CHALK ANOTHER ONE UP TO THE EDUCRATS

Last Thursday's Waterloo Region Record carried this story "Full-day kindergarten benefits short-lived: study". Huh! Doesn't that title kind of make you want to ask the obvious question namely what rationale or what professional studies were done prior to implementing full-day kindergarten, to justify the expense to taxpayers? Were there not other jurisdictions around the world (or in Canada) who had done such a thing first, that Ontarian educaters could have studied and learned from? This study done by the University of Manitoba is pretty clear that any educational advantages to students wear off quickly and in the long run do not increase academic standing or knowledge. Not too surprisingly the results comparing kids in Grade 1 did show improvements in those students who had attended all day kindergarten.

MINISTRY OF LABOUR ROLLS OVER

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Ministry permits some work at site of construction death". Apparently yesterday's five Stop Work Orders have been turned into Proceed with Care Orders??? I guess 17 Work Orders including the five Stop Work Orders were considered a tad too radical in this province. Quite frankly I was surprised when the Ministry of Labour got aggressive in the first place. If either smaller contractors or non union ones had any fear of the Ministry of Labour, I exspect there would be a lot more voluntary compliance in the first place. What is also distressing is the Ministry's spokeperson is talking about the investigation taking up to a year. Please.... give me a break. This isn't a complicated financial scheme involving hundreds of transactions or hundreds of witnesses. Yes a thorough, honest investigation should be done but taking a year to do it is nonsense. Similar to the Ashley Smith inquest five years after the fact; it simply gives witnesses the opportunity to say "I don't remember.".

ASHLEY SMITH'S ISOLATION WAS ILLEGAL

Today's Waterloo Region Record advises us that keeping Ashley Smith in segregation/isolation for extended periods of time was flat out illegal. The title of the article is "Smith's long isolation was unlawful". For me that begs the question why haven't charges been laid against the Correctional Services of Canada? Clearly her long term isolation exacerbated her mental health issues. Until or unless that happens there will never be justice for what the system did to her.

Keep in mind that her initial sentence of one month fot throwing crab apples at a postal worker was increased to six years from in custody incidents. She was literally serving years in isolation for the most minor of incidents. That our prison system are so self important and so focused on their own internal rules and control of inmates is ridiculous. Who the hell wouldn't be uncooperative and disrespectful under those circumstances? In hindsight maybe it was CSC who had and have mental issues. Clearly they really couldn't have handled Ashley Smith much worse than they did.

MORE ON REGION'S LATEST EMPLOYEE FATALITY

Today's Waterloo Region Record has this front page story titled "Construction site shutdown a relief to fall victim's mom". Similar to the Ministry of the Environment, The Ministry of Labour are hell on wheels after the fact for small businesses. I think of all the years I worked on construction (non-union) and never, ever saw a Ministry of Labour inspector. Anyhow a total of 17 work orders were laid on the construction site, including five stop work orders, after the fatality.

At the OMB hearing last week in Elmira dealing with the proposed Hunder gravel pit in Conestoga; we were informed that the average active gravel pit in Ontario will see a Ministry of Natural Resources inspector about once every five years. Again after fourty years working in construction and industry I rarely if ever saw a Ministry of Labour inspector. Ministry of Environment inspectors would come in, by appointment only, twenty years ago, at a licensed hazardous waste disposal site that I worked at in Elmira. Clearly Ontario are great at writing legislation and hopeless at enforcing it. In the case of this most recent fatality, when the smoke clears, let's see if the construction company were flagrantly in violation of safety standards or is the Ministry of Labour simply putting on a show here.

ANOTHER WORKER DIES IN WATERLOO REGION & ONTARIO

Just recently we had two people die here in Woolwich Township due to agricultural accidents. While farming and tractor rollovers are near the top of the list; not far behind is construction work. Talk about a well known prescsription for disaster. A new on the job, twenty-three year old employee; working at height. He was hit by cinder blocks while working near the edge of the roof. The impact knocked him over the edge and the fall killed him. Meanwhile the President of the company is bemoaning what he feels was the lack of a harness and an unconnected safety line. Either one would have been fatal after the worker fell.

This is where the Ministry of Labour are supposed to get tough. A new on the job, young employee needs close supervision when working in a dangerous area. It is the company's absolute responsibility to ensure that ALL safety standards are being met. Whether safety harnesses or even prohibiting cranes from moving materials when workers are nearby; there was a fatal error or errors made. The result is an unecessary, untimely death. When will workers actually be safe on the job in Ontario?
Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys the story "Worker who died in Waterloo fall had been at site for less than a week".

THE SYSTEM DOES NOT SERVE THE CITIZENS

Last May 17/13 the Woolwich Observer published an article by the Editor Steve Kannon titled "They bank on us forgetting that the system does not serve us". Steve details the financial meltdown in 2008, the minor reforms that followed and how banks and financial elites are already attempting to subvert them. Steve also describes so called "trickle down" economics whereby supposedly what's good for the wealthiest classes is good for us all. My personal belief is that the wealthiest simply are pissing on the communal cornflakes and that is what trickles down to the rest of us. Finally Steve also details the right wing Harper Conservatives stance of lowering corporate taxes and transferring the burden to the middle class. Funny thing is that this continuing lower burden on corporations has not been paid back to Canadians via increased investment or other dividends. In fact all I've seen are cuts in social programs including unemployment insurance and even our old age security has been moved to age 68. Mass immigration and a larger population were supposed to make payment of our social programs easier. Instead it's just more taxes, more screwing of the lower and middle classes and less benefits for those who truly need them. Welcome to the Canada that our parents and grandparents fought for during two world wars. We won the wars against external enemies only to lose to internal financial enemies.

MAUDE BARLOW SPEAKS IN GUELPH

Last evening I heard Maude Barlow speak live for the first time. She is indeed an excellent speaker and her message was all about the politics and economics of water. I bought a copy of her latest book titled Blue Future. She spoke in Guelph, Ontario at a Church called Hope House. She mentioned two recent sucesses for both local citizens and the Council of Canadians namely the Stop 41 Landfill and the just accomplished backing down of Nestle Canada in Hillsburgh, Ontario. Nestle had been stickhandling sucessfully with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to avoid water taking restrictions during droughts. Both the Wellington Water Watchers and the Council of Canadians stepped up and appealed another private deal between industry and the M.O.E.. The Environmental Review Tribunal agreed that it wasn't a deal in the public interest hence Nestle now have to cut back on their groundwater extraction during droughts and dry spells.

Maude also discussed the attempted privatization of water by corporations around the world. Fortunately with much hard work the United Nations have declared water a basic human right. Canada to its' shame did not support this endeavour. Maude had many harsh words for the current Canadian government led by Stephen Harper and suggested that Canada's aboriginal peoples will benefit from this U.N. declaration.