Niagara At Large

By John Jackson

– With the following introductory note by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
–
Two years ago this past June, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton walked to the middle of the Rainbow Bridge between Niagara Falls, Ontario and New York and announced that negotiations between her country and Canada would begin to revise the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.

Hillary Clinton stands on Rainbow Bridge to announce plans to revise Canada/U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. File photo by Doug Draper

More worrisome than that, there is concern that the agreement (the first version of which goes back to the 1970s) could be weakened rather than strengthened when it comes to controlling the discharge of pollution to the lake waters, the introduction of invasive species that could devastate native wildlife in the lakes basin and a number of other concerns. The Council of Great Lakes Industries, a collation that includes among its members some of the largest chemical and petroleum corporations in the world (including, Dow Chemical, BP, Shell and Imperial Oil) are now actively lobbying governments in both countries to have the terms “zero discharge” and “virtual elimination” of pollutants, two of the guiding principles of the Great Lakes agreement for the past three decades, removed from any revised agreement. Continue reading →

The Ontario Health Coalition and its Niagara chapter have organized a number of all-candidate meetings on health care, including three in Niagara.

The OHC is a not-for-profit citizens coalition, lobbying for quality health care, accessible to all residents in the province.

If you are interested in attending one of these meetings for the purposes of simply listening or asking questions of the candidates running in this provincial election, here are the dates, times and locations for the Niagara meetings:

·    St Catharines All Candidates’ Meeting
Tuesday, September 20th at 7pm, Port Dalhousie Legion, 600 Ontario, St , St. Catharines.
·    Welland All Candidates’ Meeting
Tuesday, September 27th at 7pm,Welland Lyons Hall, 414 River Road, Welland. 
·    Niagara Falls All Candidates’ Meeting
Thursday, September 22nd at 7pm, Gale Centre, 4171 Fourth Ave, Niagara Falls.

Just as a footnote – the Ontario Health Coalition media release listed no meeting for the Niagara West Glanbrook riding where Conservative leader Tim Hudak is the MPP.

A Brief by Doug Draper

The Kennedy curse is a phrase that evolved in the wake of the assassinations of the late President John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby two decades after the death of their older brother Joe in the Second World War, and so many of the other tragedies that have haunted this iconic American family since.

Kara Kennedy Allen gone at 51

The latest is the untimely death this September 15 of 51-year-old Kara Kennedy Allen, the only daughter of the late Senator Ted Kennedy who met his end two years ago this past August following a brave battle with brave battle with brain cancer. Kara, who looked like she has won her battle with a lung cancer she was diagnosed with in 2002, reportedly died from a heart attack.

My family and I were on one of our many visits to Cape Cod two summers ago when we heard the news of Ted Kennedy’s death.  Knowing most of the back roads on the Cape like the back of my hand, we were able to get around the police barricades on the roads to the neighbourhood where the Kennedy compound is located. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

“Well, well, well, they’ve arrived,” said Debbie Zimmerman with one of the eight brand new “Niagara Region Transit” buses parked behind her in the lot of Niagara, Ontario’s regional headquarters.

Debbie Zimmerman, Grimsby regional councillor and former chair of the region, speaking at the launch of Niagara Region Transit. Photo by Doug Draper

Zimmerman, a Grimsby regional councillor who was chair of Niagara’s regional government a decade ago when she and at least enough of those who sat on the region’s council at the time, embraced a vision of a transit system that would serve all of Niagara.

This Friday, September 16, the first step in that vision has come true with the official launch of Niagara Region Transit, an inter-municipal bus service that does more to connect people across this region through a transit service since a cross-Niagara trolley system went out of service some 50 years ago.

A decade ago, said Zimmerman, Niagara’s region began “falling behind” other regions in the province in a number of areas, including pushing forward with progressive public transit systems. She reminded listeners at the launch for this new system, that it is only in a pilot stage and that this pilot “depends on the success of this system. … This is our future folks. We need a (region-wide transit system) to keep this region (of Niagara) working.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

That beautiful little yellow car with no gas-powered engine in it was back in front of the regional headquarters for Niagara, Ontario again and this reporter is marking the date the date of its return – Thursday, September 15 – down in my diary.

St. Catharines regional councillor Tim Rigby takes his turn riding in prototype electric car Niagara industires could help build here. Photo by Doug Draper

If I sound a bit giddy, I make no apologies and I’ll tell you why. It was the first day in my 40-plus years as a driver of gas-powered cars that I was taken for a spin in a fully functioning electric car – one that doesn’t use an ounce of gasoline from the moment to the ignition key turns the car on to the moment it turns it off.  And as a reporter who began covering environmental stories more than three decades ago, I don’t mind telling you this is something I’ve been waiting for. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It is almost always a good day when a park for the public is opened or, in the case of Rotary Park in St. Catharines, Ontario, officially re-opened following years of community effort.

Entrance to Rotary Park's Friendship Garden and flower-decked Rotary Wheel. Photos by Doug Draper

That was certainly the case this September 15 – one of the last sunny warm days of summer – when more than 100 local Rotarians and others gathered for a celebatory ribbon cutting for a 32-acre park that was closed shortly after it was first opened 1983.

Rotary Park, located between Pelham Road in St. Catharines southwest end and a picturesque stretch of the Twelve Mile Creek valley and Niagara Escarpment, was a retired landfill site when Rotary Clubs in the area and the City of St. Catharines entered an agreement to convert it into passive parkland. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Do you think we are overrun with municipal politicians in Niagara, Ontario? Are you one of the people out there who feel we have far too many?

Niagara Community Observatory head David Siegel outlines policy brief on regional governance

If so you may be interested in downloading the latest Policy Brief produced by the Niagara Community Observatory, a Brock University-based research body that works in concert with members of the surrounding community to produced research on current and emerging issues in Niagara.

According to the eight-page brief, released this September 15 and titled ‘Representation on Municipal Councils in Ontario’, there is no doubt that Niagara has the larges number of local and regional politicians of 10 regions across the province that still have two-tier system of regional and local councils. There are a total of 125 councilors in Niagara, to be exact – one for every 3,419 residents in this region compared to York, another region with a two-year system that has 76 councillors or one for every 11,746 residents.

Yet reducing the number of councillors in Niagara may require making some “radical changes” in the way we select our councillors and, contrary to popular belief, won’t do much to reduce municipal spending. Continue reading →

A Niagara At Large Brief

There was another rally this Tuesday, September 13, on the state of Ontario’s hospital services at Queen’s Park.

Niagara's Yellow Shirt troops at Queen's Park

Some buses of residents from Niagara, joined the noon-hour rally, including members of the citizen-based ‘Yellow Shirt Brigade’ from central and south Niagara, who have spent the last three or more years lobbying for fair access to acute care, including emergency services, in Port Colborne, Fort Erie and other hospital sites in their area of the region.

Will this latest rally – one of many that have been held in the past – do any good? If you were there or wish you were there in a show of support, Niagara At Large invites you to share your thoughts below.

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

As  publisher of one of the all-to-few online news sites that asks its readers to link their real names to the comments they post, it is necessary every once in a while to remind our growing number of readers why we have that policy.

State your name or stand down as the worthless coward that you are

It seems particularly necessary to restate this policy at a time when an Ontario election is revving up and a growing number of individuals are tempted to take advantage of the anonymity of the internet to fire off particularly disparaging remarks about some of the candidates and parties, and those who support them, without their names being attached to their stink bombs. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If you happened to be one of the last Canadians or Americans to cross the Peace Bridge in the hours and days leading up to the terrorist attacks of September 9, 2001, chances are you crossed without having to produce so much as a driver’s license.

Photo courtesy of Peace Bridge Authority

Well, those days are certainly gone. A driver’s license will get you nowhere at any of our border crossings and a birth certificate will hardly get you through either.

One of the realities of this post 9/11 world is stricter security at what has long been regarded as one of the world’s most open and friendly borders, and nothing less than a passport will get you through. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Tuesday, September 11, 2001 – a day that most of us, now over the age of 20, will never forget where we were when we first heard the news. A day that (to borrow the words the late U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt used in the hours following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor) “will live in infamy.”

So much has been made of the fact that 9/11, as it will forever be remembered, began as such a beautiful, late summer day with a bright and shining sun rising in blue, cloudless skies over most of the northeaster United States and southeastern Canada. And I know I wasn’t the only one who was feeling more on the upbeat side on that sun-swept morning as I sat down in a diner for a cup of coffee with some friends before going to work.

Then, a few minutes before 9 a.m., I heard the cries of “Wow” and “Oh My God” in that Thorold, Ontario diner where the screen on the wall was always turned to CNN back then, and my friends and I looked up to see clouds of black smoke rising from one of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting this for our readers across both sides of the border’s interest.)

BUFFALO, New York/FORT ERIE, Ontario – Today (September 9) the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority (Peace Bridge Authority) announced that on September 11, 2011, the Peace Bridge will be illuminated in commemoration of the thousands of civilians and first responders who lost their lives during the tragic events of 9/11.

The bridge span is set to be lit in a patriotic American red, white, and blue color scheme commencing at 8:00 p.m. (EST) and continuing until 1:30 a.m. (EST) the following morning. In addition, the official flags of the New York City Fire Department (NYFD) and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) will be flown in the U.S. Customs plaza beginning that same day.

“The Peace Bridge is a symbol of harmony between our two great countries and it provides an ideal setting to remember and honor all of those individuals and families who experienced the pain and anguish of September 11th,” said Authority Chairman Anthony Annunziata. Continue reading →

By Fiona McMurran

It’s official: the HIP Review (that the Minister of Health insisted be termed an “evaluation”) is no more.

The NHS's new supervisor Kevin Smith - Could he pull this region's hospital services out of the fire?

It was laid to rest this morning, September 9,  at the third meeting of the NHS Tripartite HIP Review Committee at the LHIN (Local Health Integration Network) offices in Grimsby, with unanimous approval of a recommendation from Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey to the Board of the HNHB LHIN, calling for the process to be shelved in light of the appointment of Kevin Smith as Supervisor of the NHS. The Tripartite Review Committee will continue to be a resource for Smith’s investigation; the Committee’s work to date, and in particular the Terms of Reference, will be of considerable help to the Supervisor.

There were no tears of mourning. In fact, when Chair Bob Lawler adjourned the meeting, I saw nothing but smiles all around. My colleague, Pat Scholfield, and I agreed:  for the first time in years, we have genuine cause for hope. Smith’s short, direct and honest presentation of his observations to date gave us all confidence that we can look forward to a hospital system that actually fulfils its mandate of caring for the clinical needs of the residents of the whole Niagara. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large has previously posted a full address by Wayne Redekop, the former Fort Erie mayor running as the NDP candidate in the Niagara Falls riding, and covered his nomination meeting. NAL did not make it to the nomination meeting for that riding’s Liberal incumbent, Kim Craitor, and has yet to post a full address by him on the issues, as he sees them, in this provincial election. Therefore, to provide some balance, we are posting the following remarks Craitor made this September 6 during the opening of his campaign office in the Fort Erie, Ontario end of the riding. Regardless of your political leanings, we hope you find them informative.)

Good afternoon. It’s wonderful to be in Fort Erie. And a perfect place to kick off my 2011 campaign for Niagara and Fort Erie’s Future.

Kim Craitor, Liberal incumbent for Niagara Falls riding, opens campaign office in Fort Erie, Ontario

I love this town. I spent a lot of time working here when I was working for the Unemployment insurance office  here on Jarvis Street for 10 years and so did my wife Helen, when she worked for over 10 years at Gilmore Lodge
So when the riding was redistributed last term in 2007… I was delighted to have the chance to represent the citizens of Fort Erie’s communities of Ridgeway, Crystal Beach,  Stevensville, Black Creek, and of course Fort Erie itself.

I was surprised and disappointed when the former member, Tim Hudak decided not to contest his home riding and run against me in 2007. But it was not to be. He obviously went to a safer place and the rest is as they say… is history!   And here I am, back again. . Absolutely delighted to continue to represent the citizens of Fort Erie for four more years. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following media release from the Niagara Health System, on the status of the C. difficile outbreak that has cost the lives of more than 30 people in NHS hospitals since this spring,  for our readers information.)

Niagara Falls C. difficile outbreak declared over
Tuesday, September 06, 2011

The Niagara Health System, in consultation with Niagara Region Public Health, today declared the C. difficile outbreak at the Greater Niagara General Site over.

Niagara Falls hospital site

(Niagara At Large is posting this article on the trouble with Local Heath Integration Networks in Ontario with the permission of Ted Ball and Quantum Transformation Technologies)

By Ted Ball

Apparently there is something in the DNA of the Ontario healthcare delivery system that causes service provider organizations and their leaders to “hate the funder” – which of course is the Ministry of Health & Long Term Care. Everybody hates MOHLTC. It’s a rule, or something.

Ted Ball

However, in the McGuinty Government’s first term, they decided to devolve power and authority out of the powerful/faceless bureaucracy occupying the Hepburn Block at Queen’s Park in downtown Toronto. Instead, they decided to shift the functions of health system planning/funding and accountability to fourteen “local networks of healthcare service providers” where the boundaries reflected patient flow patterns.

This was radical change. Instead of centralized silo-management/control, Ontario was shifting to system-management, at the local community level. The vision was to create integrated and “seamless” health services at the local network level where “evidence-based decision-making”, rather than politics, would drive decision-making. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

Most people who get arrested aren’t exactly thrilled.  But that isn’t the case in Washington D.C.  As Amy Goodman, producer and host of the public radio program ‘Democracy Now’ notes, “They’re carrying on the proud tradition of civil disobedience.”  And so they’re smiling.

Recent demonstrations on Canada's Tar Sands outside White House

These protestors are forming a “Keystone” of objections to the proposal to pipe crude from Alberta to drought stricken Texas, a land where currently one of seven people uses food stamps, where the governor denies climate–related scientific facts, and where hollow assurances of pipeline safety are embraced. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following September 2 media release for our readers’ information.)

The Niagara Parks Commission receives support
to replace incline railway – Key piece of tourism infrastructure will be fully accessible, carry more people, and be open year-round

Niagara Falls, Ontario– The Niagara Parks Commission (NPC) is pleased to announce it will receive additional support from the Government of Ontario to replace its aging incline railway with a more modern, year-round and accessible system to provide service between the Park and the Fallsview tourism district.

Niagara Park's incline railway will be replaced with better, more accessible model. Photo courtesy of Niagara Parks Commission

Considered Phase II of its Table Rock Redevelopment Project, this new incline service is intended to enhance the overall guest experience of Niagara. It will provide improved links between a number of tourism facilities and the Park, and a safe pedestrian crossing over the Niagara River Parkway into Queen Victoria Park. This redevelopment will also meet accessibility standards as outlined in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA), by allowing visitors with disabilities full and safe access to both levels of NPC’s Table Rock complex, the Park and the viewing area adjacent to the Falls directly from the Fallsview area. Continue reading →

“Let me tell you how it will be,
There’s one for you, nineteen for me.
‘Cause I’m the taxman. …”

– from the song Taxman by George Harrison

A Commentary by Doug Draper

With only five weeks to go before we go to the polls in a provincial election, one of key strategies of Tim Hudak and his Conservatives for winning election is clear. Weld Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty’s name and image to the word “taxman,” and say and do everything possible to paint him as one of the most notorious collectors of taxes in the province’s history.

The Ontario Conservative's Dufferin- Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones joins Tory Welland Riding candidate Domenic Ursini, unveiling the 'Wheel of Tax' at a Welland shopping mall.

That strategy was in full evidence this past week with the pre-election unveiling in Niagara of the Conservatives’ so-called ‘Wheel of Tax’, mimicking one of those big spinning wheels you can find on a midway at an amusement park. Spin this ‘Wheel of Tax’, featuring the world taxman curling three times around McGuinty’s grinning face, and you can’t help but lose. Where ever that pointer lands when the wheel stops spinning, you fall on the 15 per cent HST (harmonized sales tax),a “new water tax,” a “carbon tax,” an “income tax hike,” a “new school board property tax” or something called a “sneak eco tax.”

“No matter what the wheel lands on, Ontario families will lose with the taxman,” stated an August 24  news release put out by the campaign office of Domenic Ursini, the Conservative candidate involved in a wide-open race in the Welland Riding with the retirement of the riding’s longtime NDP representative Peter Kormos. “Ontario families have been clear,” added Ursini in the media release. “It’s time to stop the ‘Wheel of Tax’ once and for all.” Continue reading →

The province’s New Democratic Party leader, Andrea Horwath, has joined the City of Niagara Falls and numerous citizens across the Niagara region in calling on Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin to investigate the mismanagement of hospital services by the Niagara Health System.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath speaking to reporters at a recent protest rally over superbug deaths at Niagara hospitals. Photo by Doug Draper

Niagara At Large is posting the NDP leader’s letter to Marin below and also encourages you to visit this site for another story, posted this September 1, that provides more information on how you can contact the Ombudsman’s office with your concerns.

 Dear Mr. Marin,

On behalf of Niagara residents, I am writing to express my deep concern over the state of the Niagara Health System.

For several years, the loss of emergency rooms, key health care services, and infection outbreaks have led to a loss of public confidence in the Niagara Health System. The government’s repeated assurance that health care was getting better in the region – while things were clearly getting worse – only diminished trust further.

The Ontario Government has finally acknowledged a serious deficiency by appointing a Provincial Supervisor to take charge of the NHS. Since the government’s appointment effectively places the NHS under the direct control of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, and your purview, I urge you to undertake an immediate investigation into the Niagara Health System.
Your office has the independence and track record to provide Niagara families with an understanding of what’s not working in the Niagara Health System and how it can be fixed.

Sincerely,
Andrea Horwath, MPP
Leader of Ontario New Democrats

A Niagara At Large Brief

Around and around it goes. That classic carousel in Port Dalhousie, Ontario’s Lakeside Park overlooking Lake Ontario.

Port Dalhousie Carousel. Photo by Doug Draper

On Labour Day long weekends – the last official weekend of summer – this carousel has long been a popular draw for young families, and for people of all ages with a kids heart who enjoy taking that magical five-cent ride. And this coming Sunday, September 4, you can save your nickels between the yours of noon and 5 p.m. and take the ride for free, thanks to Escarpment Views magazine.

Niagara At Large is posting below a media release from the City of St. Catharines where that Port Dalhousie carousel turns on those Sunday free rides. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and his council will be calling on the province’s dogged ombudsman, Andre Marin, to do what the mayor hopes will be a fearless, independent investigation of the Niagara Health System.

Niagara Falls, Ontario Mayor Jim Diodati

Niagara Falls’ council was among the first in Niagara, Ontario to call for the NHS’s new hospital complex, now being built in west St. Catharines, to be located in a more central location for all the region’s residents, and even if it wasn’t located in Niagara Falls. But the NHS refused to listen to it or to hundreds of doctors in the region who petitioned, and even took out full-page newspaper ads, calling for the same thing.

Diodati said any probe by the ombudsman should look at the reasons NHS bulldozed ahead with its decision to new hospital complex, costing more than a billion dollars, in west St. Catharines, and who is possibly benefiting financially from that decision. “I say follow the money,” the mayor said. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

The office of Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin didn’t waste much time wading in to the Niagara Health System mess after the province’s appointment of a supervisor – St. Joseph’s Hospital CEO Kevin Smith – to try to untangle this train wreck.

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin

This includes the right to probe the NHS board’s infamous ‘Hospital Improvement Plan’ and the real reasons behind the tragic decision to build the only new hospital complex for which this region is likely to receive funding for decades to come in west St. Catharines, rather than in a more a more central location for all Niagara residents. It also includes any special perks NHS administrators may have received from contractors and mismanagement of funds for buyout packages for former NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer and others. Continue reading →

A  Brief from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

We may be off to a pretty good start.

NHS board chairman Paul Leon should do the honourable thing and resign

When was the last time you remember a member of the NHS’s hand-picked board inviting members of the public to email them with their concerns? So let the new supervisor know you are out there folks by sharing with him the years’ of concerns so many of you have expressed at public meetings, at rallies on the lawns of Queen’s Park and so on, but that the NHS’s insulated and arrogant board never chose to take all that seriously because, in so many words, they knew what they were doing and you didn’t. Continue reading →

A Comment from Preston Haskell

The Niagara Health Coalition has held 5 town hall meetings throughout Niagara regarding the quality of health care in our hospitals including the C Difficile and other serious infections plaguing the Niagara Health System.

Preston Haskell

At each and every meeting the local politicians and health care authorities were invited.

For the most part there was a fairly good turnout of MPP’s, Mayors and Councillors present to hear, speak and mingle with concerned citizens and those who have lost love ones.

The exception was St. Catharines were only Councillor Len Stack attended and ‘got an ear full’.

Councillor Stack stated “My heart goes out to all those families who had to endure such severe abuse in a place where you would normally think you’re safe.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

A month after a fire ripped through the historic Welland Club in this Ontario city that goes by the same name – Welland – there is still no news on what caused it.

The historic Welland Club in its ravaged state today

Was it a lightning strike, as one Niagara Regional cop guessed might have done possibly fatal damage to this most wonderful, stately 1911 building overlooking a shady park along the Welland Canal, or was it arson or something else? Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It’s official. The province’s Liberal government has chosen the person to come in as “supervisor” and take control of a Niagara Health System that, in many Niagara residents’ views, has been so badly mismanaged it is about to implode.

Kevin Smith, the NHS's new supervisor

That person is Kevin Smith, who is currently the president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Hospital in the Hamilton area and who, according to his resume, has years of experience in the management of hospital and healthcare services.

The appointment of Smith, announced this August 31 by Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews, comes less than three weeks after the health minister finally agreed to bring someone in to take control of the many services in what remains of six hospitals the NHS has been responsible for operating across the Niagara, Ontario region over the past 10 years.

The appointment means that the existing NHS board, directed by its current chair Paul Leon and former chair Betty Lou Souter, is sidelined while the supervisor moves forward with his job. It also means that Ontario’s ombudsman, Andre Marin, could launch an investigation if he receives enough information from Niagara residents that this hospital system has mismanaged its duties and the many millions of our tax dollars entrusted to it each year to deliver adequate health services to the residents of this region. Search for Ontario Ombudsman and click down to contacts for Marin if you wish to be one of the many who will surely file complaints and urge him to launch an investigation.

Kim Craitor, the Liberal MPP for the Niagara Falls riding who has long been a critic of the way the NHS has operated area hospitals, told Niagara At Large he is pleased with the appointment. “This individual (Smith) is held in great respect for his expertise about hospitals,” said Craitor, adding that the former provincial Conservative government also brought him in to supervise hospital systems in Ontario that were having serious problems functioning on their own.

Not everyone is pleased with the announcement, however. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Posted August 30th,  2011 on Niagara At Large

Normally I love stories about boats. So I turned to one that appeared recently on the front page of the St. Catharines Standard – a God-awful excuse for a newspaper that gets stuffed in my door for free every Friday whether I want it or not – and my love for boat stories started to capsize.

New Algoma ship en route  from shipbuilding docks in China

It was a story that began on a very upbeat note about the christening in Port Colborne, Ontario this past August 25 of a brand new ship called the Algoma Mariner, owned by the St. Catharines-based shipping corporation Algoma Central. To the extent that this time-honoured company is still willing to invest tens-of-millions of dollars in new ships to ply our Great Lakes and waters beyond is a good thing. No doubt.

Then I turned to page five of the newspaper where the story about the christening of the Algoma Mariner continued and the subheading at the top read: ‘Ship built in China’, and I hope I’m not the only one who read that heading and reacted with something like – ‘What?!! Made in China again? Can’t we build anything here in our own country anymore? Does everything have to be imported? Even ships? Canada was once a proud shipbuilding country, for God’s sake!’ Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Ontario’s no-nonsense Ombudsman Andre Marin should be the one heading up an investigation of the Niagara Health System and the way it has been managing the region’s hospitals, says Niagara Falls NDP candidate Wayne Redekop.

Wayne Redekop speaks at health care media conference while Niagara labour council president Dan Peat looks on

“What we need is an independent investigation and the perfect person to do that investigation is the ombudsman, who has a record for cutting through all of the government nonsense,” added Redekop, a former mayor of Fort Erie who is running in this fall’s provincial election and who was speaking at a media conference the Niagara Regional Labour Council held in Welland this August 30 on health care concerns in the region.

All that the people of Niagara got from Ontario’s governing Liberal Party, said Redekop, was the recent promise of “a review” of the NHS in the hope it may take the heat off its members, including Liberal MPP Kim Craitor, who had been calling for an investigation of the NHS for some time. Continue reading →

On this day – August 27, 2011 – of Jack Layton’s funeral, Niagara At Large is posting the following images taken in recent days by Niagara news photographer Joanne McDonald outside Toronto City Hall where thousands came to pay tribute to Canada’s late Opposition Party leader .

Click on this image and others below to enlarge them to screen size. Photo courtesy of Joanne McDonald

In the first photo, the words; ‘Jack Layton was the reason I started to vote’ are written in chalk on a wall behind a makeshift shrine of flowers. In the same photo, one sign reads; ‘Jack – Inspiration for a Generation’.

Let’s all hope that this inspiration lives on!

Photo courtesy of Joanne McDonald

Indeed, let’s hope that if anything good comes out of Jack Layton’s passing, we will see new generations of Canadians become more interested in politics, either by becoming more actively involved in our democratic system by voting and by being more engaged in the day-to-day decisions of our governments, or by running for political office themselves. That would be one of the best ways the spirit of Jack Layton and everything he stood for could live on.

(We invite you to share your thoughts in the comment boxes below.)

Photo courtesy of Joanne McDonald

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Something surprising happened during this past spring’s Canadian election. For the first time in a long time, more young people seemed to be involved.

Flowers and other tributes continue piling up in front of Jack Layton's Toronto constituency office.

We often hear or read news stories about young people in Canada and the United States being so turned off with politics that they don’t vote. In recent years, people under the age of 25 have had an even more pathetic record when it comes to voting than the rest of us older types do. And yet, it is there future that is mostly at stake when it comes to choosing leaders that will make vital decisions about education, environmental protection and a host of other issues.

In this past federal election in Canada, I thought I saw a growing number of young people showing an interest by going to all-candidate meetings and staging ‘get-out-and-vote’ rallies, and I also got the impression that Jack Layton had more than a little to do with it. The federal New Democratic Party leader’s charisma and his message for a better future appeared to resonate with younger people who he went out of his way to speak to in his farewell letter to Canadians, written a few days before he died from cancer this past Monday, August 22. Continue reading →

A Brief by Doug Draper

In an age where it takes something akin to a multi-million-dollar laser show to draw a crowd, it is nice to know there is still a place in this world for a floral clock.

Niagara Park's time-honoured Floral Clock. Photo courtesy of Niagara Parks Commission

The Niagara Parks Commission’s 61-year-old Floral Clock – built by Ontario Hydro and located along a stretch of the Niagara Parkway between Queenston Heights and the City of Niagara Falls, is maintained by Niagara Parks’ horticultural staff and continues to draw cars and buses full of visitors despite its relatively passive nature. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

It’s hard to create a strong democracy when we’re surrounded by media bias, but it can be done.  At least in Canada, we’re not terrorized by Death Squads late at night.

Rioters in London, England recently clash with police.

One way to restore a strong democracy is to fight this bias.  A disproportionate amount of media,  for example, have been painting political protests in a negative light by emphasizing the violence to the detriment of the less publicized and more ubiquitous raisons d’etre of the protests: social injustice. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is sharing the following media release for those interested in honouring the life and death of Jack Layton. Further to this release, there are reports that Jack Layton’s body will lie in state at Toronto City Hall on Friday, August 26.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AUGUST 23, 2011

THE HONOURABLE JACK LAYTON TO LIE IN STATE IN OTTAWA

Flag on Ottawa's Parliament building at half mast for Jack Layton

OTTAWA – Friends, colleagues, staff and all those who admired and loved Jack Layton will have an opportunity to pay their final respects to him in Ottawa.

The Honourable Jack Layton, Leader of the Official Opposition, will be lying in state on Parliament Hill from Wednesday August 24th to Thursday August 25th at 2:00pm.  There will also be visitation hours at Toronto City Hall.

There will be an opportunity for Members of Parliament and other dignitaries to visit starting at 11:00 am Wednesday morning. Visitation will be open to the public at 12:30 pm on Wednesday. A book of condolences will also be available for people to offer thoughts and prayers.

In addition to the condolence book on parliament hill, people across Canada will be able to visit local NDP MPs offices to write a message of condolence and pay their respects.

A ceremony celebrating the life of Mr. Layton will take place on Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 2 p.m. at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto.

As millions of Canadians find their own way of expressing their sorrow over the death this August 22 of Jack Layton, Niagara At Large has received a poem written by Pamela Murphy of St. Catharines, who is fighting her own battle with cancer.She shared it with the Niagara NDP constituency office of Peter Kormos in the hope it may be passed on to Jack Layton’s family, and Niagara At Large has received permission to share it with you.

GOODBYE-

There are many ways to say goodbye-
A gentle touch in passing,
A shaken hand,
A backward glance,
A hug that’s everlasting.

There are many ways to say goodbye-
In song or word or prayer,
A gift, love-wrapt,
A thoughtful note,
A footprint softly there.

There are many ways to say goodbye-
A smile, a kiss, a call.
For Jack so dear,
You’ll always be near,
And we’ve already said it all.

There are many ways to say goodbye-
As we softly leave in sorrow,
But your spirit will live
In the love we give
To our family, today and tomorrow.

From Pam and Mike Murphy and family of St. Catharines, Ontario to the family of Jack Layton.

We hope this poem gives you some comfort and conveys our deepest
sympathies. We extend our prayers to you all.

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

Jack Layton’s family has released the following letter, written by the federal NDP leader two days before to his death this Monday, August 22 at the age of 61. The text of that letter follows.

August 20, 2011, Toronto, Ontario

Dear Friends,

Canada's NDP leader Jack Layton

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue. Continue reading →

A News Brief from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Here is some very sad news that many of us on the Canadian side of the border – regardless of our political stripes – braced ourselves for, yet hoped would never happen.

A very upbeat Jack Layton with Welland NDP MP Malcolm Allen in Niagara, just this spring during the federal election. Photo courtesy of Malcolm Allen's constituency office.

Jack Layton, leader of the federal New Democratic Party, lost his battle with cancer this Monday, August 22. He slipped away at his home in Toronto shortly before 5 a.m., surrounding by members of his family. He was only 61.

Layton, who only this July announced to the country that he was taking a little time off to fight a new cancer after fighting down another one over the past few years, has been taken away after leading the federal NDP to its highest heights in half a century – from a party with 13 seats only a decade ago to 103 seats, more than enough to win it official opposition status for the first time in its history.

Now it is left up to his friends and colleagues in his party, including Welland Riding MP Malcolm Allen to build on his legacy. “I know he would want us to make sure that the things he would have said, we will say for him,” Allen told Niagara At Large hours after hearing the news of Layton’s death. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Niagara’s regional government had a good day this Friday, August 19 when it comes to one of the things on its wish list with the province.

Niagara regional chairman Gary Burroughs

“It is wonderful to finally get that push forward,” said Niagara regional chair Gary Burroughs in an interview with Niagara At Large. “This is huge (and) it helps open up the southern end of our region.” Continue reading →

By Doug Allan

There is a lesson in the government take-over of the Niagara Health System (NHS) for hospital bosses.

Public health care advocate and CUPE representative Doug Allan

The NHS hospital bosses pushed and pushed the so-called “Hospital Improvement Plan” even when the local communities rose up in revolt. Even the Ontario Hospital Association (or at least its CEO) waded in  to fight the plan’s critics.

The ultimate result? The government, facing an election and even more problems at the hospital (in the form of superbug outbreaks) turned tail and admitted the hospital had lost the confidence of the community. (Duh!)

First, the hospital CEO was removed by the hospital board in January, then the government announced in May it would allow a review of the Hospital Improvement Plan, and now the government is putting the hospital under a supervisor. Will the hospital board be next? Continue reading →

A Note from Doug Draper

Chances are many out there don’t know who Edmund Zavitz is.

I’ve been covering environmental issues for more than 30 years and I’m almost embarrassed to say that I didn’t, until a year or two ago when I read a story about him by John Bacher.

Bacher, a veteran conservationist and member of the Niagara-based Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society (better known as PALS), has now written a book about this great preserver of trees and forests who grew up in Fort Erie Ontario in the late 1800s and went on to become a chief forester of Ontario. An avid planter of trees to restore the province’s forest cover, the one billionth tree was planted under his watch by Ontario Premier John Robert’s, shortly before Zavitz’ death in 1968. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

When the new supervisor the Ontario government is appointing to oversee the Niagara Health System comes on board, one of the first things they ought to do is fire the whole NHS board, beginning with its chairman Paul Leon.

Niagara Health System board chairman Paul Leon

This past August 15, in response to news that the province’s health minister, Deb Matthews, was appointing a supervisor to oversee the NHS, mindless dip-stick number one – Paul Leon, chairman of the health system’s board – began by responding that the board “will work collaboratively with whatever (Matthews) decides.”

That was okay, so far as it went. Then Leon went on, according to a quote in the CBC, to say that a reason for the shake-up of confidence in the NHS, which operates most of the hospital services in Niagara, Ontario, is residents who’ve expressed their concerns about the accessibility and quality of those services. “They’ve been using anything they can to advance their agendas, and this has caused a great deal of confusion and concern within our communities.” Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following statement from Domenic Ursini, the provincial Conservative candidate in the Welland riding, for our readers information.)

“Dalton McGuinty’s announcement that a supervisor has been appointed to oversee the Niagara Health System shows just how out-of-touch he is with hardworking families in Niagara. The health care buck stops on Dalton McGuinty’s desk – yet he refuses to be held accountable and rather hide behind his latest NHS supervisor.

Welland riding Conservative candidate Domenic Ursini

McGuinty’s Health Minister admitted the Liberal failure on the NHS file when she was quoted as saying “The people of Niagara deserve to have confidence in their hospitals and I think that it’s clear to me that they don’t have the necessary confidence” (Welland Tribune, August 15, 2011)

Dalton McGuinty is the reason the people of Niagara have lost confidence in their hospitals.

We’ve seen 79 days of inaction on the part of the Dalton McGuinty on the C. difficile crisis in Niagara. And Dalton McGuinty’s Health Minister continues to be Missing in Action. Continue reading →

From Wayne Redekop

(Niagara At Large is posting the following information from the NDP camp of Wayne Redekop in the Niagara Falls riding for your information.

Niagara residents deserve a good debate and discussion on where we are going with hospital services in Niagara and if any individual or political party member – Liberal, NDP or Conservative – offers something forward, Niagara At Large will post it.)

From Wayne Redekop,  Ontario  NDP candidate, Niagara Falls riding

“The McGuinty Liberals believe that appointing a supervisor can help them avoid the political fallout from the crisis at the Niagara Health System,” said Redekop.

Wayne Redekop

“Between the closure of two emergency wards, skyrocketing executive salaries, contracting out of services and the C. difficile crisis, Niagara families have been questioning the NHS for years. Yet the government and Minister of Health has consistently backed the organization, claiming that “Health care is getting better in Niagara; make no mistake about it” and “The NHS is doing excellent work…there is new leadership there.” (Legislative Assembly, March 3, 2011) Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Ontario’s health minister Deb Matthews announced this August 15 she is appointing a supervisor to run a Niagara Health System many residents in the region do not have faith in anymore.

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews calls for new NHS supervisor

The health minister’s announcement comes less than a week after relatives of people who have suffered and died from C. Diff, in the NHS’s St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland hospital sites offered tearful accounts of filthy conditions and neglect in those hospitals during a public meeting.

One of the first Niagara politicians out of the gate with a media release applauding Matthews’ decision to appoint a supervisor was St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan. Continue reading →

By Pat Scholfield

Is there any wonder people do not believe the Niagara Health System?

Niagara health care advocate Pat Scholfield

As I read through the short report, the NHS (the body responsible for operating most of Niagara, Ontario’s hospital services) stated an increase of three cases at Welland. “Really,” I said to myself. “This does not sound like little change. It sounds like an increase!” Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

“I go to bed every night with a clear conscience that the leaders of the Niagara Health System are trying to do the right thing to improve quality of care for all Niagarans” – from an interview former NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer did with the Niagara Falls Review two years ago.

Isn’t that nice. And the rest of us are left dealing with the mess.

More than six months have passed since Debbie Sevenpifer was bounced out of her job as president and CEO of the Niagara Health System. And still the NHS has not told us how much of our money they paid her off with.

How much of our money have they used to buy off Debbie Sevenpifer?

By Senator Bernie Sanders
August 5, 2011

(Niagara At Large discovered this piece on the website of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who sits as an independent for the people of his fine New England state and is arguably, one of all too few great voices of sanity in Washington.
NAL shares this with our readers in the wake of an economic crisis enveloping the United States that could have grave consequences for all of us, on both sides of the border, and as a reminder that there are progressive voices in America that all of us, on both sides of the border, can learn and seek inspiration from.
And let us not forget. The concerns Sanders is discussing here around growing loss of social services for people in need may soon be coming to a town or a home near you. Doug Draper. – Niagara At Large.)

A $2.5 trillion deficit-reduction deal brokered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner, and President Barack Obama is grotesquely unfair. It also is bad economic policy. In the midst of a terrible recession, it will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in full throttle

At a time when the wealthiest people in this country are doing extremely well, and when their effective tax rate is the lowest in decades, the rich won’t contribute one penny more for deficit reduction. When corporate profits are soaring and many giant corporations avoid federal income taxes because of obscene loopholes in the tax code, corporate America will not be asked to contribute one penny more for deficit reduction. On the other hand, working families, children, the sick and the elderly – many of whom are already suffering because of the recession – will shoulder the entire burden.

The corporate media – which, by and large, covered this debate as if it were a baseball game with political “winners and losers” – mostly glossed over the real-life implications of $917 billion in cuts over the next 10 years. Nobody can predict exactly what programs will fall under the knife or say how much they will be cut. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

“It is almost hard to believe this is Canada. … This shouldn’t be happening in our hospitals in Niagara.”

Those were the first words spoken by Wayne Gates, a Niagara Falls, Ontario city councillor and president of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 199 following two hours of heart-wrenching accounts from residents whose families have experienced the nightmare of the C. difficile outbreak in hospitals managed by the Niagara Health System.

Gerry Flachs went in one NHS hospital this spring for routine knee-replacement surgery and left another one dead.

Gates’ words no doubt channeled the thoughts going through the minds of many of the more than 100 residents who came to the CAW this August 10 to hear accounts that could only make one wonder what has become of a public health system in this province and country that was once a model for the world.

This listener, at least, could also not help coming to the conclusion that a planned “review” by the province of the way the Niagara Health System is managing most of the hospital services of this region may be an unnecessary and costly diversion. What we really need – right now – is a total purging of those in the NHS’s administration and on its board who have been complicit through their negligence, incompetence or their silence while access to quality care in our hospitals has deteriorated to a point where people are going to hospital for one ailment and dying from another. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The Ontario government is taking steps to usher in a new age of electric cars on the province’s roads.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty recharges an electric car at a charging station in Markham this August 9.

Premier Dalton McGuinty announced this August 9 that his Liberal government will be spend $80 million to jump start the opening of “charging stations” across Ontario for electric cars.

The seed money, said McGuinty when he made the announcement at a charging station in Markham, Ontario, is aimed at encouraging public and private sector bodies to come forward with proposes for making available charging stations that would do for electric cars what gas stations do for cars with internal combustion engines. Continue reading →

By Becky Day

I returned a call to a Mr. Sean Fraser, Manager, Acquisitions and Conservation Services, from Ontario Heritage Trust today. He was calling about the Beaverdams Church property and suggested some ways we could conserve it.  It was encouraging, first because he called us. Usually it is the municipality calling the Ontario Heritage Trust.

The historic Beaverdams Church - rotting away but still trying to hang in there. Who will save it?

Fraser has looked at some of the past reports on the building and said there are ways to get help, naming Trillium as an example and even Benjamin Moore for paint. We talked about how this is a provincially designated building and how important it is being the birthplace of Methodism in the area. Many of the earlier settlers of this area were attached to this church. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Some of the stories will “surprise” and some will even “shock” people, says Wayne Gates, who says he has been moved to tears by them.

CAW's Local 199 persident and Niagara Falls, Ontario councillor Wayne Gates

Gates, a Niagara Falls city councillor and president of Local 199 of the Canadian Auto Workers, has organized a public meeting and press conference for this coming Wednesday, August 10 at the 11:30 a.m. at the CAW Hall in St. Catharines, Ontario where members of families stricken by a C.Diff oubreak that has so far killed more than two dozen people in Niagara will tell their stories.

“I really think that the people who have been most affected by this have to have an opportunity to speak out,” said Gates. “They should have a chance to not only tell about the impact (C Diff.) has had the person infected, but the tool it takes on their family.” Continue reading →

A News Brief from Niagara At Large

Cindy Forster, a former Welland mayor now serving as a regional councillor for the city, has been chosen by New Democratic Party members to run in the Welland Riding in the upcoming provincial election.

Welland NDP candidate Cindy Forster

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Remember one of the first things U.S. president George W. Bush told the American people following September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks?

He may be dead, as this Time cover shows, but who's winning the war?

Well, there aren’t too many Americans going out and buying lots of stuff now, even if they are flocking to air-conditioned malls to escape the heat – at least not according to some of the latest consumer statistics in that country, which show everything from the sale of goods in retail stores to the sale of big ticket items like homes and cars down.

And why wouldn’t sales be down. With an alarmingly high nine per cent unemployment rate and many more millions who have simply given up finding a job in a country on the verge of financial bankruptcy, it is surprising there is anything other than a ‘going out of business’ sale.

It may be instructive to remember what W’s arch nemesis Osama bin Laden said back six or seven years ago when W and his brain, Dick Cheney, marched America into two trillion-dollar wars in Afghanistan and Iraq without ever once asking the wealthier members of the American power structure to give up an extra cent in taxes to pay for them.

“We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy,” said bin Laden, who was obviously a murderous psycho but wasn’t completely stupid when it came to draining empires of their wealth, in one of his  natorious tapes. Continue reading →

A News Brief from Niagara At Large

Niagara riders using the Go Train service out of the St. Catharines, Ontario railway station may now find commuting easier with a fare card called PRESTO.

A GO Train on the way to Niagara.

“With PRESTO,  riders using Niagara’s GO Train service can travel across multiple transit systems with just one card (that makes it) simple and convenient,” said St.  Catharines  MPP and Liberal cabinet minister Jim Bradley in a media release this August 5. “Improving public transit is part of the Ontario Government’s plan to create jobs and opportunities in Niagara and across the province.” Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

There was a time – some 30 years ago – when Environment Canada had an international reputation as a leading body in environmental research and protection. And its Ontario region office hosted one of the hottest environmental watchdog teams of all.

Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May was among the first and a very few who have expressed concern over cuts to Environment Canada.

In Niagara, a number of the people that worked in that worked in that office, including directors Bob Slater and Jim Kingham, and more frontline scientists and others like Doug Hallett, Rick Findlay, Tony Wagner and Jeanne Jabanoski, became household names. This was especially so during the early to mid-1980s as public concern grew over the concentrations of dioxin and other toxic chemicals washing down the lower Niagara River from Love Canal, Hyde Park and other waste sites along the U.S. shore.

Environment Canada’s Ontario office, with the support of former environment ministers John Roberts and Charles Caccia for the then-federal Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau, played a lead role in convincing American governments to sign a ground-breaking agreement for slashing the concentrations of industrial poisons gushing into the Niagara River by at least 50 per cent within 10 years. The was goal was more than met and arguably this office helped flushing into the Niagara River and Lake Ontario helped prevent the lower Niagara River and Lake Ontario from becoming a cauldron for killer concentrations of man-made chemicals for generations to come.

That was then and it now seems to be ever so long ago. Now, the new majority Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is talking about slashing 776 jobs in environmental protection, climate change, weather and other programs Environment Canada provides across this country, form coast to coast. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

This past July 28, Niagara At Large published St. Catharines, Ontario resident Steve McMullen’s account of his family’s life and death struggle with a C. difficile  outbreak that has claimed the lives of more than two dozen area residents over the past few months in hospitals managed by the Niagara Health System.

Maria McMullen, still suffering from the deadly C. diff superbug in a St. Catharines hospital. NAL published this photo only a week ago, but it remains one for a family in our region that puts a human face on this superbug disaster.

This August 3, Mike Haines, a senior assistant to Welland MPP Peter Kormos, wrote an open letter to Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews referring specifically to the ordeal Marion McMullen and her family is facing, and demanding to know when her ministry “is going to start taking this (the C. difficile outbreak) seriously and make a concerted effort to ensure the proper care of people who have nowhere to turn but the Niagara Health System.”

In the letter to Matthews, Haines stressed  that “people are now living in fear of taking their loved ones to any Niagara Health System hospital for fear they may never leave again. … Some people are going to Hamilton hospitals in desperation but are being turned away.” Continue reading →

By Fiona McMurran and Timothy Healey

Every year, Project Ploughshares Niagara holds a memorial service in the Peace Garden in Rennie Park in Port Dalhousie, to remember those who perished when the Americans bombed the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed on August 9, by the bombing of Nagasaki.

Lighting up the dark, from a previous Ploughshares memorial event in Niagara.

The bombing of those two cities marked the first use of nuclear weapons in wartime and ushered in the nuclear age.

As well as the actual deaths from the bombs themselves, many thousands died from the radiation and these deaths continued for years. At the service, we recognize our connectedness to those in Hiroshima, and in other towns and cities in Japan and all over the world, who observe this date every year. We take the opportunity to offer our prayers for all those who have died in war, and we renew our commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflict and to the abolition of nuclear weapons. Continue reading →

 By Dan Wilson

“You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

This event has it all: food, booze, live bands AND (now here’s the bonus) a portion of the proceeds going to local charities. What could be better?

A pig dancing at Niagara, Ontario Rib Fest. Photo by Dan Wilson

The thing is that this benign, altruistic, helping-others-while-we-all-have-fun event, like so many others in our society, revolves around the exploitation, suffering and slaughter of other animals (mostly pigs).

There’s no question that pigs (and for that matter cows, chickens and other “food” animals) are at least as intelligent as cats and dogs (and it’s been documented that pigs may be more so). The question is: why don’t we care about these animals the way we do about cats and dogs? Continue reading →

From Niagara At Large

With the countdown to this coming year’s War of 1812 bicentennial commemorations now less than five months away, groups on both the Canadian and U.S. sides of the border are stepping up their efforts to promote the event with re-enactments of the war.

An image from a previous battle re-enactment at Old Fort Erie. Courtesy of Niagara Parks Commission.

This coming Saturday, Aug. 6 and Sunday, Aug. 7, the Niagara Parks Commission is once again joining in the build-up to the commemorations with a ramped up battle re-enactment weekend at Old Fort Erie, a strategic battle front in the real war, located at the mouth of the Niagara River in Fort Erie, Ontario and directly across the waters from Buffalo, N.Y. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The Niagara Parks Commission – a steward, for well over a century now, of what remains of the precious natural lands along the Canadian side of the Niagara River corridor– is one of the pioneering public bodies of its kind on this continent.

The NPC's Oak Hall headquarters in Niagara Falls, Ontario. File photo by Doug Draper

Niagara At Large has praised this body many times before for its important conservation work and has made it clear that the commission’s executive director, Fay Booker, and its interim chair, Janice Thomson, have been moving the NPC back to its original mandate as a protector of these world-renown lands. But there are some ghosts in the closet – from the not so distant past – and they need to be exorcized now.

According to a July 30 article in The Globe and Mail – a paper that has been doing a much better job than the local media of exposing alleged abuses of public funding the NPC – a recent audit the paper got its hands on shows that “staff at the Niagara Parks Commission broke the rules for meals, travel and hospitality expenses, and engendered contracts were handed out without proper justification” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

If you are looking for a great night of theatre in a beautiful outdooir setting, it is not to late to take in ‘Shakespeare in Delaware Park’ in Buffalo, New York.

A Shakespeare play in progress in Buffalo's Delaware Park. File photo by Doug Draper

It is still not too  catch William Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ – the  play famous for the line “all the world’s a stage” – and it is on stage ever Tuesday through Sunday, beginning each evening at 7:30 p.m. and running right through to Sunday August 14. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

We’ve heard our elected people in Niagara say we need 21st century ideas to keep the manufacturing sector in this region alive. And here may be one.

John Scott, director of Project Eve, with a Canadian-made electric car at Niagara's regional headquarters. Photo by Doug Draper

Why not get a group of Niagara-area industries together to build and assemble the parts for a homegrown, all-Canadian electric car?

“This is a regional opportunity,” said Bryan Webb, a representative for the Niagara Industrial Association. “We can do it. We have companies here that can all benefit and the chances for prosperity boggles the mind.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

There is another contender to fill the big seat Welland Riding MPP Peter Kormos has chosen to vacate at Queen’s Park.

Mick Riddle

His name is Mick Riddle, a 60-year-old retired Niagara Regional Police officer and resident of Welland who now teaches at Niagara College. He will be vying for the NDP nomination as a candidate in the Welland Riding at the party’s Sunday, August 7 nomination meeting.

“I would be honoured to step into one shoe of Mel Swart (the late NDP representative for the riding who held the seat until his retirement in the late 1980s) and one of Peter’s cowboy boots,” said Riddle in a recent interview with Niagara At Large. “I have no doubt in my mind that I can step into those boots and keep this riding (orange for the NDP) rather have it swallowed up in blue or red.” Continue reading →

The good news is that, as of this August 16, Butter has found a home.

Niagara At Large is pleased to continue posting stories that help the volunteer group Niagara Action for Animals and its supporters find homes for some of our furry friends.

Butter needs a loving home

This time we are talking about a cat named Butter, an adult neutered male who was found huddling under a highwa overpass and who, at the time, was in need of immediate medication attention.

Butter has since received veterinary care and has made a complete recovery from his injuries. He is described by the friends of NAFA as a cat “full of love and affection.” He is “now safe but lonely,” they say, and he “longs for a loving life-long indoor home.”  He’s also decribed as a guy with “a lovely crème shade with gorgeous truy blue eyes,” and he has been vaccinated.

If you are interested in adopting Butter call Dean at  (905) 321-0882  or Jen at  (905)321-0906.

By Doug Draper

The Niagara Health System is embarking on a communications campaign aimed at restoring trust in the communities it serves across the region.

Interim NHS CEO Sue Matthews

“Our communities in Niagara deserve better, and we will be taking bold steps in the coming weeks and months to address trust and reputation issues.” Said the NHS’s interim CEO Sue Matthews in a media release circulated this Thursday, July 28. “Our communities deserve to have hospitals they trust and are proud of,” she added. “Today there is a disconnect between what we are trying to achieve and how we are viewed.”

There is quite the disconnect, critics of this administration, responsible for managing a majority of the hospital services in Niagara, Ontario repeatedly say. Between the NHS’s decision to build the one and only new hospital complex for Niagara in the north end of the region, while systematically shutting down emergency and other acute care services in the south end, and a recent deadly outbreak of C. difficile in area hospitals, the gap between what the NHS claims it is ‘achieving’ and the lack of confidence among members of the community and even among many of its own front-line staff is wide. Continue reading →