Paul McLeod reported for the old Daily News, allnovascotia, and the Chronicle Herald. He now reports on US politics for Buzzfeed. He writes:
I’m writing this for two reasons. One, I’m a passionate believer in robust, independent media that champions the interests of the people against the ever-powerful political class. Two, I owe Tim money and am hoping this gets me off the hook.
As media ranks have been devastated across the country, I used to brag insufferably about how my hometown had bucked the trend. If you lived in New Brunswick, you’ve got the dystopian Irving monopoly. In somewhere like St. John’s, Newfoundland you have a de facto monopoly by the ruthless Transcontinental newspaper chain.
But Halifax had an independent paper in the Chronicle Herald, allNovaScotia for business news, The Coast breaking stories, and a punching-above-its-weight Metro. Sadly, the complete collapse of the Herald has pushed Halifax towards Canada’s new normal — a dwindling few local reporters struggling to keep tabs on politicians and the people who lean on them.
This drives me crazy because as a reporter with a cold, bitter heart I hate to see politicians get a free pass. So I’m happy to see that they still have to wake up every day worrying about Tim Bousquet. He is exactly the type of sonofabitch I wouldn’t want to have in my town if I were a politician.
This is a man who just decided for kicks to go down to the probate court and look through documents. In the process he discovered former Mayor Peter Kelly had botched and secretly removed over $140,000 from the estate of a dead woman; Bousquet’s work ended Kelly’s career. This is a man who spent over a year digging into a false murder conviction when no one else would.
These types of things go unreported in most of North America in 2016. I’m glad that they don’t in Halifax. So I hope people support the Halifax Examiner because a diversity of media that includes real, investigative reporting is an important blessing for a community to have.
Also I hope people support the Halifax Examiner because if they don’t Tim is going to come collecting and I’ll have to skip town again. So do if you won’t do it for democracy, do it for me.
Linda Pannozzo continues her investigation into the Department of Natural Resources. This is a fascinating article, as Pannozzo starts with the lowly lichen, a species I’m guessing most of us have never given much thought to, and shows how that odd and improbable organism is at the heart of forest health. From there, she looks at how DNR has controlled messaging around the management of endangered species.
This article is behind the Examiner’s paywall and so available only to paid subscribers. To purchase a subscription, click here.
I’m especially pleased to publish Pannozzo’s work. It’s the kind of hard-hitting investigative journalism I want the Examiner to be known for.
However…
It pains me that whenever I publish one of Pannozzo’s articles, I get a steady stream of people contacting me, urging me to take the articles from behind the paywall because “it needs more exposure,” “people need to read this!,” and “it won’t have the impact it should have because it’s behind the paywall.”
To which I can only answer: This is the world we live in now.
The Chronicle Herald (and many other papers) are collapsing before our eyes, precisely because the advertising model doesn’t work any longer for local journalism. I think it’s likely that by the end of the decade, there won’t be a daily newspaper in most cities in North America.
Excuse my frustration, but I wonder if people realize that this operation costs real money. To take Pannozzo’s latest article as an example, there’s Pannozzo’s pay, there’s legal review, there’s my time editing, there’s website hosting costs, there’s the time Iris the admin person takes to review and approve comments and deal with the bookkeeping related to the article. Those are real costs that require real money. But I’m supposed to give the article away?
What are the possible business models? The CBC is funded with tax money, which is likely not an option for the Examiner.
That leaves the subscription-based business model we’ve adopted. That’s what pays the bills. It’s also what makes it possible to pay Pannozzo in the first place, and it’s what will make it possible to continue to publish her quality work into the future.
Some people have suggested that I adopt a hybrid paywall, such that people can make a micropayment to read one article without subscribing to the entire website. But that would be an administrative nightmare, and given the bank fees, third-party processing fees, and HST on every transaction, it’s really not a money-maker.
Moreover, buying a subscription is supporting the entire Examiner operation. There are plenty of articles we publish that would never pay for themselves via a micropayment system, but we publish them anyway because they’re important stories that are worth telling. You may not be interested in Article A, but those who subscribe because of stuff like that is what pays for Article B, which you do like.
Yes, it would be great if everyone in the world could read Pannozzo’s good work for free. But the days of free reporting were limited to the small window of time when newspapers were posting stuff on the internet for free because they didn’t know what else to do. I don’t particularly like it either, but in the future, getting quality reporting will mean paying for it out of pocket. That’s the future of news.
And we’re not talking about a huge amount of money. Ten dollars a month for the basic subscription, five bucks if you’re low-income or a student.
2. Examineradio, episode #86
Wanda Thomas Bernard
This week we speak to Senator-Designate Wanda Thomas Bernard, recently appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Bernard has a long history of social research and activism, and was the first tenure-track African Nova Scotian professor at Dalhousie.
Also, Halifax is in mourning over the loss of close to 700 children in what police describe as “the worst case of Halloween candy poisoning in modern history.” And Linda Mosher lost her ballot recount bid after accepting some dubious advice from The Dawgfather, aka Halifax’s Deep Throat. Seriously, you can’t make this shit up sometimes.
Talks between the Chronicle Herald and the Halifax Typographical Union broke down over the weekend, reports Anjuli Patil for the CBC:
In a news release issued Saturday, management said the Halifax Typographical Union Local 30130 refused to negotiate on the terms that had been agreed by both parties. The union responded by saying terms already agreed upon don’t need further negotiation.
This morning, the union announced that it will file an Unfair Labour Practice complaint against the company.
4. Teachers
Friday, I posted the Liberal Party ad promoting Premier Stephen McNeil’s position in the province’s battle with the teachers union.
A reader points out that the ad was produced by a Newfoundland production company, evidently because no Nova Scotia firm would work for the party that cut the film tax credit.
And over at the Nova Scotia Parents for Teachers’ Facebook Page, Andrew Killawee points to a Facebook ad purchased (above, at left) by the Liberal Party. Killawee did an image search and found that the ad uses a stock photo (above, at right) from Estonia. He writes:
It’s exciting to see the Nova Scotia Government using a stock photo of an Estonian classroom to promote the future of education in NS. Exciting because Estonia caps classroom sizes at 18, offers free early childhood at 18-months, free lunch programs, and has slowly risen to become one of the education powerhouses in the world. All while being an EU “have not” nation. Amazing, the kids look so happy.
5. There are more Fliss Crammans
Fliss Cramman. Photo via CBC
You’ll recall that Fliss Cramman immigrated to Canada with her family as a small child, but was afterwards put in the foster care system. Now, as an adult, she faces a drug charge; if convicted, she faces deportation to a country she doesn’t remember because none of the adults in her life bothered to secure her Canadian citizensip. Alison Auld, reporting for the Canadian Press, takes a wider look at the issues at the heart of Cramman’s case, and discovers she is not alone — there are at least two other women in Nova Scotia who face similar circumstances:
They have been deemed women without status for failings dating back to their childhoods, say their supporters.
They have spent much of their lives in Canada, had children, voted and held down jobs, but now find themselves facing deportation because of immigration issues that were never resolved when they were brought to the country as children and ended up in the care of the state.
Advocates fighting for three Nova Scotia-based women to remain in Canada say their cases are unusual, but not uncommon.
I’ve heard from other advocates before about the problem of children in care not having their citizenship applied for. When children are taken into care, the state is supposed to be acting as their guardian and has the responsibility to protect them. Not applying for citizenship is a serious failure towards these children. This seems to be a systematic neglect.
The fact that there is neither a requirement to seek citizenship for children in care nor any sanctions for those who do not do so for these children is a huge injustice and violation of human rights. The most vulnerable children — those who are victimized by abuse, sometimes children who have been trafficked, children without family support, who may not speak English, and who have no advocates for them in a strange country — should be the people we have the most will to protect. That the people charged with caring for them are neglecting the most foundational right — the right of citizenship — is outrageous, and there should be outrage and immediate changes in policy to assure that children will not continue to be denied their rights.
6. Tidal turbines not deployed
One of the tidal turbines came through Halifax Harbour earlier this year. Photo: Halifax Examiner
The two turbines — each five storeys high — are waiting in Saint John New Brunswick, a five-to-six hour tow ride away in good conditions. A component that secures the turbine generator was recently replaced on one machine but not the other, suggesting the company is now focussing on getting one turbine in the water but not two.
This article is behind the Examiner’s paywall and so available only to paid subscribers. To purchase a subscription, click here.
Shortly after 11:30 yesterday [Friday] morning, officers from the Cole Harbour RCMP Detachment responded to a collision involving a car and a pedestrian at the intersection of Cowbay Rd. and Main Rd., Eastern Passage.
A Dodge Journey struck a 43-year-old male who was in the crosswalk. He was transported by EHS to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The driver, a 75-year-old male, was charged under the Motor Vehicle Act for Failing to Yield to a Pedestrian in a Crosswalk.
The investigation is continuing.
9. Bafflegab
Something called the Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training (CAMET) has issued a tender with this title:
Consultation services to prepare a framework of competencies Atlantic Canadians require to navigate and propel learning, work, and transitions through the lifespan.
The tender itself attempts to explain what that means, with disastrous results:
6.1 Introduction
The Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training (CAMET) requires the services of professional consultancy to determine and articulate a framework of competencies Atlantic Canadians require to navigate and propel learning, work, and transitions through the lifespan as described in section 6.3, Key Tasks.
6.2 Background and Context
It is increasingly critical to our region’s social and economic prosperity that Atlantic Canadians are able to manage their own learning and work transitions. Effective career development is age-appropriate, future-focused, and personalized. A comprehensive approach provides an array of experiences and supports tailored to the students’ stage of development and responsive to individual interests, strengths, needs, circumstances, and aspirations. A collaborative, unified focus by all stakeholders is necessary to determine the set of competencies that will ensure Atlantic Canadians are prepared to participate in a world of rapid and complex change.
The tender goes on for some time like this, and then drools out these paragraphs:
Atlantic provinces recognize that clarity is needed from stakeholders regarding what set of competencies are required by citizens to navigate and propel learning, work, and transitions in today’s labour market. Competencies are understood as overarching sets of attitudes, skills, and knowledge that can be interdependent and leveraged in a variety of situations across disciplines. Competencies are developed throughout the lifespan and equip citizens to think and act locally, nationally, and globally: being able to meet the shifting and ongoing demands of life, work, and learning; being active and responsive in their communities; engaging meaningfully with people from countries and cultures around the world; and acting on issues of significance. Key Atlantic Canadian stakeholders must be identified and engaged to determine what specific competencies people require, developmentally, in order to successfully navigate learning, work, and transitions in our rapidly evolving labour market.
The objective resulting from this initiative is the determination and articulation of a set of competencies, identified by key stakeholders, required to navigate and propel learning, work, and transitions in today’s world and in the future.
I think if there’s any meaning here, it’s that the Atlantic provinces’ education departments are concerned that too many people are kind of dumb, and they want to do something about that.
Maybe they should start with the people who write tenders.
Views
1. Stephen McNeil and the folly of false choices
Stephen McNeil. Photo: Halifax Examiner
In his inaugural column with the Halifax Examiner, Stephen Kimber shows that Premier Stephen McNeil’s claim that if he were to sweeten his meagre offer to teachers he must take benefits away from “vulnerable Nova Scotians” is a false choice.
This article is behind the Examiner’s paywall and so available only to paid subscribers. To purchase a subscription, click here.
Not to overly lean on readers, but surely reading Kimber is worth the price of a latte every week or so?
What a great story TC Media published about Atlantic Lottery Corporation buying $14,000 worth of tickets to the Cavendish Beach Festival for government officials and staffers.
Our four Atlantic Provinces each appoint people to its board. Profits are divided and given to provincial governments for social programs, roads, education, health care etc. The taxpayers of P.E.I. have lost millions due to greed and the mismanagement of our monies – $4.5 million for Geo-Sweep game failure; $1.5 million for e-gaming failure and much more. ALC spent $4 million on their personal extravagances, another loss.
The base salary of a P.E.I. cabinet minister is $115,000 plus paid pensions, cars etc. paid for by taxpayers.
Look who accepted tickets — overpaid politicians and senior staff; ex-premier Robert Ghiz; present Premier Wade MacLauchlan and cabinet minister Doug Currie, Robert Henderson and Paula Biggar.
Graft and corruption have been part of government almost as long as power structures have existed as those in power use that power to get additional financial and other advantages.
P.E.I.’s appointed reps to the ALC board should be terminated and new ones put in their place. Politicians literally accepted monies that should have gone to the departments they represent. They should be stripped of their titles and be sent to the backbenches. So what happens to these entitled people? Nothing except perhaps a raise in pay to these poor underpaid First-Past-the Post members of our government.
Gary A.O. MacKay, Birch Hill
Government
City
The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. Photo: Halifax Examiner
Grants Committee (1pm, City Hall) — the committee will continue its efforts to provide “tax relief” to non-profits. While that may be a worthwhile program for many social service organizations, the strategy also amounts to a straight-up subsidy for yacht clubs and other playpens for the wealthy.
As I pointed out last year:
It’s true that the yacht clubs serve more than the filthy rich. They host low-cost learn-to-sail classes open to anyone, rent out their facilities to other organizations, and serve as something of a community hub in some cases. Moreover, membership costs for young people just getting into the sport are affordable for most working people.
Still, these are not cash-strapped, scrappy non-profits extending basic social services to communities of need. Would anyone at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Club even notice if the top-priced membership fee was raised from $2,000 annually to, say, $2,500 annually—more than enough to cover the full tax bill?
The Waegwoltic Club on the Northwest Arm gets over $150,000 in tax subsidies from the city.
And it’s not just yacht clubs. The South End Lawn Tennis Club gets an annual subsidy of over $23,000. The very largest identifiable tax subsidy package goes to the Waegwoltic Club on the Northwest Arm, the “urban social club and recreational facility,” which gets a whopping $153,788 cut to its tax bill, this year alone.
Another city document — a staff presentation given to the grants committee in November — shows that one organization categorized as “Sport, recreation & leisure” owns property assessed at $3,131,000; without relief, the tax bill would be $93,187, but with the tax subsidy, the organization will pay just $2,330 in taxes this year.
Province
Law Amendments (10am, Province House) — under consideration:
Bill No. 52 – Halifax Regional Municipality Charter (amended) Bill No. 55 – Municipal and Other Authorities Pension Plan Transfer Act Bill No. 59 – Accessibility Act Bill No. 61 – Construction Projects Labour Relations Act Bill No. 62 – Municipal Government Act (amended) and Halifax Regional Municipality Charter (amended)
Legislature Sits (4pm, Province House)
On campus
No public events we know about.
In the harbour
Monday
5am: OOCL Antwerp, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from Norfolk
11:30am: Sentosa Leader, car carrier, sails from Autoport for sea
Noon: Aniara, car carrier, arrives at Autoport from Southhampton, England
1pm: unnamed US naval vessel arrives at Dockyard to await newly elected US President Trump’s order to destroy Halifax
4pm: Aniara, car carrier, sails from Autoport for sea
Tim Bousquet is the editor and publisher of the Halifax Examiner. Twitter @Tim_Bousquet Mastodon
More by Tim Bousquet
Join the Conversation
20 Comments
Only subscribers to the Halifax Examiner may comment on articles. We moderate all comments. Be respectful; whenever possible, provide links to credible documentary evidence to back up your factual claims. Please read our Commenting Policy.
I would support a means test for the Waegwoltic and other non-profits before qualifying for a tax subsidy. If you are going to make low income residents fill out forms in triplicate and provide CRA assessments from their roommates just to get a 50% discount on bus passes, then you can certainly ask a non-profit to demonstrate that it requires a tax break.
Agree.
Not all of them are not non-profits.
And many get annual grants from the area councillor – try getting elected without ensuring thousands of dollars are handed out each year to the same organisations. Whitman gave taxpayer money to the Buddhists for a new temple chimney, your money blowing smoke.
It seems reasonable to me to refuse to negotiate on items that have already been agreed upon. However I don’t believe the Herald will see any concession as anything other than weakness.
Yeah.. this has gotten too… unreasonable for me. Was there a single mention of the fact, I say FACT, that the NDP both killed the previous ferry and hand-tied the current Government into getting the current ferry to work. Of course, I see how fair and balance the conversations have been, with ZERO mention of the TWICE FAILED contract negotiations that should have the teachers embarrassed, but if media doesn’t report it, it didn’t happened.
I get that you feel like you can only get anywhere by being confrontational, but ignoring things like the very generous packages Teachers get, including free money in terms of the Service Awards that no other profession gets, YET the teachers DEMAND that they be treated like a Professional organisation, all the while enjoying the perks NO OTHER ONES have.
This particular issue bothers me because there are two decades of records of poor Union management (not to mention the twice failed contract) and through that time, EVERY PARTY in Nova Scotia had a chance to “fix” the teacher problem, but didn’t. Suddenly this is McNeil’s total fault and he is a devil and he eats babies. I saw him. Oh Hollis. It one whole. With ketchup. Which, really, when you are eating babies, how little tact and class does it show when you do it with Ketchup.
The NSTU wants to eat cake and having it to. They have insisted for years that there are no bad teachers, and we can’t rate them anyway because “you don’t teach you don’t know”. So successive Governments have asked for more data to be collected in order to do reviews that the NSTU did not have the courage to do. The NSTU forced the Governments to have to collect this data and now the Teachers complain about having to collect data. Send your letters to The NSTU, Cloud 9 Joe Howe, Fantasyland, NS.
NS is broke. Ignoring that FACT stops your ability to discuss this issue further. We couldn’t give out the most generous, money-losing, production team enriching, Tax credit anymore because it lost money and the money went straight to profits for production companies. We stopped offering the Graduate rebate tax because it didn’t stop the ebb of people leaving, the whole point of the program, and it has costs to run even if few were using it. Both programs saved minor amounts, sure, but it’s more that they hinted towards trying to find solutions that just don’t throw money at problems and never fix them. Because we don’t have the money and we need solutions.
Throwing more money at Teachers isn’t going to solve a single issue they have, and they ADMIT IT. Most (if not all) of their problems come from the NSTU’s inability to be a Union. So, of course, The Baby-eating Devil Premier McNeil is to blame. He, personally, had the NSTU fail, TWICE, in recommending a contract teachers could agree to and he spent the last three decades systemically ruining the teaching system, even before his election in 2003 and before being Premier in 2013. I heard he purposefully has illegitimate children all over the province, just to raise class sizes. Tricky Bastard!
If we cannot get real and discuss the actual issues, but instead scream and waving about on these Red Herrings, we will be dealing with this again next time. And again. And again. Teachers have it a lot better than most people in the Province. I get that it isn’t great, but Politics deals with what is actually happening and not in “best case” scenarios. The worst part is if you refuse to accept that the Government, or more aptly the last series of various Governments, has any point at all why would they even care about what you have to say. They have legitimate concerns that the NSTU seems unable to address (given the TWICE REJECTED agreement they RECOMMENDED be accepted).
I just want a solution going forward. And I honestly do not see it including the Service Award, that no other profession at all, gets. There are various other points that need to be on the table for the teachers too, such as metric collection and councillors (which the NSTU demanded and are now saying the province is spending too much on) but if you want them gone or reduced, you have to give up SOMETHING.
Hopefully it is the practice of completely dismissing anyone who isn’t a Teacher from having an argument that isn’t exactly the NSTU position by saying “You don’t teach, therefore you don’t know”.
All I know is I came to the Halifax Examiner because I thought of it as a more balanced newspaper. Clearly, I was wrong. I don’t support The Rebel for a reason.
I subscribe exactly because it has an opinion. I may not agree, you may not agree but it is an opportunity for reasoned discussion. I pay my $10 monthly fee for that reason (a steal by the way – 30 cents a day).
We also need independent non-corporate voices who do not ape government propaganda machines.
The Rebel is our media version of Donald Trump and Fox News. Yell loud enough and provocate just to be a dick. Pretense of journalism be damned.
I did too because Tim actually called me out on something and I said “you know what, he is right, I will throw some dollars down and help support him”.
But this stuff has gone too imbalanced. Basically, straight up attacks on sitting Governments with little to no evidence and little to no context. I came here because of Tim’s interesting way to provide context. If he is simply going to use it for an ultra left-wing agenda, I don’t care for it.
I agree that “aping” Government press releases is a lot of what is happening these days in News Media. But does that mean out-right assuming the absolute worst, in all cases, without context or precedent considered is the best foil for that?
I don’t think so.
Kimber’s article tipped it for me. Outside of various factually inconsistencies, the volume of purposefully ignored context is just too much. Comparable to the Rebel on the utlra-right wing side of things. Although I will say i do find value in Tim’s work, moreso than the Rebel, I just simply have to stop supporting it. So soon my voice of reason will be wicked away from these boards. Then what is left?
The main issue everywhere: echo chambers. The Rebel is super right wing, only right-wing people read it, it re-enforces their views. That part, is the exact same here but too far left. Which amazes me, as I am a die-hard socialist. It’s just I live in the real world, one with balance sheets and zero-sum politics. This is just becoming an NDP/Unionist/Ultra left-wing echo chamber and I am uncomfortable with that. Certainly uncomfortable supporting it with my subscription. Given Tim and the gang are in a subscription drive, I really didn’t expect to be driven away by more ultra-partisan, context lacking reporting.
But here we are.
If you are subscribing to a News site for their “opinion”, you are doing it wrong. News should be about pointing out problems and highlighting solutions, with full context and history applied so people are held accountable. If you chop those last two bits off, you just have a Blog some guy is buying a lot to keep going. I am not willing to keep paying for bad, unsourced/undersourced ultra-partisan opinion.
I have lots of thoughts, but can sum then up with: what you call factual inconsistencies are clearly just different interpretations of the situation than your own.
I don’t know about that, I read Kimber’s article. If you did, you would think this is an all of a sudden issue. This was two decades in the making by three different parties, by the NSTU’s own admission. Is that anywhere? In fact, it comes out like the Liberals caused this but that is simply not true.
What of the demands? The NSTU demanded more councillors over the last two or more contracts to help teachers because the teachers cannot teacher and do resource counciling. Okay, fair. So three different Governments increased funding to resource counciling. One of the big issues on the table for the NSTU this year? Too much money into resource councillors? Then WHY DID YOU DEMAND THEM?
The FACT that their negotiation team met, discussed terms, recommended them, and had them soundly rejected TWICE, the hallmark of a horrible union. No fault. All McNeil. Didn’t you hear? He only drinks the tears of children and he was getting thirsty. The Teacher’s Union, which is tangible and demonstratively horrible and clearly and demonstratively doesn’t represent teachers by the facts of the case… get a pass. No mention. No slap on the wrist for negotiating in good faith, recommending the contract, and having it rejected soundly, TWICE?
I mean, come on. It is the main story line in this whole thing, how dumb and ridiculous the NSTU is, but lets focus on the latest in a long series of Governments have has had to address this issue because.. I assume you have a hard-on on hating them at this point because the only constant over these last 2 decades… has been the NSTU. If the situation is as bad as it is said to be, wouldn’t it logically come to pass that someone to think, hmmm, maybe we should comment on the one constant in all these equations…
Nope! Stephen tear-drinker likes to abuse animals and make children watch. And I heard his cousin is a bed-wetter.
YEAH! STING! This will move the discussion forward and solicit public thought. Yeah!
Buy a subscription!
I get maybe you don’t see it. The Rebel is a bit more obvious in it’s hard lean into partisanship and this is likely some sort of echo-chamber. But I mean, there is no attempt to even apply context to this story. If you read Kimber’s piece, you have no idea why they are not just writing large cheques to anyone who asks. Roaming Springgarden, throwing out Borden’s to homeless people. There is another side to this, and where I used to come here for extra context, there has been a sharp decline in ANY CONTEXT, so no. I cannot support extreme partisan reporting and Congratulations Examiner, you now qualify for that.
I did read it, and came to the same conclusion. He just doesn’t agree with you that the NSTU or prior governments should shoulder the blame for the current situation. Where you see an unavoidable impasse, he (and I, and the 5100+ Nova Scotia Parents for Teachers) see a mishandled situation.
See, that’s the funny thing about context. It is not about what you believe, so much as explaining the situation in it’s entirely. If you don’t, then any accusation of a politician not providing full context is going to hold little weight from a reporter who, himself, admits to avoiding it. The whole problem with news and politics today is people seem to think opinion trumps facts, or are at least on par with it. They are not even close to legitimately close, much like criticisms of the Rebel where they habitually talk about the Muslim wave that is taking over Canada! It’s bullshit, but if all you are fed is that bullshit, you only believe it. Good news agencies, like this one used to be, would provide total context and then provide their opinion based on that.
That was not done with Kimbers piece, not even close. It was a hit-job from the first sentence with no hope of balance to a story that is fairly complicated. It is hard to unfuck two decades of fuck-up-ery.
But McNeil is a Lizard person who needs heated rocks to stand on. And he pushes people in front of moving cars whenever he can. I once saw him scale the Dingle Tower, swatting at airplanes too.
Hey Tim,
Just wonder why you keep posting those ‘Pedestrian Struck’ notices.
Where’s it going?
I want to show that the streets are dangerous for pedestrians. It’s my view that the problem is not given the attention that’s required, especially in the way of street design that can better accommodate pedestrians, but secondly in terms of driver awareness. I know that since I’ve been paying attention to these reports, *I* have become a better driver.
They’re dangerous for pedestrians, drivers and cyclists alike. The city has outgrown its infrastructure and you’re right – the design engineers have not responded. It’s tough but other cities have done it successfully.
Lloyd Hines and The Chronicle Herald took a direct shot at one of your reporters on Saturday, basically questioning the integrity of her conclusions.
You could/should have spent a little more time exploring this. Item 3 and the other re-hash/aggregate are pretty bland. A missed opportunity to hit back at those clowns.
Don’t see how that was a “direct shot” at all. The article/ opinion piece Hines refers to wasn’t mine, Robert. It was Mike Parker’s “May the Forest be WIth You.” That has nothing to do with my conclusions.
I don’t see it that way. While he does reference Mike Parker, he also makes claims that directly refute your own conclusions.
“Anyone looking at the workforce of the Department of Natural Resources will see that this is a science-based department — not an arm of industry, special interest groups, landowners, or otherwise…
These are Nova Scotians who care deeply about our land, water, and air, and a sustainable future. They are committed to balancing the economic environmental and social benefits of natural resources, and we are truly proud of them.”
A word of advice having dealt with these people, if you’re going to go after them, you have to be merciless with a confrontational tack. You’ll get buried otherwise, you might get buried anyway. But you should be taking this garbage as a direct attack on your work to expose this mess.
Why doesn’t Mark Lever and Sarah Dennis just admit they don’t want to run a newspaper anymore? Mark Lever obviously has no talent or ability in the field and Sarah Dennis should just leave her father to roll in his grave for all eternity for how she’s ruined his legacy.
Such a shame and such a waste. All to stick it to those evil, commie unionists.
I would support a means test for the Waegwoltic and other non-profits before qualifying for a tax subsidy. If you are going to make low income residents fill out forms in triplicate and provide CRA assessments from their roommates just to get a 50% discount on bus passes, then you can certainly ask a non-profit to demonstrate that it requires a tax break.
Agree.
Not all of them are not non-profits.
And many get annual grants from the area councillor – try getting elected without ensuring thousands of dollars are handed out each year to the same organisations. Whitman gave taxpayer money to the Buddhists for a new temple chimney, your money blowing smoke.
It seems reasonable to me to refuse to negotiate on items that have already been agreed upon. However I don’t believe the Herald will see any concession as anything other than weakness.
I hope you will have found out the name of the ship soonish so we can be prepared.
Yeah.. this has gotten too… unreasonable for me. Was there a single mention of the fact, I say FACT, that the NDP both killed the previous ferry and hand-tied the current Government into getting the current ferry to work. Of course, I see how fair and balance the conversations have been, with ZERO mention of the TWICE FAILED contract negotiations that should have the teachers embarrassed, but if media doesn’t report it, it didn’t happened.
I get that you feel like you can only get anywhere by being confrontational, but ignoring things like the very generous packages Teachers get, including free money in terms of the Service Awards that no other profession gets, YET the teachers DEMAND that they be treated like a Professional organisation, all the while enjoying the perks NO OTHER ONES have.
This particular issue bothers me because there are two decades of records of poor Union management (not to mention the twice failed contract) and through that time, EVERY PARTY in Nova Scotia had a chance to “fix” the teacher problem, but didn’t. Suddenly this is McNeil’s total fault and he is a devil and he eats babies. I saw him. Oh Hollis. It one whole. With ketchup. Which, really, when you are eating babies, how little tact and class does it show when you do it with Ketchup.
The NSTU wants to eat cake and having it to. They have insisted for years that there are no bad teachers, and we can’t rate them anyway because “you don’t teach you don’t know”. So successive Governments have asked for more data to be collected in order to do reviews that the NSTU did not have the courage to do. The NSTU forced the Governments to have to collect this data and now the Teachers complain about having to collect data. Send your letters to The NSTU, Cloud 9 Joe Howe, Fantasyland, NS.
NS is broke. Ignoring that FACT stops your ability to discuss this issue further. We couldn’t give out the most generous, money-losing, production team enriching, Tax credit anymore because it lost money and the money went straight to profits for production companies. We stopped offering the Graduate rebate tax because it didn’t stop the ebb of people leaving, the whole point of the program, and it has costs to run even if few were using it. Both programs saved minor amounts, sure, but it’s more that they hinted towards trying to find solutions that just don’t throw money at problems and never fix them. Because we don’t have the money and we need solutions.
Throwing more money at Teachers isn’t going to solve a single issue they have, and they ADMIT IT. Most (if not all) of their problems come from the NSTU’s inability to be a Union. So, of course, The Baby-eating Devil Premier McNeil is to blame. He, personally, had the NSTU fail, TWICE, in recommending a contract teachers could agree to and he spent the last three decades systemically ruining the teaching system, even before his election in 2003 and before being Premier in 2013. I heard he purposefully has illegitimate children all over the province, just to raise class sizes. Tricky Bastard!
If we cannot get real and discuss the actual issues, but instead scream and waving about on these Red Herrings, we will be dealing with this again next time. And again. And again. Teachers have it a lot better than most people in the Province. I get that it isn’t great, but Politics deals with what is actually happening and not in “best case” scenarios. The worst part is if you refuse to accept that the Government, or more aptly the last series of various Governments, has any point at all why would they even care about what you have to say. They have legitimate concerns that the NSTU seems unable to address (given the TWICE REJECTED agreement they RECOMMENDED be accepted).
I just want a solution going forward. And I honestly do not see it including the Service Award, that no other profession at all, gets. There are various other points that need to be on the table for the teachers too, such as metric collection and councillors (which the NSTU demanded and are now saying the province is spending too much on) but if you want them gone or reduced, you have to give up SOMETHING.
Hopefully it is the practice of completely dismissing anyone who isn’t a Teacher from having an argument that isn’t exactly the NSTU position by saying “You don’t teach, therefore you don’t know”.
All I know is I came to the Halifax Examiner because I thought of it as a more balanced newspaper. Clearly, I was wrong. I don’t support The Rebel for a reason.
The Examiner balanced?
I subscribe exactly because it has an opinion. I may not agree, you may not agree but it is an opportunity for reasoned discussion. I pay my $10 monthly fee for that reason (a steal by the way – 30 cents a day).
We also need independent non-corporate voices who do not ape government propaganda machines.
The Rebel is our media version of Donald Trump and Fox News. Yell loud enough and provocate just to be a dick. Pretense of journalism be damned.
I did too because Tim actually called me out on something and I said “you know what, he is right, I will throw some dollars down and help support him”.
But this stuff has gone too imbalanced. Basically, straight up attacks on sitting Governments with little to no evidence and little to no context. I came here because of Tim’s interesting way to provide context. If he is simply going to use it for an ultra left-wing agenda, I don’t care for it.
I agree that “aping” Government press releases is a lot of what is happening these days in News Media. But does that mean out-right assuming the absolute worst, in all cases, without context or precedent considered is the best foil for that?
I don’t think so.
Kimber’s article tipped it for me. Outside of various factually inconsistencies, the volume of purposefully ignored context is just too much. Comparable to the Rebel on the utlra-right wing side of things. Although I will say i do find value in Tim’s work, moreso than the Rebel, I just simply have to stop supporting it. So soon my voice of reason will be wicked away from these boards. Then what is left?
The main issue everywhere: echo chambers. The Rebel is super right wing, only right-wing people read it, it re-enforces their views. That part, is the exact same here but too far left. Which amazes me, as I am a die-hard socialist. It’s just I live in the real world, one with balance sheets and zero-sum politics. This is just becoming an NDP/Unionist/Ultra left-wing echo chamber and I am uncomfortable with that. Certainly uncomfortable supporting it with my subscription. Given Tim and the gang are in a subscription drive, I really didn’t expect to be driven away by more ultra-partisan, context lacking reporting.
But here we are.
If you are subscribing to a News site for their “opinion”, you are doing it wrong. News should be about pointing out problems and highlighting solutions, with full context and history applied so people are held accountable. If you chop those last two bits off, you just have a Blog some guy is buying a lot to keep going. I am not willing to keep paying for bad, unsourced/undersourced ultra-partisan opinion.
If I did, I would subscribe to the Rebel.
I have lots of thoughts, but can sum then up with: what you call factual inconsistencies are clearly just different interpretations of the situation than your own.
I don’t know about that, I read Kimber’s article. If you did, you would think this is an all of a sudden issue. This was two decades in the making by three different parties, by the NSTU’s own admission. Is that anywhere? In fact, it comes out like the Liberals caused this but that is simply not true.
What of the demands? The NSTU demanded more councillors over the last two or more contracts to help teachers because the teachers cannot teacher and do resource counciling. Okay, fair. So three different Governments increased funding to resource counciling. One of the big issues on the table for the NSTU this year? Too much money into resource councillors? Then WHY DID YOU DEMAND THEM?
The FACT that their negotiation team met, discussed terms, recommended them, and had them soundly rejected TWICE, the hallmark of a horrible union. No fault. All McNeil. Didn’t you hear? He only drinks the tears of children and he was getting thirsty. The Teacher’s Union, which is tangible and demonstratively horrible and clearly and demonstratively doesn’t represent teachers by the facts of the case… get a pass. No mention. No slap on the wrist for negotiating in good faith, recommending the contract, and having it rejected soundly, TWICE?
I mean, come on. It is the main story line in this whole thing, how dumb and ridiculous the NSTU is, but lets focus on the latest in a long series of Governments have has had to address this issue because.. I assume you have a hard-on on hating them at this point because the only constant over these last 2 decades… has been the NSTU. If the situation is as bad as it is said to be, wouldn’t it logically come to pass that someone to think, hmmm, maybe we should comment on the one constant in all these equations…
Nope! Stephen tear-drinker likes to abuse animals and make children watch. And I heard his cousin is a bed-wetter.
YEAH! STING! This will move the discussion forward and solicit public thought. Yeah!
Buy a subscription!
I get maybe you don’t see it. The Rebel is a bit more obvious in it’s hard lean into partisanship and this is likely some sort of echo-chamber. But I mean, there is no attempt to even apply context to this story. If you read Kimber’s piece, you have no idea why they are not just writing large cheques to anyone who asks. Roaming Springgarden, throwing out Borden’s to homeless people. There is another side to this, and where I used to come here for extra context, there has been a sharp decline in ANY CONTEXT, so no. I cannot support extreme partisan reporting and Congratulations Examiner, you now qualify for that.
I did read it, and came to the same conclusion. He just doesn’t agree with you that the NSTU or prior governments should shoulder the blame for the current situation. Where you see an unavoidable impasse, he (and I, and the 5100+ Nova Scotia Parents for Teachers) see a mishandled situation.
See, that’s the funny thing about context. It is not about what you believe, so much as explaining the situation in it’s entirely. If you don’t, then any accusation of a politician not providing full context is going to hold little weight from a reporter who, himself, admits to avoiding it. The whole problem with news and politics today is people seem to think opinion trumps facts, or are at least on par with it. They are not even close to legitimately close, much like criticisms of the Rebel where they habitually talk about the Muslim wave that is taking over Canada! It’s bullshit, but if all you are fed is that bullshit, you only believe it. Good news agencies, like this one used to be, would provide total context and then provide their opinion based on that.
That was not done with Kimbers piece, not even close. It was a hit-job from the first sentence with no hope of balance to a story that is fairly complicated. It is hard to unfuck two decades of fuck-up-ery.
But McNeil is a Lizard person who needs heated rocks to stand on. And he pushes people in front of moving cars whenever he can. I once saw him scale the Dingle Tower, swatting at airplanes too.
Hey Tim,
Just wonder why you keep posting those ‘Pedestrian Struck’ notices.
Where’s it going?
Why not?
I want to show that the streets are dangerous for pedestrians. It’s my view that the problem is not given the attention that’s required, especially in the way of street design that can better accommodate pedestrians, but secondly in terms of driver awareness. I know that since I’ve been paying attention to these reports, *I* have become a better driver.
They’re dangerous for pedestrians, drivers and cyclists alike. The city has outgrown its infrastructure and you’re right – the design engineers have not responded. It’s tough but other cities have done it successfully.
Lloyd Hines and The Chronicle Herald took a direct shot at one of your reporters on Saturday, basically questioning the integrity of her conclusions.
You could/should have spent a little more time exploring this. Item 3 and the other re-hash/aggregate are pretty bland. A missed opportunity to hit back at those clowns.
Don’t see how that was a “direct shot” at all. The article/ opinion piece Hines refers to wasn’t mine, Robert. It was Mike Parker’s “May the Forest be WIth You.” That has nothing to do with my conclusions.
I don’t see it that way. While he does reference Mike Parker, he also makes claims that directly refute your own conclusions.
“Anyone looking at the workforce of the Department of Natural Resources will see that this is a science-based department — not an arm of industry, special interest groups, landowners, or otherwise…
These are Nova Scotians who care deeply about our land, water, and air, and a sustainable future. They are committed to balancing the economic environmental and social benefits of natural resources, and we are truly proud of them.”
A word of advice having dealt with these people, if you’re going to go after them, you have to be merciless with a confrontational tack. You’ll get buried otherwise, you might get buried anyway. But you should be taking this garbage as a direct attack on your work to expose this mess.
Why doesn’t Mark Lever and Sarah Dennis just admit they don’t want to run a newspaper anymore? Mark Lever obviously has no talent or ability in the field and Sarah Dennis should just leave her father to roll in his grave for all eternity for how she’s ruined his legacy.
Such a shame and such a waste. All to stick it to those evil, commie unionists.
I’m logged in but can’t access Stephen Kimber’s article.
Here’s the direct link:
https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/province-house/stephen-mcneil-and-the-folly-of-false-choices/
The site seems to be hanging up in Safari right now; I’m attending to it.