Claiming he has no jurisdiction to investigate the behaviour of councillors during meetings, Niagara Falls Integrity Commissioner Michael Maynard has dismissed another complaint against Councillor Mike Strange after he quietly directed male supporters to block women’s rights advocates from using council chambers to advocate for protections.
Mayor Jim Diodati was apparently behind the scheme to give Strange, who is facing a criminal charge of intimate partner assault, a platform to defend himself, after he told the women that council chambers could not be used to address the case.
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Instead of spending $80 billion on mega-highways, Ontario could build 400 kilometres of transit to serve the GTHA and actually solve gridlock. Brand new numbers from Environmental Defence provide residents across the region with a clear road map to best plan for our transportation future.
While Doug Ford’s PC government continues its land-gobbling policies to plow forward with sprawl inducing highways that will make emission reduction targets impossible to achieve, the numbers show a much better way to reduce crippling congestion, and keep our air safe.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s call to “boycott Chinese EVs”—a stance he later softened—has reignited debate over Canada’s sudden reversal on electric vehicle policy, following Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new trade deal with China which opens the door to tens of thousands of lower-cost, Chinese-made EVs. Critics fear the agreement could undermine the province’s auto sector but some experts argue it could boost affordability and may help reverse Canada’s recent slide in EV adoption at a time when global markets, led by China, are rapidly electrifying.
A motion slated for the January 26th St. Catharines Council meeting was deferred to a future meeting at the last minute. Mayor Mat Siscoe has assured the public that a structural analysis of the overhead structure will be done in the coming days.
The catwalk bridge, spanning 282 to 285 Ontario Street, previously used to connect the two portions of the General Motors operation, has become a visible sign of the City’s unwillingness to enforce its own bylaws around property standards.
With a municipal election looming in October and armed with a petition with more than 1,000 signatures, A Coalition for A Better St. Catharines has renewed its effort to get the municipality to take immediate action on what the organization describes as a “public health, environmental and safety catastrophe.”
The details are hard to read, the images even harder to look at.
Dakota died on the side of a Niagara Falls street in the summer of 2024. While animal welfare, bylaw and police officials were all well aware of the barbaric conditions the young German shepherd was living in before she fled down a hot July street, where she eventually collapsed, they did nothing.
The case has come to represent the long list of problems with Ontario’s flawed animal welfare system.
In a decision that appears to have been made without any legal advice, policy guidance or precedent, Niagara Falls council members voted last week to bill a resident $4,000, arguing his single complaint should be treated as multiple individual complaints against each member, with a separate fee for each one.
It has sparked a backlash for blatantly trying to muzzle the resident and send a heavy-handed message to anyone else who might dare to file a complaint. Legal experts question whether such a decision is even allowed under the Municipal Act and criticize Niagara Falls for continuing to put up barriers to hold elected officials accountable.
Nine months after Canada entered the Mark Carney era, observers have debated whether the Prime Minister’s push for carbon capture and new oil pipelines is strategic politicking. A former federal climate advisor says the reality is simpler and more concerning. Drawing from her time on the Net-Zero Advisory Body, her sudden resignation, just after former environment minister Steven Guilbeault stepped down, was driven by frustration with a government that repeatedly ignored expert advice on meeting Canada’s legally mandated climate targets.
What do you do when you’re settling in for the holiday season, only to have Queen’s Park drop a 1,700-page report that could reshape your community and your future? That’s what happened last month to two Caledon residents who found themselves racing against the clock to review the draft version of a report meant to detail the well-known risks to the environment posed by Highway 413.
Riddled with technical language, complex data and with minimal guidance from the Province, leaving even environmental experts concerned, the pair has been left wondering if the report simply checks a box on the to-do list that leads to construction; or will the troubling information be enough for the PCs to rethink the project?
After attempting to book a trip to Cuba through TD Bank’s rewards program, one family was shocked to learn they were barred from doing so. The family unwittingly found itself in the centre of an international embargo that has been ongoing for 60 years. Cuban officials and advocates say what TD is doing is a violation of Canadian law.
Niagara Falls staff are recommending the appointment of former councillor Barb Greenwood to the vacant seat on regional council following the appointment of Bob Gale as Regional Chair by the PC government. The recommendation will be voted on by Niagara Falls council on Tuesday.
After five years of bylaw notices and multiple forced mowings, Mississauga resident Wolf Ruck finally got a legal reprieve this month when the Ontario Superior Court ruled key parts of the City’s lawn bylaw are unconstitutional.
Maintaining a naturalized, pollinator-friendly garden is a form of protected expression, the court ruled. Ruck, who has spent much of his retirement navigating the courts, representing himself, sees the ruling as a victory not just for him but for urban biodiversity advocates everywhere. But he fears the fight might not be over.
As Prime Minister Mark Carney pours billions into carbon capture and markets it as a climate lifeline, a critical question lingers: is this a genuine solution or a delay tactic dressed up as innovation?
Part I of The Pointer’s two-part series traces the roots of carbon capture from oilfields to pulp mills, following the scientists who first imagined the concept of negative emissions technologies and the politicians now staking climate promises on that unproven idea.
A stormwater pond constructed to capture runoff on the northern portion of the former General Motors property next to downtown St. Catharines is free of PCBs and other contaminants, updated testing has found. Yet questions remain about the ongoing monitoring efforts for the entire site, including the most contaminated portion directly adjacent to Twelve Mile Creek.
Despite the misgivings of many councillors, $900,000 worth of development fees were waived by Niagara Region for a luxury hotel project in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
It has left many questioning the legalities of the move and whether more developers will now be seeking relief of their own, at the expense of taxpayers.
Premier Doug Ford and his fellow PCs are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public, telling us Ontario has one of the strongest animal welfare protection systems in Canada.
This could not be further from the truth, writes Donna Power, a prominent animal welfare advocate.
The Niagara Regional Police Service Board rejected a request to cut $2.7 million from their budget, leaving the proposed Regional operating budget increase at 6.98 percent. The budget is set for a final vote on Thursday.
Niagara Falls Integrity Commissioner Michael Maynard has dismissed a complaint against Councillor Mike Strange after his scheme to block Women of Ontario Say No advocates from sitting in the council chambers. Strange is facing a criminal charge of intimate partner assault.
The report ignores key pieces of evidence and normalizes disturbing behaviour as politics “in its most basic form”.
To close out the year, The Pointer is republishing its most-read stories of 2025.
Throughout his career the city’s mayor has been skewered for openly lying. Since Patrick Brown arrived in Brampton in 2018, he has tried to convince residents billions of dollars are flowing to his city.
A tunnelled LRT, third hospital (it still doesn’t have a second), world class cricket stadium, cutting edge innovation district and standalone university are just some of the major projects he has promised and claimed to have secured funding for. His misleading press releases and election-style announcements with little to show for them, are starting to wear thin.
To close out the year, The Pointer is republishing its most-read stories of 2025.
As wildlife populations crash globally, Ontario’s new Bill 17 legalizes what conservationists call ‘bird death traps’ by stripping away vital bird-friendly building protections. Marketed as a way to speed up residential development, the law removes municipal authority to enforce standards that save millions of migratory birds each year from deadly window collisions.
Advocates warn these changes prioritize developer profits over nature, undoing decades of progress and threatening Ontario’s climate goals.
To close out the year, The Pointer is republishing its most-read stories of 2025.
A young German shepherd is found running down a suburban roadway in Niagara Falls. Her mouth is muzzled shut, she’s bleeding, dragging a rope and metal pipes.
She collapses and dies.
It took months of sustained advocacy by witnesses and animal rights defenders to force the provincial Animal Welfare Service into action.
The case reveals the disturbing reality of a system that is under-resourced, disjointed, hidden from public view and mostly unaccountable to the taxpayer.
To close out the year, The Pointer is republishing its most-read stories of 2025.
In a move that has sparked outrage among Brampton residents and environmental groups, Doug Ford’s PC government has approved the expansion of a controversial waste-to-energy facility in the city, despite widespread concerns over public health and environmental impacts.
While the facility owners claim it offers a clean energy solution, critics point out the lack of meaningful public consultation, the looming health risks posed by toxic emissions and the long-term environmental consequences of turning Brampton into a waste-burning hub.
As the curtains draw on 2025, Ontarians can look back on a year marked by challenges to the province’s environmental framework, from omnibus bills that reshaped protections for species, parks, and water, to controversies over resource development and conservation authority mergers.
Yet amid these pressures, nature and public advocacy persisted: endangered species were rediscovered, communities rallied to defend their lands and climate-positive projects gained momentum. In the words of the late Dr. Jane Goodall: “There is hope”.
Niagara police officers investigating human trafficking often keep themselves, and their work, under wraps to maintain the required anonymity to conduct these complex investigations.
At the end of November, officers pulled back the curtain to educate residents about a crime that is increasing in the region, and let survivors know they are here to help.
To close out the year, The Pointer is republishing a series of its most-read stories of 2025.
The former buildings that housed the industrial operations of GM on Ontario Street in St. Catharines are crumbling. The site is pockmarked with industrial hatches and holes that threaten to swallow anyone who is unaware and wanders into the easily accessible site.
Why is the City refusing to take action as the “active demolition” has not seen significant progress for a number of years?
To close out the year, The Pointer is republishing its most-read stories of 2025.
The number of Brampton home owners unable to cover their tax bill exploded under the current term of council, according to a report by City staff. While Bramptonians grapple with a cost-of-living crisis, the recent numbers show the financial strategy forced by Mayor Patrick Brown has not worked. Despite freezing the budget—which has gutted City accounts and delayed major infrastructure projects—it appears his politically motivated plan (Brown styles himself as a cost-cutting politician) has not had the intended effect of easing the financial burden on ratepayers.
With the help of her two young daughters, Cassandra Harvey, a survivor of human trafficking, is fundraising money for Safe Hope Home, a social service agency that lost its critical shelter building for survivors in a fire earlier this year.
The What Were You Wearing? event brings together art and advocacy to debunk the harmful myth that what a victim of sexual assault is wearing during an attack somehow provokes the violence.
Pushback against the Ford government’s plan to merge Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities into seven mega-regional bodies is intensifying as municipalities including those in Peel and advocacy groups rush to express their opposition before the December 22 submission deadline.
Conservation authorities stress they are already fulfilling their critical role effectively despite minimal funding currently provided by the PCs. Critics warn the proposed changes could threaten local decision-making, undermine watershed protection and curtail critical work to mitigate the increasing impacts of climate change.
At its final meeting of the year Thursday, the Niagara Police Services Board will consider reductions to the 2026 budget which proposes an 11.5 percent increase over 2025.
The Board Chair has argued any further reductions could come at a significant risk. While regional councillors are looking for a $2.7 million reduction in police spending, options outlined by Niagara Police finance staff in a report going to the board Thursday, fall short.
For weeks, The Pointer’s attempts to get information about the state of a filtration system on the former St. Catharines GM property have been ignored by the Ministry of the Environment Conservation and Parks.
A Freedom of Information request reveals that the silence was a direct order handed down from a political staff member in the minister’s office.
This is a story of two Indigenous youth who could be living the ordinary chaos of their early twenties, but instead have inherited the burden of protecting their land, their waters and their communities from a “model of prosperity” built at the expense of the natural world.
Rather than look away, they stepped forward, and said—‘Here We Stand’, picking up the torch passed down by exhausted elders.
Relying on misleading information and bolstering the stigma that haunts those who use drugs, the PC government made the decision earlier this year to shutter safe consumption sites across Ontario—one in Peel.
Since its closure at the end of March, the regional municipality has increased its harm reduction efforts to assist those who use drugs. It will hopefully lessen any spike of deadly overdoses, which many experts say is inevitable due to the closure of these life-saving facilities across the province.
A development on Park Street in Niagara Falls could provide needed affordable rental units and spur growth in the downtown, but efforts to secure a private developer had been previously unsuccessful. A November 24th ground breaking revealed Elite Developments as the City’s partner. No information has been provided on how this came to be.
After a lack of public consultation around a proposed parking lot that threatened green space adjacent to Thorold’s prized Memorial Park, will a revised design satisfy residents?
The Auditor General of Ontario kicked off the Holiday season by delivering a stocking stuffed with hard truths about the Environmental Bill of Rights, revealing a government more eager to silence its citizens than safeguard their environment.
What should be the province’s democratic guardrails now seem like fragile ice, thinning under the weight of rushed laws, buried consultations and decisions made in the dark. With trust eroding and accountability slipping, some Ontarians are now calling on the province to strengthen the compliance requirements tied to AGO reports.
A freedom of information request by The Pointer has revealed a disturbing lack of transparency by officials with the provincial environment ministry and inside St. Catharines City Hall.
They knew for weeks that the filtration system set up on the former GM site next to downtown, to protect the public from cancer-causing chemicals and other toxic substances previously detected at levels as much as 1,000 times above allowable limits, has not been in operation. They failed to inform the public or take any action to protect residents from potential harm.
According to Diodati and University of Niagara Falls President David Gray, there are thousands of students studying in the city’s downtown. If they are, business owners aren’t seeing them.
Restrictions placed on international study permits by the federal government raised doubts about the in-person enrolment figures claimed by the institution since it opened in 2024.
A piece of paper uncovered at the 11th hour has saved portions of Thorold’s Memorial Park from being paved over for a parking lot.
Prior to the discovery, residents were concerned about the lack of consultation for a project with the potential to impact such a prized piece of city history. While the proposal has been scaled back “considerably”, questions about how the process unfolded remain.
The Ontario government was set to “face the music” at the province’s Superior Court of Justice on December 2 over its lagging climate record. In the eleventh hour, the Doug Ford government quietly rewrote the rules with the passage of its Fall Economic Statement, stalling the Mathur case once again after a historic six-year legal battle.
Ecojustice lawyers representing the seven young Ontarians say the move reveals a government more committed to avoiding accountability than confronting a crisis.
Marking a year since Bill 212 was pushed through, November 25 serves as a stark reminder of how the legislation simultaneously weakened Ontario’s environmental safeguards and cleared political space for Highway 413.
One expert says it was only the beginning: the first in a wave of laws that left species, watersheds and entire communities more vulnerable than ever.
Despite growing calls from a group of advocates and regional councillors demanding Peel’s fair share of funding from Queen’s Park, the PC government continues to ignore the issue. The crisis has left social service organizations struggling to meet increased demand for housing, mental health and other critical supports, while many vulnerable residents have few places to turn as services become overburdened.
On November 25, the Niagara Police are hosting an information session to educate parents, teens and community members about human trafficking.
The rapidly increasing crime is happening in the Niagara Region at a rate nearly twice the provincial average.
In Doug Ford’s Ontario, sustainability never stood a chance. Years of stripping away environmental safeguards led to an inevitable conclusion. On November 6, his PC government unveiled its Fall Economic Statement, completely abandoning its legally binding emissions targets and shelving its climate plan. Mark Carney might have had a role in it.
Experts warn this mix of fiscal recklessness and environmental backsliding risks pushing Ontario residents into ecological and economic crises.
So far in 2025, Peel Police laid two or more charges for impaired driving, every single day. On Monday, the force launched its annual Festive RIDE campaign which increases patrols and roadside stopping points in an attempt to counteract the increase in impaired driving over the holiday season. Labeled an “epidemic”, police officials and advocates are urging drivers to think of those killed when getting behind the wheel drunk.
Can a “generational” budget truly protect Canada’s future when political maneuvering and corporate lobbying dictate the pace of climate action? As federal politicians zero in on economic competitiveness and market-driven solutions, the science of a rapidly warming planet was an afterthought in Carney's first financial blueprint for the country which was narrowly approved Monday evening.
The contaminated former General Motors property next to downtown continues to pose potential risks to residents. It was recently learned that a system meant to contain toxins is now offline. Local elected officials, meanwhile, have been paralyzed by inaction.
The hazards created by these types of brownfields are well documented in research, but council members have still refused to use their powers to safeguard St. Catharines residents.
In the Municipality of Huron Shores, the Dean Lake Bridge remains closed. Now, after a vote cast by Council on November 12, it is set to never again reopen.
This is no longer just a story about infrastructure; it is a story about governance, responsibility and public trust.
As Hurricane Melissa devastated parts of the Caribbean, the G7 Energy and Environment Ministers’ meeting in Toronto wrapped with ambitious plans on AI, critical minerals and energy security. Environmental experts criticized Ottawa for its continued backing of fossil fuels, and overhyped carbon capture claims, highlighting how far Canada and the world still are from meaningful climate action ahead of COP30.
A motion approved by St. Catharines councillors last week regarding the former General Motors property on Ontario Street has once again left residents and advocates shaking their heads. While requesting information from the provincial government, local elected officials made no mention of the legal powers they have to force a clean-up of the contaminated industrial site.
Just days before five of Ontario’s top conservation leaders were honoured for decades of work to protect the one element that sustains all life, the PC government announced plans to merge the province’s 36 conservation authorities into seven mega-agencies.
The move, pitched as a way to speed up housing and infrastructure approvals, has sparked alarm among municipal leaders, environmental and legal experts who warn it could dismantle the system that protects Ontario’s water.
What if the heat wasted from our water, sewers, and even nuclear plants could warm our homes, power our offices, and shrink our carbon footprint? That’s the vision unfolding at Mississauga’s Lakeview Village, where lessons from Sweden’s pioneering district energy systems are turning ambient heat into a community-wide resource.
Could district energy power Ontario in the years ahead? A longtime advocate and expert weighs in on the opportunities, and the obstacles.
Two area NDP MPPs are calling for transparency after a filtration system meant to remove toxic chemicals appears to have been disconnected on the former GM site due to non-payment, and a demolition permit was cancelled.
The provincial environment ministry has indicated an investigation might be launched to find out what needs to be done to finally address potential public health and safety risks at the sprawling dormant industrial property near downtown St. Catharines.
Ontario’s push to accelerate road and mining development in the Ring of Fire has been framed through a series of negotiations with First Nations, including the recent Community Partnership Agreement with Webequie First Nation.
The Doug Ford government portrays these deals as pathways to economic growth and jobs; Indigenous leaders warn that consultation remains incomplete, and critical environmental and cultural concerns have been sidelined.
