NOTED & FILED

Our community as reflected in outside media

June 3/25: Yet another world newspaper is discovering Windsor and the symmetry that has long connected Canada's Motor City with Motown across the river. This time it's UK's Financial Times. With overhead shots of the Detroit skyline and Detroit River with Windsor on the other side, and pics of toll booths at the tunnel and a close-up of Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, the weekend article was of a similar theme as numerous others in recent months - how President Trump's tariffs and talk of Canada becoming a 51st state has ruptured a once collegial – even familial – relationship. “Business leaders and elected officials are concerned that the White House's policies are forcing the sister cities into an unwanted 'break up,'” the article says. "It's a border that exists, but it's not anything that culturally has ever been an issue," Ryan Donally, chief executive of the Windsor Essex Chamber of Commerce, told the paper. "This has damaged the cultural relationship between two best friends." Besides the interrelationship of auto parts and vehicles crisscrossing the border myriad times daily, some 6000 health care workers cross the border to work in Detroit hospitals and clinics. Trump’s rhetoric has taken its toll on crossings generally. "18 percent fewer people are arriving in the US via the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel compared to the same time last year,” according to the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel Corporation. "While commuting remains consistent, those traveling from Canada to Detroit to visit family or friends or for leisure has dipped." The article mentions Mayor Drew Dilkens cutting funding for the tunnel bus in the wake of Trump’s comments. And Windsor's Jahn Engineering reducing its 70-person staff by 20 percent after owner Louis Jahn’s orders from American carmakers “disappeared due to the cost of tariffs."

May 16/25: Ironically, the long-awaited opening of the Gordie Howe Intl Bridge (GHIB) will be coming just months after the US declared a trade war on Canada, and which could be ongoing as the two nations try to sort out tit for tat tariffs. That was a focus of a front-page Detroit Free Press article today referencing Canada’s involvement in the construction of the bridge and at least one Windsorite’s response to the tariff conniption. The Freep points out the well-known fact the GHIB – “certainly of interest on both sides of the border” - is being fully financed by Canada. It quotes the Canadian consul general in Detroit, Colin Bird, saying this is an example of how Canada “steps up” in the interests of international trade and infrastructure. It also quotes Imran Abdool, a U Windsor business prof, who grew up in Windsor, saying the border now seems tighter. “’Growing up in Windsor the border didn’t really feel like a border,’ he said, describing trips to Red Wings games with his father.” Abdool said the demand for a new bridge had long been there with more than a quarter of $700M annual Canada-US trade coming through Windsor-Detroit. As well some 200,000 regional jobs depend on trade. “For a long time, everybody knew that there was a good economic and business case for it,” he said. The Freep concludes the recent tariff controversy “will likely affect Gordie Howe Bridge traffic, although Abdool doesn’t foresee a long-term change. ‘In the short run, the utilization won’t be what ... would have been envisioned, which is unfortunate, but I think in the longer term it will get back to that capacity,’” he said. The prof added that’s because a trade war would be too costly for both sides. “The only thing that would destroy the (case for the) Gordie Howe Bridge would be high tariffs for a long time. I don’t see that happening.”

April 24/25: The Globe and Mail’s headline was that Windsor “feels sense of betrayal” because of the Trump 25% auto tariffs. Noting the recent two-week “pause” in production by Windsor Assembly due to the tariffs, the Toronto newspaper said while Windsor and Detroit are “linked” by social and economic ties, the trade issue has “opened a gulf between the two motor cities, leaving Windsor on the wrong side of a bitter split.” Nowhere, it says, is this more evident that at WAP where 3500 were laid off plus 2000 in associated industries just before Easter. And while Trump has moved back and forth on other industry and country tariffs, “the car levies remain.” Meanwhile the president has said similar tariffs on auto parts could come May 3 which “experts predict will quickly lead to more shutdowns in an industry in which single-digit profit margins are the norm.” The article quotes a Stellantis workers. “This seems to be a man-made disaster,” Derek Gungle, 46, says, noting it’s different from previous layoffs for seasonal reasons or market variances. “We could be selling vehicles. We could be running the economy well and instead everyone’s holding their breath.” Gungle’s family now is watching their spending. The Globe says 500,000 people live in Windsor-Essex with 50,000 working in manufacturing. The area’s also home to Ford engine manufacturing and “dozens” of parts suppliers. “All the plants are linked to the Michigan auto industry across the river, and vice-versa,” it says. It quotes Unifor Local 195 President Emile Nabbout, who leads 4500 workers mainly at auto suppliers: “When the assembly plant goes down, the suppliers go down.” And, says Ryan Donally of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce, “Any time there’s news related to Windsor Assembly it draws the attention of the whole community.”

April 10/25: In wake of Canada’s beefed-up border security in response to US President Donald Trump’s allegations of drugs and people illegally crossing the Canadian border into the US, the Toronto Sun interviewed RCMP officer Ian Smith of the Windsor-based border integrity unit. Until recently Smith never wore a uniform. But with the Trump allegations “that recently changed. Smith now dons a uniform and body armour as he drives a marked RCMP vehicle to help patrol roughly 800 km of Ontario's border with the United States, in addition to his usual investigative work,” the Sun says. It’s all part of Canada’s $1.3B response to upgrading security along the border. According to the Sun “Smith said he wants to do his part. ‘We're doing these 24-hour patrols now, which is new for us as well here,’ he said as he drove along Windsor's side of the Detroit River, which forms part of the border between Ontario and Michigan.” The Sun says that as part of the new approach “RCMP officers are increasingly engaging with people who live near the border to gather information and seek their help to stop the smuggling of drugs and people into and from Canada. On a recent cloudy day, Smith took short, slow steps across the frozen river to speak with a group of people who were ice-fishing, asking if they've seen anything suspicious.” But the six to eight officers have a huge territory to cover, from Tobermory on Lake Huron to Port Burwell on Lake Erie. The crew also relies on drones and just received its third one. It also has two boats and uses helicopters for surveillance.

March 26/25: A native of Essex County writing in The London Free Press reminisces about the more carefree days of youth, driving back and forth with his parents across the Windsor-Detroit border. "If my mother needed sewing materials, Detroit's fabric shops were much closer than Hespeler's textile district. When Christmas approached, we'd visit Santaland at J.L. Hudson, one of the biggest department stores in the world," writes Larry Cornies, one of the newspaper's columnists. "One morning in May, when the fields were too soggy for planting, our family hopped into the car and made an impromptu trip to the Detroit Zoo (Channel 4 weather personality Sonny Eliot hosted a regular show from that spot). Lazy Sunday afternoons were sometimes spent at Michigan and Trumbull avenues, watching the Detroit Tigers." This leads Cornies to say that Americans were considered "some of the nicest people" solidified by "cross-border commerce, relationships and family connections." But, he says, all that has changed under President Trump. "As Donald Trump continues bending the U.S. toward authoritarianism and isolation (Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman says America is already becoming a 'rogue nation'), Canada will need to seek friends elsewhere, not only with Great Britain and France, but with the European Union more generally, as well as Asian and Australasian countries." The columnist doubles down, arguing the Trump regime "sidelines Congress, punishes dissenters, ignores court orders and crushes the constitution under its Muscovite jackboots." In response, he says, Canada "must quickly and dramatically ratchet up its response." As for those historic personal ties, it will be a challenge "not harming the personal friendships, respect and familial relationships."

March 12/25: The august Washington Post featured Windsor on its front page as the city has increasingly attracted international attention as a ground zero location for the US-Canada trade war. In a lengthy piece reporter Amanda Coletta touches all the bases with interviews with local business and political leaders, as well as giving a history of the two cities' business and social interconnectedness. "Each day, 8,000 trucks carrying $323 million worth of goods cross the aquamarine Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit, making it the busiest land border crossing in North America." As well, "Personal cross-border ties run deep here. Some 1,600 Windsor nurses cross the border each day to work in Detroit. Families and friendships span the frontier. Windsorites cheer for Detroit sports teams. Some Michiganders have their first legal drink in Windsor, where the drinking age is 19." The Trump 25 per cent tariff would hit the city "especially hard," the article says. "Few places in Canada are more dependent on trade with the United States than Windsor, Ontario, where prosperity has long been tied to the automotive industry." Laval auto parts president Jonathon Azzopardi said "it feels like a funeral." Narmco's Don Rodzik says “The industry will completely grind to a halt within days." Saylo Lam, president of Circle 5, an injection mold manufacturer, said the business climate is "probably more worrisome now than it was during the pandemic.” Flex-n-Gate chairman Damian Bryce worries tariffs "will force Flex-N-Gate’s Michigan operations to absorb the Windsor plant," writes the reporter. Mayor Drew Dilkens said it's ironic this is happening when the city is at an "inflection point" with a surge of growth related to investments like the new NextStar Energy battery plant. Warden Hilda MacDonald called it a "betrayal...We thought we were best friends, and we find out that that didn’t run as deep on the other side.”

Feb 26/25: The Toronto Star ventured to suburban Detroit to gauge the impact that Trump's tariffs might have ironically on Michigan auto workers. "Sterling Heights helped deliver the White House to Donald Trump. Yet few communities in America will be more devastated if Trump goes ahead with his plan to impose tariffs on Canadian goods," the Star writes. But the report reads like an opinion piece by Richard Warnica who described Trump as "lizardlike", having "animal cunning" and "not very smart." Warnica goes on, "Like a virus or a stone shank, he isn't complicated, but he is dangerous, and he has no capacity to care about anyone or anything but himself." But back to the suburbs; Warnica writes, "It was impossible not to conclude from my conversations, in places like Sterling Heights, Detroit, East Lansing and more, that there is no grand strategy behind Trump's tariff plan." What really struck the reporter is "in Michigan car country at least, Trump's tariffs plans are almost as terrifying and controversial as they are (in Canada)." The reason? The cross-border interconnectedness of the auto industry. Even a Republican strategist told him: “We're going to see the auto industry grind (to) a halt ..... and that is a huge tax base of the state of Michigan.” Quoting stats, Warnica stated 42% of Michigan's trade goes north. "The low rise, blue collar suburbs of Detroit I spent those days driving through aren't competing with Ontario communities like Oshawa and Windsor so much as they are cooperating with them as part of a single, unified industry."

Feb 12/25: The Globe and Mail applauded the "unique" team between Windsor police and Windsor Regional Hospital where ER staff and police patrol together the city's at times drug infested streets. The goal is to cut down on hospital admissions and police offer protection to nurses administering to addicts or those with mental health problems. "So far, the teams seem to be making a difference. In the first year of the pilot operation, nurse-police pairs handled 1,786 calls for service, treated 129 drug-use-related wounds in the community and diverted 608 potential visits to the ER." Other cities may have joint teams of cops and social workers "but adding ER nurses to the mix seems to be unique to Windsor," the Globe reports. There's no question the region has an illicit street drug problem. "The city and the surrounding County of Essex saw a record 115 opioid-related deaths last year (2023), up from 112 in 2022, 85 in 2021 and 71 in 2020. Until the pandemic, Windsor-Essex’s opioid-related death rate per 100,000 roughly tracked that of Ontario, but the trend lines have diverged since 2021. Provincial rates fell while Windsor-Essex’s rose." The Globe quoted Bill Marra, CEO of WRH subsidiary Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare: "what we're facing is really an evolving change with the social determinants of health. The needs are different. And what’s happened is service providers are catching up to where we need to be with providing support for patients or clients.” The Globe added that the mental-health and substance-use crisis was hampering the ability of police and emergency department staff to do their jobs.

Jan 29/25: The Financial Post put Windsor on its front page as the city on the “front lines” of the presumed tariff war between the United States and Canada. Reporter Joe O’Connor came to Canada’s auto capital to examine the potential fallout to the city’s manufacturing should the Trump 25 per cent tariff go ahead. But O’Connor used acclaimed Windsor pizza as a reference point throughout the story. “More than 42,000 area residents work so-called blue-collar jobs, giving the city its feisty and resilient sense of pride,” he wrote. In the 2008 financial crash the city’s unemployment topped 16 per cent and “families cut back on spending — some moved away altogether — and people stopped ordering pizza.” He quotes the CEO of Galati Cheese, which supplies cheese to the area’s pizzerias. “Those were hard times for our town,” Peter Piazza recalled. O’Connor adds context: “If you have ever found yourself in the Canadian border town directly across the river from Detroit and had a hankering for some Windsor-style pizza, which, as far as food items go, inspires near-religious devotion among the locals and has achieved a degree of national renown in foodie circles, the pizza was most assuredly topped by Galati’s mozzarella, famously made with pure milk sourced from nearby dairy farms.” Piazza says he is concerned about the fallout of tariffs on his city. “If people were to visit our town and see the Ambassador Bridge, with all those trucks going back and forth across it each day, I tell you, it is a parade,” Piazza said. “Any tariffs could mean job losses, and if people around town start losing their jobs, there is going to be a trickle-down effect. I sure hope Trump is bluffing.” O’Connor repeats the well repeated stat that a quarter of Canada-US trade passes over the bridge. And he throws in the wider cross-border relationships. “Mixed amongst those trucks are the human commuters, including an estimated 2,000 Canadian nurses who cross the bridge from their Canadian homes to work in Michigan hospitals and health-care centres. Stories of an American girl meeting a Canadian boy and the rest becoming history are common at supper tables on both sides of the border, further underscoring a bond through commerce, life and love, perhaps best captured by the well-tread line amongst Windsorites, proud Canadians though they are, that the city of 300,000 might fairly be mistaken for a suburb of Detroit.” As for Galati itself the firm could also be impacted. Cleveland’s Kirtland Capital invested in the company some time ago. O'Connor says executive Corrie Menary “is scratching her head over the wisdom of tariffs. By her math, targeting Canada with tariffs simply doesn’t add up, and it could produce a recessionary blowback for her American neighbours.”

Jan 13/25: The Globe and Mail is enamored of Windsor’s next phase in auto production, electrical vehicles. Headlined “On EV Revolution’s Front Lines” the article profiles the Dodge Charger Daytona, the first Canadian-made EV. “Millions of vehicles have rolled out of the Stellantis assembly plant in Windsor, Ont., during its 96-year history, but this car is different,” the article says. “It’s electric, and it marks the beginning of a new era for these workers, the city, the province, the country, the Canadian auto industry and, if all goes according to plan, our climate goals.” However, while decades of planning by the auto manufacturers and government have gone into this moment the industry, exemplified by the Charger, still faces “hurdles.” Not least because it’s a “niche vehicle” and Canada faces president-elect Donald Trump’s threatened 25% import tariff. Stellantis’s faith in the EV comes when “most automakers are scaling back their EV ambitions, affordable Chinese EVs are poised to undercut Western manufacturers and Stellantis in particular is in trouble. Its share price has fallen around 40 per cent this year on high inventories, slow sales and falling revenue, which recently prompted the sudden resignation of chief executive officer Carlos Tavares.” Before the Charger the plant was only producing the Chrysler Pacifica, which slow sales meant a cutback from three shifts to two. The Charger will also have a gas version. “’We were hoping to get [a new vehicle],’ said (plant manager David) Bellaire. ‘What [type of vehicle] it was, at the end of the day I don’t think we really cared, as long as it was another product to protect our jobs and the city. When they announced that we were getting [the new Charger], it was like we could have had a parade,’ said Mr. 9David) Bellaire, who explained that they’d had to compete with other Stellantis plants for the work.”

Dec 17/24: It’s a story that has legs, as they say. National Post reports that Windsor Regional Hospital’s two Tim Hortons outlets actually lose money, and substantially. This flies in the face of the fact Tim’s is one of the most profitable restaurant chains in Canada, often seen as a licence to print money. Quoting research from SecondStreet.org, the Post says the two Timmies lose an average $1300 per day. They collectively lost $487,662 in the 2023-24 fiscal year. “Or, to put it in health-care terms, Windsor Regional Hospital could fund about three heart transplants with the money it’s losing each year on doughnut and coffee sales," the newspaper says. "The Canadian Institute for Health Information currently pegs the cost of a heart transplant at about $140,000.” SecondStreet.org first reported on these losses in 2020 but the hospital said the organization erred in fact. The two outlets began operations in 2010 and SecondStreet.org says they have lost more than $2 million since that time. Yet this contradicts how the chain does overall. “Just last month, Tim Hortons’ parent company — Restaurant Brands International Inc. — posted higher-than-expected earnings due almost entirely to Tim Hortons 'outperforming the market,' in the words of chief executive Joshua Kobza.” So why the loss? It’s because of a “long-ago agreement” with Unifor, the same union that represents the hospital’s food service staff. “Windsor Regional Hospital is paying its Tim Hortons employees at the same rate as unionized hospital workers.” Starting pay is $23.26/hr. and can rise to more than $30. “For context, a standard Ontario Tim Hortons would have its base wages set by the current Ontario minimum wage of $17.20 per hour.”

Dec 2/24: The Globe and Mail took a tour of downtown Detroit and was awed by the changes even going so far as calling it a “wondrous place.” Writer Sarah Efron: “The Motor City has been transformed from a partially abandoned, bankrupt metropolis into a playground where well-off folks can drink, dine and sleep in an endless array of magnificently restored buildings.” She even described it as “whatisperhapsthemostfascinating city” in America. This is a Detroit she never knew growing up in southern Ontario. “It’s a far cry from the Detroit I heard about as a kid growing up in London, Ont. Tales of high crime, arson on the night before Halloween and violent race riots in the 1960s and seventies meant few travelled to the nearby city, which saw its population of 1.8 million in the 1950s erode to 630,000 by 2022. The dominant auto industry struggled and many white people moved to outlying suburbs after the race riots, leaving homes unsellable and entire neighbourhoods deserted.” But the writer cautioned the current city isn’t for everyone. “Best suited for travellers who can handle some rough edges, it has become a magnet for architecture, sports and arts fans wanting to tap into its rich culture.” Efron said the reopening of the landmark Michigan Central Station symbolizes some of the current excitement. “Visitors can see the restoration, which includes spectacular marble floors and tiles, decorative rosettes that were 3-D printed to match donated originals, and the nicest train station bathrooms you’ll ever experience, on the free self-guided tour.” She also lauded Detroit’s food scene. “Highend French and Italian restaurants are attracting tons of buzz, but don’t forget the homegrown cuisine. 'New American' restaurants serve up fancified U.S. classics with foreign influences.” And for those who miss the near disinvestment past of the Motor City, don’t be dissuaded. Says Efron, “If crumbling ruins are more to your taste, there’s no shortage of once-glamorous high rises, abandoned schools and partially destroyed automotive factories such as the Packard Plant, to eyeball.”

Nov 19/24: Well-known community activist and retired Windsor Regional Hospital spokeswoman Gisele Seguin wonders why “so many North Americans” are afraid of cemeteries. Writing in the First Person column in The Globe and Mail Seguin says she volunteers at Windsor Grove Cemetery, perhaps the city’s best known with several famous – and infamous - former residents interred there. She’s a member of the Ontario Genealogical Society and each week cleans and restores grave markers and researches the lives of those buried with the aim of digitizing an online data base. “Floods, weather and years of tree and plant growth have affected these fragile headstones in many ways,” she writes. “The work involves cleaning with special materials and, in some cases, probing and digging up lost markers. Many of the headstones are made of porous marble and granite and tend to be fragile, in disrepair and, sadly, often illegible. Being able to read the information on a grave marker allows families to visit, find markers they may not have seen in years, and helps historians and genealogists.” The work, every Thursday morning, is serene. “It’s peaceful, no one argues with me or annoys me. I have conversations with the dead.” Seguin says it also channels the Chinese concept of chi energy. “It flows through all living beings and connects us energetically, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I thought it was a perfect analogy for what we do.” She’s in Guatemala this month for the Barriletes Gigantes, or Giant Kite Festival, which honours the dead. “The event is a visual spectacle, but also a deeply spiritual and communal experience, with people gathering to remember and to celebrate their loved ones.” Asks Seguin: “Why don’t we have annual celebrations in our cemeteries and graveyards?”

WON Nov 5/24: A couple of Michiganders spent a day sightseeing in Windsor – without a car! They took the tunnel bus over and the whole experience was a transit revelation. “I live in Ann Arbor and my partner lives up in Holly, so we met in Detroit (after using the D2A2 and Woodward FAST, of course!). They said the the tunnel bus stop behind Mariners Church in Detroit is in “an odd spot” beside the tunnel entrance. “Once you’re across the border, you can either go through customs and get back on the bus or leave after customs. The bus needs to wait for everyone to go through customs, but this was very fast for us! You can exchange your money right next to the tunnel exit or ride the bus to the Transit Center and pick up a Transit Windsor Smartcard. It’s a preloaded card you just need to tap to pay on the bus.” The author, identified only as Petra, writing in the Transportation Riders United blog post, said Windsor buses are “very impressive.” “We mainly took the 2 Crosstown, which comes every 15-20 minutes most of the time. The longest we had to wait was 15 minutes for the bus, after barely missing one. Most of the time, we waited only a few minutes! While this is the primary route in their network, Transit Windsor is currently in a plan to increase frequency across their system. Even outside this route, we were able to get to and around Sandwich, Walkerville, and Riverside with ease!” The tourists cited “amazing things” to do in Windsor including the downtown museums which have “amazing contemporary exhibits.” They liked the waterfront. “The Riverwalk was beautiful, it was so cool seeing Detroit from the other side, and Windsor’s Riverwalk is covered in sculptures! To see them all, start the Riverwalk near the Ambassador Bridge.” They said the city is also “for book lovers” citing Juniper Books on Ottawa St. and Biblioasis on Wyandotte. They also cited several well kinown eateries including Antonino’s Pizza, Taloola Café, Café Armor & Art and Steak N Shawarma.

Sept. 30/24: The Globe and Mail has discovered Boblo island. The Toronto-based publication sent a reporter to Boblo this summer to report on the current state of island development in the context of its glorious history as an amusement park. “As development expands on Bois Blanc Island, locals on both sides of the Detroit River are grappling with what has been lost, Sarah Efron writes.” The reporter waited patiently for the ferry that would take her to Amico’s ongoing residential community – “the former home of a much-loved amusement park, and current site of a controversial development – that I’d heard about for so long.” Efron was “intrigued. Was anything left of the amusement park, or had the island been completely transformed? And what is lost when a site of historical significance that so many people hold dear is remade into what marketing materials describe as an exclusive island resort?” She discussed the price points of homes and “if Amico’s development of 220 lots on the south side of the island moves forward as planned, the population could rise to roughly 925.” She drives by the onetime amusement park theatre. “The sprawling building still has a majestic energy, despite the fading teal paint on its wraparound porch, boarded up doors and crumbling roof.” She asked if anyone “can save this magnificent structure?" She also came across the storied Dance Hall. She gives a history of the park, opened in 1898. “Boblo Island’s amusement park wasn’t widely known outside the region, but the memories are strong for locals. Eyes lit up in Amherstburg when I mentioned the park, and most people in their mid-40s or older are keen to share memories of working there as teens in the summers.” Today she says the island is “a gated community in every aspect, but instead of gates, the Detroit River serves as a moat. The residents pay a fee of around $5,000 per household a year to fund the ferry, and many don’t see any reason others should be allowed to use it.” Ephron notes Amico plans to open a restaurant “in the next few years” and references locals who would like to have more access. “The Dance Hall illustrates the dilemma of Boblo, and how competing heritage and environmental concerns are clashing with development pressures.”

Sept. 11/24: It’s the notorious Trans Cat of Windsor. Rebel News updated its reporting on one Cody D’Entremont, who it says transitioned from male to female aka Desiree Anderson “to get into the Welcome Centre shelter where bona fide vulnerable women reside.” In April last year Windsor cops charged him with sexual assault on a female resident at the shelter. It’s after that that he/she transitioned yet again. “After the assault, sources told Rebel News that Cody/Desiree started to identify as a… cat. Apparently, he would don some dollar store props (pointy ears, tail, etc.) and walk the streets of Windsor as a feline. Whether he identified as a male or female feline remains unknown.” During a two day trial in August “the complainant testified that D’Entremont allegedly verbally abused her on March 26, 2023, when she and D’Entremont were in the same room together. There was no one else present at the time. After the alleged verbal attack ended, she alleged D’Entremont began groping her. The complainant, who was lying on her bed watching Netflix on her tablet, testified that she pushed back against his advances and yelled ‘No!’ several times. But she said D’Etremont would not take no for an answer. What followed next, she alleged, was a brief albeit brutal rape that involved penetration.” D’Entremont denied all allegations. “In the final analysis, the judge found the complainant to be credible but not reliable. Because she agreed with his lawyer that there was reasonable doubt, D’Entremont was acquitted.” But, says Rebel News, “the elephant in the room was never addressed by either of the lawyers nor the judge. Which is to say: what was a man doing in a female shelter in the first place (and) what does his so-called “transition” into a woman and then a cat say about his credibility?”

August 9/24: A Windsor-based American university teacher used the metaphor of the new Gordie Howe Intl. Bridge as a symbol of connectivity in a world that is often at odds. Writing in the Toronto Star Casey Plett, who lives in Old Sandwich Town and has dual Canadian American citizenship, called the bridge “a fitting metaphor for attempting interconnection against a world of rage-filled politics and culture wars.” The transgender woman and author focussed specifically on a confrontation between two groups over the issue of gender affirmation. This was a rally last year outside MPP Lisa Gretzky’s office by Parents for Parents Rights, protesting the New Democrat’s refusal to oppose a local school board’s policy of not informing parents when students want to change their identity. “An unaffiliated group of queer people and allies showed up to counterprotest. I was among them.” Plett’s opinion is that the opposing parents' group was “transphobic.” But at the end of the event she doubted anyone changed anyone else’s minds. “Quite the contrast to the quietly pleasant experience of watching a mass of working people make the Gordie Howe Bridge rise… After all, what could be a grander analogy for goodwill, of two different entities reaching out to work together? It’s almost too cute.” Plett then meditates on how people can be superficially nice to one another in daily life but hold very different opinions. “Frenetic, divided politics are all around us, yet the bulk of our day-to-day interactions with strangers are objectively calm,” she says. “I don’t know how we solve the culture wars, or the inherent contradiction of my belief that they are universally stultifying and specifically threatening my existence. I do know we could all talk more to the strangers we are fated to live beside.”

July 29/24: The University of Windsor’s recent agreement with the pro-Palestinian/Hamas and anti-Israel encampment is a “model” for how other universities “ought to respond” to such protests. University of Windsor law professors Naven Bakali and Jillian Rogin write in The Hill Times that the “landmark agreement…..unparalleled in its breadth and depth among Canadian institutions, encompasses a comprehensive set of commitments that include enhanced transparency, divestment initiatives, support for academic boycotts, support for Palestinian scholars and students, and anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.” They said it garnered “widespread support” from faculty and students. The profs call it a “rare exception" to how other universities have handled their protests where “confrontations often involved campus police, riot squads, or even lawsuits.” Yet it has drawn criticism from Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, the federal government’s special adviser on Jewish community relations and antisemitism. He has made “appeals” to senior government officials for “intervention.” Bakali and Rogin say such actions “not only abuse their power, but also threaten the sanctity of academic freedom—spaces traditionally dedicated to open discussion, expression, and scholarly debate.” And they add to the “weaponization of antisemitism, aiming to stifle pro-Palestinian voices.” Moreover there is “nothing anti-Jewish about the agreement.” The law professors say this is in line with the university being “the first Canadian university to divest from apartheid-era South Africa due to student activism, and it proudly upholds its commitment to justice by standing on the right side of history once again.” Rogin’s bio says she “researches the weaponization of antisemitism.”

- The professors op-ed drew criticism from Honest Reporting Canada, which studies how Israel is portrayed in the Canadian media. HRC described the article as calling for “the capitulation by university administrators to the marginal demonstrators. Naved Bakali, who has previously denied Israel’s right to exist in a previous column he authored, and his colleague Jilian Rogin, called for universities to follow in the shameful footsteps of the University of Windsor, the singular Canadian school which, in a recent agreement with the anti-Israel mob, gave in to many demands, showing what spineless leadership on campus looks like.”

July 23/24: The University of Windsor has come in for a drubbing from Jewish groups across Canada after its “shameful agreement” with pro-Palestine campus demonstrators. And a National Post op-ed lays out the reasons why. Avi Benlolo of the Branham Global Peace Initiative called this month’s pact “surreal, perhaps even dystopian.” He was amazed UW was “so cowed” that it “capitulated to the demands of a small, ragtag group of students whose sole purpose seems to be to demonize, defame and destabilize a follow democracy — the State of Israel.” He refers to an email famed Canadian film producer Robert Lantos sent him: “Windsor has fallen. Hamas rules. Reading this proclamation is surreal. It took me back to 1930s Hungary. The first Jewish laws were directed at universities.” Adds Benlolo, “The agreement feels like a script from a movie set in a twisted, upside-down world where truth is evil, wrong is right and radicals and oppressors are venerated.” He noted the protesters’ hypocrisy. “Where was the ‘Liberation Zone’ during the Arab Spring, when Syrian President Bashar Assad slaughtered 500,000 of his own citizens, even gassing them with toxic chlorine? Where was it when ISIL was butchering Coptic Christians and Yazidis, or when the Taliban reclaimed power in Afghanistan, condemning women to barbaric pre-feudal times?” Benlolo says “shockingly” UWindsor caved by agreeing to “not pursue any institutional academic agreements with Israeli universities until the right of Palestinian self-determination has been realized.” Despite the fact Gazan universities “have been used by Hamas to store weapons for terror attacks against Israel, the agreement calls for ‘establishing or re-establishing institutional relationships with Palestinian universities,’ but not with Israeli institutions. Instead of ensuring that its investments conform to Canadian anti-terror laws, the agreement shamefully discusses ensuring the school’s 'responsible investment policy' takes into account a United Nations database of companies whom it has identified are engaged in illegal Israeli settlement enterprise in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

July 9/24: Windsor is described as a “hinterland” in a Toronto-based Globe and Mail essay about a Windsor arts business. “For centuries, cultural consumers have assumed that art is the product of cosmopolitan centres. Most urbanites don’t think of our culture as something imported from the hinterland, along with our grain and hogs. Or, in the case of Windsor, Ont., our cars,” The Globe says. “So when Dan Wells founded book publisher Biblioasis in Windsor, many expressed skepticism. ‘Nothing of any importance in the history of publishing has ever come from a place like this,’ was the typical refrain, he recalls now.” Not only does Biblioasis thrive in an international world of elite book publishing but it was launched in 2004 when the Canadian book industry was “consolidating,” The Globe says. As well, because the Canadian market is “inundated with imported books, Canada is ‘one of the toughest markets to publish into in the English-speaking world,’ according to David Davidar, former publisher of Penguin Canada.” And profitability is “razor thin.” Yet, despite the obstacles, “Biblioasis is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Its location – more affordable than any big city and a short drive from the U.S. border – along with its DIY spirit, has seen the company buck industry trends, offering insight into surviving, and by some measures thriving, in the perilous trade.” And while in its early Days Wells was “hyper-attuned to preconceived notions about Biblioasis’s city of origin…..things have changed.” Now its success, with many titles celebrated critically and distributed around the world, is cemented. It has published more than 400 books “including prestigious titles such as Alexander MacLeod’s Light Lifting (the press’s first Giller Prize shortlisting in 2010), Anakana Schofield’s Martin John (a Giller finalist in 2015), Britain’s Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport (shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2019), and Mark Bourrie’s Bush Runner (winner of the $30,000 RBC Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction in 2020).”

June 24/24: On June 15 The Globe and Mail reported on the City of Windsor’s new policy to tax vacant houses that have been occupied for more than half a year. Yet it quoted housing experts who suggested the policy, enacted in other Canadian cities, can have mixed results. The tax will be three per cent on the assessed value. The Globe points out that Windsor is relying on neighbours to report unoccupied properties, unlike in other cities “requiring all homeowners to file occupancy declarations.” But Mayor Drew Dilkens said Windsor wants to expressly avoid “ ‘some of the chaos’ Toronto recently experienced when numbers of residents missed the reporting deadline.” He said, “Every neighbourhood knows where the vacant homes are.” Vancouver was the first city to impose such a tax, adding a one per cent levy in 2017. The rate has been increased to three per cent. “The city (Vancouver) says there is “strong evidence” the tax is working, citing data showing the number of vacant homes dropped by 54 per cent between 2017 and 2022, according to a report last year,” says the newspaper. Thomas Davidoff, a University of British Columbia professor, says the tax has boosted housing supply but it’s difficult to determine if it has increased affordability. But Toronto Metropolitan University professor Murtaza Haider said these taxes are generally ineffective. “It’s more about optics." he said. "It’s basically being seen as doing something about housing.” The Ontario government this year granted municipalities the power to tax vacant homes. A three per cent tax on a $500,000 home would bring in $15,000. Ottawa and Hamilton have also introduced one per cent taxes. The Globe quoted Dilkens as saying there are some 200 -250 vacant homes in Windsor, the program will bring in $500,000 - $600,000 and cost up to $150,000 to administrate.

May 29/24: As part of its ongoing focus on Windsor The Globe and Mail has taken aim at downtown’s high commercial vacancy rate, as startlingly reported this month by CBRE’s Brad Collins, and efforts to stem the loss of commercial tenants from the downtown, as per city hall’s just passed $3.2 million effort to “Strengthen the Core.” “Cities across Canada may be struggling with the same problem of empty downtown office buildings, but Windsor, Ont., stands far apart with the country’s highest commercial vacancy rate – and it has now embarked on an ambitious plan to reverse the fortunes of its blighted core,” The Globe reported. It noted the rate jumped to 41.6 per cent, more than double since before the pandemic. “Windsor would seem to have many of the ingredients in place to thrive,” such as massive investments like the NextStar Energy plant and Gordie Howe Intl. Bridge. And “the city’s population growth is outpacing the province.” Windsor also has had the third-fastest growth rate of active businesses in Ontario during the past two years. “It’s just that none of those businesses want to be downtown, and the ones that were there have been leaving.” The main reason is safety, according to CBRE. The newspaper quoted downtown councillor Renaldo Agostino, who “traces many of the area’s problems to the decision to concentrate so many of the city’s social services, such as homeless shelters and harm reduction pharmacies, in one area of downtown.” He said Windsor has a small downtown where “one or two wrong moves can have a very adverse effect. But it’s also an opportunity, because one or two right moves could bring things back real fast.” Despite the new $3.2 million to bolster downtown – including hiring 12 cops – one homeless advocate said the plan relies too heavily on policing and needs an “integrated approach” to help the homeless.

May 8/24: A major construction union isn’t giving up its demand for government intervention into employment at the Stellantis LG Energy NextStar EV battery plant on Windsor’s east side. Canada’s Building Trades Union, which represents half a million construction workers, in late April wrote the prime minister to “intervene” in the “ongoing use of international workers” at the sprawling construction site, the True North news site reports. After employment promises and “months of Windsor contractors submitting quotes for installing equipment at the battery plant, it was disclosed that NextStar and Stellantis were hiring 1,600 temporary foreign workers from South Korea and Japan to install the equipment,” the website, quoting the union, says. “This decision could ultimately cost Canadian skilled labourers around $300 million in lost wages and contractor fees, according to Canada’s Building Trades Union.” Union executive director Sean Strickland said efforts to resolve the matter with the companies have been unsuccessful. “Over the past several months Canada’s Building Trade Unions have diligently worked to secure an agreement to ensure Canadians are employed in the construction and installation phases of this project, through several months of fruitless meetings with Stellantis and LG,” reads the letter, obtained by True North. “Our efforts have so far failed due to LG and Stellantis’ intransigence.” “One hundred and eighty local skilled trades workers in the Essex-Kent region – Millwrights and Ironworkers – are unemployed and available to perform this work,” the letter continues. “In fact, Canadian workers are now being replaced by international workers at an increasing pace, on work that was previously assigned to Canadian workers.” A day after the letter was written, the plants were expecting the arrival of 50 additional international workers, which Strickland called a “slap in the face to Canadian workers and utterly unacceptable from LG and Stellantis.”

April 25/24: National Post did an analytical piece about why Windsor decided to buck the federal government’s offer of as much as $70 million to create new housing. Windsor did apply under the Housing Acceleration Fund (HAF) but only on its terms, meaning no fourplexes “as of right” on any lot anywhere in the city, without a public hearing. “Windsor’s proposal would have allowed four units and four storeys in any new development and along transit routes in many areas but stopped short of the federal government’s demand to allow four units on any residential lot across the city,” the Post reports. The newspaper said that among other of the city’s concerns Windsor wouldn’t be able to handle parking or drainage issues, citing previous years' east side flooding. It also said Mayor Drew Dilkens worried “that if Windsor went to four and the city’s suburbs didn’t it would encourage sprawl outside the city’s borders.” Meanwhile it quoted one of the three councillors, Fabio Costante, who parted from the mayor on the 8-3 city council vote to reject Ottawa’s offer. “’We didn’t have any reliable evidence whatsoever to form a conclusion that rezoning in this fashion would have materially deteriorated neighbourhoods, or depreciated property values or affected quality of life for residents,’” the councillor said. Costante said 8700 people are on a housing waitlist, so it behooves the municipality to do things differently. “’The way we build our city moving forward has to be different than the way we did it in the past, in light of population growth that we’ve never seen before, in light of barriers to housing and homelessness at rates we’ve never seen before,’” Costante said. Housing Minister Sean Fraser concluded the feds “were looking for a high bar and Windsor’s application didn’t clear it,” the Post reports.

April 11/24: Toronto-based Rebel News has been in Windsor investigating a member of the Windsor Police Service identified as Jane Roehler. She is a transgender woman whom Rebel News says the WPS is “going out of its way to accommodate.” Apparently Roehler identifies as female “except when he’s off duty during baseball season — that’s when he allegedly goes back to identifying as ‘one of the guys’ so he can play some hardball.” Rebel News adds “he’s still attracted to and dates real females.” The news outlet says this is “extremely problematic for females on the force” especially devout Christians and Muslims. “Also problematic: he allegedly is permitted to strip search female suspects.” Reporter David Menzies suggested hiring Roehler is part of an “unspoken strategy appears to be virtue signaling. For the WPS, Roehler is a living, breathing example of how the force is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion.” Menzies conducted interviews with several WPS officers who wouldn’t ID themselves “because they fear they will either be disciplined — or even fired.” And they say WPS legal counsel Bryce Chandler “allegedly threatened police officers with criminal charges if they continued to voice complaints regarding Roehler.” Rebel News has sought comment from the organization but has been stonewalled. “We contacted WPS via phone, email correspondence, and even two personal visits to WPS headquarters. Not even the Corporate Communications Department will provide a comment or even acknowledge our requests for an interview.” Ditto for Mayor Drew Dilkens, who chairs the Police Services Board. “Again, it’s been radio silence.” An earlier Rebel News video apparently “caused a s--- storm” within the department.

March 27/24: “A long decline in the traditional manufacturing that had driven Windsor’s economy and energy needs, and which was worsened by the 2008-09 recession, made the area a low priority for investment by the Ontario government,” opens a recent Globe and Mail article about Windsor-Essex’s industrial electricity requirements. The region, let's say, was once a stable industrial backwater. “A long decline of traditional manufacturing that had driven the local economy and its energy needs, worsened by the 2008-09 recession and its fallout, made it a low-priority area for investment,” The Globe says. Only in the last few years has it been turning a corner with major new industrial developments such as the LG Energy Solution battery plant, the proliferating greenhouse industry and, on the horizon, new industrial lands near the airport and in neighbouring Sandwich South. The good news is that senior government and energy providers have woken up. That includes several new transmission lines. The first, running from Chatham to Lakeshore,” has proceeded ahead of schedule and completion is expected this year.” The “most significant” transmission prospect beyond that is another pair of new lines running into Lakeshore from near London, Hydro One aiming for the first to be completed by 2030. Also, nearly 800 megawatts of new locally-generated power were approved last year. “They take the form of additional natural gas generating capacity (most notably an expansion of Capital Power’s East Windsor Cogeneration Centre), and an array of new battery storage facilities, the province’s first major investment in that technology.”

March 10/24: A University of Windsor professor is being taken to task for a commentary he co-penned in Ottawa's The Hill Times, which covers Parliament Hill and federal politics. Robert Walker of Honest Reporting Canada, an organization "ensuring fair and accurate Canadian media cioverage of Israel," says Naved Bakali, an assistant professor of anti-racism eductaion, and lawyer Faisal Kutty, "string together a hodgepodge of half-truths and overt falsehoods in an attempt to pressure the Trudeau government to fall into line." The title of their Feb. 12 piece is "The Liberals no longer have unconditional Muslim support." Says Walker, "ghoulishly" both authors "have previously denied Israel’s right to defend itself against Palestinian terrorism." Walker first questions the assumption the entire Muslim community had been giving the Trudeau government "unconditional and unquestioned support." The co-authors take issue with Ottawa's suspension (now reinstated) funding of UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, based on "unverified Israeli claims that a minuscule fraction of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza were implicated in the attacks of Oct. 7." But, says Walker, "To characterize UNRWA’s ties to fanatical Islamic terrorism as a 'miniscule fraction of UNRWA’s staff' is to stretch the truth to its breaking point." He says "for anyone interested to pay attention, UNRWA has long been accused of ties to Hamas, its 'educational' resources such as school textbooks are dripping with incitement and hatred towards Jews and Israel, and as many as one-tenth of its Gaza staff have ties to terror groups." And Israeli officials "showed video footage of a huge tunnel system directly underneat UNRWA HQ. Walker concludes that Bakali and Kutty "evidently prefer to pretend such mountains of evidence simply do not exist, instead mislead readers into thinking that UNRWA is an innocent organization, falsely defamed by Israel for political reasons."

Feb 8/24: University of Windsor researchers argue post-war Canadian suburban growth has been “because of policy as much as preference.” Former city councillor Rino Bortolin, now strategic adviser and project manager at UW’s Centre for Cities, and Centre director Anneke Smit, along with two others, wrote in a Jan. 22 Globe and Mail op-ed, that suburbs have been defended as the “Canadian way.” More than two-thirds of the country’s population indeed live in them. But the “flaw in this premise” is that suburbanization is “not necessarily a reflection of people’s preferences” but “largely a consequence of deliberate policy choices that have affected what has been built and where.” This has prevented “comprehensive urbanism (or different types of housing and neighbourhoods) from being viable.” Examples are “regressive and restrictive zoning bylaws and municipal taxation schemes that have favoured building on undeveloped land over building in established urban cores.” This has resulted in “building of suburban, car-centric neighbourhoods while limiting the range of urban living options.” Bottom line: “The long-time priority of building single-family homes to create low-density areas has shifted planning processes away from what should be their primary goal: creating livable cities for everyone.” The authors say the goal should be growth in ways “environmentally and fiscally prudent, and that prioritize equity and public health.” On top of “oversimplified municipal tax policies”, infrastructure investments followed as per the amount invested in highways and expressways versus public transit, making cities “less desirable.” But given that cities today are facing “multiple intersecting crises, including housing affordability, climate change, biodiversity, public and mental health and socioeconomic disparity, dense and walkable urban neighbourhoods have emerged as superior.”

Jan 23/24: The Globe and Mail reports that for the first time the licence to operate Windsor’s casino “is up for grabs.” Reporter Fred Lum says the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. “is in the final stage of reviewing offers for what’s historically been a license to print money.” Caesars has run the casino since its inception 30 years ago. But The Globe’s story say three proponents are currently in the running – Caesars, Bally’s and Mohegan, a Connecticut-based Indigenous corporation which also operates the two casinos in Niagara Falls. The licence renewal has sparked conversation in Windsor. “In Windsor, everyone you talk to has a view of who should run a property that dominates the city’s economy – and skyline – by providing more than 2,000 jobs and anchoring the tourism industry,” Lum says. Yet support for the incumbent Caesars “is universal.” Quoting Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy, “Caesars should be the favoured candidate, based on the job they’ve done running the casino and providing quality jobs.” Cassidy said Caesars has more than a proven track record. It was the first casino in Ontario sparking the provincial casino industry and has forced competition from Detroit. “Windsor needs an international casino operator who can do what’s needed to win customers and stop them from playing across the river in Detroit,” Cassidy said. He said if a competitor was chosen it would cost “at least $80-million” to rebrand the property. Gord Orr, CEO of the area tourism bureau, also chimed in. “It’s critically important that whoever OLG chooses to run the casino have an established brand, with the gambling expertise and the loyalty programs that keep patrons coming back.” The Globe gives a history of gaming in Windsor and reports that in 2022, the city welcomed 4.4 million visitors, adding almost $700 million to the economy. “For the tourism sector, Caesars put us on the path to prosperity,” Orr said. “In the hospitality industry, the casino offers destination jobs.” Former Windsor Star columnist Chris Vander Doelen, who wrote a book on gambling in Canada, is also quoted. “Back in the day, Windsor had its identity as an automobile city tattooed on both arms. The casino successfully changed the city’s view of itself.”