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Friday November 29, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday November 29, 2019

‘We can’t take that back’: Eisenberger on keeping Hamilton sewage spill details secret

March 28, 2009

Mayor Fred Eisenberger is standing by Hamilton city council’s decision not to disclose publicly the full magnitude of a massive sewage spill for nearly a year.

“The incident happened already,” Eisenberger said Tuesday. “The material, whatever was there, had already gone into the system. We couldn’t get it back.”

The mayor spoke to The Spectator for the first time about the estimated 24-billion-litre sewage leak into Chedoke Creek, which flows into Cootes Paradise, after returning home from an economic development trip in India.

Last week, The Spectator reported that city officials had kept secret not only the volume of the raw sewage spill, but also its four-and-a-half-year duration.

July 16, 2014

Leaked confidential reports from January and September show the spill was attributed to a holding tank gate left partly open from January 2014 to July 2018. The reports also pointed to a second gate failure on the same tank.

Outside legal advice recommended city officials keep the information secret due to potential regulatory fines amid a provincial investigation.

On Tuesday, Eisenberger, who noted his plane landed at 5:30 a.m., defended the approach, saying public health informed residents of a sewage spill at Chedoke Creek in July 2018.

February 21, 2007

Floatable material was sucked up, warning signs were posted, and E. coli levels eventually returned to what they were before the sewage leak, he said.

But the volume of the contamination and duration of the leak weren’t shared with the public, Eisenberger acknowledged.

“Because it was still under investigation. The legal advice that we received at the time was, ‘Do not disclose the full amount; there are potential legal issues that come out of that; there are potential other claims that could be made.’”

Public works spokesperson Jasmine Graham said Tuesday the city has paid environmental lawyer Rosalind Cooper $67,393.55 for her services as of October.

September 19, 2018

Eisenberger said the advice of the Toronto-based lawyer, who has many years of experience in the field, is still worth following.

“I’m not prepared to second guess it,” he said. “I understand the furor that’s out there. I get it. There’s always that tug between full disclosure and legal ramifications, and we have that happen in many instances that we deal with.”

Though the city conducted an initial surface water cleanup in July 2018 — at a cost of about $56,000 — material would have sunk to the bottom. The confidential reports noted dredging could cost $2 million. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Friday March 11, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Friday March 11, 2016 Justin Trudeau, 'the anti-Trump' Justin Trudeau and his entourage arrived in Washington to the warm applause of the American media. Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post and others have cloaked him in the rapture of an international celebrity. This is unusual -- even unprecedented -- for a prime minister of Canada, the northern neighbor that Americans know as friendly, reliable, cold and dull. But no prime minister has looked and sounded like this one in a generation -- certainly not since his father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, ran the country. When President Barack Obama hosts him at a state dinner Thursday at the White House -- the first for a Canadian leader since 1998 -- it will be a prime opportunity for Justin Trudeau to show the new face of Canada, the second most diverse country in the world, as progressive, moderate and tolerant. In a sense, everything that the United States is not in this election season. It's a theme Trudeau has embraced since the surprising election of his Liberal Party on October 19, ending almost 10 years of the divisive government of Conservative Stephen Harper. More striking, Trudeau's image contrasts with the stern face that the United States has shown the world in its winter of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton -- old, gray, loud and scowling. What is interesting about Trudeau -- who has been called "the anti-Trump" -- is how he, his politics, and his country are diverging dramatically from the United States. It helps explain the fascination in Trudeau beyond his looks (6 feet 2 inches), his youth (44), his elegant wife and his patrician pedigree. In fact, amid the demagoguery and vulgarity of the presidential race, Trudeau personifies something entirely different: youth, idealism, warmth and hope. It is not accidental that his delegation to Washington includes two senior women ministers, underscori

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 11, 2016

Justin Trudeau, ‘the anti-Trump’

nationalpostJustin Trudeau and his entourage arrived in Washington to the warm applause of the American media. Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post and others have cloaked him in the rapture of an international celebrity.

This is unusual — even unprecedented — for a prime minister of Canada, the northern neighbor that Americans know as friendly, reliable, cold and dull. But no prime minister has looked and sounded like this one in a generation — certainly not since his father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, ran the country.

When President Barack Obama hosts him at a state dinner Thursday at the White House — the first for a Canadian leader since 1998 — it will be a prime opportunity for Justin Trudeau to show the new face of Canada, the second most diverse country in the world, as progressive, moderate and tolerant.

In a sense, everything that the United States is not in this election season.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Wednesday March 9, 2016 Trudeau and Obama forging special relationship, White House says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is winning praise from the White House for his leadership on climate change ahead of this week's visit to Washington where that issue will be high on the agenda. In a call with reporters Tuesday morning, officials from President Barack Obama's administration also noted the personal relationship that is developing between the two leaders. Obama extended the invitation for a state visit and dinner, the first in 19 years for a Canadian prime minister, when he met Trudeau at the APEC summit late last year. The officials said Canada and the U.S. always have a close relationship, regardless of who occupies 24 Sussex Drive or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but they acknowledged Trudeau and Obama have a lot in common. Trudeau arrives in the U.S. capital Wednesday along with his wife Sophie GrŽgoire-Trudeau and a delegation that includes five cabinet members: Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna, Foreign Affairs Minister StŽphane Dion, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo. They will attend a lavish state dinner at the White House on Thursday night after a day of meetings in the Oval Office and at the State Department. The White House officials discussed the close bilateral relationship between the two countries in terms of trade and defence but they paid particular attention to how Canada and the U.S. are co-operating on the environment file and suggested there is a change in tone since Trudeau defeated former prime minister Stephen Harper in October. "Since Prime Minister Trudeau assumed office we have also had tremendous co-operation with Canada on climate and clean energy issues," said Roberta Jacobson, assistant secretary of state, bureau of Western Hemisphere affairs. (Source: CBC News) http

Wednesday March 9, 2016

It’s a theme Trudeau has embraced since the surprising election of his Liberal Party on October 19, ending almost 10 years of the divisive government of Conservative Stephen Harper. More striking, Trudeau’s image contrasts with the stern face that the United States has shown the world in its winter of Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton — old, gray, loud and scowling.

What is interesting about Trudeau — who has been called “the anti-Trump” — is how he, his politics, and his country are diverging dramatically from the United States. It helps explain the fascination in Trudeau beyond his looks (6 feet 2 inches), his youth (44), his elegant wife and his patrician pedigree.

In fact, amid the demagoguery and vulgarity of the presidential race, Trudeau personifies something entirely different: youth, idealism, warmth and hope.

It is not accidental that his delegation to Washington includes two senior women ministers, underscoring the fact that his Cabinet is half female. When asked in November why he insisted on gender parity, he answered, “Because it’s 2015!”

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Friday December 11, 2015 Syrian refugees now in Toronto look forward to 'beautiful future' Georgina Zires and Kevork Jamkossian looked both happy and haggard while toting their 16-month old daughter as they arrived in Toronto after spending almost a day in transit with more than 160 other refugees who have fled civil war in Syria to start a new life in Canada. Waiting to greet them at Pearson airport Thursday night was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who helped the family pick coats from piles of donated clothing. "Now, we feel as if we got out of hell and we came to paradise," Jamkossian told Trudeau through an interpreter. "That's how we feel." The couple was joined by more than 160 other Syrian refugees who arrived in Toronto in the first government aircraft carrying refugees, as the Canadian government works to fulfil a pledge to bring in 25,000 refugees by the end of February. In Syria, Zires worked as a clerk in a women's clothing shop and Jamkossian worked as a blacksmith. A better life for their daughter Madeleine was the main motivation for coming to Canada. "She is the reason for us to come here because here she can do many things," Zires said, also through an interpreter. "In other countries, she can do nothing." After landing in Toronto, the new arrivals were given warm coats, social insurance numbers and health cards after a security and health screening at a special airport terminal renovated for their arrival. After processing, they were bused to an airport hotel to rest. "They step off the plane as refugees, but they walk out of this terminal as permanent residents of Canada with social insurance numbers, with health cards and with an opportunity to become full Canadians," Trudeau he said. Shadi Mardelli, who spoke to reporters at the airport shortly after he was processed, said he's looking forward to a "beautiful future" in Canada. (Sou

Friday December 11, 2015

He is accompanied as well by the minister of national defense and the minister of economic development, both Sikhs who wear turbans. And his foreign minister, a Francophone from Quebec. There are also many parliamentarians who are visible minorities.

The point: Canada is about diversity. Since the Liberals took office, Canada has admitted 25,000 Syrian refugees; Trudeau greeted the first planeload personally in Toronto.

They are among the 300,000 immigrants Canada will accept this year, the highest in some time.

After a government that dismissed global warming, Canada has embraced an activist policy on climate change. In the international mission against ISIS, Trudeau has withdrawn Canada’s bombers, preferring instead to train troops on the ground.

In other ways, Trudeau leads a country that believes in government: recommitting funding to universal health care and public broadcasting, pledging to run budgetary deficits to pay infrastructure and supporting the expansion of free trade, particularly the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which Trump and Sanders oppose.)

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Friday March 4, 2016 Ottawa willing to impose carbon price if impasse drags on The federal government is prepared to impose a national price on carbon if Canada's premiers fail to come to an agreement on their own, CBC News has learned. Putting a price tag on pollution would pit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government against some provincial premiers who see the move as another blow to an enfeebled economy. Trudeau is meeting with premiers and territorial leaders today in Vancouver. A senior official close to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Liberal government campaigned on environmental change and won a majority. "We feel that we've got a mandate to do it. And we want to do it in co-operation with the provinces," the official said. "But at the end of the day we are going to do it." Federal action isn't imminent, but Ottawa won't allow carbon price talks to drag on indefinitely. "This should be a conversation about how we are going to price carbon, not whether," said the source. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has been the loudest critic of a carbon tax, saying it will only hammer an already sluggish energy sector. Wall told reporters on Wednesday that he wasn't alone in his position, and that's been backed up in public and private statements by officials from other provinces here in Vancouver. "You're going to hear a lot more about carbon management than carbon pricing," said one premier in explaining the view in their private meetings. Five provinces already have a price on carbon. Penalizing polluters financially is aimed at curbing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. (Source: CBC News) http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carbon-price-cap-and-trade-first-ministers-meeting-vancouver-1.3473524 Canada, provinces, Christy Clark, Phillippe Couilliard, Kathleen Wynne, Rachel Notley, Justin Trudeau, Brad Wall, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, carbon, tax, environment, climate change

Friday March 4, 2016

All of this has led some Americans to light up social media with talk of moving to Canada. Americans don’t actually move, but they see Canada as an insurance policy.

Canada is no utopia. It has fat people, bad trains, high airfares and some ugly urban architecture. It has racial profiling and income equity and an ambition deficit.

But to those dreaming of an America and a leader such as Barack Obama in 2008, Canada restricts guns, limits money in politics and separates church and state.

And in an America in the teeth of a nasty election campaign, it is led by a tribune of hope who talks of “sunny ways.” (Source: CNN)

Posted to Warren Kinsella’s blog.