ArcelorMittal Dofasco comes clean over plumes
Three ‘coffining’ incidents in two days
A contentious black cloud particulate emission at ArcelorMittal Dofasco on Oct. 8 was only one of three reportable air pollution incidents by the steelmaker that weekend.
Neither the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change nor ArcelorMittal Dofasco had previously acknowledged the additional “events” on Thanksgiving weekend until asked by The Spectator this week.
“Yes, ArcelorMittal Dofasco (AMD) did report other incidents that occurred on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 to the ministry. The additional events were related to the crane failure and shutdown of the steel making furnace,” ministry spokesperson Gary Wheeler said Wednesday.
The issue came to public notice after Environment Hamilton executive director Lynda Lukasik photographed a dark cloud over the steelmaker at about 10 a.m. on Oct. 8. She happened to be bicycling in the area at the time.
She complained to the environment ministry, went public with the photos online and argued it was further evi-
If you have any doubts there’s a substance abuse/addiction crisis in our city, just spend some time in the newsroom at The Spectator.
More than ever, it seems to me, we/I hear from organizations reaching out, trying to raise awareness. Organizations I didn’t even know existed before, now piping up, trying to sharpen the contours of their profile in the community.
I recently did a column on Wayside House, an incredible resource in this city the past 50 years. I was only dimly aware of it. Until this year.
I’d never heard of Cocaine Anonymous (no connection to Wayside House) until this week. They started in 1982, in L.A., but haven’t had much presence in Hamilton. Until now. “CA (Cocaine Anonymous) was not that active here (Hamilton), but when I moved back (from Toronto) three years ago, it had really caught fire,” says Glen.
And more especially this year as the crisis worsens — not just with opioids, though they’re in the headlines — but with the deepening shadows of many types of addiction: cocaine, crack, methamphetamines, alcohol, crystal meth and, yes, fentanyl.
“I’m at the detention centre tomorrow, and service meetings through the week,” says Glen, a non-using (for eight years) addict, describing how busy he is now helping others to overcome the controlling power of addiction.
He does it on top of a full-time job as a data analyst, a hard-won triumph after having to reassemble himself from scratch, in middle age, after decades of addiction.
He describes CA as a 12-step program, very much along the lines of AA, for those who seek recovery from drug addictions of all kinds.
The organization’s southern Ontario branch (SOCA) is staging a large convention in Toronto this weekend at the Radisson Admiral Hotel Toronto Harbourfront, 249 Queen’s Quay (for more, https://socaconvention.org).
“It started for me in Grade 9 with drinking, weed and acid,” says Glen, who spent most of his youth in Hamilton.
In high school, he continued drinking, got onto amphetamines.
“I’d use heavily, but then go months without thinking of it. I wasn’t addicted. And no drugs through university.”
What hooked him, ultimately, was heroin, years later. Life was good. He was living in Toronto making lots of money.
“Then I got a sports injury, bruised ribs.” The pain ended up getting very severe and then a girlfriend said, “I know a cure.” She’d tried heroin. Glen was “instantly” addicted.
Within weeks he was inquiring about dealers. When it became exorbitantly expensive, he realized he had to stop. He couldn’t. By now, mid-‘90s, he was also doing cocaine.
Over the next seven years he lost everything: relationships, the successful media company he’d started. He left to work in Southeast Asia.
“Not a good place to quit,” Glen says. “I bottomed out, first time. I stole money and was on the run in Southeast Asia.”
He managed to get back to Canada and began therapy, cleaned up for a while, but then slipped back.
He bottomed out again, doing crime, violent crime even, and ending up homeless.
“I was not a good criminal, which is fortunate,” he says, because he ended up in jail.
“That’s when I realized my life was a horror show, a screaming, five-alarm problem.”
There was a period in detox, a period on methadone, but eight years ago he ceased using heroin and cocaine. Three-and-a-half years ago he discontinued methadone.
He moved back to Hamilton. He enrolled in a data analysis program.
“I found a job. I love it. I’m trying to rebuild relationships.”
Recovery, he says, means working through guilt, remorse, self-loathing. With addiction, says Glen, there’s the physical aspect, which can result in organ failure, but worse is the spiritual damage.
“This vast emptiness, this separation from everyone else, even in a crowded room. No sense of connection.”
CA has been, he says, invaluable, life-saving, with the community, support and sponsorship it provides. And the sense of connection it builds.