The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Since COVID-19 arrived in Canada, Mary’s phone has become a source of dread. When it doesn’t ring, she’s on edge, thinking the worst for her elderly father. But when she does get a call, she fears it’ll be the one where someone from Joyceville Institution […]
Bridging the digital divide: “I know more than 100 people who don’t have a phone”
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Even at the best of times, Canada’s so-called ‘digital divide’ prevents millions of people from easily accessing the information they seek. But amid the situation created by COVID-19, advocates and service providers in Halifax say those without access to internet and phone services have lost […]
Crowded beaches underscore the lack of coastal access
When the pandemic is over, and Nova Scotians can once again go to the beach, do they want to do so in a way that repeats the scenes of mid-March — with the majority crowding together at a handful of public sites — while private landowners dictate access everywhere else?
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. As COVID-19 forces people to re-consider basic aspects of their lives — work, school, the role of government — there’s a question particular to Nova Scotia to contemplate: How easily, in a coastal province, we can actually access the ocean? Two weeks ago, as normal […]
Refugees caught in health care Catch 22
If you’re on income assistance in Nova Scotia, you’re eligible for pharmacare – unless, that is, you’re a refugee claimant. The Department of Community Services’ Employment Support and Income Assistance policy contains misleading information on medical expenses for refugees, says Gillian Zubizarreta, Settlement Coordinator at the Halifax Refugee Clinic. As a result, she says, Department...
The latest neo-liberal buzzword: Resiliency
How academics at Dalhousie University unwittingly started a movement that punishes people for being poor and says capitalism is the solution to all our problems. How did this gaggle of liberals measure this mental toughness of resilience? One common tool to measure resilience is called the Children and Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-28). The CYRM-28 is a 28-item questionnaire...
Will Nova Scotia take environmental racism seriously?
Indian Brook used to have the best water for miles around, said Dorene Bernard. But no one likes to drink it now. The change came in 2012, when the community’s water table was contaminated by digging at the nearby Nova Scotia Sand and Gravel pit. The community was issued a do-not-drink advisory, and the Department...
International Students Give N.S. Universities a Failing Grade
At the public consultation on universities that took place in the Fall of 2014, international students participating in a consultation session in Halifax were asked whether they would recommend the province’s universities to peers in their home countries. The answer was a resounding ‘no,’ according to students who attended the session. “Many of them said that the amount of...
Mapping the Social Arctic
For most, it’s hard to imagine a harder environment to navigate than the Arctic. 19th century British explorers certainly thought so; British ships trying to find the Northwest Passage were frequently trapped or destroyed by the ice, including Sir John Franklin’s doomed vessel, recently discovered in the waters off King William Island in Nunavut. But what if...
Convoluted Regulations Prevent Students from Accessing Income Assistance
A student in Dalhousie’s Transition Year Programme has had her income assistance cut by the Department of Community Services, prompting the Dalhousie Student Union and community groups to call on the government to revise the Employment Support and Income Assistance Act. Section 67 of the Employment Support and Income Assistance Act states that anyone attending...
Racist Graffiti a Symptom of Systemic Problems at Dalhousie
When Kalkidan Gebre found graffiti on a desk in Dalhousie’s Killam library reading “no n*****s allowed #whitepower”, her first response after taking a picture was to scratch it out. She didn’t want anyone else to stumble across it and experience the same shock she had, and in any case she didn’t think anything would come...
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