COMMENT


Shameful arrest of peaceful journalist

WindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 2 2024

The arrest of Rebel News director Ezra Levant should bring shame to the Toronto police department – and other police services that use the same modelling – and news media, writers and human rights organizations. Two weekends ago the head of the video news site dared to walk into a crowd of pro-Palestinian/Hamas/anti-Israel demonstrations in north Toronto and was promptly arrested by police for “breaching the peace.” Levant, who is Jewish, slammed cops for targeting him because of his religion. Released after only two hours the fact he was even detained is a stain on the police service. And where were other journalistic institutions and human rights groups in support? Nowhere. WON’s survey of several Toronto and national publications found no editorials denouncing Toronto police for authoritarian-style human rights violations, though a few columnists spoke out on conservative sites. The Toronto Star or The Globe and Mail had nothing. Some newspapers (ditto) didn’t even cover it. The arrest came as a few other journalists, like Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington, Rebel’s David Menzies and journalist Caryma Sa’d have also been pushed around by the police. No was there official support by groups like the Canadian Association of Journalists, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression or PEN Canada whose motto is “free expression matters.” Meanwhile, it appears anti-Israel protesters can protest or “incite” with impunity, walking into a nearby Jewish neighborhood with vile signs and chants. In fact, earlier this year cops even brought them coffee. “Why are they allowed into a Jewish neighbourhood to harass those at a peaceful gathering?” city councillor James Pasternak asked. “If a Jewish man (Levant) wants to take a picture of pro-Palestinian protesters, it's a breach of the peace,” American podcaster Tim Pool said. Levant was not dissuaded and went back to the same street corner this weekend, where cooler heads – even of police – prevailed, and he was able to “take back” a street that rightly belongs to him, and to all peaceful Canadians.


Do they know it's Christmas?

WindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 21 2024

"Do They Know It's Christmas?," the song to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief and performed by Band Aid, was originally recorded in 1984 with subsequent versions including one this year. The fact the word “Christmas” is even in the title might be a bit surprising, even if it’s the original reason for festivities this time of year, given how secularized the feast has become. After all, don’t tell anyone, but the event is rooted in the birth of Christ. Yet in our postmodern Canadian – and Western – world, this defining aspect has all but been extinguished, supposedly because of ever-so-politically-correct-not-wanting-to-offend-anyone-else’s-values, religious or not. For example, in Windsor-Essex, we see myriad joyous celebrations but where is the word “Christmas”? Windsor’s otherwise praiseworthy Bright Lights in Jackson Park makes no mention of the word Christmas. Indeed, a look at the event’s map comes close to saying Christmas but, sorry, no magic cigar! There are descriptions like Winter Wonderland, Candy Cane Lane, Merry and Bright, Wish Upon a Star and Enchanted Children’s Village. But notice these are all secular descriptions of Christmas. There’s even a – whisper it – what looks like a Christmas tree though it might, absurdly, be called "Holiday." There is the W.E. Made it: Holiday Market. There’s the “holiday-themed” Transit Windsor bus which otherwise is decked out in, uh, (secular) Christmassy images. It’s similar in other communities. Amherstburg’s laudible River Lights Winter Festival, from what we can tell, makes no mention of the word. The closest it comes is the Super Santa Run. Then there’s the annual Windsor visit of the CP (now CPKC) “Holiday” Train. The closest any of these descriptions come to acknowledging the real reason for the celebration is the word “Holiday” or embracing the non-religious version of the feast – "Santa Claus" or secular seasonal carols not religious ones. But do they really know it’s Christmas?


Cycling lanes well and good, but

WindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 7 2024

It’s all well and good to have dedicated cycling lanes on city streets. But at what cost versus their utilization? This is not so much a problem in Windsor as Toronto where Premier Doug Ford just announced bike lanes on three major thoroughfares be ripped out because they increase congestion. Meanwhile new legislation would require any city that wants to install a bike lane to get provincial approval if it removes a car lane. Municipalities will also have to provide data to justify lanes installed in the past five years. That hasn’t gone well with the organized cycling community. Bike Windsor Essex says Ford’s decision is “perpetuating a myth and a lie” and “the ONLY thing that will fix congestion is fewer cars on the road.” It makes several arguments: cycling is “more efficient at moving people quickly than lanes moving cars,” “cheap to install and maintain, especially when you consider the billions spent on car lanes,” “increase traffic and sales to local businesses” and “deliver what car ads promise: freedom and mobility.” Those arguments can be countered. Obviously motorized traffic moves faster when not backed-up and commercial streets are more vibrant with car traffic. Yes, bike lanes are much cheaper ($50,000 - $200,000/km in Windsor) but how much are they utilized? Locally in 2021, 7.4 per cent of all trips were made using the bus, walking, or cycling. Anecdotal evidence suggests ironically few cyclists use lanes, cyclists ride on adjoining pedestrian sidewalks and in fact on opposite sides of the street against traffic - in other words, a free-for-all. Cycling might be healthier but not terribly practical in all types of weather or even going to work unless the workplace has showers. And “freedom and mobility?” Sure, but so do cars and arguably more so. Cycling may be pleasant and a tonic but it can be tiring and time-consuming, even boring. One aspect advocates fail to address: flagrant rule violations even by the sophisticated “latex set.”


Will a new generation, councillor & arts initiatives finally revitalize downtown?

WindsorOntarioNews.com October 9 2024

There are signs of new energy downtown. From new and re-opened bars and restaurants – including The Manchester, Panache Ultra Lounge & Restaurant, Auto City Hamburgers & Poutine, Saila Vibes, Thyme Kitchen, Cucina 360 and Smoke’s Poutinerie – to a renewed vigor shown by local councillor Renaldo Agostino, there’s a real possibility downtown Windsor could now turn the tide after decades of being in the doldrums. Agostino, as an impresario and businessman, knows the downtown like the back of his hand, and seems to be everywhere promoting even the smallest event as a downtown booster extraordinaire. City Council’s $3.2 million Strengthen the Core initiative obviously backs downtown including more round the clock policing and homeless aid. But pouring tax money into the downtown won’t do it alone. What will do it is more private individuals investing in vacant storefronts and creating retail, eating and drinking establishments, and hospitality like the Chatham group’s conversion of the Paul Martin building into a boutique hotel, modelled after Chatham’s’ successful Retro Suites. Initiatives like the very popular farmers and night markets and art-inspired installations like WIFF Alley and Art Alley at the Pelissier St. parking garage are reviving vacant areas into captivating walkways and performing art spaces. This really isn’t brain science. Downtown’s footprint is ideal as a walkable people place – or “walkable urban environment” as the DWBIA calls it - with a narrow street grid and a fantastic natural riverfront setting with an astounding skyline view other cities would kill for. Finally, there’s the model of Amherstburg. For decades this historic town also had a bleak and vacant core, now filling with whimsical boutiques, eateries and the first of two boutique hotels. Perhaps it’s a generational thing and younger entrepreneurs see the potential older ones didn’t. Let’s hope it’s the same for Windsor.


U Windsor president's resignation leaves a dark cloud over campus

WindsorOntarioNews.com Sept. 24 2024

The announcement of University of Windsor president Robert Gordon’s – early – retirement -is all a piece. This president, whom the public hardly knew because of his low profile – almost a ghost president – is being handled quietly. No press conference. In fact, Gordon is out of the country. The announcement was made in the university’s official daily news platform, hardly an objective news site where reporters can ask the details of the resignation (just after his term renewed for six year!) and reflect on his tenure, good or bad. It also comes immediately after he took leave of absence for “health” reasons. This follows a tumultuous summer when the university should be on down time. But wasn’t due to two storming controversies. One was the cancellation of the dramatic arts school’s venerable public theatre, after more than half a century. That created alarm bells throughout the country, including among many of Canada’s acting elite who graduated or worked with graduates from the esteemed program. The other was the university’s shameful agreement with a ragtag group of pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel johnnies-come-lately protesters who set up an “encampment” on the campus, and the U caving in to their demands, an anomaly among Canadian campuses and condemned across the country. The U is now reaping the harvest with numerous donor cancellations amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention a huge chunk of Canadian and local donor goodwill and support. Gordon oversaw all this and was virtually silent throughout. What was wrong with him? He may have accomplished certain things (although eulogies always exaggerate) though some are par for the course for today’s woke university administrators – i.e., “carbon neutrality,” “equity, diversity and inclusion.” And some of the building and community initiatives (the new – and partly woke – law school with its masonry Land Acknowledgment) and downtown campuses were or likely already underway. So, say goodbye to a rather ineffective president hardly anyone knew who leaves a dark could on his way out.

Photo: University of Windsor


No excuse for Negev Dinner protest

WindsorOntarioNews.com Sept. 12 2024

There was no excuse for the cruel and uncalled for harassment of attendees at last month’s time honoured Neved Dinner at the Caboto Club. Windsor’s Jewish community has celebrated the dinner for decades and it has nothing to do with the current War in Gaza, which protesters accused it of. What the protest amounted to was an attack on Windsor’s Jewish community simply because they are Jews. This is called antisemitism or racism. Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a strong supporter of Israel, was guest speaker. The dinner raised funds for a community in Israel devastated by last October’s ceasefire-breaking Hamas attack on Israel. Protesters were more than obnoxious – with insults, blocking traffic and pressing up against cars. The protest organizer was the usual suspect, Jana Alrifai, who led this summer’s “encampment” at the University of Windsor. “I think a lot of Zionists are walking into their fancy party and they're pretty annoyed that we're over here. We will call you, we will name you and we will shame you,” she reportedly said. Joe Schnayer of the local Jewish National Fund rightly called the protesters out for spreading “false information.” He was “disgusted” by the event, which called for more police protection, saying it had “nothing to do with the war going on in Israel right now, (the) event is simply raising money for Kibbutz Kissufim.” The problem with this and scores of other protests across Canada since Oct. 7 is that ignorant and belligerent protesters are attacking innocent Jews, conflating them with the Israel government. In other communities Jewish organizations have been shot at, firebombed and otherwise vandalized. Moreover, in Windsor, this marks a sad turn in the longstanding peaceful coexistence between Windsor’s Jewish and Muslim communities.

Photo: Windsor Star


Good first move, but school boards are in need of more comprehensive reform

WindsorOntarioNews.com August 9 2024

It’s good to see the Ontario government is finally acting to rein in school boards, at least partially, though it hasn’t been quick enough and new policies should be retroactive, especially in relation to a gross local incident. The ministry is taking investigation and sanctioning powers out of the hands of local school trustees, a glaring conflict of interest if there ever was one. Now a provincial integrity commissioner will investigate matters like violations of boards’ “codes of conduct,” a sledgehammer wielded to quell dissent. Such codes have been used by the Greater Essex County District School Board, for one, to unfairly sanction trustee Linda Qin (photo). Qin was outrageously banned from school board committee meetings and even the full bard itself, for questioning board policy on transgender issues, school library books, and incomprehensively, speaking to the media. Has the board never learned the democratic principle of free speech? Qin has had long time disagreements with other board trustees and that’s all to the good because as many diverse opinions should be expressed at public bodies as possible. The board, ironically, should take lessons on the importance of civic democracy and that trustees are elected by the people to represent their views. This is beyond ironic. Unfortunately, the changes won’t help trustee Qin because they won’t take effect until January. The government’s removal of local powers is a good first step in totally reforming school boards, which have operated under the radar for too long due to public apathy and therefore have been able to get away with such nonsense. But the province must move on other issues, such as taking away boards’ right to implement gender-affirming policies where parents are not informed of students’ desire to change sexual identities. The Ford administration has been woefully abysmal on this matter.


U Windsor has lost major credibility

WindsorOntarioNews.com July 24 2024

It’s the middle of the summer doldrums yet the area’s most prestigious educational institution, the University of Windsor, has been mired in two controversies and consequently has two major problems on its hands. The first was its decision to cancel the 66-year-old University Players, a showplace for its highly regarded dramatic arts program. The university says it needed to save money and the performing arts group, which also produced high caliber theater for the community, appeared to be low hanging fruit. As usual, no one within the ivy walls would comment beyond the briefest of statements. Yet the blowback has been ferocious, not just from theatre arts students but the wider community and performing arts world, where many alumni have found lucrative acting roles. The second is the U’s decision to appease a truly ragtag group of pro-Palestinian or Hamas demonstrators which set up on campus almost as an afterthought after students at most other universities had established “encampments.” What is it about Windsor’s university that makes administrators such soft targets for a self-styled illegitimate group’s demands? But unlike its counterparts at much larger and more prestigious institutions like McGill, Toronto and Waterloo, the administration caved to anti-Israel demands and the protest ended. In the aftermath Jewish groups from across the country have angrily registered their dissent and the U has been embarrassed in the national media. Some alumni are threatening to no longer donate to what used to be called “Last Chance U.” With both these decisions the university has tarnished its reputation and lost credibility. Yet no one from within its academic walls has spoken out – neither faculty or members of the board of governors. President Robert Gordon, who has kept a low profile throughout his tenure (does he really exist?) has made sure to duck on both counts. The cowardice is shameful.


Strike a yawn in summer doldrums

WindsorOntarioNews.com July 11 2024

The LCBO strike – surprisingly, the first – is one of those “so what” moments. The union timed it well, smack at the beginning of summer vacation season (at least they spared us the Canada Day weekend, that would have gone too far), just to annoy the public as they head to the cottage or prepare weekend barbecues. And the union had the ironic gall to say its members are on strike “to save summer.” But at least pickets are enjoying the hot weather, better than in December before Christmas - LCBO’s busiest time - being out in the bitter cold. Hell, maybe they’re even barbecuing! But, guys, it really doesn’t matter. Thanks to successive governments, starting under the Liberals' Kathleen Wynne, alcohol sales in traditionally staid Ontario were expanded into grocery stores. So, many fewer people are being inconvenienced. True, LCBO workers aren’t overpaid, contrary to what many think. According to Indeed, a "customer service representative" is paid $18.37/hr, "sales associate" $17.39 and a "warehouse worker" $17.04. Management makes much more and the LCBO is reportedly top heavy. But union leader JP Hornick has made some inane class warfare remarks by saying the Ford government wants more profits to “go into the pockets of (big box grocery stores) corporate CEOs.” And that expanded sales – guffaw – “puts every Ontarian at risk.” At the supposed heart of the strike is the government’s move to continue the expansion of alcohol sales, including lucrative ready-to-drink cocktails and hard spritzers, into grocery and corner stores. But Premier Ford is adamant – “that ship has sailed.” Yes, the union is concerned about wages, benefits and job security. But its rhetoric of social welfare is misleading. It touts the LCBO profits generated - $2.5 billion annually – for government services like “health care and education.” Not so fast. Statistics Canada says the LCBO generates the second lowest per capita return to government of any province. Fully privatized (which the union dreads) Alberta, for example, generates $178 per person compared to $159 in Ontario, or an extra $300 million.

Photo: LCBO


Axing University Players a collective blow to students, the community

WindsorOntarioNews.com June 27 2024

The decision to eliminate the performing arts theatre program University Players at the University of Windsor wasn’t just boneheaded but cowardly. University officials said the decision, which will save up to $1 million (that was the program’s yearly loss) was made at the “administrative” level and did not come before the Board of Governors. Those behind the decision must have known the outcry it would provoke, and it has. And they probably realized the Board wouldn’t have approved it or certainly made it difficult for the measure to pass. Yes, money had to be found in a tight university budget and this wasn’t the only program cancelled or rejigged. But the Players (aside from its recent politically correct “trigger warnings” before plays) was a standout and put the university on the Canadian, even international stage. Legions of alumni since the late 1950s have gone on to professional acting careers. Among these are Antoni Cimolino, artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, celebrated actor Stephen Ouimette, Jeanne Holmes, artistic director of the Canada Dance Festival, Paul Constable – the “Canada Tire Guy” of ad fame, Tom McCamus of the Shaw Festival, and Amanda Tapping, star of the TV shows Stargate SG-1 and Sanctuary. “We have been extremely fortunate to benefit from its many well-trained and talented graduates,” Antoni Cimolino said. The program “has been unrivalled in the particular blend of training and education it has provided its students, many of whom have gone on to illustrious careers,” former Stratford director Richard Monette noted. Yes, says the university, dramatic arts will continue and students will still have “meaningful avenues for experiential learning” through, among other things, “strengthening relationships with the broader theatre community.” But, with the decision, not only does the university suffer a blow to its reputation and one of its most signature programs, but the community loses near-professional live theatre that scheduled six productions a year in a purpose-built 300+ seat theatre. It’s a blow to the collective gut and a decision that cannot stand.

Photo: University of Windsor


Urban park - more thinking required; Civic esplanade ice rink - too pricey

WindsorOntarioNews.com June 13 2024

It was a good idea until it, uh, maybe it isn’t. Canada’s proposed second national urban park in west end Windsor, with great fanfare, would combine some existing natural areas and incorporate more land down to the Detroit River, in an otherwise partly industrial area. And that’s the rub. There are numerous heavy industries in close proximity. How would these coexist with the park or would they be incorporated into park boundaries? Among these are the Windsor Salt mine and the Essex Terminal Railway, whose tracks would bisect the park and could in effect be part of park land. Those private entities would now be subject to federal regulations in a highly sensitive ecological zone under the National Parks Act, which could be a bureaucratic nightmare especially given the Trudeau government's obsession with the environment. Mayor Drew Dilkens has asked the government to adjust the park boundaries but it’s obvious this plan wasn’t well thought out. Meanwhile, in the city’s own bailiwick, Council this week approved a whopping $15 million for a new ice rink, a space which would also host year-round events. Yes, the city wants to move on its decades old dream to create a civic esplanade from city hall to the river. But this is going overboard, especially when it would have cost only $1 million to upgrade the problem plagued current rink at Charles Clark Square. Even some of the mayor’s staunchest allies like councillors Jo-anne Gignac and Fred Francis voted against. In fact, the mayor broke the tied vote. WON generally has supported the Dilkens administration, including or perhaps despite the controversial streetcar Legacy Beacon – who knows, maybe it will work just like Bright Lights Windsor which had its share of naysayers - and sound fiscal management. But this is too much and smacks of empire building.

Image: City of Windsor


Province must rein-in boards - now

WindsorOntarioNews.com May 29 2024

Something has got to be done about our illiberal school boards. Two cases in point ring in on the same day. One, in Windsor, sees a microphone cut off, of two Christian activists raising concerns about questionable sexually explicit material in school libraries, which they called “child pornography.” It’s confusing. Board chair Gail Hatfield (photo) said they were speaking off topic and had to relegate remarks to the Ontario Education Act, whatever that meant. She even called security, a typical move. Is this splitting hairs and another attempt by the school board, following a similar clash with parents last year over flying the Pride flag (Pride Month is just days away) as well as not disclosing a students’ changed gender identity to parents, to be politically correct? Not to mention its overriding local citizen school naming decisions? It really seems like this board doesn’t brook any dissent or dissent it doesn’t like. That’s called authoritarianism if not fascism. One might joke: this isn’t a school playground, it’s real life, grow up! Meanwhile up in Burlington, a Jewish parent withdrew her daughter from the local high school because she said she couldn’t be protected from antisemitic remarks. The parent also complained the school allowed maps of Palestine without Israel. “I live in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, and my child is not in school because she's Jewish. That's insane,” said Anissa Hersh, noting that following last October’s terror attacks on Israel “things have gotten much, much worse.” This is the same board which protected a shop teacher wearing mammoth prosthetic breasts, despite concerns about workplace safety and dress code. Somewhat surprisingly, Education Minister Stephen Lecce, largely MIA on these issues, spoke up. He said he would call on the board to “take action on these unacceptable incidents and apply the same level of concern and enforcement to hate as they would for anyone else.” It’s time Lecce and the full Ontario (Conservative) government called these autocratic school boards to account, on antisemitism, gender identity and, well, just about any issue these oh-so-politically-correct school trustees don’t like.

Photo: GECDSB


Pro-Gazan demonstrators' duplicity

WindsorOntarioNews.com May 13 2024

You knew it was just a matter of time but what took them so long? The University of Windsor now has its very own “liberation zone” of pro-Palestinians or pro-Hamas demonstrators and a small encampment, which pales by comparison to the larger crowds at other Canadian universities. But, hey, it’s Windsor. The ill-informed protesters say they want the university to boycott investment in Israel, but the university already channels its investments through an ethical portal. And why would investing in Israel not be ethical? It’s the only democracy in the Middle East with a culture dramatically similar to what’s found in Canada or the United States, with a very large ethnically and racially diverse society, contrary to the “apartheid” tripe of these and other protesters. And did you know Muslim Arabs make up one-fifth of the population and that road signs there are in three languages – Hebrew, Arabic and English? And that Arabs are represented in Parliament? And that Israeli hospitals for decades have treated patients from Gaza and the West Bank? And you probably didn't know Gaza has not been "occupied" since 2005. And if these protesters care about human rights and “genocide” then they should look squarely at what they’re supporting. Israel doesn’t want to eliminate Arabs or Gazans. But the Gazan Hamas Charter explicitly calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. Now that’s genocide! Moreover, if these copycat protesters are so concerned about human rights, where is their condemnation of the Oct. 7 pogrom, where some 1200 Israelis were massacred and 250 taken hostage? Silence. And where is your real defense of your own people - as Hamas terrorists embed themselves in civilian neighbourhoods and use fellow Gazans as human shields? So, have a little fun and camp out and try to be as profound as you think you are. But we can see through your duplicity.


The latest downtown booster proposals are likely to draw mixed results

WindsorOntarioNews.com April 26 2025

The mayor’s new Strengthen the Core proposal to bolster downtown is good but has weaknesses. Yes, more policing is needed – and around the clock, when crimes actually take place, such as the rash of smashed storefront windows. The $3.2 million budget would see an additional dozen officers deployed to the core. But even with this number cops can’t be everywhere at the same time. No doubt vandalism will continue to occur. WON has argued in the past for physical changes which this plan doesn’t address, such as supporting store owners to install metal blinds over their windows, very common in Europe. That is definitely one way to prevent vandalism. Of the seven-point action plan, most of these proposals unfortunately are pie-in-the sky. The downtown already does uber marketing. Filling vacant storefronts? The city has attempted this with mixed success over 20 years. Lobbying senior governments to help the homeless? Good luck and what if street people don’t want to be helped? Attracting more people downtown through festivals and events is a good measure but this can’t be done on a 365-day basis. Encouraging residents to move downtown? This is happening already largely through the imagination of private developers converting office buildings with help from the city’s very successful CIP or tax increment write-off program. Terms like “place-making”, “stronger together” and “our downtown” have all the earmarks of a gee whiz marketing professional, so it figures that an outside agency, Toronto-based StrategyCorp, which likely knows next to nothing about Windsor, drew it up. Couldn’t the city have hired local consultants? The final aspect could be controversial, the $3.2 million to finance the plan, which would be applied as part of an additional tax hike on all ratepayers. You can almost hear the moaning now.


Getting straight on anti-Israel protests

WindsorOntarioNews.com April 12 2024

Cannot we not all agree that certain forms of protest are simply wrong? Such as marching through university libraries shouting slogans and intimidating other students - Jews and non-Jews alike – who are studying, supposedly in a quiet place? That shouting “Death to America” in Dearborn this week is traitorous speech? That wearing masks is against the law and simply cowardly; if you feel so strongly about you opinions then bloody well unmask yourselves? That blocking key roads, such as Avenue Road near the 401 in Toronto purposely because it's near a Jewish community, is a public offence akin to the truckers’ protests? That firebombing, shooting, and demonstrating at Jewish institutions and businesses is beyond vile and subject to the full force of the law (as it has rarely been employed in this country since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel), especially when the objects of those attacks are in no way responsible for the Middle East conflict but just shows your outright racism by targeting a certain people? That the police need to be totally educated on how they respond to demonstrations. Yes, plenty of cops this week surrounding anti-carbon tax protesters and those who demonstrated during Covid against vaccines and masking but wimpish stand downs at anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian/Hamas demonstrations in Canadian cities. And that as a demonstrator when you shout “from the river to the sea” you indeed are calling for genocide, a violation of the United Nations Charter and one of the most egregious criminal and anti-human sentiments? And that when you attack Israel but not your own side for the atrocities of Oct. 7 you are blatantly two-faced and undermine any credibility you claim to have?


Ford government is just Liberal lite

WindsorOntarioNews.com March 28 2024

Sometimes it’s hard to believe we have a Progressive Conservative government in Ontario. Exhibit A: Tuesday's budget. Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy has bumped the deficit up to $9.8 billion. That's a record, folks, regardless of the political party in power. That's also more than three times the deficit of the $3 billion the Tories ran just one year ago. This all adds to the government;s overall debt - $439 billion. When the Tories came to power in 2018 they talked up inheriting “the largest subnational (net) debt in the world” that Dalton McGuinty's spendthrift Liberals had piled up, then $343 billion. Ford in his first budget said his government would "balance the budget responsibly” by “restoring trust, transparency and accountability in the province’s finances …” Last year the Tories said they'd build a surplus of $200 million this year. In all their time in power they've only balanced the budget once. (The McGuinty government, for their part, had balanced the budget three out of 16 times.) Yes, the Ford government is justifying (or rationalizing) spending by saying it’s giving breaks to taxpayers such as the gas tax cut and the pause in the alcohol escalator, and providing hundreds of millions more for health and community services. But there's always something, isn't there? The government is also impacted by the recent court ruling that forced it to repeal its legislation capping civil servants’ pay increases to one per cent in each of three years, resulting in as much as $8 billion in more wages over the next several years. The unions, of course, are never helpful, only thinking of themselves not the wider commonweal. And beyond fiscal restraint, Ford's government has done nothing to show it's conservative. It has not confronted school boards and professional associations on growing wokery (such as parental consent on gender identity). Nor has it made any symbolic gestures like unboxing Sir John A.'s statue at Queen's Park. Despite Ford's "Trumpian" appearance and ah sucks "folksy" rhetoric, he's a big-spending liberal and in many ways a political coward.


Kingsville new school naming a symptom of deeper problems

WindsorOntarioNews.com March 9 2024

A few years ago there was the controversy over the naming of the new high school in Amherstburg. In an almost exact repeat pattern now there is the naming of the new K-12 school in Kingsville. In both cases a widely engaged community committee came up with names only to have them jettisoned by the school board. Or in Kingsville’s case trustee Julia Burgess because, supposedly, she preferred her own name, Erie Migration Academy. Okay, we get the "migration" part since Kingsville is home to migrating Canada geese (though did it mean wider human migration?). Regardless, this was her overruling a more democratically selected committee. Burgess hasn't really explained herself well and seems to be keeping mum. The town, though, is outraged and students have held repeated demonstrations against the name change. In the case of Amherstburg, North Star was the name chosen over what had been General Amherst, a politically correct name rather than that of an old colonial general the town happens to be named after, this being the star that the slaves followed to freedom in Canada. As for the Kingsville name we can only guess. "King" doesn’t mean Canada's Commonwealth affiliation - or, oh dear, colonial, past - but named after the town’s founder James King though he was a military colonel. Perhaps Burgess doesn’t know this. The board, in its elitist wisdom, backed her 6 - 2. The Greater Essex County District School Board continues to show its autocratic nature and contempt for democracy. It’s like numerous boards across the province these days, which have held parents in contempt in cases involving issues of political correctness. It’s time the weak provincial Ford government showed some spine and reined these boards in, issuing new mandates to democratize them and listen to their constituents.


City rightly sticks to its guns on fourplex housing densification

WindsorOntarioNews.com February 5 2024

Kudos to the City of Windsor for sticking to its guns by rejecting a federal plan to create fourplexes on single residential lots. That means the city will lose out on $30 million in federal funding from a $4 billion Housing Accelerator Fund to address the housing crisis. It was a tug of war from the start between the city and Ottawa. Unlike a host of other cities Windsor did not want all residential areas to be subject to intensified housing, no doubt part of a progressive housing scheme to limit suburban sprawl and “urbanize” suburbs, highly controversial in the United States where critics have said it’s a war on single family housing and the middle class. Housing Minister Sean Fraser didn’t use the word progressive but did use “ambitious.” The city didn’t reject the scheme outright. It put forward a compromise, agreeing to fourplexes in denser areas of the city such as along transit routes and in commercial and mixed-use sites. Some have suggested fourplexes and four storey buildings wouldn’t be built in solidly detached neighbhourhoods anyway. But, if online comments are any indication, most people feared this creeping densification. Look what happens now when an apartment building is proposed even close to a low-rise community – scores of residents oppose it for reasons like blocked sight lines and lack of privacy. It’s interesting that Windsor, a working-class city, would reject densification. And the feds were probably surprised based on their class perceptions. But that’s a lack of understanding of Windsor, the same misapprehension of local urbanists who have campaigned against “sprawl” and the new suburban regional hospital. Windsor may be working class but it’s the time-honored “aristocracy of the working class” – well paid autoworkers who live not a traditional working class life (read apartment or tenement buildings) but in suburban homes with swimming pools, owning boats and cottages and taking Caribbean vacations. The city didn’t reject densification outright only where it thought it made sense. But the feds, typically uncompromising on this and so many other – read, ideological - issues, rejected it.


People are suffering but municipal taxes just keep going up and up

WindsorOntarioNews.com January 22 2024

The post-Covid environment has seen numerous loss of jobs. Businesses have struggled - witness the current difficulty paying back CEBA loans. Inflation last year was almost 4.2 per cent. Homeowners are petrified about mortgage rate increases. More and more people line up at food banks. So why is it municipal governments continue to increase taxes? From one end of Essex County to the other municipalities are planning hikes of anywhere from 3.93 per cent (Windsor) 5.5 (LaSalle) 5.07 (Essex) almost 6 (Lakeshore) and more than seven per cent (Amherstburg and Kingsville). None are as high as the controversial 10.5 per cent increase in Toronto. Nevertheless, people are hurting and municipalities seem not to care. Taxes always increase – never decrease - regardless of wider social ills. Nor is ever a voice raised by a municipal councillor against. Municipalities like Windsor have tried to keep increases below inflation but have been criticized for even doing that. Critics say taxes must increase so government can serve a growing population. But according to the Fraser Institute, in 2020 some 37 per cent of municipal spending went to wages, the next highest amount 28 per cent for goods and services. “Clearly, municipal wage rates and employment numbers are major drivers of municipal spending,” it said. Few if any politicians are brave enough to call for salary cuts even though it’s well-known public-sector salaries are higher than those in the private sector. But there is an easier way to cut that would generate less blowback. Secondstreet.org suggests cutting salary grids before employees are hired. “Instead of starting with a salary of $80,000 and a generous pension, clerical workers could earn, say, $73,000 and a more modest pension — defined contribution, not defined benefit. Changes like this could save billions of dollars over the next decade.” Here here! That would put a sever dent in rising budgets, keep taxes at least below inflation and put money back in long suffering taxpayers’ pockets.


Protesters should pay with their wallet

WindsorOntarioNews.com January 8 2024

The United Kingdom government is considering charging protesters for police overtime and other extra civil protection in the wake of the ongoing and very disruptive pro-Palestinian/Hamas and anti-Israel/Jewish protests taking place in that country. What an idea. Protesters have blocked streets, and ventured off public spaces where they otherwise have a right to demonstrate. Moreover, there has been vandalism – sometimes quite violent like in Canada with shootings and firebombing – mainly directed at Jewish institutions and businesses. Yet police response has been almost laughable (in Toronto the other day a cop was seen bringing Tim Hortons coffee to protesters) with the illegal actions vastly ignored (blocking of the Avenue Road - Hwy. 401 bridge) and no or few arrests. Let’s get this straight. If you’re going to block streets and sidewalks, highways, and public transit, you should not only be legally charged but must pay the costs of extra policing. This enforcement should be right across the board regardless of protest group. Freedom Convoy anti-vax truckers disrupted traffic in downtown Ottawa, in Alberta and of course Windsor. They should pay – monetarily – for the disruptions. In Britain Just Stop Oil protests have long “slow marched” down, or literally glued themselves to, public streets, blocking commuters. They should pay. Canadian native protesters have barricaded highways and rail lines. Get out your wallets. Everyone has a right to protest but on public property or designated areas and in a way that isn’t unruly. In other words, stay in your lanes – literally. Or hand over the dough.

Photo: CP 24


Late voices to rescue bandshell

WindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 4 2023

What is it that certain city councillors and civic groups don’t get? The Jackson Park bandshell, as venerable as it is historically hosting hundreds of concerts and events, has been rotting away for years in an obscure area of the central city park. In fact, few people, if any, have even cared about the bandshell, let alone known of its existence. And, by a weird twist of real estate fate, the dilapidated structure - not even safe for city crews to spend time on – actually fronts neighbouring public school board land making it impossible as a place to hold concerts. The bandshell’s fate was almost sealed months earlier when the matter came before a city council committee. A decision was made not to proceed with a $100,000 feasibility study – though a public consultation - and then perhaps spend millions on remediation costs. That doesn’t include making a land deal with a tone-deaf school board which hadn’t shown much interest on previous occasions when approached by the city. But now, out of the woodwork, come last minute voices who want to preserve the structure because of its historical significance, especially to the city’s Black community. The performance stage was, after all, the centerpiece of years of Emancipation Day celebrations and even staged numerous Motown acts in the 1960s on their rise to the big time. But why the clamour now and not before? Perhaps because of racialized politics within the past two years in the wake of the George Floyd killing and Black Lives Matter movement? Regardless, city council has narrowly committed to spending $100K for the feasibility study. All we can say is, good luck – they might need it.


Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib must go, but where is the critical Detroit media?

WindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 19 2023

Michigan US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is truly a disgrace. If she had any dignity she would resign. And yet Michigan media voices are virtually mum on one of the most divisive elected officials today in America, who happens to be from their hometown. Why? Tlaib started her political career in the Michigan Legislature and was a firebrand then. It was only a matter of time till she graduated to the US House; we all knew that. And she hadn’t wasted any time being one of the most outspoken members of the Democratic Party’s far left, a member of the so-called “Squad.” But it’s her remarks on the current Israel-Hamas conflict which are truly obnoxious and show Tlaib the odious individual she is. For example, Tlaib early on clang to the false narrative that Israel sent a misfired rocket into the al-Ahli hospital despite it being proven it came from the Palestinian side. She has constantly used the refrain “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be free” which is a call for the genocide of the Jewish people, hardly the two-state solution most enlightened people would advocate. The US House of Representatives even took the rare step of censuring her 234-188 for “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.” And her latest obscenity is reportedly being a member of a secret Facebook group which praised Hamas for the Oct. 7 massacre of 1200 innocent Israelis and kidnapping more than 200 others. Despite all this, Michigan editorial voices have been silent, at least in the outlet WON follows, The Detroit News. For example, there has not been one editorial or opinion columnist criticizing Tlaib. There have been some defending Israel and critiquing Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer for taking equivocal stances and one showing how the Democrat Party could lose votes for not speaking out forcefully enough against Israel’s counterattack against Gaza. One hates to be conspiratorial but it’s enough to make you think there’s a cozy relationship between Tlaib and members of the Michigan media going back to her Lansing days. The News’s lack of disdain on such a major issue by a local politician so obviously in the national spotlight is otherwise hard to understand.


From one bad idea to one good one

WindsorOntarioNews.com Nov 5 2023

It’s hard to believe city councillors come up with these ideas. But the one by Ward 8 councillor Gary Kaschak is a good example, one which can only be met by the response “duh!” In yet another attempt to bolster downtown Kaschak wondered if the city’s very successful – more than 100,000 attend - Christmas Bright Lights Windsor festival could be moved from Jackson Park to the heart of the city. Right off the bat anyone with any sense could tell the councillor how impractical such a proposal would be. Where is the space? Where is the parking? How could this be accommodated when downtown is a destination for umpteen other purposes, from employment to retail to hotels and entertainment. City staff enumerated many of these obstacles, in very straight polite bureaucratic terms, of course. But reading between the lines even some of these civil servants might have been stifling guffaws. Among the issues – the event set up takes months and would be “dangerous” because main streets would have to be closed. Fencing would also be needed around the entire site – something “problematic.” Nor, um, is there enough electrical juice in the core to power the thousands of lights in the festival. And, oh yes, that parking problem. At least at Jackson Park there are two free parking lots. Therefore, in understated terms, concluded the administrative report, “it is recommended the event remain at/Jackson park at this time.” And just off the top, why kill something that indeed has been successful - an example of undermining with good intentions. A much better proposal was put forward by downtown councillor Renaldo Agostino, to string colourful LED lights year-round along Ouellette Avenue, to give the neighbourhood vibrancy and drawing power.

Photo: City of Windsor


Blaming the victims writ large

WindsorOntarioNews.com October 21 2023

It is like a world gone mad. Some 1400 Israelis are slaughtered at a New Age music festival and in nearby kibbutzim two weeks ago and millions of people around the world come out and demonstrate – not against these horrible atrocities amounting to a modern-day pogrom and akin to anything seen since the Second World War, but in support of the people who committed the killings, the terrorist group Hamas. It’s a counterintuitive response that enters the annals of the absurd or surreal or something conjured in deepest darkest dystopian science fiction, and yet it’s occurring. There is no modern precedent for it. Even if you protest the retaliatory Israeli bombing of Gaza targetted at terrorists and support the Palestinian cause and a two-state solution – the supposed be all and end all to seek a lasting peace in the Mideast – these protests have gone well beyond that. What has been the catch all slogan? “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.” That means eliminating the state of Israel, guaranteed by the United Nations in 1947. (The UN also offered the Palestinians a state but they rejected it.) Moreover, there has been absolutely no nuance or equanimity, no defending Palestinians’ right to exist while deploring the atrocities – some of the most hideous (burning people alive, chopping babies’ heads off, kidnapping grandmothers) ever committed. There have even been Swastikas at some rallies. This is akin to “blaming the victims” writ large. As for those victims, the Israelis - and sympathetic Jewish communities around the world - their response has been mute or have taken solace in quiet vigils and are likely cowering and keeping the lowest profiles lest they be the targets of anti-Semitic attacks, which have also been occurring. There have been a few people waving the Israeli flag but just a few. In Windsor, we were subjected to another absurdity of modern policing, all of a piece for the upside-down world in which we’re now living. A man waving an Israeli flag was arrested, not because he attacked the pro-Palestinian demonstrators but after he had been attacked by some of them, in order, police said, to “de-escalate” the situation.

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WindsorOntarioNews.com

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Someone's looking out for Melanie Coulter

Someone is looking out for Melanie Coulter. The longtime head of the Windsor Essex County Humane Society was recently awarded for leadership in animal protection. The Animal Shelter Professionals of Ontario obviously paid no attention to Coulter’s mysterious firing by the Society’s board just a few months ago. She had been at the agency and was a well-regarded spokeswoman for animal welfare for 16 years, constantly in the news. It was also the first time the award was presented – take that Humane Society! Typical for organizations in this community (like the University of Windsor in its actions over the anti-Israel protest and axing the University Players) everyone’s lips were sealed. But at least Coulter has got some poetic justice, outside the community. – 12/2/24

Photo: Clearwaylaw.com


Premier Ford, tear down that ugly box!

During the Cold War US President Ronald Reagan famously called for the Russian president to tear down the Berlin Wall. WON.com is now calling on Ontario Premier Doug Ford to tear down the ugly box surrounding the statue of Canada’s first prime minister at Queen’s Park. Caving to oh-so-politically-correct protesters almost five years ago Ford’s compliance is shameful and an embarrassment. George Washington had slaves too, even Sir John A didn’t have that. Ford is supposed to be a conservative premier, and a conservative respects time honoured traditions, among them our country’s founding. Don’t be a wimp, Doug. Unbox Sir John now! – 21/11/24


Democrats have no one to blame but themselves

Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for their major loss to Donald Trump and the Republicans in this week’s US elections. The party which used to champion the blue-collar working class in recent years all but abandoned it in favour of elites – special interests, academic, media and Hollywood. They became more interested in identity politics than bread and butter issues, such as the price of gas and putting food on the table. Moreover, an undemocratically selected candidate with no articulated vision who mouthed platitudes and couldn’t differentiate herself from four years of dismal leadership on the border, the economy and foreign affairs, was no match for a candidate who clearly stated how he would steer the country. Stupid, and an unintended death wish. – 11/7/24


Delay on Boblo dock demolition a disgrace

If ever there was an example of government foot-dragging its the years-long effort by the Town of Amherstburg to get the federal government to demolish the aged and rotting former Boblo ferry dock. The structure just south of the main townsite has been left to rot for decades (Boblo closed in 1993) and has gradually fallen apart to the point where it is now serpentining into the Detroit River. Why it took Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which owns it, so long to provide funding for demolition, is anyone’s guess. Since 2016 town councillors have repeatedly been frustrated by the department’s non-answers. The government, otherwise so quick to identify environmental and safety issues, should have immediately recognized the problem. But still the dangerous hulking eyesore lurks, standing until “hopefully” demolished by next March, said one councillor. – 25/9/24

Photo: Google Street View


Looking for savings? Cut city hall salaries

Mayor Drew Dilkens has drawn up three council committees to investigate ways the city can save money from a budget he declares will result in the highest tax increase in 20 years. Here’s one way: cut city hall salaries. In 2022, total compensation for 962 staff was about $123.8 million. This includes employees who earned $100,000 or more. A five per cent cut would save $6,190,000. That same year the overall city budget was $438 million. Higher cuts would save more or cuts could be on a sliding scale based on income. Among employees who received six-figure salaries that year, 214 earned between $100,000 and $110,000, 598 between $110,001 and $150,000, 137 between $150,001 and $200,000, 11 between $200,001 and $250,000 and two between $250,001 and $300,000. (The city’s average salary is $95,968 but "typically" is $63,792.) But of course, politicians would never attempt this, or there would be holy hell to pay from the unions. – 13/9/24


Politicians should be penalized for betraying voters' trust

It seems city councillor Mark McKenzie (photo) is following in Irek Kusmierczyk’s footsteps. Like the latter, he is using city council as a springboard for higher political ambitions. He’s seeking the vote in Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore in the next federal election. He announced his bid after only serving 18 months as a novice on council. Kusmierczyk, now MP for Windsor-Tecumseh, did the same, jumping to federal politics after serving as Ward 7 councillor. Nothing wrong with that but it’s the way both did or are trying to do it which is questionable. The current city council term ends November 2026. The next federal election must be held by Oct. 20, 2015. So, like Kusmierczyk, who announced his jump from council less than one year after winning his last municipal election in 2018 and being elected federally in 2021 (the next municipal vote was 2022), McKenzie would be forfeiting some of his municipal term for which he was entrusted by voters. Such moves by politicians should either be prohibited by law or a penalty - such as a fine – be exacted for usurping voters’ trust. – 8/8/24

Photo: City of Windsor


No to Kingsville's Halloween "safetyism"

It’s called safetyism, described as "the cult of safety – an obsession with eliminating threats (both real and imagined) to the point at which people become unwilling to make reasonable trade-offs demanded by other practical and moral concerns. Safetyism deprives young people of the experiences that their antifragile minds need, thereby making them more fragile, anxious, and prone to see themselves as victims.” Sounds a little like what’s going on in Kingsville. The town is if it should change trick-or-treating to a Saturday because it would be safer, starting earlier during daylight and “less stressful” for parents because they wouldn’t have to rush to get kids ready or deal with kids’ staying up late due to a “sugar high." The town also listed counterarguments including Saturday is one of the most “dangerous nights" because of alcohol consumption. What comes to mind are words like “coddling”, “snowflakes”, “protective bubbles.” Drop the idea altogether. – 23/7/24


Who gets a 137% pay increase? Why, your local county councillor

“They give up time with their families and jobs to take part in these decision-making initiatives,” Essex County Hilda Macdonald (photo) said in justifying a mammoth pay raise for Essex County councilors. Oh please. Every one of those councillors knew exactly the rate of pay they’d get when they ran for office. Following a consultant’s report, council voted 10-4 – surprise surprise – to give themselves the increase. What’s especially galling is the amount of increase – from $13,211 to $31,302. That’s 137 per cent. That’s when the average Canadian wage increase this year is expected to be 3.6 per cent. That of course doesn’t include what councillors make on their own municipal councils. But Macdonald’s pay stays the same at $92,987. Wonderful. – 8/7/24


UW activist is a perfect example of the latest left wing cause

There is wide speculation that the current pro-Palestinian demonstrations and “encampments” across North America is also simply the latest left-wing cause, as Black Lives Matter was in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in 2020. Sure, ethnic Arabs or Muslims are involved. But many of the organizers are the usual leftists hitching on to the latest campaign. No further proof is needed than the leader of the University of Windsor’s encampment Jana Alrifai, who also happens to be “a longtime organizer of an on-campus effort to boot out RBC,” according to the Windsor Star. That's because of the bank’s investment in the oil industry, a longtime leftist crusade. Added the Star, “Alrifai…..is also co-organizer of the pro-Palestinian encampment…” – 24/6/24

Photo: CBC


How about noise cameras to tag offending motorists?

Windsor has red light cameras. How about noise cameras? Belgium and France are installing them, at least on an experimental basis, to crack down on noisy motorists. They work similar to speed cameras by taking photos of noisy vehicles. The cameras are attached to microphones to gauge decibel level. While Belgian authorities are reacting to numerous complaints about modified cars and mopeds here in Windsor-Essex we can thinking of a couple of general offenders – well, modified cars with aggravating tailpipes and their counterpart two-wheelers. Nothing like a boomer going by at 5 am to wake the local citizenry. Or, for that matter, having to cover their ears when a flock goes through the neighbourhood on an otherwise pleasant Sunday afternoon. – 10/6/24


This is a great man

This is what you call a great man. New Brunswicker Walter Gillespie recently died, only a few months after winning his freedom and being exonerated in a 1973 murder. Gillespie was wrongly imprisoned for 21 years after refusing to implicate his friend Robert Mailman for the same offence. Mailman was also acquitted in January after new evidence came forward. At the time of the murder St. John Police had offered Gellespie a reduced charge – and only three years in prison - if he signed a statement against Mailman. “I said I was not going to do that,” he said. Gellespie had a tough life. He had just a grade six education. Most of his family died in a house fire when he was 20. How many others of us would have held firm with our principles when facing, wrongly, life in prison? – 27/5/24

Photo: CP


Save the tracks!

Since the theme of preserving Sandwich Town is in part heritage what gives with the city and Gordie Howe Intl. Bridge wanting to extract or pave over the only remaining streetcar tracks in Windsor? The tracks are exposed at three intersections. But as part of “community benefits” and a new “gateway” leading off the bridge, the aged tracks would be removed. Few people probably even know they exist. But they are a unique part of city infrastructure, especially considering the new “legacy” streetcar beacon being built up the street. There should at least be a sign indicating the tracks' historic importance. Instead, they would be removed and a “modern finish” partly to meet accessibility, overlaid. Save the tracks! – 13/5/24

Photo: Google Street View


No apology needed

Can we just put a stop to apologies for actions that took place hundreds of years ago that are not the least reflective of our current society? The latest call for an official apology is by local African-Canadian historian Elise Harding-Davis, who now has the support of NDP MP Brian Masse. What good will an apology do? Does she think it will change the way people today feel about race? Overwhelmingly people support racial equality. Most people think of Canada as a nation that welcomed freed American slaves via the Underground Railroad. But apparently Canada also harboured as many as 4700 of its own slaves, pre-Confederation, until the Brits abolished slavery in 1834. But, according to Masse, this seeded future racial discrimination. How about instead of an apology, a celebration of the progress we’ve made? – 25/4/24


Sly move could help guarantee MPs' their lucrative pensions

Oh, those parliamentarians! Federal Democratic Institutions (rather an ironic title) Minister Dominic Leblanc has proposed moving the next fixed election date to Oct. 27, 2025. The reason? Well, a Hindu religious festival, Diwali, and Alberta municipal elections, fall on the current election day, Oct. 20, don’t you know? It’s part of a suite of proposed election changes. Keeping the fixed election date on Oct. 20 would mean that those MPs – there’s 80 of them - elected Oct. 21, 2019, would miss out by one day, having served all but a full six years and therefore not qualifying for the lucrative and controversial “gold plated” pensions, should they lose their seats. Of course, MPs never complain about annual salary increases like the more than $8000 bump-up they again April 1. Nor have we heard any voices raised against this. Three local MPs could receive the payoff: Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal Windsor–Tecumseh, Chris Lewis, CPC Essex and Dave Epp, CPC, Chatham-Kent-Leamington. – 12/4/24


This April First, the government is making fools of all of us

This April Fool's Day the joke's on us as Ottawa makes fools of Canadian taxpayers. The country is being smacked that day by the federal government on three fronts. First, the carbon tax is increasing, hitting consumers in perhaps the most visible way possible, a 17 cent rise in the price of a litre of gasoline not to mention heating bills where 15 cents will be tacked on to a cubic metre of natural gas. In another sucker punch that's bound to hurt hard-working people who sometimes just want to relax with a glass of beer, wine or spirits, Ottawa is upping the tax on alcohol by 4.7%. On the flip side, and adding insult to injury, MP's are giving themselves a pay raise - $8,100, and the fifth since 2020, during periods of Covid and excessive inflation. It's incredible what the government thinks it can - and does - get away with. - 10/3/24


Upload Huron Ch Road

The City of Windsor is on the hook for $900,000 for policing and other costs during the infamous February 2022 border blockade by anti-vax truckers. That’s because the feds didn’t pay the city the full amount of the bill, which came to almost $7 million. The reason wasn’t given but irked Mayor Drew Dilkens who said he’d “never been more offended” as a city politician. Seeing that the blockade took place on Huron Church Rd. here’s a thought. How about uploading the costs of that roadway – essentially an international border and truck trade route – to senior levels of government, just like the province recently agreed to take over Toronto’s Gardiner Expy. and Don Valley Pkwy. At least the city wouldn’t have to shell out costs for that. – 6/2/24

Photo: YouTube


Holding separate budget meetings - what a concept

There are some things so obvious, and beyond belief why they weren’t done before, that you just have to shake your head. News comes that the City of Windsor effective this year began holding a budget delegations meeting – where public groups can lobby for funding - one week before the actual budget vote. Previously City Council hosted delegations on the same night of the budget vote. “Having this meeting in advance actually lets councillors think through, for a week, some of the comments,” said Mayor Drew Dilkens. … “as opposed to trying to deal with it in real-time at the budget meeting.” No kidding. – 23/1/24


A'burg's TRUE Fest "family-friendly" in eyes of the beholder

Amherstburg’s TRUE Fest, interrupted by Covid, is now in its third year. But it has spawned controversy, especially by having drag queens parade in public. The event elicited “numerous, numerous phone calls and e-mails” according to councillor Diane Pouget, with people “very angry and upset” that this wasn’t a family-friendly event. Not so, said CAO Valerie Critchley, as the event was “vetted” and is indeed “family friendly.” News to Pouget who said “council never once agreed to spend taxpayers’ money on drag queens and advocate it as a family affair.” But council by one vote approved it again for this month. Obviously, in Amherstburg, “family friendly” is in the eyes of the beholder. – 9/1/24

Photo: Town of Amherstburg


Town right to refuse islanders' request

Amherstburg Town Council was right in rejecting the pleas by a group of Boblo Island (now rechristened by the upscale moniker Bois Blanc) residents for the municipality to take over the island ferry service. Town councillors told a delegation flat out this isn’t the town’s responsibility but that of the realtor who developed the island, Amico, because that’s whom the islanders signed the ferry contract with. It’s inexcusable that residents were left without a backup ferry when the main ferry was temporarily out of service earlier this fall. Residents could not take their cars back and forth to the mainland over a two-week period. Amico has ducked during this entire controversy, but the islanders’ dispute is with the developer not the town. – 6/12/23


Heads should roll in hospitals' cyber breach case

Heads should roll in wake of the massive cyber breach of hospital data at five area health institutions through its IT provider Transform Shared Service Organization, a Chatham-based company. (Anyone accessing its website is now blocked.) This unsuccessful attempt by cyber hackers to get the hospitals to pay ransom has resulted in likely much worse fallout than has been reported, from disrupted medical schedules, lost patient records and employee payroll undermined. It’s been almost a month since the attack and the hospitals have been slow to release information to the public. Transform is nowhere to be found. No doubt lawsuits will fly. But there should be immediate accountability – by Transform and/or the hospitals themselves. At minimum, that means those responsible for faulty security should pay with jobs. – 22/11/23


Let's have greater crackdown on noise polluters

Hardly to believe, but Windsor Police have an Anti-Noise campaign. And this year they awarded more than 2700 citations though most were for speeding and stunt driving, which come under the rubric. Only 58 were for noise, which could include revving engines. Car noise (bad mufflers) – and motorcycle noise (deliberate) – musty be the most obnoxious forms of noise pollution and show a sense of self-entitlement by people who do it. Yet next to nothing is done to alleviate the problem. There aren’t even public awareness campaigns. But – who knew? – you can report a noise complaint: 519-258-6111. Meanwhile, governments should bring in laws to prevent manufacturers from creating engines that release ear-splitting sounds, interrupting pleasant days for the rest of us. – 11/7/23


In the 'burg, one step forward and two back

There’s a longstanding joke among people in Amherstburg that when it comes to civic progress it’s “one step forward and two steps back.” The latest example is efforts by a group to stop plans to redevelop the Belle Vue estate, an early 19th century "Georgian" building the town bought several years ago and has been sitting empty and deteriorating. The town requested private proposals for development. And the Amico group and Loop family – both with sterling track records – put forward a proposal for an event centre, hotel and residential complex. It looks ideal. Then who should pop up? Preservationists worried about the property getting into private hands after the group raised $500,000. This follows other civic fiascos like the HMS Detroit project, and the town turning over parkland for a new high school. Hopefully their voices won’t prevail. – 25/10/23


Michigan's Tlaib should backtrack on Israel comments

Detroit area Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has come under fire, and rightly so, for not explicitly condemning the attack by Hamas on Israeli citizens last weekend, leaving hundreds brutally dead and others kidnapped. Tlaib, of Palestinian descent, said while she grieved “the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost,” slammed Israel’s “apartheid regime” for the “violent reality” under which Arabs live. She also condemned Israel’s ”occupation.” Let's set the Representative straight. For one thing, Israel is not an apartheid state as Arabs have the same rights as Israelis within the country. Second, Israel gave up the Gaza Strip in 2005, turning it over to the Palestinians, who elected Hamas as its government. – 11/10/23


It's scandalous school board can't repair its own athletic tracks

It’s outrageous, amounting to scandal, that the Greater Essex County District School Board can’t find the money to repair high school athletic tracks. The board is crying the poverty blues – money simply isn’t allocated for this purpose. Isn’t athletics part of education? What about childhood obesity? The board, citing safety, will grass over three disintegrating tracks and move athletic events to Riverside high school’s intact field. Chair Gail Hatfield said provincial renewal funding goes to other purposes, not outdoor recreation. This school year some 70 per cent of the provincial education budget went for salaries. Perhaps during contract negotiations education bureaucrats and teacher unions can be a little more altrustic and set aside more funding for student needs. What a concept. – 27/9/23