Hamilton Man Investigated For Possible Hate Crime After Walmart Threats

A Hamilton man is being investigated for a possible hate crime after a video circulated in which he tells another man, "I would kill your children."

The video takes place in the parking lot of a Walmart Supercentre, according to Patryk Laszczuk, who posted it to Facebook and YouTube, and later spoke to media including The Toronto Star. He says the video was sent to him by a co-worker, the man in the video who appears to be threatened, and recorded by the man's wife. The couple does not want to be identified and has declined media interviews.

Broken promises and impotent government hurt Hamilton

OTTAWA

A grim anniversary passed unmarked last week in a once-proud steel town.

It was one year ago that Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel began its shutdown of the blast furnace at the former Stelco in Hamilton, a precursor to its lockout of 900 workers a month later.

One year later, the workers remain on the street and the 2007 U.S. Steel purchase of Stelco remains the neon sign advertising the inadequacies of a toothless and secretive Investment Canada Act.

U.S. Steel is now threatening a permanent shutdown at its Hamilton Works and the federal government, which allowed the takeover, is powerless to do anything about it.

The two sides return to the bargaining table Monday morning, but there appears to have been little movement from either the American company or Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers.

“Having talks is better than not having talks,” says 1005 president Rolf Gerstenberger.

Scorn in Toronto, acclaim in Hamilton

It’s poised to become a battle worthy of a novel.

Literary icon Margaret Atwood has accepted an invitation from Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina to tour the city’s newly renovated central library. The invitation is a tongue-in-cheek jab at the Rob Ford administration’s refusal to take closing libraries off Toronto’s list of potential cost-cutters.

Atwood, a vocal critic of Councillor Doug Ford’s contention that libraries, festival funding and arts grants are fair game for the budget axe, suggested last week that “contempt for creative people” could drive activity to cities like Hamilton.

“No one in Canada could possibly have missed your recent encounter in Toronto,” Bratina writes in his letter to Atwood, a copy of which was obtained by the Star. “It inspired us here in Hamilton to express to you our support for Canadian literature and culture, and our concern that someone of your stature as a Canadian cultural icon would be confronted with even the vaguest notion of obscurity or anonymity.”