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Wednesday June 28, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 28, 2017

Councillors vote to sell disputed Dundas alley

The city is poised to close and sell a controversial Dundas alley regularly used by school children despite increasingly loud opposition from local residents.

August 15, 2015

Members of the public works committee voted unanimously Monday to sell a short section of unserviced lane parallel to Sydenham Street to adjacent landowner Len Medeiros, a well-known Dundas developer whose construction company does sewer and water work for the city.

David Jones, a spokesperson for many residents opposed to the sale, said he would speak to a lawyer about what opportunities exist to appeal the decision. But he also expressed hope city council would reverse the decision in a final vote required Wednesday.

More than 30 people publicly urged councillors to reject the proposed sale Monday, with several complaining about what they saw as the city’s willingness to sell a public asset to a “well-connected” buyer over the objections of the larger community. Others suggested it was wrong to “reward” Medeiros after he previously paved a portion of the public alley without permission and briefly erected a fence to block pedestrian access last summer.

Medeiros declined an interview after the meeting, but Dundas Coun. Arlene VanderBeek publicly addressed allegations of favoritism ahead of Monday’s vote.

“There is no special privilege involved here, for anyone,” she said. “The issue of importance here is safety … safety for children and residents.”

VanderBeek pointed to the city staff report, which cited traffic department concerns with residents — particularly children — exiting the alley mid-block on Alma Street on the way to a nearby school. There is no sidewalk on that side of the street, she noted, and no safe path to the nearest intersection with a city crossing guard.

The city could be liable, she argued, if children are encouraged to “jaywalk to get where they want to go.”

Residents repeatedly argued the pedestrian-only lane was a safer, less dirty and noisy walking option than busier parallel streets like Sydenham. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

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Wednesday July 25, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday July 25, 2012

WMD fear heightens as Assad regime’s authority deteriorates

The spectre is looming larger of a desperate Syrian regime resorting to chemical weapons in order to survive the growing armed assault against it.

In a statement read out Monday on Syrian state television, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi attempted to reassure people that “no chemical or biological weapons will ever be used … during the crisis in Syria no matter what the developments inside Syria.”

However, addressing Syrian journalists, Mr. Makdissi added: “All of these types of weapons are in storage and under security and the direct supervision of the Syrian armed forces and will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external aggression.”

Not only was this the first time Syria ever had publicly acknowledged it possesses such weapons of mass destruction, but the statement also made clear the regime of Bashar al-Assad is willing to use them if “exposed to external aggression.”

Such a threat wouldn’t necessarily come from another country invading Syria, says Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel. Rather, “external aggression is exactly how the regime describes the current uprising” being carried out by “terrorists” and “foreign interests.”

“The good news,” says Mr. Rubin, author of The Truth About Syria, “is that the regime still is in control of the stockpiles and has been doing a good job of securing them.”

The chemical weapons, such as Sarin, a nerve gas developed in Nazi Germany and used in the 1995 terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway, and VX, an even more deadly nerve agent, as well as mustard gas of the sort employed in the First World War, are believed to be secured in two or three well-guarded compounds in the centre of the country. (Source: CBC News)