Core cameras face $100,000 budget cut
Cutting staff could mean the images are no longer monitored around the clock.
MARY-JANE EGAN, Free Press City Hall Reporter 2004-02-24 03:51:11
London is the most watched community in Canada when it comes to public surveillance cameras, but some of those eyes could soon be reduced. A city committee last night upheld a recommendation to trim $100,000 from this year's operating budget by reducing the number of commissionaires at city hall from two per shift to one per shift -- a cut that would mean the city's 16 downtown surveillance cameras no longer will be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Still, David Tennant, co-chairperson of the co-ordinating committee for community safety, held out hope last night his group will come up with "creative alternatives" to ensure the cameras are monitored around the clock.
It's a goal Coun. Bernie MacDonald stressed is crucial, citing the recent example in Florida in which a car wash surveillance camera picked up the abduction of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, who later was found dead.
"If that camera had been monitored, they would probably have got that guy quicker and things might not have turned out the way they did," said MacDonald.
"If you're not monitoring, then it could be too late."
Tennant agreed, saying it's worth exploring whether city police can step up monitoring.
He added he is "shocked" by the number of camera failures that have plagued the system since its installation -- 451 camera failures in 2002 and 506 last year.
Tennant called the technical problems "completely unacceptable -- it's something we have to take up with the service provider."
In the past year, there were 89 occurrences in which camera monitors used the direct phone link to alert police to emergency situations.
Police reviewed 187 incidents last year and requested 106 recordings, but said the cameras were beneficial on only 40 occasions in resolving occurrences.
Police cited poor picture quality and missed images as main reasons the cameras weren't of greater benefit.
Tennant noted the city purchased the camera equipment for nearly $236,000 and agreed to cover operating costs while the community covered capital costs.
He said those costs will be fully reimbursed through community donations by June.
As for the argument the cameras are an invasion of privacy, Tennant disagrees.
"When you walk into a Mac's Milk or use an ATM, you're on camera. This is the same idea," he said.
"I think most people don't see it as an intrusion of privacy, but as something that's good for them."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Lawyer seeking to quash interim control bylaw
Alan Patton says the city bylaw, aimed at a Richmond Street plan, was passed illegally and in secret by council.
JOE BELANGER, Free Press City Hall Reporter 2004-02-24 03:51:10
A London lawyer is taking the city to court in a bid to quash a bylaw he says was passed in secret and illegally. Alan Patton, lawyer for James McIver, president of R.S.J. Holding Inc., filed a motion last week in Ontario Superior Court.
The legal battle erupted after the city refused to issue demolition and building permits for 915 Richmond St., a cottage-style home identified as a low-priority heritage building for its value to the streetscape.
Instead, city council passed an interim control bylaw basically freezing development on Richmond between Huron and Grosvenor streets.
"All these things they (council) are doing in camera is getting out of hand," Patton said.
"They are holding secret meetings and secret votes in those meetings. There was no discussion, and nobody knew what was going on."
When the bylaw passed Jan. 29, Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell described it as a "rare" move.
R.S.J. Holding is planning to demolish the cottage and redevelop the property into a four-plex housing unit with at least 16 bedrooms.
Patton also has filed an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board.
Development in the area is frozen until city planning staff review the zoning bylaw and submit a report to council in July.
Coun. Joni Baechler, chairperson of the planning committee, defended the move last month.
She explained the city's official plan includes a special policy designation for the area that recognizes the importance of its single-family heritage streetscape.
Though the R-3 residential zoning permits fourplexes, Baechler said there's a growing trend to developing properties with more than 30 bedrooms, usually for student housing because of the proximity to the University of Western Ontario.
Residents in the area have long opposed such developments.
In recent years, there have been several battles between developers and neighbours near the university.
Most recently, a developer won approval from the OMB in December 2002 to build four identical three-storey fourplexes that would house 64 students just across from Western's main gate.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Two can keep a secret...
The Red Star has an excellent investigative piece today on AdScam...
When Kelley called Anderson's constituency office, he found the minister's aides eager to help."Get well soon", Pierre! I'm sure all of your colleagues are pulling for you!
"They told me of a secret slush fund where they could access money for constituency programs," he says. "There was no application form, no process other than to write a letter to Mr. Pierre Tremblay at public works."
Public Shakedown Artist
By Radley Balko Published 03/03/2003
"Big business never pays a nickel in taxes, according to Ralph Nader, who
represents a big consumer organization that never pays a nickel in taxes."
- Dave Barry
Crystal Lewis hadn't the slightest idea what "MOPIRG" was. Each semester, she
says, the mysterious phrase was listed on her tuition bill at Meramac Community College in St. Louis, Missouri, and each semester the school billed her six dollars. Then she read the fine print. "If you opt not to support MOPIRG, please deduct this amount from your payment," it said.
But her tuition bill gave no explanation of what exactly MOPIRG was.
In researching this piece, I got similar reactions from students at colleges
across the country. PennPIRG, MASSPIRG, and CALPIRG - students in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Colorado and California had been paying small fees to all of these groups, and almost none of the students knew at first what it was they were paying for.
If you're putting a kid or two through college, or putting yourself through,
there's a good chance you're donating to a PIRG, too.
And Ralph Nader would like to thank you for your support.
Yes, the same man who rails against corporate welfare - because it coercively
takes money from taxpayers and funnels it to corporations - has set up a rather ingenious, if underhanded and manipulative, way of coercively taking money from college kids - and funneling it to Ralph Nader.
The PIRG scam is short for "Public Interest Research Group," and there are well
over a hundred chapters of the organization spread out across the country. The scams vary from campus to campus, but it basically works like this:
Each time your kid registers for classes, the local PIRG chapter has arranged
with the school to tack a fee on to his/her tuition. On most every campus, the
PIRG chapter has made attempts to make this "contribution" as secretive and
misleading as possible. Just how secretive and manipulative the method depends on how much resistance each chapter has met in trying to get the scheme implemented. At most schools, they first attempt to make the fee both mandatory and nonrefundable. If that doesn't work, they lobby for as underhanded and sneaky a scheme as the school will allow.
This has been going on for twenty-five years.
Eight years ago, I was sitting in my fraternity cafeteria at Indiana University
when representatives of the then-startup INPIRG group entered with a petition. They were starting a new student group on campus, they told us, and they'd like our support. We were assured that the group was one hundred percent apolitical. It was merely a group that would advocate for Indiana University students. They needed our signatures, they said, to get the organization up and running.
What they didn't tell us was that our signatures were in effect an endorsement
of a "reverse check" system, whereby every single Indiana University student
(and there are about 40,000 of them) would automatically donate three dollars
to INPIRG each semester, unless he or she specifically knew to "uncheck" a box
on the computer screen giving authorization for the contribution.
The INPIRG method has since changed. Today, the group solicits signatures from incoming freshmen - again under the "apolitical" rubric - who, once they've signed, will then contribute each semester for the remainder of their college careers at Indiana. Students say it's almost impossible to remove your name from the list once you've signed.
But at least students at Indiana have the option of not contributing.
On about 1/3 of the state college campuses in New York State, a student's PIRG contribution is mandatory and nonrefundable. The University of Wisconsin and University of Oregon also require mandatory, nonrefundable contributions to PIRG.
You want to go to one of these schools? You pony up to Ralph Nader.
At other schools, such as Trinity College in Connecticut, students not
interested in supporting the local PIRG are required to go a Bursar's office or
a student activities office, fill out a form, then take the paperwork to a
campus PIRG officer to get a refund. That's quite a bit a work for three or
five or eight dollars - and that's assuming the student ever notices the charge
on his tuition statement to begin with. Not surprisingly, most PIRG chapters
don't go to great effort to publicize the refund option. They rely on college
student indolence, and they're making a killing.
What's worse is that most of the time, the money these chapters shake out of
college students doesn't even stay on the campus where it's generated. This is
particularly true in the Northeast. At many New England schools, most or even
all of the money coerced from college students goes directly to the state PIRG
chapters, where it's used to pay political lawyers and statehouse lobbyists, or
is used as "seed money" for further fundraising efforts. And about 10% of
campus-collected money goes to the national chapter, USPIRG.
The irony in all of this is that the PIRGs disguise their scam under the "free
speech" mantra. The USPIRG site makes the incredible claim that forcing
students to pay for causes they don't support is protected by the First
Amendment. Yet this same organization, on its campaign finance reform website, claims that voluntary contributions to political candidates isn't protected. Go figure.
PIRG chapters claim that their funding schemes are protected under the recent
Southworth v. University of Wisconsin decision, decided by the Supreme Court
last year. But Southworth says only that political organizations can receive
student dues as disbursed through a general fund. It says nothing about reverse checkoffs or mandatory fees earmarked for political causes. In fact, the
opinion stresses the importance of "viewpoint neutrality" in mandating student
fees. That is, organizations from all ends of the political spectrum ought to
have a crack at the funds. Despite their claims of political agnosticism, few
could make the claim that PIRG's policy positions are "viewpoint neutral."
Craig Rucker works for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, an advocacy group that helps grassroots organizers oppose environmental extremists. Rucker estimates that PIRG chapters on at least 70 college campuses have some sort of funding scheme that's either mandatory, or puts the onus on the student to pursue a refund.
PIRG chapters are operational on at least 140 campuses nationwide, and if not
funded by mandatory fees, most either employ deceptive sign-up campaigns
similar to the one used at Indiana, or lobby usually left-leaning student
government bodies to grant them disbursement from more general "activities
funds."
Like most of Ralph Nader's puppet and satellite organizations, state PIRGS are
notoriously reluctant to divulge financial information (more on that below), so
an exact figure on just how much they're collecting is tough to compute.
Nevertheless, Rucker estimates that PIRG chapters nationally manage to collect
somewhere between $10 and $20 million dollars from college students to advocate for Ralph Nader's causes.
So just what are these "apolitical," "student-oriented" issues PIRG chapters
advocate for?
Well, the USPIRG's 2001 annual report demands a moratorium on drilling for oil
in ANWR. It criticizes the Bush administration for weakening forest
protections. It also advocates for tougher CAFE standards, and it criticizes
the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation for "not going far
enough" toward publicly-financed elections.
If these issues are "apolitical," one wonders what PIRG considers "partisan."
The practice of forcing or tricking college students into financing causes they
might not otherwise support seems particularly sleazy when coming from someone like Nader, a "citizen activist" who has always claimed to be on the side of the "little guy" - a public advocate who rails against the injustice of, for
example, ATM fees.
Yes, it's sleazy and it's hypocritical, but it's also typical. Nader's public
advocacy has always been at odds with his private business practices.
In the 1970's, for example, the labor-loving Nader busted up an attempt by
workers at one of his organizations to unionize - an effort instigated by
Nader's management style. The website Real Change quotes former Nader
lieutenant Jim Turner:
"We spent a hundred years trying to clean sweatshops out of our system and what happens? Along comes the first major reformer of any impact, and he starts doing the same goddamned thing. ... My wife had to tell Ralph once to stop phoning after midnight."
Those fed up with Nader's tactics have found that taking on Nader, while
difficult, is not a hopeless fight. Regents of the state university systems in
California and Montana have shot down PIRG requests for mandatory support from student fees (though California schools now use the freshman-pledge approach used at Indiana). And several years ago, the efforts of student activists and local legislators nixed a mandatory scheme at the University of Texas. Rucker says his organization regularly works with local politicians and activists to fight the schemes at the state level, and that they're having some success.
The problem, mainly, is awareness. Campus PIRG chapters can implement their fee scams through petition drives, through student government organizations, or through university administrators, and they generally opt for the method they feel will provide the least amount of resistance. Once instituted, the fees
then understandably get lost in the line item listings of various student
athletic, health, housing, laboratory and various other academic fees.
So parents rarely notice them. And neither do students.
And even when they do, the charges are generally listed as they were on Crystal Lewis' tuition bill - ambiguously, cryptically, and without a satisfactory
explanation. Many times, school administrators don't even know what they're
for.
And so students continue to unknowingly fork money over to Green causes. And universities continue to look the other way. And all the while, Ralph Nader and his nationwide army of advocates go on collecting millions - each three, five, or eight-dollar fee at a time.
Monday, February 23, 2004
Council divided on taxes
Expectations about the tax increase vary from less than one to 10 per cent.
JOE BELANGER AND MARISSA NELSON, Free Press Reporters 2004-02-23 03:55:02
With two weeks to go before they sign off on London's budget, city council remains divided over how high property taxes should be hiked. Last week, council met for more than 16 hours trying to find ways to trim the proposed $73-million budget that threatens a 10.4-per-cent tax hike.
But so far, council has only managed to add to -- not cut -- the budget, boosting the tax hike to almost 11 per cent with an extra $1 million added in.
Yet, a Free Press survey reveals councillors still expect to bring in a budget that raises taxes anywhere from a meagre 0.7 per cent to 10 per cent.
Most of the 19 politicians say a "reasonable" hike would be in the five- to eight-per-cent range, which would still leave a lot of budget axing to do.
Three others, including Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco and Deputy Mayor and budget chief Tom Gosnell, could not be reached over the weekend.
Last Wednesday, council tentatively approved a 6.2 per cent increase in the $55-million police budget, mainly to hire 35 new police officers.
Minutes later, council heard from acting Fire Chief John Kobarda, who said the proposed $1.6-million cut to his budget would increase response times and fire damage, leave some areas of the city unprotected at times and cause an increase in insurance costs for homeowners while putting firefighters at greater risk.
With that information, council appears poised to put $1 million back into the fire budget, increasing the tax hike to about 11 per cent.
"There are going to be a lot of ups and downs before this is over," Gosnell said at the time.
Tomorrow, council tackles the planning budget and completes the community and protective services budget, which includes fire services, housing and other social spending.
The politicians will meet again Wednesday to discuss the proposed capital budget.
Once full council has taken a run at the budget, its board of control meets March 3 to make cuts or additions.
Council's last kick at the budget comes March 9, when final approval is expected.
HOW COUNCIL MEMBERS RESPONDED
The question: What is a reasonable tax increase?
- Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco: Unavailable.
- Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell: Unavailable.
- Controller Bud Polhill: Seven per cent.
"I think the rate of inflation is reasonable, but based on everything that's happened, we could get it down to seven per cent. I think that's achievable."
- Controller Russ Monteith: 10 per cent.
"I'd prefer something in the single digits. Whether that's possible is a question mark right now."
- Controller Gord Hume: Six to eight per cent.
- Councillor Judy Bryant: Nine to 10 per cent.
"I think it's very high, but it's not reasonable to bring it down by reducing services."
- Coun. Bill Armstrong: Five to eight per cent
"That's a realistic range to shoot for, but we've got lots of work still to do."
- Coun. Bernie MacDonald: Six to eight per cent.
"If you want services you've got to have a tax increase."
- Coun. Rob Alder: The rate of inflation (2.5 per cent).
- Fred Tranquilli: Under three per cent.
"Whatever the cost of inflation is, is a reasonable increase."
- Coun. Roger Caranci: Eight per cent.
"Reasonable is what the taxpayers can afford. Doable? We don't know what that is yet."
- Coun. Ab Chahbar: Five per cent.
"But we won't end up there."
- Coun. David Winninger: 2.5 per cent, "that's inflation."
- Coun. Susan Eagle: Six per cent.
- Harold Usher: Under five per cent.
- Coun. Cheryl Miller: Seven per cent.
"Anything above inflation is not reasonable. Unfortunately it doesn't look like that's possible. If we were at seven per cent, I'd be happy."
- Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen: 0.7 per cent.
- Coun. Sandy White: Six to eight per cent.
"I'd like it to be zero, but that's not going to happen."
- Councillor Joni Baechler: Unavailable.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
British schools to be allowed random drug testing
AP 2004-02-23 03:55:03
LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday British schools will be given the power to carry out random drug testing on students. In an interview with the News of the World newspaper, Blair said school principals will have the right to either offer treatment to children caught by the tests, expel them or report them to police.
"If heads (principals) believe they have a problem in their school, then they should be able to do random drug testing," Blair was quoted as saying.
The government had disclosed this year that it was looking at new guidelines on drugs in schools, but Blair's comments were the first sign they would extend to random testing.
The controversial plans were welcomed by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), but were condemned by opposition MPs and civil liberty campaigners.
David Hart, NAHT general secretary, said the proposal would give teachers "another weapon in their fight against drugs being pushed or used in their schools."
But Phil Willis, opposition Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, said school officials should not be dealing with drug problems.
"Drug abuse is a major social problem, endemic across society," Willis said. "It should not be treated in isolation as a school problem, nor should it be the responsibility of head teachers to test children."
Barry Hughill, a spokesperson for the civil rights group, Liberty, said he could not understand how the new powers would help.
"I'm obviously not a teacher, but I would have thought any school that's got a drug problem is well aware it's got a drug problem. It doesn't need random drug testing to tell it that," Hughill said.
Blair's proposed initiative is similar to the drug-testing program in place in schools across the United States.
In January, U.S. President George W. Bush unveiled a plan to expand the existing $2-million US program by increasing funding to $23 million.
He said drug use in high schools had declined by 11 per cent in the past two years.
The U.S. program has also drawn sharp criticism from some parents, school administrators and civil liberties activists.
However, a Supreme Court case in 2002 upheld the authority of schools to test students who participate in athletic and other extracurricular activities.
The U.S. and British governments have both stated the decision to implement random drug testing is up to the school and its administration.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Area MPs weather scandal fallout
Federal politicians in the London area say they're cautiously ready for an election.
Scandal linked to highest level
JOHN HERBERT, Free Press Reporter 2004-02-23 03:55:03
Their government reeling from the $100-million Liberal sponsorship scandal, London-region MPs are putting on a brave face for an election expected as early as spring. Some say it's unlikely an inquiry will get to the bottom of the fiasco before the deadline for the next election, November 2005, but that an interim inquiry report could boost Liberal fortunes in time for a quick trip to the polls.
Others, such as 10-year veteran John Finlay of Oxford, say they're confident Prime Minister Paul Martin will sort out the mess that dates back to the late 1990s when he was Jean Chretien's finance minister.
"Personally, I think this thing is overblown,'' Finlay, who is not seeking re-election after this term, said yesterday.
MP Paul Steckle of Huron-Bruce predicts the issues will quickly fade once names of those responsible are known.
"We're not a country of corrupt people,'' he said. As for a spring election, "I don't think it's a sure thing.''
The Liberals have nosedived in the polls since auditor general Sheila Fraser this month reported up to $100 million of $250 million in federal sponsorship spending in the late 1990s went to Liberal-friendly ad agencies that did little to promote the ostensible goal to boost national unity.
With the Liberals holding nine of the London region's 10 seats, the scandal has the potential to boomerang into area election ballot boxes.
"There are a lot of angry people out there,'' said Conservative Gary Schellenberger of Perth-Middlesex, the region's only non-Liberal MP. He's banking on a spring election.
"I know a lot of people are more angry than (Martin) is, but we're prepared for an election whenever the prime minister calls it," said Schellenberger. "It's in his ballpark."
Martin has called a public inquiry and promised to resign if he's implicated in the fiasco, which saw ad agencies rake in $100 million in commissions, sometimes for simply passing on a cheque.
Martin's quick action and vow for transparency have buoyed some region MPs.
People are beginning to understand there's "a probability of criminal acts" that Martin could have done nothing to prevent, even though he was finance minister at the time, said MP Roger Gallaway of Sarnia-Lambton.
Gallaway said Martin "drew a line in the sand,'' putting his own job on the line and predicts Liberal fortunes will rebound when all details of the Quebec-centred controversy emerge.
"What is clearly coming out is Mr. Chretien never regarded Mr. Martin as a Quebec minister -- in fact, quite the opposite," Gallaway said. "He had no involvement whatsoever in decisions around the broader political questions in Quebec.''
Three of London's four MPs said yesterday they're cautiously ready to face the electorate as soon as Martin is.
"Until then, I'm doing my job and working hard. That will be my focus,'' said Sue Barnes of London West.
Martin, who took over from Chretien in December, was quick to vow action on the scandal after the sponsorship issue first flew up. But last week, in an abrupt switch in strategy, Martin told his MPs to zip their lips on the scandal and refocus on government.
The about-face came as the Liberals nosedived in a new poll and long-time Liberal MP John Bryden bolted the party.
MP Joe Fontana, the London-region's most senior politician, said the prospect of a long inquiry into the scandal shouldn't detract from an election if Martin wants one soon.
"If the prime minister feels he needs a mandate from the people earlier than later, he'd like that option,'' said the London-North-Centre backbencher.
MP Pat O'Brien of London-Fanshawe praised Martin's handling of the crisis at O'Brien's nomination meeting yesterday in London.
Earlier, O'Brien told The Free Press he'd like to see an an early inquiry report before hitting the campaign trail.
"My timing preference is, I'd like to see an interim report. If that's in May and and there's an election in June, great. I'm prepared to run this spring or fall.''
Martin has said he'd like Justice John Gomery, who will launch the inquiry by month's end in Montreal, to issue an interim report.
Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MP Rose-Marie Ur said voters should soon get more answers about the issue.
"No one wants an election call if they don't think they have a good chance of winning,'' she said. Ur predicted voters will soon get more answers.
"I think in the next week or two when more information is presented, I think the Canadian public will be able to decide (to re-elect Liberals).''
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Jim McDougal is watching from Hell
Uh oh! I wouldn't want to be in this guy's shoes, tied in with $100 million in stolen funds, a potential witness who knows where some bodies are buried, and "seriously ill" in hospitals partly owned by people who'd love to pin as much crime as possible on a dead guy!
Illness may keep witness off standOTTAWA -- One of two men who headed the much-maligned Public Works sponsorship program is seriously ill and may be unable to testify at hearings into the scandal, CP has learned. Pierre Tremblay, who had previously served as chief of staff to former minister Alfonso Gagliano, quit his post as director of the sponsorship initiative in 2001 to become a vice-president at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
Complications from diabetes may prevent Tremblay from testifying at a public inquiry and before a Commons committee now looking into the scandal, said a senior government source.
Tremblay was extremely ill when government lawyers served him a copy of a report by Auditor General Sheila Fraser this month and asked him to respond to its allegations within 10 days, the source said. "When they served him the papers they don't even know if he understood what was going on."
Fraser's report mentioned Tremblay and his predecessor, Chuck Guite, by their job titles, revealing $100 million in program funds were misspent or unaccounted for under their watch.
A few days later, Fraser released their names and those of eight other potential witnesses in the sponsorship affair at the Commons committee's request.
Tremblay may lose his job at the inspection agency in the wake of the report. On Friday, agency president Richard Fadden contacted Tremblay to discuss his situation, said spokesperson Marc Richard.
Other London shows the way
At a time when financially stretched Canadian cities face huge infrastructure costs, a little thinking outside the box -- as they've done in the other London -- might pay off.
Lawrence Solomon, executive director of the Urban Renaissance Institute and Consumer Policy Institute, writes in a Toronto newspaper about the success of a toll system for cars in the heart of London, England.
For one year now, operators of commercial and private vehicles in a 13-kilometre-wide area in the centre of the city, between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, are charged a toll of #5 ($12.50) a day. Predictably, there were a lot of naysayers. But maybe not so many anymore.
Solomon, whose organizations are divisions of the Toronto-based Energy Probe Research Foundation, says since the toll was initiated:
Traffic delays have declined by 30 per cent, to 1.7 minutes for every kilometre travelled.
Opinion polls on the traffic problem show a drop to five from 20 per cent of respondents who consider it critical, and to 10 from 30 per cent of those who rate it very bad.
Increases by other modes of transport were: Motorcycle or scooter, 12 per cent; bicycle, 20; taxi, 20; public transit, 23.
Bus operators found lower traffic flow made meeting schedules easier and reported traffic-related disruptions were down 60 per cent in the core and 40 per cent across the city.
Accidents declined, with 28 per cent fewer cars involved in accidents.
This is not to suggest our London should consider similar tolls, although the plan would probably be viable in cities like Toronto.
But we should consider alternatives before investing in huge infrastructure projects. Building new roads is costly and results in more cars and pollution. More funding to enhance public transit, perhaps with incentives for green technology such as General Motors' new hybrid (gasoline-electric) buses, is an option.
Proper planning saves on infrastructure costs. Concentrating commercial and residential development in one area until it is filled helps make bus transit more economically viable and means the city won't have several new areas all demanding better roads and new fire halls and recreational centres at once.
As this city faces growing capital debt, thinking outside the box becomes critical. In this regard, we can learn from the other London.
McGuinty firmly backs PM
CP 2004-02-22 04:04:46
WINDSOR -- With the sponsorship scandal weighing on the federal Liberal government, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty pledged his support for Prime Minister Paul Martin yesterday as he addressed delegates at the Ontario Liberal party's annual meeting. Before launching into his keynote luncheon speech, McGuinty told delegates that "there is something else I feel I need to say and this has to do with our extended Liberal family."
"Our federal cousins are experiencing some real challenges these days," McGuinty said, referring to the sponsorship scandal that has rocked Martin's fledgling government and sent the prime minister into defence mode.
"And for the record here's where I stand. I have every confidence in Prime Minister Paul Martin," McGuinty said.
His comments were greeted by loud shouts of "hear, hear" from delegates who broke into applause and about three-quarters of the people in the packed room gave McGuinty a standing ovation that lasted half a minute.
However, about a quarter of the attendees remained seated, although they continued to clap.
"I have had the privilege of getting to know the prime minister over a number of years," McGuinty said. "He is a man of the utmost integrity and I look forward to campaigning with him in the upcoming federal election."
It had been widely expected that Martin will call an election in the spring, but since the scandal was made public that timing now is uncertain.
The comments weren't scripted by staff and it was McGuinty's decision to make the statement, a senior Liberal said.
"He did it because he thought it was the right thing to do."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Nuns look to future
The Sisters of St. Joseph, long a boon to the community, are putting their landmark mother house up for sale.
JENNIFER O'BRIEN, Free Press Reporter 2004-02-22 04:04:46
With more nuns descending from their hilltop London convent to work in the community, and with few newcomers to replace retirees, the Sisters of St. Joseph have put their landmark mother house up for sale. Mount St. Joseph is on the market for $15 million in yet another change for the Catholic order, whose London mission dates back to 1868.
The order plans to build a smaller facility nearby to house about 100 nuns, allowing the sisters to increase their working focus on social justice without having to worry about maintaining the convent.
"It's bittersweet, that's the word," Sister Margot Ritchie says of the move from the 50-year-old estate on Richmond Street. "There is a sense of loss here, but the space is too big."
It's not the first major change for the order, whose work in London has included teaching and health care.
Twenty years ago, declining enrolment forced the Sisters of St. Joseph to close a boarding school they operated for girls.
A generation earlier, the nuns were allowed to shed the black habits that had been a century-long hallmark.
The Sisters of St. Joseph invited The Free Press to tour Mount St. Joseph and hear about their plans to downsize as they focus on the future.
Equipped with a magnificent chapel -- adorned with a 2,086-kilogram marble altar and intricate stained glass windows -- an Olympic-sized swimming pool, dozens of dorm-style rooms, and a two-floor library, the 27,870 square-metre mother house is not for your average buyer.
Nor is its price tag.
For a little extra income, the buyer could always keep its No. 1 tenant -- the Canadian Centre for Activity and Aging -- and continue to run the guest wing, which sleeps 75 relatives of patients from St. Joseph Health Care for $18 a night.
* * *
The sound of clicking heels reverberates through the maze of empty marble hallways, the same halls once filled with hundreds of women at a time.
"These halls used to be full," says Sister Valerie Van Cauwenberghe, who's lived at Mount St. Joseph for decades.
At one time, about 250 sisters called the convent home, plus hundreds of students.
Now, there are almost as many staff as sisters. London is home to 185 sisters, but more than 85 live off the mount.
The others include 68 active sisters and 32 retired nuns.
They are nowhere to be seen on a weekday afternoon, leaving empty room after empty room, each filled with beautiful furniture and artwork.
A short tour leads to a two-floor library, an archival museum and a large cork-floor gymnasium. The way is paved in glistening marble. The place is still glorious.
* * *
The history of the Sisters of St. Joseph goes back 400 years worldwide, and more than 130 in London. The order came here in 1868 to teach, to visit with the sick and the poor, and to open an orphanage.
In 1888, the sisters opened a health-care facility that's now St. Joseph's Health Care. In 1954, they moved onto the mount, soon bringing in a boarding school.
But with liberation movements opening doors for women, the sisterhood became less attractive. Fewer women signed on in following decades.
And so the Sisters of St. Joseph began to spread themselves into communities.
"There is an interesting phenomenon among us. A paradox," says Ritchie. "We are becoming smaller and smaller, yet there is new energy."
Globally, London's Sisters of St. Joseph help missionaries in Peru and engage in political activism, such as with their giant signs above the mount.
Nationally, they have joined political letter-writing campaigns, such as a nationwide push for an inquiry into the Maher Arar scandal.
Locally, the sisters operate community services and join advocacy groups such as London's Affordable Housing Foundation.
"We are interested in all aspects of social justice," says Van Cauwenberghe. "Having people in the community expands our scope."
Sisters of St. Joseph have spearheaded several community relief efforts, such as a refugee house, the Queen's Avenue Home for Women, the Gower Street addiction rehabilitation centre for men and St. Joseph's Hospitality Centre on Dundas Street East.
* * *
An hour spent at the hospitality centre highlights London's growing need for nuns to come down from the mount.
There are no marble hallways here, just a dining room jammed with people in need of warmth and a meal. More than 200 people eat here daily. Numbers have doubled since the soup kitchen opened in 1983.
The place, which costs about $4,000 a month, runs on donations to St. Joseph, says its director, Sister Teresa Ryan.
As she speaks, a handful of lingerers finish hot meat-and-potato meals.
"Thank you very much," says a woman in her forties. "It hit the spot real good."
* * *
The sisters' focus on social justice begs the question: why not turn the mount into an affordable housing complex?
"That is something we thought about at first," says Ritchie. But after talking with several agencies, the order found the idea wasn't feasible.
But Mount St. Joseph isn't open for sale to just anybody, says Peter Whatmore of CB Richard Ellis, a realty company.
"There is a great potential for an education component here or some type of seniors housing," he says.
"We are talking about 18 acres of land with a high-profile location on the doorstep of Western.
"But the sisters do not want to sell it without being proud of what it might become."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
2004-02-21
Liberals won election, that's consultation enough
JIM CHAPMAN, London Free Press
Most any politician will tell you the toughest job they have is trying to figure out what will keep the voters happy. And since the electorate is not a single unit but a collection of individuals with varied interests and priorities, that can be a daunting job.
Canada has devised a method to aid politicians in making those determinations. It's not foolproof, but it does give them a clear picture of where the majority of Canadians think they want to go. It's called an election.
We had one in Ontario not so long ago. The Tories, NDP and Liberals duked it out for the support of Ontario voters. It looked like a horse race in the beginning but the Liberals eventually won it rather handily, at least partly because of a "long-as-your-arm" list of election promises.
They offered and the people of Ontario accepted their agenda where it matters, at the polls.
So why the smoke-and-mirrors extravaganza they brought to London Tuesday night? It was billed as an opportunity for Londoners to tell the government what its priorities should be. Party bigwigs expressed hope that many concerned citizens as possible would make presentations. I can only guess they're looking for some way out of the state of aimlessness in which they appear to have been floundering since the election.
It's quite sad, really. Instead of proposing concrete strategies to deliver on what they promised, the government has been loudly lamenting the unexpected deficit the Tories left behind when they vacated their seats of power. What a surprise.
It's shameful the way "we didn't know" has become a political mantra across this country. The words pour from Paul Martin's lips like rancid honey, and the Ontario Liberals bleat the same feeble excuse every time they are challenged over the litany of promises they have broken or ducked.
Listening to the gripes of a few dozen citizens, however well-meaning, is no substitute for taking your case to the voters. The Liberals did exactly that last year, and the people of Ontario responded with a solid vote of confidence. They voted yes to the Liberal vision, and yes to the campaign promises. Now it's up to the Liberals to deliver.
The folks in government should quit blaming Ernie Eves because he left them a little surprise under the premier's desk. Many people, including the respected Fraser Institute, had warned the Tories were playing fast and loose with budget numbers and whoever won the election would have to deal with significant revenue shortfalls.
The Liberals knew full well, or ought to have known, that the money required for their lavish campaign promises was not going to be found in government coffers -- it would have to be teased or plundered out of taxpayers' pockets.
The dog-and-pony shows they have travelling the province seeking "input" from Ontarians are a waste of our tax dollars and their time. It's time to come across, or at least do us the courtesy of being honest about the choices we face and admit their campaign lies were, well, lies.
Taxes will have to go up for them to keep their promises. That's their fault, not ours, and it's intellectually dishonest to attempt to disguise that reality by saying "we have consulted with Ontarians and they have set our priorities."
They did, all right, and we did too, but it was last year at the polls, not this year in church basements and meeting halls.
Welfare rate raises delayed by deficit
Social Services Minster Sandra Pupatello said rates may not rise until next year.
GILLIAN LIVINGSTON, CP 2004-02-21 03:29:27
WINDSOR -- Ontario welfare recipients may have to wait until next year before there are any increases in welfare rates because of the challenge of dealing with the deficit, Community and Social Services Minister Sandra Pupatello said yesterday. Pupatello said the government is still committed to its election promise of boosting welfare rates, but that it could take longer to implement because of the $5.6-billion deficit.
"We're hoping that we can do it as quickly as possible, but we don't have guarantees it will be in this fiscal year," she said, specifying fiscal 2004-2005, which starts April 1.
"We hope that we're going to have an opportunity in the next budget process to see how quickly we can move on things," said Pupatello, in Windsor for the Ontario Liberal party annual meeting.
During last fall's election, now Premier Dalton McGuinty promised to raise welfare rates, which the former Conservative government cut 23 per cent in 1995.
The main issue affecting this decision is the deficit and the constraints that puts on the government, Pupatello said.
"We thought we were going in with a $2-billion deficit -- we're not, it's more than double that," she said. "So yeah, our time frames changed and we're going to do the best we can."
In light of that, Pupatello said the government will work on other improvements in the welfare system.
Earlier this year, Pupatello warned that rates wouldn't go up before the budget is tabled in the spring, although she acknowledged that current welfare rates aren't keeping up with recipients' needs.
Currently, a single mother with one child receives $957 a month -- an amount that leaves such families on the financial edge, critics said.
About $4 billion a year goes to thousands of Ontarians on welfare and disability. The Community and Social Services Ministry has "challenges" to update its technology and has to make other investments to improve service, Pupatello said.
"It's a matter of how quickly we can identify cost of living increases for people," she said.
In January, the province lifted the controversial lifetime ban on Ontario welfare recipients who cheat the system.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Staff votes 90% for library strike
Free Press staff 2004-02-21 03:29:28
London libraries could be facing their first labour dispute in more than 30 years. Staff at the city's public libraries gave strong support for a strike this week, voting 90 per cent in favour of walking off the job.
Valerie Chapman, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees' Local 217, which represents more than 200 employees at the public libraries, said 112 of the 217 members turned out to cast a ballot in a strike vote Monday.
Chapman said she was pleased with both the turnout and the result.
"We're pleased to get a strong mandate from our members."
Wages and benefits are the biggest issues for the city's librarians, library assistants, maintenance and support staff.
Their contract expired at the end of last year.
The two sides last met in late January and the union has now applied for conciliation, so a strike isn't imminent, Chapman said.
Suzanna Hubbard- Krimmer, library director of service operations, said last night's restoration of $10,000 to the library budget will have no effect on a potential labour dispute because it pertains solely to the summer literacy program, which involves 12 student summer jobs.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Union calls for higher taxes to pay for social services
CP 2004-02-21 03:29:28
TORONTO -- Social-service agencies and the unions that represent their workers want the Ontario government to increase taxes to provide $500 million in new funding. "I think if we continue to put on the political pressure, (Premier Dalton) McGuinty will realize he has no option but to raise taxes," Sid Ryan, Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said yesterday.
The non-profit agencies say years of cutbacks by the previous Conservative government have created a crisis for community-based groups across the province.
"Our budgets have been flatlined for at least eight years, while inflation has eaten away at the income we do get," said Yves Savoie, executive director of the Family Service Association of Toronto.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Saturday, February 21, 2004
London cash reserve on taxpayers' backs
It's nice to know the City of London will have lots of funds in its reserve -- because this Londoner won't after the proposed tax hike.
Hats off to Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen for daring to make a change.
K. A. Flynn
London
Letter to the Editor, London Free Press, 02-20-2004
E-mails curbing sexual diseases
AP 2004-02-20 03:39:44
ATLANTA -- Fighting fire with fire, U.S. public health officials are using e-mail to try to stop the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases among people who meet through Internet chat rooms and websites. In a pilot program in Los Angeles County, health officials use e-mail and the Internet to notify the sex partners of people who have been diagnosed with STDS.
San Francisco's health department is believed to be the only other agency to use e-mail in this way, said Dr. Pragna Patel of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released a case study yesterday on the Los Angeles County project.
"Using e-mail has been a helpful and good alternative when you have otherwise anonymous sex partners," Patel said.
"More and more the Internet is serving as a place to meet sex partners and engage in risky behaviour."
Tracking STD cases among people who have met in chat rooms is difficult because people often take part anonymously.
Health officials often don't have names, addresses or other information to work with.
In other parts of the country, health officials post prevention messages on websites used by gay and bisexual men to meet each other.
But e-mail isn't used.
Instead, health officials use regular mail or contact people in person to tell them that they may have been exposed.
"I think when we are in a war to save lives, then we have to use any means necessary to get the (message) out," said Sandra Singleton McDonald, who runs an Atlanta AIDS program and is on the President's Advisory Committee on HIV and AIDS.
In Los Angeles, the need to curb STDs is crucial: the county recently reported its first increase in new AIDS cases in a decade.
The number of cases rose a half per cent from 1,555 to 1,562 between 2001 and 2002, according to preliminary figures from the county health department.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Deficit budgets likely
CP 2004-02-20 03:39:44
TORONTO -- The provincial government may have to present two deficit budgets before delivering on a controversial campaign promise to balance the province's books, Premier Dalton McGuinty suggested yesterday. "At the outside, people are talking to us about two years as being reasonable" for the new government to eliminate a deficit projected at $5.6 billion, McGuinty said.
The premier also said he misspoke yesterday when he told reporters his goal was to balance the books during the government's first term in office.
"I used the wrong word," McGuinty said later.
"Instead of 'term,' I meant 'year.' Our goal remains the same as it has throughout, which is to balance the budget in our first full fiscal year."
McGuinty insisted the Liberal government won't try to "tax our way out" of the deficit or slash spending on public services.
"People have taken it on the chin for a long time and therein lies the crux of the challenge for us," he said.
"We're trying to bring a responsible approach."
Finance Minister Greg Sorbara agreed and admitted the budget he is preparing to introduce this spring may not be balanced.
"If -- when all the work is done -- the budget is not balanced, this will not be the end of the world, and we'll work towards the next fiscal year," Sorbara said.
"Right now we're looking at doing that in '04-'05."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Ottawa adds billions to spending
CP 2004-02-20 03:39:47
OTTAWA -- Almost $1 billion for emergency aid, $2 million for new toilets and $5,000 for special combat socks were among billions of dollars in extra spending announced by the federal government yesterday. Ottawa's supplementary estimates -- spending outside the regular budget -- came just as Finance Minister Ralph Goodale promised mayors from across the country at least $7 billion in new funding for Canada's cities.
However, the finance minister may be less generous today when he sits down with his provincial counterparts to hammer out a controversial new funding deal.
Goodale is struggling to keep the books in balance while paying down debt, boosting health funding and meeting commitments made this month by Prime Minister Paul Martin in his maiden throne speech.
A key promise there was a $7 billion, 10-year GST rebate to municipal governments which will cost Ottawa about $580 million this year.
Ottawa also intends to share a portion of the federal gas tax with cities, although working that out will be complicated and details won't be ready for the next budget, Goodale said after meeting with mayors.
That's expected in early March.
"The next thing that we will want to tackle is the gas tax . . . and the cities are anxious for ongoing signals that the government of Canada is serious and that there is momentum building here," Goodale said.
Provincial governments, which are responsible for cities, have balked at Ottawa dealing directly with the cities and a showdown over the gas tax issue looms.
Talks will also be heated today over a new equalization deal, where Goodale has hinted he expects to save money this year.
Under the $10-billion equalization plan, annual payments are made to the provinces by Ottawa to provide roughly equal services across the country.
Five provinces, including Ontario, provide the base for the formula and since Canada's most populous province saw a sluggish economy last year, everyone's payments will likely be reduced.
With provinces facing budget deficits, they're pressing for a new method of calculating equalization payments. "We need an approach that lets everybody come out ahead," Manitoba Finance Minister Greg Selinger said.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Council fails to shave budget costs
Seven hours later, $1,000 was added to the $731M budget.
JOE BELANGER, Free Press City Hall Reporter 2004-02-20 03:39:50
Frustration mounts as London city council continues to avoid any serious cuts to a budget projecting a double-digit tax hike. After meeting for seven hours to discuss the environment and transportation budgets, council managed to add $1,000 to the $731-million budget.
However, council did approve some significant changes, including a three-bag limit for curbside garbage pick-up, contracting out of some unionized waste collection and handling jobs, and a reduction in winter sidewalk maintenance.
Council approved the recommended three-per-cent hike in water rates, but voted to reduce a 9.4-per-cent hike in the sewer rate to 7.4 per cent, shaving about $6 off the $28 originally to be added to the average water bill of about $300 a year.
There were no significant cuts to the city's operating budget, which still calls for a tax hike of just less than 11 per cent after council added spending in its first session Wednesday.
"There is frustration," said Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen.
"Especially when you hear all that rhetoric, hear them (councillors) say we're going in the wrong direction (adding to the budget), but it's not followed up on with action."
Council approved several budgets of outside agencies, such as the London Transit Commission (LTC) and various conservation authorities as presented, since most came in at or under city guidelines.
The frustration began to surface in discussions about the LTC's budget, which calls for a 2.4-per-cent hike on its proposed $39-million budget, an increase with no service improvements.
The majority of council praised the efforts of the LTC board and managers for keeping a reign on spending.
But a few councillors, including Van Meerbergen and Rob Alder, wanted cuts.
"This budget is more discretionary, we can make some cuts," Alder urged colleagues.
"Unfortunately, (if we cut the budget) they won't be able to maintain all their riders and momentum built up (to get more people riding buses and keeping cars at home). But that's discretion."
But most other councillors defeated a motion by Alder to cut the LTC budget, defending it as necessary to serve those who depend on the buses, while reducing the number of cars on the roads, the damage they cause and the pollution.
"I believe we're on the right track," said Coun. Bill Armstrong. "I don't think this is an outrageous budget increase. And it's an essential service for a large percentage of our community."
Controller Bud Polhill said cutting the LTC budget and discouraging more ridership "is exactly the wrong message to be sending."
Coun. Cheryl Miller noted the London Chamber of Commerce has endorsed a quality transit system to cut down on pollution and road work.
Budget chief and Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell agreed.
"A significant reduction in ridership would result in much more significant impact in what we have to spend on roads," Gosnell said.
The city's draft budget called for a 10.4-per-cent property tax hike, three per cent on water and 9.4 per cent on sewers. The hikes would add about $224 to the average tax bill for a home assessed at $138,000, bringing the total for taxes, sewers and water to more than $2,600.
After approving the water rate, council was reminded that 7.4 per cent of the sewer charge hike was approved by the previous council as part of the surcharge to repair the system that was causing massive sewage back-ups in homes.
An effort by Van Meerbergen to have the original bylaw overturned and bring in no increase was defeated.
On the issue of a three-bag limit for curbside garbage removal, councillors were generally supportive, noting the impact isn't just raising revenue of about $60,000, but reducing overall waste and increasing recycling.
"I guess it's always difficult for a community to make changes, but this change is actually going to help the environment," Miller said.
City engineer Peter Steblin said any staff reductions won't require layoffs, since staff will be moved to vacant positions.
"We were told (by council) that the challenge put before us is to look at doing things differently and we think with some competition (contracting out) will be helpful. It will not be without controversy," Steblin advised.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Quebec judge heads scandal inquiry
JIM BROWN AND LOUISE ELLIOTT, CP 2004-02-20 03:39:50
OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Paul Martin brushed aside opposition objections yesterday and stuck with John Gomery, a veteran Quebec judge, to head a public inquiry into the federal sponsorship scandal. "There is no doubt that he is impartial," Martin declared outside a cabinet meeting.
"I don't think that anybody should be impugning a justice of such longstanding reputation and such longstanding quality."
Conservative MP John Williams, chairperson of the Commons public accounts committee, has questioned Gomery's objectivity because, in addition to sitting on Quebec Superior Court, he holds a federal appointment as head of the Copyright Board of Canada.
That suggests Gomery "may just be another Liberal hack," Williams said this week.
New Democrat MP Pat Martin has also suggested Gomery should be disqualified "if he has been the beneficiary of any Liberal largesse."
The Prime Minister's Office said Gomery has decided, on his own initiative, to step down from the copyright board before starting work on the sponsorship inquiry.
The board position was a voluntary one that paid expenses but no salary, said PMO spokesperson Justin Kingsley.
"He didn't get an extra cent for doing it."
While the government was handing the judge his official terms of reference, the separate probe by the public accounts committee was dissolving into partisan bickering.
During committee hearings yesterday:
- Chairperson Williams complained he wasn't getting enough information from Andre Ouellet -- president of Canada Post and a former Liberal cabinet minister -- about the postal corporation's role in the sponsorship program.
- Liberal backbencher Joe Jordan suggested the criticism of the program levelled by Auditor General Sheila Fraser has been blown out of "perspective."
- Judy Wasylycia-Leis of the NDP complained the Liberals do "not sound like a government willing to co-operate fully" with the committee's work.
Question period in the Commons produced more fireworks, as Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe wondered whether advertising agencies implicated in the scandal had funnelled money back to the Liberal party through secret trust funds.
Duceppe produced no evidence, but demanded to know who had contributed to the 2000 election campaigns of Privy Council President Denis Coderre and former justice minister Martin Cauchon.
Coderre was irate when he met reporters later outside the House, accusing the Bloc of trying to score cheap political points. "They try to say that we're just a bunch of crooks, they're throwing mud at us," he said. "I'm going to go and talk to my lawyers . . . If they want war, it's starting now."
The public inquiry to be headed by Gomery is the centrepiece of the Martin government's effort to clean up the mess that came to light last week in Fraser's latest report.
She concluded up to $100 million -- of a total $250 million in federal sponsorship spending in the late 1990s -- went to Liberal-friendly ad agencies that did little to promote the ostensible objective of enhancing national unity.
Gomery should be able to hire staff, get organized and start public hearings "within the next few weeks," said Public Works Minister Stephen Owen.
Those hearings will continue even if the prime minister decides to call a spring election -- unlike the probe by the public accounts committee, which would end with the dissolution of Parliament.
Martin was evasive yesterday, during an interview with CKNW radio in New Westminster, B.C., on whether he still intends to call a spring vote. "I guess the answer to that is I don't want to have an election until people are pretty sure of the direction the inquiry is taking," Martin said.
He later refused, under opposition questioning in the Commons, to set an early deadline for Gomery to finish his work. "We want the inquiry to complete its task as quickly as possible, but we also want it to be thorough," said the prime minister. "We are not going to cut it off."
Gomery's terms of reference say he should report on an "urgent" basis, but the exact timetable will be up to him, said Owen.
He has the power to issue interim reports if he chooses, rather than waiting for the end of the inquiry to publish all his findings.
Gomery will not have authority to assess criminal responsibility, but if he hears evidence that indicates criminal activity, he can hand it off to police.
Owen noted the RCMP is investigating about a dozen cases linked to the sponsorship program and "there may be more" depending on what Gomery uncovers.
Meanwhile, at the public accounts committee, the auditor general said she couldn't publicly identify any more Crown corporation employees who signed off on sponsorship deals with the government. "It's a question of privacy, but it's also a larger question of the confidentiality of our audit files," said Fraser. "We would prefer (that) the committee would demand the information directly from government."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Baby monitor tells what the cries mean
RANDY RICHMOND, Free Press Reporter 2004-02-20 03:39:50
These are the questions every parent asks their cute and cuddly newborn at least once: "What the heck is wrong with you? Why are you crying? Why can't you just tell me?"
Followed by a good hearty scream -- by the parent.
Now a Toronto distributing company says it has the answer to the age-old question of what newborns want -- the WhyCry Baby Cry Analyzer.
"It will tell you if a baby is hungry, bored, annoyed, sleepy or stressed," Vlad Velman, the Toronto exporter of the monitor, said yesterday.
The electronic monitor went on sale in Canada two days ago, said Velman, who has exclusive Canadian rights to the Spanish invention.
Already, dozens of parents and a few dealers looking to stock the WhyCry have called or e-mailed for orders, Velman said.
In Europe, the WhyCry has sold in the hundreds of thousands, Velman said.
It's not quite the device invented in the cartoon series The Simpsons, which translated baby's mumblings into spoken dialogue.
But the monitor supposedly deciphers differences in pitch, frequency of cries and changes in volume, then lights up the appropriate icon indicating what's wrong -- all within 20 seconds of the first cries.
"It gives you guidance to do what the baby is asking.
"Otherwise, you will try one thing, then the other," Velman said.
The WhyCry was invented by Pedro Monagas in Castellar del Valles, Spain.
According to the WhyCry website, Monagas was prompted by the wails of his own infant son.
"He was crying a lot," Velman said.
While other people might just pick up the child, Monagas, an electronics engineer, spent one year analysing his boy's cries then three more years analysing the cries of hundreds of infants.
He came up with the monitor, which is supposed to be more than 90-per-cent accurate. At $140 a pop, plus shipping, accuracy is important.
Its creators say the monitor works no matter where the baby lives, because crying is the universal language.
It's a great tool for grandparents, babysitters and the hearing impaired, Velman said yesterday.
Based on his own days with a newborn, Velman also predicted a big market among fathers, who may lack the experience of their wives.
The WhyCry isn't supposed to replace parents or let them off the hook if something is seriously wrong with a child, Velman said.
"It is not a medical device. It is complementary."
But a London child-care expert tossed aside the suggestion any electronic monitor could replace a parent's knowledge.
"You have given me my laugh for the day," said Anne McKay, a co-ordinator at one of the Ontario Early Years Centres in London.
"Parents are the experts about their own babies. I would never think anything could take the place of a parent."
Relying on a monitor only puts a needless step between any caregiver and a newborn, she said.
"There is no magic in parenting. You just pay attention. The answers are there for you."
WhyCry is not yet available in London stores, but can be ordered online (www.whycrycanada.com) or by calling 1-866-4whycry.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Friday, February 20, 2004
Police budget facing a battle
The issue has divided council almost evenly.
JONATHAN SHER, Free Press Reporter 2004-02-20 03:39:50
The fate of London's police budget may ultimately be decided by a single vote. That was the margin this week when, in a warmup to a final vote, city council recommended boosting the police budget 6.2 per cent to hire 35 recruits and five cadets.
With two council members absent, the vote was 9-8, with the potential tie-breaker, Coun. Sandy White, saying later her support for the police budget may change when it comes before council for a final vote.
If other important services are cut, it's only fair the police request also be trimmed, she said yesterday.
With Londoners facing a threatened double-digit tax increase and police asserting they need every new officer to secure public safety, councillors are bracing for battle.
Those who neglect safety and oppose the police request will lose votes for their own initiatives, Coun. Bernie MacDonald said.
"People will lose some of their little pet projects," he said yesterday.
The police budget has split MacDonald from his ward-mate, Coun. Fred Tranquilli.
MacDonald said lives will be at risk if the city fails to fully support police.
"I don't think people realize that during the night, three-quarters of this city isn't patrolled," MacDonald said.
But Tranquilli said those who want to trim back the police request need look no further than a workplace analysis prepared by police.
"In the last 10 years the police budget has almost doubled, while the number of police has (barely) increased," Tranquilli said.
Police believe they have made their case convincingly, pointing to an internal business plan and an outside finding that Londoners pay less per person for police than do citizens of other Ontario cities.
But one element is missing -- an independent investigation of police needs.
London's police services board voted last February to ask for an investigation by the Ontario Civilian Commission on Police Services after a request for 30 more officers was cut back to 15 by council.
That investigation, which could have led to an inquiry with non-binding recommendations, never got off the ground because London police never made a request.
"There was never a formal request. I'm not even aware of any discussions," said Margo Boyd, a senior investigator with the civilian commission.
The police board later decided in a closed session to take a better route, asking Ontario's Ministry of Public Safety and Security to audit staffing, board chair Jan Richardson said yesterday.
"(The decision to go to the ministry was) the least intrusive or the least demanding action that we can request," Richardson said.
Asked why the board didn't vote for the change in a public session, Richardson said, "It is the right of any board to conduct its business when it needs to or chooses to, to do that in camera.
"There's no intent to misinform anybody," she said.
Ontario's Police Services Act requires meetings to be public except when when the need to keep secret financial, personnel and public security matters outweighs the public interest in openness.
The ministry wrote the police board in August that it wouldn't consider a review until sometime this year -- too late, now, to be ready before council votes on the budget.
Londoners need basic services such as police even if that means an 11-per-cent tax hike, said Coun. Ab Chahbar, who sits on the police board.
"If that's going to be an 11-per-cent tax increase, I'll defend that. I won't like it, but I'll defend it."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Seeking out good ideas is, well, good
In Vermont, public town meetings are an art form, held at least annually, where local political issues are debated and, often, decided. Such sessions flow from a belief, wide-spread in the Green Mountain state, that the people are as capable of resolving contentious issues as are the politicians.
In Canada, our traditions are less open. It has long been the view – one could argue this has been taken to an art form, too – that some things were just too important to be left to the people. The government – or, in truth, a small cadre within government – makes the big decisions “in the public interest.”
The public, increasingly, bridles at such arrogance. And so it should. Politicians hardly have the corner on good ideas; big issues demand examination of all possibilities.
And so it was with pleasure we note city council’s decision to take the current budget debate to the public on the weekend. Our election members went to the shopping malls to answer questions and listen to ideas about how to deal with the proposed budget for the coming year which projects an increase of more than 10 per cent in the tax rate.
Whether anyone heard any really good ideas remains to be seen. But the politicians did listen and perhaps learned. And undoubtedly some members of the public learned, too.
Clearly this year’s budget problems can’t be solved simply by, say, whacking $50 million off capital improvements or stripping reserve funds. Nor should be they solved by returning to the days of a decade or so ago when the city hardly spent money on anything, leading to the pent up demand for improvements that has caused some of this year’s difficulty.
No, what’s needed is some truly creative thinking. And if there are good ideas lurking out there council is right to seek them out.
Philip McLeod
Editor, The Londoner 02-19-2004
That's right, folks, this is London's alternative newspaper...
Legion members can pay their bills
Regarding the article, Legion wages e-mail war to seek premier's help with sales tax bill (Feb. 17):
The legion has 500,000 members. They owe $161,000. If each member donated a loonie, the debt would be paid and they would have a balance $339,000 spare.
M. A. Upton
London
(Letter to the Editor, London Free Press, 02-19-2004)
2004-02-14
Student loan burden seems like no big deal
JIM CHAPMAN, London Free Press
I never made it to university. I'm not particularly proud of that non-accomplishment, because I know how much I missed in never being part of the intellectual cut and thrust in such an environment. I think I would have enjoyed it, and I know it would have been good for me.
Lately, though, I've had the opportunity to participate vicariously in that aspect of university life through some spirited discussions with the UWO students who work as interns in our office. They're all sharp kids with keen minds and they're not afraid to stand up for what they believe in. I'm proud of every one of them.
We had another friendly go-round the other day on the subject of student debt. They argued that tuition should be much lower than it is, and free would be just fine. An educated person is a benefit to society, so society should pick up the tab.
Recently, a small number of like-minded demonstrators from the Canadian Federation of Students took to the streets of the Western campus with a similar argument. They insisted the cost of getting an education is unfairly burdening them with post-graduation debt.
I strongly support improved access to student loans, to ensure anyone who wants to pursue higher education can do so. They, on the other hand, apparently want enough government funding to universities to make such loans largely unnecessary.
There are some instances where special circumstances create special problems, but for the most part I don't see what the big deal is about having to go into debt to create a means to earn a living.
For example, you and your buddy face some life choices. He decides to go to university, you'd rather work in a variety store. You get a low-wage job while you learn the ropes, then decide to go into business for yourself, at about the same time he's graduating.
At that point he owes $60,000 in student loans. For the same amount, you could buy a little variety store (not the building, just the business) . Ignoring the fact it will be a lot harder for you to get small-business financing than it was for him to get student loans, let's assume you arrange it.
Though you took different paths, you're now both ready to turn experience into income. You've both put in an apprenticeship, you owe the same amount of money, and each of you now has something that offers the potential to earn a living -- he a degree, you a variety store.
For some reason I am unable to fathom, the Canadian Federation of Students seems to think he shouldn't have to pay, or even incur, his debt, while you know the bank will insist that you pay every cent of yours.
The students argue that he will repay the cost of his education through income tax, but the tax-man will have his hand out to you, too. If your buddy does well, he will pay higher taxes, but so will you if your store flourishes.
There is one area where I have to admit the playing field is not level. If your business fails, you could end up with nothing to show for it, but he will always have his degree.
As I said, I never went to university, and some of the subtleties of life may well elude me. But except for the business failure scenario, I fail to see the practical, let's-get-on-with-our-careers difference between you and your buddy.
Beyond the fact, that is, that the Canadian Federation of Students insists he deserves a free ride
Grits retreat from vow to avoid budget deficit
ALAN FINDLAY, Free Press Queen's Park Bureau 2004-02-19 03:25:35
TORONTO -- Back-to-back provincial deficits loomed larger yesterday as Ontario's premier and finance minister retreated from an election vow to balance next year's budget. "What I hear from Ontarians is that they're not overly concerned about how long it takes to balance the budget," Premier Dalton McGuinty said yesterday.
People don't want to see deficits for several years, he said. But the main concern he's hearing at public hearings and consultations is against gutting public services.
"They don't want us to go on . . . a spending binge but they are telling us, 'You've got $70 billion, find a better way to use those existing dollars,' " McGuinty said.
The comments also come a day after an Ontario Chamber of Commerce study revealed most of its members wouldn't mind a small deficit in next year's books.
The government already has said it is headed toward a $5.6-billion deficit this year, thanks to a financial mess inherited from the former Tory government.
Finance Minister Greg Sorbara called a balanced budget "the objective that we're working on," but it's not an indispensable condition. And it will happen only if the government finds new ways to raise money, he said.
"That doesn't say that if we don't balance this year we will have failed," he said.
The Liberals were quickly accused of setting the stage for another broken election promise.
Last September McGuinty signed a Taxpayer's Protection Pledge reaffirming a previous vow to balance all his budgets.
Canadian Taxpayers Federation director John Williamson said McGuinty appears to have forgotten how important that high-profile pledge signing was in the Liberal election campaign.
"If the government doesn't stop running deficits today, that means there's less money for health care, education and infrastructure tomorrow," said Williamson.
And under the province's Balanced Budget Act, supported by McGuinty in opposition, cabinet members would be fined 25 per cent of their ministerial salary for failing to balance the books next year.
If the government doesn't balance the books in the spring budget, it will be breaking the law, said Conservative member Jim Flaherty.
"At some point Premier (Dalton) McGuinty is going to have to begin acting like a leader and make the tough choices," Flaherty said.
New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos said the Grits are a government without a plan. "Clearly the Liberals are writing an agenda day by day, literally on the back of the envelope," he said.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Dalton for Prime Minister!
Premier fends off federal scandal
JAMES MCCARTEN, CP 2004-02-19 03:25:36
TORONTO -- Keepers of the public purse must heed the harsh political lessons of Ottawa's sponsorship scandal when it comes to safeguarding taxpayer dollars, says Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. "Like all Canadians, we are outraged and find the actions that have been taken by some people to be absolutely deplorable," McGuinty said yesterday before his weekly cabinet meeting.
"The most important lesson for all of those who enjoy the privilege of serving in public office is, you'd better be careful about the tax dollars and respect them."
McGuinty and his Liberal cabinet lieutenants were quick to dismiss suggestions that voters in Ontario will see his government through the same jaundiced lens of scandal they currently have trained on Ottawa, where Prime Minister Paul Martin is in the fight of his political life.
The federal Liberal crisis erupted in earnest last week when the auditor general reported that $100 million was paid in commissions to Liberal-friendly Quebec ad firms for little or no work.
The ensuing maelstrom prompted Martin to call a public inquiry and embark on an unprecedented media campaign in an effort to ensure Canadians that those responsible will be held to account.
That did little to mitigate a steep drop in support for Martin's government, which until a few days ago had looked unbeatable in the next election, originally expected to take place in the spring.
The Ontario government has already taken steps to broaden the provincial auditor's power, reduce consultants and ban the use of taxpayer dollars on partisan political advertising, McGuinty said.
That didn't stop NDP member Peter Kormos from accusing the provincial Liberals of the same "decay" and "corruption" that's in evidence right now in Ottawa.
"They're very much the same party," Kormos said.
The NDP has already tried to capitalize on the headlines, citing $750 million in research funding that the provincial auditor noted in December was never accounted for by the former provincial Conservative government.
"Some people have said there were too few strings attached to the delivery of any of those funds, and we're going to take a look at that," McGuinty promised.
Political observers say it's unlikely the Ontario government, preoccupied at the moment with cutting spending in an effort to rein in a $5.6-billion deficit, will earn a reputation for wastefulness.
"This is not a government that looks like it spends any money," said Henry Jacek, a McMaster University politics professor in Hamilton. "You're not going to get fat on what Dalton McGuinty feeds you."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Police get OK to hire 35 new officers
JOE BELANGER, Free Press Reporter 2004-02-19 03:25:38
The London force's $55-million budget was approved by city councillors. London police were given the green light yesterday to hire 35 new officers.
City councillors approved the force's proposed $55-million budget during deliberations on the community and protective services portion of the city's 2004 budget.
Councillors narrowly rejected a motion by Coun. Rob Alder to trim $548,000 from the proposed police budget.
But several councillors shared the view of Coun. Cheryl Miller, who noted the force previously agreed to stagger the hiring of 85 new officers over three years to lessen the budget impact.
Last year, council trimmed $500,000 from the proposed police budget, reducing to 15 from 30 the number of new officers.
"I can't . . . break the promise we made last year," Miller said. "This year, we're now saying we'll do it over four years, and next year it'll be over five years and we're never going to achieve what we wanted to do."
Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell, who served 11 years on the police services board, said not fulfilling the promise to hire more officers would affect morale on the force and safety on the streets.
"We'd be letting down the officers on the street and the community. It's a safe community today, and that could be lost very quickly. We don't want to be in a situation down the road where one of the black marks against us is we're not a safe community to invest in or to move to."
Several councillors, including Bill Armstrong, asked whether the force could save money by replacing officers used in crime prevention with retired officers or civilians.
But police Chief Brian Collins said the force already shifts those officers to front-line work on a regular basis.
The bottom line, Collins told the committee, is that response times are climbing and staff is stretched too thin.
"The fact is, people are waiting four and five hours for a police officer to get to a break-in."
The police budget has another big hurdle to pass. All decisions made during budget deliberations must be approved by city council.
The police services board was asked to limit its proposed increase to 3.6 per cent. The budget approved last night contains a 6.2-per-cent increase.
Police budget highlights include:
- Thirty-five new recruits, costing about $1 million.
- Five police cadets to cover court screenings at a cost of $149,000.
- An increase of $1.8 million to cover the added costs of the new hires last year, including pay hikes and benefits.
The fire department budget caught many councillors off guard when acting Chief John Kobarda outlined the impact of cutting $1.6 million, as proposed by city administration.
Kobarda told council response times would rise and some areas of the city may even be unprotected at times, leading to increased fire damage, insurance costs and risks to firefighters.
Unable to provide council with estimates of the cost of restoring cuts, Kobarda was asked to return Tuesday.
"I guess it's quite encouraging," he said later. "They've told me to come back and tell them what we need."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
CASCAR president recounts race link to scandal
CHIP MARTIN, Free Press Politics Reporter 2004-02-19 03:25:38
A few years back, Londoner Tony Novotny was told to wave some Canadian flags at a stock car event he was running in Quebec. And there was a sponsor paying him to do it.
"I'm proud to be a Canadian," Novotny said yesterday. "I'll fly a Canadian flag any day."
The idea of being paid for it was a nifty bonus, he remembers thinking at the time.
Novotny was running a CASCAR (Canadian Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) Superseries event in Quebec -- he thinks at St- Eustache -- in 1998 when the sponsorship money was paid.
Today, he can laugh at his tenuous connection to the sponsorship scandal that's been rocking the federal Liberal government.
"We were removed from the negotiations side of it," he said. Under a deal struck with major sponsor Castrol, Novotny and his crew were to place flags and the federal government "wordmark" signs around the racetrack. "We basically had to do what we were told to do," he recalled.
He doesn't expect his connection to the scandal in which $250 million in sponsorship money was pumped into Quebec will see him required to testify at the public inquiry called by Prime Minister Paul Martin.
"We did get a visit from the RCMP, though," Novotny said. That was back in 2002 when the first hints of spending irregularities came to light. "And that got our name in the paper," he said, laughing. "CASCAR got a lot of ink out of it."
Novotny, president of CASCAR, has heard nothing more about the investigation.
It's been learned of the $250 million intended to promote the federal sponsorship of events in Quebec, about $100 million found its way into the coffers of communications firms who later made contributions to the federal Liberal party.
Novotny said he has no knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes.
In 2002, it was revealed the Montreal advertising agency Communication Coffin channelled Ottawa's dollars to two racing events, one of them Novotny's. Coffin spent $320,000 in taxpayer dollars on advertising at the venues.
Novotny owned Delaware Speedway from 1979 until 2000. His efforts since have focused on running Canada's stock car racing sanctioning body.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Council has no taste for cafeteria shutdown
JOE BELANGER, Free Press City Hall Reporter 2004-02-19 03:25:38
London council clearly doesn't have the appetite to make all the cuts, especially when it comes to food. During yesterday's budget talks about Dearness Home, one proposed cut was closing city hall's cafeteria, frequented by staff and council.
Jim Hignett, director of long-term care, said the cafeteria loses $57,000 a year.
But council wouldn't bite.
"The reason is simple -- productivity at city hall, otherwise we'll have staff wandering everywhere looking for food," Controller Gord Hume said, with several other councillors agreeing.
But Newcomer Paul Van Meerbergen couldn't swallow the optics.
"It may be a small amount, but there's symbolism here," Van Meerbergen said. "We're going to the taxpayers and saying, 'You're going to have to take a 10- or 11-per-cent tax hike and you're also going to have to fund the cafeteria.' I think people will be outraged."
But even budget chief Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell agreed with the majority, suggesting staff be instructed to determine how the losses can be stopped.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Council passes police budget
Could that mean an even higher property tax hike? Stay tuned.
JOE BELANGER, Free Press City Hall Reporter 2004-02-19 03:25:39
On their first attempt to trim a proposed 10.4-per-cent tax hike, London city councillors opened the door yesterday for an even higher increase. After approving a 6.2-per-cent gain in the police budget, council agreed to take another look at a proposed $1.6-million cut to the fire department budget.
"There will be a lot of ups and downs before this process ends," said Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell, council's budget chief.
Councillors focused yesterday on budgets related to community and protective services. Today, it's environment and transportation budgets.
Council agreed to meet next Tuesday to examine the impact of cuts to the fire department's $32-million budget, which would mean 17 fewer firefighters and the loss of at least one engine.
But it left the proposed $55-million police budget -- containing a $3.2-million increase to hire 35 more police officers -- untouched.
Any cuts or additions to the city's $731-million budget will be reviewed by board of control and approved by council March 9.
Council narrowly rejected a proposal by Coun. Rob Alder to trim $548,000 from police to bring the proposed increase down to 5.1 per cent.
But several councillors shared the view of colleague Cheryl Miller, who noted that the police force previously had agreed to stagger the hiring of 85 new officers over three years to lessen the financial impact.
Last year, council trimmed $500,000 from the proposed police budget, reducing to 15 from 30 the number of new officers.
"I can't in all good conscience break the promise we made last year," Miller said.
"This year, we're now saying we'll do it over four years and next year it'll be over five years . . . we're never going to achieve what we wanted to do."
Gosnell, who spent 11 years on the police services board, agreed.
"Throughout the province, the London police force has a reputation for its creative and imaginative ways of using the dollars given to it," Gosnell said. "They are at the breaking point in my view."
Gosnell said not fulfilling the promise to hire more officers would affect morale on the force and safety on the streets.
"We'd be letting down the officers on the street and the community. It's a safe community today, and that could be lost very quickly. We don't want to be in a situation down the road where one of the black marks against us is we're not a safe community to invest in or to move to."
A number of councillors, including Bill Armstrong, questioned whether the force could save money by replacing officers used in crime prevention with retired officers or civilians.
But police Chief Brian Collins said the force already shifts those officers to front-line work on a regular basis.
The bottom line, Collins told the committee, is that response times are climbing and staff is stretched too thin.
"I have a professional obligation to tell you what's going on out there," he said. "The fact is, people are waiting four and five hours for a police officer to get to a break-in."
The police services board was originally asked to limit its proposed increase to 3.6 per cent, a guideline the board ignored.
Police budget highlights include:
- 35 new recruits, costing about $1 million.
- Five police cadets to cover court screenings at a cost of $149,000.
- An increase of $1.8 million to cover the additional costs of the new hires last year, including pay hikes and benefits.
The fire services budget caught many councillors off guard when acting fire Chief John Kobarda outlined the impacts of $1.6 million in cuts, including more than $400,000 in budgeted revenues that won't be met.
Kobarda advised council response times would increase and some areas of the city may even be unprotected at times, leading to increased fire damage, insurance costs and risks to firefighters.
Unable to provide council with estimates of the cost of restoring cuts made by city administration, Kobarda was asked to return next Tuesday.
"I guess it's quite encouraging," Kobarda said after the meeting. "They've told me to come back and tell them what we need."
Gosnell agreed it appears more money is needed in the fire services budget.
"I think we're going to have to look at what's required to maintain some semblance of the service level we now have," he said.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Zip lips, Martin tells Liberals
KATHLEEN HARRIS AND STEPHANIE RUBEC, Free Press Parliamentary Bureau 2004-02-19 03:25:39
OTTAWA -- In an abrupt switch of strategy yesterday, Prime Minister Paul Martin told his jittery Liberal troops to zip their lips on the sponsorship scandal and refocus on running the country. Reeling from a devastating nosedive in the polls and the defection of long-time Liberal John Bryden, Martin tried to convince MPs the worst is behind them. In a fiery pep talk, he told MPs it's time to stop the scandal from swamping the agenda by promoting the government's priorities and preparing for a budget and an election.
"What we have to do is stay focused on all the good things that this prime minister and this government want to do," Deputy PM Anne McLellan said after the morning meeting.
Calling Martin "the most accessible" PM in recent memory, McLellan said it's important to engage with angry Canadians on the misspending but that a comprehensive plan is in place to get to the bottom of the scandal.
In what's considered an unprecedented move, Martin announced yesterday the Commons committee probing the scandal will have access to secret cabinet documents related to the sponsorship scandal. Suggesting his sitting cabinet ministers have nothing to hide, the PM said he's satisfied he adequately screened his inner circle.
Privy Council President Denis Coderre called on Canadians to let the handful of inquiries and criminal investigations run their course.
"Our job now is to govern this country and let's get over it," he said.
London-North-Centre MP Joe Fontana said the PM gave the "best political speech" in 15 years of caucus meetings.
"This guy is fired up," he said. "And he needs to talk about leadership and about hope and where this country is going. That's far more important than the particular issue of what happened about the sponsorship."
Admitting the Liberal party has taken a hit from the sponsorship scandal, Fontana insisted that it's "not a catastrophe."
But Toronto-area MP Dennis Mills described the scandal as a "cancer" on the Liberal party and urged Martin to delay an election call until the government has regained the trust of Canadians.
Other MPs were optimistic the support would climb back up after the initial shock of the auditor general's report wears off. "Hey, we've been up and down before," said Sudbury MP Diane Marleau.
In the Commons, Martin -- with a little help from predecessor Jean Chretien -- promised that the committee of MPs looking into the sponsorship scandal will be able to examine normally secret cabinet papers.
"The government is quite prepared to have those cabinet documents pertinent to this matter released," Martin said.
He initially hedged under opposition questioning, indicating he would need the permission of the former Chretien government to release some documents from its years in office.
"I'm certainly prepared to seek (their) permission," said Martin. "As far as this government is concerned, we are prepared to be totally open, transparent and lay everything on the table."
Within minutes, Martin had amended his remarks and flatly guaranteed the public accounts committee, chaired by Conservative MP John Williams, would get all the necessary paperwork.
A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Chretien had been contacted by Alex Himelfarb, the clerk of the Privy Council and head of the federal public service, and had agreed to release the documents.
They will also be available to a separate public inquiry into the affair, to be conducted by Justice John Gomery of Quebec Superior Court.
Industry Minister Lucienne Robillard came under attack over a report that she met a senior official of the Business Development Bank of Canada in 1998 to discuss sponsorship-related issues.
Robillard insisted she had no recollection of such a meeting and said any discussions she had with the federally owned bank were about other files.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Tax increase climbs to 11%
Council members add money to fire and library budgets.
JOE BELANGER AND MARY-JANE EGAN, Free Press Reporters 2004-02-19 03:25:39
The tax hike facing Londoners climbed to 11 per cent yesterday after city councillors agreed to increase funding for the fire department and London Public Library. After nearly eight hours of budget deliberations intended to trim a threatened 10.4-per-cent tax hike, tempers around the council table flared when Vic Cote, acting manager of financial services, informed council the looming tax hike had ballooned to 11 per cent.
Cote based his estimate on council's intent to add $1 million to a fire department budget deemed too tight to meet the city's safety needs and a decision to restore $10,000 to the library budget to maintain the children's summer literacy program.
"We're going the wrong direction tonight," Controller Gord Hume warned as council gave its first thumbs down to a funding request -- opting to defer a grant request for $350,000 from Fanshawe Pioneer Village until after deliberations on the fire department resume Tuesday.
But that wasn't enough to satisfy an exasperated Controller Bud Polhill, who argued council "should have just accepted the 10.4 per cent and stayed home. Where is the will to cut this budget?"
Coun. Fred Tranquilli agreed council wasn't making progress.
"People were up in arms with 10.4 per cent. Eleven per cent is outrageous," he said.
"There will be a lot of ups and downs before this process ends," said budget chief and Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell.
Yesterday, council focused on budgets related to community and protective services. Today, the focus shifts to environment and transportation budgets.
All recommendations made last night on the proposed $731-million operating budget remain subject to full council approval.
Among the decisions last night:
- London police: Saw its bid for a 6.2-per-cent budget hike granted, giving it $55 million this year that will permit the hiring of 35 new police officers.
- London fire department: Appears poised to see at least $1 million added to its budget that may prevent a threatened loss of 19 firefighters.
- Middlesex-London Health Unit: Saw its 8.3-per- cent budget hike approved, despite a motion defeated by one vote to lop more than $386,000 to hire 12 new public health inspectors for restaurants.
Medical officer of health Dr. Graham Pollett warned London faces a "serious situation" because of its shortage of required health inspectors that puts it below provincial compliance requirements.
"We are only at about 75-per-cent compliance and that is worrisome," he told council, noting the health unit has the authority to require the municipality to meet those requirements, but the health unit hopes the city will provide the funding willingly. The city's position is the province should be funding 100 per cent of the required inspectors, not the 50 per cent it currently provides.
- London Public Library: Had sought a 2.4-per-cent budget increase this year, amounting to a total operating budget of $13.1 million. Was granted an additional $10,000 to restore the library's summer literacy program that would have eliminated 12 student summer jobs, had it been cut as proposed. Controller Gord Hume won support for his call to keep the literacy program "because it teaches kids to read." Library chief executive Darrel Skidmore said he was "thrilled to death" the literacy program may be saved. He noted that since the new Central Library opened last year, it has surpassed the 1.2 million visitors that studies had predicted would be realized within four years of operation.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
(But what about the reserve fund!!!????Why the big fuss over $10, 000 when the city is hoarding $30 million! Lest we forget....
"The city is putting aside nearly $30 million for a rainy day while planning to hit Londoners with a 10.4-per-cent tax increase. The city's 2004 draft budget -- which council will review at three meetings this week -- would add $29.7 million to cash reserves of $69.1 million."
Nygard fights rise in child support
By GAY ABBATE COURTS REPORTER
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Canadian clothing magnate Peter Nygard is fighting an unprecedented increase in child support to his 16-year-old son lest he give him "affluenza," an Ontario judge was told yesterday.
"Between $8,000 and $10,000 tax free is reasonable, and anything more will spoil his son and result in him not having an appropriate work ethic," Harvey Strosberg, one of three lawyers representing Mr. Nygard told the court.
Mr. Nygard did not attend the first two days of the trial in downtown Toronto to determine what financial support he owes the son he had with a former lover, Kaarina Pakka, 53.
Mr. Nygard has been paying $15,000 a month in child support, an amount a judge imposed in April, 2002. That figure was the largest monthly payment in Canadian history for a single child.
But now Ms. Pakka, who was a flight attendant when she met Mr. Nygard, is seeking much more. Based on Mr. Nygard's net income in 2002 of $10.2-million, his son is entitled under the guidelines to tax-free monthly payments of $68,000, her lawyer Harold Niman said.
Mr. Strosberg called the request "beyond the pale" because it would dwarf any other court-ordered payment in Canada for one child.
Mr. Strosberg said an expert will testify that too much money spoils children and gives them "affluenza."
At 62, Mr. Nygard is considered one of the wealthiest men in Canada, with a net worth of $149-million. He has built Nygard International, a business empire with companies that manufacture and retail women's clothing, invest in real estate and trade in the stock market.
At issue at the trial, which is expected to last about four weeks, is Mr. Nygard's annual income.
Madam Justice Ruth Mesbur of the Ontario Superior Court was given vastly different numbers as to his income on which the child support is to be calculated under the 1997 Child Support Guidelines.
In addition, Ms. Pakka is seeking $5.5-million in retroactive child support for the period between when the guidelines became law and April 2001 when the court made the $15,000 a month order.
A forensic accountant hired by Ms. Pakka determined that Mr. Nygard earned just over $10-million in both 1998 and 1999. However, his income plummeted to $8-million in 2000 and $5-million for 2001.
But according to records filed by the multi-millionaire, he had a negative income in each of those years, ranging from a loss of $1-million to $29-million, Mr. Niman said.
Mr. Strosberg explained that the deficits were due to "humongous losses" by one of Mr. Nygard's Bahamas-based companies.
Judge Mesbur ruled that all financial details must be kept sealed because of irreparable harm to the companies if it became public.
Globe and Mail 2004
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
2004-02-17
Teacher laments 'black day for religious freedom'
RORY LEISHMAN, London Free Press
In an indignant response to an outrageous ruling by the British Columbia Supreme Court, Chris Kempling of Quesnel, B.C., has declared: "It is a black day for religious freedom in Canada." That's no exaggeration.
Kempling is a high school teacher in Quesnel. He is embroiled in litigation over the decision of British Columbia College of Teachers (BCCT) to suspend his teaching licence because he expressed his honestly held views on homosexuality in an article and a series of letters to the editor in the Quesnel Cariboo Record.
Kempling appealed the BCCT ruling on the grounds that it violated his rights to freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression in Section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. On Feb. 3, Mr. Justice Ronald Holmes of the British Columbia Supreme Court rejected the appeal.
Holmes acknowledged in his ruling that Kempling, "has been a BCCT member since 1980, with a long and unblemished teaching career, and a notable record of community service." In fact, despite the controversy with the BCCT, the Ministry of Health appointed Kempling to serve as the voluntary head of the Quesnel Community Health Council.
What, then, could this model citizen and teacher have written in his local newspaper to warrant suspension of his teaching licence?
Holmes explains: "The appellant consistently associated homosexuals with immorality, abnormality, perversion and promiscuity. Examples of such statements include: 'Thus my main concern with giving same-sex couples legal rights in child custody issues is due to the obvious instability and short-term nature of gay relationships. My second concern is how can children develop a concept of normal sexuality, when their prime care-givers have rejected the other gender entirely?' "
On the basis of this and other similar statements, the BCCT convicted Kempling of professional misconduct for making "discriminatory and derogatory statements against homosexuals." In his defence, Kempling submitted that only discriminatory actions, not speech, can count as unprofessional conduct within the meaning of the law.
Holmes disagreed. He pointed out that under the rubric of "discriminatory publication," Section 7 (1) of the British Columbia Human Rights Code bans the issuing of any statement that is likely to expose a group or class or persons to contempt because of their sexual orientation.
The BCCT cited no evidence of a "poisoned school environment" or specific complaints against Kempling. Regardless, Holmes concluded: "In my view, the appellant's published writings were harmful to the public school system because of their discriminatory content."
Note the general implications of this finding: Holmes implies that it's a human rights offence for anyone, not just teachers, to lament sexual promiscuity among homosexuals in a letter to the editor of a newspaper.
Yet homosexual promiscuity is a notorious fact.
Consider a report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Jan. 11, 2000, on the findings of a study of 861 young gay and bisexual men in the Vancouver area. The average age of these men was only 25, yet they had already had an average of almost 30 lifetime, male sexual partners.
Such evidence is of no account in a human rights proceeding. In the 1990 Keegstra case, the Supreme Court of Canada decreed that truth is not a defence against a charge of discrimination under a human rights code.
As for Kempling's right to freedom of expression under the charter, that, too, was of no account to Holmes. He stated as his view that the charter does not protect, "the appellant's right to express strictly personally held, discriminatory views with the authority of or in the capacity of a public school teacher/counsellor."
Kempling is a Christian. What about his right under Section 15 of the charter to the equal protection of the law without discrimination on the basis of religion? Holmes dismissed this argument on the specious ground that all teachers, not just those who are Christians, are required by law not to discriminate against homosexuals.
Kempling plans a further appeal. That's a forlorn hope. Former prime ministers Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien have stacked the appeal courts with so many dogmatic gay-rights ideologues that it's practically impossible for a Christian in a case like Kempling's to get a fair hearing.
Edifice complex
City council's love for big buildings, such as the John Labatt Centre and Central Library, was one of the issues front and centre at a recent budget meeting where business voiced concern over the proposed tax hike.
Pat Currie, Special to the Free Press 2004-02-16 03:30:00
Londoners are facing the largest single municipal tax increase in recent history and concern is growing among business the hike could hurt city industry.
The city is trying to whittle down a proposed 10.4 per cent budget hike and is also looking to levy a 9.7-per-cent increase in the sewer rate and a three-per-cent jump in the water rate.
Those are the kinds of numbers that might scare off businesses now located here and looking to locate here -- taking jobs with them, the city heard at its public budget deliberation meeting last week.
Several of those in attendance at that meeting, led by the London Chamber of Commerce and the Urban League of London, also blasted council for extravagance, poor planning and shoddy bookkeeping, among other sins, and to demand city hall clean up its act.
"The chickens have come home to roost," deputy mayor and budget committee chairperson Tom Gosnell said at the meeting.
He warned petitioners several times during their presentations that the city has now backed itself into a fiscal box and the most obvious and easiest way out --a series of hefty tax increases -- will cost London heavily in existing and potential industrial jobs as factories flee to more tax-friendly climes and will also put hundreds of fixed-income seniors out of their homes.
"Seniors simply cannot sustain cumulative tax increases of 25 to 30 per cent over three years," he said.
The city's total budget is $731 million. The proposed increases add up to an increase of $224 on the property tax, sewer and water bills for an average home assessed at $138,000.
The London Chamber of Commerce noted the city is on the hook for $25.4 million in wages and benefits to its workers -- "an impact of 8.2 per cent, clearly the largest impact over-all in the 2004 budget," said general manger Gerry Macartney, who urged the city slash wage and benefit cost demands by cutting staff or hours worked.
Macartney said that very morning the developer of a major 130,000-square-foot retail centre "has lost two major tenants because of this (tax-increase) budget scare . . . inconsistent tax increases, that's what scares the hell out of me" and the business community, he said.
The chamber identified savings of more $1.5 million by reducing new police hirings to 17 from 35, cutting 14 jobs in city corporate and finance services and chopping 25 of 310 full-time equivalent jobs in the London Public Library system.
The chamber also wanted "all new library and recreational facilities not yet contracted be cancelled immediately" and the public library system be reviewed with an eye to closing "the least effective and most operationally costly."
Members of the public made submissions last week in council chambers regarding the city's 2004 budget.
The chamber also wanted a review of city assets to see what can be sold and an immediate halt to $20.5 million in new incentives with only "core services" being allowed to proceed later.
The chamber also insisted that "non-core" services be identified for "immediate phasing out."
"What is your definition of a core service?" Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco asked Macartney, who replied: "I find it ironic that after 200 years the city doesn't know what its core services are."
But Macartney agreed the chamber would return with a clarified definition. He also accepted Gosnell's challenge to come back with a detailed projection "on what will happen to our community if we lose control over our tax base," something Gosnell said could happen "if our industries don't like it here. They'll go."
At one point, former mayor Gosnell observed: "One thing that impresses me coming back (to council) is the increase in demand. It's much more than it was nine years ago. It can literally overwhelm a municipality. That's why we need the help of the business community to sort out these difficult problems."
But the business community also has to shoulder some responsibility for the hike. City megaprojects such as the John Labatt Centre (JLC), the Central Library and Covent Garden Market -- built to facilitate, in part, downtown renewal and economic development with the blessing of the chamber -- have pushed the city's total debt to about $165 million.
In addition, the city has in place an industrial land acquisition strategy, also supported by the chamber and business community, where it buys and services land near Highway 401 and Airport Road, to sell back to businesses and industries when they are looking to locate here.
That strategy is costing taxpayers $65 million over the next 20 years. But it is also paying dividends, supporters argue -- pointing to automotive parts plants such as Keiper which make seat frames for DaimlerChrysler -- that have opened on city land.
Sandy Levin, former city councillor, was one of the few to argue at the time the JLC was being built that, although it benefits to the downtown, from a purely investment standpoint it was a bad deal.
"Global Spectrum will make money, the city won't," Levin has said. "For taxpayers it is clear there will not be a return on investment. If you focus solely on the economic, you get one answer -- no. It's not an investment, it's like a car. It's an expense," said Levin.
The London Small Business Centre is another business agency watching budget deliberations closely. Council approved $67,952 to cover a deficit created by the centre's decision to shut down its business "incubator," a centre where new small businesses could rent space.
Last week, David Drinkwalter, president of the centre's board, argued for $115,000 in operating funds, saying it creates about 300 new businesses per year and in its 15-year history has generated more than 6,000 jobs. Without the money, it may not remain open.
Gloria McGinn McTeer, speaking for the Urban League of London, ripped council's "lack of forethought" in setting citizens up for a "shameful" tax increase.
"This is what happens when we have no effective financial tracking and overspend our capital budget by 50 per cent in 2002," meanwhile making no provision for the end of the holiday for making mandated contributions to the city employees' pension fund.
The league demanded council "get our fiscal house in order" and charged: "The start of this new term for council and city administration continues to be an affront to citizens whose patience has worn thin."
The league also proposed that three tourism-related bodies -- Western Fair, London Convention Centre and Tourism London -- be combined and that all three be supported by the huge gambling revenues generated at Western Fair. Under a decade-old agreement with the city, Western Fair has pumped $57 million into upgrades "because that is what the agreement calls for. The (fair) board cannot sit on reserves" while city taxpayers subsidize the other two, the league argued.
The league also wanted an outside operation review of city services and the hiring of an external city manager and "long overdue" city chief financial officer. It wants city hall salaries frozen and expense accounts cut.
The league also hammered city staff for preparing a dense pre-budget summary "that is not getting any easier to read . . . . Numbers/projects are buried deep . . . this year's document is less transparent than in previous years and needs to be improved."
Past president Glen Gordon of the London and St. Thomas Real Estate Board made a strong pitch for restoration of $2 million to the budget for affordable housing, especially rental housing. The amount has been cut from two successive budgets, Gordon said, calling it "a crisis invited."
With 4,000 citizens already in shelters and 15,000 households "one job loss or one appliance breakdown" away from disaster, the city will face far higher costs to alleviate distress than the $2 million needed to avert it, Gordon said.
A 1999 report "estimated we need at least 400 units each year for the next 10 years just to catch up," he said.
But homelessness is also an economic development issue, according to two studies from the Toronto Board of Trade and the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.
In London, homelessness costs $68 million a year in lost economic development and justice and health-care costs, last year's Ivey report concluded. Affordable housing is as key in public works as are roads, the Toronto Board of Trade argues.
Affordable housing attracts businesses and employees, provides low-cost housing for service workers who keep a city running and keeps wages and labour costs competitive, the 2003 report stated.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Municipalities seek to upgrade deal
Free Press staff 2004-02-18 03:38:29
A new deal between senior governments and municipalities must include Canada's smaller communities, says London Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco. DeCicco departs today for Gatineau, Que., where she will meet tomorrow with 20 mayors from across the country to figure out how to get more money from the federal government and provinces.
DeCicco said this meeting of the big city mayors' caucus of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities is pivotal in their struggle for a new deal.
"This can't just be about the people who will be sitting around the table," DeCicco said yesterday.
"Everyone needs to understand there are smaller communities with just as many big problems and challenges as large communities."
DeCicco said the federal government's throne speech promise to fully exempt municipalities from the goods and services tax (GST) is only a beginning.
"The doors were opened there a crack and we need to keep up the pressure and be aggressive to get a new deal and funding," she said.
"Everybody seems to agree that a new deal is a good idea, but we're going to be pushing to get to the action stage, not just talk."
With 21 mayors confirmed, this will be the largest ever gathering of the caucus, reflecting the importance of the new deal and the need for prompt action by the federal government on its throne speech commitments.
Two federal ministers are scheduled to meet with the mayors, including Andy Scott, federal minister of state for infrastructure, and Finance Minister Ralph Goodale.
"We're not asking for a new tax, just that they share what they're already collecting such as the GST, the provincial sales tax and the fuel tax," DeCicco said. "They should be investing those revenues in the communities where they came from."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
The Holy Grail of London politics
Practical jokes banned at London city hall
MARY-JANE EGAN, Free Press City Hall Reporter 2004-02-18 03:38:29
The City of London is banning practical jokes in the workplace, but Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco said the new rules for employees aren't in response to the stress leave of a senior manager. After a two-hour, closed-door session Monday night, DeCicco refused to draw any parallel between the paid stress leave of community services general manager Glenn Howlett and the specific amendments made to the city's code of conduct.
"These were revisions brought forward by the city manager himself and are not actually recommendations that require council approval," DeCicco said in an interview.
"They came forward from some direction council had given that we'd like these areas reviewed."
The amendments include:
- Addition of the word "respectful" to how employees interact with one another.
- An addition to examples of prohibited behaviour to include behaviour that "ridicules, including comments, gestures and practical jokes that may be offensive, damaging to working relationships or adversely affect the ability of an employee to perform his/her duties."
- An addition under the abuse of authority clause to include "improperly influencing" a subordinate.
- Addition to prohibited behaviour of "falsification of records or documents and unauthorized manipulation or alteration of records or documents for other than a legitimate business purpose."
Howlett, a nearly 30-year city employee, has been on stress leave from his more than $155,000-a-year job since November after an apparent prank by top-level city managers backfired.
Howlett's lawyer, John Judson, has confirmed Howlett suffered heart palpitations after getting a "dummy resolution" Nov. 3 while vacationing with his wife in Alberta.
The document, advising him he had two weeks to complete a major report, appeared genuine because it had been certified by the city clerk's office.
DeCicco said she has "no comment" on whether the reference to "falsification of records" pertains to the dummy resolution that prompted Howlett to make a frantic call to his staff to begin preparing for the bogus deadline.
She also refused to comment on whether the reference to "improperly influencing" a subordinate referred to the fact the false resolution was certified by the clerk's office.
"I am not commenting on a personnel issue," she said.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Note: We are simply unable to comment on this article.
Health care focus of meeting
Results of a London town hall session were similar to other cities.
CHIP MARTIN, Free Press Politics Reporter 2004-02-18 03:38:29
If they had $100 to invest in Ontario's services, Londoners would put $34 into health. That was the clearly favoured service when about 100 area residents were asked last night where they'd put their money at a town hall meeting that considered the province's budget options.
They'd put $23 toward improving student achievement, $18 into encouraging better workers and better jobs in an innovative economy, $14 toward safe and vital communities and $11 to encourage more active citizens to contribute to a stronger democracy.
The results in London were similar to those found in earlier budget town hall sessions conducted in Thunder Bay and Kingston.
The Ontario government, anxious for public ideas about how to provide services as it faces a budget deficit of $5.6 billion, is holding nine such sessions across the province.
A provincial budget will be presented this spring and Premier Dalton McGuinty launched a wide-ranging consultation process to gauge public attachment to services his government provides and suggestions about where money could be saved.
Chairing the London meeting were Labour Minister Chris Bentley, MPP for London West and MPP Deb Matthews of London-North-Centre.
Health care and how to maintain and improve it was a focal point in discussions led by facilitators.
Bentley said provincial governments have never embarked on such a venture and it was intended to involve the public in decisions his government must make. He said during his election campaign voters complained they only get to talk to politicians during campaigns.
"Guess what," Bentley told last night's crowd. "It's not election time and we want to speak to you."
Among the participants in the session were two New Democratic candidates in last fall's election who came to share their ideas, Rebecca Coulter, who ran in London-North-Centre, and Irene Mathyssen, who ran in London-Fanshawe riding. Also on hand were several city representatives, including controller Russ Monteith and councillors Sandy White and Susan Eagle.
In reports from table discussion, participants said they favoured a wide variety of measures, from increasing fines for polluters, to reinstating taxes that were cut under the Harris-Eves governments. The sale of assets such as the Liquor Control Board of Ontario was dismissed as short-sighted, the need to expand the role of nurse-practitioners to curb spiralling medical costs and the importance of ending turf wars in the health-care sector were backed.
Peter Sherriff, who acted as facilitator for the event and will do so for others, said the exercise of trying to allocate $100 brings into focus the concerns of participants. He said within a dollar or two the results were almost identical to those in Thunder Bay and Kingston.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Seniors at risk, NDP warns
He forgot to mention about the able-bodied, intelligent and competent people . . .
KEITH LESLIE, CP 2004-02-18 03:38:29
TORONTO -- Seniors in Ontario's nursing homes and hospitals need a new law to protect them from abuse and an independent watchdog to investigate complaints, NDP Leader Howard Hampton said yesterday. "People who are in long-term care facilities in Ontario are more vulnerable than ever before," Hampton said at a news conference.
"They need heavier care than ever before, many of (the nursing homes) have less capacity than ever before and . . . you have lower staffing levels than ever before."
The NDP leader offered no statistics to back up his assertion that abuse of seniors is on the rise in Ontario health-care facilities, but said repeated studies come to that conclusion.
Hampton said Ontario seniors should not have to rely on television journalists using hidden cameras to uncover cases of staff assaulting elderly patients or on a toll-free line set up by the province to report suspected cases of abuse.
He said he plans to introduce a private member's bill in the spring session of the legislature to create the Safeguard Ontario Seniors act, based on similar legislation in Manitoba, which would also create an independent agency to investigate complaints.
"This new watchdog would have a positive responsibility, and the resources, to investigate all complaints of senior abuse in our health-care facilities, whether those complaints are made by employees, patients or families of patients," said Hampton.
He said he believes the new agency would cost about $4.5 million a year, and said that could come from redeploying existing nursing home inspectors and by reallocating some of the estimated $20 million the government spends on media promotion of long-term care facilities.
Hampton's proposed bill would also provide whistle-blower protection for staff who report abuse, and impose what he called "a positive duty" on all workers in hospitals and nursing homes to report suspected cases of senior abuse.
"Why is it one situation for children -- you have a positive duty to report abuse -- but when it comes to seniors, there is no positive duty?" Hampton asked.
Hampton's private member's bill would also prevent nursing homes from reducing care for seniors whose families raise complaints, and impose fines of as much as $50,000 for individuals and $1 million for corporations found guilty of abuse.
The Liberal government said it welcomes Hampton's ideas and will consider them as part of an ongoing review of nursing homes.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
I'm certain that Londoners understand and support the police in their efforts to control and intimidate protect the citizens of this proud city
Note: the Editor apologizes for any offense caused by this typo. The person responsible will be turned over to the Liberal Treasury Board for money laundering duties discipline.
Police defend hike
London police are demanding a 6.2-per-cent increase in their budget.
MARY-JANE EGAN, Free Press City Hall Reporter 2004-02-18 03:38:29
London police -- who defied a city request to limit this year's budget increase to 3.6 per cent -- faced few tough questions at city hall last night as they defended their demand for a 6.2-per- cent budget hike. It was a far cry from the rough ride police faced last year when council slashed their 2003 budget request by $511,000, cutting the number of new police hires to 15 from the 30 sought.
Debate on the police budget continues today in city council chambers.
But budget chief Tom Gosnell, a former longtime member of the police services board, said he believes councillors recognize this year's hike to the police budget is crucial.
"I think council recognizes that surveys have shown there is support in the community for adequate policing and a safe community and that's my position," Gosnell said in an interview after last night's session.
"I think the public understands we have stretched the resources of the department almost to the breaking point."
An upbeat police Chief Brian Collins shared Gosnell's optimism the budget hike his department is seeking will be granted.
"I think the council understands the safety issues and the argument we're making," he said.
City police board chairperson Jan Richardson stressed during last night's pitch that this year's 3.6-per-cent recommended budget hike was unrealistic, since a 3.8-per-cent increase is needed just to maintain existing services.
And in keeping with a report identifying a need for 85 new officers over three years, Richardson said it's critical the force get funding this year for at least 35 new police officers.
It's why London police are seeking an operating budget this year of $55 million -- up from last year's $52 million, Richardson said.
Controller Gord Hume challenged Collins to defend the hiring of 35 new officers in the same budget year when the London fire department is facing a cut of 19 firefighters.
"People kept mentioning that (during public budget sessions in area shopping malls)," said Hume.
"How on one hand can we hire more officers and lay off firefighters?"
Collins said it would be unprofessional for him to comment.
"I cannot, in good conscience, make a comment on another emergency service, because I don't have that experience," Collins said.
"I'm speaking to you with 34 years in the police service and what you get from me, in all honesty, is what's needed by the police service."
Collins had ready answers for questions such as one from Coun. Cheryl Miller who asked why there couldn't be better use of civilians in roles such as staffing the front desk at the police station.
Collins noted a recent murder in the city involved the culprit turning himself into an officer on the front desk -- an example of why it's important to have trained professionals there, also to determine which calls require immediate police response.
"What the public doesn't see is that the majority of the officers on that (front) desk have broken arms or broken legs," he said of officers called back to work after injury or illness.
"We call them at home and say, 'If you can move or write or type, come back to work,' " Collins said.
Richardson backed Collins up, saying London's sick time average of 3.3 days a year is evidence "of our officers' commitment to return to duty."
Collins said London has "the most cost-efficient police service in the country," but added that ranking "comes at a cost."
He said the service is stretched too thin and while morale has improved somewhat over last year when several veteran officers opted to leave, Collins argued the force can't afford to continue to operate with insufficient manpower.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Province pressures legion to pay tax debt
PATRICK MALONEY, Free Press Reporter 2004-02-18 03:38:29
An embattled Royal Canadian Legion branch in London facing a huge tax debt says the province has threatened to seize its liquor licence unless the outstanding account is settled. Ontario's Finance Ministry is asking that $161,000 in unpaid provincial sales tax be paid by the Duchess of Kent branch, a debt that accrued following years of questionable bookkeeping that has resulted in a theft charge being laid against a former employee.
But the province isn't interested in the circumstances surrounding the debt and has told the legion's lawyer its liquor licence won't be affected as long as the money's paid, George Parry of the board of management said yesterday at a news conference.
"It's a threat at us," said Parry, whose board was established to help the Hill Street legion solve its money woes.
Without a liquor licence, the branch is as good as gone, Perry said.
"If we don't have a liquor licence, that's a main source of income. If you take it away, you have no reason to bring the people in here."
The provincial Ministry of Finance official who contacted the legion's lawyer refused comment yesterday.
Although federal officials are giving the club plenty of time to repay its goods and services tax (GST) debt, board of management member Jim Green said the province is demanding its money this month.
That's a tab the branch simply can't afford, he said, and treating war veterans this way -- especially over a debt they couldn't predict or control -- is unfair.
"The general public has to know how we're being treated," Green said. "We're not an organization that has gained one red cent from this money not going to the government, but we have to pay it.
"It's a sad day when an organization like this gets stuck with this money . . . and we're not getting any help anywhere."
The original debt owed to the province was $121,000, of which about $21,000 has been paid off. But more than $61,000 in interest has built up, leaving the legion with a $162,000 tab. Although the province is asking for $100,000 to be paid immediately and the remainder at another time, Green is hopeful he and his fellow members can get a break from the Ontario Liberals.
If the interest was relieved, he said the branch could take out a mortgage on its building and pay the remaining $100,000 over several payments.
In an effort to get Dalton McGuinty's attention, branch officials are starting an e-mail campaign that could see 500,000 Royal Canadian Legion members asking the premier to save the London legion.
London-North-Centre MPP Deb Matthews said she couldn't make any promises but Finance Minister Greg Sorbara is reviewing the branch's plight.
"The fact that it's under review means there's some hope for it," Matthews said yesterday.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
This is bound to turn out well . . .
Bureaucrats rushing to reform agencies
ALAN FINDLAY, Free Press Queen's Park Bureau 2004-02-18 03:38:29
TORONTO -- Ontario bureaucrats are rushing to reform a $1-billion research fund -- modelled after a similar federal program -- after the provincial auditor exposed its nearly complete lack of government oversight. Economic Development and Trade deputy minister Don Black said yesterday the Ontario Innovation Trust and other research grant-giving agencies will be opened to greater public oversight in advance of a stated March 2005 deadline.
"A year from now is far too long," said Black. "Obviously what we had in place was not working."
New Democrat MPP Gilles Bisson complained changes to the fund come far too late.
"I think the horse left the barn already," said Bisson.
Black and other ministry officials were before a legislative committee explaining how the five-year-old innovation fund could pay out hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars with no cabinet or ministerial scrutiny.
So far, the Ontario Innovation Trust has committed $708 million to more than 1,000 research-related capital costs across the province. The money devoted to the fund so far totals $1 billion.
Ministry officials said yesterday that the fund's design was mirrored after the Canada Foundation for Innovation in 1999. It was largely intended to match federal funding based on the Canada Foundation's review of Ontario projects.
But the provincial auditor's 2003 report found the Innovation Trust and other science and technology funds are major expenditures with virtually no government accountability.
Instead, an arms-length, non-profit subsidiary called Innovation Institute Ontario administers the $1-billion fund.
That same subsidiary was later awarded a $1.35-million contract to administer Ontario's $750-million Research and Development Challenge Fund without the normally required public process of a request for proposals.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
I mean, I feel dirty enough as it is, going through the HRDC website looking for work.
Hey! That job looks worth applying for. I can do that. Oh, wait, I didn't see the business profile:
Business Profile: Applicants must be currently receiving Employment Insurance Benefits or have received regular EI benefits within the last 3 years or sickness, maternity, or parental benefits within the last 5 years.
So because I do not fit any of these categories, I don't get to apply for the phoney-baloney makework job that was created with taxes taken from people who might otherwise have hired me.
I'll find work, but the rest of you need to find some goddamn brains.
Chretien: 'I don't think anymore'
Martin mum on delaying election
CP 2004-02-17 03:47:42
OTTAWA -- Jean Chretien offered a glimpse yesterday of how he might have handled the sponsorship scandal that has rocked the Liberal party. Cracking wise and shrugging his shoulders, the ex-prime minister dusted off the "What, me worry?" routine that helped him survive a decade in power as reporters chased him from his law office to a waiting van.
Asked what he thought of successor Paul Martin's reaction to the scandal, he replied mischievously: "I don't think anymore."
"For 40 years, I replied to all your questions. Now, I'm no more the government . . . Now, if you have questions, ask the government," he said.
"We should be skiing today, it would be better," he also quipped.
Unlike Chretien, the current prime minister is willing to talk seriously -- and often -- about the scandal.
Martin vowed long ago to be a study in contrasts with his predecessor and he has been just that while responding to the current scandal in sober and serious tones in television interviews, on open-line radio and in news conferences.
He has called a public inquiry into the scandal. He has declared heads will roll if the guilty parties are found and he has said he will testify if called before the inquiry.
He promised to resign if it is proved he knew of the scheme to funnel $100 million to friends of the Liberal party before 2002 and did nothing to stop it.
"We have said time and again that this is a new government, with a new prime minister and a new attitude," a Martin aide said.
"We're not going to pretend that $100 million of financial abuse is something less than the dramatic and maddening problem that it is.
"Canadians are angry and so is this government."
The Chretien people can't believe their ears.
Several members of the old guard privately have heaped scorn on an approach they say has exacerbated the scandal and threatened the government in a coming federal election.
"This thing was a three-alarm fire that they have turned into a five-alarm fire," one said derisively.
"Political scientists will be studying this decades from now, analysing the mistakes that were made."
Another Chretien confidant explained how the former prime minister would have handled the scandal ignited by last week's devastating report by Auditor General Sheila Fraser.
Chretien would have treated it as old news recycled from a 2002 preliminary report by the auditor general and added the problems already were being dealt with through police probes and a cleanup of the program.
"The question isn't, 'How would (Chretien) have handled this?' You saw exactly how he handled it," said one confidant who has stayed in touch with Chretien.
"There's really nothing new in this report. This has been going on for two years . . . Let the police do their job."
Another veteran Grit suggested Martin's hyperactive response is as deadly as paddling furiously while caught in quicksand.
"One of the basic rules of crisis management is don't panic and don't look like you're panicking," said the top backroomer.
"(Chretien) didn't have an in-your-face style. He understood the risks of overexposure and he understood the benefits of ambivalency and not blocking off options."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Changes promised for health-care bill
CP 2004-02-17 03:47:42
TORONTO -- After months of behind-the-scenes pressure from doctors, hospitals and unions, the provincial government promised yesterday to amend a bill designed to hold health-care providers more accountable for the public money they spend. Bill 8, also called the Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act, has a number of flaws the Ministry of Health plans to fix with a series of amendments, Health Minister George Smitherman said yesterday.
"The first draft of the bill didn't get it right, and I take responsibility for that," Smitherman told an all-party legislative committee.
Bill 8 was introduced in the legislature last November on the anniversary of the release of former Saskat-chewan premier Roy Romanow's report on the future of medicare in Canada.
It was supposed to enshrine in Ontario law the five principles of medicare -- universality, portability, comprehensiveness, accessibility and public administration -- and introduce accountability as a sixth.
But it also called for "accountability agreements" between providers and the ministry, setting out roles and responsibilities, performance standards and penalties for failing to meet them.
The legislation would have held hospital chief executives accountable to both the ministry and their board of directors, said Hilary Short, president and chief executive of the Ontario Hospital Association.
"We found that dual kind of accountability would really fundamentally undermine community governance in Ontario," Short said.
"You'd have a fuzzy and murky kind of accountability, where CEOs were responsible to both the ministry and the board."
Smitherman said the ministry will retain the power to rein in the salaries of hospital chief executives, but only in "very extraordinary circumstances," such as when a board fails to deal with the issue.
Smitherman also acknowledged the legislation's penalty provisions are too high and they would be "dramatically lower" in the amended bill.
Doctors said the legislation would have held individual physicians responsible, while labour unions complained it could have been used to re-open existing collective agreements.
Smitherman made it clear yesterday the amendments will ensure the agreements are negotiated between the parties rather than imposed by the ministry, that "solo physicians" are exempted and that collective agreements and fee schedules are protected.
The ministry intends to put forward a framework for the various amendments within the next few days, he added.
Ontario Medical Association president Dr. Larry Erlick said he didn't expect the bill to have a significant impact on ongoing contract negotiations between doctors and the province.
"The relationship has actually been very good so far," said Erlick, noting that much of the dispute revolves not around what the bill says, but how it can be interpreted.
"We have a little bit of disagreement on how it should be worded and structured, but we're still working on those."
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Council digest
Free Press staff 2004-02-17 03:47:42
Limo owner must follow bylaw
The operator of Allaround Limousines must comply immediately with the city's taxi and limousine bylaw, city council decided last night. Sultan Sultan was told he must start charging the rates outlined in the city's bylaw effective today or risk losing his licence. Sultan has angered competitors by charging lower rates than stipulated in the bylaw. Council also gave Sultan until March 1 to submit an application for an alternate zone rate structure for council's consideration.
Deputy fire chief appointed
Council last night approved the appointment of Robert Daniel Oldridge as the city's new deputy fire chief. Oldridge is captain of communications for the Cambridge fire department. He starts March 1. "Mr. Oldridge's skills, education and experience make him an excellent candidate . . . We look forward to welcoming him to London," said city manager Bob Blackwell.
Councillors get school break off
Councillors won't have to be around during the March school break. With five Mondays in March, several councillors urged colleagues to move the regular meeting from March 15 to March 22. A majority agreed.
Earlier start time considered
Council is considering a 4 p.m. start for meetings to avoid having them extend into the morning hours. However, some council members expressed concern the change would exclude some members of the public and even some councillors.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
(How dare he attempt to be competitive in London Ontario! Who does he think he is offering people a rate they are willing to pay for?)
City's outside workers closer to strike, lockout
Free Press staff 2004-02-17 03:47:42
The clock is ticking on a possible strike by -- or a lockout of -- the city's outside workers. As expected, the provincial Labour Ministry issued a no-board report yesterday at the request of Local 107, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 500 outside workers.
It essentially puts the union and the city in a legal strike or lockout position 17 days later -- at midnight on March 4.
Six meetings with a conciliator beginning in December failed to resolve key issues of money and benefits. The union broke off negotiations last week.
City manager Bob Blackwell said last week that there was progress "on a number of issues, but monetary proposals have yet to be dealt with."
Both sides have agreed to mediated talks tentatively scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
Wages and benefits are the key issues.
The workers' last contract -- a three-year deal -- expired Dec. 31. That contract was reached in the summer of 2001 after a bitter 28-day strike that disrupted city garbage pickup.
The union represents employees in transportation operations, sewer and road works, solid waste collection, landfill operations, facilities and fleet services and recreation and pollution control.
City council last spring ratified a two-year contract with its 700 unionized inside workers, members of CUPE Local 101, which included wage increases of 1.5 per cent in January and July of this year, and in January and July of next year.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Legion wages e-mail war to seek premier's help with sales tax bill
JOHN HERBERT, Free Press Reporter 2004-02-17 03:47:42
A cash-strapped London Legion branch, which says it can't afford to pay $161,000 it owes in provincial sales tax, is declaring e-mail war on Queen's Park. Officials at the Duchess of Kent branch are asking 500,000 Royal Canadian Legion members to e-mail Premier Dalton McGuinty, requesting his help in solving the branch's financial mess.
Legion officials plan to explain the drive and the reasons for their money troubles at a news conference today.
"Maybe he just doesn't know our problem,'' Arthur Stenning, vice-president of the branch at 499 Hill St., said of the premier yesterday.
"If these people were willing to sign up and go to war, surely there can be mercy.''
The legion's financial problems became public in January when London police charged Traci Sampson, 44, the legion's secretary-treasurer for 11 years, with the theft of $61,548 from the branch.
The police began their investigation in September 2001 after club officials complained hundreds of thousands of dollars were missing.
The legion only was able to supply police investigators with records for two years, but they believe as much as $400,000 went missing over a 10-year period.
Tax troubles resulted because sales weren't recorded properly, club officials said.
The legion owes $256,000 to the federal and provincial governments -- $161,000 in provincial sales tax (PST) and $95,000 in goods and services tax (GST).
In recent weeks, legion officials sought help from local MPs and MPPs.
Stenning said the legion branch reached an agreement with Ottawa to settle its debt, but it has been unable to do the same with the province.
He said a lien has been placed on the legion building, which is mortgage-free and has an assessed value of $721,000.
The GST debt would be repaid to the federal government when the building is sold.
Stenning said legion representatives told the London office of Ontario's Finance Ministry they could come up with $100,000 -- $80,000 to settle the PST bill and $20,000 for legal costs -- but the offer was rejected.
Stenning said the original tax bill 18 months ago was $83,000, but it has almost doubled since the probe began.
The tax office countered it would accept $100,000 and enter into an agreement requiring the legion to pay the remaining $61,000, plus eight-per-cent interest.
Sharon Bowden, a collections manager at the London office, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
"They're not budging a damn bit. That's been the problem dealing with the PST people,'' Stenning said.
"They just seem like a stone wall. If this was a booming business, fine . . . we'd look after it.
"But it's kind of tough times right now. We're getting older as a group of veterans and soldiers and people are not coming here like they used too. The smoking ban has hurt and people don't drink as much, so revenue has gone down.''
A veteran of the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War, Stenning said he knows most businesses couldn't expect any breaks from the governments, but he argues the legion's charitable role deserve some consideration.
He also said veterans volunteered when the country needed them and now they need help.
The legion gives about $100,000 a year to charity, Stenning said.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Board moves to plug leaks
London controllers now will meet in the sound-proof city council chambers.
MARY-JANE EGAN, Free Press City Hall Reporter 2004-02-17 03:47:42
After heated debate, city council agreed last night to move board of control meetings into the sound-proof council chambers in a bid to thwart leaks to the media during closed-door sessions. It was a compromise from the original board of control recommendation to bar reporters and members of the public from the hallway outside the board of control room during confidential sessions.
But with city council in the throes of a budget debate that threatens to hit homeowners with a 10.4-per-cent property tax hike, some councillors dismissed as "silly" the debate on whether the board of control room's thin walls are contributing to leaks of confidential information.
Others said council should dismiss swiftly a staff proposal to spend $10,000 to sound-proof the board of control room.
The sound-proofing was an option proposed by city engineer Peter Steblin that Mayor Anne Marie DeCicco said last week was "off the table."
Coun. Susan Eagle questioned the logistics of having city hall security ensure no one remains outside the board of control room when the security person in question is normally posted outside the mayor's office and no longer will have access to their telephone.
She also asked how reporters could be assured access to people in a board of control meeting if they can't see when those individuals leave the board room.
"I know I'm poking some fun at this, but to say the walls are leaking, when the media already has information on (confidential) meetings held off-site from city hall, it seems it's not the walls that are the problem," Eagle said.
"It seems we're targeting the media rather than ourselves."
Coun. Harold Usher agreed, noting "I've never seen anyone put their ear up to the wall . . . maybe we ought to be a little more silent and a little more humane."
Two years ago, at the height of the controversy over the departure of then-acting city manger Jeff Malpass, DeCicco was widely quoted after being heard shouting from the board of control room "I've had it with all of you."
Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell argued the staff proposal to move reporters and the public away from the "thin walls" of the board of control room was not intended "to besmirch the media," but rather to prevent leaks of confidential information that he maintained "could cause the municipality to be sued."
Well into the 30-minute debate, Coun. Bill Armstrong said he's mystified why council is spending so much time on the issue "when we have so many more important matters.
"To suggest the media has their ears up to the doors doesn't make any sense," Armstrong said.
"I think the media have quite a bit of integrity . . . I hope we're not going to waste any more time on this."
Council ultimately approved a motion by Coun. Fred Tranquilli to move board of control meetings into council chambers -- when chambers are available -- for six months, pending a report on the move's effectiveness.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Police 'glitch' may put 20 charges in question
JANE SIMS, Free Press Justice Reporter 2004-02-17 03:47:42
Twenty criminal charges investigated by five rookie London police officers could be in question because of a bureaucratic foul-up at police headquarters. The officers were sworn in late last year, but they were not appointed by the police services board as required by provincial law, Deputy Chief Murray Faulkner said yesterday.
The Crown has notified criminal lawyers about charges involving the five officers between Dec. 5 and Jan. 14. About 20 charges are affected, including theft, assaults and frauds.
Acting Middlesex Crown attorney Geoff Beasley said yesterday the "administrative anomaly" at the police department has "very minor" repercussions as far as proceeding with the cases.
Still, the defence bar was notified of the cases involved. "It's not a big deal at all. It has directly affected two or three cases," he said.
"I don't believe that it will result in any charges not proceeding."
The problem meant the rookies in question had no powers of arrest beyond those available to any other person in Canada.
Beasley said some court appearance notices had to be redone because the officers did not have the authority to issue them.
Lawyers with cases involving "a bit more of an issue" have been notified.
"It's our view that we've done what we needed to do to put them on notice and the rest is up to them," Beasley said.
Faulkner said "an administrative glitch" was discovered in January in the wake of a change-over in the police personnel office.
The five rookie officers were working with experienced training officers, he said.
Faulkner said the problem was dealt with immediately. The appointments were made by the board and the officers were sworn in again.
"As soon as we found out the process wasn't handled properly, we immediately reversed it," he said.
The Crown's office was notified immediately, Faulkner said.
"We have a duty upon us, we felt, to notify the Crown," Faulkner said. "That's the right thing to do."
Jack Hardy, president of the London Criminal Lawyers Association, said local lawyers are reviewing the list.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Housing wait list grows as council mulls cut
RANDY RICHMOND, Free Press Reporter 2004-02-17 03:47:42
In the month city politicians began considering a proposed $2-million cut from the affordable housing budget, another 231 families joined the long waiting list for a place to live. The five-per-cent increase from the end of December to the end of January in the number of families waiting proves the $2 million to create new units is essential, Coun. Susan Eagle said yesterday.
"It is consistently increasing and the number doesn't represent those who don't get on the list or walk away because the wait is two or three years."
The number of households on the waiting list stood at 4,451 at the end of December, but rose to 4,682 by the end of January, according to figures from London's Housing Access Centre, which handles applications for rent-geared-for- income housing.
The waiting list has jumped by more than 1,000 households over this time last year.
"It does show a trend upwards, that's for sure," said Jim Molineux, manager of co-ordinated access and social housing for London.
Part of the January increase may be due to a lag in processing applications from December, he said.
But even so, this time last year, there were 1,099 fewer households -- 3,583 -- on the waiting list, he said.
"It kind of gives you an idea, a snapshot," Molineux said.
"The bottom line is there are more applications being received than being housed at any given time."
Last year the centre received 2,549 new applications, but found housing for only 818 families.
Eagle and the other members of the council housing leadership committee last week recommended unanimously the city restore $2 million cut from the proposed housing budget. The cut would leave the budget with about $60,000, which could create four new units at best.
A task force determined four years ago London needs 700 units a year for 10 years to meet half the demand for affordable housing. No units have been built since 1995.
The leadership committee was struck in the fall to provide council with long- and short-term planning on housing for 2004 to 2007, Eagle said.
"And now we're starting with having no money for 2004," she said.
Housing advocates could make their case for the $2 million in tomorrow's budget discussions at the community and protective services meeting.
Last night, council considered a community and protective services committee recommendation to extend the 42-day limit on emergency shelter in "special" circumstances.
Coun. Rob Alder objected to sending the proposal to the budget process, arguing the city faces a hefty tax hike.
"This is not the year to be doing this," Alder said of the added cost, estimated at about $120,000.
But Eagle and Coun. Sandy White argued the shortage of affordable housing makes it harder to leave shelters.
"This is definitely the year to make that commitment. Right through the system there is terrible, terrible pressure," Eagle said before council referred the issue to the budget process.
Faced with a 10-per-cent tax hike, deputy mayor and budget chief Tom Gosnell has suggested relying on taxpayers to address the homeless problem might discourage charitable donations.
But there's no research to prove that's the case, said Peter Broder, spokesperson for the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003