Niagara At Large

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 →

A Brief by Doug Draper

In the 2010 documentary film ‘Joan Rivers; A Piece Of Work’, Joan Rivers is seen in the first few minutes of the film looking over her schedule books, at one that is full of dates for a lady then in her mid-70s and saying; “that’s happiness.”

Joan Rivers

Then Rivers, who died this September at age 81, was featured in the same film pointing to a seclude book with dates that were blank.

“I’ll show you fear,” Rivers said as she pointed at those blank pages. “That is fear. If my book ever looked like this, it would mean that nobody wants me, that everything I tried to do in life didn’t work, that nobody cares. I would be totally forgotten.”

If you have never seen the film Joan Rivers; A Piece Of Work, which I saw for the first time at the Amherst Theatre in the Buffalo, New York area at the time it was released (it would never had made the screen in most of the crummy commercial theatres here in Niagara, Ontario) it shows a side of this lady, who some loved and some hated for her brand of comedy) that showed the sad side of the clown. Continue reading →

News from Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey

Port Colborne, Ontario – September, 2014 – Mayor Vance Badawey announced this past September 4^th that he will not be seeking a fifth term as Mayor of the City of Port Colborne.

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badeway now seeking a Nagara regional council seat

However, Badawey will run for the city’s seat on Regional Council.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed my 17 years on City Council – 14 of which as Mayor/Regional Councillor. Our team has accomplished a great deal throughout this time,” stated Badawey. 

I sincerely appreciate the support we have received throughout my tenure. I would like to extend special attention and appreciation to those that have dedicated their time, through many capacities, to ensuring that the City of Port Colborne continues to be a community that offers the perfect balance between business and lifestyle.” 

“However, we are not done yet. After alot of thought and with the many leadership responsibilities I have assumed at the region, I have decided to accelerate that pace by dedicating my time to ensuring these projects move forward in the best interests of the City of Port Colborne and the Region of Niagara,” stated Badawey. Continue reading →

News from CATCH, an acronym for the Hamilton, Ontario-based watchdog group, Citizens at City Hall

(A Brief Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – It makes me damn sick and angry to write this. But after all the almost four and a half decades since the first Earth Day, with some of the most respected scientists, medical experts, ecologists and urban planners on this North American continent warning of the toll that spiraling use of carbon burning cars will have on our health and the health of the planet – not to mention the budgets of our towns and cities – we keep clogging up our roads with more cars.

That is why I am posting this piece by CATCH. It must be read and although it focuses on the Hamilton, Ontario slice of this problem, Niagara is right there in the data of the study produced by University of Toronto researches and cited here. As much as many of our Niagara municipal politicians have paid lip service to smarter growth in recent years, they continue to approve car-dependent, low-density suburbs and malls, etc. out into the corn and soy bean fields of this region. At the same time, they still do not have the vision to build a truly regional, affordable and accessible public transit system in this region. All we have so far is this embryotic and token “pilot” inter-municipal transit system that was almost designed to be a recipe for failure.

We have municipal elections happening in Niagara this October. Make sure you vote for those who will serve on our councillors as progressive, smarter growth, transit-friendly visionaries for the future.

Now here is the post from CATCH.) Continue reading →

A Brief by Doug Draper

In the lead-up to the U.S. Bush/Cheney administration’s 3003 invasion of Iraq, it is important to remember that there were some high-profile political voices in the United States that predicted the murderous mess still infesting that hapless region of the world today.

Ted Kennedy leaves his Hyannis, Massachusetts home for last time in late August, 2009. Photo by Doug Draper

One of those voices was the senior U.S. senator from Massachusetts Ted Kennedy, who died following a courageous battle against brain cancer five years ago this past August 25^th. 

In his memoir True Compass, completed in his final days and published a month (five years ago this September) after his death, Kennedy recalled his reasons for opposing the Bush/Cheney invasion of Iraq; “The administration had told ‘lie after lie after lie’ to per trigger and perpetuate ‘one of the worst blunders in the history of U.S. foreign policy’. The war failed the ‘last resort’ principles for reasons too obvious to dwell on here. … Continue reading →

From Doug Draper, publisher, Niagara At Large 

They’re not just barking when they call them the dog days of summer.

Even when there are things going on – and there certainly have been a lot of serious and disturbing things going on here and around the world this month – August has always been a time of year when people would rather enjoy the last few weeks of summer on the beach or flipping burgers on a barbecue than paying very much attention to the news.

In the 35 some years I’ve worked as a journalist, there has always been an unspoken rule among many of my newsroom colleagues (and one I happen to agree with) that you don’t choose August to come out with a story or commentary you hope will have an impact on discussion and decision making in the community because too few people will be around to read it. And the number of people who temporarily cancelled their newspapers in August because they were going away on vacation provided pretty clear evidence that the rule made sense. Continue reading →

A Brief by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

One of the first two books I read in my life that woke me up to the ugly reality of racial hatred in the United States of America were Black Like Me and To Kill A Mockingbird.

Bull Conner’s cops and dogs go after black people fighting for equal rights in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963

One would think that there has been some progress in racial relations in America since those two seminal books were published n the early 1960s, and that seemed be the case when America elected it’s first black president – Barack Obama – more than six years ago. 

Yet what you continue to watch is ignorant old white people, mostly uneducated and mostly from the Midwest and south of that country, and creeps like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, who embolden them with their hateful rhetoric – gathering at Tea Party rallies and screaming the line; “We want our country back!, which is code, of course, for we don’t want a black guy (notice I am trying to avoide their more popular “N” word – in our White House.

If we need any more proof that things still have a long way to go in race relations in the U.S. (and Canada, for that matter) check out the news around a young black man in Ferguson, Missouri earlier this August, 2014. Regardless of what he did in a convenience store around any shoplifting there, he was shot to death by a cop in that town, while unarmed, and left there like road food for the crows for several hours after. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

One might imagine Canada’s Tar Sands prime minister Stephen Harper wanting to ring their necks.

Willie Nelson and Neil Young workng together against Canada’s tar sands poison pipe

Put another way, I doubt we’ll be facing the spectacle of tone-deaf Harper sitting down in front of a piano any time soon and butchering songs by Neil Young and Willie Nelson the way he has butchered song by The Beatles. Fortunately, Neil and Willie are lining up for a place on a Stephen Harper shit list that will spare them that indignity.

This is all to say that I can’t take a little break from Niagara At Large this late August without posting a high five to two of my favourite rebel troubadours for getting together and doing a concert on farmland in the U.S. state of Nebraska this coming September to raise funds to fight a Keystone pipeline that would carry tar sands shit from northern Alberta down to refineries along the American Gulf Coast. Continue reading →

 News from the Office of Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

 August 21^st, 2014 -Québec Premier Philippe Couillard and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne met today and announced their commitment to reinvigorate and strengthen the relationship between the two provinces in order to reinforce regional partnership in central Canada.

Ontario, Canada’s Queen Park’s legislature

“Ontario and Québec share a long-lasting history of collaboration, which has led to great achievements in the past. Both provinces are committed to work more closely together and to revitalize the strategic relationship we have had for many years, since we share many common interests and priorities,” said Québec Premier, Philippe Couillard.

The two provinces form the largest economic region of Canada, with 20 million Canadians. Together, Québec and Ontario are responsible for approximately 56 per cent of Canada’s total GDP and 53 per cent of inter-provincial exports. Continue reading →

News from Dave Thomas, co-chair of the Niagara, Ontario chapter of the Canadian Cuban Friendship Associaion

Sunday, August 24^th, 2 to 6 p.m. . the Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association (CCFA) Niagara, will hold “A TASTE OF CUBA” a special social afternoon of Food (pig roast), Canadian and Cuban Music and Dancing.

St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan and Cuban Ambassador Garmendía Peña at a previous annual Taste of Cuba gathering

 Honoured guests will be Cuba’s Ambassador to Canada, His Excellency, Julio Garmendía Peña, Consul General Mr. Javier Dómokos Ruiz, other embassy staff and their families.

All local political leaders have been invitoed to come out and meet Ambassador Garmendia Pena and Mr Domokos Ruiz in a friendly get-to-know-you social atmosphere. The general public is also invited to attend to show local hospitality to a country whose people warmly gree more than one million Canadians each year. Continue reading →

News from the Alliance for the Great Lakes, a coalition of citizen groups on the American side of our Great Lakes

On Tuesday, August 26^th at 7:00 pm, the Alliance for the Great Lakes will host a panel discussion focusing on plastic pollution and the Great Lakes at the Lake Erie Seaway Trail Center at 4968 Lake Shore Rd, Hamburg, NY in conjunction with the Plastic Waters: from the Great Lakes to the Oceans exhibit.

 Marcus Eriksen along the Lake Erie shores in the Cleveland Ohio area, holding plastic polluting‘nurdles’ in his hand. He is currently holdng a plastic waters exhibit in the Buffalo, New York area. Photo by Hyle White, for the Great Lakes alliance.

The panel discussion will address the impacts of plastic debris found in the Great Lakes and potential solutions to this problem. Speakers will include: 

Dr. Sherri Mason, Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences Program Coordinator at the State University of New York at Fredonia, whose ground-breaking research initially brought attention to the issue of micro-plastics in the lakes.

 Brian Smith, Associate Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, has been actively in engaged in the proposed legislation to protect New York’s Great Lakes’ waters from plastic microbeads found in personal care products. Continue reading →

News from the Toronto-based citizen group, the Ontario Clean Air Alliance

Later this month, Canada’s premiers will be meeting in Charlottetown, PEI to discuss energy issues . This is a great opportunity for the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec to put their heads together and strike an electricity trade deal that can have big benefits for both provinces.

By importing low-cost Quebec water power, Ontario can save more than $600 million per year – or $12 billion over 20 years. By exporting power to Ontario, Quebec can increase its annual export revenues by more than $600 million. That’s serious coin that can be spent on schools and hospitals or deficit reduction in Quebec, and big money that can be saved by Ontario electricity ratepayers and businesses. Plus, Ontario avoids piling up another mountain of nuclear debt on its already sagging bottom line. Continue reading →