Monday 19 September 2011

Niagara News Bulletin Sept 15-30, 2011

Niagara News Bulletin
Peoples Voice Niagara Bureau


• 100 migrant farmworkers from the Carribbean and Southeast Asia risked their jobs and more by protesting their conditions, including being banned from unionizing, as part of Justice for Migrant Workers solidarity caravan following the stops of the underground railroad that brought escaped slaves into Niagara.  

• Niagara College’s 250 support staff of OPSEU local 243 joined their peers in a province-wide strike.  Elections Ontario is using the strike as a reason to inconvenience students by moving polls away from campuses, inexplicably citing “security” even though only one campus has a picket which is informational only. 

• The 33rd Niagaran died from being infected while at a hospital that had cuts which prevent staff from being able to clean the hospital properly.  

• The probe of the “Hospital Improvement Plan” (HIP) which moved emergency rooms from local hospitals to a P3 (public private partnership i.e. for profit) hospital 45 minutes away by highway has been collapsed into the work of a provincially-appointed supervisor.  The Niagara Health Coalition meanwhile held public meetings throughout the region where people shared their first-hand experiences with the cuts, and the City of Niagara Falls is filing a complaint to the provincial Ombudsman about closing the local maternity ward.



• Two churches in Niagara are distributing “Let’s Vote for a Poverty Free Ontario” election signs and buttons as part of a Faith to End Poverty campaign, asking voters to grill politicians and canvassers.


• The John Howard Society of Niagara announced that they were only able to find employment for 180 of the 500 youth applicants for summer jobs.


• The St. Catharines & Thorold Chamber of Commerce is still excluding Communist and other candidates from its election debates, despite including all parties in 2008.  You can protest this violation of the Charter right to participate equally in elections by e-mailing the CEO, Walter Sendzik, at wsendzik@sctchamber.com or phone 905-684-2361 and fax 905-684-2100.

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