News
Views
Government
On campus
Noticed
In the harbour
Footnotes
News
1. Martin Luther King, Jr. not welcome in New Brunswick
The CBC reports that in 1959, Harold DeWolf, a Boston University prof, wanted to bring his friend Martin Luther King, Jr. to vacation at Fundy National Park. DeWolf wrote the park, asking about the possibilities, but the innkeeper at the park wrote back:
“A great many [guests] are from the New England States, as well as those from farther South. For this reason we feel it would be better not to accommodate your friends,” the letter said.
It’s good that CBC has documented this, but it somehow managed to tell the story without naming the letter-writer.
2. My big, bold breakfast
I went to the Bold Halifax breakfast yesterday, and left no more enlightened than when I arrived. This article is behind the Examiner’s pay wall and so available only to paid subscribers. To purchase a subscription, click here.
3. Rehtaeh Parsons
The second man charged in the Rehtaeh Parsons case has been sentenced to a year probation. The first man charged in the case had previously been given a conditional discharge.
4. Dalhousie news
A. The Halifax police say there was no crime committed in the misogynistic DDS Facebook posts:
Halifax Regional Police has concluded the review of the material provided by Dalhousie University.
On January 14, HRP received a package of documents from Dalhousie University Security. The documents were reviewed by a team of senior investigators in the Criminal Investigation Division to determine if there was anything to suggest that a crime or crimes had occurred. The review team did not observe anything to suggest a crime had occurred.
Based on the reviewed material as well as the absence of any criminal complaints, HRP will not be commencing a criminal investigation into this matter.
B. A university investigation into hazing among players of the men’s rugby team has resulted in the suspension of the team for the rest of the year.
5. Cocaine
Six men have been arrested on charges of conspiring to import cocaine through the Port of Halifax, but the few details released sound like borderline entrapment. As the Chronicle Herald reports:
“This was an operation that we set up,” RCMP Insp. Glenn Lambe said Thursday during a news conference at RCMP headquarters in Dartmouth.
“We established a process to bring in, or appear to bring in, a substantial amount of cocaine. There was no actual cocaine imported. The individuals believed there was cocaine. They acted on that premise.”
6. Bryony House
Bryony House has hired a lawyer to represent the organization as Alcohol and Gaming untangles the Dare to Dream Lottery mess.
Views
1. Accessibility
Ralph Ferguson, who uses a wheelchair, discovers that the Abbie J. Lane Memorial Hospital is inaccessible.
Government
No public meetings today.
Yesterday, the House of Assembly Management Commission met, with no prior public notice of the meeting. And what, you ask, is the House of Assembly Management Commission? It is the committee that oversees MLA expenses. I guess CBC reporter Jean Laroche happened to be in Province House, got wind that the meeting was going on, and managed to live-blog a bit of it on Twitter. But this is no way to run a government. It’s offensive to democracy to hold a supposedly public meeting with no public notice at all, and especially so when the meeting concerns policy around MLA expenses, the centre of government corruption for decades. People have gone to jail for MLA expense issues…whatever was Speaker Kevin Murphy thinking, to allow this to happen?
On campus
Dalhousie
Oceans (Friday, 12:30pm, Lord Dalhousie Room, Henry Hicks Building)—Clive Schofield, from the University of Wollongong, will talk on “Advances in the Spatial Governance of Oceans in Europe and Beyond.”
Synchrotron (Friday, 12:30pm, Room 226, Chemistry Building)—Tsun-Kong (T.K.) Sham, from the University of Western Ontario, will talk on “The Interplay of Synchrotron Spectroscopy with Performance of Functional Materials—Addressing Scientific Issues with Synchrotron Capabilities.”
Psychology (Friday, 3:30pm, Life Sciences Centre 4263 Psychology Wing)—Kevin Kelloway, President Elect, and Karen Cohen, Chief Executive Officer, of the Canadian Psychological Association, will present “Psychology in Canada 2014/2015: Agendas and Activities for Science and Practice.”
Sufi Polemics (Friday, 3:30pm, Room 1170, Marion McCain Building)—Historian Amal Ghazl will discuss “‘Illiberal’ Thought in the Liberal Age: Dream-stores and Sufi Polemics Against the Modern Era.”
Saint Mary’s
Thesis defence, Business Administration (Friday, 1pm, Loyola 173)—PhD candidate Shannon Webb will defend her thesis, “Expedited Arbitration: Is it Expeditious? Evidence from Canada.”
Noticed
The Nova Scotia Archives has a series of illustrations from Harper’s Weekly in the 19th century. The periodical seems to have been obsessed with vacationing in Nova Scotia, and in particular with our flies.
In the harbour
No ships arriving to or departing from the Port of Halifax today.
Footnotes
A few people have asked about my missing Wellington Street development article. Usually, the city clerk’s office promptly posts videos of council meetings the very next morning, but for some reason this video wasn’t posted until late in the day yesterday, two days after the meeting. I’ll review it this morning, and post something as soon as possible.
Tim, since I know you are now obsessed with all things Nova Scotian, you should get yourself a copy of The Tent Dwellers.
Most of it is still a good canoe route, but these days, crossing Rossignol is as likely to kill you as not.