tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-317611242024-03-14T21:14:31.927-04:00When the Mayor SmilesLocal politics. Local government. Municipal politicians and other sundry commentary.Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.comBlogger281125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-21554000918954660772024-02-12T18:36:00.000-05:002024-02-12T18:36:41.106-05:00 The Budget <div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">On a long ago budget day, a procedural quirk</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">put a simple regional ward councillor</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">in a position to freeze the police budget.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Ward councillors don’t obstruct police budgets</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">because, as we all learned as kids,</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">the police(man) is our friend</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">does important and dangerous work</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">protects and keep us safe and</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">for all of this deserves to be well paid.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">These are things that ward councillors,</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">even simple ones, should understand.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">But since the common sense drumbeat</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">set the revolution in motion</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">we have come to know that the best government is</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">to have practically no government at all</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">and respect for hard earned taxpayer’s dollars</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">is the order of the day.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Others are compelled to run their ship tightly</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">while the law and order liner sails unimpeded</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">through the calm waters of political indifference.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">On that budget day, the simple ward councillor</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Having, for a time, ascended</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">to the lofty heights of budget committee member</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">advanced what was (by his own humble admission)</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">a particularly persuasive presentation</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">convincing the one colleague who needed convincing</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">that police spending should be apprehended and</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">it was a great day for local democracy</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">or at least it seemed that way.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">But the votes aren’t counted</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">until the politicians raise their hands</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">and when they did</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">the police got their money, as they always do.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">No media or public witnessed the sad event though</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">police brass made time in otherwise busy days</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">to behold the councillor’s misbegotten manoeuvre.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Following his 15 minutes of small town fame</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">our councillor drove his car like an undertaker.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Even now, my lane changes are by-the-book perfect</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">and inviolable police budgets escalate still.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>This piece was originally published in the Dream, the Glory and </i></span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>the Strife edited by Raymond Fenech, Hidden Brook Press, 2018.</i></span></div><div style="text-indent: 48px;"><br /></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-35318819450580887582024-01-25T09:56:00.001-05:002024-01-25T09:56:35.472-05:00 Facts, Democracy and Alternatives <p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Y<span style="font-family: inherit;">ears ago, I attended a training session that included a workshop on negative political campaigning.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The workshop was a “how-to” and there was a resource person, I think. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">It was a long time ago. I really only remember two things about the session. One detail I recall was that only a few of us questioned the ethics of such campaigns. And looking back I sure was naïve. I mean it was a “how-to” workshop, wasn’t it? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The other thing I remember is that it was emphasized that if you were doing such advertising in our democracies you had to have your facts right. That was because if you didn’t you would lose credibility. And that meant losing votes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Well things have changed. Today it seems that political campaigns and politics in general are all about saying negative things about your opponent. And it doesn’t matter if those utterances are factual or bogus.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">I thought about that long ago training session while reading Martin Baron’s excellent book Collision of Power Trump, Bezos and the Washington Post. Baron was the top editor at the Post from 2013-2021.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxIDGvTCkW7PGR1jhm1j9CrjCcBQAoXecXFVyifTRIcJReTMBeDSU1JBmCkJMrPOXOxJ1hMYMhNJbkyYBy6HKPRVBAgJlai0c_gDzTGhmX2SxKHz3SV8Mwk90eortiWb-Tt-qVij1VMKFCURg97fzyYhNlDWDowtGO8AVquJzz2HsOqqPOcZjokw" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="186" data-original-width="330" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxIDGvTCkW7PGR1jhm1j9CrjCcBQAoXecXFVyifTRIcJReTMBeDSU1JBmCkJMrPOXOxJ1hMYMhNJbkyYBy6HKPRVBAgJlai0c_gDzTGhmX2SxKHz3SV8Mwk90eortiWb-Tt-qVij1VMKFCURg97fzyYhNlDWDowtGO8AVquJzz2HsOqqPOcZjokw" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The book shows the difficult decisions those in newsrooms have to make. What to publish? What to leave out? What to include?</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The work became more difficult beginning June 16, 2015 when a blustering, big-headed reality show host rode down a golden escalator in New York’s Trump Tower and announced that he was running for president. From then on Donald Trump was relentless in attacks on any media that had the audacity to publish anything negative about him.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The issue of calling out a public figure by saying s/he is telling a lie was a controversial one for Baron and his colleagues. It seems that getting a handle on the concept of truth is about as difficult as getting a hold of a Lake Erie Eel. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Early in his presidency Trump advisor Kelly Ann Conway introduced the idea of <i>“alternative facts” </i>to a bewildered public. But Ms. Conway went one better when she claimed that “<i>if you don't know what's true, you can say whatever you want and it's not a lie."</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Baron believes that the role of papers like the Washington Post is to hold people who are in power accountable. That’s becoming harder as resources for traditional reporting dwindle. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Maybe it doesn’t matter? Is anyone really paying attention? Baron quotes New York Times columnist Carlos Lozada from his 2020 book, <i>What Were we Thinking.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“First, we are asked to believe specific lies. Then bend the truth to our preferred politics. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Next, to accept only what the president certifies to be true, no matter the subject or how often his positions shifts. After that, to hold that there is really no knowable, agreed-upon truth. Finally, to conclude that even if there is truth, it is inconsequential. Lies don’t matter, only the man uttering them does." </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">There is no room for traditional Upper Canadian smugness, however. “Alternative facts” practitioners are alive and well in Ontario. Take Doug Ford, for example. Here’s what he said recently about the health-care system: </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>“I want to be clear — Ontarians continue to have access to the care they need, when they need it.”</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Check that “fact” out with the residents of Clinton or Minden or Fort Erie. Last month the Ontario Health Coalition reported 868 temporary or permanent emergency department closures; and 316 urgent care centre closures in 2023. That is, in fact, a fact.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Our democracy seems to be coming apart. We need to find a way to agree on facts and come together to address what matters in our communities.</span></p><p><u><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Different Alternatives</span></u></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Baron writes about national media but there is a role for our local media which unfortunately is diminished and in danger of disappearing. Two hundred years ago William Lyon Mackenzie, revolutionary, first mayor of Toronto began publishing a paper called the Colonial Advocate. To be sure Mackenzie had his own views front and centre but the paper would also provide verbatim reports on meetings, proceedings of the legislature etc... so people could form opinions of their own. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">John McKnight has other ideas for local media. McKnight, is a community organizer and co-founder of the Asset Based Community Development Institute. He has championed the idea that communities are places of strength; that solutions to some of our issues can be found by seeing the assets of our communities and neighbourhoods rather than the deficiencies. </span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDdGuk9XUo3TmHrxM_EpciuAHdGgaxF-Q1nX3Uum_O_ixlxMcqJ-LkbhJcT9qPYAzhpNuh25gnyuQbYIQvK9vZDVTEiN8Qih6LZ91F7qacnnMUDyN_fQKPXRYPaxTQes1xpwX2qrByLpzUlOgnjW4hDeolkmTYZRXfYHIiyuH2Csb0gABXthGkKA" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="474" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDdGuk9XUo3TmHrxM_EpciuAHdGgaxF-Q1nX3Uum_O_ixlxMcqJ-LkbhJcT9qPYAzhpNuh25gnyuQbYIQvK9vZDVTEiN8Qih6LZ91F7qacnnMUDyN_fQKPXRYPaxTQes1xpwX2qrByLpzUlOgnjW4hDeolkmTYZRXfYHIiyuH2Csb0gABXthGkKA=w320-h181" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John McKnight</td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">McKnight believes that our local newspapers should be “servants of citizenship.” Big papers can’t do it as they “<i>act on the hidden assumption that the large institutions of government, corporations and agencies provide the important news.”</i> The big papers hold up <i>“a kind of mirror that promotes a disabling culture where citizens pull back from public life and grow cynical about their society,”</i> he writes. *</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Local media, on the other hand has the potential to engage citizens around real issues that matter in a way that can bring people together. Check out your local paper and you’ll notice the focus on citizen initiatives and community.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">We need to find ways to support it. Our Democracy requires it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>*Servants of Citizenship: Understanding the Basic Function of Newspapers in a Democracy (Learning Twenty-three) | John L McKnight (johnmcknight.org)</i></span></p><div><br /></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-47908158732790679862023-12-16T11:12:00.001-05:002023-12-16T14:54:48.765-05:00Reports on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Finally Released <div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The Ford government has kept secret a series of reports it commissioned on climate change impacts and the government action needed to protect us.<br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A group I belong to, Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!), worked tirelessly to get these reports released.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">SCAN!’s months-long Freedom of Information campaign finally achieved the release of these documents on December 8th. You can find the reports at </span><a href="https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/ontario-adaptation-campaign/" style="font-family: inherit;">https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/ontario-adaptation-campaign/<br /><br /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Earlier in the year I wrote about efforts to get the reports. See the following. </span><br /><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">-----------</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Looking for the Reports</b></span></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have just submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Ontario government. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a first for me.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The origin of the legislation that put FOIs in place goes back many years. It was part of the Accord adopted following the 1985 election when the NDP agreed to support David Peterson’s Liberals for two years. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) legislates access to information held by public institutions in Ontario subject to specific requirements to safeguard the personal information of individuals</span><br /><br /><u><span style="font-family: inherit;">Adapting to Climate Change</span><br /></u><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">All governments brag about transparency. The current Ontario government is no exception. In fact, Premier Doug Ford, a chronic embellisher, claims there has never been a government as transparent as his. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, you could say that my FOI request is a test of that assertion. My interest is getting information on Ontario’s climate change plans. With the country burning this summer, people losing their homes, firefighters being killed and extreme weather events now common one has to wonder what government has planned to respond to such conditions in the future. So that is what my FOI request is about. How does the government plan to adapt to climate change? </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a bit of a story to this.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">A group I’m involved with took some initiative. The Ontario Project of SCAN! (Seniors for Climate Action Now) has members knowledgeable about adaptation strategies. They were aware that the Ford government had done some work on this matter.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, the Ford government has put together major reports on the urgent task of anticipating and reducing the impacts of climate change. In November 2019, the Ontario government appointed an Advisory Panel on Climate Change led by Paul Kovacs, a professor at Western University and an expert in the field of disaster risk reduction. The creation of this panel was no secret. It was announced publicly.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">It seems most of the reporting was completed nearly two years ago. But the reports were kept secret until recently. One of them is now available likely because of public pressure.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">This past January, Jennifer Penny, one of our members who previously worked as a climate change adaptation researcher, submitted a FOI request to find out what had happened to this reporting.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Ontarians want to see these reports! But even more, we want to know what the government is doing to protect us,” says SCAN!’s Jennifer Penney.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">She got a response of sorts.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">FIPPA: “What is the name of the report?”</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jennifer: “We don’t know. It is being kept secret.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">FIPPA: “What was the date of the report?”</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jennifer: “Don’t know that either. It’s a secret.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This seems to be how the FOI process works - transparent government in action, much like looking for light through a brick wall. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">So, an open letter and petition entitled Release the Report was prepared and circulated. Over a few weeks in the summer more than 1,300 people signed the petition.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then on a Friday afternoon in late August with no fanfare the Provincial Climate Change </span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Impact Assessment appeared on the Government of Ontario’s website.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Its 530 pages are filled with what the CBC called “grim details about the expected effects of climate change in Ontario.” We’ll have a soaring number of days with extreme heat, more extreme flooding and more frequent wildfires. The agriculture sector faces risks of declining productivity, Climate risks will be highest for Ontario's most vulnerable populations and this will “continue to amplify existing disparities and inequities."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">In some ways the report tells us what we already suspected. But such suspicions are confirmed by experts.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">The report does "the best job that's been done to date describing the impacts of climate change and extreme weather," Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo told the CBC.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">SCAN! had been looking for two reports. One was released. Imagine our surprise. Turns out there are actually four reports. Three companion reports, including one on Best Adaptation Practices, are still hidden by the government. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Those reports are what I’m asking to see in my FOI request. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bob Wood</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">October 6, 2023</span></span></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-50950752471689321672023-11-19T08:50:00.000-05:002023-11-19T08:50:33.856-05:00 Up North<div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">There is no doubt that some projects we work on are more memorable than others. </span></p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">As I clean up old files (so I’ll have room for new files) I stumble on ones I barely recall. But here is one well remembered completed project that calls out for an update. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span>Thirteen years ago, I was asked to do a story on Chuck Ealey, a Canadian Football player who played in the seventies. There was a one-hour documentary coming out on him called The Stone Thrower and a book with the same title written by his daughter Jael Ealey Richardson. * <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEnfu3lvwc2Gyq9gGmFAolI7oKVrLdr-_PZoU3Rrq8YpfmpfJHJIetDkwnZ_OpymjibP46EnBMzCtgJTDv2mEv8tsNFjXC3h1YecnHbpptIM153KyJxnZ_wKzfvASbJXrXtOYCnaeI6pxKqkZy30Fpop2qDTNWru3rZHegLxRBxYWXhD4Y00zzog/s310/chuck%20ealey%20tiger%20cats.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="310" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEnfu3lvwc2Gyq9gGmFAolI7oKVrLdr-_PZoU3Rrq8YpfmpfJHJIetDkwnZ_OpymjibP46EnBMzCtgJTDv2mEv8tsNFjXC3h1YecnHbpptIM153KyJxnZ_wKzfvASbJXrXtOYCnaeI6pxKqkZy30Fpop2qDTNWru3rZHegLxRBxYWXhD4Y00zzog/s1600/chuck%20ealey%20tiger%20cats.jpg" width="310" /></a></div><br /></span><span>The occasion for doing this was the 100th anniversary of the Grey Cup. I like many sports, follow some, but really don’t like writing those typical “he shoots, he scores” stories. My interest is in the sociological side of sports. So, this assignment was perfect. You’ll see why. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The 1972 Grey Cup held December 3rd at Hamilton’s Ivor Wynne Stadium was decided by a last-second field goal with the Hamilton Tiger Cats winning an exciting match over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Rookie quarterback Chuck Ealey was the star of that game and that season for the Cats.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The game represented much more than the typical east-west Cup Final and this is why: Ealey shouldn’t have been in a position to earn the game’s MVP award, because in a just world he would have been quarterbacking in the National Football League.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Bowl victories and an undefeated college record (35-0) at the University of Toledo weren’t enough to get Ealey drafted by an NFL team. Prior to the draft, his agent sent a “<i>well-thought-out, professional, not harsh” </i>letter to all NFL teams, Ealey recalled. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The essence of the letter went like this: <i>“The only position I’m interested in playing is quarterback. Thank you for your consideration.”<br /></i><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">He wanted to play QB because clearly, that was the position where he excelled. But an Afro-American had no chance to compete for a quarterback position in the NFL of the seventies. There were no takers among NFL general managers.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“There was an overall stigma in the NFL at that time that African Americans were not to be playing quarterback,” recalled Ealey. And so, Ealey, the quarterback, moved on.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This story isn’t unique, of course.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Charles Officer directed the movie, The Stone Thrower.* Officer had considered doing a “bigger picture” that would have looked at other Afro-American quarterbacks who came up here to play. Standouts like Warren Moon, Condredge Holloway, Damon Allen and Bernie Custis all had to come north for their opportunity.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In 1951, Custis, a star quarterback at Syracuse University, was drafted sixth overall by the Cleveland Browns. But the Browns had no intention of letting him play the pivot position so let him go to Hamilton. Custis became the first Afro-American regular starting quarterback in North America. Earning all-star recognition in 1951, he was moved to halfback the next season.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>“It’s the same story,” </i>said Officer. <i>“Bernie Custis coming up here and then getting switched over. He had to come here for a reason.”</i><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Officer, an Afro-Canadian actor, writer, director and former semi-pro hockey player, believed that by documenting Ealey’s journey he could tell the bigger story of what was going on in American society in the seventies.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Meanwhile, Jael Richardson, Chuck’s daughter, had been on a journey of her own, recounted in her 2012 book, similarly called The Stone Thrower: A Daughter's Lessons, a Father's Life.** Richardson was born after her father’s football career had ended. As an adult, she would go to Ohio with her dad.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“When we went back to Toledo, people would start screaming ‘<i>Oh there’s Chuck Ealey’ and ask for autographs,”</i> Jael’s father recalls. “<i>She’d go, so who are you? What did you do?”</i><br /><br />Ealey acknowledges that he <i>“never shared a lot of the story of how I got here.” <br /></i><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">It is hard today to fully appreciate the barriers Chuck Ealey faced growing up poor in the racially divided city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a typical American small town. Portsmouth was the kind of a place that valued football players but didn’t let black children swim in their public pools. Located on the Ohio River and bordering Kentucky, the city was a significant pass-through point on the route of the Underground Railroad and the opportunity for freedom in Canada for fugitive slaves.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Ealey remembers the prejudices that held him and others back and contrasts that with the freedom “to do things a lot differently” that he found when he arrived in Hamilton.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“<i>There were none of the issues that socially held you back or that seemed to hold you back in the States,” </i>he stated. And so, Ealey was able to continue with his winning ways that memorable rookie season, 1972, in Hamilton, all the way to the Grey Cup win.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Director Officer documents how Ealey, denied the opportunity to play quarterback in his native land, essentially followed that same path that slaves had taken to get to Canada. As Officer told me of his movie: “<i>It is a significant Africo-American story that has everything to do about being Canadian.”<br /></i><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Today nearly half of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL are Afro-American. However current research shows that from 2010 to 2022, teams were chronically underrating Black quarterbacks in the draft and significantly underpaying them when they were signed. *** <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">*Officer’s movie Stone Thrower can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmL1EvtQy3E<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">**Jael Richardson’s successful debut novel Gutter Child was published in 2020. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">*** https://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/nfl-draft-analysis-racial-bias-quarterbacks-18355172.php</span></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-42819780322032505892023-11-06T09:42:00.000-05:002023-11-06T09:42:26.466-05:00Media Release - SENIORS’ GROUP FORCING ANOTHER FORD CLIMBDOWN<p style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">I'm involved with a Senior's Climate group called SCAN! </span></i><i><span style="font-size: medium;">This morning SCAN! put out this media release. </span></i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: medium;">--------------</span></i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For immediate release, November 6, 2023</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Ford government is finally going to
release climate reports it has kept hidden from public view. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thanks to the
efforts of members of SCAN!</span><i><span style="font-size: medium;">(</span></i><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><a href="https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/">https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/</a>)</i></span><span style="font-size: large;">, the Ford government is finally preparing
to release four reports on how it should be protecting Ontarians from climate
breakdown. One has been hidden for two years. The others were kept hidden for
the better part of a year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Late Friday November 3, SCAN! adaptation
expert member Jennifer Penney was notified that the government will soon be
releasing them in response to several Freedom of Information requests she has
made.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">It took the retirees more than a year of
direct requests to the Ministry of the Environment, Freedom of Information
filings by multiple individuals, media interviews, and an open letter signed by 1,400 Ontarians to get the government to show us what it
should be doing about adaptation to climate breakdown.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“These reports provide expert advice for
Ontarians, for our communities, for our governments, to guide efforts to
protect us from the impacts of severe climate events” said Dr. Penney.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Scientists have long called on governments
to implement comprehensive adaptation programs. It is unconscionable that the
government has sat on this guidance for so long. It shouldn’t take a bunch of
retirees making a fuss to get it to move.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">One of the reports is from the Advisory
Panel on Climate Change, appointed by the government in 2019. It was led by climate
change adaptation expert Paul Kovac and was submitted in November 2021. But it
has not been seen since.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>The Technical Report of Provincial Climate
Change Impact Assessment (PCCIA), dated January 2023, was quietly released in
late August, seven months after it was submitted. It only hinted at what needs
to be done to protect Ontario from climate breakdown.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Among these hints, the PCCIA Technical
Report emphasizes the need to “protect and strengthen the Conservation
Authorities Act and Environmental Assessment Act”. This advice runs counter to Premier Ford’s
mandate letter to the Environment Minister, which required a review of
environmental legislation that impacts businesses to ensure it didn’t place
“undue burdens” on the private sector.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">“As the PCCIA Technical Report insists, we
need ‘accelerated action’,” said Penney. “I sincerely hope this government soon
shares what that action will be.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Seniors for Climate Action Now!</i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Is a rapidly growing voluntary organization mobilizing seniors to call
for emergency climate action at all levels of government.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Further information: Jennifer Penney,
jp1146@gmail.com, 647-458--0404</span></p>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-21912151967427519772023-10-31T17:18:00.002-04:002023-11-01T09:09:09.751-04:00Encampment Update<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Earlier this year I wrote about a legal case pertaining to homeless encampments.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Justice M.J. Valente of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice had ruled that the Region of Waterloo couldn’t evict people living in tents from a vacant lot the Region owns. <a href="https://whenthemayorsmiles.blogspot.com/2023/03/encampment-precedent.html">https://whenthemayorsmiles.blogspot.com/2023/03/encampment-precedent.html</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">At the time I understood that the ruling was precedent setting and would impact other municipalities. It seems I was overly optimistic.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">According to the Advocacy Centre for Tenants of Ontario (ACTO) municipalities are responding to the needs of their residents in different ways.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Some are using enforcement and displacement as a last resort.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And some are taking a different approach. Take Cambridge, for example.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">They are <i>“focusing on clearing and forcibly removing residents, resulting in people being displaced with nowhere else to go,”</i> claims ACTO, an Ontario specialty legal clinic.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>"Some of these people were evicted three times in a matter of two months,”</i> Ashley Schuitema, staff lawyer at Waterloo Region Community Legal Services (WRCLS) told Cambridge Today’s Joe McGinty. <a href="https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/local-news/legal-action-in-the-cards-after-cambridge-encampment-evictions-7652134">https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/local-news/legal-action-in-the-cards-after-cambridge-encampment-evictions-7652134</a></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Up North, Sault Ste Marie looked at other City’s bylaws and figured they could amend theirs. Just in time for winter they decided to protect their parks. The only Council opposition came from Ward 3’s Angela Caputo according to CBC News. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>"I think it's imperative that we shift our attention to creating and advocating for a system to end homelessness rather than enacting laws to try and police our way out of it,</i>" said Ms. Caputo. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/social-services-legal-challenge-poverty-issues-1.6952421">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/social-services-legal-challenge-poverty-issues-1.6952421</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Some cities like Kingston are in court where the arguments revolve around how much housing is available. There is always lots of debate on such numbers. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Let’s get real here. It is obvious to anyone that rental rates and availability are beyond the means of increasing numbers of people in the province.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Municipalities are spending taxpayers’ dollars on fighting our fellow citizens in courts. The Hamilton Spectator reported today that lawyers representing Hamilton tried to recover court costs from those without housing who are in an ongoing human rights battle with the city. Instead, Justice James Ramsay ruled the City should pay costs of $5,000. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The last word today goes to ACTO:</span></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">“The Charter dictates that unless and until encampment residents are provided with truly accessible accommodation, evictions should not occur. Moreover, encampment residents deserve to be consulted and involved when municipalities are attempting to find solutions for them.”</span></i></p><p></p>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-67889690925740272732023-10-06T16:23:00.000-04:002023-10-06T16:23:38.045-04:00 Looking for the Reports<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">I have just submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Ontario government.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This is a first for me.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The origin of the legislation that put FOIs in place goes back many years. It was part of the Accord adopted following the 1985 election when the NDP agreed to support David Peterson’s Liberals for two years. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) legislates access to information held by public institutions in Ontario subject to specific requirements to safeguard the personal information of individuals</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><u>Adapting to Climate Change</u></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">All governments brag about transparency. The current Ontario government is no exception. In fact, Premier Doug Ford, a chronic embellisher, claims there has never been a government as transparent as his. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">So, you could say that my FOI request is a test of that assertion. My interest is getting information on Ontario’s climate change plans. With the country burning this summer, people losing their homes, firefighters being killed and extreme weather events now common one has to wonder what government has planned to respond to such conditions in the future. So that is what my FOI request is about. How does the government plan to adapt to climate change? </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">There is a bit of a story to this.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">A group I’m involved with took some initiative. The Ontario Project of SCAN! (Seniors for Climate Action Now) has members knowledgeable about adaptation strategies. They were aware that the Ford government had done some work on this matter.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibpbYQSNgXlf_Tl9DG5zPeHHZvYfxLru8C9EGZedf5JrITpzyetyYoMlZbnhRzdc-1pPa7zIS9UxD7VTxQM1UXmKeG95n3vqM0QWd4y5Cb3_9aCU2hnNiDH2tk-i-pbeZXFNQmxQTLEa0iEVw_Ov78YuAPPFSi2jtWrtRGhDidAmR6oWmJRcULEg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="851" data-original-width="975" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEibpbYQSNgXlf_Tl9DG5zPeHHZvYfxLru8C9EGZedf5JrITpzyetyYoMlZbnhRzdc-1pPa7zIS9UxD7VTxQM1UXmKeG95n3vqM0QWd4y5Cb3_9aCU2hnNiDH2tk-i-pbeZXFNQmxQTLEa0iEVw_Ov78YuAPPFSi2jtWrtRGhDidAmR6oWmJRcULEg=w200-h174" width="200" /></a></div><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In fact, the Ford government has put together major reports on the urgent task of anticipating and reducing the impacts of climate change. In November 2019, the Ontario government appointed an Advisory Panel on Climate Change led by Paul Kovacs, a professor at Western University and an expert in the field of disaster risk reduction. The creation of this panel was no secret. It was announced publicly.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">It seems most of the reporting was completed nearly two years ago. But the reports were kept secret until recently. One of them is now available likely because of public pressure.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This past January, Jennifer Penny, one of our members who previously worked as a climate change adaptation researcher, submitted a FOI request to find out what had happened to this reporting.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>“Ontarians want to see these reports! But even more, we want to know what the government is doing to protect us,”</i> says SCAN!’s Jennifer Penney.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">She got a response of sorts.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">FIPPA:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“What is the name of the report?”<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Jennifer:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“We don’t know. It is being kept secret.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">FIPPA:<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“What was the date of the report?”<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Jennifer: <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“Don’t know that either. It’s a secret.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This seems to be how the FOI process works - transparent government in action, much like looking for light through a brick wall. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">So, an open letter and petition entitled Release the Report was prepared and circulated. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Over a few weeks in the summer more than 1,300 people signed the petition.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Then on a Friday afternoon in late August with no fanfare the <i>Provincial Climate Change </i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>Impact Assessment</i> appeared on the Government of Ontario’s website.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Its 530 pages are filled with what the CBC called <i>“grim details about the expected effects of climate change in Ontario.”</i> We’ll have a soaring number of days with extreme heat, more extreme flooding and more frequent wildfires. The agriculture sector faces risks of declining productivity, Climate risks will be highest for Ontario's most vulnerable populations and this will “continue to amplify existing disparities and inequities."</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In some ways the report tells us what we already suspected. But such suspicions are confirmed by experts.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The report does <i>"the best job that's been done to date describing the impacts of climate change and extreme weather,"</i> Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo told the CBC.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">SCAN! had been looking for two reports. One was released. Imagine our surprise. Turns out there are actually four reports. Three companion reports, including one on Best Adaptation Practices, are still hidden by the government. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Those reports are what I’m asking to see in my FOI request. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">----------</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">More information on SCAN! can be found at </span><a href="https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/" style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">Listen to the story of the hidden reports on </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><i>All in A Day</i> with
Alan Neal at </span><b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-92-all-in-a-day/clip/16009552-seniors-climate-action">https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-92-all-in-a-day/clip/16009552-seniors-climate-action</a></span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;"><b><br /></b></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-61423029302389807562023-05-20T12:16:00.001-04:002023-05-20T21:27:41.187-04:00Through Paphlagonia with a Donkey<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Like many
others my travel plans have been restricted since the spring of 2020.</span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Recently however
I was able to take a literary trip along with Simcoe writer David Beasley with
the re-release of his book </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Through
Paphlagonia with a Donkey</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">.
The book, originally published in 1983, documents David’s travels in remote northwestern
Turkey in 1958.</span></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He was 27 when
he set out with a donkey he named Bobby along a route that ran parallel to the
Black Sea through a wild area in modern day Turkey which carries</span><b style="font-family: inherit;"> </b><span style="font-family: inherit;">the
ancient Greek name Paphlagonia.</span></div><o:p><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unlike
most of us when travelling David </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">“deliberately
avoided researching the history of Paphlagonia” as he “</span><i style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">did not want to ruin
the element of adventure and surprise…”</i></div></o:p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">David believes
that to know other peoples you must “</span><i style="font-family: inherit;">enter into the spirits of their ways.” </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Present
day travellers may not subscribe to this view.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Prior to
actually hitting the road David was mistaken for an Englishman and had a pistol
pointed at him.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">A crisis was averted when
there was clarification that while he spoke English, he was in fact a Canadian citizen.</span></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">“Travelling through
a foreign land amongst people who more often than not mistook me for an enemy
was not pleasant. Like a refugee, I fled
from one town to the next, always a subject of curiosity, never feeling part of
the land or the people.”</i></div></i><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Further along the
road David was also misidentified as a Russian, a spy, a travelling salesman and
a German.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">These characterizations typically
came from those with some position of authority in the many villages he passed
through. On the other hand, ordinary Turks seemed quite accepting of his visits
and offered hospitality and generosity that one would not find in western
society.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The book also
provides insights and background in to the complex history of the region.</span></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-family: inherit;">“My journey
with a donkey into ‘nature was not to escape life but to find it; not to escape
self but to find self,” wrote the author.</i></div></i><o:p><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p style="font-family: inherit;"> </o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;">A good
reason to read an excellent book.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_MC6Ys26Sscv8J3lvLBJa4SNTm12G_Nv23tiqbHMxaCyMJ4-pL3xTxLtKZNPeYDlqrgo_VX9Ltamoa32CiLhA03CtAAfUrfGrL-3vhxgMFGijUdCTJ3WnPMxQfu2Tx8AaEgmwls7MhZ4SYJa3yH_m6ay82O3vaLVe6UiPfH11P3WQA3j_Fmw/s3289/book%20launch%20Paph.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3289" data-original-width="2523" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_MC6Ys26Sscv8J3lvLBJa4SNTm12G_Nv23tiqbHMxaCyMJ4-pL3xTxLtKZNPeYDlqrgo_VX9Ltamoa32CiLhA03CtAAfUrfGrL-3vhxgMFGijUdCTJ3WnPMxQfu2Tx8AaEgmwls7MhZ4SYJa3yH_m6ay82O3vaLVe6UiPfH11P3WQA3j_Fmw/s320/book%20launch%20Paph.jpeg" width="245" /></a></div><br /></span></div></o:p><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: inherit;"><i>-----------------</i></b><i style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"><o:p> </o:p></i></div></b><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ON Saturday May
27</span><sup style="font-family: inherit;">th</sup><span style="font-family: inherit;"> from 2-5 David Richard Beasley will launch his </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Through
Paphlagonia with a Donkey</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> at The Ledge, 31 Norfolk St North, Simcoe.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Copies of his
other books, including </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Sarah’s Journey</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> will be available. Also, a new release
</span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Operations of the Army Under General Wolfe </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">by Adjutant-General Buller
with </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Major Richardson’s A Canadian Campaign of the Right Division in the War
of 1812 </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">and </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Richardson’s Recollections of the West Indies</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> will be
available.</span></div></span><p></p>
Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-66737998181072815672023-05-04T17:14:00.000-04:002023-05-04T17:14:49.436-04:00 Still Going On <div style="text-align: left;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>C'mon talk to me<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>So you can see<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>What's going on</i><br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>(Marvin Gaye - 1971)<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Recently I found myself thinking back to the spring/summer of 1970. I was young then, still a student - twenty years old. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It’s May 4th. And I have a vague recollection of preparing to leave my parents’ house for a night shift in Hamilton at Stelco’s #2 Rod Mill. Around 10 p.m. I heard the news. There had been people killed in a shooting earlier that day at Kent State University (KSU). <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What were my thoughts at the time? Mainly about myself I’m afraid. Two years earlier I had embraced a rather unrealistic dream of attending Kent State on a track scholarship. If I had been granted one, I would have been finishing my second year at a small liberal arts school in conservative northeastern Ohio. It was only 275 miles away from home. What would I have been doing when the shots rang out? Would I have been protesting? Studying? Out for a run? Sleeping in?<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Unknown individuals had burned down the campus ROTC building on May 2nd. On this Monday students and other demonstrators had been in their third day of protesting the invasion of Cambodia and escalation of the Vietnam War. President Nixon had described the military action as an “incursion.” A euphemism, I’d say.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">You’ll remember that four students were killed. Perhaps you’ll recall more details - like nine wounded (one permanently paralysed) when twenty-eight National Guardsman fired off about 67 rounds in just 13 seconds.<br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJyPdgz9lE99LrR3yO1otAj_icN9SgnZQKls-1lwtKjWpfJrt22zOnzMV5DD_UD0sYKoygIWJ0Vr3HpBjxeliMl4ZeMEBNpWp2_wDcnmjJaBp_vg7DM0Em7_U8tSBlhlCZwo1z2_rz3HRhzUUtSnZlPTiaoWnyh-4yT_agYVIapQhRm2O3Bc/s640/ksu%20%231.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJyPdgz9lE99LrR3yO1otAj_icN9SgnZQKls-1lwtKjWpfJrt22zOnzMV5DD_UD0sYKoygIWJ0Vr3HpBjxeliMl4ZeMEBNpWp2_wDcnmjJaBp_vg7DM0Em7_U8tSBlhlCZwo1z2_rz3HRhzUUtSnZlPTiaoWnyh-4yT_agYVIapQhRm2O3Bc/w400-h225/ksu%20%231.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CSU Archives/Everett Collection</td></tr></tbody></table></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A 20-year-old from Youngstown Ohio, speech therapy student Sandra Lee Scheuer, was one of the four who died that day. Ten years later Canadian Gary Geddes in his poem Sandra Lee Scheuer wrote:<br /> </span><i style="font-size: large;"> </i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>She did not throw stones, major in philosophy<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>or set fire to buildings, though acquaintances say<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>she hated war, had heard of Cambodia.</i><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Shortly after the tragedy Neil Young, having come upon a picture of a KSU student <i>“dead</i> <i>on the ground,”</i> documented the event with the song Four Dead in Ohio. Crosby Stills Nash and Young recorded it. Almost overnight Four Dead was a hit and became one of the best-known protest songs in history. It pointed fingers, named names. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span></span><i>“Tin Soldiers and Nixon’s Coming.<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span></span>We’re finally on our own.<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span></span>This summer I hear the drumming.<br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Four Dead in Ohio."</i><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Protests expanded across America; schools closed. People took to the streets.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The violence spread down south to where Jackson State brothers. Learned not to say nasty things about southern policemen's mothers</i>. (The Beach Boys - Student Demonstration Time, 1971.) <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Many miles south of my home late on May 14th, more students were shot. This was at Mississippi’s Jackson State College, a school attended primarily by black students. State and local police fired hundreds of rounds into a women’s dormitory from just 30-50 feet away. Every window was blown out on the street side of the building. Two young black men were killed. At a minimum twelve were injured as it is likely others were fearful of reporting their injuries. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Across from the besieged girls’ residence on Lynch Street, a 17-year-old high school senior, a runner who dreamed of attending UCLA, heading home from a part time job, was gunned down. Later that night family members searched for him. Incredibly, no one in authority reached out to the family to say Earl Green was dead. Unbelievably, no one was ever held responsible for his death or that of 21-year-old father and Jackson State honours student Phillip Lafayette Gibbs.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Jackson College shootings never received the big headlines and media attention that Kent State did. The uprising that triggered the excessive police response was less about the war and more about that other American bifurcation – racial injustice.<br /><u><br /></u></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Back Home</u><br /> <br />Later in that summer of 1970 I was part of the Torch Team that carried the ceremonial flame to Flint Michigan for the CANUSA games. The games were, and still are, an annual gathering between Flint and Hamilton Ontario promoting goodwill through amateur athletics. Twelve of us covered the 250-mile distance through Port Huron arriving in Flint on a Friday evening to officially open the games.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Over that weekend I was privileged to meet other young athletes; Americans my age, with interests similar to mine. But their obsession, among the men at least, was the recently introduced military draft and whether their birthdate would be drawn and not the many trivial pursuits that engaged me. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I returned to school in September where among other subjects I studied U.S. and Canada comparative politics. Peace order, good government - that’s us. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is what America is built on. That was the basics back then that I grasped to the extent a young student could. Today, I wonder if the relative consensus in our political life in Canada contrasted to the extreme polarization down south can be traced to these different guiding principles.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Looking back, I can hear sirens wailing, the shattering of glass, the acrid smell of a burnt armoury, pinging of M1 military rifles. I can sense the fear of an unknown future and try to imagine the frustration felt by those dealing with racism and discrimination. Plus ca change.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Where I live now is only 17 miles to America. Somehow it seems farther away.</span></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-6587374107155939852023-03-31T14:47:00.001-04:002023-03-31T14:47:59.843-04:00Encampment Precedent<div style="text-align: left;"><i>Here is a longer version of an article I wrote that was </i><i>published in the Hamilton Spectator on March 25th. You may find it at </i><a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2023/03/25/kw-encampment-precedent-could-apply-in-hamilton.html"><span style="font-family: inherit;">https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2023/03/25/kw-encampment-precedent-could-apply-in-hamilton.html</span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div style="text-align: center;">------------------------------------------</div><div style="text-align: left;">Last year in Hamilton a judge ruled that an encampment could be cleared from a city park as there were enough shelter spaces in the system to accommodate those living in the encampment.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It was a different judicial result in Kitchener when a ruling came down in January.<br />Justice M.J. Valente of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled that the Region of Waterloo can’t evict people living in tents from a vacant lot the Region owns. It is believed that the ruling is precedent setting. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You can read Justice Valente’s 51-page decision at <a href="https://www.thepublicrecord.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-ONSC-670-Ruling.pdf">https://www.thepublicrecord.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2023-ONSC-670-Ruling.pdf<br /></a><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The issue revolved around a vacant lot at 100 Victoria Street in Kitchener’s downtown.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Region wants to use the space for a lay-down area for the construction of a transit hub. <br />Back in December 2021, Waterloo had evicted tenants from an encampment on Stirling Street East using steps they believed “were consistent with the requirements of a by-law.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">They did concede that “the manner in which these actions were carried out did not reflect the dignity of those living at the encampment.” No kidding! Staff enlisted the help of a road maintenance crew with heavy equipment to clear the Stirling Encampment. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As a result, the Region felt the need to clarify how it might enforce its legal rights and so brought an application to seek the direction of the Court.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It was the Region’s opinion that the conditions at the encampment posed a risk to the health and safety of encampment residents as well as to that of others. As a result, the Region determined that the encampment had to be disbanded. <br />What is it like in that encampment? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Every individual will have their own story but one that Justice Valente heard from 32-year-old Kathryn Bulgin, homeless for approximately 6 years, is instructive. Ms. Bulgin is a victim of both physical and sexual assault and currently suffers from drug addiction. Before living at the Victoria street encampment, she slept in hotel rooms, shelters, behind dumpsters and couch surfed. <br /><br />For her and many others shelter bed accommodation can be “very stressful” because there (is) no certainty if a bed (will) be available. Ms. Bulgin (does) not have a watch or phone.” The result is that she can’t always return at a designated time to claim a bed. If evicted from the encampment Ms. Bulgin would simply move to another campsite.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIYTMHyGLp6XFnvzBeTmevhlLTaDJnnDTrObLDT8fwsDW6VnheI9xKwR8vtp6YLlefLQcHJZxSt1slcqxqWL-1A6bJWY1UR0zI5qxzZ5uu--RiY5b6fV33k1VOziMH_CRi7HvXP7VLnrw5I0aJNB0tyXaqDIBM6VaOX0FZCJl53X-J_g3mWfQ/s170/encampment%201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="128" data-original-width="170" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIYTMHyGLp6XFnvzBeTmevhlLTaDJnnDTrObLDT8fwsDW6VnheI9xKwR8vtp6YLlefLQcHJZxSt1slcqxqWL-1A6bJWY1UR0zI5qxzZ5uu--RiY5b6fV33k1VOziMH_CRi7HvXP7VLnrw5I0aJNB0tyXaqDIBM6VaOX0FZCJl53X-J_g3mWfQ/s1600/encampment%201.jpg" width="170" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />This is an important issue that Justice Valente explores in considerable detail. Shelters don’t work for many people.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Dr. Andrea Sereda is a physician practicing at the London Intercommunity Health Centre in London, Ontario. In testimony, she cited five reasons why encampments have advantages over shelter use. Encampments decrease isolation and risk of fatality and decrease forced transiency that increases the odds that the unhoused can maintain a connection to outreach services. They give people a sense of community. minimize sleep deprivation and provide physical and mental rest.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Interestingly staff challenged Dr. Sereda’s value as an expert because she had not talked to any residents of the encampment. Staff’s contact with residents was far from comprehensive. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As local governments are inclined to do, the Region developed policies and procedures that would apply to the estimated 1,100 individuals considered homeless in Waterloo.. Justice Valente had some praise for their work; he had some criticisms as well. For example, it seems staff presented data in a way that would justify their opinion. Small actual increases in incidents calculated as part of a risk assessment at the encampment site looked a lot more concerning when presented as percentage increases. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Advocates have long argued that housing is a basic human right. In fact, the government of Canada supports the progressive realization of the right to adequate housing as part of their National Housing Strategy.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Section 7 of the Charter states that “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Justice Valente took a look at the fairly extensive litigation that has occurred regarding the right to shelter as it relates to Section 7 of the Charter. His conclusion can be summarized in a few words. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The individuals encamped at 100 Victoria St. have a right to be there under Section 7. </i><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">“Because the By-Law prohibits the erection of shelter protection that is necessary to protect homeless individuals from risk of serious harm, and there is currently inadequate shelter beds in the Region, I conclude that it violates the Charter protected right to life,” writes Valente.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><u>Shelter Beds</u><br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Municipalities have made this argument for years. It goes like this: “There are vacancies in the shelter system. So people are able to stay in shelters.” <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But the actual number of shelter beds available or not available is contentious. <br />Justice Valente picks this up recognizing “that it is not just the number of available indoor sheltering spaces that frames the right but also whether those spaces are truly accessible to those sheltering in parks.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The Region made two other arguments that were rejected.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">First, they contended that the Charter doesn’t apply because the encampment residents were looking to protect property rights, which are not Charter protected. Not so, said Justice Valente. They weren’t making such a claim. Encampment residents just preferred to be close to services they regularly use.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Another Regional argument was that previous Ontario court decisions supported evictions. But those decisions dealt with parks, where the broader public had an interest in using, not a vacant lot such as the site in question.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If evicted from the encampment where will residents go, Valente wondered. Likely to live rough or set up camp somewhere else. What choice do they have? Creating shelter to protect oneself is, a “matter critical to any individual’s dignity and independence.” By preventing this, the Region interferes with the “choice to protect itself from the elements and is a deprivation of liberty within the scope of section 7.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Waterloo Region has decided not to appeal the ruling. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sharon Crowe, a lawyer involved in the Hamilton case,, is optimistic that the decision will be a catalyst for change.<br /> <br />“Not only are they not appealing, they are investing $163 million into housing and homelessness.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The City of Hamilton is now back at the table talking with advocates. Hopefully, others will follow suit. </div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-65341459700271072552023-03-15T15:19:00.002-04:002023-03-15T15:20:37.699-04:00 Empty Buses<div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>(Here is a little story on public transit I made up based on my experience as a municipal councillor many years ago.) </i><br /><div style="text-align: center;">----------</div></div><div>One thing I’ve learned in my short career in municipal politics is that municipal politicians know how to problem solve. It is what they do.<br /><br /></div><div>And the elected officials at Clarovista City Hall are no exception.<br /><br /></div><div>Take the issue of public transit for example. <br /><br /></div><div>Public opinion is divided on transit in Clarovista.<br /><br /></div><div>Some people want it. And others don’t.<br /><br /></div><div>Now the people who want it are mostly those that use it or would use it if the service was any good. <br /><br /></div><div>Those that don’t want it or don’t want much of it or don’t want it on their street mostly have garages and two or three cars in their driveways.<br /><br /></div><div>These people with cars and garages worry about buses a lot particularly the matter of empty buses. And they let their Council members know how they feel.<br /><br /></div><div>Councillor Roger Harris is particularly responsive. Few buses run through Councillor Harris’ ward. </div><div><br /></div><div>Those that do certainly look empty to his constituents.<br /><br /></div><div>I’ve tried in public and in private conversations to explain empty buses to Harris. They happen routinely in the transit world, I say. They get empty when going in the opposite direction to rush hour peak flows and at the end of routes. Some times of day are less busy and some areas of the municipality have fewer riders. <br /><br /></div><div>Harris himself has not been on a bus since riding a yellow one to day camp back when Diefenbaker was Opposition leader and C.D Howe and the Liberal Party were arrogant and flogging pipelines.<br /><br /></div><div>Harris has ideas for transit management to address the empty bus dilemma. Small buses are the way to go. They cost less and the optics would be better. And, if the route ran every hour instead of every 20 minutes, we could save money. Councillor Harris puts energy into the sketching out better routes for the buses. Tricky stuff. <br /><br /></div><div>Tonight, we receive the annual transit review. It is the only area we review each year. Questions of staff focus on efficiency, pros and cons of raising fares, decreasing support from the province. </div><div><br /></div><div>Councillors have ideas in all of these areas.<br /><br /></div><div>But Councillor Harris’ brainwave stops the meeting.<br /><br /></div><div>“Why can’t the buses just go back to the garage when they are empty?”</div><div><br /></div><div>by</div><div>Ken Williams</div><div>Former Councillor</div><div>Ward 5</div><div>Clarovista</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-26199652914251713732023-03-09T10:42:00.000-05:002023-03-09T10:42:01.127-05:00Truth Has Vanished<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Like the passenger pigeon it seems that truth has
vanished forever from our political discourse.<br /><span style="color: black;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="color: black;">Not that long ago when Trump was President of the
United States and still tweeting he posted a tweet where, in one sentence, he
made 4 false claims. (A tweet is about two short sentences.)<br /></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="color: black;">This came as no surprise to those paying attention
to the state of today’s politics.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnYZEAumTUwrzFnjbFMIFORPmm_SL71vUXFZkstfUXLRr_y38xIdEv6aHbmJiixt0CflcRY4Xc1p5l3cIR5OoTnfeXEtya0Vk_GasyjJIHEF-SeI6Pb-UjUJNI5DXj43OuKOFjpVHBd-MHoAG9248ArtsXssBXeiMNy-jcPx_T9xIg-IrVBbk/s267/doug%20ford%20%232.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="189" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnYZEAumTUwrzFnjbFMIFORPmm_SL71vUXFZkstfUXLRr_y38xIdEv6aHbmJiixt0CflcRY4Xc1p5l3cIR5OoTnfeXEtya0Vk_GasyjJIHEF-SeI6Pb-UjUJNI5DXj43OuKOFjpVHBd-MHoAG9248ArtsXssBXeiMNy-jcPx_T9xIg-IrVBbk/w142-h200/doug%20ford%20%232.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The People's Premier?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span><span style="color: black;">In Ontario the Premier, of his self-styled
Government for The People makes promises like:<br /></span><i><span style="color: black;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><span style="color: black;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>No one will lose their job, absolutely no
one.<br /></span></i><i><span style="color: black;">
<br /> </span></i><i><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>I’ll
lower hydro rates by 12 per cent.<br /></span></i><i><span style="color: black;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <br /> </span></span></i><i><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>We
won’t touch the Greenbelt. of Ontario <br /></span></i><span style="color: black;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="color: black;">It is not enough that the promises are unfulfilled
but that such statements are repeated so often that they become assumed
authentic.<br /></span><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">So what about truth?<br /></span><span style="color: black;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="252" height="159" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5mv-Mn93sG_U5x7oCzrHhfNuHOfNHrOwZQf20wJBWHmnmIJ0p9NnrrCnuzfd8MLsO3SsDRyCKBq4HFSOc1B2vXglY_sFw0rbV1RPCgCGgc5q3Gmow4_JH3k7COAZ2jCLbQYmr4CqIzsFQG2lKYwR8qi6xPxaH414YuJNboae-lCkCkwUJXsE=w200-h159" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eric Blair, Spanish Civil War Veteran</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg5mv-Mn93sG_U5x7oCzrHhfNuHOfNHrOwZQf20wJBWHmnmIJ0p9NnrrCnuzfd8MLsO3SsDRyCKBq4HFSOc1B2vXglY_sFw0rbV1RPCgCGgc5q3Gmow4_JH3k7COAZ2jCLbQYmr4CqIzsFQG2lKYwR8qi6xPxaH414YuJNboae-lCkCkwUJXsE" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em;"></a></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">George Orwell had something to say on the matter. The English writer argued that history had, in fact, stopped in Spain in 1936. Orwell had seen that reporting in Spain’s newspapers “did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie.”</div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Orwell, then a virtually unheard of English writer known as Eric Blair, worried that the “concept of objective truth (was) fading out of the world and lies would pass into history.”</div></span></span></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><u><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i> </i>Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!)</span></u></p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">For the past couple of years I’ve been
involved with a group called Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!) <a href="https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/">https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/<br /></a></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="color: black;">SCAN volunteers spent a good deal of time and
energy prior to the June 2nd provincial election documenting Ford’s crimes
against Climate. New crimes against the environment like the More Homes
Built Faster Act are being documented but it is hard to keep up with this
repeat offender. These crimes all seem stem from the kind of thinking that denies objective truth. A case in point is the rationale recently put forward to open up lands in the Greenbelt in order to build so-called affordable housing. <br /></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="color: black;">Much has been written and said by experts,
advocates and citizens regarding Bill 23 the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">More Homes Built Faster Act (2022).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></i>Here is SCAN!’s view<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <a href="https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SCAN-Climate-Crime-34-2023-01.pdf">https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/SCAN-Climate-Crime-34-2023-01.pdf<br /></a><o:p></o:p></i></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><o:p>The Ford government is well aware of the opposition to their measures but has calculated that the public will just accept them because they are passed. <br /></o:p></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;">We can`t give up the fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here are some resources and links you can
check out.<br /></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> <br /> </span></span><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;">Resources and Events<br /></span></u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;">*You can find Environmental Defence at </span><a href="https://environmentaldefence.ca/"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">https://environmentaldefence.ca/<br /></span></a><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;">*Changes to maps and Official Plans can be found at </span><a href="https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-6216#decision-details"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-6216#decision-details</span></a><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"> and <a href="https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-6217">https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-6217<br /></a><o:p></o:p></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;">*Alliance for a Livable Ontario is at </span><a href="https://www.liveableontario.ca/"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">https://www.liveableontario.ca/<br /></span></a><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;">*</span><span style="color: black;">The Land Between, a grassroots
non-governmental organization, </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;">has materials on the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>consequences of the legislation and what you
can do at </span><a href="https://www.thelandbetween.ca/bill23-stealingourlegacy/#Solidarity"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">https://www.thelandbetween.ca/bill23-stealingourlegacy/#Solidarity<br /></span></a><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black; padding: 0cm;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"><br /></span></o:p></span></u><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">*The webinar Bill 23 and the Greenbelt – What`s Next? runs about an hour and can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_j49m11Q7w</div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">*Stop Sprawl Halton’s website is at https://www.stopsprawlhalton.org/</div></span></span></div>
Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-76907468693955069342023-02-07T15:09:00.000-05:002023-02-07T15:09:20.704-05:00Lessons Learned from Delegating<p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Sometime when you’ve got nothing better to do head down to your local Silly Hall or Regional Government (if you are lucky enough to have two municipal governments) and delegate.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> It is your civic duty. In that spirit I combed my hair, put on the closest thing that I’ve got to church clothes, and headed off to the Region of Halton Canada some time back to address the budget. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Delegating is always a learning experience. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Here is what I learned. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">First, when you are finished speaking don’t sit down. Once you sit down Councillors will ask staff questions and you will have no ability to respond. Staff can say anything like: Bob Wood has a point but he would have more credibility on poverty issues if he hadn’t got his Grade Eight diploma out of a vending machine. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Second, Councillors will not ask questions that you are expecting. I came prepared to answer in the negative as to whether I or members of my immediate family and/or committee colleagues had ever been members of the Communist Party. You can imagine my surprise when asked whether I thought water rates are regressive. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Third, expect to engage in philosophical first year university discussions when you believe the agenda is fairly focussed or alternatively expect to focus on the agenda when you would like to engage in airy fairy dialogue. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">And finally, remember when you get the urge and feel like delegating that these issues are always too complicated for the public. That is why God created politicians, I guess.</span></p>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-22852194443104160482023-01-23T19:35:00.001-05:002023-01-24T10:09:29.581-05:00 Canada Jays, Moose and Citidiots<p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Typically in November we take a trip to Canada’s oldest provincial park, Algonquin. </span></p><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We’ve been doing this for quite a few years. There is no great plan behind these trips. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">They started out when my son had responsibilities for volunteers who came to Norfolk County to assist with migration monitoring at Long Point.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">A large number of species can be observed passing through Long Point in the fall but some of the more notable Canadian birds never make it this far south. This unofficial November trip at the end of the migration season gave these volunteer birders an opportunity to see these birds before they returned home to the U.K., B.C., and Mexico or further afield. <br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Looking back on these recreational outings, I wonder if there are some climate change lessons to be learned.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The main interest on these trips is to locate and observe boreal bird species - pine grosbeaks, boreal chickadees and crossbills. Another boreal bird – the Canada Jay - although not hard to find - is of interest to casual as well as avid birders. Algonquin is the extreme southern limit of its range. The last time one of these passerines was seen here in Norfolk County was October 1975.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">These birds are unique. They will feed from your hand and a common sight is to see them land on the heads of park visitors at the Spruce Bog Boardwalk. They’re the only birds in the boreal forests that stay on territory for the entire year. Through an astounding ability to store food, the Canada Jay survives long cold winters by living off thousands of pieces of food hidden in boreal vegetation. Remarkably, research shows that the Canada Jay actually remembers where they’ve hidden food.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wobfh25cM9DzaBR8szWBquN9g3QBtWA-xabosvVaI1WZwEj62zp1itgBdzJNNMlRvGBCNTwkJOGz96rMBkFDVsvkG-Kjx-l6Qh8lUtTIIdPGxD5TWdi0fgLn6b4Llp7kBs4s_uJJlT_r5_Bm_0KG6VSq1a1ipH5XRKSwVrIg07Xxw6jn8i8/s794/canada%20jay%20%234.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="794" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wobfh25cM9DzaBR8szWBquN9g3QBtWA-xabosvVaI1WZwEj62zp1itgBdzJNNMlRvGBCNTwkJOGz96rMBkFDVsvkG-Kjx-l6Qh8lUtTIIdPGxD5TWdi0fgLn6b4Llp7kBs4s_uJJlT_r5_Bm_0KG6VSq1a1ipH5XRKSwVrIg07Xxw6jn8i8/s320/canada%20jay%20%234.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">For nearly fifty years, most Algonquin Park Canada Jays have been colour banded thereby providing an excellent database on the species. There was a time when they inhabited all the land along Highway 60. Not now though.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The cause of that decline is almost certainly climate warming. Warmer temperatures in the park mean that the stored food isn’t lasting as it did in the past.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">According to researcher Dan Strickland:<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>“As global temperatures rise, we can expect that insects, berries, pieces of meat or mushrooms stored by Canada Jays will spoil more rapidly. This will occur even in the winter and may be especially serious when repeated freeze-thaw events accelerate the degradation of perishable food. The cumulative effect of such warming may be that early-nesting (Canada) Jays have less stored food to feed their nestlings than in the past and fewer young jays are produced as a result.” </i><br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Is it possible that a species that resides in all of the provinces and territories and is under consideration as our National Bird will become locally extinct? <br /><u><br /></u></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><u>Moose</u><br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Back on Highway 60, I’m recalling an encounter with moose from ten years ago - a cow and its calf. (below left) Although 800,000 people visit each year there isn’t much human traffic in the Park this time of year but on this day this pair attracted a bit of a crowd. Many passersby left their cars to get close to nature thus imperilling themselves and their vehicles. Experts tell you never approach a moose and stay in your car if observing because they’re big (cows about 400 kg), protective of their young, and can run about as fast as a horse. <br /><br /></span></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil9HbnFCLlr9ycD7GhSpmxnRGea7WAP4wYAFOFA_Jy7_TsUkXjb0Z-WhAkl5mK85JtOXu9DoRFDYwoEOqoLSf6xjIu4vfWnFgiFRQwg5EAkOBYl1lZa5Q49pAQohdRDsdcfTRmUpHd7XOPKv1laCTCrN3F6mGVRQhnPuQnSXqTjbjrKwt1zcc/s2048/two%20moose.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil9HbnFCLlr9ycD7GhSpmxnRGea7WAP4wYAFOFA_Jy7_TsUkXjb0Z-WhAkl5mK85JtOXu9DoRFDYwoEOqoLSf6xjIu4vfWnFgiFRQwg5EAkOBYl1lZa5Q49pAQohdRDsdcfTRmUpHd7XOPKv1laCTCrN3F6mGVRQhnPuQnSXqTjbjrKwt1zcc/w320-h213/two%20moose.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Graham Wood</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Older son Ross got it right that day when he called these wildlife observers “citidiots.” They seemed under the impression that the moose had been placed by the swamp for entertainment as part of some kind of roadside petting zoo. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">One has to wonder whether the ignorance on display that day has some connection to today’s climate warming deniers. Not as overt stupidity as that practiced by those citidiots disturbing the moose but further evidence that some of us city folk just don’t get it.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Moose populations are in decline in some areas. The science is tricky. The latest published Moose Aerial Inventory for Algonquin from 2015 suggests there is a population of 2,655 individuals within the 7,725 square kilometre park. Not as high as it was, but not bad and, in fact, in density terms among the highest in North America. But there is danger from winter ticks. That warmer weather we mentioned is increasing the survival rate of tick eggs. These ticks actually travel on moose bringing on anemia, fur and weight loss and infection particularly in calves.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The UN Secretary-General recently sounded a warning: <br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>“Floods, droughts, heatwaves, extreme storms and wildfires are going from bad to worse” and are “breaking records with alarming frequency. They are the price of humanity’s fossil fuel addiction,” </i>declared António Guterres.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">These extreme events occupy our attention for a day or two of the news cycle. We sympathize, shake our heads but comfort ourselves that these calamities are happening somewhere else - not in our back yards. <br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Perhaps more subtle changes such as those impacting birds and mammals in our own backyard will be more successful in bringing attention to the impacts of climate change. <br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Time’s a wasting!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-7589490099966806552022-12-23T15:07:00.005-05:002023-12-23T11:32:17.687-05:00Rupert Hotel Fire 33 years Later - Finally Some Progress on Reform<p style="text-align: left;"> </p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span>Friday December 23rd. 2022 marks the thirty-third anniversary of the Rupert Hotel fire and the loss of ten lives.</span><br /><span><br /></span></span><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span>I attended a memorial service for the twentieth anniversary in 2009 at 182 Parliament Street.</span><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPnKLXSU4qXoX4HiR4cpHSKcgzy2DrePyHXfSPuOOFpVlzmKlBLkXzxzVV7R5RvbNWt-ZYDmLlnJ-cUi9K0TImcU2B6FGvKFZU_JTCKW7tMQQkOqVTR3fxbPXdxnOV8CN5VaaGId5HeOAkSWFmjgMdDwV9aCXVGPI2zsP6Mp4HdqIpLQ3b_Ds/s607/shapcott%202-2010.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="607" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPnKLXSU4qXoX4HiR4cpHSKcgzy2DrePyHXfSPuOOFpVlzmKlBLkXzxzVV7R5RvbNWt-ZYDmLlnJ-cUi9K0TImcU2B6FGvKFZU_JTCKW7tMQQkOqVTR3fxbPXdxnOV8CN5VaaGId5HeOAkSWFmjgMdDwV9aCXVGPI2zsP6Mp4HdqIpLQ3b_Ds/s320/shapcott%202-2010.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Michael Shapcott speaks at 2009 event</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Since that time, I’ve tried to reflect on this horrible event and the lack of progress in addressing the need for safe and affordable housing in Ontario. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><span><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><span>In the years following the tragedy, about 500 units of Toronto housing were created or upgraded to meet or exceed the already existing standards. Not long after a commemorative plaque was installed (read the plaque at </span></span><span><a href="https://www.readtheplaque.com/plaque/rupert-hotel-fire">https://www.readtheplaque.com/plaque/rupert-hotel-fire</a>) </span><span>noting that the fire "sparked action by municipal and provincial governments and community organizations to improve conditions in rooming houses." </span><span>The funding that supported the upgrades and advocacy soon ended. </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpW0rP0iWZB36_7trT1F3p4vQFYn2QyKFHIMqr3PCT_madsVEENlEIBi1F7Rnf1BqASZTA4nT_3jIDbBGVGruxoLjxMVDo0GG5s83Y8Q3A_JNQade5edmU8MVLubX8apar-oCh1O2bDFwNM2HR3iGlESDaKrbIgd3WQdl8Jhclz4Cw9CSlTLU/s700/rupert%2520fire%2520library%25202.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="487" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpW0rP0iWZB36_7trT1F3p4vQFYn2QyKFHIMqr3PCT_madsVEENlEIBi1F7Rnf1BqASZTA4nT_3jIDbBGVGruxoLjxMVDo0GG5s83Y8Q3A_JNQade5edmU8MVLubX8apar-oCh1O2bDFwNM2HR3iGlESDaKrbIgd3WQdl8Jhclz4Cw9CSlTLU/w139-h200/rupert%2520fire%2520library%25202.jpg" width="139" /></a></div><span><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There has not been much good to report since then. Three years aback I wrote a poem where I was cynical about austerity policies that meant progress would ever be made in addressing the lessons learned from the fire.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;">Well I was wrong, so it seems.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Earlier this month the City of Toronto approved a regulatory framework that beginning March 2024 will allow tenants to rent in areas of Toronto where they are currently restricted. There will be a citywide licensing system that should go a long way in making this form of housing safer.</span></p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rooming houses, now known as multi-tenant houses, are the only option for many in the extremely unaffordable private market in Toronto and all over Ontario for that matter.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>“I’ll be honest with you, I have tried 12 times – 12 times! – to get to this vote over the course of the last 14 years,</i>” said Councillor. Gord Perks (Parkdale—High Park), told the Toronto Star. <i>``It is s a remarkable step forward, and I hope that we continue that momentum.”</i><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/12/14/toronto-votes-to-legalize-rooming-houses-citywide-in-2024.html">https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/12/14/toronto-votes-to-legalize-rooming-houses-citywide-in-2024.html</a></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Good news indeed. I’m going to see who this all unfolds before I revise my poem. Find it below.</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">-------------------------- </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> </span></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: center;"></p></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Rupert Hotel December 1989*</b></div></div></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gordon was sorry</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: center;">but it was tough keeping warm</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and he’d had some to drink </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">s</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">o setting fire to those papers on the floor in the middle </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of his second-floor room made some kind of sense.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div></span></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the Rupert Hotel, a three-storey brick walk up</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in a licensed city rooming house </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">off Queen Street East </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">at Parliament</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">those with few options and few dollars could exist, </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">in a way. </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div></span></span></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gordon’s warming fire soon leapt out of control </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">flames and choking smoke filling the corridors </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">as the fire gained full possession of the hallways.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The license pinned to the wall wasn’t worth the paper </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">it was printed on as far as the protection it afforded </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the 31 tenants at the Rupert</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">on this wintry December night. </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A sprinkler system might have halted the fire’s progress.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps tenants could have taken action </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">if the alarm system had been operable </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">or fire extinguishers stored in the basement were reachable.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It was 17 long minutes before someone called 911.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When firefighters arrived </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">the whole building was enveloped. </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Flames leapt out of the top floor windows.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Firefighters using ladders forced their way </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">into the searing heat of the second floor. </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Later a witness called it </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“A Vision out of Hell.”</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As the fire raged people screamed, crying out for friends.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It took six hours and eighteen crews to subdue the blaze.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thankfully, some tenants were saved and many escaped. </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For days crews chopped through ice and debris to locate bodies. </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They found nine men. </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A woman had returned to the building to help a friend </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Donna Marie Cann died, as had the others, </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">of heavy smoke inhalation.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Soon an inquest was held.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Recommendations were made </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">new rules created </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">regulations established</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">housing planned.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After a while all was forgotten.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Rules and regulations lapsed, </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">were ignored or opposed </span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">and the programs ended.</span></div></span></span></div></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">I<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">n the city today austerity policies <br /></span></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">compel people to rent rooms </span></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">in perilous and dangerous buildings. </span></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Many flee the downtown to illegal suburban homes </span></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">where life is cheaper. </span></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"></blockquote><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*According to the Fire Marshal, there were fires at 69 illegal rooming houses </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">in </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the Toronto area between 2013 and 2017.</span></div></span></span></div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><p></p></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /> </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></div></span></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><br /></p></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-91705721082614542572022-12-15T10:38:00.000-05:002022-12-15T10:38:25.572-05:00Court Ruling on Homelessness Item in Regina Budget <div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">A Regina City Councillor took his own municipality to court this week. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">I wrote about the issue last week in Canadian Dimension.<br /><a href="https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/regina-has-a-plan-to-end-homelessness-so-whats-stopping-it">https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/regina-has-a-plan-to-end-homelessness-so-whats-stopping-it<br /></a><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">On Tuesday December 13th Leblanc was before Justice John Morrall asking him to force the city administration to include $24.9 million for homelessness in the city budget. A review of that budget began yesterday (December 14th).<br /> <br />LeBlanc was pushing for a mandamus order. Such an order from a court obligates a government official to properly fulfill their official duties.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>“Basically, three points are all agreed upon,</i>” LeBlanc told reporters outside the courthouse afterwards as reported by sasktoday.ca. on Tuesday.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“<i>One is the city manager’s duties are outlined in the bylaws. I say that makes it public.<br /><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>Second is we gave clear direction in June to put this money in the budget.<br /><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>Third is she didn’t want to do that, so decided not to. I think that’s enough for mandamus, that’s the application we’re seeking.”</i><br /><a href="https://www.sasktoday.ca/provincial-news/arguments-heard-in-court-fight-against-city-manager-6240813">https://www.sasktoday.ca/provincial-news/arguments-heard-in-court-fight-against-city-manager-6240813</a><br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">City manager Niki Anderson, was represented by Milad Alishahi. <br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alishahi’s argument was that the case for mandamus had not been made. This isn’t a legal issue. It is a political issue and other options were available to Council members than going to court. </span><a href="https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/city-hall/judge-wont-decide-on-application-to-include-homelessness-plan-in-city-budget-until-wednesday">https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/city-hall/judge-wont-decide-on-application-to-include-homelessness-plan-in-city-budget-until-wednesday</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Judge Morrall agreed with lawyer Alishahi. <br /> <br /><i>“I find that the court should be quite leery of being involved in the political machinations and debates between members of municipal, provincial or federal decision-making bodies,</i>” wrote Morrall.<br /> <br />More details can be found at <a href="https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/city-hall/judge-dismisses-application-to-add-funding-for-ending-homelessness-to-city-budget">https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/city-hall/judge-dismisses-application-to-add-funding-for-ending-homelessness-to-city-budget</a><br /> <br /><i>"This application is about the principle, not the politics,"</i> said LeBlanc. <i>"If unelected officials can choose to not implement the decision of elected bodies then the system simply falls apart,"</i> LeBlanc told the CBC. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/regina-ending-homelessness-court-1.6683016">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/regina-ending-homelessness-court-1.6683016</a><br /> <br />From talking with Councillor LeBlanc, I anticipate that he will attempt to get money back into the budget to address the homelessness crisis but in a smaller amount.</span></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-13758435005641524942022-12-08T11:08:00.000-05:002022-12-08T11:08:40.567-05:00Councillors Take City to Court<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Earlier this week <i>Canadian Dimension </i>published a story I wrote on city politics in Regina. It is not quite a man-bites-dog story but neither is it something that happens every day. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Daniel LeBlanc, a Regina City Councillor is taking his own municipality to court. Here is that story. </span><a href="https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/regina-has-a-plan-to-end-homelessness-so-whats-stopping-it" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/regina-has-a-plan-to-end-homelessness-so-whats-stopping-it</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQy9d1PuE6TFbYoTMeJq2Yl-Na0VhWpXcjIv7K1GXCjpZtt2Fmyb83CrElPR7TyzDYjjQfYcfrWLoPWzFxB43qFlTjz-sb3L0h-Peoer7NlQMowKbQkdaT87D68Dhy0SZ_ghXXhqMFPYFPhgWTmsv-bVIzalcp0tZF1EGVx15HG5bkgL8WJc/s480/Councillor-LeBlanc.jpg_45004101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQy9d1PuE6TFbYoTMeJq2Yl-Na0VhWpXcjIv7K1GXCjpZtt2Fmyb83CrElPR7TyzDYjjQfYcfrWLoPWzFxB43qFlTjz-sb3L0h-Peoer7NlQMowKbQkdaT87D68Dhy0SZ_ghXXhqMFPYFPhgWTmsv-bVIzalcp0tZF1EGVx15HG5bkgL8WJc/w200-h200/Councillor-LeBlanc.jpg_45004101.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Councillor Daniel Leblanc</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There have been some developments since that article was published. On Tuesday most of the Regina Council signed on to a notice of motion that the Councillors who initiated the lawsuit have violated the Regina code of Ethics by-law.MN22.7 <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/regina-city-council-mayor-manager-lawsuit-homelessness-1.6675651">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/regina-city-council-mayor-manager-lawsuit-homelessness-1.6675651</a></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">To consider such a motion at yesterday’s (December 7th) Council meeting required unanimous support of Council. That was received yesterday as the two Councillors who were involved in the suit did not vote because of what, I believe, would be a conflict of interest in Saskatchewan municipalities. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">https://regina.ctvnews.ca/regina-city-council-passes-motion-of-confidence-in-city-manager-niki-anderson-1.6185099 </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In part the motion read: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i>“affirm and convey [council’s] continued confidence in City Manager Niki Anderson” and “express its disappointment over the negative impact on City Council’s operational integrity and oversight that the initiated court action has created.” </i></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Court proceedings are scheduled for next Tuesday ahead of Regina’s December 14th budget meeting.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-24874588092202130332022-10-18T15:29:00.000-04:002022-10-18T15:29:09.624-04:00A Thought on the Norfolk County 2022 Elections<p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">There was a bit of a brouhaha November 17th 2020 down at the corner of Colborne and Calamity. Maybe you will remember the occurrence.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Mayor Kristal Chopp called it a witch hunt, proceeded to axe and replace the Deputy Mayor and then left the building.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Of course, when Elvis left the building cheering crowds called for an encore but on the anniversary of the day when two rival municipalities Buda and Pest found a way to get along and merged a similar bonhomie was not to be found in Norfolk County. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRft2m--Ug9ZaZPbvOkjHSmSSDIAIDyCXSeiGeQnjqVf2ccHLIknenjBe0SKHgBYh5QTKvtnmPg5sOD8V5wnNGI1Ruu61EZ8FuyTJfDdKQAkulV06Hj9vJeRxPIPVC3SoU--1EVWT4oMeWMwAecqUKcrOFz3pmopA7mtP6WEN9Pbfeb6Jrozk/s245/norfolk%20county%20council.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="245" data-original-width="206" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRft2m--Ug9ZaZPbvOkjHSmSSDIAIDyCXSeiGeQnjqVf2ccHLIknenjBe0SKHgBYh5QTKvtnmPg5sOD8V5wnNGI1Ruu61EZ8FuyTJfDdKQAkulV06Hj9vJeRxPIPVC3SoU--1EVWT4oMeWMwAecqUKcrOFz3pmopA7mtP6WEN9Pbfeb6Jrozk/s1600/norfolk%20county%20council.jpg" width="206" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">What about this witch hunting phenomenon? It became the accusation du jour.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Witch hunting can be traced back to 18th century BC in ancient Egypt and Babylonia where punishment for nasty magic was addressed in the earliest law codes. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible brought the term back and into the world of politics during the McCarthy era. More recently, former President Trump consistently cast himself as a witch hunt victim on a par with the defendants in the Salem Witch Trials. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Norfolk has its own tradition with the hunting of witches. Perhaps the witch trap used by Norfolk’s first settler, John Troyer, should be relocated from Norfolk Archives to Council Chambers to prevent any further transgressions.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">However, lost in the excitement of that November afternoon’s shenanigans was the whole matter of the need for some clarity on what exactly the Norfolk Deputy Mayor does.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">According to Norfolk Council’s procedural by-law as amended in 2017:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>Deputy Mayor shall mean a Member of Council who is appointed, by By-Law or resolution of Council, to act from time to time in the place of the Mayor when the Mayor is absent from the municipality or absent through illness, or when the office is vacant and, while so acting, such Member has and may exercise all the rights, powers and authority of the Head of Council and this authority is delegated by Council under Section 23.1 of the Municipal Act, 2001, S.O. 2001 c.25</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Not really helpful, is it?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Whatever the outcome on October 24th here is hoping the new Council will function with a much higher level of decorum and respect for its members and citizens.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">And maybe they will update that procedural by-law as it relates to deputy mayor duties. </span></p><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><p><br /></p>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-51933405465377365212022-10-11T11:55:00.000-04:002022-10-11T11:55:09.215-04:00 Writing a Letter<div><br /></div><div>Yesterday I sat down to write a letter to my Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP).<br /><br /></div><div>I’ve written similar letters in the past and received no response. Perhaps I need a new approach. </div><div>Maybe my letters haven’t been clear enough. Do my sentences run on? Does my correspondence suffer from subject verb disagreement? Surely it must be one of these errors as I ‘m quite certain there would be no disagreement with my theme – fairness. We all support fairness, don’t we? <br /><br /></div><div>Specifically, my fruitless letters have attempted to address the lack of fairness of the social assistance system in Ontario.<br /><br /></div><div>There is much to be said about social assistance. Space limits me. First let’s talk about rates. In Ontario there are two basic programs.<br /><br /></div><div>The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) is one. This program is designed to help people with disabilities who are in financial need pay for living expenses, like food and housing. <br /><br /></div><div>Ontario Works (OW) is the other program. OW helps people in financial need pay for living expenses, like food and housing. Both programs can also give support in finding a job.<br /> <br />You have to qualify. It isn’t easy. But more about that later.<br /><br /></div><div>There was a time when social assistance rates bore some relationship to the real cost of living. Not often did that occur but 1993 was a year where it could be argued that some fairness had been achieved.<br /><br /></div><div>Then along came Mike Harris. During the 1995 election campaign, the poverty denying golf pro teed off on single mothers who were receiving assistance depicting them as some sort of boogie monsters ripping off the oppressed taxpayers of Ontario. <br /><br /></div><div>Harris’s fabricated characterization was successful - politically at least. In 1995 he reduced social assistance rates in Ontario by 22%. It was one of the first acts of his new government.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPid121MgFZoLMKU86ybiPXkHoVwrQmzSnYJAgf1EpnWprpZZbf7oA84Sj6AZhZgl5YRoCJSV17PJulTzxTf6kYAqI2spy5yjBPtaRJP8NBV5VEdZGaUdwgG_oz9efs_emmtbzF-op_vRaro0_oKxHcmk5_e03Ax1PTl-Jeq4b1v2tcTufGiA" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1499" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPid121MgFZoLMKU86ybiPXkHoVwrQmzSnYJAgf1EpnWprpZZbf7oA84Sj6AZhZgl5YRoCJSV17PJulTzxTf6kYAqI2spy5yjBPtaRJP8NBV5VEdZGaUdwgG_oz9efs_emmtbzF-op_vRaro0_oKxHcmk5_e03Ax1PTl-Jeq4b1v2tcTufGiA=w160-h200" width="160" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Former Premier Mike Harris<br />made Big Cuts to Social <br />Assistance <br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /></div><div>Let’s be clear. There was no economic rationale for this move – just a mean spirited, ill informed attempt to make social assistance rates unattractive and presumably to make people find jobs that didn’t exist or that they weren’t qualified to do.<br /><br /></div><div>Today those rates are far below poverty levels. How far? A single parent with two children receives $1989 per month on ODSP. The shelter allowance for a single person receiving OW is $390 per month. Try finding a place to live for $390. <br /><br /></div><div>Earlier this year, John Stapleton, a respected public policy guru, took a look at rates. He went back to those fairer 1993 rates and built in the 16.2% inflation that had occurred up to January 2022 and came up with new rates. OW and ODSP would have to be raised 67% to get back to those levels.<br /><br /></div><div>What needs to happen?<br /><br /></div><div>A few years ago advocates drafted legislation that proposed a simple idea. An expert panel would be set up. Each year the panel would recommend appropriate evidence-based social assistance rates to the Provincial Government. There were details but that was the idea in a nutshell.<br /><br /></div><div>An Act to Establish the Ontario Social Assistance Rates Board was introduced for first reading as a private member’s bill in the Ontario Legislature in June 2007. Unfortunately, the Legislature was prorogued the next day in anticipation of a fall election, meaning the Bill was effectively discontinued. Similar efforts have been launched since with the same result.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg73BuuExR7yq5OkgoU5uo5KvPixz9QG7PQjQu8Lwklw6zVHrhE6dXvMTL8_fGSoZDYrrK3fr4VyPZLCC5izZvmtIHTYdIFQdQzkrjbhWX2KG7weQr4CfBz6WJ366rdiIb4T8B0YJZAoXNpsXWU1M9LEKE0E2ApeJKpFvkBDD6Pp9KOogz6X-Y/s254/mcmeekin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="199" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg73BuuExR7yq5OkgoU5uo5KvPixz9QG7PQjQu8Lwklw6zVHrhE6dXvMTL8_fGSoZDYrrK3fr4VyPZLCC5izZvmtIHTYdIFQdQzkrjbhWX2KG7weQr4CfBz6WJ366rdiIb4T8B0YJZAoXNpsXWU1M9LEKE0E2ApeJKpFvkBDD6Pp9KOogz6X-Y/w157-h200/mcmeekin.jpg" width="157" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MPP Ted McMeekin proposed <br />a rates board in 2007</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Another less talked about change took place nearly twenty-five years ago when the Family Benefits program was changed to ODSP. <br /><br /></div><div>First, access to social assistance was made much more difficult as people were forced to reduce their assets before qualifying. Many “stupid rules” were introduced - over 800 according to a 2004 report from the Ministry of Community and Social Services who ironically administered the stupid rules. Front line workers spent at least 80% of their time on administrative issues, like filling out forms etc…, and not addressing the needs of recipients. <br /><br /></div><div>With these changes qualifying for the program became a big issue. A majority of people applying for ODSP were turned down. People had the right to appeal internally and then if unsuccessful they could go to a body called the Social Benefits Tribunal, an administrative body that deals specifically with appeals regarding social assistance, for a final appeal. <br /><br /></div><div>A lot of hoops to jump through but if you did the hoop jumping you were usually successful in your appeal. In fact, if you had legal help your chances of winning were over 90%. That legal help (usually in the form of a community legal clinic caseworker) was then seen as a problem so the legal clinics’ funding was cut. <br /><br /></div><div>I’m going to take another shot at writing that letter. There is more that could be said about fairness but I’m fairly certain that any fool can see that the system is unfair. Why waste time with that argument. </div><div><br /></div><div>I need to focus on eliminating those run on sentences and getting the verbs to agree with the subjects.</div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-8256311116610083972022-09-20T11:29:00.000-04:002022-09-20T11:29:00.763-04:00 Police Budgets<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Here is a timely opinion piece by Mohamad Bsat. It is called Why is <i>Hamilton's Police Budget so taboo?</i> and can be found a<i>t </i><a href=" ---------------------------------">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/election-column-police-budget-1.6587782?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar </a> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The piece brought back memories from many years ago when I tried to reduce the police budget.I recollected that event in the poem that follows.</span></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large; text-align: center;"> ---------------------------------</span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>The Budget*</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">On a long ago budget day, a procedural quirk<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">put a simple regional ward councillor<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">in a position to freeze the police budget.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Ward councillors don’t obstruct police budgets<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">because, as we all learned as kids,<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">the police(man) is our friend<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">does important and dangerous work<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">protects and keep us safe and<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">for all of this deserves to be well paid.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">These are things that ward councillors,<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">even simple ones, should understand.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">But since the common sense drumbeat<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">set the revolution in motion<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">we have come to know that the best government is<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">to have practically no government at all<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">and respect for hard-earned taxpayer’s dollars<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">is the order of the day.</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Others are compelled to run their ship tightly<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">while the law and order liner sails unimpeded<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">through the calm waters of political indifference.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">On that budget day, the simple ward councillor<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Having, for a time, ascended<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">to the lofty heights of budget committee member<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">advanced what was (by his own humble admission)<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">a particularly persuasive presentation<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">convincing the one colleague who needed convincing<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">that police spending should be apprehended and<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">it was a great day for local democracy<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">or at least it seemed that way.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the votes aren’t counted<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">until the politicians raise their hands<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">and when they did<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">the police got their money, as they always do.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No media or public witnessed the sad event though<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">police brass made time in otherwise busy days<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">to behold the councillor’s misbegotten manoeuvre.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Following his 15 minutes of small town fame<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">our councillor drove his car like an undertaker.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Even now, my lane changes are by-the-book perfect<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">and inviolable police budgets escalate still.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> ---------------------------------</span></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">*Originally published in <i>The Dream The Glory and The Strife</i>, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Raymond Fenech (Editor), Barnes and Noble 2016</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-74917293856276408952022-09-04T10:38:00.000-04:002022-09-04T10:38:01.131-04:00Looking for Respect<div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">After the recent disturbing verbal assault on Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, I flashed back to 1965. Remember that hit song Eve of Destruction song by Barry McGuire? </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Songwriter P.F. Sloan bemoaned the disintegration of human respect; found “the whole crazy world ...just too frustratin'” </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Grim as it was in 1965, I doubt Sloan or McGuire could have imagined the extent of disintegration we are facing in 2022. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span>Based on what I and others observe that is offered up on social media these days this attack on Freeland is not unique. Women. racialized individuals and groups, LGBQT people, non- Christians are all targets. The list could go on. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1fIU6BD6Jbx_2aohb7BE-GS8nWT4gMU7ovQyvSJwcLXkzr-Oe6K0Fedtoqh_8_hOwLIPmfLSWPTmkLFIdtRW_gduUM8kswkejEQnmrQ04mUDOOPe7fuNY5NwLY5cW5iJ8Cl43qhK0LtitxIW7ZD5pVDu8Og2-MDYGcnU6lNXIj0bvQ754Bhw/s92/freeland%20pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="92" data-original-width="92" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1fIU6BD6Jbx_2aohb7BE-GS8nWT4gMU7ovQyvSJwcLXkzr-Oe6K0Fedtoqh_8_hOwLIPmfLSWPTmkLFIdtRW_gduUM8kswkejEQnmrQ04mUDOOPe7fuNY5NwLY5cW5iJ8Cl43qhK0LtitxIW7ZD5pVDu8Og2-MDYGcnU6lNXIj0bvQ754Bhw/w200-h200/freeland%20pic.jpg" title="Deputy PM Freeland" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Deputy PM Freeland</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span><span><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In fact, it is pretty much open season for attacks against anyone whose opinion differs from that often anonymous person tethered to the keyboard whose only qualification to shout and fume is their ability to remember a password </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Politicians at all levels are under siege and things are heading downhill fast.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In my time as a municipal councillor (1991-97) it wasn’t like this. In 1998, after serving for six years I presented a paper at a health promotion conference on local government and how it could work most effectively with community. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The mainly European audience at a Scottish university challenged my thesis that local government was up to the task.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My theme was based on a fairly positive perception of local government and my optimistic, clearly biased view of elected officials</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I put it all down to the fact that we just did a better job of local governance in North America. The old world didn’t get it.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Then I moved on to other things.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">After a nine year break I was back in local politics when my former wardmate moved on down the road to the House of Commons. Nine years away and boy how things had changed.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That change was brought about as people gained access to electronic mail, the internet and social media.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Back in the old days if a constituent had an issue to discuss it could often get resolved through something called dialogue. You remember that concept perhaps.<br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The councillor would make a phone call or meet in person with the constituent. There were often nuances or complexities that one or the other had failed to take into account Issues got resolved. There was no shouting.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">By the 21st century constituents simply had to go to their computer and punch in the requisite putdown, question your integrity and/or intelligence and copy the whole diatribe to everyone on their contact list. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I should have seen this coming. Back around 1998 I met futurist Robert Theobald. Theobald argued that a “failure to listen” by decision makers had meant “that groups with certain attitudes and beliefs may come to feel they have been left out of the democratic process.” In Reworking Success (1997) Theobald proposed that we move beyond “polar positions” and learn to define problems in wholly different terms.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Something to think about.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In the meantime let’s: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">**Stop the name calling in our public spheres. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">**Teach civics in our schools. (Ontario is introducing a compulsory half credit program in September 2022 – a positive development)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">**Find ways to ensure that news coverage focusses on facts. I’m pretty sure the earth is round although I haven’t actually seen it in its roundness. We don’t give equal time to the flat earth society. Why do we give it to crazy conspiracy theorists?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">**Establish new rules for social media. It won’t be simple but a balance needs to be found between the right for us to speak our minds and what is appropriate, constructive and healthy. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-43185711239749570062022-06-06T11:09:00.000-04:002022-06-06T11:09:48.992-04:00 D-Day<div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">*Nearly 150,000 Allied troops landed or parachuted into the invasion area on D-Day, including 14,000 Canadians at Juno Beach. My father was one of the men who landed that day.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>(This piece adapted from the Sherbrooke Fusilier War Diaries originally appeared in The Dream The Glory and the Strife edited by Raymond Fenech - 2018 Hidden Brook Press.) </i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Found in the Sherbrooke Fusilier War Diaries </span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">June 4-6 1944 <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">High winds and low clouds stall D-Day 24 hours. <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In spite of the wind the flotilla sails southward <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">all night via charted channel waters. Men ruminate <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">over what awaits on shore then land is sighted <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">at 1000 hrs off Berniere-Sur-Mere. Craft start <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">the run in to the beach, men quite calm <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">sitting on top of their vehicles watch the shore. <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The Regiment lands, moves forward, no casualties <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">but next day German tanks make a first appearance, <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">force the CDN infantry to retire with 63 killed, <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">wounded or missing. Later, ready to move on <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">a half hour notice, the sun sets amidst black <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">banks of clouds leaving a dirty red smudgy sky <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">with the boom of distant gunfire broken <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">by the sharper rattle of nearby machine guns.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Everything seems ominous. Everyone is on alert. <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">July 18, 1944 </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstpdgJ7n0jAzU1ZCdVeiFKJNRxxgthL5U41ZL3_cGY3OF7CBEJtCUE1yvMiJ9R6TrZSAHkunkcFI0OVjIaFlvLDNsiuX0ZDMztAaPezX_l0s4cTpq8OnwOb9DHeVetPfBhTV3U1292s12kA86mTq084EanSLcpeZrvc5JRNvB9RUMqK4PHCA/s600/tank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="600" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjstpdgJ7n0jAzU1ZCdVeiFKJNRxxgthL5U41ZL3_cGY3OF7CBEJtCUE1yvMiJ9R6TrZSAHkunkcFI0OVjIaFlvLDNsiuX0ZDMztAaPezX_l0s4cTpq8OnwOb9DHeVetPfBhTV3U1292s12kA86mTq084EanSLcpeZrvc5JRNvB9RUMqK4PHCA/w200-h145/tank.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>The shadow of death passes over Headquarters. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In minutes, 21 cm mortars take thirty-one lives. <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Heavier casualties than a normal day’s fighting. <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">August 25, 1944 <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">An extensive map issue arrives showing vast<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">distances and fabulous advances imagined by HQ.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Startling indeed, as those left from D-Day recall<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">the slow, difficult struggle for CAEN and the<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">devastating exploitation and FALAISE assault.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Two days later considerable friction develops <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">among all command levels. Little is accomplished <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">due to the lack of appreciation by the Infantry <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">of issues arising using armour in country where<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">dense woods greatly limit the traversing of guns.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">September 1944 – May 1945 <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">A few men who were through the thickest fighting <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">are a little jittery yet but doing well and should <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">soon be over it as the Regiment fights on in NWE. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">T<i>he Royal Canadian Navy contributed 110 ships and 10,000 sailors and the RCAF contributed 15 fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons to the assault. Total Allied casualties on D-Day reached more than 10,000, including 1,074 Canadians, of whom 359 were killed. By the end of the Battle of Normandy, the Allies had suffered 209,000 casualties, including more than 18,700 Canadians. Over 5,000 Canadian soldiers died. (From the Canadian Encyclopedia</i></span><i>.)</i></div>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-58858122805007440462022-05-30T15:08:00.000-04:002022-05-30T15:08:13.101-04:00We Must Act Without Delay<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">I
am a senior concerned about future generations; i.e., I want them to have a
future on a livable planet.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">A UN climate
report predicts quicker global warming than anticipated. It is a “code red” for humanity, according to
the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The
Intergovernmental panel on climate change conclusions were clear. We must stop
fossil fuel expansion, rapidly phase out the production and burning of fossil
fuels, and invest heavily in renewable energy.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Meanwhile in Ontario
Doug Ford has:</span><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Spent over $230
million to tear up green energy contracts.</span></li></ul></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Ripped out Electric Vehicle (EV)
charging stations that had been installed at GO Stations.</span></li></ul></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">Cut the big energy users electricity
bills while shifting those costs to citizens.</span></span></li></ul></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">Cancelled rebates on EVs.</span></span></li></ul></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">Gutted conservation authorities’
ability to protect communities against flooding and erosion.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jQDiS7yPbwWxGh_pgF5d1HmZPf6B--p8C2x_-U33e8Mj0chcu0u0Ir98JW-nDPvPYGx-xloCm__4RUMwqfAHWEsNyWKgYg8sWSTl-Fw_Qsxu-iwSGn-I03MJIZ-Wt9HcJk5D3245G9glN5Z-beCKkJC5r9ZIbkxKwDb7VpcrFMDkCisVu0A/s220/port%20rowan%20wetlands%20opening.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="142" data-original-width="220" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_jQDiS7yPbwWxGh_pgF5d1HmZPf6B--p8C2x_-U33e8Mj0chcu0u0Ir98JW-nDPvPYGx-xloCm__4RUMwqfAHWEsNyWKgYg8sWSTl-Fw_Qsxu-iwSGn-I03MJIZ-Wt9HcJk5D3245G9glN5Z-beCKkJC5r9ZIbkxKwDb7VpcrFMDkCisVu0A/s1600/port%20rowan%20wetlands%20opening.png" width="220" /></a></div><br /></span></span></li></ul></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">Weakened the Endangered
Species Act to promote development.</span></span></li></ul></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">Escalated the use
of Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZO’s) to push through development on sensitive
ecological lands and </span></span></li></ul></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;">Scrapped the provincial tree-planting program.</span></span></li></ul><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"> <o:p></o:p></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="color: black;">These are but a
few examples of Ford’s lack of understanding of the climate emergency we are
facing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Incredibly, this week he claimed
that building more highways was a solution to the crisis.<br /></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="color: black;">We need to protect
wetlands, waterways, forests and other natural ecosystems. We must create
adaptation plans that range from climate risk reduction to strengthened income
and food security provisions.<br /></span><span style="color: black;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="color: black;">We must act
without delay.</span></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-51580920772759958232022-05-04T13:00:00.002-04:002022-05-04T15:37:00.074-04:00 Deserving <p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>(I'm hoping that the 2022 Ontario election campaign looks at the issue of poverty. Here is a story I wrote on poverty in Ontario. I made it up but it could be true. </i></span><i>This story won the 2021 Norfolk County’s Laureate award for fiction. </i><i>It will take you about 18 minutes to read. </i><i> </i><i style="font-family: inherit;">) </i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">-----------</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“You need to tell them where the bodies are buried.”</span></p><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Councillor Ken Williams could not get that strange phone message out of his head.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">There had been that anonymous call left on his voice mail this morning – the fourth consecutive day this had occurred. Of course, it wasn’t that unusual to get odd calls. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Somehow, though, this one was different.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">What bodies? Buried where, he wondered.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Williams, Ward 2 Councillor for the City of Clarovista, was headed into a municipal council meeting on this gloomy Tuesday. It promised to be a long day. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">As he made his way to his seat, Williams was approached by Sharon Smith, the diligent city reporter for the Clarovista Clarion.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Councillor Williams, could I speak with you about some strange calls we have been getting at the Clarion?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“I’m not sure I could help you about calls you are receiving Sharon,” Williams answered warily. <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“They have been mentioning your name,” she continued.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“My name? Umm, sure. Perhaps we could talk after the meeting.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Alright then, I’ll catch you after. Doesn’t look like there will be much exciting news to write about from this meeting.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Just then Mayor Ted Martin, decked out in a designer Grey Notch Lapel Suit complete with chain of office trailed by his executive assistant, glided past Smith and Williams. Late by about ten minutes as is/was his custom. Now the meeting could commence.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This was Williams’ sixth year on Council. He’d long ago figured out the routine. As sure as the rainbow smelt will run into Lake Vista in the spring, staff bring this particular report every April. It is called The Annual Review of Grants for Agencies and Organizations that Operate Health and/or Social Services Programs. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The verbose report title mirrored an awkward process that compelled organizations to jump through a nonsensical number of unnecessary hoops. That review would likely take up the bulk of today’s meeting.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The regular April crowd was all there; agency people, community activists, those with lived experience. Some of Williams’ colleagues referred to these people as members of “special interest groups.” But Williams had learned long ago from his trade unionist grandfather who the real special interest groups were. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Kenny,” he’d say, “never underestimate the power of the banks and their shady sidekicks – the developers.” </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This year Council had an additional delegation, an expert on social policy from the university. Williams knew Dr. Patricia Fleming slightly and had gone to a couple of seminars in which she had participated.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Fleming was called to the lectern by the Mayor and began her presentation with the usual salutary remarks. Then she moved on to territory that was familiar to Williams.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Ontario’s treatment of the poor goes back to the 18th century and is built on the whole idea that there are two types of poor people - deserving poor and the non-deserving poor,” she lectured. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Williams knew this; had made the point himself as it related to the current situation in the </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">province.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“The first piece of legislation important for you to understand,” Fleming continued, “is the Constitution Act of 1791.”<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Oh dear, thought Williams, she will never get through 204 years of Ontario social policy history within her ten-minute time allocation.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“In setting up the governance structure for Upper Canada, or Ontario as we now know it, Lieutenant Governor Simcoe took most elements from Great Britain’s legislation except, and this is paramount, not the poor law. Other jurisdictions, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to name two, adopted the Poor Laws. You must appreciate that this effort to ban a poor law in Ontario promoted the growth of private charities. All these charities held their own distinct beliefs and this resulted in weakening of public support for those in need.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Mayor Martin cleared his throat. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Mrs. Fleming I’m concerned that you are veering off topic. I’m having trouble seeing </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">what any of what you are saying has to do with what is on the agenda today.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“It’s Doctor Fleming, sir. On the contrary Mr. Mayor this history has everything to do with today’s agenda. May I continue without interruption, please?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Before you do, could you tell us a little more about Poor Laws, Dr. Fleming,” piped up Councillor Jim Bristow.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“No, No, Councillor there will be time for questions later. I need to keep Mrs. Fleming, Dr Fleming, on track.” The Mayor liked to be in control. <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Dr. Fleming carried on.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“As I was saying in Ontario, specific forms of outdoor relief (coal, bread, milk) and institutional relief were offered to those who were considered deserving. We are talking here about the aged and infirm, widows, “deserted” mothers, apprenticed children. In addition, sometimes public work jobs were provided to new arrivals and those considered able-bodied." </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Just as the Mayor was about to interrupt again there was grumbling and shuffling in the public seats. As Martin reached for his gavel, two determined women rushed the dais. One grabbed the chief magistrate by his shoulders while the other attempted to yank the chain of office from his neck. This removal was not without difficulty especially as the mayor’s dutiful assistant had leapt into the fray to save the Mayor from harm. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Harming the Mayor was not part of the plan though; it was the chain of office the women were after. After a short tussle, the assailants had the chain in hand and were dashing out of the committee room shouting something about justice, a cover up and buried bodies. Williams recognized these women from earlier protest actions around town. They were part of a group called Clarovista Coalition for Fairness and Justice (CCFJ).<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Meanwhile the Mayor lay sprawled inelegantly on the floor.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“We will have a fifteen-minute adjournment,” mewled his worship as he struggled to regain his feet - unhurt but dispossessed of the 130-year-old symbol of mayoral primacy.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Members of the public and those Clarovista bureaucrats assembled for the meeting sat in stunned silence.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Wow. Now I’ve got a story idea,” Sharon Smith declared. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">As what had happened was unprecedented no one really knew what to do. The exhaustive Clarovista emergency preparedness booklet that detailed procedures did not cover theft of the chain of office. Consequently no one thought to pursue the thieves.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The Mayor staggered from the room as his executive assistant announced that it had now been decided that the meeting was adjourned at the call of the Chair. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Dr. Fleming had returned to the dais and was trying to be heard while waving a book over her head. Her efforts were pointless as no one could hear above the commotion. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Sharon Smith, the reporter, had found a quiet place to send in her story. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">For his part, Williams meandered to the front of the room to persuade Dr. Fleming that it might be best to send in the remainder of her presentation to the clerk’s department. They would distribute it to Council members. She seemed deflated but handed Williams a book entitled Poverty in Ontario 1791-2000.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“I’d like you to have this book Councillor Williams. I think you will find the chapter that covers the history of the Clarovista Poorhouse of particular interest."</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Days went by and yet there was no news of the missing chain of office.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">After all that had occurred at the Tuesday Council the meeting that reconvened the following Monday was somewhat of an anti-climax. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Not to the various agencies who had appealed their grants, of course. Some of their appeals were successful, others not. Councillors seized the opportunity to interject their presumed sage advice to the various agencies - Do more with less, build partnerships, consider more fundraising projects. Always at play was the whole matter of who ought to get service and who was not really entitled to it. After all the hard-working families of Clarovista could not be expected to dig into their pocketbooks to support every nutty idea the kumbaya crowd chose to advance.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Those same issues were dealt with at length in Poverty in Ontario 1791-1995. Dr. Fleming had written a surprisingly interesting book. Chapter Sixteen, which dealt with the history of the Clarovista poorhouse, filled in some blanks for Williams who had put aside other reading on the weekend to go through Fleming’s book.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Of course, Williams knew that poorhouses were established in the mid 19th century<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">to house people who required food, shelter, or care in order to survive.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The poorhouse was a response to the number of people begging on the streets, wandering the countryside, or languishing in jails.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The Clarovista poorhouse existed from 1877 up until 1933 when the municipality decided to sell off assets to raise money during the depression. The property had been in what is currently Williams’ ward somewhere up in the northeast corner near where Mayor Martin lives. Williams studied the map that was included in Fleming’s book. Hold on.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“This is the mayor’s property. That’s odd,” Williams said aloud. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Chapter 16 laid out a map of the Poorhouse and its 50-acre site complete with building sketches showing the large stone house built in the Italianate style, barn and various out buildings, the hospital wing and the pest house. The living arrangements were dormitory style – one side of the house women and children; the other for men. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">There were also drawings of the confinement cells or idiot cells as they were called that were used for discipline purposes. Sadly, two brothers, Harold (Inmate #1238) and Joseph Cook Inmate #1239), incarcerated behind the iron cell doors of the confinement cells perished in a fire in 1933. The brothers had been locked in the cells for repeatedly violating the curfew and for their inability and unwillingness to find work. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">It was said that they missed curfew as they were travelling to distant towns looking for work that was hard to come by during the depression. But at the poorhouse rules were rules and the Cook brothers had run afoul of those rules. <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Some in the community had called for an inquest but the authorities decided against one as fire deaths were fairly common at the time and there were complications as there was some confusion as to the location of the remains of the deceased brothers. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The main building had been destroyed contributing to the decision to sell the property. Inmates were relocated to nearby Carson Creek. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The Keeper, Janek Marcin, left town but turned up several years later living on the same property. <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"> <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">How did one become an inmate at the Clarovista Poorhouse, Williams wondered.<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Dr. Fleming had provided her business card with her book. Her home number was on the back of the card. Williams dialed the number.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Dr. Fleming, Ken Williams here. I’m enjoying your book. Could I ask you a couple of questions?”<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Certainly Councillor, I have some time, go ahead.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Well, I’m not totally clear on how people became inmates – inmate that is a horrible word - of the poorhouse.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“It was fairly simple. Your predecessors were quite involved.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“The Council was involved?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Yes. People who had been living in Clarovista for at least two years who needed help could apply to the mayor. The mayor and council would determine whether the Poorhouse was the best fit for the individual or family. Then they would have to approve a recommendation for the person or people to be sent to the Poorhouse. It was a public process like authorizing spending for a bridge or approving monies to send a councillor to a conference.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“This just seems wrong, Dr. Fleming.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Yes, of course it is wrong but is it really any different than what Council does these days? </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Last week’s meeting is a case in point. Agencies having to grovel and answer ridiculous questions from uniformed members of council Not you Councillor, of course.) in order to maintain their organizations funding or get small incremental increases to continue important community work.” <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“The budget is really tight this year, Patricia.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“But the budget isn’t the issue, Ken. There is a bigger community picture at play.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">They chatted some more. After Dr Fleming hung up Williams was left with an uneasy feeling as he returned to his reading.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">In that year of the fire, 1933, thirty percent of the labour force was out of work, and one-fifth of the population was dependent on government assistance. Ironically, the Cook brothers’ grandfather, Jonah Cook, had donated part of his farm to the County as the site for the Poorhouse.<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The phone rang interrupting Williams. It was Sharon Smith from the Clarion. Williams considered not picking up but did just before the call went to voice mail.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Ms. Smith, how are you today?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Fine, Councillor. I’m looking for a comment.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“On……?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“The Chain of Office has been located on the Mayor’s property in a small wooded area.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Really!”<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Yes, what do you think of that, Councillor Williams?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Well, what I think is that you should ask the mayor about it.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“I have. He wasn’t helpful.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Wasn’t helpful?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“He said it was none of my business what was on his property. Stay off his property. He was almost shouting. The Chain of Office has been recovered and that was that.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Well, there is some truth to what the mayor said, don’t you think?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Sure, some truth. But the Chain was in a strange spot.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Well, of course, it was in the woods on the mayor’s rather nice property. It is supposed to be at city hall.” </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“No. That’s not what I mean. It was around the neck of a scarecrow that was dressed in a grey suit, with a City of Clarovista lapel pin and an official tie. The scarecrow was dressed to, you know, look like the mayor. And it had a note pinned to it.”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“A scarecrow with a note pinned to it?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Yes. Here is what it said. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Knock, knock<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Who’s over there?<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Harold and Joseph<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">And no one cares.<br /></span></i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i> </i><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">And this mayor scarecrow thingy is pointing off further into the woods. Do you understand any of it? What is the story here?”</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Williams took a deep breath thinking of how to answer.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">“Those calls we’ve been getting are beginning to make sense. Maybe history has something to tell us when we know where the bodies are buried. That’s what you should write about.”</span></div><p><br /></p>Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31761124.post-75243191577854291282022-04-15T11:33:00.000-04:002022-04-15T11:33:05.151-04:00Ending Wetland Protection: Trashing Nature’s Clean Water Filter <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsAuxkqdjhbPgXBmTFA_Yo6H1z2q9Asz3PkLdEkkLHVISy0LmKFPy-gNJPxJGj6aM6fay2LY-wkHVPAoL581yGZaLeKxvzz8R7hqnsGM_xd21ygyw3IbOZr6GcONFD3pNdm5Sw_JHJEZn8CNtypTWW0pS_3sZnSVJGHgm4MIDfFfTNZBDwBA/s1280/Climate-Change-Ten-Reasons-Opt.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFsAuxkqdjhbPgXBmTFA_Yo6H1z2q9Asz3PkLdEkkLHVISy0LmKFPy-gNJPxJGj6aM6fay2LY-wkHVPAoL581yGZaLeKxvzz8R7hqnsGM_xd21ygyw3IbOZr6GcONFD3pNdm5Sw_JHJEZn8CNtypTWW0pS_3sZnSVJGHgm4MIDfFfTNZBDwBA/s320/Climate-Change-Ten-Reasons-Opt.webp" width="320" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>Below is one of thirty three crimes against the environment committed by Doug Ford’s government and documented by Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN!). <br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">---------- </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The Ford government says it is delivering on a commitment to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, including wetlands. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Its actions belie this claim. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">According to Ontario Nature, “wetlands are critical to water filtration, flood retention, erosion control, carbon storage, nutrient cycling and groundwater recharge.” </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Conservation Authorities are empowered to regulate development and activities in wetlands, watercourses, hazardous lands and other similar areas.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But in December 2020, the Ford government reduced the power of local conservation authorities. Bill 229 effectively took away the ability of authorities to deny development on wetlands by ensuring they can be overruled by non-appealable Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Then in March, the Ford government went further introducing legislation to rewrite provincial law retroactively. Its amendments to Ontario’s Planning Act nullify a key clause that limits the scope of MZOs. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This retroactive change was in advance of the Ford government’s ongoing attempt to pave the way for a 4 million square foot warehouse on Duffin’s Creek, a provincially significant Pickering wetland. That warehouse would be the size of 45 Canadian football fields. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The government previously issued a MZO to fast track the project, strip the site of its vegetation and fill it with soil. Fortunately, pressure from environmental and citizen groups and </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">First Nations including the Williams Treaties First Nations stopped the project and forced Pickering Council to reverse its position and the province to back down. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Now the Holland Marsh is under threat. The proposed Bradford Bypass would cross one of the most productive agricultural areas in Canada and impact 39 hectares of wildlife habitat and wetlands that species depend on. The Ford government believes no new environmental assessment is needed.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">We are losing wetlands at an alarming rate, less than 30 per cent of southern Ontario’s original wetlands remain, and just 10 per cent survive in Niagara and the GTA. Ontario needs: To restore the oversight powers of conservation authorities’ To rescind recent amendments to the Planning Act so that Ministerial Zoning Orders must be consistent with the Planning Act and Provincial Policy Statements. To plan with appropriate consultation as outlined in the Planning Act with municipalities and First Nations. To conduct a Federal Environmental Assessment for the Bradford Bypass project.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b>Ontario needs: </b></span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">To restore the oversight powers of conservation authorities’ </span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">To rescind recent amendments to the Planning Act so that Ministerial Zoning Orders must be consistent with the Planning Act and Provincial Policy Statements. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">To plan with appropriate consultation as outlined in the Planning Act with municipalities and First Nations. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">To conduct a Federal Environmental Assessment for the Bradford Bypass project.</span></li></ul><p></p><p><b style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Sources: </b></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/03/15/pickering-wetlands-fast-tracked-for-development-by-doug-fordsgovernment-gets-temporary-reprieve.html ">https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/03/15/pickering-wetlands-fast-tracked-for-development-by-doug-fordsgovernment-gets-temporary-reprieve.html </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ecojustice.ca/conserving-ontarios-intact-wetlands-is-vital-to-protecting-biodiversity/ ">https://ecojustice.ca/conserving-ontarios-intact-wetlands-is-vital-to-protecting-biodiversity/ </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://ontarionature.org/news-release/lower-duffins-finally-protected/ ">https://ontarionature.org/news-release/lower-duffins-finally-protected/ </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/articles/26725 ">https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/articles/26725 </a></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-duffins-creek-wetland-pickering-ajax-warehouseamazon-1.5942938</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-duffins-creek-wetland-pickering-ajax-warehouseamazon-1.5942938" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="142" data-original-width="220" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqH3OAmJC23CatyHYKFNNThrhFChrCICba63J6wp_rYBybs1opltRXNV_wzD1WTUM0ro9dYDt66jATVQnBqz29qQ1sdE-WhSmQypsnKGkdvtDWFuLZG9L2zVdBrDB7QxWKfoqMKt7FhXp7wjpIvqXKjCjpb1HtDDfpmtDGWF9kdM4BMqL4ANM/w320-h207/port%20rowan%20wetlands%20opening.png" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Read ten climate reasons to defeat Ford </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">at<a href=" https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/ten-climate-reasons-to-defeat-ford/"> <i>https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/ten-climate-reasons-to-defeat-ford/</i></a></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Read about the other 32 crimes </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>at </i></span><a href="https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/doug-fords-climate-crimes/" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/doug-fords-climate-crimes/</a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;">More about SCAN! at<span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><a href="https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/">https://seniorsforclimateactionnow.org/</a></div><p></p><br style="text-align: center;" />Bob Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18443695878996022995noreply@blogger.com0