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It’s going to be a long Monday: Morning File, Monday, July 24, 2017

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News

1. Lyle Howe

Lyle Howe (Jessica Durling, The Signal)

“The CBC headline — ‘Halifax Lawyer Lyle Howe Found Guilty of Professional Misconduct, Incompetence’ — was simple,” writes Stephen Kimber:

And it is accurate.

So far as it goes.

But the actual 140-page decision by a bar society disciplinary panel…

IN THE MATTER OF: The Legal Profession Act, S.N.S. 2004, c. 28
and the Regulations of the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, as amended
BETWEEN: The Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Applicant
and Lyle Howe, of Halifax, Nova Scotia Respondent

…turns out to be far more nuanced than that headline, or the story itself, suggests.

[…]

To its credit, the panel did not shy away from the implications of the fact the bar society was “seeking formal discipline against a member of the African Nova Scotian community.”

Click here to read “The Lyle Howe case: guilty, but…”

This article is behind the paywall. Click here to subscribe.

2. Examineradio, episode #121

Waye Mason. Photo: Halifax Examiner

This week, we speak to Waye Mason, city councillor for District 7, the district that encompasses Cornwallis Park, about the statue and other issues.

Also, the city held its first Pride parade since the debacle of the organization’s AGM last October. Several groups boycotted or organized alternative events.

Chronicle Herald CEO Mark Lever deigned to be interviewed by the Bay Street scribes at the Financial Post. He claims that his decimated, borderline literate newsroom is uniquely positioned to “tell stories that no one else can, and no one else is equipped to.”

(direct download)
(RSS feed)
(Subscribe via iTunes)

3. Frank Magazine Charged With Violating Publication Ban

“A Nova Scotia scandal magazine is once again in legal hot water, after allegedly violating a publication ban in a child-protection case,” reports Ryan van Horne for Canadaland:

Halifax-based Frank Magazine and its managing editor, Andrew Douglas, face three counts of identifying people who were subjects of a hearing held under the province’s Children and Family Services Act [pdf], which prohibits publishing the names of any child or relative involved in such a proceeding. The charges were brought in a private prosecution by one of the subjects, whose name is covered by the ban. (CANADALAND has interviewed the woman and verified her statements but is withholding any identifying information.)

Douglas denies that he violated a ban.

4. Tourism

Hotel room nights in Nova Scotia declined eight per cent in April 2017 compared to the same month last year, from 176,000 to 162,000. April is the most recent month for which figures are available.

The April figures take the wind out of what had been a steady increase in tourism in 2017 as compared to 2016.. The first quarter (January through March) of 2017 had seen a four per cent increase in hotel room nights from the previous year, from to 401,000 to 416,000. With the reduced April numbers, however, total tourism for the year is essentially flat, from 577,000 room nights in 2016 to 579,000 in 2017.

But April is still off-season, and tourism in the spring is highly dependent upon the weather, so we shouldn’t read too much into the figures. The bulk of tourism to Nova Scotia comes in July and August, which saw 386,000 and 385,000 room nights respectively last year.

Long-term trends show an increase in hotel room nights over the past couple of years, but that represents a return to the pre-financial collapse levels:

Tourism Nova Scotia Fixed Roof Accommodations: Annual Totals of Room Nights Sold for 2007 – 2015 by Region. Based on “Tourism Nova Scotia Fixed Roof Accommodations Jan 2007 – April 2017.” Source: province of Nova Scotia

I’ll update tourism numbers as they become available.

5. Georges Island

Joel Plaskett is playing on Georges Island this weekend, which is very cool. Ferries will be running from the Halifax waterfront to access the show. But, I’m told, there will be no other increase in transit services.

And, no, sigh, like nearly all place names in Nova Scotia, Georges Island has no apostrophe.

6. Dude once touched Nova Scotia, let’s write about him

Screenshot from the CTV website

CTV has managed to write the most tenuous “local connection” story ever:

Professional golfer Austin Connelly, who’s only 20 years-old has tied for 14th place at the British open Sunday. (Those grammatical mistakes are in the original.)

Connelly was born in Texas but started playing golf at the Clare Golf and Country Club in Comeauville, Nova Scotia, where he would visit his grandparents during the summer.

I’m sure young Austin is a fine fellow, and maybe he shows promise (I know nothing about golf), but come on: fourteenth place and he spent summers in Nova Scotia is enough for a story? I know it’s a slow summer news season, but they could be writing about airplane incidents or ships coming into the harbour.

Government

City

Monday

Halifax Peninsula Planning Advisory Committee (Monday, 4pm, City Hall) — Formerly known as District 7 & 8 Planning Advisory Committee — the committee is being asked to consider changes in a development at 2776 Gottingen Street. This is at the corner of Bloomfield, and is that giant hole in the ground that stretches behind the pizza shop on the corner of Almon Street.

Back in 2013, the Halifax & West Community Council approved a development agreement with WSP Canada for a eight-storey mixed use development, with ground floor commercial and 70 residential units above. Now, WSP is asking for changes to that agreement:

• Remove surface parking;
• Increase permitted residential units from 70 to 95;
• Increase the number of units having 2 or more bedrooms from 22 to 43;
• Decrease the number of parking spaces from 82 spaces to 72 spaces;
• Add additional penthouse level containing 3 residential units;
• Re-locate outdoor amenity space from the rooftop to a landscaped podium on the 5th floor;
• Extend streetwall on Bloomfield Street;
• Re-locate all onsite parking underground; and
• Extend building footprint to cover the majority of the lot, including the portion of the lot that fronts on Almon Street.

What worries me most about the proposed changes is the extended streetwall on Bloomfield Street. I don’t know what that means, and the staff report isn’t helpful. I fear we’re going to see the Johannesburgization we’re seeing on Maynard Street extended to the rest of the north end. (I’ll try to write more about that today.)

In any event, the proposed changes are considered “substantial,” so if the committee agrees to them, there will have to be a public hearing at the community council before they can be implemented.

Tuesday

Halifax & West Community Council (Tuesday, 6pm, City Hall) — mostly the Western Common will be discussed.

Province

No public meetings in July.

On campus

Dalhousie

Monday

Thesis Defence, Computer Science (Monday, 10am, Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building) —PhD candidate Xihe Gao will defend his thesis, “Objective Image Quality Assessment Based Tone Mapping Optimization.”

Tuesday

Computer Science Meets Healthcare: Health Informatics in Saudi Arabia (Tuesday, 11:30am, Room 430, Goldberg Computer Science Building) — Riyad Alshammari, of King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, will speak.

In the harbour

5am: Bilbao Bridge, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from Fos Sur Mer, France

Atlantic Conveyor. Photo: Halifax Examiner

6am: Atlantic Conveyor, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from Liverpool, England

Fritz Reuter. Photo: Halifax Examiner

6am: Fritz Reuter, container ship, arrives at Pier 41 from Lisbon, Portugal
6am: Vega Omega, cargo ship, arrives at Pier 42 from Philipsburg, Sint Maarten

Veendam. Photo: Halifax Examiner

Veendam. Photo: Halifax Examiner

8am: Veendam, cruise ship with up to 1,350 passengers, arrives at Pier 22 from Bar Harbor
10am: YM Express, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from New York
10:30am: Bilbao Bridge, container ship, sails from Fairview Cove for New York
3:30pm: Atlantic Conveyor, container ship, sails from Fairview Cove for New York
4pm: Fritz Reuter, container ship, sails from Pier 41 for New York
5:30pm: Veendam, cruise ship, sails from Pier 22 for Sydney

Reykjafoss. Photo: Halifax Examiner

Reykjafoss. Photo: Halifax Examiner

6pm: Reykjafoss, general cargo, arrives at HalTerm from Portland

Footnotes

Looks like a lot of people had a lot of fun at the Pride parade.

I’m mixing up my Monday songs; I wanted to post “Crying like a church on Monday,” but it was just too sad, so have some Bangles:

Comments

  2. 1) Any chance Airbnb has had had an impact on hotel room numbers?

    2) Apostrophes in place names seem to vary according to where you are in the English-speaking world. I was under the impression that they’re incorrect. Not according to this thread though:

    https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/apostrophe-in-place-names.2628789/

    “In our country, it’s the U.S. Board on Geographic Names that decides these things. Egmont is right (post #3) about apostrophes generally, but they’re not totally banned; exceptions are rare, however. Five US place names are permitted to use an apostrophe: Martha’s Vineyard in the state of Massachusetts, Ike’s Point in New Jersey, John E’s Pond in Rhode Island, Carlos Elmer’s Joshua View in Arizona, and Clark’s Mountain in Oregon (the last of the five to be approved, in 2002). As far as I know, no exceptions have been added in the last decade.”

    • My understanding of the vanished apostrophes is that the problem stems from a convention of cartographers in the early 20th Century in which they egregiously agreed to remove apostrophes from place names in maps, because they were often confused with physical features. People mistook them for ponds, fire towers, and who knows what all. Since fact checkers often use maps to verify place names, this horrible decision gradually spread to other realms, like street signs, government geographical boards, etc.

      This has all kinds of regrettable consequences. I live near Ross Ferry, which is sometimes spelled (and almost always pronounced) Rosses Ferry, but which is really Ross’s Ferry, because Mr. Ross ran the first ferry to Big Harbour. The same phenomenon explains the confusion among Auld Cove, Aulds Cove, and Auld’s Cove—which is all the same place.

      A linguistic change made by non-linguists in the name of reducing confusion has only caused confusion to proliferate.

      I believe Nova Scotia officially grants apostrophical status to Peggy’s Cove, and one other venue—not sure which one. But really, hundreds of NS place names should rightfully have apostrophes.

      Why don’t you take this on as a mission, and put the damned apostrophes back where they belong? You’re not publishing a map.

  3. “Streetwall” is just urban planning jargon for “the part of the facade that is closest to the street”. It does not necessarily mean it will be a blank wall, or one designed for security. Any good architect or planner would ensure the streetwall is transparent (ie: glass) and has something interesting going on behind it (ie: a cafe, or whatever).

    • Yep. Just checked the drawings. They have generic terms written on signs on the streetwall. One reads “Store” the other “Coffee”.

    • Or to see a bad example of a streetwall, see St Lawrence Place on Dutch Village Road. Although it was recently enlivened by a car hanging from it….

  4. Tim, I admit to being proud of Austin Connelly. To my knowledge this is Nova Scotia’s highest achievement in the world of Professional Golfers. I would love to be corrected. When I look at the leaderboard and see that Canadian flag, https://www.theopen.com/Leaderboard#!/traditional, I wish he had placed higher. If he self`-identifies as a Nova Scotian I will take him. Jonathan Blanchard

    • He is a former NS Midget Champion, played in the Web.Com Nova Scotia Open in 2015, and the Cape Breton PGA event a year later. Not entirely a drop-in.

  5. Re Examineradio #121 – Canadians have the constitutional right to gather in any public space be it a statue or elsewhere and express their views within the constraints of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada.
    Unfortunately Cllr. Mason seems to disagree with the many decisions of the Supreme Court. Fortunately for all of us the people he views as ‘racists and bigots’ have the same rights as the rest of us.

  6. Re the Nova Centre – from Frank magazine twitter account :
    Frank Magazine‏Verified account @Frank_Mag Jul 20

    Construction workers chatting at @Rudys_Catering:
    -How’s the Nova Centre doing?
    -Still not done. It’ll be another year and a half-two years.

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