News
1. Lobster fishery
We’ve published the second instalment of Linda Pannozzo and Joan Baxter’s three-part series “Lobster fishery at a crossroads,” which dives into the history and context of the Indigenous rights to a “moderate livelihood” from the fishery, and the non-Indigenous response to it.
In Part 2, Pannozzo and Baxter show the political and news spotlight is on the tensions along the Fundy shore, but there’s a much larger looming threat: corporate control of the entire fishery, potentially leaving the independent fishermen, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, without a livelihood.
This is important work. I don’t think anyone besides Pannozzo and Baxter could produce it, and I don’t know of another local news source that regularly can publish these long, in-depth investigative series.
Because of the timeliness of the series, we’ve left it in front of the paywall for all to read. But of course it takes considerable resources, both time and money, to produce such work, and it is paid for entirely by your subscriptions. So if you support Pannozzo and Baxter, and want to see more of their work, please subscribe.
2. Police
“A majority of council candidates who responded to a survey from a local advocacy group are in favour of some broad reforms of policing in Halifax, and the results indicate widespread dissatisfaction with the municipality’s unique relationship with the RCMP,” reports Zane Woodford:
The Nova Scotia Policing Policy Working Group sent an online survey to all candidates in this month’s election in early September. The survey asked candidates 13 questions, including context around each question and opportunities for open-ended responses.
Of the 82 council candidates, 61 started the survey, and 49 completed it. None of the mayoral candidates responded at all. The only district with no respondents was District 2 — Preston–Chezzetcook–Eastern Shore.
“Candidates in Halifax are taking this issue seriously,” Tari Ajadi, a member of the working group and a doctoral candidate at Dalhousie University studying racism, Black social movements, and public policy, said in an interview.
3. COVID testing
“Nova Scotia has just three known active cases of COVID-19, all of which are related to travel — two had travelled internationally, and the third had travelled in Canada but outside the Atlantic Bubble,” I reported yesterday:
In all three cases, the infected person self-isolated as required, and there was no further spread of the disease. One of the three, however, remains in ICU.
Despite those low numbers, as the flu season approaches, Nova Scotia is aiming to more than double its capacity to test for COVID-19. The aim is to increase the daily number of tests to 2,500 by the middle of November.
Click here to read “Nova Scotia to increase COVID-19 testing.”
At yesterday’s press conference, I tried to get Dr. Robert Strang to comment directly about Donald Trump’s recent pronouncements downplaying the threat of the virus, but Strang wouldn’t go there, saying merely “I have my own thoughts about that, I’ll keep them to myself,” before going on to tell people to get their COVID information from reliable sources, like the government’s own webpage.
4. Alan Doyle at the convention centre
I’m not sure this is a great idea.
For myself, I think I’m just going to hunker down for the winter. No big concerts, no Moosehead games, no Examiner parties, no fun. Maybe I’ll read some books and hope some miracle vaccine pops up next summer.
5. Shark
3,541 lb #greatwhiteshark “Nukumi” is an ancient mature female #whiteshark or “Queen of the Ocean” that will share years worth of knowledge with the collaborative #OCEARCH science team. #ExpeditionNovaScotia #FactsOverFear pic.twitter.com/USVdvfqrdm
— OCEARCH (@OCEARCH) October 3, 2020
Noticed
Some disjointed and not particularly profound thoughts:
Donald Trump is the product of a bizarre cult around Norman Vincent Peale, in which self-obsession and “success” — defined only as material success — are more important than any external reality.
The Catholics considered greed a mortal sin, and the Prosperity Bible that dominates the American evangelical scene is a perversion.
The logical, and indeed only, endpoint of “greed is good” is on the one hand to consider anyone with a scintilla of decency or humanity or larger purpose a sucker, and on the other hand to empower the most vile and immoral.
Magical thinking can only take a person so far. Sooner or later, the real world will catch up.
Government
City
Wednesday
North West Planning Advisory Committee (Wednesday, 7pm, boardroom, 4-pad arena, Bedford) — Hekmat Jarrar wants to build a 19-unit seniors housing project at the entrance to Kingswood.
Thursday
Regional Watersheds Advisory Board (Thursday, 5pm, HEMDCC Meeting Space, Alderney Gate) — the advisory board hasn’t met since the pandemic struck our shores in March, and so we doubt this meeting will happen either. At least, there’s no agenda for it.
Province
No public meetings.
On campus
Dalhousie
Wednesday
Developing Acanthamoeba castellanii as an experimental model for studying eukaryote lateral gene transfer (Wednesday, 4pm) — online lecture with Morgan Colp. More info and link contact here.
Environmental Racism: There’s Something in the Water (Wednesday, 8pm) — Ingrid Waldron will share her work which led to an award-winning book and a documentary by Ellen Page, now available on Netflix. Info and registration here.
Thursday
Innovation Rounds: Patenting Medtech Inventions Necessities and Nuances (Thursday, 8:30am) —with Cecilia Basic, Canadian Intellectual Property Office.
This presentation will provide an overview of the necessities and nuances that come into play when patenting a medtech invention. This includes: determining who is an inventor (and who is not), the role of patent literature, insights into the patent application and examination process, as well as an overview of some of the key differences in patenting medtech inventions in Canada, the USA and the EU will be discussed.
A Gutsy Approach To Diabetes Treatment: How The Gut Microbiome Influences Gut Hormones (Thursday, 11am) — Jeffrey Gagnon from Laurentian University will talk. Link info here.
Topos (Thursday, 12pm) — architecture lecture with Thomas Pathuret, France, and Ludovico Galeazzo, Italy. More info and link here.
Ready2Launch Demo Day (Thursday, 2:30pm) — Virtual event! Eight Dal start-up teams! Four-minute pitches! $5000 prize! More info and link here.
Likelihood-based Inference for Stochastic Epidemic Models, with application to High-resolution Contact Tracking Data (Thursday, 3:30pm) — Jason Xu from Duke University will talk. Info and link here.
A “Night‑In” with Eco‑Justice Warriors (Thursday, 7:30pm) — Meet the women on the frontlines of environmental racism, including Ingrid Waldron, Michelle Francis Denny, Doreen Bernard, Vanessa Hartley, and Lenore Zann, with host Tim Gray. $25, info and tickets here.
Saint Mary’s
Wednesday
Social Entrepreneurship Workshop (Wednesday, 2pm) — some uncritical capitalist nonsense.
Thursday
Unleash Your Money Power! (Thursday, 11am) — some more uncritical capitalist nonsense.
In the harbour
05:00: MOL Maneuver, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from Colombo, Sri Lanka
07:00: Ef Ava, container ship, arrives at Pier 41 from Argentia, Newfoundland
11:00: Ef Ava sails for Portland
16:00: MOL Maneuver sails for New York
Footnotes
I got up at 5:30am, thinking I would produce a nice long read for Morning File today. But outside the shitshow south of the border, not much is happening, at least locally, or I’m missing it.
Besides that, I have several things to report on, but I’m sidetracked by other concerns. Hope to get through them all in a few days.
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I wished yesterday that there had been some changes, but it seems like they doubled down on what they have been saying all along They could have eased self quarantine restrictions to 10 days instead of 14. Cancelled the state of emergency in NS. Eased mask rules in stores.
There is no community transmission in NS.
You would think there was a by the over-caution yesterday.
The numbers don’t lie.
I tend to agree with you. I think we should be able to go about without masks in many indoor locations, on buses when passengers can socially distance, and while riding outside on the ferry.
As the current situation in Moncton, New Brunswick, shows masks are very much needed in locations where vulnerable members of society are concentrated. I believe that the situation in New Brunswick can resolve with fewer deaths than we saw when there was the Northwood outbreak simply because we do know more now than we did then.
Obviously, the numbers can change very quickly with just one person going out while infected, even if they may not have felt unwell. I doubt, though, that I will get what I would like anytime soon, so I will continue to follow the rules to the best of my ability.
Maybe a new provincial leader, who could be elected as early as next year, will actually accept that to truly live means accepting some risks.
Accepting risks is what you do when it is difficult to diminish those risks. Wearing masks, social distancing, small numbers inside are easy to do.
For some people, myself including, wearing a mask isn’t easy.
I think many in the decision making class are enjoying COVID restrictions. Not having to go to the office, keeping your salary (actually more of it, because commuting isn’t free), and so on.
There is a very good (and clear) exploration of stochastic epidemic models here: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/09/k-overlooked-variable-driving-pandemic/616548/
Any news on when this episode of “Father Knows Best” ends and we get some news from the sponsors?