Abdoul Abdi’s sister Fatuma once told me that the reason she and Abdoul do not speak Somali is because when they would speak to each other in their language, the workers would put them on time out and isolate them in their rooms, accusing them of plotting together to escape. It was like being in […]
Daddy’s in jail: men in prison talk about the struggles of maintaining a relationship with their children
I feel like a failure. Because I haven’t been able to break the cycle for my kids, which I intended to. C.’s second child was born when he was already behind bars. He struggled to find legal representation, and his case faced setbacks and delays. In the years he has waited for his case to […]
“Losing our fucking minds”
Sean Kelly, the head of the province's jails, says the jails are getting better at following the rules about solitary confinement. But we talked to prisoners, and they say nothing has changed.
This week, the auditor general’s office released a review of “close confinement” practices in Nova Scotia jails. The report found that the rules about segregating prisoners are frequently not being followed and that documentation is not being kept. The findings show that prisoners in segregation are not being given showers or getting the required exercise […]
Abdoul Abdi’s defenders are “piling on,” complain government lawyers who are trying to deport him
I went to court today because arguments were being made in the Abdoul Abdi case about whether the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Justice for Children and Youth would be granted intervenor status. Earlier in the day, the city had apologized for allowing “racism to fester unchallenged at Halifax Transit.” Reading the report, my main […]
I toured the Burnside jail, and then asked prisoners what they thought
On Tuesday morning, I attended the media tour of Burnside jail with Tim. Tim summarized the tour this way: This was a PR exercise on the part of Corrections, and as such things go, was well-run. Corrections staff were informative and answered even the most pointed questions. Reporters did not, however, get the chance to […]
Desmond Cole Reads the Local News
Desmond Cole is in Halifax this weekend, keynoting at the Media and the Law conference. At around midnight on Saturday after a long day, I sat down with Desmond and recorded his take on some of our local news stories. Here are the first two stories we spoke about. Some cuts have been made for […]
Canada’s prisons: despair, hopelessness, and institutional racism
On May 2, four members of the Senate Committee on Human Rights released a statement about the human rights of prisoners in the Atlantic region. The senators visited all the federal penitentiaries in the region. They also visited the East Coast Forensic Centre: Tona, a patient there, described the differences between her 10 years in […]
Evidently, it’s elementary, they want us all gone eventually
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. People keep telling me I look exhausted, and I thought, after the trial, I’ll take some time off. Nas’ song “If I Ruled the World” was repeating in my head. “We’ll walk right up to the sun, hand in hand.” Things seemed to be going well, for once. […]
White-washing the Boer War
In 1901, Lord Alfred Milner was "lamenting" the "fact that the death rate among young children in the [Boer War concentration] camps was still not dropping. 'The theory that, all the weakly children being dead, the rate would fall off is not so far borne out by the facts,' Milner wrote. 'The strong ones must be dying now and they will all be dead by the spring of 1903.'" On October 14, 1901 the cornerstone for the Boer War monument was laid at Province House.
Yesterday, Tim wrote an item about the monument to the Boer War on the grounds of Province House: I don’t care about the parking one way or the other, but can we discuss that damn Boer War monument? [Jean] Laroche goes on to interview Joe Ballard, president of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, who says […]
Reporting While White: When “objectivity” and “neutrality” are inherently biased perspectives
Reading the News While Black: Two recent news stories raise questions about Black representation in the media.
I have never claimed to write “objectively.” That doesn’t mean I write things I believe to be untrue or that are factually wrong, but I am always openly writing from the standpoint of a Black woman. White people, however, believe and are taught that their practices are in fact objective, and that they neutrally present […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
- 17
- Next Page »