Coverage of St. Catharines Communist Party candidate in Vapaa Sana, a Finnish-Canadian newspaper

SALEH WAZIRUDDIN - NIAGARA COALITION FOR PEACE, CANADIAN PEACE CONGRESS, COMMUNIST CANDIDATE FOR ST. CATHARINES
by Sofia Vuorinen for Vapaa Sana


I first encountered Saleh Waziruddin at a luncheon meeting of the Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association.  I took particular note of him because he was carrying an armful of People's Voice.  He is the co-convenor of Niagara Coalition for Peace and a member of the Canadian Peace Congress executive council.  There are occasional Niagara News Bulletins in People's Voice.  In the November 1-15, 2011, Saleh wrote an article titled in the paper entitled "Canadian Peace Alliance campaign for "Peace and Prosperity, not War and Austerity."  


The Canadian Peace Alliance held its bi-annual convention in Toronto on October 14-16 this year.  The theme of the convention was on "Peace and Prosperity not War and Austerity."  They were agitating for shifting public money from militarism and war into public services, jobs, and the environment.  Postcards can be signed on-line at www.acp-cpa.ca/en/Peace and Prosperity.html.


Several resolutions were passed, including support for the campaign to let U.S. War Resisters stay in Canada, helping students counter military recruitment, and participating in elections by encouraging peace candidates and clear anti-war positions.


I was particularly interested in getting in touch with Saleh when I was informed that he was going to run as a Communist candidate in St. Catharines in our October provincial election.  He had been campaign manager in 2008 in the federal election and in 2007 in the provincial election.  He also ran as a candidate in both the federal and provincial elections this year.


Saleh was born in Montreal to an Indian father and a Pakastani mother.  He lived in the U.S. for 12 years and has now returned to reside in Niagara Falls, Canada.  I wanted to know how he was received in the election as a Communist candidate.  He gave me some very interesting information.  He was approached by different people before the debates who had recognized him from his previous federal candidacy.  After the debate, one individual who was actually working for the Progressive Conservative party told Saleh that he made the most sense of all the candidates!

One of the major issues that he addressed was about the situations in local hospitals in the Niagara area.  The Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) has been cutting emergency rooms in favour of  P3 (public-private partnership) hospitals and mismanaging a bacteria outbreak linked to over 30 deaths.  


Niagara Falls residents have protested three bacterial outbreaks including C-Difficile with several deaths where the outbreak was declared late. The Health Minister Andrews denies that the  cause is funding cuts but adds that they will have to find money to deal with the outbreaks and added housekeeping staff.  


Saleh felt he did very well in certain high schools.  In one, he had the second most votes of any party.  Keep up the great work you are doing in many aspects of your life. Further details of "A People's Agenda for Ontario" is available at www.votecommunist.ca.

Why you should vote Communist today - election message

If you have not already voted and I have the pleasure of having you as a constituent in the St. Catharines Riding, please consider that I am the only candidate who has pledged to restore ALL of the beds, staff, and services that were cut from the hospitals and also to repeal ALL of the HST as the voters in BC did this summer. If you agree with these demands then voting Communist today is the loudest way to make your vote count. The only wasted vote is for a candidate you don't agree with, who either won't win anyway or even if they do (and may not have needed your vote) won't deliver what you want. If you believe in *fully* funding people's needs instead of a perverse welfare for corporate greed, then make your vote truly count by voting Communist.

The fight for putting peoples' needs first of course will not end with the election today. There are three events coming up in St. Catharines that I also want to encourage you to attend and bring people to:

1) Palestine Up Close and Personal: eyewitness accounts of Gaza under Israeli attacks, by Ontario journalist Eva Bartlet; also information from the Mennonite Central Committee on two Palestinian refugees who have just arrived here from Iraq. The event is Saturday October 8, 1 pm in the Mills Room of the St Catharines Public Library on 54 Church St.

2) Voices from the Other Side: a book launch by Keith Bolender about terrorist attacks against Cuba, some of which have killed Canadian citizens and a Canadian airplane was blown up by counter-revolutionaries based in the US. This is on this coming Wednesday October 12th, 7 pm, in the Rotary room of the St Catharines Public Library on 54 Church St.

3) A Cuban doctor reports first-hand on Haiti: Dr. Balseiro Estevez was on a Cuban medical aid mission in Haiti before the earthquake hit and then was there during the earthquake and helped in the relief that followed. It was not reported to us in the media (blacked out) but the majority of medical aid to Haiti after the earthquake came from Cuban doctors (more than any other country). He will be telling us first hand about his experiences on Wednesday, November 2nd, at 7 pm at Brock University's Thistle Hall complex, Room 241.

Here is some last moments election coverage:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3322575
"Bradley has solid lead, survey says"


by Grant LaFleche of the St. Catharines Standard.  The article has a quote from me about the Communist Party position on the HST.

Coverage of Ontario Communist Party Leader Liz Rowley's visit to St. Catharines

Ontario Communist Party Leader Liz Rowley visited St. Catharines on Saturday, October 1st, the same day as Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak's vist to the region.  Tim Hudak left St. Catharines pretty early in the morning, he probably did not want to stick around for when Liz arrived.

http://speakyourmind.thestar.com/experts/get-talking/view-from-the-left-in-niagara-region/
"View from the Left in Niagara Region"

A nice write-up of the visit by Dave Thomas Sr., a designated blogger for the Toronto Star's Speak Your Mind provincial election series.  Some of the quotes in the article were tweeted by audience members.

http://niagarathisweek.com/news/elections/article/1219301--striving-to-be-heard
"Striving to be Heard"

Scott Rosts of Niagara This Week did this nice write-up including an interview with Liz Rowley

St Catharines Standard election videos

The St. Catharines Standard published its series of candidate videos, here are mine:

http://stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3318810
Why are you running for office?

http://stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=3322228

Health care

Niagara This Week's questions for St. Catharines candidates

Niagara This Week asked all St. Catharines candidates to answer two question in 150 words or less each, here are the links to all the candidates' answers:

http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/article/1136705--questions-for-st-catharines-riding-candidates-1

What election issue have you been hearing about in your riding that you plan to act on?

http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/article/1136738--questions-for-st-catharines-riding-candidates-2

From a provincial standpoint, what do you think can be done to jumpstart Niagara’s struggling economy?

Here are my answers to both questions:

#1 (the election issue I've been hearing about and what I will do about it)

Health care: we’re dying needlessly from hospital infection outbreaks because staffing cuts don’t give enough time to clean; emergency rooms are moved over half-an-hour away in favor of a P3 (public-private partnership i.e. for profit) hospital that costs more in ambulances; and bed cuts are so bad that when a 21-year old St. Catharines man got sick abroad earlier this year he was blocked from getting treatment here because there wasn’t even one bed available.  He later died.  The solution: restore the beds, staffing, and services that were cut in favor of corporate tax-cuts which created only record profits and not jobs.  What little money was left is being siphoned off into private profits for outsourcing.  I am the only candidate who says we must hold elected officials accountable for these preventable deaths because the nurses and unions have been warning us this would happen. Voting communist says this loudest.


#2 (how to jump start Niagara's economy provincially)


Ontario has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world but companies sit on record profits instead of investing or creating jobs.  We must reverse these cuts so corporations pay their fair share. Use the money for public investment in re-building industry and the energy and public transportation infrastructure.  Corporations don’t invest when the economy is depressed, only the government will do this.  This is how our industry was built earlier and we can do it again.  Instead, the big business parties shift the tax burden from those who can pay to working people who cannot, and cut our public services too, which hasn’t worked.  Stop the job hemorrhage.  If companies want to close a plant, hold a public tribunal and if the plant is profitable (many closed plants here were!) we’ll run them as a crown corporation instead of layoffs and pulling machines out of Canada. 

Podcast of CKTB 610 AM radio interview with Tim Denis in the Morning

Listen to the 6 minute podcast of my interview Tim Denis, morning host on CKTB 610 AM News Talk radio, linked from CKTB 610's page:

http://www.610cktb.com/shows/tdenis/episodes.aspx

Podcast Powered By Podbean

ArtsVote Niagara ties Communist Candidate for top grade in Arts and Culture policy

ArtsVote Niagara released the results of its 2011 provincial election candidate survey.  I got a B, which is lower than the A I got in the federal election, but is tied with the Green and Liberal candidates for first place in Niagara.  Note that Tim Hudak is again a no-show and did not even bother responding.

The survey itself is available at
http://artsvoteniagara.ca/downloads/ArtsVote_Survey-Prov-2011.pdf

My answer to the open-ended question in Section 2, about the candidate's overall position on arts and culture, is:

"In a capitalist system, where one class owns the wealth and another class must work for that class in order to survive, public funding for the arts is the only way to promote a democratic culture that can counter patriarchy, racism, and capitalism and imperialism itself through creating a space for self-expression for the working class, women, and minorities and oppressed sections of society that is counter to the interests of the market and capitalist class. Arts should be seen as a public utility and not as a cost, as every dollar spent and Ontarian involved in the arts has a large social payoff in cultural and political progress.  If Arts funding is not defended and expanded, and education about the importance of the arts is not carried out into the public, then only culture that perpetuates patriarchy, racism, and imperialism which is in the interest of the corporations enjoying record profits will prevail. Promoting peace and preventing war itself can be done through promoting friendship between the peoples of the world through cultural exchanges, and likewise countering sexism, homophobia, racism, and discrimination domestically can be done through supporting the artistic expression of the marginalized and bringing it into wide public circulation.

The Communist Party believes in defending the arts budget, including Canadian Content and the CBC, from cuts that attack public services working people need for a good quality of life as part of a process that is shifting the tax burden from corporations who can afford it (and are not creating jobs with their record profits) to those who cannot, the working class.

I have been combining my involvement in the Arts and my involvement in Politics since 9/11 with the Zi Collective I co-founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which did political guerrilla theatre as well as public screenings of political films.  I write film reviews for the People’s Voice newspaper and Rebel Youth magazine, the periodical of the Young Communist League (YCL). Through my involvement with the Cuban Canadian Friendship Association I promote solidarity and friendship between peoples through cultural exchanges and organizing cultural events in Niagara."

Press Coverage:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3307578
"Candidates graded on commitment to arts, culture"
By Angela Scappatura of the St. Catharines Standard covers the results for most of the candidates in the four Niagara ridings.

Unfortunately the next two stories only refer to "the three candidates", ignoring the Communist candidate as well as the Green who tied for first place as well as 3 other candidates

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3317391

"The arts are rarely an issue in elections"
By Angela Scappatura of the St. Catharines Standard

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3317393

"The devil you know? Arts organizations fear massive change"
By Angela Scappatura of the St. Catharines Standard

Coverage of the Niagara Health Coalition and Retired Teachers of Ontario Health Care Debate

The Niagara Health Coalition, part of the Ontario Health Coalition, together with the Retired Teachers of Ontario's local organization hosted a debate at the Port Dalhousie Royal Canadian Legion covering the health care crisis in Niagara.  The debate was well-attended because the issue has been killing Niagarans in the last few months but also because all candidates were invited.

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=3306067
"Candidates debate health care"
Erica Bajer of the St. Catharines Standard covered this all-candidates debate.  The story features the sharpest question of the debate: whether someone should be held accountable for the climbing death toll of the hospital infection outbreak.  I was the only candidate who said yes, elected officials should be held accountable, as the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions was warning that this would happen back in May but the politicians didn't listen, and in fact they are still warning that it will get worse.  I was also the first candidate to debunk the Progressive Conservative candidate's claim that eliminating the LHIN's would free up money for front-line health care (administration has to be paid for whether it's done at the LHIN's or locally), which one a lot of applause, and got most of the audience to applaud that this debate invited all candidates unlike the Chamber of Commerce debate the week before.

http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/elections/article/1110434--st-kitts-candidates-talk-health-care
"St. Kitts candidates talk health care Hosted by retired teachers group, Niagara Health Coalition"
Scott Rosts of Niagara This Week covers the debate, leading with the question of accountability.  One correction: I had said we need 80 percent occupancy, 20 percent surplus, because that is what studies have found will inhibit infections.  Has a good photo of all candidates.

Coverage of the Chamber of Commerce exclusion of Communist and other candidates

The St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce has persisted in its practice of excluding candidates arbitrarily.  In 2007 they excluded the Communist Party for not being "mainline", and after protests they included us in 2008.  However in 2011 they excluded us in the federal election as per a policy following the Elections Act's vote rebate threshold 2% of votes, which is a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as decided in Figueroa vs Canada, and the Chamber's use of this rule is arbitrary as there is another Election Act rule reimbursing election expenses with a 10% threshold which excludes 92 of the Liberal candidates in the last federal election.  Moreover, the Niagara Falls and Welland Chambers of Commerce have invited all candidates including independents, and the St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce co-hosted a debate in the same 2011 federal election in Welland inviting all candidates including the independent.  See the press release for details of the protest of this arbitrary and autocratic violation of the Communist candidate's Charter rights.

Please a follow-up post for a letter-writing campaign to persuade the Chamber's board to change its policy in line with the rest of the riding and with democracy.

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3301054

“Fringe candidates removed from election debate”

Front page (front-and-centre) story in the Standard focusing on the joining-the-included-candidates-on-stage phase of the protest.

http://bulletnewsniagara.ca/2011/09/16/election-notebook-excluded-st-catharines-candidates-disrupt-start-of-meeting/

“ELECTION NOTEBOOK: Excluded St. Catharines candidates disrupt start of meeting”

Bullet News Niagara's more complete coverage of the protest.

The Facebook post (http://bulletnewsniagara.ca/2011/09/16/election-notebook-excluded-st-catharines-candidates-disrupt-start-of-meeting) 

includes a reader's comments:

Mike Cloutier This is so wrong. The Chamber of Commerce decides which candidates can participate in the debate based on an arbitrary 2 per cent of the vote in the last election. Why not 1 per cent? Or how about 50 per cent? Or how about only the one who won last time? Just disgusting and a real kick in the teeth of democracy.


http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3302944
“Hudak won't show for key local election debate”


Niagara Falls Review mentions the protest at the end of this article to give context to another Chamber cancelling its debate as Tory leader Tim Hudak has refused to show up at any debates in his riding.


http://stcaths.ca/2011/09/low-key-st-catharines-candidates-debate-follows-dramatic-opener/
“Low-Key St Catharines Candidates Debate Follows Dramatic Opener"


This blog post has action shots from the protest.  The blogger states at the end that private organizations are not obliged to be democratic, however the Chamber has a social responsibility to the community to respect the rights of the voters to be well-informed and the Charter rights of the candidates as its debate is the main debate in the riding.


http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/elections/article/1109504--candidates-square-off-at-chamber-debate

"Candidates square off at chamber debate

Pre-start interruption by uninvited candidates"

Niagara This Week's coverage was on page 3, with photos from the debate including the protest.

http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3302944
"Hudak won't show for key local election debate

Should party leaders be expected to show up for their local debates?"

Niagara Falls Review covers a debate cancellation in Hudak's riding, and at the end also references the St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce debate protest.

Coverage of the TVCogeco All Candidates Debate

TVCogeco hosted an all candidates debate on Tuesday, September 13, at the Laura Secord high school in St. Catharines with questions posed by a student panel.  The debate was broadcast Wednesday, September 14 at 7 pm; Thursday, September 15 at 9 pm; and Saturday, September 17 at 7 pm.

Coverage of the debate:

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3297509

“Candidates pound health system in debate”

They have a funny quote from our candidate, Saleh Waziruddin, but it’s out of context.  The context is: the Conservative had said because of the infections at the hospital from insufficiently cleaned rooms that she would go in herself and scrub the floors, and then the Green said as a midwife she has scrubbed the floors herself, and then…well you’ll just have to read the article!

http://bulletnewsniagara.ca/2011/09/14/green-party-makes-inroads-with-young-crowd-at-first-all-candidates-meeting-in-st-catharines/

“Green Party makes inroads with young crowd at first all-candidates meeting in St. Catharines”

The students declared the Green party candidate the winner but put the Communist candidate on par with her because we both “impressed with their knowledge of the issues, their ideas, their non-attacking approach, and for tackling questions head-on”

The debate was tweeted live by Jeff Bolichowski of the St. Catharines Standard:

http://twitter.com/jeffb_standard

The first broadcast on Tuesday was tweeted by Doug Hagar of Black Cat Productions:

http://twitter.com/blackcatpro


http://speakyourmind.thestar.com/experts/get-talking/leaders-and-answers/
"Leaders and Answers"
The Toronto Star's "Speak Your Mind" series of blogs covers the 2011 Ontario election riding by riding.  Here the St. Catharines blogger William Morrison covers the TVCogeco debate where he analyzes each candidate for both content delivery.  He gives me credit for good interaction with the crowd and charisma, although I am criticized for promoting the Communist Party too much in the content.  If anything I would say the Communist Party doesn't get promoted enough!  Note also that although he says the Green party candidate does not belong in an election debate, the coverage above reports that the student panel awarded her as the winner.


http://www.brockpress.com/news/external-news/provincial-election-debate-for-st-catharines-riding-1.2600081
"Provincial Election debate for St. Catharines riding" 

Brock Press article by Stephanie Macoomb, I am the only candidate not quoted.  Also the photo is actually from the St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce debate.