“We are very pleased with the response to our first event,” says Barry Streib, President of the Thunder Bay Marathon – Miles with the Giant Board.  “We have over 650 registrants from more than 60 communities across Northwestern Ontario, Canada and the mid-west United States.”

“We are very excited to have Dick Beardsley, inspirational speaker and world famous marathoner, as our special guest,” continues Streib.  “Dick will be the keynote speaker at the Superior Living health wellness leisure expo on Friday, September 17 at 7:30pm and on Saturday, September 18th at 2:00pm.  He will also act as official race starter on Sunday, September 19th.”

Visit www.thunderbaymarathon.com for more information on race weekend activities, to register, or to volunteer.

The CFS says that new and returning students who are struggling to broaden their opportunities in the faltering economy will have to struggle harder this fall as record-high tuition fees climb past $6,000 for undergraduate students and $9,000 for graduate students.

“This fall, post-secondary education students will be billed for an additional $250 to $700 in fees at a time when youth unemployment remains unabated and new consumer taxes have inflated their monthly living expenses,” said Sandy Hudson, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario.

As a result of high fees, students across Canada collectively owe $15 billion to the Government of Canada and billions more to the Government of Ontario. This excludes money that is owed to banks and credit card companies. McGuinty’s decision last March to increase allowable student debt combined with this year’s fee increases of 4 to 8 percent will continue to drive cumulative debt upwards.

“Dalton McGuinty’s strategy for managing the economy appears to rely on downloading government funding responsibilities onto students and their families,” said Hudson. “Using debt to justify higher upfront costs is irresponsible, short-sighted and will deepen the economic divide in Ontario while miring graduates in unmanageable debt.”

“For someone who boasts that he is the ‘Education Premier,’ Dalton McGuinty has shown a surprising lack of leadership in expanding affordability or quality in post-secondary education,” said Hamid Osman, Ontario Representative to the Canadian Federation of Students. “In the year leading up to the 2011 Ontario election, students will be reminding voters about the government’s poor track record on education.”

Some of the interest is in the official silence from several of the incumbent candidates.

Councillors at Large Rebecca Johnson and Frank Pullia have yet to file nomination papers. Johnson has said she is running, but has not confirmed what position she will be running for.

Pullia has remained silent for the most part, although it is has been rumoured that he will be seeking the Mayor’s Chair.

There are also some who are speculating that even though Councillor at Large Iain Angus has filed nomination papers seeking re-election as Councillor at Large, that he could be re-considering and looking at the top job as Mayor. Angus who is also heading the North of Superior Tourism Association, has served on Council, as well as serving as both MPP and MP.

Federal MP John Rafferty, according to a Facebook posting by Keith Hobbs, is endorsing Hobbs. “Thank you M.P. John Rafferty for throwing your support behind my campaign today. I appreciate it very much!” commented Hobbs on Sunday night after campaigning at the Hymer’s Fall Fair.

Hobbs, who declared several months ago, has been campaigning hard, door-knocking throughout the city, and reaching out to gain the ear of voters.

The other candidates for Mayor, Jeff Irwin and Brian Kwasny have remained quite quiet.

Irwin’s website www.yournextmayor.ca offers some insight into the candidate. His Facebook group has seven supporters as of today.

Mayor Peterson has yet to kick her campaign into gear. The Mayor doesn’t have a website up yet, or have a social media presence. That however is likely one of the benefits of being the incumbent.

During the next weeks, it is likely, as the campaign kicks into a new, higher gear, that there will be far more information flowing from all the candidates for Mayor and Council.

As of today, there are contested races for all positions except for Westfort ward, where Joe Virdiramo remains unchallenged.

By October 25^th, when the voters cast their ballots, one can hope that we will see a highly spirited campaign, and a full airing of the issues which are important to the people of our city.

The decision in the hands of voters is what direction our community will take into our future.

It is a key decision, and one that hopefully all the citizens in Thunder Bay take very seriously.

James Murray

Your hard work, and that of our parents and grandparents, has helped build a more equal and just society in Canada, and one that we should all be extremely proud of.   However, this work has been carried out knowing that far more progress is needed, especially at this critical moment.  You should know, as always, that Canada’s New Democrats and I stand with you in working toward a better future.

Many of you have been voicing your concerns for a number of years about the perilous state of pension security in Canada.  When times were good, the shortcomings of our labour, bankruptcy and insolvency laws went largely unnoticed, but then something happened.  Things got bad.  Large and small employers across Canada start losing money, undertaking restructuring, or entering bankruptcy.  Pension security went from a theoretical concern for many families to a massive societal problem that threatens the economic well-being of hundreds of thousands of Canadians.

I want to thank you today for leading the charge for improved conditions for working families, and in particular for leading the way in the battle for better pension security in Canada.  You shared your experiences, and made your collective voice heard.  C-501 was tabled as a result of your determination to correct the injustice that puts banks and big institutional lenders ahead of working families and pensioners when a company enters restructuring, bankruptcy, or liquidation proceedings.   Together, we can correct this injustice and secure hundreds of thousands of pensions across Canada.

In closing, I thank you again for your hard work, determination, and the significant contribution that you have made to our great society.  This is your day, a great day, and I hope you enjoy it.

John Rafferty, MP.

Thunder Bay – Rainy River

www.johnrafferty.ndp.ca

All that really stood between Britain and defeat in those stirring days were the brave pilots in their Hawker Hurricanes and Spitfires.

The Guardian paper, in Great Britain offers a map, based on the London Fire Brigade’s records of bombs hitting the city.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/sep/06/london-blitz-bomb-map-september-7-1940

Touring the bombed area, Prime Minister Winston Churchill said, “”They cheered me as if I’d given them victory, instead of getting their houses bombed to bits.”

The battle reigned on through the fall, with the pilots of the Royal Air Force along with Canadians, Australians, and free Polish Forces pilots driving back the Germans.

There were 574 Allied Airmen killed during the battle. 2662 German Airmen killed.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in the House of Commons stated, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/6981.flv

Although the Spitfire has gained a great deal of fame during the Battle of Britain, it was the Hawker Hurricane, many which was manufactured at the Canada Car plant in Thunder Bay which was responsible for 60% of the German planes which were claimed to have been downed. The Hurricane that scored the highest number of RAF victories during this period, accounting for 1,593 of the 2,739 German aircraft which the RAF said were shot down.

Today, the former Canadian Car plant is the site of Bombardier’s manufacturing facility in Thunder Bay.

The first and third resolutions were defeated but the second one passed. I opposed all three.

The argument was made that some councillors are either grandstanding or asking too many questions. I don’t believe this is a matter you can legislate (i. e. pass a workable resolution) against. It is a matter for people to judge. The reality is sometimes democracy is messy and takes time.

The public deserves more credit than these resolutions give them. People can tell the difference between a well thought out and articulated question and not. The public can tell whether a question has been asked before. The public can tell if a councillor is grandstanding. It isn’t for council to legislate against this, it is for people to choose who they want and how they want to be represented on council.

Council’s decisions affect both the short and long term. Decisions made now can have serious implications for the future. The more information I have the more comfortable I am making a decision. It takes time to get it right. I take this responsibility very seriously and, if it is necessary, I prefer staying late in order to make the proper decision. With our other committee commitments it is not easy to re-schedule on Tuesdays. For those of us with young families, this often would mean scrambling for childcare.

Approximately 3700 people watch Council every week and close to 40,000 watch at least once a year. How many other TV shows have this type of audience in Northwestern Ontario? And if councillors are grandstanding, isn’t it valuable that the TV viewers can see this for themselves – leading up to an election?

Although the second resolution – implementing the three question rule – passed, it has proven unsuccessful in achieving the desired outcome. I would argue that it has actually hindered the decision-making process. Some questions naturally lead to others. It is often difficult to follow up 20 or 30 minutes later as the train of thought has been lost. If a question isn’t answered fully or if the respondent didn’t fully comprehend the question, it is better to ask it again immediately. The new system is frustrating and not helpful in the decision making process.

Yes, there have been some late meetings. So what? Council has important issues to deal with. This is the responsibility an elected official takes on in order to govern. It is an honour to serve and if it means staying late – so be it.

I opposed these three resolutions mainly because I don’t believe you can ‘streamline’ democracy. I don’t believe you can legislate good or bad questions. Finally, I don’t believe you should ever limit citizens’ access to public information about a democratic government – which I believe these resolutions tried to do.

Andrew Foulds

Councillor, Current River

Contact: afoulds@thunderbay.ca

TBayTel is getting set, later this fall to unveil its own television broadcasting offering residents more innovation. The company is set to offer the new services later this fall.

Sources report to NetNewsledger.com that there will be both standard and high-definition channels, as well as music and video. The new TbayTel system will offer pay-per-view as well.

The new product is going to be Internet based. This will offer viewers features not currently offered by other providers.

One of the innovations will be a personal video recording device. Viewers will be able to stop and start live television, or movies. In addition, because the system is Internet based, you can have access to the system to record programing from your mobile phone.

Further it will also apparently be able to be tied to your Internet, through your television set and allow you to surf the net on your television.

Those changes are not the only changes slated that could change your television viewing experience.

Back on March 4^th 2010, Thunder Bay Electronics, which operates CKPR Television applied to the Canadian Radio and Television Commission for permission to amend the station’s licence.

“Application by Thunder Bay Electronics Limited to amend the broadcasting licence for the television programming undertaking CKPR-TV Thunder Bay.

The licensee proposes to delete the condition of licence relating to its affiliation with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which reads:

The licensee shall operate this broadcasting undertaking as an affiliate of the English-language television network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The applicant states that it has been unable to negotiate a new program supply agreement with the CBC.

The applicant noted that CKPR-TV would operate as an independent local station and intends to source its non-local programming.

The applicant states that, if the proposed disaffiliation is approved, it will continue to commit to broadcast a minimum weekly average of 7 hours 40 minutes of original local news, will continue to broadcast in each broadcast week, averaged over the broadcast year, a minimum of 8 hours of priority programming, and will meet all other conditions of licence as stated in CKPR-TV Thunder Bay – Licence renewal, Broadcasting Decision CRTC2004-387, 30 August 2004.”

The shift away from CBC was slated to come in to effect on August 31st, 2010.

In a letter to the CBC dated February 10, 2010, Don Caron the company’s Vice President Finance stated, “Pursuant to Section 2.2 of the formal letter amending the terms of the Agreement on November 7, 2007, the Affiliate hereby gives notice to the CBC of the Affiliate’s intent to disaffiliate from the CBC.  As has been discussed, the date of termination of the Affiliation Agreement will be effective as of August 31, 2010 (“Date of Disaffiliation”) in order to line up our disaffiliation with the start of the fall 2010 television season.

“Effective upon the Date of Disaffiliation, the Affiliate shall immediately cease transmitting CBC broadcast signals or recorded programming. Prior to the Date of Disaffiliation, each of CBC and the Affiliate will continue to abide by the terms and conditions of the Affiliation Agreement.”

The application was granted by the CRTC but there has as of today been no obvious action to implement the move.

The station has remained as silent on this move, and any implications for the viewing audience, as they were when dropping CTV from CHFD last February. Thunder Bay residents might remember how the move to Global Television happened just as the Winter Olympic Games were getting underway in Vancouver.

“The ineffectiveness of federal gun control laws is guaranteed because they have always been aimed at the wrong target; namely, law-abiding citizens. It ignores the most dangerous and those most likely to acquire firearms illegally — namely, convicted criminals.

“The poor aim of successive governments and the chiefs of police has resulted in them not having the legislative authority or the national computer system that can tell them the current addresses of more than 300,000 persons who have been prohibited from owning firearms by the courts, subject to a restraining order, and/or firearms licences that have been refused or revoked. That’s a gun control law that would most likely receive widespread support. Well, support from everyone except convicted criminals, misguided civil libertarians and liberal politicians.”

Why does it take a letter to the editor to state what politicians and chiefs of police should have seen as an obvious solution to the entire situation. It would give police a valuable tool in the fight against crime.

It could also arm judges with the power to sentence dangerous offenders in the registry for breaking the law.

The people that the government should be focusing on are not hunters and shooters, they are people who have already demonstrated that they are incapable of following the law.

The Liberals with their creation of the federal gun registry wasted a billion dollars implementing a system that is seen by the innocent as punishing them, while ignoring those who are the real problem. Imagine if those Liberal MPs applied such measures at home to their children? They would be grounding their children because they might be bad?

The sheer common sense of such a change to the federal firearms registry likely means that Michael Ignatieff will fail to understand it, and wouldn’t support dropping the current “good guy registry” for a “bad guy registry”.

Likely, even though Jack Layton is proposing amendments to the current bill before the House of Commons, he will remain fixated on supporting the current flawed registry.

September marks the start of a new school year. The letter writer in the Ottawa Citizen offers a lesson to Canada’s politicians. One can only hope they are all smart enough to figure out it makes sense.

Besides, it would likely offer every MP in Ottawa the opportunity to agree on something that would make sense, and be far more cost effective, all while actually enhancing public safety.

In a perfect political world, Michael Ignatieff would propose this legislation, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper could second the bill.

That of course is just my opinion, as always your mileage may vary.

James Murray
Read More: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/registry+ignores+real+criminals/3476254/story.html#ixzz0yejRsCsl

“After many months of deep job cuts and uncertain job security, we still have the memory of a bitter recession fresh in our minds.” said Hyer “And we’re not out of the woods yet – many of our brothers and sisters are still without work, and there are signs of more trouble on the horizon. Many working families are struggling, while billions in tax handouts to the country’s most profitable corporations will mean higher E.I. premiums, cuts to services, and more of a burden on working Canadians. But Labour Day is an important reminder that by pulling together, working people can help reduce economic inequality and build a better Canada for everyone. We’ve done it in the past, and we will do it again.”

“I am honoured to this Labour Day to join others in celebrating the economic and social achievements of Canadian labour.” said the MP. “Those achievements are monumental, even if we take them for granted today. Things like workplace safety, an 8-hour workday, weekends, and workplace pensions were once just a dream. The labour movement made them happen for Canadians.”

“Our work isn’t done yet.” continued Hyer “More and more Canadians are joining the ranks of the working poor, and workers can still see the pensions they’ve paid into their whole lives disappear in a puff of smoke when their company goes under. That’s why people that work need a living wage. That’s why we need to increase the Canada Pension Plan, and that’s why we need to protect pensions during bankruptcies.”

The Thunder Bay Labour Day Picnic & celebrations are open to the public:

Labour Day Picnic

Date: Monday, September 6

Time: 12pm – 4pm

Location: Lakehead Labour Centre, 929 Fort William Road

Some of the contents of the vehicle were strewn in a parking lot off Walkover Street on the city’s north side.

The Thunder Bay Police Service wishes to remind the public that keeping your home and vehicle doors locked is prudent under all circumstances.

The unit was found this morning at George Burke Park, it has been torched.

The cost of theft, vandalism and criminal actions are all passed on to each of us here in the city in higher prices to pay for shoplifters, insurance rates as companies recoup their losses, and in higher prices for other goods.