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You are here: Home / Featured / Drinking with a dead man: Morning File, Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Drinking with a dead man: Morning File, Wednesday, May 4, 2016

May 4, 2016 By Tim Bousquet 16 Comments

News
Views
Noticed
Government
On campus
In the harbour
Footnotes


News

1. Unsolved crimes

Clockwise from top left: Tyler Richards, Joseph Cameron, Daverico Downey, Naricho Clayton.

Clockwise from top left: Tyler Richards, Joseph Cameron, Daverico Downey, Naricho Clayton.

“Halifax police and the provincial government have taken the unusual step of adding the cases of four recently murdered young men to the province’s Major Unsolved Crimes Program,” reports Yvette d’Entremont for Metro:

The four homicides added to the program on Tuesday have all occurred since March 29. Homicide victims are typically added to the province’s incentive program after a more significant amount of time has passed.

[…]

Joseph Cameron, Tyler Richards, Naricho Clayton and Daverico Downey were all under 30 and died as a result of gunshots.

[Police Superintendent Jim] Perrin said while police continue to explore possible connections between the Richards homicide and the Clayton homicide, they don’t believe the Clayton and Downey homicides are connected.

2. CarShare

CareShareHFX is expanding, rebranding as CarShare Atlantic and adding 10 new hybrid cars to its fleet. The expansion is raising issues about parking restrictions in the north end.

Also, in a flyer sent to CarShare members, the company notes that “we recently opened a station in the Student Ghetto.” I have no idea what or where the “Student Ghetto” is, or if it’s a wise move to refer to prospective customers in such a manner.

3. Dead guy in a bottle

Norman MacDonald, drinking with Gary Robert Dupuis. Photo: Rankin MacDonald / Inverness Oran

Norman MacDonald, drinking with Gary Robert Dupuis. Photo: Rankin MacDonald / Inverness Oran

This is the best story you will read today.

“Newly retired, Norman MacDonald of West Mabou has plenty of time to walk the West Mabou Beach, but on Wednesday, April 27th, he found something that would change his life for a while,” writes Rankin MacDonald for the Inverness Oran:

He found a tequila bottle with a man’s ashes and a message with it.

The note read:

“Hello, this is my father Gary Robert Dupuis, born July 1st, 1954. Gary lived a very fast and reckless life in his younger years but slowed down and dreamed of travelling the world in his golden years. His favourite drink was a shot of tequila, straight up, (no groceries). If you find him please take this money, buy yourself and Gary a drink and release him back into the ocean. My wish is that he gets his dream of seeing the world and, finally, some peace. We love you, Dad; have a great trip.

Please write on back of letter where you found him and where you released him. Thank you.”

Norman MacDonald did all the right things, and Gary Robert Dupuis is now on the next leg of his journey.


Views

1. Amherst

By reading Stephen Archibald, I’ve learned that Amherst is so much more than an old bank building, a swinger’s club, and that guy who says cannabis cures cancer.

Archibald points out that you can watch the demolition of the Bank of Montreal building on YouTube. I enjoy the running commentary of the videographers:

“Talk of Amherst’s rich built heritage sent me looking for some slides I took on a spring morning in 1983,” writes Archibald. “I was attending a conference in town and got up early to take some photos.”

And of course Archibald has filed away those 33-year-old photos in that Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse of his, and can easily retrieve them:

Photo: Stephen Archibald

Photo: Stephen Archibald

They were not great shots because the sun was bright and the shadows were dark. But they do sample a moment 33 years ago.

On the right is the old Bank of Montreal Building that was just demolished. Next to it is the Dominion Public Building of 1935. To the far left is the wonderful First Baptist Church built in 1895. I’ve noticed it  proudly open to the public in summers and it is well worth a visit. The architect for the church was Harry Mott who also designed the Lunenburg Academy we all love so much.

2. Indoctrinating the kiddies into the oil economy that will destroy their world

1

“BP Canada, the company that is searching for oil in Nova Scotia’s offshore, is paying for the Discovery Centre’s outreach program on the science behind coastal energy exploration,” writes Robert Devet:

Most people remember BP’s role in the horrific Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Eleven workers died, an uncapped well gushed oil into the Gulf of Mexico for three months. BP paid $42.2 billion in criminal and civil settlements, the highest criminal fines paid by anybody in history.

But would BP exert undue influence on the Discovery Centre’s developers of the program?

Absolutely not, writes Renée Fournier, Capital Campaign & Communications Director for the Centre, in an email to the Nova Scotia Advocate.

“BP is a good partner of the Discovery Centre, and we value their sponsorship investment with us as it allows us to provide important educational content to students, content that has been autonomously developed by our science educators,” writes Fournier.

Fournier was less forthcoming in answering our specific questions.

Did the notion that the funding allowed a major polluter to claim green credentials enter the discussions? Were any constraints imposed on the content of the program? Were any general conditions set by BP as part of the sponsorship arrangement? Could we see the program syllabus? 

All these questions remain unanswered.

3. Kev Corbett

Kev Corbett. Photo: Kate Inglis

Kev Corbett. Photo: Kate Inglis

Kate Inglis really has a thing for Kev Corbett. Who can blame her?


Noticed

Suppose you are Danny Chedrawe, the developer who just tore down the Doyle Block, and you have arranged a business meeting across the street, in the cafe in the new library, overlooking the now-empty lot where you plan to build your new development.

In such a situation, you might want to pepper your conversation with details about the demolition you just completed. You might tell the two businessmen that it cost $750,000 — $250,000 for the demolition itself, the remainder for asbestos removal and other hazmat costs.

You might go on to discuss prospective tenants for the new building. You might say that Telus has already committed to leasing space, you’re in discussion with BMO, and you expect to have 80 to 90 per cent of the ground floor retail leased by completion of construction, but you aren’t ready to sign leases because that would lock you into a construction schedule. You might also talk about the second floor of the project, which is planned to be commercial or office space. You might mention that you think you can rent it at $17 a square foot, $2 more than the second floor of Park Lane, but you’re configuring it such a way that should the commercial market be soft, you can make the second floor residential.

You might also talk about the development industry generally. It’s hard to ignore the giant Nova Centre going up downtown, so you might want to talk smack about the Ramias, who are developing that property. “I don’t have much faith in them,” you might say. “They’re much better developers and business people than I am because they cut corners.”

You might go on to discuss the Centre Plan now working its way through the city bureaucracy. You might say about the city planners and development people overseeing the Centre Plan, “all these guys are very arrogant.” You might complain about taxes and bureaucracy. “The biggest threat to our economy right now is the municipality” you might say. “They’re in total chaos.”

Relatedly, you might talk about how the people in the city planning department don’t have a clue about development. You might point out that the sidewalk in front of your development is the busiest pedestrian zone east of Montreal, but they didn’t even consider trying to widen the sidewalk in exchange for concessions to you. “They didn’t have any real estate or development people” in the group that met with you about your development proposal, you might say, but there was that woman who took up an hour of your time discussing what the civic address of the new building would be. “That’s what they find important,” you might say, shaking your head in disbelief. “Couldn’t she just send an email?”

You might go on to slag suburban developers. Bedford West isn’t dense enough, you might say, and the city doesn’t charge high enough development fees — the city should’ve demanded that the suburban developers provide school sites as part of the deal, and because that wasn’t there, the school board had to pay millions of dollars to acquire the sites. You might also say that given the current climate, suburban developers are coming downtown. “They don’t know what they’re doing,” you might say. They’re used to bulldozing everything, and building many hundred feet away from streets and sidewalks. It’s a completely different game downtown, you might say.

Here’s a small piece of advice: If you are Danny Chedrawe, developer of the Doyle Block, and you are thinking of having such a business meeting at the cafe in the library across the street, and having the discussion related above, you might want to make sure there’s not a reporter at the next table, dutifully following along with his laptop open, typing in your words.


Government

City

No public meetings.

Province

Public Accounts (9am, Province House) —  Dan McDougall, deputy minister of the Department of Public Affairs, will be asked about funding for municipalities.

Legislature sits (1–5:30pm, Province House)


On Campus

Membrane traffic (4pm, Theatre A, Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building) — Scott David, a prof emeritus from Cornell University, will talk on “Sorting out membrane traffic: Ubiquitin- and ESCRT-dependent protein quality control systems.”

The Sniper (8pm, Dalhousie Art Gallery) — the 1952 film noir:

Stanley Kramer’s production of THE SNIPER (1952) starred Arthur Franz as a lonely man who experiences a psychotic break and begins killing women. It also stars Adophe Manjou as the detective, Richard Kiley as the psychologist. Edward Dwtryk directed. Today, the film is considered a classic in the noir thriller arena. The San Francisco locations add to the suspense of the film. Stanley Kramer was always ahead of his time in film making and subject selection.


In the harbour

The seas around Nova Scotia, 8:15am Wednesday. Map: marinetraffic.com

The seas around Nova Scotia, 8:15am Wednesday. Map: marinetraffic.com

6am: ZIM Luanda, container ship, arrives at Pier 42 from Valencia, Spain
6am: Toreador, car carrier, moves from Pier 31 to Autoport
6:45am: CSL Metis, bulker, sails from National Gypsum for Portsmouth, Maine
11am: ZIM Virginia, container ship, arrives at Pier 42 from New York
4:30pm: Toreador, car carrier, sails from Autoport to sea
4:30pm: ZIM Luanda, container ship, sails from Pier 42 to sea
9:30pm: ZIM Virginia, container ship, sails from Pier 42 to sea


Footnotes

I’ll be on The Sheldon MacLeod Show, News 95.7, at 4pm.

Filed Under: Featured, Province House

About Tim Bousquet

Tim Bousquet is the editor and publisher of the Halifax Examiner. email: [email protected]; Twitter

Comments

  1. John Wesley Chisholm says

    May 4, 2016 at 8:32 am

    Developers… this is how the town is run. In a dream world of bullshit and hubris.

    Log in to Reply
  2. Parker Donham says

    May 4, 2016 at 8:58 am

    Great eavesdropping, Tim. Here’s another investigative technique you might want to try:

    http://img9.rajce.idnes.cz/d0903/2/2987/2987745_4e76a437814dd489ecb9e1eff22d24d4/images/800px-Man_rummaging_thought_a_skip.jpg

    Log in to Reply
    • Tim Bousquet says

      May 4, 2016 at 8:59 am

      Don’t think I haven’t.

      Log in to Reply
  3. Bluenosegurl says

    May 4, 2016 at 9:24 am

    i think Mr. Chedrawe could ‘develop’ some self awareness skills! D’uh!

    Great piece -Loved reading it!

    Log in to Reply
  4. Trevor Parsons says

    May 4, 2016 at 9:30 am

    Great issue. One of the best. “Noticed” was amazing and thanks for introducing us to Kate Inglis and oh yes, that Kev Korbett guy.

    Log in to Reply
  5. Charlene Boyce says

    May 4, 2016 at 9:32 am

    Oh no you dint!

    :-O

    Log in to Reply
  6. Patrick Casey says

    May 4, 2016 at 9:55 am

    That made my morning Tim.

    Log in to Reply
  7. Tim Jaques says

    May 4, 2016 at 10:32 am

    That happened to me years ago, only it was a friend who overheard the conversation between some bureaucrats who would not give me the answer to a question I had. She told me, and I used the information to follow up with other sources. To this day they probably wonder how on earth I found out what they were up to. Loose lips sink ships and all that, and this is why lawyers in particular have it drilled into them early on not to talk business in a public place. But his loss in Tim B.’s and the public’s gain.

    Log in to Reply
  8. clarkrichards says

    May 4, 2016 at 10:56 am

    Amazing.

    Log in to Reply
  9. Nick says

    May 4, 2016 at 10:58 am

    Do you also have a phone in your shoe?

    Log in to Reply
  10. VinnCapp says

    May 4, 2016 at 11:38 am

    What is up with these business people takin up space cafes havin these private meetings all within earshot of anybody. Some days it is hard to get a seat in the Coastal Cafe due to the business meetings, and loud, boy howdy are those folks proud of their business. Maybe it is EGO that tells them to shout their business in the starbucks, or build their condos ontop of the CBC grave site.

    Log in to Reply
  11. mainhannah says

    May 4, 2016 at 11:54 am

    Happy Birthday, Jane Jacobs! Halifax could learn a lot from you.

    From CityLab:
    ” …Developer James Rouse and Jane Jacobs appeared together in 1980 at the Boston Great Cities Conference. Their subject was the question of whether cities should be developed with big plans and inspiring visions or modest steps and incremental change.

    Rouse spoke first, recalling the words of Daniel Burnham, “Make no little plans, for they have no magic to stir men’s blood,” he said.

    Jacobs followed and began, “Funny, big plans never stirred women’s blood. Women have always been willing to consider little plans.”

    Log in to Reply
  12. BD says

    May 4, 2016 at 1:13 pm

    Jesse Brown produced a two-part series on how the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) had editorial control over the content of Canadian Geographic’s educational materials (http://canadalandshow.com/article/oil-sands-lobby-group-sponsored-and-edited-public-school-lessons).

    BP is a member of CAPP. http://www.capp.ca/about-us/membership/producer-members#B

    Is it really so far-fetched to believe BP will influence materials intended for use at the Discovery Centre?

    Log in to Reply
  13. Mags says

    May 4, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    Well done Big Lugs Bousquet, good on ya keeping a straight face throughout. I’d have been weeing myself. Usually this kind of stuff happens at the private parties, guess he’s just so pleased with himself he had to share with the hoi polloi

    Log in to Reply
  14. John Sell says

    May 4, 2016 at 6:29 pm

    Nice use of the second person, Tim!

    Log in to Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 95.7 Rick Howe – Do Mayor & Council Enable Demolitions? | Friends of the Halifax Common says:
    March 1, 2018 at 11:49 pm

    […] Danny Chedrawe’s Westwood Ltd. has demolished 7 character buildings-his new 7-storey construct will block the view of Citadel Hill from the 5-storey “Halifax Living-room” of the new Central Library. photo-Halifax Examiner –see more here. […]

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