“To the premier of Nova Scotia, I dare you to take a meeting with me, and explain to me, and look into my eyes, and tell me that there is no health-care crisis in my province of Nova Scotia.” Inez Rudderham It was probably too much to expect Premier Stephen McNeil to respond in any...
In praise of First Girls
Labelled sluts, throwaways, trouble makers, and trash, First Girls paved the way for sheltered girls; First Girls needed to be heard, but no one knew how to listen.
Cassie joined our French class in Grade 9. She sat in front of me. I was drawn to her because of how proudly rude she was to the teacher. “What is that in French?” the teacher asked her, and she shot back, “Shouldn’t you know? You’re the teacher.” I was a child from a strict […]
Dear Prospective Atlantic Schooners Football Players: think twice before coming to racist Halifax
Dear Prospective Atlantic Schooners Football Players, Prompted by news that Halifax police have street checked Black males nine times more often than the general population and the finagling of white men determined to bring a Canadian Football League franchise to Nova Scotia, I’ve been thinking about the day I met legendary National Football League player […]
Basic Income basics: No, it’s not impossible
Evelyn Forget has quite literally written the book on basic income for Canadians. It’s called, you guessed it, Basic Income for Canadians. As a health economist at the University of Manitoba, Forget re-discovered the Manitoba Mincome experiment of the 1970s, and undertook to analyze some 1800 cubic feet of data from the decades-old experiment. She […]
Will the new electric car rebate help us stop changing the climate?
This May, the federal government will start issuing a rebate up to $5,000 to people buying a new electric car. The program will cost Transport Canada $300 million, or roughly enough to provide 60,000 people with full $5,000 rebates on new EV (electric vehicle) purchases. When Darren Fisher tweeted to promote the incentive last week...
Street checks: Who’s sorry now? Not the premier, not the justice minister, not the police
No one in authority seems willing to apologize for the decades of "disproportionate and negative" impact street checks have had on Nova Scotia's black community. Worse, no one seems to be committed to finally ending them once and for all.
Our question for today: why is it so hard for the people in charge of policing in Nova Scotia to say, I’m sorry? Last week… nearly three weeks after a damning 180-page report by an independent outside consultant confirmed that black males are nine times more likely than whites to be stopped in “random” police...
The redemption of Johnny Mac
The Cape Breton fighter, Canada's first openly gay boxer, is training for his first pro bout
A few months ago, Johnny Mac was driving around the city, thinking about ending his life. Johnny didn’t know if he could get up one more time. Growing up in Inverness, Cape Breton, he had to be tough. Bullied as a child, he began boxing in his teens, hoping to lose some weight and learn […]
Hanna Garson: a young lawyer dedicated to the long, slow fight for prison justice
It’s a Tuesday morning, and I’m sitting in courtroom 302 of the Halifax Supreme Court watching two prisoners, Geevan Nagendran and Tyquan Downey, face the lawyer for the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility (Burnside). I text Hanna Garson, “I’m watching the most upsetting habeas in court right now.” She texts back, “what courtroom?” Two minutes […]
Verdict without end
More than 20 years after former Nova Scotia premier Gerald Regan was acquitted of sexually assaulting multiple women, other women are still coming forward with still more stories of what he did to them, still needing finally "to be heard." Including "Catherine."
I shouldn’t be surprised. Not after Me-too. But I am. Still. It happens more often than you might suppose. I’ll be attending a public event, and someone will come up to me. “Aren’t you the guy who wrote that book, the one about…?” Yes, I am, but it was published 20 years ago. “My sister…...
The plan to improve Herring Cove Road, eventually
The city's plan for the Spryfield street includes plenty of walking and cycling infrastructure, but leaves transit lanes in the realm of high-cost wishful thinking.
NOTE TO READERS: I’ve updated this story to reflect the cost of the 500 block project, estimated at $2.4 million. My earlier version mentioned only $250,000 in funding related to other Herring Cove Road projects. The city is creating a new functional plan for Herring Cove Road, featuring an “interim” plan with considerable improvements to...
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