News
1. James Cuthbert
The missing 71-year-old’s car was discovered yesterday at the Park & Go in North Sydney, and police say he boarded the 11:45pm ferry to Port aux Basques on October 26, the day he went missing. Sometime after he was last seen in Halifax, Cuthbert had shaved off his beard but not his moustache, and Cuthbert had left the keys locked in the car. Police don’t know if he disembarked at Port aux Basques.
2. Organ donation
The Liberal government is set to proclaim a law that denies family members the right to veto organ donation by a deceased person who signed a donor card. The law was actually passed by the former NDP government but never proclaimed. The delay was related to “to legal issues related to the language of the bill,” Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine told the Chronicle Herald.
3. Rich man gets richer, lectures the peasants
John Risley made a bunch of money in the Caribbean by reducing consumer choice for telecommunication options, therefore, he says, we should frack. If we don’t, “we will go bankrupt as a community,” says the guy who pays lobstermen three bucks a pound.
4. Man is nearly six feet tall
The folks running the Burnside jail accidentally released Eliahs Knudsen Kent, who police say “has a history of violence.” Kent “was being held on remand and facing a variety of charges, including attempted murder, home invasion, attempt to commit robbery, robbery, robbery to steal a firearm, using a firearm in the commission of an offence and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose,” reports the CBC.
The charges stem from this incident:
On September 21, at 2:38 a.m., Halifax Regional Police responded to a break and enter in progress in the 0-100 block of Bonita Drive in Dartmouth. The resident, a 75-year-old man, awoke to a commotion in his residence and located two suspects that were breaking into his firearm storage cabinet. He confronted them and was hit over the head several times with one of his own rifles, causing severe facial injuries. He was taken to hospital by EHS and underwent surgery for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The victim’s wife was also in the home, however she was not injured. Several firearms were taken from the residence by the suspects.
The cops were led to Kent and Tyrone Nelson Francis by an anonymous tip, because honour among thieves.
Anyway, the Canadian Press dives into the problematic Burnside Jail administration:
Since December 2007, there have been five people who were released from the custody of the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility by mistake. In all cases, the inmates were returned, though some of them turned themselves in.
Officials blamed a number of factors for those inadvertent releases, including clerical errors and paperwork mix-ups.
As for Kent, when he walked out of the jail he was wearing “a red hoodie with the word ‘cocaine’ written in white letters across the front,” which is evidently the dress code over at the jail.
5. Slavery
6. Pins in candy
And now a sixth report of a pin discovered in Halloween candy, and the fourth in HRM, this from the west end. I tend to think the proliferation of such reports indicates they’re probably false. Remember, there’s never before been a proven case of Halloween candy-tampering, but suddenly this year four or five different people across the province decided to stick pins in candy independently? Seems unlikely. And if it was a manufacturing flaw, we’d expect the pins would first of all be more widely distributed across North America, and secondly be all in the same kind of candy, Mars bars or whatever. I’m assuming that’s not the case because if it were, surely police would be warning people to be especially vigilant about that particular brand.
Far more likely, I think, is cultural contagion. I’d be happy to be proven wrong about this—wait, no I wouldn’t, because that would mean that a bunch of people are suddenly and independently putting pins in Halloween candy—but I very seriously doubt any of these reports will turn out to be credible.
Views
1. Violence against women
Stop ignoring it, says Jim Meek.
2. More on Canadian Pravda
Monday, I published “Canadian Pravda,” a critique of the Chronicle Herald’s business section, paying particular attention to how the paper has botched its coverage of Unique Solutions, a Dartmouth firm. The company received $5.6 million in financial assistance from Nova Scotia Business, Inc. between 2005 and 2009, all of which was converted to an equity stake in June 2009. NSBI won’t say what it values the company at now, but I made what I think is a good case that the $5.6 million “investment” is now worth about $1 million.
One thing I neglected to mention in the piece is that Ian Thompson, the Associate Publisher at the Chronicle Herald, was deputy minister at the Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism from 2008 through 2011, and so in charge of the NSBI file. Moreover, Thompson was appointed to the NSBI board in January 2009, and so oversaw both $2 million in assistance extended to Unique Solutions in March 2009 and the conversion of the entire $5.6 million to an equity stake in June 2009.
Thompson, in his previous career as a provincial manager in charge of economic development, oversaw the Unique Solutions mess, and now he’s in charge at the Chronicle Herald. It is perhaps no surprise that Chronicle Herald business reporters take a “see no evil” approach to Unique Solutions.
3. CBRM security theatre
The Cape Breton Post takes the municipality to task for amping up its security at City Hall:
Because of a deadly shooting in Ottawa by a mentally unstable drug addict acting alone, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality is tightening security at that innocuous building down on the Esplanade in Sydney — the Civic Centre — where your grandmother goes to pay her tax bill and the young fella up the road goes to file for a building permit.
The editorial goes on to quote Mayor Cecil Clarke: “There is police attending each of the meetings of the Halifax council.” Er, no there’s not.
4. Wolfville
Stephen Archibald plugs the upcoming (November 12–16) Devour Film Festival in Wolfville, and so uses it as an excuse to show us photos of the town. Wolfville, says Archibald, feels a bit like wandering around the set for one of those amusing films set a small university town. Young people with coffee and devices, film industry professionals in black with messenger bags and maybe some flannel country folk (with PhDs in philosophy ).”
Noticed
The MV Abegweit was the ferry that connected Cape Tormentine, New Brunswick and Borden, Prince Edward Island from 1947 through 1982. The following year the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago bought the boat, and it sits to this day on the Chicago waterfront, used as the club’s clubhouse.
Chicago is a long way from PEI, evidently, as the explanatory sign by the boat calls it Prince Albert Island.
In the harbour
(click on vessel names for pictures and more information about the ships)
Maersk Penang, container ship, Montreal to Pier 42, then sails for Rotterdam
Legend of the Seas, cruise ship, Charlottetown to Pier 22, then sails for Boston—this is the
last cruise ship of the season
Footnotes
Snow?
Re: Rich man lectures peasants
Risely is risible, to coin a phrase. His warning that to disregard his uber businessman’s outlook on life will mean “We will go bankrupt as a community” only points to how much he values money over people. A community cannot go bankrupt. Business can go bankrupt, banks can go bankrupt and economy can go bankrupt–but a community cannot. A community, by definition, is a human construct. It comes into existence and flourishes because people want it to–against any and all odds. It is our saving grace. A shield against the depredations of wise men of means. Indeed, it is a marvel of the human spirit that allows us to endure despite all–war, famine, pestilence–and the tender mercies of corporate humanoids who would preach to us about how to gain the world and lose our souls. More power to us all and the power of community.