It all seems, well, so … Nova Scotian. Let’s begin way back in the late 1960s and early seventies when a local developer named Ben McCrea cobbled together various deals that helped save a group of historic but ramshackle waterfront buildings from the wrecker’s ball. McCrea’s efforts not only transformed those rundown blocks into our...
Five Little Indians: calling Canadians to account
Spurred by reports about the remains of Indigenous children found on the grounds of a former Indian Residential School in BC and the search for graves on the site of the now demolished Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia, childhood memories have weighed on my mind. For instance, as a 1960s Black girl growing […]
Free speech and ‘really good conversation:’ Opportunities to teach and to learn
I used to think of myself as a free speech absolutist. I still do, mostly. But I’m now a little less absolute in my absolutism. Let's take a look two recent close-to-home cases.
I used to think of myself as a free speech absolutist. I still do, mostly. But I’m now a little less absolute in my absolutism. The hard edges of my belief that every form of speech is OK — save perhaps yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre, or directly threatening to murder your neighbour —...
Planning for a re-opening and hoping for a re-election
Premier Iain Rankin needs a do-over after a gaffe-prone first few months in office. His government's gradual re-opening gives him another chance to make a better impression.
On Friday afternoon, Premier Iain Rankin announced what he describes as a five-phase plan to allow too-long shuttered, increasingly restless, can’t-wait Nova Scotians to resume something approximating normal lives. “Our phased plan,” he boasted during a COVID briefing, “will allow us to safely enjoy summer” while various vaccines are making immunity magic inside our bodily...
What’s the ‘reasonable’ limit on protest in a public health emergency?
How do you distinguish between anti-maskers intending to flout health restrictions in the name of their “freedom” to infect themselves and others and organizers of a COVID-safe car rally intended to protest violence against Palestinians? You don't, say police. And they didn't. But should they?
The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free. Please help us continue this coverage by subscribing. On the morning of Friday, May 14, 2021, Nova Scotia government lawyers — armed with affidavits from Dr. Robert Strang, our chief medical officer of health, and Hayley Crichton, the Department of Justice’s director of public safety […]
Policing won’t solve the pandemic
The court injunction against public gatherings was aimed at anti-maskers, but it steps on everyone's Charter right to free assembly.
As of yesterday, 58 Palestinian children have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces in pointed attacks on civilians. The Medicins Sans Frontiers clinic was bombed. The Associated Press/Al-Jazeera offices destroyed. Yet, justifying ticketing participants in Saturday’s Free Palestine car rally, Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella called the rally an “illegal gathering, and the […]
The ‘quiet’ turmoil inside the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society
The society claims it wants to "eliminate or mitigate systemic discrimination" in its organization. But will it really come to terms with its Lyle Howe legacy?
“There’s something happening here,” Stephen Stills once wrote. “What it is ain’t exactly clear.” Here in this case is inside the traditionally somnambulant corridors of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, the august and privileged self-governing body, which “regulates Nova Scotia’s legal profession… [and exists] to uphold and protect public interest in the practice of...
Brace for a(nother) summer of discontent in Nova Scotia’s fishing industry
How do Ottawa and First Nations mutually agree on the best way to organize Atlantic Canada’s most lucrative fishery to serve the economic interests of Indigenous communities and those of traditional non-Indigenous commercial fishers without undermining the industry's commercial viability or environmental sustainability? It won't happen so long as Ottawa insists it alone knows best.
Consider just a few recent dispatches from Canada’s fraught fishing front: On March 3, 2021, federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan announced Ottawa will not license any Indigenous moderate livelihood fishery in Atlantic Canada this year that does not operate within the official commercial season. She threatened to deploy an increased complement of fisheries officers, backed...
The Desmond inquiry is dancing on the head of a constitutional pin
Is the Veterans Affairs department's internal review of its handling of the Lionel Desmond murder-suicide relevant to the current Nova Scotia inquiry? Yes. Are there lessons to be learned? Almost certainly. Time for Ottawa to stop playing jurisdictional games and make it public.
Some days you read something, and you just have to shake your head in wonder and disbelief. Some days you just wish you could shake their heads. Consider the recent goings-on — and not going on — at the Lionel Desmond fatality inquiry. Last week, the inquiry, which is looking into the 2017 triple-murder-suicide in...
A handful of uncaring narcissists brought us to lockdown; why aren’t they facing consequences?
We deserve answers. And we demand consequences. Nova Scotians are rightly furious that the success we sacrificed to build in the fight against COVID 19 has been scuttled by a handful of uncaring narcissists who decided the rules don’t apply to them. And we are properly incensed that the perpetrators face neither charge nor fine. […]
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