“We believe being in 25 communities is a big strength… I believe telling local stories in Gander, and in St. John’s, and in Corner Brook, and Summerside, and Sydney are going to be what supports this network. Not amalgamating. Not putting the same copy in every paper.” Mark Lever, Saltwire CEO Financial Post interview July 17,...
Donald Trump and the border: He stands on guard for he
In the past month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped 21 vessels in the Gulf of Maine “looking for illegal immigrants.” Illegal immigrants? From Canada? Or should that be to Canada?
“Border disputes do not go away; they fester. And when other factors push them back to the surface — the discovery of valuable resources, an assertion of national pride, a mishap at sea — the stakes can suddenly rise to a point where easy solutions become impossible.” — John Kelly Retired US diplomat who served...
Schooling Shawn Cleary on journalism education
Journalism is a generalist’s game. If you have curiosity, a determination to discover the facts, even the ones that don’t match your pre-conceived notions, and a passion for telling stories, there are — and should always be — many ways to learn journalism’s specific, ever evolving skills as well as its ethics and standards. It isn’t about where you learned, but how well you learned.
My Examiner column last week seemed to set off a modest Twitter tempest, mostly because its subject, Coun. Shawn Cleary, chose to respond to what I wrote and didn’t write (even when he didn’t seem to realize I’d written it); and then to respond in scattershot kind to various readers and constituents, who had taken umbrage at...
The contradiction of being Councillor Cleary
Shawn Cleary is the chief flag-waver for the city's most unpopular high-rise proposal — and its developer. But he refuses to accept campaign donations from developers, and is promoting municipal campaign finance reform. He dismisses the significance of the fact the developer's chief lobbyist is a good friend, yet he is spearheading a proposal for a municipal lobbyist registry. Only in Halifax you say...
“We don’t build buildings because of public opinion. We build them for good planning… And so I think this is a good thing for us… In terms of the design, I think we’ve mitigated most of the concerns…” —Councillor Shawn Cleary June 19, 2018 Shawn Cleary’s suitcase of sophistry requires a little unpacking. Councillor Cleary […]
Cannabis will soon be legal. Just don’t smoke it, or grow it, or enjoy it
Partly out of legitimate health and human considerations, and partly out of a desire not to be seen to be blessing the dangerous idea otherwise ordinary people might occasionally enjoy a toke for the pure recreation of it, governments have been busy regulating and restricting everything about the business — as well as the pleasure — before making it legal.
Talk about buzz kill. At its meeting Tuesday, Halifax city councilors will consider a staff report recommending ever more stringent controls around the cultivation and consumption of cannabis to make sure no one gets the notion there is anything remotely recreational or fun — certainly, definitively not fun— in the air because of the looming legalization...
The Yates case: professional self-regulation or plain old self-protection?
In 2015, Pamela Yates began her job as the IWK's head of youth forensic services. Her early performance reviews — and results — were positive. So why was she "terminated effective immediately” just eight months later?
Start with this: a July 11, 2017, CBC news story entitled “Lack of Psychologists Delays Youth Sentencing More than 6 Months.” The story quoted Brandon Rolle, the managing lawyer at the youth office for Nova Scotia Legal Aid who pointed out that the IWK Health Centre was taking six to 13 months to complete court-ordered...
Ask no questions, get no answers… Mission accomplished
MLA Gordon Wilson and the Gormless Gang of the Fang-less Five Liberal members of the Public Accounts committee would rather play reliable cheerleader for Premier Stephen McNeil than do their job.
HOUSTON: The motion is that the Public Accounts Committee meet on June 13th, June 20th, and June 27thto address these three topics of the Auditor General’s report in a timely fashion. CHAIRMAN: Would all those in favour of the motion please say Aye… Contrary minded, Nay… The motion is defeated. NS Public Accounts Committee meeting May...
Council to Armco: “Jump? How high, sir, how high…?” “Good dog…”
Last week, Halifax City Council again/still/always decided to re-re-re-write its planning bylaws on the fly for the greater good and increased profit of a private developer whose books it didn’t bother examining, let alone asking to glimpse once, maybe upside down on the desk, even just in passing...
Last week, Halifax City Council again/still/always decided to re-re-re-write its planning bylaws on the fly for the greater good and increased profit of a private developer whose books it didn’t bother examining, let alone asking to glimpse once, maybe upside down on the desk, even just in passing. Jump? How high, sir, how high?… Good...
Hijacking “reasoned debate” for right-wing noise at MSVU
In the middle of last week's MSVU discussion over who should teach a course on residential schools, a solemn-sounding group called the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship weighed in. It claims to promote “reasoned debate on issues of academic freedom and scholarship.” It does no such thing.
Mount Saint Vincent University grappled this month with a complex web of issues that will feel uncomfortably familiar to academics at plenty of other Canadian universities: how to (belatedly but quickly) increase the numbers of professors from traditionally under-represented Indigenous and other marginalized communities; how to (belatedly but quickly) add academically rigorous course offerings on...
From who me to #metoo
In which Stephen McNeil continues to be Stephen McNeil, dismissing calls to apologize to a young man for the province's own security failure. But there is also some small hint of change in the #metoo air. We take our good news where we find it.
Why am I not surprised? Last Monday, Halifax police dropped all charges against the 19-year-old they’d arrested less than a month before for “unauthorized use of a computer with fraudulent intent.” The fact is this case has been a cock-up from the beginning. Even before the beginning. Perhaps especially before the beginning. Let’s review. On...
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 10
- Next Page »