It’s Climate Change, Stupid

Evacuations brought on by wild fires out west find me recalling when my family was forced out of our home by the Mississauga Train derailment in 1979.  

On November 10th our bedroom lit up like a 24th of May aerial fireworks display.
From a second floor we could see flames. They were coming from the Clarkson Go Station about a half mile away, we thought. In fact, the fire originated due to a derailment that had just taken place on Mavis Rd. at Dundas Street about 8 kilometres as the crow flies from our home.

Later we learned that an east bound CP Rail Train carrying hazardous chemicals (Of most concern was liquid chlorine.) derailed and caught fire.  The derailment and fire were caused by a failure of the lubricating system. 

What followed was a mass evacuation of 240,000 residents from an area stretching from east-end Oakville to west-end Etobicoke. Three hospitals were evacuated.  

There were no deaths and apparently only one injury.  Mayor Hazel McCallion sprained her ankle overseeing the City’s response and was carried into a meeting by a city official - a great photo-op for the Mississauga rookie mayor that undoubtedly contributed to her political longevity. Her worship was re-elected eleven times until retiring in 2014.

As for us we were out of our home.  For many that evacuation lasted six days.  We sneaked in earlier after lasting three days with in-laws.  I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that living with family for those few days was quite disruptive.  A temporary relocation was a great inconvenience. But, of course, nothing like what many across Canada are experiencing right now.

Western Canada on Fire

The number of Canadians displaced by wildfires this spring is a moving target. As I write, the estimate is in excess of 20,000 and climbing.  A few examples:

Pelican Narrows Saskatchewan, a town of 2,000, was evacuated on May 28th.

Across the border in Flin Flon that city’s 5,000 residents had to leave that day as well.  Reports indicate no “assets” have been lost in Flin Flon, so far.

Denaire Beach (only 22 kilometres south west from that northwestern Manitoba city) was not so lucky.  On Monday this week half the town burned.  

Three hours drive to the west (under normal conditions), La Ronge Saskatchewan, a town of 2,600 north of Prince Alberta, was evacuated. 

"There were lineups and lineups of people at all the gas stations in La Ronge. It was actually quite a scary thing," Tom Roberts told CBC's Morning Edition.

After travelling about 40 kilometres south Roberts was stopped by RCMP and firefighters.

"We sat there for two hours waiting for an opening in the fire. The fire was going just all over the road just south of there."

Apparently, the smoke was so thick at one part of his journey that it was impossible to tell where he was, but kept remembering what the firefighters and RCMP had told him: "Don't stop, just keep going."

Yesterday, Ruth Bonneville from the Winnipeg Free Press reported that hundreds of wildfire evacuees were expected to fly to Ontario Tuesday, where a third-party organization has arranged for them to stay in hotel rooms. 

A security and evacuation support service firm called Xpera (Who knew there was such an organization?)  had already organized flights for 793 evacuees who are already staying in Niagara Falls. As many as 800 additional evacuees were expected to make the journey on Tuesday. 

What Now?

The year 2023 was a bad one for wildfires.  This year might be worse. The future looks bleak.  Natural Resources Canada estimates that fire-suppression costs could double by 2040 as Canada attempts to keep up with the worsening risk.

On Sunday Lori Daniels, a wildfire Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), was interviewed on CBC’s Sunday Magazine. 

“We know that climate change is one of the drivers of (the wildfires). It is bringing to us earlier springs that dry out the forest early making them more susceptible as we are seeing this year.”

We’re victims of our success at putting out fires, notes professor Daniels. There has been an unintended consequence of this success. It is called the fire suppression paradox. We have actually added to uniformity of the forest by allowing fuel to accumulate.
 
Reponses to wildfires must be more coordinated.  But governments must be proactive in the off season as well, Daniels asserts. Unfortunately. government leaders are talking a different language.

In the midst of the wildfires Prime Minister Carney and the Premiers met in Saskatchewan this week and came together around the concept of decarbonization.  Unity is nice.  We need more of it.  However, decarbonization would appear to be more political jargon rather than a proven scientific fact.  

“There is no such thing as decarbonized oil and gas,” says Simon Donne a Climate Scientist at UBC and Scientist Co-chair of the government’s Net Zero Advisory Body.

Indeed.   We need to tell our politicians to get serious about climate change.  That means leaving gas and oil in the ground.  Lives depend on it.    

Jackie Robinson - April 15th

Spring is here and the Major League Baseball (MLB) season has begun.

In 2004 a special day was launched to honour Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball’s colour barrier in 1947.  On April 15^th every major league player and umpire wears the number #42.

 Other than Robinson himself, Branch Rickey, a baseball executive, was the person most responsible for that breakthrough. I read about Rickey in Pulitzer Prize Columnist Jimmy Breslin’s last published book Branch Rickey.  Breslin’s book took a lot from Arthur Mann’s earlier work on Rickey that had formed the basis of The Jackie Robinson Story, a 1950 film (starring Robinson himself and Sandra Dee).

Robinson was some athlete. It is arguable that baseball wasn’t even his best sport.  In his rookie season on July 26^th at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field he stole home and hit a home run.  Achieving that feat in the same game is perhaps a good indicator of his athleticism.  In his rookie season with the Dodgers he had a .297 batting average, an on base percentage of .383, twenty-nine stolen bases and twelve home runs.  He retired with a lifetime .311 batting average and a 409 OBP. 

1956 World Series.  Robinson stole home. 

I have vague memories of Robinson at the end of his career but certainly didn’t fully appreciate what he had to endure in order to break into the league and then excel over 10 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Rickey and Robinson faced incredible bigotry.  Significant portions of white America at large, sportswriters and the other owners weren’t interested in change.

MacPhail Report 

The owners, for example, issued a statement in the summer of 1946, the year that Robinson was tearing up the International League playing second base with the Montreal Royals. 

"Certain groups in this country including political and social-minded drumbeaters, are conducting pressure campaigns in an attempt to force major league clubs to sign Negro players. Members of these groups are not primarily interested in Professional Baseball. They are not campaigning to provide a better opportunity for thousands of Negro boys who want to play baseball. . .. They know little about baseball -- and nothing about the business end of its operation. They single out Professional Baseball for attack because it offers a good publicity medium…."Signing a few Negro players for the major leagues would be a gesture -- but it would contribute little or nothing towards a solution of the real problem."

The report went on to say:

"A major league player must have something besides great natural ability. He must possess the technique, the coordination, the competitive attitude, and the discipline, which is usually acquired only after years of seasoning in the minor leagues

That required seven years in the minor leagues, according to the owners.

“The young Negro player never has had a good chance in baseball. Comparatively few good young Negro players are being developed. This is the reason there are not more players who meet major league standards in the Negro Leagues."

Fifteen of sixteen owners voted for this declaration.  Rickey’s was the only opposition.  I guess you could call him a social-minded drumbeater.

This particular statement the owners issued was in response to the Ives-Quinn Act of 1945.  Sponsored by the New York Republican Irving Ives, it was the first state law to prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin. Rickey, a Republican, had lobbied hard for this legislation.  Its passage meant that the Dodger boss had the legal backing to bring Robinson up to the majors.

 Rickey earned a law degree, practiced for a day or so before returning to his alma mater to coach baseball.  And baseball was where he stayed. Branch Rickey invented the baseball farm system changing the “look of baseball long before he ever heard of Jackie Robinson.”

 Rickey understood better than anyone that there was a business case for Negro League players to play in the major leagues.

 He did a great thing in American life, says Breslin.  Later in the McCarthy era, together with Robinson, he got caught up in attacking actor/singer Paul Robeson’s alleged communist views and later threw in with Richard Nixon. Breslin would have told them that “the wise shoemaker sticks to his trade and maintains a mouth filled with nails.”

 Rickey argued that, “ethnic prejudice has no place in sports, and baseball must recognize that truth if it is to maintain stature as a national game.” 

 That was a tough case to make and he made it.  It would seem though that case still needs to be made. Afro-American participation in the national pastime has declined. After reaching its peak in 1991 when 18% of big leaguers were black now only 7% are.   There are many reasons suspected for the decline but lack of access to facilites and rising costs of registration are two barriers often cited.

 On the other hand, stats from the seven Negro leagues have recently been merged with  

Baseball’s historical records - “long overdue” say MLB officials.  Josh Gibson, who played in the Negro Leagues mainly from the Homestead Grays, has replaced Ty Cobb as the greatest hitter.  Cobb’s great grandson approved calling the development “exciting.”

Not sure what his great grandfather, the Georgia Peach, would have thought.

 In 1952 he told the Sporting News that “The n**** has the right to compete in sports and who’s to say they have not?”

 Baseball – its the American Pastime.

Seniors Say, “Let’s Get Serious about Climate Breakdown”

I'm a member of a group called Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!).

We have strong feelings about the provincial election that is underway in Ontario.  

The climate crisis is here. It’s costing us money. The cost of living is skyrocketing. rent food heating and cooling insurance 

What’s the link to climate breakdown?

Let’s Get Serious about Climate Breakdown.  We can’t afford Ford. Later is too late for the climate.

Here is one of a number of leaflets we have produced related to the election.

Check out Fossil Fuels are Costing You Money We need cheap, reliable energy · Wind and solar are cheaper than gas. Ford chooses gas and subsidizes their companies. · Wind and solar are much cheaper than nuclear. Ford chooses nuclear. Ford’s climate policies mean we

February 10/25

Crazy Town Revisited

 

Although sometimes painful it is my view that there is value in checking back once in a while, to see if what one has written makes any sense.  Case in point is a book review I penned a little more than ten years ago.

The subject was Robyn Doolittle’s excellent and entertaining book Crazy Town (Penguin Canada).   At the time Doolittle was with the Toronto Star.  

If you’ve forgotten Rob Ford elected was as mayor of Toronto in 2010 with the slogan “Stop the Gravy Train.” We learned out that there really wasn’t a gravy train and watched as Ford rode a runaway train of his own on a path of self destruction.  Brother Doug was elected to Council that same year,

I read Crazy Town in the spring of 2014 and wondered about the author’s prediction that Rob Ford could win the October election given his various stumbles.

But “Ford’s unyielding opposition to tax hikes and new city spending (had) attracted a dedicated following, especially among the city’s growing population of working-class immigrants,” notes an entry in the Canadian Encyclopedia.  

After Doolittle’s book was released, Ford had troubles that might have landed other mere mortals in prison.  But, as Doolittle noted, his approval ratings always went up after bad publicity.  

Doolittle supported her arguments by citing Bricker and Ibbitson’s bookThe Big Shift. (The Big Shift: The Seismic Change in Canadian Politics, Business, And Culture and What It Means for Our Future by Darrell I Bricker, John Ibbitson Harper Collins Publishers, 2013). The authors argue that a lengthy period of conservative rule was on the way as new Canadians move into metro areas.  These people are more religious and socially conservative and averse to debt. The authors call them “strivers.”  These strivers want to own a home in a safe neighbourhood.   

Another cohort described in the Big Shift are “creatives." Creatives (who the privileged Fords would likely call "elites") are more concerned with “community supports, the environment and international engagement.” Ford and politicians of his ilk will be more and more successful with this change in demographics.  

At the time I didn’t agree with the authors of the Big Shift but now…well, I’m not sure.  Three of the highlights from Crazy Town noted in my review:

On telling the truth:  Clearly, Rob Ford was challenged in this area.  He comes by it naturally, however, as his father Doug basically “airbrushed” his partner out of history as it related to developing the Deco label business.

On chutzpah:  In the 2000 municipal election, the Fords approached Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby, suggesting that she run in another ward, not the one she had represented for 15 years.  They’d even help her.  Lindsay Luby declined.

On the Public Mood: Doolittle argues that Ford has a “natural gift for reading the public mood.”  George Smitherman was an experienced politician ran second to Ford in 2010. During the campaign his team organized a focus group. Smitherman’s handlers knew their man was done when they got this comment from an attendee:
  
“If I have to choose between someone who wastes our money and someone who beats their wife, I’ll choose the person who beats their wife.”

On May16th 2013 pictures from the famous crack video went public more or less validating the work of Doolittle and others at the Star. Rob Ford’s poor health prevented him from running for mayor.  Instead, he ran in his own ward and was elected to City Council with 58% of the vote. Rob Ford died March 22nd 2016. Doolittle is an investigative reporter with the Globe and Mail now.

In retrospect one of the more interesting parts of Crazy Town is where Doolittle writes about how the media is better able to track down these stories.  That is a result of a 2009 Supreme Court of Canada decision which created “a new defence for libel” that helped and guided the Star in their investigative reporting.

The decision meant that journalists were permitted to tackle contentious issues where hard evidence was not available if reporters could prove that they:

• ·         acted professionally
• ·         did their best to verify info
• ·         attempted to get both sides of the story.

Ten years later this doesn’t ring true. There are fewer journalists working today.  And their jobs are more challenging.

CBC Host Mark Kelly summed it up in a recent episode of the Fifth Estate. “Let’s look at the headwinds we now have - political shouts against us getting louder, financial constraints, and we’re dealing with AI which makes it harder to tell the difference between truth and fiction.”

CBC Fifth Estate Producer Neil Doherty sounds an alarm.  “We are living in dangerous times when an Algorithm can decide so much about people and their beliefs and then feed them info to foster bias.”

So, did I get it right ten years ago?  The Big Shift seems somewhat validated. The gravy train metaphor has been replaced. Today, we have swamp drainers and three-word sloganeers.  And Doug Ford has been Premier of Ontario for nearly six years and seems headed for another four.

Foodbanks

 

On a Tuesday in September this year I found myself driving across Norfolk County past fields of squash, pumpkins and zucchini to a local foodbank where, as a volunteer driver, I had taken a neighbour.  After lining up for one and a half hours, my neighbour emerged with a much-needed bag of food.  

Many in our community have no other option but to access foodbanks and community food programs. 

  

**One in six households in Haldimand and Norfolk Counties are food insecure. - they do not have enough money to buy food.

**The monthly cost to follow a healthy eating pattern for a family of four in Haldimand and Norfolk Counties was $1,122.43 calculated at May of 2023 using a tool called the Ontario Nutritious Food Basket

**Following a healthy eating pattern for that family of four with a full-time minimum wage earner takes up 27% of their income. 

Canada’s first foodbank was established in Edmonton’s Prince of Wales Armouries in 1981.  Its creation was intended to be an interim measure to address unmet community needs. Today there are 700 Foodbanks in Canada. In Haldimand and Norfolk there are thirteen foodbanks and food programs.

According to the The Ontario Living Wage Network, “Despite the annual October 1st increase to the provincial minimum wage to $17.20, there is still no place in Ontario where you could work full-time and cover all your expenses.”  

The Network calculates what is they call a “living wage.”  Each November they update the figure. Community-specific data is used to determine the expenses for a family with two working adults and two children. In Haldimand Norfolk that figure is $20.90 per hour.  

“Household food insecurity is a problem rooted in inadequate incomes. Research has shown that policy changes that support stable incomes that meet the cost of living can make a difference,” according to the local Health Unit. 

We drove home from the foodbank on that sunny September Tuesday through the countryside known as Ontario’s Garden. I pulled the car over in front of my neighbour’s home.  Across the street was a food market.  It wasn’t busy.

Everyone in our community should have access to safe, affordable and nutritious food that is right for them and their family.  

If you are able, consider supporting a local foodbank this holiday season.  The Mission Foodbank sserves Clear Creek, Houghton, Langton, Port Rowan, St. Williams and Walsingham.  It is located at 67 Queen Street in St. Williams ON N0E 1P0 · 

You can drop donations off there on the mornings of the first and third Tuesdays of the month 
or make a cash donation to PO Box 265 Port Rowan N0E1M0 or by calling Joan Skuce 
at 519-586-3003. 

Boring

Long ago and not so far away a community was faced with a challenge. 

A developer sought approvals to locate a McDonald's restaurant in Burlington’s Parkwood Plaza, a small strip mall adjacent to a new subdivision in the sleepy suburban town.

It was a long-drawn-out battle but over time the developer was winning. The neighbours objected and got organized.  The municipality, having taken conflicting positions on the applications, was incapable of resolving the matter; the whole issue dragged on for seven years.  

Years later a writer, let’s call him Bob, found that the story had been forgotten as stories often are.  Memories were fading. No one had written it down.

So, he wrote it down.  It took a while.  One hundred and fifty-three (153) newspaper clippings to read and, interviews with those who were there and who remembered.  In the end Bob pounded out 12,000 words.  Great stuff.  Well, maybe not.

Bob, the greenhorn writer, read a draft of his story to a writers’ group that he was part of it.  Boring, they said.  But they said it politely. Bob had to admit that some people might find the story a little dull.  On the other hand, many people told Bob that boring is in the eye of the beholder.   He carried on.

Yes, Law and Order it was not but within the story were Ontario Divisional Court appearances, illegal lotteries, ombudsman interventions, mandamus orders* and jurisprudential gymnastics that would keep anyone reading this story wide awake well past the six o’clock evening news.

Can it be boring when the story has conflict? 

A local residents’ group was organized to fight a big corporation.  Think Erin Brockovich up against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Local politicians argued with each other over planning matters, funding and had differing views of whether they had received advice from a lawyer.  Then come decision time, according to one Council member, their “blood turned to water.” 

Important people from out of town, like Toronto. made it into the story. Like the Premier.  The neighbourhood group gained a meeting with Bill Davis.  Brampton Bill was fresh from killing the Spadina Expressway.  Surely, blocking the hamburger chain was an equally just cause. Then east Burlington could remain a cheeseburger free paradise. Later on, Adrienne Clarkson, then with the CBC’s Fifth Estate, came to town to interview key players.

The story had the public engaged on both sides of this issue.  A local educator speaking for the “silent majority” took out a newspaper ad calling for all BIG MAC Lovers to speak up. Eighty-five Lovers responded and signed a petition declaring that they “suffer from Mac Attacks” and demanded the restaurant proceed as planned.  Until the Golden Arches added distinctive elegance to the east end there would be no cure for such acute attacks.  That is what we were told.

There were heroes and there were villains. There was the Ward Councillor fighting the good fight for his constituents. He was accused by the owner of the plaza of having “a trick he has of maneuvering everybody.” Then there was a McDonald's spokesperson who lamented the fact that that his company’s reputation had not been enhanced by the publicity but could take solace in the final OMB statement that the hamburger chain is a “good corporate citizen, placed in the role of villain since their marketing success makes them the target of every criticism and objection, real or imagined.”

In fact, in the middle of it all the local rag referred to the matter’s “long and sordid history” lamenting the fact it had become THE THING in Burlington, forcing other, more important matters aside.”And speaking of history it was being made throughout the drama. McDonald's new slogan back then boasted they were “changing the eating habits of Canadians.”   How had they done this?  By introducing a breakfast menu of course.  Bob suspected that few Canadians were able to remember what breakfast was like before this epicurean breakthrough.

Lessons were learned. 

Regarding municipal planning one had to ask if city bylaws mean anything or as one of the community group’s leaders said: “The community is really in jeopardy when by-laws can be overturned like pancakes.”

What exactly is a family restaurant? A resident who had initially supported the restaurant had assumed he was supporting a quiet family eatery in his neighbourhood, not a high-volume fast-food restaurant, had second thoughts. “It never occurred to me that McDonald’s is considered a restaurant. If I said to my wife, I was taking her to a restaurant and I took her to McDonald’s she would be disappointed.”  

And perhaps the biggest lesson learned: The development industry is a powerful force in municipal politics. Someone once said that local politics is, in fact, mainly about real estate.

r.w. timberline

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*A mandamus order is a writ that commands an individual, organization (such as a with legislative responsibilities to perform a certain action within their legislated powers, in adherence with the statute.

Representation at City Hall

“In Canada there is no Portuguese Act, no Italian, French, Ukrainian, Jewish or German Act.”  But there is, indeed, an Indian Act.”

That was part of the message delivered by NaWalka Geeshy Meegwun (aka Lyndon George) to the General Issues Committee of Hamilton City Council on June 19th.

One of the many negative outcomes resulting from that Act, passed in 1876, was the creation of Indian Residential Schools.  The Truth and Reconciliation Commission addressed the impacts of these schools with 94 Calls to Action. Establishing Indigenous representation on local municipal councils is the next logical step in addressing Reconciliation, George, representing Hamilton’s Circle of Beads group, stated.  Circle of Beads, an Indigenous consultation circle made up of 37 members now officially speaks for Hamilton’s Indigenous Community.

In the meeting, Circle of Beads’ speakers reminded the 16-member Council that many of them had committed to investigating the idea when campaigning in the 2022 municipal elections.

“It is time to walk your talk,” said George. 

At least one Councillor missed the point.  What if other special interest groups came asking for the same thing, he queried?

But Circle of Beads is not a special interest group.  They are speaking for First Nations people who have status as a sovereign nation confirmed in Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution, Section 25 of the Canadian Charter of Human Rights, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Wasn’t this clear? 

Halifax

Hamilton isn’t the only municipality to be exploring Indigenous representation on Councils. 

Last fall Halifax took initial steps toward designating a Mi'kmaw seat on its municipal council. The members of Halifax's executive standing committee recommended that regional council ask the province for the power to consider the reform. 

According to CBC Radio, Councillor Waye Mason of Halifax South Downtown, a common theme emerged from Mi'kmaw groups during consultation on Halifax's new culture and heritage priorities plan.

"What we heard, over and over again, was 'we think there should be a Mi'kmaw seat in Halifax,'" Mason said during the meeting. (Mason is a declared candidate for mayor in this year’s election.)

In fact, in 1992, Nova Scotia amended legislation to provide a designated seat in their legislature for Mi'kmaw representation.  That seat has never been filled. Instead, Mi’kmaw leaders hold regular meetings with the government.  The most recent one in June was the tenth such meeting. This arrangement appears to be satisfactory, for the time being at least.

“It is important that as leaders in this province, we do our part to uphold the nation-to-nation relationship established centuries ago by our ancestors. It is vital to discuss important items to help us better understand the vision of where we want to go in the future and how we can do so together as treaty partners,“ Chief Sidney Peters, Co-Chair of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs, stated in a press release following this year’s gathering. 

At Hamilton’s General Issues Committee, Audrey Davis, Executive Director of the Hamilton Regional Indian Centre, told committee that 85% of Indigenous people in Canada now live off reserve in towns, cities and rural areas. 

In Hamilton, census data indicates there are approximately 14,000 Indigenous residents although the number is probably higher.  Mi'kmaw residents of Halifax number about 6,000.   These population figures are small in comparison to other cities. Winnipeg counts 102,080 First Nation, Inuit and Metis (12.4% of its total population). Saskatoon at 34,890 (15%) Indigenous residents and Regina at 24,525 (13%) Indigenous residents are just two examples of denser Indigenous populaces.  

The City of Hamilton has made considerable progress in relations between City Hall and Indigenous residents. An Urban Indigenous Strategy and an Implementation Plan have been developed.  Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Friendship Centre and the City has been delayed by excessive bureaucracy.   But Audrey Davis is optimistic as “the city has committed itself to build a relationship.” 

What’s next?

A seat at council does not put the Indigenous voice first.  It includes and provides “opportunities for change that will improve outcomes of the indigenous people who call Hamilton home,” stated Ms. Davis.

A Motion for the city to ask the province to have changes made to the Municipal Act to permit a member of the Indigenous community to be a voting member of City Council gained support.

Hamilton’s urban Indigenous community may not get provincial support for an Indigenous specific seat in the foreseeable future. In the interim, a temporary non-voting seat at the Council table would be “a step forward, but a small step,” stated Audrey Davis. Whether such a position will be elected or appointed is open to discussion.

At the meeting, Lyndon George spoke to “the-send-them-back-to-their-reserves” racism promoted by nameless Keyboard Warriors. You can expect that they will continue to oppose Indigenous representation. 

In spite of such opposition, it is clear that Indigenous knowledge and expertise on issues of land, water and air should be welcomed at local tables across the country.

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This story was written in June 2024. In early July, Hamilton councillors voted not to explore the addition of a new seat designated for a representative of the urban Indigenous population. See Hamilton councillors vote down Indigenous seat proposal | CBC News