Niagara At Large

A Commentary by Doug Draper

‘Those big-spending Liberals won’t cut your taxes. We will.’

Even if you were doing a poor job of following this spring’s federal election in Canada, you must have heard that message. It was repeated over and over again by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives, and it apparently convinced enough of us to deliver the Conservatives a commanding majority in both the parliament and senate.

Harper chooses user fee hikes and service cuts over income tax hikes

There is no doubt in this commentators mind that there will be billions of dollars in new tax cuts for corporations in this country that are already bathing in bonuses for their top executives and dividends for their shareholders. Those cuts for the rich and super rich have been promised and as sure as the rich get richer and the rest of us get shafted, they will be delivered.

But what about the tax cuts Harper promised earlier this spring for ‘hard-working Canadian families’? Or are those cuts for families going to have to wait, as the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and several other media organizations  have recently reported, until the Harper government balances the budget for years three or four years down the road?

Of course, three or four years down the road brings us close to another federal election – a good time to offer tax cuts to a peasantry that may not have noticed how much it is about to have its pocket picked with more user fees, even while it puts up with more cuts to health care, education, environment and other public services. Continue reading →

By Dawn Pierrynowski

You’ve heard of chimney sweeps but do you know about the Chimney Swift?

A Chimney Swift, nesting down a chimney shaft. A species struggling to survive.

These unique birds – known more technically as Chaetura Pelagica – are an urban-dwelling aerial insectivore that eats about 1,000 flying insects each day while flying continuously high over towns, fields, forests and wetlands. They are known as the “flying cigars” because of their cigar-shaped body (12-14 cm long), narrow pointed wings, short spiny tail, and quick jerky movements while in flight. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

For more than half a century, it has been one of the more welcome signs that the lazy, hazy days of summer are almost here.

Buffalo's Delaware Avenue adrift with people during the Allentown Art Festival. File photo by Doug Draper.

The Allentown Art Festival in Buffalo,  N.Y. – one of the oldest,  biggest and most popular, not to mention most  populated festivals of its kind in this region of the world – is celebrating its 54th anniversary this Saturday,  June 11 and Sunday,  June 12 on several blocks of Delaware Avenue where countless tens-of-thousands are visiting hundreds of exhibitors every hour the festival is open. Continue reading →

A Foreword from Niagara At Large

The Niagara Regional Police Service’s higher-than-inflation budget increases in recent years may not be a a big hit with municipal ratepayers, many of whom have not seen a similar two-to-three percent increase in their pensions or hourly wages for quite a few years.

Niagara Regional Police Chief Wendy Southall

But it is unclear if the federal Conservative government of Stephen Harper, which is all about pouring billions of dollars more of our money out on its get-tough-on-crime program, cares all that much about this. Most recently, this June 8, it has awarded NRPC Chief Wendy Southall with a “merit award.”

One wonders if those of us who are lower down on the foodchain, yet are still struggling to pay our taxes at the federal, provincial and federal level, should not get a merit award also, simply for trying to do that!.

This is nothing against Wendy Southall as a person, who seems to be one of the best police chief’s Niagara, Ontario has had since regional government was established more than 40 years ago. Yet why do are governments continue to pin badges of honour on those making six-digit salaries while so many of the rest of us are being screwed?

Below  is the prepared statement from the federal government on Chief Southall’s award.

Ottawa – St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra and Niagara West-Glanbrook MP Dean Allison were on hand at Rideau Hall today to see Niagara Regional Police Chief Wendy Southall become an Office of the Order of Merit of Police Officers.  Chief Southall was one of 7 officers and 36 members presented with the award by Governor General David Johnston.   Continue reading →

(Just as a foreword to this fine piece by Don Alexander, a Niagara resident, urban planner and good friend of the late Jane Jacobs, billions of books have been published in the last 50 years but only a very few of them made a difference in the way we think and live as a people. Among them are Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’, Marshall Mcluhan’s ‘Understanding Media’, Harper Lee’s ‘Too Kill a Mockingbird’,  and Jane Jacob’s ‘The Death And Life Of Great American Cities’, a book that strived to get us all thinking about how we might live a richer life in a healthy urban environment, evem while many of us were moving way out  beyond the edges of the city known to some, who couldn’t’ give a damn about real city life, as the suburbs.
Don Alexander, an urban planner, former Niagara regional councillor and an old friend of Jane Jacobs who produced a fine documentary film on her, talks about Jacobs on the 50th anniversary of her seminal book and Niagara At Large is proud to post it here.)

By Don Alexander

Fifty years ago, we began to learn about city planning and living in a different way.

Jane Jacobs with Don Alexander. Photo courtesy of Don Alexander.

The publication in 1961 of “Death and Life of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacobs turned a corner in the way we think about cities. The book still resonates with those who think and plan about the future directions of cities.

I first read the book, with wonder, about 1963.  I began to imagine a different future for cities.  Since that time, I have measured many of the city sights I see against the potentials that were held in Jane Jacob’s book and in later publications about the economies of cities and regions. Continue reading →

By Pat Scholfield 

Finally a decision has been made to review the Niagara Health System’s so-called Hospital Improvement Plan!   How do we – those of us who are advocates in various coalitions – feel about it?  Good!   Do we feel ecstatic?   No.

Pat Scholfield

And why don’t we feel ecstatic? Because it is highly unlikely the review will be either independent, objective or complete.

Remember we asked for an independent review. Health Minister Deb Matthews has assured us it will be an independent evaluation headed by the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), the Niagara Health System (NHS) and members of Regional Council, who will set up the terms of reference. That means two of the agencies that developed and approved the Hospital Improvement Plan (HIP) will be the bodies chosen to set up the criteria for the evaluation. Isn’t this a flagrant conflict of interest? Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting this June 3 statement from Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak, MPP Niagara West-Glanbrook, following the announcement from Peter Kormos, MPP Welland, that he will not run for re-election in the fall.)

“Few MPPs will leave a more indelible mark on Queen’s Park than Peter Kormos.”

Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak

“He will be remembered as an iconic figure whose personal popularity back home in Welland was so great that even when the NDP was reduced from 74 to 17 seats in 1995, he handily won his hometown riding.”

“Anyone who has worked at the Ontario legislature during the past 25 years has a story to tell about Peter Kormos. Quick witted, always willing to speak strategy on legislative process, he was a walking encyclopedia of standing orders, procedure or just ways to rattle the government’s cage.” Continue reading →

(This June 3 media release comes from the office of St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley and Liberal government cabinet minister, and is being posted for our readers information. It speaks to a continued commitment on the part of the government to use some gas tax money to support public transit.)

St. Catharines, Ontario— Provincial support through the gas tax is getting more people in St. Catharines out of their cars and onto public transit. The Gas Tax program is helping public transit in St. Catharines become more convenient, accessible and comfortable for commuters by funding improvements.

St. Catharines MPP and Ontario cabinet minister Jim Bradley

“Gas tax funding helps municipalities deliver public transit here in St. Catharines and across the province,” said St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley. “Our record investments in public transit strengthen Ontario’s economy by helping people get to work, school, and to visit friends, while reducing gridlock and emissions.”

One bus takes up to 40 vehicles off the road, and keeps 25 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere each year Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Peter Kormos, the fearless, outspoken member of the Ontario NDP who has served the Welland Riding since the late 1980, announced this June 3 that he will not be running in this October’s provincial election.

Peter Kormos

And admire Kormos or not, the decision by this always colourful personality to retire from provincial politics definitely marks the end of an era. The political landscape in Niagara and Ontario may never be quite the same.

“After 23 years in the Ontario legislature, I’ve decided to pursue new interests,” said Kormos in a statement. “I remain indebted to Mel Swart, my predecessor. He set an extremely high standard (and) I thank NDP leader Andrea Horwath and former leader Howard Hampton for their leadership and guidance. I’m proud of the work they and New Democrats have done over the years.  By putting people and communities first, we’ve made a real difference for Ontario families.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The Niagara Health System should not be allowed to sit on a “steering committee” setting the terms for an investigation into the way it is managing the region’s hospital services, says Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati.

Niagara Falls, Ontario Mayor Jim Diodati

“That would be a clear conflict of interest,” Diodati told Niagara At Large during a phone interview this June 2 from a conference for Canadian municipalities he was attending on the east coast. “This has to pass the smell test and the way it sits now, it doesn’t,” added the mayor of information Niagara’s regional chairman Gary Burroughs received in a May 31 letter from the province’s health minister Deb Matthews. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Let me begin with a few rhetorical questions.
.
How safe do you feel in this country? Do you go to bed preoccupied with a fear that someone might burst into your house in the middle of the night and brutalize you or your family or that you could get shot or stabbed walking down the street the following day?

'Mr. Tough Guy'. Federal Justice Minister and Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson.

Those same figures (no wonder the Stephen Harper government wants to dewclaw Statistics Canada) show that this country has one of the lowest crime rates in the world and the rate of violent crime has actually declined in Canada over the past decade – even while the federal Liberals were in power and Harper’s Conservatives accused them, every chance they could get of being “soft on crime.” Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post the following media release on tours you enjoy through Forest Lawn, one of the most historic cemeteries in our greater region and one that is rich with classic monuments to people who were among the great makers and shakers, both nationally and internationally, over the past few hundred years.)

Buffalo, NY – Do you know what air conditioning, the electric chair, the grain elevator and the BarcaLounger all have in common? The individuals who invented them are all interred at Forest Lawn, along with many other well-known men and women, including President Millard Fillmore, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm and musician Rick James.

Grave of Buffalo, New York area native and R&B musician Rick James. Photo by Doug Draper

When you take one of Forest Lawn’s famous Sunday In The Cemetery walking or trolley tours, you’ll hear the fascinating stories of the people, art, history and nature that make up this 269-acre jewel, located at 1411 Delaware Avenue in the heart of downtown Buffalo. And you’ll meet a few of our famous permanent residents along the way! Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this news release from Ontario’s Niagara Parks Commission for our readers on the grand opening opening this Saturday, June 4 of the new Niagara Glen Nature Centre. The Niagara Glen located off the Niagara Parkway north of Queenston Heights and the Niagara Escarpment is a natural wonder that offers visitors an experience of the lower Niagara River along the gorge the that is possibly as close at is comes to view that greeted the first European explorers. If you’ve never hiked the Niagara Glen, put on your best walking shoes and great ready for a breath-taking treat.)

Niagara Falls, ON – The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) is pleased to announce exciting changes at the Niagara Glen with the grand opening of the new Nature Centre (previously known as The Feather in the Glen) on Saturday, June 4. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 9:30 a.m.  followed by free guided tours of the Niagara Glen at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Overlooking the lower rapids of the great river from the Niagara Glen. Photo courtesy of Niagara Parks Commission.

Daily hiking tours and bicycle rentals will now be available throughout the season at the centre, and visitors are invited to explore new educational displays including “Animals of the Glen”, nature and geology “touch tables” and interpretive panels on the flora and geology of the Niagara Glen.

Hand carved wood products by Master Carver Frank Kim, framed artwork by local artist Paul Augustino and paintings by members of the Parkway Artists Guild are also on sale at the centre. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

After more than a year of stubborn refusals, it appears that Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews has said okay to some kind of an “investigation” or “evaluation” of the way the Niagara Health System has been managing hospital services in the region.

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews finally bends to calls for Niagara hospital review

The minister, who has repeatedly brushed away calls from Niagara citizen groups and municipal leaders for an investigation, sent a letter to the regional government’s chair, Gary Burroughs, this May 31 saying she will now allow some kind of “third-party review” into how the NHS, an administrative board created under the province’s former Conservative government, is rolling out plans for hospital services here.

“After thoughtful deliberation and consideration, I have come to the conclusion that an independent, third-party evaluation of the implemented phases of the (NHS’s) Hospital Improvement Plan (HIP) would be valuable,” stated Matthews in the letter. “I agree that such an evaluation would be best served by requesting the (Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network or LHIN, for short,) establish a tripartite steering committee to develop the terms of reference for the evaluation. Representation on this committee must include LYIN board members, HNS board members, and members of regional council as determined by the regional chair. The LHIN board is responsible under their mandate to establish such a committee and determine its membership and timelines.”

Port Colborne, Ontario Mayor Vance Badawey, who has witness hospital services in his community diminished under the NHS and its hospital plan, told Niagara At Large this June 1 that “the satisfying thing about this is that (Matthews) has said ‘yes’ to a third-party review. However, it is extremely critical that it is done right.” Continue reading →

By Shaheen Kanthawala, Courtesy of The Great Lakes Echo

(This article was posted this May 31 in The Great Lakes Echo, an online news site produced by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan, and focuses on the latest efforts by Niagara Falls, Ontario MPP Kim Craitor to get a bill passed in the Ontario legislature, granting the general public access to our lakeshores.

With a provincial election coming on in October, this may be the last best chance to get legislation of this nature passed so that everyone can enjoy these Great Lakes that rightfully are the home to all of us and not just the playground of a privileged few. Contact your provincial MPP now and urge them to support Craitor’s proposed ‘Right of Passage Act’ – Bill 32, be passed – NOW!)

A bill proposed in Ontario, Canada may let the general public walk along the Great Lakes shoreline instead of just the people who own lakefront property.
Right now they can’t.

Niagara Falls, Ontario MPP Kim Craitor and an area resident at a makeshift barrier erected along the shores of Lake Erie and intended to keep the general public off the shoreline.

Shoreline property owners in Ontario have privileges right down to the lakes.

“Cottage owners take advantage of that,” said Marcia Valiante, a law professor at University of Windsor, “They put up barriers in the water.”

The existing laws are unclear, she said. This bill tries to clarify the situation.

The proposed Great Lakes Right of Passage Act would allow the public to walk between the shoreline and the high water mark of a Great Lake. It was proposed by Kim Craitor, a member of the provincial parliament. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity.”
William Butler Keats

The thought of going to an anti-green lobby group espousing the end or curtailment of wind turbines was akin to going to a Tea Party meeting, but I went anyways.

A bumper sticker from the anti-wind turbine citizens coalition, Wind Concerns Ontario.

It was a moderate drive from Grimsby, Ontario – more than this meeting in neighbourhing municipality of West Lincoln deserved – but then Grimsby is solidly Conservative, so it wasn’t that difficult.  I don’t mean disrespect to Conservatives, after all, it’s the Conservatives in Germany who are arguably more “green” than the Greens of Canada (Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions are 20 percent below 1990 levels, and well past the KYOTO target.), but the Conservatives in Grimsby are about as green as trans-national corporations —  more purplish I’d say, with some green washed in. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Good Lord Almighty, and I ain’t even all that religious.  Do we really need to be spending more time and money at Niagara, Ontario’s regional level of government talking about what the average homeowner should do with their grass clipping?!

Grass clippings, for God’s sake! Grass clippings!

From a Niagara regional government pamphlet, encouraging us to recycle grass clippings on our own lawns.

If that’s what residents on the Niagara, Ontario side of our greater region want their government to spend more time and money on – what to do with the grass clippings after we’ve cut our lawn – then why not get the regional government to spend even more time and money studying which rake is the best one to use to gather up grass clippings, or whether a rake is more environmentally friendly to use than one of those electric lawn vacuums?

If the question of what to do with our grass clippings is such a big concern in Niagara, then maybe we are doing pretty well here. Let’s face it, how many other people on this planet have the luxury of worrying about what to do with their grass clippings? Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

Well, the weather is finally getting a little more seasonal and our farmers across the greater Niagara region are able to go out in their fields and, hopefully, salvage what is left of an overly cold and soggy growing season.

St. Catharines, Ontario Farmers Market. Photo courtesy of City of St. Catharines

A few weeks back, The Buffalo News published a story on its front page, talking about how much more financially punishing this wet spring is for them, on top of rising fuel prices, foreign competition and everything lese they are trying to wrestle with. There was the suggestion that some of them may not survive these burdens and I would imagine the same burdens our facing our family farms on the Niagara, Ontario side of the border. Continue reading →

By Chris George

May 31, 2011 – This week when Members of Parliament return to the House of Commons, Niagara West – Glanbrook MP Dean Allison will be picking up where he left off before the election, assisting Canadian families in raising greater awareness of the health and quality of life challenges posed by living with severe, life-threatening allergies (anaphylaxis).

With his private member’s Motion 546 of the previous Parliament, MP Allison led a drive to make MPs and the Ottawa bureaucracy more aware of the serious issues facing Canadians with anaphylaxis. The MP achieved all-Party support for his motion, which was the subject of an hour debate in the House of Commons in March of this year. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Welcome to Niagara At Large’s second entry of ‘Creep of the Week’ – a column that focuses on someone who does something  creepy and contemptible enough to wear a creep-of-the-week crown.

Stephen Harper, our creep of the week

Last week, it was a generously paid college president from the Barrie, Ontario area who tried to write off the cost of a political fundraising dinner on an expense account that we taxpayers cover, as do college students through their tuitions, until the province’s NDP party filed a freedom of information request that would expose this conduct. At that point, the Georgian College president did what he should have done in the first place, and paid the $5,000 back out of his own pocket.

This last week of May, our Creep of the Week crown goes to Canada’s recently re-elected prime minister, Stephen Harper, for hardly waiting three weeks after the election to appoint three defeated candidates from his Conservative Party to that bone yard for political hacks that is the country’s Senate. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

With little more than 19 weeks left until the next provincial election, hardly a weekday goes by when I don’t get at least one media release from the Conservatives or NDP, or from any one of a number of citizen groups slamming Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government.

Ontario Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne

Suffice to say, this columnist has done his share of criticizing too – especially when it comes to the way McGuinty and company have sat back and allowed the Niagara Health System to set plans for most of the hospital services in this region. I’ve no doubt that this issue alone could cost the Liberals thousands of votes in this region and could cost Kim Craitor, a decent, hardworking Liberal MPP, his seat in a Niagara Falls riding that includes Fort Erie where, more than a year ago, the emergency room at the hospital in that community was closed. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Memorial Day Weekend is here for our American neighbours across the border and this Sunday, May 29 everyone – Americans and Canadians alike – who has an interest in U.S. Civil War history is invited to a special commemorative event on one of the most historic lawns of Buffalo.

File photo of Civil War march through Forest Lawn in Buffalo. Photo by Michael Mandolfo and courtesy of Forest Lawn, Buffalo, N.Y.

That event will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and take place in Forest Lawn Cemetery bordered by Buffalo’s Main Street and Delaware Avenue.

If you  are a Civil War buff, you may already know that tens-of-thousands of young Canadians from what was then still British North America enlisted in the Union and Confederate armies to fight in what remains the bloodiest conflict on this continent. This was a war, from 1861 to 1865, that affected the lives, often tragically, of many families in both our countries. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

“Cling, Clang. Cling Clang. …
That’s the sound of the men
working on the chain gang.”
–    from the old Sam Cooke song, Chain Gang

Get used to the idea folks. If Niagara native and Conservative leader Tim Hudak becomes the next premier of Ontario, driving along a road or highway and watching prisoners dressed up in stripped pajamas and ankle chains as they clearing garbage or picking up garbage along the side of the road may become routine.

A chain gang in George, vintage 1941. Tim Hudak promises to bring them to Ontario if he become premier in 2011

You may even see them cutting grass in our public parks, the way the Conservative leader describes it.

It’s probably no big deal if you’ve spent a lot of time driving the roads way down in the deep south in Georgia or Alabama or Mississippi. You’ll be gong along and there they are, wearing stripped suits and ankle bracelets, clearing up the scrub and the daddy from Slaphole, Mississippi drives by with his son in the car and says; “Lookie der boy. Dat’s what you get if you lifts a can of tuna from the Piggly Wiggly.”

Now Tim Hudak is pledging to import that culture to Ontario, and isn’t it a good thing! Isn’t it?  After all, and as he imagines, every day spent in a prison in this province is like a day’s vacation at the Quality Inn, with yoga, writing classes, high-definition TV and all other sorts of fun. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following May 26 media release for our readers information.)

OTTAWA – Leader of the Official Opposition, Jack Layton announced this morning that NDP MP Malcolm Allen (Welland) will serve as the Agriculture and Agri-Food Critic in his shadow cabinet.

After serving as the Deputy Critic for Agriculture and Food Security in the last Parliament, Allen was honoured to receive the agriculture critic appointment.

“Obviously this is a huge honour and great responsibility to be named in this historic shadow cabinet. We will be sitting directly across from the Ministers responsible and hold them to account for Canadians every day,” said Allen.

Allen has developed relationships with multiple farm and agricultural associations and groups over the years and is looking forward to strengthening those in the coming Parliamentary session.

“My office has worked hard on the agriculture file for over 2 years,” said Allen. “We’ve met with many representatives from agriculture and farm groups, including developing a Private Members Bill with the support of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.”

(Niagara At Large is running the following May 24 media release from the office of Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak for our readers’ information. These posts should in no way be interpreted to mean that NAL supports the views of the party or candidate that produced them. This is about putting the information out there and letting you use the comment boxes below as a town hall to share your views. So here we go with this latest one from a party that, when it was in power a decade ago, hardly kept up to spending the amount of money are hospitals needed at the time. Indeed, it was Mike Harris’s Conservative government that created the Niagara Health System that is such a source of controversy in this region today.)

Health Spending Under Hudak to Increase by $6.1 Billion

NEWS:

Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak today announced that his party’s top funding priority will be health care.  By the end of its first term, a Hudak government will increase annual investments in health care by nearly $6.1 billion while moving funds out of waste and administration and into care for people.

Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak

As someone with a young daughter and parents who are getting older, Tim Hudak gets how important our health services truly are.  His party’s plan will bring change that puts patients at the very centre of health care. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

One of the very first record albums I ever bought in my life, when I was around 12 or 13 years old, was something called “In The Wind’ by the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary.

Happy Birthday Bob. May there be many more.

Track after track, that early 1960s album still stands up as a great folk album from that wild and wonderful Greenwich Village era, but the two tracks that stood out the most for me were ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ and ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’, both penned by a then very young immigrant to that Village scene who’d changed his name from Bob Zimmerman to Bob Dylan.

Those two songs, which I quickly learned how to play on a cheap acoustic guitar I owned at the time, were my introduction to Bob Dylan, and the rest is history. Whether it was Bob doing his own music or someone covering it – The Byrds with ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and ‘My Back Pages’ or Jimi Hendrix doing an epic take on ‘All Along The Watchtower’ – I was sold, as were so many others. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Perhaps you’ve already heard the news and it is pretty dire.

According to an 89-year-old evangelical radio preacher in California named Harold Camping, the world is going to end this Saturday, May 21 when ‘Holy God will bring Judgement Day! So pack your bags folks, because in a few short hours, we are going away.

I went to downtown St. Catharines, Ontario this past Thursday to see if I could find an old by Gore Vidal at Hannelore Headley’s legendary local store, ‘Old & Fine Books’ on Queen Street and I actually passed a guy in the downtown, praying up at the sky with a sign beside him that read; ‘Judgement Day, May 21, 2011’. What struck me the most is that he had a shoe box at his feet where passersby could deposit money. And I could not help but wonder why he would need it. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

While many residents in south Niagara remain angry over the loss of emergency room services in their communities, Premier Dalton McGuinty and his Liberal government are investing more than $1.9 million to reduce waiting times at emergency rooms in St. Catharines.

St. Catharines Liberal MPP and cabinet minister Jim Bradley

The emergency rooms at the hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne were closed over the past two years and wait times at the facilities in Welland and Niagara Falls have increased, according to a number of reports.

The news about funding for emergency room services in St. Catharines came to Niagara At Large in the form of a media release from the office of St. Catharines Liberal MPP and cabinet minister Jim Bradley. We are posting it below for your information and comment. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is posting this May 20 media release from the office of Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak for your information and comment.

NEWS:

GRIMSBY—Today, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak, MPP Niagara West-Glanbrook, said a PC government will provide relief for families by removing the provincial portion of the HST from home hydro and heating bills, and the debt retirement charge from the family hydro bill. Taken together, these steps will give Ontario households $275 in immediate relief from rising energy bills.

Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak

Dalton McGuinty’s expensive energy experiments – like his smart meter tax machines and sweetheart Samsung deal – have caused hydro bills to skyrocket. What’s worse, he has also burdened families by slapping the HST on essentials like hydro, home heating, and natural gas. Families are also still paying a debt retirement charge for a $7.8 billion debt that should have been paid off by now. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

The Council of Canadians, an Ottawa-based citizens group, is urging the federal government to say no to plans by Ontario Power Generation to deposit nuclear waste at a site upstream from the drinking water supplies of millions of Canadian and U.S. residents in the lower Great Lakes.

Council of Canadians director Maude Barlow

The wastes from nuclear power facilities in Ontario would be placed in underground tunnels a caverns only about a mile away from the shores of Lake Huron, and resident groups from both sides of the Canada/U.S. border have already begun expressing concern about this plan and any possibility of future leaks of the radioactive material into Great Lakes waters. Continue reading →

Foreword by Doug Draper

Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor is once again hoping to get the Ontario Liberal government he is apart of to pass a bill he has tabled that would assure both residents of and visitors to the province access to the shorelines of our Great Lakes.

A fenced-off stretch of Lake Erie beach in the Fort Erie, Ontario area.

The bill – titled the ‘Great Lakes Shoreline Right of Passage Act’ or Bill 32 for short – received second reading earlier this May and is the second or third of its kind that Craitor has tabled over the past four or five years. The others died on the floor of the legislature much to the disappointment of citizen groups like the Ontario Shorewalk Association with members in Fort Erie and other lakeshore communities.

Craitor’s bill is a response to efforts some shoreline residents have made over the years to, for example, fence off sections of beach right down to the waterline so members of the public cannot walk them. In a number of other jurisdictions across the border in the United States and elsewhere in the world, such practices are not allowed.

For the record, Niagara At Large is posting below the hansard from the Ontario legislature earlier this May, featuring Craitor’s arguments for passage of the bill.

GREAT LAKES SHORELINE
RIGHT OF PASSAGE ACT, 2011 /
LOI DE 2011 SUR LE DROIT
DE PASSAGE SUR LE LITTORAL
DES GRANDS LACS

Mr. Craitor moved second reading of the following bill:
Bill 32, An Act to create a right of passage along the shoreline of the Great Lakes / Projet de loi 32, Loi créant un droit de passage le long du littoral des Grands Lacs.

Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Jim Wilson): Pursuant to standing order 98, the honourable member has 12 minutes for his presentation.

Mr. Kim Craitor: I’m extremely proud to have the opportunity to bring forward Bill 32, right of passage, and to have the right to be able to speak on it today.
Summer is coming. It will get warmer and warmer, and when it gets hot, thousands of Ontario families will head down to the absolutely marvellous sand beaches along the shores of our Great Lakes, beaches that are really wonderful most of the time. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is posting, for our readers’ information, Wayne Redekop’s verbatim remarks accompanying his May 18 announcement that he is seeking the nomination to run as the NDP candidate in  the Niagara Falls riding in this October’s provincial elections. If he wins the nomination this June, he will be running against Liberal incumbent Kim Craitor and Conservative candidate George Lepp.

WAYNE REDEKOP SEEKS               
NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINATION

I wish to announce my intention to seek the nomination as the candidate of the New Democratic Party for the Fort Erie-Niagara Falls-Niagara on the Lake riding in the forthcoming provincial election.

Wayne Redekop seeks NDP nomination in Niagara Falls Riding.

This will be no ordinary provincial election.  The results will determine how our government will respond to the challenges that we face as a province, as communities and as families and individuals.  Will the agenda of the next provincial government include measures that make life affordable for families and individuals, that invest in health care and education, that protect our environment and that ensure that today’s debt does not burden future generations? Continue reading →

Publisher’s Note – Niagara At Large is posting this May 19 media release from the office of Niagara Falls Riding provincial Conservative candidate George Lepp for your information.

NEWS:
Niagara Falls—Today, PC Candidate for the Niagara Falls Riding George Lepp announced that after years of failed Liberal hydro experiments, a PC government would remove the provincial portion of the HST from hydro bills.
In Canada, heating our homes is not a luxury.

Niagara Falls riding Conservative candidate George Lepp

Dalton McGuinty’s move to increase the cost with a surprise tax increase was grossly unfair. A PC government will remove the provincial portion of the HST from every home heating bill, including natural gas, home heating oil and propane.

A PC Government will also remove the so-called “Debt Retirement Charge” from residential hydro bills. Taken together, these steps will give a typical Ontario household $275 in immediate relief from rising energy bills. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Two former Niagara mayors – Wayne Redekop of Fort Erie and Katie Trombetta of West Lincoln, are revving it up for runs in their ridings for this October’s provincial election.

Wayne Redekop addresses rally for better hospital care at Queen's Park last year. Photo by Doug Draper

Redekop, a lawyer in Fort Erie who was that town’s mayor until he left the job four years ago, is looking to be the NDP candidate in the Niagara Falls riding which will pit him against the Liberal incumbent, Kim Craitor. The nomination meeting for him to be that candidate takes place this June.

Trombetta lost her job as West Lincoln’s mayor last fall after serving two terms that had her presenting a strong voice around the Niagara regional council chambers on issues of concern to her area. She has been nominated as the Liberal candidate for the riding of Niagara West-Glanbrook, the same riding now dominated by the province’s Conservative opposition leader, Tim Hudak. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

What is it with community colleges in Ontario digging into our pockets and those of their students to pay for fundraisers for political parties in this province?

Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath is smoking the pikers in our publicly paid for college system out

Niagara At Large has just got through pillaring one college president, Georgian College’s Brian Tamblyn, as our very first ‘Creep of the Week’ for a new weekly column we are doing on people whose behaviour is so depraved, they deserve to be called creeps. You can read about his attempt to stick the public with the cost of a $5,000 political-fundraising event a few posts down on this site by clicking on http://www.niagaraatlarge.com.

And now we got more! Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Bruce Power, the operator of a nuclear power station in the Owen Sound area of Ontario, has put its shipment of radioactive-contaminated steam generators through the lower Great Lakes, including the Welland Canal, on hold.

Radioactive-contaminated wastes won't be shipped through Welland Canal, at least for now.

That’s according to t CBC and other media reports this May 17 that go on to say that it was objections from U.S. regulators, and not a regulator in Canada, that has put the shipments of this radioactive waste through our lower Great Lakes, and onward through the St. Lawrence River to Sweden on hold. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Welcome to ‘Creep of the Week’ – a new series we are launching at Niagara At Large that spots a hot lights each week on at least one individual who has done something creepy enough to warrant public pillaring.

Ontario college president Brian Tamblyn

This week – as we suspect will be the case from here on in this depraved culture we live in – there were plenty of candidates to choose from, starting with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French politician and suddenly sidelined top honcho of the International Monetary Fund who allegedly sexually assaulted a female worker at a swanky Manhattan hotel before trying to make a hasty flight out of the country, and Donald Trump, the bloated Manhattan billionaire and star of the wretched reality show Celebrity Apprentice, who teased us right up to May 16 that he might run for president against a Barack Obama he accused of being less than forthcoming about his place of birth and of possibly wangling his way into and through Harvard University’ law school with lousy grades.

But being more of a regional news and commentary site, we at Niagara At Large have decided  to place our first Creep of the Week crown on someone a little closer to home – a Mr. Brian Tamblyn, president of Georgian College with campuses in the Orillia-Barrie, Ontario area. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

If the best foundation for a strong democracy is an informed electorate, then the worst would be a frightened or uninformed one.  It is with this in mind that I am adding a dose of clarity to some muddied waters.

A recent Letter To The Editor in the West Niagara News argued that wind turbines are not “green”. There’s nothing new about this; I’ve seen the protest signs.  My first reaction was to juxtapose the image of wind turbines to Mountaintop Removal Mining in the Appalachian Mountains, or to compare them to images of exploding Japanese nuclear reactors.  The imagery is fair, and a picture can sometimes be worth a thousand words, but some would argue that it’s alarmist. Continue reading →

(Editor’s Note – The post below speaks to a picturesque stretch of federally owned land along the shores of Lake Ontario, hosting one of the last remaining stands of Carolinian forest and other natural riches. Many in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario and surrounding communities fought to preserve this land, where a military rifle range was in use during the first half of the last century, when a Toronto-based consortium wanted to transform some of it into a venue for summer music concerts. The Harmony Residents Group of Niagara-on-the-Lake would like the lands preserved as a nature park for the public)

By Randy Busbridge

Catching turtles to take home as pets, swimming in the lake when the red flag wasn’t up, skating on Four Mile Creek Pond  …  these are but a sample of the stories shared on May 11 during the “Rifle Range Memories” discussion hosted by the Harmony Group.

A 1956 photo taken on the lakeshore lands, courtesy of Randy Busbridge.

Speakers brought old photos, maps – even a replica of a bazooka rocket – to help illustrate their tales.  Most of all, they brought their memories.

Speakers recalled the former “Happyland Camp” facility for tuberculosis victims, fishing and hunting expeditions (including the Saturday night sport of shooting rats at the old town dump), and hours of childhood play on all parts of the “Army Lands”, as the Parks Canada Lakeshore Road property was known.  They talked about discovering the foundation of the John Secord homestead, and rumours of an old burying ground. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

“Hey Draper, you buried the lead!

I’ve heard that one from an editor every now and then, when they felt I dumped some of the most important stuff in the back end of the story.

American writer Gore Vidal was never afraid to say it was, first and foremost, about oil.

I think I may have done a bit of that earlier this May with a commentary I posted entitled “The Killing Of Osama Bin Laden – Michael Moore Calls It An “Execution.” I Call It Justice,” which I still stand by and you still can find by srolling down the post for May on Niagrara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com .

Way down at the bottom of the commentary I quoted some words from one of the last legendary American intellectuals and gadflies from the past 60 years – one Gore Vidal – from a very brave book he wrote the year after 9/11 when, in patriotic fervor, everyone was all pumped up about going to war against anyone that may have hit the twin towers and Pentagon, called ‘Dreaming War – Blood For Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta’. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Doug Draper

What you have to do to get a little better health care in Ontario – especially if you have an arrogant blockhead like Deb Matthews for a health minister?

Jill Anzarut and her children Laila, 2, and Benjamin, 5. File photo

It was only after Anzarut went public with her plight this past winter, and Matthews and company were buried in thousands of angry email messages from Ontario residents and breast cancer support groups that the minister finally caved it. At one point this winter, following stories about Anzarut on the CBC and in larger newspapers like The Globe and Mail, not to mention all of the smaller media outlets (including Niagara At Large) that reported her story, Matthews quipped, in her own insufferable way, that she was ‘not going to let policy be dictated by a newspaper story.’ Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

Okay, so someone in Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s office  looked Niagara up on the map recently and the premier and is planning a visit to the region this Friday,  May 13.

Premier Dalton McGuinty comes knocking on Niagara's door.

I just noticed as I was banging this out that we are actually talking about Friday the 13th which may be just as good a day as any for this premier to come knocking on our region’s door for the following events, according to the itinerary cranked out by his p.r. flaks.

First dear Dalton, who has done such a bang up job on the energy conservation front while he is driving around in an SUV, hasn’t he? – is heading down to the place in Niagara Falls, Ontario where ‘Big Becky’, that giant drilling device is apparently finished burrowing through another hydro tunnel, has done its work. The p.r. flaks write “media availability to follow,” but only if you “pre-register” which means they might say no to some of those who register. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

                                              “Ding, dong the witch is dead.”
                                                     – from The Wizard of Oz

“It is not natural to celebrate the death of someone, but somehow it seems natural tonight.”
–    Andrea Mitchell, a senior NBC television correspondent following U.S. President Barack Obama’s dramatic announcement this May 1 that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been gunned down by a specially trained squad of American Navy SEALS.

Aside from our remembrances of those ‘Munchkins’ in the Oz movie, getting all joyous over a house falling down fatally on a wicked witch, most of us in this somewhat civilized world we live in have been brought up to view the death of someone as an occasion for sadness, and not one for dancing in the streets.

As a columnist who has so often been cast by supporters and critics of my views alike as a one of those die-hard liberal softies – a latter-day tree huggers and peacenik  – that was one of the first thoughts that flashed through my mind as I sat in front a television two Sundays ago and watched crowds of people gathering outside the White House and at ‘Ground Zero’ in New York City, cheering over the news that bin Laden had been killed. Should we be celebrating this thing?

Well, I have got to be honest folks. It was a question that lasted a nano-second before my mind flashed back to the terrorists attacks, masterminded by this psychotic monster, on September 9, 2001. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

In the week ahead, on May 17, 18 and 19, the Niagara Parks Commission is inviting members of the public to open houses to review its plans for the public lands this agency has been entrusted to preserve and protect along the Canadian shores of the Niagara River.

Photo courtesy of Niagara Parks Commission.

The NPC was founded in the late 1800s and remains a steward of public lands spanning the length of the Niagara River between Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake. The creation of this body was a stroke of vision by the Ontario government at the time. Similar scenic shoreline lands along this great river and the Horseshoe and American Falls, on the New York side of the border, were being chewed up for industrial development a century ago. There have been many New York environment and park officials who have said they wished leaders in that state joined Ontario in purchasing up lands along these spectacular border waters for the purposes of preservation. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

They flock to Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario every spring and summer.

There are the hordes of tourists and locals, including school and business groups, that come to this world-famous amusement park for what those Marineland commercials call “a whale of a time.” And there are those who come to hold placards on the busy road outside the park, bearing words like “Not Everyone Loves Marineland,” “Captivity Means Slavery” and “Whales Belong In The Ocean.”

Those bearing the signs more often receive homes of support from passersby than the odd driver who gives them the finger or throws an empty pop can at them. Yet the crowds keep in flooding this five-decade old them park that continues to make whales and other marine mammals, splashing in pools, one of its major attractions. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Do we need one more reason to nix the idea of constructing a mid-peninsula highway aside from the cost and the environmental havoc it may wreak on the Niagara countryside?

This record-high price for a litre of gas in Niagara, Ontario is now typical of the ouch at the pump for car and truck drivers.

Well, how about the soaring price of gasoline and diesel fuel? And at more than $1.40 a litre for a regular price of gas at most stations across the Niagara region this May 11 (that is more than $5.50 a gallon for our friends on the U.S. side of the border), we are experiencing record-high costs for fueling cars and trucks that many energy experts say could hit more than $2 a litre or $8 a gallon within the next few years.

So why on earth would a majority of politicians sitting on our Niagara regional council and Tim Hudak, leader of the opposition Ontario Conservative Party, continue pressing the province’s Liberal government to move forward with a mid-peninsula highway plan that is now more than a decade old and has been all but shelved completely following environmental assessment reviews steered by the province’s Ministry of Transportation? Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is posting the following NDP media release and hansard exchange between the NDP’s health critic, France Gelinas, and Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty and his finance minister, Dwight Duncan, for your information.

Ontario NDP health critic France Gelinas

It should be mentioned that hospital boards like the Niagara Health System have not been subject to “freedom of information” legislation, requiring them to possibly disclose information about their services that may be applied for by the media or members of the public, under the current Liberal and former Conservative governments. Hospital boards have essentially been allowed to release whatever information they wish to about their operations and withhold the rest. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

This coming June 5, the lawns around the 19th century Willowbank historic site in the Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario community of Queenston will be grooving with the sounds of some of the best musicians on the scene today.

John Sherwood, a Niagara, Ontario original and one of the next best things in jazz piano to his late great hero Oscar Peterson, will be there, as will the Jay Reed Trio, Hamilton All Star Jazz Band and many others. At a cost of $40 for the day for the general public and $35 for members of ‘Friends of Willowbank’, it is one ‘jumpin at the woodside’ bargain, plus the proceeds go to keeping this wonderful old heritage building, dedicated to good art and architecture, going.

You can find out more about this festival and the artists performing at it by visiting Willowbank’s site at www.willowbank.ca. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

A provincially created board that has often knocked heads with Niagara, Ontario residents over hospital services in the region has appointed a new chair.

Ontario Liberals praise new LHIN health care appointments. Conservatives' Tim Hudak wants to blow LHIN away.

Mike Shea, a Hamilton area resident with a business background and long history of serving on public boards, will be in history and serving on public boards, will be replacing Juanita Gledhill as chair of the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network’s) unelected board.

The LHIN, as it is more commonly known by thousands of Niagara area residents who have been angered by its support for hospital restructuring plans in the region, is one of 14 such bodies that Ontario’s Liberal government established across the province in 2006 to help steer and coordinate the delivery of hospital and other health care services. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

As a grandmother of deceased Fort Erie teen Reilly Anzovino and other Niagara south residents looked on this May 5 from the gallery of the Queen’s Park legislature, the province’s health minister, Deb Matthews, continued to insist that hospital services are improving in the region under the management of the Niagara Health System.

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews - Niagara's hospital services are improving.

The Liberal minister also told Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath under questioning that recent reports that the NHS, the body responsible for operating most of the hospitals in Niagara, is moving to close up to 120 beds at the Welland hospital site are “completely untrue (and) based on unfounded information.”

Matthews added that “the focus on improving improving care in Niagara (including increasing visits to “urgent care centres” in Fort Erie and Port Colborne where the NHS closed hospital emergency rooms more than a year ago) is strong (and) it is showing results.” Continue reading →

A Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper

With the federal election over, Niagara At Large is slowing down for a few weeks this May so we can do some maintenance on the site and make some decisions for sustaining it for the future.

Having said that, let me make a few things clear. NAL will not shut down completely during this period. We will continue to post articles on any breaking news that simply can’t be ignored during this slow-down period, and we will post any time-sensitive pieces that are offered by contributing writers who have been so supportive of this site.

We will also continue to post comments from our readers on any and all news and commentary items we have posted here. And certainly, we asked all of you who have been kind enough to keep us in the loop on news events of importance to our greater Niagara region to continue sharing that vital information. Continue reading →

For the record, Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath asked Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty about news that up to 120 long-term care beds could be ‘slashed’ at the Welland hospital site, and this is how the exchange went this May 3 in the provincial legislature.

NDP leader keeps bashing away at Niagara hospital cuts

The provincial hansard on this subject reads as follows;

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My question is to the Premier. Niagara region families are reeling from the latest news of what this government is planning for local health care. The Niagara Health System is looking to slash anywhere from 75 to 120 long-term-care beds. Will the Premier tell us exactly how many long-term-care beds his government plans to cut in Welland? Continue reading →

A Comment by Doug Draper

Niagara, Ontario’s federal electoral map remains coloured with a patch of NDP orange surrounded by a sea of Tory blue as Stephen Harper’s Conservatives won a commanding 167-seat majority government this May 2.

Stephen Harper wins big. Will he accept win with humility or rule like an autocrat?

In Niagara, NDP incumbent Malcolm Allen reclaimed a Welland Riding stretching from south St. Catharines, through Thorold, Welland Port Colborne and part of Wainfleet, while Conservative incumbents Rick Dykstra, Rob Nicholson and Dean Allison won big in their ridings of St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and west Niagara,  respectively.

Early figures on the voter turnout across the country indicated that hardly four out of every ten eligible voters bothered going to the polls and only 40 per cent of those who did voted for the party that will now continue running this country for the next four years. And that is pretty pathetic.  It  hardly makes for much of a mandate for Harper and his parties despite the number of seats won.

The question now is this; ‘Will Stephen Harper accept with win with humility or will he lord it over us?’ After all, this prime minister has displayed a record of leading in a fairly autocratic, even with members of his own caucus, during his last five years of minority government. Continue reading →

A Brief Comment by Doug Draper

No doubt everyone knows by now that Osama bin Laden, one of the world’s most infamous terrorists, was shot and killed this May 1 by an elite squad of American Navy Seals in Pakistan.

News of the al-Qaeda leader’s death, announced to the world by U.S. President Barack Obama in a late-night statement, sent countless thousands of American citizens gathering in the streets, including outside the White House and the former site of the World Trade Centre towers in New York, to celebrate. Continue reading →

By Herb Kah

When I listen to the noise of what has led up to this federal election in Canada and the conditions that prevail, in our country and in the U.S.A. as we head to the polls, I am reminded of William Butler Yeats’ prescient words;

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

Stephen Harper is fond of saying that this is an “unnecessary election”.  I beg to differ and, perhaps, so do the more than two million citizens who have voted in the advanced polls and, thanks to Rick Mercer, the many young people who have attended the rallies urging their peers to vote. These are glimmers of hope that defy Yeats’ words, but the din of fanatical partisanship and fear mongering threatens to extinguish these little lights. Continue reading →

Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

The Niagara Health System – that unelected body responsible for operating most of the hospital services in this region of Ontario – went around assuring local municipalities it was committed to “community based hospitals.” It made those assurances to municipal councils in Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and other municipalities in this region, right up to about three years ago, when it released its so-called “Hospital Improvement Plan.”

Welland Hospital target of public health care cuts and privatization plans.

When that controversial HIP was release, it became clear that the information this journalist was receiving from hospital insiders and trying to report to a mostly complacent public before then, was that the NHS would eventually be consolidating most hospital services for this the region, including those for Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Welland and Niagara Falls, at new hospital complex, to be located in west St. Catharines. Continue reading →

 By Dave Toderick

There was an editorial in my local newspaper last week which made me both laugh (for its total misunderstanding of the topic) and despair (because of the seriousness of the issure) at the same time.

Will Elizabeth May and her Green Party gain any ground in this federal election?

The gist of the editorial was that the Green Party would be hurt in the upcoming federal election by the cold spring in Canada, because the cold weather proved that global warming isn’t happening. Climate denier columns appear regularly in this paper, as they do in much of the mainstream media in Canada and the United States, and I normally laugh and despair privately, but with the election just days away, I felt compelled to respond.

In my letter to the editor, which was published, I wrote: Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large News Brief

The entire span of the Peace Bridge between Buffalo, New York and Fort Erie, Ontario was illuminated in royal hues of blue, red and gold this April 28 and 29 to observe the Royal wedding gala of ‘Will and Kate’.

British Princes Edward and George join 1927 opening ceremonies for Peace Bridge. Photo courtesy of Peace Bridge Authority.

That is right. Folks. For two nights in a row, the arches, truss and spine of one of North America’s busiest border crossings were aglow in the colors of the ‘Royal Crest’ of the British monarchy in honor of the marriage this same day of the future king and queen of England.

The Buffalo and Fort Erie Peace Bridge Authority showed the royal colours in response to numerous requests from monarch followers, not just in Canada, but on the American side of the border, which suggests that not all of the ‘United Empire Loyalists” fled to what was then known as Upper Canada more than two centuries ago during the American war for independence.

This was not the first time the Peace Bridge has interfaced with British royalty, by the way. When the bridge was officially opened in 1927, Prince Edward of Wales and the Duke of Kent, Prince George, joined dignitaries in the U.S. and Canada in attending those ceremonies.

(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern residents in our greater Niagara region and beyond.)  

A St. Catharines, Ontario Yoga Studio is hosting an event this May 1st to support funding for Hunters Syndrome.

Hunters Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder affecting mostly young people, including the nephew of the Yinyasa Flow Yoga studio teacher, Linda Summers is part of.

To learn more about this event, how you can help battle this disorder, and about the virtues of yoga exercises in general, view the video included for the studio and produced by Vickie Fagan and her fine Fagan Media Group in the region which Niagara At Large is pleased to work with on promoting matters of interest and concern to readers in our greate Niagara region and beyond.

Video courtest of Fagan Media Group. You can contact Fagan Media Group at www.faganmediagroup.com .

A Commentary by Doug Draper

“No one gets out of here alive”
– Jim Morrison of The Doors

I’ve just turned 60 and have found myself wondering whether all the things I’ve felt so passionately about when I was a younger guy – from environmental issues to a just society – are worth taking up whatever time I may have left fighting for.

After all, I’ve got books piling up on the floor that I haven’t read yet, and one or two I would like to write myself. I’ve got my great aunt’s beautiful old stand-up piano in my home, just waiting for me to spend a few hours saddling up to, and I’ve got a couple of guitars I would like to spend a bit more time learning how to play.

If sometime in the meantime, someone comes along in one of those white overcoat and says; ‘We found a cancer, Doug, and you’ll be lucky to last the year,’ I’ll be sorry I never finished reading all of ‘Moby Dick’ or learning to play the piano lines properly to ‘Let It Be’.

This brings me to one of the more recent issues we’ve tried to talk about on Niagara At Large – the issue of climate change – and how frustrating it is to try to have a rational conversation without having those who think climate change is some kind of a conspiracy, just as the ‘birthers’ in the United States who are convinced President Barack Obama was not born in America, think and is therefore a result of a conspiracy to put someone of coloured skin, with an exotic name, in the White House. Continue reading →

“I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.”
–    the 19th Century poet Emily Dickinson

“I realized that if I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.”
– Charles Lindbergh, firs person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane shortly before his death in 1974

By Doug Draper

Think of what this world would be like without the sight and songs of birds.  Far less vibrant of life, of course.

The presence of birds speak to the diversity of life on this planet and speak to the quality of the water, air and other natural resources necessary for sustaining the life of us all. On this Earth Day, we would do well to remember that if something goes wrong for the proverbial ‘canary in the coal mine’, we may all be in serious trouble.

We humans love to think of ourselves as the cleverest species on this planet – we can always find a fix for the oil spills, nuclear leaks and other messes we have unleashed through lack of foresight, shoddy regulations, etc., can’t we? But at the end of the day, the quality of our lives and our very existence depends on the same air, water, tree cover and other natural features birds and other creatures on this earth need to survive.

So be mindful to the lives of birds among us and learn more about them a special traveling exhibit from the Canadian Museum of Nature that is coming to the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s Ball’s Falls Conservation Park, beginning this April and running through Sept. 5 of this year. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Just when we may have thought that the war between the Town of Fort Erie and some of its Crystal Beach area residents over plans for a controversial condomium tower is done,  another battle has begun.

A depiction of what the condo tower might look like on Fort Erie's Bay Beach.

Papers were filed on behalf of a group of Fort Erie taxpayers in the Ontario Superior court of Justice in Toronto this April 20, launching a lawsuit against the town and Hamilton-based Molinaro Group of developers. The six individual taxpaypers and a property firm – Dr. Norma Nowak, Patricia Murrett, Derek Crain, Orma Bleeks, Linda Campbell, Robert Lund and D & L Land Property Ltd. – and all named as plaintiffs in the suit, are hoping to have the 12-storey condo project “declared illegal,” according to a media release circulated this April 21 by other residents in the community. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

On the eve of this Earth Day, April 22, 2011, I can’t help but think of some of the people we had in our midst who fought for a healthier environment – people who are no longer with us and who cared deeply about the kind of future we are leaving others if we don’t clean up our act.

The late Niagara environmental activist Sister Margeen Hoffmann was always asking where the vision is

They are people like Margherita Howe and Laura Dodson of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario who, as leaders of a group called Operation Clean in the 1980s, were instrumental in pressing the governments of Canada and the United States to sign agreements to reduce the concentrations of toxic chemicals in the waters and wildlife of the Niagara River and Lake Ontario.

They are people like Lynne Matthews of St. Catharines, who led the fight to close the leaking Glenridge landfill site atop the Niagara Escarpment and have it converted to a sprawling natural park where plaque is displayed in her honour today. And they are people like Gord Harry, a former mayor of Wainfleet who did some great conservation work as a veteran staff member of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority. I’ll never forget the triumphant smile on Gord’s face when he took me on a tour of the Wainfleet Bog area after the NPCA helped acquire these unique lands for public posterity.

There are so many others of course, and you may wish to share their names and accomplishments with us in one of the comment boxes below this story.

One of the other great people I think of is the late Sister Margeen Hoffmann, an activist nun from the Franciscan Order and leader of the Niagara Falls, New York-based Ecumenical Task Force who worked with groups on both sides of the Niagara River on addressing shared environmental challenges. One of the lines from The Bible that she quoted the most was; “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” and I on this Earth Day, we should also be asking ourselves where the vision for the future is. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper

For those of us who’ve been waiting all the long, cold winter to get outdoors and enjoy the sights and sound of spring, don’t forget the annual migration of hawks, eagles, falcons and vultures through the Niagara region.

A juvenile bald eagle soars over Niagara. Photo copyright courtesy of Jamie Head.

Hawkwatching, which takes in all of these other great birds from hawks to eagles, is becoming an ever more popular past time in this region, especially at this time of year when the birds are migrating north again. If you are lucky, you might catch a rare photo like the one a young Niagara, Ontario resident Jamie Head took this past March over the Mel Swart Conservation Park in Thorold of a young bald eagle soaring over the waters of Lake Gibson.

One of the very best places to enjoy watching these birds over the Easter weekend is the Beamer Memorial Conservation Area – one of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority’s fine green sites – on top of the Niagara Escarpment in Grimsby. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

Canada’s leadership debates were significant more for what wasn’t said, than for what was said.

Even the framing of the debates was significant because a party with considerable support was excluded due to a trifling corporate media rule.  The absence of Elizabeth May’s voice colored the whole debate. Environmental issues were dealt with in a very cursory fashion, even though their importance to Canada and the world is paramount. Continue reading →