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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Saturday, October 26, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, October 26, 2013

RBG hunt eyed for November

An organized deer hunt at the Royal Botanical Gardens — if it goes ahead — will not be an extension of the annual hunt held by the Hamilton Conservation Authority, says the HCA chair.

Chris Firth-Eagland stressed that while the conservation authority has shared protocol and contact information about their annual Haudenosaunee hunt, the RBG’s program would be “something completely new.”

The RBG wants to control the growing deer population on its land — the plants are threatened — and get the increasingly bold animals to “act like normal deer again,” said Carlo Balistrieri, head of horticulture.

“We are seriously looking at it,” he said. “There is potential for a small pilot this year.”

Last year’s eight-week hunt in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area killed about 37 deer, well below the limit of 80. This year, the hunt will be restricted to archery — no guns allowed.

Firth-Eagland said the HCA has connected RBG staff with Haudenosaunee hunters to discuss the potential program.

Both Dundas Valley and the RBG have an overabundance of deer, according to surveys in recent years. One count by 15 RBG volunteers and staff in February spotted 162 on the north and south shores of Cootes Paradise.

Balistrieri, who prefers the term “controlled harvest” over “hunt,” said they are looking at it as a template because the Haudenosaunee people “share a lot of the ethos in common, and we felt they would be good to talk to.

“They have experience, expertise … they have a lot of the same cares and loves for the land and the plants and animals that we do.”

While Balistrieri was unable to provide specifics on what the RBG hunt would entail, he did say, “I can certainly tell you that we would not be interested in seeing firearms used in any way on the property.”

He also said “there are relatively few areas (within the RBG) where it’s even appropriate to do something like this, were it to happen.”

While he was unable to provide specifics around potential safety concerns at the RBG lands versus the Dundas Valley, he said the RBG area is “actually probably safer.”

The HCA’s Haudenosaunee hunt is expected to begin the third week of November. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

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FEEDBACK

RBG deer cull not open to non-natives (Oct. 26)

The views held by many about hunting and hunters perpetuate stereotypes that make informed decision-making impossible.

A few years ago, I decided to take up hunting because of my concern with factory farming. The barely humane conditions, the antibiotics and steroids concern me. I also wanted to educate my children about how creating a healthy lifestyle can be done without depending on such a crazy industry.

After taking the courses and meeting other hunters, I have learned that this is a community that prides itself on the humane harvest of animals for food. This is a community that takes its role in preserving the natural environment to heart. And hunters generally understand that to waste an animal that has been killed is unethical.

So, to the board at the Royal Botanical Gardens, I say please educate yourselves and you will see that one cultural group does not hold a monopoly on ethical hunting. And, to the cartoonist of the Spec, please continue to enjoy the sight of your chemically and biologically altered food as it trundles by you on the highway towards mass slaughter; but, please spare me your sanctimonious views.

Pheroze Jeejeebhoy, Hamilton

Thursday August 29, 2013

 

Trudeau defends pot revelation

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has defended his recent admission about smoking marijuana in a speech before hundreds of local supporters at his party’s summer caucus in Prince Edward Island.

In a Wednesday evening speech, Trudeau acknowledged the controversy he set off last week. He disclosed in an interview that he smoked marijuana about three years ago, while he was an MP, at a dinner party he was hosting and that he’s done that about five or six times in his life.

Earlier in the summer, Trudeau said he wants to see pot legalized, not just decriminalized. The Liberal party voted for that position at its last policy convention.

Trudeau told the huge crowd at the outdoor party held at local Liberal MP Lawrence MacAulay’s home that the debate he set off “blew my mind.”

“Only in Stephen Harper’s Canada could people actually argue that being honest was a calculated risk,” said Trudeau. He said he didn’t talk about his past marijuana use because he wants to disclose “every little last detail, the public sphere is not supposed to be Oprah,” but rather because of the position he backs when it comes to legalization.

“But I do believe that since I am taking a strong policy position on what is a mistake in our policy and in Stephen Harper’s Canada that criminalizes hundreds of thousands of people needlessly and costs us hundreds of millions of dollars every year, I think its time to be able to be forthright and honest about the kinds of changes we need to bring,” he said.

Meanwhile, the desk from the late Pierre E. Trudeau’s Montreal law office will be sold in an online auction by the Heffel Fine Art Auction House, with bids being accepted between Sept. 5 and Sept. 26.  (Source: CBC News)

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Wednesday June 26, 2013

Wednesday June 26, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 26, 2013

McGuinty comes out swinging at gas plant inquiry

Former premier Dalton McGuinty dismissed a government committee investigating the $585-million gas plants scandal as too “partisan” to have any value.

McGuinty went on to criticize his own recordkeeping law as too vague, and in response to the deletion of e-mails by his senior staff, suggested that most government conversations should be private.

McGuinty adopted a more aggressive tone Tuesday in the second of two appearances before the Standing Committee on Justice Policy which is investigating the cancellation of gas plants in Oakville and Mississauga.

“This is not a determined effort to pursue the truth. This committee is a partisan exercise, and I think we need to be honest about that,” McGuinty said. “If you go to the Oxford dictionary and look up ‘partisan,’ it defines it as ‘prejudiced in favour of a particular cause.’

“This committee, dominated as it is by the opposition, is prejudiced in favour of the defeat of a government, and that colours everything that they do,” he said.

Former Liberal finance minister Dwight Duncan has taken to tweeting that the committee is a “kangaroo court.”

McGuinty was brought back to committee to explain why his most senior political staff deleted all e-mails that might have shed light on the decision to cancel the gas plants, one cancellation announced during an election campaign.

The opposition say the Liberals axed the plants at a potential cost of up to $1 billion to save their political seats, and then tried to cover up the electronic trail. (Source: Sun News)

Saturday February 11, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday February 11, 2012

Board trustees want to hear Hamilton’s Education Centre plan

The public school board hasn’t closed the door on keeping its headquarters downtown.

Several trustees said Thursday they are open to hearing a plan that would allow its Education Centre to remain in the core. But it’s still too soon to know if the city can bring a feasible — and financially realistic — option to the table.

“We’re still waiting to hear from the city with regard to the motion that was brought forward by Jason Farr last night, so we have no idea what the intent is or how they would help us out,” said board chair Tim Simmons. “It’s really too early to go there.”

City council backed a motion Wednesday night to officially petition the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board to locate its new headquarters in a second tower to the south of City Hall.

Farr, the downtown councillor behind the motion, acknowledged the pitch is coming late in the game, with the board having already decided on the former Crestwood school grounds on the Mountain as the preferred site for its new home.

Nonetheless, “now is better than never.”

“Things do happen last minute and better deals do come along. This very well might be one,” he said. “I still think there’s an opportunity.”

Farr is hopeful city staff can come up with a plan that would allow the board to build the new tower within its $31-million budget. The partnership would also include an “extremely cheap” long-term land lease.

In order to boost the downtown economy and keep the board’s 400 workers in the core, “we’re willing to make adjustments and concessions,” Farr said. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

June 5, 2008

I did an extra cartoon to mark the moment when Barack Obama secured enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination:

Meanwhile Hillary’s finally coming to terms with the reality that she won’t be the nominee or President of the U.S. This is all very reminicent to when our own Sheila Copps ran against Paul Martin in 2003 and didn’t know when to quit and bow out gracefully.

Scouring the Internet on Hillary Clinton images I came across this great montage of faces. It’s too bad we won’t have her to kick around as President: