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Rick Mehta: Acadia clarifies, commingles, confuses

The Mehta case isn't about free speech. And it's not the exercise of academic freedom. It is a professor in a position of power publicly bullying his own students for his amusement and the adulation of his followers. Reason enough to fire him. But...

September 16, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

Start with this. I am no longer conflicted about Acadia University’s decision to fire psychology professor Rick Mehta. The university had plenty of good reasons to dismiss him. On the other hand, I am still troubled by Acadia’s willingness to stir its own self-interest — “damaging the reputation of the institution” and the implicit notion...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Education, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: Academic freedom, freedom of expression, Rick Mehta

Rick Mehta: a firing offence or just offensive?

Last winter, Acadia University said it was investigating Mehta “for the manner in which you are expressing views that you are alleged to be advancing or supporting and, in some instances, time that you are spending on these issues in the classroom.” We need to parse that sentence. It appears the university says it was investigating Mehta, both for his personal views (freedom of speech) and also for what he was saying in his classroom. Did that violate his academic freedom?

September 9, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

I will confess I’m conflicted about the news Acadia University has fired Rick Mehta. On Friday, the university confirmed it had terminated the controversial psychology professor, effective August 31, but then refused to say why or “provide any elaboration” about what it called “a personnel matter.” Acadia also wouldn’t release the results of an investigation...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Education, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: Academic freedom, Acadia University, Freedom of speech, Rick Mehta

Christopher Garnier’s PTSD: right policy, wrong result, better outcome…

We may not like Veterans Affairs' decision to fund Christopher Garnier's PTSD treatment, but it is the right policy. And the publicity about Garnier's case may lead to better outcomes for other veterans' families.

September 3, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

Sometimes a right policy results in a wrong result. Most of the time — including in the case of convicted murderer/diagnosed PTSD sufferer Christopher Garnier — we are better off focusing on the right policy rather than on the occasional unexpected, unhappy wrong result of that policy. When I was a young freelance journalist, I...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, News, Subscribers only Tagged With: Christopher Garnier murder trial, justice, PTSD, veterans

Is Tory leader wannabe John Lohr a Maxime Bernier in waiting?

Andrew Scheer’s federal Tories seem to be in full split-apart mode. The provincial Progressive Conservatives? Much will depend on their upcoming leadership convention.

August 25, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

Will Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservatives pull a federal Conservative Party and stagger out of their October 27 leadership convention hopelessly divided between their regular right-wing whingers and their ultra-right-wing whiners? Could PC leadership hopeful John Lohr — he of the Northern-Pulp-protesters-were-paid, free-speech-for-fanatics, let’s-build-more-statues-to-Edward-Cornwallis, frack-yes(!) wing of the party — emerge as the leader of a...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Andrew Scheer, Conservative Party of Canada, John Lohr, Maxime Bernier, Nova Scotia Progressive Conservatives

Stephen McNeil says there’s “lots” of film activity; the facts tell a different story

IATSE Local 849, the union that represents most film technicians in the province, has statistics showing its members worked 40,687 days in 2014, earning $11,120,665 in gross pay and pensions. In 2017, those numbers had tumbled over a cliff: just 13,454 days worked with gross pay and pensions — $3,842,454 — 65 per cent lower than in 2014.

August 19, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

There is something vaguely Trumpian in Premier Stephen McNeil’s continuing, reality-be-damned insistence his government’s 2015 consultation- and logic-free decision to dump a longstanding, working-well film tax credit, then replace it with a more restrictive, less incentivizing “Nova Scotia Film and Television Incentive Fund” is all working out just fine, the way we planned it, thank...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: film industry, Film Tax Credit, Premier Stephen McNeil

Health care crisis? Check. Leadership to solve it? Another question…

“I want to assure you that I’ve heard you, and I’ve listened,” McNeil said of the health care crisis on election night. “We have a plan, and the opposition parties have a plan, and we can work together to make it better." So much for working together. With the opposition. Or, more importantly, with Nova Scotians.

August 13, 2018 By Stephen Kimber 3 Comments

Did you know that, as of Friday morning, the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s News website was reporting a full computer page — 10 different items — flagging current, ongoing, never-ending emergency room closures in Nova Scotia? From the Lillian Fraser Memorial in Tatamagouche, to the Eastern Shore Memorial in Sheet Harbour, to Guysborough Memorial, to […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House Tagged With: doctor shortage, ER Closures, health care, Stephen McNeil

The Yarmouth ferry subsidy? Still? Still more? Always…

“Our goal, which I believe we have achieved,” Transportation Minister Geoff MacLellan said when he signed the latest ferry deal, “was to put a stable, long-term agreement in place.” How’s that working out?

July 29, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

I could say I told them so — and I did, way back when “them” was still Rodney Macdonald and his Tories, and from then on forward through Darrell Dexter and Stephen McNeil to whatever same-old-same-old will come next — but I’d have to stand in a too-long line behind all the other told-them-so nattering...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Journalism, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Mark Lever, SaltWire, Stephen McNeil, Yarmouth ferry

Outraged about Russian meddling in the 2016 US election? What about…?

... the US role in 1948 Italy, 1953 Iran, 1954 Guatemala, 1964 Brazil, 1969 Thailand, 1973 Chile, 1980s Nicaragua, 1983 Grenada, 1989 Panama, 1996 Russia, 2002 Venezuela, 2009 Afghanistan, every year Cuba and on and on? Perhaps it's time for a little equal opportunity outrage.

July 23, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

  Americans are right to be outraged at the outrageous Russian interference in their 2016 presidential elections. They are correct to be appalled not only that their Putin-puttana-ed president continues to pretend that what happened didn’t happen, but also that their commander-in-chief and his principle-free, me-too Republican Congressional congregation refuse to act to prevent more...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: 2016 US elections, CIA, Donald Trump, USAID, Vladimir Putin

The gospel according to Mark

The short and the small of it all is that SaltWire CEO Mark Lever is blandly, blindly traveling a well-trod path to self-immolation. Unfortunately, SaltWire’s employees — and its readers — will become collateral damage in his self-lit inferno.

July 15, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

“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,...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Journalism, Subscribers only Tagged With: Halifax Chronicle Herald, Mark Lever, SaltWire

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?

July 7, 2018 By Stephen Kimber

“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...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Subscribers only Tagged With: Border disputes, Donald Trump, fisheries

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About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitz More about the Examiner.

DEAD WRONG

A botched police investigation and a probable wrongful conviction shed light on the murders of dozens of women in Nova Scotia.

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  • Bullshitter of the week: Darren Fisher February 22, 2019
  • Northern Pulp says it “cares” — but for whom and for what? February 21, 2019
  • Palace coup at Shambhala February 21, 2019
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