Kithio Mwanzia (left), Saleh Waziruddin (right)
Last night’s St Catharines candidates debate was mostly subdued, despite beginning with a controversial interruption.
The debate, held by the St Catharines and Thorold Chamber of Commerce, opened with an unscheduled announcement by Communist candidate Saleh Waziruddin. As he had done at the federal election debate in April, he expressed his displeasure at not being invited to join the panel. Cogeco TV and the Niagara Falls Chamber of Commerce had both been able to accommodate all parties at their debates, he said.
He was quickly joined by Jon Radick, running for the Canadians’ Choice Party, who decried his exclusion as an affront to democracy. He then called on the audience literally to “stand up for democracy,” at which point several supporters stood up in protest. Read the rest of this entry »
By Lori Kleinsmith
Across Ontario over 20 communities are taking part in a launch to put the issue of poverty on the radar during this fall’s provincial election. On September 15th, Poverty Free Ontario will launch its “Let’s Vote for a Poverty Ontario” Campaign. Some communities are screening poverty related videos such Poor No More , others are holding vigils, and all are handing out “Let’s Vote for a Poverty Free Ontario” lawn and window signs, buttons, and pamphlets. In Niagara, there will be launches at Bridges Community Health Centre’s Port Colborne and Fort Erie sites, as well as at St Kevin’s Roman Catholic Church in Welland.
There have been several local media articles posted already on the upcoming campaign including:
The St Catharines Chamber of Commerce will be hosting two provincial candidates debates in the lead-up to the October 6 general election.
- St Catharines Candidates Debate
- Thursday September 15
- 6.30 – 8.30pm
- Holiday Inn & Suites Parkway Conference Centre, 327 Ontario Street, St Catharines
- Free, no registration required
- Welland Riding Candidates Debate
- Wednesday September 21
- 6.30pm – 8.30pm
- Four Points by Sheraton, 3530 Schmon Parkway, Thorold
- Free, no registration required
Phone 905-684-2631 or visit www.sctchamber.com for more information.
By Lori Kleinsmith
The Ontario Government recently announced a Review of Social Assistance would be undertaken. This is the first large scale review of Ontario Social Assistance in more than two decades. The Commission is headed up by Frances Lankin and Munir Sheik. Full details of the Commission’s work can be found at Socialassistancereview.ca.
Over the summer of 2011, Bridges Community Health Centre (CHC) staff created a submission for the Ontario Social Assistance Review. Bridges CHC services the communities of Fort Erie, Port Colborne and Wainfleet, a catchment area of approximately 55000 people. Many of our clients receive social assistance or are in low paying, unstable employment situations. Our staff see firsthand how living in conditions of prolonged poverty has affected the lives of many of our clients – poor physical and mental health, chronic dental pain, social isolation, stigma, reliance on handouts from food banks and soup kitchens, and much more.
Bridges Community Health Centre used several strategies to create a submission to the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario.
• Interviews with 36 individuals, most of whom receive either Ontario Works or Ontario Disability Support Program, in the past or present
• Two community consultations with local social service and health care providers from south Niagara. The first consultation was held on August 3rd in Fort Erie and had 10 participants, including representation from Literacy Link, Family & Children’s Services, and Niagara Region Public Health, among others. The second consultation was held on August 4th in Port Colborne and had 12 participants, including representation from ODSP front-line staff, Port Cares, and Community Living Port Colborne-Wainfleet, among others.
• Position papers and literature reviews from various provincial advocacy groups and institutions, including Wellesley Institute, Metcalf Foundation, Poverty Free Ontario, Income Security Advocacy Centre (ISAC), and Interfaith Social Assistance Review Coalition (ISARC), among others.
Read the rest of this entry »
With the 2011 Ontario provincial election just a few weeks away, here is a list of candidates running for St Catharines, ON, with links to their respective websites (links go to party websites if the candidate doesn’t have her own page or site):
Canadians’ Choice Party: Jon Radick
Freedom Party of Ontario: Dave Unrau
Green Party of Ontario: Jennifer Mooradian
Ontario Communist Party: Saleh Waziruddin
Ontario Liberal Party: Jim Bradley (Incumbent MPP)
Ontario NDP: Irene Lowell
Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario: Sandie Bellows
NDP leader Jack Layton has died of cancer at the age of 61.
The results of a 2010 poll best sum up what I, and much of the world, thought of Jack Layton. The NDP leader emerged as the party chief with whom Canadians would most like to sit down to a beer. Despite being a third runner in Canadian politics at the time, his winsome personality placed him ahead of numbers one and two Harper and Ignatieff in the poll.
Then he shocked us all by securing a historic result in the May 2011 federal election, making the NDP the Official Opposition for the first time in its history and all but wiping out the Liberal Party. And there was no doubt, when Canada saw the motley crew that assembled on the opposition benches, that the political victory was more about Jack than about his newly elected MPs. Read the rest of this entry »
Courthouse, St Catharines
St Catharines already has a brand, of sorts. It’s the Garden City, and has been since 1888, according to the branding focus group I attended at City Hall yesterday afternoon.
No one’s quite sure how it got the nickname, although the theory touted on Wikipedia as fact seems to be a fairly popular explanation:
St. Catharines carries the official nickname “The Garden City” due to its 1,000 acres … of meticulously groomed parks, gardens and trails.
Admittedly, locals might feel some incongruity when they look out of the kitchen window and see the heap of old bicycles and auto parts rusting away among the overgrown grass in their neighbour’s front yard — and this is partly why St Catharines City Council is undertaking a huge rebranding exercise to answer the question of the municipality’s unique identity. Are we any good? And why? Read the rest of this entry »
The Ontario Liberal Party has drawn criticism for a new attack ad against Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak.
The NDP’s Peter Kormos, the Member of Provincial Parliament for Welland, was among the politicians to attack the 30-second TV spot. According to Canadian Press, the Niagara MPP said he smelled “the stench of fear” in the Liberal ad campaign.
The commercial shows quotes from newspapers superimposed over Tim Hudak’s face, accompanied by horror movie-style music:
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycP75ZcI54k[/tube]
Read more: Ontario Liberal Party Attack Ad: They’ve Learned from the Conservatives
By Lori Kleinsmith
Today I had the privilege to hear, for a second time, the brilliant Marvyn Novick present “Human Dignity for All – Working for a Poverty Free Ontario”. Marvyn is a retired Ryerson professor and co-founder of Campaign 2000. He volunteers his time to support the Social Planning Network of Ontario, and the newly formed Poverty Free Ontario campaign. Marvyn is a passionate speaker whose knowledge of social justice issues and the Three P’s – poverty, policy and politics – is very deep and wise.
The full text of Marvyn’s presentation can be found here – http://www.povertyfreeontario.ca/pdf/PovFreeOnt_Presentation.pdf
A few key points of the presentation I quite liked:
- Poverty is a violation of inherent human dignity and human rights
- Structural levels of poverty remain entrenched – even when our economy has been at its absolute best in the past two decades, the poverty rate has been close to 10%.
- In 2004, 60% of parents and single adults were employed but with insufficient earnings to live above poverty
- Education is valuable, but doesn’t necessarily lead one out of poverty – In 2004, 80% of low income parents in Canada have completed high school; in 2010, 45% of the unemployed in Canada had completed a post-secondary education
- The myth of the “Welfare Wall”, that is, if social assistance rates were raised, it would be a disincentive for people to find work and would also be unfair to those who work but still live in poverty. A few problems with this argument – there are many receiving social assistance who can’t work for reasons beyond their control (i.e. disability, caregiver, lack of affordable child care, etc). Also, no one who works full time, full year should be living in poverty – minimum wage needs to be raised or consider a guaranteed liveable income. We must stop pitting the working poor against social assistance recipients
- The persistence of poverty reflects the absence of political will –it is the hallmark of a society without the ethical and moral foundations to ensure basic conditions of well-being for all.
- Poverty eradication means pursuing the lowest possible levels of poverty in the industrialized world, both in incidence and in depth.
- Poverty eradication means taking a structural approach to look at the adequacy of basic living conditions rather than relying on behavioural explanations that make the poor responsible for their poverty.
- There are many important roles for all levels of government – federal, provincial, and municipal – to play in eradicating poverty ; however, eradicating poverty is a ultimately a collective responsibility of society
- Governments always have fiscal options even during harder times. “We don’t accept the argument that Ontario can’t afford to help the poor. That’s a morally bankrupt position. We live in a wealthy society.” Toronto Anglican Bishop Linda Nichols, March 10, 2011.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Council is looking for young people to join its Youth Advisory Council.
To qualify, applicants must be between 16 and 24 years old, born outside Canada and not in school full-time. Becoming a member involves two to three hours a week helping to promote multicultural awareness in the Niagara region.
The council is based at the Niagara Folk Arts Centre on Church Street, St Catharines, where sessions will be held on Thursday, June 16 at 6.30pm and Thursday, June 23, at 1.00pm. Full details are available on Bullet News Niagara.
