Niagara At Large

A Niagara At Large News Brief from Doug Draper 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thorold, Ontario, January 17, 2014

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

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

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

Welland MPP Cindy Forster issues statement about Georgia Pacific plant idling 

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

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

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

A Brief Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

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

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

A Brief Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

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

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

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

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

A Note to Readers and Supporters from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

A Brief Foreword by Doug Draper 

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

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

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

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper 

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

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

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

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

–    But Only On The United States Side Of The Border

A Foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

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

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

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

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

By Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By John Bacher

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Niagara At Large News Brief 

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

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

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

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

From Niagara, Ontario’s regional government

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

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

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

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

A Brief from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

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

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

 And this time it is sad news. 

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

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

By Mark Taliano 

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

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

By Nick Fillmore

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

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

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

From Niagara, Ontario’s regional government

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

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

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

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

By NAL publisher Doug Draper

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

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

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

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

By Karl Dockstader

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

Photo courtesy of Phil Davis

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

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

A Brief News Commentary by Doug Draper 

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

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

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

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

By Gary Screaton Page

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

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

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

A News Brief by Doug Draper 

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

Niagara historian Esther Summers

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

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

By Chris Wojnarowski

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

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

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

SHAME

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

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

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

By Nick Fillmore

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

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

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

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

A Brief Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

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

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

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

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

By Mark Taliano

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

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

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

A Brief by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

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

Former Niagara, Ontaro MPP Frank Sheehan

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

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

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

From the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Comment by Will MacKenzie

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

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

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

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

By Doug Draper

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

Niagara, Ontario’s regional headquarters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Will MacKenzie 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Mark Taliano 

In March of 2007, Gildan Activewear Inc., a Montreal-based textile manufacturer, decided to leave Canada for sunnier climes.

Workers that make goods for us rally for waged that might keep their families out of the starvation zone – all so that we can get a a t-shirt for less than five bucks. Who is being suckered more = them or us?

The company laid off  hundreds of Canadian workers, and resettled where business was good:  Honduras.  “Free Trade” legislation facilitated the exodus from Canada, and powerful psychological operations (psy ops) strategies reassured people at home and abroad.  Corporations and their government subsidiaries repeated messaging about “competitiveness and efficiencies” in Canada while Hondurans were promised economic revitalisation and jobs. The end result? Canada lost jobs, and Honduras’ asymmetrical, toxic economy, was further entrenched.   

Honduran sweatshop workers are basically slaves, and their status will likely remain unchanged, or get worse.  Since the 2009 military coup — which removed the democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya, the illegal regime dismantled or corrupted institutions that might be of benefit to humans (including constitutional judges), and it created a heavily militarized and murderous environment. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore 

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – This is the second in a series of reports on the big banks in Canada and how they could impact or future as individual citizens and as a country from one of Canada’s best investigative journalists Nick Fillmore. NAL encourages who to also visit his site at nickfillmore.blogspot.com , but not before reading this story here and sharing your comment at the end of it.)

Giant banks are the most powerful institutions in in the world – in many ways as powerful economically and politically as the biggest governments. Unfortunately, the banks frequently use their power in ways that damage the economy and hurt folks living around the world.

Two prominent research projects carried out in recent years paint a picture of a ruthless banking and financial sector powerful enough to dictate the nature of key parts of the world’s economy and challenge the strongest politicians.

Research carried out by three Swiss economists reveals the links and structure the giant financial institutions dominate and use to their advantage. Continue reading →

By Gary Screaton Page

Now, let me see. Do I have this right?

Canada Post is saying it is losing money. Therefore, they have decided to reduce service and increase cost to consumers. What other business works with this logic driving the enterprise? Surely, increasing service, and decreasing cost to consumers is a better option.

Dr. Gary Screaton Page

I remember when I first moved into a house where a trip to the local post office replaced home delivery. Being in a small town, the local post office is where I often met with neighbours and chatted. That works in a small town. However, when I moved to a house where there was a collection box down the street, I met fewer neighbours and in the winter certainly didn’t stop to talk. The handicapped neighbour needed someone to get the mail in the winter as getting to the mailbox was impossible as snow removing often came a day or two after a heavy fall of snow. Continue reading →

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford hands out candy canes to children at a Santa Claus parade in the city. There were apparently a few boos, but most Torontians still love him for his crusade to cut their taxes, etc.

A Commentary by Doug Draper

I scratch my head when I receive notes from others that they don’t care if Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smokes crack or does serial drunken stupors, just so long as he cuts taxes and spending. 

It doesn’t apparently matter to these folks if he crosses paths with drug and gun-running gangs and places himself in the position of being extorted by them at the expense of a police department assigned to snuff out these gangs, just so long as he lowers taxes and guts spending for libraries, recreational parks, and so on. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Whenever I happen to be in the driveway or front yard of our home and the Canada Post mail carrier arrives, I jokingly say to them; ‘If all you have are bills or junk advertising, never mind our mail box. Here is the garbage container right over here.” 

They almost always chuckle and respond that they know what I mean, but they have to deliver all-means-of crap other parties – wanted or unwanted  addresses to our door anyway. 

That is just my way of saying that a little more than some Niagara and Canadian residents at large may welcome the news from Canada Post this December 11^th, 2013 that home to home deliver of mail to urban areas will be phased out in favour of ‘community postal boxes’ and that the price of stamps will rise significantly, but what do you think?  Continue reading →

A News Release from the Niagara Health System 

Tuesday, December 10^th, 2013 – Niagara Health System is today announcing that Dr. Sue Matthews, Interim President and CEO, has submitted her resignation in order to pursue a new opportunity abroad. Effective February 17, 2014, Dr. Matthews is assuming the position of CEO at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, the country’s largest hospital dedicated to women and babies health.

Outgoing Niagara Health System CEO Sue Matthews

 “We are very pleased for Sue, but are also saddened to see her go,” said Barry Wright, Niagara Health System’s incoming Chair of the Board. “Sue left her mark on our hospitals, and will be remembered for her strong leadership and dedication to the people who make up our incredible healthcare team. We owe her a great deal of thanks.”

Dr. Kevin Smith, NHS Supervisor, expressed profound gratitude for Dr. Matthews’  leadership during his time with the NHS. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore

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

Introduction: The world banking system could come crashing down around our heads again – even worse than in 2008. Many of the giant banks are carrying on the same overly risky and even illegal activities that led to the earlier crisis. In this article, investigative journalist Nick Fillmore writes about the health of the Canadian financial sector. 

By Nick Fillmore

Could the Canadian bank towers looming over us come tumbling down on us?

The public is almost entirely unaware that our banking system, with just a couple of wrong moves or some bad luck, could go into a tailspin at any time. And when the next serious setback occurs, we could end up suffering even more than in 2008-2010. There is no need for panic, but government regulators allow our entire financial system to operate dangerously on the edge. Continue reading →

A Submission from Shaw Festival

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario,  December 9th, 2013 — Christmas merriment abounds at the Shaw Festival. This weekend’s visit to Niagara-on-the-Lake by jolly old St. Nick kicks off The Shaw’s seasonal activities.

The Shaw continues its traditional commitment to the annual Niagara-on-the-Lake Santa Claus Parade on Saturday, December 14, 2013. Festively bedecked and ready to bring joy and smiles to those lining the parade route, the Shaw Festival’s float will make its way through Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Old Town beginning at 11 a.m. 

Hailed as one of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s finest holiday traditions, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol will once again feature members of The Shaw Acting Ensemble. The annual dramatic reading with musical accompaniment takes place at St. Mark’s Anglican Church (41 Byron Street) on December 22 at 3 p.m. Proceeds benefit Bethlehem Housing and Support Services. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper 

As a former employee of the once-proud St. Catharines Standard – one that quit the newspaper 15 years ago rather than go on being subjected to any more abuse from its ongoing rotation of corporate masters – it gives me no pleasure to report that this paper’s latest master, Sun Media, is now cutting more jobs from it and the neighbouring Niagara Falls Review, if not the already gutted-down-to-almost-nothing Welland Tribune.

One of the oldest pieces of the now dead St. Catharines Standard newspaper building in that Niagara, Ontario city’s downtown. Gone with the greed of the corporations that took over the paper, once might say. Photo by former Standard reporter Doug Draper

What an assault it is on the right people should have in this region to decent daily newspapers, to have these papers eaten alive by corporations and their shareholders, with no direct stake in the welfare of the communities in this region other than sucking advertising revenue out of them.

How sad it is that people aren’t out on the streets protesting the gutting of these community papers which should, at the best time times, be watchdogs for them on the powers-that-be. There seems little appreciation left that the first thing Nazi-like dictators do is gut a free press because they don’t want it around keeping an eye on them. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano 

Resource-rich Honduras, once considered the “bread basket of Central America”, is now a failed state.

Bertha Isabel Caceres Flores Ienca, an indigenous leader in Hornduras is on the presiding govenment’s number one ‘kill list’. Photo courtesy of Mark Taliano.

More than half of the population lives in poverty, and the country boasts the world’s highest murder rate.  The title “Murder Capital of the World” is well earned, especially since impunity for murder is the rule rather than the exception. 

In 1989, local farmers supplied 90 per cent of its food requirements, with 20,000 farmers making their living through the production of rice. Now, there are 1,300 rice farmers,  and the best land is inaccessible. 

Thanks to the World Bank and IMF loans —- bundled with destructive neoliberal economic policies — the best farmland now supports lucrative monoculture plantations of African Palm, harvested to serve global demand for its oil.  The local economy, however, is asymmetrical, so most Hondurans do not benefit from agri-business profits. Instead, sustainable farming operations, unable to compete, are destroyed, the economy suffers, and poverty rates skyrocket. 

Of all the Central American countries, Honduras is most open to free trade; it is also one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere. And the current plight of Honduras is for the most part by design. Continue reading →

A Brief from Niagara At Large

Below are statements from Ontario’s premier and the leaders of the opposition provincial parties upon hearing of the death of Nelson Mandela

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Mandela’s life will continue to serve as a beacon for change.

Nelson Mandela

“There are few people who have done more to inspire the world than Nelson Mandela, and I am deeply saddened to learn of his death,” Wynne said in a statement.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Mandela’s life will continue to serve as a beacon for change.

“There are few people who have done more to inspire the world than Nelson Mandela, and I am deeply saddened to learn of his death,” Wynne said in a statement. Continue reading →

A Comment by Doug Draper 

One of my last heroes in North American politics – Bobby Kennedy – was one of the first white leaders of any stature to show the courage t go to South Africa and decry the plague of apartheid that Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail fighting  against.

Bobby Kennedy, driving for progressive politics shortly before he was gunned down in June, 1968

Bobby Kennedy, then a U.S. senator for New York, spoke at the Cape Town University in June of 1966, almost three years after his brother, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and two years before he was assassinated running for president. And the following lines from his speech in Cape Town, South Africa are immortalized for all time.

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped,” said Kennedy. “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large Brief By Doug Draper

“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter. … But I can rest only for a moment, for with this freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”

Nelson Mandela

These were among the final words from Nelson Mandela’s moving autobiography ‘ Long Walk To Freedom’. 

Unfortunately, Nelson Mandela’s long walk ended this December 5^th at age 95.

Along with the likes of Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi and a very few others over the past 100 years, he was one of the greatest  beacons of light for peace and freedom in our time. Continue reading →

A Dispatch home from the Atlantic shores by Doug Draper

Cape Cod, Massachusetts – After being so immersed in the madness of what is going on in politics in our dear old Canada over the last many months, it was time for an escape to my home away from home on Cape Cod.

This sign graced the front door of a very popular shop on Cape Cod as this dispatch was posted, proving , once again, that you can run but you could not hide from the madness of Rob Ford. Photo courtesy of Claudia Farber.

So Mary and I packed our suitcases and my guitar and headed off to the Old Sea Pines Inn on Cape to join our annual gathering of friends for American Thanksgiving. We passed Rochester, Syracuse, Utica and Albany New York, and finally crossed the border in to Massachusetts and I’m thinking; ‘Well thank God. That’s it for a week. No more crap about the Canadian senate or the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on the cancellation of plans to build gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga, or the Rob and Doug Ford clown show in Toronto ’ Continue reading →

This post courtesy of the Niagara, Ontario-based activist group Marineland Animal Defense, also known as M.A.D.

NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO – The Ministry of the Environment has now issued the captive animal facility Marineland Canada in Niagara Falls, ON, permits to continue burials on site at the facility.

Another demonstration in front of the Marineland amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Photo courtesy of Marineland Animal Defense

 The announcement comes almost one year since the Ministry of the Environment was alerted that the park had been burying animals on site without permits. An investigation ensued and Marineland Canada was ordered to stop burials, until a full investigation and report of the environmental impacts could be made. 

The burials will now continue with a legal permit and a 35 point conditional list that Marineland must meet. 

In response to the new permits Marineland Canada claimed that their on site burials allows captive animals to “return to the natural ecosystem of the park.” It is absurd to claim that wild caught dolphins, Orcas and belugas – from Iceland, Russia and beyond – are part of a local ecosytem, or that any part of this process is in any way “natural.” Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The fight for freedom in Honduras, where many citizens feel caged and shackled, is an uneven contest between the haves and the have-nots.

Tear gas in the streets of Honduras during this November’s elections there.

The despotic National party is allied with the usual suspects:  military, police, private security, paramilitary police, corporations, rich oligarchies … and paid assassins.

The United States, an ally of the transnational corporations that are pillaging this country,  has six military bases of occupation, as well as a network of destabilizing influences: a constellation of intersecting trajectories that  support the dictatorship of Juan Orlando  Hernandez, a consequence of the illegal 2009 military coup that overthrew the democratic government of Manuel Zelaya. Continue reading →

By John Nicol

(A brief foreword by Doug Draper – I only recently came across this story about the death of former St. Catharines Standard publisher Henry Burgoyne and the once great independent newspaper he and his family owned and operated in this Niagara region.

It was nice to read a few kind words about my years as an environment reporter at the Standard, but even sadder to be reminded of what we once had and have lost since corporate chains assumed ownership of the newspaper and virtually gutted the will and resources  it once had to deliver in-depth reporting and analysis on a wide range of issues of interest and concern to the people of this region.

With the permission of the Toronto-based Canadian Journalism Project, a foundation dedicated to advancing the cause of good journalism which originally posted this story on its website on March 1, 2011, I am posting it here for the first time as a reminder of what we once had and what we, as a community, have to work together to get back in terms of locally based, independent media organizations with the will and resources to play a watchdog role on the powers that be here, without fear or favour.)

St. Catharines Standard publisher Henry Burgoyne at the helm of the newspaper during some good years.

Henry Bartlett Burgoyne, the last of the family-owned daily newspaper publishers in Ontario, died Feb. 7 (2011) of cancer. He was 61.

Murray Thomson, his long-time managing editor at The Standard in St. Catharines, said the recipe Burgoyne developed for running a newspaper is one all journalists, in all countries, should aspire to.

“When he gave me the job in 1980, he said there would be a fence around the newsroom,” said Thomson, now 82. “He didn’t want us to be influenced by advertisers or the powerful.

“There is no school for publishers, but he understood who the reader was, and he wanted us to be as honest with them as possible. It was not so much about making money as serving the community well.” Continue reading →

By Karl Dockstader

(Niagara At Large is pleased too post this commentary from a member of the Native community on the ongoing debate over a limited deer hunt in Niagara, Ontario’s Short Hills Provincial Park.)

Dear Hunters: We don’t want you…

Niagara area residents gather at a meeting hall this past September to debate plans for another deer hunt in Short Hills Provincial Park. Photo by Doug Draper

The message rings loud and clear. A growing contingency of opposition is making a point to be loud and proud of their opposition to the “massacre” of deer in the Shorthills.If you discount the idiots and racists and politicians who could have done something if they didn’t just pile on at the last minute there is a fair argument against the hunt. The deer are our friends. We love them. They have as much of a right to be here as we do. Continue reading →

(A brief update on this post – This November 28th, the governing Liberals and the opposition Conservative Party voted against this bill to cap  CEO salaries in the public sector, defeating it by a wide margin of votes.)

This Release from the Office of Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath

Queen’s Park – New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath introduced a Private Member’s Bill this November 7^th that if passed, would cap the salaries of Ontario’s highest-paid public employees to ensure that scarce public dollars are spent on front line services not lavish paychecks.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath wants to put a lid on Public Sector CEO salaries

“When a public sector CEO takes home more in a year than the average family earns in two decades, people feel like their money isn’t being respected,” Horwath said. “I’m hoping Ontario can move forward with a simple plan: put a hard cap on the salaries of public sector executives at twice the salary of the Premier.”

The new legislation would cap publicly-paid executive salaries at double the salary of Ontario’s Premier. The Premier’s current salary is $209,000. According to the 2012 Sunshine List, over 180 executives made a salary more than two times as high as the Premier, and 25 executives made more than three times the Premier’s salary. Continue reading →

A Brief Reminder from NAL publisher Doug Draper 

This past Wednesday, I visited the Earth House, one of my favourite stores on Cape Cod and picked up a bumper sticker that reads as follows; “We could have saved the earth but we were too damned cheap – Kurt Vonnegut.”

It is a sad thought, projecting into the future, and it should be our pledge as citizens of the world and the communities we live in to make sure that this Kurt Vonnegut line becomes as false as all of those predictions that every computer in the world was going to crash at the dawn of this century.

What can we do as individuals and communities to lighten the load on the ecology of the planet? The answers to that question could easily fill volumes but you may find a few of them at the Eco Fest taking  in Welland, Ontario this coming Saturday, November 30^th. For more details on this event, check out the poster below.

Click on this poster to enlarge it on your screen

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

By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

A fear expressed by many residents living around Niagara, Ontario’s Short Hills Provincial Park that a deer hunt the province has allowed in the park would spill onto their properties has already been realized during the third and fourth days of the hunt.

Robin Zavitz and her daughter Tayler comfort dying deer that MNR officer finally puts out of its misery. Photo by Dan Wilson

According to a number of eyewitnesses, a deer that was wounded in the stomach area by an arrow fired by a native hunter ran onto the Short Hills area property of Craig and Robin Zavitz this November 23th and the hunter, contrary to rules set down by the province, pursued the deer onto the property. 

The hunter retreated back into the park when he was spotted and told to leave by a member of the Zavitz family and the wounded deer, after staggering back to a spot within the park and collapsing, was finally put out of its misery with a gunshot to the head. The gunshot was administered by an officer of an Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources that had assured area residents months ago that the deer hunt – scheduled for November 21^st through 24^th and from November 28^th through December 1 would take place well back from more than 100 homes and farms ringing the park in the Niagara municipalities of Thorold, Pelham and St. Catharines. 

“This is an absolute nightmare,” Robin Zavitz told Niagara At Large just two hours after her family had to chase at least two more hunters off her Pelham property along the southern edge of the park, less than 24 hours after the deer killing incident,  this November 24^th.   .

“The peace and tranquility of our property is gone during this hunt,” she said. “I wore a surveyors (reflective orange-coloured) vest when I went out this morning on my own property and that is crazy.” Continue reading →

From the Office of Tim Hudak

NIAGARA FALLS, November 22^nd, 2013 – Only the Ontario PCs are solidly committed to building the new hospital in Niagara Falls that fits the bill of even the government’s appointed expert, says PC Leader Tim Hudak.

Inside Council Chambers at Niagara Falls City Hall, from left to right are Bart Maves, Ontario PC Candidate – Niagara Falls, Tim Hudak, Ontario PC Leader, Christine Elliott, Ontario PC Deputy Leader & Health Critic, Jim Diodati, Niagara Falls Mayor.

Joining the Leader this November 22^nd at Niagara Falls City Hall is the city’s Mayor Jim Diodati, Ontario PC Deputy Leader and Health Critic Christine Elliott, and local Ontario PC by-election candidate Bart Maves.

 “Our motion in the Legislature this week is for the House to finally commit to the Lyons Creek hospital location in Niagara Falls,” says Hudak. “This is where the hospital needs to be.

 “The debate in the House Monday will clearly show we stand on the side of Niagara residents in getting this hospital built — both now, and at this superior site.

 “The NDP’s position is putting this new hospital in huge jeopardy by selling the unrealistic notion that you can have it all – that you can have a new hospital and still keep the four others. Continue reading →

From the Office of the Ontario New Democratic Party

Queen’s Park –The MPP for Welland, Cindy Forster, announced a motion tabled in the legislature this Thursday, November 21^nd to replace the aging hospital in Niagara Falls with a new one and to protect local Niagara regional hospitals.

The NDP is calling on the Ontario government to ensure that hospitals like this one in the Niagara, Ontario community of Welland are kept open after any possibly new one is built and opened in Niagara Falls. NAL file photo.

 “We are pushing this government to build a new hospital to replace the aging hospital in Niagara Falls but not at the expense of every other hospital in the Niagara region,” Forster said.

“The Liberals and Tim Hudak want the people of Niagara to believe that they need to lose their local hospital to get a new one in Niagara Falls.  We disagree. What we need is to drop their failed privatization plan for building hospitals at sky high rates and use our public dollars wisely to make sure the aging Niagara Falls hospital is replaced with a new one, while healthcare in the region is protected.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It’s back and just as controversial as it was when the first one was permitted last January.

Deer in Short Hills Provincial Park. Photo courtesy of Dan Wilson

 The first day of the latest aboriginal deer hunt in Short Hills Provincial Park in Niagara, Ontario took place this November 21 and will continue through the dates of November 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th, and again for another four day stretch running November 28^th through December 1^st, with animal advocacy groups and other residents vowing to stage protests around the perimeter of the park.

The decision by the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Ontario Parks to permit these hunts, which allow native hunters to use a bow and arrows only and not rifles, has continued to draw opposition from many who do not believe any hunting should be allowed in an area that is supposed to be a nature preserve. Continue reading →

By Gail Benjafield

Once again a local choir that raises funds for good causes is holding its annual fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation this December 2^nd, 2013.

Please Click on this Poster to enlarge the image for easier reading, then go back to the rest of Gail’s post..

The choir, led by St. Catharines, Ontario native Laura Thomas, is made up of women singers from Niagara, Hamilton and beyond.  Thomas is the long-time deputy director of the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, involved with several choirs, leader of the Dundas Valley Orchestra, and much more.  While she has moved from St. Catharines to the quiet Niagara hamlet of Tintern, she is still very much a St. Catharines booster.

Last season, WomEnchant not only raised funds for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, but for several churches, including the B.M.E. church, home church of famed Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman.  As both the 100^th anniversary since Tubman’s death was in early March and Women’s Day coincided, the fit was obvious. Salem Chapel was filled with local enthusiasts and representatives from Federal, Provincial, and Municipal offices. Continue reading →

By Andy Petrowski 

(A Short Note From NAL – We will be offeering some comments of our own  on this controversial deer hunt  this November 22^nd. The next hunt, sanctioned by the Ontario government, begins in Short Hills Provincial Parkthis November 21, 22, 23, 24 weekend and continues the following weekend.)

Signs like this ringed a public meeting this September over hunting deer this November in Niagara, Ontario’s Short Hills Provincial Park. Photo by Doug Draper

As one of the Niagara Regional Councillors who voted unanimously on behalf of the Region of Niagara, along with the three bordering municipalities of St. Catharines, Thorold, and Pelham, to call on the Provincial Government to stop the unsafe native deer harvest in Short Hills Provincial Park (the smallest Provincial Park in Ontario), I am appalled that (St. Catharines MPP and Environment) Minister Jim Bradley and his Liberal caucus members, including Premier Kathleen Wynne, have not intervened by now and at least suspended this potential massacre subject to a proper safety review. Continue reading →

A Submission from Avaaz, a global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere.

(A Brief Foreword from NAL publisher Doug Draper – Once a country proud of its reputation as a world leader when it comes to environmental protection, Canada, in the name of the current Stephen Harper gvernment and many Canadians who support his government’s tar sands agenda, probably wouldn’t care that Canada’s standing in that role is hitting rock bottom among developed countries.

Severe weather deaths in the Phillipines as that countries climate change commissioner begs Canada and the rest of the world to end world to ‘end the madness’ around carbon emissions of the tar sands nature.

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Warsaw, Poland earlier this November – one that hardly got any coverage in the Canadian media because so many of our mainstream news eyes were focused on the Rob and Doug Ford clown show – A European report ranked Canada near the bottom of 58 nations, with only Iran, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia dangling behind us, addressing greenhouse gases. Ain’t you proud? Maybe some of you are and maybe you don’t care. It certainly seems that way based on what little outcry there seems to be among Canadian citizens around climate change and other environmental issues these days.

At any rate, let’s get back to the Avaaz submission and some hope that it may appeal to some to get more publicly engaged in enviroonmental issues for the sake of our future and the future of future generations, if we can place our immediate gratifications aside long enough to care about future generations.)

The horror of what’s happened in the Philippines is unimaginable. Ten thousand people wiped away by a 25ft wall of water driven by 300km/h winds. A city of 200,000 people looks like a nuclear bomb hit it. It’s the worst storm on record, but it’s just the beginning, unless we act. Continue reading →