LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Leaks are defamatory?
RE: D’ANGELO WANTS $1.15 MILLION FROM REGION, FEB. 5
Thanks to reporter Grant LaFleche and the rest of the Niagara dailies staff for bringing the truth to the surface over the past few years.
We now have a person, former Niagara Region CAO Carmen D’Angelo, whose hiring has raised questions. The Ontario Ombudsman’s report will show what happened, but what gets me is suing the Region.
Leaks are defamatory? As a taxpayer it is confusing to say the least. Most things are known and do get let out of the bag, so to say, but keeping things from the people who are responsible for them is another thing.
As the man that was supposed to run the region, did D’Angelo not understand that making a backroom deal that the full council was not aware of kind of makes it moot to sue the taxpayers? The media helped to keep the doors of information open to the public, as it should be. Blank forms from the human resources department? Doubt that would happen in the private sector.
Maybe he should sue the person who signed this not-so-normal contract.
Look in a mirror and ask your questions, then look in the HR manual to see how a hiring is to be done. Then ask the questions again.
The taxpayers are tired of this type of continued action.
John Hunt
Niagara Falls
Animals deserve protection
RE: ONTARIO APPEALING DECISION THAT FOUND OSPCA’S POWERS TO BE UNCONSTITUTIONAL, FEB. 1
The OSPCA’s enforcement powers have been taken away by an Ontario court which states they’re opaque, insular, unaccountable, subject to external influence and unconstitutional.
Why wasn’t legislation updated with the training and resources already established transferred to a higher level?
Any time legislative protection is taken away there will always be a measure of no conscience, with people believing it’s their constitutional right to do as they please with no regard to the unnecessary tragedy ensuing. This recessively evolved confidence is reinforced as no authority enforcement intervenes.
Whether they’re endangered species, pets, guide dogs, canine units, livestock or other animals, these vulnerable innocent creatures continue to teach us, provide for us, protect us and feed our ecological balance.
One hundred years ago and beyond horses plowed crops, delivered mail, pulled lumber from scratch for building, policed streets, transported people to critical situations — they even died in battle fighting wars.
Suffice to say the world’s progress is due largely in part to animals. They deserve better.
Deborah Sims
St. Catharines
Put health over cannabis cash
As an octogenarian, I remember when all the cool guys in high school carried a pack of cigarettes in the sleeve of their T-shirts.
In college, many of the BMOC (big men on campus) and a significant number of coeds thought it sophisticated and very adult to smoke.
Movie stars on screen were often featured smoking. Their Hollywood faces appeared in commercials and on billboards. Servicemen were given cigarettes as part of their K rations.
In the 1940s 45 per cent of Americans admitted to smoking. In the 1970s it decreased to 32 per cent and in the ’90s it went down to 26 per cent. Now in 2019 it is down to 15.5 per cent. Don’t you ever wonder why?
It obviously has taken some time but hopefully we have learned a valuable lesson before we rush so quickly to accept marijuana. Your health should be more important than money to be made. Marshall J. Duguay
Buffalo, N.Y.