Niagara At Large

By Doug Draper

More than a hundred days may have passed since the chaos on the streets of Toronto during last June’s G20 summit But calls for a public inquiry into the security measures employed continue to mount and Ontario’s never-pull-any-punches ombudsman, Andre Marin, will soon be wading in with a report of his own.

Riot police marching the streets of Toronto near Queen's Park during this past June's G20 summit.

This October 5, civil libertarians lawyers and others ramped up their call for a full and open public inquiry into what unfolded in downtown Toronto when the summit was in session, and the province’s NDP leader Andrea Horwath vowed to soon introduced a bill at Queen’s Park for launching such an inquiry.

Late this September, the province’s community safety and correctional services minister, and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley announced he was appointing Roy McMurtry – a former justice minister from the Conservative government (close to three decades gone now) of Bill Davis, who ran a left-leaning government compared to what we have provincially and federally now – to review an old law that apparently gave police excessive powers to arrest people for within five metres of a makeshift security fence around the summit site. “This law has been on the books since 1939, when we were probably worried about Nazi saboteurs. It deserves a review,” Bradley was quoted saying for a recent story in The National Post. Given numerous eyewitness reports and video shot in the vicinity of that fence during the summit, one might greet Bradley’s quotation above as an understatement. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Hey all of you ‘soccer moms’ out there. Move over. Here come the ‘Wal-Mart moms’!

Yes, that’s right. Pollsters in the United States have now taken to calling younger mothers of voting age in the United States – particular those who shop at least once a month at Wal-Mart – Wal-Mart moms. And given that those of us living on the Canadian side of the border have a provincial, if not a federal election looming within the next 12 months, it probably won’t be long before that label migrates over here.

Until it does, we can only go by the surveys conducted to date on the American side of the border, and they so far show that Wal-Mart moms tend to be “independents” when it comes to their voting preferences. A majority of them voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections and although they say they still like Obama personally, they are disappointed and may not vote for him or his fellow Democrats in the same numbers in the future.

And why? Because the Wal-Mart moms say they don’t see enough improvement in joblessness and the overall American economy, that’s why.

Well here is something all you Wal-Mart moms on both sides of the U.S./Canada border might want to at least think about when you are fretting over the state of jobs and economy in our communities. Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

We have been treated to so many false starts on this one over the past decades or so, we almost post this news with our tongues firmly planted in our cheeks.

A virtual depiction of what the new cross-border span would look like near the existing Peace Bridge. Image courtesy of Peace Bridge Authority

But let’s hope that a report, published in The Buffalo News this September 30, that construction could begin on a new bridge next to the Peace Bridge in the summer of 2012 turns out to be true because for the sake of the economies on both sides of our border, we need that new crossing badly.

According to the story in the News, the Buffalo and Fort Erie Peace Bridge Authority has made a final decision on one of a number of designs for the new bridge unveiled over the past year and wants to get the building underway because up to $100 million in Canadian federal funding is at stake – funding that could disappear if there isn’t a shovel in the ground by 2012 and the project isn’t completed by 2014. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

If you have spent any length of time driving around the Ontario side of our greater Niagara region over the past year, you have no doubt seen or at least passed signs advertising ‘economic Action Plan’ projects paid for, in part, through the Canadian federal government’s dispersion of our tax dollars.

This federal 'Action Plan' sign lines a main road to the parking lot of Brock University where our taxes are contributing to the building of new facilities there.

Those signs posted across the Canadian landscape – a few of them highlighted here – make up a good chunk of a record $130 million Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives spent on advertising themselves in the 2009/2010 fiscal year ending this past March, according to a wave of recent stories in The Globe and Mail and other mainstream media. And God, or maybe only Harper, knows how much more of our money will be spent on federal government ads in this 2010/2011 fiscal year with an election looming sometime in the not-to-distant future.

What should concern all of is that this Conservative government also markets itself as the one and only party of fiscal responsibility in Canada. Yet they’ve now spent an amount on promotion that well surpasses the previous $111-million record set by the former federal Liberal government in 2002-2003. Harper and his Conservatives pounded the Liberals, as they should have, over that one. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting this September 30 report by a coalition of environmental and conservation groups across the U.S. and Canadian regions of our Great Lakes in keeping with this NAL’s position that an invasion of Asian Carp in our Great Lakes would be potentially devastating to the ecology andto the economies of the entire Great Lakes region. This is one invasion of an alien species to these fresh water bodies that must go down as a  “red alert” by citizens on both sides of the border andby our governments.)             
 
Nearly a dozen Great Lakes environmental groups today dropped off more than 10,000 postcards urging President Obama to demand that federal regulators act now on a permanent solution to halt the Asian carp’s encroachment on the Great Lakes.

Asian Carp, breaking water in the Mississippi River watershed, not too far away from Lake Michigan, where the fish's migration there could mean ecological crisis for all the Great Lakes. Photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.

 Representatives of the groups traveled to Washington, D.C. to hand deliver the postcards, signed by residents from around the Great Lakes region as evidence of a potential Asian carp invasion mounted this summer.

“Today we delivered over 10,000 post cards collected in just six short weeks and thousands of signatures on petitions, asking President Obama to use his authority to immediately and swiftly work toward separating the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River system — the main route the carp are taking to reach our Great Lakes” said Cheryl Mendoza, associate director for Freshwater Future.
 
“Our message from people around the region couldn’t be more clear: ‘We cannot wait any longer. We want a permanent solution that will protect our Great Lakes way of life,'” she said. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

It may not offer the screaming thrills of a modern-day amusement park ride, but no matter.

Leonardo Torres Quevedo, grandson of his name sake who designed Niagara Park's historic Whirlpool Aero Car, joins Vic Perry, president of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, in commemmorating the time-honoured ride. in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Photo by Doug Draper

Niagara Park’s Whirlpool Aero Car – now just six years shy of its centennial – has a timeless charm that continues attracting more than 100,000 riders a year for a unique, bird’s-eye view of one of the most spectacular rivers the world.

This September 30, one of those riders was the grandson bearing the same name as the legendary Spanish engineer, Leonardo Torres Quevedo, who designed the Aero Car that has remained one of the more popular tourist attractions along the Niagara River since it was built in 1916.

Torres Quevedo’s grandson was joined on the ride from one wall of the Niagara River gorge to another, two hundred feet above the whirlpool rapids, by Vic Perry, president of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering.

Earlier in the day, the two men signed an agreement between the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE and its Spanish counterpart, promoting a closer working relationship for the benefit of members of both associations and the engineering profession in general. At the same, the Whirlpool Aero Car (formerly known as the Spanish Aero Car) was named by the CSCE as an “International Historic Civil Engineering Work.” Continue reading →

A Commentary by Mollie Stovell

Late this September,  Superior Court Justice Susan Himel overturned the current laws in Ontario used to criminalize the acts surrounding prostitution. It will no longer be illegal for prostitutes to communicate with potential clients,  to operate out of a bawdy house, or to employ bodyguards and other individuals to aide in their safety.

As residents of Niagara, we are no strangers to the prevalence of sex work.  The massage parlours are plenty, and we all suspect they are a front for paid sexual services. The only difference now is the legitimacy of these businesses, and their ability to operate with honesty, thus making the employees less stigmatized, and empowered to make more decisions that will benefit themselves directly. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Pat Scholfield  

The Niagara Region turned down a motion for an investigation into the Niagara Health System (NHS) by a vote of 16 to 11.

Hospital care advocate Pat Scholfield

Below is a brief list of reasons why an investigation of the NHS is needed.

· The Ontario Health Coalition held health hearings across Ontario in March and discovered Niagara had the worse access to hospital care, and recommended there be an investigation of the NHS under the Public Hospitals Act.
· Seven municipalities in Niagara voted to have an investigation of the NHS: St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Thorold, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Wainfleet and Welland Continue reading →

By Julia Blushak

A minister, a major, an executive director, an activity coordinator and an outreach worker walk into a restaurant for breakfast. When the waiter asks for their order, they exclaim unanimously – ‘A healthier neighbourhood, sunny side up, please!’ Joking aside, the set up is based on real events.

Sometime late last winter, several community leaders began meeting for casual brainstorming over breakfast in an eastside St. Catharines restaurant. More than anything, they began meeting for mutual support. Their professional lives felt daunting at times as they confronted the day to day demands in a neighbourhood deemed one of high needs, based on findings in reports like the 2007 ‘A Legacy of Poverty?

Addressing Cycles of Poverty & the Impact on Child Health in Niagara Region.’ Together, these individuals knew more about the lives behind the faces in their controversial neighbourhood than most of us care to. And so, with their ‘sunny side up’, hands-on philosophy, they set about to plan a celebration of bounty. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

I got to confess, I am getting tired of writing – over and over and over again – about the hospital mess in Niagara.

Just as they did at the Sept. 23 meeting of regional council, concerned residents from central and south Niagara fill the gallery on Sept. 8 for an earlier debate on hospital services.

So tired that I could no longer force myself to stay up as long as a gallery of concerned residents from Port Colborne and Fort Erie and Welland, Ontario attended a meeting of Niagara’s regional council this past September 23, most of who were wearing those ‘Yellow Shirts’ for groups fighting for fairer access to hospital services in south Niagara.

Many of those residents arrived at the meeting around 7 p.m. and toughed it out through a closed session of the council that dragged on for three hours and through discussions on a number of other issues before learning, at close to 2 a.m. the following morning, the outcome of a request for the regional government to support a call for a provincial investigation of the Niagara Health System and how that decade-old board is managing hospital operations across the region.

That call for an investigation came from a Toronto-based lobby group called the Ontario Health Coalition and from seven of Niagara’s 12 local municipalities, including Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Wainfleet, Welland, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Thorold, and from numerous citizens, many of them living in the region’s southern tier where the NHS closed emergency rooms at the Port Colborne and Fort Erie hospitals last year.

A majority of regional councillors said no to that request, just as a number of them did earlier this September at a committee-of-the-whole meeting, and opted instead for “work(ing) with the NHS to establish a more effective, regularized relationship to improve the quality of health care for the residents of Niagara.”  The working relationship will include semi-annual updates on how well things are going to improve the quality of care.

It was disappointing to the residents who shuffled out of the regional council chamber around two in the morning and drove back to communities in and around Port Colborne and Fort Erie where they have been witnessing, year after year now, the diminishing of hospital services, including the closing of beds and those emergency rooms, close to home. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Did you happen to take an evening walk this last week of September and see that big harvest moon up there in the sky?

Tereza Hozjan and her husband Joe manage 'Town & Country Farms' along Canboro Road in Pelham, Ontario - one of many venues in our greater Niagara region for locally grown food. Photo by Doug Draper

Wow, it was a wondrous sight, wasn’t it?  It was one that should remind us how fortunate we all are to live on the only planet we know of in the universe that supports life, and how fragile the life-support systems of our planet may be.

In that spirit and in what is left of the light of that harvest moon, let’s also remind ourselves that we are now living through what is possibly the most bountiful time of the harvest season in our greater Niagara region.

Let us ask ourselves how fragile our lives might be if we continue to lose what is left our local farmers and their growing lands – if we made ourselves dependent for something as vital to our survival as food to producers in other countries that may not always be so pleased to feed us. Let us ask ourselves where we would be if we lost the capacity to feed ourselves and found ourselves vulnerable to other nations that, for whatever reason, might grow hostile to us? Continue reading →

By Dave Toderick

If the worst happens, James Hansen will still be able to look his grandchildren in the eye and say; “I’m sorry.  I tried my best.”

Climate expert Dr. James Hansen

In 1988, Dr. Hansen, an atmospheric physicist and now head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, testified to an American Senate committee that our climate was being affected by greenhouse gases produced by humans.

In the years that followed, because he prefers science to communicating, he decided to leave the communication to those who enjoy it and are better at it.  But now, twenty-two years later, with his grandchildren in mind, he is back in the communication game, trying to close the gap between what scientists have learned in those years, and what the public understands.  Last week he was speaking in Toronto, and I was there. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Following a marathon, three-hour meeting behind closed doors, Niagara Ontario’s regional council opened the chamber doors late this September 23 to announce that it has reached an agreement to purchase land in Niagara Falls for a new police headquarters for regional police.

Days are now numbered for Niagara Regional Police headquarters in downtown St. Catharines.

The announcement draws to an end many months of speculation over where a new headquarters for the Niagara Regional Police Service may go and drive a spike into the campaign by St. Catharines Mayor Brian McMullan and other municipal politicians in his city to keep the headquarters in St. Catharines’ downtown.

Regional council revealed in open session this Sept. 23 that an agreement has been reached with a group of investment firms to purchase land near the intersection of Hwy. 420 and Portage Road in Niagara Falls, and a short walk away from the existing headquarters in Niagara Falls for the Ontario Provincial Police. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

Here is a pretty sad and sorry sign of our times – “In-Camera Meeting In Progress. Do Not Enter.”

Doors shut. An all-too-familiar site at Niagara regional council.

That was the sign several ordinary residents and others across Niagara, Ontario’s region – people who took the trouble and time to attend a regularly scheduled meeting of our elected regional councillors this September 23 – had slammed in their face for the better part of three hours as the council, once again, spent a ridiculous amount of time debating matters that are ultimately going to hit us in the pocket book, behind closed doors.

Now I just want to make clear, before I go on with this, that I have a good deal of respect for many of those representing us on regional council. This isn’t a slam against each and every one of those elected people behind those closed doors. In spite of what many think of politicians these days, I continue to believe we have people on that council who try their best to serve in the best interest of their communities.

But that is enough of this reporter playing ‘Mr. Nice Guy’. Continue reading →

Our precious and ever-so-fragile Great Lakes from space. Photo courtesy of Kevin McMahon, producer of the 2009 documentary film 'Waterlife'.

A Commentary by Doug Draper

What kind of shape do you think we are going to find our Great Lakes after a couple of decades of Ontario falling behind New York and other states across the binational border in protecting them?

Well, here is one possibility. We could be back to where we were in the 1970s when Lake Erie was on the verge of choking to death from phosphorus and other sewage, and the waters of all five Great Lakes were flush with pollutants from countless effluent pipes and leaking waste dumps.

According to a new report, called ‘Redefining Conservation’ and released this September 22 by Ontario’s independent environment commissioner Gord Miller, the quality of our Great Lakes waters is declining toward 1970 lows because the province and municipalities are falling behind their American neighbours in curbing sewage and other pollutants to the lakes. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is posting the following for readers in our greater Niagara region who may have concerns about plans to ship radioactive waste through the Great Lakes and Welland Canal.

The call from Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath to the province’s premier, Dalton McGuinty to halt these shipments is just the latest of many calls of concern around this from bodies on the Canadian and American sides of our Great Lakes region.

Following the posting of Horwath’s open message to Ontario’s premier, Niagara At Large is posting a recent piece by Great Lakes United, a U.S./Canada coalition of lakes conservationists with a head office in Buffalo, N.Y., raising concerns about these planned shipments of radioactive waste.

Don’t float nuke boat: Horwath to McGuinty

QUEEN’S PARK – NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is calling on the McGuinty government to halt planned shipments of radioactive waste through the Great Lakes.

A ship carries commercial cargo through the Welland Canal where there are plans to ship radioactive waste through the canal and lower Great Lakes. File photo by Doug Draper

Bruce Power is proposing to ship 16 radioactive nuclear steam generators from Owen Sound to Sweden for dismantling and recycling.

“Seventy Great Lakes mayors, dozens of environmental groups, and First Nations communities oppose this plan, which was not part of Bruce Power’s initial proposal and exceeds by 50 times international limits for radioactivity on a single ship,” said Horwath, citing the growing grassroots opposition.

“Why isn’t the McGuinty government taking action to prevent this unprecedented and unnecessary threat?” she asked Premier Dalton McGuinty during this morning’s Question Period. Continue reading →

An Introductory  Note from Niagara At Large

 The day following last Christmas, Reilly Anzovino, daughter of Denise Kennedy and Tim Anzovino, and sister of Kain Anzovino, was involved in a tragic car accident on Highway 3 between her Ontario hometown of Fort Erie and neighbouring Port Colborne. She was ambulanced to an emergency room at a hospital in Welland and died.

Many, including Reilly’s family, believe she may have survived if the Niagara Health System, the board responsible for operating many of the hospitals across the Niagara region for the province, had not closed the emergency rooms at the Fort Erie and Port Colborne hospitals with the approval of the provincially appointed Local Health Integration Network earlier last year.

 A provincial coroner’s inquest into the circumstances surrounding Reilly’s death is pending and, in the meantime, members of Reilly’s family, including her teenage brother Kain, are trying their best to live on with her loss. Niagara At Large is pleased to post this piece by Reilly’s mother Denise has shared with us about the strength and courage Kain has summoned to move forward in honour of his sister.

By Denise Kennedy

It has been almost 37 years since the Ridgeway Crystal Beach High School has had a football team.  The Fort Erie High School Senior team folded and the players from FESS have to join forces with the “Blue Devils” this year.

Kain Anzovino proudly wears #25 in honour of his sister Reilly. Photo courtesy of Anzovino family.

Kain has played football since grade 9 for Fort Erie, as well as the Niagara Spears for the 2009 season.

“I wanted to dedicate my season to my sister Reilly,” Kain told his father and I. “When we lose someone that is close to us, it is difficult to go on sometimes. But Reilly wouldn’t want me to give up. She would be on the sidelines cheering us on with her friends and painted faces.” 

Kain and Reilly are only 17 months apart in age and grew up together very close. 

Kain has chosen #25 for his uniform this football season because Reilly was killed in a tragic automobile accident this past Christmas.  He wanted #26 because her birthday is January 26^th and the accident occurred on Boxing Day. But that number wasn’t one of the options. “#25 is still a good number and Christmas was Reilly’s favorite time of year because we always get together with many cousins and family members to celebrate,” said Kain. “Christmas will not be the same without Reilly now, she was a lot of fun.” Continue reading →

By Pamela Minns
 
The formation of a new organization called Niagara Heritage Alliance was announced recently. 

Architect Jill Taylor was keynote speaker at Niagara Heritage Alliance's inaugural conference.

It is a regional alliance of volunteer individuals and organizations from communities across the twelve municipalities in the Regional Municipality of Niagara, who are dedicated to heritage preservation and enhancement, and speak and act with a strong, unified voice when our heritage is threatened.
 
This past Saturday the beautiful setting of Navy Hall in Niagara on the Lake was alive with attendees to a conference organized by Niagara Heritage Alliance, the theme of which was “Our Heritage in Crisis:  Do you Care?”  The joyful sound of a piper echoed throughout the surrounding land and building welcoming the speakers and attendees. Continue reading →

By Dave Toderick

Actually, she’s my former student and I’m her former teacher, but that would have made for an awkward title.  And I wouldn’t want to give you the impression that a teacher learning from his students is a “Man Bites Dog” kind of event.  My students were constantly teaching me.

Moriah Kolenda (right) and her sister Rayne, prior to her chemo treatment for cancer.

Moriah Kolenda was in my class when she was in Grade 3, and again in Grade 5.  I coached her in Cross Country Running, Relays, and Track and Field.  Her favourite part of the day, she would tell me on the way out the door for home, was usually Gym or Art.  On our last day together, my final day as a classroom teacher, she gave me a DVD she made, a slideshow of photos of the last few days of the school year set to music; Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.

If you had asked me about her back then, I would have said that she was a great kid, but it’s only now, five years later, that I’m coming to appreciate just how extraordinary she is.  I’ll get to that in a moment.

Among the many, many things I wanted my students to learn, both from the curriculum and about life, was about Terry Fox.  I wanted them to learn about Terry’s courage so that when they needed it, they’d find that they had courage too.  I wanted them to learn about the way Terry broke down seemingly impossible tasks into smaller steps, so that when they faced huge challenges, they’d be able to keep moving forward and not be overwhelmed.  I wanted them to learn about Terry’s work ethic, so that they’d work hard too, and see how success comes from effort.  I wanted them to learn about determination and persistence, and caring about and doing things to help others.

We read stories and articles about Terry.  We watched him in videos.  We sang a song about him.  My students taught what they learned about Terry to other students in the school.  The whole school community felt tremendous pride in the success of our annual Terry Fox Runs. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large.

When we launched Niagara At Large nine months ago as an independent, alternative venue for news and commentary for our greater Niagara region, we made it clear from the start that anonymous comments will not be posted.

Buffalo News Managing Editor Margaret Sullivan is showing leadership by imposing the first ban on anonymous comments on the website of a daily newspaper on this continent. More on that brave decision further down in this aritcle. Photo courtesy of The Buffalo News.

This decision was made to discourage uncivil comments, including insulting and defamatory attacks on individuals or groups who are either in the news or care enough to share news and commentary, along with their real name, with online sites like this. It was made to discourage the kind of verbal spitball we see being hurled by anonymous bloggers on websites, including far too many being operated by supposedly reputable newspapers and broadcast outlets.

We believed, from the start, that if we require people to post comments under their real names, there would be a far greater likelihood of receiving comments tempered with a degree of thoughtfulness and civility.

To date, Niagara At Large is pleased to say that since January of this year, this site has received more than 1,500 comments to news and commentary on the site and readers that have shared their names have posted more than 1,200. By any yardstick, that is a pretty good response considering that some very good and experienced individuals in the news business warned us at the onset that we may not get many people willing to comment to posts on this site if we required them to share their real names.

However, there are still readers, and we’ve had about 300 to date, who send us comments with pseudonyms like ‘Rick Ramrod’, ‘Torpedo Tom’ and ‘Sexy Cool’ tagged to them, or comments with names and email addresses we cannot verify as being real through attempts to email these people or call them on the phone. The majority of these comments have so far confirmed our view that people who prefer to remain anonymous or use false names are more interested in breathing fire at others than engaging in a civil debate. In fact, some of these people have engaged in commentary that leads one to believe they would be better off seeking some professional help in anger management than attempting to post their remarks here. Continue reading →

By Niagara At Large Publisher Doug Draper

“What’s the use of being a writer if you can’t irritate a great many people.”
– the late American writer Norman Mailer.

This August, while my family and I ventured out to the tip of Cape Cod to Provincetown, Massachusetts, we made a short pilgrimage to the grave of Norman Mailer.

Legendary American writer Norman Mailer's grave in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Photo by Doug Draper

Mailer, who died two years ago this coming November and who made P-Town his home for most of his Pulitzer Prize-writing years, remains one of my favourite commentators on so much of the madness I feel I’ve lived through during my short 59 years on this wonderful, mysterious and crazy planet.

Like him or not, Mailer was one of the most keen and courageous writers on the heroes and villains, and on so many of the good, bad and ugly events of our times. And yes, he did irritate a great many people.

Not that irritating people was Mailer’s sole goal. He was a far more multi-dimensional chronicler than that. The idea of irritating people, in my view, was Mailer’s take on that old line that one of the missions of a writer – especially those who call themselves journalists – should be to ‘comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable’. And that is always what this journalist believes he or any other journalist worth their salt should do when it comes to those who are so comfortable in their positions of power, they have forgotten what it means to feel afflicted any more.

Continue reading →

Commentary by Doug Draper

I don’t know about you, but I have just about had it with hearing any more from Canada’s Conservative government about cracking down on crime.

Tory Justice Minister and Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson talks tough on crime. So why move to kill long-gun registry?

 I am talking about all of this last couple of years of bluster and chest beating – often coming to us through Tory Justice Minister and Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson – about getting tougher on violent crime and spending billions of tax dollars that could be spent on health care, on education and so many other worthwhile things on building more prisons.

Here are a few questions for Nicholson and his party about their Texas-style ‘war on crime’.

 Why so much emphasis on this when statistics show that the rate of violent crime rate in Canada has actually been going down in recent years? Is this just one more crass way of pandering to a base of voters obsessed with crime and punishment over almost anything else? Or is it a make-work program for lawyers and others in the justice system who haven’t been getting as much business lately because the crime rate has gone down? Continue reading →

 By Dave Toderick

I used to be both bewildered and dismayed that there are still people who don’t believe that climate change is happening as a result of human behaviour . 

Recently, though, I’ve come across some information that has helped me, at least with the bewildered part.  The information has to do with the way people form opinions.

It would be natural to assume that, in order to arrive at a point of view on an important topic, we first look around us for the facts, then weigh the information we have gathered to form our opinion.  In fact, researchers have found that what actually happens is that people first form an opinion and then seek out information to back up their new belief. Continue reading →

A Foreward by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

The City of Port Colborne – one of the south and central Niagara municipalities, along with Fort Erie, Wainfleet, Welland and Niagara Falls, receiving the short end of the stick from the provincial government of Dalton McGuinty and company when it comes to hospital services – decided during a council meeting this August 23 to consider legal options that include suing the provincial government and the Local Health Integration Network it hides be

The Niagara Health System, with the approval of the area's Local Health Integration Network, removes the emergency room sign at the Port Colborne Hospital last summer. Photo by Doug Draper

hind.

The South Niagara city’s decision to seek legal advice on a possible lawsuit follows the release of a report by Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin, the province’s official watchdog, charging that the LHI N representing Niagara, Hamilton and other surrounding areas acted illegally two years ago in excluding Niagara municipal councils and members of the public in participating in a fully open and transparent review of a so-called ‘hospital improvement plan’ for this region.

Marin’s charge that this hand-picked, McGuinty government body gave Niagara the bum’s rush when it come to having a full and open say in the future of hospitals services in this region is no small deal. The Niagara Health System, another provincial body now responsible for operating most of the hospital services in this region, has moved forward with its “hospital improvement plan,” since the tabling of this plan two summers ago, by closing emergency room services at hospital sites in Port Colborne and Fort Erie, and by continually closing beds and other services at those sites and others in the region. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The people of Niagara  “deserve” to see plans for cutting a new super highway through the region resurrected with a full environmental review, says Tim Hudak.

Ontario Conservative Leader and Niagara MPP Tim Hudak

The Ontario Conservative leader and Niagara MPP was responding in a media release this Aug. 3 to a recent report from Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government that places the idea of building a new highway, from the Hamilton-Burlington area through to the Fort Erie-Buffalo border area, on the backburners indefinitely.

“I have been calling on Dalton McGuinty to get moving on this important transportation infrastructure for years,” said Hudak, who has been a strong advocate for a new highway through Niagara going back to his years in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a cabinet minister in the former Conservative governments of Mike Harris and Ernie Eves. Continue reading →

A Message From Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

If you are a regular Niagara At Large reader, you will notice a lot less action on this news and commentary site over the next few weeks.

That is because we are taking a little time during these dog days of summer to recharge our batteries and to plan ahead for a busy late summer and fall, and for much more of the kind of news and commentary that adds up to the virtual ‘Town Hall meetings’ Niagara At Large is proud to engage in with the residents of our greater binational Niagara on a host of issues.

In Niagara, Ontario, residents face possibly the most important municipal elections in a generation this October in terms of who is going to finally lead our communities in ways that are economically and environmentally sustainable through the first half of the 21st century. For residents on both sides of our binational border, there are issues like health care, employment, protecting the ecology of our Great Lakes and what is left of our manufacturing sector, the gridlock at border bridges, and protecting and preserving our heritage most treasured landscapes while building toward a more prosperous future.

And, of course, Niagara At Large also looks forward to building on a record we are proud of when it comes to covering some of the great festivals, and other cultural and heritage events that enrich the lives of all of us who make Erie and Niagara Counties, New York, and Niagara, Ontario our home. Continue reading →

A Foreward by Doug Draper

For the half century since its founding, Marineland has been a very popular amusement park and has been one of the pillars of a lucrative tourist industry in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

If anyone doubts that, just drive by the sprawling Marineland park any sunny day of the summer and check out how many cars are filling its parking lots and how many men, women and children are lining the ticket booths at its front gates.

But not ‘everyone loves Marineland, contrary to that iconic old ad jingle that repeats that line over and over again on television and radio stations for thousands of miles around. There are some – maybe just a handful, for all we know – who don’t love Marineland for its keeping of whales, including Orcas and belugas, and other marine mammals in captivity for the pleasure of the masses. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Canada’s Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff struck a positive chord during his visit to Niagara, Ontario this late July with a promise to see the region’s Welland Canal corridors, including the surviving remnants of the first canals dating back to the early 1800s, designated a heritage and/or national historical site if he is elected prime minister.

Canada's Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff (second from right), joins Niagara, Ontario residents on tour of remnants of first Welland Canal locks in St. Catharines, Ontario area. Photo courtesy of The Welland Canal Advocate.

That sounds fabulous. But the key word in that promise is “if” he gets elected the next PM, and given his standing in national polls these days, that remains an uncertainty.

What should not remain uncertain – regardless of what party is running this country – is a national designation for a Welland Canal system that has done as much to open Canada to its west and build the country’s economy as any other infrastructure, including trans-Canada rail and highway, that has been built to date.

Members of The Welland Canals Advocate, an area group with a mission to promote the history of the canals, and protect and preserve what is left of the first canals built under the leadership of William Hamilton Merritt, took Ignatieff on a short tour of earlier canal sites before he hosted a Town Hall meeting in St. Catharines this July 30. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Let Stephen Harper and his federal Conservatives take the low road, said Canada’s Liberal leader after he road into St. Catharines, Ontario this July 30 for a town hall meeting as part of his “Liberal Express” swing through the country this summer.

Canada's Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff, field's questions at town hall meeting in St. Catharines, Ontario. Photo by Doug Draper

“I want to take the high road,” said Michael Ignatieff to a mostly enthusiastic audience of more than 100 locals who attended the meeting at the Old Merritton Town Hall. “I want to have a conversation with you” rather than spin messages for the purposes of manipulating people, he added, and “you can’t be a good leader unless you are willing to listen to people.”

“You are looking at someone who wants to be your prime minister,” Ignatieff said, and “I respect the institutions that keep us free and I accept institutions that limits my authority as a leader.”

That is hardly the way it is with Harper and his government, Ignatieff went on to say. He ignores the courts, when it is convenient for him to do so, and “when parliament gets in the way, (Harper) shuts it down.”

Ignatieff also defended the need for a full, mandatory census forms to get a good snapshot of the country and its people for Statistics Canada, and he called Harper’s drive to kill the mandatory census as something based on “ideology” rather than anything that seems rational – driven by a government “that seems to prefer ignorance to knowledge.” He questioned how a government could know who needs the most help in what parts of the country if it doesn’t have the information a thorough census can provide. Continue reading →

 A Commentary By Susan Howard-Azzeh

Canadians need to step back and analyze what is really at play here regarding the G20, specifically regarding civil liberties, participatory democracy and foreign interference, or Canada, as we know, it may be changed beyond recovery.

Representatives of unions, environmental and other activist groups march in the streets of Toronto during the G20 summit this June.

Yes, there were decent and reasonable police at the G20 who showed restraint and tried to diligently perform their duties to maintain public safety. However, there were also those who did not, and all en masse were used as political pawns by (Canada’s prime minister) Stephen Harper, (Ontario’s premier) Dalton McGuinty, G20 organizers and foreign agendas.

It is vital that we have public access and democratic input into what takes place behind closed doors by world leaders. Many believe the G20 should not take place at all and certainly not in downtown Toronto. Tactics chosen by the minority Black Bloc were designed so that no other city in the world would want to host the G20, which would satisfy
Black Bloc political aims because they feel the G20 is illegitimate, doesn’t represent the peoples’ best interests, and are the rich and powerful making decisions regardless of their impact on the world’s disempowered and often poor majority.

We already have the UN so why the G20? Because business interests, profits and economic globalization are not the number one priority at the UN. Continue reading →

By John Nicol

The human spirit endures many threats to its desire to commune.

Niagara, Ontario's Emil Breur

In Niagara, politicians play with our hospitals, amalgamate towns and create regional governments distant from our front doors. Schoolboards become such fiefdoms, ignorant of the desire for a sense of community, that they poach kids from, let’s say, Niagara-on-the-Lake, such that the town doesn’t have enough students for its own high school.

“Progress” wiped out hamlets like Homer (the Welland Canal), Glen Elgin (river mills were passé) and there are places like St. John or McNab where only the churches mark an olden day commingling at the crossroads.

Bucking these forces have been neighbourhood barbecues, ethnic clubs, and sporting organizations that allow us to form our own societies.

And then there’s the Emil Breuer Soccer Tournament, it’s own Brigadoon that, for the last 25 years, has sprung to life every Simcoe Day weekend on the once-remote grounds of German Village in Niagara Falls.

The weekend is a community gathering at its finest, a magical snapshot of what life should be, all inspired by a charismatic man named Emil Peter Breuer. Continue reading →

A Commentary By Mollie Stovell

It’s always nice to see a local resident really making a name for themselves. It always gives me a sense of pride, having grown up in Niagara. Then, once in a while you come upon a story, with a name, that diminishes that joy you once shared with your neighbours.

Omar Khadr then and more recently

For me, most recently, that story stars our (Niagara Falls) MP, Mr. Rob Nicholson, and his involvement with the Omar Khadr case. One could argue that Mr. Nicholson is merely doing his job by following the direction of our Prime Minister. However, as Canada’s Minister of Justice he must be held accountable for upholding our rights as Canadians, and, as his title implies, ensuring that justice is served.

For Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, he has not only failed on this front, but continues to fight against those standing on the just side of the law, that is, the Federal Court and previously, the Supreme Court of Canada. Continue reading →

A Commentary By Dan Wilson
 
If Facebook is any indication, there are a whole lot of people out there upset that all the farm animals at Happy Rolph’s petting zoo are gone.

These goats are among the many animals recently removed from popular Happy Rolph's park in St. Catharines, Ontario where animals were violently assaulted by still-unknown persons this spring. File photo by Doug Draper.

Paul Vanderzanden, the West Lincoln turkey farmer who leased the animals to the park, announced earlier this week that he had removed them after a number of questionable decisions (questionable to Mr. Vanderzanden anyways) were made by the city.
 
Regardless of what those decisions were, the fact remains that the animals are gone. Is this a bad thing? I say no. I’ve never really been a big fan of petting zoos and the only reason I go down to Happy Rolph’s is to photograph the ducks and turtles.
 
I personally don’t see what’s so appealing about seeing animals in cages. Of course, they’re not exactly cages, more like enclosures, but the principle is the same: they’re locked up and they can never leave. Their whole world is a pen measuring 10 feet by 10 feet, or in the case of the larger animals, 20 feet by 20 feet. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large Is pleased to post the following media release from the Binational Economic & Tourism Alliance, a not-for-profit organization representing members of the toursist industry and others across our greater binational Niagara Region.)

The Buffalo Sabres, hosts to the 2011 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship taking place December 26, 2010 to January 5, 2011 in Buffalo NY, have endorsed the Binational Economic & Tourism Alliance (BETA) and Niagara Sport Commission (NSC) as the Southern Ontario leads for the upcoming games.
 
The BETA and NSC, both members of the Host Organizing Committee for the Championship, will work together with a consortium of Canadian and U.S. partners, to assist with the coordination of Southern Ontario community stakeholder communications, visitor packaging, border-crossing logistics and providing one point of contact to ensure quality delivery, ease of transportation, and customer/fan satisfaction during the World Junior Hockey Championship. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

The provincial government may be asking its million or so public employees to accept a wage freeze for the next couple of year. But obviously that does not apply to our police.

This July 27 – a week to the day that Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan hauled more than 50 representatives for public union employees across Ontario to urge them to accept a two-year wage freeze – an abitrator for the province approved a wage increase of close to 10 per cent for the Niagara Regional Police Service over the next three years.

This means that taxpayers across Niagara, Ontario are going to have to pay for this increase through their property taxes – not through income taxes or anywhere else. The province gets to be the hero here and give the police the salary increases they want, and they don’t have to pay for it. Pretty good deal for a province that has it enshrined in an Ontario Police Act only it can change. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Canada’s federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is wheeling his “Liberal Express” into Niagara this July 30th for what he is billing as a “town hall meeting” and you are all invited.

The Friday public meeting begins at 1:45 p.m. and will take place at the Old Merritton Town Hall on 343 Merritt Street in St. Catharines, Ontario.

This meeting is another in a series of get-togethers Ignatieff is hosting across the country in a bid to strike enough of a connection with Canadians to prevail in an election that could within the next 12 months.

Since members of the federal Liberal Party officially endorsed him as leader of the party in May of last year, Ignatieff – or Iggy as he is often called – has found himself sagging in public-opinion polls suggesting, more and more, that the Conservative government of Stephen Harper might finally win a majority if Iggy is one of Harper’s only real opponents in the next election. Continue reading →

If you are up for a great summer festival in one of Niagara’s historic port and canal communities, then follow the crowds to Canal Days in Port Colborne, Ontario this July 30^th through August 2^nd.

Canal Days, Port Colborne, Ontario. File photo by Doug Draper

The Canal Days Marine Heritage Festival is celebrating its 32^nd year as an event that, earlier this year was designated by Festivals & Events Ontario, through a nomination process that included more than 3,000 festivals and events across Ontario, as among the top 100 best to go to across the province.

In recent years, countless tens-of-thousands of people of all ages and from both sides of Niagara’s binational border have flocked to Canal Days for live music, craft shows, car and motorcycle shows, carnival rides, fireworks displays and much more along the shores of Lake Erie and the Welland Canal.

For more information on this festival and events featured this year, visit canaldays.ca or call 1-800-Port-Fun.

Click on Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.

By Doug Draper

As the days and weeks go by since that infamous weekend in late June at the G20 summit, the call for a full and open inquiry into security operations around the summit builds.

Riot police around Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario during recent G20 summit.

And so does the gallery of digital images – most captured using all those new-fangled gadgets that can now be brought into play by mostly younger people. Many may not be journalists in the traditional sense and may therefore not deserve mass attention, according to journalistic elites like Toronto Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford and others.

But what these amateur journalists are posting on youtube and through other venues may be more important than any of the crap that Blatchford and other mainstream-media dish out to the powers-that-be.

In that spirit, Niagara At Large is offering the following link to one video and there are many others you can find on line. All should lead to a growing call from anyone who cares about freedom and democracy in Canada for a full and open inquiry.

Here is the link for the video we are posting at the moment at – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbLU9tdDwxo 
 

There may be other digital stills or video you wish to offer. We would consider posting them.

(Click on Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)

By Doug Draper

Niagara, Ontario’s regional government is spending more to treat and pipe water and wastewater across the region than it is getting back in charges for water use, and that can only mean one thing.

One of Niagara Region's wastewater treatment plants in the St. Catharines community of Port Dalhousie. Photo courtesy of Niagara Region.

Get ready to pay more – and in some Niagara municipalities, significantly more – for the water you use in your homes and businesses.

That was the overall message Niagara’s directly elected regional councillors and mayors of local municipalities received from the Region’s public works and corporate services staff at a special committee-of-the-whole session this July 20 to discuss how best to set water and wastewater rates over the next four years.

“We have got to get this right,” said the Region’s public works commissioner, Ken Brothers, of the need for a new way of charging residents and businesses for water – a way that addresses a shortfall in revenue for operating water and wastewater works that has added up to about $22 million over the last six years alone. “Without the appropriate revenue, we are heading down an unsustainable path.” Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper

How do you get municipal honchos in Toronto so hopping annoyed that they are hopping higher than the CN Tower?

A view from Niagara Parks Commission lands of the rapids foaming above the Horseshoe Falls. Photo by Doug Draper.

Try running a few ads on Toronto-area television stations and a website urging people to consider Niagara as an escape from all of the gridlock, noise, crime and other chaos in the city. That might do it.

In case you have not yet heard all the crying from across the lake, Toronto has its knickers tied in a knot over something a Niagara body said about it in a bundle of ads late this July. The Niagara Parks Commission launched an ad campaign – featured on its website and on Toronto TV stations – encouraging Torontonians to visit its scenic parklands along Falls and Niagara River corridor, as well as other Niagara area attractions. And why? To “shake off the city,” that’s why.

Suffice to say, Toronto officials and some media outlets based in that city seem ready to throw at least a few people down our way over the Falls in the wake of these ads. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Here’s a bit of encouraging news for people who want to believe there is a robust future for more public transit in the province of Ontario.

Waterloo Region's Rapid River Transit system and other transit services on both sides of our binational border are leaving Niagara, Ontario in the dust

The Ontario government recently announced a $300-million grant for a light rail system in one the province’s region, and that region just happens to be the Region of Waterloo.

And why? Well maybe because Waterloo, unlike Niagara, has already demonstrated the foresight the courage to move forward with a truly regional transit system, and has a fleet of buses serving one end of the region to the other and soaring numbers of residents leaving their cars at home and using public transit to prove it.

Unlike Niagara, Waterloo’s regional government, including its seven local municipalities (Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo, and four rural townships) took the bull by the horns a decade ago and agreed to turn over all responsibilities for operating transit services to the region. The result has been one transit agency, focused on providing the most accessible services possible to even the smallest communities in the region, and a ridership on regional buses that has increased by 80 per cent since the year 2000. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

When it comes to getting rid of another unpopular tax Ontario’s Liberal government is trying to impose on consumers, it helps to have one of the country’s major retailers on your side.

Canadian Tire's opposition helps kill eco-tax on Ontario consumers.

It was only a day before the province’s environment minister, John Gerretsen, was forced this July 20 to pull the plug on the government’s controversial “eco fee” on potentially hazardous toxic products, that Canadian Tire – one of the largest retailers of cleaners and other products that fall under that category – declared that it would no longer participating in collecting the fee from its customers.

All of that just 20 days after Premier Dalton McGuinty and his government used Canada Day (this July 1) to slip in this fee on top of the infamous Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), another regressive tax it imposed on consumers across Ontario on the same day. Continue reading →

Foreward by Doug Draper

Okay, so which is it? Is Niagara, Ontario’s hospital system still in the red or is it now in the black?

The Niagara Health System's Welland hospital site has experienced 22 more bed closings in recent months and it is not alone in coping with service cuts across the Niagara, Ontario region.

It is the same question Pat Scholfield, a Port Colborne resident and advocate for Niagara hospitals services, asks in a letter to the editor Niagara At Large is posting below. And there is good reason for the question.

According to a report broadcast this June 18 by the CBC, and based on figures it obtained from Local Health Integration Networks overseeing hospitals across the province, the Niagara Health System, as of this past March, has a surplus of $19 million, thanks to an infusion of funding from the province that erased an $18.8 million deficit (one of the worst in the province) it was wrestling with last year.

But this July 20, according to stories published in the St. Catharines Standard, Welland Tribute and Niagara Falls Review chain of newspapers, the NHS is still nursing a deficit of about $3 million – keeping it on the left side of the ledger with about third of the other hospital systems in the province that are collectively experiencing a funding shortfall from the Ontario government of about $107 million. Continue reading →

 By Doug Draper

Well, well, well.

Port Colborne hospital advocate Pat Scholfield wants Niagara Health System investigated.

That compared to drowning in red ink with one of the largest deficits for any hospital board in the province – running at $18.8 million and counting – a year ago at this time.

And how did the Niagara Health System manage to go from broke to a surplus in such a short period of time?

Certainly a recent infusion of about $49 million from the province’s Liberal government to partially make up for under-funding of Niagara’s hospitals going back to the Conservative government years of Mike Harris and one of his favourite former cabinet ministers – the now leader of the provincial Conservative Party and Niagara area MPP Tim Hudak – has been a big help. Continue reading →

English and tropical gardens surround this classic Victorian-style home on Buffalo's West Delavan Avenue, one of the many popular stops on the garden walk. File photo by Doug Draper.

By Doug Draper

If you live within reasonable driving distance of Buffalo, New York and love classic urban neighbourhoods and architecture, and have a passion for gardening on top of that, then mark July 24 and 25.

This coming weekend marks the 16th anniversary of Garden Walk Buffalo – what has grown into the largest free garden walks in all of North America, featuring more than 340 gardens at homes and other places in neighbourhoods often dating back more than a century.

Garden Walk Buffalo now attracts tens-of-thousands of visitors each year for an event that remains free of charge, unless you are interested in purchasing a t-shirt, poster, a great book of Buffalo Gardens with a fine DVD taking you on a virtual tour of gardens and those who care for them in some of the city’s most historic neighbourhoods. Continue reading →

Ontario justice critic and Niagara area MPP Peter Kormos speaks at rally protesting G20 security measures. Photo by Doug Draper.

“When the police cross the line,
slippery slope to the dark side”

– from a song composed by Dave Toderick and performed by the Niagara-based band ‘Bag of Hats’ at a G20 rally this July 17 in St. Catharines, Ontario’s Montebello Park.

By Doug Draper

Of all the images I walked away with following a rally this July 17 in St. Catharines, Ontario’s Montebello Park for a public inquiry into the actions of security forces at the recent G20 summit, the one that haunted me the most was that of a young girl crying hysterically for her mother.

“There was a 14-year-old girl … being carried in there (by police) and literally screaming that her mother had sent her out to get some milk,” recalled Curtis Dignard, a Welland, Ontario resident who, along with his friend Jason Bernard, was arrested and placed ‘in there’ – meaning the makeshift cages set up in warehouses for those taken into custody during the summit – after police closed in on them and others on the streets of Toronto while they were singing ‘O Canada’.

That young girl – whom we don’t know by name but whose story should be told to all Canadians who claim to care about freedom and democracy in this country – was just one of more than 900 people arrested during the two-day summit this past June 26 and 27 – at least 400 more than were arrested during the 1970 October Crisis when militant elements of the Front de liberation du Quebec (FLQ) kidnapped two government officials, killed one and the federal government of the day imposed a ‘War Measures Act’ that temporarily suspended the civil liberties of every person alive in the country at the time. Continue reading →

One Canadian named Barrett Smith keeps lone vigil at Niagara rally protesting G20 security measures. Photo by Doug Draper.

By Doug Draper

Every community has its share of colourful characters.

In the community where I live – Thorold, Ontario, located just south of St. Catharines for some of our American friends and others who may never have heard of the place before – one of our colourful characters is an aging curmudgeon almost everyone who’s lived here for any length of time knows by name.

He is Barrett Smith and he’s often been seen over the years, waving his long arms sharply during a presentation to the local council over the budget, or standing out in front of the grocery store at the plaza with a petition, or hoisting a picket sign he whipped together for a public rally.

This July 17, I found Barrett Smith sitting off on a bench with one or two others holding yet another picket sign that he almost apologized for making up with a black-felt pen on the fly. “I feel like I’m kind of alone out her,” said Barrett as I approached and asked for a picture of him displaying his sign at a rally in St. Catharines, calling for a public inquiry into security measures exercised at the recent G20 summit in downtown Toronto this past June. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Niagara, Ontario’s regional council is giving the body responsible for operating a majority of the hospitals across the region until the end of August to respond to calls from local municipalities and a provincial coalition of citizens for an independent investigation into “serious complaints” and “unresolved issues” members of the public have expressed about the management of those hospitals.

 During its July 15 meeting, the region’s council set the same deadline for a response from the province’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the provincially created Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for Niagara and surrounding Ontario regions and municipalities. The decision to send resolutions by the Ontario Health Coalition and its Niagara Health Coalition chapter, along with similar resolutions approved by Town of Fort Erie and the cities of Port Colborne, Welland and Thorold, to the province for an independent investigation of the operation of hospital services in St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Welland, Fort Erie and Port Colborne became the subject of heated debate. Continue reading →

By Don Alexander

The Niagara Escarpment Plan is marking its 25th anniversary this year. 

A sign promoting the Niagara Escarpment's designation as a globally significant biosphere with the verdant slopes of the escarpment looming behind in St. Catharines, Ontario.

It has also been 15 years since the Niagara Escarpment and its plan area were named a United Nations Biosphere Reserve.

The provincial legislation establishing the Niagara Escarpment Commission and its planning responsibilities was adopted in 1973 and that, along with the U.N. designation a decade and a half ago, are anniversary years that we should measure and mark.

For the Niagara Escarpment itself and its natural systems, time is measured over decades, centuries and eons.

I think of the Niagara Escarpment as a place where time is of a different order than everyday.  That is what makes it special for many of us.  It is sometimes described as a “sacred space” where people go into the natural setting to reflect.  The pace slows.      

Consider the formative years of the escarpment! Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Over the first week of this July, Niagara At Large experienced an unprecedented number of hits on this fledgling news and commentary site – close to 40,000 in a span of two days – for a story we posted first on a Thorold, Ontario amputee, John Pruyn, who was attending a peaceful rally during the G20 summit on the lawns of the provincial legislature at Queen’s Park in Toronto.

Toronto during G20 summit - 'This ain't Canada right now'.

The 57-year-old federal employee and part-time farmer says he could not maneuver his one good leg and walking sticks fast enough for police lines sweeping in on the Queen’s Park lawns and ordering people who had attended the rally to  “move.” So in short order, he had his artificial leg ripped off by riot police, had his hands tied behind his back and was held in detention for 27 hours before he was finally let go without charges.

While in detention, he was never read his rights and was not allowed to make a phone call to a lawyer or member of his family. Instead, he and other detainees were kept with their hands tied behind their backs, making it hard to perform the most simple of functions like going to the bathroom. In other words, they were afforded fewer rights than those enjoyed by notorious killers like Paul Bernardo and Clifford Olsen when they were taken into custody.

Indeed, as one security cop was heard saying in a video to a group of young people who were questioning why their backpacks should be searched by police before they could walk further down the roads of Toronto; “This ain’t Canada right now.” Continue reading →

 By Randy Hillier, Ontario Conservative Party MPP

(Niagara At Large is posting the following commentary on concerns around G20 security operations by a Conservative MPP and contender last year for his party’s leadership. This site will be pleased to post other commentary by our provincial representatives on this important subject.)

It has been said that in war, truth is the first casualty. Yet in the wake of the Toronto G20 summit, it is clear that truth is an unwelcome intruder within the realm of politics as well.

Ontario Conservative MPP Randy Hillier

Call it my inherent cynicism about politics or maybe put it down to my observation and experience, but the discussion and media coverage surrounding the G20 summit has been ignorant at best, or deliberately misleading at worst. The facts are clear when the political spin is replaced by reasoned evaluation.

The truth is that Dalton McGuinty arbitrarily suspended and abrogated our most sacred civil liberties — our freedoms and privacy — without discussion, debate or public awareness. The premier then justified this abuse of power by asserting that we needed law and order instead. Instead of choosing a more controlled and less populated location that would not be such a powerful magnet for the few juvenile anarchists, Stephen Harper agreed to host the G20 in a location that he had to have known would draw the greatest opposition and most violent response, therefore justifying an outrageous expenditure of public dollars and creating an army of police equipped with a siege mentality. Continue reading →

Niagara At Large is posting the following media release from representatives of the South Niagara Chapter of the Council of Canadians and CAPP Niagara (Canadians Advocating  Political Participation)  for a rally this coming Saturday, July 17 from 1 to 5 p.m. in Montebello Park in St. Catharines, Ontario. The rally is being held in support of a public inquiry on security operations at the recent G20 summit in Toronto.

St.Catharines – Residents and concerned citizens from across Niagara announced today that a rally will be held in St.Catharines on Saturday, July 17, calling for a full and impartial public inquiry into events at the G20 summit.

Police forces in streets of downtown Toronto during recent G20 summit.

The Niagara Day of Solidarity rally is being organized in conjunction with other rallies and public events that will be held across Canada during the week of July 11th – 17th by Council of Canadian members and Canadians Advocating Political Participation (CAPP), the group that organized massive rallies against the prorogation of Parliament last year. On July 17th, the National Day of Solidarity, rallies are expected in hundreds of cities across the country.

The G20 Summit was held in Toronto June 25th-27th and there are a number of issues around the event. In advance of the summit, the Ontario provincial government made a cabinet regulation to the Public Works Protection Act (PWPA) that granted addition powers to the police near the summit site, but was not made public in advance. During the summit, large numbers of protestors, most of whom were peaceful, were arrested by police officers. Many of those arrested were released without charge after being held for extended periods of time in questionable conditions. Continue reading →

By Tim Hudak, Ontario Conservative Party Leader

(The following column was originally printed in The Toronto Sun on July 5 under a headline that read; ‘Don’t blame cops for G20 mayhem’.  It is being posted here in its entirety with the permission of the office of Tim Hudak who, as well as being leader of the province’s Conservative Party,  is a Niagara area MPP and was a cabinet minister in the former Conservative government of Mike Harris.
Niagara At Large will be pleased to post remarks by Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty or other members of his government should anyone in the Liberal camp choose to comment publicly on the way security was handled at the recent G20 summit in Toronto.)

Exactly one week ago, the downtown core of Toronto was turned into a conflict zone by a group of lawless hooligans.

Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak

These reckless thugs were not in Toronto to protest a legitimate political cause. Instead they are part of a circuit of criminals who travel to international summits with one goal in mind – to destroy property, incite mayhem and terrorize law-abiding citizens.

Sadly, in the wake of the violence, a number of usual-suspect special interest groups are attempting to pin blame, not on the hooligans, but instead on our police services or the federal government.

But it wasn’t frontline police officers who spent a weekend smashing in storefront windows, nor was it federal government officials who torched police cars.
Instead these were the acts of violent anarchists, with a long history of using ‘peaceful’ protest marches at international summits as cover for reckless acts of extreme violence.

That is why I oppose the orchestrated attempt by these activists to demonize our police services in the wake of the G20 violence. I proudly stand behind the men and women of our police services that were faced with a daunting and difficult task of protecting the public against these professional vandals and hooligans. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large is posting the following media release from the office of Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin for all those who have visited this site at www.niagaraatlarge.com in recent days for accounts of the mahem in Toronto during the recent G20 summit by Niagara area residents.)

TORONTO, Friday, July 9, 2010 – Ontario Ombudsman André Marin today announced he is launching an investigation into the origin and subsequent communication of the controversial security regulation passed by the province prior to the June 26-27 G20 summit.

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin

By Doug Draper

While we’ve been watching a environmental and economic catastrophe unfold on and along the waters, wetlands and beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, the world’s largest reserve of freshwater – the Great Lakes -may soon face a catastrophe of their own.

This Asian carp was caught in the upper Mississippi watershed near Chicago and Lake Michigan. Photo from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This one would not come in the form of oil gushing from a well but from a voracious fish that could virtually destroy a Great Lakes fishery worth billions of dollars annually to communities on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border. 

The fish of concern are Asian carp and just as their name implies, they were alien to North America until they were imported to this continent in the 1970s to control the growth of algae in aquaculture pools (fish farms) in the southern U.S. where they eventually managed to escape to the Mississippi River and migrate north to tributaries connected to the Great Lakes. U.S. agencies have been using submerged electrical barriers in an effort to keep the fish from entering Lake Michigan near Chicago.

Then this June, according to recent reports in the Associated Press and other media, spawning Asian Carp have been found in the Wabash River near Fort Wayne, Indiana where nothing more than a floodplain separates them from the Maumee River and Lake Erie.

This latest discovery has coalitions of environmental and other citizen groups in both countries and on all sides of the Great Lakes renewing their call to the U.S. government to build physical barriers to separate the lakes from waters where, if the fish get in and grow in numbers, they have the potential to out compete native species for food and ultimately displace them.

“Lake Erie is well over a billion-dollar fishing industry and in Ohio, a $10.75 destination stop,” said Kristy Meyer, director of Agricultural & Clean Water Programs for the Ohio Environmental Council, in a media release circulated July 1 by the a U.S.-based citizens group called the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “Now, more than ever, (U.S.) state and federal agencies have to stop the finger-pointing and get their act together before these natural wonders become desolate carp ponds.” Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

There is no scientific evidence showing a “direct link” between wind turbines and health effects for people living near them, concludes a report prepared for Niagara, Ontario’s regional government by its public health department and signed by its public health commissioner Dr. Robin Williams.

A wind farm along a shore area in the United States not unlike one that would include four towers and turbines near the shores of Lake Erie in Wainfleet, Ontario.

“While some people living near wind turbines report symptoms such as dizziness, headaches and sleep disturbance, the scientific evidence available to date does not demonstrate a direct causal link between wind turbine noise and adverse health effects,” says the report that was based on a review of available scientific evidence, with the assistance of the Council of Ontario Medical Officers of Health, the province’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion.

That conclusion is bound to be controversial for residents already living near wind turbine farms or near sites, including one in the rural Niagara, Ontario municipality of Wainfleet, where a wind energy project has been proposed. These residents have collected numerous accounts from each other of health impacts from the constant whirl of the turbines.

Just the same, the regional government’s report goes on to say that “the reviewers were satisfied that sound level from wind turbines at common residential setbacks is not sufficient to cause hearing impairment or other direct health effects, although they acknowledged that some people may find it annoying.”

Bill Hunter, a manager in the region’s health department, told members of the region’s public health and social services committee this July 6 that compared to coal-fired energy plants, which contribute to air pollution, and nuclear, plants, which emit about 25 times more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than wind turbines, wind power has a lighter impact on the environment. Continue reading →

(Niagara At Large recently posted a story on the arrest and detainment of Thorold, Ontario resident John Pruyn during the G20 summit in Toronto. The account of his arrest, which involved  pulling off  his artificial leg by police dressed in riot gear, can be found by  clicking on www.niagaraatlarge.coom. The following post is a personal account shared with Niagara At Large by Pruyn’s daughter Sarah, who was also arrested and detained by police.)

By Sarah Pruyn

After the People First March (on June 26) my father and I walked back to Queen’s Park to look for my mother whom we had become separated from during the afternoon.  It was about quarter to six pm. Riot police were surrounding all roadways leading into the park, but we managed to find an unguarded pathway in through the University of Toronto campus.

Sarah Pruyn along a lake in Quebec during better times.

As we looked for my mother, a line of riot police began to walk towards us, ordering my father and I, along with hundreds of other protestors, to move as they did. My father refused to move, as we were on public property and had the right to be there. The police began to push him and still he would not move. At this time I noticed that officers about five meters away to my left were shooting tear gas cartridges from riot guns to force protestors to get out of their way. Eventually my father did back from the police line. The  line had advanced a few meters and stopped.

After this, my father and I decided to sit down with a group of protestors on University Avenue. Two activists, male and and in their early 20s, were sitting beside us. They offered us water and we discussed why police were pushing protestors off of Queen’s Park despite it being public property. As there were pockets of tear gas around us, I wetted my bandana with apple cider vinegar and held it to my face.

Before sitting for more than five minutes we were suddenly assaulted. The line of riot cops pressed forward while shooting more tear gas and officers from behind the riot line ran towards where we were. They slammed into us and hit us.

“These four,” one of them shouted to other police around him. We were surrounded by officers on the front, left and right (and) activists who had been behind us started to retreat. Someone ordered my father to stand. He could not do this with ease as he is an above-the-knee amputee and has an artificial left leg. Police kicked and bashed my father as my left arm was grabbed and twisted behind my back. The two activists who had offered us water attempted to help my father stand while repeatedly telling the police that my father only had one leg. The police did not listen and began to hit us more violently. Continue reading →

 We were about to post a piece reminding readers of Niagara At Large’s ‘Comments Policy’ anyway. And what better time to do it than now, with an extraordinary number of comments coming in on a piece we posted this July 5 on how an amputee from Thorold, Ontario was treated by security forces at the recent G20 summit in Toronto. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

John Pruyn wasn’t much in the mood for celebrating Canada Day this year.

John and Susan Pruyn at home and away form the G20 summit in Thorold, Ontario. Photo by Doug Draper

 
How could he be after the way he was treated a few days earlier in Toronto by figures of authority most of us were brought up to respect, our publicly paid-for police forces who are supposed to be there to serve and protect peaceful, law-abiding citizens like him.

The 57-year-old Thorold, Ontario resident – an employee with Revenue Canada and a part-time farmer who lost a leg above his knee following a farming accident 17 years ago – was sitting on the grass at Queen’s Park with his daughter Sarah and two other young people this June 26, during the G20 summit, where he assumed it would be safe.

As it turned out, it was a bad assumption because in came a line of armoured police, into  an area the city had promised would be safe for peaceful demonstrations during the summit. They closed right in on John and his daughter and the two others and ordered them to move. Pruyn tried getting up and he fell, and it was all too slow for the police.

As Sarah began pleading with them to give her father a little time and space to get up because he is an amputee, they began kicking and hitting him. One of the police officers used his knee to press Pruyn’s head down so hard on the ground, said Pruyn in an interview this July 4 with Niagara At Large, that his head was still hurting a week later.

Accusing him of resisting arrest, they pulled his walking sticks away from him, tied his hands behind his back and ripped off his prosthetic leg. Then they told him to get up and hop, and when he said he couldn’t, they dragged him across the pavement, tearing skin off his elbows , with his hands still tied behind his back. His glasses were knocked off as they continued to accuse him of resisting arrest and of being a “spitter,” something he said he did not do. They took him to a warehouse and locked him in a steel-mesh cage where his nightmare continued for another 27 hours.

“John’s story is one of the most shocking of the whole (G20 summit) weekend,” said the Ontario New Democratic Party’s justice critic and Niagara area representative Peter Kormos, who has called for a public inquiry into the conduct of security forces during the summit. “He is not a young man and he is an amputee. …. John is not a troublemaker. He is a peacemaker and like most of the people who were arrested, he was never charged with anything , which raises questions about why they were arrested in the first place.” Continue reading →