Posts Tagged ‘Ontario Politics’

Ontario rollbacks to sex-ed curriculum prompt legal challenges

December 20th, 2018 by Safia Lakhani

This article was first published on rabble.ca

Though the election was only six months ago, the array of changes (or “rollbacks”) ushered in by the Ford regime is dizzying: from backtracking on the cap-and-trade program to cancelling the basic income pilot project, the government has wasted little time in cracking down on the initiatives undertaken by its predecessor. The government’s announcement in July 2018 that the province would be scrapping the modernized sexual education curriculum developed by the Liberal government in 2015 and returning to the 1998 curriculum pending further consultations falls squarely in line with this trend.

The government’s decision to revert back to the 1998 curriculum has prompted considerable backlash from educators, parents, and students, and has also prompted four separate legal challenges.

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Freeze on overdose prevention sites engages Charter rights

August 30th, 2018 by Brynn Leger

This article was first published on rabble.ca

On August 10, 2018, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long‑Term Care announced a freeze on new overdose prevention sites (OPS) in the province. The freeze was effectively immediately, meaning it has impacted three OPS slated to open in Thunder Bay, St. Catharines and Toronto.

A new OPS in Toronto was scheduled to open on August 13, 2018 in the city’s Parkdale neighbourhood, just days after the freeze. Activists, organizers and members of the community were outraged by the news, especially in light of a safety warning issued by Toronto Police on August 14, 2018 about a spike in overdose deaths. The opioid crisis is a national public health emergency, and the Government of Canada supports supervised consumption sites, including OPS, as part of its national strategy to address the crisis.

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Laura Bowman nominated as Provincial NDP candidate for York-Simcoe

April 16th, 2014 by Iler Campbell

We’re very pleased to announce that Laura Bowman is the provincial NDP candidate for York-Simcoe. Laura grew up in Holland Landing, East Gwillimbury and maintains many ties with the area. Regular readers of our blog will recall her articles on development issues in the Lake Simcoe region.

She plans to campaign on curtailing sprawl, improving transit infrastructure, protecting water,  affordable housing, local agriculture, improving local employment opportunities and municipal and planning reform.

Laura will continue working at Iler Campbell until the election, in which we wish her all the best. For more about her and her platform, visit her website at laurabowman.ca.

Mega Quarry win shows it’s time for major agricultural policy reform in Ontario

November 27th, 2012 by Laura Bowman

Last week Highland Companies announced plans to withdraw its application to build a quarry in Melancthon Ontario.  The “Mega Quarry” has been a rallying cry for local food and agriculture reform, as well as aggregates reform in Ontario.

Now is not a time for farmers, environmentalists and foodies to rest on their laurels.  Ontario’s agricultural policy needs big-time reform.  For far too long Ontario has badly neglected the agricultural sector on all fronts, financial, marketing, trade policy, land use protection, water policies, and from a food security perspective.  The Mega Quarry dispute highlighted many of these problems.

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