Niagara At Large

A Brief Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper 

“Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here.
Here comes the sun. …”

–         from a song by George Harrison    

One might say that this past winter has been a long and brutal one, and as much as many of us across Ontario might just want to enjoy the unfolding of spring, it is now obvious that we face a provincial election.

Ontario’s minority Liberal Kathleen Wynne government tabled a budget this May 1^st and it was clear, before the budget was fully unveiled, that the opposition Tory party of Tim Hudak would vote against it.

That left Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath and her caucus in the position of pulling the trigger on Wynne’s government and this May 2^nd she did. Continue reading →

News from the Friends of the Greenbelts Foundation

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – As much as the more influential stakeholders in the farming and development community for the Niagara Peninsula Coonservation Authority would like to get rid of a Greenbelt zone that has won international congratulations, there is support for it in Ontario. Check out the following piece.)

The green on the map is Ontario’s internationally honoured Greenbelt area. You can cllck on the image of this map to view it full screen.

After nine years, support for Ontario’s Greenbelt remains strong. Ontarians want to see more land included in the land protection policy according to a recent poll conducted by Environics Research Group.

According to the survey, three-quarters of Ontarians (74%) feel it is very important to continue to grow Ontario’s Greenbelt. Polling results align with Mississauga, Oakville, and Toronto taking the necessary steps to grow the Greenbelt. These cities have begun work to include areas along Fourteen Mile Creek, Credit River and Etobicoke Creek river valleys, and the Don, Humber and Etobicoke Creeks as part of Ontario’s Greenbelt. This is in addition to the recent inclusion of Glenorchy Conservation Area to Greenbelt protected land. Continue reading →

By Joanne McDonald

(A Brief Foreword from NAL publisher Doug Draper – For those of you in the rural regions of Niagara and other parts of Ontario, if you have not yet heard the term ‘fracking’ – short for hydraulic fracturing for extracting oil in layers of shale rock below ground – you may want to key the word ‘fracking’ into Google or whatever search engine you may have and do a little research.

Why? Because this deep-well method of extracting oil from deep layers of shale below ground may very well be coming to a tract of land near you – especially if you live in a rural area.

The current Liberal government of Ontario has hardly said no to the petro-chemical companies that would like to do this kind of oil drilling here and I’m just willing to bet that if Ontario Conservative opposition leader Tim Hudak becomes the next premier of Ontario – which he could if, according to most polls, a provincial election was called any time in the next few weeks or days – he will be more of a champion for letting “special interests” into rural communities to do fracking than he has been to do wind or solar energy farms. All the potential risks to groundwater quality and health to humans and other lifeforms not withstanding.

So please check this post, by Joanne McDonald, out and stay tune for more on this issue.)

The drilling equipment is primed, favourable policy has been written, pockets of shale gas have been mapped down to the cubic foot across Ontario, oil companies are staking their claims and the wheels of investment are turning. Continue reading →

News from the South Niagara Chapter of the Council of Canadians

Welland, Ontario – All those interested in the future of healthcare in our community are invited to a free forum the coming Sunday, May 4^th from, 1 to 4:30 p.m. in the Atrium at the Welland Community Wellness Complex, 145 Lincoln Street, in the Niagara municipality of Welland, Ontario.

The Council of Canadians, South Niagara Chapter, is organizing the event, open to all who would like to learn more about the changing face of health care in the Niagara Region, and especially to those who might have ideas about better ways of utilizing and integrating the services that may already be in place. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

 Canadians are forever being informed, explicitly or implicitly, that the solution to the crisis of the day, or decade, is a freedom-sounding word called “privatization”. This, the free-marketeers tell us, will solve our problems.

The reality is invariably the opposite. “Privatization” — also known as bailed-out, highly subsidized corporatism – is in fact the problem, not the solution.

Furthermore, the crises being addressed are often manufactured for the express purpose of rolling out a parasitical regime of corporatization that profits from calamity, even as its “host”, the public, is fleeced. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Let me begin this short sermon by saying that when it comes to religion, I fall into the George Carlin and Bill Maher camp.

Pope Francis

I never was a Catholic and whatever other religious church teaching I received as a child was ended, quite voluntarily, by me a few years after I got passed the Sunday school colouring book stage and reached the age of reason.

Yet I have always felt that there some important things we can learn from religious leaders and theologians, even though so many of the modern-day, right-wing, evangelical Christian leaders dominating the big-box church scene today deliver messages around the idea that you get closer and closer to God by accumulating more and more personal wealth in terms of money. Don’t know what ever happened to those warnings about the money lenders and that line I remember from my old King James version of the Bible that read; “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

In all due respect to popular North American evangelicals like Joel Osteen, who reportedly has accumulated enough worldly wealth from the faithful to live in a three-storey home with elevators, I guess the ‘eye in the needle’ line and warnings about money leaders might, to channel George Carlin, might be the kind of stuff Jesus would say.  Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

Some of you may know that Herb Gray – a former Canadian cabinet minister and deputy prime minister from an era when politics was less partisan and mean-spirited than it seems to be now – died this past April 21^st in his hometown of Windsor, Ontario at age 82.

Herb Gray, speaking at one of many events as Canada’s International Joint Commission co-chair. Photo courtesy oof the IJC

 What many may not know is that in recent years, Herb Gray was still working very actively as the Canadian co-chair on the International Joint Commission – the official Canada-U.S. watchdog body for caring for the country’s shared waters, including our precious Great Lakes. 

Five years ago this coming June, Gray joined a gathering of Canadian and U.S. signatories, and environmentally minded groups from all around the Great Lakes basin in our Niagara area to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Canada-U.S. Boundary Waters Treaty – a treaty that created the International Joint Commission and the first binational agreement of its kind in the world for protecting the environmental health of shared waters.

While Gray and the IJC were here, they hosted a whole afternoon and evening of town hall sessions where environmental groups from here and around the Great Lakes could raise their concerns and what they felt should be done to address some of the more pressing threats facing these largest of all fresh bodies of water in the world. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”

This line, from Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the great Columbian novelist who died earlier this April, was sent to me by a good Niagara At Large supporter in the form of a poster I’m posting below. It was sent to me by someone who I’m sure had no knowledge that I was facing another 60-something birthday and the dread losing whatever is left of the mojo and youthful ideals that have fueled my work as a journalist.

 I plan on hanging this poster above my desk and I recommend that any aging person out there in danger of burying their dreams in a mud pile of grumpy, cynical, negative name-calling jabs, hang this poster up, somewhere close to the computer they use to fire off those jabs, too. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

While many Canadians were planting trees, cleaning trash from roadside ditches and streams, and engaging in other green activities this past April 22^nd Earth Day, Canada’s tar sands prime minister and his government dishonoured the day with an announcement that they are removing one of the world’s most magnificent and threatened mammals from this country’s “threatened species” list.

Humpback whales. one of the world’s largest and most magnificent and mysteries mammals, are still fighting back from near extinction.

The North Pacific Humpback whale and its counterpart along North America’s Atlantic coast were hunted almost to the brink of extinction by the first decades of the 20^th century and it was only the call of wildlife advocates that placed them on threatened species list in Canada and the United States, sparing them from any more harpoons and allowing them to make a comeback.

But now, at a time when Canada’s tar sands prime minister is doing everything possible to crash any roadblocks to transporting this tar crud from his native Alberta to the west coast through a proposed Northern Gateway pipeline for shipment to smog-choked China, his government suddenly decides it is a good idea to take the Humpback whale off its protected threatened list. And here’s why the rest of us who give a damn about a healthy earth should be outraged about this. Continue reading →

Wayne Gates, Niagara Falls Riding’s MPP. File photo, Doug Draper

News from the Office of Niagara Falls Riding MPP Wayne Gates

(As of this posting, Wayne Gates gathered with Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster, Niagara Region’s Chair Gary Burroughs and others this April 24^th at a Niagara Falls transit terminal to call on the province to bring daily Go Train services to Niagara.)

 Queen’s Park, April, 2014 –Wayne Gates, NDP MPP for the riding of Niagara Falls, Ontario, is calling on the people of the riding to visit his offices in Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the Lake to sign an online petition to bring daily GO train service to Niagara.

“I am inviting people in the riding of Niagara Falls to come out to one of my local offices to get on board to bring daily GO train service to Niagara.” Continue reading →

News from the Niagara Parks Commission

Niagara Falls, Ontario, April 24, 2014 – Over the past eight years, The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) has successfully carried out numerous prescribed burns (PBs) on lands within its jurisdiction. 2014 dates have been tentatively scheduled, and PBs could begin as early as Thursday, April 24 and continue until mid-May.

All PBs are weather dependent and NPC will be monitoring an on-site weather station and tracking Environment Canada weather forecasts. The decision to proceed with the PBs is made on an hourly basis, as weather and wind conditions can change quickly.

The following Prescribed Burns have been planned for the 2014 season: Continue reading →

News from the South Niagara Chapter of the Council of Canadians and the Social Justice and Equity Studies Program at Brock University

On Monday, April 28^th , at 7 p.m. in the South Block, Room 201 at Brock University’s St. Catharines, Ontario campus, investigative journalist Amy MacPherson comes to the university with a presentation that’s sure to prompt questions and raise eyebrows.

A gas fracking operation at work in rural Pennsylvania. Do we want this in rural Ontario?

Amy will share candid insights about the impacts of secret government, energy and media relationships on the development of the fossil fuel industry in Canada. 

Her recent article resulted in controversy and consequence, for exposing potential conflicts of interest and officials who misled the public.

MacPherson promises to name names and provide dates. She will also explain some shocking developments for journalists who tried to cover the energy file. Continue reading →

News from Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority 

The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority invites the public to join us on Saturday April 26, 2014 at St. Johns Conservation Area for the opening of Trout Season. The first cast will take place at 12:00 noon. A valid Fishing Licence is required and conservation limits will apply. Check the Ontario Fishing Regulations for further information.

Having fun fishing at St. Johns Conservation Area pond, File photo courtesy of Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

Tony D’Amario, CAO/Secretary-Treasurer of the Conservation Authority comments “fishing is a popular activity and St. Johns Conservation Area offers a perfect setting for this sport. Each year, the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority stocks the pond with Rainbow Trout, in an effort to provide anglers of all ages an opportunity to fish in Niagara’s own coldwater stream, while enjoying the scenic beauty of St. Johns.”

D’Amario adds “the Conservation Authority has provided this opportunity for the public to enjoy since 1963. Continue reading →

A Few Notes On This Earth Day, April 22^nd, 2014, from Doug Draper

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

I first learned of this wise old line in 1979, when I began a more than decade-and-a-half long odyssey as a full-time environment reporter for the then great, independently owned St. Catharines Standard in Niagara, Ontario.

This photo of earth from the moon, taken by U.S. space travellers in the late 1960s, inspired the first Eath Day. It taught us, or should have taught us that this wondrous planet in our solar system and beyond, remains the only place that is an oasis for life as we know it. We must have the vision to look after it, or we may lose it all.

The line was recited to me in an interview I did that year – a full nine years after the first Earth Day – with Sister Margeen Hoffman, a Catholic nun in Niagara Falls, New York. Sister Margeen, who was a member of the proud St. Franciscan Order of her church, reprised the line from Proverbs and from St. Francis of Assisi, an Italian Catholic frier from more than eight centuries ago who made a mark as one of the world’s first environmentalists. 

The line meant all the more to Sister Margeen, who was a leader of an ecumenical group in Niagara County, New York that was helping families who found themselves living in homes built on top of a notorious chemical dump that became known around the world, by the time I started my environmental reporting, as the Love Canal.

There was no vision, only blindness brought on by the greed of land speculators and other profiteers, before those families unwittingly bought homes in Love Canal neighbourhood, and as a witch’s brew of dioxins and other poisons surfaced in their yards and basements, they were forced to flee and what was a seemingly typical suburban neighbourhood perished. Continue reading →

If only we had a few Jane Goodalls in government.

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

News from Niagara, Ontario’s Bert Miller Nature Club

Jim Bradley the Environment Minister will be celebrating Earth Day this Tuesday, April 22th at an event with the Bert Miller Nature Club. This club has been awarded $24,791 through the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund to help protect globally rare ecosystems along Lake Erie‘s coast.

A stretch of beautiful Lake Erie shoreline in the Point Abino area. Photo couresy of the Bert Miller Nature Club

 Lake Erie’s coast is a hot spot for biodiversity and home to globally rare ecosystems like the northern shore that boasts sand dunes that can exceed 100 feet in height. It’s also a critical migration stop-over area for waterfowl and shorebirds such as the Tundra Swan and habitat for the provincially endangered Fowler’s Toad. Continue reading →

An Important Messsage To All Niagara Citziens from the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network

(A brief foreword to this post from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – This spring, Niagara’s regional government and 12 local municipalities are making a concerted effort to press Ontario’s provincial government to expand Go Transit services in Niagara, and that is a good thing.

One of a handful of regional buses now on the road for an inter-municipal transit project.

There are a couple of very important points to keep in mind, however. 

The provincial agency Metrolinx and Go Transit  have repeatedly made it clear  that if they going to apprve and provided an expanded service here, Niagara needs to get its act together and provide a more comprehensive regional transit service. Ater all, you can’t simply drop Go passengers off somewhere in Niagara if they can’t then find easily find local transit connections to get from one location to another across the region. Continue reading →

A Brief Bit of Breaking News and a Commentary from NAL publisher Doug Draper

Here is some good news on this Good Friday and just a few days before this coming Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22^nd, 2014.

One of many protests near White House in past year over Tar Sands pipeline

The U.S. State Department announced this April 18^th that it is now delaying a final decision on construction of the Keystone and KL pipeline from Calgary’s tar sands through the U.S. Midwest to Gulf area where it would be refined until the end of this year.

U.S. environmental groups and citizens who are opposing the pipeline are greeting this as good news because it pushes a final decision by President Barack Obama and his Democratic administration past mid-term to take place across America this coming fall – elections in which any rejection of the Keystone pipe beforehand might be used by Republican candidates funded by the petro-chemical industry to go after their Democratic rivals. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore – A Special To Niagara At Large

The unexpected, shocking death of Jim Flaherty, the Conservative Party’s only Finance Minister until his retirement less than a month ago, has resulted in hundreds of warm tributes for his commitment to public life and praise from those in business and conservative circles who approved of his financial and economic policies.

Jim Flaherty and Stephen Harper delivering federal budgets during their thumb-up days.

Flaherty, who was only 64, died of a heart attack on April 10. He was devoted to his family and was one of the most popular Members of Parliament. Friends indicated that Flaherty was headed for a high-paying job on Bay Street, so he could make a better income after he had sacrificed by taking a lower paying government job.

While Jim Flaherty’s life achievements and humanity should be praised, it also needs to be said that his neo-liberal, conservative policies when he was part of the federal government did not benefit the majority of Canadians. Continue reading →

A Brief by Doug Draper

To paraphrase Dan Aykroyd in his introduction on the first Blues Brothers album called ‘Briefcase Full Of Blues,’ I suggest you buy as much of your music at record stores while you can. 

At a time when people are cherry picking more music and books online, too many of the real, organic record and book stores – especially the classic independent ones, with a more diverse and eclectic collection of titles that you can actually walk in to – are falling by the wayside. Continue reading →

An Introduction by Doug Draper, Publisher. Niagara At Large

In my humble opinion, Jimmy Carter may just be the most decent person who ever lived in the White House across the border in my lifetime. I was just a kid when John Kennedy was blown away, and who knows if he might have been the president who would have drawn an early end to America’s involvement in  Vietnam, or done more to fight for the civil rights of his own country’s people.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is highest American citizen yet to speak out against Canada’s Harper government Keystone tar sands pipe

What is sad about Carter is that so many Americans seem to dump on him for being the guy who tried to rescue the American hostages in Iran in a mission that failed and who just happened to be running his country when gas prices, no fault to him, went through the rough. 

Some may care to remember that when Jimmy Carter was president, way back in the late 1970s, he was the first president of the United States t – and the last to this date – to honestly try to plot an agenda for energy independence based moving toward renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. 

Some may remember that when Carter lost a second term in office in or around 1980, the new U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, made a point of ripping the solar panels Carter had placed off the roof of the White House. The rest – hail the petro-chemical industrial complex in the U.S. and now Canada – is history. Continue reading →

News from Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli

(A Brief Foreword by Doug Draper – Thank God that these coal messes are finally gone in Ontario. Nanticoke coal-burning energy plant in full flight, toxic emissions and all. Ontario has finally shut coal energy plants off.l I remember, when I was still working as a full-time environment reporter at the late great, independent St. Catharines Standard, going across the border to Buffalo, New York, for a meda conference held by the then-attorney general of that state and environmental groups in New York State. They used the occasion to rightfully slam Ontario for emissions they could pick up on air-monitoring systems coming into western New York from Ontario’s coal-fired plant in Nanticoke, which is ne of those finally shut down. I sure don’t recall Ontario Tory (Tea Party) leader Tim Hudak or any of his friends out there in Wainfleet or West Lincoln, who have bought into the petro-chemical propaganda that wind and other renewable energy are a ‘health hazard’ ever once complain about the mercury and other toxins they were breathing from these coal-fired plants. Perhaps they would prefer to have a coal-burning plant in their backyard rather than a wind or solar system. Now here is the announcement around Ontario going coal free in the energy department from the province’s energy minister.) Queen’s Park, Ontario, April 15th, 2014 – Ontario is now the first jurisdiction in North America to fully eliminate coal as a source of electricity generation. The Thunder Bay Generating Station, Ontario’s last remaining coal-fired facility, has burned its last supply of coal. Operated by Ontario Power Generation, Thunder Bay Generating Station was the oldest coal-fired station in the province.  The plant is scheduled to be converted to burn advanced biomass, a renewable fuel source. The province has replaced coal generation with a mix of emission-free electricity sources like nuclear, waterpower, wind and solar, along with lower-emission electricity sources like natural gas and biomass.   Ontario has fulfilled its commitment to end coal generation in advance of its target of the end of 2014. A coal-free electricity supply mix has led to a significant reduction in harmful emissions, as well as cleaner air and a healthier environment. Providing clean, reliable and affordable power is part of the government’s economic plan that is creating jobs for today and tomorrow. The comprehensive plan and its six priorities focus on Ontario’s greatest strengths – its people and strategic partnerships.

Continue reading →

News from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government

NIAGARA REGION, April 16, 2014 – Niagara residents can swap out their damaged or broken Blue Box, Grey Box or Green Bin for new ones, free of charge, at a special event in recognition of Earth Week.

When: Friday, April 25, 2014, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Where: Regional Headquarters, Campbell East Building, 2201 St. David’s Rd., Thorold Continue reading →

News frthe Niagara Parks Commission

Niagara Falls, ON, April 15^th, 2014 – In commemoration of the passing of former Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, the Niagara Falls Illumination Board will light Niagara Falls in green throughout the evening of April 16, the date of the official State Funeral being held in his honour.

The Niagara Parks Commission and its partners usually only turn great lights on the great Falls of Niagara for St. Patrick’s Day. This Wednesday, April 16th marks a special exeption for Jim Flaherity on the occasion of his state funeral. in Canada.

“The Illumination Board is proud to pay tribute to a great Canadian that dedicated his life for the betterment of his country,” stated Jim Diodati, Mayor of the City of Niagara Falls and Chair of the Illumination Board. In recognition of Mr. Flaherty’s years of public service, three 15 minute tribute illuminations will take place at 8:45 p.m., 9:45 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. (15 minute duration each) that evening. Continue reading →

News from the Niagara Health System and Hamilton Health Sciences

Tuesday, April 15th, 2014 – Niagara Health System’s regional Cardiac Care Program has begun providing a vital service for the first time in the region: Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI). The program’s Heart Investigation Unit (HIU) has evolved over the past year to now provide interventional care, or the insertion of stents, in addition to diagnostic care, or cardiac catheterization.

New cardiac service for Niagara will be introduced at west St. Catharines hospital site.l

The specialized team in the HIU is projecting to complete more than 540 PCI cases in 2014/2015. Prior to April 1, patients requiring this type of procedure had to travel outside of the region for care. The introduction of interventional care is a large step forward as the NHS continues to build its program and develop comprehensive cardiac services for the residents of Niagara. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary rom Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

What is wrong with this picture, indeed?

We got a Stephen Harper government in Canada willing to do anyting … and I mean anything, including gutting some of this country’s leading environmental regulations and muzzling Environmen Canada scientists to pipe tar sands crud from Harper’s home province of Alberta to natorious carbon gas emitters like China in other parts of the world.

And at the same time Harper will do  anything, however much it compromises the health of or planet, to get this tar sands shit piped to countries like China, where people are already choking from the emissons of tar-reloated poison like this, his same  government wants to cut our country’s delivery of door-to-door mail delivery service.

Let me suggest that the cost of continuing with door-to-door mail delivery is one hell of a lot cheaper than the cost of climate change, already nailing us around te cost of our home insurance, food costs, damage to our property, damage to infrastrurcture around roads, etc. in  our communities, etc., etc. ….  Any of you out there who still support this Harper Tar Sands  Party, I urge you to please thing about it.

The foollowing image just about sums it all up for the priorities of this Harper government, doesn’t it? 

 (Now It Is Your Turn – Share your comments on this  commentary. But just remember, we demand that you share your real name with your comment for reaons of accountability around everything that is posted on Niagara At Large.)

A Brief Comment from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

The late Tory stalwart Jim Flaherty was respected by all parties – Conservative, Liberal and NDP alike – for his dedication to public service.

In the hours following the death of former federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, I learned that Flaherty, who was just a few years older than this baby boomer who came of age in the 1960s, got his inspiration to do something that involved engaging in politics and public life from the late U.S. Senator Bobby Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president of his country in 1968.

So here I am, now trying to come to terms with the fact that Flaherty – a cabinet minister for both the federal Stephen Harper and former Ontario Mike Harris governments, whose policies I almost always have found to result in destructive and sometimes even tragic consequences for many Ontarians and Canadians – shared the same hero when we were in our formative years. Continue reading →

News from Niagara, Ontario’s regional government

(A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper -Finally gone are the days when our elected representatives on Niagara’s regional council met with their backs turned to people sitting in the public gallery.

Newly renovated reginoal council chamber from the public gallery. Photo courtesy of Niagara Region

It was one of the things that always bothered me about the old council chamber setup at Niagara’s regional headquarters. You’d go in there and find the councillors sitting with their backs turned to a gallery full of citizens who had come to talk to the council about an issue of concern to them. And this sitting arrangement may have contributed to the reasons so many Niagara citiens over the years have reported feeling alienated or disconnected from regional government.

This past Thursday, April 10^th, the doors were opened to a newly renovated council chambers with a sitting plan that makes it far more likely that Niagara’s directly elected regional councillors and the mayors of the Region’s 12 local municipalities will meet eyes with visiting delegations of citizens they represent.

The old regional council chambers. Photo by Doug Draper

Citizens with mobility challenges will be happy to know that this renovated chamber will be far more friendly to them too. Now here is the media release from the Region on this renovated facility.)

Niagara Region, April 10, 2014 – After undergoing extensive renovations and upgrades, Niagara Region’s Council Chamber opened and hosted its first Council meeting Thursday night. Continue reading →

News from the Ottawa-based citizens group, Council of Canadians

(A brief foreword note from Council of Canadians, South Niagara Chapter representative Fiona McMurran – TUESDAY APRIL 22 is EARTH DAY Do take advantage of this opportunity to find out why Council of Canadians National Chairperson, Maude Barlow, and other leading water warriors, are doing to help protect our Great Lakes. Email Water Campaigner, Emma Lui, (contact information below) to register for this free webinar.)

Council of Canadians Chairperson Maude Barlow hosts Earth Day online Town Hall

Hello friend of the Great Lakes!

On Earth Day (April 22), Maude Barlow and other speakers will kick off a discussion on strategies to fight extreme energy around the Great Lakes on the Protect the Great Lakes Forever Townhall series.

Extreme energy projects such as fracking, tar sands oil pipelines and shipments and nuclear waste dumps are putting the Great Lakes in peril. Join us to discuss strategies that have been used to protect the Lakes on this online webinar. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this commentary by Niagara Falls, Ontario Mayor Jim Diodati, as the push is on from Niagara, Ontario’s regional government and local municipalities to persuade the Ontario government of Premier Kathleen Wynne to expand Go Transit Services into and through the Niagara region.)

By Jim Diodati

It was disappointing to see a Twitter exchange last week with (Ontario) Transportation Minister Glen Murray, where he cited the outdated and erroneous argument that a crossing of the Welland Canal is a problem that needs to be resolved before GO Transit can expand daily commuter trains into the Niagara Region.

Niagara Falls, Ontario Mayor Jim Diodati

Put simply, the Canal is not a barrier to running two trains to Niagara Falls in the morning, and two more in the evening.

We have proven it.

First, some background. While the Liberal government and Metrolinx has been rolling out GO Transit announcements across Southern and Central Ontario, Niagara remains on the outside of the conversation. When prompted about this on Twitter, Murray responded, “Because buying the track & solving the bridge problem is not complete & ridership is low. Working on it.” Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

As I rose at the crack of dawn this Tuesday, April 8 to retrieve the morning newspaper and feed two hungry cats, the skies were grey and rain was pelting down. Yet even through the dark clouds and rain I felt I could see a bright sun, promising better days, rising over Canada.

Ding, Dong, Marois’ drive to rip apart Canada is dead.

The headline featured at the top of the paper’s front page read; ‘PQ Crushed’, and went on to say that its leader, Pauline Marois – hell-bent on possibly dragging Quebec and the rest of the country through another referendum on separation – had lost her own seat in a provincial election the night before and had, mercifully, tendered her resignation.

As an Anglophone from Ontario, I have long embraced the slogan; ‘My Canada includes Quebec’, and it is heartening to see that in this April 7^th election, a significant number of Quebeckers, especially younger voters, prefer to see their province remain apart of Canada. Continue reading →

News from the Toronto-based, citizen advocacy group, the Ontario Health Coalition

Toronto, Ontario, April 7^th – Ontarians are “passionate” about stopping the contracting out of their local public hospital services to private clinics.

The Welland Hosptial in Niagara, Ontario, already on the block for public to private services guting. File photo by Doug Draper

 Over the last two and a half weeks, hundreds of volunteers with the Ontario Health Coalition have opened public voting stations to collect opinions about the government’s plan to cut services from local community hospitals and contract them out to high-volume private clinics. Ontario residents were invited to vote for one of the following statements:

• I support our local public hospitals. I do not want the government to cut our services or contract them out to private clinics.
• I support cutting services from our local public hospitals and contracting them out to private clinics.

 On Saturday, April 5, more than 100 voting stations were staffed by volunteers in stores and local businesses in towns and cities across Ontario. Ballot boxes were taken to churches and faith institutions, legions, and service clubs. In the two weeks leading into the street votes on April 5, more than 200 workplace votes were held in auto plants, manufacturing companies, hospitals, pharmacies, schools and many more. Over the last month, thousands of volunteers have taken leaflets door-to-door in towns and cities in every region of Ontario. Continue reading →

More News About An Upcoming Event In Our Greater Niagara Region

Please join the Community Art Gallery Advisory Committee for Malcolm Allen and Cindy Forster for the Grand Opening of the Community Art Gallery and their first show – START SMALL

Click on this image to blow it up to a more readable size.

Artists have submitted works that are within a square foot to highlight the theme of the show which reflects the fact that the initiative was started by a small group of people who have a passionate interest in the arts.   A fantastic diversity of art from youths, students, amateur and established artists will be included in the START SMALL show.                                                   

The Opening night for START SMALL will be on Friday, April 4th from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Office of Malcolm Allen, M.P. and Cindy Forster, M.P.P. 60 King St. Unit 102, Welland. FREE Admission.

Light snacks and non-alcoholic refreshments will be provided. Can good donations in support of Gillian’s Place are encouraged

(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.)

Wayne Gates, Niagara Falls NDP member of Ontario’s provincial parliament.

News from the Office of the Ontario New Democratic Party

Queen’s Park – This April 2^nd   Wayne Gates, Niagara Falls MPP and the NDP’s Jobs, Small Business and Training Critic, stood up for families being hit with skyrocketing gas bills and demanded government fix badly flawed rules that allowed a 40 per cent increase in natural gas bills to be rammed through. 

“Families cannot afford a 40 per cent increase in their  natural gas bills. An extra bill for $400 for gas will take a big bite out of already tight household budgets,” Gates said. Continue reading →

A News Brief by Doug Draper

When the mayor of the largest of Niagara, Ontario’s 12 local municipalities announces that he won’t run again, it is a big deal for people across the greater Niagara region.

St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan announces he will not run again.

The announcement was circulated this April 1^st by St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan, who is mayor for a city that includes the largest block of representatives on Niagara’s regional council and – among other things – served during part of his two-year term as a key representative for a coalition of Canada/U.S. mayors for challenges affecting the health and welfare of the waters of our Great Lakes.

I may say that I have not always agreed with McMullan in his positions on issues of concern in St. Catharines and the larger Niagara region. But I almost must say that I found him to be a sincere person in politics at a time when politics has become too much of a pie-throwing contest. Continue reading →

A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

As a die-hard reader of newspapers, one of the first places I like to go to in the few good newspapers we have left is the ‘Letter to the Editor’ section.

Harper and Putin glad-hand only two short years ago over deals they were negotiating over corporate interests for both countries. It was only a year earlier that Harper posted Putin and other G20 leaders in Toronto while police in the streets rounded up and jailed numerous Canadian citizen protesters, who were never ultimately charged with anything. One of the Toronto area cops supposedly protecting Harper, Putin and others told a Canadian citizen on the streets of our country – “You don’t live in Canada any more.” So where does Harper get off lecturing Putin on freedom and democracy?

There you can often find a letter or two from one of our fellow citizens , in as few as two or three paragraphs, can get to the core of a story or series of stories carried on the regular news pages on an issue of concern to people in our region of the world.

Here is one I read in The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, this March 29^th, 2014, focusing on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s saber-rattling rhetoric over Russia’s Vladimir Putin’s actions in and around Crimea and Ukraine that I think pins the tail on the donkey. It was punched out by Judith Ince of Vancouver, British Columbia.

“Stephen Harper rips into Vladimir Putin’s energy-based “one dimensional” economy, his pitiful failures in governance and transparency of information, his politics of division, his alienation of youth, and his failure to work together with his opponents.” 

“Doesn’t our PM realize that the same description applies to him? Continue reading →

From The Office of the Premier of Ontario, March 30^th, 2014

Premier Kathleen Wynne sent the attached open letter this morning to Mr. Tim Hudak, the Leader of the Official Opposition and Leader of the Ontario PC Party.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne

In the letter, Premier Wynne asks the PC Leader, his caucus, and his party to stop making false and defamatory accusations regarding allegations that an individual came into the former Premier’s office to delete records.

Contrary to Mr. Hudak’s false statements, this did not happen after Premier Wynne was sworn in February 11th, 2013.  The allegations pertain entirely to activities in the former Premier’s Office.

Continue reading →

News From Niagara Action For Animals

Dear Friends of Animals -Two important events NAfA is hosting next week! 
Screening of Speciesism at Brock and Dr .Carol Teed speaking at our monthly Potluck.  For additional info on each event, go to www.niagaraactionforanimals.org and see the Events page.
 
1. Speciesism: The Movie

Click on the image of this poster to enlarge it for more information on this event.

When: Tuesday April 1st 2014, 6-9 pm – followed by discussion

Where: Thistle Hall (TH) 257, Brock University, St. Catharines (this event is free of charge)

Details: Niagara Action for Animals (NAfA) is hosting the premier screening of Speciesism: The Movie. Please join us to witness this brilliant film. We promise “you’ll never look at animals the same way again, especially humans!”  For film synopsis go to www.speciesismthemovie.com
2. Veterinarian, Dr. Carol Teed will be speaking as Niagara Action for Animals hosts the monthly vegan potluck at the Unitarian Church, 223 Church Street, St. Catharines (next door to the Delta Bingo).   Friday, April 4th from 7 p.m.  Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large Coming Events News Brief

Local historian John Bacher will be speaking on two critical figures in the protection of Ontario’s environment at Niagara area historical societies next week. The first talk, “Mel Swart: Guardian of Ontario’s Environment”, will be held at

The late Mel Swart, a Niagara, Ontario political leader, was a leading spokesperson for saving what is left of the region’s rural lands. File photo by Doug Draper

7:30 pm Monday, March 31st at Chestnut Hall, the home of the Thorold and Beaverdams Historical Society adjoining the Thorold Public Library at the corner of Ormond and Vine Street.

The second talk on “Edmund Zavitz: Rescuer of Ontario”, will be delivered at the Lundy’s Lane Historical Society The meeting will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday, April 3^rd in the LaMarsh Room of the Niagara Falls Public Library at the corner of Morrison Street and Victoria Avenue. Continue reading →

News from the Ontario Health Coalition 

Toronto, Ontario, March 25,2014 – Six university student researchers spent the last month working with the Ontario Health Coalition calling through 135 private clinics and hospitals in Ontario to find out whether they are charging patients unlawful fees on top of billing OHIP for medically necessary services. 

Their findings, released today in a report, “For Health or for Wealth?: The evidence regarding user fees and private clinics in Ontario” show that a significant number of private clinics are both billing OHIP and charging patients fees on top ranging from $50 – $3,500 or more.

The coalition warns that the Ontario government’s new plan to cut medical services from local public hospitals and contract them out to private clinics will result in more user fees for patients unless it is stopped. This is a threat to single-tier Medicare and the fundamental principle of the Canadian Health system that access to care should be based on medical need, not wealth. Continue reading →

A part of Niagara’s Porl Dalhousie heritage district that has been mostly gutted due to Ontario’s Liberal government’s unwillingness to fight for this community. File phot by Doug Draper

News from some of the citizens of Port Dalhousie in Niagara, Ontario

(A brief foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – In my view, the wrecking of the downtown district of a beautiful, historic old Port Dalhousie, once designated as a heritage district in the province of Ontario, is nothing short of corporate vandalism.

And shame on the Ontario Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty and St Catharines MPP Jim Bradley for never – never ever having the guts he once had to speak out publicly against a rotten Liberal premier at the time, Dalton McGuinty, and allowing McGuinty to bomb what was an Ontario designated heritage district within his riding, and in a Niagara that might be better off drawing visitors who might better enjoy the history of this community.

But no. It has already been busted down and municipal and provincial leaders, including the current mayor of St. Catharines, Brian McMullan and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley, sat back, without putting up any kind of  a real public fight, and let it happen.)

PORT CONSERVANCY ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF PORT DALHOUSIE RENAISSANCE COMMITTEE – Charged with Developing a Commercially-Viable and Sustainable Vision for Downtown Port and Surrounding Area

St. Catharines, March 27, 2014 – Port Dalhousie Conservancy, the volunteer community organization, announced today the formation of the Port Dalhousie Renaissance Committee. Continue reading →

News from Niagara, Ontario’s RiverBrink Art Musuem

QUEENSTON (NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE), Ontario, March 27^th, 2014 –  2014 -. RiverBrink Art Museum will be extending the run of two of its popular 2013 exhibitions into April 2014. “Norval Morrisseau: Journey with a Genius” will be extended an extra week, closing on April 5, 2014. “Sam Weir, The Consummate Collector” will be extended an extra three weeks, closing on April 19.

One of the wonderful pieces, this one by Homer Watson, known as ‘The Lothian Hills’, featured in this exhibit. Image courtgesy of RiverBrink Art Museum

“Sam Weir, The Consummate Collector”

Since the death of Samuel E. Weir in 1981, the collection he left behind has been interpreted and displayed with attention to the founder’s tastes, interests, and passions for fine art and history. The current exhibition extends this focus to include the range of objects collected by Weir throughout his life. His interest was caught by fine and decorative art to be sure, but also rare books, silver, medals, coins, stamps, historic documents, bird decoys, horticultural specimens, furniture and even celebrity autographs. This diversity suggests Weir is best understood as an example of what historians Paula Rubel and Abraham Rosman describe as the “unruly” collector. Closing April 19. 2014. Continue reading →

 A Note from Doug Draper to our many Niagara At Large subscribers and visitors to this only true and independent news  and commentary oonline site for our Greater Niagara Region and beyond

Niagara At Large will be gearing down until April 4^th so we can do some necessary maintenance, which includes getting NAL more plugged in to social media tools with an aim at attracting more visitors to the site.

Hopefully, by the time we finally have something like spring and the daffodils bloom, Niagara At Large will bloom again.

This temporary fallow period does not mean we will ignore stories developing around us or will not post comments coming in on posts now on the site. So to all those out there already sharing news tips with us, please keep them coming in.

In the meantime, we thank you for your patience and hope that by the time we are back to full speed, the winter weather that has been chilling us over the past four months will finally give way to sunnier days that feel more like spring.

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

News fron the Niagara Parks Commission

(A Brief Note from NAL – We should all turn out the lights for this Earth Hour and think about what we can do the rest of the year to save energy and reduce our carbon footprint as the impacts oof climate change grow ever more severe.)

Niagara Falls, Ontario, March 24^th, 2014 – The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) in partnership with the Niagara Falls Illumination Board is pleased to once again announce its participation in the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) global Earth Hour initiative by switching off the evening illumination of Niagara Falls on Saturday, March 29 from 8:30 – 9:30 p.m.

The normally illuminated Niagara Falls waters will go dark for one hour this Saturday, March 29th during international Earth Hour

During Earth Hour all non-essential lighting within the Parks will be turned off and as Chair Thomson explains, “we will also be ‘switching off’ our evening illumination of the Falls during this time – as a symbol to help raise awareness and support for action on the issue of climate change.”

Continue reading →

From Liz Smith, Animal Rights

Join a discussion on the question of ‘should animals have rights,’ with a talk by Gary Francione , an internationally renown animal activist. Check him out by clicking on http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/  

Now here is the poster for the coming Friday, March 28^th event at Brock University.

Friday March 28th, 4:00-7:00, TH 325, Brock U.

More info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/264314813735072/

(NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Nagara 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 Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – the late American anthropologist Margaret Mead.

File photo by Doug Draper

I have said it before and I will say it again as a reporter going back to my days some three decades ago as an environment reporter with the late great St. Catharines Standard (as opposed to the festering pile of shit Sun Media has helped turn that newspaper in to today), never mind making villans out of the people who own and run places like Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario and SeaWorld in the United States.

Continue reading →

A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“Only little people pay taxes,” said the late U.S. billionaire and hotelier Leona Helmsley, who remains one of the very few North Americans in her economic strata to actually go to jail for tax evasion.

Helmsley was far from wrong and may very well have gotten away with her own transgressions had she not flaunted them so arrogantly. How else, to this day can you explain why a small business in Canada or the United States, or someone working for wages that barely puts them above the poverty line pays out as much as a third or more of their earnings in taxes while some of the wealthiest corporations on the continent pay no taxes at all – ZIPPO! 

Continue reading →

NAL regional battery collection

 News from Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Government

(A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Some 25 years ago, while I was working, fulltime, as an environment reporter for the then-independent, locally owned St. Catharines Standard in Niagara, Ontario, the newspaper sent me to Gernany. 

Germany, at that time was one of the most progressive countries in the world when it came to recycling or using waste that would normally go in to a garbage dump or be disposed of in some other way that can potentially contaminate the environment.

Continue reading →

News from the Ontario NDP and Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster

(Niagara At Large contacted the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s new communications person this March 20^th to ask who would be the best person in the agency to do an interview around this – given the rapid liquidation of staff in the recent past – and has so far received no response.

Ontario’s Welland Riding NDP representiave Cindy Forster, continues demanding to now what has gone awry with our publicly paid for Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

Whether this agency, which only exists because we, the taxpayers of Niagara and Ontario, pay for it, responds or not, Niagara At Large will continue to reveal more on allegations of cronyism in this organization and its bowing at the knees of developers over protecting our green spaces.) 

QUEEN’S PARK, March 20^th, 2014 – Welland MPP Cindy Forster says residents of the Niagara region are becoming increasing concerned about the dealings of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority.

“Conservation authorities have an important job preserving and protecting our land and waterways for Ontarians. Recently, the actions of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority have raised concerns,” explained Forster during question period. “Their strategic plan shows a shift toward land acquisition disposal and development, and my constituents and elected officials are telling me that property development seems more important than conservation by the NPCA.”

According to Forster, a recent land purchase made in Wainfleet by the authority was conditional on the municipality waiving developer fees amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue for the town. Continue reading →

 STAY TUNE FOR MORE  ON THIS ISSUE AROUND AN AGENCY THAT IS  SUPPOSED TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT SOME OF THIS REGION’S MOST PRECIOUS GREEN LANDS

From the office of Cindy Forster, an NDP representative for the Welland Riding of Niagara, Ontario riding of Welland

Ontario’s Welland Riding NDP representiave Cindy Forster, who has more too come on the deconstruction of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority

Today, Cindy Forster made a statement in the house about concerns surrounding the recent action of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority: 

I stand in the Legislature today to echo the concerns of city councilors, regional councilors, conservationists, residents of the Niagara Region as well as past and present members of the board of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority over the recent actions of the NPCA.

Since January of 2012 the NPCA has fired 20% of their staff, including many long-serving senior positions. Continue reading →

News from Brock University in Niagara, Ontario

March 19^th, 2014 – The Brock University African Heritage Recognition Committee will launch its Teaching Nelson Mandela initiative this Friday at a one-day community symposium happening at the University.

Nelson Mandela

What: Teaching Nelson Mandela Initiative symposium
 When: Friday, March 21, from 1 to 8:30 p.m.
 Where: Brock University, Plaza 600F and Academic South 201
 
The symposium marks the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and commemorates South Africa’s 1960 Sharpeville Massacre of March 21. Continue reading →

A Statement from  Karl Docktader

The Story of Our Community: the March 15th Rally at Montebello Park to support an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous woman and girls.

Karl Dockstader, a representative of Canada’s First Nations, addresses a rally in St. Cathatrines, Ontario for murdered and missing Aboriginal women and girls. Photo by Terry Nicholls.

The bile was still stinging in our throats about the federal government believing they had done enough to address to the tragedy of the disproportionate rates of violence inflicting itself on our First Nations communities.

When Jamie Bugg McGean called me last Saturday and said Shawn Brant and some supporters had been arrested for trying to defend the women, I was with my nephew Mark David Hupkowicz. We talked to Jeffrey B Hill, Justin Vigneux-Dockstader, Dylan Powell, Philip Davis, Ngo-madaas Paradis, Mitch Baird, and other community members right away. Continue reading →

News from Brock University in Niagara, Ontario

March 18^th, 2014 – The government’s proposed changes to Canada’s election laws – in the form of the proposed Fair Elections Act (Bill C-23) – are a threat to Canada’s democratic traditions, say Brock University political scientists.
 
“What is particularly worrisome about the proposed Fair Elections Act, especially the new restrictions banning the practice of “vouching” for those voters without standard forms of identification, is the way that it disguises a partisan agenda behind seemingly neutral language,” says assistant professor Stefan Dolgert.

“Bill C-23 would make it harder for already marginalized Canadians to vote, gives the Conservatives an unfair advantage and disempowers Elections Canada from safeguarding our country’s democratic processes,” says assistant professor Janique Dubois. Continue reading →

News from the Niagara Health System, Niagara, Ontario’s amalgamation of hospital services

March 17^th, 2014 – Niagara Health System is pleased to announce Dr. Peter Kagoma is joining the organization as Vice President Academic, a new position offered in partnership with McMaster University.

Dr. Peter Kagoma takes on a new part-time position of Vice President Academic at the Niagara Health System. The position will be paid for by McMaster University in Hamilton.

 In this role, Dr. Kagoma will act as Niagara Health System’s liaison with the Niagara Regional Campus of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University, and will have a key role in advancing our academic objectives in education and research.

Dr. Kagoma is an accomplished hematologist by trade, and as part of the Oncology department at the NHS, he will enhance and participate in the non-malignant hematology and thromboembolism care of patients in the Niagara region.

Previous to joining NHS, Dr. Kagoma held various leadership roles in Brantford, most recently acting as the McMaster Mac-CARE Regional Director of the Grand Erie Six Nations Clinical Education Campus — Brantford Centre since 2007 and the Physician Lead, Information and Communication Technology Strategy & Adoption at Brant Community Healthcare System since 2012. Continue reading →

News from Niagara College

March 14^th, 2014 – She’s known as the most successful marathon swimmer in the history of the sport, as the first person to ever swim across all five Great Lakes,

Iconic marathon swimmer Vicki Keith speaking at Niagara College

and as a coach and a fundraiser who works to make a difference in
people’s lives.On March 21st, Vicki Keith will bring her inspirational messages to
Niagara College. Keith speaks about her journey as a marathon swimmer
and as a coach to those who have been told that their dreams were
impossible. The event was organized by the College’s School of
Community Services, and Recreation and Leisure Services and Recreation
Therapy Programs. Continue reading →

– Join The BiNational Fight Against Pumping Tar Sands Crude Through The Line 9 Pipe

From Maude Barlow, National Chairperson for the Ottawa-based citizens advocacy group, Council of Canadians

March 17^th, 2014 – As governments approve tar sands oil and fracking projects around the Great Lakes, the Council of Canadians is warning that these extreme energy projects are putting the Great Lakes in peril. Council of Canadians Chairperson Maude Barlow outlines the web of pipelines, refineries and oil shipments that threaten the Lakes in her new report released today entitled, Liquid Pipeline: Extreme energy’s threat to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Council of Canadians Chairperson Maude Barlow calls on people across the Great Lakes basin to speak out on the Line 9 Tar Sands pipe.

“We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg and only just beginning to understand the grave impacts these extreme energy projects are going to have on the Great Lakes. We often see these projects approved piecemeal but we have to step back and think about how all these projects are going to affect the Lakes,” says Barlow in her report, which is available here. “Enbridge is asking that the Alberta Clipper pipeline transport 800,000 barrels of oil per day, Calumet Specialty Products wants to ship millions of barrels of oil across Lakes and TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline cuts through the Great Lakes watershed. If governments continue to allow projects like this, what are our lakes going to look like in 20 or 50 years?” Continue reading →

This Submission courtesy of the Hamilton public interest group Citizens at City Hall

(A  Brief Note from Niagara At Large – We encourage you to regularly visit the website for this group, known as CATCH for short. We could use more ctizien watchdog groups on our municipal politics in the Niagara Region. You will find linkes for CATCH at the end of this post.)

How much of this Hamilton Airport poison is now lingering in the Welland River watershed and when are our government agencies going to get to the bottom of it?

More than four years after it was discovered, the world-record levels of a toxic flame-retardant chemical that have contaminated the Binbrook Conservation Area reservoir and the Welland River still await a cleanup plan being bandied back and forth between the provincial Ministry of the Environment and Tradeport International. The city agreed to cover half the costs of the plan which remains secret more than 20 months after its promised completion. Continue reading →

Submitted by Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission 

Niagara Falls, Ontario – In partnership with Tourism Ireland’s “Global Greening” campaign, the Niagara Falls Illumination Board will light Niagara Falls in green on March 17 for St. Patrick’s Day. Two 15-minute green illuminations will take place at 9 & 9:30 p.m.

Niagara Falls will be bathed in green lights, joining many other world icons such as the Egyptian Sphinx and Pyramids, London Eye, Empire State Building and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Established in 1925, The Niagara Falls Illumination Board is made up of representatives from the City of Niagara Falls Ontario, the City of Niagara Falls, New York, Ontario Power Generation Inc., The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and The Niagara Parks Commission.  It is the Illumination Board’s responsibility and mandate to finance and maintain the nightly illumination of both the Horseshoe and American Falls. Continue reading →

News from Brock University

St. Catharines, Ontario – The Brock University public panel discussion on the political crisis in Ukraine, which was cancelled on March 12 due to a snow storm that shut the campus down, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 19.

Citizens of Ukraine rally to keep their country independent and free

A group of professors will share their perspectives and historical contexts on the ongoing situation in the Eastern European country – from the deployment of Russian troops in Ukraine to the March 16 Crimean autonomy referendum.

The rescheduled talk takes place Wednesday, March 19, from 7 to 9 p.m. in Thistle 325 at the University.

This community discussion is open to the public. Continue reading →

A Post from Karl Dockstader

St Catharines, Turtle Island – Niagara residents have organized a peaceful awareness rally for this Saturday, March 15^th at Noon at the Gazebo at Montebello Park on 64 Ontario Street in St Catharines.

From a rally last year on Canada’s Parliament Hill for proper, respectful inviestigations into murded and missing native women and girls. Why should they be treated like human garbage when they go missing?

Area residents of both First Nations citizenship and Canadian citizenship were appalled at the Federal government’s inaction at mounting pressure to launch an official inquiry into why First Nations women and girls go missing or are murdered at rates at least three times higher according to reporting from the Native Women’s Association of Canada. 

Those same reports have identified hundreds more of our women are victimized by crime and violence, but after throwing papers on the parliament floor instead of addressing issues head on, it is clear that Justice Minister Peter MacKay has no intention of doing anything other than repeating his parties partisan rhetoric about already having done enough to discourage crime. The paper throwing incident was on Thursday, March 6th and foreshadowed the government’s statements the next day that no special inquiry would be launched. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

Mark Taliano attended a conference organized by Raul Burbano of Common Frontiers.

Speakers included :  Pablo Vivanco from the Hugo Chavez peoples’ defense front, Maria Victor Paez from the Circulo Bolivariano – Louis Riel, Beatrice Santiago from the Latin American and Caribbean solidarity network  and Camilo Cahis from HOW campaign

The narrative of the speakers is that Venezuela is currently undergoing a foreign-orchestrated coup. 

What follows is an account of Venezuela’s current problems as seen through the lens of the assembled speakers and the lens history.

A refinery at work in oil-rich Venezuala.

 The United States and Canada have plenty of reasons to be afraid of the (oil rich) Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, so they are doing their utmost to address their perceived problem. 

The US, in particular, fears that Venezuela’s social democracy will set a dangerous precedent, and that, if allowed, other countries will follow suit.  They also fear the status quo, wherein they are denied control over Venezuela’s oil reserves (the world’s largest) Continue reading →

A Submission from Ontario’s Conservative Party 

(But before we post that submission below, here is a Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper.

This call by Ontario’s Tim Hudak Tories for the resignation of Hydro One CEO Carmine Marcello occurs in the wake of the province’s Ombudsman, Andre Marin, launching an investigation into countless complaints from residents and businesses about soaring rates and misbillings by Ontario’s major electricity supplier.

No doubt at all that Ontario residents have plenty to complain about when it comes to the way this utility has been administrated. Yet in fairness to Marcello, he has at least had the guts to answer media calls with promises to cooperate with the Ombudsman and address the concerns being raised.

As for Hudak’s Tories, they are hardly in the best position to throw stones. When Hudak and so many of his other caucus members were serving in the late 1990s and early 2000s in former Ontario Tory government of Mike Harris, they continued to defend a Hydro One CEO they appointed until they were finally forced, under pressure from the media opposition parties and public, to get rid of her around charges of excessive salaries, expenses, etc. Continue reading →

This Statement submitted to Niagara At Large by the Office of Niagara, Ontario area MP Malcolm Allen 

(A Brief Foreword from NAL – Olivia Chow, wife of Canada’s late NDP leader Jack Layton and a long-time political leader in her own right, has resigned her federal government seat and will be officially announcing her intentions this March 13^th to run for mayor of Toronto in this coming fall’s municipal elections. The current mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, has already announced his intentions to run for a second term as that city’s mayor, despite all of the controversy around his conduct in recent times. Ford has reportedly called Chow’s intention to run for mayor “the best news I’ve heard all day.”)

Olivia Chow, one of Canada’s leading NDP representatives running against Rob Ford in this fall’s Toronto mayoralty race

March 12^th, 2014 -“It is with mixed emotions that I mark the departure of the Member of Parliament for Trinity-Spadina today – my friend and colleague Olivia Chow. But our loss is Toronto’s gain. 

As a Member of Parliament, Olivia’s passion, competence and strength were evident as she defended the interests of Torontonians. As an NDP critic, she worked passionately on important files, including rail safety. A visionary, she has always been able to bring people together to get results – such as expanding Canadians’ powers of citizen’s arrest in the “Lucky Moose Bill”. Continue reading →