The Aerotropolis has attracted widespread opposition in this city, and for good reason. But there is another related project in the works that is literally thousands of times the size of the short-sighted Aerotropolis: the Mid-Peninsula Highway, or the Mid-Pen.

The Mid-Pen is a proposed massive highway linking the Niagara Region to the Greater Toronto Area through the south of Hamilton. It was originally proposed by the Mike Harris government in 2002 and it recently surfaced again.

Political protest is not a new occurrence in places like Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and the other states of the Arab League.  Neither are the issues raised new to these most recent protests.  Rising food costs, political corruption, unemployment, human rights violations, lack of sovereignty, and submission to foreign influence have all been the focus of past demonstrations in the region.

It is hard to not feel the contagious spirit of revolution, especially when we witness the recent struggles of oppressed people that began in Tunisia and Egypt and have since spread throughout the region.
As we see this spirit spread through North Africa and the Middle East it is hard not to wonder what this could mean for us living in Canada.

A couple of weeks ago a lot of people in Hamilton lost a friend. Call me sentimental, but I don’t know what else to call The Movie Palace. It was a theatre, but it was not just a theatre any more than a family farm is just a piece of land. In the interest of showing what we’ve lost I’d like to talk a little bit about what The Movie Palace meant to me.

BY KNOWING THE LAND IS RESISTANCE

Cootes Paradise is often described as the most valuable wild space in the Hamilton area, while nearby disturbed sites are widely dismissed as valueless. But what other forces have acted on Cootes and the surrounding area, and how does the land’s past relate to ideas of value?

Overnight, snow has covered the land. Since there are so many fun things to do in the winter that are harder to do other times, we set off towards the frozen marshes of Cootes Paradise.

With the support and participation of high schools, community groups, and residents across the city, Environment Hamilton’s Good Neighbour Campaign (GNC) has introduced a new pollution study focused on monitoring two forms of tree lichen.