After Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor Arthur LeBlanc performs his ceremonial and socially distanced laying on of hands at the Halifax Convention Centre on Tuesday morning — instantly transforming Iain Rankin, the twice-elected MLA for Timberlea-Prospect, into Iain Rankin, the suddenly unelected premier of all he surveys — our 29th premier will get a first chance to...
The Wayne Hankey case
When former King's College professor Wayne Hankey was charged in an historic sexual assault case earlier this month, it raised questions about what happened — and why — after he was accused of similar behaviour 30 years ago.
I can still remember where I was when I heard the news: in the Senior Common Room at the University of King’s College, staring across the quad at the beautiful, new, soon to be opened university library. At the time, which was the spring of 1991, King’s was still small enough that faculty meetings were […]
Is Iain Rankin the voice of ‘the next generation’?
He's young. He offers up progressive platitudes. But can he 'be the change?' We shall see.
My colleague, Jennifer Henderson, summed it up best. “This was perhaps the dullest political leadership convention in Nova Scotia history,” she wrote. “I’ve been to wakes that were more fun.” My wife and I chose to have dinner at a pub instead. All the screens in the pub showed sporting events. No one seemed to...
Save our forests? Not now. We’re too busy destroying them
A lawyer for logging contractors says there's a time and place to discuss concerns about forest harvesting practices. But the courtroom isn't either. Which begs a few questions. What is the time? Where is the place?
A protester in Santa costume at the Nova Scotia forestry blockade. (Facebook) “There is a time and place to debate [the validity of protestors’ concerns about forest harvesting practices], and this courtroom is not it.” Ian Dunbar Lawyer for WestFor Forest Management January 26, 2021 *** If you met Sandra Phinney, the last words that...
Reckoning with racism
Following the death of George Floyd, the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society joined much of the rest of the world in declaring itself against anti-Black racism. But the society now must grapple with its own recent history and what lawyer Laura McCarthy calls the "discrimination dirt still under their rug."
On June 3, 2020, the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society released an unremarkably remarkable statement. It happened 10 days after cellphone cameras captured white police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota gruesomely killing an unarmed Black man named George Floyd by kneeling on his neck. His death had triggered protests in cities across North America and prompted a...
The more things change, the more nothing changes
How is that real estate developers get to do what they want without real consequences? Oh, right. Nothing new to see here, folks.
In mid-April 1999, a Halifax city planner named Gary Porter returned from his vacation to a surprise. He noticed there was now one more storey than the city had approved on an under-construction office building on Brunswick Street. The developer, George Ramia, had been granted a permit to build a 40-foot-high building on the lot...
When is $15 million really $10 million, but actually only $5 million?
Welcome to the world of higher education in which "gift" and "gift commitment" can be parsed so billionaires can claim to give what they haven't, and dictate whatever they want.
On this Makeover Monday, let us pretend — because there will be more than a little smoke-and-mirrors pretend in this column — that it is actually the morning of Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011. On that day, according to Dalhousie News, the official public relations organ of Dalhousie University, this happened: Though it was pouring rain...
Would you buy a used government from one of these guys?
Don't worry. You don't have to choose. Liberal delegates will pick your next premier for you. All you have to do is live with him... for a while.
Welcome to 2021! In addition to figuring out the appropriate trash folder into which to dump all of 2020 (along with last week’s plethora of pleading emails — Last chance to take advantage of 2020 savings… Last chance in 2020 to donate to this worthy cause… First chance to take advantage of 2021 savings… First...
Donald Trump, Stephen McNeil, and democracy in decline
If you want to know just how quickly a flawed but functioning democracy can descend into anti-democratic demagoguery, may I direct your attention south of our border. If you want to know how close to (or far from) that less than ideal we already are in Nova Scotia, may I direct your attention to the proceedings of the Second Session of the 63rd Assembly of our own House of Assembly on Friday, December 18.
If you want to know just how quickly a flawed but functioning democracy can descend into anti-democratic demagoguery, may I direct your attention south of our border. Yes, there. If you want to know — and even if you don’t — how close to (or far from) that less than ideal we already are in […]
Mark Furey isn’t in a conflict, Donald Trump won by a landslide, and other tales from the alternate universe
My questions: Is there a problem with the province’s Conflict of Interest Act? Or with Justice Kennedy’s interpretation of it?
So, let me see if I have this straight. Nova Scotia Justice Minister Mark Furey, a 32-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, had no conflict of interest, real or perceived, while overseeing the provincial government’s response to Canada’s worst modern day mass murder. This is so, despite the reality RCMP actions — and...
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