Wednesday, September 29, 2010

No beds available, go die at home: the McGuinty - Smitherman health plan

Further to Lee Greenberg's Sept.29, 2010 National Post story "McGuinty expands energy tax breaks for seniors" ...

"Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty responded to mounting attacks over rising energy costs yesterday by expanding a tax break for seniors -- a move he said proves the provincial government is listening to public concerns.

The $70-million measure will make the pre-existing tax credit for hydro and property tax costs available to an additional 50,000 seniors. The tax credit is worth up to $1,025 annually based on a senior's income.

"The purpose of today's announcement is to recognize there are some additional challenges being faced by seniors and we owe it to them to have another look at it," the Premier said.

The tax break was applauded by the Canadian Association for Retired Persons, the country's largest seniors' lobby, but jeered by political opponents.

Conservative leader Tim Hudak said he disagrees with the government's method in targeting relief.

"Dalton McGuinty tends to want to pick winners and losers, whether it's corporate grants for multinational corporations like Samsung or particular areas of the population," he said. "I just have a different view. I think people are tired of Dalton McGuinty's social engineering."

Mr. Hudak and New Democrat Party leader Andrea Horwath have in the past months focused on the rising cost of living, spawned in part by the July 1 introduction of the new harmonized sales tax.

Results of a poll released yesterday said 86%of respondents are finding it harder to make ends meet now than two years ago. Nearly as many --81%--said the introduction of HST was the "wrong thing to do."

The Angus Reid Poll, conducted for the Toronto Star, found that 76% of respondents believe it is "time for a change" in government at Queen's Park.

"To be blunt--it's bad," said Jodi Shanoff, senior vice-president of Angus Reid Public Opinion. "But there's a year to go [before the next provincial election]."

Among decided voters, 41% back the Conservative leader Mr. Hudak, while Mr. Mc-Guinty garners 29%support.

The NDP leader stands at 22% while Green party leader Mike Schreiner is in fourth place with 8% support.

The online poll surveyed 805 people during Sept. 21-22 and is considered accurate to within 3.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

Mr. McGuinty acknowledged his recent slide in popularity.

"We've got a lot of work to do, there's no doubt about it," he told reporters yesterday.

"We've got to listen very carefully to Ontarians and what they're telling us."






... it is pathetic to now hear Ontario's Pinocchio Premier Dalton McLiar smugly lying to the press - and to Ontarians - that his Liberals 'have got to listen to Ontarians'!!

What an outrageous deception by this lying Liberal bag of crap - McGuinty's Liberals LIED their way into power in 2003, and have willfully continued to ignore our concerns ever since!!

How can any Ontarian forget when that smug shitbag McGuinty(...as he was campaigning in 2007, trolling for votes in a hospital..!) WALKED AWAY from cancer patient Mike Brady, when Brady raised his concerns with McGuinty (see "You're not helping me, angry cancer patient tells Liberal premier of Ontario").
The Liberal bastard McGuinty wasn't there "to listen" to anybody THEN, and McGuinty's a bald-faced liar when he claims he wants "to listen" to anyone NOW!! That's pure Liberal bullshit.

The Liberal bag of crap George Smitherman, now running for mayor of Toronto (who was McGuinty's health minister at the time McGuinty was "listening" to cancer patients by walking away from them!) was behind some of the greatest tax increases, health care cuts, and financial disasters Ontario has ever seen - and now McGuinty's hand-picked former Liberal deputy premier wants to assault Toronto with the same arrogant Liberal smarm and deception he wrought upon the province. Today it's as if Ole Smitty HAD NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the high energy costs in Ontario!

MPP Jim Bradley, the secretive and unresponsive local Niagara Liberal hack, couldn't give a flying rat's ass about what anyone other than his own Liberal statist partisan buddies had to say. As far as the local press is concerned, it seems that their boy Bradley's the best thing that ever happened in Niagara (!!) while McGuinty (as he did on the first day Queen's Park returned for the fall 2010 session) accuses the Conservatives of a "hidden agenda" !!! [but what about McGuinty's hidden agenda?!] It's FLICKING precious, the spin and the deception pouring out of McGuinty's lying smarmbag mouth.

What did George Smitherman have to do with closing hospital emergency rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne?! Why, as far as the Toronto press cares: NOTHING!!!!
What about the high electricity prices in Ontario - Smitherman HAD NOTHING to do with that green energy fiasco either!!!
All that shit happened somehow ALL ON ITS OWN!!!
(Reminds me of Irene Boyle's ridiculous assertion in her classic letter "Bradley isn't to blame"! Yep - just erase Bradley's name and replace it with any other Liberal hack in any other Liberal riding: NONE of them are to ever blame - for ANYTHING!!! It's a freakin' miracle!!)

George Smitherman apparently hahaha NEVER underfunded the Niagara Health System, and, never claimed that the NHS was in a spending 'free for all', forcing them to balance their budget - to meet Smitherman's own health care cuts!!! (see here)
Smitherman hahahahah HAD NOTHING to do with long wait times and delayed and cancelled surgeries, (see here)

Furthermore, Smitherman had NOTHING to do with creating the LHINs, which forced the NHS to cut spending while reducing its budget - leading to the Kitts HIP cuts and then to the emergency room closures!! (see here)

Furthermore, Smitherman - hahahahahahahahhhhh - NEVER deceived his Liberal buddy, Port Colborne mayor Vance Badawey, about keeping that city's hospital open!!
Why, all that the Toronto press had to do was call up Badawey...
(...a former McGuinty Liberal provincial candidate; and yet - despite knowing his Liberals destroyed health-care - in Oct.2015, Badawey still disgustingly ran as a Turdo Liberal hack in the federal election..!)
... and ask Ole Badaewy to comment on the Welland Tribune's Aug. 30, 2007 story “Prognosis good for Port hospital: Mayor Vance Badawey meets with health minister George Smitherman in Welland” (see here).
We all know (...well, except for Liberal Torontonians...) how that ended up...
[... Georgie did what?? oh, so what... that was a long time ago, and that was out in the country somewhere, who cares about Fort Colborne or Port Erie or whatever it is these places call themselves... Georgie's all growded up now, out of his party drug phase, and got hisself hitched-up all proper-like, ordering a new baby an' all - Georgie ain't furious... at most, well, he's just spurious... Georgie's lies are all behind him now...]

It's clear the St.Catharines Standard won't bother to bring it up, but why doesn't the great leftist Toronto Star bother to ask Liberal Badawey about his Liberal buddy Smitherman's bald-faced lies?! Cuz it might make Smitty look bad, like a Liberal health-care hypocrite? 'Smitherman cuts: GOOD!!! Harris cuts: BAAAAD!! Paul Martin's Liberal health-transfer cuts: Good!! Greg Sorbara's Liberal health care cuts: GOOD!! Harris: BAAAAD. Rob Ford: baaad...' blablabla...!

Smitherman's goal - as set out by Liberal finance minister Greg Sorbara in McGuinty's May 18, 2004 budget - was TO CUT health care spending... while blaming Harris!! Liberal hacks such as Badawey and Kathleen Wynne were happier than pigs in sh!t to support McGuinty!
Apart from meaningless platitudes and typical Liberal asshole rhetoric, Smitherman and his Liberals had no intention of keeping Port Colborne's ER open!! Doesn't Smitherman's record of duplicity have any bearing on his current attempt to bullshit Torontonians into how 'good' ole Smitty was as a lying McGuinty Liberal operative?!!

Smitherman - while proudly wearing diapers to show us how much - how really, really much he ahem cared - did nothing with McGuinty to alleviate Niagara 's hospital bed shortage: remember McGuinty proudly telling us sheep that funding new hospital beds was 'NOT in the cards' for Niagara!?
And as for 'why'? Well, don't you dare ask: IT'S BECAUSE McGUINTY'S LIBERAL MONOPOLIST SCUMBAGS SAID SO! That's why!! You have NO CHOICE in the matter!!

Isn't it NICE to see such a dismissive, smug attitude from McGuinty's Liberals?!
And yes, don't forget: Good Ole Honourable Shitbag Liberal MPP Jim Bradley was Ontario senior's minister during the time!! 'Beds?? For the increasing seniors' population? Whhaaaatt?! We don't need any stinkin' beds...' eh, Jimmy?!
What an utter disgusting Liberal farce!

Keep in mind: THESE ARE THE SAME ELITIST LIBERALS WHO ENFORCE A GOVERNMENT-RUN SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH MONOPOLY, and, WHO CUT AND UNDERFUND THAT MONOPOLY, IN WHATEVER WAY THEY WANT - SOLELY BASED UPON THEIR OWN WHIMS; SOLELY BASED UPON THEIR OWN IDEOLOGICALLY-BASED FIAT!! THIS IS CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR.

Ontario patients are HOSTAGES to McGuinty's Liberal health care despotism. And yet now, Ontario's Great Lying McGuinty wants us to believe that he oh-so-much wants to LISTEN to Ontarians??!!

Un-freakin'-believable!!
McGuinty has lied so often that NOTHING he says can be trusted: and remember, Smitherman was Dalton's trusted right-hand-man. The stench is one and the same.

In light of the above, look at Terry Mihaychuk's Sept.27, 2010 letter in the St.Catharines Standard, "Put the care back in health care":

"It's not the fact that my mom had to die. At the ripe old age of 90, you would expect, or maybe wish, to die if you're not well. We get that!

It's the worry, the frustration, the anger and the indignities in the months, weeks, days and hours leading up to her death that are at issue.

When we saw she wasn't feeling well, we got right on it, turning to all the people one would think you could turn to for help: Family doctor, hospitals, walk-in clinics and the Internet. It took months to finally get a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer with possibly a month to live. We were told mom would be moved to palliative care.

That's when the horror began. After assuring them we would like our mother to die in palliative care so that we could be with her, they were very sorry to say no beds were available in Niagara. They wanted to know if we could bring her home to die ... and they could get us help, maybe, possibly, if it's available.

You had better start making plans and arrangements now for your parents and loved ones to die at home. You don't want them to be stuck in our current health-care system with only five nurses doing the work of 15. Patient care just doesn't seem to be a priority.

It's a throw away society. Why not start with the elderly?

To the business people, bureaucrats and politicians who are trying to run our health-care system, shame on you all! Step away! Stay behind closed doors or better yet take a walk through your halls and see how the system has deteriorated, both care wise and cleanliness wise. Take a look at your future. Please place enough staff and health-care providers to take care of our loved ones. Put the care back in health care."










'No beds available... go die at home': that is what Ontario's despot, Dalton 'No beds for you' McGuinty, planned all along!

Will anyone in Toronto bother to look into GEORGE SMITHERMAN'S SHAMEFUL FIVE-YEAR ROLE as Ontario's Liberal health minister while the system deteriorated under his - and McGuinty's, and Kim Craitor's, and Jim Bradley's - ideologically-based, single-payer, monopoly-pushing noses? (see here for starters...)

Will anyone DARE ask St.Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley to comment on the above letter? Bradley remains strangely silent - a typical reaction from this clown, who can't (or more likely, doesn't care to) understand the harm his own Liberal policies are causing Ontario's patients.
Bradley's inability to reconcile his Liberal incompetency with stories (...Liberals like to dismissively call them "anecdotes"...) such as Mihaychuk's, are not new: see Bradley do nothing in similar circumstances here, pg.74 , here, here, here, here, here.
Can Bradley possibly blame it all on Harris?!? (We know the St.Catharines Standard is apparently obligated not to ask Jimmy embarrassing questions, only nice ones, like in that Grant Lafleche joke of a non-story "Hospital construction hits another milestone" on Sept.25, 2010, another AttaBoyJimmyWooHoo piece of ass kissing.)

"Put the care back into health care" - or better yet, GET THE FLICK OUT OF THE WAY with your statist Liberal monopolism, and let patients have a choice NOT to be subject to incompetent Liberal-run health-care monopolism.

Remember: Liberal asshole Jim Bradley - yes, the same scumbag who in May 2010 cried poor about funding healthcare, who insisted with a straight face that "the government budget has its limits" - then turned around and pulled $26 million out of his ideological ass to give to the arts center in St.Catharines!!

Talk about Liberal priorities for social (not to mention political) engineering; talk about blatantly choosing winners and losers: Beds for dying seniors... who the hell needs to spend money on that... eh, Jim? 'Oh, look: I just found 26 million dollars in my budget-limited pants! Here ya go, Arts Centre!!' What a shameful monopolist scumbag. Picking 'winners and losers' and practising social-engineering is what Bradley and his elitist Liberals are all about.

McGuinty's Liberals should not 'stay behind closed doors', blithely ignoring how their monopolist-pushing political ideology has destroyed Ontario health care: McGuinty's Liberals SHOULD BE BEHIND BARS for what they've done!!!

McGuinty's sudden pretension that he now wants 'to listen' does NOT absolve his Liberals from what they - along with disgusting Toronto mayoral candidate George Smitherman - have done.
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St.Catharines Standard STILL protecting Liberal Jim Bradley

The St.Catharines Standard's Sept.29, 2010 editorial was "This problem has festered in Niagara for too long":

"It's not a new issue in Niagara to have paramedics tied up at local hospitals because there are no beds available for their patients.

Which makes it all the more frustrating is that this problem is getting worse.

Niagara Emergency Medical Services is projecting a nearly 70% jump in so-called off-load delays this year over last. It isn't unusual for an ambulance to sit at a hospital for more than four hours -- and sometimes as long as eight hours -- before the paramedics can release their patient to the care of the Niagara Health System.
And as long as the ambulance is stuck at the hospital, it isn't on standby to respond to other emergencies.

Quite simply, that is unacceptable.

The NHS and EMS have tried different strategies in an effort to shorten the wait, but an increasing patient load and a severe shortage of long-term care beds and community health-care supports have all but negated the addition of extra nurses and attempts to make patients aware of urgent care centres.

But in the final analysis, these measures are little more than Band-Aids.

While the NHS can improve discharge times and get test results from the lab in a more timely fashion, the problem won't be resolved until there is a real and substantive provincial investment in long-term and community care in Niagara.

And that responsibility lies with the province.

On any given day, the NHS could have 120 to 130 inpatient beds occupied by patients who should be in a long-term care home or receiving home care. That, in turn, creates a situation in the emergency departments where patients are designated as admit-no bed, meaning they require a hospital stay but there are no beds available for them.

With these ER beds full, it follows that there is no room for patients coming into the hospital by ambulance, requiring paramedics to stay with their patients until an ER bed opens up.
Free up those inpatient beds by opening more long-term care bed spaces, and the patients will flow through the ER in a more timely fashion, thereby allowing paramedics to release their patients sooner.

To blame this on the controversial Hospital Improvement Plan is disingenuous. Prior to the HIP's implementation, the most serious ER patients -- those who would require an inpatient bed -- were already being diverted to Niagara Falls, Welland or St. Catharines.

The regression is an indication of an older, sicker population -- and of a province that has allowed a serious problem to fester for too long."


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First off, one "problem that has festered in Niagara for too long" is the St.Catharines Standard's strange, frustrating reluctance to unpucker their political lips from local Liberal MPP Jim Bradley's butt, and stop giving Bradley his thirty-year-long free ride.

Typically for the St.Catharines Standard, Jim Bradley - whose Liberal policies ARE the problem - WASN'T EVEN MENTIONED! There was NO MENTION in this editorial of Dalton McGuinty's Liberal majority Ontario government!!! Nope - just some nebulous ole folks over at 'the province' are to blame! Unreal.

No mention in this editorial was made of any relevant comments or actions on this issue from Niagara's local governing MPP's. Think the Standard's penchant for not mentioning Liberals or their favourite horse BestBoyJim (unless it's in a favourable light) is new?!! [See Grant Lafleche's Apr.18, 2009 story about the wait time for St.Catharines emergency room patients being nearly 23 HOURS - and yet, the local Liberal health-care-monopoly pusher, Jim Bradley, wasn't even mentioned! See Grant Lafleche's Sept.10, 2009 story 'Code Gridlock' in effect at area ER's where no Liberals were dare mentioned!!]

A year later, no response was provided from Bradley to editorial writer Kalvin Reid's Sept.29, 2010 concerns. Why not? Was Bradley asked by the Standard for a comment, for a response? Will Bradley be asked to respond?! For that matter, does Jim Bradley have anything at all to do with all these supposed health-care issues and pseudo-solutions that Reid keeps on blabbing about?! Does Jim Bradley - or someone else - bear ANY responsibility for anything that this editorial speaks of?!

Standard readers haven't been told what Bradley's reaction was to the Kitts HIP report - and that was from Oct.2008!! Did Bradley at that time note that the Kitts HIP would lead to what the Standard now calls 'disingenuous blame' about the current off-load problems throughout the NHS?! It would be nice to know - now - wouldn't it... seeing as Bradley made no objections about the HIP - and Bradley also did nothing to alleviate the delays and diversions BEFORE the HIP!! Talk about the St.Catharines Standard's own Bradley-friendly editorial disingenuousness!

The HIP cuts led to the two Niagara ER closures, which increased an already problematic wait time/ bed availability issue in the rest of the NHS, and, downloaded costs onto the local municipalities.

Strangely also, Reid didn't mention Toronto mayoralty candidate George Smitherman's role in this ongoing fiasco; I mean, what did GeorgieBoy have to do with any of this, right!?

Incompetent Liberal health minister Smitherman had nothing at all to do with the creation of the LHIN's, or the subsequent health care cuts and underfunding, bed shortages, wait time increases, and forced closure of two Niagara hospital emergency rooms!

It was just some guy from 'the province' who did that.

Standard readers don't have Bradley's reaction to the Standard's own story "More hospital beds 'not in the cards': premier" - and that was from Sept.30, 2006!! Did Bradley object back in 2006 when Niagara was told by McGuinty to screw off when it came to more hospital beds?! [answer: NO!]

Did the Standard find out about this 'older, sicker population' just NOW? Bradley's Liberals have done little on this issue for years - McGuinty as much as told Niagara to FLICK OFF when it came to more hospital beds - and THAT was four years ago!!

What's Bradley done since?!

Well, we don't know - the Standard's editorial can't quite decide whether ANY LIBERALS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This talk about health-care and "band-aids" in the Standard's editorials isn't new either, see here. Back on Dec.4, 2007, the Standard ran another biased health care editorial, "Symptoms of a broken-health care system", telling us in Niagara "We have to stop with the shortsighted Band-Aid approach and rethink how health care in Ontario is delivered" - and then immediately afterward assuring us "And no, this isn't a call for the privatization of our health-care system."

Really, the short-sighted St.Catharines Standard is almost as much of a problem in all this as Bradley is. The Standard editorialized in 2007 that the "status quo isn't working. It's time for a new approach" - yet, three years later, the Standard still bleats on about the 'unacceptable problems' of health care (which are not just in Niagara, but province-wide, by the way) while ignoring that it is the adherence to the Liberal's single-payer monopolist status-quo which IS THE PROBLEM.

The Standard's editorialists seem to be running out of "new approaches" that aren't just disguised versions of the same-old failed socialist approaches.
The Liberalism embodied by Jim Bradley IS the problem. But the Standard can't bring itself in 2010 - as it couldn't in 2007 - to acknowledge it. Apparently, Jim Bradley is the Standard's sacrosanct deity. Since the 2007 editorial, Bradley's scumbag Liberals have cut more health care and closed two emergency rooms, yet the Standard continues the old-status-quo charade, pretending that Jim Bradley's Liberal ideological health care monopolism is the cure, and not the disease.
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More Liberal stink from Iggy

Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy's idiotic quest to attract army deserters to Canada is naturally - and disgustingly - being supported by Ignatieff.
Good editorial on this from the Sept.29, 2010 Post, "The last culture war".
Yet another reason never to vote for a Liberal.

Monday, September 27, 2010

VIRSKY Ukrainian National Dance Company's Canada Tour 2010

Get your Virsky tickets if you haven't yet done so: this incredible Ukrainian dance company is touring Canada, starting in Vancouver on Oct.7, 2010 then heading westward - through some twenty cities in less than a month - before their final show in Ottawa on Nov.2, 2010.
above: The Virsky Dance Company's scheduled 2010 Canadian performance tour dates and venue contact phone numbers.
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Also, read Janet Smith's Oct.5, 2010 story "Appeal of Ukraine's Virsky dance troupe transcends ethnic pride".
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See also The Ukrainian Weekly's interesting article on the history of the Virsky troupe, from back on Apr.12, 1998.
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Jim Bradley: Mr.Smoke and Mirrors

After reading Adam Radwanski's Sept.22, 2010 story in the Globe and Mail G20 probe is more smoke and mirrors from the Liberals, why does it come as no surprise that the Liberal shitbag spinning this whole mirage is none other than Niagara's own Liberal shitbag, Jim Bradley?!
Jimmy knows how to spin, lie, and hide. Creating a carefully crafted, limited scope "investigation" that looks like an investigation, but really isn't, is a McGuinty Liberal's wet dream, perfect for Jimmy.
The Globe's Radwanski takes the time to parse out the details of Bradley's fake investigation; the people in Bradley's own riding would NEVER, EVER get that kind of detail about Jimmy's smoke-and-mirror dalliances from his fanclub at the St.Catharines Standard.
Having Liberal Jim Bradley set the terms of this investigation is a massive joke, beyond sickening: IT IS JIM BRADLEY AND HIS LIBERALS who should be under investigation in a PUBLIC INQUIRY, if not a CRIMINAL TRIAL.
When did Jim Bradley know about this secret law, and what did HE do about it?! Do you think anyone at the St.Catharines Standard will bother to ask Jim?!
Now if only someone could look into detailing how McGuinty Liberals such as Jim Bradley and George Smitherman managed to help close down two emergency rooms in Niagara - while blaming it all on Harris? Playing politics with health-care - maybe that would put the corrections minister behind bars.
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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Brantford demolition continues - last building along Colborne St. stretch torn down today

The last building of Brantford's Colborne St. demolition project was torn down today.
The remaining front portions of #151 Colborne St. (the old James Smith building, built ca. 1867) and of the Laracy building to its west, were finally knocked down, bringing to an end this stage of the project: these were the last two buildings of the scheduled demolition which faced onto Colborne St.
At the rear (down the slope along Water St., east of the Stanbridge Walkway) there are still several remaining chunks of large foundations left to be broken apart, piles of metal and wood debris to be sorted, and grading to be done along the slope where all these buildings had stood.
Meanwhile, west of the walkway, much of the slope grading has been done; just the old maintenance building at the far west dead-end of Water St. is still standing as of today - but, the major demolition has come to an end along Colborne St.
Below: Sept.21, 2010 - only some of the lower west-side plaster walls and lower east and west brick walls of #151 Colborne St. remained after noon.
below: the Laracy building stood where the worker with the sprayhose is standing; the remnants of the Smith building are at the left, with part of its west and east brick walls partially standing, and some wood lath still standing at its west (right) wall.

above: same view, several hours later - the Smith building's east-side walls were demolished just after 4 pm, thereby unofficially marking the end of the Colborne St.-side of the demolition, which had begun at #35 Colborne St., back on Jun.8, 2010, (see here, here). By 4pm, as I watched the last wall get knocked down, there was no one else around on the street to see the end...
above: a view from the rear of the west-side interior plaster lath walls of the Smith building.
below: a part of the Right House foundation wall remains along Water St. (at the bottom of the slope) while uphill the orange excavator works on the Right House site; the yellow excavator at the upper right continues its demolition of the Laracy site and the Smith building.

above: a closer view of a boarded up window in the east-wall of #151's basement, seen previously above in the center-right of the photo (look to the right of the yellow excavator's bucket).
above: looking westward along Water St.; the lower portion of #151 Colborne St.'s east wall is still seen standing, at the top right.
above: a closer final look at the remaining portion of the east-side wall of #151 Colborne St., just before it was torn down at 4pm.
above: view of the debris along Water St. - at the bottom is the sliding steel door seen earlier, which had once been an access way into the Right House from #139-141 Colborne St.
above: looking at the east side of the Stanbridge Walkway (its green frame is seen at the upper left) - a BIG pile of scrap steel lays on the slope, across the street from the Steel Building (the brown brick building seen at the upper right)!
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below: Video by R.Bobak taken Sept.21, 2010 at 4pm, showing the final demolition of #151 Colborne St.
Note the stealthy appearance of an intrepid raccoon, who, despite the noise and danger, was intent on getting into the demolished remains of the Right House's foundation.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Brantford demolition continues

On Sept.17, 2010, the demolition focused on the rear portions of the Laracy and the Smith buildings.
Below: the orange excavator is working on the Laracy building; the Smith building is at the right, with the yellow wall at the top - this was the second floor of the Smith building, its top (third) floor having been demolished by hand earlier, since it was so close to the Laurier (formerly Holstein) office building next door at the far right.
At the bottom is the remnant of the Water St. facade of the rear of the Right House building. Note that at the center left, a part of the Right House's elevator shaft is still standing.
above: a closer view of the Right House elevator doors; these were on the main floor, at the Colborne St. grade-level.
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below: the elevator shaft, part of the Right House, is at the left; in the center, the orange excavator is just about to start demolishing the Laracy building; the partially-demolished Smith building is at the right.

above: the Laracy building has been knocked further in. Note the slanted outline of the old roof line on the Smith building's west-side wall, at the center-right. The elevator shaft is still there at the left.
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below: the Right House elevator shaft is gone.

above: view of the site at the end of the day, Sept.17, 2010. The rear of the Smith building has had more removed since the previous photo. Also at the upper center-left, at the west-side of the Laracy building's rear, was a steep stairway (which led from the main floor to the second-floor) and an odd slant-roofed bay, seen closer below:
above: the blue wall at the bottom right is on the Smith building's main-floor level.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Brantford demolition continues

On Sept.16, 2010, the demolition focused on the rear of the James Smith building at #151 Colborne St.
Below is the view from the walkway mid-day, where the excavator is reaching into the Smith building.
above: at the center bottom left is the remnant of the Right House's Water St.-level rear foundation wall; its two remaining upper floors were demolished yesterday, on Sept.15, 2010.
The lower part of the Right House's elevator shaft can still be seen at the center-left; and the rear of the Laracy building is still seen just to the right of the elevator shaft, tucked in the center. Note the trees growing behind the Laracy building. above: The Smith building still has a part of its brick wall left over the garage door at the bottom.
above: more is removed from the Smith building, this is just before the floors collapsed, causing a part of the east wall, at the center upper right, to fall towards the Laurier building's stairs.
above: workers examine the stability of the remaining wall, shortly after the earlier collapse.
above: the green tongue and groove wooden wall had been at the second floor level as the dividing wall between the green and purple-coloured walls.
The yellow excavator was brought in to stabilize the east-side brick wall, after the earlier portion fell over into the walkway area at the right. The yellow machine's bucket arm was placed on the outside part of the brick wall as the other machine continued to work inside
above: end of the day, Sept.16, 2010; more of the second floor of the Smith building is gone., revealing a blue and yellow paint job in the interior rooms. Note the trees, which had been growing behind the Laracy building, are now laying tipped onto the Laracy building after having been knocked down as the excavator was working on part of the Smith building.
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below: video taken by R.Bobak on Sept.16, 2010, showing the demolition of the rear portion of the James Smith building at #151 Colborne St., when part of the first and second floors collapsed, sending a large chunk of the Smith building's east-side rear brick wall into the walkway between it and the Laurier building.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Brantford demolition continues

Further to my previous post, on Sept.14, 2010, the demolition was focused at the west-side wall of the Right House. above: looking westward at the rear of the demolition site; the Right House's top floor has been knocked down.
above: a view of the Right House from the west, with the plaster and lath of a part of the top floor still standing, against the backdrop of the Laurier building in the distance.
above: a view of the Right House with its upper left (west-side) brick walls still standing above the level where the letters '4S' are.
above: the excavator arm stretches up to continue demolishing what had been the top floor of the structure. Note the sliding steel passage door at the bottom left.
above: the third-floor west wall, seen previously above, has been knocked down
above: the view after the brick rear-wall of the third-level collapsed. Note the steel beams were still standing after the wall fell.
above: note the steel beams running front-to-back at the top.
above: now, the remnants of the top floor have fallen onto the second floor, and both are now laying on what had been the Colborne-street-level main floor of the Right House. Now also, the second-level west-side rear window is gone.
above: closer view of the Right House, now sitting at a two-storey level.
above: the excavator hauls out one of many steel beams from the Right House interior; many had the words "Hamilton Bridge Works" stencilled on them.
above: one of the steel beams had "C1 - 2Y705" painted on it.
above: the beams also had the words "Jones & Laughlin" embossed right in the steel.
above: looking into level two (as seen from the rear, from Water St.) of the Right House. [This would be the floor below the main floor, as seen from Colborne St. Confused yet?! The way I saw it, when from the rear, the Right House had four levels, the third level in this case being the same level as the MAIN level if seen from the front]
above: luggage sale prices written on the Right House wall
above: the door which once led from #139-141 to the Right House is at the far left, yet on the Right House side, it faces a stairwell! When were these passageways used, and when were they sealed up? The bottom of this stair is on the second-level above Water St., the top of the stair would have been the main floor.
above: closer view of what is probably a wooden beam with some fancy tension rods, located on the second-level-as-seen-from-Water St. Note also the intricate decorative patterns on the old fluorescent tube lighting fixtures.
above: Sept.14, 2010, worker closes up the fence at the end of the day. The Right House building has been knocked down to two-storeys.
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below: Video by R.Bobak of the demolition of the rear west-side wall of the Right House, Sept.14, 2010. Note that when the rear portion of the third storey brick wall fell, some bricks flew past the fence line and onto the road, which was open to passing cars and pedestrians.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Brantford demolition continues

Further to my previous post - on Sept.13, 2010, the demolition was focused on the rear portions of the James Smith building (#151 Colborne St.) and the Laracy Tax building (#149 Colborne St.) which are at the right in the below photo, where the orange excavator is; except for a bit of the garage behind #149, the buildings can't be seen from here, as the massive Right House building stands in front.
above: closer view of the steel doors, seen at the upper left - one is a sliding door, the other a walk-through door, which at one time led from #139-141 Colborne into the Right House.
Note that one floor below the sliding door, there was a door at the left which was bricked-over on the Right House side, and, there was another door bricked-over where the yellow-painted wall now is.
Note also that above the sliding door there seems to have been another access into the Right House, as seen by the square bricked-over outline in the wall. This level is the street-level floor of the Right House, when seen from Colborne St.
At the right is the remnant of the elevator shaft of #139-141.
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below: looking at the rear of the James Smith building (at the right) where the rear garage was just torn down; the other part of the garage is still standing, at the rear of the Laracy Tax property. Note that there was an interior door connecting these two additions.

above: same view, several minutes later - the other side of the garage, behind the Laracy property, has now been demolished. The Right House stands at the left.
above: looking into the gap between the Right House (at the left) and the James Smith building (at the right), where the garage had been at the bottom, and where the Laracy Tax building sits up in the distance, facing Colborne St.
The Laracy building was two-stories tall when seen from Colborne St., but at the rear, the basement level actually faced outside, being two-stories above Water St! (The levels are marked as 2, Main, and Basement, on the photo - click on any photo to enlarge.)
That garage at the rear-street-level of the Laracy property went in about tweny feet or so, but above that garage's flat roof there was still some sloping soil with trees growing there, on the level where the Laracy basement was.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Brantford demolition continues

below: Sept.10, 2010, looking at the former Right House building at #143-147 Colborne St., which was erected ca. 1870.
The front portion of the structure was torn down on Sept.9, 2010, when the excavator tackled the Right House building from the front, from Colborne St., reaching inwards as far as the arm could extend, which is just past where the pink-painted wall was revealed.
In the below photo, the mid-portion (with the elevator room seen at the top) is now under demolition, and the rear portion (at the center-right, fronting onto Water St.) is still standing.
The next building seen still standing in the left distance is #149 Colborne, the former Laracy Tax building, built ca.1876; and then behind it is #151 Colborne St., the ca.1867-built former James Smith building.
above: looking at the James Smith building at the left; and, the Laracy Tax building at the right.
The Right House stood next to the Laracy Tax building.
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below: Sept.10, 2010 - same view as above, from a little farther back, looking westward along the south-side of Colborne St., where all the storefronts had stood running into the distance, all the way to Brant Ave. The James Smith building, with its third-storey demolished, is at the far left.

above: Feb.24, 2010 - this is the same view as above, with the buildings still visible all the way to Brant Ave. The James Smith building is at the far left, with Laracy Tax next, and the looming Right House next.
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below: Sept.10, 2010 - looking from across the street, from Harmony Square, at the site where the Right House stood; the Laracy Tax building is seen at the left

above: Feb.24, 2010 - same view as above.
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below: a 1927 view of the Right House's predecessor, the Ogilvie-Lochead store.
below: Sept.10, 2010 - looking at the demolition site from the walkway

above: same view, later in the day, note now the elevator room has been demolished, as well as a large portion of the middle-part of the Right House has been cleared out.
The multi-coloured painted wall seen at the bottom was the interior east-side-wall of the rear portion of #139-141 Colborne St. Note the brown-painted panels on the third-level are actually sliding doors which led from #139-141 into the Right House's rear.
above: Sept.10, 2010 - the end of the demolition is in sight.
Looking eastward from the walkway, after the elevator shaft of the Right House came falling down, it revealed the sight of the lower floors of the office building east of the James Smith building, signalling the end of the line for this demolition project.
In the center-right distance was where the elevator shaft stood, now the office building's lower windows are seen through the walls of the Right House - at the near-right, are the Right House's west-walls; and, at the center-left, the green-painted wall is part of the Right House's ground-floor east-wall, as well as the bit of yellow-wall seen higher up at the left, which was part of the Right House's second floor.
The dark brick wall seen in the very center distance is the west-side-wall of the James Smith building, with a chunk of it demolished at the rear (to the right).
The two-storey Laracy Tax building is between these two buildings, but its walls can't be seen from here, for it wasn't as deep as its neighbours.
above: Sept.10, 2010 - looking westward at the demolition site, from Water St. - the rear of the James Smith building is at the right, next, where the gap is, is the rear portion of the lot where the Laracy Tax building is, farther up on Colborne St.
Note the rear of the James Smith building has a red-brick garage fronting onto Water St., and that this garage structure extends over the rear of the neighbouring Laracy Tax property.
At the left is the rear portion of the Right House building.
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below: Sept.10, 2010 video by R.Bobak of the Right House elevator room demolition and east-side wall collapse. Some bricks went flying beyond the fence-line on this one, lucky no-one was walking there.