamation and libel – at candidates and at anyone else who supports a candidate they take issue with.

Then there is a dumbed down practice that goes back long before the days of the internet and one that also seems to be growing more infectious – that of kicking down candidates’ campaign signs. Continue reading →

An Editorial from the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network, a coalition of more than 30 public service organizations and individuals across the Niagara region. 

The Niagara Poverty Reduction Network congratulates all candidates running in the fall municipal and regional elections. Strong and dedicated public service leadership is an important part of our society.

More than 400,000 Ontario residents – more than a third of them children – now count on food banks to put food on their tables, according to information the Ontario Association of Food Banks shared with the media last year.

The Niagara Poverty Reduction Network (NPRN) is a collective of over 30 agencies and individuals from various sectors who are working to raise awareness and take action on poverty issues in Niagara. As part of our work, we have created and published a document entitled, – “Creating Shared Prosperity and Leading by Example: Roles Municipal and Regional Government Can Play to Contribute to Poverty Reduction”. Continue reading →

News From Welland Riding MP Malcolm Allen 

Every year in Canada, nearly 3,900 people die as a result of suicide and many more attempt to end their lives.

Federal Welland Riding MP Malcolm Allen

Suicide is a public health issue that affects us all.It is one of the top ten causes of death in Canada and, among youth aged 15 to 24, it is the second leading cause of death next to accidents.

Did you know that the suicide of one person has the potential to significantly impact the lives 7 to 10 others and places them at higher risk of suicide themselves?

But it’s not all bad news. The good news is that the prevention of suicide is possible. While the causes of suicide are complex, we know that the promotion of good mental health, the prevention of mental illness and a reduction of stigma all contribute to mental wellness and the reduction of suicide and its consequences. We can all play a role in reducing suicides and we all have a collective responsibility to do so.

As your Member of Parliament (in the Niagara, Ontario riding of Welland) I am convening a meeting in our community to discuss suicide and what we can do locally and individually.

The meeting will be held on Friday, September 26, 2014 at Port Cares, 93 Charlotte St, Port Colborne at 9:00am.

(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 Karl Dockstader for Niagara At Large

On Sunday, October 5^th, volunteers and supporters of the First Nations communities are organizing the first annual Tracing Our Roots Pow Wow to be held at 382 Airport Road, NOTL, with a Grand Entry at Noon.

A little over 40 years ago community volunteers started a summer camp for Native children in Niagara, some of whom couldn’t afford Brownies, Scouts and other children’s activities. At about the same time there were traditional aboriginal crafts and beading lessons going on at the YMCA. Aboriginal volunteers got together and started to have meetings about creating a permanent place for Natives to gather for these types of activities. On October 9th, 1974, they realized that vision and incorporated the Niagara Regional Native Centre.

Over the next 40 years the Native Centre raised heroes out of humble community volunteers. Our children had a place to gather. Committee’s were born to foster the growth and development of drumming and dancing. Volunteers arranged trips for dancers all across Turtle Island including a trip as guests of the Pentagon in Washington DC, and an exchange with students in Germany. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper 

In her latest and most important book to date –called “This Changes Everything” – Canadian journalist and citizen activist Naomi Klein highlights a quote by U.S Tea Party darling and former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Many tens of thousands march through the canions of New York City for action on climage change

“I love that smell of emissions,” said Palin as she bussed around the bed-rock, ‘I hate Obama’, neo-conservative regions of her country selling whatever book she was peddling at the time to add to her personal bank bundle.

Palin, of course, would not continue to be a darling of millions of Americans if they did not dig in to her message – and one marketed with multi-millions of dollars spent by the oil and gas industries in the United States and the tar sands lands of Canada – that building eoncomies for the 21^st century that move away from carbon-based oil and gas fuels would be something akin to going communist and destroying our current economic structures. Continue reading →

A Brief from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes, everybody knows.”

• From the Leonard Cohen song, Everybody Knows

A commentator on CBC once compared Leonard Cohen’s singing voice to – and I paraphrase – the engine of an old truck trying to turn over on a cold, winter, Montreal morning.

Leonard Cohen is still our man

No matter how acquired a taste is Cohen’s voice. From his first 1967 debut album, featuring such mesmerizing tracks as Suzanne, Sisters of Mercy and So Long, Marianne, to this day, Leonard Cohen has remained one of Canada’s most unlikely artistic gifts to the world.

So on this September 21^st, 2014 – he day he turns 80, and just one day before the release of Popular Problems, his 13th album or CD or whatever you want to call it, is being released across North America in a wake of reviews by Rolling Stone and other major pop culture publications that it is another fine addition to his musical library, let’s wish this man (who once sang ‘I’m Your Man’, a healthy and peaceful birthday 

Once, a long time ago, I read that a young Leonard Cohen sat down with his elder mentor and friend, Canadian poet Irving Layton, to talk to him about where he wanted to go with his –then-fledgling talents as a poet, writer and singer. Layton reported responded to him by saying; ‘Leonard, are you sure you are doing the wrong thing.’ 

Fortunately for us, Leonard Cohen has been doing the wrong thing for the better part of 50 years, and here is hoping he has the strength and will, well into his 80s, to keep it up.

(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 Comment by Doug Draper, Niagara At Large 

I’ll bet by now that many of you know more than you need to know about this fall’s mayoralty race in Toronto, following the sad news that Mayor Rob Ford has been forced to bow out of that race while he battles cancer.

Just one of many places in Niagara, Ontario where the municipal election signs are now out. Now it is up to you to get involved in a vote for our region’s future.

What those of us in Niagara, Ontario need to know is that we are also facing municipal elections this fall that involve placing more than 100 local municipal and regional councillors in place for the next four years across this region.

These municipal races, in Niagara’s 12 local municipalities and in terms of who will sit on our regional council, may be more important than ever given the challenges Niagara now faces. 

This Niagara region has lost many of thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs due to free trade and the global economy, and federal statistics have reported time and time again in recent years that Niagara has also suffered some of the highest unemployment rates in Ontario and the entire country. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore
The United Nations will host dozens of governments, corporations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) during a one-day Climate Summit 2014  in New York on September 23^rd but, according to scientists and environmentalists, the meeting will deal mainly with only one limited way of fighting climate change: carbon pricing.
In recent years the UN has proven incapable of playing an important role in slowing world climate change in a meaningful way, and is now practically dictated to by a powerful lobby.
Because the UN and governments are not making enough progress, as many as 200,000 environment supporters from all over North America are expected to take part in four days of protests  in New York leading up to the UN Summit.
About 120 heads of state  are expected to attend, including U.S. President Barack Obama and U.K. Prime Minster David Cameron. Among those absent will be the leaders of China and India, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
The Summit will, among other things, hold brief discussions on theme areas such as climate, health and jobs , a climate change photo contest run by a newspaper that the UN says may be the largest ever, and a week of fun events around New York.
Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

(A Note from NAL publisher Doug Drraper. This will be the first in a series of  stories and commentaries on the sad state of transit in Niagara we will post prior to this fall’s municipal elections. In the meantime, we will urge you not to vote for any candidate locally or regionally who does not support a single, reginoal transit system for Niagara.)

A delegation of student representatives from Niagara College and Brock University stood before members of Niagara Region’s Transportation Strategy Steering Committee this September 16^th with one resounding message – at long last, the region needs a “single, seamless transit system.”

That message, delivered Niagara college Student Administrative Council representative Shane Malcolm and Brock University Student Union reps Christopher Yendt, Drew Ursacki and Kyle Rose, has been echoed in Niagara Region’s council chambers before, but has so far not gone very far in convincing staff for regional and municipal governments, and our municipal politicians in moving all that much forward from a decades-old, what has been called by some elected leaders, “hodge-podge” of transit services that is leaving Niagara far behind other regions across this province in providing convenient, accessible and affordable transit services to its residents. 

What these Niagara College and Brock University leaders, who were thanked by committee members at the end of their presentation, said is that young people are not going to find a place in this region, as students and future employees and contributors to Niagara’s economy, if this region continues with a patchwork of transit systems that makes it difficult and time-consuming too get back and forth from home to school, and any jobs that may be available in the region for them. Continue reading →

From CATCH, a not-for-profit citizens watchdog in the Hamilton, Ontario area.

(A Brief Foreword from NAL – Check this post out and consider Niagara in the equation. There are no borders on this one. When you read Hamilton, think Niagara because the greater Niagara region is being swamped with this environmental and economic catastrophe to.)

One of the so-called ‘severe weather’ storms that caused mulit-hundreds of millions of dollars of damage in southern Ontario over the past few years. But, psst, psst. Don’t go gettling Harper and company that we may be dealing with climate change.

Residents on both sides of the bay are participating in next weekend’s global push for serious government action on climate change, while city staff warn councillors that Hamilton is unprepared for extreme rainfalls like the one that clobbered Burlington last month. Progress is being reported on catch basin maintenance, but staff say they still don’t have the budget to take care of culverts and stormwater ponds, and don’t even have the authority for flood management of most of the city streams.

The biggest climate demonstration in American history is predicted for New York on September 21 as over 125 world leaders gather for a summit called by the United Nations’ Secretary-General. Ban Ki-moon is frustrated with the failure of more than a decade of international climate negotiations – underlined by the news that greenhouse gas emissions, far from declining, are actually rising faster than ever and pushed atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide up nearly three parts per million in 2013. Continue reading →

News from Brock University

St. Catharines, Ontario, September, 2014 –  This September 11^th, Brock University renamed Meter Road on its St. Catharines campus Flora Egerter Way in recognition of the leadership and work done by Egerter and the Allanburg Women’s Institute in the late 1950s to establish a university in Niagara.

Ontario Premier John Robarts with Flora Egerter celebrating in 1963, celebrating the soon-to-be launched Brock University in Niagara, Ontario

Members of Egerter’s family and the Women’s Institute were on hand for the renaming celebration, which is part of Brock’s 50^th anniversary celebrations this year.

“Flora Egerter and the Allanburg Women’s Institute were right to lead the charge for a University in Niagara, and the last 50 years have proved it,” said Brock University President Jack Lightstone at today’s ceremony.

“Our University is flourishing in ways that should make Flora and her like-minded collaborators, those who founded the University, and those who have supported us over the past 50 years, extremely proud.” Continue reading →

A Short Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

I know there are alot of my fellow Canadians out there who don’t like America or much of what they think it stands for. Well maybe – just maybe – they might reconsider if they watch what promises to be an extraordinary documentary series on one of America’s most extraordinary families – a family has left legacies for environmental and social progress people across North America should celebrate and stand up for till this day. 

While Canada has been ruled by Harperland around tar sands exploitation, climate change denial and gutting federal funding for health care and post-secondary education to give corporations, and whatever is left of the middle class another tax cut, it might be important to know that at least – once upon a time – there were people out there who cared about more than making money. 

Those people were the Roosevelts of America who, as rich as they were, gave most of their life’s energy to helping others. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

God bless us, he loved being mayor of Canada’s largest city and the third largest city in North America.

So much so that Rob Ford would continue to weather any amount of shame and humiliation through the last couple of years of outing his drug and alcoholic addictions, his palling around with nefarious individuals in the grey areas of the law, and so many other antics that made him a butt of late night talk show hosts across the world.

Rob Ford

As everyone who is not totally cut off by ear-bug bullshit must know by now, Rob Ford – diagnosed with an abdominal tumor earlier this second week in September that is serious and may be cancerous – bowed out of Toronto, Ontario’s mayoralty race and has left the challenge of ‘Ford Nation’ holding the mayor’s seat this fall to his loyal brother Doug.

I’ll be honest here. I never cared for the Ford agenda, which calls for cutting and taxes along with gutting more government services that so curiously are there to help some of the very recent immigrant and lower-income people that Ford has so successfully lured in support of his neo-con, post Mike Harris era nation. Continue reading →

News from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Queen’s Park, September 10^th, 2014 – Andrea Horwath, Leader of Ontario’s New Democrats, vowed to fight the privatization of Ontario’s hydro system and campaign against the sell-off of public assets by the Liberals.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

 “Resurrecting botched schemes from the Mike Harris days to privatize hydro will only drive up bills for families and enrich insiders,” said Horwath. 

The New Democrat leader said her party was launching a campaign aimed at preventing the Liberal government’s planned fire-sale of Ontario’s public assets and maintaining the province’s ownership of public hydro agencies and the LCBO. 

Horwath will be touring the province meeting with families, community leaders, labour, businesses and other groups about the impacts of the fire-sale on Ontario’s future. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

I’m no football fan myself – never was and probably never will be – but I am a fan of the great city of Buffalo, New York and I join so many people in that city in celebrating this September 9^th’s news that the Buffalo Bills will stay.

The Buffalo News has confirmed that billionaire business leaders Terry and Kim Pegula, who have already made other development investments in the city as it transforms itself from a manufacturing to more of a high-tech research and business centre – not to mention a continental showcase for heritage and vibrant, revitalized neighbhourhoods – have purchased the Buffalo Bills football team and will keep it in the Buffalo area. 

This news comes after the death of long-time Buffalo Bills founder and owner Ralph Wilson early this year and months of nail-biting speculation over who would buy the team and where it might locate it. Continue reading →

News from Brock University in Niagara, Ontario

September, 2014 – Staff at Brock University are sounding the alarm on new job scams targeting students which could see them, among other things, being used as pawns in fraudulent activity.

Brock University’s landmark tower complex above the Niagara Escartpment in St. Catharines, Ontario

In one recent incident, a fraudster posing as an employer at a legitimate organization hired a student via email without any face-to-face interaction. On the student’s first day of work, their job description suddenly changed and they were asked to deposit a cheque and run errands for the employer who was suddenly out of the country. 

Alarm bells went off and the student didn’t cash the cheque. Instead, they followed up with Career Services staff at Brock who helped to verify with the real employer that no such person worked for the company and that the job offered did not exist. 

In another similar case, an unsuspecting student cashed a counterfeit employer’s cheque and conducted the errands they were asked to carry out only to be later told by the bank that the cheque was a fake and that they were on the hook for $2,500. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

In the 21 st century, we’re constantly being bombarded with information from a myriad of sources, including the internet, but in many respects, we actually know less.

In matters of war and peace, disinformation campaigns have effectively blinded us to realities on the ground, as permanent war destabilizes countries and murders multitudes throughout the world.

The 2003 ‘shock and awe’ bombing of Iraq, delivered by a Bush/Cheney administration that frightened the western world with stories about weapons of mass destruction and ‘mushroom clouds’ over America

Waving fraudulent banners of democracy, freedom, stabilization, humanitarian bombing, self-defence, and any number of other lies, illegal wars of aggression are being waged and international rules of law and order have been reduced to insignificance.

A multitude of lies and false pretexts were used to justify the on-going horrors of the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, and yet for the most part North Americans, oblivious to the realities on the ground, seem to have forgiven the powers that waged these wars. Continue reading →

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

When we launched Niagara At Large more than four years ago, we also set off a running series on NAL called ‘Signs Of Our Times’.

The idea was to ask our readers and contributors to send us images of signs or posters they spotted somewhere in our greater Niagara binational region that say something about the crazy times we live in.

The series got off to a promising start with a number of interesting submissions. But like a lot of ideas – even some good ones – it fell to the side as our attentions were drawn to what seemed to be more pressing issues unfolding across the region at the time.

Yet if Ford can bring back the Mustang and vinyl records can make a comeback, maybe we can reprise ‘Signs Of Our Times’, including interesting bumper stickers this time around. 

Let me get the ball rolling with a bumper sticker on a car I parked behind a few weeks back to attend the Elwood Avenue Festival of the Arts in Buffalo, New York. I know I will catch some flack on this, but I believe this bumper sticker said it all about a movement south of the Canada/U.S. border that has emboldened angry fringe groups and hate-mongers and has sought to inflame the darker side of human nature. I include an image of the bumper sticker here.

Now I invite you to submit a sign of our times, if or when you cross paths with one with a message that resonates with the mad-hatter circumstances around us. If you have one and want to send it in for our consideration, send the image of the sign, poster or bumper sticker in a JPEG format, along with a short note on why you feel it strikes a telling chord to drapers@vaxxine.com .

(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 Message to Readers from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

When we launched Niagara At Large five years ago, we made a point of encouraging people across our greater region in Niagara, Ontario, the Buffalo, New York area, and beyond to join the debate on issues we post here.

At least Howard Beale stood behind his name and had rants that were interesting. We ask for something of the same here.

We also made it clear from the start that, unlike most online sites hosted by mainstream media outlets and others, we would stay true to traditional, and what we continue to believe to be well-thought-out, first principles of journalism that require each and every person who posts a comment here (what is the equivalent to a Letter To The Editor in a newspaper that is still actually printed on paper) to share their real name with their views.

We continue to embrace these principles for reasons of transparency and the same kind of public accountability that applies to this publisher, to public servants and to anyone else who posts or is part of a story or commentary here with their name hanging in the balance. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Let me start this one with a few words from the late, great American satirist George Carlin.

Are millienials and other younger generations supposed to care about the health care for greedy, self-aborbed people like this?

“A lot of these cultural crimes I’ve been complaining about can be blamed on the Baby Boomers. Somethin’ else I’m a little tired of hearin’ about. The Baby Boomers. Whiny, narcissistic, self-indulgent people with a simple philosophy:

“These people,” George continues, “were given everything. Everything was handed to them. And they took it all! Oh, they took it all! Sex, drugs and rock & roll, and they stayed loaded for twenty years and had a free ride, but now they’re staring down the barrel of middle age burnout and they don’t like it, they don’t like it so they turn self-righteous and they wanna make things harder on young people! They tell them to abstain from sex, “Say No To Drugs.” As for the Rock & Roll, they sold that for television commercials a long time ago… so they could buy pasta machines and Stairmasters and soy bean futures… You know somethin’… they’re cold bloodless people, it’s in their slogans, it’s in their rhetoric; “no pain, no gain” “just do it” “life is short” “play hard” “shit happens” “deal with it” “get a life.” These people went from “do your own thing” to “just say no.” They went from: “love is all you need” to “whoever winds up with the most toys wins.” And they went from cocaine to Rogaine.”

That just about summed it up for this post-Second World War baby boomer generation, which I am a less-than-proud member of by the way, at the time George spoke those words in 1994. Continue reading →