The City of Windsor employs 500 sworn officers and approximately 150 staff. Yet the most pressing need for our region’s safety and well-being are not those kind of inspectors. We need inspectors who are able to inspect farms in person. The federal government has conducted mostly remote inspections of Ontario farms that employ migrant workers during […]
Category archives: City
Taking Suggestions Instead of Making Change
Despite the fact that the post curiously doesn’t use the words #blacklivesmatter, I like the text that introduces the Windsor Black Lives Matter Questionnaire from the Mayor’s Facebook post. I also appreciate the fact that it tells us that the questionnaire closes July 10th. I do not like the wording of the introduction from the […]
Law and order vs. Justice and peace
I don’t know whether it is possible to understand the protests of the current moment as a single, country-wide, thing. We know that there are those protesting police brutality, those who are inciting violence to incite more police brutality, those there to loot, and there are those who are just there because they have had […]
Living in a city with no ambition
From this morning’s installment of newsletters in my mailbox, I read a short essay from 2008 called Cities and Ambition that brought up some uncomfortable emotions for me. The premise of the essay is that a great city sends a message of ambition to its residents and this message matters greatly. Now we could take […]
The stories that I would like to see reported on in our community
Today is Day 8 of self-isolation for myself and my family. More than ever, I rely on local journalism to keep me informed about what is happening in my community. Now, I recognize that journalism – like everything else – is under the strain of the presence of COVID19 (and I know it was in […]
No Ring Please
In September of last year, not long after I had shared my concerns that new police cameras could be used with facial recognition software, mayor Drew Dilkens told AM800 that he was in talks with Amazon to make Windsor the first city in Canada to have their police department connect to their Neighbors App which […]
Why have the floodplain maps of Essex Country not been updated since the 1970s?
Over the Winter Break, I found myself with delicious stretches of time in which I had nothing that I had to do. I played board games with my family. I read books. I also carved out a little bit of time to do some civic engagement. From the Detroit River Cleanup The Current newsletter, I […]
Addendum: What is the percentage representation of women on Windsor City Council & ABCs
For many years when I walked into a room I instantly counted the women. It told me a lot about what to expect from that room. One day, having lost my best friend over racial politics out of my control, I began to count people of color. That too was for safety, for understanding how […]
‘We must speak with one voice’ is just another way to say ‘you must be silenced.’
The politics of the City of Windsor is in a dismal state. In Windsor, it is not good enough for the status quo to keeping on winning. Those who voice criticism or exercise their legal right to challenge decisions must be silenced so that the city can speak in a united voice. Those who suggest […]
Teardown politics at Windsor City Council
I don’t watch the basketball but I am so happy to see so many Raptor fans so happy that they are in the NBA Finals. I was born in Toronto. Raptors fans look like Toronto. I am so delighted that Young Canada is embracing basketball. (When it comes to hockey, I’m that girl in The […]