Niagara At Large

News from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional

This February 20^th, 2015 Niagara Regional Council approved the Region’s 2015 budget. This budget focuses on maintaining existing services and supporting new programs that will enable economic prosperity, while limiting the impact to tax payers to less than the rate of inflation.

Residents will see an increase of approximately 1.92 per cent in Regional taxes this year, after Council passed its 2015 tax supported operating budget of $321.9 million. For the average house assessed at $236,134, the 1.92 per cent budget tax increase will result in an additional $27.50 per household.

Niagara Regional Chair Al Caslin

“Niagara Region’s 2015 budget is focused on maintaining current service levels and new initiatives that will encourage economic prosperity in Niagara,” said Regional Chair Alan Caslin. “This budget enables us to invest in GO transit throughout the Region and advance inter-municipal transit, will improve front-line emergency services, and will foster a welcoming environment for the private sector to bring investment and new jobs to Niagara.”

“For 2015, we’ve kept the tax increase low by becoming more effective and efficient, thereby identifying $2.41 million in sustainable cost savings”, said Councillor David Barrick, Chair of the Budget Review Committee of the Whole. “This approach aligns with our tax payer affordability strategy and ensures that we are making valuable investments in the programs and services that will lead the way to a stronger and healthier Niagara,” concluded Barrick. Continue reading →

News from the Ontario Woodlot Association

This year, the non-profit Ontario Woodlot Association is holding its 22^nd Annual Conference and Annual Meeting in Brantford at the Best Western Plus Brant Park Inn on Friday March 20 and Saturday March 21. 

The event is open to anyone with an interest in the environment, invasive species, tree cutting by-laws and new technologies in Ontario and the state of our forested land in Southern Ontario and is being hosted by the Brant, Haldimand and Niagara Chapters of the Association.

On March 20, the day includes a tour to the local Tigercat factory (manufacturer of large forestry equipment) and a guided walk through Grand River Conservation Authority lands. In the evening, a dinner-social at the Brant Rod and Gun Club is planned as is an informal walk is through the Paul Helm Fish Hatchery. 

The AGM and Conference, with speakers covering topics on tree by-laws, new technologies, invasive species, news from the Carolinian Canada Coalition, woodlot management in a changing climate and more, will follow on Saturday, March 21. Continue reading →

 Joint Statement on Measles from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government and the Niagara Catholic School Board

(A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – In a short phone interview with Niagara Region’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Valerie Jaeger, she stressed that everyone who hasn’t been vaccinated for measles, should be.

Dr. Jaeger also noted that she is awaiting information from provincial health officers on whether there is any link with the new cases in Niagara and a religious conference for youth, held in Toronto, in recent weeks

And let this publisher just finish it up with a message I have repeated posted. Anyone, who for screwball libertarian or right-wing religious reasons will not allow their children to receive a measles vaccine, should do the rest of the community a favour and keep their children out of our public schools, out of shopping malls and anywhere else where their children could potentially spread a disease that is potentially fatal.)

Niagara Region’s Head Health Officer, Dr. Valerie Jaeger

February 16^th, 2015 – Niagara Catholic District School Board and Niagara Region Public Health can confirm individuals with measles have had contact within the school communities of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School and Saint Michael Catholic High School. 

While both schools have a very high vaccination rate, Public Health continued to be in contact with the families of students over this past weekend who have not been adequately vaccinated.

According to the Immunization of School Pupils Act, students who have not completed the required immunization schedule for, in this case, measles, have been excluded from school until they meet the requirements to return. Both schools are working with families of excluded students to provide school work during the period of exclusion. Continue reading →

News from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government

(A Brief Forward Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – The question is – Why did the Region’s Caslin administration allow crews of low-paid garbage and recycling waste collectors go out this Monday, February 16^th in the first place. Why, when weather specialists all over Ontario and Western New York have been forecasting “dangerous cold” conditions through this past weekend and going into Monday and humane societies have warned pet owners not to put their dogs and cats out in weather like this?

Of course, we are in to a far harsher, more mean-spirited regional council than we have had in the past, with key members of that council down on regional staff. Yet, that should still not serve as a reason for sending waste collectors ought in polar conditions like this. Shame on the neo-con Caslin administration for allowing it to happen.)

Should the crews working these waste collection trucks be required to work in record cold temperatures meteorolists call “dangerous?”

NIAGARA REGION, Feb. 16, 2015 – Garbage and recycling collection in Niagara is experiencing delays due to extreme cold weather. Collection will continue until 4 p.m. today, however some residents will not have their materials collected today. Residents are advised to bring in any materials that were not collected by 4 p.m. today.

Residents who did not have their garbage and recycling collected today should have their materials to the curbside no later than 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17 for collection. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Right there with the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and the first time The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, it was one of those events in my childhood that I will remember as if it took place yesterday.

It was the day – 50 years ago this February 15^th, 2015 – that this Canada I am a native citizen of finally embraced a flag of its own, with all of the pride I felt at the time as it was being raised, for the very first time, at a public school I was attending in Welland, Ontario.

For me, and I think for so many other younger Canadians, this new flag was not, as was said by more than a few of our elders, the resemblance of a “beer label.” It was afresh, free-lying symbol of a nation finally breaking out from its ‘Mother England’ apron strings and forging ahead with defining its own character as one of the world’s most progressive and compassionate beacons of a fair, equal and just democracy. Continue reading →

News from Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission

Niagara Falls, Ontario, February, 2015 – In celebration of the 50^th anniversary of the Canadian Flag, The Niagara Falls Illumination Board will be lighting both the American and Canadian Horseshoe Falls in red and white, for 15 minute increments during the hours of 8:30, 9:30 and 10:30 p.m., on the evening of February 15, 2015.

Watch for these great iconic Falls to be lit up in red and white to celebrate 50th anniversary of Canada’s flag

The modern Canadian National Flag was adopted by the Canadian Government on February 15, 1965. With Canada’s centennial celebrations close at hand, the government of the day wished to create a very distinctive and unifying flag to replace the previous Canadian Red Ensign. For 50 years, the iconic Maple Leaf on the flag, designed by George Stanley, has been recognized around the world as a symbol of Canada. Continue reading →

News from the Ontario Government

A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – It is long past time a senior level of government is taking this step. For the sake of our future, read this post and get involved!

February, 2015 – Ontario has released a climate change discussion paper and invites citizens, businesses and communities to share ideas about how to successfully fight climate change while fostering economic growth and keeping our businesses competitive.

Glen Murray, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change – “Climate change is already costing Ontarians by threatening our communities, businesses and way of life. While Ontario is showing leadership in fighting climate change, we know we need to do more and we need to act fast. Over the next few months, we will be asking citizens about their thoughts on how to fight climate change, foster economic growth and help secure a better future for this province for generations to come.”

The government will engage aboriginal communities and hold province wide consultations with citizens, community organizations, industry stakeholders, municipal representatives and businesses, and will publically post the discussion paper for comment on the Environmental Registry for 45 days. The discussion paper:

• Identifies the climate change challenge, the risks and threats it poses to Ontario’s environment, economy and way of life.
• Suggests actions that encourage individuals, businesses, government and communities to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Asks important questions to help inform a comprehensive climate change strategy and action plan, to be released later this year.

Engaging the public in a conversation about climate change builds on Ontario’s recent achievements including closing coal plants, curbing the use of cosmetic pesticides and protecting 1.8 million acres of land. These initiatives have resulted in fewer smog days and cleaner water. Continue reading →

(This not-for-profit group works to preserve one of the great Frank Lloyd Wright properties in the architecturally rich Buffalo, New York area and Niagara At Large is pleased to post this spring travel event that will help fund the group’s preservation efforts.)

News from Buffalo, New York’sMartin House Restoration Corporation

The Martin House Restoration Corporation is offering a weekend travel package to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob in Pennsylvania on June 6th-7th, 2015.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater – an iconic residential home in a wooded area in rural Pennsylvania.

 This package includes one night’s accommodations at the Omni William Penn in downtown Pittsburgh, motor coach transportation, tours, lunch and gratuities, and a reception at the Omni featuring a lively conversation with Fallingwater’s Director of Preservation.

Fallingwater is the home that Wright designed for Pittsburgh retail mogul Edgar J. Kaufmann and his family as a mountain retreat. Perched over a cascading stream, this is one of Wright’s most iconic masterpieces. Continue reading →

News from the Government of Ontario

On Wednesday, February 11^th, 2015 Dr. Eric Hoskins, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, and Dr. Robin Williams, Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health, issued the following statement on the measles cases in Ontario:

“In the last two weeks, eight cases of measles have been confirmed in Ontario. So far, there are no known common sources of exposure and currently they are not known to be linked to the cases in the United States.

Dr; Eric Hoskins, Ontario’s Minister of Health

While the risk to the general public is low, measles is highly contagious. It is important for people to be fully immunized against this serious disease; it’s the best way to prevent measles and its spread. We are urging Ontarians to ensure all their immunizations for measles and those of their children are up-to-date, not only to protect them from this disease, but those around them. Parents who do not get their kids immunized are putting other children at risk.

Adults born in 1970 or later require two doses for optimal protection, depending on their age and level of risk. Individuals born before 1970 are generally presumed to be immune from measles. Currently, it is recommended that children should have the first dose at 12 months and a second dose when they are four to six years old, preferably before they start school. Continue reading →

A  Commentary  by Doug Draper

In recent months, as I’ve crossed the Peace Bridge back into my native Canada from a day trip to Buffalo in the U.S.A, I’ve routinely been asked by our border officers if I’ve been to Africa or spent any time around someone who may be infected with the Ebola virus.

Measles, a potentially fatal disease, all but eradicated in North America due to mass vaccinations, is breaking out again.

‘No’, is my honest answer and I don’t necessarily mind the question being asked.

But let’s put things in perspective. There have only been a few well-publicized cases of Ebola on the U.S. side of the border and no confirmed cases in Canada following a couple of concerns over possible cases.

On the other hand, there are now over 100 confirmed cases of measles in the United States, and at least seven in Niagara, Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe, including at least six confirmed cases in the Greater Toronto Area and one in Niagara to date. Continue reading →

Nocturnal – Creatures of the Night Exhibit Now Open At Niagara Parks Commission’s Butterfly Conservatory

News from Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – Those who are regular NAL readers know that there is almost zero tolerance here for capturing animals in the wild and exhibiting them for human entertainment. By contrast, the group that has been doing this exhibit annually now for the NPC only has animals rescued from negative captive conditions and that otherwise might be euthanized. It also does a great job of teaching visitors to the exhibit how critical these animals are to sustaining a healthy web of life on this planet.)

Niagara Falls, Ontario – The Niagara Parks Commission is pleased to present a new family friendly, educational exhibit “Nocturnal: Creatures of the Night,” that will take place from February 7 until May 10, at NPC’s Butterfly Conservatory. Continue reading →

NAL

News from members of St. Catharines & District Council of Women.

On Thursday, February 12^th at 8 p.m. at the St. Catharines Centennial Library on 54 Church Street in the city’s downtown, the Council of Women is hosting a public meeting on questions and concerns related to labels attached to so much of the food we purchase and eat. 

Among the questions to be addressed at the public meeting are;

• Ever wonder what the food label on your favorite food means?
• Do food labels have to be so complicated?
• How do food labels relate to our   health?

Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Doug Draper

I’ll confess that I have never been a fan of Target stores, not even in the United States where Target rose and apparently still reigns as one of the major profit-making players in the big box retail business.

The Target brand failed in Canada and more than 17,000 low-paid Canadian workers are paying for it – but not the CEO.

Yet with all the news this winter of Target’s disastrous foray into Canada – after such a grandoise launch less than two years ago – and all of the “Closing! Total Liquidation” signs being hung at each and every Target outlet across the Great White North this February 2015, I could not help but take a brief walk through one of those doomed outlets at the Pen Centre Mall in St. Catharines.

This liquidation sale, so sad as it seemed to attract fewer prospective buyers, proportionally, than a yard sale you or I might stage on a Sunday afternoon, made one wonder if Target’s boardroom broncos ever knew what they were doing in the first place. Some of the floor employees in the St. Catharines store – among the 17,600 losing their jobs at Target stores across Canada – were keeping their dhins up as they stamped more discount stickers on whatever merchandise was left.

And here is the sad punchline. Continue reading →

In the wake of concern over an outbreak of measles in Canada and the United States, Niagara’s regional government has issued the following news, along with a call from its Public Health Department to for people to get a measles vaccine. 

NIAGARA REGION, Ontario, February 4^th, 2015 – Niagara Region Public Health is investigating one confirmed case of measles in Niagara. The case is an adult female. As part of the investigation, there are individuals who require follow-up.

Niagara, Ontario’s regoinal government headquarters

Location to have been directly exposed:

  From 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015, to noon on Monday, Feb. 2, 2015, visitors to Greater Niagara General site, Unit C, 5546 Portage Rd., Niagara Falls, Ont.

 Individuals meeting these criteria are asked please call Public Health to speak with a nurse for instructions at 905-688-8248 ext. 7330, or after hours at 905-984-3690. Persons who visited any of the following public locations may have been exposed to measles and are being asked to watch for signs and symptoms and to ensure their vaccination is up to date. Measles starts with cough, runny nose, red, watery eyes, and fever, and after about four days a rash begins on the face and moves down the body. There may be white spots inside the mouth. Continue reading →

(A Brief Foreword by NAL publisher Doug Draper – In a commentary I posted this January 30^th, 2015 on hopeful signs that we may finally have a senior level of government – this one being the government of Premier Kathleen Wynne in Ontario – that will earnestly raise the bar when it comes to caring for whales and other marine mammals in the custody of Marineland in Niagara Falls and other zoo and amusement parks in Ontario, I made a few sorry omissions on parties who should be credited for finally getting us to this point.

One of many rallies over the years in front of Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario. File photo by Doug Draper

I mentioned a few dedicated individuals and groups like Dan Long, Dan Wilson and Catherine Ens and long-time members of Niagara Action for Animals or NAFA for short. But I failed to mention critically key individuals like Dr. Naomi Rose, a renowned marine biologist from the United States, Dr. Paul Spong, a scientist specializing in marine mammal research in British Columbia, and Zoocheck Canada – most particularly Rob Laidlaw and Julie Woodyer from that time-honoored animal advocacy group that have all called for Canada and Ontario to show more respect for these great mammals through humane policy initiatives for decades now.  Continue reading →

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

How promising this may finally be for some of our most wondrous beings we should feel privileged to share a life with on this planet!

Protesters have rallied for years in front of Marineland park in Niagara Falls, Ontario. File photo by Doug Draper

For the first time in decades- possibly for the first ever, for that matter – we seem to have a government in Ontario that is taking seriously the health and welfare of marine mammals – whales and other ocean animals held in captivity in zoos and aquariums in the province for little more than peoples’ passing amusement.

This past Tuesday, January 27^th, 2015, the still relatively new Ontario Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne issued a media release like no other I have seen from past Conservative NDP and Liberal governments in this province, promising to, as the release puts it, “take action to increase protection of marine mammals and prohibit future acquisition and breeding of orcas.”

“Ontario is moving ahead with enhanced standards of care for marine mammals such as dolphins, belugas and walruses, to ensure both greater protection and improved treatment,” says the release from Wynne’s government. The new standards of care,” promises the government … will be among the best in the world.”  Continue reading →

News from the Council of Canadians South Niagara Chapter

(A free event at the St. Catharines, Ontario campus of Brock niversity that includes workshops, parking, lunch and child-care. REGISTER ON-LINE. Read on for details.)

The tower on the Niagara, Ontario campus of Brock University in St. Catharines

Whatever your reasons for wanting to become an activist, tips from the grassroots for turning passion into action will be the focus of a workshop presented by the Council of Canadians South Niagara Chapter. Just Doing It! is the group’s how-to for “Putting the Act in Activism”, this year’s theme for the 8^th Annual Niagara Social Justice Forum on Saturday, Jan. 31, at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Workshop participants will be invited to join with local activists from the South Niagara Chapter to review several of their social justice and environmental campaigns as they have tried to impact and influence local government and other decision-makers. Participants will then have the opportunity to try their own hand at planning and mapping out the action steps to conduct a local social/environmental justice campaign. Continue reading →

Niagara, Ontario’s Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster

News from the Office of Welland, Ontario Riding MPP Cindy Forster

Welland, Ontrario, January 26^th, 2015 – Cindy Forster, NDP Critic for Community and Social Services, called on the Liberal government to come clean about the chaos caused by SAMS, as an internal memo predicts at least 10 more weeks of turmoil for families and caseworkers.

“The SAMS nightmare keeps getting worse for families on social assistance,” said Forster. “This Liberal government was careless to put the most vulnerable Ontarians at the mercy of unreliable software. Months later and with over $250 million dollars spent, the Liberal government still has no clue how to fix it.” Continue reading →

A Brief from NAL publisher Doug Draper

He never won an Olympic Gold Medal – the most he won was a Bronze – yet he may very well have had more of an impact on his sport than anyone over the past 40 years.

Toller Cranston in 1976 and at the top of his sport.

Toller Cranston, who was born in Hamilton, and who died this January, 24^th, 2015 of an apparent heart attack at age 65 – has been credited by many in the sport of figure skating of changing it in to a form of artistry up to this time, even while he did not earn the respect of Olympic judges and others for being ahead of his time.

That became all too obvious during one Winter Olympic Games held in Austria in the 1970s and Cranston did not win Gold for what was clearly a flawless and brilliant free-form single men’s performance. I can still remember hearing the collective ‘you have got to be kidding’ from so many who watched his performance on TV. And it seemed so clear, even to many of the Olympic commentators at the time that he was rushing beyond pure technical skills, to an artful extravagance that the judges of the day could not yet come to terms with. Continue reading →

News from the American-based citizens group Alliance

(A Brief Foreword from Niagara At Large – With the unfortunate demise a few years ago of the binational citizens group Great Lakes United, The Alliance for the Great Lakes, although based in the U.S., is the only real group we have left with a reach across the basin that includes working with Canadian citizen groups when possible. For the sake of these Great Lakes – the largest reservoir of life-sustaining fresh water on this earth – do what you can to support this group.)

A look at the world’s largest basin of fresh water from space

Support for Great Lakes restoration funding and protection against Asian carp are key Great Lakes priorities for the new Congress, with algae-promoting nutrient pollution topping a list of issues to watch with wary eye.
The Alliance reached out to congressional members this week with a lineup of Great Lakes priorities needing their attention in 2015.

Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If he were a human and eligible to run as a candidate in this last fall’s 2014 Ontario municipal elections, he might very well hold a seat on Thorold, Ontario’s municipal council now.

Tigger wants his birthday to be a chance for people to donate to the Animal Assistance Socity of Niagara and Community Care Thorold

And the people of Thorold – to leave the kitty completely out of it and say so myself – might be better off.

Tigger – a regal, orange tabby who resides at a Petvalu retail outlet at the Pine Plaza on Pine Street in Thorold – is turning seven in human years and the store’s staff is celebrating with a Birthday Party on Saturday, February 7^th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

As I hope regular visitors to Niagara At Large know, does not give plugs to retail businesses in the form of what is sometimes termed as an ‘advertorial’ or sponsored content.’ 

But Tigger’s birthday is different. It is not just about this Pevalu outlet promoting itself with an event that includes raffles, gams nd cupcakes. It is about asking encouraging us to make donations to Niagara’s Animal Assistance Society and to Community Care in Thorold. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

“I am convinced that if we succumb to the temptation to use violence in our struggle for freedom, unborn generations will e the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, nd our chief legacy to them will be a never-ending reign of chaos.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

On this January 19^th, 2015 – set aside in the United States to remember the non-violent struggle for civil rights lead by the late Martin Luther King, I find myself wishing we had more leaders like him today.

Martin Luther King, following his 1963 speech ‘I Have A Dream’, in Washington. D.C.

Instead, more than four and a half decades after his assassination and all of his achievements in the are of human rights, we continue to face a world where difference of colour, creed and religion are met by hate-filled intolerance and violence. 

Can we not yet find the wisdom and compasson as humans to move beyond this? 

After all, as Martin Luther King once tried to warn us; “Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. …

“If there is to be peace on earth,” King said, “we must finally believe in the ultimate morality of the universe, and b elieve that all morality hinges on moral foundations.” 

As a footnote, if you have not seen the Academy Award nominated film Selma., please do. It should be mandatory for viewing and discussion in all of or schools.

(Niagara At Large invites you to join in the conversation by sharing your views on the content of this post below. For reasons of transparency and promoting civil dialogue, NAL only posts comments from individuals who share their first and last name with their views.)

 A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

We humans may arguably be one of the smartest species on the planet. But when it comes to looking after a planet we ultimately need to take care of in order to survive, we seem to fall short on vision.

Lower and lower gas and diesel prices like we haven’t seen in years.

That shortfall is most apparent when it comes to crises like climate change, where it is necessary to think in terms of decades – never mind minutes, hours or even one or a few years – to address what could amount to a catastrophic future, cost wise and health wise, for our children and grandchildren by the last half of this century.

This is all a way of saying let’s build up the resolve to show some vision and not let the recent falling price of gasoline take our eyes off the prize. And the prize, to anyone who has been following what has been going on in the world and does not see the world through the narrow lens of a Stephen Harper, should be obvious.

It is the final move boldly to a future of energy conservation and alternative, greener sources of energy that will turn the tide on carbon emissions and move us to a healthier, more prosperous life for whatever may be left of our lives and for the lives of generations to come.

That means not letting this temporary slide in gas and diesel prices tempt us back to SUVs and other carbon fuel guzzling habits of life that have already brought humanity to the brink of doing terrible damage to our lives and this one and only planet we live on. Continue reading →

Mark Taliano

The biggest threat to Canada’s national security is internal.

It is the offshoot of an extraordinarily successful — because it remains largely undetected — coup that imposed itself on the country with the federal election of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) in 2006, and solidified its impacts with the election of a Conservative majority in 2011.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Author, poet, academic, and former Canadian diplomat Professor Peter Dale Scott recently disclosed a wikileaks cable indicating that the International Republican Institute (IRI), an off-shoot of the CIA, and a subsidiary of the  National Endowment for Democracy (NED) helped install Stephen Harper as Canada’s Prime Minister. This was the coup.

Point 12 of the cable explains that; “In addition to the campaign schools, IRI will be bringing in consultants who specialize in party renovation to discuss case studies of political parties in Germany, Spain, and Canada which successfully carried out the process”

The “party renovation” referenced in the cable is the “renovation” of Canada’s indigenous Progressive Conservative Party into a Republican-inspired Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) that is largely subservient to the U.S Empire south of the border. Continue reading →

From Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

A group of Niagara, Ontario area citizens working under the banner ‘The Save The Welland Hospital Campaign’ will be hosting a public meeting Sunday, January 11^th on exactly that subject – save what is left of the Welland Hospital.

Future of Welland hospital and accessible acute care hospital services for south Niagara resiidents hang in balance.

This public meeting, described by the group as an “information meeting to update the public on the work and exciting activities and events developed by our five committees,” will begin at 2 p.m. in the community room of Welland City Hall on East Main Street in that same city, and for anyone in Welland or any other south Niagara municipality, from Wainfleet and Port Colborne, to Fort Erie and southern reaches of Niagara Falls, it would be a good idea to attend this meeting and to get more engaged in the debate over where hospital services in the region’s southern tier should go over the next 50 or more years. Continue reading →

News from the Office of Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster

Welland, Ontario – Cindy Forster, MPP is encouraging local schools and community and volunteer organizations to identify nominees for the Leading Women Leading Girls Building Communities Recognition Program now underway.

Niagara, Ontario’s Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster

This would include West St. Catharines, Thorold, Welland, Wainfleet, Port Colborne and everything in between. Nominations must be in by January 16, 2015.

Do you know of a woman or girl who is making a difference in your community?

Since the program was introduced in 2006, more than 650 women and girls across Ontario have been recognized for their leadership qualities. 

Forster said “I am honoured to have the opportunity to recognize women across the Welland riding who are dedicated to community service and inspiring others.” Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore

The CBC, and particularly CBC Radio, is easily Canada’s most important cultural and public interest institution.

Click on the image to enlarge andread all text.

I say this not so much as someone who worked at the Corporation during the glory days of the 1970s and ’80s but, like so many other people, a kid who was brought up in a home that was always watching and listening to the CBC.

Residing in a small village in Nova Scotia, we greatly appreciated the voices and images, ranging from Clyde Gilmour’s 40-year run of Gilmour’s Albums  on radio to the hard-nosed journalism of Norman DePoe on TV.
But after decades of serving and educating Canadians, Stephen Harper’s vicious cuts have brought the organization to its knees. Continue reading →

News from the St. Catharines & District Council of Women 

Just a few thoughts from Niagara At Large to begin here.

A monument in the Canada’s capital of Ottawa to abused and murdered women.

How tragic and totally reprehensible it is that we still have to have public meetings focusing on male brutes beating up and, in all too many cases, killing girls and women in this Canada we like to think is civil and civilized when it comes to such crimes. But apparently we do.

Unfortunately, and however much Canada’s supreme leader Stephen Harper tries shovelling Canadians this slp that his Tory government is tough on crime, that doesn’t apply as much to crimes committed against women – most particularly aboriginal women – but all women, including any and all women living in your neighbhourhod, and possibly even women in your own circle of relatives and friends. Continue reading →

A Brief Note from Doug Draper

Here is wishing to all of our readers and everyone else who has visited and supported Niagara At Large as a truly independent online news and commentary site a warm and peaceful time during this Holiday Season, and peace in the New Year.

Winter in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, File photo by Doug Draper

The Holiday Season can be a happy, magical time for many of us. But please remember it can be a lonely and sad time for people too, for any one or more reasons that have to to do with everything from the loss of a loved one to worry over where the next money will come for essentials like food and home heating.

In the spirit of the season, let’s all do our best to reach out to those in need.

I also cannot help but send out a reminder to shop local – that means spending your dollars in locally owned, independent stores whenever you can – and to do what you can to support public transit, and to protect and preserve the natural resources on this only planet in the universe we have to sustain our lives and those of all other creatures, big and small.

NAL will remain in a relatively dormant state during the holiday season and will get back to our mission, in a full, spirited way this coming January.

(NAL invites you to share your vews on this post in the comment area below. Remember that we only post comments by readers who share their real first and last name.)

By Doug Draper

 She was, first and foremost, a warm, passionate human being – a person whose down-to-earth humility belied the many tributes and awards she received around the world for her groundbreaking work in the field environmental health and science.

Internationally renown environmental scientest Theo Colborn

The last thing I think I remember Theo Colborn wanting to be compared to was Rachel Carson, author of one of the groundbreaking environmental books of the last century, Silent Spring.

Yet Theo Colborn, an American scientist who left this earth and all of the life on it she cared so much for in her late 80s this December, 2014, fell into the same rarified circle as Rachel Carson (as was acknowledged by other esteemed groups in her own country who awarded her Rachel Carson medals).

Theo Colborn was that brave scientists whose research lifted Carson’s warnings about synthetic chemicals assaulting our health and environment to a more urgent level. Colborn’s warnings of the research she outlined in her own groundbreaking book ‘Our Stolen Future’ some two decades ago, were that some of the smallest concentrations of pharmaceutical and industrial chemicals (including those we use to spray our lawns, gardens and bugs) flushed into our rivers and lakes will come back to break down our immune systems and to screw up the endocrine systems of fetuses in their womb before they see the light of day. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore,  Canadian freelance writers

With yet another United Nations-hosted climate change conference making very little real progress, a near miracle will be required if countries are to reach a meaningful and binding global agreement on carbon emissions in Paris next December.

The ‘Lima Call for Climate Action’ document, agreed to on Sunday by 194 countries, is not a new “deal” for the climate. It is a 12-month work plan leading to COP21 a year from now.

The major change – a victory for rich countries – expects countries with rising economies, such as China, India and South Africa, to take action on climate change in much the same way rich countries will contribute.
In another setback, developing countries gave up on a 20-year feud that caused considerable animosity between South and North. Rich countries will no longer be expected to carry the burden of cutting carbon emissions in the South with contributions of $10-billion a year to underdeveloped countries. Continue reading →

News from Niagara, Ontario’s Brock University

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – For those of us who already have enough cheap plastic crap from Mall Wart or whatever other big box shopping venue there is, and yet would still like to participate in the Holiday Season by giving something special to others in need, I could not resist posting the info below from Brock University.)

December 19^th, 2014 -Plan Canada’s talking goat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w49QMhKf69s) encourages you to help improve the lives of children in developing countries.

The gift of a goat can help keep a family in need alive.

So when a talking goat tells you to give a charitable gift, do you do it?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/in-the-charity-world-cash-is-the-new-goat/article22130056/

Todd Green, a professor at Brock University’s Goodman School of Business studies ethical gift-giving and what motivates you to give socially meaningful gifts.

His research shows that making the decision to give an ethical gift — whether it be purchasing a goat, supporting an environmentally friendly company or selecting a fair-trade gift — depends on the giver and the recipient and often leads to inconsistent behaviour by consumers.

So for all the last minute shoppers wondering whether to buy a goat, Green will be available for interviews until December 23 to talk about socially responsible gift-giving and the motivations behind giving a meaningful gift this holiday season.

 Visit Plan Canada at https://plancanada.ca/GiftsofHope/products/1-All-gifts/47-Goat/ … for more information on offering a goat as a gift this Holiday Season or any other time of the year.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below.)

A Brief from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Environmentalists on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border have not won many battles in recent years, but this December 17^th, 2014 they won a big one.

On that date, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, his health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker and an expert panel assembled by the state two years ago said no to any plans involving hydraulic fracturing – or what is more commonly called “fracking” for gas in deep layers of shale rock – across their state.

The decision to ban fracking in New York State also has important implications for residents in Ontario given that petro-chemical corporations were interested in using a wastewater plant in Niagara Falls, New York to dump treated chemical effluent from the fracking process to the Niagara River and Lake Ontario (sources of drinking water for millions of Ontario and New York residents), and that Ontario is still in the process of deciding whether fracking should be allowed in rural regions here.

A story on the front page of the December 18^th edition of The Buffalo News quoted Zucker, the state’s health commissioner, summing up the decision this way; “The potential risks are too great,” he said. “They are not even fully known.” Continue reading →

A Brief Update from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Plans to incinerate some of the world’s most infamous toxic waste in Ontario have been snuffed out by the company on the verge of carrying out the operation.

A historic photo of barrels of toxic chemicals to be buried at the Love Canal site before a school and heibhourhoood homes were built around and on top.

The waste in question – collected over decades of cleanup and containment efforts at the Love Canal dumpsite in Niagara Falls, New York – was already being trucked through border crossings in Niagara to an incinerator in the Sarnia, Ontario area when the U.S.-based company that owns and operates it decided to turn the trucks around.

According to a December 16^th CBC report, the company, Clean Harbors of Massachusetts, buried plans to incinerate numerous tonnes of waste laced with dioxin, PCBs, chlorobenzenes and other manmade poisons from the Love Canal site, following protests from people in the Sarnia, Ontario area. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

It is a bit surprising to learn that the name ‘Love Canal’ can still pack a public punch.

A sign posted at the Love Canal site in Niagara Falls, New York more than three decades ago by some of its now long-gone residents.

 As one of the first and very fiew reporters for a Canadian newspaper that was covering the Love Canal when people from that Niagara Falls, New York neighbourhood were still struggling, some 34 years ago, to get away from the chemical buried under and around their homes, the name was synonymous with man-made poisons capable of causing suffering and death.

So much so at the time that then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter wrote two unprecedented national emergency orders to compensate residents for the value of their ravaged homes and no other community at the time in the United States or Canada was willing to accept this waste for treatment and reburial in a co-called “secure landfill site” or for destruction in a high temperature incinerator. In fact, any argument environmentalists made back then for excavating the Love Canal poisons from their grave near the Niagara River and shipping them off to another community for incineration was nixed by U.S. environmental officials. 

‘No other community on this continent,’ and paraphrase fairly here, ‘is going to accept shipments of Love Canal wastes,’ one senior administrator for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation told me at the time. 

Now here we are, all these years later, with reports this December 11^th, 2014 in the Sarnia Oberver and CBC Radio on wastes from the Love Canal area – wastes that include the likes of mirex, PCBs, chorobenzenes and the most toxic strain of a Vietnam War-era poison used in Agent Orange – being trucked off to the Sarnia, Ontario area for apparent safe diestruction in an incinerator operated by a company called Clean Harbours hazardos wastes there. Continue reading →

Latin Americans Pay The Price For aCorporate Climate Destruction

By Nick Fillmore

December 11^th, 2014 – Information contained in a new report that details how multi-national corporations are destroying the environment and causing serious climate damage in Latin America brings attention to an important area not being discussed at the UN COP 20 climate negotiations being held in Peru.

A damagine mix of droughts and coastal flooding is ever more in the forecast for Latin American countries as climate change becomes the rule of our times

The report describes in detail how the destruction caused by three European multi-national corporations is typical of the damage caused by multi-nationals throughout the continent.

While the climate discussions in Lima are focussing on what nation states need to do to reach a binding climate agreement a year from now, what is missing is a discussion about how corporations are not held accountable for the climate damage they cause in developing countries – damage that those countries are held accountable for. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Niagara, Ontario, December 11^th, 2014 – Niagara’s regional council has a new chair.

Niagara, Ontario’s regional government headquarters

 Al Caslin, a one-term regional councillor for St. Catharines and long-time business leader in the community, swept a four-way race for the Region’s top political job in the first and only round of ballots cast by 30 regional councillors from across Niagara. 

Caslin replaces Gary Burroughs, a former lord mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake who has served as chair for the past four years and who will continue to hold a seat for his town on regional council for the coming four years. Caslin beat Burroughs by a vote of 18 votes to seven.

The other two candidates for regional chair – Lincoln regional councillor Bill Hodgson and Thorold regional chair Henry D’Angela – drew three votes and two votes respectively. Continue reading →

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

Due to family issues we are continuing to deal with following the death of my father earlier this November, Niagara At Large will remain slow until early December.

The wake from a ferry boat on Cape Cod Bay, File photo by Doug Draper

We have few other options but to beg your patience as we choose the proper time in the near future to ramp up Niagara At Large as a vital, alternative news and commentary voice in a Greater Niagara Region that embraces all of Niagara, Ontario and our cross-border neighbhours in Buffalo/Erie and Niagara Counties, New York. 

Forced with a decision to ramp down at this time, I am well aware that this could mean death for the future of this site since, the way it goes in this highly competitive online reality, you have to keep feeding the beast (or piling the posts on) or web surfers will simply go somewhere else. And everything you have worked for in the past to build up a readership or visitors to your site is done. 

Yes, I am well aware of that and if this is the end of NAL, then so be it. At least I can say I gave it a try. 

And I am sure of this. If this Niagara area online news site goes down, another will most certainly come along to fill the void left by mainstream media, owned and operated by corporate outsiders, who have been doing such a crappy job of covering local news on the Niagara, Ontario side of the border. (I leave the Buffalo News, Art Voice and other Buffalo area publications out of this criticism because they, in my estimation anyway, are still at least trying to offer their communities meaningful news and commentary.)

So there we are. I can only ask you now to stand by while Niagara At Large gets through this valley and prepares to climb the next mountain.

Thank You, Doug Draper 

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views below.)

A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper –

Few contemporary Canadian writers and filmmakers I know – and I am pleased to say I know this one  – have spent more time documenting issues impacting on the people and environment of Canada’s far north than Kevin McMahon.

Filming the Arctic Project for TVO

Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, has bee up there in recent years for photo opportunities and looking for oil-drilling opportunities as the Arctic’s ice shield melts, but Kevin began going there in the 1980s,chronicling the plight of the peoples of that region around environmental impacts they were already suffering in documentary films and in a book called ‘Arctic Twilight’.

Now Kevin, who was a reporter at the old Burgoyne family-owned St. Catharines Standard when we worked there together back some three decades ago, has employed all of the passion and intelligence I know he does to help put together this coming Polar Sea Project series to be aired on TVO. Please watch it, and now here is a note from Kevin, along with key links for this production and related others.

Hello Friends and Associates

I am writing because you advised us with, worked on or may be interested in our Polar Sea project, which was three years in the making and now is about to launch. I want to let you know what we have created and where it can be seen. Continue reading →

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“ENOUGH ALREADY’ reads the headline on the front page of the Friday, November 21^st edition of The Buffalo News.

The skyline of Buffalo, New York, looming above Lake Erie – the source of what can sometimes be pretty wild lake-effect storms

The headlined hovered over a half-page photo of a neighbourhood of people trying to cut paths for themselves and their cars through piles of snow mounded almost twice as high as their shoulder lines.

Buffalo has almost too unfortunately been known to the rest of the continent as a city of brutal winters, rusting industrial sites from the last century and an NFL football team that continually frustrates its most devoted fans.

That caricature of this all-American “city of good neighbours” is abundantly unfair for anyone who has taken the time to explore it for the classic architecture of its buildings, its scenic parks and boulevards, the richness of its museums and art venues, its verdant rows of trees and one of North America’s biggest and best garden walks featured each last weekend of July. 

Yet here we are, with Buffalo making international news for a monster storm that has dumped more snow on the city and its surrounding communities in a few days during this third week of November 2014 than normally falls in Western New York all winter – and winter doesn’t officially begin this year for another four weeks! Continue reading →

News from the Shaw Festival in Niagara, Ontario

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, November 2014 – The annual Shaw Festival Film Series, one of the most highly anticipated winter social events in Niagara-on-the-Lake, begins screening the best of Canadian and international feature films and documentaries on Saturday, December 6 at 3 p.m. in the Festival Theatre. The 10^th year of the Shaw Festival Film Series kicks off with director Matthew Warchus’s hilarious and inspirational comedy-drama Pride. The Film Series continues until February 21, 2015.

The critically acclaimed movie Pride kicks off Shaw Festival’s winter film series

On Friday, January 2, 2015 at 6 p.m., the Festival Film Series five-film documentary series begins with the fast-paced and absorbing Tim’s Vermeer. Written by comedy magic duo Penn and Teller and directed by Teller, the film follows inventor Tim Jenison as he tries to discover how Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (Girl with a Pearl Earring) painted so photo-realistically – 150 years before the invention of photography.

Back by popular demand, Gathering Niagara’s Lunchmarket at the Shaw Festival returns for its third year! A great way to complement the Film Series experience — grab a bite to eat from food trucks and local vendors before the Saturday afternoon screenings (doors open at 1:30 p.m.) or experience a pre-or post-show meal at the many Signature Kitchen restaurants in the historic town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Continue reading →

By Dr. Anne Bell, Director of Conservation and Education, Ontario Nature

(Niagara At Large is posting this article at Ontario Nature’s invitation.) 

The Earth has lost more than half of its wildlife in the past 40 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund’s 2014 Living Planet Report. Released in September, the grim reality it describes is a daily event that shows no signs of abating.

Blanding’s turtle. Photo from_Joe Crowley and Ontario Nature

Life’s rich tapestry is unravelling at a speed and on a scale never seen before. While wildlife losses are most severe in developing countries, it is the richer nations that are driving the destruction globally – we are “outsourcing” wildlife decline through our excessive consumption of resources extracted elsewhere. And we are causing similar devastation at home.

What does this catastrophic loss of life look like in Ontario? There are more than 200 species known to be “at risk” in the province, and that number increases every year. A candidate that will soon be considered for at risk listing is the American bumblebee, once the most common bumble bee in eastern North America but now in steep decline. Continue reading →

News from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government

Niagara Region, Nov. 20, 2014 – Free quit smoking patches are available to Niagara residents for a limited time. The Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients (STOP) Program offers eligible participants in Niagara five weeks of cost-free nicotine replacement therapy and smoking cessation information to help them in their quit attempt.

What: Free patches for adults in Niagara to quit smoking

Where: Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients workshop will be held in Welland, Niagara Falls and St. Catharines Continue reading →

By Pamela Minns for Niagara At Large

It has always been my belief that heritage preservation has to start at the top ….. That is, with support from all levels of government. That is where it started in Ontario, with the passing of the Ontario Heritage Act in 1974.

The long-lasting and maybe gone expermental farm outside of Ottawa, Canada.

And  where are we today, after 40 years ?

I just received from Heritage Canada National Trust, a respected and important organization, a communication in connection with the matter of one of our National Historic Sites in Canada – it is the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, established in 1886. Continue reading →

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.)