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...
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?
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...
Werewolf, naloxone, and education: Nova Scotia addresses opioid deaths
According to folklore (and Wikipedia) a werewolf is a human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf-like creature after being placed under a curse or affliction. So “Werewolf” is the fitting title for Cape Breton director Ashley McKenzie’s much-acclaimed and gritty feature film about two young adults struggling to stay on methadone and break […]
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...
Health Authority craps on healthy transportation
The Nova Scotia Health Authority sent a letter to Halifax council opposing the South Park Street bike lane.
The Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) has taken a surprise position on the expansion and improvement of the South Park Street bike lane: they’re against it. At least they are against the disruption to available on-street parking that it might cause. In a letter to city council dated March 5, 2018 (the day before council...
When ‘freedom of speech’ is a code, not a value
Making free speech the raw-meat main dish for the Conservative party’s right-wing base worked well enough for current federal leader Andrew Scheer. Will it do the same for wannabe Nova Scotia Tory leader John Lohr?
What is it about Tories seeking their party’s leadership and their seemingly painful need to gymnast-twist the once liberal value of freedom of speech for their own illiberal purposes? Last spring when he was running to become federal Conservative Party leader, Andrew Scheer threatened to cut off federal funding to any university that didn’t foster...
Pacification by cappuccino
Vikas Mehta asks: Who benefits from the New Urbanism, and more importantly, who doesn't?
Leave it to those pesky university students. Just when Halifax staff and council seem all prepared to fully embrace the concept of Complete Streets, Dal planning students are bringing Vikas Mehta to Halifax to remind us that the popular new urbanist concept might have a weakness or two of its own. Mehta will be here...
Memo to Stephen McNeil: beware teachers bearing frustrations
On October 25, 2016, 96 per cent of teachers gave their union an overwhelming strike mandate. And that changed everything about everything in the McNeil government’s union-busting calculus.
Cast your mind back to October 25, 2016. The date will be significant. Before that day, Stephen McNeil’s Liberal government seemed to be in full control of its anti-public-sector-worker agenda. The executive of the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union was preparing — reluctantly — to recommend its 7,600 members agree to a tentative...
Here are the Nova Scotians named in the Paradise Papers
Nova Scotians connected to the Paradise Papers include professional investors, mining company execs, people who made their fortunes via online betting, a former Port Authority director, and a retired vice-admiral.
In November, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists began reporting on a trove of leaked documents it called the Paradise Papers: The Paradise Papers documents include nearly 7 million loan agreements, financial statements, emails, trust deeds and other paperwork from nearly 50 years at Appleby, a leading offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda and beyond. The...
I became a feminist the night of the Montreal Massacre
December 6 has come around again. Shouldn’t be surprised. It does so every year. Like clockwork, almost. In 1989, I was living in Lethbridge, Alberta. That’s the small city I grew up in. I had returned to Lethbridge after doing my Master’s in Ontario. I was back in town, and back living with my folks, […]
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